herbiehancock

No 21 - The Third Man Director - Carol Reed The film noir . The Murder Mystery. A great framework for a film, and one that is done amazingly well. The story is the simple tale of a suspicious death and a man's journey to get to the bottom of it, yet it is a story made all the richer by the surroundings it is in. The weird oppression and military nightmare of post-war Vienna makes this film a lot more tense, a lot more paranoid. Paranoia which is brilliantly depicted through the use of camera angles. Maybe they filmed a lot on hills. Or maybe the tripod's third man was a bit too short.... I don't mean to sound like I'm belittling it... the camera work is probably the most impressive thing in the whole film. Either in the angles and shot or in the transitions. There are some amazing fades or some great early examples of quick editing which help make the film feel a lot more ominous and shady throughout. The mystery of Harry Lime is rich and captivating, so much so that so...

No 334 - The Magnificent Ambersons Director - Orson Welles I've always known this film as the one that isn't Citizen Kane, which goes to show how decidedly uncultured I am. Here, we follow a family in a small town. A successful and rich family which stand out in the smallness of their town. The film's story is quite simple. We follow two wealthy families . The titular Ambersons and the Morgans. Whilst we follow 3 generations of the Ambersons , we focus mostly on two couples. Isabel Amberson becomes a widow and falls for her former sweetheart Eugene Morgan. Meanwhile, their respective children (George Amberson and Lucy Morgan) begin to develop feelings for one another. The greatest character in this film, the nearest it has to a protagonist, is George Amberson . He is just a spoilt and horrible person, and he embodies the film's key message. It is all about the inability to move on. George's prejudices and his 'stuck in his ways' view on the world means h...