Probably the ultimate test for a movie is that of Time. How well does it age? Does it still ring true after its context has dissolved in the corresponding ‘ties? That is the fifties, the seventies, etc… There are some that do and some that don’t. Those that do can be seen and seen again for they will not loose their freshness; they will maintain their capacity to make us feel, be it joy, fear, sadness…
Moreover, what matters most is not what various reviewers have said about a movie, but how it appeals to you, what chord of your soul it strikes.
The images I’ve shown over the last four posts come from three movies and a TV-series made just for my heart…
Gliding along the wall in the dark, this is Cesare, the somnambulist, obeying again his master’s orders in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1919) a masterpiece of German expressionism, by Robert Wiene. Here’s a closer look at Cesare…
And this is Mina Harker (or Ellen Hutter as she was called in this movie) awaiting her husband’s return (or does she sense another’s call?…) in “Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror” from 1922, another masterpiece of German expressionism, by F. W. Murnau. Count Orlock (played by Max Schreck – what a perfect name! – Schreck means fear in German) remains, in my opinion, one of the best vampire figures in the history of cinema.In “The Host,” episode 2x02 (the second episode of the second season of The X-Files) which aired on September 25th, 1994, Mulder and Scully are chasing the Flukeman through the sewers of New Jersey. A classic! And this is who they’re up against:
Finally, “Sleepy Hollow,” the 1999 film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, is another one very much to my liking. A bit gory at times, with all those heads chopped off and all the blood that keeps spurting into Ichabod Crane’s face, but with plenty of the right “ingredients”. I simply like it! And I was watching it again, late on Halloween’s night… Delightful!
