Shock Corridor

dir. Samuel Fuller

USA, 1963

The Johnny in this that becomes catatonic a relation to the Johnny in Vertigo who becomes catatonic?

The murder plot strangely muted, the film is grouped around three monologues that split off into the colours of eastern religious rituals (Japan, Korea), three monologues from American contradictions. The US soldier who defected to "the Reds" only to be re-re-brainwashed into extreme US patriotism: he now thinks he's General Robert E Lee. The educated black "founder" of the KKK, parading down the corridor (known as "the street") with a banner reading "Integration and Democracy Don't Mix". The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who worked on the atom bomb now reduced to the mental age of a 6 year-old, drawing crude portraits of the other patients.

The Kids Are All Right

dir. Lisa Cholodenko

USA, 2010

Northfork

dir. Michael Polish

USA, 2002

The blurb on the front of the DVD captures it well: "Twin Peaks meets Six Feet Under"

Le Samourai

dir. Jean-Pierre Melville

France, 1967

Another greatly cold Melville/Delon/gangster flick (those three / generally guarantee a corker). Slow, grey, restrained, silent. Melville at his very best, the opening scene with Delon's Jef Costello lying smoking on a bed in a grotty GROTTY hotel, smoke swirling up and two big windows looking onto a grey street, the light reflected on the ceiling and cars going past.

Cria Cuervos

dir. Carlos Saura

Spain, 1975

Absolutely astounding. One of the best films I've seen this year, would love to write about it properly one day.

Limitless

dir. Neil Burger

USA, 2010

Both worse and better than I thought it would be. A potentially interesting film (insofar as it reveals stuff about America) that I'll think about and maybe write about further.

Road to Nowhere

dir. Monte Hellman

USA, 2011

Unremittingly awful, totally not made up for by the fact that we saw it in an indie movie theatre in San Francisco. Saddeningly bad.

The Cremator

dir. Juraj Herz

Czechoslovakia, 1969