More Lists

My most underrated directors:






10. Brian De Palma
De Palma is generally thought of as a sort of weakest link from the 70's generation of Neo-Hollywood directors that includes Scorsese, Coppola and Spielberg. I think this is a bit unfair, he's made some of the most interesting films of the late 70's and early 80's. Theres truly a different side to his earlier work, nameley the forgotten giallo style classics Sisters, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, and Carrie has to be one of the greatest horror films of all time.




9. Paul Verhoeven
Going on his Hollywood career alone, Verhoeven deserves a place here. His sci-fi trilogy of Total Recall, Starship Troopers and his English language debut, Robocop, are some of the most subversive, and violent, Hollywood movies ever made. He further changed the game with Basic Instinct, a neo-noir sex thriller that would open the floodgates for a slew of inferior, but similar, movies.




8. Pier Paolo Pasolini
One of my favourite Italian directors. He may have a cult following, mostly among film students, but I think he deserves to be as well known as any of his contemporaries of Italian cinema of the 60s and 70s. His cinema ranges from his early, neo-realist inspired films about the Italian underclass (Accattone, Mamma Roma), to mystical films dealing with Greek mythology (Medea, Oedipus Rex), to later movies inspired by erotic literature (The Cantebury Tales, Arabian Nights, Salo), and what are simply classics of European cinema (Theorem, The Gospel According to Matthew).




7. Bernard Rose
Bernard Rose has made a couple of films that I really like. Most notably the horror film Candyman, a biography of Beethoven called Imortal Beloved and a fairly unknown and darkly comic crime thriller called Chicago Joe and the Showgirl which stars Kiefer Sutherland and the amazing Emily Lloyd. I think all three of these are worth buying. Candyman is a fucking masterpiece anyway.




6. Enzo G. Castellari
This guy has made so much stuff in Italy, what I've seen by him is amazing. He's supposed to be like the Italian Sam Pekinpah. I guess the best example I've seen is Keoma, but also Inglorious Bastards and the spaghetti western that this blog is named after. His films are really fun and he just has a great sense of style and a great eye.




5. Richard Stanley
I think Richard Stanley's only made about two feature films but they're both amazing. Hardware is a little known gem of a post apocalyptic horror slasher film. I'd say it's one of my all time favourite sci fi movies. His other feature is Dust Devil, which I can only describe as a kind of horror-western-lovestory-roadmovie-drugtrip-dreamsequence thing. He's also made a few odd little documentaries about things like the Nazi's quest for the Holy Grail and the practice of Voodoo in Haiti.




4. John McTiernan
McTiernan is on this list solely because of Predator and Die Hard, probably the two greatest action films of the 80's. If you're a boy then you must love these movies. They're basically just examples of really high quality film making. The guys a genius.




3. Michael Reeves
Reeves died of a barbiturates overdose in 1969 after directing only three films, all of which are horror classics. The last and most famous was Witchfinder General starring Vincent Price. I also love his first two films: The She Beast with Barbara Steele, and The Sorcerers with the incredible Boris Karlof, which I've mentioned on here before.




2. Don Coscarelli
Coscarelli is the contributor of such incredible examples of film making as the Phantasm series, Bubba Ho-tep and the truly amazing Beastmaster. He writes all these rich stories himself and then directs them with a sort of very dark sense of humour which I think only special people can really apreciate.




1. Lucio Fulci
What can I say about Lucio Fulci that I haven't already said on here at some point? the guy is probably one of the most underrated and missunderstood film makers ever. His best films were also written by him and I think in Italy he was known as a fairly prolific writer of screenplays and books. This guy had some issues to do with women, religion and the establishment in general and it comes out in his films, a lot of which are pretty excessively violent and crazy. He became known as "The Godfather of Gore", but his formidible imagination wasn't simply limited to depicting violence, he made some of the most inteligent thrillers and horror films of the 70's and early 80's.
















Here are some more of my all time favourite films in no particular order:


















33. Mamma Roma (1962)
Pier Paolo Pasolini's subtly beautiful and tragic masterpiece of his early period. Mamma Roma tells the sad tale of an ex prostitute, 'Mamma Roma', played by Anna Magnani. After her pimp, Carmine (played by Pasolini regular Franco Citti) gets married, she decides to rescue her estranged son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo) from the small town he lives in, and start a new life with him in the city, selling fruit and vegetables in a market. Soon Carmine returns demanding money and she is forced to go back to the streets at night. Meanwhile, Ettore meets local girl Bruna (Silvana Corsini) and falls in with a a group of street hoodlums. As the 16 year old Ettore starts to develop feelings for the thoroughly unsuitable Bruna, Mamma Roma's fears that he will become tainted and dragged down by their surroundings are realised in a tragic chain of events. Pasolini's early films, including Mamma Roma and his debut, Accattone, dealt with the forgotten underclass of pimps and prostitutes and small time criminals of post war Italy. They are stylistically rooted in Italian post modernism, and infact Pasolini never abandoned the rough aesthetic of this genre, using non actors and making the improvised, hand held camera style his own, long after many other directors had abandoned it.





























