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November–December 2002

 


Ric Aqui

(in alphabetical order)

Being John Malkovich        (Spike Jonze, 1999)
Cabaret        (Bob Fosse, 1972)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover        (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon        (Ang Lee, 2000)
Gattaca        (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
Grease        (Randal Kleiser, 1978)
Happiness        (Todd Solondz, 1998)
Midnight Cowboy        (John Schlesinger, 1969)
A Room with a View        (James Ivory, 1986)
Wild at Heart        (David Lynch, 1990)

Ric Aqui designs books at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Kevin Barry

(in chronological order)

Intolerance        (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
The General        (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1926)
Modern Times        (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
Double Indemnity        (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Red River        (Howard Hawks, 1948)
Ikiru        (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
Psycho        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
L'Avventura        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)

Kevin Barry, a native New Yorker currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a playwright whose plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Cincinnati. He has been an avid film-lover for many years.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Michael Bush

After much wavering, sleepless nights and angst-ridden drunken stupors – I have finally commited myself to the following:

(in preferential order)

1.  Some Like it Hot        (Billy Wilder, 1959)
2.  Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
3.  The Godfather I & II        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972 & 1974)
…absolutely cannot be split.

4.  Double Indemnity        (Billy Wilder, 1944)
5.  The Usual Suspects        (Bryan Singer, 1995)
6.  This is Spinal Tap        (Rob Reiner, 1983)
7.  Brief Encounter        (David Lean, 1945)
8.  Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
9.  Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
10.  Manhattan        (Woody Allen, 1979)

Five that didn't quite make it: In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-wai), The Great Escape (Sturges) …everyone needs a skeleton in the closet, Se7en (Fincher), Get Carter (Hodges) and Moulin Rouge! (Luhrmann).

Michael Bush is a lecturer in Film and Media Studies at The Bournemouth and Poole College, Dorset, UK.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Wayne Cabradilla

(in preferential order)

1.  2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Human history collapsed into one cut shot. What separates us from the "animals" is not our intelligence or our culture but our capacity for violence against each other.

2.  Crimes and Misdemeanors        (Woody Allen, 1989)
Its vision of nihilism, where moral belief is self-delusion or naivete and where people vary only by their degrees of pettiness and selfishness, is devastating.

3.  The Killer        (John Woo, 1989)
4.  Ashes of Time        (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
Imagine taking years to film Homer's Odyssey with the ten most famous actors in Hollywood and then releasing a picture so narratively (but not emotionally) disjointed that people familiar with the story have no idea what's going on and you can guess how Ashes of Time was received when it was released.

5.  Rushmore        (Wes Anderson, 1998)
Bill Murray remains the most criminally underrated actor of all time.

6.  Once Upon a Time in the West        (Sergio Leone, 1969)
7.  Yi yi: A One and a Two…        (Edward Yang, 2000)
How the crushing forces of economic globalism and political isolation can so tear a culture down, leaving people struggling to find truth and meaning in their lives.

8.  The Wild Bunch        (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
9.  L'Argent de Poche        (François Truffaut, 1976)
10.  The Graduate        (Mike Nichols, 1967)
Movie soundtracks were never the same.

Wayne Cabradilla is an amateur film buff and a student studying in Nanjing, PRC.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Dan Callahan

(in no particular order)

Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Gertrud        (Carl Dreyer, 1964)
La Signora senza camelie        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953)
Au Hasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966)
Francesco, giullare di Dio        (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
The Life of Oharu        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)
Diary of a Chambermaid        (Jean Renoir, 1946)
Stage Door        (Gregory La Cava, 1937)
Madame de.        (Max Ophuls, 1953)
It's All True        (Orson Welles, 1942)

Honorable Mentions: Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922), Autumn Leaves (Robert Aldrich, 1956), The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934).

Dan Callahan began loving films at the age of eight when he abandoned Star Wars for Alfred Hitchcock. He has been writing about films for various publications for a few years now.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Christian Cargnelli

(in no particular order)

Night Moves        (Arthur Penn, 1975)
Peeping Tom        (Michael Powell, 1960)
There's Always Tomorrow        (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
Scorpio Rising        (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
My Darling Clementine        (John Ford, 1946)
Le boucher        (Claude Chabrol, 1969)
While the City Sleeps        (Fritz Lang, 1956)
Kiss Me Deadly        (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
In a Lonely Place        (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

Just outside the list: Preston Sturges, Frank Tashlin, Marcel Ophüls, Ernst Lubitsch, Le mépris (Godard).

Christian Cargnelli, 39, is an editor of books on film exile, film melodrama and film noir. He lives in Vienna, Austria.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Eric Carpenter

(in preferential order)

1.  The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
2.  Nashville        (Robert Altman, 1975)
3.  La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
4.  Meet Me in St. Louis        (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
5.  Ordet        (Carl Dreyer, 1954)
6.  Trouble in Paradise        (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
7.  The Red Shoes        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949)
8.  Rio Bravo        (Howard Hawks, 1959)
9.  Only Angels Have Wings        (Howard Hawks, 1939)
10.  I Was a Male War Bride        (Howard Hawks, 1949)

Honorable mentions: Vertigo, Exterminating Angel, Pickpocket, My Darling Clemintine, and His Girl Friday.

See also Eric's revised list: Oct–Dec 2006

Eric is a cinephile and film student currently residing in North Carolina.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Joanna Di Mattia

(in no particular order)

Raging Bull        (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
Manhattan        (Woody Allen, 1979)
On the Waterfront        (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Les Quatre cents coups        (François Truffaut, 1959)
The Age of Innocence        (Martin Scorsese, 1993)
8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
The Misfits        (John Huston, 1960)
L'Eclisse        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
Jules et Jim        (François Truffaut, 1962)
Edward Scissorhands        (Tim Burton, 1990)

Joanna Di Mattia is a doctoral student in Melbourne, Australia, and is infinitely bewitched by the cinema.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Anthony Easton

(revised list, in no particular order)

F for Fake        (Orson Welles, 1975)
How nimbly this film lies and how carefully this film tells the truth. There is something sad in how the "fraud and faker" is proved to be the most true of the artists, almost an apology for the fictions Welles told.

Barry Lyndon        (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
Yes, it's a rake's progress. Yes, it tells more about the class system then we feel comfortable admitting. Yes, it's laboured and slow. None of this matters as much as how the camera creates something so austere out of so much opulence.

Il Decameron        (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970)
The recontextualization of texts seems less vital and more convenient the more I watch his work. This film isolates Pasolini's moral urgency more then any other, I think, and uses Boccaccio's Decameron as a highly recognizable route to do so.

Sunset Boulevard        (Billy Wilder, 1950)
The nastiest love note to Hollywood, shot in such a way that the differences between intimacy and claustrophobia become indiscernible. Also one of very few movies to give any credit to the writers.

Rope        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)
The real time format means something most definitely, however there is also the archness of Farley Granger's performance and the butch theatrics of Jimmy Stewart as Rupert Cadell.

If….        (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
Malcolm McDowell leads a Maoist revolt at an Eton-like school in the English countryside. All of the subtlety of a cannon but filled with the sexy angst that the Situationists brought to Paris and the Yippees bought to Chicago.

Pinocchio        (Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen, 1940)
Not the fable about the cute boy who wants to grow up, this film reaches levels of perversity and fear that go almost unmatched.

Kids        (Larry Clark, 1995)
Proof that no one reads fiction anymore, Horatio Alger updated for the AIDS age gets spinned as a Dateline docudrama.

