Spider-Man: Brand New Day (5 Stars)

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is a good film in its own right, with plenty of action and an entertaining story. It works well as another chapter in Spider-Man's increasingly complicated life, even if the ever-expanding Marvel universe sometimes threatens to overwhelm him.

My biggest problem is the introduction of Jean Grey. The X-Men film chronology was already a mess, and this makes matters worse. More importantly, this Jean Grey bears little resemblance to the character I remember from the comics, particularly in the way her mutant powers are portrayed. I enjoyed the film, but as an old-school X-Men fan I found some of its choices difficult to accept.

Mulholland Drive (5 Stars)

To remember David Lynch after his recent death, I've decided to watch his last three films. I might even rewatch "Twin Peaks", but it won't be now. Maybe later this year.

Today was the first time that I watched the bonus features on the Blu-ray. There's an interview with Richard Kelly, the director of "Donnie Darko". He said that he first saw the film in the cinema with Jake Gyllenhaal. Two films were being shown that evening. On one screen it was "Donnie Darko", probably the reason they were at the cinema, and on the other screen it was "Mulholland Drive". Richard felt honoured to see the name of his film written next to a film by David Lynch, and they decided to watch "Mulholland Drive". He says that he and Jake were blown away. Understandable. After this they went to visit Jake's parents, who lived on Mulholland Drive. It was a surreal experience.

Richard Kelly also said that he immediately understood the film. He must be smarter than me. I understand the film's main outline, but I still don't understand all the details. For me it's a more complex film than "Lost Highway". But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it.

As I've said in an earlier post, the BBC has voted "Mulholland Drive" the best film of the 21st Century so far (2000-2016). I can't disagree with that, although I find some of the other inclusions on the BBC's top 100 list remarkable.

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Mulholland Drive (5 Stars)

When I watched the 20th anniversary 4K restoration in the cinema earlier this month, I said that I expected a new version on disc soon. I was right. The new version of "Mulholland Drive" had already been released on 31st January, so I ordered it straight away, and it arrived in the post this morning.

The picture quality is excellent. I don't have a top quality sound system, so I can't judge the fine details of the newly mixed sound, but I can recognise some big changes. The dialogue stands out better from the background music, especially in the Club Silencio.

Normally I complain about the film critics who've lost touch with cinema audiences, but today I'll praise them. In 2016 the BBC wrote to the world's top 177 film critics and asked them to name their ten top films since 2000. I don't know what criteria the BBC used to pick the critics. I just know they didn't pick me, but they didn't pick Mark Kermode either. Or maybe he didn't want to participate. The BBC says that they invited many others who didn't want to send a list.

"The critics who participated hail from 36 countries: 81 from the US, 19 from the UK, five each from Canada, Cuba, France, and Germany, and four each from Australia, Colombia, India, Israel and Italy. Lebanon, the UAE, China, Bangladesh, Chile, Namibia, Kazakhstan and many others are represented too. Of the 177 critics, 55 are women and 122 are men".

Here's the list that was created from the replies received:

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

4. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)

5. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

7. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)

8. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000)

9. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)

10. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)

11. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)

12. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

14. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)

15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)

16. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)

17. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)

18. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)

19. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)

20. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)

21. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

22. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

23. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

24. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

25. ​Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

26. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

27. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

28. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002)

29. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)

30. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)

31. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

32. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

33. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

34. Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015)

35. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)

36. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)

37. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)

38. City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)

39. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)

40. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)

41. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)

42. Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)

43. Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)

44. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)

45. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

46. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)

47. Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)

48. Brooklyn (John Crowley, 2015)

49. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)

50. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)

51. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

52. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)

53. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

54. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)

55. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)

56. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, director; Ágnes Hranitzky, co-director, 2000)

57. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

58. Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène, 2004)

59. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)

60. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)

61. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

62. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

63. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)

64. The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)

65. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

66. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)

67. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)

68. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)

69. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)

70. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)

71. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)

72. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)

73. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)

74. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)

75. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)

76. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)

77. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)

78. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)

79. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)

80. The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003)

81. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)

82. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009)

83. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)

84. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)

85. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

86. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)

87. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)

88. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015)

89. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)

90. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)

91. The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, 2009)

92. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

93. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007)

94. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

95. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)

96. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003)

97. White Material (Claire Denis, 2009)

98. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)

99. The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000)

100. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

This is probably the most representative best film list ever published. I confess that I've only seen 39 of the films in the list. For comparison, here are my top 50 films since 2000, simply put together by deleting all the older films from my all time top 100 list.

