Coming up with a Sight and Sound ballot, even one that didn’t get submitted to the actual magazine, presents unique challenges. The only criteria put forth by the venerable magazine is to vote for the greatest films of all time, leaving voters free to interpret that. It opens things up to a wide set of... Continue Reading →
One of the questions all horror fans and studios ask is “What’s the scariest movie ever made?” A question like that kind of serves no purpose. Fear is such a subjective thing. What terrifies or chills one person might be blasé to another. Rarely do films touted as “the scariest film in years” last past... Continue Reading →
Midway through watching F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Faust, I asked myself “Is this really a horror movie?” It feels like a stretch to do so. The film is undoubtedly a masterpiece of German Expressionism. Murnau, clearly in command of his craft, fills every frame of the film with astonishing images. There is horror and horror... Continue Reading →
One of the toughest criteria for Hooptober this year was the Lon Chaney requirement. I originally read it thinking his son and planned to watch Spider Baby again until a friend pointed out my mistake. When I started looking for a replacement and one that was Phantom of the Opera, that proved difficult since 102... Continue Reading →
Being Film #9 for Hooptober 2022 The biggest surprise for me upon watching 1925's The Phantom of the Opera was how - 6 years before Universal horror really kicked off in the sound era with the 1-2 punch of Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931 - a lot of the style and mood of those classics... Continue Reading →
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2022 "How long will I live?" asks Alan, gazing up at the Miraculous Cesare, somnambulist star of a sideshow attraction. His eyes stare dead ahead, his lithe body poised at the foot of the stage in front of the gathered crowd. "Until the break of dawn," the sleepwalker intones. That's... Continue Reading →
I suspect many of us knew Metropolis before we ever had a chance to actually see it. My first exposure to it as a complete (or as close as it was considered to be then) film came in the early 90s with the color tinted Giorgio Moroder version, edited (severely) and scored by the electronic music pioneer. But the images - those stark, expressionistic cityscapes rising to the heavens, the iconic "Other" Maria... those images echo and reverberate within my movie memory far longer than I have any right to claim to them.
Cinema Dual 