100
THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER
Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (original title)
Werner Herzog
1974 / West Germany / 110 min / Color / Biography, Drama, History
Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge, Michael Kroecher, Hans Musäus, Henry van Lyck, Gloria Doer, Volker Prechtel
"A work somehow both doggedly nihilistic and profoundly humanistic, the greatest unofficial Frankenstein movie, an ode to the misshapen brain that can hear "the horrible screaming men call silence." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (original title)
Werner Herzog
1974 / West Germany / 110 min / Color / Biography, Drama, History
Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge, Michael Kroecher, Hans Musäus, Henry van Lyck, Gloria Doer, Volker Prechtel
"A work somehow both doggedly nihilistic and profoundly humanistic, the greatest unofficial Frankenstein movie, an ode to the misshapen brain that can hear "the horrible screaming men call silence." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
99
MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
Sennen joyû (original title)
Satoshi Kon
2001 / Japan / 87 min / Color / Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Miyoko Shôji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shôzô Îzuka, Shouko Tsuda, Hirotaka Suzuoki, Hisako Kyôda, Kan Tokumaru
"The film moves quickly and fluidly, and depends to some extent on familiarity with the filmmaking tradition to which it pays such lavish tribute. Mr. Kon and his animating team have an uncanny ability to mimic the look, scenery and even the camera movements characteristic of various directors and periods, which swirl together into a mad, magical history lesson. To watch ''Millennium Actress''' is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting." - A.O. Scott
IMDB
Sennen joyû (original title)
Satoshi Kon
2001 / Japan / 87 min / Color / Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Miyoko Shôji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa, Shôzô Îzuka, Shouko Tsuda, Hirotaka Suzuoki, Hisako Kyôda, Kan Tokumaru
"The film moves quickly and fluidly, and depends to some extent on familiarity with the filmmaking tradition to which it pays such lavish tribute. Mr. Kon and his animating team have an uncanny ability to mimic the look, scenery and even the camera movements characteristic of various directors and periods, which swirl together into a mad, magical history lesson. To watch ''Millennium Actress''' is to witness one cinematic medium celebrating another, an expression of movie love that is wonderfully eccentric and deeply affecting." - A.O. Scott
IMDB
98
SHANGHAI TRIAD
Yao a yao, yao dao wai po qiao (original title)
Zhang Yimou
1995 / China / 108 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Wang Xiaoxiao, Gong Li, Li Xuejian, Li Baotian, Sun Chun, Fu Biao, Yang Qianguan, Jiang Baoying
"Shanghai Triad concludes the sublime seven-movie collaboration of Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and actress Gong Li with a bang worthy of the most jubilant New Year's Eve." - Mike Clark
IMDB
Yao a yao, yao dao wai po qiao (original title)
Zhang Yimou
1995 / China / 108 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Wang Xiaoxiao, Gong Li, Li Xuejian, Li Baotian, Sun Chun, Fu Biao, Yang Qianguan, Jiang Baoying
"Shanghai Triad concludes the sublime seven-movie collaboration of Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and actress Gong Li with a bang worthy of the most jubilant New Year's Eve." - Mike Clark
IMDB
97
THE GODDESS
Devi (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1960 / India / 93 min / BW / Drama
Sharmila Tagore, Soumitra Chatterjee, Chhabi Biswas, Karuna Bannerjee, Purnendu Mukherjee, Arpan Chowdhury
"In some ways "Devi" is the most explicitly Eastern of Ray's films: manifest in the depiction of Hinduism and the ways in which it penetrates all aspects of Indian life. It's a film that bears all the hallmarks of Ray's best work: gracefulness, exquisite pacing and composition, love for his characters and a deep regard for the power of silence to tell a story." - Edward Guthmann
IMDB
Devi (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1960 / India / 93 min / BW / Drama
Sharmila Tagore, Soumitra Chatterjee, Chhabi Biswas, Karuna Bannerjee, Purnendu Mukherjee, Arpan Chowdhury
"In some ways "Devi" is the most explicitly Eastern of Ray's films: manifest in the depiction of Hinduism and the ways in which it penetrates all aspects of Indian life. It's a film that bears all the hallmarks of Ray's best work: gracefulness, exquisite pacing and composition, love for his characters and a deep regard for the power of silence to tell a story." - Edward Guthmann
IMDB
96
THE OLD DARK HOUSE
James Whale
1932 / US / 72 min / BW / Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Raymond Massey, Eva Moore
"As much as The Old Dark House is a send-up of Gothic horror conventions, it works equally well as a horror movie, thanks in no small part to Whale’s visual sensibility, which emphasizes strange textures and surfaces: curved mirrors, cobwebs, over-sized shadows." - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
IMDB
James Whale
1932 / US / 72 min / BW / Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Raymond Massey, Eva Moore
"As much as The Old Dark House is a send-up of Gothic horror conventions, it works equally well as a horror movie, thanks in no small part to Whale’s visual sensibility, which emphasizes strange textures and surfaces: curved mirrors, cobwebs, over-sized shadows." - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
IMDB
95
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Vals Im Bashir (original title)
Ari Folman
2008 / Israel / 90 min / Color / Animation, Biography, Drama
Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag, Shmuel Frenkel, Zahava Solomon, Ron Ben-Yishai, Dror Harazi
"It's a movie that uses animation to bring us into characters' memories, to bring us back to places that may never have been real to begin with, and that would never have been recreated accurately in live action anyway. It wants us to consider the human element of war rather than the strategies, the numbers, the visceralness, the characters that it can create." - Kalvin Henely
IMDB
Vals Im Bashir (original title)
Ari Folman
2008 / Israel / 90 min / Color / Animation, Biography, Drama
Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag, Shmuel Frenkel, Zahava Solomon, Ron Ben-Yishai, Dror Harazi
"It's a movie that uses animation to bring us into characters' memories, to bring us back to places that may never have been real to begin with, and that would never have been recreated accurately in live action anyway. It wants us to consider the human element of war rather than the strategies, the numbers, the visceralness, the characters that it can create." - Kalvin Henely
IMDB
94
KAILI BLUES
Lu bian ye can (original title)
Bi Gan
2015 / China / 117 min / Color / Drama, Mystery
Chen Yongzhong, Guo Yue, Liu Linyan, Luo Feiyang, Xie Lixun
"Even if viewers don’t know *exactly* what’s going on, we can intuit the emotions, connections, routes, and channels of feelings that course through the film. This isn’t standard art-cinema-approved social realism: it’s a realer sort of realism, bringing us through sounds and images into direct contact with a vividly imagined dream world, but one that’s quite specifically grounded in details of place, biography, and community." - Shelly Kraicer
IMDB
Lu bian ye can (original title)
Bi Gan
2015 / China / 117 min / Color / Drama, Mystery
Chen Yongzhong, Guo Yue, Liu Linyan, Luo Feiyang, Xie Lixun
"Even if viewers don’t know *exactly* what’s going on, we can intuit the emotions, connections, routes, and channels of feelings that course through the film. This isn’t standard art-cinema-approved social realism: it’s a realer sort of realism, bringing us through sounds and images into direct contact with a vividly imagined dream world, but one that’s quite specifically grounded in details of place, biography, and community." - Shelly Kraicer
IMDB
93
PEPPERMINT CANDY
Bakha satang (original title)
Lee Chang-dong
1999 / South Korea / 129 min / Color / Drama
Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Kim Yeo-jin
"Lee is a master of no-prisoners relationship intercourse, as any fan of his Oasis (2002) or Poetry (2010) knows. Peppermint Candy might look from on high like a scathing critique of an entire generation of Korean men, as well as of the country's institutional default settings as it transformed itself into a democracy. But on the ground it's the film's ineluctable shape and pounding melancholy that you can't forget." - Michael Atkinson
IMDB
Bakha satang (original title)
Lee Chang-dong
1999 / South Korea / 129 min / Color / Drama
Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Kim Yeo-jin
"Lee is a master of no-prisoners relationship intercourse, as any fan of his Oasis (2002) or Poetry (2010) knows. Peppermint Candy might look from on high like a scathing critique of an entire generation of Korean men, as well as of the country's institutional default settings as it transformed itself into a democracy. But on the ground it's the film's ineluctable shape and pounding melancholy that you can't forget." - Michael Atkinson
IMDB
92
A SUMMER AT GRANDPA'S
Dong dong de jiàqi (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1984 / Taiwan / 93 min / Color / Drama
Wang Chi-Kuang, Li Shu-Chen, Lin Hsiu-Ling, Ting Nai-Chu, Cheng-Kuo Yen
"Hou’s epiphanies, revelatory moments that darken the Eden of childhood, drift like a soft breeze as Wang avoids his uncle’s gaze at the police station or Sun lays by the side of the woman whose miscarriage she’s indirectly responsible for. "Time flies. I’m homesick." Summer’s over, a little hope goes back the city’s way." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
Dong dong de jiàqi (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1984 / Taiwan / 93 min / Color / Drama
Wang Chi-Kuang, Li Shu-Chen, Lin Hsiu-Ling, Ting Nai-Chu, Cheng-Kuo Yen
"Hou’s epiphanies, revelatory moments that darken the Eden of childhood, drift like a soft breeze as Wang avoids his uncle’s gaze at the police station or Sun lays by the side of the woman whose miscarriage she’s indirectly responsible for. "Time flies. I’m homesick." Summer’s over, a little hope goes back the city’s way." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
91
THE HUMAN CONDITION I: NO GREATER LOVE
Ningen no jôken (original title)
Masaki Kobayashi
1959 / Japan / 208 min / BW / Drama, War
Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura, Kôji Mitsui
"This is one of the most ambitious works in cinema's history, and one may gain better appreciation of its vision by seeing its three parts in one fell swoop. More importantly, the big screen allows the viewer to fully admire the director's mastery of black-and-white 'Scope." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
Ningen no jôken (original title)
Masaki Kobayashi
1959 / Japan / 208 min / BW / Drama, War
Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura, Kôji Mitsui
"This is one of the most ambitious works in cinema's history, and one may gain better appreciation of its vision by seeing its three parts in one fell swoop. More importantly, the big screen allows the viewer to fully admire the director's mastery of black-and-white 'Scope." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
90
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (original title)
Sergio Leone
1966 / Italy, Spain, West Germany / 161 min / Color / Western
Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov
"Ennio Morricone’s score reached a peak of orchestral ecstasy that is a long way from the lean, ambient soundscape he created for the first film. By then, Leone’s visual approach, so bare-bones in Fistful, had flowered into something almost operatic; watching in sequence, one gets the sense that he felt he had to burn the western to the ground first in order to build something new and spectacular two movies later." - Mark Harris
IMDB
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (original title)
Sergio Leone
1966 / Italy, Spain, West Germany / 161 min / Color / Western
Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov
"Ennio Morricone’s score reached a peak of orchestral ecstasy that is a long way from the lean, ambient soundscape he created for the first film. By then, Leone’s visual approach, so bare-bones in Fistful, had flowered into something almost operatic; watching in sequence, one gets the sense that he felt he had to burn the western to the ground first in order to build something new and spectacular two movies later." - Mark Harris
IMDB
89
MAHJONG
Ma jiang (original title)
Edward Yang
1996 / Taiwan / 121 min / Color / Comedy, Drama
Tang Congsheng, Chang Chen, Lawrence Ko, Virginie Ledoyen, Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Carrie Ng
