Sergio Leone was by far the most talented director of spaghetti westerns, but arguably his best film is this gangster epic that he made having earlier turned down the chance to direct The Godfather. The long but always fascinating story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City’s world of organised crime, particularly David “Noodles” Aaronson, initially a poor street kid struggling to survive in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the early 1920s. One of the few great Italian films of the 1980s and featuring a remarkable reproduction of New York’s Lower East Side, Once Upon a Time in America is visually stunning, violent and desperately sad.
Two-Disc Special Edition (DVD)
Blu-ray
Extended Director’s Cut [Blu-ray]
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Complete Version 2 Pieces Set [DVD]
Robert De Niro Collection – 4-Disc Box Set ( Heat / Goodfellas / The Mission / Once Upon a Time in America ) [ Blu-Ray, Reg.A/B/C Import – United Kingdom ]
Lists:
- No. 23 on The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films of All-Time (2018)
Reacting against the supposed formulaic and studio controlled mainstream films of the 1950s, outspoken Cahiers du Cinema critic, Francois Truffaut helped trigger the New Wave with a film revolving around an ordinary adolescent in Paris, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud) who is thought by his parents and teachers to be a trouble maker. His teacher singles him out for criticism and punishment, while his mother is cold and demanding, and frequently argues with her husband (Antoine’s stepfather). The 400 Blows has elements of autobiography as the precocious Truffaut was incarcerated as a teenager for failing to pay debts while in the film the young protagonist is jailed for stealing a typewriter. Showing an allegiance to the visual style of filmmakers such Renoir and Welles, Truffaut uses moving camera shots and long takes to create an open fluid mise-en-scene. However, it’s the performance of Leaud, who provides an intelligent yet innocent portrayal of the troubled but often humorous youth during his initiation into a callous adult world, that gives the film its brilliant pathos and is ultimately the key to its success.
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Part of an Italian industry that had pioneered the feature film, Quo Vadis is a lavish spectacular.
1913 photo Scene from the 1913 Italian silent film Quo Vadis? graphic. Vintag c3
In August 2017 Total Film Magazine compiled a list of what they considered the 25 best action movies. It’s hard to go against the top 2 choices with Terminator 2 certainly one of the most thrilling and entertaining films ever made and Die Hard is never too far from the top of these types of polls.
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DVD
DVD
DVD
Paul Greengrass is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film Bloody Sunday won the Golden Bear at 52nd Berlin International Film Festival. Other films he has directed include three in the Bourne action/thriller series: The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and Jason Bourne (2016); United 93 (2006), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Director, and received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination, Green Zone (2010) and Captain Phillips (2013). In 2004 he co-wrote and produced the film Omagh, which won British Academy Television Award.
Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive brand of stylised crime drama. For his work, he has received nominations from international organisations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His most acclaimed works are the crime film Heat (1995) and the docudrama The Insider (1999). Total Film ranked Mann No. 28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Directors Ever, Sight and Sound ranked him No. 5 on their list of the 10 Best Directors of the Last 25 Years, and Entertainment Weekly ranked Mann No. 8 on their 25 Greatest Active Film Directors list.
The Cinema of Michael Mann: Vice and Vindication (Directors’ Cuts) Paperback
George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; in radio, the legendary 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds”; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. Below are his ten favourite films.
(Chaplin, 1931).
(von Stroheim, 1924).
(Griffith, 1916).
(Flaherty, 1922).
(De Sica, 1946).
(Pagnol, 1938).
(Renoir, 1937).
(Ford, 1939).
(Vidor, 1934).
Orson Welles: A Biography (audiobook)
Battleship Potemkin with Bonus Sergei Eisenstein Documentary
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(Book)
In 2005 the British Institute published a list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14 to inspire parents and educators to take movies as seriously as books and other forms of art. It was created by more than 70 experts including film producers, teachers, authors and critics who all made their own top ten. The film registering the most votes was Spirited Away, which won the 75th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Bear at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival. The British Film Institute published the top 10 and then the other 40 films in alphabetical order.
Sight & Sound ~ May 2018 ~ BFI Film Magazine 120 BPM Lean on Pete Woodfall Films
