FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Alfred Hitchcock |||
Alfred Hitchcock

This is perhaps an obvious choice, however, most people tend to overlook the Master of Suspense’s early work as well as the relevancy of his last film as a key element in the continuing transition and development of the genre he defined.

One of Hitchcock's early triumphs, this predecessor to the mistaken identity man on the run scenario Hitchcock turned to time and again, stars Robert Donat as the innocent wrongly accused of murder and pursued by both the police and enemy spies. This is the first example of Hitchcock’s mastery over the suspense tale, giving us a glimpse of the greatness to come.

Considered to be one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest works, this story of two men who meet by chance on a train and frivolously discuss swapping murders is a prime example of a common Hitchcock theme of the man who suddenly finds himself within a nightmare world over which he has no control. You can easily see how this film lays the ground work for the more popular “North by Northwest”.

Alfred Hitchcock's final film is a light-hearted thriller involving phony psychics, kidnappers and organized religion, all of which cross paths in the search for a missing heir and a fortune in jewels. Here, Hitchcock has brilliantly developed his signature form to include the now common, and often overused, device of plot twist, after plot twist, after plot twist. Widescreen!

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

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Becoming Jane

By BrianOrndorf

August 3rd, 2007

Jane Austen's literary output as been adapted to the big screen more times than I would ever dare to count, trusting the loyal will squeal with delight viewing the stories of romantic woe and life-changing fortune time and again. "Becoming Jane" looks to peel back the artifice and explore how Austen's artistic viewpoint was shaped. Does it come as any surprise that the answer is romantic woe and life-changing fortune?

Becoming Jane

The youngest of the Austen clan, Jane (Anne Hathaway) suffers from the ridiculous notion that she will marry for love and her writing will support her. With no romantic prospects in sight, Jane is forced to consider marrying for money, when into her life walks Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy). A dashing law student, Tom has little in the way of prominence, but gives his entire heart to the young author. As their affair heats to a boil, the reality of their positions in society is a burden too much to bear, lending Jane the inspiration for her most famous novels.

“Becoming Jane” is a lovely little heartbreaker, but to find that emotional core, you have to sit through the rigmarole of costume drama formula. Oh yes, the social obligations, tea time, gossip, mud-caked farmland, horse-drawn carriages, and pining are all accounted for here, at times almost more out of obligation than inspiration. Director Julian Jarrold (“Kinky Boots”) is faithful to the expectations, but never aggressively so. He’s painting a larger portrait of the elements that informed Austen’s writing, devastating self-criticism, and love of irony, and if they fail to awaken the senses (the first act does get a little overtly sleepy), they do justifiably have a place in the narrative.

It takes the attraction between Jane and Tom to slap the film to life. It’s never the production value or the period recreation that sells a costume drama to me, it’s the passion. Thankfully, Jarrold understands the value of love on the rocks, and starts to massage the torture Jane feels once she finds her heart engorged for a man she is destined to be separated from.

Hathaway and McAvoy spin the bottle wonderfully, pitch-perfect in their repression of attraction. Using eyes and quivering throats to expressing heir longing, “Jane” is beautiful when it pays attention to the soreness of doomed affection. Again, Jarrold isn’t arranging the plot in any sort of revolutionary manner, so it makes a difference when you have actors capable of breathing between the lines, giving the viewer a peek at mental processes that would never find the light of day through dialogue.

“Becoming Jane” isn’t a series of cold hard facts: this is an imagined life for the beloved author, tying her real passions and failures to those she spent her life writing about. It’s a charming, peaceful picture; a perfect diversion for those who like their corsets tight and confining and their romance kept behind a fence of social judgment and impossible odds.

My rating: B+