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The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films (2020) 720-701

Introduction

720. A Difficult Life (1961) Dir. Dino Risi, 118 mins.

Following the national trauma of World War II, Italian society is in turmoil. Ardent leftist Silvio Magnozzi (Alberto Sordi) spent the war as an anti-fascist guerrilla, and he’s dismayed to see the country he fought for lurching rightward politically and focusing on shallow materialism instead of civil rights. Unable to keep his former job as a journalist, Silvio loses both his social standing and his wife (Lea Massari), until he attempts to back away from his principles.

719. Last Train Home (2009) Dir. Lixin Fan, 85 mins.

Annually, an estimated 130 million factories workers in China migrate from their city of employment back to the village they grew up in. This documentary spotlights married couple Chen and Zhang as they make their own journey. Once home they must struggle to reconnect with their children, whom they see only once a year. When they discover that their daughter has decided to drop out of school to work at a factory herself, they begin questioning the value of their sacrifice.

718. Odd Man Out (1947) Dir. Carol Reed, 116 mins.

In the aftermath of a botched hold-up, intended to finance the activities of his IRA cell, a wounded Johnny McQueen takes shelter in the back-alleys of Belfast, a shadowy underworld where sanctuary is freighted at every moment with peril. Meanwhile, a vast police manhunt is launched, a net that closes steadily, remorselessly in upon him. Watch

717. Deliverance (1972) Dir. John Boorman, 109 mins.

Four Atlanta businessmen decide to canoe down the fictional Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and see the glory of nature before the river valley is flooded over by the upcoming construction of a dam and lake.

716. Stray Dog (1949) Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 122 mins.

Notable as a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres, Akira Kurosawa’s crime drama also shows consideration for the difficult period of Japanese postwar recovery. Regular Kurosawa collaborators Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura star as the rookie and the veteran detectives in a visually strong and complex film. Watch

715. A Dog’s Will (2000) Dir. Guel Arraes, 104 mins.

An Adventure that follows two poor souls (Matheus Nachtergaele, Selton Mello) as they find a job, scheme to win a girl and face marauding bandits.

714. Trust (1990) Dir. Hal Hartley, 107 mins.

High school dropout Maria Coughlin (Adrienne Shelly) is having a rough time of it on Long Island. Her father recently died of a heart attack, her boyfriend has left her and she’s pregnant. To make matters even worse, her mother has now kicked her out of the house. But when electronics genius Matthew Slaughter (Martin Donovan) comes into her life, things start to brighten up for Maria. Sure, he’s unemployed and a little unhinged, but together they just might have a chance.

713. I Am Twenty (1965) Dir. Marlen Khutsiev, 189 mins.

Considered a landmark of 1960s Soviet cinema, Khutsiev’s most famous film, which was censored upon its release, follows a soldier named Sergei (Valentin Popov) who completes his military service and returns home to find the world he knew has changed. He is reunited with his former friends, but they are now occupied by family and work responsibilities. He drifts through Moscow, alienated and haunted by a dream of his late father. Eventually Sergei latches onto an unstable woman who is in the midst of getting a divorce.

712. The Player (1992) Dir. Robert Altman, 124 mins.

The film stars Tim Robbins as a Hollywood film studio executive who murders an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.

711. Shadows (1959) Dir. John Cassavetes, 87 mins.

Based on improvisations which originated in his actor’s workshop, Cassavetes’s low budget ($40,000), independently produced film is notable for its intense realism and sensitive handling of racial issues. It depicts two weeks in the lives of three African-American siblings on the margins of society, two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their sister who dates several men.

710. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Dir. Wes Anderson, 87 mins.

Anderson’s first full length animation, using stop-motion effects, is about a fox (voiced by George Clooney) who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers, despite promising his wife (Meryl Streep) he’ll stop his chicken thievery. The farmers have become so fed up with Mr. Fox’s theft that they try to kill him, digging their way into the foxes’ home, but the animals are able to outwit the farmers and live underground. While the American accents don’t seem right for an adaptation of Roald Dahl and the female characters are under used, Anderson’s amusing tale successfully channels the writer’s darkly comic humour.

709. Withnail & I (1987) Dir. Bruce Robinson, 107 mins.

Based on Robinson’s life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed young actors, Withnail and “I” (Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann) who live in a squalid flat in Camden Town in 1969 while squandering their finances on alcohol. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the Lake District.

708. Secrets & Lies (1996) Dir. Mike Leigh, 142 mins.

Hortense, a black optometrist, discovers that her birth mother is a working class white woman.

707. The Loves of a Blonde (1965) Dir. Milos Forman, 90 mins.

The film tells the story of a young woman who has a routine job in a shoe factory in provincial Czechoslovakia. When the army holds maneuvers near her home town, the factory supervisor organises a social gathering for the largely female workforce and the all-male soldiers. However, the dance is not a complete success, with many of the soldiers, who are middle-aged reservists, and many of the factory workers, who are inexperienced young women with idealised views of romance, being confused by and disappointed with their potential dancing partners. The film’s protagonist, though, does meet an attractive young man who plays in the dance band and has a one-night fling with him. When she travels to the capital city where he lives in order to resume their romance, she meets his parents and comes to the realisation that there is no future in this relationship.

706. Comrades (1986) Dir. Bill Douglas, 183 mins.

Through the pictures of a travelling lanternist, it depicts the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were arrested and transported to Australia in 1834 for trying to improve their conditions by forming an early form of trade union.

705. Seven Chances (1925) Dir. Buster Keaton, 56 mins.

On the verge of bankruptcy, struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon (Buster Keaton) learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday, which is the day in question, he’ll inherit seven million dollars.

704. Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) Dir. Fritz Lang, 143 mins.

Siegfried (Paul Richter), son of King Siegmund, masters the art of forging a sword at the shop of Mime (George John). On his journey home, he hears tales of Kriemhild, the princess of Burgundy (Margarete Schoen). Siegfried announces he wants to win her hand in marriage, much to the amusement of the smiths. Buy

703. I Am So Proud of You (2008) Dir. Don Hertzfeldt, 22 mins.

It is the second chapter of a trilogy about the character Bill and continues the dark and philosophical humor of the first film, Everything Will Be OK. In this chapter, Bill’s recovery is haunted by the apparently genetic inevitability of his mental illness, and the lack of control over his own fate. The sudden death of a loved one casts a further shadow over his recovery.

702. Vitalina Varela (2019) Dir. Pedro Costa, 124 mins.

Winner of the Golden Leopard at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival, the film follows Vitalina Varela, a 55-year-old woman from Cape Verde, who arrives in Lisbon three days after her husband’s funeral. She’s been waiting for her plane ticket for more than 25 years.

701. The Exorcist (1973) Dir. William Friedkin, 122 mins.

The film is based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win her back through an exorcism by two priests.

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The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films (2019) 580-561

Introduction

580. The Butcher (1970) Dir. Claude Chabrol, 93 mins.

Chabrol’s thriller follows a confident, slightly naive young teacher who meets a butcher at a wedding ceremony, and they strike up a close but platonic relationship. The young woman then grows suspicious of the butcher when a series of women in their small town fall victim to an unknown murderer. With something of a nod to a Hitchcockian thriller, The Butcher builds into a gripping and compelling film.

579. Five Easy Pieces (1970) Dir. Bob Rafelson, 98 mins.

The film tells the story of surly oil-rig worker Bobby Dupea, whose seemingly rootless blue-collar existence belies his privileged youth as a piano prodigy. When Bobby learns that his father is dying, he goes home to see him, taking along his waitress girlfriend.

578. Skyfall (2012) Dir. Sam Mendes, 120 mins.

Full of terrific action sequences and memorable performances, Skyfall centres on Bond (Daniel Craig) investigating an attack on MI6, which turns out to be part of a plot by former MI6 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) to humiliate, discredit and kill M as revenge for her betraying him. Thanks to smart direction from Mendes and more brilliant cinematography from Roger Deakins the film has been lauded as one of the best Bond movies to date.

577. Dead Ringers (1988) Dir. David Cronenberg, 116 mins.

Based on the true story of identical twin gynaecologists (both played by Jeremy Irons), Cronenberg’s distressing urban horror follows the doctors as they frequently sub for each other professionally, capriciously share one another’s lovers and pride themselves on that fact that their subterfuge has never been detected. Enter Genevieve Bujold, playing a internationally famous infertile actress, who is courted by both twins, but selects the shyer of the two leading to the psychological disintegration of the brothers. Whilst Cronenberg begins to veer away from the horror genre proper, Dead Ringers retains the hallucinatory and horrifying atmosphere of his earlier films.

