An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, F.W. Murnau’s Expressionist masterpiece imbues the figure of the vampire with dread and fascination, transcending nearly all later interpretations. Largely avoiding Christian iconography, Nosferatu contributed the deadly power of sunlight to vampire lore. Thanks in part to Max Schrek’s unclassifiable performance, Nosferatu’s Read More …
The indispensable link between the Catholic-inflected piety of Golden Age Hollywood and the world of latter-day horror, The Exorcist reflected deep unease in uncharted cultural waters. Loss of faith, casual dabbling in the occult, divorce and the therapeutic culture are all indicted in the growing nightmare of Read More …
A quiet little nightmare funneling images and shadows through dream logic, Dreyer’s creepy classic centers on a young man convinced of his inexorable and untimely demise: being buried alive. A creaky hotel plays host to vampire activity and creates an eerie atmosphere, where shadows dance Read More …
In the guise of a carnival barker, Dr. Caligari lures the people of Holstenwall into his tent for a glimpse of Cesare, a somnambulist who has been asleep for the past 23 years. Caligari invites the crowd to ask Cesare a question, for the somnambulist Read More …
Exploiting the tropes of both science fiction and horror, director Teshigahara explores the bonds of marriage in this existential film based on the novel by Kōbō Abe. When engineer Okuyama’s (Tatsuya Nakadai) face is disfigured in an accident, he volunteers for an experimental procedure: a Read More …
“I’m alone most of the time. All of the time, really,” confesses Emmi (Brigitte Mira), a German widow, to Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem), a much younger Moroccan she’s just met. “Ali much alone, too,” he confides. “Always working, drinking. Nothing else.” So begins a cross-cultural, Read More …
What is unexpressed is just as important as what is expressed in the exquisitely sad Le Mépris, in which unspoken words, lost moments, and failed connections lead to the collapse of a marriage. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a screenwriter hired to adapt Homer’s Odyssey, uses his beautiful Read More …
One of David Lean’s few forays into comedy tells the story of an alcoholic boot-shop owner (Charles Laughton) whose business suffers a blow when his bookkeeping daughter (Brenda de Banzie) leaves to set up her own shop and takes his gifted but underappreciated bootmaker (John Read More …
Vows to “forsake all others” are all well and good, but how does that settle the longing for the thrill of new romance, particularly for a married fortyish lawyer in Paris, walking the same streets and frequenting the same cafes as the miniskirted footsoldiers of Read More …
In Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, adapted from a Daphne du Maurier short story, an English couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) grieves over the accidental drowning death of their daughter. At their new home in Venice, a series of uncanny and portentous circumstances unfolds as Read More …