Reviews

2001: A Space Odyssey, is just that. A huge adventure. There's a lot of mystery that surrounds the meaning of this film. One thing about any science fiction film is that, if it's any good, it will include a warning to society, or many. In this case I feel it is warning us to not depend too much on technology. Kubrick uses a lot of extended takes and long views to enhance the feeling of distance and enormity of space. also to stress the realism he is going for. He does an excellent job of conveying meaning with very little dialog throughout the film but especially in the beginning where he shows prehistorical occurrences. Many people find it a boring film, but I completely disagree. This is one of the best films ever made. Just have patience.

In this film, Disney uses animation and music in wonderful synergy. At the time animation was not considered very highly. The main concept here was that when we hear a piece of music, we sometimes envision a story or even images to go along with it. This film executes showing what might be envisioned for some of the most famous and wonderful classical pieces of music ever. Some are just abstract imagery and some tell a very definite story. This is one of the most amazing films ever made. It must have been truly stunning at the time. It holds up today, still just as much a feast for the eyes and ears as it was then. An enchanting experience.

This film was surprising to me. I expected it to maybe be a little dumbed down or to skip parts of the story that I'm already familiar with. For the most part, it does stay with the main story line with a few minor changes. They use some excellent trickery (for the time) for the special effects, such as when Dracula walks through a web as if it isn't there and another character gets tangled in them. Another surprising thing to me was just how honest they are in the portrayal of violence and other taboo subjects. I would have expected it to be more played down, but i forget this was before the Hays code started. It's great for film makers to be able to stay true to their material, as they did in this film.

Like most Hitchcock films, Vertigo has a wonderful mystery and tons of suspense. We follow the story of a man who has developed a terrible fear of heights after an accident. He is hired to follow a woman and we get to see various places in San Francisco through his eyes. A very strange story comes out of it. It winds up being like peeling the layers of an onion. Most of the film you have no idea what is going on but it slowly revealed. One of the innovations in this film is the "vertigo" effect that Hitchcock uses: He alternates moving the camera in while zooming out or vice-versa. It has a very dizzying effect and works very well to let you know how the character may be seeing things. This is a wonderful mystery and suspense film and has a crazy twist that will leave you shocked.

Babyface is an excellent film. Telling the story of a woman who uses her body to move up the ranks of a big bank. This probably was controversial at the time. It has an unflinching willingness to depict sexual situations that may have been shocking at the time. Barbara Stanwick is just ravishing throughout. They use a lot of milky light that almost gives a dream like quality to the scenes. Another interesting trick they use is the visual of the outside of the building: we see higher and higher up the outside of the building as the main character climbs the corporate ladder, so to speak. The film also has some very good twists to it that keep you on your toes. Give this film a shot, it is totally worth it.

I will try to not spoil here, but there is one thing that struck me that might contain a tiny spoiler. I've never been a big fan of older movies and I didn't expect to like this. I loved it, this was an excellent film. The lack of voices did not impede the actors' ability to convey emotion. In particular, the male lead was great in that he convincingly made me afraid of him early on and then feel sad for him later as his character developed(only spoiler) and then happy as it continues. The music played a very key role in setting tone and mood. The acting was phenomenal throughout and they did a wonderful job of telling a full and cohesive story. I was truly worried in different moments about what would happen to them. For some reason, I just did not expect this. This is definitely worth checking out: an excellent example of early film that pushed the industry in a good direction for quality story telling.