576. Spring in a Small Town (1948) Dir. Mu Fei, 93 mins.

The heroine Wei Wei (Zhou Yuwen) is married to a prominent landowner who seems to be suffering from severe depression, which, with World War II having just ended, no one would fault him for. When a charming doctor comes to visit the family, Wei Wei is thrown into turmoil. She was in love with this doctor before marrying her husband and now he clearly wants her back.

575. Jesus of Nazareth (1977) Dir. Franco Zeffirelli, 371 mins.

Jesus of Nazareth is a  British-Italian television miniseries directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli, which dramatises the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Robert Powell).

574. The Wild Child (1970) Dir. Francois Truffaut, 83 mins.

Truffaut stars in and directs a rewarding story of a child who spends the first eleven or twelve years of his life with little or no human contact. The film explores the relationship between director and film, reality and fiction.

573. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) Dir. Terence Davies, 85 mins.

The first section, ‘Distant Voices’, chronicles the early life of a working-class Catholic family living under a domineering father. The second section, ‘Still Lives’, sees the children grown up and emerging into a brighter 1950s Britain, only a few years from rock and roll and The Beatles, yet somehow still a lifetime away.

572. Nostalghia (1983) Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 125 mins.

Nostalghia is Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s enigmatic work about a writer (Oleg Yankovsky) who, trapped by his fame and an unhappy marriage, seeks out his cultural past in Italy. Here he meets Erland Josephson, a local pariah who declares that the world is coming to an end. The writer finds this prophecy curiously more alluring than the possibility of a dead-end future.

571. Rocky (1976) Dir. John G. Avildsen, 119 mins.

A slightly dimwitted working class Italian American amateur boxer from Philadelphia’s tough neighbourhood is working as a debt collector for a loan shark. Out of the blue he gets a surprise shot at fighting for the heavyweight championship, while at the same time he finds love in the arms of a shy, reclusive girl who works in the local pet store. Perhaps the plot is a bit gimmicky and predictable but writer/lead actor Sylvester Stallone delivers a star making performance in what is an entertaining and engaging rags to riches tale.



570. The Great Silence (1968) Dir. Sergio Corbucci, 105 mins.

Conceived by Corbucci as a politically-charged allegory inspired by the deaths of Che Guevara and Malcolm X, the film’s plot takes place in Utah prior to the Great Blizzard of 1899. It pits a mute gunslinger (Jean-Louis Trintignant), fighting in the defence of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow (McGee), against a group of ruthless bounty killers led by “Loco” (Klaus Kinski) and the corrupt banker Henry Pollicut (Pistilli).

569. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 89 mins.

The film tells the story of a young woman with schizophrenia spending time with her family on a remote island, and having delusions about meeting God, who appears to her in the form of a monstrous spider.

568. The Artist (2011) Dir. Michel Hazanavicius, 100 mins.

The story takes place in Hollywood, between 1927 and 1932, and focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star and a rising young actress as silent cinema falls out of fashion and is replaced by the “talkies”.

567. Masculin Feminin (1966) Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 105 mins.

The film focuses on a love affair between a young Parisian radical and a ye-ye singer.

566. Pyaasa (1957) Dir. Guru Dutt, 146 mins.

Set in Calcutta, West Bengal, the film tells the story of Vijay, a struggling poet trying to make his works known in post-independence India, and Gulabo, a prostitute with a heart of gold, who helps him to try and get his poems published.

565. Shadows (1959) Dir. John Cassavetes, 87 mins.

Based on improvisations which originated in his actor’s workshop, Cassavetes’s low budget ($40,000), independently produced film is notable for its intense realism and sensitive handling of racial issues. It depicts two weeks in the lives of three African-American siblings on the margins of society, two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their sister who dates several men.

564. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Dir. John Huston, 112 mins.

Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city.

563. Fury (1936) Dir. Fritz Lang, 90 mins.

Having escaped Nazi Germany after Hitler’s request that he become head of the fascist regime’s film industry, Lang signed a contract with MGM and convinced the studio to let him make a film about an ordinary man (Spencer Tracey) mistakenly arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and possibly murdering a child. When a frenzied mob of town residents set fire to the jail the man is presumed wrongly to be dead. He then sacrifices his relationships with his family and sweetheart, becoming obsessed with taking revenge on his accusers. Lang’s powerful film shows how the quest for revenge dehumanises the man in much the same way as it did the lynch mob.

562. Summer (1986) Dir. Eric Rohmer, 98 mins.

Unlike most of his work, Rohmer decided to have the actors almost entirely improvise their dialogue for this comedy drama about an unhappy Parisian student Marie Riviere (Rohmer’s star in all of the “Comedies et Proverbes”) who is left out of everyone’s summer vacation plans and so accepts an invitation to stay at her friend’s empty apartment in Biarritz. She is bored to begin with until she meets the man of her dreams.

561. Tootsie (1982) Dir. Sydney Pollack, 119 mins.

Pollack’s comedy drama tells the story of a talented but volatile actor (Dustin Hoffman) whose reputation for being difficult forces him to adopt a new identity as a woman in order to land a job. With a pertinent look at the role of women in the industry, and society in general, and an amusing parody of US soaps, the film is much more than just Hoffman’s clever performance.



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The 101 best New York movies of all time

In 2016 Time Out New York compiled a list of the 101 best New York movies of all time. Directors such as Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen are unsurprisingly well represented. The list covers Academy Award winners, silents, documentaries and some of the most controversial movies ever made. Presumably the order of films has more to do with how well they represent the city rather than which are considered the best movies.

  • 1. Taxi Driver (1976)
  • 2. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
  • 3. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
  • 4. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  • 5. Manhattan (1979)
  • 6. Do the Right Thing (1989)
  • 7. King Kong (1933)
  • 8. Shadows (1959)
  • 9. Escape from New York (1981)
  • 10. On the Town (1949)
  • 11. The French Connection (1971)
  • 12. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
  • 13. After Hours (1985)
  • 14. Ghostbusters (1984)
  • 15. Chelsea Girls (1966)
  • 16. On the Waterfront (1954)
  • 17. Annie Hall (1977)
  • 18. Wall Street (1987)
  • 19. The Warriors (1979)
  • 20. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
  • 21. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  • 22. Serpico (1973)
  • 23. 42nd Street (1933)
  • 24. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
  • 25. Goodfellas (1990)
  • 26. American Psycho (2000)
  • 27. Little Fugitive (1953)
  • 28. All That Jazz (1979)
  • 29. The Clock (1945)
  • 30. 25th Hour (2002)
  • 31. The Naked City (1948)
  • 32. Mean Streets (1973)
  • 33. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
  • 34. West Side Story (1961)
  • 35. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  • 36. Shame (2011)
  • 37. Wild Style (1983)
  • 38. Shaft (1971)
  • 39. Metropolitan (1990)
  • 40. King of New York (1990)
  • 41. The Godfather (1972)
  • 42. The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
  • 43. My Dinner with Andre (1981)
  • 44. Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
  • 45. Kids (1995)
  • 46. Network (1976)
  • 47. Flaming Creatures (1963)
  • 48. Marty (1955)
  • 49. Man on Wire (2008)
  • 50. Superman (1978)



  • 51. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
  • 52. The Crowd (1928)
  • 53. Fatal Attraction (1987)
  • 54. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
  • 55. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
  • 56. Fame (1980)
  • 57. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
  • 58. Klute (1971)
  • 59. Margaret (2011)
  • 60. The Squid and the Whale (2005)
  • 61. Carnal Knowledge (1971)
  • 62. Tootsie (1982)
  • 63. Regeneration (1915)
  • 64. On the Bowery (1956)
  • 65. Super Fly (1972)
  • 66. Speedy (1928)
  • 67. Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
  • 68. Paris Is Burning (1990)
  • 69. Death Wish (1974)
  • 70. Downtown 81 (1981)
  • 71. Black Swan (2010)
  • 72. The Landlord (1970)
  • 73. Bad Lieutenant (1992)
  • 74. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
  • 75. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
  • 76. The Cool World (1964)
  • 77. Two Lovers (2008)
  • 78. Cruising (1980)
  • 79. Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)
  • 80. All About Eve (1950)
  • 81. Big (1988)
  • 82. Dressed to Kill (1980)
  • 83. Little Murders (1971)
  • 84. Rear Window (1954)
  • 85. Smithereens (1982)
  • 86. The Hunger (1983)
  • 87. Summer of Sam (1999)
  • 88. King Kong (1976)
  • 89. Hester Street (1975)
  • 90. The Blank Generation (1976)
  • 91. The Last Days of Disco (1998)
  • 92. Three Days of the Condor (1975)
  • 93. Hamlet (2000)
  • 94. Man Push Cart (2005)
  • 95. Wolfen (1981)
  • 96. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
  • 97. God Told Me To (1976)
  • 98. Hi, Mom! (1970)
  • 99. Black and White (1999)
  • 100. Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! (2006)
  • 101. C.H.U.D. (1984)



 

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The most important and misappreciated American films since the beginning of the cinema

‘The most important and misappreciated American films since the beginning of the cinema’, is a book of 150 pages published by the Royal Film Archive of Belgium (now known as Cinematek) in 1978 and compiled by Jacques Ledoux. The list in the book came from a survey which polled 203 participants (116 Americans and 87 non-Americans) around the world. Each participant compiled two lists, a list of the most important films (limited to 30 titles) and a list of misappreciated films (not limited in number). The final list is sorted by number of votes (including both important and misappreciated votes). The book lists all 2327 films that received at least 1 vote. This list below includes the films that received at least 5 votes. “Misappreciated” was taken by those with a knowledge of the English language as meaning underrated.

