Another sad farewell: Michelangelo Antonioni (1912 - 2007)

In the same day we receive the sad news of Ingmar Bergman's death, another legend of cinema passed away: Michaelangelo Antonioni. A figure of enormous importance in the history of Italian cinema, Antonioni will always be remembered for immortal classics such as "L'avventura" ("The Adventure"), "La notte" ("The Night") and "Blow-Up". Aged 94, BBC reports that Antonioni died peacefully, which probably is a good thing and we can only be thankful for his long and productive life. I must confess I'm not as familiar with Antonioni's work as I'd like to, but his death, together with Bergman's, certainly leave a void that will be hard to fill for the future generations of filmmakers. In less than 24 hours two giants of filmmaking. A sad day for cinema indeed.

Riposa in pace.

Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)

In 1999, South Korea's renovated film industry got its first major success with "Swiri", a powerful action movie directed by Je-Gyu Kang which became South Korea's most successful movie in that year and brought worldwide attention to the country's new wave of cinema. Through the following decade, South Korean cinema has grown stronger, in an apparent renaissance that has resulted in a wide variety of high quality movies that show the enormous talent of Korean filmmakers. During this resurgence, Korean horror has also experienced an amazing development, as after being greatly influenced by the successful Japanese horror of the late 90s, it has given the Japanese style of horror stories a noticeable Korean touch, evolving into a style of its own, filled with its own themes and ideologies. Ji-Woon Kim's movie "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is a prime example of this, and a film that joins "Swiri" and "Oldboy" as masterpieces of South Korea's cinema.

Known in English as "A Tale of Two Sisters" (although it literally means "Rose Flower, Red Lotus"), "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is the story of Soo-mi (Su-Jeong Lim) and Soo-Yeon (Geun-yeong Mun), two sisters who travel to their family's country house along their father Bae Moo-Hyeon (Kap-Su Kim) after having spent time in a mental institution after their mother's death. At home, they meet their father's young new wife, Eun-Joo (Jung-ah Yum), but while she tries to act friendly and helpful to the girls, it is clear that she feels a lot of resentment towards them and starts to abuse of Soo-Yeon both physically and psychologically, taking advantage of her shyness and weakness. This only increases Soo-mi's hate towards her stepmother, and decides to fight back and protect Soo-Yeon; however, there is something else in the house that haunts Soo-mi's dreams.

Written by director Ji-Woon Kim himself, "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is loosely based on a famous Korean folktale of the same name that also deals with the difficult relationship between two sisters and their stepmother. However, this is not a direct adaptation, as Ji-Woon Kim has only used it as a basis to create a powerful character study that mixes horror, suspense and psychological drama in a cleverly devised plot that certainly offers more than the usual horror film. By focusing on Soo-mi's complex relationships with her family, Ji-Woon Kim explores themes of resentment, angst, guilt and loyalty with an eerie subtlety and great skill. Ji-Woon Kim's detailed development of his characters is also another of the story's strongest points, as it not only makes them truly believable, but also enhances the tense atmosphere between them, and the horrors that result from it.

Using an elegant and classy Gothic style adapted to its modern setting, Ji-Woon Kim makes his story come to life in a wonderful fashion, giving it a haunting ominous atmosphere that often seems to mimic the tense relations between the members of the Bae family. While the influence from Japanes horror seems obvious a couple of times, in "Janghwa, Hongryeon" the director takes the psychological aspects of the J-Horror style one step beyond and delivers a subtly ambiguous tale of horror, closer in spirit to Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" than to Hideo Nakata's "Ringu", as Ji-Woon Kim bases his movie more around the interactions between the characters than around the supernatural events that take place in the house. Considering this last element, Kim's directing of his cast becomes essential for the film's success and, being a former theater director, he doesn't disappoint.

While Ji-Woon Kim is famous for his stylish visual design, in "Janghwa, Hongryeon" he also displays his talent to direct actors, as he manages to get amazing performances from everyone in the cast. As Soo-mi, Su-Jeong Lim is pretty good, very natural as the strongest of the Bae sisters, completely determined to protect her sister. As Soo-Yeon, the weakest of the two, Geun-Yeong Mun delivers an impressive performance conveying a powerful image of fragility and shyness that contrasts perfectly with Soo-mi's more rebel nature. However, and while Mun's performance is certainly amazing, the highlight of the film is definitely Jung-ah Yum, who plays the sisters' cruel stepmother Eun-Joo. Yum is simply mesmerizing, and gives her apparently simple character a whole new dimension. While his role is considerably smaller, Kap-Su Kim delivers a subtle yet very good performance as the sisters' father.

