Oh the mountain of must-see movies and my humble attempts to scale it...

Progress will be compiled at the end of each month with films listed in order of preference.

Singin in the Rain

Stanley Donen (1952)

Gene Kelly plays a silent cinema star moving into the sound era in Stanley Donen’s soaring, dreamlike musical. Set in a Hollywood studio, Donen’s film acknowledges - almost pokes fun at- the falseness of the dream factory before giving us perhaps the most beautiful example of what that falseness can do. I smiled from start to finish. And for a good while later. In a word: Perfect.

The American Friend

Wim Wenders (1977)

We’re in Hamburg, and a bit in Paris. Bruno Ganz plays an artist with a fatal blood disease. He meets a shady international art dealer played by Dennis Hopper and the two form a bond. Hopper’s boss hears of Ganz’ troubles and so offers him a late pay day if he’s willing to ‘take out’ some of his buddies in return. He has a wife and kid and so, agrees. Ganz is terrific here; despite his character’s fantastical circumstances, his tender, low-key performance somehow keeps the whole thing grounded. It reads like a thriller but Wenders seems more interested in the unlikely friendship between his two stars; reserved Ganz and wild Hopper. Almost a decade before he unleashed Frank Booth in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet- a character which would define the later part of his career- the Hollywood cowboy  bubbles with that same intensity. The antithesis to Ganz’ gentle craftsman, he’s Stetson-clad and wild, but still… he’s a mate.

A Moment of Innocence

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (1996)

Mohsen Makhmalbaf was a leader of Iran’s Cultural Revolution and more recently one of the state’s fiercest dissidents. At 17 years old under the Shah’s regime, he was imprisoned and tortured for stabbing a policeman. In 1996 the policeman visits Makhmalbaf. He’s big and awkward and an actor too. He’s also a bit of a gent. He asks Makhmalbaf for a role in one of his films so the director decides that the two men will cast their younger selves and re-enact the fated event. Playing with fiction and reality like a kid with a ball, Makhmalbaf gives a delicate, funny and ultimately astonishing portrayal of how we remember things or, perhaps, how we choose to.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Tobe Hooper (1974)

A group of teens get terrorized by a chainsaw wielding maniac and his family of cannibals while visiting their grandparent’s old home. You might think you know the drill but Hooper’s film feels so much stranger than what’s come since. Its bogeyman, Leatherface, is more a simpleton with a certain love for arts and crafts than a demonic monster. Halloween was celebrated for its low budget stylish aesthetics and yet this film, made for a quarter of the price, looks even better. The ghastly set design is remarkable and it’s DP, Daniel Pearl on his first movie, does an incredible job. The dinner table scene could have been lifted from a Stanley Kubrick nightmare.

The Wicker Man

Robin Hardy (1973)

Christopher Lee plays the Lord of a pagan Island in this legendary folk horror. A straight edge Presbyterian policeman comes to the Island to investigate a case of a missing girl but stumbles upon something far weirder. The place is rife with sex, songs, hedonism and perhaps much more. It seems were following the copper, but the locals- despite all the madness- have a lot more charm. Endlessly bizarre, the film looks in good health as it hits 40 years of age.

The Fog

John Carpenter (1980)

Carpenter followed up his slasher smash Halloween with this spooky seaside tale. A small town are celebrating their centenary when a strange fog rolls in and starts causing havoc. It's great in parts but dreadful in others; on one hand Carpenter points a finger at the genocide of the Native Americans while on the other only offers us the most ridiculous of ghouls.  Still, it’s very well shot by Dean Cundey, who would go on to shoot Jurassic Park, and Carpenter himself provides another memorable score.

All I desire

Douglas Sirk (1953)

One of Sirk’s earliest melodramas at Universal concerns a mother, played by Barbra Stanwyk, who -having left years before to become an actress- returns to suburbia to see her daughter’s play. In 1953 it seems Sirk was yet to sharpen the knives but this story of a broken family still flickers with subversion. Stanwyk is, as ever, electric.

Un Femme est Un Femme

Jean-Luc Godard (1961)

Anna Karina stars in the French New Wave’s answer to the Hollywood screwball comedy. Following this film, Karina would go on to become the director’s muse and while both the film and performances are full of colour and youth, Godard seems to indulge Karina a touch too much. But then, who wouldn’t.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

Oh the mountain of must-see-movies and my humble attempts to scale it...

Progress will be compiled at the end of each month and the films are listed in order of preference.

The Passion of Joan of Arc 

Carl Theodor Dreyer (1928)

Decades ahead of its time and with an otherworldly performance from Maria Falconetti dominating the screen, Dreyer’s silent masterwork on the doomed trial of Joan of Arc still packs an almighty punch. Shot in crisp lighting and unforgiving close ups, the film’s stripped down style broke so much new ground it’s impossible to imagine just how cathartic the film must have felt back in 1928.

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurasawa (1957)

Kurasawa adapts Macbeth in Feudal Japan for this wonderfully lit visual stunner. Kurasawa’s Wildman Toshiro Mifune plays the tragic lead.