1 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
2 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 F.W. Murnau
3 Greed 1924 Erich von Stroheim
4 Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages 1916 D.W. Griffith
5 The Birth of a Nation 1915 D.W. Griffith
6 Singin’ in the Rain 1952 Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
7 Nanook of the North 1922 Robert J. Flaherty
8 The General 1926 Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
9 The Gold Rush 1925 Charles Chaplin
10 The Crowd 1928 King Vidor
11 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Robert Wise, Fred Fleck, Orson Welles
12 The Searchers 1956 John Ford
13 Modern Times 1936 Charles Chaplin
14 The Grapes of Wrath 1940 John Ford
15 Scarface 1932 Richard Rosson, Howard Hawks
16 Trouble in Paradise 1932 Ernst Lubitsch
17 Sunset Blvd. 1950 Billy Wilder
18 Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock
19 Stagecoach 1939 John Ford
20 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick
21 King Kong 1933 Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper
22 Psycho 1960 Alfred Hitchcock
23 City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin
24 Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl 1919 D.W. Griffith
25 Touch of Evil 1958 Orson Welles
26 Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz
27 The Wind 1928 Victor Sjöström
28 Duck Soup 1933 Leo McCarey
29 Sullivan’s Travels 1941 Preston Sturges
30 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Josef von Sternberg
31 The Night of the Hunter 1955 Charles Laughton
32 It Happened One Night 1934 Frank Capra
33 Gone with the Wind 1939 Sam Wood, George Cukor, Victor Fleming
34 Nashville 1975 Robert Altman
35 The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks
36 Sherlock Jr. 1924 Buster Keaton
37 On the Waterfront 1954 Elia Kazan
38 The Maltese Falcon 1941 John Huston
39 Monsieur Verdoux 1947 Charles Chaplin
40 Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Arthur Penn
41 To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch
42 Letter from an Unknown Woman 1948 Max Ophüls
43 Rear Window 1954 Alfred Hitchcock
44 Foolish Wives 1922 Erich von Stroheim
45 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 William Wyler
46 The Wedding March 1928 Erich von Stroheim
47 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 Lewis Milestone
48 You Only Live Once 1937 Fritz Lang
49 The Wild Bunch 1969 Sam Peckinpah
50 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang 1932 Mervyn LeRoy




51 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 John Huston
52 Paths of Glory 1957 Stanley Kubrick
53 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 Stanley Kubrick
54 Young Mr. Lincoln 1939 John Ford
55 White Heat 1949 Raoul Walsh
56 Salt of the Earth 1954 Herbert J. Biberman
57 Rio Bravo 1959 Howard Hawks
58 Red River 1948 Arthur Rosson, Howard Hawks
59 My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford
60 Underworld 1927 Arthur Rosson, Josef von Sternberg
61 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 John Ford
62 High Noon 1952 Fred Zinnemann
63 Bringing Up Baby 1938 Howard Hawks
64 The Great Train Robbery 1903 Edwin S. Porter
65 The Band Wagon 1953 Vincente Minnelli
66 All About Eve 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
67 Tabu: A Story of the South Seas 1931 F.W. Murnau
68 Some Like It Hot 1959 Billy Wilder
69 The Navigator 1924 Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton
70 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936 Frank Capra
71 Love Me Tonight 1932 Rouben Mamoulian
72 A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate 1923 Charles Chaplin
73 Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 Alexander Hammid, Maya Deren
74 McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971 Robert Altman
75 Freaks 1932 Tod Browning
76 Chelsea Girls 1966 Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey
77 The Big Parade 1925 King Vidor, George W. Hill
78 Morocco 1930 Josef von Sternberg
79 Lonesome 1928 Pál Fejös
80 Fury 1936 Fritz Lang
81 Force of Evil 1948 Abraham Polonsky
82 Written on the Wind 1956 Douglas Sirk
83 Tol’able David 1921 Henry King
84 The Tarnished Angels 1957 Douglas Sirk
85 Scorpio Rising 1963 Kenneth Anger
86 Johnny Guitar 1954 Nicholas Ray
87 The Covered Wagon 1923 James Cruze
88 Wavelength 1967 Michael Snow
89 A Star Is Born 1954 George Cukor
90 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 William Cottrell, David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, Perce Pearce, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey
91 North by Northwest 1959 Alfred Hitchcock
92 Ninotchka 1939 Ernst Lubitsch
93 Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli
94 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 Don Siegel
95 The Informer 1935 John Ford
96 How Green Was My Valley 1941 John Ford
97 Easy Rider 1969 Dennis Hopper
98 The Big Heat 1953 Fritz Lang
99 To Have and Have Not 1944 Howard Hawks
100 Shanghai Express 1932 Josef von Sternberg




101 A Place in the Sun 1951 George Stevens
102 Only Angels Have Wings 1939 Howard Hawks
103 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 Frank Capra
104 Louisiana Story 1948 Robert J. Flaherty
105 Kiss Me Deadly 1955 Robert Aldrich
106 42nd Street 1933 Lloyd Bacon
107 The Docks of New York 1928 Josef von Sternberg
108 Anatahan 1953 Josef von Sternberg
109 Rebel Without a Cause 1955 Nicholas Ray
110 The Jazz Singer 1927 Alan Crosland
111 It’s a Wonderful Life 1946 Frank Capra
112 The Godfather: Part II 1974 Francis Ford Coppola
113 Sylvia Scarlett 1935 George Cukor
114 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Alfred Hitchcock
115 Safety Last! 1923 Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
116 The River 1938 Pare Lorentz
117 Our Hospitality 1923 John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton
118 Make Way for Tomorrow 1937 Leo McCarey
119 Little Caesar 1931 Mervyn LeRoy
120 Hallelujah 1929 King Vidor
121 The Conversation 1974 Francis Ford Coppola
122 The Bitter Tea of General Yen 1932 Frank Capra
123 The Awful Truth 1937 Leo McCarey
124 The Asphalt Jungle 1950 John Huston
125 The Wizard of Oz 1939 Mervyn LeRoy, King Vidor, George Cukor, Norman Taurog, Victor Fleming
126 Way Down East 1920 D.W. Griffith
127 Swing Time 1936 George Stevens
128 The Southerner 1945 Jean Renoir
129 Seven Chances 1925 Buster Keaton
130 A Night at the Opera 1935 Sam Wood, Edmund Goulding
131 The Merry Widow 1934 Ernst Lubitsch
132 The Kid 1921 Charles Chaplin
133 Five Easy Pieces 1970 Bob Rafelson
134 Faces 1968 John Cassavetes
135 America America 1963 Elia Kazan
136 True Heart Susie 1919 D.W. Griffith
137 Top Hat 1935 Mark Sandrich
138 Strangers on a Train 1951 Alfred Hitchcock
139 Shadows 1958 John Cassavetes
140 Out of the Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur
141 Limelight 1952 Charles Chaplin
142 The Lady from Shanghai 1947 Orson Welles
143 East of Eden 1955 Elia Kazan
144 Double Indemnity 1944 Billy Wilder
145 The Birds 1963 Alfred Hitchcock
146 Wild River 1960 Elia Kazan
147 Twentieth Century 1934 Howard Hawks
148 They Live by Night 1948 Nicholas Ray
149 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon 1949 John Ford
150 7 Women 1966 John Ford