"Yang’s direction shifts seamlessly with the narrative, from the mural-like Hard Rock Cafe sequence, which introduces most of the characters and relationships (imperiously presided over by a framed portrait of Prince), to the increasingly stark and stylized staging of the movie’s second half. But it is never less than pointed. Films about “how we live today” get a bad rap in the United States, mostly because Americans are inexplicably bad at making them. This is how you do it right." - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
IMDB
Ma jiang (original title)
Edward Yang
1996 / Taiwan / 121 min / Color / Comedy, Drama
Tang Congsheng, Chang Chen, Lawrence Ko, Virginie Ledoyen, Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Carrie Ng
"Yang’s direction shifts seamlessly with the narrative, from the mural-like Hard Rock Cafe sequence, which introduces most of the characters and relationships (imperiously presided over by a framed portrait of Prince), to the increasingly stark and stylized staging of the movie’s second half. But it is never less than pointed. Films about “how we live today” get a bad rap in the United States, mostly because Americans are inexplicably bad at making them. This is how you do it right." - Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
IMDB
88
JU DOU
Zhang Yimou
1990 / China / 95 min / BW / Drama, Horror, Romance
Gong Li, Li Baotian, Li Wei, Yi Zhang, Zheng Ji'an
"Ju Dou’s striking mise en scene, melodramatic narrative and allegorical meanings garnered Zhang auteur status internationally. Together with the early work of Chen Kaige, the trilogy became the cornerstone for the opening up of Chinese cinema to the rest of the world, and positioned Zhang in a complex (and later shifting) relationship with his own country, celebrated abroad while his work was suppressed by the authorities at home." - Carlota Larrea
IMDB
Zhang Yimou
1990 / China / 95 min / BW / Drama, Horror, Romance
Gong Li, Li Baotian, Li Wei, Yi Zhang, Zheng Ji'an
"Ju Dou’s striking mise en scene, melodramatic narrative and allegorical meanings garnered Zhang auteur status internationally. Together with the early work of Chen Kaige, the trilogy became the cornerstone for the opening up of Chinese cinema to the rest of the world, and positioned Zhang in a complex (and later shifting) relationship with his own country, celebrated abroad while his work was suppressed by the authorities at home." - Carlota Larrea
IMDB
87
SEVEN SAMURAI
Shichinin no samurai (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1954 / Japan / 207 min / BW / Adventure, Drama
Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi
"It’s fiercely entertaining in a way that might remind viewers just how hard it is to achieve that nebulous goal—to amuse as well as to awe. It may be for this reason that it’s referred to as being Kurosawa’s most “Americanized” film, though it could likewise be considered his gift to the West." - Kathleen Sachs
IMDB
Shichinin no samurai (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1954 / Japan / 207 min / BW / Adventure, Drama
Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Daisuke Katô, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki, Seiji Miyaguchi
"It’s fiercely entertaining in a way that might remind viewers just how hard it is to achieve that nebulous goal—to amuse as well as to awe. It may be for this reason that it’s referred to as being Kurosawa’s most “Americanized” film, though it could likewise be considered his gift to the West." - Kathleen Sachs
IMDB
86
CLOSE-UP
Nema-ye Nazdik (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1990 / Iran / 98 min / Color / Documentary, Biography, Crime
Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah, Nayer Mohseni Zonoozi
"Much acclaimed in France for its fascinating take on the cinematic apparatus, the film combines fiction with nonfiction in a novel and provocative manner: Werner Herzog has called this the greatest of all documentaries about filmmaking, and he may not be far off–if only because no other film does more to interrogate certain aspects of the documentary form itself." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Nema-ye Nazdik (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1990 / Iran / 98 min / Color / Documentary, Biography, Crime
Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah, Nayer Mohseni Zonoozi
"Much acclaimed in France for its fascinating take on the cinematic apparatus, the film combines fiction with nonfiction in a novel and provocative manner: Werner Herzog has called this the greatest of all documentaries about filmmaking, and he may not be far off–if only because no other film does more to interrogate certain aspects of the documentary form itself." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
85
CERTIFIED COPY
Copie conforme (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
2010 / France / 106 min / Color / Drama
Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière
"Nearly every scene of Certified Copy touches on some profound aspect of human experience--falling in love, realizing one's place in the universe, et cetera--and in each of their incarnations, the characters are so fully realized by the leads that they never seem ciphers for bigger themes. Their entire experience, in short, has been recast by their passion for art: Everything is mysterious and full of promise." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
Copie conforme (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
2010 / France / 106 min / Color / Drama
Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière
"Nearly every scene of Certified Copy touches on some profound aspect of human experience--falling in love, realizing one's place in the universe, et cetera--and in each of their incarnations, the characters are so fully realized by the leads that they never seem ciphers for bigger themes. Their entire experience, in short, has been recast by their passion for art: Everything is mysterious and full of promise." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
84
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
Tonari no Totoro (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
1988 / Japan / 86 min / Color / Animation, Family, Fantasy
Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto, Tanie Kitabayashi, Hitoshi Takagi, Yûko Maruyama
"Like much of Miyazaki's work, the film has an ecological bent that recalls the Shinto reverence for animal spirits and reflects quintessential Asian values like respect for one's parents and community in the face of crisis. It exemplifies Ghibli's style of fanciful realism, paying close attention to minute details as well-drawn figures move across a fluid backdrop." - Ted Shen
IMDB
Tonari no Totoro (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
1988 / Japan / 86 min / Color / Animation, Family, Fantasy
Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto, Tanie Kitabayashi, Hitoshi Takagi, Yûko Maruyama
"Like much of Miyazaki's work, the film has an ecological bent that recalls the Shinto reverence for animal spirits and reflects quintessential Asian values like respect for one's parents and community in the face of crisis. It exemplifies Ghibli's style of fanciful realism, paying close attention to minute details as well-drawn figures move across a fluid backdrop." - Ted Shen
IMDB
83
CHILDREN IN THE WIND
Kaze no naka no kodomo (original title)
Hiroshi Shimizu
1937 / Japan / 88 min / BW / Drama
Reikichi Kawamura, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Masao Hayama, Chishû Ryû, Takeshi Sakamoto, Takayuki Suematsu, Fujiko Osafune, Fumiko Okamura, Seiji Nishimura
"In a typically nice touch, Sampei even invites his arch rival, Kinta – the son of the man who framed his dad for embezzlement in the first place, to come and see the approaching circus with him. A final gesture of reconciliation signals the end to hostilities as a possibly life changing event becomes a humorous summer interlude in the boys’ early lives. Warm and lighthearted, Children in the Wind is perhaps not as cutting or incisive as some of Shimizu’s more socially conscious efforts, but is filled with his characteristic compassionate humanism in its childlike certainty in justice and the willingness to forgive and forget." - Hayley Scanlon
IMDB
Kaze no naka no kodomo (original title)
Hiroshi Shimizu
1937 / Japan / 88 min / BW / Drama
Reikichi Kawamura, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Masao Hayama, Chishû Ryû, Takeshi Sakamoto, Takayuki Suematsu, Fujiko Osafune, Fumiko Okamura, Seiji Nishimura
"In a typically nice touch, Sampei even invites his arch rival, Kinta – the son of the man who framed his dad for embezzlement in the first place, to come and see the approaching circus with him. A final gesture of reconciliation signals the end to hostilities as a possibly life changing event becomes a humorous summer interlude in the boys’ early lives. Warm and lighthearted, Children in the Wind is perhaps not as cutting or incisive as some of Shimizu’s more socially conscious efforts, but is filled with his characteristic compassionate humanism in its childlike certainty in justice and the willingness to forgive and forget." - Hayley Scanlon
IMDB
82
A TIME TO LIVE, A TIME TO DIE
Tóngnián wangshì (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1985 / Taiwan / 138 min / Color / Biography, Drama
Chang Chia-bao, Chang Neng, Chen Chih-chen, Chen Han-wen, Chen Shu-fang, Chiang Bao-te, Chou Tung-hung
"At last, one is left with the feeling of what it’s like to stand in their family’s house years later, awash in so many years of memories, and realise that those moments and the people who inhabited them, whether alive or dead, are gone forever, save in one’s memory... The fact remains that for me, this movie was then, and is now, not just cinema as living memory, but memory as living cinema. It is my hope that it will live for you too." - Kevin B. Lee
IMDB
Tóngnián wangshì (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1985 / Taiwan / 138 min / Color / Biography, Drama
Chang Chia-bao, Chang Neng, Chen Chih-chen, Chen Han-wen, Chen Shu-fang, Chiang Bao-te, Chou Tung-hung
"At last, one is left with the feeling of what it’s like to stand in their family’s house years later, awash in so many years of memories, and realise that those moments and the people who inhabited them, whether alive or dead, are gone forever, save in one’s memory... The fact remains that for me, this movie was then, and is now, not just cinema as living memory, but memory as living cinema. It is my hope that it will live for you too." - Kevin B. Lee
IMDB
81
SONATINE
Takeshi Kitano
1993 / Japan / 94 min / Color / Action, Comedy, Crime
Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe, Masanobu Katsumura, Susumu Terajima, Ren Osugi, Tonbo Zushi, Ken'ichi Yajima, Eiji Minakata
"Kitano, an inventive and compelling visualist, essentially stops the story and creates a series of spellbinding images and set pieces that are so poetic one hardly notices the dangling narrative." - Patrick Z. McGavin
IMDB
Takeshi Kitano
1993 / Japan / 94 min / Color / Action, Comedy, Crime
Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe, Masanobu Katsumura, Susumu Terajima, Ren Osugi, Tonbo Zushi, Ken'ichi Yajima, Eiji Minakata
"Kitano, an inventive and compelling visualist, essentially stops the story and creates a series of spellbinding images and set pieces that are so poetic one hardly notices the dangling narrative." - Patrick Z. McGavin
IMDB
80
GERTRUD
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1964 / Denmark / 116 min / BW / Drama, Romance
Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe, Ebbe Rode, Baard Owe, Axel Strøbye, Vera Gebuhr
"The perfection of Nina Pens Rode’s performance, seldom remarked on, is very much a matter of its capacity to absorb [Gertrud's] contradictions... A work of perpetual time travel, Gertrud no less forcefully projects a suspended gaze and meditation on a frozen destiny, perfect yet appalling." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1964 / Denmark / 116 min / BW / Drama, Romance
Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe, Ebbe Rode, Baard Owe, Axel Strøbye, Vera Gebuhr
"The perfection of Nina Pens Rode’s performance, seldom remarked on, is very much a matter of its capacity to absorb [Gertrud's] contradictions... A work of perpetual time travel, Gertrud no less forcefully projects a suspended gaze and meditation on a frozen destiny, perfect yet appalling." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
79
THE CEREMONY
Gishiki (original title)
Nagisa Ôshima
1971 / Japan / 123 min / Color / Comedy, Drama
Kenzô Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku, Atsuo Nakamura, Kiyoshi Tsuchiya, Nobuko Otowa, Hôsei Komatsu, Rokkô Toura, Fumio Watanabe
"The film is a cubist portrait of an extended family in postwar Japan. The narrative gradually reveals histories of incest, war crimes, and suicide within a powerful industrialist's clan, and the approach alone embodies the major theme of Oshima's work, if not the Japanese New Wave as a whole: the brutal confrontation with the nation's imperial past, which left countless foreigners dead and many Japanese in a cycle of poverty that continued well after the war." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