A remarkably well constructed story of suspense, horror and psychological drama, "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is one of the best movies that has came out of the New Wave of Korean cinema. However, while essentially build around a ghost story, "Janghwa, Hongryeon" offers a higher complexity in its construction that may come as too difficult to get at first, as Ji-Woon Kim crafts his movie as a demanding puzzle without many clues for its solution. This is not exactly a bad thing, as challenging movies often result in great rewarding experiences, however, those expecting a more typical tale of Asian ghosts may find the movie a bit too complex for its own sake. Despite that, "Janghwa, Hongryeon" is a beautifully crafted movie that offers an interesting character study spiced up by a haunting atmosphere of dread that will definitely please fans of Gothic horror.

Those expecting another typical clone of J-Horror will be pleasantly surprised by "Janghwa, Hongryeon", as it truly adds a whole new dimension to the style of horror that the Japanese filmmakers devised in the late 90s. In fact, it could be said that modern Korean horror is a direct evolution of the Japanese style of horror. After decades of censorship, financial troubles and low production, cinema of South Korea is entering a new "Golden Age", and Ji-Woon Kim's "Janghwa, Hongryeon" proves that the horror genre plays an important role in that.

9/10

Buy "Janghwa, Hongryeon" (2003)

A giant leaves this world: Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007)

Few directors can be considered genious of their art, but Ingmar Bergman was one of those. The legendary Swedish director of immortal films such as "Det Sjunde inseglet" ("The Seventh Seal"), "Persona" and "Viskningar och rop" ("Cries and Whispers") has died in his house after a long life dedicated to cinema. The BBC doesn't mention a specific cause for his death, but it's kind of obvious that it was simple natural causes. While it is always sad that a master of his talent has left this world, we can be thankful for the many movies this incredibly talented filmmaker gave us during his long career. We can be sure now that Ingmar Bergman has found the answers to the questions he often pondered in his films.

Rest in peace, Master.

Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics (1911)

While better known for his enormous influence in the history of comic strips and comics in general, the now legendary American artist Winsor McCay also played an important role in the development of animated films in the U.S. when he began to put his talents in animated movies, creating classics such as 1914's "Gertie the Dinosaur", where he interacted with his animated dinosaur in ways that precede what Walt Disney would do decades later in "Song of the South" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Winsor McCay's first encounter with the movie industry happened in 1906, when his comic strip "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" was adapted to screen by Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter. Fascinated with cinema, McCay produced his first movie in 1911, the autobiographical short film titled "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics", the movie that would contain his first 2 minutes of animated work.

In many ways, it could be said that "Winsor McCay and His Moving Comics" is a short biopic about McCay's decision to enter the field of animated films. The movie begins with McCay (playing himself) debating with a group of friends and colleagues (John Bunny and George McManus among them) about the possibility of using cinema to create animated movies. McCay explains them the process and his ideas to make it work in a way that the drawings move realistically. To his surprise, his friends laugh at the idea, thinking it's too laborious and complicated to create enough drawings to animate a cartoon the way McCay wants it. However, this only makes McCay more determined to prove he is right, so he bets that he can do a short film in a month. At Vitagraph studios, McCay works without rest, creating the four thousand drawings that will give life to his most famous creation: Little Nemo.

Written by Winsor McCay himself, the frame story for this wonderful "Little Nemo" animation is loosely based on McCay's real experiences with animation. While of course the plot about the bet is an exaggeration, McCay did face a certain degree of skepticism about the way he was planning to animate his drawings. It's not that animated films were new at the time, but the kind of movies McCay wanted to make were considered too difficult to create. In fact, even when McCay does joke about the amount of ink and paper used to make the animation, he really had to draw a lot to create the marvelous 2 minutes that make the last segment. Like in his comic strips, the "little Nemo" animation is a surrealist marvel in which McCay makes a brief introduction of his popular characters: Nemo, the Princess, the Imp, and of course, Flip.

While the animation segment was of course McCay's creation, the frame story was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, former employee of the Edison Production Company who in those years was one of Vitagraph's top directors. Knowing that the movie's highlight was the animation at the end, Blackton keeps a restrained style through his movie, although this doesn't mean he refuses to have fun, as he adds clever visual gags that keep the viewer's attention as McCay's story is told. His handling of the cast is also very good, although the credit for the film's natural and realistic performances must definitely go to legendary comedian John Bunny, who plays himself as a friend of McCay, and together with writer George McManus are McCay's main costars. Bunny's aid was certainly instrumental in helping McCay and McManus to look believable.