32. Bad Lieutenant (1992)

Abel Ferrara's masterful character study, about an un-named, corrupt New York police detective (Harvey Keitel), follows him on a journey from total abandoned debauchery and corruption to a type or unexpected salvation, surrounding the case of a raped nun. It was co-written with actress Zoe Lund, who appears in the film as the lieutenants heroin dealer. Lund would later die in Paris of a cocaine related heart attack. This film is undoubtedly Ferrara's best and it remains one of the greatest and most thorough character studies in all of cinema.




























31. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).

This film is just incredible. It looks great, it's possible to forget how artfully filmed it is, not just a typical slasher. It's definateley my favourite slasher film. Tobe Hoopers other films don't quite work as well, but somehow Chainsaw Massacre just comes together and it's perfect. It's like some sort of amazing fluke. An undisputed classic, the Citizen Kane of horror films.






























30. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

I find this film so terrifying. The story is just really creepy and apparently the novel, from which the film is adapted, is based on a real event. Supposedly, on valentines day 1900, three school girls and one teacher vanished around a volcanic rock formation in south east Australia known locally as Hanging Rock. There were numerous search parties in the months and years after, but not one clue as to what happened was found. Some of the events surrounding the disappearance are just as strange. Peter Weir's film shows the place it self as a sort of antagonist. Theres something just really unsettling about the way its filmed and the atmosphere of evil that seems to permeate the area. The rock is symbolizing the mysterious and malevolent side of nature. A seemingly incomprehensible, primordial force.





























29. Heart of Glass (1976)
Werner Herzog famously hypnotized all the actors in this film, wich is one of his most beautiful and mysterious. I love all Herzog's early films, I think they're amazing, especially Aguirre The Wrath of God, Nosferatu and his follow up to Heart of Glass, Stroszek. Heart of Glass is about a town in Bavaria, sometime in the last century, where the chief glass blower dies taking with him the formula for the special red 'ruby' glass for which the town is known. Much of the dialogue was apparently made up by the hypnotized actors. The only actor that wasn't hypnotised was the lead Josef Bierbichler, who plays Hias, the prophetic shephard who partially narrates the film.






























28. Torso (1973).

One of the best ever giallo's. It's directed by Sergio Martino and is one of the most suspensefull films I've ever seen. I love everything about this film, even the music and just the look of the killer, its another perfect kind of flukey film. In fact I kind of regret not putting it in my top ten, one of the reasons I keep doing more lists is because I keep remembering films like this.





























27. Castle of Blood (1964).

A little while ago I saw a film by Mario Bava called Black Sunday, it stars a British actress called Barbara Steele who is basically an icon for all goths and wannabe vampire women. She made hundreds of films in Italy, including a part in 8 1/2 as the young beatnick girlfriend of a movie producer, but she was most famous for her run of horror films which followed Black Sunday, of which Castle of Blood is one. I think this film is adapted from an Edgar Allan Poe story, which is always a good sign, and I love these 60's horror films with imposing castles and carriages racing through fog. It's a great look. Particularly in black and white, the kind of photography which seems to suit the proto-Mortitia image that Steele had at the time.





























26. Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)

Lucio Fulci's greatest giallo thriller, this film is just so incredible structurally and just the plot is totally amazing. Like a lot of his films, he wrote the screenplay himself. I think Fulci is one of the most underrated film makers. The story is about a series of murders of young boys in a small Italian town, and the plot tackles themes of pagan idolatry and superstition and Catholicism in sort of rural Italy. It's just a great murder mystery with some really interesting scenes.




























25. Tarantula (1955).

The other "King of the Bs", Jack Arnold directed this film just before his other minor masterpiece, The Incredible Shrinking Man. Tarantula is even better in my opinion, everything about this film is just of a certain quality, especially the amazing script, with naturalistic dialogue and this sort of incredible story structure and pace. It reminds me a bit of The Birds. This is even more amazing when you consider the slightly ridiculous premise: a small American town being terrorized by a giant spider. Its simultaneously quite funny without meaning to be, but also really good. The special effects are really well done.





























24. River's Edge (1986).

This film is really odd, it has an incredible atmosphere. Harmone Korine's Gummo was basically just a rip off of this in a lot of ways and the story is also similar to Larry Clark's Bully. A teenage boy kills his girlfriend for no reason and then his friends try to help him cover it up after he shows them the body. It also features Dennis Hopper as the local drug dealer, Feck. Obviously Hopper co-stared in some other iconic 'youth films', most notably: Rebel Without a Cause and Easy Rider, this fits in with those pretty well. Other actors who are amazing in this film are Crispin Glover and the mysterious child actor, Joshua Miller.































