Tag: seven samurai

20. Rashomon (1950) Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 88 mins.

Decisively breaking away from the Japanese studios ‘Hollywood’ narrative model, Rashomon is set in feudal Japan and depicts the rape of a woman and the apparent murder of her samurai husband, through the widely differing accounts of four witnesses. By presenting these conflicting views of the same event, the film explores the imperfections of humanity and was probably the first in Japanese cinema that featured such ambiguity, allowing the audience to make their own judgements rather than being provided with a single truth. The film is also notable for the emotive acting, Kurosawa’s mastery of mise-en-scene and the sentimental but compelling ending. Winner of the grand prize at Venice and best foreign film at the Academy awards, Rashomon helped propel Japanese film toward world recognition and is now widely regarded as one of the premiere works of art cinema. More…

19. There Will Blood (2007) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 158 mins.

Inspired by Upton Sinclair’s novel ‘Oil!’ There Will Be Blood tells the story of a silver miner-turned-oilman, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California’s oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a real work of art with Anderson managing to bring to life a lost era with a staggering aesthetic clarity. Day-Lewis’s relentlessly focused portrayal of the often unfathomable and greedy oil man saw him rightly awarded with a Best Actor Oscar. While the final scene and confrontation between Plainview and his nemesis Eli (Paul Dano) polarised critics, like it or loathe it, it provides one of most memorable moments of 21st century cinema. More…

18. Bicycle Thieves (1948) Dir. Vittorio De Sica, 93 mins.

One of the major achievements of neo-realism and the film that convinced Satyajit Ray to become a filmmaker, Bicycle Thieves sees De Sica using a non-professional cast to tell the story of a poor father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family. It touches broadly on Italy’s institutions and cultures but at its centre is always the grinding poverty of the family, exemplified in the relationship between the well meaning father and the young plucky son who helps him look for the bicycle. It’s the balance between the careful direction with its intricate mise-en-scene, the use of the inexperienced actors, and the input of writing collaborator Cesare Zavattini, who championed the poetics of everyday life and the normal man, that makes Bicycle Thieves the most well known and successful work of De Sica’s long and varied career. More…

17. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) Dir. Werner Herzog, 93 mins.

One of the great haunting visions of world cinema and the first collaboration between Herzog and star Klaus Kinski, the story follows the mostly fictionalised travels of sixteenth century Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who, in open and irrational defiance of nature and God, leads a group of conquistadors down the Orinoco and Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. With its incongruous adherence to courtly grandeur in the midst of the jungle, the film is both a parody and criticism of colonialism. By means of extreme camera angles and long shots, Herzog visualises primordial nature as an antagonistic and terrifying force that dwarfs and eventually destroys the coloniser. The film is also notable for the infamous production incidents such as Herzog (who was unarmed at the time) threatening to shoot the unpredictable and difficult Kinski if he left the set. More…

16. Pulp Fiction (1994) Dir. Quentin Tarantino, 154 mins.

Directed in a highly stylised manner and drawing on a mixture of cinematic sources (such as American B pictures and the French New Wave), Pulp Fiction joins the intersecting storylines of Los Angeles mobsters, fringe players, small-time criminals and a mysterious briefcase. The film reinvigorated the career of John Travolta and features a brilliant ensemble cast, particularly Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. Tarantino confidently deploys an ingenious structure, rapid fire rhetoric and graphic violence with a surprising playfullness and exceptional intelligence. More…

15. Taxi Driver (1976) Dir. Martin Scorsese, 113 mins.

Leading on from the critical acclaim of Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese continued further into the darker side of New York City with a film set soon after the Vietnam War. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a lonely and depressed young man and former Marine living in Manhattan who becomes a night time taxi driver in order to cope with his chronic insomnia. Bickle becomes attracted to a young woman (Cybill Shepherd), shows concern for a child prostitute (a disturbingly precocious turn from Jodie Foster), and becomes progressively more troubled over what he sees as the city’s filth and human scum. His compressed anger finally erupts into a rage focused simultaneously on Foster’s pimp and Shepherd’s boss, a political candidate. Brilliant and  controversially violent, the film features an alarming psychological atmosphere (enhanced by a jazzy and eerie music score by Bernard Hermann), a remarkable central performance from De Niro and established Scorsese as one of the great talents of the New Hollywood era. More…

14. Seven Samurai (1954) Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 207 mins.

Deeply influenced by Hollywood and particularly the westerns of John Ford, Kurosawa’s epic samurai adventure takes place in Warring States Period Japan. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (including the terrific Toshiro Mifune) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops. One of the most influential films of all time, evidenced by the breakthrough films of directors such as Spielberg, Lucas and Sergio Leone, it was remade by Sturges as the western The Magnificent Seven six years later. With its memorable characters and stunning action sequences Seven Samurai is as much a thrilling and engrossing form of entertainment as it is art and, probably, the most beloved of Japan’s jidaigeki masterpieces. More…