Now, as written above, McCay's animated segment is simply a masterpiece of animation, as he achieves a level of detail in his drawings that still few animators attempt to achieve. As in his comic strips, his use of perspective is remarkable, and the fact that here we see it animated just feels as if his drawings were alive. While short, 2 minutes are enough to present his characters, and he offers a small glimpse of what "Little Nemo" is about: a magical fantasy where like in dreams, everything is possible. A great detail about the animation is the fact that the same drawings he made during the frame story are the ones that eventually end up in his animation, enhancing this feeling of drawings coming alive by the magic of cinema. Even now it is truly a fascinating work of art.

"Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics" is an amazing mix of biopic, documentary and animation that definitely is an obligatory viewing for everyone interested in the history of animated films. It is truly amazing how more than 90 years after it was made the movie still looks beautiful and impressive. No wonder why Walt Dinsey liked McCay's work so much that it inspired him to make animations. It is truly a film that must be seen to be believed.

9/10

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

It was in 1963 when director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David F. Friedman decided to leave the production of nudist films and opted for making horror movies. In those years, independent cinema was on the rise and the two filmmakers took advantage of being out of the studio system to push the envelope further and give their audiences more in terms of violence and sexuality. With the release of "Blood Feast", Lewis and Friedman introduced graphic gore to American horror and inaugurated the "splatter" sub-genre, beginning a new style of horror that would become a staple of the drive-in theater market. While honestly "Blood Feast" wasn't really a well done film, it was only the beginning for Lewis, as 1964's "Two Thousand Maniacs!", Lewis' next venture in the horror genre, proved that there was real talent in the savvy businessman.

In "Two Thousand Maniacs!", Tom White (William Kerwin) and Terry Adams (Connie Mason) are traveling through the American south heading to Atlanta when suddenly they are lured into the small town of Pleasant Ville by the citizens, who want them to be the guests of honor in the celebration of the centennial of an important event in the history of their town. In Pleasant Ville, they find another two young couples who were also lured by the villagers, the Millers (Jerome Eden and Shelby Livingston) and the Wells (Michael Korb and Yvonne Gilbert). Together, the six guests are invited to participate in the town's festivities without any information about what exactly is the town celebrating, however, they find themselves seduced by the charm of the southern townspeople. But they don't know that as guests of honor, they'll become the victims of a town made up of two thousand maniacs.

As usual, the film's plot was conceived by H.G. Lewis, but this time he was also responsible of the screenplay, making "Two Thousand Maniacs!" probably a more personal job. As a writer, Lewis has certainly improved after his previous movie, as not only "Two Thousand Maniacs!" has a truly interesting and fascinating concept at its core, the whole development of the story is actually remarkable, with Lewis genuinely playing with suspense in a honest attempt to deliver something more than scenes of violence. Once again, Lewis adds a good healthy dose of his trademark style of black humor to the plot, which works perfectly when contrasted with the demented nature of the characters, and successfully plays with the typical southern stereotypes and the idea of the clash between urban society and rural society. Of course, everything is done in that campy over-the-top tone that makes the story extremely funny despite its macabre themes.

It seems that filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis not only improved his skills as a writer this time, as his work as a director is also considerably superior to what he did in "Blood Feast" too. While the movie is still done on a extremely low-budget and doesn't really have the most realistic effects in the world, Lewis manages to make everything work nicely by keeping the film moving at a fast pace as he balances comedy and horror with great skill. Using a raw style of cinematography due to budgetary reasons actually helps the film, as it gives it a gritty look that adds to the film's "southern charm". One thing that really stands out in the film is the way Lewis handled his actors this time, as while it is obvious that few of them are professionals, Lewis gets good performances out of them by keeping a lighthearted tone through the film and never taking the movie too seriously.

As written above, the cast delivers good performances considering their apparent lack of experience, as while obviously playing caricatures and stereotypes, they all seem to have good fun with it and that ultimately makes the movie look better. Lewis' regular collaborators William Kerwin and Connie Mason appear as the film's main characters, and both make good a job in their role. Kerwin always was the most talented of Lewis' troupe, and once again his talent gets shown. After her awful performance in "Blood Feast", it was good to see Mason improving her acting a bit in the film, giving a performance that if not good it's at least better than her last one. As the main "villians" we find Jeffrey Allen playing the mayor and Ben Moore and Gary Bakeman as his trusted henchmen; the three making the best of their comedic roles as the leaders of a town full of sociopath rednecks.