23. Django (1966).

Django. Probably the most iconic spaghetti western ever made, it really is the most quintisential of the westerns made in Europe. Beautifully shot and edited by Sergio Corbucci, it tells the story of the mysterious drifter, Django, who arrives in a frontier town draging a coffin behind him. A coffin with a machine gun inside. This kind of macabre touch is typical of the spaghetti western genre, which this film helped to invent (along with A Fistful of Dollars, a film made a few months earlier with a remarkably similar plot). Corbucci's films tend to be a bit darker than the films of Leone. Django is particularly violent and nihilistic.





























22. Days of Heaven (1978).

Days of Heaven is a classic from famous auteur director Terrence Malick. It has quite a vague plot but its basically just a really beautifully shot melodrama to do with three destitutes, played by Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Linda Manz, as they look for work on the Texas pan handle around the time of the first world war. Sam Shepard plays their dying farm boss. The end is quite mysterious and tragic. It also features another amazing score from Ennio Morricone.

Definitive Rundown Part II

More films, this time in no particular order.



















21. The Thing (1982)
My favourite John Carpenter film. The Thing takes place in an Arctic outpost after the discovery of the frozen remains of an extra terestrial life form. When the alien starts to come back to life and seems to be able to take the form of its victims, the tension and paranoia between the remaining characters begins to mount. Like many of Carpenters films, The Thing is a suspenseful waiting game. In a career of atmospheric movies, it is the most atmospheric. Kurt Russell is memorable as the outposts whiskey drinking hellicopter pilot, MacReady. The special effects are astonishing, and probably represent the zenith of animatronics in cinema.


































20. Battle Royale (2000)

Veteran director Kinji Fukasaku's final masterpiece. The story of Battle Royale is adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. Basically, a class of school kids are put on a deserted island and given three days to kill each other using randomly allocated weapons ranging from an uzi to a dustbin lid. The shocking and excessive violence emphasizes the characters emotional turmoil in what is perhaps one of the most unusual of teen dramas. The movie features a subtly chilling performance from 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, the famous film maker and comedian, as the homocidal ex-teacher "Mr Kitano". A uniquely entertaining and violent joyride.


































19. Santa Sangre (1989)
Alejandro Jodorowsky's macabre masterpiece was produced by, and co written with Claudio Argento (brother to the Italian horror master, Dario), who seems to have added atleast a touch of the giallo to the story about a young man who kills in the name of his semi-deified, armless mother. It is infact, a giallo in a Hispanic style, with the baroque tone of the Italian sub-genre replaced by a decidedly surrealist one. The characters in the film are frequently archetypes, almost allegories, representatives of some universal element. The film also seems to borrow stylistically from the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis and José Mojica Marins, but the symbolism and storytelling is altogether more complete. It seems Jodorowsky has taken their work as far as it will go, or atleast to another level. The plot is far too complexed to recount at this point, but suffice it to say that Santa Sangre is a highly symbolic, bloody, sex massacre of the highest calibre.


































18. Goldfinger (1964)
Guy Hamiltons first of many forays into the Bond universe is the most famous and perhaps most consistent of all. In this adventure, Bond is assigned to spy on bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger, and somehow ingratiate himself into the billionaire's company in order to ascertain how he's smuggling gold internationally. In doing so, Bond also uncovers a plan to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve with radioactive material, and thereby bankrupt North America while simultaneously sending the price of gold sky-rocketing. What makes this particular Bond movie stand out is, apart from Hamiltons superior directing, a particularly well crafted script by Paul Dehn and Richard Maibaum. The dialogue is excellent, but more importantly the story is well paced and each scene feels as important as the last, which I think is unusual for a Bond film. It seems to be a film heavily grounded in Hollywood classicism, and as such remains a crucial influence on directors like Spielberg and Lucas. Sean Connery is the original and, for me, remains the best incarnation of the Ian Fleming character.


































17. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott's astonishing sci-fi horror classic manages to incorporate the most intriguing elements of both genres. In the future, the crew of the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo are awakened from their hypersleep (a technologically induced coma) by Mother, the spaceships computer, which has detected a mysterious signal emanating from a nearby planet. It appears they are contractually obliged, by the nameless corporate entity they work for, to investigate the phenomena. The crew reluctantly alter course and eventually land on the seemingly un-inhabitable planetoid. They learn that the signal is coming from another craft, a derelict of alien and seemingly ancient origin. The dark, stormy environment of the planet, and the presence of a 'ghost ship', as a device representing the protagonists possible fate, are both classic staples of horror storytelling and aesthetics. Add to this a genuinely terrifying alien antagonist, who's appearance, famously designed by H. R. Giger, seems to suggest both in its head shape and protruding second mouth, an erect phalice, and what we have is something very far away from a traditional sci-fi movie. The aliens phallic appearance gives it emphasis as an aggressive intruder, a sort of rape nightmare made flesh. In the films open ending, the only surviving crew member, warrant officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), along with the ships cat, is left drifting on a lifeboat, returning to hypersleep in the hope that someone, somewhere, will find them.


































