Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 12: The serpent in the soul of the serpent

Meize meets up with Meck and Reinhold, and goes alone in the forest with the nasty Reinhold, for quite an amazing, and painful scene.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 11: knowledge is power and the early bird catches the worm

Franz is buddy and with Reinhold and Pums' gang. As expected he beats up Meize who goes mental, particularly painful episode.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 10: Loneliness tears cracks of madness even in walls

Franz is drunk in front of the prison and wish he was back inside, Mieze wants Eva to have Franz child, but also announces that she has met a man who wants to look after her and gets her an apartment, and Franz is a bit lost.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 9: About the eternities between the many and the few

Quite a rambling one, with some lengthy political discussions at the end, Fassbinder shows Franz killing Ida twice, Franz is not acknowledged as a pimp, and goes have a chat with Reinhold.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 8: The sun warms the skin, but burns it sometimes too

In which Meize finally appears, like and angel, but Franz is tortured by a love letter she receives.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 7: Remember an oath can be amputated

Franz has lost an arm, Pums syndicate is worried he will talk, he has a few beers, goes to a fantastic street with lots of whores and sparkles.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 6: Love has its price

Franz discovers that his mates are up up no good and ends up almost left for dead.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 5: A Reaper with the power of our lord

Franz goes back to his old flat, and meets a bunch of new people in his bar, including Reinhold, who off-loads his girlfriends to Franz. The score is absolutely fantastic.

The spirit of the beehive

This is cinema as poetry, of a lost world, as seen by the eyes of children, with Frankenstein as the catalyst to the discovery of the strangeness and scariness of life. Not sure I understood everything, and quite a slow paced film, but beautifully filmed.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 4: A handful of people in the depths of silence

Franz has moved out and rents a flat where he spends his time drinking a lot of beer, and being sick, and not so much feelung sorry for himself, just hopeless. Bleak.

Glory to the Filmmaker! (Kantoku · Banzai!)

Kitano's latest film, which I doubt will be released in the west. Beat Takeshi plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project. he tries a Ozu-style film, a horror, film, refuses to do a gangster film, some love story, and finally decides on a sci-fi blockbuster, with little sci-fi, and a crzy professor, and some nuts. He is followed by a plastic version of himself, who sometimes turns into a metal version, when needing to fight, turning himself into Zidane, for some headbutting. Apparently he has as described it as part of the ongoing "creative destruction" of his career, which is not far from the truth, it is quite bonkers and surreal.

The Parallax View

Conspiracy thriller which had impressed him when I saw it on VHS more than 20 years, and not so much today. It is stylish and the photography by Gordon Willis is great, the first half quite thrilling, but the last half hour is a let down.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 3: A hammer blow to the head can injure the soul

More unemployment, and it is clear Hitler used the despair of part of the population to recruit supporters, although this episode is not really about nazism. Franz starts a new business with a relative of his girlfriend to sell shoe laces, and once again almost hit someone and has a very brief affair with a widow.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 2: How is one to live if one doesn't want to die

This is a bit lighter, with Franz getting a a few odd jobs going to a cabaret, where he meets a nazi, then has arguments with old friend of his that are communists.

Helvetica

Interesting documentary on type faces, in particular the rather bland, but very clean and modern Helvetica, with interviews of many designers who love or loathe this particular type. Not very well structured and some of the interviewees seem to be very minor figures, but enjoyable.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: part 1: the punishment begins

Where Franz Biberkopf is released from prison, rape the sister of the girl he killed and make an oath that from now on he will act like an normal person. Pretty dark introduction to a very nasty character.

Punch Drunk Love

Halliday found this to be a terrible film! I found it surprisingly good considering I don't rate PT Anderson particularly high. Sandler is annoying but great in depicting a really disturbed man with lots of issues, and the direction really reinforces his issues, with a great score with plenty of annoying sounds. A totally fucked up romcom.

Cria Cuervos

I didn't think mush of Carlos Saura before, but this is an absolute gem, a devastatingly beautiful about memory and death, but with some lighter moments, in particular with the 'Porque te vas' song. The actors are all great, and the art direction superb. Maybe the best film I have seen for a long time.

That's Dancing

Documentary/compilation from 1985 on the history of dancing on film, with lots of clips, and a bit too much tap dancing, interesting nonetheless.

Donne-moi tes yeux

A rare drama from Guitry, where he plays a sculptor about to lose his eyesight and tormenting his young lover (which was also his young wife in real life). Charming.

Bellissima

Visconti directs Magnani as the over the top mother who goes to the extreme to get her 5 years old daughter an audition and dreams that she will be an actress. After a lot of sacrifices she eventually realises that her daughter will be happier as she is. Typical Italian film with lots of screaming and talking about nothing, but Magnani is truly superb.

Diary of a lost girl

Pabst and Louise Brooks team together for the last time in 1929 for this big melodrama about the sad and rollercoaster-like life of a young woman. Some good scenes, but not as impressive as Pandora's box, although Louise Brooks is still stunning.

The Pirate

Minnelli, Garland, Kelly and Freed and his unit at MGM failed with this film. Although it is known as a very stylised film, only one scene is overly stylised, the rest is nicely produced. the main problem is with the kelly character who is not particularly likeable, and at times, frankly annoying.

From the life of the marionettes

A great little twisted film from Bergman made for German TV while on exile, it does not have a great reputation, but I found it enthralling, and similar in style and theme to Fassbinder films with alienated bourgeois characters suferring and making other suffer, to the point of wanted too kill someone, and actually doing it. The film is a series of interrogations, confessions and flashbacks to uncover why Peter Egermann killed a prostitute in the first scene.