The Birdcage Inn (Paran daemun) (1998) 7.5/10

Drug (1987) 7/10

The Captive Heart (1946) 8/10

When Pigs Have Wings (2011) 7/10

Man On The Tracks (Czlowiek na torze) (1957) 9/10

Spring Of Life (Pramen zivota) (2000) 7/10

Samurai Assassin (1965) 8.5/10

Adventures Of A Dentist (Pokhozhdeniya zubnogo vracha) (1965) 7/10

I resaw M (1931) after many many years. Directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre, this is a major classic film (52nd in IMDB's top 250 films) and is a 10/10 film.

I saw the restored German film version. On the DVD is also the English version shot at the same time. Peter Lorre spoke his words so this was his English speaking debut.

Lorre's character whistles In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Grieg's Peer Gynt) but as Lorre wasn't very good at whistling, Fritz Lang did it himself.

It is Peter Lorre's best film and his portrayal of a serial child murderer is so convincing that some people came to think of Lorre as a child murderer.

Needless to say M holds the record for the shortest film title along with Costa-Gravas's Z (1969) and Q (2011). There are other films with single lettered titles.

Kelin (2009) 8/10 

Granny (Babusya) (2003) 8/10

The Patience Stone (2012) 9/10

Jaloux (2010) 5/10

The Devil And Miss Jones (1941) 8.5/10

Double Suicide (Shinju Ten no amijima) (1969) 7.5/10

Not to be confused with Devil in Miss Jones (1973) which is a very very different type of film

I saw Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). This was the second G W Pabst film starring Louise Brooks, the first being Pandora's Box which I saw a few months ago,

Silent classic about a young beautiful woman who was raped whilst unconscious. She becomes pregnant, and when her baby is born it is taken away from her by her family and she is sent to a reformatory. The reformatory's director and his wife are sadists and the inmates suffer at their hands. Eventually the heroine escapes with a friendly inmate. She discovers that her baby has died and lands up with the friendly inmate at what might be called a dance establishment of ill repute. One evening her father and second wife (who hates the heroine) come to the establishment to "see the seedy side of life" and when her father sees her, he turns his back on her and leaves. 3 years later she reads that her father has died and has left his estate to her. In order to gain some sense of respectability she married a Count who has known her for many years and who frequents the establishment. She goes to her father's house to see the solicitor for the reading of the will. I won't say any more about what happens in the latter part of the film.

Louise Brooks was one of the most beautiful actresses of all time and although the film is silent you know what she is feeling just through her face.

Some of the other performances are memorable.

Fritz Rasp played the man who raped her. He was notable in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Andrews Engelmann played the director of the reformatory. A deeply disturbing performance and every bit as scary as Max Schreck in Nosferatu.

Valeska Gert played the director's wife. Quite possibly the model for Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love. The scene where she gets the inmates to exercise and the expression on her face at the end are astonishing.

Foreign Correspondant (1940) 9/10 3rd viewing

Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) (2012) 8/10

I watched Wonderful Town (2007) a film from Thailand set post-tsunami.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135992/

An exceptionally low key film and with such a downbeat ending this is one of the most pointless films ever made. The title of the film must have been meant to be ironic.

The director Aditya Assarat left Thailand in his teens to be educated in the States and got a master's degree in film production there before returning to Thailand. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been influenced to some extent by Andrei Tarkovsky's films but this film is a pale shadow of any of Tarkovsky's.

One of my favourite Hitchcock films.

There is so many great Hitchcock films, though i do think Psycho is a tad overrated 

Battle Of The Rails (La bataille du rail) (1946) 8.5/10

Little Vera (Malenkaya Vera) (1988) 7.5/10

The Killing (1956) 8.5/10

Here's Stanley Kubrick's debut, a short documentary:

Thanks i shall have a look at that

Red River (1948) 9/10

Shoot The Pianist (Tirez sur le pianiste) (1960) 8/10

Bazi (2005) 8.5/10

A Good Day To Die Hard 2013) 3/10

I resaw Vampyr (1932) which was directed by Carl Dreyer. The version I saw was the restored 72 minute version rather than the 62 minute version previously available on tape. It's a strange almost dreamlike film full of shadows. The film was financed by Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg. He agreed to provide the finance provided he appeared in the film. He played the lead role of Allan Gray under the name Julian West. Not a professional actor and a somewhat wooden performance.

I thought the earlier scenes were more effective than the later scenes. The original film seems to have been slightly longer suggesting that the restored version is incomplete.

There are two sisters in the film Leone and Giselle. The IMDB synopsis has Giselle as the vampire's victim but the book with my DVD has Leone as the victim. 

Yellow Earth (Huang tu di) (1985) 7/10

Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobo nikki) (1969) 7/10

The Hunt (Jagten) (2012) 8.5/10

Nenette Et Boni (1996) 7/10

Verso (2009) 4/10

Himalaya: Where The Wind Dwells (Himalayaeui sonyowa) (2008) 7.5/10

Kapitan Dabac (1959) 9/10

The Strawberry Blonde (1941) 8/10

Chicken With Plums (Poulet aux prunes) (2011) 7.5/10

Nameless Gangster (Bumchoiwaui junjaeng) (2012) 8/10

Hidden In The Woods (En las afueras de la ciudad) (2012) 3/10

Siberian Lady Macbeth (Sibirska Ledi Magbet) (1962) 8/10

The Embryo Hunts In Secret (Taiji ga mitsuryô suru toki) (1966) 5/10

I saw Kung Fu Panda (2008). OK film.

Strange that on IMDB there are no user reviews at all.

Alois Nebel (2011) 8.5/10

Zaman: The Man From The Reeds (Zaman, l'homme des roseaux) (2003) 8/10 

Sightseers (2012) 7/10

I saw Tayna Chingis Khaana (By the Will of Ghengis Khan) (2009), a Russian biopic. Although it had its moments, the director crammed far too much into the 2 hour length of the film which given its epic nature was inadequate. The director seemed to be trying to be the Russian equivalent of David Lean or pretensions of being the next Akira Kurosawa but failed. The low rating on IMDB of 4.4 is justified.

I haven't seen Mongol which was made in 2007 and appears to be a much better film covering the same material.

The best I can say about the film was if you like lots of bloody battle scenes lacking in any real quality you might enjoy the film after downing a few pints.

Rain (1932) 7/10

Blackboard Jungle (1955) 9/10

The Adventures Of Juan Quin Quin (Las aventuras de Juan Quin Quin) (1967)  7.5/10

I saw Sedmikrasky (Daisies) (1966). Jackassfan, I know you did not like this film at all but I found it quite enjoyable and had a nihilistic charm to it. It helped to know before I saw the film what to expect and that there was no plot as such.

I do seem to be in a minority with me not liking Daisies, its just not my kind of film

Hanging Garden (Kuchu teien) (2005) 8/10

I saw Ballad of Narayama (1958). Quite stylish and in the form of Japanese Kabuki theatre apart from the very last scene which is quite jarringly different.

The novel from which the film was adapted was adapted again for the 1983 film of the same name. The two films, although telling the same story, are very different. By coincidence both versions get an IMDB rating of 7.7.

Permanent Vacation (1980) 6/10

The Girls (Flickorna) (1968) 5/10

I Am From Titov Veles (Jas sum od Titov Veles) (2007) 7.5/10

To The Wonder (2012) 6/10