Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

The Honeymoon Killers
(Leonard Kastle, 1970)
Composer Leonard Kastle took over from equally unknown original director Martin Scorsese
to film, in unsettlingly sleazy black-and-white, the story of the 1940s "Lonelyhearts Killers".
Shirley Stoller, proving that not all fat people are jolly, gives a mesmerisingly ill-tempered
performance as Beck. See also Arturo Ripstein's remake Deep Crimson.
Hope and Glory
(John Boorman, 1987)
Boorman's semi-autobiographical tale is perhaps a live-action homage to John Betjeman's
Slough poem: a reflection on world war two as seen through the eyes of a bored nine-yearold.
Though painstakingly recreated, this extraordinary vision of the Blitz-bombed capital is a
personal rather than social exercise, drawing painful lessons from the past about the
ancillaries of war: brutal changes, the losses and the upheavals.
Horse Thief
(Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1986)
Notorious at the time for its unadorned footage of a Buddhist "sky burial", this neardocumentary
narrative focusing on nomad clansmen is one of the most remarkable products
of the Chinese "fifth generation". Shot in situ on the high plains in Tibet, a fable-like story of a
huntsman expelled from his tribe is like a message from another time and world.
Hot Fuzz
(Edgar Wright, 2007)
A film that treats mundane events like a train journey to the country or police paperwork as if
they were the coolest things in the world, with rapid-fire editing of montages. While there are
plenty of gags, much of the humour comes from the director having a deep knowledge of the
rigid structure of Hollywood action movies and the talent to exploit it.
The Hours and Times
(Christopher Münch, 1991)
Ian Hart played John Lennon again in the later Backbeat, but in his first outing there's plenty
to wind up fans of the fab four. Set just before the band broke big, Lennon and Brian Epstein
go for a few days rest in Barcelona. Epstein lets his unrequited love get the better of him. For
Lennon, like most things, it's just another game.
House of Flying Daggers
(Zhang Yimou, 2004)
The imagery is so rich here that the story cannot compete, so it ties itself up in pointless
busywork with a myriad of double and triple crosses. Who wants to follow a plot when you can
just surrender yourself to dizzying fight scenes and strange rituals such as the opening "echo
game"?
The House of Mirth
(Terence Davies, 2000)
Unlike Scorsese's luxurious Wharton adaptation The Age of Innocence, Davies' period
masterpiece achieves a tragic effect, leaving the audience devastated and harrowed at the
fate of Lily Bart as she scales the treacherous upper echelons of fin-de-siecle Manhattan
society.
The House of Wax
(André De Toth, 1953)
A one-eyed director might not be the obvious choice for a 3D extravaganza, but De Toth
provided depth to the characters, not just the visuals - there are few gimmicky 3D scenes
here, and it plays almost as well "flat". Vincent Price fills up the lavish sets as the museum
owner so obsessed with revenge and perfection that only preserved corpses can furnish his
ghastly vision.