Even More of The Greatest part 4

More of my favourite films in no particular order.

















90. Beau Travail (1999) Claire Denis' semi abstract, homo-erotic masterpiece, Beau Travail depicts life in a French Foreign Legion garrison in north Africa. Denis Lavant plays Sgt. Galloup, a career soldier in charge of a number of young men, recruits from various parts of the globe. When a charismatic and handsome soldier called Sentain arrives, Galloup feels envious of his popularity with the other men and begins to resent him for his apparent bravery and strength of character. In the end Galloup's jealousy and obsession with Sentain leads to his court martial and the end of his career in the legion. The ambiguous ending seems to suggest Galloup's suicide. The simple story, loosely inspired by Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd, is told with little dialogue, the emphasis is on abstracted images and sounds, edited together rythmically. The effect is hypnotic. Denis' direction also emphasises the homo-erotic context, and seems to suggest another reason for Galloup's fixation.


























89. Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
I remember seeing the trailer of Bad Boy Bubby when I was around 13 (when it came out) and being completely gobsmacked. It didnt look like anything else. It has nearly everything a teenage boy would want in a film: a retrobate anti-hero performing various acts of social suicide/destruction. Doing all the things you wish at the time that you could. You've never been drunk enough yet to surpass them, you've never felt that morning after regret. In a sense, coming of age is what Bad Boy Bubby is about. Rolf de Heer's film, about a man called Bubby (played by Nicholas Hope) who is trapped from birth in a small apartment by his deranged mother until he one day escapes and runs amok, was made in an experimental way, using tiny microphones under Hope's wig in order to record 'Bubby's experience', and also using 31 different directors of photography. In order to tell Bubby's story it would have to look and sound completely new. The childlike Bubby's adventures are episodic. He joins a band, discovers pizza, and is frequently taken in by sympathetic onlookers who try to mold him into various guises of middle class acceptabilty, or just themselves, it doesn't work. He is, offcourse, irrepressible. A dirty mirror to hold up to ourselves, he lets us see what we are. Bad Boy Bubby remains one of the most original and, in the end, absurdly touching films of the 90s.

88. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)

Another great example of Yasujiro Ozu's subtly moving and rather beautiful drama films (see Tokyo Story at #56), Record of a Tenement Gentleman is a darkly comic, but no less poignant snap shot of post war Japan. The story concerns the residents of a Tokyo slum that has been damaged during the bombing raids of the 1940's. All the characters are destitutes. Tashiro (played by Ozu regular Chisu Ryu) makes a living in the street telling peoples fortunes. One day he meets a young boy who has apparently been abandoned by his father. Taking him back to his tenement, he tries to persuade his neighbour, Tamekichi, a pots and pans seller, to take the boy temporarily until they can locate his dad. Tamekichi refuses and tells Tashiro to try another neighbour of theirs, a widow named O-tane. Although she is reluctant, O-tane eventually agrees to let the boy stay one night. Told with Ozu's trademark distinctive visual style, using establishing shots to punctuate scenes, this 'beauty of the every day' is what sets Ozu's films apart, and seems somehow very Japanese. The film has a certain pace which keeps us detached from the characters. No melodrama, nothing is confronted quite head on. As with other masters like Bergman or Tarkovsky, in Ozu's best work (of which Tenement Gentlemen is certainly one) one can feel the presence of genius from the outset. These are the films that are the easiest to sit through because, like all great art, they elevate you. It is cinema at its most life enhancing.


