13. Andrei Rublev (1966) Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 205 mins.

Loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the monk and great 15th century Russian icon painter, Tarkovsky’s historical epic concerns the relationship between man and God, man and nature, the artist and the people, the artist and the art form. It was banned by the authorities, largely because of its portrayal of the conflict between the artist and the political powered structure, and not released in the Soviet Union until 1971. Deeply moving and mysterious the film is rich in symbolism and full of remarkable imagery. More…

12. The Conformist (1970) Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 107 mins.

Adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia and set initially in 1930s Italy, Bertolucci’s poetic expressionist art film explores the bourgeois roots of fascism by following Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who is so eager to fit in and find normality, that he agrees to a traditional marriage (despite having little regard for his fiance) and joins the Fascist secret police, finding himself ordered to assassinate his old friend and teacher, Professor Quadri, an outspoken anti-Fascist intellectual now living in exile in France. Propelled to greatness by Trintignant’s superb and compelling performance, a clever narrative structure (with memorable flashback sequences) and the remarkable use of Fascist era art and decor, The Conformist is a masterpiece of stunning cinematography (featuring the brilliant use of lighting and warm colours from Vittorio Storaro and art director Ferdinando Scarfiotti) and relaxed rhythm interrupted by explosions of violent intensity. The film was also a huge influence on New Hollywood film makers such as Francis Ford Coppola. More…

11. 8½ (1963) Dir. Federico Fellini, 138 mins.

Made when neo-realism was still the reigning orthodoxy, Fellini’s surrealist avant-garde masterpiece is a portrait of a famous Italian film director, Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), who is suffering from “director’s block”. Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes veiled autobiographical references, he loses interest amid artistic and marital difficulties. Fellini delivers a highly influential and inventive spectacle of imagery that’s helped along by a funny and thought provoking script, Mastroianni’s terrific performance and Nino Rota’s unique musical style. While the director’s own autobiographical tendencies became more accentuated with 8½, it’s his ability to draw from other people’s recollections and fantasies as well as his own, that made it his most representative film and one of the greatest ever. More…

10. The Rules of the Game (1939) Dir. Jean Renoir, 110 mins.

Ending a decade of great artistic achievement for French cinema, Renoir’s masterpiece marked a striking departure in filming technique, (particularly from Hollywood norms) with its long takes, constantly moving camera and use of deep focus. Looking at French society just before the start of World War II, the film is principally set in the country estate of the Marquis de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio) and shows the collapse of a frivolous, static and corrupt aristocratic society. This image of France, as well as the film’s elaborate structure and the ambiguity of the characters, confused critics, provoked hostility from the public and was banned as demoralising by the French government after the outbreak of war.  Renoir never recovered from the negative reaction but despite this and the lack of commercial success, the director’s filming style, that brought out a complex mise-en-scene, the rich and varied array of characters and the 1959 restoration version helped to grow its reputation as one of the greatest films of all time. More…

9. Raging Bull (1980) Dir. Martin Scorsese, 129 mins.

One of a string of early 1980s box office disappointments for Martin Scorsese, the film is a hugely ambitious and superbly edited biography of Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), an Italian American middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage, sexual jealousy and animalistic appetite destroys his relationship with his wife and family. Scorsese gives De Niro the freedom to truly transform into the unsympathetic working class boxer and he’s got strong support from relative newcomers Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty (as LaMotta’s brother and wife). It received mixed reviews and criticism for its violent content on release, but De Niro’s explosive and absorbing performance, the brutal yet poetic fight scenes and the bleakly beautiful black and white cinematography make Raging Bull not only Scorsese’s finest film but also one of cinema’s best ever. More…

8. Blade Runner (1982) Dir. Ridley Scott, 117 mins.

Loosely adapted from Philip K. Dick’s novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ the film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered beings called replicants are manufactured by the all-powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on off-world colonies. When a fugitive group of replicants led by Roy Batty (Ruger Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down. On release it struggled at the box office and turned off critics with its unconventional pacing and plot, but still grew a reputation as cult sci-fi. After a director’s cut and The Final Cut (just two of seven versions) and helped by an outstanding cast, particularly Ford and an iconic turn from Hauer (who wrote the famous ‘Tears in the Rain’ speech himself), and the music of Vangelis, Blade Runner is now considered one of the most thematically complex and aesthetically stunning films ever made. More…

7. The Godfather Part II (1974) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 200 mins.

While Coppola had no initial interest in making a follow up to The Godfather, Part II became one of the most commercially and critically successful sequels of all time. The film is actually both a sequel and prequel, with the tale of a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) and his ascent into criminality paralleling the continuing story of Vito’s youngest son, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), who is now in charge of the criminal family enterprise. While some were quick to declare it greater than the original and few could argue against the outstanding performances and stunning cinematography, there were notable critics who attacked the non-linear narrative and the pacing. However, the film was soon reevaluated with many previous detractors changing their minds and it is now seen as one of the great creative triumphs of American cinema. More…

