Dagmar Versus 1001 Movies: May 2021

Introduction

1001 movies you must see before you die. Must I? Let's see.

My name is Dagmar and I am from Czech Republic. I have a bachelor's degree in screenwriting. I study movies. I watch movies. I write about movies. I kind of mention movies a lot. I even cross stitch things I like in movies. My views on cinema could be described as peculiar. My views on the "1001 movies" list as complicated. It happens a lot that I get the feeling it wasn't that necessary to see some particular movies. Sometimes I'm really grateful I saw them. And there are also times when I don't watch any new movies for six months straight. And they keep adding new movies every damn year so I might have to never die to watch them all.

What's the score right now?

606/1245 - That's 639 left to see.

I started this experiment on July 3rd 2009 and the latest update was made on April 19th 2023.

You can find the full list here.

Sunday, 23 May 2021

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

USA
directed by: James Whale
written by: William Hurlbut, John L. Balderston, Philip MacDonald, R.C. Sherriff + Mary Shelley (book)
starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
seen on 23rd May, 2021

I'm not sure if I watched it in a wrong mood or what but this sequel seems to not follow in any footsteps that made the first one good/interesting. The prologue with the authors was awesome, the ending in the lab with the hissing was extremely awesome, everything Boris did was frickin' mega awesome, but the rest of the runtime...

Unbearable side characters such as the old maid or the fiancée, Henry is still an impotent ignoramus, doctor Devil and with his trunk of bottles is ludicrous... The second half does get better, but oh my did the middle part with all the needless stuff make it hard to watch, the atmosphere suffered a real blow.

Friday, 21 May 2021

Frankenstein (1931)

USA
directed by: James Whale
written by: Garrett Fort, Francis Edward Faragoh + Mary Shelley (book)
starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke
seen on 21st May, 2021

The thing is, to Boris I would not hesitate giving all the praise there is, but I do have a bunch of not-so-nice notes towards the rest of the film, making the review "average" even though the film is obviously not average at all.

At the centre of my displeasure is how the film-makers either don't understand the character of Victor Frankenstein (in the film renamed Henry) or intentionally manipulate emotions to make him seem like a "nice guy". I've hated the character with a passion ever since I read the book many years ago and he definitely has a spot in my personal "top 10 most hated fictional characters of all time". So any attempt at making him into a sympathetic protagonist makes me angry beyond measure.

Instead of this true, deep evil (that the book really is about, to me) the film-makers dwell on the "pretty" stuff, like pseudogothic set pieces, mob mentality and sensitive monster exploitation. It is a genre building piece of cinema, but it also foreshadows how many horror movies remove the intriguing layers from their backgrounds. It attacks the lowest urges instead of asking questions.