Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

gloom of the local bar will resonate with anyone who's ever stood on the brink of a lost
weekend.
The Trial
(Orson Welles, 1962)
Listen for the sound of the typewriters. Orson Welles hired hundreds of typists and filled a
factory with desks to convey the soullessness of the office life Josef K (Anthony Perkins)
endured. Kafka has rarely been brought to the screen better. Welles described it as his most
autobiographical movie. "I've had recurring nightmares of guilt all my life," he claimed.
Triumph of the Will
(Leni Riefenstahl, 1935)
As much a triumph of Riefenstahl's will as Hitler's, as she had to overcome innumerable
technical difficulties to film the 1934 Nuremberg rally. The purpose, she freely admitted, was
"the glorification of the Fuhrer", and with all the Nazi crazy gang, plus legions of stormtroopers
on show, it remains a potent, disturbing piece of propaganda.
Tron
(Steven Lisberger, 1982)
When the 80s weren't sending android assassins back in time, they were sucking you into
renegade computer mainframes. Disney's 1982 technophobe spectacular foxed audiences
who had barely got used to Pacman, but stands as a retro-futuristic wonder now, as Jeff
Bridge's hacker makes seamless digital love with the glorious wireframe backdrops.
Trop Belle Pour Toi
(Bertrand Blier, 1989)
Satirical romantic comedy about an affluent middle-aged car dealer (Gerard Depardieu) who
develops an inexplicable passion for his sweet, frumpy secretary (Josiane Balasko), and
cheats on his beautiful trophy wife (Carole Bouquet). Though not as provocative as Blier's
earlier films, the classic husband-wife-mistress triangle goes beyond the farce, laced with
sombre-edged reflections on love.
Twelve Monkeys
(Terry Gilliam, 1995)
Is he a time traveller or suffering a psychotic episode? Gilliam manages to be both cohesive
and cryptic with this expansion of Chris Marker's La Jetee. As with most of Gilliam's
imaginative output, you can't help feeling that this managed to slip through while the studio
executives weren't looking.
24 Hour Party People
(Michael Winterbottom, 2002)
Affectionate and evocative drama about the rise and fall of the Manchester music scene from
the late 70s to the early 90s. Steve Coogan is enjoyably daft as self-styled music impresario
Tony Wilson - a man universally despised by the volatile talent he champions, from Joy
Division and New Order to the Happy Mondays.
Two Lane Blacktop
(Monte Hellman, 1971)
The Driver, the Mechanic, the Girl, GTO: the road-weary gear-heads and "smalltown carfreaks"
of Hellman's existential masterpiece (by way of Camus and photographer Robert
Frank) are so profoundly alienated that they've drifted away from their own names, as they
race for pink slips across the backroads of a vanishing America.
2001: A Space Odyssey
(Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The ambition of Kubrick's sci-fi picture is still breathtaking, and the movie holds up perfectly
well, despite CGI advances. In fact, its sheer imaginative boldness towers over other space
adventures. A journey into the far reaches of space becomes a parable for man's evolutionary