PeaceAnarchy

A moving story of a girl disowned by her family after getting raped. The acting is quite strong, though very much of the exaggerated style common in silent films, and while it's a little slow at times it does cover a lot of ground and is quite well put together. The ending is great and really pulls the film together.

93 _98%

The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Rated 10 Feb 2008

An incredible film about guilt and responsibility. Sjöström is excellent both as the lead and as the director. The acting is top notch and especially Sjöström gives an incredibly deep performance that makes you really feel for his character. Visually the film shows its age but there's a lot to like, especially the ghostly scenes with the Phantom Carriage. I'm not sure I entirely agree with some of the film's views but they are well presented.

94 _98%

Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Rated 17 Feb 2008

An incredible movie on nearly every level. The characters are so real that it almost feels as if you're watching a documentary. While it's primarily about marriage and relationships it explores many aspects of personal motivations and fullfilment through characters that are genuinely complex.

93 _98%

Laura (1944) - Rated 11 Dec 2006

Tierney has never been better than here as the mystical Laura who captures the hearts of men and leads them astray. The mysterious aura that surrounds the film is in large part thanks to her, but also due to the magnificent visual touches from Preminger.

95 _99%

Greed (1924) - Rated 14 Jul 2010

The title and message are very blunt but the film's delivery is anything but. Using the film's runtime to full advantage, von Stroheim allows these characters to develop slowly and naturally and to let the various manifestations of greed reveal themselves slowly and to ever increasing negative effects. The acting is a big part of this as the effects on the characters' personalities are just as important as the actions. The finale is the culmination of everything that precedes it, perfection.

95 _99%

Last Year at Marienbad (1961) - Rated 11 Nov 2007

A wonderful dreamlike experience. The visuals are stunning and contribute to the dreamlike feel along with the sudden transitions from place to place that somehow feel smooth and natural, the looping narrative and dialogue that still manages to progress, the soft airy music and the people who seem to only exist when they're necessary.

92 _97%

Le Notti Bianche (1957) - Rated 14 Feb 2009

An excellent romance with a dreamlike quality that's beautiful to behold. The way it constantly balances the love lost and love gained aspects of the story so well is something so few romantic movies manage to do. I thought all the performances were wonderful, the character quirks are integral to the story's core. It's got plenty of great scenes, but the nightclub scene and the ending were magnificently effective. That it's also excellently shot should come as no surprise.

93 _98%

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - Rated 04 Feb 2007

Amazing performances by all four leads make for an incredible movie about love, hate and dysfunctional relationships. It gets a little too absurd near the end but the acting is so flawless that you don't really care.

Actors	Humphrey Bogart Nicolas Cage Cary Grant Toshirô Mifune Julianne Moore Barbara Stanwyck Gene Tierney Jean-Louis Trintignant
Directors	Paul Thomas Anderson Ingmar Bergman Luis Buñuel Marcel Carné Alfred Hitchcock Akira Kurosawa Ernst Lubitsch Yasujiro Ozu Georg Wilhelm Pabst Sam Peckinpah Michael Powell Luchino Visconti
Writers	Woody Allen Charlie Kaufman Jacques Prévert Éric Rohmer Preston Sturges Billy Wilder