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Loves of a Blonde 1965
Loves of a Blonde's most interesting subject, the consequences of a socialized sexual market, is largely abandoned early in favor of a very boring domestic drama. That Miloš would go from this to directing Hollywood masterpieces is mind-blowing.
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Vermilion Souls 2007
Feel about five billion enlightenments away from being able to appreciate this movie.
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Knife in the Water 1962
While demonstrably interested in them, one never gets the sense that Polanski, like Hitchcock, ever really liked women that much, preferring to cast them as passive objects of material desire and victims of madness, cults and men. Great directors can transcend or exorcise their latent misogyny, but Polanski is not, and never was, a great director. While far superior to Repulsion, watching Knife in the Water, one is never impressed with Polanski's understanding of people nor their psychologies. There's probably…
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Vertigo 1958
The tragedy of Vertigo is that, for all its strength in theme, it is still crippled by Hitchcock's adherence to parlor tricks and poor handling of emotion. Alfred is famously quoted as saying "actors should be treated like cattle," but one needn't watch more than a few of his films to realize that when he says "actors" he means "people." Characters, storytelling, audience responses, even the human soul are all subsumed into a kind of press that turns everything two-dimensional.…