Movies on Youtube

I’ve always been against watching full movies on Youtube but when faced with staying in a room in Camden last week that had no DVD player, no TV and a laptop that didn’t play AVI files I was left with no choice. Now I have to tell you…..

Apart from having to move to the next section every ten minutes, The experience wasn’t at all horrible.

Here’s what I watched and the beauty of this post is, you can watch them too…… and NOW!!

This 1936 Alexander Korda production of the H.G. Wells novel is a fine example of really good British Sci Fi. Wells apparently hated the Fritz Lang film METROPOLIS and wanted to make this picture the opposite of the German’s futuristic epic. I have to say though, even though there was a dislike there, you could definately tell the filmmakers had seen METROPOLIS, along with Eisentein’s work. This is no criticism however, as if it could be.

The picture is set in “Everytown” and has 3 major shifts in time (joined together with some nice militaristic montage) covering pre war, post war and the future where man’s futile battles with each other are exposed and examined. It’s great stuff with some nice dialogue and strange futuristic inventions like “the gas of peace”.

Give it a whirl, you can watch it NOW and probably should!

Next up was the 1955 Roger Corman picture DAY THE WORLD ENDED.

This post apocalytic romp charts the fortunes of 7 survivors of a nuclear blast. There’s some real tension here and, true to form for this genre of picture, it features a very interesting “mutant”. Give it a whirl.

Nuit et Brouillard

Every now and then we stumble upon cinema that forces us to evaluate everything we are as human beings.

Never before have I been so exposed to the true horrors of the holocaust. The images Alain Resnais presents in this very short but indescribably powerful documentary are like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

No stone left unturned, not a single punch pulled.

Of course, we’re all aware of what went on within the camps. We’ve seen the odd picture of emaciated prisoners, we’ve seen the movies.

What this film does is destroy your previously naive notions of wartime human suffering at the hands of the Nazi’s and show you the reality. These images move. The eyes blink, unless locked open in the cold stare of death.

This is not a work for the faint hearted and why the hell should it be? What I saw last night will stay with me for a long, long time.