Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
This gentle story of childhood has been hailed as one of the greatest Spanish films of all-time. A young girl named Ana becomes preoccupied with death and haunted by visions of local spirits after seeing Frankenstein for the first time. As much about the power of cinema as the mysterious inner-workings of the young mind, Spirit of the Beehive is a hauntingly beautiful film that leaves the viewer with a powerful feeling of longing to return to that magical time when they were an inquisitive and sensitive child. You owe yourself a look at this marvelous and beguiling film.
“This is the true story of a man and a gun and a car.” So states the terse opening title for noir actress-turned-noir director Ida Lupino’s unsentimental film, The Hitch-Hiker. This lean, mean 70-minute B-film is tough, no-nonsense and filled with white-knuckle tension. It all goes wrong for fishing buddies (Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy) when they pick up a psychotic hitch-hiker (William Talman) who kidnaps them and forces them to drive him to Mexico so he can escape police custody. It’s based on the true story of Billy Cook, a drifter and spree killer who murdered half a dozen people as he hitch-hiked across the country in the early 1950s.
Watch on Archive.org
A beautiful and moving film, The Red Violin traces the history of the titular acoustic masterpiece across three centuries, from its creation in 17th c. Italy to its use in an Austrian orphanage, from its status as muse to a libertine English composer to its near-destruction in Communist China. Accompanied by violin solos from master violinist Joshua Bell, the film is a sumptuous celebration of music and the power one instrument has to change the lives of people around the world. A surprise twist at the end of the film might divide viewers, but definitely leaves you thinking about the legacy of the blood red violin.
4) Panic Room
David Fincher’s most maligned film, Panic Room is actually a pretty good thriller, only relegated to “so-so” status by the director’s comparative masterpieces Zodiac and Se7en. Starring a pre-Twilight Kristen Stewart and Jodie Foster as the mother/daughter trapped in their apartment’s panic room as three burglars terrorize the duo, the film is a claustrophobic thriller that deals with complex issues of good vs. bad and strength vs. weakness. With two women as the leads (and three men as their assailants), there’s a strong element of feminist empowerment, especially in Foster’s portrayal of a protective mother.
5) Red Hill
This ultra-violent Australian Western has gained something of cult status among those of us who love ultra-violent Australian Westerns, and with good reason. The sleepy village of Red Hill doesn’t know what’s coming for them when a convicted murder escapes prison and comes gunning for the small town sheriff who put him there. City slicker Shane Cooper (True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten) comes to Red Hill as the new deputy and is immediately embroiled in the man hunt, but quickly learns that there’s more to the story than just crime and punishment. Covering topics like police corruption, conspiracy, racial intolerance and individual integrity, Red Hill ably updates the Western tropes (dusty town squares, bad men in black hats) to modern Australia.
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2 thoughts on “The Penny-Pinching Cinephile (4/12/13–4/18/13)”
Been meaning to see Spirit of the Beehive for a while. May just do that since it’s on Hulu.
But I must add: Panic Room being Fincher’s most maligned film? Man, too many people forget Alien 3, I guess…
Those people include me…I try not to think about Alien 3.