The Cinema Corner – August 18th

Movie of the week – Westfront 1918

Many of the filmmakers we associate with classic Hollywood established themselves in the silent cinema of Weimar Germany before the rise of fascism forced them to up sticks for the US. The Irish Film Institute is screening a selection of some of the key works of this period over the coming week. On Saturday you can see FW Murnau’s 1926 adaptation of Faust, the most expensive German movie produced up to that point. Ernst Lubitsch takes centre stage on Sunday with his 1921 comedy The Mountain Lion. On Tuesday it’s GW Pabst’s WWI drama Westfront 1918, his first sound film and a movie that would be banned by Hitler for daring to criticise the German military. Finally on Thursday you can catch Leontine Sagan’s 1931 Madchen in Uniform, one of the first movies to tackle the issue of lesbianism.

Song to Song

Terrence Malick continues his new found profligacy with Song to Song, the story of a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Austin, Texas music scene. I’ve been one of the few defenders of Malick’s recent work, which I really believe is something special, but even I struggled to find anything to grasp onto with his latest. As you would expect however, it looks stunning.

 

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower takes Stephen King’s long-running fantasy series, which currently totals eight books, and condenses it down to a single 90 minute movie. The result is a film that plays like the most generic Young Adult story imaginable, and even a charismatic performance from Idris Elba can’t save it.

By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com