87. Jean de Florette/ Manon des Sources (1986)

Claude Berri's classical two movie adaptation of the novel by Marcel Pagnol, the films were shot in succession and tell the story of two perversely immoral 'salt of the earth' farmers in early 1920's Provence, and their attempts to cheat a naive Parisian out of his inherited land. Ugolin (played by Daniel Auteuil), a dim witted war veteran, returns from World War 1 to his small home town and his elderly uncle Cesar (Yves Montand). Eventually Ugolin reveals to his uncle that, instead of a typical crop, he wishes to grow carnations. At first Cesar is sceptical, but agrees to help his nephew when he realises how much money can be made. They approach a local farmer to see about possibly buying his land, as the scheming Cesar knows of a spring, one that he buried years earlier, that will make this land more fertile. The farmer, who is ignorant of the springs existence, nevertheless refuses and during an altercation with the two prospective buyers he is accidentally killed. After making it appear as if the farmer simply fell from a tree, Ugolin and Cesar scuttle away to bide their time. They learn that the farmers only living heir is a Parisian tax collector named Jean (Gerard Depardieu). Since, as they learn, Jean is a hunchback, it seems unlikely he will want to keep the farm, nevertheless Cesar resorts to breaking the roof tiles in order to attempt to make it as unappealing as possible. Unfortunately for both Cesar and his nephew, Jean has every intention of keeping the land as he intends to breed rabbits. He also wants to bring up his young daughter in the countryside, which he has somewhat idealised. So begins a darkly humourous and ultimately tragic saga. Jean de Florette heralded a fashion for nostalgic period films that would become the norm in French cinema until the release of La Haine in 1995. Berri's adaptation is classicaly and impeccably directed.

86. JFK (1991)

Oliver Stone's epic re-telling of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, JFK is essentially an engrossing mystery thriller, but with a disturbingly real context. Stone's only real claim in the end is that the assassination was a conspiracy orchestrated from somewhere within the American government itself, a prospect which may have seemed far fetched at the time the film was made, but which in a contemporary context is beginning to look more and more believable. The sheer amount of information delivered through this film, some of which is fairly chilling, also give it the feel of a some sort of historical document. In this sense it has something in common with Goodfellas, the film Martin Scorsesse made only a year earlier about life in the mob. Both films seem to stem from some prevailing trend in the early 90s towards the informative. Something which told us how it really was. Stone wrote the screenplay of JFK based on two books: On the Trail of The Assassins by Jim Garrison (who Kevin Costner plays in the film) and Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. Stone also met with L. Fletcher Prouty, a former Chief of Special Operations under Kennedy who became a public critic of United States foreign policy, and particularly of the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. Stone said meeting Prouty was one of the most extraordinary afternoons of his life and it was one of the inspirations of the scene in which the character of Garrison meets a former Pentagon Colonel called 'Mr X'. In the film this character explains to Garrison many things which seem to put the theory of a government conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, it is one of the great payoffs in Hollywood history and something of a verbal climax to a film which is infact structured as much like an old fashioned whoddunit as a documentary. JFK is perhaps the perfect amalgamation of the two.


























85. The Ipcress File (1965)

Surely one of the greatest British films ever made. Sidney J. Furie's adaptation of Len Deighton's spy novel The Ipcress File is also one of the most inventively directed films of the 60's. The camera is frequently watching the scene from some unexpected angle, from behind a phone box or even from inside a lamp shade, the characters in the story are 'under surveilance' from the audience. Michael Caine plays Harry Palmer, a low level intelligence agent working for the Ministry of Defence in London. In contrast to a character like James Bond, Palmer is an insubordinate cockney who enjoys classical music and cooking. He has been recruited to the Ministry from a military prison in which he was incarcerated. All the Palmer films (see also Funeral in Berlin and The Billion Dollar Brain) begin with Palmer reporting to, or being seeked out by, his boss Colonel Ross. To contrast Palmer, Ross is an archetypal English gentleman, one of those elite 'old boy's' that once seemed to exist in Britain, and perhaps still do in some form. He attends a club, wears bowler hats and always has an umbrella. Ross' contempt for Palmer's unusual sense of humour and general insubordinate manner is offcourse comical, but these scenes are where Palmer's character burns the brightest. He appears to wear a mask of smirking indifference, and remains incredibly enigmatic. Although Palmer is sometimes forced to act amorally, he seems to ultimately mean well, and exudes a kind of understated heroism.
When a famous scientist called Dr Radcliffe is abducted, Palmer is re-allocated from his usual surveillance duties to the clandestine government department that was responsible for Radcliffe's security escort: an agent who was killed during the abduction. Palmer's journey is a cerebral one, there is a mystery to unravel. No action set-pieces, no exotic destinations (in this film atleast), just cold violence and a lot of paperwork.


























84. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

In this classic John Ford western, John Wayne plays Capt. Nathan Brittles, an ageing officer of a small and remote U.S. cavalry outpost. The story unfolds over the course of his last week of active duty before his retirement. It is in the immediate aftermath of General Custer's defeat and a group of young Native Americans are seemingly running amok and threatening to attack the fort, which also houses a small number of women. The subject matter is similar to Ford's later and more well known western The Searchers, in which Wayne also appears in his usual macho persona, but this film seems altogether less pompous. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is far less epic in scale and the story is relatively simple, more down to earth somehow. Thankfully, its depiction of Native Americans is also slightly less controversial. For a start the Native Americans in this film are played by actual Native Americans, instead of the conspicuously blue eyed and pink skinned character actors of The Searchers (and in fact so many other westerns). While there still remains a rather embarrassing lack of the Native point of view (Custer's defeat and slaughter was arguably justified), nevertheless the film does seem to at least attempt to show the Native population as a complexed society. Throughout the film Brittles remains on good terms with the elders of the tribes, who are represented in one scene by the character of Chief Pony That Walks (memorably played by Chief John Big Tree). Though its a film most definitely of its time in many ways, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is nevertheless a complexed and beautifully shot western from a director who is after all one of the key figures in the genre, and indeed in American movies.


























83. Unforgiven (1992) From classical westerns to the modern kind, of which Unforgiven is possibly the greatest example, this is essentially a film in which the real MYTHOS of the old west is celebrated. The story telling and word of mouth culture of the time is explored here more than anywhere else. The whole film is essentially a series of anecdotal monologues and dialogue scenes which are convincingly authentic. There is comparatively little action, as it should be in any self respecting American western, the majority of the film is a slow build to some terrible climax you know is coming. Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, an ageing ex-outlaw gunman turned farmer who is persuaded to return to his former life for one last job. A group of prostitutes, led by 'Strawberry Alice' (played by Frances Fisher), have raised 1,000 dollars for a bounty on a couple of cowboys who attacked and disfigured their colleague Delilah (Anna Thompson). Promptly, a young wannabe gunfighter, 'The Schofield Kid' (Jaimz Woolvett), arrives at Munny's farmstead to convince him to help track down the two men and share the reward. Munny refuses but is eventually convinced it is the right thing to do after hearing a rather exaggerated account of their crime from Schofield. Munny then convinces his old partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to help them by recounting an even more exaggerated version of the incident, and the three men set off. Meanwhile, another reformed gunfighter, 'Little Bill' Daggett (Gene Hackman) is now the over zealous sheriff of Big Whiskey, the town where the pivotal event took place. Daggett was originally lenient on the two cowboys, and enforces a 'no gun' policy as a peacekeeping effort, but also to ensure he has absolute power over everyone in the township. He is soon shown to be a narcissistic bully. Eventually Munny and his compadre's track down and kill the two cowboys and claim the reward, but after Logan leaves Munny and Schofield to return home, Daggett captures him and has him tortured to death. This incurs the wrath of Munny and awakens a dark side that has long been dormant. Clint Eastwood's 16th feature film as director is a powerhouse of American storytelling, and proof that in 1992 Hollywood could still do 'dark' when it had to.


























82. The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is light on gory violence and heavy on atmosphere and suspense. It's a story (adapted from Stephen King) that merely presents the audience with a situation, a man alone with his family in a remote mountain hotel, and then lets this situation fester and evolve into a nightmare. Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) is a frustrated writer who decides to become the winter caretaker of The Overlook Hotel, a mountain resort that is closed to the public once a year dew to extreme weather conditions. He takes his wife and young son with him to live there while he plans to use the peace and quiet to write his book. His son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) seems to have some psychic ability which manifests itself through an imaginary friend called 'Tony'. Before arriving Danny tells his mother, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), that Tony doesn't want to go to the hotel. After they arrive Danny starts to suffer from terrifying hallucinations. Meanwhile, inspiration seems to elude Jack and he slowly goes insane, eventually adopting the persona of a previous caretaker who apparently killed his family and then himself years before. Nowhere has an atmosphere of disquieting menace been so completely achieved as in The Shining, arguably Stanley Kubrick's greatest film, and in my opinion, the greatest horror film of all time.



























81. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Sergio Leone's sprawling gangster epic, based on the semi-autobiographical book The Hoods by Harry Grey, tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of childhood friends. The film follows them from their childhoods as impoverished Jewish immigrants in early 20s New York, to success in the criminal underworld of the prohibition era, and finally to a mysterious reunion many years later. It encompasses a transitional period of the 20th century, rarely has the past juxtaposed with the present so much as when Robert De Niro's character, 'Noodles', looks back from the 70s to the early 20s. This is how the story begins. The film is completely and utterly about nostalgia. Noodles, played as a kid by Scott Tiler, remembers Deborah (Jennifer Connelly and Elizabeth McGovern), the precocious sister of his friend Fat Moe (Mike Monetti/ Larry Rapp). He watches her practicing ballet through a peephole, this image is our doorway back, as if it is his earliest important memory. The romantic, childish love they feel for each other will provide the emotional core of the movie. Soon Noodles meets Max (Rusty Jacobs/ James Woods) and they become life long friends and business partners, until eventually falling out. Noodles disappears after Max and the rest of his circle are killed in a fire. Then 40 years later Noodles receives a mysterious letter. Leone's original version of the film was about 4 and a half hours long, but he edited it down himself to about 3 and a half, and this became the version that is now most commonly seen. On its American release however, and against Leone's wishes, the studio cut it down to about 2 and a half hours and re-edited it so that the story unfolded completely chronologically. Consequently, this version received poor reviews and Leone was apparently heartbroken. He never made another film, but for most people the European cut of Once Upon a Time in America is a true masterpiece, and a fitting swansong to a director who in his brief career had such a unique impact on cinema.

Even More of The Greatest part 3

My list of favourite films continues in no particular order.




















80. The Apple (1998)

Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf when she was just 17, The Apple is based on the true story of twins Massoumeh and Zahra Naderi, who were imprisoned at home by their father until the age of 11. The films cast was made of non-actors and infact the girls and their family appear as themselves. The seemingly eccentric father of the two girls could have been depicted as an opressive monster, but instead he is imbued with genuine pathos. The dialogue was improvised according to a script co-written by Makhmalbaf with her father Mohsen (an acclaimed director in his own right). The episodic story, and the distinctive cinematography of Ebrahim Ghafori, give the film a symmetry and beauty. A true story told through visual poetry, the film also seems to be a fable with the apple of the title as the fruit of knowledge.


























79. Come and See (1985)

Elem Klimov's iconic movie about the Nazi invasion of Belarus during the second world war, Come and See is as harrowing as it is beautiful. The war is abstracted, reduced (or perhaps elevated) to a seemingly endless prossesion of images which are unforgetable. Its a profoundly visual film. The title of the movie seems apt, although its also a reference to The Book of Revelations ("I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth").

The story is told, or rather shown, from the perspective of a boy, Florya, who is apparently just old enough to join the Russian resistance forces against the Germans. At first he is eager to join, but soon becomes disillusioned and eventually completely broken by the violence and atrocities he witnesses and barely survives. The intensity escalates until its final harrowing climax which is essentially a vision of hell. In the end Florya is a different person, a hardened soldier, but he is also a civilian. His face seems to represent all the victims of war, particularly of THAT war.


























78. Love Exposure (2008)

Cult director Shion Sono's four hour epic on the human condition and the nature of love has to be one of the greatest films of modern times, and certainly of the 21st century. This is a love story with a unique religious context, that of the Catholic Japanese. Its a film so long, and so full of ideas, that its hard to remember everything that happens and in what order, its a bit like trying to recount the last ten years of your life to a stranger. The plot is fairly bizarre. Yu is the son of a priest who falls in love with his step sister, Yoko, whom he sees as the Virgin Mary.

Yoko, however, seems to regard Yu with disdain. She is infact a lesbian, and in love with her adopted mother, Yu's step mother, Keiko. During the course of the film, and for various reasons, Yu finds fame as an 'upskirt' porn photographer and also creates a female alter ego whom Yoko falls in love with, not knowing that its him. With the arrival of the mysterious Aya, the head of a sinister cult known as Zero Church, and who has become strangely infatuated with Yu, things start to take a darker turn as it becomes a love triangle of rejected youth. Love Exposure left me emotionally drained. At times incredibly sad, but also very funny.

