The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Note : this review is a contribution to The Silent Cinema blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Lauren Champkin.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)

Dr. Caligari's somnambulist, Cesare, and his deadly predictions.

Nosferatu

Nosferatu (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1922)

A classic canon of Films with a major F and one of the earliest instalments of Horror in movies, Murnau’s Nosferatu has inspired, influenced, been copied, and idolized. This review won’t try to repeat the thousands of analysis and critics it already been praised and sang. However, this critic who is now writing at the third person, ranks it as one of his personal favorite films. Not just Silent films but films in general. It even was on this critic’s ballot for the 2012 Sight and Sound Poll. But BFI didn’t asked me to cast my votes so I won’t be bragging much about it.

Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story aka Tokyo Monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

Topping the recent Directors list of the Sight and Sound 2012 poll, Yasujiro Ozu’s, the most Japanese of all Japanese directors, Tokyo Story is another amazing depiction of his understanding of human relationships, representing the evolution of the generational gaps, the dehumanization of the cities, and the selfishness of the modern human. When someone is getting into Japanese Cinema, one must enter with Akira Kurosawa’s Sword plays that invented the whole action genre with the following of Sergio Leone’s Westerns and most of the Americans major movie makers. While Kenji Mizoguchi isn’t the hardest Japanese filmmaker to discover after being wowed by Kurosawa’s mise en scène and tremendous camera placing. However, when one gets to Ozu he must enter without any preconceived vision of Japanese films. Ozu is like an old man telling old tales who knows every trick but is satisfied with his effective formula of simple and direct storytelling. He made almost only contemporary films depicting family issues and the little moments of the everyday life. A while ago, I remember reading the line that Ozu is compared with a tofu maker that doesn’t need to be handling hot subjects or very expensive fish or meat to make you an unforgettable offer.

M (1930)

M (Fritz Lang, 1930)

This article is part of a series of self- imposed movie reviews set in the participation of this film critic to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Club. It is an attempt at catching up the reviews that I’ve missed in my recent period of inactivity in the blogosphere.

Films from Germany made prior to the Second World War are a bliss for any film lover. So much of the influence and themes of German Expressionism aesthetics has been imported by Hollywood especially its greatest directors : F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. In the case of Lang, he escaped Nazi Germany in an anecdote Lang himself contradicted many times while telling it. However, before he flew to America, Lang made a name of himself by directing some of the most influential films of all-time with his Metropolis, Spione, Dr. Mabuse, Die Nibelungen, and M amongst many others. With M, Lang tells the story of a serial killer pedophile who infuriated the public opinion, the police, and the underground gangsters. It creates a race between the policemen and the gangsters because the police was thinking that it was the underground that was responsible for those horrible crimes.

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

This article is part of a series ofself- imposed movie reviews set in the participation of this film critic to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Club. It is an attempt at catching up the reviews that I’ve missed in my recent period of inactivity in the blogosphere.

The only directing credit of respected actor Charles Laughton, The Night of the Hunter is an uncompromised masterpiece of visual beauty, perfect acting, and sociological malaise. The choice of Robert Mitchum as the Reverend Harry Powell who preaches by marrying his former cellmate’s, Ben Harper (Peter Graves), wife Willa (Shelley Winters) and trying to get the stolen money the husband has been hanged for is perfect in this bizarre film. A difficult actor like Mitchum that had a mitigated reputation brings something that no other actor of the time would have had. His gravel voice, tire eyes, and debonaire attitude helps to add that he represents evil in an agent of God’s costume. Getting back on the plot, Powell is sure that Harper has told his children where he hid the money.

A Woman Under the Influence

A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)

For Roger Ebert and many other serious film critics, A Woman Under the Influence is its director’s (John Cassavetes) masterpiece. The later, considered as the pioneer of American Independent movies and the father of Cinéma vérité has directed a daring piece about American sociology and human behaviors. Starring Cassavetes’ wife Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti and one of the director’s closest friend Peter Falk as Mabel’s spouse Nick, it represents a dysfunctional family where the mother and the father are mentally ill.