16. Black Sabbath (1963)
One of Mario Bava's greatest horror films is a classic example of the horror tryptich, a film made up of multiple segmented stories. Black Sabbath, like most tryptich's, is divided into three stories, with an introduction to each one featuring horror legend Boris Karloff. The first story, The Telephone, is set in the modern day. A woman returns home from a night out to find her phone ringing. She answers it  but hears only a heavy breathing. She puts the receiver down and gets ready for bed, but then the phone rings again. And again. And again. The Telephone is perfect in its simplicity. A story about modern day paranoia. The second story is called The Wurdulak and also stars Boris Karloff as the patriarch of a family harbouring a dark secret in rural, 19th century Russia. The third and final part, entitled The Drop of Water, sees a nurse in Victorian London racked with guilt after stealing a ring from the hand of a deceased, elderly lady, who turns out to have been a famous medium. As always, with ex-cinematographer Bava, the film is beautifully shot, with deep black shadows punctuating the lurid primary colours. Red with green, purple and yellow.


































15. Enter The Dragon (1973)
Bruce Lee's most iconic moment and undoubtedly the best film of a career so unfortunately cut short, Enter The Dragon is a Bond style, 70's, martial arts extravaganza. Lee plays a martial artist proficient in Kung Fu, who is invited to take part in a martial arts tournament which is held every three years on an island close to Hong Kong that is owned by the reclusive and mysterious Han, who is suspected by British authorities of being behind a large scale prostitution and heroin trafficking empire. Lee is recruited by British intelligence to enter the tournament in order to basically assassinate Han, who has banned guns from his island. Also competing are two Americans. Roper, a bankrupt playboy (played by John Saxon) hoping to pay his mob debts, and Williams (played by real life Karate champion Jim Kelly), a black political activist on the run after defending himself against two racist, white policemen. The three of them become loose allies in an environment thick with corruption and oppression. Lee's final showdown with Han in a mirrored labyrinth has to be one of the most iconic scenes in 70s action cinema.


































14. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
John Huston's adaptation of a story by Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King is, to me, one of the greatest adventure movies and features two stand out performances from Michael Caine and Sean Connery. In turn of the century British India, Rudyard Kipling (played by Christopher Plummer) is confronted by an elderly beggar while working late at the headquarters of the Northern Star newspaper. The beggar reveals that he is infact 'Peachy' Carnehan, the well dressed man Kipling met just three years earlier on the first class carriage of a train. Originally, Carnehan (Caine) had introduced himself in order to return a gold watch he had infact stolen from Kipling at the train station moments earlier. Carnehan, an ex-non-commissioned officer in the Indian Army and general adventurer and rogue, reveals himself as a fellow Freemason, and that he was forced to return the watch after finding the emblem of Freemasonry carved into the back. He takes the opportunity to ask Kipling to deliver a message to his friend, Daniel Dravot (Connery), another roguish, de-mobbed officer, who should be travelling that way in a few days time. Kipling delivers the message, and eventually forgets about these two eccentric, seemingly quintessentially British characters. One day soon after, the pair show up at Kipling's Northern Star office, explaing that they need him to witness a contract. They pledge to abstain from drink and women until such time as they find the semi mythical kingdom called Kafiristan, which lies beyond the Kyber Pass. Once there, they plan to use their knowledge of tactical warfare to take control of the region, that they have heard is filled with primitive warring tribes, and return as rich men. Classically directed, the movie was hailed by many as Huston's best film since The African Queen. It remains one of my favourites since childhood.





































13. Army of Darkness (1992)
The culmination of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy, Army of Darkness is an extraordinary example of horror-comedy script writing, and a cult classic. Bruce Campbell reprises his role of zombie killer Ash Williams, who as a result of being pulled into a time portal at the end of Evil Dead 2, finds himself in Britain in the year 1300. The source of all his problems in the previous films was the Necronomicon, a book bound in human skin and written in blood that has the power to awaken malevolent spirits that apparently inhabit the world around us. These spirits have already possessed his fiance, forcing him to kill her, horribly, and infected his hand, forcing him to cut it off and replace it with a chainsaw. After falling through the time portal, he is taken prisoner by some knights and taken back to their castle to be sacrificed by being thrown into a pit that houses one of the possessed. It seems that the Necronomicon also holds sway over this time and place. After defeating the evil 'Deadite' with his 'Boom Stick', Ash is celebrated as a hero. Eventually he learns that to return home he must retrieve the Necronomicon, BUT he can only remove it safely from its resting place after reciting the words "Klaatu verata nicto". Unfortunately, Ash fails to remember the words and, after taking the book anyway, ends up reviving an army of Deadites who descend on the castle. The script, written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, is pretty much a stream of classic, endlessly quotable one liners. For me, one of the defining movies of the 90s.




