77. Weekend (1967)

Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend is essentially the story of a journey through the French countryside, but unlike other road movies the protagonists are not rebels or outcasts, but merely a modern, outwardly respectable, bourgeois Parisian couple. Roland and Corinne are a husband and wife who are both having affairs and plotting the others murder. They decide to visit Corrine's wealthy father in the country in order to murder him and stop him from changing his will. So begins their 'Weekend'. From the very outset of the film motorists are shown in conflict with one another. The characters of these early scenes also seem outwardly respectable: affluent, even glamourous, white Parisians, but their behavior is distinctly base. Animalistic. They behave excessively with each other, either through violence or verbal abuse, to the point of absurdity. These occurrences seem to intensify in the country, which is apparently abundant with car accidents and bloody fatalities, to a point verging on apocalyptic. After the couple crash and write off their own car, they attempt to flag down a car. The driver confronts Roland with a question, "Are you real, or in a film?" to which Roland replies "in a film". The man in the car drives away exclaiming "you lie to much!". Eventually they are captured by some hippie cannibals and Roland is eaten. Corrine joins them and seems nonplussed by the death of her husband. Godard paints a picture of the French class struggle, and in particular depicts the French middle class as terminally shallow and materialistic. The irony is that these are the very people who would probably end up watching the film. Godard is perhaps laughing at himself as much as anyone else.


























76. Shogun's Samurai (1978)

A masterful example of samurai melodrama by veteran director Kinji Fukasaku, Shogun's Samurai takes place after the death of the second Tokugawa shogun in 1623, and concerns the subsequent struggle for power between his two sons, the stammering, birth-marked heir Iemitsu, and his younger brother, the popular and benevolent Tadanaga, his fathers favourite. Various factions choose their side and what results is a hugely entertaining, if largely fictional account of a war of intrigue and political machinations during an established historical period. What it lacks in historic accuracy it makes up for in atmosphere and high drama, the plot is practically Shakespearean. So many characters and sub plots emerge, the story eventually takes on a truly epic scale, until a final, violent and satisfyingly dramatic climax. Whether it happened is unimportant, its a great story, and brilliantly acted by the cast which includes Toshiro Mifune and Sonny Chiba.


























75. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

This uniquely touching film by Spanish director Victor Erice, has to be one of the greatest ever made about a childhood. Ana is a small girl living in a Spanish town just after the civil war (sometime around 1939). She spends much of her time with her sister Isabel, who is slightly older and has told her about a mysterious 'spirit' who lives nearby. Ana's imagination attributes this spirit to Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, from the James Whale film which has been shown in the town's improvised cinema, and later to a Republican soldier she encounters, who is on the run from Nationalist forces, now the established power in the country. Post civil war Spain is shown abstractly through the eyes of these two sisters, who are offcourse quite innocent and oblivious to the political climate of the time. The issues are therefore tackled with a degree of subtlety, which allowed the film to be made in the early 70's, the waning days of this same oppressive regime that had existed since the war.


























74. Mother and Son (1997) The first in acclaimed director Alexander Sokurov's cycle of films dedicated to platonic, familial love, Mother and Son is in intensely original and unique work of cinematic art. The film features only the characters of the title, a mother and son. The mother appears to be gravely ill, and the son is her carer. There is no geographical or chronological context, it is unclear where they are or when it is, the only suggestion of a world outside them is the occasional sight of a steam train, and later a sailing ship, both seen from a great distance. Their relationship seems therefore magnified. Sokurov stretched the film so that the images are distorted, and sometimes the lens even seems dirty or smudged with water, creating blurs in the frame. It looks and feels like nothing else. Surely one of the most beautiful films ever made.


























73. Mirror (1975)

Andrei Tarkovsky's most personal film, Mirror is a partially autobiographical account of Russian life from the 30s, until the 70s when the film was made. The three periods of pre-wartime, wartime and post-wartime Russia are represented un-chronologically, in a series of flashbacks, archive footage and present day scenes and seemingly abstract, dreamlike sequences which are visually startling even by Tarkovsky's standards. All jumping back and forth in the life of Alexei, the films protagonist, as if in a process of thought. The present day scenes are infact shot subjectively, looking out from inside the protagonists head, his adult face is never seen, but his voice, the voice of the narrator, is heard throughout the film. Margarita Terekhova, who plays Alexei's mother during the childhood scenes, also plays his ex-wife in the contemporary ones, and the young actor who plays Alexei as a child in the 30s also plays his son in the 70s. Alexei's mother in the 70s is played by Tarkovsky's own mother. Despite all of this, the film is never indulgent. On the contrary, its astonishing originality and style are strangely moving. Its a film which manages to be at once intensely personal and subjective, and yet also somehow universal.


























