Criterion Challenge 2024: Longest Runtime in Your Watchlist
"Happily there will always be a rose in the wheel."
I'm sure Abel Gance didn't intend for audiences to watch La Roue broken up over three weeks, but that's where we're at in life these days, ladies and germs.
I've known about Gance's mammoth silent films for years, but this is my first time seeking one of them out, and I'm glad I did, even if the length made it a bit…
Watching Charlie Chaplin play Not Quite the Tramp is the most enjoyable thing about One A.M.. The physical comedy is terrific, and among Chaplin's best and funniest work of his pre-The Kid stuff, even if the film feels a bit overlong at just thirty minutes. Those title cards, though... woof. Painfully, painfully unfunny stuff. Still, this is a good time, and very worth checking out!
"No, not sick... but I have lost some flesh."
There's so much to admire in Tod Browning's The Unknown -- its Grand Guignol-esque story, Lon Chaney's searing performance, the imagery -- that it all makes me wish I waited to watch it on a day when I was more on its wavelength. Still, where the film works, it really works. Chaney is rightfully iconic here, creating one of his most unforgettable monsters. A very young Joan Crawford does strong work…
The thing about Georges Méliès movies is that they were made at the dawn of the art form, but they're still absolutely stunning, singular magic tricks. Does it matter that this film is a slightly inferior version of A Trip to the Moon? Not really! Still a blast to watch, and with some mind-blowing imagery. The train flying through the stars!
The title is accurate. This is some "dead dove do not eat" stuff. The vibes are just rancid. Good for David Lynch for making me feel like I'm going to be swallowed into Hell at any moment in just sixty seconds.
At the risk of stating the obvious, The Goat has great bits. The elevator chase at the end is especially wonderful -- the way Buster Keaton incorporates dream logic into his films is always such a joy, and it's not hard to see the fingerprints of this specific gag on decades of cartoons.
I was a little surprised that the film just kind of abruptly ended without any real resolution, especially when the mistaken identity setup was so clear and funny, but it's not worth getting too upset about that. Great bits, beautiful bits.
"Be a good girl and bow to the audience."
From its historical significance and reputation, I expected a lot out of Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur that I didn't really get (and I don't think that's the film's fault, necessarily, but I do think McCay fails to realize the film beyond mere innovation). For one thing, I didn't realize the whole film wasn't animated. The whole framing device around where Gertie comes from -- a Frankenstein-esque bet, essentially -- is…
Definitely minor Buster, but it's always fun to see him play around. It's absolutely wild to see a young Wallace Beery as his romantic rival, and there are some fun, dumb jokes pertaining to each of the chapters' historical setting (and one weirdly and unfortunately racist one), but for the most part, Three Ages isn't particularly engaging. It kind of limps to the end, especially once you realize you're fated to see basically the same story with more or less the same dramatic beats repeated three times. It's not a bad time, but it's not a particularly great movie.
"Surely success hasn't gone to the old bean!"
I can't believe it's taken me this long to see my first Marion Davies film. What a terrific talent! If Show People is any indication, she clearly had the chops to hold her own (and then some) against the male comedians of the time, and even when the film around her sags (which, for me, was most of the time), she remains luminous and charming and effortless. The almost incessant dialogue (in…
"In all things, one must take the end into account."
Looking back Louis Feuillade's legendary serial Les Vampires over a century later is a rich experiment. A twisty, sprawling epic that could conceivably be the genetic ancestor of the likes of CSI and NCIS, there are moments where the chapters lean more procedural than truly suspenseful. Much of the film is told through Édouard Mathé's charming-if-nondescript journalist Philippe Guérande, so while the body count climbs quickly and surprisingly, it often…
Somehow we made it to the end! I'll try and put all my Vampires thoughts on a review for the whole series, but this was a fittingly bombastic and exciting finale. Mazamette remains undefeated.
"The arrival in the Land of Liberty."
I can't even imagine watching the scenes on the ship in a theater. The ingenious camera movements evoked seasickness so well that I was getting a bit queasy just in my living room.
Some solid hijinks here, with some of Chaplin's more overt political commentary. Edna Purviance makes a great scene partner, especially in the second half of the film.