Godzilla Directed by: Ishiro Honda Written by: Ishiro Honda, Takeo Murata Starring: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura Cinematography by: Masao Tamai Music by: Akira Ifukube Release: November 3, 1954 I remember strongly disliking Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla the first time I watched it. Grant that at the time I was both young and unwittingly self-indoctrinated to believe the king of all monsters to be a big, cuddly good guy rather than a metaphor for atomic horror; going from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Son of Godzilla, and The Terror of Mechagodzilla to the film that started it all was something of a shock to my eight-year-old…
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The Criterion Files: Stagecoach
Stagecoach Directed by: John Ford Written by: Dudley Nichols, Ben Hecht Starring: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine, George Bancroft, Thomas Mitchell Cinematography by: Bert Glennon Music by: Gerard Carbonara Release: February 15, 1939 Tag Gallagher once described John Ford as being “essentially apolitical”. Maybe a more accurate term would be “politically mercurial”; at one time in his life, Ford admired John F. Kennedy and staunchly opposed the practices of McCarthyism, while in another he favored Richard Nixon and supported the Vietnam War. Perhaps that was simply his nature as a self-described Maine Republican. What cannot be disputed is that his politics, wherever they fell in any given…
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The Criterion Files: Rome, Open City
Rome, Open City: Directed by: Roberto Rossellini Written by: Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero Cinematography by: Ubaldo Arata Music by: Renzo Rossellini Released: September 27th, 1945 Neorealist cinema has featured into the Criterion Files before– I wrote about Vittorio De Sica’s classic entry in the movement, Bicycle Thieves, much earlier this year (and followed that piece up with an examination of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, arguably a contemporary neorealist effort despite valid arguments that neorealist cinema no longer exists)– but Rossellini’s landmark contribution to neorealism, Rome, Open City, represents a very different side of that Italian-born aesthetic. For all of its somber qualities, Bicycle Thieves…
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The Criterion Files: Brazil
Brazil: Directed by: Terry Gilliam Written by: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond Cinematography by: Roger Pratt Music by: Michael Kamen Released: December 18th, 1985 Terry Gilliam may possess a degree of prescience, not full-blown clairvoyance but respectable foreknowledge. Then again, studios might just be that predictable. When Gilliam made Brazil, his magnum opus, in 1985, he had in his hands a significant and excellent sociopolitical/cultural satire rife with relevance, a film that skewers the haughty foibles of upper crust society and shines a harsh light on the constricting, stymieing grip of bureaucratic foolishness.…
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The Criterion Files: Carnival of Souls
Carnival of Souls: Directed by: Herk Harvey Written by: Herk Harvey, John Clifford Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Herk Harvey, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison Cinematography by: Maurice Prather Music by: Gene Moore Released: September 26th, 1962 Since starting up the Criterion Files series back in February of this year, I’ve only chosen to analyze and contextualize one film that I’m not one hundred percent willing to champion on grounds of quality. The film in question– The Naked City— by chance happens to be the very first Criterion release I wrote about, one which I identified as being less than impressive; it’s not terrible, but it also doesn’t stand up against…