6. Vertigo (1958) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 129 mins.

Alfred Hitchcock was at the peak of his powers when he made Vertigo, a psychological thriller, based on the French novel D’entre les morts (From Among the Dead) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, that follows a retired police detective, Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), who has acrophobia, and is hired as a private investigator to follow the wife of an acquaintance to uncover the mystery of her peculiar behaviour. Focusing on the romantic obsession that Scottie develops for the enigmatic woman (Kim Novak), Vertigo received mixed reviews upon release, particularly in Hitchcock’s native England, with some fans disappointed at the director departing from his earlier lighter romantic thrillers and a number of critics dismissing it as nothing more than a slowly paced murder mystery. However, it’s re-evaluation began in the following decade, when writers at the influential French magazine Cahiers du cinéma began to view Hitchcock as a serious cinematic artist rather than just a slick crowd pleaser and soon film scholars were singling the movie out as a work of hypnotic visual beauty and a profound meditation on love, loss and identity. Over sixty years on, Vertigo continues to fascinate and is now heralded, by many, as Hitchock’s most important contribution to cinema.  More…

5. Apocalypse Now (1979) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 153 mins.

Drawing from war correspondent Michael Herr’s dispatches and Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, John Milius adapted the story of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, changing its setting from late nineteenth-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The plot revolves around two US Army special operations officers Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) and Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Willard is sent to assassinate the rogue and insane Kurtz in what becomes a nightmarish journey into the darkness of war and the monsters who inhabit it. The film is also notable as one of cinema’s most troubled productions (as documented in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse) with sets destroyed by severe weather, Sheen having a near fatal heart attack and the release being postponed while Coppola edited thousands of feet of film. Apocalypse Now received mixed reviews on release and while Brando’s bravura turn (much of it improvised) threatened to unbalance the film, (and he arrived on set overweight and unprepared), the brilliant direction of Coppola, inspired writing by Milius and Vittorio Storaro’s acclaimed cinematography has seen it reevaluated to now be considered one of the greatest films ever made. More…

4. Tokyo Story (1953) Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 136 mins.

With his masterful ability for understanding the human condition, Yasujiro Ozu, by the time of his death in 1963 (aged just 60), had become, by common consent, Japan’s greatest director and his most famous and acclaimed film remains Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo Story), the poignant tale of a couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The elderly grandparents find their offspring too preoccupied with their jobs and families to spend much time with them. In fact, the only affection and kindness comes from their daughter-in-law Noriko, widow of a son they lost to war. Ozu combines his seemingly simple but distinctive minimalist filming techniques, (placing the camera, which rarely moves, at a low height as well as intricate cutting), with brilliant narrative control to deliver an emotionally rich yet subtle family drama that’s as close to everyday life as any the cinema has given us. More…

3. Citizen Kane (1941) Dir. Orson Welles, 119 mins.

Considered by some as overly self-conscious, artificial and even baroque, Orson Welles’s sensational first studio film examines the life and legacy of the fictional Charles Foster Kane (Welles himself) who rises from obscurity to become a publishing tycoon. Coming off the back of Welles’s infamous 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast, RKO gave him full creative freedom and let him loose on the studio’s latest technology. While his role as the ‘auteur’ has been questioned (Pauline Kael argued Herman J. Mankiewicz was the sole scriptwriter) it was his revolutionary approach to the film medium that encouraged large scale experimentation on existing techniques, particularly the complex narrative structure, cinematographer Greg Toland’s rule breaking use of lighting and deep focus and the innovative use of the music of composer Bernard Herrmann (his first film score), that helped make Citizen Kane a technical and stylistic triumph. Despite a campaign by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst that delayed the release (Hearst thought the portrayal of Kane to be too close to his own megalomaniac personality), the film received rave reviews and has gone on to be acclaimed as a landmark achievement in cinema. More…

2. The Godfather (1972) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 175 mins.

Brilliantly combining the temperament of European art cinema with the Hollywood gangster genre of the past, Francis Ford Coppola’s epic mafia saga chronicles ten years (1945-55) in the lives of a fictional Italian American crime family. The film focuses most on the ageing patriarch Vito Corleone (a come back for Marlon Brando), and his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), whose transformation from war hero and reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss propels much of the narrative. Coppola had to fight to cast Brando (and also Pacino), who gives a performance of immense authority among a magnificent cast of what were then mainly unknown actors. With a success that marked the transition from Classic Hollywood to New American Cinema and revitalised Paramount, The Godfather is a masterpiece of stunning artistry and masterful story telling that is continually lauded as one of the greatest and most influential films in world cinema. More…

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 141 mins.

Remarkably once labelled as dull, unimaginative and lacking dramatic appeal, Kubrick’s grand science fiction spectacle took four years to prepare and used special effects, particularly in depicting space flight, that were without precedent in the industry. The film, which follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer HAL after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith, deals with themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and the existence of extraterrestrial life. With the hypnotic imagery, scientific realism and Kubrick’s elaborate use of music, 2001 is now acclaimed as visionary cinema. Even watching it fifty years after its original release, you are provided with a visual and technical quality that’s still without equal in the history of film. More…