Gishiki (original title)
Nagisa Ôshima
1971 / Japan / 123 min / Color / Comedy, Drama
Kenzô Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku, Atsuo Nakamura, Kiyoshi Tsuchiya, Nobuko Otowa, Hôsei Komatsu, Rokkô Toura, Fumio Watanabe
"The film is a cubist portrait of an extended family in postwar Japan. The narrative gradually reveals histories of incest, war crimes, and suicide within a powerful industrialist's clan, and the approach alone embodies the major theme of Oshima's work, if not the Japanese New Wave as a whole: the brutal confrontation with the nation's imperial past, which left countless foreigners dead and many Japanese in a cycle of poverty that continued well after the war." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
78
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
C'era una volta il West (original title)
Sergio Leone
1968 / Italy, US / 165 min / Color / Western
Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn
"Leone brought back a masterpiece, a film that expands his baroque, cartoonish style into genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth." - Dave Kehr
IMDB
C'era una volta il West (original title)
Sergio Leone
1968 / Italy, US / 165 min / Color / Western
Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn
"Leone brought back a masterpiece, a film that expands his baroque, cartoonish style into genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth." - Dave Kehr
IMDB
77
THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES
Zire darakhatan zeyton (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1994 / Iran / 103 min / Color / Drama
Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian, Hocine Redai, Zahra Nourouzi, Nosrat Bagheri
"Once again Kiarostami’s use of the surrounding mountainous landscape is visually as well as dramatically breathtaking, culminating, as his previous film did, in an extended take that films the actors from such a vast distance it becomes a kind of comic and cosmic overview of the world. Like the brief suppression of the sound track toward the end of Homework, this shot reveals an almost mystical, open-ended sensibility that carries the film to a deeper, more mysterious level." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Zire darakhatan zeyton (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1994 / Iran / 103 min / Color / Drama
Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian, Hocine Redai, Zahra Nourouzi, Nosrat Bagheri
"Once again Kiarostami’s use of the surrounding mountainous landscape is visually as well as dramatically breathtaking, culminating, as his previous film did, in an extended take that films the actors from such a vast distance it becomes a kind of comic and cosmic overview of the world. Like the brief suppression of the sound track toward the end of Homework, this shot reveals an almost mystical, open-ended sensibility that carries the film to a deeper, more mysterious level." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
76
CRIMSON GOLD
Talaye sorkh (original title)
Jafar Panahi
2003 / Iran / 97 min / Color / Drama, Thriller
Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri, Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhael, Kaveh Najmabadi, Saber Safael
"No Iranian feature I’ve seen, including any of Kiarostami’s, has better caught the look and feel of Tehran (which I visited for a week in 2000) — the pollution, the traffic congestion, the class distinction that comes with living on the mountain in the city’s north. But the greater achievement of Crimson Gold is to pinpoint an everyday experience that’s universal..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Talaye sorkh (original title)
Jafar Panahi
2003 / Iran / 97 min / Color / Drama, Thriller
Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri, Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhael, Kaveh Najmabadi, Saber Safael
"No Iranian feature I’ve seen, including any of Kiarostami’s, has better caught the look and feel of Tehran (which I visited for a week in 2000) — the pollution, the traffic congestion, the class distinction that comes with living on the mountain in the city’s north. But the greater achievement of Crimson Gold is to pinpoint an everyday experience that’s universal..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
75
BLACK GIRL
La noire de... (original title)
Ousmane Sembene
1966 / Senegal, France / 65 min / BW / Drama
Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene, Ibrahima Boy, Bernard Delbard, Nicole Donati
"After the husband drives away, the boy, facing the camera, removes the mask, and the movie ends. There are few endings in all of cinema as powerful and rich as this--brimming with tragic wisdom and latent meaning, with finality and promise, with humor and pain. Diouana and Africa and the mask and the boy have finally become one, an indissoluble and unbearable human fact staring us all in the face. It's at this point that African cinema begins." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
La noire de... (original title)
Ousmane Sembene
1966 / Senegal, France / 65 min / BW / Drama
Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene, Ibrahima Boy, Bernard Delbard, Nicole Donati
"After the husband drives away, the boy, facing the camera, removes the mask, and the movie ends. There are few endings in all of cinema as powerful and rich as this--brimming with tragic wisdom and latent meaning, with finality and promise, with humor and pain. Diouana and Africa and the mask and the boy have finally become one, an indissoluble and unbearable human fact staring us all in the face. It's at this point that African cinema begins." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
74
BLADE RUNNER
Ridley Scott
1982 / US / 117 min / Color / Sci-Fi, Thriller
Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, James Hong
"It's not so much that art direction, set design, cinematography, editing, music, and acting are working at cross-purposes--instead, they're merely zipping along semi-autonomously, without being shaped into a grammatical whole. So, it's odd and kind of touching that Ridley Scott has repeatedly re-asserted his authorship of this unruly, seemingly author-less masterwork." - Kyle A. Westphal
IMDB
Ridley Scott
1982 / US / 117 min / Color / Sci-Fi, Thriller
Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, James Hong
"It's not so much that art direction, set design, cinematography, editing, music, and acting are working at cross-purposes--instead, they're merely zipping along semi-autonomously, without being shaped into a grammatical whole. So, it's odd and kind of touching that Ridley Scott has repeatedly re-asserted his authorship of this unruly, seemingly author-less masterwork." - Kyle A. Westphal
IMDB
73
A CITY OF SADNESS
Bú sàn (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1989 / Taiwan / 157 min / Color / Drama
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Chen Sung-young, Jack Kao, Li Tian-lu, Wu Nien-jen, Zhang Dachun
"By presenting the tragic consequences that resulted from the mainland authorities’ ever-escalating pattern of abuse of power, A City of Sadness compassionately articulates the suppressed, silent despair of a people repeatedly victimised as they search for inclusion and cultural identification." - Acquarello
IMDB
Bú sàn (original title)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
1989 / Taiwan / 157 min / Color / Drama
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Chen Sung-young, Jack Kao, Li Tian-lu, Wu Nien-jen, Zhang Dachun
"By presenting the tragic consequences that resulted from the mainland authorities’ ever-escalating pattern of abuse of power, A City of Sadness compassionately articulates the suppressed, silent despair of a people repeatedly victimised as they search for inclusion and cultural identification." - Acquarello
IMDB
72
WINTER LIGHT
Nattvardsgästerna (original title)
Ingmar Bergman
1963 / Sweden / 81 min / BW / Drama
Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von Sydow, Allan Edwall, Kolbjörn Knudsen, Olof Thunberg, Elsa Ebbesen
"Is "Winter Light" also not a portrait of a man who is cruel to a woman who only wants to love and help him? Is it not the cry of an artist who fears his message has not been heard? Is his art the father who has forsaken him? Has he been powerless to help those who came to him in real need, while focusing on his career and his reputation?
To the degree that "Winter Light" is autobiographical, and that we will never know, it is the portrait of a man who thought he was God, and failed himself." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
Nattvardsgästerna (original title)
Ingmar Bergman
1963 / Sweden / 81 min / BW / Drama
Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Max von Sydow, Allan Edwall, Kolbjörn Knudsen, Olof Thunberg, Elsa Ebbesen
"Is "Winter Light" also not a portrait of a man who is cruel to a woman who only wants to love and help him? Is it not the cry of an artist who fears his message has not been heard? Is his art the father who has forsaken him? Has he been powerless to help those who came to him in real need, while focusing on his career and his reputation?
To the degree that "Winter Light" is autobiographical, and that we will never know, it is the portrait of a man who thought he was God, and failed himself." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
71
A MAN ESCAPED
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (original title)
Robert Bresson
1956 / France / 101 min / BW / Drama
François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques Ertaud, Jean Paul Delhumeau, Roger Treherne, Jean Philippe Delamarre, Jacques Oerlemans
"Based on a French lieutenant’s account of his 1942 escape from a gestapo fortress in Lyon, this stately yet uncommonly gripping 1956 feature is my choice as the greatest achievement of Robert Bresson, one of the cinema’s foremost artists... The best of all prison-escape movies, it reconstructs the very notion of freedom through offscreen sounds and defines salvation in terms of painstakingly patient and meticulous effort." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (original title)
Robert Bresson
1956 / France / 101 min / BW / Drama
François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques Ertaud, Jean Paul Delhumeau, Roger Treherne, Jean Philippe Delamarre, Jacques Oerlemans
"Based on a French lieutenant’s account of his 1942 escape from a gestapo fortress in Lyon, this stately yet uncommonly gripping 1956 feature is my choice as the greatest achievement of Robert Bresson, one of the cinema’s foremost artists... The best of all prison-escape movies, it reconstructs the very notion of freedom through offscreen sounds and defines salvation in terms of painstakingly patient and meticulous effort." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
70
TABOO
Gohatto (original title)
Nagisa Ôshima
1999 / Japan / 100 min / Color / Drama, History, Thriller
Takeshi Kitano, Ryûhei Matsuda, Shinji Takeda, Tadanobu Asano, Yôichi Sai, Jirô Sakagami, Kôji Matoba
"One of the biggest surprises of Taboo is that much of it registers as a multifaceted tribute to Mizoguchi... A chamber piece abetted by one of Ryuichi Sakamoto's loveliest scores as it gradually drifts from narrative into a labyrinthine reverie, Taboo distills a kind of troubled poetry that ultimately asks if beauty is tied to evil and if desire is connected to death." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Gohatto (original title)
Nagisa Ôshima
1999 / Japan / 100 min / Color / Drama, History, Thriller
Takeshi Kitano, Ryûhei Matsuda, Shinji Takeda, Tadanobu Asano, Yôichi Sai, Jirô Sakagami, Kôji Matoba
"One of the biggest surprises of Taboo is that much of it registers as a multifaceted tribute to Mizoguchi... A chamber piece abetted by one of Ryuichi Sakamoto's loveliest scores as it gradually drifts from narrative into a labyrinthine reverie, Taboo distills a kind of troubled poetry that ultimately asks if beauty is tied to evil and if desire is connected to death." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
69
CROSSROADS
Jûjiro (original title)
Teinosuke Kinugasa
1928 / Japan / 74 min / BW / Drama
Akiko Chihaya, Junosuke Bandô, Yukiko Ogawa, Ippei Sôma, Yoshie Nakagawa, Misao Seki, Teruko Sanjô, Keinosuke Sawada
"There is not a 'message' here, neither a condemnation of those who prey on others or pass their lives taking or giving pleasure, nor a plea for the dilemma of the destitute who are at their mercy. Justice is not served in this sad story of misplaced love. The female object of desire may show a flicker of doubt, but no one repents, no one learns. Worse, tragically, no one cares." - Donald Levit
IMDB
Jûjiro (original title)
Teinosuke Kinugasa
1928 / Japan / 74 min / BW / Drama
Akiko Chihaya, Junosuke Bandô, Yukiko Ogawa, Ippei Sôma, Yoshie Nakagawa, Misao Seki, Teruko Sanjô, Keinosuke Sawada
"There is not a 'message' here, neither a condemnation of those who prey on others or pass their lives taking or giving pleasure, nor a plea for the dilemma of the destitute who are at their mercy. Justice is not served in this sad story of misplaced love. The female object of desire may show a flicker of doubt, but no one repents, no one learns. Worse, tragically, no one cares." - Donald Levit
