I don't really have any lingering feelings about these two films, which is weird because I liked them both a lot. I love a good dystopian-future movie, so I enjoyed Children of Men (incidentally, are there a lot of movies set in a non-dystopian future? I can't recall seeing any). I'm not sure how I felt about the ending, though. On one hand it was kind of a cliche, but without giving too much away (I hope), it was my favorite kind of ending - ambiguous but not frustratingly so.
Even though I knew exactly what to expect with Freaks, I thought it was very enjoyable to watch. Wallace Ford really made a good impression on me - I'm taking a look at his other films now. It is sad that the film we have now is only the hourlong censored version. The parts that are missing sound good. On that subject, I watched the featurette on the DVD about the alternate endings - they range from ending immediately after the reveal of Cleopatra in the sideshow to ending after Hans and Frieda are reunited to ending with Frieda comforting Hans and reassuring him that Cleopatra's fate was not his fault. This last ending is the one that is part of the DVD cut, and content aside, the quality of the print is just not up to the standard of the rest of the film. The main section of the film is beautifully preserved - really crisp and clear, and the exposure looks great. The epilogue is too bright - I didn't recognize Phroso at all because his face was so overexposed - and it looks tacked on, which I guess it was. Weirdly, the two shorter versions of the epilogue look much better. But anyway, I liked it.
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