72. Pather Panchali (1955)

The startling debut feature of Satyajit Ray, who would go on to become the most prominent Bengali film maker working outside the bollywood system, Pather Panchali's beauty is in its story and incredible pathos. It was adapted from a novel by Bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, and is the first part in what would become known as 'The Apu Trilogy' after Ray also adapted the novel's sequel into two more films: Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959). The story of Pather Panchali concerns an impoverished writer's family living in their dilapidated ancestral home in rural Bengal, and in particular his young son, Apu. As his father is often away trying to find work, Apu grows up around three women. His elderly aunt, his mother and his older sister, Durga. He is particularly close to his sister, they seem to experience everything together, they're a team. The movie is probably one of the earliest examples of a film telling its story exclusively from a child's perspective (along with Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 film I Was Born, But...), and undoubtedly one of the most touching and beautiful. Although its set in the 1920s, the only hint that we are in the recent past is in Durga and Apu's astonishment at the telephone lines and steam train they encounter in one of the films most iconic scenes. A profoundly moving and ultimately tragic story told with exceptional style by Ray, Pather Panchali is in my opinion one of the greatest films of and about the 20th century.

71. The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Deer Hunter is simply one of the greatest American films ever made, and truly one of the greatest films ever about blue-collar American life, its dreams and hardships. Examining the impact of war on a small group of friends from a working class, Russian-American community, it is also certainly the most subtly moving film to be made about the war in Vietnam. The cast is essentially a who's who of 70s method actors. Mike (Robert De Niro), Stan (John Cazale, in his last role), Nick (Christopher Walken), Steven (John Savage) and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) are childhood friends who all work in a steel refinery in Clairton, a small town in western Pennsylvania. The movie opens on the evening of Steve's wedding. These are the last few hours of their adolescence. High school photographs of Mike, Nick and Steve are hung up at the wedding reception along with a banner reading "Serving God and Country Proudly". They have all signed up for Vietnam and are dew to be shipped out soon. Gradually their individual characters are introduced. Mike is a sort of quintessential Russian male, stoic and overtly masculine. His best friend, Nick is a sensitive, slightly introverted individual. From the start he is the most detached of the group. Steven is a hen-pecked mothers boy. Stan an extroverted and slightly erratic ladies man, and Axel is the hard drinking, life and soul of the party. The characters are so beautifully drawn by writer director Michael Cimino, and perfectly interpreted by the cast, and this is ultimately what makes the film so engaging. After Steven's wedding, the rest of the guys, along with another friend, a piano playing barman called John (George Dzundza), decide to go hunting for deer. Mike reveals his ethos of 'one shot' in regards to deer hunting. "One shot is what its about. Two shots is pussy." The wedding and hunting sequences at the beginning of the film are the last time all the characters are together, the last time they are happy. After the war everything will be different. The films second act takes place in Vietnam. Mike, Nick and Steve are captured by the Viet Cong and forced to play Russian roulette. The resulting scene is perhaps one of the most succinct portrayals of the life and death situation in war. During the third act, when Mike eventually returns, alone, to the community they all grew up in, he and Nick's sweetheart, Linda (Meryl Streep) take solace in each other and seem to bond over their love for Nick. All in all, a subtle and beautifully structured masterpiece.

Archive

Memorable Scores part IV

Even More of The Greatest part 2

More of my favourite films in no particular order.








70. The Swimmer (1968)
The Swimmer, adapted from a short story by John Cheever and directed by Frank Perry and Sydney Pollack, is the story of middle aged advertising executive Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), who after visiting some friends decides to swim home via a "river" of swimming pools provided by his friends and neighbours: the New England, suburban social elite. After appearing unexpectedly from behind some foliage wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, he is welcomed warmly at first by close friends. It seems he's been away for a while, and apparently missed. When he reveals his plan it's taken with a pinch of salt, Ned is always the life and soul. As the journey progresses, each pool introduces another set of characters revealing different aspects of his past, and the at first vital and charismatic Ned is soon shown to be a man in extreme denial. This great story, adapted by Eleanor Perry (Franks wife), makes for one of the most interesting screenplays to come out of Hollywood in the 60s. Ned lives in the same world as Mike Nichols' Graduate, but he's looking at it from over the proverbial hill. Consequently, it's a much more cynical look at the American dream and its distinctive class system, which it subtley undermines.



