IMDB
68
KAGEMUSHA
Akira Kurosawa
1980 / Japan / 180 min / Color / Drama, History, War
Hanne Aagesen, Kirsten Andreasen, Sylvia Eckhausen, Birgitte Federspiel, Ejner Federspiel, Ann Elisabeth Groth, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay Kristiansen
"The energy of a passionate young artist and the genius of a mature master seem to reunite. The film is as much the triumph of the painter that Kurosawa had been as a youth as of the masterful playwright he had become. It also marks the beginning of the final chapter of his astonishing career as a director. Ran, Dreams, and the other works of his late years benefit from the intensely painterly approach to filmmaking he adopted in his long, painstaking preparations for Kagemusha." - Peter Grilli
IMDB
Akira Kurosawa
1980 / Japan / 180 min / Color / Drama, History, War
Hanne Aagesen, Kirsten Andreasen, Sylvia Eckhausen, Birgitte Federspiel, Ejner Federspiel, Ann Elisabeth Groth, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay Kristiansen
"The energy of a passionate young artist and the genius of a mature master seem to reunite. The film is as much the triumph of the painter that Kurosawa had been as a youth as of the masterful playwright he had become. It also marks the beginning of the final chapter of his astonishing career as a director. Ran, Dreams, and the other works of his late years benefit from the intensely painterly approach to filmmaking he adopted in his long, painstaking preparations for Kagemusha." - Peter Grilli
IMDB
67
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
La battaglia di Algeri (original title)
Gillo Pontecorvo
1966 / Italy / 121 min / BW / Drama, War
Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Hadjadj, Tommaso Neri, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Fusia El Kader, Franco Moruzzi, Mohamed Ben Kassen
"The film has all the drive and urgency of Z without that film's glossy overlay; and a nerve-tingling percussive score (by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone) which drums up audience anticipation, invariably rewarded. There isn't a foot of newsreel in the film, but Pontecorvo's staging of headline events (filmed entirely in Algiers) has a newsreel authenticity." - David Wilson
IMDB
La battaglia di Algeri (original title)
Gillo Pontecorvo
1966 / Italy / 121 min / BW / Drama, War
Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Hadjadj, Tommaso Neri, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Fusia El Kader, Franco Moruzzi, Mohamed Ben Kassen
"The film has all the drive and urgency of Z without that film's glossy overlay; and a nerve-tingling percussive score (by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone) which drums up audience anticipation, invariably rewarded. There isn't a foot of newsreel in the film, but Pontecorvo's staging of headline events (filmed entirely in Algiers) has a newsreel authenticity." - David Wilson
IMDB
66
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Mononoke-hime (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
1997 / Japan / 134 min / Color / Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yūko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiko Nishimura, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Akihiro Miwa
"As morally complicated as it is visually complex, Princess Mononoke was Hayao Miyazaki’s darkest, most contemplative film prior to The Wind Rises... What makes the film intellectually challenging is that Miyazaki refuses to demonize industrial civilization in delineating the story’s conflict." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
Mononoke-hime (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
1997 / Japan / 134 min / Color / Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yūko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiko Nishimura, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Akihiro Miwa
"As morally complicated as it is visually complex, Princess Mononoke was Hayao Miyazaki’s darkest, most contemplative film prior to The Wind Rises... What makes the film intellectually challenging is that Miyazaki refuses to demonize industrial civilization in delineating the story’s conflict." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
65
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
Sergio Leone
1984 / US / 229 min / Color / Drama
Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, Burt Young, Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello, William Forsythe
"Did Leone make a genuine masterpiece or simply the most Proustian gangster movie ever? ...Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic—not for the days of New World shtetls and Borsalino-wearing bad guys, but for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time." - David Fear
IMDB
Sergio Leone
1984 / US / 229 min / Color / Drama
Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, Burt Young, Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello, William Forsythe
"Did Leone make a genuine masterpiece or simply the most Proustian gangster movie ever? ...Seen today, this rise-and-fall chronicle will make you nostalgic—not for the days of New World shtetls and Borsalino-wearing bad guys, but for an era when giants walked the earth and made excessive epics with scope, substance and a true sense of cinematic grandeur, once upon a time." - David Fear
IMDB
64
PERSONA
Ingmar Bergman
1966 / Sweden / 85 min / BW / Drama, Thriller
Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
"Composed of flat visual planes with clear outlines, yet without a feeling of roundness and wholeness, Persona conveys an overwhelming sense of at once claustrophobia and transparency, of suffocation and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Such deliberate one-dimensionality in the image, coupled with strong bodily responses, transmits the women’s predicament of being trapped directly to the spectator, making sensation a form of perception." - Thomas Elsaesser
IMDB
Ingmar Bergman
1966 / Sweden / 85 min / BW / Drama, Thriller
Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
"Composed of flat visual planes with clear outlines, yet without a feeling of roundness and wholeness, Persona conveys an overwhelming sense of at once claustrophobia and transparency, of suffocation and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Such deliberate one-dimensionality in the image, coupled with strong bodily responses, transmits the women’s predicament of being trapped directly to the spectator, making sensation a form of perception." - Thomas Elsaesser
IMDB
63
PATHER PANCHALI
Satyajit Ray
1955 / India / 125 min / BW / Drama
Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Banerjee, Runki Banerjee, Reba Devi, Aparna Devi
"There's no question that Ray's contemplative treatment of a poor Brahmin family in a Bengali village, made on a small budget and accompanied by the mesmerizing music of Ravi Shankar, is a triumph of mood and character rather than an exercise in brisk Western storytelling." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Satyajit Ray
1955 / India / 125 min / BW / Drama
Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Banerjee, Runki Banerjee, Reba Devi, Aparna Devi
"There's no question that Ray's contemplative treatment of a poor Brahmin family in a Bengali village, made on a small budget and accompanied by the mesmerizing music of Ravi Shankar, is a triumph of mood and character rather than an exercise in brisk Western storytelling." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
62
A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS
Ukikusa monogatari (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1934 / Japan / 86 min / BW / Drama
Takeshi Sakamoto, Chôko Iida, Kôji Mitsui, Rieko Yagumo, Yoshiko Tsubouchi, Tomio Aoki, Reikô Tani
"One of the last and best of Yasujiro Ozu's silent films, which he remade toward the end of his career, this has a fairly standard soap-opera plot--the lead actor in an impoverished acting troupe returns to a remote mountain village to meet his illegitimate son for the first time--but, needless to say, the Japanese master works wonders with it." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Ukikusa monogatari (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1934 / Japan / 86 min / BW / Drama
Takeshi Sakamoto, Chôko Iida, Kôji Mitsui, Rieko Yagumo, Yoshiko Tsubouchi, Tomio Aoki, Reikô Tani
"One of the last and best of Yasujiro Ozu's silent films, which he remade toward the end of his career, this has a fairly standard soap-opera plot--the lead actor in an impoverished acting troupe returns to a remote mountain village to meet his illegitimate son for the first time--but, needless to say, the Japanese master works wonders with it." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
61
STILL WALKING
Aruitemo aruitemo (original title)
Hirokazu Koreeda
2008 / Japan / 115 min / Color / Drama
Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, You, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada
"In 'Still Walking', he shares something valuable with Ozu: What I call Ozu's 'pillow shots', named after the 'pillow words' in Japanese poetry, which separate passages with just a word of two, seemingly unconnected, for a pause in the rhythm. These shots may show passing trains (a favorite of both directors), or a detail of architecture or landscape. It isn't their subject that matters, it's their composure." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
Aruitemo aruitemo (original title)
Hirokazu Koreeda
2008 / Japan / 115 min / Color / Drama
Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, You, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada
"In 'Still Walking', he shares something valuable with Ozu: What I call Ozu's 'pillow shots', named after the 'pillow words' in Japanese poetry, which separate passages with just a word of two, seemingly unconnected, for a pause in the rhythm. These shots may show passing trains (a favorite of both directors), or a detail of architecture or landscape. It isn't their subject that matters, it's their composure." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
60
THE VALLEY OF THE BEES
Údolí včel (original title)
František Vláčil
1968 / Czechoslovakia / 97 min / BW / Drama, History
Petr Cepek, Jan Kacer, Vera Galatíková, Zdenek Kryzánek, Miroslav Machácek, Josef Somr, Frantisek Kovárík
"While Marketa is a shaggy, slouching beast of a picture, The Valley of the Bees is as controlled as the rules that govern the Order of Teutonic Knights, to which the film’s protagonist Ondrej of Vlkov (Petr Cepek) is reluctantly assigned following his father’s guilt after nearly killing him in a violent rage over a practical joke." - Michael Brooke
IMDB
Údolí včel (original title)
František Vláčil
1968 / Czechoslovakia / 97 min / BW / Drama, History
Petr Cepek, Jan Kacer, Vera Galatíková, Zdenek Kryzánek, Miroslav Machácek, Josef Somr, Frantisek Kovárík
"While Marketa is a shaggy, slouching beast of a picture, The Valley of the Bees is as controlled as the rules that govern the Order of Teutonic Knights, to which the film’s protagonist Ondrej of Vlkov (Petr Cepek) is reluctantly assigned following his father’s guilt after nearly killing him in a violent rage over a practical joke." - Michael Brooke
IMDB
59
IVAN'S CHILDHOOD
Ivanovo detstvo (original title)
Andrei Tarkovsky
1962 / Sovet Union / 95 min / BW / Drama, War
Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov, Stepan Krylov, Nikolay Grinko, Dmitri Milyutenko, Valentina Malyavina, Irina Tarkovskaya
"Perhaps no other filmmaker can be said to have equalled the breathtaking beauty and cinematic genius of the opening sequence of Ivan’s childhood, the movements of the elaborate crane shots tracing the director’s inimitable signature, an example of his matchless skill at ‘sculpting in time’. (Needless to say, this scene was one of Tarkovsky’s additions to the script he was presented with)." - Fergus Daly
IMDB
Ivanovo detstvo (original title)
Andrei Tarkovsky
1962 / Sovet Union / 95 min / BW / Drama, War
Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov, Stepan Krylov, Nikolay Grinko, Dmitri Milyutenko, Valentina Malyavina, Irina Tarkovskaya
"Perhaps no other filmmaker can be said to have equalled the breathtaking beauty and cinematic genius of the opening sequence of Ivan’s childhood, the movements of the elaborate crane shots tracing the director’s inimitable signature, an example of his matchless skill at ‘sculpting in time’. (Needless to say, this scene was one of Tarkovsky’s additions to the script he was presented with)." - Fergus Daly
IMDB
58
RASHOMON
Akira Kurosawa
1950 / Japan / 88 min / BW / Crime, Drama, Mystery
Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijirô Ueda, Noriko Honma, Daisuke Katô