1. Donnie Darko (2001)

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

3. Tag (2015)

4. Spider-Man (2002)

5. The Wall (2012)

6. Kill Bill (2003-2004)

7. The Last Circus (2010)

8. Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

9. The Life of Pi (2012)

10. The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

11. House of Flying Daggers (2004)

12. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

13. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

14. Downfall (2004)

15. Witching and Bitching (2013)

16. King Kong (2005)

17. Cold Fish (2010)

18. 800 Bullets (2002)

19. Django Unchained (2012)

20. Triangle (2009)

21. Deadpool 2 (2018)

22. Deadpool (2016)

23. The Door (2009)

24. Love Exposure (2008)

25. Phone Booth (2003)

26. Legend of the Fist (2010)

27. Night Train (2009)

28. Death Proof (2007)

29. Adaptation (2002)

30. The Raid 2 (2014)

31. Summer in Orange (2011)

32. Flowers of War (2011)

33. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

34. The Gift (2000)

35. Ip Man (2008)

36. Ip Man 2 (2010)

37. Snatch (2000)

38. Tragedy Girls (2017)

39. Gladiator (2000)

40. The Virgin Psychics (2015)

41. John Rabe (2009)

42. The Walk (2015)

43. Perfume (2006)

44. Little Nicky (2000)

45. Monster (2003)

46. We are the night (2010)

47. Dark Water (2002)

48. What to do in case of fire (2001)

49. Azumi (2003-2005)

50. Wie Feuer und Flamme (2001)

There are big differences between the two lists, but I have great respect for the BBC's list. It's my intention to watch all of the films in the BBC's top 20. There are 10 films in the top 20 that I've never seen, and I'll also re-watch the other films if I haven't watched them for a long time. I shan't watch them in order. I'll just slip them in with my regular viewing.

I just have a few thoughts about the BBC list for now.

I'm pleasantly surprised that "Mulholland Drive" is in first place. I already regret not including it in my own top 100 list.

It's been a long time since I watched "In the mood for love". I'll make sure that I watch it again soon.

"Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" is the highest placed film (6th place) that was also high in my list (second place).

There are three Christopher Nolan films in the BBC list, of which "Memento" is the highest. It's already on my list of films to re-watch.

I'm surprised that "Spring Breakers" made it into the list. I'll have to give it another chance.

After watching "Mulholland Drive" in the cinema this month I read film reviews by several critics, including Roger Ebert. I initially intended to quote and comment on what he wrote, but I've already written a long post today, so I'll save my thoughts till next time. If I don't forget.

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Mulholland Drive (5 Stars)

I run a meetup group in Stuttgart called the Stuttgart Cinema Club. As of today, it has 2384 members. That might sound like a lot, but look what happened today. "Mulholland Drive" was shown in the cinema today, one day only, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Apart from simply posting the film for a meetup and relying on the automated messages, I wrote to all the members telling them that this is a special event and it'll be years before they can see "Mulholland Drive" in the cinema again. So how many people came? Three! Only three people for a masterpiece of cinema like "Mulholland Drive"? I have to ask why they're even members of the group. It's true, I don't expect everybody to come. Some people don't like David Lynch, some people might not have had time today. There are lots of reasonable excuses. But I expected a 1% turnout at the very least. 23 people wouldn't have been a good turnout, in my eyes, but I would have grudgingly accepted it. But three? Sometimes I despair!

"Mulholland Drive" is a film about Los Angeles, or to be precise, a film about Hollywood. Los Angeles is the City of Dreams for some and a City of Nightmares for others. "Mulholland Drive" shows the latter. When hundreds of people are competing for a few jobs in the film industry, you don't know who you can trust.

Most fans of David Lynch's films say that "Mulholland Drive" is his best film. I personally prefer "Lost Highway", which is my favourite film. Many critics call "Mulholland Drive" one of the best films ever made. When the BBC made a poll of 177 respected film critics in 2016, "Mulholland Drive" was voted the best film of the 21st Century. Click here to read the BBC's list.

I didn't include "Mulholland Drive" in my own top 100 film list. That was a mistake that I'll rectify when I (eventually) publish my revised top 100 list.

