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Reviews
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Two films in one
Although I agree with most other comments on the subjects of the beautiful shots, the perfected technique, the moving scenes etc. I feel that I must add a negative note. I was unpleasantly surprised by the long comic intermezzo in which we are invited to laugh with the stupid hicks visiting the city: The sequence starting when the main characters decide to have their picture taken, and ending only when they leave the city, seems like a cheap and silly sequel to a great movie; only here it is part of the movie, a comedy inside a serious drama.
The Chase (1994)
it's got to be on purpose
This movie is so incredibly inane that it can only have been made so on purpose. I have this private theory that The Chase is a parody of the whole car-chase-movie-business. It's the epitome of a dumb genre, just like Starship Troopers, and just like I loved Starship Troopers, I love this one.
I do hope the director meant it this way.
Random Harvest (1942)
better than the book
I have just read the book, and although, just like all other James Hilton books I have read, it is a very good novel, I liked the film better. Maybe it's because I already knew what was going to happen on the last page, but I think it is mainly because the viewer knowing more than the characters, the approach the film takes, and has to take, makes for better drama. To use a metaphor so as not to spoil the plot: in the film, you can see the time bomb ticking for an hour; in the book, you only see an unexpected blast.
Manneken Pis (1995)
a love story with a touch of surrealism
This is a very funny movie, not because of jokes or situation comedy, but because all characters are a bit over the top, bordering on surrealism. Actually, they only tell incredibly corny jokes, which is completely in character for them, and therefore funny on another level.
Favourite scene: only in a Belgian movie can a man sitting at a completely ordinary table and eating a completely ordinary dinner look so heartbreakingly pitiful.