High Noon

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is on his way to retire from his duties and get married to the love of his life Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), but he learns that his worst enemy is returning on the noon train. The soon to be married couple has to wait to leave and Kane must stay and face his enemy Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald). The Marshall goes out and asks for help from his fellow citizens but got no help at all. He must go against Miller and his gang alone.

Fred Zinnemann’s film is a beautiful black and white Western that launched the revisionist Westerns with a more social oriented approach than the traditional paternal Westerns of John Wayne. High Noon also fuelled a debate about how a man of courage, a marshall in this case, should take care of his duties like a professional and not ask help from non-professionals. The nay-sayers of High Noon were John Wayne and Howard Hawks who hated the film and even remade it with their own interpretation of the story with great success with Rio Bravo.

Despite the controversy from the right-wing of Hollywood of the 1950’s, the pace and the action of High Noon are well handled and there is no low moment in the film. The storytelling is pretty classic and the technique of Zinnemann has never been so good. It is no surprise that it got seven Oscar nominations and won four most notably for Gary Cooper as the Best Actor in a Leading Performance.

As a matter of fact, High Noon written by Carl Foreman (screenplay) is a metaphor on the current blacklist and “witch hunt” of Senator McCarthy. Foreman was a blacklisted screenwriter and the tale of the marshall of asks for assistance to the people is how the American people were ready to give away any mark men in the 1950’s just to not get involved with people completely innocent. This also might be one of the main reasons why Wayne and Hawks were strongly disapproving the films’ themes.

However, this is one of the Westerns that proved to pass the test of time with great brio. The pacing, the cinematography, and the presence of Gary Cooper justifies my rating of five stars. Every Western enthusiast should discover this wonderful masterpiece.

The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel aka Der blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)

The first sound film of the Weimar Republic picture two of the most famous actors of their time Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich. This is the film that made Dietrich became the sex symbol she represented for years. It also was the last English spoken film of Jannings who had a too prominent German accent for the American audiences. Behind the camera was one of the most talented filmmaker of his time Josef von Sternberg who actually discovered Dietrich in a cabaret and eventually became her lover for a while. The explicit sexuality of Dietrich transcends the images and time, and I am sure von Sternberg felt this at first sight just like the Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) when he saw Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) singing Falling in love again.

The Wind

The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928)

Only by being on Mediafilm's masterpiece list, this Silent film masterpiece was one of the film I deeply desired to watch since many years. Moreover, it is from one of the most notable Silent Film directors Victor Sjöström or as credited in the film Seastrom. Sjöström actually changed the spelling of his name for its phonetically sound and be more "Americanized". Since he is Swedish, it would be  more literal English to be called Seastrom instead of Sjöström even if it's the same pronunciation. He wasn't the only European director who came from Europe to work in America with the big stars and the big studios. Famous names like Josef von Sternberg, Erich von Stroheim, F.W. Murnau, were some of the biggest names to have ever worked into Silent films. Many of their movies are considered as masterpieces. It is the same case for Sjöström and his sumptuous The Wind.

Opening with a famous train sequence where Letty (Lillian Gish) from Virginia is going to live with her cousin in West Texas, a place where the wind blows all the time. While on the train, she meets an engaging gentleman name Roddy (Montagu Love) who tries to convince her that moving there is actually an error and that she should continue with him. The train opening strangely reminds the first scenes of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man where a man from the East and the city goes to the West. Arriving at destination, Letty meets up with her cousin but his wife Cora (Dorothy Cumming) doesn't like Letty and clearly is jealous of her. Our protagonist have no choice but to marry Lige (Lars Hanson), a man that disgusts her and that she didn't love. However, a test will convince Letty to see her husband in a different way and she will rethink her life choices.