"Sixty-five years after its release, Kurosawa's modernist masterpiece is still minutely dissected on internet discussion threads, with energetic debates raging over its male gaze, allegorical content and historical status as the gateway drug for the western craving for Japanese cinema. Watching its lean, astonishingly fleet 88 minutes of looping truth-and-lies again on this choice Blu-Ray, however, you revel first in its materiality and its fluidity, each camera movement telling its own story." - Kate Stables
IMDB
Akira Kurosawa
1950 / Japan / 88 min / BW / Crime, Drama, Mystery
Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijirô Ueda, Noriko Honma, Daisuke Katô
"Sixty-five years after its release, Kurosawa's modernist masterpiece is still minutely dissected on internet discussion threads, with energetic debates raging over its male gaze, allegorical content and historical status as the gateway drug for the western craving for Japanese cinema. Watching its lean, astonishingly fleet 88 minutes of looping truth-and-lies again on this choice Blu-Ray, however, you revel first in its materiality and its fluidity, each camera movement telling its own story." - Kate Stables
IMDB
57
MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS AT NOON
Dokfa nai meuman (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2000 / Thailand / 83 min / BW / Documentary, Drama, Fantasy
Djuangjai Hirunsri, Kongkiat Khomsiri, Saisiri Xoomsai
"Critics greeted its arrival on the festival circuit in 2000 as they might have a UFO sighting. Mysterious Object was disorienting equally for its out-of-nowhere inventiveness and for being rooted in a very specific place and culture. Thailand had been largely off the radar of even the most seasoned festivalgoers. But coming from anywhere, this thoroughly unpredictable shape-shifter would have qualified as sui generis: part road movie, part folk storytelling exercise, part surrealist parlor game." - Dennis Lim
IMDB
Dokfa nai meuman (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2000 / Thailand / 83 min / BW / Documentary, Drama, Fantasy
Djuangjai Hirunsri, Kongkiat Khomsiri, Saisiri Xoomsai
"Critics greeted its arrival on the festival circuit in 2000 as they might have a UFO sighting. Mysterious Object was disorienting equally for its out-of-nowhere inventiveness and for being rooted in a very specific place and culture. Thailand had been largely off the radar of even the most seasoned festivalgoers. But coming from anywhere, this thoroughly unpredictable shape-shifter would have qualified as sui generis: part road movie, part folk storytelling exercise, part surrealist parlor game." - Dennis Lim
IMDB
56
THE RIVER
Jean Renoir
1951 / France, UK, India, US / 99 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee, Thomas E. Breen, Patricia Walters, Radha, Adrienne Corri
"Jean Renoir's 1951 masterpiece, his first film in color... Renoir's images flow with the same still motion as his metaphorical river: entering or leaving the frame is a matter of life and death, but in the end it is the same. For Andre Bazin, this was the Rules of the Game of Renoir's postwar period, a film in which 'the screen no longer exists; there is nothing but reality.'" - Dave Kehr
IMDB
Jean Renoir
1951 / France, UK, India, US / 99 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee, Thomas E. Breen, Patricia Walters, Radha, Adrienne Corri
"Jean Renoir's 1951 masterpiece, his first film in color... Renoir's images flow with the same still motion as his metaphorical river: entering or leaving the frame is a matter of life and death, but in the end it is the same. For Andre Bazin, this was the Rules of the Game of Renoir's postwar period, a film in which 'the screen no longer exists; there is nothing but reality.'" - Dave Kehr
IMDB
55
THE TURIN HORSE
A torinói ló (original title)
Béla Tarr
2011 / Hungary / 115 min / BW / Drama
János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos, Mihály Ráday
"Tarr’s final work and the apotheosis of his long-take style, the film demonstrates better than any the way shot duration can be used to build tension. A Nietzschean (anti-)thriller about the end of the world, The Turin Horse is Tarr’s sparsest work (gone are the baroque leanings of Tarr’s excellent previous film, The Man from London (2007), based on a thriller by Georges Simenon). Pared back to essentials, almost musical in its minimalism, it is a perfect example of pure cinema." - Alex Barrett
IMDB
A torinói ló (original title)
Béla Tarr
2011 / Hungary / 115 min / BW / Drama
János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos, Mihály Ráday
"Tarr’s final work and the apotheosis of his long-take style, the film demonstrates better than any the way shot duration can be used to build tension. A Nietzschean (anti-)thriller about the end of the world, The Turin Horse is Tarr’s sparsest work (gone are the baroque leanings of Tarr’s excellent previous film, The Man from London (2007), based on a thriller by Georges Simenon). Pared back to essentials, almost musical in its minimalism, it is a perfect example of pure cinema." - Alex Barrett
IMDB
54
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Stanley Kubrick
1968 / US / 149 min / Color / Adventure, Sci-Fi
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain
"Seeing this 1968 masterpiece in 70-millimeter, digitally restored and with remastered sound, provides an ideal opportunity to rediscover this mind-blowing myth of origin as it was meant to be seen and heard, an experience no video setup, no matter how elaborate, could ever begin to approach. The film remains threatening to contemporary studiothink in many important ways..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Stanley Kubrick
1968 / US / 149 min / Color / Adventure, Sci-Fi
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain
"Seeing this 1968 masterpiece in 70-millimeter, digitally restored and with remastered sound, provides an ideal opportunity to rediscover this mind-blowing myth of origin as it was meant to be seen and heard, an experience no video setup, no matter how elaborate, could ever begin to approach. The film remains threatening to contemporary studiothink in many important ways..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
53
FIRES ON THE PLAIN
Nobi (original title)
Kon Ichikawa
1959 / Japan / 108 min / BW / Drama, War
Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Hikaru Hoshi, Mantarô Ushio, Masaya Tsukida, Yasushi Sugita, Yoshihiro Hamaguchi
"Shooting in high-contrast black-and-white and with steely reserve reflective of both character and shooting conditions alike, Ichikawa manages to engender a sense of intimacy even as his vision of hell on earth builds to seemingly irreconcilable ends." - Jordan Cronk
IMDB
Nobi (original title)
Kon Ichikawa
1959 / Japan / 108 min / BW / Drama, War
Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Hikaru Hoshi, Mantarô Ushio, Masaya Tsukida, Yasushi Sugita, Yoshihiro Hamaguchi
"Shooting in high-contrast black-and-white and with steely reserve reflective of both character and shooting conditions alike, Ichikawa manages to engender a sense of intimacy even as his vision of hell on earth builds to seemingly irreconcilable ends." - Jordan Cronk
IMDB
52
TO LIVE
Ikiru (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1952 / Japan / 143 min / BW / Drama
Takashi Shimura, Shin'ichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki, Miki Odagiri, Bokuzen Hidari, Minosuke Yamada, Kamatari Fujiwara
"Ikiru, in short, may have looked a bit broader and more didactic than I remembered when I watched it again, a far cry from the subtlety and self-containment that are to me the graces of Japan. But somehow it still touches on a world that grows deeper within me every autumn, even as its themes and props surround me." - Pico Iyer
IMDB
Ikiru (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1952 / Japan / 143 min / BW / Drama
Takashi Shimura, Shin'ichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka, Minoru Chiaki, Miki Odagiri, Bokuzen Hidari, Minosuke Yamada, Kamatari Fujiwara
"Ikiru, in short, may have looked a bit broader and more didactic than I remembered when I watched it again, a far cry from the subtlety and self-containment that are to me the graces of Japan. But somehow it still touches on a world that grows deeper within me every autumn, even as its themes and props surround me." - Pico Iyer
IMDB
51
TOKYO TWILIGHT
Tōkyō boshoku (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1957 / Japan / 140 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishû Ryû, Isuzu Yamada, Teiji Takahashi, Masami Taura, Haruko Sugimura, Sô Yamamura
"Ozu is remarkably skilled at filling out domestic space, staggering screen doors and carefully arranging actors and objects to give a richer sense of depth. His predilection for appliances and knick-knacks certainly reflects a genuine affection for the paraphernalia of everyday life, but the studied placement of these objects also helps give his films a remarkably immersive, expansive sense of interiority. A hallway in an Ozu film may feel more spacious than a streetscape in someone else’s." - Daniel Witkin
IMDB
Tōkyō boshoku (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1957 / Japan / 140 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishû Ryû, Isuzu Yamada, Teiji Takahashi, Masami Taura, Haruko Sugimura, Sô Yamamura
"Ozu is remarkably skilled at filling out domestic space, staggering screen doors and carefully arranging actors and objects to give a richer sense of depth. His predilection for appliances and knick-knacks certainly reflects a genuine affection for the paraphernalia of everyday life, but the studied placement of these objects also helps give his films a remarkably immersive, expansive sense of interiority. A hallway in an Ozu film may feel more spacious than a streetscape in someone else’s." - Daniel Witkin
IMDB
50
HAPPY TOGETHER
Chun gwong cha sit (original title)
Wong Kar-Wai
1997 / Hong Kong / 96 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Leslie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Chang Chen, Gregory Dayton
"Within the grimy confines of Lai’s apartment, old wounds fester and eventually explode, with the interpersonal shrapnel bouncing off the walls and slicing right back into the two men’s minds and hearts. Doyle’s captures this claustrophobia with stunningly lithe and intimate camerawork, oscillating between evocative depth compositions and squirm-inducing close-ups of Lai and Ho as they scream and seethe." - Matt Connolly
IMDB
Chun gwong cha sit (original title)
Wong Kar-Wai
1997 / Hong Kong / 96 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Leslie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Chang Chen, Gregory Dayton
"Within the grimy confines of Lai’s apartment, old wounds fester and eventually explode, with the interpersonal shrapnel bouncing off the walls and slicing right back into the two men’s minds and hearts. Doyle’s captures this claustrophobia with stunningly lithe and intimate camerawork, oscillating between evocative depth compositions and squirm-inducing close-ups of Lai and Ho as they scream and seethe." - Matt Connolly
IMDB
49
FIREWORKS
Hana-bi (original title)
Takeshi Kitano
1997 / Japan / 103 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terajima, Tetsu Watanabe, Hakuryû, Yasuei Yakushiji, Tarô Itsumi
"Goodbye Dragon Inn represents the apex of Tsai's work so far, though it's difficult to conceive that Tsai could take his remarkable aesthetic any further. For he has finally, fully achieved the mystical stasis towards which all his films have been working. The emotional affect is no longer thematic, but experiential. No longer simply the medium for the materialization of emotion, film—this film, any film—is the resulting object of that materialization as well." - Andrew Tracy
IMDB
Hana-bi (original title)
Takeshi Kitano
1997 / Japan / 103 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terajima, Tetsu Watanabe, Hakuryû, Yasuei Yakushiji, Tarô Itsumi
"Goodbye Dragon Inn represents the apex of Tsai's work so far, though it's difficult to conceive that Tsai could take his remarkable aesthetic any further. For he has finally, fully achieved the mystical stasis towards which all his films have been working. The emotional affect is no longer thematic, but experiential. No longer simply the medium for the materialization of emotion, film—this film, any film—is the resulting object of that materialization as well." - Andrew Tracy
IMDB
48
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
Michael Powell
1943 / UK / 163 min / Color / Drama, Romance, War
Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey, Roland Culver, Harry Welchman, Arthur Wontner, Albert Lieven, John Laurie, Ursula Jeans
"With its imaginative and flamboyant use of Technicolor and its rich period detail in sets, costumes and manners, its outstanding performances and the strong emotional impact of the story, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a masterpiece in the full sense of the word. A film that enriches, enlightens and ennobles, and does this with intelligence, wit, style, compassion and beauty." - Ronald Haver
IMDB
Michael Powell
1943 / UK / 163 min / Color / Drama, Romance, War
Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, Roger Livesey, Roland Culver, Harry Welchman, Arthur Wontner, Albert Lieven, John Laurie, Ursula Jeans
"With its imaginative and flamboyant use of Technicolor and its rich period detail in sets, costumes and manners, its outstanding performances and the strong emotional impact of the story, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a masterpiece in the full sense of the word. A film that enriches, enlightens and ennobles, and does this with intelligence, wit, style, compassion and beauty." - Ronald Haver
IMDB
47
RED BEARD
Akahige (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1965 / Japan / 185 min / BW / Drama
Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan, Miyuki Kuwano, Kyôko Kagawa, Tatsuyoshi Ehara, Akemi Negishi
"Like Stanley Kubrick on his films after A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Akira Kurosawa went the hard way to achieve a Great-Novel density on RED BEARD: That is, he constructed an entire world and mastered every last detail in it. (Shooting alone lasted two years.) Yet the maximum of detail reflects a portrait of the Human Condition as ambitious as the period recreation." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
Akahige (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1965 / Japan / 185 min / BW / Drama
Toshirô Mifune, Yûzô Kayama, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Reiko Dan, Miyuki Kuwano, Kyôko Kagawa, Tatsuyoshi Ehara, Akemi Negishi
"Like Stanley Kubrick on his films after A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Akira Kurosawa went the hard way to achieve a Great-Novel density on RED BEARD: That is, he constructed an entire world and mastered every last detail in it. (Shooting alone lasted two years.) Yet the maximum of detail reflects a portrait of the Human Condition as ambitious as the period recreation." - Ben Sachs
IMDB
46
TASTE OF CHERRY
Ta’m-e gīlās... (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1997 / Iran / 95 min / Color / Drama
Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori
"Few films are more attentive to the poignancy of time passing and the slow fading of daylight, so that everyday details over the day's progress--from field workers cheerfully lifting Badii's car out of a rut to a bulldozer emptying dirt and rocks, from a plane's wispy exhaust trail in the sky to a glimpse of schoolchildren running around a track--register increasingly as small signs and epiphanies in an existence that's about to be extinguished." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Ta’m-e gīlās... (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1997 / Iran / 95 min / Color / Drama
Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori
"Few films are more attentive to the poignancy of time passing and the slow fading of daylight, so that everyday details over the day's progress--from field workers cheerfully lifting Badii's car out of a rut to a bulldozer emptying dirt and rocks, from a plane's wispy exhaust trail in the sky to a glimpse of schoolchildren running around a track--register increasingly as small signs and epiphanies in an existence that's about to be extinguished." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
45
WHAT TIME IS IT THERE
Ni na bian ji dian (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
2001 / Taiwan / 116 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Lu Yi-Ching, Miao Tien, Cecilia Yip, Chen Chao-jung, Tsai Kuei
"Tsai's compositional dynamics owe as much to Ozu and Antonioni as his penchant for stillness is indebted to Bresson; his wider long shots are densely layered, his exterior scenarios recalling Antonioni's cityscapes, inundated by consumerist signs and symbolic of emotional remoteness. Although Tsai's camera never moves during the duration of the film, its self-consciousness is appeased by its organic, voyeuristic attention for filmic space." - Ed Gonzales
IMDB
Ni na bian ji dian (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
2001 / Taiwan / 116 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Lu Yi-Ching, Miao Tien, Cecilia Yip, Chen Chao-jung, Tsai Kuei
"Tsai's compositional dynamics owe as much to Ozu and Antonioni as his penchant for stillness is indebted to Bresson; his wider long shots are densely layered, his exterior scenarios recalling Antonioni's cityscapes, inundated by consumerist signs and symbolic of emotional remoteness. Although Tsai's camera never moves during the duration of the film, its self-consciousness is appeased by its organic, voyeuristic attention for filmic space." - Ed Gonzales
IMDB
44
MEMORIES OF MURDER
Salinui chueok (original title)
Bong Joon-ho
2003 / South Korea / 131 min / Color / Action, Crime, Drama
Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roi-ha, Song Jae-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Go Seo-hee, Park No-shik, Park Hae-il
"All of the characters, including the prime suspect, are victims of the Korea of the 1980s: living under dictatorial military government and inured by a Cold War mentality to acts of violence and brutality. Bong brilliantly spreads the blame by using multiple points of view for his mise-en-scène, and gets tremendous performances from his stars and supporting cast alike." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
Salinui chueok (original title)
Bong Joon-ho
2003 / South Korea / 131 min / Color / Action, Crime, Drama
Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roi-ha, Song Jae-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Go Seo-hee, Park No-shik, Park Hae-il
"All of the characters, including the prime suspect, are victims of the Korea of the 1980s: living under dictatorial military government and inured by a Cold War mentality to acts of violence and brutality. Bong brilliantly spreads the blame by using multiple points of view for his mise-en-scène, and gets tremendous performances from his stars and supporting cast alike." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
43
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1928 / France / 110 min / BW / Drama
Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon, Jean d'Yd, Louis Ravet, Armand Lurville
"Though [Falconetti's] is one of the key performances in the history of movies, she never made another film. Dreyer's radical approach to constructing space and the slow intensity of his mobile style make this a difficult film in the sense that, like all the greatest films, it reinvents the world from the ground up; it's also painful in a way that all of Dreyer's tragedies are. But it will continue to live long after all the commercial movies in town have vanished from memory." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1928 / France / 110 min / BW / Drama
Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz, Antonin Artaud, Michel Simon, Jean d'Yd, Louis Ravet, Armand Lurville
"Though [Falconetti's] is one of the key performances in the history of movies, she never made another film. Dreyer's radical approach to constructing space and the slow intensity of his mobile style make this a difficult film in the sense that, like all the greatest films, it reinvents the world from the ground up; it's also painful in a way that all of Dreyer's tragedies are. But it will continue to live long after all the commercial movies in town have vanished from memory." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
42
HIGH AND LOW
Tengoku to Jigoku (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1963 / Japan / 143 min / BW / Crime, Drama, Mystery
Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjirô Ishiyama, Takeshi Katô, Takashi Shimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki
"From McBain’s tight little paperback thriller Kurosawa fashioned one of his most expansive and symphonic works, a film that immerses itself in the minutiae of the modern metropolis—pay phones, streetcars, garbage-disposal centers—while at the same time often approaching pure visual abstraction." - Geoffrey O'Brien
IMDB
Tengoku to Jigoku (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1963 / Japan / 143 min / BW / Crime, Drama, Mystery
Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyôko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjirô Ishiyama, Takeshi Katô, Takashi Shimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki
"From McBain’s tight little paperback thriller Kurosawa fashioned one of his most expansive and symphonic works, a film that immerses itself in the minutiae of the modern metropolis—pay phones, streetcars, garbage-disposal centers—while at the same time often approaching pure visual abstraction." - Geoffrey O'Brien
IMDB
41
RAISE THE RED LANTERN
Dà Hóng Dēnglong Gāogāo Guà (original title)
Zhang Yimou
1991 / China / 125 min / Color / Drama, History, Romance
Gong Li, Ma Jingwu, He Saifei, Cao Cuifen, Jin Shuyuan
"There is a sense in which "Raise the Red Lantern" exists solely for the eyes. Entirely apart from the plot, there is the sensuous pleasure of the architecture, the fabrics, the color contrasts, the faces of the actresses. But beneath the beauty is the cruel reality of this life, just as beneath the comfort of the rich man's house is the sin of slavery." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
Dà Hóng Dēnglong Gāogāo Guà (original title)
Zhang Yimou
1991 / China / 125 min / Color / Drama, History, Romance
Gong Li, Ma Jingwu, He Saifei, Cao Cuifen, Jin Shuyuan
"There is a sense in which "Raise the Red Lantern" exists solely for the eyes. Entirely apart from the plot, there is the sensuous pleasure of the architecture, the fabrics, the color contrasts, the faces of the actresses. But beneath the beauty is the cruel reality of this life, just as beneath the comfort of the rich man's house is the sin of slavery." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
40
THE PASSENGER
Professione: reporter (original title)
Michelangelo Antonioni
1975 / Italy, Spain, France / 126 min / Color / Drama, Thriller
Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Ambroise Bia, Charles Mulvehill
"... That might sound like a bunch of pretentious twaddle, but Antonioni is one of those rare filmmakers with the ability to express the seemingly inexpressible. Indeed, psychological anguish has seeped into the very aesthetic of this film — from the surreal architecture of Barcelona to the desolation of the North African desert. It’s the kind of textured, mesmerizing, and complex film almost nobody makes anymore, and it’s a joy to behold." - Bilge Ebiri
IMDB
Professione: reporter (original title)
Michelangelo Antonioni
1975 / Italy, Spain, France / 126 min / Color / Drama, Thriller
Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Ambroise Bia, Charles Mulvehill
"... That might sound like a bunch of pretentious twaddle, but Antonioni is one of those rare filmmakers with the ability to express the seemingly inexpressible. Indeed, psychological anguish has seeped into the very aesthetic of this film — from the surreal architecture of Barcelona to the desolation of the North African desert. It’s the kind of textured, mesmerizing, and complex film almost nobody makes anymore, and it’s a joy to behold." - Bilge Ebiri
IMDB
39
VIVE L'AMOUR
Tsai Ming-liang
1994 / Taiwan / 118 min / Color / Drama
Chen Chao-jung, Lee Kang-sheng, Yang Kuei-Mei, Lu Yi-Ching
"Part of Tsai's repertoire is his infamous medium close-ups, often head-on, but an equally crucial portion is comprised of a spectrum from medium to long shots through which Tsai alternatingly frames the expanse of a whole room, threads through doorways and hallways, or shows two characters seated alone together. The camera takes its cues as much from the space as from the character, a jarring approach in the motivation-driven grammar of conventional narrative." - Nicolas Rapold
IMDB
Tsai Ming-liang
1994 / Taiwan / 118 min / Color / Drama
Chen Chao-jung, Lee Kang-sheng, Yang Kuei-Mei, Lu Yi-Ching
"Part of Tsai's repertoire is his infamous medium close-ups, often head-on, but an equally crucial portion is comprised of a spectrum from medium to long shots through which Tsai alternatingly frames the expanse of a whole room, threads through doorways and hallways, or shows two characters seated alone together. The camera takes its cues as much from the space as from the character, a jarring approach in the motivation-driven grammar of conventional narrative." - Nicolas Rapold
IMDB
38
DAY OF WRATH
Vredens dag (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1943 / Denmark / 97 min / BW / Drama, History
Albert Høeberg, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam, Thorkild Roose, Anna Svierkier, Olaf Ussing
"Part of what’s great about Day of Wrath is a passionate ambiguity that leaves all major questions frustratingly unresolved yet vibrantly open, quivering and radiant with life and meaning. The slow pacing is needed for both the intensity and the sensuality under the gloom to fully register." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Vredens dag (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1943 / Denmark / 97 min / BW / Drama, History
Albert Høeberg, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam, Thorkild Roose, Anna Svierkier, Olaf Ussing