As a result of being made with an extremely low budget, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" has a lot of problems in terms of visual look and special effects. What I mean is that the movie looks certainly cheap and unrealistic as the production values weren't exactly high. However, those apparent "flaws" can be easily ignored as Lewsis manages to used them for the film's benefit, as the grittiness of the film adds lot of charm to the movie, fitting nicely in the campy tone Lewis uses in the movie. While "Two Thousand Maniacs!" is not exactly a scary movie in the typical way (it's more black comedy), there is a certain touch of malice that helps to make some scenes really suspenseful, that together with the grittiness of the cinematography makes the movie feel almost like a direct predecessor of 70s classics like "The Texas Chain saw Massacre" and "The Wicker Man".

Maybe due to Lewis reputation as maker of low-budget films, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" doesn't get the respect it really deserves, as this is truly an excellent movie that mixes horror and comedy in a perfect way. Like "Blood Feast", this movie would create the bloody path that future horror filmmakers would follow in terms of gory imagery. While often considered more a businessman than a filmmaker, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" proves that there was real talent in the hands of director H.G. Lewis, the Godfather of Gore!

8/10

Buy "Two Thousand Maniacs!" (1964)

Black Friday (1940)

The figure of the gangster in fiction has always been a very popular and fascinating image since the hardboiled crime fiction of the late 20s made the gangster a new model of antihero for the modern times. Through the decade of the 30s, gangster films and crime melodramas would become very popular among the audiences, culminating in the development of the Film Noir, the highly stylish kind of crime films that reigned supreme during the 40s and the 50s. Considering the popularity of gangsters in movies, it wasn't a surprise that soon they became used as characters in a wide array of stories, and horror films weren't an exception. Among the films that successfully mixed horror with crime melodrama, 1940's "Black Friday" was definitely one of the best. An often forgotten movie that had in his cast two of the most important figures in the horror genre: Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

"Black Friday" begins on a Friday 13, with Professor George Kinglsey (Stanley Ridges) giving his last class of English literature at the University of his town as he has been offered a position in a different school. However, on is way to the train station, Kinglsey is ran over by a car, putting his life in serious danger. In a last attempt to save Kingsley's life, his good friend Dr. Ernest Sovac (Boris Karloff) performs an illegal operation: Sovac implants parts of another man's brain into the professor's. Fortunately, the experiment is successful and Kingsley begins to recover his health quickly. However, something has changed in his good nature, and soon Sovac discovers that the personality of the man he used to save his friends can take control of the professor's body. And the problem is that the man was Red Cannon, a notorious gangster who now wants revenge.

With a screenplay written by Eric Taylor and Curt Siodmak, "Black Friday" is essentially a modern reinterpretation of R.L. Stevenson's classic horror novel "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" with gangster Red Cannon acting as the movie's Mr. Hyde. Like Stevenson's story, "Black Friday" is an interesting character study about human morality; however, while the professor's split personalities do represent two extreme sides of the human nature, the real drama is on Karloff's character, Dr. Sovac, who is at a crossroads between his willingness to help his friend and his desire to use him to prove that his theories about the brain are correct. While it is not on the level of Siodmak's posterior work (his immortal "The Wolf Man" for example), he and Taylor make a great job in creating an interesting story and developing remarkably their main characters.

A seasoned director of low-budget crime melodramas, Arthur Lubin makes a very effective work at the helm of "Black Friday", and manages to give the film the exact kind of atmosphere that made gangster films very popular in those years. The great work of cinematography done by his regular collaborator Elwood Bredell plays an important role in this, and in many ways one could say that "Black Friday" is one of the direct precursors of the Film Noir style. Despite the low-budget, "Black Friday" has that very polished and elegant look that movies produced by Universal in those years had, although this film lacks the ominous Gothic atmosphere of the classic 30s horror movies, as it relies more on its characters than in visual style. As usual, Lubin's directing of his cast is remarkable, and he manages to bring the best out of his actors, specially of Stanley Ridges.

While acting alongside legendary icons such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, it's hard to avoid being overshadowed, however, Stanley Ridges not only manages to do that, he also achieves to deliver the best performance in the whole film. In his dual role, Kingsley is simply amazing, going from the good hearted Kingsley to the sociopath Cannon with remarkable ease, making the two characters look as if they were played by two actors. Even though Ridges steals the film, Karloff is still great as Sovac, which is a slightly more complex variation of his trademark "Mad Scientist" character. Bela Lugosi is also wonderful as Cannon's rival Eric Marnay, although sadly his role is extremely small despite having top billing. Finally, Anne Nagel is very effective as Sunny Rogers, the classic femme fatal of the movie.