12. The Birds (1963)
For me truly one of Alfred Hitchcock's most enjoyable and complexed movies. Adapted from a short story by Daphne du Maurier, The Birds basic premise is of a small coastal town being suddenly attacked by flocks of birds of varying species, who seem to be acting in unison. The story concerns wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) who after meeting journalist Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet shop, decides to continue the strange flirtation and follow him back to the coastal town where he lives. Eventually a relationship seems to blossom and Melanie meets his mother, young sister and ex-girlfriend, who is the local school teacher. The birds of the title, and their unexplained behavior, seem to be caused by, or at least symbolic of, a kind of underlying tension between Melanie and the other women. Her sudden appearance in the town, and subsequently Mitch's life, seem to correspond with the birds first attacks, and she seems to be singled out by them on at least one occasion. Another possible cause, symbolic or otherwise, seems to be the sexual tension between Mitch and Melanie, which is exacerbated in the beginning by their almost excessive flirting and teasing of each other. However you analyse the story, the visual motif of a flock of birds silently congregating, with malicious intent, around a small town is truly chilling, an image that seems to haunt popular culture.






































11. The Godfather part 1 (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola's sprawling epic about the ascension of the young heir of an Italian-American mafia dynasty, is a true classic of Hollywood cinema. Al Pacino plays Michael, the youngest son of mob Don, Vitto Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) who presides over a racketeering empire on the east coast of America in 1945. In contrast to his older brothers Sonny (James Caan) and Fredo (John Cazale), Michael initially has no desire to join the family business, instead he goes to college and serves in World War 2, eventually returning as a war hero. In spite of all this, or most likely because of it, he is his fathers favourite. He becomes engaged to a young teacher, Kay (Dianne Keaton), but eventually his plans for a normal life are put into jeopardy when his father is gunned down one day and falls into a coma. Michael can't help but become involved when he finds himself largely alone in the hospital where his father is, after the police expel all the men who where meant to be guarding him. It soon becomes apparent that a corrupt police chief was responsible for this, and is siding with their enemies. After saving his fathers life by moving him to a different room and fending off potential assassins, Michael agrees to act as bait to draw the police chief and the man responsible for his fathers attempted murder out again by agreeing to a sham meeting, where he will infact assassinate both of them. After, he is sent to Sicily to hide out and visits his fathers home town. Returning from Italy, he appears to have changed, he seems to be re-tracing his fathers footsteps, and eventually becomes the Don himself after the death of his older brother Sonny. Aside from the rich content of the story and characters, the beautiful, film-noir inspired cinematography by Gordon Willis and Nino Rota's iconic score make the film also an aesthetic masterpiece. Essentially, The Godfather part 1 is about a man who, by chance and misshap, becomes his father. A fairly universal theme for one of the most famous genre movies ever made.

Definitive Rundown

My top 10, in descending order.




















10. Peeping Tom (1960)
This is probably one of the greatest horror-thrillers ever made, although it was banned and ruined director Michael Powell's career. Powell had been previously known as one half of the Powell and Pressburger partnership that in the 40's made classic films like Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Although these are some of the greatest and most beautifully photographed (by Jack Cardiff) films to come out of Britain ever, they are basically melodramas. Peeping Tom was a huge departure of subject matter. The film is about a young man, Mark Lewis, who kills women with his camera tripod and films them dying. He suffers from a disorder that means he is compelled to stare at people through windows and whenever he generally feels they can't see him. I think it's one of the cleverest scripts Michael Powell ever worked with, and the film is also visually groundbreaking. It's influence on latter giallo films by Bava and Argento is quite apparent. Carl Boehm's performance as Mark is also incredible.


































9. 8 1/2 (1963)
Federico Fellini's iconic, self referencing masterpiece (including his segment of Boccaccio 70, this was Fellini's 8th and a half film), 8 1/2  is a portrait of a disenchanted film director (played by Marcello Mastroianni) and the characters who fill his life and imagination: his girlfriend, wife, writers, producers, their girlfriends, some other people who he meets and the various characters remembered from his childhood. The film's reality is constantly undermined by his fantasies, dreams and embellished memories, without you ever knowing where you are exactly. A beautiful mess. 8 1/2 is a shamelessly indulgent depiction of the Italian male psyche.


































8. The Producers (1968)

With films like Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, writer director Mel Brooks has been responsible for some of the most groundbreaking comedy films of the 60s and 70s. His original 1968 version of The Producers is arguably one of the greatest of these. A has-been theatre producer, Max Bialistock (played by Zero Mostel), and his accountant Leo Bloom (played by Gene Wilder) decide to produce 'the worst play ever', a light musical comedy called Springtime For Hitler. They hope that it will close after one night and thereby leave them with most of the funding, which would greatly exceed the actual budget of the play. The fact they are both Jewish offcourse lends an extra depth to what is probably the definitive comedy of the 20th century.  Gene Wilder is great in his starring debut and Zero Mostel is absolutely astounding.









































7. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

This was adapted from a book by Erich Maria Remarque about his experiences as a German soldier in the First World War. The film, directed by Lewis Milestone, is probably one of the most groundbreaking for its time. It won Best Picture at the third ever Academy Awards, and its not hard to see why. The camera work is more dynamic than most films made now, and it features some of the greatest battle sequences ever, along side intimate, naturalistic dialogue scenes. A recurring visual motif seems to be of the characters sitting in the foreground with a large window or doorway in the background showing the different environments and stages of the war. It's a film that perfectly expresses its message, verbally and visually.













































6. The Silence (1963)

The story of Ingmar Bergman's The Silence concerns three relatives who are travelling through Europe: Ester, who is busy translating a book into Swedish, her younger sister Anna and Anna's son Johan, who are accompanying Ester on what seems to be a work related trip. The three arrive in an unspecified European country that appears to be at war and who's language they don't understand, staying in a hotel sweet of two adjoining rooms. Johan is inquisitive and explores much of the hotel in the earlier part of the film. These early scenes rely on visual narratives and are short, seemingly unrelated and almost completely without dialogue. This is the most cinematic Bergman gets (until 1966's Persona), the result is beautiful and hypnotic. It is only towards the middle and end of the film that the dialogue starts to take hold and the film returns to more familiar Bergman territory. The sisters are portrayed in more depth and their strange relationship is exposed. Anna is often rather suggestively shown with wet or moist skin, denoting her apparent health and vitality. She is voracious and sensual. Ester, by contrast, is the intellectual, seeming to live solely on alcohol and cigarette's. At the end of the film Ester appears to be terminally ill. The films three main characters can be seen to be based on the stages of man (youth, adulthood and old age), and the hotel and foreign country they find themselves in an allegory for humanity's unexplained and seemingly pointless existence in the universe. However, as with other Bergman classic's like Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, The Silence also works excellently as a simple, play-like narrative.












































5. Hard Boiled (1992)

John Woo is the greatest action director of all time and Hard Boiled is the ultimate John Woo movie. All his early Hong Kong films: Bullet in the Head, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, etc. feature these incredible set piece action sequences along side emotionally involving characters and fairly complexed sub-plots. A bit like Die Hard meets The Godfather. I think Hard Boiled is the best example of this. The story is basically a cop drama about a stereotypically hot-headed yet sensitive jazz loving detective, played by Chow Yun Fat, and his relationship to a slick mafia hit man who is actually an undercover cop, played by Tony Lueng Chui-Wai. It features a frankly excessive amount of action scenes and gobsmacking set-pieces, which along with what infact ends up being a rather moving story of friendship, elevates the film above anything done before or since. Hard Boiled is quite simply the zenith of action cinema, it has never been surpassed.












































4. Night of the Living Dead (1968)/ Dawn of the Dead (1978)/ Day of the Dead (1985)
I tend to think of George Romero's iconic zombie trilogy as a single work. Although all three films have a different setting and characters, they seem to exist in context to each other, all being a continuation of the same story: that of the end of human civilisation after the dead start to apparently rise from the grave and eat the living. Romero re-invented the zombie film in 1968 with his original take on the sub-genre: Night of the Living Dead. It's a perfect horror b-movie, with 50's stock music and atmospheric black and white photography. Romero's trademark sense of editing and pace are already apparent here. As with it's two follow ups, the dialogue is gritty and real. In Dawn of the Dead the violence is in Technicolor. People with grey/green faces bite into fleshy make up sacks filled with bright red paint. The film is garish and entertaining, like a comic book. The final act, Day of the Dead, is simultaneously the goriest and most cerebral of the three, with even more dialogue, and Tom Savini's groundbreaking special effects. These three films are undoubtedly Romero's best, and perhaps the greatest concept movies ever made.

















































3. Persona (1966)

Ingmar Bergman's Persona is probably the most beautiful film I've ever seen. It's also in some way about film itself. The abstract opening sequence is unsettling, it reminds you of the fact that you are watching a film, it reminds you of death, you are placed in a defensive state of mind. The films reality can no longer be taken for granted. From the outset of the story then, the characters seem to be like apparitions. Symbolic. The narrative seems fragile and dreamlike. Nurse Alma (excellently played by Bibi Anderson), is charged with the care of a mental patient, an actress called Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who has inexplicably stopped talking. Alma's boss, a female Doctor, send's them to stay at her holiday home by the sea. Here, Alma engages in long monologues while Elisabet listens. The patient has a sinister, haunting presence and the nurse's honesty makes her seem vulnerable. The two characters are like hot and cold. One of the most telling moments of the film is when Elisabet apparently speaks. She tells Alma to go to bed after the nurse nearly falls asleep at a table. Infact, Elisabet is never shown to visibly speak, but her voice is heard as a whisper, as if possibly imagined by Alma. Looking at the characters of Persona allegorically, as with The Silence, this time they seem to represent facets of the same mind. Elisabet, the actress, seeming to represent a kind of creative sub-conscious, and Alma (who's name is the Spanish word for soul) representing the heavily constructed conscious mind, full of what are apparently frivolous concerns and observations. As a simple narrative its filled with beautiful images, and Bergman himself regarded it as one of his most cinematic and important films.

















