"Part of what’s great about Day of Wrath is a passionate ambiguity that leaves all major questions frustratingly unresolved yet vibrantly open, quivering and radiant with life and meaning. The slow pacing is needed for both the intensity and the sensuality under the gloom to fully register." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
37
THE MESSIAH
Il Messia (original title)
Roberto Rossellini
1975 / Italy / 140 min / Color / Biography, History
Pier Maria Rossi, Mita Ungaro, Carlos de Carvalho, Fausto Di Bella, Vernon Dobtcheff, Antonella Fasano, Jean Martin, Toni Ucci, Vittorio Caprioli
"At one point Christ is asked a blunt question: how to gain eternal life? His reply is equally blunt: love God, and each other--the two sentences clarifying and simplifying and above all distilling thousands of years of Jewish theology (or at least that's how Catholics feel about it). In a way it's what Rossellini seems to be doing--to have done: clarify and simplify and above all distill the Christ of the Gospels (in particular Luke) in a single hundred and forty minute film, as cogent a case of form following content as is humanly possible, from a master of Italian--of human--cinema." - Noel Vera
IMDB
Il Messia (original title)
Roberto Rossellini
1975 / Italy / 140 min / Color / Biography, History
Pier Maria Rossi, Mita Ungaro, Carlos de Carvalho, Fausto Di Bella, Vernon Dobtcheff, Antonella Fasano, Jean Martin, Toni Ucci, Vittorio Caprioli
"At one point Christ is asked a blunt question: how to gain eternal life? His reply is equally blunt: love God, and each other--the two sentences clarifying and simplifying and above all distilling thousands of years of Jewish theology (or at least that's how Catholics feel about it). In a way it's what Rossellini seems to be doing--to have done: clarify and simplify and above all distill the Christ of the Gospels (in particular Luke) in a single hundred and forty minute film, as cogent a case of form following content as is humanly possible, from a master of Italian--of human--cinema." - Noel Vera
IMDB
36
THE RIVER
He liu (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
1997 / Taiwan / 115 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Miao Tien, Lee Kang-sheng, Lu Yi-Ching, Ann Hui, Chen Shiang-chyi, Chen Chao-jung, Yang Kuei-Mei
"The film's narrative drive has two motors: the quest to alleviate the son's pain and the father's berserk attempts to shore up the ceiling of his room against a leak from the apartment above. Tsai brilliantly conflates the two problems in a climax which is in equal parts real, surreal, melodramatic and inexplicably mysterious. Looks like a future classic." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
He liu (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
1997 / Taiwan / 115 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Miao Tien, Lee Kang-sheng, Lu Yi-Ching, Ann Hui, Chen Shiang-chyi, Chen Chao-jung, Yang Kuei-Mei
"The film's narrative drive has two motors: the quest to alleviate the son's pain and the father's berserk attempts to shore up the ceiling of his room against a leak from the apartment above. Tsai brilliantly conflates the two problems in a climax which is in equal parts real, surreal, melodramatic and inexplicably mysterious. Looks like a future classic." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
35
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
La vie d'Adèle (original title)
Abdellatif Kechiche
2013 / France / 180 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche, Aurélien Recoing, Catherine Salée, Benjamin Siksou, Mona Walravens, Alma Jodorowsky
"‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ is the most brazenly singular return the ‘Couscous’ director could have made, and the richest film of his career to boot... From this simple, not especially unique love story, Kechiche has fashioned an intimate epic in every sense of the term, its every subtle emotional turn rendered widescreen on Exarchopoulos’s exquisitely expressive face." - Guy Lodge
IMDB
La vie d'Adèle (original title)
Abdellatif Kechiche
2013 / France / 180 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche, Aurélien Recoing, Catherine Salée, Benjamin Siksou, Mona Walravens, Alma Jodorowsky
"‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ is the most brazenly singular return the ‘Couscous’ director could have made, and the richest film of his career to boot... From this simple, not especially unique love story, Kechiche has fashioned an intimate epic in every sense of the term, its every subtle emotional turn rendered widescreen on Exarchopoulos’s exquisitely expressive face." - Guy Lodge
IMDB
34
THE WORLD OF APU
Apur Sansar (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1959 / India / 105 min / BW / Drama
Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherjee, Tushar Bandyopadhyay, Gupi Banerjee, Panchanan Bhattacharya, Shanti Bhattacherjee
"When the tone of Apur Sansar shifts so dramatically halfway through, we’ve been with Apu, and with Ray, so long that the change of register feels entirely natural: the films’ rhythm is strong and sure enough to carry us along." - Terrence Rafferty
IMDB
Apur Sansar (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1959 / India / 105 min / BW / Drama
Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherjee, Tushar Bandyopadhyay, Gupi Banerjee, Panchanan Bhattacharya, Shanti Bhattacherjee
"When the tone of Apur Sansar shifts so dramatically halfway through, we’ve been with Apu, and with Ray, so long that the change of register feels entirely natural: the films’ rhythm is strong and sure enough to carry us along." - Terrence Rafferty
IMDB
33
THE GRAND ILLUSION
La Grande Illusion (original title)
Jean Renoir
1937 / France / 113 min / BW / Drama, War
Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Julien Carette, Georges Péclet, Werner Florian, Jean Dasté, Sylvain Itkine, Gaston Modot
"Timely on its first appearance in 1937, Renoir’s masterpiece is now accepted as timeless, although it has suffered a little dangerous neglect. As the continent stumbled towards a second world war, this story of prisoners of war finding friendship, solidarity and hope behind enemy lines voiced the mounting pacifist sentiment in France and offered a vision of European unity. Eighty years later, the message of La Grande Illusion is every bit as relevant." - Pamela Hutchinson
IMDB
La Grande Illusion (original title)
Jean Renoir
1937 / France / 113 min / BW / Drama, War
Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Julien Carette, Georges Péclet, Werner Florian, Jean Dasté, Sylvain Itkine, Gaston Modot
"Timely on its first appearance in 1937, Renoir’s masterpiece is now accepted as timeless, although it has suffered a little dangerous neglect. As the continent stumbled towards a second world war, this story of prisoners of war finding friendship, solidarity and hope behind enemy lines voiced the mounting pacifist sentiment in France and offered a vision of European unity. Eighty years later, the message of La Grande Illusion is every bit as relevant." - Pamela Hutchinson
IMDB
32
DEAD MAN
Jim Jarmusch
1995 / US / 121 min / BW / Drama, Fantasy, Western
Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Jared Harris
"...Dead Man represents a fresh start, even a quantum leap for Jarmusch, in style as well as subject. (I’ve seen the film six times now, and each time it’s grown in beauty, resonance, and visionary power; as Hoberman puts it, “This is the Western Andrei Tarkovsky always wanted to make.”) The view of America offered here — not merely by Nobody but by the film itself — is a good deal darker and considerably scarier than anything in Jarmusch’s five previous features." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Jim Jarmusch
1995 / US / 121 min / BW / Drama, Fantasy, Western
Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Byrne, Jared Harris
"...Dead Man represents a fresh start, even a quantum leap for Jarmusch, in style as well as subject. (I’ve seen the film six times now, and each time it’s grown in beauty, resonance, and visionary power; as Hoberman puts it, “This is the Western Andrei Tarkovsky always wanted to make.”) The view of America offered here — not merely by Nobody but by the film itself — is a good deal darker and considerably scarier than anything in Jarmusch’s five previous features." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
31
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
Såsom i en spegel (original title)
Ingmar Bergman
1961 / Sweden / 89 min / BW / Drama
Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars Passgård
"I was impressed time and again by how painstakingly the film had been made. Nykvist's lighting is essentially another character. How he sees, how he shades, how he conceals, all sum up into how we are to feel about the characters. The same film photographed by another cinematographer might seem shallow, even silly. Certainly Bergman attracted his share of parody. But this film, shot this way, surprises us by how much power it builds." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
Såsom i en spegel (original title)
Ingmar Bergman
1961 / Sweden / 89 min / BW / Drama
Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars Passgård
"I was impressed time and again by how painstakingly the film had been made. Nykvist's lighting is essentially another character. How he sees, how he shades, how he conceals, all sum up into how we are to feel about the characters. The same film photographed by another cinematographer might seem shallow, even silly. Certainly Bergman attracted his share of parody. But this film, shot this way, surprises us by how much power it builds." - Roger Ebert
IMDB
30
THRONE OF BLOOD
Kumonosu-jō (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1957 / Japan / 110 min / BW / Drama
Toshirô Mifune , Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Akira Kubo, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Minoru Chiaki, Takamaru Sasaki, Gen Shimizu, Kokuten Kôdô, Kichijirô Ueda
"In Macbeth, Kurosawa saw a contemporary issue—a parallel between medieval Scotland and medieval Japan which illuminated contemporary society; and further, a pattern which is valid in both historical and contemporary contexts... [Throne of Blood makes] the definitive statement on man’s solitude, his amibition, his self-betrayal." - Donald Richie
IMDB
Kumonosu-jō (original title)
Akira Kurosawa
1957 / Japan / 110 min / BW / Drama
Toshirô Mifune , Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Akira Kubo, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Minoru Chiaki, Takamaru Sasaki, Gen Shimizu, Kokuten Kôdô, Kichijirô Ueda
"In Macbeth, Kurosawa saw a contemporary issue—a parallel between medieval Scotland and medieval Japan which illuminated contemporary society; and further, a pattern which is valid in both historical and contemporary contexts... [Throne of Blood makes] the definitive statement on man’s solitude, his amibition, his self-betrayal." - Donald Richie
IMDB
29
WINTER SLEEP
Kış Uykusu (original title)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2014 / Turkey / 196 min / Color / Drama
Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Pekcan, Serhat Mustafa Kiliç, Nejat Isler, Tamer Levent, Nadir Saribacak, Mehmet Ali Nuroglu, Emirhan Doruktutan
"...Together with an ever-developing interest in the nuances of language—each word deeply felt and hung heavy with regret—these aggregate virtues go some way toward reinforcing the notion of Winter Sleep as Ceylan’s most involving, overwhelming film to date." - Jordan Cronk
IMDB
Kış Uykusu (original title)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2014 / Turkey / 196 min / Color / Drama
Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag, Ayberk Pekcan, Serhat Mustafa Kiliç, Nejat Isler, Tamer Levent, Nadir Saribacak, Mehmet Ali Nuroglu, Emirhan Doruktutan
"...Together with an ever-developing interest in the nuances of language—each word deeply felt and hung heavy with regret—these aggregate virtues go some way toward reinforcing the notion of Winter Sleep as Ceylan’s most involving, overwhelming film to date." - Jordan Cronk
IMDB
28
BLISSFULLY YOURS
S̄ud s̄aǹeh̄ā (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2002 / Thailand / 125 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Kanokporn Tongaram, Min Oo, Jenjira Pongpas, Sa-gnad Chaiyapan, Kanitpat Premkij, Jaruwan Techasatiern
"This uncompromising film can feel shapeless until you discover the simplicity of its form, obscure until you realize that a large part of its meaning is, quite literally, clear as day... The first hour is angular, urban, socio-political, gently oblique; the second is liquid, primal, sensual, strange. The movement from city to country, geometry to flux, politics to sex, is a kind of happy entropy. "Blissfully Yours" doesn't resolve a story, it deliquesces into states of feeling." - Nathan Lee
IMDB
S̄ud s̄aǹeh̄ā (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2002 / Thailand / 125 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Kanokporn Tongaram, Min Oo, Jenjira Pongpas, Sa-gnad Chaiyapan, Kanitpat Premkij, Jaruwan Techasatiern