69. La Terra Trema (1948)

Luchino Visconti's La Terra Trema is a masterpiece of world cinema and a shining example of the Italian neo-realist movement. It's a film about the exploitation of fishermen by ruthless wholesalers in a small coastal town in rural sicily. This subject is tipified by the plight of the Valastro's, a traditionally large and empoverished family of fishermen. The Valastro family were played by non actors, some of whom were actually related to each other, and all from Aci Trezza, the town the film was shot and set in. They seem to be playing themselves in their own story. This, and the deep, re-assuring voice narrative make the film seem almost like a documentary and it seems to embody in some way the spirit of Italian neo-realism. The tragic and complexed story is told partly through the beautiful cinematography, and its full of images that are unforgetable and iconic. The incredible beauty in this film is enhanced by its realness.










































68. Short Cuts (1993)

Robert Altman's magnum opus, Short Cuts is an epic three hour journey through the lives of a collection of over twenty main characters, played by an all star cast including: Tim Robbins, Matthew Modine, Jullianne Moore, Fred Ward, Andie MacDowell, Lili Taylor, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jnr., Chris Penn, Madeleine Stowe, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits and Jack Lemon. Adapted from the short stories of Raymond Carver, each characters stories meet and intermingle in different ways, the characters are all connected. The extent to which is offcourse only apparent to us, the audience. Seemingly, Short Cuts is a film about fate and chance, the things that affect us that we're not aware of. It's a film starring everyone, about everyone.


























67. Mad Max (1979)



























66. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Based on the book by Larry McMurty, Peter Bogdanovich's epic coming of age drama is one of the greatest ever to come out of Hollywood, influencing a generation of American arthouse films like Rumble Fish, The Outsiders and American Graffiti. It's episodic plot is told simply and beautifully in cold black and white, the harshness of the photography and the mono sound makes the film seem stripped down, older than it is, even of the early 1950s in which the story is set. Infact it was made twenty years later. Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are two high school footballers living in a dying town in west Texas. Virtually everything that happens there centres around the diner, cinema and small pool hall all owned by Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), an older, stetson wearing Texan archetype and father figure to both boys. Cloris Leachman won an oscar for her portrayal of Ruth Popper, the unhappy wife of the local football coach, and Cybill Shepherd is also great in her debut as the beautiful but selfish town princess Jacy Farrow.

























65. The Ninth Gate (1999)

This is one of my favourite Polanski films, perhaps its not as celebrated as Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown or Frantic, but neverhteless its a film I end up re-visiting alot. I think its one of the most watchable and atmospheric of all his films, an example of a master at the peak of his ability. Adapted from the novel El Club Dumas By Arturo Perez-Reverte, the story incorporates horror and occult themes into a mystery thriller. Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a ruthless, rare books dealer motivated solely by profit. One day a client, the publishing mogul and rare book collector Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), explains to Corso that he has acquired one of the only three existing copies of The Nine Gates To The Kingdom Of Shadows, a 16th century book written by an occultist who was burned at the steak for heresy. Balkan believes that his copy is a forgery however, and recruits Corso to go to Europe and acquire the other two copies at any expense, or by any means. The rusult is a thoroughly enjoyable, mystery adventure with ample helpings of the absurd, something which Polanski has a natural instinct for, and is counterbalanced by Depps unusually subdued performance. It's a film where the absurd and the unsetling often overlap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTEZ2Cf0ngQ


























64. La Residencia (1969)
La Residencia a.k.a. The Boarding School or The House That Screamed, is a Spanish gothic horror film directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador, legendary writer director of Who Can Kill A Child? As the title would suggest, its set in a boarding school, a girls boarding school in France some time around the late 19th century. The story, written by Serrador, is a masterpeice of macabre subtletey and imagination. Revolving around the murders of five of the girls by an unknown assailant, the plot is full of twists and strange dissjointed scenes that set it appart from most horror films of the time. It also features a number of incredibly well drawn and very sinister characters, including the manacing and sadistic head girl Irene (played by Mary Maude), the stern disciplinarian head mistress Madame Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) and her voyeristic teenage son Luis (John Moulder-Brown). Serrador's direction is impeccable, the film looks beautiful and is incredibly atmospheric. Of his two films this is probably the greater. Good fun and perhaps the only gothic giallo.




























