Tag / 1950

by Jaime Rebanal

All About Eve is One of the Best ‘Best Picture’ Winners

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It’s interesting how your own perspective on an introductory scene for one character changes completely as you are being told a whole other story about how they got to that very point in their lives. But that’s the very least of what makes Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve work so perfectly as it does, for it all starts with the title, giving you an idea of where the film’s narrative draws a sense of motivation. Then one can already go on about how this film is visually set up, because what comes forth is something so stunning – you already feel the cynicism of such a picture running down your skin. Even with the film’s decades old setting, so much about All About Eve still rings as being relevant in today’s world, because the film has aged like fine wine – whether it be in its cynicism towards the concept of self-image upon building yourself up as a celebrity.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Harvey – Review

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I wonder what life must be like from the perspective of Elwood P. Dowd, because it sounds like he’s clearly a man who needs help with trying to keep up with the pace of everything around him. But to talk about why Harvey is a thing of beauty should already be easy enough, for it is a film about a man trying to cope with a world that moves so fast around him to a point of being overwhelmed. Quickly enough it only became clearer to me what it was that I absolutely loved about Harvey, aside from the fact that it carried what was easily one of my favourite James Stewart performances. It wasn’t just a fantastic James Stewart role that we were watching here. It was perhaps him at his most down-to-earth and relatable.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Los Olvidados – Review

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I’ve never been more conflicted than ever on what to label such an effort but whichever category you would place it in, whether it be Mexican realism or surrealism, Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados is still one of the finest films about poverty to have ever been made. The films of Luis Buñuel were always weird in some way or another but nevertheless, they always made for extremely fascinating results and offer a scathing critique of some sort which exposes a sort of cleverness that ranks him among the greatest filmmakers of his own kind. But Luis Buñuel was truly a one of a kind filmmaker if one were to speak in that regard, whether we go from surreal comedies like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie to dramas like Belle de Jour, or wherever he goes – that touch is always present and even in Los Olvidados.

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by Jaime Rebanal

In a Lonely Place – Review

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What we know and recognize from film-noir, Nicholas Ray turns everything around on us with In a Lonely Place, but in the meantime also shows us some of the very best that can come out from such a style. This is a chilling film one second, and the other it’s a stark melodrama. But where Nicholas Ray works around melodrama is something unlike what can be found in most of classic Hollywood. It’s out of nowhere, but like Douglas Sirk, it can truly be among the most effective you will have witnessed. In a Lonely Place goes to show what can be pulled off with so much raw power within every frame, but as we go into the bare bones, something much more is exposed that certifies its own status as one of the greatest American pictures to have ever been made – it showcases cinema at some of its very best.
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by Jaime Rebanal

Sunset Boulevard – Review

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Sometimes a thing that can haunt our minds is how we fear that at one point, we’re to be forgotten. It may not be nearly as big as what’s taken over the mind of Norma Desmond, but Billy Wilder shows us perfectly what if this specific fear came to hit the mind of someone who was so well-known and beloved at one point. Her name has faded away into obscurity thanks to the many new stars in the world of film that have taken over Hollywood, but where Sunset Boulevard triumphs is not only in its haunting look at the industry, but the biting cynicism and satire that can be felt all throughout. It gives the film industry a treatment it deserves, because forgetting about our past is a most unforgivable crime especially when it comes to what these films have left upon what we have now.

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