With excellent performances by an effective cast, as well as solid directing by Lubin, "Black Friday" is a very good movie for its time and an example of the kind of horror movies that would dominate the decade. However, in all fairness this movie is not exactly a masterpiece as a small yet important problem that prevents it from reaching its true potential. The main problem is the serious miscasting of both Karloff and Lugosi, who really seem to be in the wrong role. Don't get me wrong, both make a great job in their characters (Lugosi has a couple of amazing scenes), but it's difficult not to think that Lugosi is playing Karloff's character and vice-versa (apparently, Karloff was supposed to play Ridges' character). Another detail is that those expecting the classic Gothic style of Universal's horror films will be sorely disappointed.

In many ways it could be said that "Black Friday" represents the ending of an era for the horror genre, and the beginning of another. Karloff and Lugosi, the ones who started the Golden Age of Gothic horror in the 30s, appear here in a movie that forecasts the moody noir-influenced horrors of the 40s. While different to the rest, "Black Friday" is still an excellent horror and a chance to see Stanley Ridges in his best role overshadowing two icons.

7/10
-------------------------------

White Zombie (1932)

One of the most important names in the history of the horror genre is without a doubt, Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian actor who in 1931 became an icon after playing the legendary Count Dracula in Tod Browning's adaptation of the film. Thanks to the powerful presence he gave to the elegant vampire, Lugosi became instantly famous and a major star for Universal Studios. Sadly, due to his heavy accent Lugosi wouldn't have much luck in finding roles for him, and eventually became type-casted as the obvious choice for playing sinister and classy villains in horror films, a problem that would take him from making movies for big studios to acting in low-budget independent films. However, the fact that such movies weren't big productions didn't mean that they were bad films, and this 1932 film is probably the best proof of that, as "White Zombie" is a classic as important as any film done by Universal in those years.

In "White Zombie", Neil Parker (John Harron) and his fianceé Madeline (Madge Bellamy) are traveling to a plantation located in Haiti to celebrate their wedding. Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer), the owner of the plantation, invited the couple to his house after meeting them on a cruise ship during one of his travels, and not only he offered his plantation for the party, he has also offered Neil a highly profitable job in the island. However, there is a sinister purpose behind Beaumont's apparent good nature and friendly attitude: he is madly in love with Madeleine and plans to separate the couple before the wedding. To do this, he has asked the help of a man named Legendre (Bela Lugosi), a Voodoo sorcerer with the ability to create and control zombie slaves. But the zombie master has his own plans for the trio's souls.

Written by Garnett Weston, "White Zombie" is a very dark and atmospheric tale of horror and suspense partially inspired by the writings of traveler W.B. Seabrook, whose 1929 book, "The Magic Island", introduced Voodoo to American audiences. Of course, Weston's movie is a highly fictionalized account of Voodoo, but it was probably the first movie to introduce zombies to the horror genre. With a story that mixes romance, horror and melodrama, "White Zombie" is essentially a Faustian tragedy with a Voodoo setting, where a man's forbidden desire brings damnation to him and those around him. There is not really a lot of character development through the film, but that actually helps as "White Zombie" is more about the nightmarish experience of the three characters facing Legendre's sinister machinations than about their relationships.

The film's highlight is certainly Victor Halperin's directing, which in its cinematography (by Arthur Martinelli) shows a lot of influence from the German expressionist movement of the 20s and gives the movie an ominous surreal atmosphere. Due to the film's scarce use of dialogs, it would be easy to believe that Halperin wasn't interested in sound technology (new at the time), however, he does give an interesting use to sound in this film by using atmospheric sounds and Xavier Cugat's score to enhance the film's eerie ambiance. It is clear that Halperin was working on a very low-budget (sets were rented from Universal Studios), but his inventive use of camera effects together with Martinelli's beautiful cinematography truly give the film a special nightmarish look similar to Browning's "Dracula" or Dreyer's "Vampyr - Der Traum Des Allan Grey".

The acting is for the most part effective, although several members of the main cast give average performances that tend to diminish the power of the film a bit. John Harron is one of them, delivering a really weak performance as Neil, a shame as his character is essentially the story's protagonist. Robetr Frazer is a bit better as Charles Beaumont, although like Harron, he could had done a better job than the average performance he gave. Still, Madge Bellamy is remarkable as Madeleine, and is specially dreamy after falling under Legendre's spell. Now, if Bellamy is excellent in her role, Bela Lugosi is simply perfect as the macabre zombie master Legendre. Taking what he did in "Dracula" one step beyond, Lugosi appears here in what is probably one of the best performances of his career, literally becoming this embodiment of evil with his strong presence and sinister elegance.

