Weekend Viewing: The Killers

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—01. Ava Gardner as Kitty Collins.

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Originating from a short story by Ernest Hemingway, The Killers, directed by Robert Siodmak, is the quintessential noir. It features Burt Lancaster in his first movie role as a washed-up prizefighter who is murdered for his involvement in a robbery. Starting at the end, the story reveals the events in a very creative way, with uncredited co-writing from John Huston and Richard Brooks – acknowledged masters of the era.

—Available from Criterion

Weekend Viewing: The Hit

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—01. Directed by Stephen Frears.

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Stephen Frears has had a long and unpredictable run as a filmmaker. He's tried his hand at nearly every genre at this point, and while I'm not crazy about everything he's done, there is an undeniable artistry to each frame of each film. He made a significant splash last year with his new drama Philomena, but it was his early films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears, and this film, The Hit, that will forever be his legacy. The grittiness in this picture is not something that can be faked. You get pulled so effortlessly into the twisted crime tale due to the sheer sense of reality the film posses. Each character is somehow likable, even though they are seemingly bad people; something that I've definitely noticed to be true of real world criminals. In summary, this is a masterclass gangster film, one I've found has been criminally overlooked by the Scarface crowd.

—Available from Criterion

Weekend Viewing: The Superior Labor

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—01. Produced by Nap, Inc.

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The Superior Labor, one of the first Japanese brands we featured in our magazine, have recently produced a short film giving a behind the scenes look at how they craft their iconic canvas tote bags at Nap Village.

—The Superior Labor

Weekend Viewing: The Long Goodbye

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—01. Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe.

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Regardless of era, the private eye genre has consistently produced entertaining films; be it The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown or The Big Lebowski, to name a few. Robert Altman's 1973 masterpiece, The Long Goodbye, which turns Raymond Chandler's source material on its ear, would have to be on that list as well. Highlights include Leigh Brackett's screenplay and Elliott Gould's performance in the lead role. It's the assured direction, however, that steals the show from the outset. The film's first ten minutes, not in the original script, read as the most accurate mediation on pet ownership ever committed to celluloid. This is Altman's film from start to finish, and undoubtedly one of his finest.

—Available from Netflix

Weekend Viewing: World on a Wire

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—01. Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

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Welt am Draht, or World on a Wire, is a truly peculiar film. Based on the book Simulacron-3 by Daniel Galouye, legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder turns the existentialist piece of literature into to a Sci-fi film that oozes style in a way that other films in the genre couldn't imagine. World on a Wire was wildly ahead of its time in every sense, close to every scene is a revelation in one way or another. This was the first film to suggest we are all living in some form of simulated world, beating The Matrix to this idea by about 30 years. Never before, or since, has a Sci-fi film with such complex themes been handled in such a darkly comic way, thanks in great deal to the absurdly stern lead performance from Klaus Lowitsch. This film was lost for decades, but was recently resurrected by The Criterion Collection, and it is only a matter of time before it is listed with Godard's Alphaville and Tarkovsky's Stalker as one of the great Sci-fi films of all time.

—Available from Criterion

Weekend Viewing: Idem Paris by David Lynch

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Edited by Noriko Miyakawa
Mixed by Dean Hurley

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I don't check in on David Lynch's filmography as much these days, as a result of his recent focus on music, so I'm a latecomer to his short about the Parisian print studio, Idem. Dedicated to the lithographic process since it was built by Emile Dufrenoy in 1880, Lynch's lens reveals the mechanical beauty of showcasing these historic machines at work. Better late than never.

—Idem Paris
—David Lynch

Weekend Viewing: Hiut Denim Co.

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—01. Hiut Factory by Pete Dungey and Joe Spiteri.

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A small but growing operation, Hiut Denim has recently launched their collection in Beams stores across Japan. While the market is an especially difficult one to break into, the Cardigan-based brand is beginning to make their mark, and this video gives some insight into their hands-on production process.

—Hiut Denim Co.
—Available at Beams

Weekend Viewing: Wise Blood

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—01. Directed by John Huston.

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For those of you who know John Huston primarily for his underdog westerns, prepare for a shock to the system. Wise Blood was released at the tail end of the 1970s, a decade where directors were allowed unprecedented freedom to explore their ideas, and many – Huston included – didn't take the opportunity for granted. This movie is a vicious piece of work. Brad Dourif turns in a searing performance as Hazel Motes, a man preaching his way through a cryptic American city in hopes of founding a new place of worship: The Church of Truth Without Christ.

—Available from Netflix