My Left Foot & The Man Who Laughs

My Left Foot was outstanding. Daniel Day-Lewis was crazy, really, as expected, he was pretty much in character the entire time he was on set. But he was very good, as was his mother, Brenda Flicker. Quite a life-affirming movie. Definitely worth watching, although if you get depressed by cerebral palsy or Hamlet, then maybe you should watch it only if you want a good cry.

The Man Who Laughs is one of the last great silent films and one of the best German Expressionist films. It stars Conrad Veidt, who, even though I have seen the excellent The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I still think of him as Major Strasser. It actually is fairly similar to Hunchback of Notre Dame, although it works better. But I don't like the Hollywood ending. That's fitting, considering the strange dichotomy between two "freaks" and gypsies and both written by Victor Hugo and the silly Hollywood ending in both films. But the actual parts of the film that follow the plot of the book was very strong. The hatred of the gypsies is quite messed up though. Feels a little like the hatred of Jews. I mean, they're all dark and swarthy, like me, but man, boo. Strange how it's always about someone not white. Oh, wait. It's just that racism is so easy. Anyway, the film is a horror film in the sense of most films of the time. Not actually scary at all. Quite good anyway, though.