Like the previously mentioned film "Vampyr", Victor Halperin's "White Zombie" seems to be a literal bridge between silent films and the sound era, as it keeps a lot of the silent style of film-making including the highly expressive acting and the expressionist visual design. Together with the movie's extremely slow pace, those elements enhance the whole surrealist vibe that surrounds the movie, making it look almost as the representation of a nightmare. However, this is a double edged sword, as certainly those elements may disappoint those expecting something more graphic and action-packed (it is nothing like the modern zombie films of Romero and Fulci), or at least, something similar to Universal's "Frankenstein"'s series. Don't get me wrong, this is still Gothic horror at its best, but it's definitely on a more serious tone than most Universal films.

"White Zombie" is a difficult film to watch, but certainly one that's very rewarding in the end. Its silent style feels definitely dated, but oddly, this only adds to that surreal atmosphere that Halperin was aiming for when making the film. Sadly, director Victor Halperin would never reach the mastery of this work, as if this was the movie he was destined to make. A very underrated classic of horror, "White Zombie" is another of the films that prove that there was more in Bela Lugosi than "Dracula", and it's a film that can proudly stand next to the Universal classics despite its modest and humble origins.

8/10

Buy "White Zombie" (1932)

The Adventures of Dollie (1908)

The year of 1908 was certainly an important one for a 34 year old playwright named D.W. Griffith, because that was the year he decided to try his luck in films with an adaptation of "Tosca" that he wrote specially for the new movie industry. However, success didn't came quick for the young writer, as literally nobody saw any potential in his work; the only one who saw any kind of potential in him was film pioneer Edwin S. Porter, but his eyes weren't in Griffith's writing skills, but on his acting, and send the young man with director J. Searle Dawly to make some shorts. While disappointed, Griffith kept acting to pay the bills, until later that year, he was finally hired for something other than as an actor: American Mutoscope & Biograph was looking for young directors and D.W. Griffith took the job. 1908's short film, "The Adventures of Dollie", was the humble debut of a director that would be known as a legend.

In "The Adventures of Dollie", a family of three goes out for a nice trip along the riverside during a sunny summer's day. A gypsy (Charles Inslee) walks by them, and attempts to sell his baskets to the family. The Mother (Linda Arvidson) doesn't want to buy anything from him, and attempts to move on, but this angers the gypsy, who begins to attack the mother and her daughter Dollie (Gladys Egan) until the Father (Arthur V. Johnson) appears and drives the gypsy off. Even more angered, the gypsy decides to kidnap Dollie and hide her inside of a barrel to be able to escape unnoticed. When her parents notice she's been kidnapped, they organize a rescue party, but it's too late: the gypsies have escaped and the barrel where Dollie is hidden is on their wagon. However, this is only the beginning, as the barrel falls from the wagon and falls into the river. Dollie's real adventure is just about to begin.

Written by Stanner E.V. Taylor (his first real work as a scriptwriter), "The Adventures of Dollie" is a very simple tale of action and adventure on a style that was made very popular in that year after the release of J. Searle Dawly's "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" (the movie where Griffith debuted as an actor), in fact, the plot of both films are so similar that it's clear that this movie was made to cash on Dawly's success (both films are about kidnapped childs). Still, what made this movie a bit different was that this time the focus was on the kidnapped kid instead of the rescuers, as we follow Dollie (or better said, the barrel that contains her) through the film. Some have labeled the movie as racist towards the Romani people (gypsies), but I find such comments out of place as the story simply reflects the ideas of its time, as gypsies weren't seen on a good light because of their nomadic lifestyle.

In this his modest debut as a director, there are already some early touches of Griffith's genius through the movie. While an amateur following the conventions he has learned from his work as an actor (as well as from codirector and future collaborator G.W. Bitzer), Griffith already begins to show his ideas about storytelling in film and his creative use of editing to create emotions on the audience. The effective use he gives to Arthur Marvin's cinematography helps to keep the film dynamic, away from the theatrical style that was common in those years. True, the film is pretty typical and follows an already stablished ideas about film narrative, but credit must to Griffith for making such an accomplished film with almost zero experience behind the camera.

One of Griffith's most famous traits can also be seeing in this movie, and that is his great skill to get natural performances from his actors. As written above, the movie moves away from the stagy style of film-making of the time, and Griffith takes this ideal to his cast too, as he decides to get a more realistic approach in their performances. Arthur V. Johnson and Linda Arvidson (Griffith's wife) are good in their performances, although Johnson tends to overact a bit (understandable as he had little experience on film). Gladys Egan, who plays little Dollie is also very good, although her role is considerably simpler. As the gypsies, Charles Inslee and Madeline West are OK, although like Johnson, they tend to overact a little bit, although that would be natural, since they are playing the common stereotypes of gypsy people.

