27. Neco Z Alenky/Alice (1988)

Czech surrealist vision of an absurdist English writer's nonsense tale. Yes, this is a bit bonkers.

Jan Swankmajer's version of the classic tale is told through stop motion animation, mixing live action and puppetry. it's a pared down version of the story. Gone are the Cheshire Cat, Gryphon, Mock Turtle and the Duchess. The White Rabbit is the main protagonist taking on the role of the Duchess and the high executioner. He's not a very nice rabbit at all. In fact no-one comes off well in this version. Alice is a bratty cunt who needs a good smack. The Mad Hatter's tea party has upped it to eleven on the nonsense, making the scene really quite annoying and pointless and the Queen is a great let down.

The setting is Alice's house, but a surreal dream version of it. Animated are taxidermied animals, fragmented skeletons of animals and grim old toys. It casts a sheath of macabre over the whole thing. It's clearly not one for the kids. There is even a warning up front made by Alice.

<< Alice thought to herself, 'Now you will see a film... made for children... perhaps... ' But, I nearly forgot... you must... close your eyes... otherwise... you won't see anything.>>

If you don't watch the film, you won't miss anything either. It's like the makers of Bagpuss took some crack and decided to make a film.

26. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974)

Inspired by an earlier film by Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows), Rainer Werner Fassbinder takes the tale of forbidden love to Munich. Emmi, a widowed cleaning lady in her 60s meets a younger Moroccan mechanic in a bar whilst she escapes the rain. After inviting him up for coffee, they strike up a sudden intense affair and get married, much to the outrage of Emmi' children and her friends and neighbours.

The film is basically a story of prejudice, mostly racism and it's effects on their relationship as it slowly starts to unravel.

It's one of the defining films of the German new wave movement of the 60s/70s. *awkward face* Is it? Really? I found it terribly dull. It was incredibly stagy, the performances wooden and the situation incomprehensible.

There's only so long my disbelief can suspend. I will accept that Ali and Emmi strike up a relationship, but that they get married without telling anyone, but that he quickly begins an affair with the owner of the local bar because Emmi refuses to cook cous cous? That she openly objectifies him in front of her friends? That he suddenly, out of nowhere gets a gambling problem? It all doesn't add up towards the end. The timescale of the film is a mystery. How much time has elapsed in this world. It seems to take place over a couple of weeks.

There was a documentary on Fassbinder as an extra on the DVD, which was actually quite fascinating. This film wasn't though. I think it's more of something to study at film school, than see before you die. I am quite interested in the original, which just regards the ageism issue.

The Original Sirk film.

Fassbinder always has a part for himself in his films. Here he plays the layabout husband of Emmi's daughter. All the children are inconsequential in this film.

25. Akira (1988)

I saw this film around the time of it's release and it was a benchmark in animated features. Manga and Anime came into film vernacular and a bar was set. Thing is, it wasn't a particularly high bar. This film is confusing at best.
It's set in a post apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo and times are hard. The city is under military rule and the city is crawling with biker gangs and revolutionaries. It's not particularly clear what the revolution is all about. It does concern something called Akira.

I'm assuming that the whole spirituality side of the story is lost in translation. It seems to be concerned with chi, or some sort of natural energy that can be harnessed for good or bad. A young bratty biker (Tetsuo) gains control of this power and his powers become destructive to the nth degree. Now everyone is out to stop him.

I do get some of the themes. The whole youth against establishment. The fear of destruction and the threat of the military. I do think that the story of an emotional roller coaster of a teenager garnering the power to destroy with his mind is quite intriguing, I just don't think it's done well here. There are moments of brilliance. I like Kei's exposition speech about what Akira is. She tells of this energy theory that links the building blocks of the world and compared Tetsuo to an amoeba. "What if an amoeba was to harness this power? Amoebas don't build bridges and houses, they just consume everything around them."

The animation is quite dated too. Not a patch on anything by Miyazaki.

So groundbreaking of it's time, but doesn't stand up to Japanimation of recent years.

24. Airplane! (1980)

"Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"
"Don't call me Shirley!"
"Over, over" "Huh?"
"What a pisser!"
"Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue."
"It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether."
"Just Kidding!"
"How about some coffee Johnny?" "No thanks!"

Most quotable film ever? Surely you can't be serious? (EVERYBODY!)

David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams bought the rights to the 1957 disaster pic, Zero Hour and decided to make a comedy parodying such films. Many parts of the original dialogue is even lifted to great effect. "We have to find someone that not only can fly this plane, but that didn't have fish for dinner." Actual Zero Hour line!

