A strange film from Czechoslovakia by director Jaromil Jires. It involves young beautiful women, dark phantoms, evil forces and a whole lot of other things in a weird mixture. The film doesn’t have a constant narrative, it rather tries to invent a new way of telling a story with …

Daisies is a Czech film about two girls, best friend, and their everyday life. With the most lively images, this story is told in a most unconventional and experimental way. It’s not the common narrative you see in a Hollywood movie. No, Daisies is more fixed on the moods …

This documentary by frenchman Georges Franju shows an unpolished and uncensored look into a slaughterhouse in France. No dialogue, all we see is how the day goes on in a slaughterhouse. This is a most shocking film, scenes that are never shown in reality. It’s hard to understand how …

A saw the Criterion Collection dvd of this visually breathtaking film a while ago. It was directed by Georges Franju, a french filmmaker working indepently from the new wave directors in the sixties. Eyes without a face is a horror-filled story about a plastic surgeon who kidnaps young girls, …

Eric Rohmer was one of the french new wave filmmakers back in the sixties, actually one of the most important ones, and he also kept making quality films long afterwards, even if I think his latest films haven’t been very interesting. Full Moon in Paris is about a woman …

A french artsy science fiction film in the same style as La Jetee, this time by Alain Resnais. It is about a man who tried to attempt suicide but survived. He gets involved in an experiment with time travel. The rest is for each viewer’s own interpretation.
Even if I …

The Armenian visionary filmmaker Sergei Parajanov is one of my favorite directors through all time. The Legend of Suram Fortress is one of his last films. The narrative is very complex and the visual style is like nothing else. The story is about an old armenian myth that took …

This is a minimalistic film by french director Jacques Becker. The plot is about a group of men in prison who tries to dig a hole from there cell and escape from the prison. It’s a very exciting film at times that shows the life in prison from less …

This is one of my favorite Hal Hartley films. Brave, daring narrative and visual style, an engaging story focused on human dignity and about the coolest soundtrack ever makes this one of Hartley’s prime works, and also places him in the rare group of interesting american filmmakers the last …

Inventive independent filmmaker Hal Hartley here gives us a story focused around lonely people who try their best not the appear lonely. A young girl who works at the local library falls in love with a young man who comes there to visit.
A rather simple story that doesn’t have …

The story about a female boxer with a hectic life at home. With a will made of iron, she challenges everyone who comes in her way, and falls in love with a young man of the same age.
I think Girlfight is a very engaging story with good acting overall. …

Errol Morris is one of my favorite documentary filmmakers. This time he tells the story of a strange man who verifies the quality of electric chairs for a living, hence the title. But he was also controversial for another reason. He was given a mission to travel to a …

One of spanish original filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s early films from the 1980s tells the story about a family mother and her bizarre family. Somewhere between drama and comedy as usual with Almodovar, he pictures his characters with a lot of sympathy and sense of humor at once, and his …

Critically acclaimed drama about a woman who alone has to take care of her son. One day her brother comes to visit and things start to change in the relationship betweem the mother and her son.
I do admit that some of the scenes here are heartwarming and that the …

The cult declared film from the early 1930s by Tod Browning was before its time with the story it tells. A circus companionship with “freaks” travels around together. The so called freaks are people with strange looks, everything from midgets to people with small heads. These people were authentic, …

This James Whale horror story, that came out between the Frankenstein movies, is my favorite of his work. Chilling story filled with suspense and remarkable effects and terribly good acting - especially from Claude Rains as the invisible man - makes this a landmark in early horror cinema. The …

An early sound horror film divided in several episodes, directed by different people. These are stories told by a bunch of people who meet in the beginning of the film. They are all supernatural in some sense. Most of these episodes are quite mediocre and doesn’t interest me a …

James Whale’s classic sequel to Frankenstein. Here we see Boris Karloff yet again as the monster who is misunderstood as a savage killer, depending on his looks and unability to speak. At the same time the real monster, an insane colleague to dr Frankenstein, plans to create a bride …

Another classic horror film, made back in the 1930s. Very subtle horror is it doesn’t really contain any violence or monsters. A woman travels to Jamaica where she learns of the strange culture called voodoo - the ability to control people using a puppet.
This woman experiences the most remarkable …

The original film from the 1950s is about a man who returns to his home town after many years and discovers the people there have been possessed by aliens, or is it just him going insane and imagining everything?
Well, the film begins with this man coming to a hospital, …

This film was directed by Howard Hawks back in the 1960s, but for some reason the famous director let an unknown filmmaker take all the credit. Perhaps it wasn’t good for is rumour to be affiliated with a story like this, I’m not sure.
Anyway, the plot centres around a …

Not the one to come out earlier this year, but the original 1950s movie with Vincent Price. I believe it was the first film shot in 3D tecnique, but of course that loses its effect if you don’t watch it with 3D-glasses at the theatre, which I didn’t do.
The …

Mostly famous because an unknown Steve McQeeen plays the leading part. A some sort of monster movie, with a red blob taking over a whole city as it grows. I thought this was a comedy at first, because the dialogue was so corny. Poor Stevie struggles with silly lines …

Mario Bava’s breakthrough picture has an opening scene that astounded a whole generation of filmmakers. It is so filled with mood and gothic beauty, but at the same time frightening in its graphical violence. The story here is about a witch waking up from her slumber in 1700th century …

Carnival of Souls was directed by american independent filmmaker Herk Harvey in the 1960s, and this is the only one of his films that is still seen today, even though a directed tons of others. The plot is about a woman who is involved in a car accident, and …

