Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

Zealand murder case. She's a precocious teen who draws shy classmate Melanie Lynskey
into an intoxicating secret world, that grows from a shared love of Mario Lanza into a dark,
sweeping fantasy romance, expertly realised by Jackson's monster-making team.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
Sex-change surgery gone wrong has left Hedwig with an 'angry inch', which is also the name
of her excellent backing band in this rare example of a successful rock opera. Writer-directorstar
John Cameron Mitchell's irresistible ode to glam rock motors along on a raucous
soundtrack and extravagant set pieces.
Heimat
(Edgar Reitz, 1984)
Is it a movie? Is it a TV series? No-oneís quite sure, but Edgar Reitz's15-hour account of lives
of the villagers of Schabbach in Germany, and their descendants, broke new ground.
Bolstered by a series of spectacular performances - notably from Marita Breuer - Reitz
created a compelling fictional social history spanning 1919 to 1982, which interwove family,
economics and politics into a gripping whole.
Hell Is a City
(Val Guest, 1960)
This jazzy, snappy thriller from Hammer pits lonely, hard-case cop Stanley Baker against
escaped criminal John Crawford in smoggy Manchester. Donald Pleasence and Billie
Whitelaw also star, but it's cinematographer Arthur Grant's depiction of the city sleazy back
streets, bleak factories and horrible boozers that lingers in the mind.
Hellzapoppin'
(HC Potter, 1941)
When's the last time anyone actually saw Hellzapoppin'? It was a stage show, with two
comics (Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson). Done on film, it's full of jokes about the nature of film.
Is it Citizen Kane as made by the Three Stooges? Not quite. But a Stooges film made by
Welles? Closer.
Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer
(John McNaughton, 1986)
The genius of McNaughton's Henry is his refusal to offer any clear frame of moral reference,
leaving the audience only able to identify with the soulless killer, who murders robotically,
without glee. Unendingly gruesome, bleak as Dostoevsky: utter emptiness is our only
emotional reward.
Henry V
(Laurence Olivier, 1944)
At 37, Olivier could theoretically have joined the army, but his value to the war effort, and to
the vital US-UK special relationship, was better served with this romantic and thrilling account
of Shakespeare's Henry V. More than mere propaganda, it is bold and intuitive, first showing a
16th-century company performing the play, then leaping into the action.
Hester Street
(Joan Micklin Silver, 1975)
A real one-off: a mostly Yiddish study of fresh-off-the-boat east European Jews trying to make
a go of it in turn-of-the-century New York. Shot in black and white and exploiting silent-era
histrionics, it's a tribute to a long-vanished time and place.
Hidden
(Michael Haneke, 2005)
Enigmatic Paris-set thriller with middle-class couple Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche
terrorised by creepy videotapes in revenge for the husband's guilty past. Voyeurism meets
paranoia in a remarkable nerve-striking parable that proved unexpectedly popular.