Change Your Image
caburns90
Reviews
One of the Hollywood Ten (2000)
DIRECTORS OF INTEGRITY
I thought this was a well-made film by a director of integrity about another director of integrity. It showed the devastating effects of HUAC witch-hunts on the careers and families of brilliant filmmakers in Hollywood, during the late '40s and early '50s. It exposed the split between those who were able to withstand the crass interrogations and those who failed. It was possible to identify with the tragedy of those who were jailed and feel joy when they found a way of escaping from their victimization. I attended a showing of the film with the director answering questions about his film. I was struck by his humility and empathy.
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001)
LILI MARLENE
This moving film charts the life of an icon from birth to death. It is interspersed with a comments by her daughter, friends and colleagues, and gruelling documentary footage. After her success in The Blue Angel, Dietrich becomes an emancipated femme fatale, actress and singer. In the 1930s, she flees Berlin to join the German-Jewish exiles in America and protest against anti-Semitism and the Third Reich. Her fluctuating roles in movies are dependent on the political climate of the times. In the 1940s, she risks her life to entertain thousands of troops on the front-line and is devastated when she witnesses the Belsen atrocities. Sixteen years after the war, she returns to Berlin on a concert tour to an ambiguous reception: she is attacked by the press as a traitor and worshipped by fans. An ageing star in Israel, she wins an ovation for her poignant performance of Lili Marlene. I highly recommend this haunting film which is directed by the star's grandson.
Edvard Munch (1974)
A BRILLIANT FILM ON EDVARD MUNCH
This is one of the most moving, experimental films I have ever seen. Peter Watkins' political understanding of the times and his compassion for the struggling, alienated artist is superb. He has a unique method of linking the present to the painter's traumatic past, namely the deaths of his mother and sister from tuberculosis, when he was a boy. The camerawork and close-ups of individual faces is excellent. Munch's grief, when he loses the woman he loves, leads to his best works and a premature death. No other director has made a film about the inner and outer worlds of an artist as well as this. I highly recommend the film.
One of the Hollywood Ten (2000)
DIRECTORS OF INTEGRITY
I thought this was a well-made film by a director of integrity about another director of integrity. It showed the devastating effects of HUAC witch-hunts on the careers and families of brilliant filmmakers in Hollywood, during the late '40s and early '50s. It exposed the split between those who were able to withstand the crass interrogations and those who failed. It was possible to identify with the tragedy of those who were jailed and feel joy when they found a way of escaping from their victimization. I attended a showing of the film with the director answering questions about his film. I was struck by his humility and empathy.