Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen | solitude.dk

Lately I've bought a lo of movies. Not because I have time to sit down and watch them but because movies are cheap and it's great to have a couple of new DVDs to bring every time I have to take he 4,5 hour train ride to Copenhagen. Makes me wish I was taking the train to Milan for VlogEurope as I would be able to do a Planet of the Apes and a Tarantino marathon. Here's the unseen DVDs I've got on the shelf/lying all over the place right now. If you've got any suggestions as to what I should be watching first, let me know.

• Goodfellas
• Strangers on a train
• Saboteur
• Shadow of a doubt
• The trouble with Harry
• The man who knew too much
• Psycho
• Scarface
• Planet of the apes
• Beneath the planet of the apes
• Escape from the planet of the apes
• Conquest of the planet of the apes
• Battle for the planet of the apes
• The Yards (going to suck)
• City of Ghosts (this too)
• The Machinist (borrowed)
• The Deer Hunter (borrowed)
• Battle Royale (borrowed)

For my birthday I got a box with seven Hitchcock movies. I've only gotten to watch two of them so far, but it's all good. A box like that is something I will enjoy stretching out over several months. The first I picked out was Rope from 1948, Hitchcock's first colour film. I had seen it before when I was much too young to appreciate it. The movie is filmed like a stage play with the entire wall of an apartment never seen. It also uses very long takes of 7 to 10 minutes throughout the movie. We never once leave the apartment of our main characters and all these experiments with form is something I enjoy very much. Hitchcock is of course the master of suspense and while this movie is primarily about the undoubtedly homosexual relationship between Brandon and Philip, Hitchcock will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

They just don't make movies like Rope anymore. Or rather Hollywood don't make movies like Rope anymore. There are a heap of interesting independent films being made these days, but Hollywood has thrown the towel in. Back in the old days (or perhaps “less recent days”) Hollywood would actually fund controversial, inspirational movies that provided food for thought. Not anymore. Everything is weighed on the altar of market analysts and the result is a bunch of movies that only provide fleeting entertainment. The movies have planned obsoletion like all other products in this day and age.

So do yourself favour. Take the money you were going to spend on a ticket for The Guardian and find your local art cinema of independent movie theater instead. My brother tipped me about Das Leben der Anderen which is currently playing in Denmark. Go see something non-Hollywood, then go buy Rope on DVD. I bet it's cheap.