Cabaret        (Bob Fosse, 1972)
Scenes of High Tragedy and Low Comedy merge and a story about love turns into a fable about blindness.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes        (Howard Hawks, 1953)
It's not only a fluffy musical.

See also Anthony's previous list: July–Aug 2001

Anthony Easton is a student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and tries to go to the movies once a week.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Nick Figliola

(in preferential order)

1.  Wild Strawberries        (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
2.  Pulp Fiction        (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
3.  A Streetcar Named Desire        (Elia Kazan, 1951)
4.  Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
5.  Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
     North by Northwest        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
7.  Casablanca        (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
8.  Belle de Jour        (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
9.  Chinatown        (Roman Polanski, 1974)
10.  The Graduate        (Mike Nichols, 1967)

See also Nick's revised list: Apr–June 2007

Nick Figliola is a Communication Arts major interested in journalism and a career in writing for film, based in Wilmington, DE in the United States.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Aaron Goldberg

(in no particular order)

After Hours        (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
Stranger Than Paradise        (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
Dawn of the Dead        (George A. Romero, 1978)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre        (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Le Diable Probablement        (Robert Bresson, 1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark        (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
Le Mépris        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
Mad Max & Mad Max 2        (George Miller, 1979 & 1981)
Videodrome        (David Cronenberg, 1982)

Honorable mentions: Blue Velvet (David Lynch), Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavettes), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder), La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol).

Aaron Goldberg studies screenwriting at RMIT in Melbourne and writes for R4 magazine, JJJ websites and anywhere else that will have him.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Ernest Haines

Ten answers to the question, "Why Am I A Cinephile?"

(in alphabetical order)

Bob le flambeur        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1955)
Beautiful existential piece from the godfather of the French New Wave.

The Cranes are Flying        (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
Starring the incomparable Tatiana Samoilova, this starts out as a near-parody of idyllic romance, then turns tragic as war upends a typical Russian community. The camera moves alone warrant a place in cinema history.

El        (Luis Buñuel, 1952)
Buñuel's most overlooked film. Perhaps the truest indictment of the strange nexus of Catholicism and male sexuality ever filmed.

High and Low        (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Set in contemporary Japan, Kurosawa turns an unreadable potboiler by Ed McBain into a Dostoevskyian tragedy. Mifune mesmerizes.

Ivan's Childhood        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
One of the great child performances, and an eloquent rebuttal to the argument that creativity and art couldn't exist in Communist Russia.

Jules et Jim        (François Truffaut, 1962)
Playful, serious, epic, personal cinema. New Wave apotheosis.

Im Lauf der Zeit        (Wim Wenders, 1976)
Wenders' depiction of post-WWII German male angst filtered through Ford and Ray.

La Dolce Vita        (Federico Fellini, 1960)
The fall of the Roman empire leaves a glittering wake, like a meteorite clad in black tie.

Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Bergman's masterpiece IS Cinema!

Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
The maestro at the peak of his powers. De Niro stakes his claim as America's actor laureate. The genesis of my filmmaking ambition.

See also Ernest's revised list: Jan–Mar 2004

Ernest Haines, Jr. is a cineaste / aspiring filmmaker residing in San Jose, California.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Eric Henderson

(revised list, in chronological order)

Make Way for Tomorrow        (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Day of Wrath        (Carl Dreyer, 1943)
Duck Amuck        (Chuck Jones, 1953)
All That Heaven Allows        (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
La Jetée        (Chris Marker, 1962)
Simon of the Desert        (Luis Buñuel, 1965)
Playtime        (Jacques Tati, 1967)
3 Women        (Robert Altman, 1977)
The Fury        (Brian De Palma, 1978)
Creepshow        (George A. Romero, 1982)

Runners-up obviously abound (maybe next year). In the interest of the golden "one film per director" rule, I had to leave out: Nashville (Altman, '75), Dressed to Kill (De Palma, '80), Long-Haired Hare (Jones, '49), and Night of the Living Dead (Romero, '68). Some very recent masterpieces that I copped-out by not mentioning in favour of "they're just too new" are: Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995), Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997), Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998), Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999), L'Humanité (Bruno Dumont, 1999), A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001), and The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001).

See also Eric's previous list: July–Aug 2001

Eric Henderson, who, like everyone, has a website, lives in Minneapolis and gives his props to the U Film Society, the Walker Art Center, and the Oak Street Cinema.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Fábio Kawano

(in preferential order)

1.  Wild Strawberries        (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
2.  Late Spring        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
3.  Rashomon        (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
4.  Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
5.  Landscape in the Mist        (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988)
6.  Sanshô dayû        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
7.  Unagi        (Shohei Imamura, 1997)
8.  Au Hasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966)
9.  Death in Venice        (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
10.  Porto da Minha Infância        (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001)

Fábio Kawano is a film student in São Paulo.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Robert Lawton

(in no particular order)

Underground        (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
Eating, digestion, evacuation.

An Autumn Afternoon        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)
Light and stillness.

Black Narcissus        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
Turning on colour.

Barry Lyndon        (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
A game of chance.

Ivan's Childhood        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
The university of hard knocks.

Rocco and His Brothers        (Luchino Visconti, 1960)
Life as prayer.

Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Loop of redemption.

The Thin Red Line        (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Blowing in the wind.

Once Upon a Time in America        (Sergio Leone, 1984)
Saving grace.

Dersu Uzala        (Akira Kurosawa, 1974)
Uprooting.

Honorable mentions: Dekalog 2 (Kieslowski), Miller's Crossing (Coen), Mulholland Drive (Lynch), Accident (Losey), Manhattan (Allen).

Robert Lawton is an Australian living in Yorkshire, UK. He is looking forward to visiting Lawrence of Arabia's grave at Christmas.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

James Leahy

Of course David Thomson is right, it's a children's game, but like many children's games, it's fun. And sometimes it can allow one to make a polemical point, as Thomson did when he took ten Hawks films to his desert island. I thought about voting for ten Renoirs, but decided I couldn't live without Singin' in the Rain and at least one Ozu. So here we go (apart from my number one, they're in no particular order):

1.  La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Orson Welles had it right when he rated Renoir "probably the greatest director in the world". This is his greatest film.

Singin' in the Rain        (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)
So many magic moments, including Cosmo inventing dubbing and Don getting the credit; "Moses Supposes"; the title number… need I go on?

Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
I decided to stand by the list I submitted in June to the London listings magazine Time Out, otherwise I'd've dropped Vertigo, which has already received quite enough votes in your poll!

The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Godard said it all: "Mystery and fascination of this American cinema. How can I hate… John Wayne upholding Goldwater and love him tenderly when abruptly he takes Natalie Wood into his arms in the next-to-last reel…?"

Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
I showed it to a class the weekend my father died, but I was already in love with it.

Bitter Victory        (Nicholas Ray, 1957)
One of my favourites even before I'd met Nick, though I'd then only seen the savagely cut U.K. release version. I saw a more complete print with the final sequences when Nick set up a screening at the Cinémathèque Française for me. I guess the fact I find Nick's disturbingly pessimistic account of human aspiration and endeavour so compelling and so moving explains why I've never written the book I planned about him. He told me he'd shown a rough-cut to the Soviet delegation at Cannes because he wanted Shostakovich to do the score. After the screening he was told that no Soviet artist could write music for a film that so undermined the conception of the hero!

