Hello Moviefriends!

Full Name: Lennart "Granis" Grankvist

Address: Malmö, Sweden

 Please write in My Guestbook.

After looking through these pages it is very easy for one to form the impression that I've only been interested in American films. Well, without doubt the American film industry has played a marked role in the formation of my cinematic perception. But, as said, "has played" - for such is the case no longer. Many years ago now creative and interesting films started to come from other countries. Whilst these flowed in, their American counterparts sunk into a state of what for me was infantile, sentimental, pompous, feebly patriotic and, perhaps worst of all, ever so predictable. Naturally there are exceptions to the rule - brilliant ones at that - but the main stream has headed toward the trite.

Today American films seem to be more & more the creation of engineers or the advertising branch, rather than the expression of directors with some form of cinematic vision. But such has not always been the case, and so it is hardly surprising that one finds oneself turning back to the films of the Golden Age. There are simply masses of films that one can see and see again: silents, westerns, so called B-movies, screw-ball comedies and - not least of all - Film Noir. For me the latter are a class unto themselves - never has the American film industry been more captivating than it was then. They are journeys out into the shadows - as much to the inner as to the external!

Need I really mention that I collect videos? To date (December, 2006) I´ve acquired around 4500 on VHS and 1700 on DVD! If you happened to have read this - please, drop me a line!

THE 26 (!) BEST MOVIES EVER

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet 1925), Metropolis (Fritz Lang, Germany 1926),  Sunrise (F. W.Murnau, USA 1927), Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, USA 1936), Port of Shadows (Quai des brumes, Marcel Carné, France 1938), The Grapes Of Wrath (John Ford, USA 1940), Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, USA 1941), To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, USA 1942), Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Groznyi, Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet 1944-46),  Children of Paradis (Les Enfants du Paradis, Marcel Carné, France 1945), Rome, Open City (Roma, città aperta, Roberto Rossellini, Italy 1945), My Darling Clementine (John Ford, USA 1946), The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Bicicletti, Vittorio de Sica, Italy 1948), The Third Man (Carol Reed, Engl. 1949), Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, USA 1950),  High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, USA 1952), Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman, USA 1954), Viridiana (Luis Bunuel, Spain 1961), Ugetsu (Ugetsu Monogotari, Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 1953), The Seven Samurai (Shichinin No Samurai, Akira Kurosawa, Japan 1954), Father Panchali (Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray, India 1955), The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, USA 1955),  Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, USA 1957), The Lady with the Little Dog (Dama s Sobachkoi, Josef Heifitz, Soviet 1960), Time of the Gypsies (Dom zaVesanje, Emir Kusturica, Jug 1989), and any FILM NOIR movie!

From Left Sheb Wooley, Ian Mac Donald, Lee van Cleef and Robert Wilke in "High Noon" (1952).

Enzo Staiola and Lamberto Maggiorani in "The Bicycle Thief".

Jean-Louis Barrault and Arletty in "Children of Paradise".

BOOKS ABOUT CHARACTER AND SUPPORTING ACTORS:

• David Quinlan "The Illustrated Directory of Film Character Actors" (1985 and 1998)
• Alfred E.Twomey & Arthur F.McClure "The Versatiles. Supporting Character Players in the Cinema 1930-1955" (1969)
• Arthur F.McClure & Ken D.Jones "Western Films. Heroes, heavies and sagebrush" (1972)
• Ken D. Jones, Arthur F.McClure & Alfred E.Twomey "Character People" (1980) and "More Character People" (1984)
• Ephraim Katz "The International Film Encyclopedia"(1980 with many not included in the updated books) and "The Film Encyclopedia" (1994 and 1998)
• Jack Ward "Television Guest Stars" (1993) and "The Supporting Players of Television 1959- 1983" (1996)
• David Ragan "Who´s Who in Hollywood" (1976 and 1992)
• Jeffrey Oliviero "Motion Picture Players Credits" (1991)
• Jack Mathis "Republic Confidential: The Players" (1992)
• Jim & Tom Goldrup "Feature Players" (volym one 1986, two 1992 and three 1998)
• Ian Cameron "The Heavies" (1967)
• Warren B. Meyers "Who Is That?" (1976)
• Ted Holland "B Western Actors Encyclopedia" (1989)
• Picture Show "Who´s Who on the Screen" (1956)
• Jordan R. Young "Reel Characters" (1986)
• Richard Lamparski "Whatever became of ...?" (vol 11, 1989)
• Pierce Lyden "The Movie Badmen I Rode With"
• Mario De Marco "Those wonderful Movie Villains of the ´B´Westerns and Serials
• Robert A. Juran "Old Familiar Faces" (1995)
• Edward Buscombe (ed) "The BFI Companion to the Western" (1988)
• Boyd Magers, Bob Nareau and Bobby Copeland "Best of the Badmen" (2005)

M A G A Z I N E S

* " Classic Images " ( published monthly ) and " Films of the GoldenAge "
* " Western Clippings " ( publ. bimonthly )
* " Cliffhanger " (three or four issues a year) and " Under WesternSkies "
* " Favorite Westerns and Serial World " ( publ. quaterly )
* " Filmrutan " ( swedish, supportingactors we remember, # 3-93 - 4-97)
* " Kosmorama " ( danish, # 192 - 1990, about westerns )

Contact Granis via e-mail here

A Very Young Spruce (A Very Young "Granis" in swedish)

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