Shock Corridor Exemplifies Samuel Fuller's Impressive Boundary-Pushing Tendencies

The works of Samuel Fuller were boundary-pushing in the best possible way. They weren't shallow edgelord poppycock, Fuller's films were actually dangerous.  They dared to cover topics that were taboo (and even still are) in mainstream Hollywood, including authentically messy portrayals of racism. Fuller wasn't afraid to make audiences uncomfortable and that talent is certainly around in his 1963 feature film Shock Corridor. Fuller's script is based around an idea that, in basic outline form, sounds like it might make a decent half-hour campfire story. In the hands of Fuller, though, it becomes something more haunting that comments on the uncaring nature of humanity.

The Insect Woman Is A Brutal But Essential Watch

The Insect Woman spends no time making sure its title is accurate as it opens on footage of an insect struggling to crawl up a small hill. This creature is clearly putting all of its strength into this task, yet, it's no use, it just can't make any progress. After the title flashes on-screen, we cut to our actual story concerning Tome Matsuki (Sachiko Hidari), a woman growing up in poverty and without a blood-related father to call her own. Much like the bug seen in the opening scene of the movie, Tome puts all her effort into trying to move up in life (in her case, "moving up" means bettering her social and economic status) but it just ends in despair. Over the course of the forty-five years chronicled in The Insect Woman, Tome is trapped in vicious cycles that refuse to allow her to advance. She's as trapped as that little bug was.

Jean Luc-Godard's Contempt Is An Oddly Thin And Mean-Spirited Movie in The Man's Filmography

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #30
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #12

Well hello Jean-Luc Godard, we meet again. After watching Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinema recently for this series of reviews, I was intrigued to follow up that incredibly avant-garde experience with something more a bit closer to a conventional drama with his 1963 film Contempt, something I learned after watching the movie was actually quite autobiographical in nature. Turns out, Godard made the movie in response to the troubles he was having with his wife at the time, a woman he would divorce by 1965. That's interesting to learn though it still can't quite make me raise my not so positive opinion on Contempt.

Few Movies Capture Aching Enveloping Loneliness Quite Like The Federico Fellini Masterpiece 8 1/2

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #14
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #10

Upon doing some internet-based research on director Federico Fellini, I stumbled upon this quote of his that says "All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.". It's a surprisingly profound thought, wrapped around an easy-to-understand comparison that drives the entire point of the statement home. Art does tend to reflect the inner workings of its creators, their ideas, their ambitions, their viewpoints on the world they inhabit. That's what makes exploring art so much fun from an analytical perspective; it's incredibly exciting to probe idiosyncratic artists and the art they create to express their innermost thoughts.

The Birds Isn't Quite Peak Alfred Hitchcock, Though It's Not Outright Fowl Either (Classic Write-Up)

The Birds is a movie that's become one of Alfred Hitchcock's most influential features, which is truly saying something considering the dudes IMDB filmography is stacked with motion pictures whose impact spreads far and wide across the globe. Some of that I would say is due to it being one of the few horror films to revolve around threatening avian creatures (the only other noteworthy movies are B-grade schlock like Beaks: The Movie or Birdemic: Shock And Terror), giving it a sort of unique nature that makes it stands out in people's minds, there's no way you'll confuse The Birds with many other movies.

Akira Kurosawa Tackles The World Of Crime Thrillers With High And Low

Crime thrillers have been a notable part of the very fabric of cinema for decades upon decades upon decades, so it's no wonder that Akira Kurosawa, a director notable for the versatility in the genres his films inhabits, would eventually dip his toes into this pond of storytelling with High And Low (which, unless I'm horribly mistaken, is not the only crime thriller in his filmography). Reuniting with Toshiro Mifune, the Leonardo DiCaprio to his Martin Scorsese, this is a tale set in then modern-day Japan and revolves around a kidnapping.