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange        (Jean Renoir, 1936)
It's a vampire movie, a hilarious satire with wonderful ensemble acting and an extraordinary performance by Jules Berry, and a teaching film like one of the Lehrstücke of Renoir's friend Brecht. It concludes with a people's jury delivering a revolutionary verdict vindicating a "necessary murder". All in only eighty minutes!

Le Carrosse d'or        (Jean Renoir, 1952)
His greatest film after Dido Freire became, in 1939, first his partner, replacing his wonderful editor, the politically militant Marguerite, then his wife. All the themes Renoir shared with Pirandello are foregrounded here. There are three tiny but significant cuts in all English-language 35mm prints I've seen, but not in 16mm copies, nor in the (dubbed) French-language version.

Vampyr        (Carl Dreyer, 1932)
Truly "a strange adventure". London's National Film Archive still has (I hope) a wonderful, almost complete, viewing copy.

Sarraounia        (Med Hondo, 1986)
An anti-colonialist epic, in both the Hollywood and the Brechtian senses. It's another film by a friend, but, as happened with Nick, Med became a friend because I loved his films, not the other way round.

Five films and six directors survive from the list I contributed to the 1982 Sight & Sound poll. Out have gone:
The Battle of Chile Parts 1 & 2 (1973/5) and Patricio Guzmán; Ceddo (1977) and Sembène Ousmane; Hanoi, Tuesday the 13th (1967) and Santiago Alvarez; Masculin-Féminin (1966) and Jean-Luc Godard (despite the fact that his films in the '60s started me thinking about what cinema could be); The Only Son and its aesthetically correct systemic rigor (1936, Ozu's first sound film); and Une Partie de campagne (1936/46, an eleventh film, smuggled into my list as a short accompanying Le Carrosse d'or in an old-fashioned double bill!).

James Leahy is a film historian, critic, lecturer, actor and screenwriter, co-scenarist of 1871, an official selection at Cannes and Karlovy Vary in 1990.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Henrique Lopes

(in no particular order)

Amarcord        (Federico Fellini, 1974)
Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
City Lights        (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
The General        (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1926)
The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Singin' in the Rain        (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)
Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

See also Henrique's revised list: Jul–Sept 2005

Born in the city of Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, Henrique Lopes is a 38 year old music teacher with a parallel career as a composer. He is an inveterate cinephile, and a movie critic for a local newspaper, Folha de Montemor.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

John Orr

(in alphabetical order)

A Bout de Souffle        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
Edges out Vivre sa vie as Godard's quintessential Paris.

The Apu Trilogy        (Satyajit Ray, 1955–59)
Because no one part of Ray's masterpiece is better than the other two.

Ashes and Diamonds        (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
Edges out A Short Film about Killing as Aristotle in Polish form.

Los Olvidados        (Luis Buñuel, 1950)
Edges out Rossellini because it is more extreme and more visionary.

Mirror        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
Edges out 8½ as the Century's great Memory Film.

Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Edges out The Silence in its take on the power of silence.

Ran        (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
Edges out Throne of Blood – despite Mifune – as the greatest Shakespeare on screen.

Il Deserto Rosso        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)
Edges out Stalker and Blade Runner for the power of its infernal landscapes.

Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
Edges out The Trial for its spatial meditations on justice.

Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Wipes out all unacknowledged remakes by lesser mortals.

Regrets: The General, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors, Days of Heaven.

John Orr lives in Edinburgh and teaches film at Edinburgh University. He is author of Cinema and Modernity, Contemporary Cinema, and The Art and Politics of Film.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Andrew Rector

(in no particular order)

Killer of Sheep        (Charles Burnett, 1977)
Murder by Contract        (Irving Lerner, 1958)
Playtime        (Jacques Tati, 1967)
Homework        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
Tabu        (F.W. Murnau, 1930)
Made in U.S.A.        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
Black and Tan        (Dudley Murphy, 1929)
La Chienne        (Jean Renoir, 1931)
A Corner in Wheat        (D.W. Griffith, 1909)
Several Friends        (Charles Burnett, 1969)

Of these films, the sound films have startling sound: rich direct sound, thematic musical variations, skillful flaws, communal music, and all around there is a combination of sound and image that is akin to the rhythms of the silents listed. This is just one reason for their inclusion, but an important one for me. As we see more and more disintegrated digital images, sound is of utmost inspiration. In this respect the absence of Bresson is a crime. The inclusion of Made in U.S.A. and La Chienne is meant to implicate Nicholas Ray/Fuller/Hawks and Lang respectively.

Andrew Rector is a filmmaker residing in Los Angeles who is always trying to see Straub/Huillet films.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

George Robinson

In alphabetical order, because when you get to this level of achievement, anything else is an insult to the artists.

Chimes at Midnight        (Orson Welles, 1966)
Duck Amuck        (Chuck Jones, 1953)
French CanCan        (Jean Renoir, 1955)
Salvatore Giuliano        (Francesco Rosi, 1961)
Sans soleil        (Chris Marker, 1982)
The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Sherlock, Jr.        (Buster Keaton, 1924)
Shoah        (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
Shin Heike Monogatari        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

This list will probably different a half-hour from now, although several of the titles have been on my list over thirty years as a film critic.

George Robinson is the film critic for Jewish Week (NYC) and INSIDE Magazine (Philadelphia).

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Matt Severson

(in chronological order)

La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc        (Carl Dreyer, 1928)
Un Chien andalou        (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, 1928)
Boudu sauvé des eaux        (Jean Renoir, 1932)
I Was Born, But…        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932)
One Hour With You        (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
Pather Panchali        (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé        (Robert Bresson, 1956)
Les Quatre cents coups        (François Truffaut, 1959)
8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

5 runners up: Madame de… (1953, France) Max Ophuls; Sanshô dayû (1954, Japan) Kenji Mizoguchi; Bonjour Tristesse (1958, USA) Otto Preminger; 3 Women (1977, USA) Robert Altman; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989, UK) Peter Greenaway.

Matt Severson is Assistant Photograph Curator at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002

Mark Sprecher

(in chronological order)

Intolerance        (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
I Know Where I'm Going!        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1945)
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman        (Albert Lewin, 1951)
Europa '51        (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)
Mr. Arkadin        (Orson Welles, 1955)
The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Pyaasa        (Guru Dutt, 1957)
The Tarnished Angels        (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
Some Came Running        (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

These are all movies that have shifted the ground under the feet – in terms of personal identify, sense of the world, and immersion into film style, breadth and depth. The thing that pains me here are some of the movies and directors I've had to leave off: Chaplin, Cukor, Dreyer, Hawks, Lubitsch, Mizoguchi, Ophuls, Satyajit Ray, Renoir, Truffaut. (And that still leaves off Chabrol, Goddard, Keaton, Lang, Leone, McCarey, Murnau, Nicholas Ray, Preston Sturges, Wilder). Time for the ten-best lists to get expanded to 20, at least.

Mark Sprecher is a former 2nd A.D., personal assistant (including to one of the directors on his ten-best list), and repertory film programmer and booker. He resides in Los Angeles.

back to lists, Nov-Dec 2002


TALLY at November–December 2002,
after 287 original lists, 38 revised lists, and 4 deleted lists:

By film:

La Règle du jeu
La Règle du jeu
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.

 7.
 8.


 Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Au Hasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966)
The Thin Red Line       (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) 		60
34
30
26
24
24
21
20
20
20

By director:

to Marc Raymond's 'Great Directors' profile of Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.
 6.
 7.
 8.
 9.