All That Heaven Allows

Douglas Sirk (1955)

The dark underbelly of suburban American life may seem a ubiquitous theme these days but the white paint was barely dry on the picket fences when Douglas Sirk made this wonderful film back in 1955. A recently widowed Jane Wyman must face the judgement of her local community when she decides to fall in love with her gardener instead of burying herself in a television. Great art should always rise above the mundanity of life. Here’s a film about doing just that.

Ikiru 

Akira Kurasawa (1952)

A civil service stooge makes a late attempt to embrace life when he is diagnosed with stomach cancer. Broken from the spell of his daily bureaucratic grind this antihero immerses himself in the ecstatic Tokyo night-life and the friendship of a vibrant female co-worker as he attempts to leave the earth having accomplished something of use. Ikiru is bursting at the seams with life and while the story’s final stretch might drag a little, Kurasawa still manages to nail the kind of levels of human regret which Franz Kapra could only have dreamt of depicting.

The Death of Mr Lazarescu

Cristi Puiu (2005)

A dying man must suffer an Odyssey of arrogance, malpractice and indignity for his final night on earth in this brutal satire on the Romanian healthcare system. Puiu’s realist gem was to be the first great tremor felt of the Romanian new-wave.

Alphaville

Jean Luc Godard (1965)

Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina prowl the streets of Alphaville, a dystopian city where passions have been outlawed and a supercomputer calls the shots. When combined, Film Noir and Dystopian Sci Fi can be such a blast. Godard lashes on French new-wave and surrealism for good measure.

Yojimbo

Akira Kurasawa (1961)

In a lawless rural village a maverick Samurai pits two rival families against each other to bid for his services. Kurasawa’s brilliant adaptation of the old gunslinger-with-the-heart-of-gold staple also boasts some of his finest action set pieces.

F for Fake 

Orson Welles (1973)

Orson Welles’ investigation of charlatans and fakers centres on one of the world’s most notorious art forgers with Welles himself acting as some sort of caped detective magician trying to get to the bottom of it all. Welles cuts it like a Godard film and allows himself to explore tangents frivolously. It’s riveting stuff and just oozing with class.

The 39 Steps 

Alfred Hitchcock (1935)

The most famous of Hitchcock’s pre-Hollywood films shows plenty of the director’s later hallmarks; packed with intrigue, wit and –for 1935- a bold use of sexuality. 

Il Divo 

Paulo Sorrentino (2008)

Anyone without a decent knowledge of Italian politics (i.e. me) might get lost in the intricate web of names and double crossings but not to worry, with strong performances all round and a soundtrack of Sergio Leonie style gumption the film still delights as a super-slick, confident and ultra-slimy political thriller.

The Straight Story

David Lynch (1999)

With a pace about as fast as Alvin Straight’s John Dear tractor David Lynch ponders perhaps his most conventional story as an old man treks across the state line to meet his estranged and very ill brother. Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek are both excellent. Twin Peaks scorer Angelo Badalamenti provides some Midwest Americana. Late bonus points for Harry Dean Stanton.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Philip Kaufman (1988)

Juliet Binoche wears a turtle neck and a leather jacket and moans about her photo journalism career and the Russian invasion of Prague all from the safety of her Geneva apartment and the arms of a brilliant as ever Daniel Day Lewis. By no means a bad film- the 160 minutes didn’t even feel so long- the brief scenes in Prague are excellent and one of the characters seems to have done quite well from airbrush art, which is pretty rad. It's just while that privileged student dream of European life might have got the blood pumping back in 1988 it feels awfully dated now. 

Cutter’s Way 

Ivan Passer (1981)

What was this all about? Czech new waver Ivan Passer directs Jeff Bridges as the witness to a murder. John Heard plays his drunken veteran friend who obsesses with proving a local oil man was the person responsible. What could have been an interesting take on morality is marred by a stack of continuity errors and some truly bizarre moments- what was that bit with the horse about? Baffling stuff. Someone please explain.

Beau Trevail

Oh the mountain of must-see-movies and my humble attempts to scale it...

Progress will be compiled at the end of each month and the films are listed in order of preference.

Beau Travail 
Claire Denis (1999)

Denis Lavant gives a performance of pure intensity in this ode to absurd masculinity; Clair Denis’ use of imagery and music to tell this story of French legionnaires in East Africa is almost Kubrickian.

Chungking Express 
Wong Kar Wai (1994)

This distinctively Kar-Wai slice of pop noir feels so crisp and fresh it’s difficult to believe the film is almost two decades old. The soundtrack is a killer too.

Contempt
Jean Luc Godard (1963)

Bridgette Bardot, in full bombshell mode, and Michel Picoli fall out of love on the set of Fritz Lang’s fictional take on The Odyssey in Godard’s first attempt at high budget filmmaking. Far more romantic than Truffaut’s similarly themed Day for Night but vibrant and dramatic enough to pull it off.

Following
Christopher Nolan (1998)
With flashes of the director’s eventual hallmarks throughout; Following is an enjoyable glimpse at the roots of Nolan’s thinking. It's a little dated but still a clever, well made psychological thriller.