HEAD ON (2004)

Gegan die Wand
(English title: Head-On)

In German and Turkish.
Directed by Fatih Akin



I was going to start this post off with some lame lead in like "head on down to your local video store and rent this movie," but I'm not (damn!). Go see this one. It's intense and dark, gritty yet wonderous.

In my Top Ten of films released in the U.S. last year (2005).



Here's the trailer.  

A nice article on the film from Sight & Sound.

And some reviews (courtesy of Metacritic).

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

 














One: Godard. Two: The changing landscape of the modern city with women as metaphor. Three: What cinema can be—intellectual and entertaining. Godard’s mature Film/Art synthesizes (his early films) the spirit of Breathless and A Woman Is A Woman with the essay-structures of My Life to Live and Feminin Masculin.

A great film deserves a link to a great blog (with a name after my own heart): Like Anna Karina's Sweater.
50-word film reviews from 2006.

Rancho Notorious (1952)

Directed by Fritz Lang

A picture with everything: a detective-story/mystery, a revenge-motivated western, a love story, a tragedy dressed up as a B-picture, and a theme song that touches on a musical. One of my favorite moments in cinema history: Marlene Dietrich telling Arthur Kennedy to “go away and come back ten years ago.”

Check out this review from 50 Westerns from the 50s.

50-word film reviews from 2006.

Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

Directed by John Patrick Shanley

John Patrick Shanley won a screenwriting Oscar for Moonstruck and after, was given a greenlight to direct his own wonderful, romantic-fable. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan make the most charming film of their careers on top of floating luggage. Do yourself a favor, and take a plunge into the volcano.

* Bonus: A Joe Website.
50-word fim reviews from 2006.

My Top Ten Films of All Time

A Criterion.

1. The General (Keaton)

2. The Purple Rose of Cairo (Allen)

3. Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut)

4. Big Night (Tucci/Scott)

5. My Night at Maud’s (Rohmer)

6. The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)

7. Red (Kieslowski)

8. Chungking Express (Wong)

9. In A Lonely Place (Ray) - only watch the first 40 seconds, spoiler after

10. Children of Paradise (Carne/Prevert) - a mashup, couldn't find a decent quality clip with subtitles

 
Sight & Sound conducts a poll every ten years…you know, the one with Citizen Kane on top (both by critics and directors). The (so-called) Greatest Films of All-Time List. It’s a good list.

The End of the Affair (1999)

Directed by Neil Jordan

The elements were pitch perfect for Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Grahame Greene’s stunning short-novel. The actors: Ralph Fiennes (the novelist-lover), Julianne Moore (the beloved), Stephen Rea (the cuckolded-husband), and Ian Hart (the detective). Cinematography: Roger Pratt (Terry Gilliam). Music: Michael Nyman (The Piano / Gattaca). Something rare: a truly passionate film.

50-word film reviews from 2006.

After Life (1998)

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

A documentary-style film about people at a waiting station for the dead (social services-like offices) and its employees. There, they have to choose a single memory that they will take with them to eternity. Sounds impossible? Not if you’re Japanese-filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, and you make one of cinema’s true miracles.

50-word film reviews from 2006.

Major Tom to Ground Control

Testing. One, two, three. Check.

Welcome to Harvey's (movie & music blog).

This is my first run on this blogging thing (mySpace blogging, at least for me, doesn't count). I've gotten into music blogs that have been sharing their interests and decided to throw out a few thoughts and ideas on film appreciation (with the occasional musical tidbits). Since those said music blogs have gotten me into a fair amount of music, perhaps I can share my own interests to get others into some films (and pass along some music myself).

Watching films is my (more-than) hobby, and I remember the movies that have shaped my film watching career--seen back in my senior year of high school.

Movies that made me admire the magic of cinema: Children of Paradise (Carne & Prevert), Red (Kieslowski), and Annie Hall (Allen). Movies that made me want to make movies (because they showed that it was possible to film the extraordinary of the everyday): Before Sunrise (Linklater), Kicking & Screaming (Baumbach), and My Night at Maud's (Rohmer).

Off we go.