It is really not often that a pure talent of storytelling is right before your eyes. In the case of Sjöström it is more than pure talent: this is a case of artistry. The brilliant composition of the film and the directing of the structured plot make The Wind one of the major Silent films. Sjöström uses a simple and very sober mise en scène for his film and the special effect of superposition of images gives to Letty's visions a superbly unsettling effect that Lillian Gish performs with one of the greatest performances by any actor from her time.

Thorough her career and her long life, she died at 99 years, Lillian Gish received lots of praised first by her first director D.W. Griffith then by her peers, even François Truffaut in his tribute to her and her sister Dorothy with is dedicate in La nuit américaine. Just to name a few of her greatest performances: The Birth of A Nation, Broken Blossoms, and The Night of the Hunter, were all masterpieces and she managed to be as good with Silent films as with talkies. Nonetheless, in The Wind she was at the top of her game, the intensity of Sjöström's film needed all the fragility, ethereal beauty of the dame, her quick adaptation to the many changes in the attitude and state of mind of Letty and her fall into insanity until her complete recovery in almost one take and a continuous shot.

She was a prisoner of the desert and her containment was even worse she was obliged to marry a boorish man that only disgusts her. Until a great sand storm washed away the ghosts of her past and open her eyes to the man she never let herself appreciate. Then she found everything she was looking for in the hell she thought she was. Like a wild stallion she delivers herself from the holds that made her miserable.

Last Year at Marienbad

L'année dernière à Marienbad aka Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

This post is a part of the Seven Days of the French New Wave going on this Blog. But since Resnais wasn't a "member" of the "vague" I have to categorize him as an outsider that often been mistaken as a French New Waver because he was French and the fact that his films were more written oriented. With Last Year at Marienbad, Alain Resnais made one of the greatest masterpieces of Cinema. See Mediafilm's list of masterpieces.

The plot is a little hard to follow since the story is divided in time, sometimes we are in the present other times in the past and sometimes in the future or what the characters imagine will be their future. This facet of the structure of the story reminded me of the surrealist writing of The Discret Charm of the Bourgeoisie or even the deconstruction of memory of Malick's The Tree of Life. Resnais' adaptation is audacious because even with today's standards this is a fresh film and it is way more thoughful than Nolan's Inception that plays with memory and time without the Sci-fi effects and the spectacular imagery.


The atmosphere of Last Year at Marienbad probably influenced Kubrick on his The Shining, with the reclusion of the characters in this castle turned into a luxurious Hotel where the characters are walking like ghosts with deadpan faces and looking like they are disconnected with time and space. The memory and the presence of the characters is like if they always were a part of the Hotel and they are trapped in a continuum of time.

The beauty of the cinematography juxtaposed with the eerie and omnipresent music gives a mysterious yet thrilling vibe to the film. It makes me want to see more films of Alain Resnais since I deeply loved his Night and Fog while been disgusted by the atrocities it displayed and I've bored by his Hiroshima mon amour. Of Resnais great career, he still makes movies today, many films a yet to be reviewed here. Last year at Marienbad might be a difficult film to get into but since you past the uncommon structure of the story it is a masterpiece every film buff should at least watch one time in his/her life.

Mon oncle

Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)

In this warm up through the month of November until the event of the Seven Days of French New Wave, countless French films will  be explored to contextualize the French film industry of the time. This 1958 film from France, by one of the most anachronical director of all-time: Jacques Tati is a masterpiece amongst Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot aka Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Playtime. Playing with Silent comedy and slapstick gags, the crossover between Chaplin, Keaton, and cartoons could vaguely described this character.
Like its director, the character played by Tati himself, seems to come out of another time, he is a silent witness of the not always successful progress and constant changes in the society.
The success of a Tati film isn't palpable for everyone because it can easily bore someone out. The slow-pace action, the repetition of effects, and the not so obvious gags makes Mon oncle, and all his films, very difficult to appreciate for the modern day viewer's eye. However, if the audiences take the time to observe and appreciate the finesse and the subtle comedy that Tati's Mr. Hulot has to offer it will discover how it is well worth effort and moreover the concentration.
It is another important aspect that I learned with Tati, the concentration of the viewer should be at its maximum anytime because when you think that some scene doesn't matter this is exactly the moment when Tati will get you. I would love to see a film by this director about how the society has changed since the 1970's and I'm sure he would have made a film about everyone connected to his/her phone in a restaurant full of people texting and being isolated from each other while posting little non-sense sentences of Facebook or Twitter.
Mon oncle is by far my favorite film by Jacques Tati, a filmmaker that made not so many films but that worked so hard on each one of them that it is already a lot when you calculate the number of gags and the quality of them all. He was the last of a tradition lost probably forever because this kind of humor only makes laugh nostalgics and stubborn film buffs like me...