 Alfred Hitchcock
Orson Welles
Jean-Luc Godard
Robert Bresson
Stanley Kubrick
Andrei Tarkovsky
Martin Scorsese
Carl Dreyer
Ingmar Bergman
Federico Fellini 		107
  76
  73
  67
  59
  57
  51
  50
  47
  47

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July–August 2002

 


Mark Adnum

(in no particular order)

All About My Mother        (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
Kiss of the Spider Woman        (Hector Babenco, 1985)
The Ten Commandments        (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)
Aliens        (James Cameron, 1986)
Il Conformista        (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969)
Psycho        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
Raise the Red Lantern        (Zhang Yimou, 1991)
Farewell My Concubine         (Chen Kaige, 1993)
The Exorcist        (William Friedkin, 1973)
All About Eve         (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

Mark Adnum is a writer living in Sydney. He contributes articles to websites such as www.spiked-online, and has made a couple of short films, which have shown in Melbourne, Sydney, and Los Angeles.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Daud M. Ali

(in preferential order)

1.  7 Women        (John Ford, 1966)
2.  Au Hasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966)
3.  Germania anno zero        (Roberto Rossellini, 1947)
4.  The Puppetmaster        (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1993)
5.  Before Sunrise        (Richard Linklater, 1995)
6.  Madame de…        (Max Ophuls, 1953)
7.  The Life of Oharu        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)
8.  Monsieur Verdoux        (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
9.  One Hour With You        (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
10.  True Heart Susie        (D.W. Griffith, 1919)

Honourable mentions: One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932), The Lusty Men (Nick Ray, 1952), Little Man, What Now? (Frank Borzage, 1934), Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger, 1950), Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, 1942).

Daud M. Ali is a mensch cinephile and media student at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Alex Castro

(revised list, in no particular order)

8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Hana-Bi        (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
Time of the Gypsies        (Emir Kusturica, 1989)
The Three Little Pigs        (Burt Gillett, 1933)
Anémic Cinéma        (Marcel Duchamp, 1926)
Memories of Underdevelopment        (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
Sur/South        (Fernando Solanas, 1987)
The Secret of Roan Inish        (John Sayles, 1993)
Exile in Sarajevo        (Tahir Cambas & Alma Sahbaz, 1997)
Amores Perros        (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)

See also Alex's previous list: Mar 2000

Alex Castro is a film lover first and foremost, with a particular interest in Latin American cinema. He is director of Melbourne Filmoteca: Spanish + Latin American Film Group, and has coordinated festivals of Hispanic and Chilean cinema in Melbourne, as well as serving on short film selection panels for MIFF 2000–2002.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

David Ehrenstein

(in preferential order)

1.  Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train        (Patrice Chéreau, 1998)
2.  8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
3.  The Night of the Hunter        (Charles Laughton, 1955)
4.  The Red Shoes        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949)
5.  Lola Montès        (Max Ophuls, 1955)
6.  Performance        (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
7.  Judex        (Georges Franju, 1963)
8.  Force of Evil        (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)
9.  The Palm Beach Story        (Preston Sturges, 1942)
10.  Good News        (Charles Walters, 1947)

See also David's revised lists: Apr–June 2004      Jul–Sept 2006

David Ehrenstein was born in New York City in 1947. His books include Film: The Front Line – 1984, The Scorsese Picture, and Open Secret. He has contributed to Film Culture, Film Quarterly, Positif and Cahiers du Cinema. He lives in Los Angeles. Visit www.ehrensteinland.com.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

KinMarcus Ferate

(in preferential order)

1.  Wingsof Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
2.  Storyof Riki        (Ngai Kai Lam, 1991)
3.  LeBallon rouge        (Albert Lamorisse, 1956)
4.  LesQuatre Cents Coups        (FrançoisTruffaut, 1959)
5.  TheKiller        (John Woo, 1989)
6.  LaPassion de Jeanne d'Arc        (CarlDreyer, 1928)
7.  AuHasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966)
8.  BarryLyndon        (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
9.  Breakingthe Waves        (Lars von Trier, 1996)
10.  L'Âged'Or        (Luis Buñuel, 1930)

Honorable mentions: Pink Flamingos by John Waters, Phenomena by Dario Argento, Berlin Alexanderplatz by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Scorpio Rising by Kenneth Anger, Bringing Up Baby by Howard Hawks, and too many more to mention here right now…

KinMarcus Ferate is a film geek/critic who is working to get into the business as a director/scriptwriter. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Neil Godfrey

(in preferential order)

1.  My Dinner with André        (Louis Malle, 1981)
"It's quite delicious."

2.  Wings of Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
"It's time to get serious."

3.  Pee-Wee's Big Adventure        (Tim Burton, 1985)
Funniest movie ever.

4.  Solaris        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
The Soderbergh/Clooney remake will surely top this. Surely.

5.  La Maman et la Putain        (Jean Eustache, 1973)
Too bad dude had to off himself.

6.  Sebastiane        (Derek Jarman, 1976)
Gayness.

7.  Naked          (Mike Leigh, 1993)
Thewlis can act.

8.  Even Dwarfs Started Small        (Werner Herzog, 1971)
For the monkey on the cross.

9.  Puce Moment        (Kenneth Anger, 1949)
It's like 14 times better than Sunset Boulevard. (And SB's pretty good!)

10. Empire        (Andy Warhol, 1964)
Well, this movie is way too long to actually sit through, but I've seen 10 minutes and I think I liked what I saw (?)

And honorable mentions to Rio Bravo, which is the second funniest movie ever. To Orgazmo – the best Mormon-themed movie yet. And to Buffalo '66 which, according to Vincent Gallo, is "a masterpiece." Must be so…

Neil Godfrey, 23, is an Arizona-based full-time food service industry whore *and* frequent consumer of "the spectacle."

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Cameron Grace

(in preferential order)

1.  2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Moves along slowly through the landscape of cinema history like a grand ocean liner from yesteryear.

2.  The Swimmer        (Frank Perry, 1968)
"How bonny are the banks of the Lucinda River".

3.  Duck Soup        (Leo McCarey, 1933)
World cinema's finest ever war film.

4.  Le Samourai        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
If David Neitz is the Kevin Bacon of football, then surely Chris Tarrant is its Alain Delon. Discuss.

5.  Two-Lane Blacktop        (Monte Hellman, 1971)
"It will give you a set of emotions that are permanent".

6.  The Innocents        (Jack Clayton, 1961)
If I ever get married, I'll probably get divorced if anyone in my house ever bags this.

7.  Withnail and I        (Bruce Robinson, 1986)
One of the most perfectly realised scripts in the history of British cinema. Paul Harris hates it?, apparently.

8.  Two for the Road        (Stanley Donen, 1966)
The conjoined phrase romantic-comedy usually makes me run for the hills but this film exists in a realm of its own. Features Henry Mancini's fabbest hour.

9.  Blood and Roses        (Roger Vadim, 1960)
One of those pictures I love unreservedly, but couldn't possibly defend.

10. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg        (Jacques Demy, 1964)
If you're going to be lugging 35mm film canisters to a desert island, I figure you'll be needing one musical. Superior Stuff.