This is a film by Ingmar Bergman and was made in the late 50s when he really had found his cinematic expression to its full potential. The story is about three women who are about the give births to children on a hospital. They talk a lot about their …

Another feature from master of horror, Mario Bava, shows us the legendary actor Christopher Lee in the role of a gruesome man in the medieval Italy. He returns to his family, by which he is hated for a murder he once comitted, and scary things immedietly begin to happen. …

This is Mario Bava at his best. With a cinematic style that was later to become the famous “giallo” genre in italian film industry is here more or less invented by Bava himself. A hideous murder story, unpredictable shock sequences, poweful imagery with a lot of camera movement and …

Ingmar Bergman’s only second film shows his talent in its cradle. Bergman himself thinks the film is a disaster, but I found it rather interesting. The story is about a man and his wife that are followed by unhappiness. They start a new life together in a new house, …

This is supposed to be a more artsy depiction of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. Paul Morrissey, perhaps the weirdest filmmaker ever, directed this. It stars Udo Kier as dr Frankenstein, the rest are mostly amateurs. I don’t know if I would call this film artsy, but it certainly was …

Known to be the first “slasher” film. It is about some sorority girls who get stalked by a psychopathic killer during christmas time. One by one they fall victim to his intelligent way of tricking them into his hands. It begins very promising with suspenseful opening sequence. But from …

Mario Bava is one of Italy’s most renowned directors of horror stories. In the sixties he created the most gothic and gruesome tales memorable for their excellent visuality. Shock, which was made late in his career, tells the story of a family in which the mother slowly descends to …

This is a mixture between comedy and horror about two young american men who goes on a trip to England. They are attacked by a werewolf out in the misty english landscape. One of them dies right there, while the other survives but is later tranformed into a blood-thirsty …

Visual genius Tim Burton’s newest film is similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which he wrote the story for. This time he directed himself, and created a stop-motion animation story of the highest class. The story is about a young man (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is getting married, …

The latest Wallace & Gromit film is the first one with these to characters to come out in a long time. Everything about it is just so good as you could ever ask from an animation film these days. Excellent look, believable, funny and interesting plot. Most of all …

Dario Argento’s film begins in the most magnificent way I have ever seen. With a constantly moving camera Argento reveals certain images that fills me with excitement and suspense. It seems to go on and on, just until the camera stops, and somebody gets brutally murdered. This murder could …

This is a film in which the plot has to remain a secret to have any power to it. All I can say is that the film tells the story of a dutch couple on a vacation together. That’s how the film begins anyway, then there’s a twist and …

This is one of the most famous films by inventive french filmmaker Chris Marker (name taken from the “Magic Marker” filt pen, at least that’s what I read somewhere). It´s somewhere between a documentary and a fictional film, as it shows these “sunless” images from different cultures around the …

Very engaging film about the famous horror movie director, James Whale, who made Frankenstein for instance back in the 1930s. In this film he is old, and wonderfully played by Ian McKellen. James Whale, who was openly homosexual, falls in love with his many years younger gardener, who at …

Early film by Kenji Mizoguchi, even if it isn’t silent. Tells the story of geisha women in 17th century Japan. The whole narrative and style of the film is founded in realism and I believe it has been somewhat influential on later filmmakers. However, the film is no more …

This is a documentary style film by experimental french filmmaker Chris Marker. It tells the story of the forgotten soviet genius director Sergei Medvedkin, who made a whole bunch of visually stunning films in the silent era, which were all hidden away by the government as they apparently wasn’t …

This is a french musical from director Jacques Demy and his wife Agnes Varda. Just is with his more famous The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, it’s all shot in colorful images with beautiful actors. The story is about the people of Rochefort who all seem to bad inluckily in love. …

Kenji Mizoguchi is, together with Kurosawa, Kobayashi and a few others, one of the most talked about japanese filmmakers from the last century. Here he tells the life story of Bailiff Sansho, who lives a very tough and poor life in Japan several hundred years ago. With a poetic …

A very unusual french film almost completely without dialogue. This is all about how people act instead of what they say, and in that sense I have to say it is really impressive. The story is that of the crazy man Themroc, who acts like some madman with compassion …

Japanese master director Akira Kurosawa here tries to depict a famous work in literature, Dostoyevskis The Idiot. Kurosawa has moved the story to Japan, which also has been done by the director with works of Shakespeare for example. The film is rather long, around 3 hours, but still it …

Depicting the horrible massacre in Rwanda in the 1990s, this film features an excellent Don Cheadle as the man who tries to save as many people from being killed as he can. Unfortunately, the film focuses all to much on the mere sentimental parts, and leaves the audience practically …

The sequel to the very popular adventure film from the late 90s. In this film, Zorro went and got himself a son who doesn’t know his identity but only that his father is Alejandro de la Vega. The rest of the plot is very similar to the first movie, …

The sequel to the controversial horror movie Saw, which had many similiarities to Seven, but which I still thought had some quality and interesting storyline to it. A horror movie that didn’t quite follow the conventional rules. The story was about people being kidnapped by a psychopathic man. He …

This film features Eliijah Wood as an american who comes to visit his sister in England. There he meets his somewhat naive nephew, who spends his saturday night fighting. He is a football fan, but more importantly a hooligan who likes fighting more than watching football. His new american …

An early film by Seijun Suzuki in which he choses not to use any violence for a change. The story is focused on a gang of prostitutes in Japan after the World War II. They are all really broken down as humans, feeling guilt about what they do for …