151 The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 William A. Wellman
152 The Nutty Professor 1963 Jerry Lewis
153 Isn’t Life Wonderful 1924 D.W. Griffith
154 Holiday 1938 George Cukor
155 Gold Diggers of 1933 1933 Mervyn LeRoy
156 The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
157 Frankenstein 1931 James Whale
158 The Fountainhead 1949 King Vidor
159 Prelude: Dog Star Man 1962 Stan Brakhage
160 Dog Star Man: Part I 1962 Stan Brakhage
161 Dog Star Man: Part II 1963 Stan Brakhage
162 Dog Star Man: Part III 1964 Stan Brakhage
163 Dog Star Man: Part IV 1964 Stan Brakhage
164 Ride the High Country 1962 Sam Peckinpah
165 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 1970 Billy Wilder
166 The Pirate 1948 Vincente Minnelli
167 Our Daily Bread 1934 King Vidor
168 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 Milos Forman
169 The Marriage Circle 1924 Ernst Lubitsch
170 Marnie 1964 Alfred Hitchcock
171 Laura 1944 Otto Preminger
172 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges
173 The Hustler 1961 Robert Rossen
174 Heaven Can Wait 1943 Ernst Lubitsch
175 Fantasia 1940 Samuel Armstrong, Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Paul Satterfield, James Algar, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe Jr., David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, T. Hee, Norman Ferguson, Bill Roberts
176 Elmer Gantry 1960 Richard Brooks
177 Dodsworth 1936 William Wyler
178 The Devil Is a Woman 1935 Josef von Sternberg
179 Camille 1936 George Cukor
180 The Cameraman 1928 Buster Keaton, Edward Sedgwick
181 The Apartment 1960 Billy Wilder
182 Wagon Master 1950 John Ford
183 They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? 1969 Sydney Pollack
184 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Alexander Mackendrick
185 The Struggle 1931 D.W. Griffith
186 Stark Love 1927 Karl Brown
187 Shock Corridor 1963 Samuel Fuller
188 Shane 1953 George Stevens
189 The Public Enemy 1931 William A. Wellman
190 The Philadelphia Story 1940 George Cukor
191 Moonfleet 1955 Fritz Lang
192 The Misfits 1961 John Huston
193 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 John Frankenheimer
194 His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks
195 The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin
196 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1921 Rex Ingram
197 City Girl 1930 F.W. Murnau
198 The Cheat 1915 Cecil B. DeMille
199 Bride of Frankenstein 1935 James Whale
200 Blonde Venus 1932 Josef von Sternberg




201 The Barefoot Contessa 1954 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
202 Badlands 1973 Terrence Malick
203 The Bad and the Beautiful 1952 Vincente Minnelli
204 Applause 1929 Rouben Mamoulian
205 Angel 1937 Ernst Lubitsch
206 All the King’s Men 1949 Robert Rossen
207 West Side Story 1961 Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
208 A Walk in the Sun 1945 Lewis Milestone
209 Unfaithfully Yours 1948 Preston Sturges
210 12 Angry Men 1957 Sidney Lumet
211 Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son 1969 Ken Jacobs
212 Some Came Running 1958 Vincente Minnelli
213 Reflections in a Golden Eye 1967 John Huston
214 Pickup on South Street 1953 Samuel Fuller
215 The Palm Beach Story 1942 Preston Sturges
216 Orphans of the Storm 1921 D.W. Griffith
217 Man’s Castle 1933 Frank Borzage
218 The Long Goodbye 1973 Robert Altman
219 The Last Command 1928 Josef von Sternberg
220 It’s a Gift 1934 Norman Z. McLeod
221 Ice 1970 Robert Kramer
222 Her Man 1930 Tay Garnett
223 The Graduate 1967 Mike Nichols
224 The Freshman 1925 Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
225 Fireworks 1947 Kenneth Anger
226 Duel in the Sun 1946 Otto Brower, Sidney Franklin, King Vidor, David O. Selznick, William Dieterle, Josef von Sternberg, William Cameron Menzies
227 The Diary of a Chambermaid 1946 Jean Renoir
228 Cat People 1942 Jacques Tourneur
229 Cabaret 1972 Bob Fosse
230 Brewster McCloud 1970 Robert Altman
231 Bigger Than Life 1956 Nicholas Ray
232 Beggars of Life 1928 William A. Wellman
233 The African Queen 1951 John Huston
234 The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
235 The Thief of Bagdad 1924 Raoul Walsh
236 The Shanghai Gesture 1941 Josef von Sternberg
237 7th Heaven 1927 Frank Borzage
238 The Salvation Hunters 1925 Josef von Sternberg
239 Ruby Gentry 1952 King Vidor
240 The Red Badge of Courage 1951 John Huston
241 The Quiet One 1948 Sidney Meyers
242 One Way Passage 1932 Tay Garnett
243 One-Eyed Jacks 1961 Marlon Brando
244 Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock
245 Mickey One 1965 Arthur Penn
246 Lolita 1962 Stanley Kubrick
247 Leave Her to Heaven 1945 John M. Stahl
248 The Last Picture Show 1971 Peter Bogdanovich
249 Kiss Me, Stupid 1964 Billy Wilder
250 The King of Marvin Gardens 1972 Bob Rafelson




251 I Walked with a Zombie 1943 Jacques Tourneur
252 Hands Up! 1926 Clarence G. Badger
253 Hallelujah the Hills 1963 Adolfas Mekas
254 The Gunfighter 1950 Henry King
255 Gun Crazy 1950 Joseph H. Lewis
256 Fat City 1972 John Huston
257 A Face in the Crowd 1957 Elia Kazan
258 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931 Rouben Mamoulian
259 A Corner in Wheat 1909 D.W. Griffith
260 The Art of Vision 1965 Stan Brakhage
261 Anticipation of the Night 1958 Stan Brakhage
262 The Woman in the Window 1944 Fritz Lang
263 Wild Boys of the Road 1933 William A. Wellman
264 Twice a Man 1964 Gregory J. Markopoulos
265 The Trouble with Harry 1955 Alfred Hitchcock
266 They Were Expendable 1945 John Ford, Robert Montgomery
267 Suddenly, Last Summer 1959 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
268 Splendor in the Grass 1961 Elia Kazan
269 The Set-Up 1949 Robert Wise
270 Run of the Arrow 1957 Samuel Fuller
271 Ruggles of Red Gap 1935 Leo McCarey
272 Robin Hood 1922 Allan Dwan
273 The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond 1960 Budd Boetticher
274 Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania 1972 Jonas Mekas
275 Queen Kelly 1929 Erich von Stroheim, Richard Boleslawski
276 Queen Christina 1933 Rouben Mamoulian
277 Primary 1960 Robert Drew
278 The Power and the Glory 1933 William K. Howard
279 On the Town 1949 Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
280 Moonrise 1948 Frank Borzage
281 Miss Lulu Bett 1921 William C. de Mille
282 The Merry Widow 1925 Erich von Stroheim
283 Mean Streets 1973 Martin Scorsese
284 Lost Horizon 1937 Frank Capra
285 The Little Foxes 1941 William Wyler
286 Lilith 1964 Robert Rossen
287 The Last Detail 1973 Hal Ashby
288 The Killing 1956 Stanley Kubrick
289 Johnny Got His Gun 1971 Dalton Trumbo
290 Jeremiah Johnson 1972 Sydney Pollack
291 Imitation of Life 1959 Douglas Sirk
292 Giant 1956 George Stevens
293 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
294 Gentleman Jim 1942 Raoul Walsh
295 Funny Face 1957 Stanley Donen
296 Flesh and the Devil 1926 Clarence Brown
297 Flaming Creatures 1963 Jack Smith
298 Easy Street 1917 Charles Chaplin
299 Crime Without Passion 1934 Lee Garmes, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
300 Mr. Arkadin 1955 Orson Welles




301 The Brig 1964 Jonas Mekas
302 Big Business 1929 Leo McCarey, James W. Horne
303 All That Money Can Buy 1941 William Dieterle
304 Alice’s Restaurant 1969 Arthur Penn
305 Ace in the Hole 1951 Billy Wilder
306 Zorns Lemma 1970 Hollis Frampton
307 Zoo in Budapest 1933 Rowland V. Lee
308 The Unknown 1927 Tod Browning
309 Two-Lane Blacktop 1971 Monte Hellman
310 Trash 1970 Paul Morrissey
311 Thieves Like Us 1974 Robert Altman
312 The Strong Man 1926 Frank Capra
313 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Elia Kazan
314 Street Angel 1928 Frank Borzage
315 Stella Dallas 1925 Henry King
316 Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928 Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton
317 Smouldering Fires 1925 Clarence Brown
318 The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch
319 Scenes from Under Childhood Section #1 1967 Stan Brakhage
320 Scenes from Under Childhood Section #2 1969 Stan Brakhage
321 Scenes from Under Childhood Section #3 1969 Stan Brakhage
322 Scenes from Under Childhood Section #4 1970 Stan Brakhage
323 Scarlet Street 1945 Fritz Lang
324 Rose Hobart 1936 Joseph Cornell
325 The River 1928 Frank Borzage
326 The Rain People 1969 Francis Ford Coppola
327 The Quiet Man 1952 John Ford
328 Puzzle of a Downfall Child 1970 Jerry Schatzberg
329 Pursued 1947 Raoul Walsh
330 Portrait of Jason 1967 Shirley Clarke
331 Point Blank 1967 John Boorman
332 Pinocchio 1940 Jack Kinney, Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson, T. Hee, Norman Ferguson, Bill Roberts
333 Peter Ibbetson 1935 Henry Hathaway
334 The Party 1968 Blake Edwards
335 The Old Dark House 1932 James Whale
336 Native Land 1942 Paul Strand, Leo Hurwitz
337 Murder by Contract 1958 Irving Lerner
338 The Mother and the Law 1919 D.W. Griffith
339 The Most Dangerous Game 1932 Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack
340 The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek 1943 Preston Sturges
341 Midnight Cowboy 1969 John Schlesinger
342 Meet John Doe 1941 Frank Capra
343 Man, Woman and Sin 1927 Monta Bell
344 Love Affair 1939 Leo McCarey
345 Long Pants 1927 Frank Capra
346 The Lawless 1950 Joseph Losey
347 The Kremlin Letter 1970 John Huston
348 The Iron Horse 1924 John Ford
349 In the Year of the Pig 1968 Emile de Antonio
350 The Honeymoon Killers 1970 Donald Volkman, Leonard Kastle