Cameron Grace is a star-crossed fairground attendant who also writes film related stuff for Inpress in Melbourne.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Alexander Greenhough

(revised list, in no particular order)

Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Contact        (Alan Clarke, 1985)
After Hours        (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
Fox and His Friends        (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
Werckmeister Harmonies        (Béla Tarr, 2000)
La Maman et la putain        (Jean Eustache, 1973)
The Man with a Movie Camera        (Dziga Vertov, 1928)
A Wedding        (Robert Altman, 1978)
The Life of Oharu        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)
Soylent Green        (Richard Fleischer, 1973)

See also Alexander's other lists: Sept–Oct 2001        Jan–Mar 2004

Alexander Greenhough is a filmmaker living in Wellington, New Zealand.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

David Hoggan

(in preferential order)

1.  Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
2.  Swing Time        (George Stevens, 1936)
3.  Journal d'un curé de campagne        (Robert Bresson, 1950)
4.  The Circus        (Charles Chaplin, 1928)
5.  The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
6.  Out of the Past        (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
7.  The Passenger        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975)
8.  My Darling Clementine        (John Ford, 1946)
9.  Playtime        (Jacques Tati, 1967)
10.  The Thief of Bagdad        (Raoul Walsh, 1924)

David Hoggan is a film buff living in Vienna, VA.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Matt Holden

In no particular order, ten films I'd watch again and again …

Light Sleeper        (Paul Schrader, 1991)
Year of the Dragon        (Michael Cimino, 1985)
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop        (Spike Lee, 1983)
Sans soleil         (Chris Marker, 1982)
Le Deuxième Souffle        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966)
L' Armeé des Ombres     (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)
Les Nuits de la pleine lune        (Eric Rohmer, 1984)
Ghost Dance        (Ken McMullen, 1983)
The Narrow Margin        (Richard Fleischer, 1952)
Two-Lane Blacktop        (Monte Hellman, 1971)

Matt Holden blogs anything that catches his eye – including film – here.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Tim Holm

(revised list, in preferential order)

1.  Star Wars: A New Hope        (George Lucas, 1977)
2.  Lawrence of Arabia        (David Lean, 1962)
3.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
4.  2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
5.  King Kong        (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
6.  Annie Hall        (Woody Allen, 1977)
7.  To Kill a Mockingbird        (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
8.  Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
9.  The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
10.  E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial        (Steven Spielberg, 1982)

See also Tim's previous list: Nov–Dec 2001

Tim Holm is a 17 year old film lover and aspiring director from British Columbia, Canada.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Julien Humphreys

(revised list, in no particular order)

La Strada        (Federico Fellini, 1954)
Ivan's Childhood        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
Freeze, Die, Come to life        (Vitaly Kanevsky, 1989)
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors        (Sergei Parajanov, 1964)
Les Quatre Cents Coups        (François Truffaut, 1959)
Le Mépris        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
Three Colours: Blue        (Krzysztof Kieslowki, 1993)
Le Samourai        (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
Taste of Cherry        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
Autumn Sonata        (Ingmar Begrman, 1978)

Also just outside the final list: A scene at the sea (Kitano), La comare secca (Bertolucci), Sunday's Children (Daniel Bergman), Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman), Au revoir les enfants (Malle) and several others. Diolch yn fawr, Cymru am byth!

See also Julien's previous list: Jul–Aug 2001

Julien Humphreys is an 18 year old cinephile living in Bangor, Wales, and studying Welsh, English, French and Spanish in school. Next year he will hopefully go to Liverpool University to study Modern Languages and European Cinema.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Elric Kane

(revised list, in no particular order)

Greed        (Erich von Stroheim, 1925)
One of cinema's true tragedies was the butchering of this film, but that said it's still an incredible plunge into self destruction and cruelty.

Sherlock, Jr.        (Buster Keaton, 1924)
An early masterpiece from the old stone face. Flawless stunts, comic timing and reflexive cinema at its best.

Werckmeister Harmonies        (Béla Tarr, 2000)
The most incredible film I've viewed in years. Brilliantly orchestrated set pieces and Vig Mihaly's haunting score. The Hungarians seem to have it!

Woman in the Dunes        (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
Watching the entymologist through a microscope we see this minimal meditation on existence.

Harold and Maude        (Hal Ashby, 1971)
A comic gem by one of the most overlooked names in American cinema. "If you wanna be free be free."

The Night of the Hunter        (Charles Laughton, 1955)
The performances seem more like Wil E. Coyote and Roadrunner but the haunting lighting and fairy tale like set pieces make this film timeless.

Buffet froid        (Bertrand Blier, 1979)
A grand surreal sentiment that takes an off-beat approach to male relations and misogyny for starters. Buñuel would have been proud.

Hour of the Wolf        (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
Truly nightmarish stuff, with Von Sydow as an artist whose mind is falling apart quicker than his marriage.

The Lady From Shanghai        (Orson Welles, 1947)
Great overlooked noir piece that is as experimental as anything in Welles' oeuvre, and has one of cinema's great set endings.

O Lucky Man!        (Lindsay Anderson, 1973)
Something about this surreal vision that keeps me coming back for more. Mick Travis and his coffee selling antics across the English countryside. Hilarious.

Five that just missed out this time: 1. Suspiria (Argento) 2. King of New York (Ferrera) 3. Chinese Roulette (Fassbinder) 4. Stroszek (Herzog) 5. Trust (Hartley).

See also Elric's other lists: Sept–Oct 2001        Jul–Sept 2004

Elric Kane is a filmmaker living in Wellington, New Zealand.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Rainer Knepperges

(in chronological order)

Große Freiheit Nr.7        (Helmut Käutner, 1944)
Red River        (Howard Hawks, 1948)
Le Sang des bêtes        (Georges Franju, 1949)
Rio Grande        (John Ford, 1950)
The Birds        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Gregory's Girl        (Bill Forsyth, 1980)
Tender Mercies        (Bruce Beresford, 1982)
Midnight Run        (Martin Brest, 1988)
Strictly Ballroom        (Baz Luhrmann, 1992)

Rainer Knepperges, born 1965 in Korschenbroich, Germany, is Co-Founder of Filmclub 813 in Cologne and editor of Gdinetmao. He has written screenplays (Happy Weekend) and made short films (Tour Eiffel).

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Josh Mabe

(in no particular order)

God's Step Children        (Oscar Micheaux, 1938)
The Straight Story        (David Lynch, 1999)
Where is the Friend's House?        (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
Monika        (Ingmar Bergman, 1952)
In a Year of 13 Moons        (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)
Thieves Like Us        (Robert Altman, 1973)
Outer and Inner Space        (Andy Warhol, 1965)
Shock Corridor        (Samuel Fuller, 1963)
The Band Wagon        (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
The Thin Red Line        (Terrence Malick, 1998)

… plus a few shorts: Hagop Hovnatanian (Parajanov) & Fireworks (Anger) & Window Water Baby Moving (Brakhage) & Jollies (Benning).

See also Josh's revised list: Jan–Mar 2004

Josh Mabe is a film geek from Rock Hill, South Carolina.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

John Martin

(in preferential order)

1.  Days of Heaven        (Terrence Malick, 1978)
2.  Blade Runner: The Director's Cut        (Ridley Scott, 1982)
3.  Taxi Driver        (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
4.  Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
5.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
6.  McCabe & Mrs. Miller        (Robert Altman, 1971)
7.  Barry Lyndon        (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
8.  Ashes and Diamonds        (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
9.  Jules et Jim        (François Truffaut, 1962)
10.  The Conversation        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

Five films from the last five years that I couldn't bear to leave unmentioned, in alphabetical order: Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2001), Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000), The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001), The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998), Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001).

