my-tv-is-dead: L'uomo meccanico aka The mechanical man (1921)

enough said

You should look straight at a film; that's the only way to see one. Film is not the art of scholars but of illiterates : Werner Herzog
The director is simply the audience. So the terrible burden of the director is to take the place of that yawning vacuum, to be the audience and to select from what happens during the day which movement shall be a disaster and which a gala night. His job is to preside over accidents : Orson Welles
People sometimes say that the way things happen in the movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen to you in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television -- you don't feel anything : Andy Warhol
One of the joys of going to the movies was that it was trashy, and we should never lose that : Oliver Stone
If you can't believe a little in what you see on the screen, it's not worth wasting your time on cinema : Serge Daney
For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake : Alfred Hitchcock
Films can only be made by by-passing the will of those who appear in them, using not what they do, but what they are : Robert Bresson
Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls : Ingmar Bergman
All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They're obliged to overstate their own importance : FrantOis Truffaut
All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl : Jean-Luc Godard

Monday, December 13, 2010

L'uomo meccanico aka The mechanical man (1921)

This sci fi film from Italy is one of the most rare in the world.

A Portuguese release version is discovered in Brazil but it was only the 40% of the film working.

The story is about a scientist creating device shaped like a man that can be remote-controlled by a machine.

The mechanical man possess super-human speed and strength. The scientist is killed however by a gang of criminals, led by a woman named Mado, who wish to get the instructions for building the mechanical man.

The criminals are captured before they are able to get them and are brought to trial and condemned. Mado manages to escape and kidnaps the scientist's niece whom she forces to give her the instructions which she uses to build a mechanical man.

The mechanical man is used for a variety of crimes, controlled by Mado. The scientist's brother however is successful in creating a second mechanical man which he uses to combat the original.

The two mechanical men fight each other in an opera house and end up destroying each other as well as the opera house. During the final battle, Mado frantically attempts to control the mechanical man and is electrocuted at the control panel by a short circuit.

Part 1