351 Heaven and Earth Magic 1962 Harry Smith
352 The Great McGinty 1940 Preston Sturges
353 Story of G.I. Joe 1945 William A. Wellman
354 From Here to Eternity 1953 Fred Zinnemann
355 David Holzman’s Diary 1967 Jim McBride
356 The Chase 1966 Arthur Penn
357 Caught 1949 Max Ophüls
358 Barry Lyndon 1975 Stanley Kubrick
359 Avanti! 1972 Billy Wilder
360 The Arrangement 1969 Elia Kazan
361 Anatomy of a Murder 1959 Otto Preminger
362 An American in Paris 1951 Vincente Minnelli
363 Adam’s Rib 1949 George Cukor
364 Petulia 1968 Richard Lester
365 The Wrong Man 1956 Alfred Hitchcock
366 Wind Across the Everglades 1958 Budd Schulberg, Nicholas Ray
367 The War Lord 1965 Franklin J. Schaffner
368 Underworld U.S.A. 1961 Samuel Fuller
369 The Ten Commandments 1923 Cecil B. DeMille
370 The Sun Shines Bright 1953 John Ford
371 Song 1 1964 Stan Brakhage
372 The Scarlet Letter 1926 Victor Sjöström
373 Scarecrow 1973 Jerry Schatzberg
374 Rosemary’s Baby 1968 Roman Polanski
375 A Romance of Happy Valley 1919 D.W. Griffith
376 Point of Order! 1964 Emile de Antonio
377 Party Girl 1958 Nicholas Ray
378 Park Row 1952 Samuel Fuller
379 One More River 1934 James Whale
380 The Naked Spur 1953 Anthony Mann
381 The Naked Prey 1965 Cornel Wilde
382 The Naked City 1948 Jules Dassin
383 My Man Godfrey 1936 Gregory La Cava
384 The Musketeers of Pig Alley 1912 D.W. Griffith
385 The Mortal Storm 1940 Frank Borzage
386 Moana 1926 Frances H. Flaherty, Robert J. Flaherty
387 The Marrying Kind 1952 George Cukor
388 Man of the West 1958 Anthony Mann
389 The Love Parade 1929 Ernst Lubitsch
390 The Long Voyage Home 1940 John Ford
391 The Last of the Mohicans 1920 Clarence Brown, Maurice Tourneur
392 Lady Windermere’s Fan 1925 Ernst Lubitsch
393 Judgment at Nuremberg 1961 Stanley Kramer
394 The Italian 1915 Reginald Barker
395 Intruder in the Dust 1949 Clarence Brown
396 The Immigrant 1917 Charles Chaplin
397 I Married a Witch 1942 René Clair
398 Images 1972 Robert Altman
399 He Who Gets Slapped 1924 Victor Sjöström
400 The Haunting 1963 Robert Wise




401 Hatari! 1962 Howard Hawks
402 The Front Page 1931 Lewis Milestone
403 Forty Guns 1957 Samuel Fuller
404 Easter Parade 1948 Charles Walters
405 Diaries Notes and Sketches 1969 Jonas Mekas
406 Design for Living 1933 Ernst Lubitsch
407 The Cool World 1963 Shirley Clarke
408 The Connection 1961 Shirley Clarke
409 Civilization 1915 Thomas H. Ince, Jay Hunt, J. Parker Read Jr., Raymond B. West, Reginald Barker, David Hartford, Walter Edwards
410 City Streets 1931 Rouben Mamoulian
411 The Circus 1928 Charles Chaplin
412 Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski
413 Campanadas a medianoche 1965 Orson Welles
414 Castro Street 1966 Bruce Baillie
415 Carnal Knowledge 1971 Mike Nichols
416 Boomerang! 1947 Elia Kazan
417 Blood Money 1933 Rowland Brown
418 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ 1925 Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, Rex Ingram, Fred Niblo, J.J. Cohn
419 The Beguiled 1971 Don Siegel
420 Beat the Devil 1953 John Huston
421 San Pietro 1945 John Huston
422 The Ballad of Cable Hogue 1970 Sam Peckinpah
423 An Affair to Remember 1957 Leo McCarey
424 Zabriskie Point 1970 Michelangelo Antonioni
425 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 Michael Curtiz
426 Woodstock 1970 Michael Wadleigh
427 The Woman on the Beach 1947 Jean Renoir
428 White Shadows in the South Seas 1928 W.S. Van Dyke, Robert J. Flaherty
429 The White Rose 1923 D.W. Griffith
430 White Gold 1927 William K. Howard
431 Viva Zapata! 1952 Elia Kazan
432 Vanishing Point 1971 Richard C. Sarafian
433 Two for the Road 1967 Stanley Donen
434 Twelve O’Clock High 1949 Henry King
435 Trader Horn 1931 W.S. Van Dyke
436 They Won’t Forget 1937 Mervyn LeRoy
437 Strangers When We Meet 1960 Richard Quine
438 Show Boat 1936 James Whale
439 Shoulder Arms 1918 Charles Chaplin
440 She Done Him Wrong 1933 Lowell Sherman
441 Scaramouche 1952 George Sidney
442 The Savage Eye 1960 Joseph Strick, Sidney Meyers, Ben Maddow
443 Ruthless 1948 Edgar G. Ulmer
444 Ride the Pink Horse 1947 Robert Montgomery
445 Ride Lonesome 1959 Budd Boetticher
446 La région centrale 1971 Michael Snow
447 Rachel, Rachel 1968 Paul Newman
448 Quick Millions 1931 Rowland Brown
449 The Prowler 1951 Joseph Losey
450 The Professionals 1966 Richard Brooks




451 Pretty Poison 1968 Noel Black
452 The Pawnbroker 1964 Sidney Lumet
453 The Patsy 1964 Jerry Lewis
454 The Painted Lady 1912 D.W. Griffith
455 Nothing But a Man 1964 Michael Roemer
456 The Naked Kiss 1964 Samuel Fuller
457 A Movie 1958 Bruce Conner
458 Mother’s Day 1948 James Broughton
459 The Molly Maguires 1970 Martin Ritt
460 The Miracle Worker 1962 Arthur Penn
461 Ministry of Fear 1944 Fritz Lang
462 Midnight 1939 Mitchell Leisen
463 Marty 1955 Delbert Mann
464 Man Hunt 1941 Fritz Lang
465 Life of an American Fireman 1903 Edwin S. Porter, George S. Fleming
466 Laughter 1930 Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast
467 Land of the Pharaohs 1955 Howard Hawks
468 King-Size Canary 1947 Tex Avery
469 The Kid Brother 1927 Lewis Milestone, Harold Lloyd, J.A. Howe, Ted Wilde
470 It 1927 Clarence G. Badger, Josef von Sternberg
471 High Sierra 1941 Raoul Walsh
472 High School 1969 Frederick Wiseman
473 Heller in Pink Tights 1960 George Cukor
474 The Gypsy Moths 1969 John Frankenheimer
475 Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life 1925 Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper
476 The Godless Girl 1929 Cecil B. DeMille
477 The Girl Can’t Help It 1956 Frank Tashlin
478 For Heaven’s Sake 1926 Sam Taylor
479 Footlight Parade 1933 Lloyd Bacon
480 The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1953 Roy Rowland
481 Dirty Harry 1971 Don Siegel
482 Deliverance 1972 John Boorman
483 The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 Robert Wise
484 Days of Wine and Roses 1962 Blake Edwards
485 Night of the Demon 1957 Jacques Tourneur
486 A Clockwork Orange 1971 Stanley Kubrick
487 The City 1939 Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke
488 California Split 1974 Robert Altman
489 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 1974 Sam Peckinpah
490 Bitter Victory 1957 Nicholas Ray
491 The Big Sky 1952 Howard Hawks
492 The Big Combo 1955 Joseph H. Lewis
493 American Madness 1932 Allan Dwan, Roy William Neill, Frank Capra
494 All the President’s Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula
495 All That Heaven Allows 1955 Douglas Sirk
496 Advise & Consent 1962 Otto Preminger



 

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Sight & Sound 2012 critics top 250 films

“by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies—the only one most serious movie people take seriously.” Roger Ebert

In 2012 Sight & Sound magazine asked film critics from around the world to name their top 10 films and these votes were compiled into the published list of the top 250 films. There are actually 282 films due to some having the same number of votes.