Apur Sansar (1959)

Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

The last chapter of the trilogy of Apu by Satyajit Ray concludes this autobiographical story of its director with mastery. Apu just lost his mother and is out of school without a "real" diploma. He decides to become a writer and he teaches to pupils as a living. He hardly gets want he needs to survive. His life is miserable and it doesn't seem to get better. One day his best friend come visit and invite him on a wedding in his family. Apu accepts but on the arrival of the groom the family of the discovers that the groom is mentally ill. They decide to cancel this wedding, but the bride must get married before the sunset. If not, she will be cursed. The only solution is to take Apu as her husband. With a little resistance and lots of compassion, Apu accepts again and marries Aparna.

For a while, they live something like a happily life together until Aparna gets pregnant. She returns to her family to have the baby but a dramatic event occurs and Kajal, their son is the result. Once again, Apu gets on his own and disappears. His journey will take messianic scale. However, in conclusion he'll renew with his son Kajal and the journey of the life of Apu will continue forever.

Like the other films of the trilogy, Apur Sansar is shot with crude natural images and rests on the human Indian life. Ray approach to film is near the documentary because it documents how Indians lived and many cultural elements that are unknown by any Occidentals like your host here. The rites of marriage, the couple lives, the food making, etc. Satyajit Ray was the John Ford of his country he took a picture of his land, his time, and the richness of both to spread wide to the whole world. It's shame that his films are so hard to find in North America because his Trilogy is populated by three masterpieces.

Pather Panchali (1955)

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

When I discovered Pather Panchali it was the first Satyajit Ray film I've ever seen, and it was also the first Indian film I watched. I knew it was the first part of the Apu Trilogy and that it was considered as a true masterpiece. But I didn't knew that it was gonna be one of the most recognized "foreign" film. 

Its narration is very subtle and lets lots of space to the actors to actually live on the screen. I know there was a novel on which the trilogy is based but I also read somewhere that it is almost Satyajit Ray's autobiography.

Pather Panchali is the story of an Indian peasant family living with the grand mother, a son Apu and his sister. It depicts how Indians lived in the begininng of the 20th century. The discovery of modernity illustrated by the train and the fragility of life represented by the daughter's death.

The most important aspect of this filmmaking is how Satyajit Ray wants his film to be naturalistic and realistic. It possesses a documentary-like narration of objective camera and almost a non-existent plot. It depicts life itself and what is Cinema if it's not about life? Ray's films are hard to get and sometimes as Occidentals we are a little confused about what's going on the screen but for a glutton and curious cinephile like me Pather Panchali leads you in something completely different and very interesting.

Aparajito

Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)

Aparajito is the simple story of an Indian family of the region of Bengal. The father felt ill because of his overwork, and dies a while after. He let behind him a wife and a son, Apu. As in many families where the husband dies or the mother is divorced, the son becomes the remplacement of his father in the mind of the mother. This is a natural reaction to an emptiness caused by a lost.

Later, Apu is in his teenage years and he goes to school in Calcutta away from his dear mother. Once again, the mother suffers from the lost of his male figure. On one side she wants the best for her son; a good education and a good future. But, on the other side she wants him on her side as much as he can.