Today's film was described as being a new 4K transfer from the original negatives, supervised by David Lynch himself. That means a new 4K disc can be expected soon.

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The Ring 2 (American version) (4½ Stars)

"The Ring", made in 2002, is a remake of the Japanese film with the same name, originally made in 1998. There are different opinions about which film is better. "The Ring Two", as it's correctly called, was made in 2005, but it isn't a remake of the Japanese film "The Ring 2", made in 1999. It's a direct sequel to the first American film, taking place a few months later, but it tells a completely different story. The only thing it has in common with the Japanese film is the title. And the director.

It was Hideo Nakata who directed the first two Japanese Ring films. When he was invited to make the American sequel, I'm sure the American studios expected a remake from him. That wasn't to be. The director wouldn't be happy making two identical films. He asked the screenwriter Ehren Kruger to write a completely new screenplay, presumably giving him detailed instructions on the direction he wanted.

The premise is the same as in the first film. A haunted videotape exists. After watching it the phone rings, and a voice tells the person who watched the tape that he will die in exactly seven days. The voice on the phone is Samara, a young girl who was abused and finally killed by her parents. In other words, it's a typical Japanese ghost story. At the end of the first film it was revealed that the viewer could save himself by making a copy of the tape and showing it to someone else. Samara evidently wants to be remembered.

In the first film the reporter Rachel Keller found Samara's body and made it possible for her to be buried. This didn't stop the killings, but it brought Rachel to Samara's attention. Rachel has shown more affection for Samara than either her birth mother or adoptive mother ever did. Now Samara wants Rachel to be her mother.

How can a ghost be adopted by a flesh-and-blood woman? Easy. Samara possesses Rachel's eight-year-old son Aidan.

Maybe Hideo Nakata can be accused of self-plagiarisation. The concept of a ghost wanting a new mother was already used in the film "Dark Water", which he made in 1999. All I can say about that is that if you can't copy yourself, who can you copy?

I would have welcomed a third film in the American Ring series, but it wasn't to be. This is the last time that we see Rachel Keller and her son Aidan. A sequel wasn't made until "Rings" in 2017.

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The Ring (American version) (5 Stars)

Normally, when I rewatch a film I read my old review(s) beforehand to remind myself what I said about it in the past. This is to encourage me to find something new to say about it. Today I forgot, and I didn't read my old review until afterwards. While watching the film I thought of all sorts of smart things to write. Then I read my last review afterwards, and I realised that I'd already written everything I want to write today. I'm feeling lazy today (and I want to watch another film later), so I'll just quote my old review from 2015 verbatim. Nobody will notice, unless someone tells you.

When people say that remakes of foreign films aren't as good as the original, this is the film I point at as an exception. The original Japanese version, made in 1998, was brilliant, but the 2002 American remake was even better. I'd say that it's brillianter, if the word existed. I saw the Japanese film first, and I was very impressed that Gore Verbinski, an almost unknown director, managed to surpass the original in quality. I think that what he did right was that he simply copied the original. He didn't attempt to add new plot points or remove what he didn't like. His film even has a Japanese look to it. The cinematography is dark and gloomy, with a lack of blue tones. It was a stroke of genius picking Naomi Watts for the lead role. At the time she was also widely unknown. She had impressed critics with her performance in "Mulholland Drive", but she was still unknown to the general public.

In its subject matter the film is rooted in the 1990's. The film is about a videotape. There was a crossover period in which both videotapes and DVD's existed side by side that lasted until approximately 2010, but the film is set in an age when there are only videotapes. Maybe 1995, if we really need to fix a date. The videotape is cursed. Immediately after watching it the phone rings, and the person who watched it is told that he will die exactly seven days later. A group of four teenagers watch the tape together and all die at the same time in different places. Rachel Keller, a sceptical reporter played by Naomi Watts, watches the tape as an unbeliever, but then realises that she only has a week to live, so she devotes her remaining time to solving the mystery.

What makes this film so intriguing is that it has the style of a detective mystery, rather than just being a horror film. Step by step Rachel investigates the tape, and every clue that she solves leads to other clues, continually widening the scope of the investigation.

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King Kong (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #28

King Kong has appeared in at least 12 films over the last 90 years, either as the lead character or one of a group of monsters. In my opinion, there have only been three real King Kong films. These three all tell the same story, in different forms, of King Kong's discovery and his journey to America. All three films have the same name: "King Kong".