1 Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock
2 Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
3 Tôkyô monogatari 1953 Yasujirô Ozu
4 La règle du jeu 1939 Jean Renoir
5 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 F.W. Murnau
6 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick
7 The Searchers 1956 John Ford
8 Chelovek s kino-apparatom 1929 Dziga Vertov
9 La passion de Jeanne d’Arc 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer
10 8½ 1963 Federico Fellini
11 Bronenosets Potemkin 1925 Sergei M. Eisenstein
12 L’Atalante 1934 Jean Vigo
13 Breathless 1960 Jean-Luc Godard
14 Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola
15 Late Spring 1949 Yasujirô Ozu
16 Au Hasard Balthazar 1966 Robert Bresson
17 Shichinin no samurai 1954 Akira Kurosawa
(=17) Persona 1966 Ingmar Bergman
19 Zerkalo 1975 Andrei Tarkovsky
20 Singin’ in the Rain 1952 Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
21 L’Avventura 1960 Michelangelo Antonioni
(=21) The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
(=21) Contempt (Le Mepris) 1963 Jean-Luc Godard
24 Rashômon 1950 Akira Kurosawa
(=24) Ordet 1955 Carl Theodor Dreyer
(=24) Faa yeung nin wa 2000 Kar-Wai Wong
27 Andrey Rublev 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky
28 Mulholland Drive 2001 David Lynch
29 Stalker 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky
(=29) Shoah 1985 Claude Lanzmann
31 Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese
(=31) The Godfather: Part II 1974 Francis Ford Coppola
33 Ladri di biciclette 1948 Vittorio De Sica
34 Psycho 1960 Alfred Hitchcock
(=34) The General 1926 Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
36 Satantango 1994 Béla Tarr
(=36) Metropolis 1927 Fritz Lang
(=36) Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975 Chantal Akerman
39 La dolce vita 1960 Federico Fellini
(=39) Les quatre cents coups 1959 François Truffaut
41 Pather Panchali 1955 Satyajit Ray
(=41) Journey to Italy 1954 Roberto Rossellini
43 Pierrot Le Fou 1965 Jean-Luc Godard
(=43) Close-Up 1990 Abbas Kiarostami
(=43) Some Like It Hot 1959 Billy Wilder
(=43) Playtime 1967 Jacques Tati
(=43) Gertrud 1964 Carl Theodor Dreyer
48 Histoire(s) du cinéma 1989 Jean-Luc Godard
(=48) The Battle of Algiers 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo
50 City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin
(=50) Ugetsu 1953 Kenji Mizoguchi
(=50) La Jetee 1962 Chris Marker
53 North By Northwest 1959 Alfred Hitchcock
(=53) Rear Window 1954 Alfred Hitchcock
(=53) Raging Bull 1980 Martin Scorsese




56 M 1931 Fritz Lang
57 The Leopard 1963 Luchino Visconti
(=57) Touch of Evil 1958 Orson Welles
59 Sherlock Jr. 1924 Buster Keaton
(=59) Barry Lyndon 1975 Stanley Kubrick
(=59) The Mother and the Whore 1973 Jean Eustache
(=59) Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Kenji Mizoguchi
63 Wild Strawberries 1957 Ingmar Bergman
(=63) Modern Times 1936 Charles Chaplin
(=63) Sunset Boulevard 1950 Billy Wilder
(=63) The Night of the Hunter 1955 Charles Laughton
(=63) Pickpocket 1959 Robert Bresson
(=63) Rio Bravo 1959 Howard Hawks
69 Blade Runner 1982 Ridley Scott
(=69) Blue Velvet 1986 David Lynch
(=69) Sans Soleil 1983 Chris Marker
(=69) A Man Escaped 1956 Robert Bresson
73 The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed
(=73) L’Eclisse 1962 Michelangelo Antonioni
(=73) Children of Paradise 1945 Marcel Carné
(=73) La Grande Illusion 1937 Jean Renoir
(=73) Nashville 1975 Robert Altman
78 Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski
(=78) Beau Travail 1999 Claire Denis
(=78) C’era una volta il West 1968 Sergio Leone
81 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 Robert Wise, Orson Welles, Fred Fleck
(=81) Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean
(=81) The Spirit of the Beehive 1973 Víctor Erice
84 Fanny and Alexander 1982 Ingmar Bergman
(=84) Casablanca 1942 Michael Curtiz
(=84) The Color of Pomegranates 1969 Sergei Parajanov
(=84) Greed 1924 Erich von Stroheim
(=84) A Brighter Summer Day 1991 Edward Yang
(=84) The Wild Bunch 1969 Sam Peckinpah
90 A Day in the Country 1936 Jean Renoir
(=90) Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes 1972 Werner Herzog
(=90) A Matter of Life and Death 1946 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
93 The Seventh Seal 1957 Ingmar Bergman
(=93) Un Chien Andalou 1929 Luis Buñuel
(=93) Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith
(=93) Yi Yi 2000 Edward Yang
(=93) Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
(=93) Touki Bouki 1973 Djibril Diop Mambéty
(=93) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 1974 Rainer Werner Fassbinder
(=93) Imitation of Life 1959 Douglas Sirk
(=93) Earrings of Madame De. 1953 Max Ophüls




102 Wavelength 1967 Michael Snow
(=102) Il conformista 1970 Bernardo Bertolucci
(=102) The Travelling Players (O Thiasos) 1975 Theodoros Angelopoulos
(=102) Meshes of the Afternoon 1943 Alexander Hammid, Maya Deren
(=102) 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her 1967 Jean-Luc Godard
(=102) The Tree Of Life 2011 Terrence Malick
(=102) Ivan The Terrible 1944 Sergei M. Eisenstein
(=102) Last Year At Marienbad 1961 Alain Resnais
110 The Lady Eve 1941 Preston Sturges
(=110) The Young And The Damned 1950 Luis Buñuel
(=110) Bringing Up Baby 1938 Howard Hawks
(=110) Performance 1970 Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg
(=110) The Passenger 1975 Michelangelo Antonioni
(=110) Viridiana 1961 Luis Buñuel
(=110) L’Age D’Or 1930 Luis Buñuel
117 A Canterbury Tale 1944 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
(=117) Mouchette 1967 Robert Bresson
(=117) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964 Stanley Kubrick
(=117) Nosferatu 1922 F.W. Murnau
(=117) The Red Shoes 1948 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
(=117) Trouble in Paradise 1932 Ernst Lubitsch
(=117) A City of Sadness 1989 Hsiao-Hsien Hou
(=117) Amarcord 1973 Federico Fellini
(=117) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 John Ford
(=117) Days of Heaven 1978 Terrence Malick
127 Spring in a Small Town 1948 Mu Fei
(=127) Do the Right Thing 1989 Spike Lee
(=127) Out 1, noli me tangere 1971 Jacques Rivette, Suzanne Schiffman
(=127) Tropical Malady 2004 Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(=127) The River 1951 Jean Renoir
(=127) Jules and Jim 1962 François Truffaut
(=127) Pulp Fiction 1994 Quentin Tarantino
(=127) Meet Me in St. Louis 1944 Vincente Minnelli
(=127) L’argent 1983 Robert Bresson
(=127) Ikiru 1952 Akira Kurosawa
(=127) Three Colors: Blue 1993 Krzysztof Kieslowski
(=127) Don’t Look Now 1973 Nicolas Roeg
(=127) Celine and Julie Go Boating 1974 Jacques Rivette
(=127) Annie Hall 1977 Woody Allen
(=127) The Apartment 1960 Billy Wilder
(=127) The Last Laugh 1924 F.W. Murnau
(=127) Hiroshima mon amour 1959 Alain Resnais
144 Blowup 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni
(=144) The Great Dictator 1940 Charles Chaplin
(=144) Memories of Underdevelopment 1968 Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
(=144) Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d’un curé de campagne) 1951 Robert Bresson
(=144) Chungking Express 1994 Kar-Wai Wong
(=144) To Be or Not to Be 1942 Ernst Lubitsch
(=144) A Woman Under the Influence 1974 John Cassavetes
(=144) Napoleon 1927 Abel Gance
(=144) Vivre sa Vie 1962 Jean-Luc Godard
(=144) The Wizard of Oz 1939 Mervyn LeRoy, George Cukor, King Vidor, Norman Taurog, Victor Fleming