The second chapter of the Apu triology by Satyajit Ray, tells the story of many families but especially the life of its auteur; Ray himself. Family is a universal theme but in this depiction of India, it is very specific to its country and reflects for outsiders like me, how people lived in India in the 1920's. We have shots of the Gange, the classrooms, the family home, the relations between the mother, the father, and the son. The talent of Satyajit Ray is realism, his images are raw and real and his mastery of Cinema is impressive for an Occidental point of view. The way he shot his film is near the documentary and it gives a sense of palpable moviemaking. Ray presented to the world his culture, his country, and his art and he put it by himself in front of the big Hollywood machine, the european auteurs, etc. A country that didn't had the reputation to offer masterpieces had his master: Satyajit Ray for India. I read somewhere that what Ray did to India is comparable has what John Ford did to the American heritage. I think it's not pretentious to support this affirmation.

World Cinema diserves much more praised than it actually has and I will review much more of Satyajit Ray's films in the montrhs to come.

MEDIAFILM's Materpiece List

Since 50 years, MEDIAFILM.ca is a public agency that proposes the ratings of everything cinema/television related for the entire Prvince of Quebec. Its ratings are from (1)Masterpiece to (7)Duds. Those ratings are used in the newspapers, tv guides and many websites.

Being a cinephile in the province of Quebec, these ratings were the first references I had when I began to discover auteur films/ foreign and classic films.

Every five years they upgrade a list of masterpieces, This list has been the first cinephile achievement I ever wanted to complete. But on the way I encountered many many other films. An obstacle was also the availability of certain films, Victor Sjöstrom's The Wind or Abel Gance's Napoleon for example. And the many Criterion expensive releases retarded this quest. Now, with more moeny in my pockets and the discovery of certain films available online I am in position to conclude my first ever cinephile objective. Being near the end I feel like a marathonian that feels nostalgic of the first miles and I take a certain step-back at the work/fun achieved.

Enough with the words here. Here you have the list that I will try to put in the best order possible (by year). With the time you will see some links appear on the titles, it will be my review and/or thought on the film and the context I've discovered the so-called movie!

U = Unseen

The Birth of A Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915) USA
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916) USA
The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (Robert, Wiene, 1919) Germany
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919) USA
Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922) USA
The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921) USA
Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922) Germany
Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924) USA
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) USA
The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924) Germany
The Navigator (Donald Crisp & Buster Keaton, 1924) USA
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925) USSR
The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925) USA
The General (Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton, 1926) USA
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) Germany
Berlin: Symphony of A Great City (Walther Ruttmann, 1927) Germany
Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927) France
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927) USA
Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, 1928) Germany
Steamboat Bill Jr. (Buster Keaton & Charles F. Reisner, 1928) USA
October (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1928) USSR
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) France
U The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928) USA
Man With The Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) USSR
Earth (Alexander Dovjenko, 1930) USSR
L'Âge d'or (Luis Bunuel, 1930) France
U The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) Germany
City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) USA
M (Fritz Lang, 1931) Germany
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934) France
The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934) USA
Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1935) USA
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) France
Alexander Nevsky (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1938) USSR
La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) France
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) USA
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford , 1940) USA
The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940) USA
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) USA
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1941) USA
Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1942) Danemark
Ivan The Terrible: Part I (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1944) USSR
Ivan The Terrible: Part II (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1945) USSR
Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1945) France
La belle et la bête (Jean Cocteau, 1946) France
Roma Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1946) Italy
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) USA
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) USA
Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) Italy
Louisiana Story (Robert J. Flaherty, 1949) USA
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) UK
Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1950) France
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) USA
The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) USA
Othello (Orson Welles, 1951) USA
Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1951) Italy
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) Japan
Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952) USA
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) USA
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) Japan
Les vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, 1953) France
Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953) France
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) Japan
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) USA
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Japan
La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) Italy
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) USA
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) USA
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955) India
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) USA
Ordet (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955) Danemark
Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)
East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955) USA
U Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, 1955) France
Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956) India
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Sweden
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1957) France
Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957) Italy
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Sweden
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) USA
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) USA
Les 400 coups (François Truffaut, 1958) France
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1958) France
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959) France
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) USA
Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1959) India
The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960) Sweden
L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Italy
À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) France
La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) Italy
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) USA
L'année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1960) France
La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) Italy
Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961) France
West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise, 1961) USA
U L'Eclisse (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1962) Italy
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) UK
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) USA
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Italy
Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1963) France
Dr.Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1963) USA
U Pour la suite du monde (Pierre Perreault & Michel Brault, 1963) Canada
U Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) Italy
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Sweden
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) UK
Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966) USSR
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) France
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1967) Italy
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) USA
Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968) Italy
Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968) Italy 
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969) Italy
Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) Italy
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) UK
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Sweden
Le charme discrèt de la bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972) France
The Godfathter (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) USA
Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973) Italy
The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974) USSR
The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) USA
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) USA
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) USA
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) USA
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) USA
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) USA
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) USA
Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979) USA
Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais, 1980) France
Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) USA
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) USA
Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) USA
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) UK
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) Germany
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) USA