"The Adventures of Dollie" is not exactly a movie that one would expect from legendary director D.W. Griffith, but then again, most debuts tend to be mere shadows of the future ahead. Later that very same year Griffith would start making some serious experimentation on this very same plot line, and would create some really innovative films in a very short time. Movies like "The Red Man and the Child", "For a Wife's Honor" and "The Lonely Villa" would introduce new and highly inventive ways of storytelling that would further develop film-making as an art. While many of the techniques he used weren't exactly new, he combined them and put them together in a way that later would be considered as the definitive narrative language of cinema. While there are many better Griffith shorts (even from the same year), this movie is a must see if only because it represents the humble start of a master's career.

6/10

The Killer's Kiss (1955)

At the relatively young age of 23 years old, a promising photographer named Stanley Kubrick decided to try his luck at making movies after becoming fascinated by the inventive camera-work of Max Ophüls' movies. The young Kubrick had a promising start, as he quickly sold his first two short films (the documentaries "Day of the Fight" and "Flying Padre") to RKO Radio Pictures' newsreel division, a success that made him decide to quit his job at "Look" and become a full-time filmmaker. However, not everything was easy, as the critical and commercial failure of his first theatrical movie, 1953's "Fear and Desire", almost put a halt to the young filmmaker's career. After this failure, Kubrick decided not to give up and spent the following two years saving money in order to make another movie: "Killer's Kiss", the movie that would pave the way for Kubrick's future masterpieces.

"Killer's Kiss" is the story of Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29 years old boxer living in New York at the apparent end of his career. After losing another fight against a younger and better opponent, Gordon contemplates to retire and return to his uncle's farm in Seattle to work. However, everything changes when he notices that Gloria Price (Irene Kane), the young lady who lives next to his apartment, is being attacked by a man named Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silver). Gordon quickly intervenes and manages to scare Rapallo away, and this event makes him meet Gloria and discover her life. He finds out that she is a dancer, and that Rapallo is her employer, a violent man that owns the dance hall where she works. While Gordon is quickly falling in love with Gloria, Mr. Rapallo is planning his vengeance, as he is not willing to let Gloria run away from his hands.

With a screenplay written by Howard Sackler (who also helped Kubrick in "Fear and Desire"), "Killer's Kiss" was based on an original story by Stanley Kubrick himself (something he would never do again) that in many ways seems to reflect Kubrick's vision of New York in those years. Essentially a crime film deeply rooted in the film noir genre, "Killer's Kiss" deals with Gordon's adventure through the dark side of New York and his gazing into the morbid world of low-life gangsters. It's certainly a very simple story, and while the quality of the dialogs ain't really amazing, Kubrick and Sackler manage to add nice twists to the plot, a good dose of suspense, and specially, an interesting development of the characters and their relationships. They all seem very human and realistic, which together with the dark and gritty world they inhabit enhances the realism of his story.

While the story may not be of the quality Kubrick would achieve later in his career, visually "Killer's Kiss" is a joy. With a superb work of cinematography, Kubrick captures New York city at its darkest with a raw and gritty style that fits perfectly the tone of the film. His mix of light and shadows in the noir style is remarkable, and adds a lot of atmosphere to the movie. Taking a realist approach to the story, Kubrick seems to give a good use to everything he learned by making documentaries (the fight scene brings back memories from his first short, "Day of the Fight"), and it is in fact his dynamic camera-work what makes the movie special. Finally, the music by Gerald Fried (who also started his career in Kubrick's first short) is another of the highlights of "Killer's Kiss", subtly adding a morbid and somber tone to the movie's images.

Well, the acting is not exactly good, as with the exception of Frank Silvera and Jamie Smith, nobody in the cast was a professional actor at the time of making "Killer's Kiss". As boxer Davy Gordon, Smith is actually good and is very convincing as a fighter whose better days are in the past. While his character is a tough guy, Smith manages to give him an everyman look, making really easy to sympathize with him. Like Smith, Frank Silvera is also good in the role of Mr. Rapallo, the sinister owner of the dance hall, although at times he is not as convincing as Smith. However, Kubrick's screenplay makes Rapallo more human than the villain caricature that it could had been, and Silvera truly takes good advantage of that. It is Irene Kane as Gloria Price where the movie fails, as she seems unable to do with her character something more than looking great on film.

Sadly, the rest of the cast is actually worse, with the probable exception of Jerry Jarret, a non-professional actor who is very convincing as Gordon's manager. The bad quality of the acting truly diminishes the power of the writers' script, as while the dialogs aren't exactly good, the bad acting makes them sound even worse. Still, Kubrick's visual poetry is what makes the movie to stand out among the rest as despite its flaws it shows that the young photographer who made it was truly a promising talent. Shot in areas near the apartment where Kubrick lived on those years, "Killer's Kiss" is like an oddly attractive postcard of those sides of New York where nobody would like to get lost, as Kubrick makes this dark and gritty story a haunting portrait of his city showing its best and its worst faces at the same time.