The first film was made in 1933, and is rightly considered to be a masterpiece.

The second film was made in 1976, following the original story, with a few significant changes. The story is told in the present day (i.e. 1976) instead of the 1930's, and the final battle takes place on top of the newly built World Trade Centre instead of the Empire State Building.

This is the third film, made in 2005, and it closely follows the 1933 version. It even takes place in 1933, with a great amount of care taken in portraying the Great Depression of the 1930's.

The film's strength is less in the action than in the emotional depth. Look at Kong's eyes as he stares lovingly at the actress Ann Darrow. Has computer animation ever been so emotional?

This is one of the most beautiful scenes ever filmed, full of artistic merit. Sunrise over Manhattan at the top of the Empire State Building.

But the peaceful serenity doesn't last. The enemies are coming.

Kong has to make his last stand, on top of the world's highest building.

The film's casting is superb. Nobody else but Naomi Watts could have played the beautiful actress Ann Darrow. Her large eyes and toothy smile perfectly portray her naive innocence.

Naomi's large eyes make her look like a 1930's film star. All that's missing is the black eye liner. Or would that have been pushing it too far?

Her face is repeatedly framed against beautiful scenery. The screenshots from this film could be used for a Naomi Watts pin up calendar.

Or maybe there should just be six photos of Naomi Watts in the calendar, and six photos of Kong in alternation. Beauty and the Beast.

Ann Darrow does her Titanic scene.

It's a much smaller boat, but the sorrow is just as intense.

Don't jump!

The film crew captures this moment.

The director Carl Denham is almost moved to tears.

Jack Black was picked to play Carl Denham because of his physical resemblance to Orson Welles. Never mind his looks, his acting is superb! Another perfect choice.

So is Adrien Brody as the brooding playwright Jack Driscoll. I'd go as far as to call this his signature role.

I wanted to watch the film in a single sitting, but I was interrupted by my ex-wife. There were loud shouts in my village, so she wanted to know if there had been a goal in the Euro 2020 Germany-France match. Yes, there had just been an own goal. We didn't know what television channel was broadcasting the match, but after a few trial-and-error attempts I found it for her. She asked me to watch the second half with her, which I did. It was an interesting game. Two very good teams, equally matched, but with no outstanding players. By that, I mean there were no players like Pele or Maradonna with magical flair that set them apart from the others. The final result, 1:0 for France, was fair. Either team could have won.

Then I rushed back to "King Kong" to watch the last half hour. I enjoyed it with a glass of LSD in my hand. If my readers don't know what that is, they should follow the link.

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King Kong (5 Stars)

After watching "Kong: Skull Island" in March I decided to re-watch Peter Jackson's epic version of the film, but I've only just got around to it. So many films, so little time. While the new version does have a lot in its favour – after all, I gave it four stars – it just doesn't have the greatness and grandeur of the 2005 version.

Peter Jackson has made different types of films, from "Lord of the Rings" to "Braindead" and "Heavenly Creatures", but they all have one thing in common: his fastidious attention to detail. Let's forget the big monkey for a moment. The first 20 minutes of the film that take part in New York are a glorious depiction of the Great Depression. It's a nice touch showing a run-down zoo with the even more run-down huts of poor people in the background. The subject of the two jungles is a recurring theme in the film. Both jungles are difficult places to live, each with their own dangers.

The animals are living in squalid conditions, but their circumstances are better than those of the people in the huts.

The homeless and unemployed have to queue up for food. Today the food queues in Birmingham (England) are even longer.

The casting choices made for the film are nothing short of inspired. If I had been casting the film the last actor I would have chosen to play the film director Carl Denham. After all, he's a comedian, isn't he? That's why I'm not in the film business. Peter Jackson himself picked Jack Black for the role, supposedly because of his physical similarity to Orson Welles.

Naomi Watts is also perfect as the former vaudeville performer attempting to be an actress. Her open-mouthed toothy gaze of wonderment wins over the audience. It's strange that when Kristen Stewart imitates the same gaze she just looks silly. I can't explain why the same look works for one actress but not for another. Maybe it's because of Naomi Watts' natural beauty, which very few other actresses have.

