Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

damnedest to save the planet and keep evil at bay. Besson's crossover hit is a lavish treat of
dazzling colours, special effects and campy performances.
Fight Club
(David Fincher, 1999)
Edward Norton and Brad Pitt found some fizzing alpha-male chemistry in this stomach-turning
satire, taken from the cult novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton is the sleepless neurotic who
finds unwholesome fascination in hanging out at 12-step addiction groups; through this
shadowy world, he hooks up with the charismatic and witty Pitt, who introduces him to an
underground sect for bare-knuckle fights. Therapy for the politically incorrect real man.
Fires Were Started
(Humphrey Jennings, 1943)
Humphrey Jennings' best-known world war two documentary reconstructs one night in the
lives of a dockside fire company in the East End, staffed by ordinary Britons of all classes - a
Bevan-esque ideal - as they prepare for another night of heavy bombing raids. Filled with
Jennings' peculiarly beautiful brand of docu-poetics.
A Fish Called Wanda
(Charles Crichton, 1988)
Ealing veteran Crichton helmed this sly transatlantic heist flick, splicing the remnants of the
Monty Python team with newcomers from Hollywood: Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline as
scheming "siblings". The ensemble cast spar gamely, and a blithe meanspiritedness - witness
the tormenting of pet-loving hitman Michael Palin - is the order of the day.
Fists in the Pocket
(Marco Bellocchio, 1965)
Lou Castel plays a teenage epileptic, simmering like a shop-soiled Brando, in this turbulent
tour of a dysfunctional Italian family. While writer-director Marco Bellocchio is still making
acclaimed films today, he has never quite equalled the intensity of his electrifying debut
feature.
Fitzcarraldo
(Werner Herzog, 1982)
Herzog tried to cast Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger and Jason Robards in the role of the
impresario who tries to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle, but who else but Klaus
Kinski could have been the avatar of human absurdity the director wanted - or who, indeed,
could have kept pace with Herzog's own derangement? Dragging a steamboat over a
mountain says it all: the crew really did that.
Five Easy Pieces
(Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Jack Nicholson plays Bobby, a randy oil-rig worker who, as we eventually discover, is also a
trained pianist in flight from his affluent background. There were many disaffected road
movies that emerged from America during the Vietnam-war era, but this was one of the most
incisive and influential.
Flesh
(Paul Morrissey, 1968)
The hustlers, society darlings and drag queens of Andy Warhol's Factory, though cast in
fictional scenarios, scream, preen, mumble and bumble through their everyday lives on
screen. This, along with companion movies Trash (1970) and Heat (1972), are testament to
the allure and vacuity of Pop Art, both as product and critique of the most romanticised era of
cultural experimentation.
Flirting With Disaster
(David O Russell, 1996)
Comic masterpiece about a furiously uptight manchild (Ben Stiller) travelling cross-country