2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

This film is just stunning. Masterfully directed by David Lean, it seems to have an entirely different feel to his previous films, classics like Bridge on the River Kwai and Brief Encounter, and was never surpassed by his later, slightly less enthralling epic Doctor Zhivago. The new wave inspired editing of Lawrence of Arabia are one of the more obvious influences on directors like Steven Spielberg, the scene transitions seem to relate to each other. The dialogue is simply astonishing, from a screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson that is probably one of the greatest ever written, and based on the real T. E Lawrence's own written accounts. Peter O' Toole's performance in the role of Colonel Lawrence is also wonderful, and probably a landmark in his career. The desert is used to great effect in the cinematography by Freddie Young, along side one of the most iconic cinematic scores ever by Maurice Jarre. Lawrence of Arabia is simply so watchable, it doesnt feel as long as it is (which is about three and a half hours), something of a rarity in epic cinema. Undoubtedly, it is the greatest of the Hollywood epics of the 50's and 60s.

















































1. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)

Sergio Leone's masterful example of film-making in its purest form, The Good The Bad and The Ugly is arguably the greatest film of all time. There is something mystical, un-explainable about why this is, but nevertheless I will try to convey some sort of rationality as to why this is my favourite film. The first ten minutes or so are completely whithout dialogue. The characters move through entire scenes silently, to the point where their actions are almost abstracted. When they do finally speak we learn of a plot involving some stolen confederate gold (the story takes place during the American Civil War), apparently buried in the grave of a soldier. A mysterious oportunist known as "Blondie" (played by Clint Eastwood) knows the name on the grave, and a greedy and generally base outlaw, Tuco (Eli Wallach) knows which graveyard. As old acquaintances, they must temporarily bury the hatchet and work together to uncover the lost loot. On their trail is a man Tuco calls "Angel Eyes" (Lee Van Cleef), a sadistic and self serving bounty hunter and army captain. Although the film is offcourse a spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's sprawling scale and American Civil War context give it the feeling of a true epic.
Throughout the film, Tuco is confronted with ethical decisions. His choices seem to guide the story along. Tuco can be seen allegorically as an everyman, with Blondie and Angel Eyes as incarnations of his own good and bad instincts. In this context, the story is seemingly elevated to a timeless parable. It is almost Biblical. Leone's 'Dollars Trilogy', the trio of iconic westerns starring Clint Eastwood of which The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the final part, brought the Italian style western into the mainstream and inspired a surge of similar movies, all shot in southern Spain, and usually with funding from Italian or German production companies. These would become known in America as "spaghetti westerns". Spaghetti westerns, as apposed to the traditional kind, featured the violence and high drama of Italian opera, along with a knowing modernity, often influenced by the social and cultural climate of the 60's. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is no exception to this rule, having a distinctly anti-war message at around the time America was gearing up to invade Vietnam. A movie that has yet to be surpassed in terms of visual and sonic aesthetics, and perhaps one of the greatest artefacts of the 20th century.

Morricone's Westerns, Post-Apocalyptic Trash, Jodorowsky, Moebius, More Youtube

Quentin Tarantino keeps copy-pasting old Ennio Morricone themes into his films. L' Arena, which is featured in both Kill Bill 2 and Inglorious Basterds, is from a film called The Mercenary by Sergio Corbucci, starring Fanco Nero and Jack Palance. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing to use old Morricone scores but I think its harder to appreciate them out of the context of the films they where written for.






Il Tramonto (The Sunset) is a piece of music Morricone wrote to introduce Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, where his character represents 'The Bad' of the title. It only appears once in the film. I think this sequence is one of the greatest introductions to a character ever. Tarantino re-used it in Kill Bill 2.











Kind of been on a post-apocalyptic flex since I watched this film called A Boy And His Dog. Enzo Castellari contributed to this genre with a film called The New Barbarians. He made it under a false name but it looks pretty good.









Another post-apocalyptic film I saw recently is The Last Combat.

Its an old Luc Besson film, kinda wanna see Subway now, I think his early films are all pretty amazing.










Apparently Alejandro Jodorowsky wants to make a post-apocalyptic film... I do hope it happens. He was meant to make Dune but the producer, Dino De Laurentis, fired him and gave the project to David Lynch. I don't think Lynch was ready to make an epic film like Dune. In cinematic terms the finished product is a bit boring but its still well directed by Lynch and the art designs and costumes that Jodorowsky did with Moebius and H. R. Giger are still amazing. Many of them can still be seen in the film.











Moebius is a really unique comic artist. His stuffs a bit psychedelic. You can see his influence in Tron, Blade Runner, the first Alien movie.







Here's a video I found of Jodorowsky talking about his films.

Santa Sangre has to be one of the greatest movies ever made.