154 Marketa Lazarova 1967 Frantisek Vlácil
(=154) Cache (Hidden) 2005 Michael Haneke
(=154) The Shining 1980 Stanley Kubrick
(=154) Solaris 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky
(=154) Chimes at Midnight 1965 Orson Welles
(=154) The Gold Rush 1925 Charles Chaplin
(=154) Letter From an Unknown Woman 1948 Max Ophüls
(=154) Brief Encounter 1945 David Lean
(=154) In a Lonely Place 1950 Nicholas Ray
(=154) Black Narcissus 1947 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
(=154) My Neighbor Totoro 1988 Hayao Miyazaki
(=154) Only Angels Have Wings 1939 Howard Hawks
(=154) Vampyr 1932 Carl Theodor Dreyer
(=154) Come And See / Idi I Smotri 1985 Elem Klimov
(=154) Distant Voices, Still Lives 1988 Terence Davies
(=154) Once Upon a Time in America 1984 Sergio Leone
(=154) Cries and Whispers 1972 Ingmar Bergman
171 King Kong 1933 Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper
(=171) Werckmeister Harmonies 2000 Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
(=171) Star Wars: A New Hope 1977 George Lucas
(=171) Notorious 1946 Alfred Hitchcock
(=171) His Girl Friday 1940 Howard Hawks
(=171) Goodfellas 1990 Martin Scorsese
(=171) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964 Jacques Demy
(=171) A Trip to the Moon 1902 Georges Méliès
(=171) Sweet Smell Of Success 1957 Alexander Mackendrick
(=171) Kind Hearts And Coronets 1949 Robert Hamer
(=171) Tabu 1931 F.W. Murnau
(=171) Earth (Zemlya) 1930 Aleksandr Dovzhenko
183 Breaking the Waves 1996 Lars von Trier
(=183) The Grapes Of Wrath 1940 John Ford
(=183) Paris, Texas 1984 Wim Wenders
(=183) E.T.,The Extra-Terrestrial 1982 Steven Spielberg
(=183) Rome Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini
(=183) Faces 1968 John Cassavetes
(=183) The Music Room 1958 Satyajit Ray
(=183) Zangiku monogatari 1939 Kenji Mizoguchi
(=183) A Touch of Zen 1971 King Hu
(=183) Listen to Britain 1942 Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister
(=183) Day of Wrath 1943 Carl Theodor Dreyer
(=183) The Thin Red Line 1998 Terrence Malick
(=183) Eraserhead 1977 David Lynch
(=183) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 Tobe Hooper
(=183) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 Luis Buñuel
(=183) The Conversation 1974 Francis Ford Coppola
(=183) Out Of The Past 1947 Jacques Tourneur
(=183) Otona no miru ehon – Umarete wa mita keredo 1932 Yasujirô Ozu
(=183) I Know Where I’m Going! 1945 Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger




202 The Death of Mr. Lazarescu 2005 Cristi Puiu
(=202) Red Desert 1964 Michelangelo Antonioni
(=202) Chelsea Girls 1966 Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey
(=202) Badlands 1973 Terrence Malick
(=202) Kings of the Road 1976 Wim Wenders
(=202) There Will Be Blood 2007 Paul Thomas Anderson
(=202) Wall-E 2008 Andrew Stanton
(=202) Berlin Alexanderplatz 1980
(=202) Videodrome 1983 David Cronenberg
(=202) Daisies (Sedmikrasky) 1966 Vera Chytilová
(=202) Loong Boonmee raleuk chat 2010 Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(=202) Manhattan 1979 Woody Allen
(=202) Cléo de 5 à 7 1962 Agnès Varda
(=202) Tie Xi Qu: West Of The Tracks 2002 Bing Wang
(=202) Russian Ark 2002 Aleksandr Sokurov
(=202) Skazka skazok 1979 Yuriy Norshteyn
(=202) Spirited Away 2001 Hayao Miyazaki, Kirk Wise
(=202) La strada 1954 Federico Fellini
(=202) Paisan 1946 Roberto Rossellini
(=202) The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Ernst Lubitsch
(=202) The Big Sleep 1946 Howard Hawks
(=202) Killer of Sheep 1978 Charles Burnett
(=202) Wanda 1970 Barbara Loden
(=202) Germany Year Zero 1948 Roberto Rossellini
(=202) The Life Of Oharu 1952 Kenji Mizoguchi
(=202) L’Armee Des Ombres 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville
(=202) Salo Or 120 Days of Sodom 1975 Pier Paolo Pasolini
(=202) Duck Soup 1933 Leo McCarey
(=202) The Devil, Probably 1977 Robert Bresson
(=202) The Turin Horse 2011 Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
(=202) Love Streams 1984 John Cassavetes
(=202) The Exterminating Angel 1962 Luis Buñuel
(=202) Ukigumo (Floating Clouds) 1955 Mikio Naruse
235 The Piano 1993 Jane Campion
(=235) Gone with the Wind 1939 Sam Wood, George Cukor, Victor Fleming
(=235) Melancholia 2011 Lars von Trier
(=235) The House Is Black 1963 Forugh Farrokhzad
(=235) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 Robert Wiene
(=235) Red River 1948 Arthur Rosson, Howard Hawks
(=235) A Clockwork Orange 1971 Stanley Kubrick
(=235) Two-Lane Blacktop 1971 Monte Hellman
(=235) An Autumn Afternoon 1962 Yasujirô Ozu
(=235) The Thin Blue Line 1988 Errol Morris
(=235) Apur Sansar 1959 Satyajit Ray
(=235) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse 1933 Fritz Lang
(=235) My Darling Clementine 1946 John Ford
(=235) The Double Life of Veronique 1991 Krzysztof Kieslowski
(=235) Kes 1969 Ken Loach
(=235) Three Colors: Red 1994 Krzysztof Kieslowski
(=235) The Big Lebowski 1998 Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
(=235) Where Is the Friend’s Home? 1987 Abbas Kiarostami
(=235) All That Heaven Allows 1955 Douglas Sirk
(=235) Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964 Pier Paolo Pasolini
(=235) Husbands 1970 John Cassavetes
(=235) The Puppetmaster 1993 Hsiao-Hsien Hou
(=235) All About Eve 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz
(=235) How Green Was My Valley 1941 John Ford
(=235) Belle de Jour 1967 Luis Buñuel
(=235) Sicilia! 1999 Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
(=235) The Band Wagon 1953 Vincente Minnelli
(=235) The White Ribbon 2009 Michael Haneke
(=235) F for Fake 1973 Oja Kodar, Gary Graver, Orson Welles, François Reichenbach
(=235) Nun va Goldoon 1996 Mohsen Makhmalbaf
(=235) The Wind Will Carry Us 1999 Abbas Kiarostami
(=235) Rocco and His Brothers 1960 Luchino Visconti
(=235) Sud sanaeha Aka Blissfully Yours 2002 Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(=235) Flowers of Shanghai 1998 Hsiao-Hsien Hou
(=235) Juventude Em Marcha 2006 Pedro Costa
(=235) Death in Venice 1971 Luchino Visconti
(=235) All About My Mother 1999 Pedro Almodóvar
(=235) The Cloud Capped Star 1960 Ritwik Ghatak
(=235) Pandora’s Box 1929 Georg Wilhelm Pabst
(=235) Le Samourai 1967 Jean-Pierre Melville
(=235) By The Bluest Of Seas 1936 Samad Mardanov, Boris Barnet
(=235) Stromboli 1950 Roberto Rossellini
(=235) A Nos Amours 1983 Maurice Pialat
(=235) Throne of Blood 1957 Akira Kurosawa
(=235) Umberto D. 1952 Vittorio De Sica
(=235) The Young Girls of Rochefort 1967 Jacques Demy
(=235) Sullivan’s Travels 1941 Preston Sturges
(=235) Shadows 1959 John Cassavetes
The Godfather (BFI Film Classics) Paperback
Napoleon (BFI Restoration) [Region B – UK Import]
Chinatown (BFI Film Classics) Paperback
Cleo de 5 a 7 (BFI Film Classics) Paperback
Sight & Sound ~ May 2018 ~ BFI Film Magazine 120 BPM Lean on Pete Woodfall Films
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (BFI Film Classics) Paperback
Pulp Fiction (BFI Modern Classics) Paperback
Gone With the Wind (BFI Film Classics) Paperback




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The Guardian’s 25 best arthouse films of all time

The Guardian published the list in 2010. It’s an interesting take on what they consider to be arthouse. There’s no 2001 (Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is in instead), despite many critics believing the sci-fi masterpiece is one of the major artistic works of the 20th century, but it’s hard to argue that nearly all the 25 films are not strong examples of arthouse cinema at its finest. There are, of course, many great films that could have made this list and I will question the high placing of The Graduate, which is inventively shot (even making the folk rock songs of Simon & Garfunkel seem edgy and cool) but some of the arty camerawork now seems dated and just celluloid filler. Is Andrei Rublev the greatest arthouse film of all-time? Well it’s as good a choice as any! sjb.

