Sunrise(1927) Dircted by F. W. Murnau Starring Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien b/w Silent
This is a love story.
For those of you unfamiliar with the movie idols of the 1920's, the cast sounds like a bunch of nobodies: Janet Gaynor, George O'Brien and Margaret Livingston. The names of the characters fail to evoke great romance novel names: "The Man", "The Wife" and "The Woman from the City". The director is more known today by a portrayal in a movie than for his life or career: F.W. Murnau, played by John Malkovitch in "Shadow of the Vampire". These facts are irrelevant.
Today, F.W. Murnau is primarily known by film scholars for directing five films: Nosferatu, The Last Laugh, Faust, Sunrise and Tabu. Directing during film's early days, he is not particularly known for innovative film techniques. Cross-cutting or the close-up or frantic chase scenes: D. W. Griffith invented them all. In my not-so-humble opinion, he perfected every technique for telling a cinematic story. In The Last Laugh, he placed a camera on a bicycle, eclipsing Griffith and creating one of the greatest tracking shots in film history. In Nosferatu, he used chiaroscuro (aka filming light and dark in contrast to each other, central to Hitchcock's black and white films and any detective thriller worth its salt) creating more menace than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ever managed. All of these attempts to perfect cinematic storytelling reached their climax in what, despite its unassuming ingredients, must go down as the greatest love story on film.
Forget The Way They Were or The Notebook or The Bridges of Madison County: this one tops them all. The simple story of a farmer's seduction at the hands of a bored city girl, convincing him that the key to their happiness is to murder his wife and run away, fails to describe how moving, thrilling and astonishing this film executes its mission of entertainment. I'd better stop, before I get too sappy. Its universality and simplicity means wherever you come from or whatever your life experience, this film will become one of your favorites. If not, you need to check your pulse!
Availability on Netflix: Mail (Note: Faust, Nosferatu and The Last Laugh are all on Instant)
Library Availability: Highly probable
Green Street Hooligans(2005) Directed by Lexi Alexander Starring Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam color, British English
This is a hate story.
Matt Buckner takes the fall for his Harvard classmates and is expelled from school. He travels to England, to lick his wounds and decide where he wants to steer his life next. He stays with his sister Shannon and her husband Steve, who live in London. Steve wastes little time introducing Matt to his friends. While slamming back a few pints of lager, and making fun of Matt's accent and mannerisms, the subject of West Ham comes up. What is West Ham? A salty, smoky luncheon meat? No. It is a Premier League football club. "Oh you mean soccer," Matt chirps cheerfully. "We mean football!" Matt is taken to a match, but Steve seems less interested in the teams than in rival fans. He and his mates meet the opposing team's fans, or GSE, and a huge brawl breaks out. Matt throws a punch for the first time, gets bloodied and earns the respect, if not the admiration, of the West Ham GSE.
This is a story about hooliganism; the US media's favorite subject, when they want to feel superior to soccer. Despite the fact that United States sports are virtually invisible outside our continent, fan violence, as a sign of the corruption of the sport, gets majority airtime. Amazingly, this point is brought up by Pete, Steve's brother: "F***in' "journos." Look at this. West Ham wins three-nill in a blinding performance and our little scrap makes the headline. Bloody muckrakers." That statement came from a Brit, in his own country, where Football(soccer) is king!
My point in bringing this up is that fan violence is a problem everywhere: whether it's the Heysel Stadium disaster or Bryan Stow or Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the problem affects all sports. However, Football's(soccer's) problems have a unique twist. From my observations, American sports fans are similar to Romans, who support gladiators. The stadium or arena is their colliseum, where they go to see combat. In Europe, and most of the rest of the world, it isn't supporting the players/fighters that is important: it's the ground where the combat takes place.
Most of the rest of the world understands what it means to be invaded: for nearly 200 years, the United States has been invasion free. The last attempt to invade the United Kingdom happened in the 1980's. The Falkland Islands have been a territory of the UK since 1833. Even though it is half-a world away from Europe, they still fought a war, against Argentina, over this handful of land. Invasion is a key component to the psyche of most people around the world, in my opinion. The playing area in a stadium or arena symbolizes your country, neighborhood, home. Even if you are poor, you can buy a ticket for a few pounds and go see your local team defend the symbolic ground of your home. Think of the Kurosawa film Seven Samurai: a small village hires a group of wandering warriors to protect their village from invasion. When West Ham steps out on to the field, they are defending a symbolic version of the East End of London. Their opponents are invaders, who must be pushed back in defeat.
Green Street Hooligans is the story of what happens when you believe in nothing else except protecting your turf; and if your hired warriors can't do it, you and your friends will finish the job. This is by far the best protrayal of the joy and tragedy of hooligan culture I have ever seen.
Availability on Netflix: Mail, not available on Instant (6/3/11)
Library Availability: Highly probable
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