See also John's revised list: Oct–Dec 2004

John Martin is a high school student living in Fargo, North Dakota.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Angelique Morin

(in no particular order)

Blow-Up        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
The Royal Tenenbaums*        (Wes Anderson, 2001)
Double Indemnity        (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Barton Fink        (Joel Coen, 1991)
Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Happiness        (Todd Solondz, 1998)
Vivre sa vie        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Some Like It Hot        (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Barry Lyndon        (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
Dead Man        (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)

* The narrative structure is built around the centrifugal concept of existence – are they living, are they dying or somewhere in between (i.e. fantasy)? Seamless.

Angelique Morin has studied film theory formally and without restraint. She is an Australian living in Vancouver, Canada.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Tony Rigby

(in preferential order)

1.  Jubilee        (Derek Jarman, 1977)
2.  Kind Hearts and Coronets        (Robert Hamer, 1949)
3.  Metropolis        (Fritz Lang, 1926)
4.  Alice in Wonderland        (Jonathan Miller, 1967)
5.  Naked        (Mike Leigh, 1993)
6.  Lola        (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)
7.  1+1 / Sympathy for the Devil        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)
8.  Pi        (Darren Aronofsky, 1998)
9.  Satyricon        (Federico Fellini, 1969)
10.  Intolerance        (D. W. Griffith, 1916)

Tony Rigby lives in London and watches films.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Chuck Rudolph

(in preferential order)

1.  McCabe and Mrs. Miller        (Robert Altman, 1971)
2.  The Young Girls of Rochefort        (Jacques Demy, 1967)
3.  O Lucky Man!        (Lindsay Anderson, 1973)
4.  Platoon        (Oliver Stone, 1986)
5.  Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
6.  The Godfather Pts. 1 & 2        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972/1974)
7.  Little Big Man        (Arthur Penn, 1970)
8.  Once Upon a Time in the West        (Sergio Leone, 1968)
9.  The Grapes of Wrath        (John Ford, 1940)
10.  Cabaret        (Bob Fosse, 1972)

Honorable Mentions: A Day in the Country, Nashville, The Graduate, Gimme Shelter, Coming Home.

Three westerns, two musicals (three if you count Alan Price's enormous contributions to O Lucky Man!), and choices that cover just about every year in the oh-so-cliched heyday of the late '60s/early '70s. (Sorry, 1969.) These are not all movies that I understand top to bottom or feel issue an inarguable profundity, but they are what my mind returns to again and again, recalling specific images, moods, or words that will be with me until the end of time. A personal rule mandates that no film less than a decade old can make the list, forcing potential inductees BIlly Bob Thornton's Sling Blade (1996), Michael Mann's Heat (1995), and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997) to run off and form a list of their own.

Chuck Rudolph is a writer and editor at Matinee Magazine, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Jeremy Schwab

(in no particular order)

Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Les Quatre Cents Coups        (François Truffaut, 1959)
It's a Wonderful Life        (Frank Capra, 1946)
Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
The Godfather        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Shawshank Redemption        (Frank Darabont, 1994)
Good Will Hunting        (Gus Van Sant, 1997)
The Silence of the Lambs        (Jonathan Demme, 1990)
This is Spinal Tap        (Rob Reiner, 1983)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail        (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, 1975)

Jeremy Schwab is an avid movie collector who owns about 250 DVDs and is mostly interested in classic cinema and foreign films. He is located in Vancouver, Canada.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Jason Sound

(in preferential order)

1.  Lost Highway        (David Lynch, 1997)
2.  Weekend        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
3.  Come and See        (Elem Klimov, 1985)
4.  Onibaba        (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
5.  Psycho        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
6.  El Topo        (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1971)
7.  Carnival of Souls        (Herk Harvey, 1962)
8.  The Trial        (Orson Welles, 1963)
9.  Dr. Strangelove        (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
10.  Dog Star Man        (Stan Brakhage, 1962–64)

The next five: Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1976), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974), Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000), The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973), Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony Korine, 1999).

See also Jason's revised list: Jul–Aug 2003

Jason Sound is a filmmaker and artist from Seattle, WA.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Adam Suraf

(in preferential order)

1.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
2.  Casablanca        (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
3.  Gone with the Wind        (Victor Fleming, 1939)
4.  The Godfather II        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
5.  The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
6.  Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
7.  Sunset Boulevard        (Billy Wilder, 1950)
8.  La Grande Illusion        (Jean Renoir, 1937)
9.  8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
10.  The General        (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1926)

Adam Suraf, 22, is a recent graduate of film studies at the University of Buffalo, NY.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002

Eric Wahl

These are ten films that move me emotionally and intellectually through a marriage of compelling writing, acting, and cinematography. Films that stir passion because they were created with passion…

(in no particular order)

Trois Couleurs: Rouge        (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
Matador        (Pedro Almodóvar, 1986)
Stardust Memories        (Woody Allen, 1980)
Monsieur Hire        (Patrice Leconte, 1989)
Hud        (Martin Ritt, 1963)
North by Northwest        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Boogie Nights        (P.T. Anderson, 1997)
Casino        (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
High Hopes        (Mike Leigh, 1988)
Central do Brasil        (Walter Salles, 1998)

With honorable mentions to: The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway, 1997), Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994), Apartment Zero (Martin Donovan, 1988), The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993), and The Way of the Gun (Chris McQuarrie, 2000).

Eric Wahl earned his MFA in fiction from the University of Idaho, where he was actually scripting epic movies he passed off as short stories so he could get his thesis finished and printed. He is a teacher and writer currently living in Green Valley, AZ.

back to lists, Jul-Aug 2002


TALLY at July–August 2002,
after 267 original lists, 36 revised lists, and 3 deleted lists:

By film:

The Searchers
The Searchers
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.
 6.
 7.


10.
 Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
La Règle du jeu        (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Seven Samurai       (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
The Thin Red Line       (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Tokyo Story        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
Au Hasard, Balthazar        (Robert Bresson, 1966) 		53
34
28
24
22
21
19
19
19
18

By director:

to Acquarello's Carl Dreyer profile in 'Great Directors'
Carl Dreyer
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.
 6.
 7.
 8.
 9.
10.

 Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Luc Godard
Orson Welles
Robert Bresson
Stanley Kubrick
Andrei Tarkovsky
Carl Dreyer
Martin Scorsese
Ingmar Bergman
Federico Fellini
Akira Kurosawa 		  96
  73
  68
  64
  55
  52
  46
  44
  43
  42
  42

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May–June 2002

 


Fabien Boully

Contrairement à Jean-Luc Godard, je ne crois qu'il n'y a que dix films qui ont été tournés dans l'Histoire(s) du cinéma – dix films comme nous avons dix doigts de la main. Choisir dix films est pour moi impossible. Mais comme dit Leos Carax, dont je n'aime pas les films, "à l'impossible on est tenu". Voilà donc mes dix films. Plus cinq.

Contrary to Jean-Luc Godard, I do not believe there are only ten films in the '(hi)story(s) of cinema' – ten films like we have ten fingers. For me, a choice of ten films is impossible. But as Leos Carax (whose films I don't like) once said, "we are stuck with the impossible". So here are my ten films – plus five. – transl. Adrian Martin

(in impossible preferential order)

1.  Vertigo        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2.  La Jetée        (Chris Marker, 1963)
3.  The Wind        (Victor Sjöstrom, 1928)
4.  Dreamwork        (Peter Tscherkassky, 2001)
5.  Les Hautes solitudes        (Philippe Garrel, 1974)
6.  Je vous salue, Marie        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1984)
7.  Cat People        (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
8.  La Poison        (Sacha Guitry, 1951)
9.  Gueule d'amour        (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
10. Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo        (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)

11. The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957) 12. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) 13. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1968) 14. Madame de… (Max Ophuls, 1953) 15. Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932).

