Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

The most lyrical of all films noir, thanks to Daniel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Mainwaring's exquisitely poetic screenplay, Tourneur's tasteful, unforced direction, and the
infernal erotic interplay between jaded idealist Robert Mitchum and manipulative femme fatale
Jane Greer, ("I only ever saw her at night..."). The greatest of all B-pictures.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
(Clint Eastwood, 1976)
Eastwood also stars in this classic American civil war movie, his Josey Wales moving from
embittered avenger to peace-seeker, picking up a surrogate family of stragglers - notably
Chief Dan George as a not-so-wise old Cheyenne - along the way. Eastwood the director
employs a fine eye for landscape and battle and a wry sense of humour.
The Outsiders
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Seminal teen angst from Coppola that jump-started the career of many a future A-lister. The
nostalgic style enfolds SE Hinton's teen rebels into a full-blooded melodrama, while the
visuals are infused with golden hues as a reference to the narrator's literary loves: Gone with
the Wind and the Frost poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay.
Pandora's Box
(GW Pabst, 1929)
Louise Brooks was more lovely, smart and rebellious than a star when Pabst invited her to
play Lulu in his film of Pandora's Box, taken from Wedekind's plays. It's the last great silent
film, and still one of the most sensual films ever made. As for Brooks, you can see that she
was too hot to handle.
Pan's Labyrinth
(Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
The end of the Spanish civil war provides the backdrop for a frightening child's-eye fairytale
that showcases all the phantasmagoric powers of the director's imagination. Aided by eyepopping
effects and cinematography, the film is all the more enchanting for its refusal to draw
a distinction between reality and fantasy.
The Parallax View
(Alan J Pakula, 1974)
The daddy of all the 70s conspiracy-thrillers, from Pakula, the master of this mini-genre.
Taking aspects of the case against the Warren Commission and extrapolating from them a
gigantic corporate conspiracy to assassinate difficult and popular politicians, Parallax
introduced us to the sweet, tangy frisson of pure paranoia.
Parents
(Bob Balaban, 1989)
A young boy in 1950s America begins to fear his parents may be cannibals. Balaban, best
known for his acting in Close Encounters and the Christopher Guest comedies, delivers an
unfairly forgotten film that plays like a black comedy Blue Velvet - a comparison aided by
Angelo Badalamenti's score and the wonderful kitsch decor.
Paris, Texas
(Wim Wenders, 1984)
The climax of the first act of Wenders' career, an American movie made on his own terms,
offering his meditations on the Fordian sensibility and male loneliness. Nastassja Kinski was
never more lovely; Ry Cooder never made a better soundtrack.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
(Carl Dreyer, 1928)
Stunning in its power, uncompromising in its severity and seriousness, Carl Theodor Dreyer's
silent masterpiece from 1928 represents the martyrdom of Joan of Arc in what is almost a