West Side Story (1961)

West Side Story (Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise, 1961)

Winner of 10 Oscars, this adaptation of a Broadway musical could have been a complete disaster considering the latest screen adaptations of Broadway musicals like Rent. West Side Story has been a success on the stage and on the screen. Despite its over dramatic themes and conclusion, its story is more than worth the look. The musical parts bring the best of film.

The "mise en scene" is steady and strongly achieved by the sometimes over sometimes under appreciated Robert Wise (The Set-Up, The Day The Earth Stood Still) and the choreographs by Jerome Robbins are just perfect. Well, it may be one of the things that can tickle, the way the film feels that it is perfect. I tend to like films that are perfect in their imperfections. West Side Story seems like the film has been shot 300 times and the fury and the passion of the moment and of the performances just not feel as real as they really are. Sometimes flaws are a plus, and here, in this very Hollywood feature film it just feels too right. Well, so right it's wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I am a defender of Robert Wise's films and I think that West Side Story stands just where it deserves to stand in the History of Cinema it's just that if it was a film from the 1950's it would have had a better time table, but in the same year a little French film Une femme est une femme, a little musical, directed by a young sensation named Jean-Luc Godard feels fresher today by its rawness and human feelings of its crude colors and its revolutionised film making techniques.


West Side Story is a near masterpiece achievement in film making that every cinephile out there especially musicals and/or Broadway enthusiast should have seen!

The Scarlet Empress

The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
I impose to myself many obligations or discipline; I want ot see the entire list of Masterpiece of Mediafilm, They Shoot Pictures Don't They? 1000 Greatest films, AFI's 100, Bfi polls, etc. The Scarlet Empress is one of the films that was initially on the first list of films I ever read; Mediafilm's Masterpieces! To me it was like finding the klondike, I had only seen three or four films of this list and I was dreaming of the hundred and thirty others.

With great expectations I sat in front of my television to discover my first von Sternberg film and my third Marlene Dietrich movie. An interesting story about how Catherine II got the power in Russia in the XVIIIth century. Populated with gothic statues and overacting The Scarlet Empress has an unique touch of madness and movement. Madness for the first sequences where Russia is described as near as hell with some female breasts on the screen (remember that you are reading about a 1934 film!) and many scenes of simulated torture. Movement, because all along the film the editing is very fast and there is always something moving on the screen. I was surprised by the freshness the film had, von Sternberg has a vibrant approach. I'm looking forward to see more of his work very soon because I know he is an important filmmaker of the early days of Cinema.

The Scarlet Empress was probably a big spectacle for its time like a Cecil B. De Mille or a David W. Griffith film, not like a James Cameron one... Instead of Cameron; De Mille, Griffith, and von Sternberg have spirit and deepness and it's reflected into their films.