The Witch (2016) and The Crucible (2006)

Saw two films recently about witches; I saw them months apart but they would make a good double feature.

First, the Crucible starring Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen, Bruce Davison. In the 1690s New England United States, there's fear was witchcraft and of witches, and the religious community comes against them and brings them to trial. Based on the play and it's a good drama with good performances.

Next--- The Witch, a smart, intelligent horror film directed by Robert Eggers; it's on par with The Conjuring (one of my favorite movies of the past 10 years).  I was also very curious about the subject matter and the period setting of the film.

In the film, set in the 1600s, a family is haunted by strange occurances, and the parents fear witchcraft. Some critics might say that the film is a slam on puritan paranoia. There's alot of creepy imagery and you get a sense that the parents' fear might be justified.

Kate Dickey (from Prometheus) plays the mom; her performance is good, but I felt very bad for what happens to her character at the end. The actor who plays the dad looks a little like the late Alan Rickman; Rickman may have been perfect for this role a few years ago.

I felt sympathy for the father, too, even though he could be interpreted as being too hysterical. When your children are threatened by evil spirits, I think any parent would go a little nuts.

I found the movie to be very thought-provoking, with many interesting concepts, but I feel I missed some important dialogue due to the heavy accents used by some of the actors (will need to watch it again on DVD at home with subtitles).

Additional articles about The Witch -

• Variety film review - here
  
• The Dispatch review, calls it "Puritan paranoia" - here
  
• The Vox article: Why satanists have given new horror movie The Witch their endorsement - here | review here 
  
• Complex - Satanic temple after party - here
  
• Slate review and profile of Robert Eggers - here
  
• RogerEbert.com review - here
  
• Wired interview with the director - here 

Run Lola Run (1999)

Synopsis: A young woman with punkish red-dyed hair gets a call from her boyfriend in desperate need of money to pay someone off. It's not fully explained, but his life is threatened if he doesn't pay it back by a noon. High noon.

The young woman - whose father is a wealthy banker - frantically runs around the city trying to get the money before something happens to the BF. (She must really love him, though he seems like a loser to me). And yes, she tries to get it from dear old dad, who may or may not be having an affair.

Every time Lola gets to her destination, the film "resets" itself from the beginning in order to show the viewer a different outcome, which makes you think about which version is the "real" one and which version you like best. There's so much running in the film that it can make you exhausted.

An interesting experimental film intercut with some animated sequences. I saw this movie when it first came out in 1999, and enjoyed it, but since then I had forgotten what happened. It was fun to watch it again, but I couldn't help but wonder why Lola couldn't contact any one else to round up the money. Not as many friends as George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life - remember what happens in the end, the main character has all his friends provide money.  

Also interesting - these are days before cell phones, so there's no cell phone use. Could be a different movie if made today. Still excellent and suspenseful. 

Here is an interesting review from Deep Focus Lens on this film:

Midnight Express (1978) and Brokedown Palace (1999)

I recently heard a podcast interview with Billy Hayes as the guest. Billy wrote the book "Midnight Express" in 1977 about his incarceration in a horrific Turkish prison in the early 1970s.

In the interview, he talked about a new book with all of his letters he wrote from prison, which sounds interesting. He also explained how the actual escape in the film is different from the real escape. I couldn't remember how the film ended (I last saw it in 1999), so I decided to watch the 30th Anniversary DVD, a special edition which has some really good special features about the making of the film and interviews with screenwriter Oliver Stone and director Alan Parker. They talked at length about why they made the changes they did from the book.

In Express, Brad Davis plays Billy. Once he gets caught in the Turkish airport with marijuana taped to his stomach, and you start to hear "The Chase" by Georgio Moroder, everything goes downhill from there: chased, beaten, raped, tortured, and more for five years before finally escaping. It's interesting that the movie isn't all about the escape. It's really about survival in the prison when you don't deserve to be there, not unlike Shawshank Redemption. It also makes you think of how unjust legal systems are, another theme of the film.

John Hurt and Randy Quaid give exceptional performances as Billy's friends in prison. And Paul L Smith is a brutal guard; I can see why he was the perfect choice to play Bluto in  Robert Altman's Popeye (1980). And you can't forget the other guard, Rifiki played by Paolo Bonacelli.  These two should be the Top 100 of the meanest screen villains of all time.

There are so many great scenes in this film, especially when Billy's dad and girlfriend come to visit him and try to get him out.

I remember seeing Brokedown Palace back in 1999 and remember thinking how it had been influenced by Express. Today Brokedown is almost a forgotten film, but an interesting watch if you are a fan of Claire Danes or Kate Beckinsale.