"King Kong" received high critical acclaim when it was released. I have the impression, based on conversations with friends and passing remarks in magazines, that it's no longer rated as highly. I know films come in and out of fashion – just look at "Titanic" – but I don't understand how anyone could dislike "King Kong". I've included it in my list of  30 films to watch before you die, and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

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Shut In (3½ Stars)

The film begins with a tragic accident. Richard Portman leaves home with his son Steven to drive him to a boarding school. It's necessary. Steven has just been expelled from his local school, and it's a rural area with no other schools. On the way father and son argue, and the car swerves onto the wrong side of the road. Richard is killed instantly. Steven is badly injured and is left as a paraplegic, unable to move, talk or show any signs of intelligence.

Six months later Mary Portman is struggling to look after her son. She has to dress him, feed him, lift him in and out of bed; in short, she has to do everything for him. She lives in a remote house in the middle of the woods in Maine. She works as a child psychologist in a smaller house on her property. Her food and supplies are delivered by the receptionist who works for her, so she never leaves, only walking from one house to the other. Apart from her receptionist she only has contact with her patients and their parents. She also talks to a therapist by Skype.

One day a 10-year-old boy, Tom, one of her patients, turns up at her house late at night, in the middle of winter. She rings his mother and arranges to have him picked up the next day. However, Tom disappears during the night. Over the next few days Mary thinks she hears Tom in her house, but she can't find him. She thinks she's hearing a ghost, and she even doubts that he ever visited her on the first evening. Is she going mad, or is something sinister happening?

This is a neat little psychological thriller with traces of horror. It's not a masterpiece, far from it, but I can recommend it for viewing on a cold night indoors, sitting cuddled on the sofa with your partner.

Birdman (5 Stars)

"I don't exist. I'm not even here".

Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a Hollywood actor who had a string of successes in the 1980's playing a superhero called Birdman. He refused to make a fourth Birdman film because he wanted to be known as a serious actor. That didn't work. 30 years on he's spent all the money he made, and he still craves to be recognised as a serious actor. Now he's making one last attempt. He has adapted a play by Raymond Carver, "What we talk about when we talk about love". This is a return to his roots. Back in 1972 Riggan starred in a high school play. Raymond Carver was in the audience, and he wrote a note on a napkin for Riggan praising the honesty of his performance. This was what convinced Riggan to become an actor.

"Birdman" is a film with many different levels of meaning, but I'll concentrate on one thing. Riggan Thomas is a man playing a part. I don't just mean the part he's playing on stage. He spent part of his life as a Hollywood actor, and now he's a Broadway actor. He was the same man inside, but he was attempting to present a different part of himself to the world.

Everyone goes through phases in his life. That's normal. However, I doubt many people have undergone as many drastic changes as me. In part it was because of the big moves in my life, from England to Germany to America to England to Germany, in one big circle. However, there are signs of change at other points in my life. There were deliberate breaks with my past that were unnecessary, if judged objectively. I have always been driven by the urge to make a new start and re-invent myself. Like Riggan Thomas, I've always been the same man inside, but I chose different cities and different stages to reveal different parts of myself.

I lived my first few years, until I was eight, in Little Aston. I grew up surrounded by parks, the old grounds of Little Aston Hall before they were split up. I grew up with nature. I knew the names of the birds and the trees. When my family moved to Walsall I made no attempt to keep contact with my old friends. I made new friends in my new street and my new school. I even presented myself differently. My interest in nature and wildlife was gone. I was soon known as someone who was interested in science and science fiction. I was a very modern boy.

At the age of 11, almost 12, I went to grammar school. This coincided with my family moving again, this time to Aldridge. Once more I broke contact with my old friends. There was one boy, Richard Lee, who went to both my junior school and my grammar school, but in grammar school we drifted apart. In junior school we had a bond because we were both fascinated by science. In grammar school I was different. I concentrated on learning foreign languages, and in my spare time I immersed myself in religion and philosophy. I read the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible (in that order). I was fascinated by Norse mythology and Roman mythology. I read books by Franz Kafka, Friedrich Dürrenmatt (a more spiritual author than most people assume) and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Some of my different personas overlapped with one another, temporally. I lived in Aldridge but went to grammar school in Walsall. This gave me the opportunity to lead a double life. At the age of 16 I began to date girls. With very few exceptions, the girls I went out with lived in Aldridge, not Walsall, so my school friends knew nothing about them. At school I was the brilliant pupil who finished top of his class in every subject. Today I would be called a nerd, but in my school days I was called a swot, which was an awful insult. I tried to hide this when I was dating. I never let my girlfriends know how intelligent I was. I deliberately dumbed myself down to be popular with girls. In retrospect I think this was foolish, but it must have succeeded, because I had a long string of girlfriends in my mid to late teens. They weren't the smartest, but they all looked pretty hot.

