Metropolis: The City of Two Different Worlds - Joy Layton

A subtle, rich paradise on top of a cold labor stricken world, Metropolis plays with the heart and soul of its audience.  Metropolis was directed by Fritz Lang.  Fritz Lang was not just a filmmaker he was and actor too.  But he wasn't the only person who wrote the silent film, him and his wife Thea Von Harbo wrote it.  They wrote the movie beautifully by making real life connection to what we deal with today.  Saying that everyone needs to work together in order for things to work everyone needs a heart, hands, feet, to live and function.

    In Metropolis it is a sunny, wonderful place with not a care in the world and not an ounce of interest  as to what was going on underneath their seemingly wonderful rich world.  Everyone but a man named Freder (Gustav Frohlich)  who followed a women to an underground world that he didn't even know existed. A world that kept his world functioning.  Freder did not like the way things looked down there he was witnessing horrible things.  So he went to talk to his father, Joh Frederson (Alfred Abel), one of the few people that even know about the underground world because he was the founder of Metropolis.  Freder wanted to talk to his father about how things needed to change for the workers, but his father did not care he doesn't really care about anything.   

    Freder being the heart wants things to change so he is going to help the workers fight and join together and he meets another women named Maria (Brigette Helm) that is trying to get the workers to do the same thing.  But Joh, Freder father knows what is going on and does not want this uprising to happen. So he goes to a man named  Rotwang (Rudolf  Kein) to get help in making sure that this uprising does not happen. But they need Maria to make it all happen.  But Rotwang has his own plans in mind he tried to get machine Maria to destroy the whole city of Metropolis. But fortunately that did not happen.  Rotwang died and the workers rebellion was over.  They went back to work but were a lot happier and joined together with the people above ground.

    So to conclude the movie was great and a must watch.  It definitely shows that we need everyone to work together to because a functioning world.  Metropolis has a great story line to it that everyone needs to keep in mind.  

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari - Tyler Styles

Robert Wiene was a great director for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The actors that he picked for the movie were perfect for the scenes he had them act in. The actor who played Dr. Caligari was Werner Krauss; every scene he played in was perfect, including the scary scenes and the dramatic ones. The other actors were Friedrich Feher as Francis, Conrad Veidt as Cesare, and Lil Dagover as Jane Olsen. That is just four of the many great German actors/actresses.

    The story line to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was a little wacky the buildings were too sharp but interesting to look at.

The houses were the same but toward the end of the movie it all started to make sense but I won't tell how the movie ended because that's a spoiler and no one likes spoilers.

    The year The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was released was 1920 the movie was fantastic I honestly think it's better than most movies in the 2015-2016 era the movie does not spoon feed you the details you have to be an active audience. Most people like movies that would spoon feed you. Those are the types of movies in the 2015-1016 era. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari does not spoon feed you because there are no words it's all emotion and the actions and what they're doing not really about what their saying but you also have to pay attention on how they look and what there wearing.

    The only thing that I did not like about the film is that it started out a little slow. It didn't kick off very well and there dark overbearing costumes were a little to over the top and to outgoing. The special effects looked terrible and the shadow makeup didn't look right on their eyes the makeup was to dark and it made them look like they were tired and not trying to sink in their eyes.

    All in all the movie was great after you get through the beginning of the film it will pull you in and grab your attention if you're paying attention you will begin to understand the film more and also begin to see the twist at the end. If not then you won't like the film to much but the actors/actresses were perfect for the film and the director did a fantastic job directing and I highly recommend this film to anyone that is interested in German Expressionism.

From The World Above to Below - Aislinn Lopez

It’s a silent film, it’s a sci-fi, it’s a drama, it’s Metropolis: a silent film that is worth watching. Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is a powerful silent film that grabs at the hearts of those watching and entertains with its fantastical futuristic backdrop. From the heart to the hands and everything in between, what makes this movie so powerful to the viewers is its sense of compassion.

Joh Frederson, played by Alfred Abel, is the man in charge. He is the one who created Metropolis and decided to separate the rich from the poor. His son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) is the typical rich boy completely unaware of the dark side of his father's work. Freder along with the other citizens of Metropolis live very frivolously, oblivious to the fact that underneath their feet is a whole other world. A world filled with poor, starving workers on the brink of death.

Now most movies have a love story, and Metropolis is no exception. Freder meets Maria, (Brigitte Helm) a woman from below, when she goes up into the city with a bunch of hungry kids to get the attention of the world above. This is where it is more than just a love story. Maria has opened Freder's eyes and heart. Joh had the rich and poor separated, working the poor to death so that the rich can live comfortable lives. When Freder finally sees how the other side lives he does everything he can to mediate the head (Joh) with the hands (the workers).

The movie was well acted. The mood of the scene could easily be seen with facial expressions. The music which played throughout, also helped in establishing the mood. The film's climax, where the underground is flooding, is even more intense with score. Overall, Metropolis is easy to keep up with and not hard to understand the message they are sending

            This movie is recommendable. If you love movies and can stand sitting through a silent film that will only play music in the background. I found it worth watching. It has a love story which girls would love and plus the problem at hand. Maria trying to give a message to the rich on how the poor are just as equal and they don’t deserve to be treated differently.