63. Parenthood (1989)

In 1989, Ron Howard, ex star of Happy Days and veteran director of family classics like Splash, Cocoon and Willow, wrote and directed Parenthood, his last foray into the genre before the more seriously toned Backdraft in 1991.
Parenthood in many ways is the ultimate family movie, it's actually about the family, and the generational divide. The story revolves loosely around three generations, and three units of the Buckmans. The excellent script deals with what are at times quite moving subjects, but with a subtlety and lightness of tone thats ultimately life affirming. Its simply one of the greatest screenplays to come out of Hollywood in the whole of the 80s. This film also has a great cast, including Jason Robards, Rick Moranis, Dianne West, Mary Steenburgen and most importantly Steve Martin, truly one of the greatest comic actors. Both funny and incredibly poignant, Parenthood is a film to literally make you laugh and cry.



























62. The Gospel According to Matthew (1964)

Pier Paolo Passolini's The Gospel According to Matthew (a 'St.' was added before 'Matthew' during translation against the directors will), is truly one of the greatest religious epics ever committed to celluloid. Pasolini was inspired to make it after reading a copy of the New Testament in a hotel room, regarding Matthew's version of the life and philosophies of Jesus as the most appropiate to the cinema. Much of the script that resulted was a more or less exact transcript of what the Gospel of Matthew actually says, none of the words are changed, and virtually no scenes where added for dramatic effect, it seems in part to be a reaction against the Hollywood style adaptation of the Bible. This is also apparent in the restrained visualisation of the miracles and the crucifixion, they are distinctly un-sentimental. Infact, the film is incredibly minimalistic visually, paying little attention to historical authenticity, and seemingly a direct influence on Scorcesse's The Last Temptation of Christ. The film pays some homage to Italian neo-realism, the entire cast consisted of non actors and it was shot in southern Italy rather than the Holy Land. Passolini also used handheld cameras for many scenes, and even zoom shots. His ongoing obsession with the human face seems most un-restrained in this film, especially in scenes with less dialogue (virtually all the talking is left to Jesus himself), and in few of his films are the faces so expressive. Another unconventional aspect of the film is the music. Instead of an original score, Passolini used an eclectic mix of popular and classical music, ranging from Mozart and Bach to Congolese gospel choir Missa Luba, and even the blues standards of Billie Holliday and Blind Willie Johnson. The film seems to be partly about the modern worlds relationship to Christianity, with Jesus as a champion of the peasantry, an angry working class hero. Whats remarkable is that it does this while changing virtually nothing from the Biblical source. The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the most authentic Biblical films, and certainly the most groundbreaking and inventive.




























61. Andrei Rublev (1966)

Andrei Tarkovsky's episodic re-imagining of the life of the 15th century icon painter and monk, Andrei Rublev, is both epic in scale and dreamlike. Tarkovsky manages to reflect the serenity and calm of Rublev's art in his camera style, encorporating slow, contemplative tracking shots and images of natural beauty that are simply and profoundly moving. This is juxtaposed in a segment like The Raid, a sequence depicting the sacking of a town by Mongolic 'Tartars'. The Raid is filmed in long continuous tracking shots, making these scenes seem chaotic and giving the feeling of spontaneity. A riderless horse is shown stumbling down stairs during This segment, apparently symbolic of tainted innocence and the chaos of war. Wild or lone horses feature regularly in the films imagery. They seem to also represent the kind of natural benevolence, purity, serenity and perfection apparent in Rublev's art. His paintings seem to conjure the divine.

This is a film made in and for a devoutly religious country, specifically dealing with Russian faith and belief. Other segments of the film include The Fool, Andrei's Passion, The Last Judgement and The Bell. This last segment, in which Rublev is the aged observer of the casting of a huge bronze bell, is perhaps the most moving and a seemingly perfect metaphor for the creative process. This depiction of the creative act is one we share with Rublev himself. In the end he seems to be rewarded with some understanding of the beauty he has given to the poor, suffering people of Russia, and to humanity itself.

Shock (1946)

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Memorable Scores part III

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