Masterpieces

I like watching old movies. After watching them, I rate and archive them. I don’t like spoilers or trailers and don’t watch them before I watch a movie. I rate them between 6 to 9 to be able to sort them inside a folder.

When I started watching Marcel Carné's “Les Enfants du Paradis” (1945) I was attracted from the first minute. I like Mime and Mime is a core component of the movie. As I watched further, I scored it at least 8. As time progressed the rating raised to 9 and then at one point, I recognized that it is way beyond the other movies I had watched. It was 10 out of 9 afterwards.

In movies there are distinct characters and supporting roles that are faint. With “Les Enfants du Paradis” almost all characters are well defined. One reason for that, they were based on real people. The movie is so flawless you don’t recognize how 3 hours passes. I watched it many times. Even though the movie is divided into two equal sections, the second section passes much faster. I had watched Marcel Carné’s previous works “Drôle de drame”, “Le Quai des brumes” and “Hôtel du Nord”. They were also very well directed and had many familiar faces. “Les Enfants du Paradis” was filmed during Occupied France. I guess hard times sometimes yield masterpieces.

My second masterpiece is Friedrich Christian Anton Lang’s “M” (1931). I don’t like serial killers, but this movie tells the story in so soft tone compared to today’s extreme exaggeration of blood and terror. I decided to watch "M" after watching Robert Hossein's "Le vampire de Düsseldorf". Both movies were based on real serial killers lived in 1930s. "M" was filmed while such people were still murdering. It deserves to be a masterpiece while it is incomparable to the movies of its era. Even though it's a thriller, its tone is way below Hitchcock's and others. Fritz Lang's way of telling the story is way ahead of his time. While watching the movie you should consider that. I gave this movie a rating of 9.5 out of 9.