These are also quite interesting, about the making of Fulci's Lizard In A Womans Skin...



...and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste.


The rest of these are on Youtube.



I want to get this.

Italo-Westerns, The Giallo, Michael Winner and Charles Bronson, Trailers, Staying Gold

Recently been watching a lot of these old Italo-westerns, the latest one is Requiem for a Gringo a.k.a. Duel in the Eclipse. It's about a guy who uses various atmospheric elements to defeat a group of outlaws, in the end he uses an eclipse, hence the alternative title. I've also ordered a film called Mannaja: A Man Called Blade, the opening sequence on Youtube looks really incredible, like a western with elements of a horror film. It was directed by Sergio Martino, who is more famous for making these sinister Italian style 'Giallo' thrillers like Torso. The Giallo is another great Italian invention. It's basically like a murder mystery with an emphasis on violence and esthetics, for example the murderers often wear black gloves, shiny raincoats, use a mask or have their face hidden. These films are also characterised by the use of the subjective (point of view) shot, usually to represent the murderer who's identity isn't revealed until the very end. Although Bava really started them I guess Dario Argento perfected this style. In Italy in the early 70's, after Argento made The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, there was a surge of Giallo thrillers, nearly all of them with an animal in the title. Most Italian directors made at least one. The Italian film industry used to be huge in th 60's and 70's, some studio directors like Fulci or Bava where releasing two of three films a year, thats amazing compared to your average hollywood director making about one film every two years, if that. If you watch a film like Keoma by Castellari the cinematography is so far beyond anything being made in America at the time.




Keoma is pretty epic, it's like an opera. Franco Nero is also amazing in this film, just physically. He even sang on the song in this clip.















Aside from Italo-westerns, this film is also really great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9QekeOkSi8


Its one of the films Charles Bronson made with Michael Winner a few years before they hit the big time with Death Wish. It's much better than Death Wish though. Michael Winner is obviously best known in this country for those amazing Esure adverts where he always tells people to calm down.





















Wanna get this film called Samurai Reincarnation, think its basically a samurai film with zombies and sorcery.

It's by the director of Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku. He's one of the most prolific and respected Japanese directors but, similar to someone like Lucio Fulci, I think he's made a lot of 'trash' as well.
















Finally saw The Serpent and the Rainbow. Easily Wes Cravens best film.














Richard Stanley made a film with the same actor, called Dust Devil. It was only his second film but after he made it he stopped making features, apparently he had a lot of problems getting it distributed properly or getting his cut released or something. His first film Hardware is also a classic.
































Also finally saw this film, Beastmaster.

It's writen and directed by Don Coscarelli, who I think is the only true genius auter working in American cinema now. He also wrote and directed the Phantasm movies and a film called Bubba Ho-tep. All are a must see.
















Watched The Outsiders recently, it's Coppola's companion piece to Rumble Fish based on another book by S. E. Hinton. It deals with similar subjects as Rumble Fish and it's basically a really good sort of chick flick with aesthetic references to Gone With The Wind. R.I.P. Patrick Swayze. Stay gold.

Foreign Television

Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon about a robot cat from the future who comes back in time to help the ancestor of his future owner or something. He does this by using various inventions that he keeps in his pocket. Apparently his ears where bitten off by rats or something, its rather odd by western standards. Someone actually bothered to translate his theme tune into English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8OBAfjTidM








This is a two part TV film from Russia called Kin-Dza-Dza. I suppose it's a bit like Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy but a bit more subtle, more of a satire than a farce. I think its really funny and clever.






















Here is another Japanese children's cartoon called Dr Slump, it's pretty funny.

Invisible Rape, Spanish Horror, The Cinema Store, Antichrist, Pro Wrestling

I've discovered an amazing film called The Entity, it's about a woman who becomes terrorized by an invisible force that repeatedly rapes her. It's by Sydney J. Furie who also directed The Ipcress File and ..Superman IV.















Recently my friend Raul showed me The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, a quite original zombie film set in the British countryside. The director is Spanish. It's also known as Don't Open the Window and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.

My friend also told me about this Spanish horror film called Who Can Kill a Child?, it's about an English couple who visit a small Spanish town and discover that the children have murdered everyone, a bit like a Village of the Damned or Children of the Corn type thing. The cinematography is amazing.




These film's aren't available here so I had to order them. I usually go to The Cinema Store in Covent Garden to find rare film's and foreign edition's. I don't really download. Up until now I thought Spain's contribution to horror cinema consisted of the Blind Dead series and a few Jess Franco film's. I really love Jess Franco, he made this film called Sexo Canibal where the monster is just basically a naked black man.






I watched Antichrist a few weeks ago but couldn't be bothered to write about it, obviously it has a lot of wince inducing violence and also some quite amusingly bad dialogue. It's nicely photographed though. I enjoyed it anyway.






Kinnikuman is a Japanese cartoon about pro wrestling. One of the characters is a Nazi.