When I went to university at the age of 18 it was another break with the past, or at least a partial break. I went to university in Birmingham but carried on living with my parents in Aldridge, a 40 minute bus journey from the university. This was supposedly in order to save money, but another advantage was that I could keep up my double life. I carried on dating girls who lived in Aldridge, but university was a new life for me. I broke off all contact with my previous school friends. At university I had many friends, or at least many people who wanted to be my friends. I never opened up to them. They looked upon me with awe, because I was so much better in my course than any of them. Surprisingly, they respected me for it. In school the other children despised me as a swot, but in university the other students admired my intelligence.

I spent the third year of university in Berlin. This was perhaps the most drastic period of self-reinvention in my life. All my life I had been a good boy, someone who obeyed rules and regulations down to the letter. In Berlin I wanted to be bad. I admit that I wasn't very good at it. Basically it boiled down to me telling people I was bad, but there was nothing behind it. I told people that I often got into fights with people I didn't like, but it was all lies. I didn't just change my personality, I changed my name. I introduced myself as Frank, modelling myself on Frank Cornelius in Michael Moorcock's novels. It was a weird year.

When I returned to Birmingham for my fourth and final year of university my double life became a triple life. I got a job with a local radio station, Radio Wash, and I was a DJ called Eric Bloodaxe. The shows were broadcast from 10pm to midnight, but they were pre-recorded earlier in the day. I played punk rock. I did my best to imitate John Peel, my favourite DJ at the time, by speaking with the same deep voice as him. Ironically, my shows were broadcast at the same time as his, so I was luring listeners away from him. None of the students at university knew I was Eric. Nobody in Aldridge, not even my parents, knew I was Eric. Sometimes I was with a girlfriend in the evening listening to the radio and she would say, "Mike, that DJ sounds like you". I would reply something like, "Not really. My voice isn't that deep".

After university I moved to Germany. It was a brave thing for me to do. Maybe foolhardy is the more correct word. I had a job waiting for me, but when I stepped off the train in Stuttgart I had nowhere to live. As was typical for me, I broke off all contact with my friends at university and in Aldridge. It was a completely new start. I lived in Germany for 19 years, which was a long time for me to stay in one place. I married. I settled down. I played the role of a good husband and family father to perfection. I also became the highly efficient manager of a small electronics company, a role I greatly enjoyed. But after 19 years I had itchy feet and needed to move on again. It's true that the main reason for my departure was problems in my marriage, but my departure followed the pattern of my earlier moves. When I left my wife I didn't just get an apartment in the next street or even the next town I moved all the way to America. Yet another new start.

I'm not sure what sort of image I projected in America. At work I was a hard-working computer programmer, but I had very few friends. When I left America I can't really say that I left everything behind, because I had nothing to leave behind. My three years in America were too short to re-invent myself. I was a bland, uninteresting person. It's doubtful that anyone even remembers me.

Back in England I played my most demanding role of all. It's true that I was suffering from depression when I returned to England, but when I began to feel better I pretended that I was still unwell. I fooled everyone. I could turn the tears on and off at will. Over a period of 15 years psychiatrists repeatedly judged me unfit for work. If I had wanted to work I could have done, in the early years at least. As time progressed I grew increasingly comfortable with my life of inactivity, and as a result I really became the person I was pretending to be. I didn't receive much money in sickness benefits, but I didn't spend much either, so I always had enough. As a famous man once said, "The man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest". During this time I re-invented myself as a film fan. This started in 2003 when I bought my first DVD player. Being able to watch films in high quality stored on shiny little discs was incredible to me. After years of watching fuzzy video tapes DVDs seemed miraculous. This was when I became fanatical about films. At first I simply bought and watched many DVDs. In 2010 I began to write this blog. In 2013 I joined a film group, of which I later became a host. My friends in England knew me as a film fan. If they'd known me any time before 2003, in any of my previous lives, they would have described me a different way.