Fabien Boully teaches Film Studies at the University of Paris X-Nanterre.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Thomas Caldwell

My top ten films significantly moved me emotionally or intellectually when I first saw them. They inspired my love of film and encouraged me to explore new areas of film theory.

(in preferential order)

1.  2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
2.  Blade Runner        (Ridley Scott, 1982)
3.  Eraserhead        (David Lynch, 1976)
4.  Edward Scissorhands        (Tim Burton, 1990)
5.  Wings Of Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
6.  Metropolis        (Fritz Lang, 1926)
7.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind        (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
8.  Barton Fink        (Joel Coen, 1991)
9.  Burnt by the Sun        (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1994)
10. Gun Crazy        (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949)

Just missed out: City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931), Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1994), Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969), Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999).

Thomas Caldwell is a Cinema Studies graduate from The University of Melbourne and a freelance film writer based in Melbourne, Australia.

back to lists, May-June 2002

John Davies

(in preferential order)

1.  Sansho Dayu        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
2.  Paris, Texas        (Wim Wenders, 1984)
3.  Andrei Rublev        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
4.  North by Northwest        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
5.  2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
6.  Alice in the Cities        (Wim Wenders, 1974)
7.  Le Rayon vert        (Eric Rohmer, 1986)
8.  Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
9.  Seven Samurai        (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
10. Vale Abraão        (Manoel de Oliveira, 1993)

Just outside the list: Mirror (Tarkovsky), Some Like it Hot (Wilder), Maborosi (Kore-eda), Vertigo (Hitchcock), Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls).

See also John's revised lists: May–June 2003        Oct–Dec 2004

John Davies is 41, Welsh, and writes as an enthusiast/customer for MovieMail, a British World Cinema video/DVD rental and sale company. He is also the writer/publicist for the Brecon Film Society.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Bill Georgaris

(in chronological order)

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange        (Jean Renoir, 1936)
The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
Black Narcissus        (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
The Red House        (Delmer Daves, 1947)
Touchez pas au Grisbi        (Jacques Becker, 1953)
Un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé        (Robert Bresson, 1956)
Les Yeux sans visage        (Georges Franju, 1959)
The Naked Kiss        (Samuel Fuller, 1964)
Days of Heaven        (Terrence Malick, 1978)
Suture        (Scott McGehee & David Siegel, 1993)

It goes without saying that this list would alter from day to day. On any given day, films from Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Melville, Scorsese and countless others would comfortably sneak in.

Bill Georgaris is a hardcore film fanatic who drives his family completely insane. He's also the creator of They Shoot Pictures Don't They?, a fledgling website dedicated to film directors. He lives in Adelaide, Australia.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Helen Goritsas

(in preferential order)

1.  Blade Runner        (Ridley Scott, 1982)
2.  On the Waterfront        (Elia Kazan, 1954)
3.  Marnie        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)
4.  Aparajito        (Satyajit Ray, 1956)
5.  The Sound of Music        (Robert Wise, 1965)
6.  Farewell My Concubine        (Chen Kaige, 1993)
7.  Nostalghia        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)
8.  The Piano        (Jane Campion, 1993)
9.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
10. The Godfather        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

Helen Goritsas is a Sydney-based film enthusiast – a regular cinemagoer, writer, film student and filmmaker.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Darren Hughes

(in alphabetical order)

Cries and Whispers        (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
Dekalog        (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
Harold and Maude        (Hal Ashby, 1971)
Mirror        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
Ordet        (Carl Dreyer, 1954)
Pather Panchali        (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Sherlock, Jr.        (Buster Keaton, 1924)
The Sweet Hereafter        (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

If asked to name my single favourite film, I would probably cheat and just offer up whichever of these ten films I had seen most recently. Today, that would be Pather Panchali, but I've been feeling the itch to watch Ordet and Mirror again. It seems a shame to have omitted Dr. Strangelove, but I limited myself to one film per director. And besides, Harold and Maude is just as dark, just as biting, and just as funny (and with Cat Stevens, to boot). I also should have left a slot for Bresson, but he and I are still feeling each other out. Ask me again in a year.

Darren Hughes is a doctoral candidate in American literature at the University of Tennessee and author of the website, Long Pauses.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Volker Hummel

Naturally, this list is nothing more than a snapshot of my current preferences. The films I saw last tend to be the ones I find to be the greatest or most abonimable ever. So there is always some kind of balancing involved, of remembered wonders against recent jolts of pleasure, of abstract considerations and bodily reactions. The images that stay are parts of certain aesthetic universes rather than of unique films. The works of David Lynch, Federico Fellini, Takashi Miike, Wong Kar-wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alfred Hitchcock and David Cronenberg for me constitute coherent wonderlands of unforgettable scenes and dreams. Choosing "the best" is more an act of repression than of revelation. Where for example is Kubrick on my list, where the Coen brothers? Lost in the neglectable space beyond the ten. One last word: Fuck Citizen Kane.

(in no particular order)

Crumb        (Terry Zwigoff, 1994)
Always makes me happy.

The Elephant Man        (David Lynch, 1980)
It could have been any one film of this master, but as I become older I tend to prefer Lynch's humanistic side to his enigmatic one.

La Dolce Vita        (Frederico Fellini, 1960)
With Fellini's 8½ and Antonioni's La Notte as close runners-up. Must have something to do with Marcello's grace and melancholy.

"Living Dead" Trilogy by George R. Romero – Night of the Living Dead (1968); Dawn of the Dead (1978); Day of the Dead (1985)
Beginning, peak and monstrous end of the era of the political horror film.

In the Mood for Love        (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
As close to music as film can come.

L'Année dernière à Marienbad        (Alain Resnais, 1962)
Though I have seen it only once a long time ago, images of this film keep turning up, more as a haunting than as memory.

Visitor Q        (Takashi Miike, 2001)
Most hilarious film in years. With Miike, cinema once again has become a place where everything is possible.

A Chinese Ghost Story        (Ching Siu-tung, 1987)
First and sweetest kiss of Hong Kong's zero-gravity cinema on my then still rosy cheek.

Crash        (David Cronenberg, 1996)
The most consistently perverse universe in film history.

Une flamme dans mon coeur        (Alain Tanner, 1987)
I'll never forget that striptease dance with the plush gorilla.

Volker Hummel is a freelance journalist from Hamburg, Germany, and writes on literature and film. He is also author of The Vortex.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Jack Jewers

Almost impossible to say, but I think this is a pretty good selection, at least a worthy one. It's all in the interest of fun anyway. I somehow think I should be more controversial, but maybe that's best left to the list of worst movies ever made!

(in chronological order)

Napoléon        (Abel Gance, 1927; 2000 restoration, not dreadful TV version)
The Third Man        (Carol Reed, 1949)
Rear Window        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Le Notti di Cabiria        (Federico Fellini, 1957)
La Dolce Vita        (Federico Fellini, 1960)
A Bout de Souffle        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
A Clockwork Orange        (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Paris, Texas        (Wim Wenders, 1984)
Everyone Says I Love You        (Woody Allen, 1996)
Mulholland Drive        (David Lynch, 2001)

I don't mean to place undue emphasis on Fellini, but it was somehow easier to narrow some of the others down to one film each. I also tried to make the list representative of as wide a spectrum as possible. Honourable mentions therefore to Bronenosets Potyomkin (Sergei Eistenstein, 1925); Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957); Det Sjunde Inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, 1957); Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979).

