Monday, May 21, 2012

Best movies ever

I won't try to name my top ten films of all time because I haven't seen enough movies enough times to make a significant selection. There are several such lists in this article and the comments below it though. The ones that seem closest to what I might come up with are these:
Ivan the Terrible (two parts), The Seven Samurai, Apu Trilogy, Manila at the Claws of Light, Bicycle Thieves, Metropolis, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Official Story, Hamlet (1948), Citizen Kane.
Posted 5/21/2012, 3:11:22am by Ralfy
While " greatness" is a highly subjective commodity, I am bemused by the absence of Fellini, Kuorsawa, Wilder, Lang, and other recognized heavyweights. Here is a list of suggested historical greats which stand the test of time: Fritz Lang's " M"; Preston Sturges " SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS"; Orson Welles " CITIZEN KANE"; Yasuhiro Ozu's " TOKYO STORY"', Federico Fellini's " LA STRADA", Ingmar Bergman's " WILD STRAWBERRIES", Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI", Billy Wilder' " SOME LIKE IT HOT" Marcel Carne's " CHILDREN OF PARADISE"', and Peter Davis ' HEARTS AND MINDS"
Posted 5/21/2012, 1:16:47am by bunuel
My list would (see how I'm cheating!) definitely include some Kurosawa (most likely Ikiru), some Tarkovsky (especially Stalker), and some Bergman. But I really don't have a list.

If you're looking for something to watch see Dave Maier on Japanese films here, although I've seen very few of the ones he mentions and not many sound like my cup of tea. Another good guide is vh.

Good movies I've seen recently include The Two Escobars (a documentary about drugs, crime, and football in Colombia), Take Shelter (a Hollywood drama about a man who starts to have vivid nightmares--is he a visionary or is he losing his mind?--let down by its ending, I thought), and My Joy, about which Wikipedia says:
There was a considerable outcry in Russian media over the film's purported Russophobic slant. Film director Karen Shakhnazarov claimed that Loznitsa would like everyone living in Russia to be shot. Another Russian film director, Andrey Zvyagintsev, called My Joy the best Russian-language film of the decade. Among American reviewers, Manohla Dargis (The New York Times) referred to the movie as "suspenseful, mysterious, at times bitterly funny, consistently moving and filled with images of a Russia haunted both by ghosts and the living dead". A blurb in Sight & Sound advertises My Joy as "Ukraine’s answer to Deliverance". Village Voice (Michael Atkinson) reviewed My Joy as "a maddening vision and one of the year's must-see provocations."

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