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Steven Spielberg is a pure visual storyteller. You can watch most of his movies on mute, and figure out the plot via the meticulous composition of each shot and how it flows into the next. Since the advent of sound, the number of directors capable of or interested in crafting a film in this manner has gradually dwindled. Movies nowadays are generally dialogue delivery systems. So we must savor our Spielbergs, and, if this style of filmmaking interests you, learn from them.

Framing and mise-en-scène are critical elements, but guiding your audience from shot to shot is every bit as important. Cutting from the master to a close up or whatever angle most clearly conveys the story is an art in itself. So while Spielberg will always cite David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" as "the film that set me on my journey," he feels equally indebted to a filmmaker from roughly the same era,...

The Train is back, now at popular prices! The fan base for John Frankenheimer’s incredibly elaborate Occupation thriller is growing exponentially. The railroad and military hardware on view is 100% real, something that CGI-jaded moviegoers appreciate more than ever. Great acting and a terrific storyline propel a tale of sabotage into the top level of suspense thriller-dom. Starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss. A hundred tons of French steam locomotives and running stock are shot at, burned, blown up and smashed to smithereens. Oh, the movie’s about saving French art treasures, too.

The Train

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 133 min. / Street Date January 5, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss, Albert Rémy, Charles Millot, Jacques Marin, Howard Vernon, Bernard Fresson.

Cinematography: Jean Tournier, Walter Wottitz

Film Editors: David Bretherton,...

Here’s a highly suspenseful thriller with fine characterizations, set in a grim but meaningful place — Fascist Spain in the late 1950s, when Franco’s operatives still hold the country in a tight grip. The very modern story (by Emeric Pressburger) is also timeless: the old lost-cause warrior takes on one last mission into enemy territory. Gregory Peck (he’s good) is the legendary raider on a mission to kill an old enemy, Anthony Quinn.

Behold a Pale Horse

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1964 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Street Date July 29, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Raymond Pellegrin, Paolo Stoppa, Mildred Dunnock, Daniela Rocca, Christian Marquand, Marietto Angeletti, Perrette Pradier, Zia Mohyeddin, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Lonsdale, Martin Benson, Claude Berri, Albert Rémy, Alan Saury.

Cinematography: Jean Badal

Original Music: Maurice Chevalier

Written by J.P. Miller from a novel by Emeric Pressburger

Produced by Gregory...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss, Albert Rémy, Charles Millot, Richard Münch, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, Jean Bouchaud, Donald O’Brien, Jean-Pierre Zola, Arthur Brauss | Written by Franklin Coen, Frank Davis | Directed by John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn (uncredited)

What is more precious, art or human life? Your first reaction is probably to say human life and that would be the most logical answer, but for cultural worth the answer may not be so easy. During World War 2 precious works of art were stolen and still to this day are found and become big news. Arrow Academy’s latest Burt Lancaster release The Train creates a story loosely based on real life events, looking at the protection of French masterpieces, and the human cost of war.

In 1944 during the last gasps of Germany’s occupation of France, art lover and fanatical Nazi Colonel...

Paul Henreid: From Eleanor Parker to ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ (photo: Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in ‘Between Two Worlds’) Paul Henreid returns this evening, as Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. In Of Human Bondage (1946), he stars in the old Leslie Howard role: a clubfooted medical student who falls for a ruthless waitress (Eleanor Parker, in the old Bette Davis role). Next on TCM, Henreid and Eleanor Parker are reunited in Between Two Worlds (1944), in which passengers aboard an ocean liner wonder where they are and where the hell (or heaven or purgatory) they’re going. Hollywood Canteen (1944) is a near-plotless, all-star showcase for Warner Bros.’ talent, a World War II morale-boosting follow-up to that studio’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, released the previous year. Last of the Buccaneers (1950) and Pirates of Tripoli (1955) are B pirate movies. The former is an uninspired affair,...

If François Truffaut hadn’t been taken from us in 1984, at the age of 52, he would have turned 80 last Monday. At one point he had said that his goal was to make thirty films and then retire to write books. At the time of his death he had made twenty-five.

I recently came across this poster for the American release of Truffaut’s first film, Les quatre cent coups and was struck not only by its lurid and rather innaccurate tagline—"Angel Faces hell-bent for violence"—but also by the fact that it refuses to capitalize on the one thing that made the film such a success: namely the face of Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel. In the poster Léaud’s angel face is barely seen. Doinel’s parents, played by Albert Remy and Claire Maurier (misspelled in the credits), are more prominent, while Doinel seems like one of a number of undistinguished schoolboys.

Les Quatre Cents Coups / The 400 Blows (1959) Direction: François Truffaut Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant Screenplay: François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy Oscar Movies Jean Pierre Léaud, The 400 Blows By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: In 1959, a pair of newly released French films were instantly hailed as classics, going on to become the twin pillars of the Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave. One, Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle / Breathless, was bad; the other, François Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows, was good. But despite their reputation, neither film can be called great cinema. That said, Truffaut's film is far better than Godard's because it mostly avoids overt clichés, even as the screenplay — the film's weakest element, written by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy — often bogs down in purposelessness. Like Godard, Truffaut shot his film in black and white, [...]...

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0 Chicago – The Criterion Collection continues its foray into the world of HD with one of the most beloved directors of all time, taking a film already in the collection and giving it the HD treatment while simultaneously releasing a new edition of one of his later films. The legend is Francois Truffaut and the films are “The 400 Blows” and “The Last Metro”.

The “continuing series of important classic and contemporary films” has long-included “The 400 Blows” but this marks the first time that the film has been available on Blu-Ray. Criterion just started doing Blu-Ray and they are wisely alternating bringing some of their most popular films to the format along with issuing new releases on it.

The 400 Blows was released on Blu-Ray on March 24th, 2009.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

“The 400 Blows” is actually Truffaut’s first film. Released in 1959, this classic...