- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires)
- Julie (Andrew L. Stone)
- A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
- Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson)
- Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)
- Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju)
- Chance At Heaven (William A. Seiter)
- Les Enfants Terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville)
- The Most Dangerous Game (Schoedsack/Pichel)
- Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (Dušan Makavejev)
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1 Some of that Eastern European New Wave stuff really drives me nuts. I recently watched Daisies which I found insufferable, even though it presages my beloved Celine And Julie Go Boating. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders was in the same vein, but seemed to be playing with psychosexual stuff and who cares.
2 Ever want to see Doris Day, as a stewardess emergency-landing a plane after the pilot has been shot? Then Julie is the film for you. Some fun nuttiness from the 60s.
3- Cat People might be the most famous film of the Val Lewton oeuvre, but Isle Of The Dead really gives it a run for its money. A eerie film with no trace of the supernatural. It is shot through with superstition and paranoia and is drenched in the legendary Lewton atmosphere.
4- I had the privilege of sitting in on Michael Glover Smith’s film history class at Harold Washington College. He is a teacher that teaches up to the material and not down to the students. This is particularly amazing when you consider that the class I attended contained a lecture and viewing of Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped. Bresson is one of the most, if not the most, rigorous filmmaker, and these kids ate it up. Good going, MGS.
5- I want to love Vampyr by Dreyer as much as I love Nosferatu by Murnau, but that is never going to happen. The first (illegal) adaptation of Dracula, Nosferatu is iconic – with an over-the-top performance by the rat-like Max Schreck – yes folks, apparently that was his real name!
6- It was fun to watch Eyes Without A Face after my recent love-fest with Holy Motors. Eyes Without A Face is icky in the same way as its contemporaries Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. Eyes Without A Face is way more fun and much more stylish. Brava, Edith Schob