Excalibur (film)
Excalibur is a 1981 American epic fantasy film directed, produced, and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, based on the 15th-century Arthurian romance "Le Morte d'Arthur" by Thomas Malory. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Liam Neeson as Gawain, Gabriel Byrne as Uther Pendragon, Corin Redgrave as Cornwall, and Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance. The film is named after the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature. The film's soundtrack features the music of Richard Wagner and Carl Orff, along with an original score by Trevor Jones.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
"Caligari" continues to be one of the most discussed and debated films from the Weimar Republic. Two major books have played a large part in shaping the perception of the film and its effect on cinema as a whole: Siegfried Kracauer's "From Caligari to Hitler" (1947) and Lotte Eisner's "The Haunted Screen" (1974). "From Caligari to Hitler" based its claims about the film largely on an unpublished typescript by Hans Janowitz called "Caligari: The Story of a Famous Story", which gave Janowitz and Carl Mayer principal credit for the making of "Caligari". Mike Budd wrote of Kracauer's book: "Perhaps no film or period has been so thoroughly understood through a particular interpretation as has "Caligari", and Weimar cinema generally, through Kracauer's social-psychological approach". Prior to the publication of "From Caligari to Hitler", few critics had derived any symbolic political meaning from the film, but Kracauer’s argument that it symbolized German obedience toward authority and a premonition of the rise of Adolf Hitler (see the Themes section for more) drastically changed attitudes about "Caligari". Many of his interpretations of the film are still embraced, even by those who have strongly disagreed with his general premise, and even as certain claims Kracauer made have been disproven, such as his statement that the original script included no frame story. (See Writing for more.) Eisner's book placed "Caligari" into historical context by identifying how it influenced Expressionist features in other films of the 1920s.