Invasion of the body snatchers (1956)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1956
	Director: Don Siegel
	Actors: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 16.02.2017, Zeughauskino, Berlinale2017, English
Synopsis: Dr. Miles Bennell (McCarthy) returns to his small town practice to find several of his patients suffering the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are impostors. He is initially skeptical, especially when the alleged dopplegängers are able to answer detailed questions about their victim's lives, but he is eventually persuaded that something odd has happened and determines to find out what is causing this phenomenon.
Review: I remember this film from what the character Bill Peltzer in Gremlins is watching late in the night. As I saw the opportunity to wtch it, I could not resist. This film can be seen as a paranoid 1950s warning against the communists or as a metaphor for the tyranny of McCarthyism.  It is basically a model for the genre of North American SF movies in the 50s to 70s that inspired generations of cinephiles. How to react in front of the encounter with aliens, even worse in case of an alien invasion? From then on, indeed the interpretation of the movie can be ambivalent. And for that time, it is not so bad. Some historical epic movies are rather pro-Church.  Therefore as a model, this movie settles some common tools such as the opening scene with view on contrasted clouds and radio announcements; the fact that aliens look like humans but "without feelings"; aliens moving on in mass as if all attracted by one point; aliens do not eat like humans; etc. For this I liked the movie. The acting is kept simple and even sometimes some scenes seem to be repeated as the pursuit in the corridors look the same in any corridor. But instead of making the movie boring, it makes it even funnier to me.
Rating: 6 /10

The Man Who Knew too Much (1956)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1956
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, Rear Window)
	Actors: James Stewart (Rear Window), Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 01.04.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: While on vacation in Morocco, an American couple (Steward & Day) get involved in an international murder plot.
Review: This is the remake of a movie of the same title by the same director (reviewed here) after he moved to the USA. It is likely better than the original. As always with Hitchcock, the action takes a lot of time to start (I timed 37 minutes), something I usually like. I was amazed by the quality of the images on this Blu-ray edition, the movie doesn't look like almost 60. The faces are very sharp, as well as the British and Moroccan settings. Too bad that this image quality make it is too obvious when the actors are shot in a studio in front of a projected background image. But I didn't find the story as thrilling and suspenseful as others from Hitchcock, and the ending opera and singing scenes are a bit out of place.
Rating: 6 /10