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The Best Films of the 1930s Decade
The greatest films of the 1930s, from France’s poetic realism to the rise of Technicolor and talkies.
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Tokyo Chorus (1931)
The subdued melodrama of Tokyo Chorus stands as a delicate testament to those teachers who not only educate us, but sagely guide us through our lowest moments, as Yasujirō Ozu cultivates his craftsmanship through the tender-hearted tale of an unemployed family man.
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La Bête Humaine (1938)
The affliction which plagues one mild-mannered train driver with bouts of rage might as well be a blood curse in La Bete Humaine, and fate does not look kindly on those who tempt the beast, as Jean Renoir delicately lays out the blueprint of corrupted antiheroes and femme fatales in his tragic fable of man’s…
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Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Alexander Nevsky may not possess the formal innovation of Sergei Eisenstein’s avant-garde silent films, yet this venture into sound cinema unfolds a historic clash of medieval armies with incredible finesse, celebrating a Russian folk hero whose tale resonates across eras and cultures.
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Earth (1930)
The symbiosis between man, machine, and nature is a delicate dance in Earth, choreographed with seamless synchronicity through Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s lyrical montage editing, and celebrating the collectivist return of farming land back to the workers in the Soviet Union’s early days.
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La Chienne (1931)
So tragically naïve is aspiring painter Maurice in La Chienne that Jean Renoir does not even let his demeaning fall from grace speak for itself, but rather frames this pitiful antihero as a mere puppet on life’s stage of poetic irony, weaving lyrical musings on romance and despair through his fated love triangle.
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Vampyr (1932)
Whether Carl Theodor Dreyer’s horror film is to be interpreted as a political allegory, a spiritual fable, or a cryptic, expressionistic nightmare, Vampyr’s supernatural conspiracy is designed to lull us into the same impressionable state as its hypnotised victims, calling upon our subconscious desire to submit to the psychological darkness.