EAT Alex

New York Stories has three episodes, three little movies in it. One of them belongs to the masterpieces of the 80's. The film is called "Life Lessons", and it's directed by Martin Scorsese. I suggest you watch New York Stories because of Scorsese's fine achievement. The episode of Woody Allen represents that regular Woody we all know, and the piece of Francis Coppola is just plain boring and stupid. Scorseses picture is about a famous painter -played brilliantly by Nick Nolte-, and his source of inspiration -a beautiful woman. Life Lessons is an electric, sharp and funny film, you might call it art.

In the early 60's, Francis Coppola worked with the legendary exploitation producer Roger Corman. Dementia 13 is the first Coppola picture that was notified back then. It's a black & white horror movie shot Ireland. No synopsis is needed to tell about the scenario: an axe flashing in the night, a huge house with dark past, and a terrifying swamp where you can hear the dead whispering. A sympathetic try to make a magnificent horror movie with a couple of dollars. Dementia 13 imitates Hitchcock's Psycho, and is a funny camp film made by a twenty-year-old film freak. If you are a movie fan your self, you will probably enjoy this. Just don't take it too seriously.

It's interesting to analyze what the legendary reputation of Metropolis is based on. Just look at it. What we have here, is a stiff, unintentionally comic and naive picture. The ridiculous gestures of the actors and the stupid texts written by Thea von Harbou would make Metropolis -released in 1927- the camp classic of the century if it weren't visually so damn magnificent. Director Fritz Lang definitely knew the secret of creating unforgettable images. The events of the film take place in the future, somewhere around the year we are living now. Lang tells a story of huge town called Metropolis. The designers of the town live in beautiful skyscrapers, have money and amusements. The "hands" of the town live in the heat underground, each man working ten hours a day. Metropolis is as must see, "because its has inspired directors like Ridley Scott and James Cameron, and films like Blade Runner, The Terminator..." Just don't expect this silent Lang picture to be something overwhelming -like Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925).