Rear Window: Turning Audiences to Peeping Toms Since 1954 - Nikki Anzalone

    
A man limited to a wheelchair and, in turn, an audience limited to a singular point of view; this is the essence of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It makes no attempt at flashy action sequences or sharp, snippy dialog. Its artistry lies purely in its hero (played with subtle brilliance by James Stewart) and his reactions to a peculiar sequence of events seen through the titular rear window. Hitchcock doesn’t quite leave his audience on the edge of their seats, holding their collective breath, but Rear Window has within it a suspense of it’s own creation: the wonder if there is anything really happening in this movie at all.

  After injuring himself in the field, photographer L. B. Jeffries or “Jeff” (Stewart) is left with nothing more to do than to look out his window and observe the world around him. This is an easy task, the unbearable heat has encouraged his neighbors to leave their windows wide open giving Jeff, and in turn the audience, a front row seat to their lives. At first, what Jeff sees is benign but soon the salesman Thorvald (Raymond Burr) going out late several times one night becomes the first in a long series of suspicious actions. Thorvald’s nagging wife disappears, he carries saws and rope, he sends off a trunk with all her things but leaves her handbag behind. Rear Window’s methods are simple, it’s “show don’t tell”.

When Jeff peers through a high powered camera lens and spots a little dog digging in Thorvald’s garden, the audience finds it just a strange as he does. The film doesn’t need words to tell that something is happening because it is right there on the screen. It is left up to the audience to find out.

    Part way through the story, Jeff’s nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) scolds him for his behavior remarking “We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms.” It’s true that Hitchcock’s fascination for watching others is central to the story’s plot. Without the voyeuristic tendencies of Jeff, audiences would be treated to 114 minutes of James Stewart trying to scratch his leg with a spoon while pretending to not be in love with Grace Kelly.

Speaking of, there is something to be said of Rear Window’s Hitchcock blonde, Lisa. She falls into the usual tropes, holding in her heart a passion for Jeff (that he doesn’t exactly share). However, Kelly’s Lisa is not so much a fantasy, she stands for a life that Jeff has been so desperate to elude and in the end he falls prey to it.  She’s a puzzle he must solve, battling his own fears of commitment and impotence in the midst of solving a murder.

    The main plot of Rear Window isn’t quite packed with symbolism or carefully crafted mise en scène like Hitchcock’s Psycho. There are point-of-view shots and some more neutral shots and the occasional lighting effect, nothing special. The various stories seen in the single set of the courtyard are (quite literally) another story. The story of Miss Lonelyhearts comes to mind: a horrendously lonely woman nearly driven to suicide is saved by the song of the composer across the way. Her story and even her name relies entirely on Jeff’s perspective. This is true for his other neighbors as well. Miss Torso, Miss Hearing Aid, Songwriter, all of their characterization comes from the lazy sweep of Jeff’s camera. The audience is able to form opinions through what Jeff sees and hears in that moment. In one instance, Miss Lonelyhearts bursts into tears over a table set for two and at the same time Songwriter struggles to come up with his next line of music. In another, a pair of naive newlyweds enter their new home. At first they’re eager to start a life together but as time goes on it becomes clear the husband is starting to feel weighed down by his bride. There is obviously a story in Rear Window, but like in life, it’s not the only one.

It’s small moments of masterful execution that make Rear Window: the point-of view, the stories outside, the look on Jeff’s face when he spots something new. It’s not a perfect story, the climax is admittedly less than thrilling, but it’s engaging in a way most movies aren’t, on a more intimate scale. In 114 minutes, Hitchcock shows it doesn’t take a foreboding location or a shocking twist to capture an audience. Sometimes, all it takes is an open window.

Literally "Psycho" - Joy Layton

A domineering mother creates a psychopathic, yet lonesome, son who, despite his flaws, manages to grab the viewer's heart and win their sympathy in this the classic Hitchcock film. Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960 is literally psychotic. It's a movie that leaves a certain type of haunting for futures to come, Psycho is the reason why people don't want to close their eyes in the shower. This movie throws viewers through a loop and plays with heartstrings. It's definitely a must watch for all generations.

 All Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) wants is to be able to be with Sam Loomis (John Gavin), so when $40,000 practically falls into her lap she takes the opportunity and to leave Arizona and be with Sam in California.  Little did she know, what she really needed to be worried about was her life. It's raining and very dark outside when Marion sees Bates Motel for the first time. As she pulled in, she had no idea about the danger inside. Poor Marion reaches her bitter end when she is gutted in the shower by Norman Bates's (Anthony Perkins) mom or at least that's who we think held the knife. We never see the murderer's face.

Psycho keeps everyone wondering who is who and what is what. Every time Mother Bates kills someone, poor Norman is left to clean up her mess. Or is it really poor Norman? Nope not at all. Norman was controlled by an overbearing mother who eventually got a lover and Norman wanting her attention so bad went crazy and killed them both.  But Norman felt horrible for what he had done and made himself without knowing an alter ego which is his mother.  So this is where everyone feels bad for Norman even though  he was the one who killed the people it was all caused by the insanity of his mother since youth.  

This is definitely a classic that everyone will know about for generations. Psycho shows that Alfred Hitchcock was one of the best scary movie directors of all time; A true master of suspense.