rotacirav

With Siegfriedʼs death the story pivots from symbolic to dramatic myth, which means this works considerably better as a film: despite being even lighter on cinematic effects thereʼs a lot more strong scenes and a narrative arc that picks up pace. By the end the Nibelungs are nothing but fanatical murderers who cling to dysfunctional notions of loyalty despite it leading to senseless atrocities and their sure demise – the Nazisʼ invocation of them is a case of honesty in propaganda.

58 _67%

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) - Rated 05 Oct 2026

Fairly close adaptation of the medieval Nibelungenlied, with few personal touches. Neither the distinct style of 1920s actors nor Langʼs urbanist sensibilities are a good fit for the material (the dragon fight has not aged well), and there must have been enormous technical progress in the three years until Metropolis: I donʼt think thereʼs a single camera movement here, despite mixing in closeups it still essentially runs on a one-image-per-scene aesthetic. (Metro Vienna, FWMS restoration)

86 _95%

Seconds (1966) - Rated 03 Oct 2026

Stunning achievement for a director whose best work according to TSPDT is The Manchurian Candidate. People seem to complain that act 2 isnʼt a thriller about keeping up a new identity, but thatʼs simply not the point. Shows that you have to earn your postmodernism: Vertigo overall is immersive so the self-spoiler is simply bad writing; this oneʼs final twist being its most predictable event is just another of the ways it finds to estrange everyday conventions, to look at them from the underside.

54 _57%

Umberto D. (1952) - Rated 02 Oct 2026

If Bicycle Thieves is Gogol’s Overcoat, this is the little side plot from Les Misérables about old M. Mabeuf who gradually has to sell everything dear to him just to survive. It’s a much stranger film though, far from its predecessor’s formal unity and notably more melodramatic than ‘realist’: the plot hinges on a landlady so absurdly evil one wonders why she isn’t looking after Victorian orphans. Contrived, uneven, occasionally touching.

48 _39%

Night and the City (1950) - Rated 01 Oct 2026

Good photography and some talented direction with lots of Wellesian in-shot montage; but spent on a dimestore sub-Hollywood script that has the characters uttering sentences like “Iʼm a hardworking, hardheaded businesswoman”, and punctuating them by banging on drumkits when they happen to stand around.

63 _75%

Spies (1928) - Rated 28 Sep 2026

There’s no question that Lang was the foremost storyteller of the silent era. No classic Hollywood, no Hitchcock without his way of framing objects, faces, groups; no Welles or Laughton without his visual symbolism. This one is very mixed though: it hops from awful to great and back at an amazing rate, sports an interminable climax like a proper Bond flick, and tops it off with a brilliant, self-reflectively Expressionist final scene. (Metro Vienna, FWMS restoration)

67 _82%

Blood Simple (1984) - Rated 26 Sep 2026

The Coensʼ debut, rough around the edges but far more visually daring than their later work, and thus very successfully eerie. The narrative is a twist take on the James M. Cain plot (used by both of his famous novels), with a scene recreating Double Indemnityʼs description of corpse-dragging that Wilder couldnʼt show for Hays reasons; and with the long-needed irony of the ‘femme fatale’ being probably the most well-adjusted character.

49 _41%

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Rated 22 Sep 2026

Interesting narrative structure, glacial pacing, some brillant directing (especially in the transition between time periods), general poor acting (but what can you do with that kind of script?), operatic hyperbole, expensive-looking cheapness, uninspired Morricone, heavy-handed allegorising, sex scenes that in quantity and quality bear the distinct touch of a 13-year-old. Unique. But not very deep, or enjoyable, or terminable.

42 _21%

Triumph of the Will (1935) - Rated 16 Sep 2026

Does a good enough job of displaying Nazismʼs strange mixture of quaint romanticism (medieval Nuremberg, camp idylls) with ruthless organisation: a mass of murderous Boy Scouts. Not impressive as a film at all, not compared to Soviet propaganda – all the aesthetic power comes from the events themselves, in part leeching off religion (call-and-response, consecrations) and often unintentionally funny. Parades towards the end get very tedious. (Filmmuseum Vienna, Was ist Film series, 35mm)

50 _43%

Flaming Creatures (1963) - Rated 15 Sep 2026

Seen as part of Was ist Film programme at Filmmuseum Vienna with a memorable introduction from Peter Kubelka, who explained that he originally scheduled this after Triumph Of The Will, but when Neonazis attended and left after Riefenstahl, he moved it to the front which prevented them from coming. Iʼll give it that. (16mm)

Actors	Lillian Gish Buster Keaton Peter Lorre Robert Mitchum
Directors	Stanley Kubrick