Last month I returned to Germany again, after a long absence. I'm back in Münchingen, the small village just outside Stuttgart where I lived until 1997. It's unusual for me to return to a place that I left. What's also unusual is that I intend to hold on to my friends in Birmingham. I'm certainly not the same man that I was 19 years ago, but I don't yet know who I am. I need time to create a new identity. All I can say is that I'll always be the same person inside. I'm a deep thinker. I analyse everything, whether it's religion or politics. I'm tolerant of everyone else's opinions, in fact I'm more tolerant than anyone I've ever met. I love intensely, but unfortunately too intensely. I give so much that people feel uncomfortable with me, they think that someone who is so self-sacrificial must be faking it, he must be doing it to hide his greed.

In "Birdman" Riggan's critic was Tabitha Dickinson, a writer for the New York Times who hated him simply because he was different. I have had a few critics in my life, commenting on my performances. My biggest critic was Brigitte, my wife from 1982 to 1997. She didn't understand me at all. My love overwhelmed her. She couldn't accept such an intense love as genuine. She was certain that I was being unfaithful and had other lovers, even though she never found the slightest proof of her suspicions. The more I loved her, the more she hated me in return. If she had been able to love me I wouldn't have left Germany in 1997. My life would have taken different turns. I wish I could have stayed with her, but I have to accept a lot of my personal developments since leaving her as positive. Now I'm in the awkward position that she wants me back, but she still doesn't understand why I left her. What should I do? Should I re-invent myself as the self-sacrificing lover once more, accepting the fact that I might be abused all over again?

Allegiant (4 Stars)

"Allegiant" is the third film in the Divergent series, based on the novels by Veronica Roth. It begins after the death of the Erudite leader Janine. Tris and her colleagues from the Dauntless faction want to go out of the city to look for another civilisation, but they are prevented from leaving by Four's mother Evelyn. Eventually they succeed in escaping. Outside the city walls they encounter a highly advanced race that claims the city of Chicago is an experiment that has been running for 200 years. The outsiders seem benevolent, and Tris trusts them completely, but Four suspects they might have bad intentions.

The lines between good and bad become less and less clear in this film. Tris realises that she has to fend for herself. The fight sequences are more exciting than in "Insurgent", making this a better film.

Insurgent (3 Stars)

"Insurgent" is a sequel to "Divergent", beginning a few days after the end of the first film. The ruling Erudite faction has blamed the Dauntless faction for slaughtering the Abnegation faction, even though it was the Erudite leader, Janine, who orchestrated the attack. Tris and the rest of her Dauntless colleagues are on the run, sheltered first by the Amity faction, then by factionless rebels.

"Insurgent" has flashier special effects than "Divergent", but something is missing. The main characters aren't pleasant enough for us to sympathise with them. In the first film Tris (Shailene Woodley) at least looked pleasant, but in the second film she cuts her hair and looks boyish, no longer feminine.

As a sequel this is a disappointment. I dread to see what the third part will be like when I watch it at the weekend.

King Kong (5 Stars)

30 films to watch before you die, #28

I've already written detailed posts about "King Kong" in the past, so I'll just point out one thing here. When you watch a film, always be on the lookout for books used as props. I don't mean in a bookcase, I mean individual books seen lying on a table or a chair, anywhere in the picture. This is a common method for a director to let the audience know what influenced him when he made a film. It's a not so subtle hint about a film's meaning. If a character is seen reading a book this makes knowing the book essential to understanding the film.

Here we see young Jimmy reading Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" as the ship approaches Skull Island. The main theme of the book is the comparison of savages in the jungle with urban savages. Neither is less primitive than the other. We saw that yesterday at the annual Black Friday sales. People were rolling on the floor punching one another because they wanted a cheap flatscreen TV. Mankind hasn't evolved since leaving the jungle, has it? We're all still the same.

Here is Ann Darrow after returning to the ship's crew on Skull Island. The giant monkey, Kong, has been risking his life to save her. Now she realises that Carl Denham and the others want to capture Kong. Her shocked expression as she looks at Carl and the others say everything, especially in the context of "Heart of Darkness". She realises just how primitive the men around her are. Back in New York she's offered large sums of money to appear on stage with the chained monkey, but she refuses.

If you want to watch other films directed by Peter Jackson, I can recommend

• Braindead (1992)
• Heavenly Creatures (1994)
• The Lovely Bones (2009)