1) Andrei Rublev

2) Mulholland Drive

3) L’Atalante

4) Toyko Story

5) Citizen Kane

6) A Clockwork Orange

7) Days of Heaven

8) Fanny and Alexander

9) The White Ribbon

10) Gospel According to St. Matthew

11) Aguirre, Wrath of God

12) Pather Panchali

13) The Conformist

14) Death in Venice

15) The Godfather

16) The Graduate

17) There Will Be Blood

18) Battleship Potemkin

19) The Rules of the Game

20) Shadows

21) Distant Voices, Still Lives

22) The Passion of Joan of Arc

23) La dolce vita

24) Breaking the Waves

25) The Spirit of the Beehive



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The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films (2018) 880-861

Introduction

880. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 103 mins.

The film tells the story of a young witch, Kiki, who moves to a new town and uses her flying ability to earn a living delivering for a bakery. A charming, warm coming of age tale that’s beautifully animated.

879. Synecdoche, New York (2008) Dir. Charlie Kaufman, 124 mins.

The plot follows an ailing theatre director (Philip Seymour Hoffman), working on an increasingly elaborate stage production, whose extreme commitment to realism begins to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. Writer/director Kaufman’s film was lauded for it’s ambition and it does have some brilliant parts but many will it find it uneven and baffling.

878. The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 151 mins.

Another entry in the legendary collaboration between Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, the film follows a young man who gets a prominent position in a corrupt postwar Japanese company in order to expose the men responsible for his father’s suicide. Influenced by the Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940’s and Shakespeare, The Bad Sleep Well is a competent thriller and while it doesn’t quite match Kurosawa’s best work, it’s visually striking and Mifune is compelling as the office worker looking for revenge.

877. Shadows (1959) Dir. John Cassavetes, 87 mins.

Based on improvisations which originated in his actor’s workshop, Cassavetes’s low budget ($40,000), independently produced film is notable for its intense realism and sensitive handling of racial issues. It depicts two weeks in the lives of three African-American siblings on the margins of society, two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their sister who dates several men.

876. Wake in Fright (1971) Dir. Ted Kotcheff, 114 mins.

Wake in Fright offers a cutting critique of Australian masculinity through a story of a young schoolteacher from Sydney who descends into personal moral degradation while trapped in a menacing outback town. Seen as a pivotal entry in the Australian New Wave, the film is brilliantly directed by Kotcheff.

875. Eyes Without a Face (1960) Dir. Georges Franju, 88 mins.

Franju’s influential chiller, an adaptation of Jean Redon’s novel, follows a brilliant but crazed surgeon who resorts to horrifying measures to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured face. Was met with disgust by some critics when first released but is now lauded for its visual poetry.

874. Letters From a Dead Man (1986) Dir. Konstantin Lopushansky, 87 mins.

The film takes place in a Soviet village which is devastated by a nuclear meltdown. A professor (Rolan Bykov), a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, is trying to survive in the basement of the former museum of history with a small group of children and adults. The professor begins composing letters to his son, Eric, who had disappeared shortly after the disaster. Clearly influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky (Lopushansky worked on Stalker) Letters From a Dead Man is an eloquent, powerful and strangely beautiful film.

873. Edward Scissorhands (1990) Dir. Tim Burton, 105 mins.

Burton’s modern fairy tale stars Johnny Depp (in their first collaboration) as an artificial young man named Edward who is built, but unfinished, by an eccentric inventor (Vincent Price). When his maker dies, Edward is left with scissor blades instead of hands. He is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Delightfully charming cinema that is also a visual treat.

872. Brooklyn (2015) Dir. John Crowley, 111 mins.

Set in the early 1950s, the film tells the story of a young Irish woman’s immigration to Brooklyn, where she falls in love, but her past catches up with her, leaving a choice between the two countries. An old fashioned, sensitive period drama bolstered by an excellent lead performance by Saoirse Ronan. Brooklyn was ranked 48th on BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.

871. Glory (1989) Dir. Edward Zwick, 122 mins.

The film is set during the American Civil War and follows one of the first military units of the Union Army (the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry) to consist entirely of African-American men except for its officers. Told from the point of view of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, its white commanding officer, Glory is a visceral, emotive war film and a fitting long overdue tribute to its black heroes.



870. Roman Holiday (1953) Dir. William Wyler, 118 mins.

A romantic comedy that stars Audrey Hepburn as a sheltered royal princess, of an unspecified country, who falls for an American news reporter (Gregory Peck) in Rome. A funny and lovely fairy tale immaculately directed by William Wyler.

869. Suspiria (1977) Dir. Dario Argento, 98 mins.

Full of the stylistic delirious excess that made Argento a cult director, Suspiria follows a young American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany and, amidst a series of murders, finds herself battling a witches coven. As well as being recognised as influential in the horror genre, The Village Voice ranked Suspiria #100 on their list of the 100 greatest films made in the 20th century. It was also ranked #312 on Empire magazine’s 500 greatest films ever as well as number 45 on their list ‘The 100 Best Films of World Cinema’.

868. United 93 (2006) Dir. Paul Greengrass, 111 mins.

The film chronicles events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked during the September 11 attacks of 2001. Treating the subject matter with real respect and apparently made with the cooperation of all of the passengers’ families, Greengrass’s film is obviously not an enjoyable watch but is well crafted, powerful and sobering.

867. The End of Summer (1961) Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 103 mins.

Manbei Kohayagawa (Ganjiro Nakamura) is the head of a small sake brewery company that is in difficulties. As the family patriarch he also has to deal with daughter problems, one, a widow, needs help in finding a new mate and the other needs help making the right choice in a future spouse. Whilst some have dismissed The End of Summer as boring, others admire the beautiful cinematography and witty script.

866. On the Silver Globe (1989) Dir. Andrzej Zulawski, 166 mins.

Falling somewhere between Tarkovsky and Jodorowsky, Zulawski’s weird and visually extravagant sci-fi deals with a group of space researchers who leave the Earth to find freedom but their spaceship crash lands on an Earth like planet. Only one crew member survives into old age and becomes both hated and revered as a sort of demi-God by the new society he and his fellow travellers had created. The film had a hugely troubled production history and was shut down by Poland’s vice-minister of cultural affairs when only 80% complete. Fortunately the film studio and members of the cast and crew preserved the existing reels and the film was eventually released after the end of communist rule. It consists of the preserved footage plus a commentary to fill in the narrative gaps.

865. After Hours (1985) Dir. Martin Scorsese, 97 mins.

After a string of box office disappointments in the early 1980s and Paramounts’s abandonment of The Last Temptation of Christ production, Scorsese decided to focus on a small scale project. After Hours follows Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), as he experiences a series of misadventures while making his way home from New York City’s SoHo district during the night. A high energy dark comedy that’s also a visual treat.

864. Love and Death (1975) Dir. Woody Allen, 85 mins.

Filled with Allen’s much loved neurotic humour, Love and Death is a satire on Russian literature following Boris (Woody Allen) and his distant cousin, Sonja (Diane Keaton), who are living in Russia during the Napoleonic Era. After Boris accidentally becomes a war hero and Sonja is left a widow, they get married and engage in mock-serious philosophical debates. Silly, very funny and even poignant at times.

863. This Sporting Life (1963) Dir. Lindsay Anderson, 85 mins.

Adapted by former professional rugby league footballer David Storey from his own novel, Anderson’s raw and brutal ‘kitchen sink’ drama follows a rugby league player, Frank Machin (Richard Harris), in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life.

862. The Straight Story (1999) Dir. David Lynch, 112 mins.

The film is based on the true story of Alvin Straight’s 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower to visit his estranged brother Lyle, who has suffered a stroke, and hopefully make amends before he dies. The slow pace may well bore younger viewers but The Straight Story is a lyrically profound work that features a perfect performance by Richard Farnsworth.

861. Skyfall (2012) Dir. Sam Mendes, 120 mins.

Full of terrific action sequences and memorable performances, Skyfall centres on Bond (Daniel Craig) investigating an attack on MI6, which turns out to be part of a plot by former MI6 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) to humiliate, discredit and kill M as revenge for her betraying him. Thanks to smart direction from Mendes and more brilliant cinematography from Roger Deakins the film has been lauded as one of the best Bond movies to date.




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