It's a gag fest a go go from the very start. Betty and Vernon, the airport announcers disputing where no stopping is allowed when the real issue is Betty's unwanted pregnancy. The flashbacks of Elaine and Ted's romance as Ted bores several of the passengers to suicide. Stephen Stucker's camp one liners. A jive talking granny. Jim never vomits at home. Crash positions!!
 It is unrivalled in it's laugh out loud moments and it's all delivered with great comic aplomb. Most of the characters are played straight. It's what makes the peado captain and the doctor so hilarious.

The original movie spoof comedy and still the best.

scene stealer!

23. Aileen Wournos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)

In 1991, documentary maker, Nick Broomfield, was asked to research into some serial killer cases with the plan to make a documentary. His interest was lacklustre until he came upon the Aileen Wournos case and met up with her lawyer and her adoptive step mom. They were seeking a price for information about Aileen. Investigating further, it seemed everyone was out to make a quick buck out of this case. Her lawyer, her newly adoptive mother, her ex lover and there was even a conspiracy with the police to sell the story to Hollywood producers.

The level of corruption is rife throughout the film and, ironically, it is Aileen who comes across as the most genuine and honest person. Although she clearly admits to the crimes, she swears that it was all in self defence.
The film has a connecting theme with the 2003 documentary, Capturing the Friedmans. There too, it is a tale of a corrupt trial surrounded by a media circus and though the crimes are heinous the sentencing seems unjust.

In 2002, Broomfield was served with a subpoena to appear at Wournos's final state appeal before execution. At this point, Broomfield and his longtime collaborator Joan Churchill, decided to make a follow up film. The Life and Death of a Serial Killer looks at her life and the journey she went on that turned her into a serial killer. It is also a disturbing look into the issue of the death penalty in the USA.

It makes for an interesting double bill.

Broomfield makes very interesting documentaries concentrating on a single person/group of people. From his earlier work regarding the fallout after the death of  Kurt Cobain in Kurt & Courtney; a look into the East/West rivalries in rap music in Biggie & Tupac; to the recent expose of Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin: You Betcha! All very interesting films and worthy of your time.

The 2002 companion film

22. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

I have decided to deviate from the alphabetical list as Filmspotting is doing a Robert Bresson marathon and 4 of the 5 films they are watching are in the 1001 list. Seemed silly not to join in with their mini marathon.

First up is the first in Bresson's 'prison trilogy'. It tells the story of a young priest who, despite being gravely ill, takes up priestly duties in the country parish of Ambricourt. Here he tries fecklessly to convert the godless parishioners back to faith. He becomes involved in the complex relationships of a local count, his wife, his mistress and his daughter.

It's an intensely personal tale of the priest's solitude and his personal prison. There isn't a great deal of dialogue and the story is narrated by the priest through excerpts from his diary. Several time he enters houses and then the scene is cut back to him leaving, with more exposition about what went on inside.
The soundtrack is sparse too. There is little music, but a great use of sound effects. The film is actually verging on a silent movie. There is an awful lot of mugging.

I get that it all adds to the solitude of the priest, but it was all a bit much for me and I found it largely tedious. I can appreciate the look of the film though and I'm just hoping his later works are a little less somnolent!

21. Ai No Corrida/In the Realm of the Senses(1976)

Former street prostitute, Sada, gets a job as a serving girl in a reputable tea house. Not before long, she begins an illicit affair with the Madam's husband, Kichi-zo. They carry out this affair at another house, where their sexual trysts become more and more brazen. They shag in public, she gets him to shag an old serving woman, geishas join them, there's an interesting disappearing egg trick! Mind boggling.

He is besotted with her and her youth. She is pretty much besotted with his cock and becomes extremely possessive of this side of him, forbidding him to have sexual relations with his wife. Her jealousy gets the better of her and she threatens to cut off his member and keep it inside her. Meanwhile, their sex games are becoming more and more profane and they delve into asphyxiation games. Eventually these are taken too far and she strangles him, with his encouragement. She then cuts off his penis and places it inside her for keepsakes!

These scenes are filmed very graphically, but it is all lit and shown quite beautifully never diverging from the director's (Nagisa Oshima) mis-en-scene. In fact the whole glowing pallet and the tiny room locations add to the sexual frenzy, though the extreme relationship is never sexy.

As l'amour fou themes go, this is on the clinically insane side of the scale. It's certainly worth a watch, just for it's brazen, warts and all look. What makes it all the more bonkers is the fact that it's based on a true story!

She's only gone and done it!