Favorite (four), part four

Just like in my other three posts thus far in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing.  I'm trying right now to take in almost a film a day.  Most have been first-time viewings.  And most I have been glad to finally see, but only very few have stayed with me.  This series is my filter for those (and hopefully one or two of these will be good to someone else, too).

Mark Robson's The Seventh Victim
Another one of Val Lewton's lo-fi horror films.  This one though is actually as much noir in spirit as it is horror.  And it's a tremendously compact, atmospheric, suggestive film that packs a real punch.  Of all the Lewton films I've seen so far, this one is my favorite.


Luchino Visconti's Ossessione
Based on the same James M Cain novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, that led to two American films, this early film from one of Italian cinema's masters is a neorealist marvel.  Detailed, beautifully observed, this seems like a key influence on Godard's Breathless, and many of the other early French New Wave works.  


Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Wrath
Dreyer makes films that feel like six or seven-course meals.  This one is heavy, hard-hitting, and gets under your skin in a robust kinda way.  I can't say I liked it as much as a few of his other films.  But those few other films are among my favorite of all time.


William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident
Interesting to think how much of an influence it might have had on both the tone and look of Jarmusch's Dead Man.  The dialogue and feel of the film is stunningly modern at times.  And it once again confirmed how much the war factored in as subtext to the majority of films made during WWII.