See also Jack's revised list: Apr–June 2004

Jack Jewers is a film graduate and fledgling director from London, England.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Eddie Kasica

For this top ten, I have restricted myself to one film per director.

(in chronological order)

Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums        (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne        (Robert Bresson, 1945)
The Big Sleep        (Howard Hawks, 1946))
Out of the Past        (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
Late Spring        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
Ordet        (Carl Dreyer, 1954)
Love Streams        (John Cassavetes, 1984)
Centre Stage        (Stanley Kwan, 1992)

Very honorable mentions: Madame de… (Ophuls), The Wrong Man (Hitchcock), Meshi (Naruse), Ugetsu (Mizoguchi), Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson).

Eddie Kasica is a New York-based screenwriter and magazine editor.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Craig Kinney

(in preferential order)

1.  Vertigo         (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
The Master's masterpiece: the pinnacle of cinematic achievement, simply the most enigmatic film ever.

2.  Ashes of Time        (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
A tour de force of love, longing, and loss, a perfect film: philosophical in its subtle complexity, timeless in its characters, grand in its scope, unique in its editing, visual appeal, framing, and kinetic action pieces.

3.  The Road Home        (Zhang Yimou, 1999)
The human heart filmed, a more touching picture has never been made.

4.  The Thin Red Line        (Terrence Malick, 1998)
As religious and philosophical as a film could ever be, yet its message is almost hidden, spoken entirely through Caviezel's eyes and Malick's shot compositions.

5.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon        (Ang Lee, 2000)
Heaven on film: a beautiful, graceful, timeless picture that is the purest of art forms, quite an ending too.

6.  The Empire Strikes Back        (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
Brilliant filmmaking: grand but lovable, and dark enough to seem real.

7.  Mirror        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
Complex and elusive due to the editing and mirrored performances, but highly rewarding due to the grace of Tarkovsky's camera; breathtaking images with the single greatest ending ever, an ending that not only pulls the film together, but life itself.

8.  In the Mood for Love        (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
A mature, stunning portrait of love, complete with exceptional performances, gorgeous colors, superb framing, and thought provoking editing, making an elegantly touching film with a poetic ending.

9.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly        (Sergio Leone, 1966)
A timeless classic with a stunning visual appeal, one of cinema's best music scores, and fascinating archetypal characters that make this a hugely entertaining encounter with good and evil. Superb performance by Wallach, contrasted brilliantly by Eastwood and Van Cleef.

10. Yojimbo        (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
Great fun, yet also very stylish, with the incomparable Mifune and Kurosawa at their best: the man at crossroads, the shadow on the wall, the knife and the leaf, the mist surrounding the mysterious return, and the poignant ending.

Honorable mention to the brilliant Truman Show which did not fit on the list.

Craig Kinney is a Liberal Studies student at Oregon State University, and he knows cinema is in his future.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Lance Laack

(in preferential order)

1.  Wings of Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
2.  Trois Couleurs: Rouge        (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
3.  Ordet        (Carl Dreyer, 1954)
4.  North by Northwest        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
5.  Lawrence of Arabia        (David Lean, 1962)
6.  Aguirre the Wrath of God        (Werner Herzog, 1972)
7.  Umberto D.        (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
8.  The Harder They Come        (Perry Henzel, 1972)
9.  The Grapes of Wrath        (John Ford, 1940)
10. Drugstore Cowboy        (Gus Van Sant, 1989)

Honorable mentions: Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein), Grand Illusion (Renoir), The Third Man (Reed), High and Low (Kurosawa), and The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan).

Lance Laack is a consultant in Washington, DC.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Eoin McGuigan

1.  Chungking Express        (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)

(the rest in no order)

Léon        (Luc Besson, 1994)
Kikujiro        (Takeshi Kitano, 1998)
In the Mood for Love        (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Happy Together        (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
Heat        (Michael Mann, 1995)
2001: A Space Odyssey        (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Gattaca        (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
Touch of Evil        (Orson Welles, 1958)
Bande à Part        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

Obviously, I'm a rather biased Wong Kar-wai fan. But in my mind it seems as if he can't go wrong. Either way I hope to be able to contribute to a list like this some day in the actual production area.

Eoin McGuigan is a prospective film student at Columbia University in Chicago. Currently he resides in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) and works part time for Asian Media Access, a film exhibition/education non-profit organisation.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Andrea Parissis

I have spent my grown up life in the darkness of the cinemas, watching films and movies. Before assuming reality (wife, children and opening great restaurants), I was viewing up to three films a day. So, this selection is one from a believer and a lover of cinema.

(in chronological order)

Sunrise        (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
For the incredible camera work and the hauntingly beautiful results.

The Magnificent Ambersons        (Orson Welles, 1942)
A radiant and beautiful lament; only 88 mins long!!!

The Third Man        (Carol Reed, 1949)
Lime may be cynical and despicable but you still cry when he dies.

Ugetsu Monogatari        (Kenji Mizoguchi. 1953)
If only for the poetics of those misty scenes on the lakes and rivers.

The Searchers        (John Ford, 1956)
I have taught my 6 year old daughter to say "Let's go home Debbie". My 3 year old is next.

L'Avventura        (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
You would not think alienation could be so beautiful. Mine never was!

Viridiana        (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
Profane and profound. These are certainly not Tolstoy's peasants.

8½        (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Overindulgent and vulgar, out of fashion but still magical.

Il Conformista        (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969)
The story of my life. (Just don't tell my wife)

Apocalypse Now        (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
Lavish, mythical and hallucinatory. As Coppola said: "It's an experience."

Andrea Parissis is a film lover based in Perth.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Marc Raymond

(in preferential order)

1.  Mean Streets        (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
2.  Notorious        (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
3.  Pierrot le Fou        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
4.  Persona        (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
5.  His Girl Friday        (Howard Hawks, 1940)
6.  The Third Man        (Carol Reed, 1949)
7.  Peeping Tom        (Michael Powell, 1960)
8.  Citizen Kane        (Orson Welles, 1941)
9.  Early Summer        (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)
10. Tirez sur le pianiste        (François Truffaut, 1960)

Honorable mention: The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961), Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964), The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970), Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948).

Marc Raymond is a PhD Candidate, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Marcy Saude

These films have blown my mind and/or changed my perception of cinema.

(in no particular order)

Sátántangó        (Béla Tarr, 1994)
I am still reeling. Current all time fave.

A Bout de Souffle        (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
Also Masculin Feminin but this for now.

Solaris        (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
More engaging every time I see/hear it. .

If…        (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)

Stranger Than Paradise        (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)

Ladri di Biciclette        (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?        (Ranier Werner Fassbinder, 1970)

Wings of Desire        (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Those responsible for City of Angels should watch their backs in dark alleys.

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief        (Nagisa Oshima, 1968)
Situationist Genet-based mind-fuck with sexy Japanese teens!

Meshes of the Afternoon        (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
The only short film I'm including, but it's probably why I make movies. Ridiculously beautiful/inspiring.

Not enough room for Fallen Angels, Sonatine, Mahanagar, La Strada or any documentaries, like Hands on a Hard Body… Not enough time to see all the movies I need to see…

Marcy Saude makes/studies film and art and stuff in Oakland, California.

back to lists, May-June 2002

Ekrem Serdar

(in preferential order)