Ingmar Bergman’s 1954 film A Lesson in Love seems like a direct answer to his intensely bleak 1953 efforts: Summer with Monika and Sawdust and Tinsel. Bergman would do this again with 1964’s All These Women- try to show off his range with some lighter fare. This is a self-proclaimed “comedy for grownups”. Though the tone is drastically different than Bergman’s strengths as an auteur- the themes are consistent. This is a story of marriage and fidelity. This is the director of many battles of the sexes- including 1973’s Scenes From a Marriage. Eva Dahlbeck plays Marianne and Gunnar

Time has been kind for David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter. It is no longer burdened by coming out during the changing of eras in the early 1970s with The New Hollywood taking over and a new type of British film as well (think about this film coming out the same year as Nicolas Roeg’s Performance). This is Lean’s follow-up to 1965’s Doctor Zhivago. Lean made only sixteen (16) films total. These are lengthy running times, careful large-scale productions and justifiably extended gestation periods. This is 200 minutes long and features a ridiculously handsome production (David Kehr calls it “overproduced” which

It is Edward G. Robinson who was the big star in MGM’s (hard to believe this is not from Warner Brothers) film The Last Gangster. In fact, Robinson was loaned from Warner Brothers to MGM. Robinson plays Joe Krozac and he is leaning into his star-making Little Caesar role that started it all in 1931. Krozac is a racketeer who goes to prison (to Alcatraz) for income tax evasion. Lionel Stander was in many of these gangster films and he plays Krozac’s second in command Curly. John Carradine is in the cast as well. Second billing after Robinson though

Gladiator was Ridley Scott’s comeback film in 2000. It had been a long nine years since 1991’s Thelma & Louise. 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, and G.I. Jane had all failed to fully land. Russell Crowe on the other hand was on the rise and Gladiator was yet another notch on his belt after 1997’s L.A. Confidential and 1999’s The Insider. The film was Oliver Reed’s last (he passed away before its completion) and is an important film for Hans Zimmer as well. The film opens in Germania in the second century.  The in medias res

Raúl Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon is 272-minutes of cinematic force. If Three Crowns of the Sailor is Ruiz’s The Lady from Shanghai then Mysteries of Lisbon is his Barry Lyndon. An epic story- the length of the running time and use of voiceover give it a novelistic feel. The orphanage setting makes it feel a little like Dickens. Ruiz remains a master of both camera movement and screen composition. His untethered camera will often gracefully swing around a room, capture a frame, move again, and reframe. This framing and reframing within the same shot is Renoir. Early role for

Sawdust and Tinsel is Ingmar Bergman’s second (2nd) release of 1953 (Summer with Monika) and has the brief distinction of being the great Swedish master’s best film through this point in his career (an honor that will only last a few short years until 1957). Like Monika, it stars Harriet Andersson (certainly Bergman’s main muse through this stretch). Åke Grönberg (playing Albert here) is the other major lead and there is a smaller role for Bergman trope regular Gunnar Björnstrand as well. To open the film Bergman captures this traveling circus (Albert is the circus master) wagon caravan

Riders of Justice achieves a rare little trifecta- it is funny,  it is filled with good action, and it is still is far more intelligent than the average film. The film is set in Estonia. It opens with a chain of events (bike stolen, skipped school) resulting in a train accident and the wife of Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) and mother of Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) is killed. Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is one of the survivors of the “accident”. Otto is a statistical data theorist, and he eventually connects with Markus about his theory of the accident. At the

Raul Ruiz is a very worthy Orson Welles acolyte and Three Crowns of the Sailor is certainly among his greatest achievements. The Chilean auteur’s most important collaborator here is French cinematographer Sacha Vierny. Vierny worked with Resnais on Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad. Vierny would be Peter Greenaway’s most trusted ally as well- working on A Zed & Two Noughts, The Belly of an Architect and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover- all of Greenaway’s most essential works. Ruiz employs both color and black and white photography. This is the surrealistic trek from

Director John Dahl was no slouch in the 1990s and early 2000s. He made The Last Seduction in 1994 and in 1998 it was Rounders. Here he is aided by a sharp screenplay by J.J. Abrams. Joy Ride stars young actors trying to break through in 2001. This includes Paul Walker, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski. Walker is a handsome leading man playing Lewis, Zahn is legit funny as the smartass, troublemaker, immature prankster Fuller, and Sobieski looks like a young version on Helen Hunt (certainly Hunt was a big star in the late 1990s with both Twister and

Despite the name, Louis Feuillade’s (written and directed) Les vampires is a crime saga and is more of a precursor to the Dr. Mabuse films from Lang or Zodiac from Fincher than Nosferatu from Murnau or Vampyr from Dreyer. It is split into ten chapters. The chapter titles are brilliant: “The Severed Head”, “The Deadly Ring” and so on. It is fascinating from the outset. Édouard Mathé plays Philippe Guérande- a reporter for the Globe and he is investigating a ring of criminals/secret society called The Vampires. Blue shading at the 16-minute mark as the characters turn off the