#72 of 2010: Following

in several ways, Christopher Nolan's "Following" reminded me of Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi", another low-budget, home-grown, internationally distributed debut that was made in the 90's. the films were both written, shot, and edited largely by their directors, and both use less-than-entirely-convincing actors and public or borrowed-from-friends locations to tell truly compelling stories. "Following" is significantly more understated than "El Mariachi" in it's brand of suspense and it's visual composition as a whole (we're talking the difference between shoot-outs because of coincidences and meticulously plotted sneaking around, the difference between a black-and-white, grey-skied London and south-of-the border sun-drenched vibrance), but they are both commendable in their resourcefulness and in their effectiveness, and definitely demonstrate the potential (which is now being realized) of these directors. Even though "Following" isn't so impressive standing as a piece of art in a vacuum, disconnected from the history of it's maker and production, it's fast-paced (short too, only 70 minutes!) and intriguing and non-linear enough to be worth recommending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Following

#56 of 2010: Fritz Lang's M

l killer, fritz lang, german, otto wernicke, peter lorre, social problems, suspense

this "first-cinematic serial killer" film (that's how it's billed in the netflix summary) is much less polarized- in terms of "good v. evil", "victim v. villain", "justice v. retribution", etc.- than you would expect if you hadn't seen anything else by Lang. based on my limited experience of the director's work ("Metropolis"), I certainly wasn't predicting a cut-and-dry morality tale, but I was surprised at just how complex, how condemning and also redeeming of EVERY character/character-type, this movie is. it'll yank on your emotions but it won't tell you what you'd need to do if it was real. you'll see the good in bad guys but it won't hold up outside of present circumstances. you'll see the bad in victim-mothers, and you'll have a hard time placing the divisions between complicity and willful ignorance and helplessness. like any examination of morality with real depth, this movie forces you to judge yourself as you judge its characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_(1931_film)