While at first sight it may seem that the movie is important only because a young Stanley Kubrick made it, "Killer's Kiss" really has some interesting elements on its favor. Kubrick's powerful cinematography and skill as a storyteller are already displayed here, as well as his skillful use of music to add atmosphere to the scenes. While certainly weak in some aspects, "Killer's Kiss" is an excellent film noir that most importantly, would attract producers for Kubrick's first masterpiece: 1956's "The Killing".

7/10

Buy "The Killer's Kiss" (1955)

Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908)

In 1908, a 34 year old playwright named D.W. Griffith was having little success with his plays and decided to try his luck in the newly formed movie industry with an adaptation of "Tosca" he intended to sell to the film studios of the Edison Manufacturing Company. The head of the studio at the time was film pioneer Edwin S. Porter, who wasn't really impressed with Griffith's work as a writer but, since Griffith was also an actor, Porter decided to hire him and send him to director J. Searle Dawley. A former theater director (he liked to called himself as "the first professional motion picture director"), Dawley immediately chose Griffith for the main role in his new film: "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest". It would be in this early adventure film where D.W. Griffith would have his first contact with the movie industry and where he would first learn the crafts that would make him a legendary filmmaker in the following years.

"Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" is the story of a woodsman's family and the extraordinary adventure they live one day while the Father (D.W. Griffith) was outside working. After the father leaves the house, the Mother (Miss Earle) begins her own housework and leaves the child (Jinnie Frazer) outside to play. While the mother is inside the cabin, a big eagle descends from the sky and takes the child away. The mother notices the eagle kidnapping the kid, but it's too late for her to save him, so she runs to the woods in order to tell her husband about it. After hearing what has happened to his child, the lumberjack and his mates run together to the mountains. When they find the nest, they discover that it's very difficult to reach it, so the Woodsman takes a rope with him and begins to climb down. However, before returning home he'll have to face the eagle that kidnapped his kid.

As usual with the early movies from the Edison Manufacturing Company, it can't be known for sure who exactly wrote the screenplay of the film, but considering director J. Searle Dawley's background, it is highly probable that it was all Dawley's creation expanding from one of his or Porter's ideas. The story of "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" is pretty simple and has almost no characterization, focusing on the action and adventure that the Woodsman faces to save his kid. In this sense, the movie works like a folktale put on film, as it is concerned more about the adventure in itself than about the characters. While simple in its construction, the plot of "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" remains so universal that is hard not to feel thrilled by the Woodsman's adventure.

In "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest", director J. Searle Dawley truly shows a better understanding of the new options that film offered him as a narrative language, and moves further away from the idea that movies were simply plays on film. The influence of Edwin S. Porter (who was in charge of cinematography in this movie) can be seen in many scenes as Dawley employs several of the editing techniques that Porter originated in his 1903 seminal classic, "Life of an American Fireman" (Techniques that Griffith would further develop in his own films). This is reflected in the very original ways the movie uses edition and its primitive special effects to play with action and suspense in order to thrill and surprise the audience. By our standards, the effects look poor and clichéd, but it was definitely a step ahead in its time.

As written above, the film focuses entirely on the family's adventure without leaving too much for character development, so it would be not only difficult but also unfair to judge the performances of the cast on those terms. So considering that they were playing basically archetypes, it could be said that the whole cast was actually good, as there rarely was any overacting (so common in the early days of cinema) and everyone seemed to know what to do. It is obviously interesting to see D.W. Griffith as the Woodsman, and his performance doesn't disappoint. His fight with the eagle is a very good scene that forecasts similar scenes in future action movies like the ones with Douglas Fairbanks. Even when she was not a professional actress (or probably because of that very reason), Miss Earle is very good and looks very natural in her concern for her baby.

While the film still feels stagy at times, it was a step ahead in the development of the language of cinema that spawned an entire series of imitators that further developed the adventure genre (even Griffith himself would use the same basic plot of a kidnapped child in his first movie, "The Adventures of Dollie"). To call this movie clumsy or uneven and judge it under our standards is criminally unfair, as while "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" is not a perfect movie, it is not only actually very good for its time but it also helped to set the basis for the action and adventure films of today. "Rescued from an Eagle's Nest" is not only a must see for Griffith fans interested on his first work, it is also an amusing short movie for fans of early action movies and silent film in general.

7/10