"This uncompromising film can feel shapeless until you discover the simplicity of its form, obscure until you realize that a large part of its meaning is, quite literally, clear as day... The first hour is angular, urban, socio-political, gently oblique; the second is liquid, primal, sensual, strange. The movement from city to country, geometry to flux, politics to sex, is a kind of happy entropy. "Blissfully Yours" doesn't resolve a story, it deliquesces into states of feeling." - Nathan Lee
IMDB
27
CHARULATA
Satyajit Ray
1964 / India / 117 min / BW / Drama, Romance
Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Shyamal Ghoshal, Gitali Roy, Dilip Bose, Nilotpal Dey, Bankim Ghosh
"Beginning with a beautiful sequence of pure cinema, for the first time I saw the link between Ray and Martin Scorsese... Alone in a room in her home, the title character wanders to a window with her binoculars, opens the shutters and watches people outside. To track them, she moves from window to window, opening each shutter and observing their movement. It's hard not to think of the young Henry Hill looking out his window in Goodfellas..." - Adam Cook
IMDB
Satyajit Ray
1964 / India / 117 min / BW / Drama, Romance
Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Shyamal Ghoshal, Gitali Roy, Dilip Bose, Nilotpal Dey, Bankim Ghosh
"Beginning with a beautiful sequence of pure cinema, for the first time I saw the link between Ray and Martin Scorsese... Alone in a room in her home, the title character wanders to a window with her binoculars, opens the shutters and watches people outside. To track them, she moves from window to window, opening each shutter and observing their movement. It's hard not to think of the young Henry Hill looking out his window in Goodfellas..." - Adam Cook
IMDB
26
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Sanma no aji (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1962 / Japan / 113 min / Color / Drama
Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada, Mariko Okada, Teruo Yoshida, Noriko Maki, Shin'ichirô Mikami, Nobuo Nakamura, Eijirô Tôno, Kuniko Miyake
"While An Autumn Afternoon is in so many ways wholly typical of Ozu, it’s also a very distinct variation, following beautifully from its predecessors. In particular, it powerfully counterpoints its more comic aspects with repeated reminders not only of the loneliness that Hirayama might face in his final years but also of the fate that could await his daughter if he doesn’t find her a husband." - Geoff Andrew
IMDB
Sanma no aji (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1962 / Japan / 113 min / Color / Drama
Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada, Mariko Okada, Teruo Yoshida, Noriko Maki, Shin'ichirô Mikami, Nobuo Nakamura, Eijirô Tôno, Kuniko Miyake
"While An Autumn Afternoon is in so many ways wholly typical of Ozu, it’s also a very distinct variation, following beautifully from its predecessors. In particular, it powerfully counterpoints its more comic aspects with repeated reminders not only of the loneliness that Hirayama might face in his final years but also of the fate that could await his daughter if he doesn’t find her a husband." - Geoff Andrew
IMDB
25
A PAGE OF MADNESS
Kurutta Ippēji (original title)
Teinosuke Kinugasa
1926 / Japan / 70 min / BW / Drama, Horror
Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nemoto, Misao Seki, Minoru Takase, Eiko Minami, Kyosuke Takamatsu, Shintarô Takiguchi
"Teinosuke Kinugasa's mind-boggling silent masterpiece of 1926 was thought to have been lost for 40 years until the director discovered a print in his garden shed... The film's expressionist style is all the more surprising because Japan had no such tradition to speak of; Kinugasa hadn't even seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari when he made this. Yet the rhythmic pulsation of graphic, semiabstract depictions of madness makes the film both startling and mesmerizing." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Kurutta Ippēji (original title)
Teinosuke Kinugasa
1926 / Japan / 70 min / BW / Drama, Horror
Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nemoto, Misao Seki, Minoru Takase, Eiko Minami, Kyosuke Takamatsu, Shintarô Takiguchi
"Teinosuke Kinugasa's mind-boggling silent masterpiece of 1926 was thought to have been lost for 40 years until the director discovered a print in his garden shed... The film's expressionist style is all the more surprising because Japan had no such tradition to speak of; Kinugasa hadn't even seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari when he made this. Yet the rhythmic pulsation of graphic, semiabstract depictions of madness makes the film both startling and mesmerizing." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
24
TOKYO STORY
Tōkyō Monogatari (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1951 / Japan / 125 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama, Haruko Sugimura, Kuniko Igawa, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Shûji Sano
"Two years before [Tokyo Story], Early Summer (1951) offers a more audacious effort. The movie features nineteen characters (twenty, if you count one who’s mentioned but never appears), and every one, it turns out, is poised between the idyllic prewar years and the new world they now inhabit. Ozu and screenwriter Kogo Noda make each person vividly memorable, then weave all the characters together in a leisurely series of conversations and confrontations." - David Bordwell
IMDB
Tōkyō Monogatari (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1951 / Japan / 125 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama, Haruko Sugimura, Kuniko Igawa, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Shûji Sano
"Two years before [Tokyo Story], Early Summer (1951) offers a more audacious effort. The movie features nineteen characters (twenty, if you count one who’s mentioned but never appears), and every one, it turns out, is poised between the idyllic prewar years and the new world they now inhabit. Ozu and screenwriter Kogo Noda make each person vividly memorable, then weave all the characters together in a leisurely series of conversations and confrontations." - David Bordwell
IMDB
23
WOMAN IN THE DUNES
Suna no Onna (original title)
Hiroshi Teshigahara
1964 / Japan / 123 min / BW / Drama, Thriller
Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Hiroko Itô, Kôji Mitsui, Sen Yano, Ginzô Sekiguchi, Kiyohiko Ichihara, Hideo Kanze, Hiroyuki Nishimoto
"Leaving aside all the teasing questions of allegorical meaning, Teshigahara's film is a tour de force of visual style, and a knockout as an unusually cruel thriller. It builds on its blatantly contrived premise (taken from Kobo Abé's novel) with absolute fidelity and conviction, which leaves the manifest pretensions looking both credible and interesting, and centres its effects on the erotic attraction between the man and woman, filmed with a palpable physicality that remains extraordinary." - Tony Rayins
IMDB
Suna no Onna (original title)
Hiroshi Teshigahara
1964 / Japan / 123 min / BW / Drama, Thriller
Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Hiroko Itô, Kôji Mitsui, Sen Yano, Ginzô Sekiguchi, Kiyohiko Ichihara, Hideo Kanze, Hiroyuki Nishimoto
"Leaving aside all the teasing questions of allegorical meaning, Teshigahara's film is a tour de force of visual style, and a knockout as an unusually cruel thriller. It builds on its blatantly contrived premise (taken from Kobo Abé's novel) with absolute fidelity and conviction, which leaves the manifest pretensions looking both credible and interesting, and centres its effects on the erotic attraction between the man and woman, filmed with a palpable physicality that remains extraordinary." - Tony Rayins
IMDB
22
SANSHO THE BAILIFF
Sanshō Dayū (original title)
Kenji Mizoguchi
1954 / Japan / 124 min / BW / Drama
Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô, Akitake Kôno, Masao Shimizu, Ken Mitsuda, Kazukimi Okuni, Yôko Kosono, Ichirô Sugai
"Mizoguchi views this deliberately simple story (in Japan it is known as a folk-tale) from two perspectives at once: from the inside, as an overwhelmingly moving account of a man (the son) facing up to his own capacity for barbarism; and from the outside, as an infinitely tender meditation on history and individual fate." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
Sanshō Dayū (original title)
Kenji Mizoguchi
1954 / Japan / 124 min / BW / Drama
Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô, Akitake Kôno, Masao Shimizu, Ken Mitsuda, Kazukimi Okuni, Yôko Kosono, Ichirô Sugai
"Mizoguchi views this deliberately simple story (in Japan it is known as a folk-tale) from two perspectives at once: from the inside, as an overwhelmingly moving account of a man (the son) facing up to his own capacity for barbarism; and from the outside, as an infinitely tender meditation on history and individual fate." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
21
LIFE, AND NOTHING MORE...
Zendegi va digar hich; (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1992 / Iran / 95 min / Color / Adventure, Drama
Farhad Kheradmand, Buba Bayour, Hocine Rifahi, Ferhendeh Feydi, Mahrem Feydi, Bahrovz Aydini, Ziya Babai, Mohamed Hocinerouhi, Hocine Khadem
"The film's exquisite sense of reality is of course a construction; it's really nothing more than a profound sense of material presence, a way of placing us as spectators in the middle of an event being reimagined and observed at the same time. Kiarostami's wonderful feeling for space and duration allows us to enjoy the unique textures of a place and event and gives us plenty of time to reflect on them." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Zendegi va digar hich; (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1992 / Iran / 95 min / Color / Adventure, Drama
Farhad Kheradmand, Buba Bayour, Hocine Rifahi, Ferhendeh Feydi, Mahrem Feydi, Bahrovz Aydini, Ziya Babai, Mohamed Hocinerouhi, Hocine Khadem
"The film's exquisite sense of reality is of course a construction; it's really nothing more than a profound sense of material presence, a way of placing us as spectators in the middle of an event being reimagined and observed at the same time. Kiarostami's wonderful feeling for space and duration allows us to enjoy the unique textures of a place and event and gives us plenty of time to reflect on them." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
20
FELLINI SATYRICON
Federico Fellini
1969 / Italy / 129 min / Color / Drama, Fantasy, History
Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli, Magali Noël, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Fanfulla
"Fellini's characteristic delirium is anchored in a precise, psychological schema: under the matrix of bisexuality, he explores the complexes of castration, impotence, paranoia and libidinal release. And he pays homage to Pasolini's ethnographic readings of myths. It's among his most considerable achievements." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
Federico Fellini
1969 / Italy / 129 min / Color / Drama, Fantasy, History
Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born, Salvo Randone, Mario Romagnoli, Magali Noël, Capucine, Alain Cuny, Fanfulla
"Fellini's characteristic delirium is anchored in a precise, psychological schema: under the matrix of bisexuality, he explores the complexes of castration, impotence, paranoia and libidinal release. And he pays homage to Pasolini's ethnographic readings of myths. It's among his most considerable achievements." - Tony Rayns
IMDB
19
STALKER
Andrei Tarkovsky
1979 / Soviet Union / 162 min / Color / Drama, Sci-Fi
Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Natalya Abramova, Faime Jurno, E. Kostin, Raymo Rendi
"Ten years ago, Andrei Tarkovsky wrote: 'Whether they are good or bad, in the final analysis my films are about one thing: the extreme manifestation of faith in a moral debt, the fight for it ... I am interested in a hero, going on to the end, regardless of everything, for only such a man can triumph.' Stalker is the most complete realisation of Tarkovsky's credo. And perhaps for this reason is, aesthetically, so simple and severe." - Vladimir B. Matusevich
IMDB
Andrei Tarkovsky
1979 / Soviet Union / 162 min / Color / Drama, Sci-Fi
Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Natalya Abramova, Faime Jurno, E. Kostin, Raymo Rendi
"Ten years ago, Andrei Tarkovsky wrote: 'Whether they are good or bad, in the final analysis my films are about one thing: the extreme manifestation of faith in a moral debt, the fight for it ... I am interested in a hero, going on to the end, regardless of everything, for only such a man can triumph.' Stalker is the most complete realisation of Tarkovsky's credo. And perhaps for this reason is, aesthetically, so simple and severe." - Vladimir B. Matusevich
IMDB
18
YI YI
Edward Yang
2000 / Taiwan / 173 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issei Ogata, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Xisheng Chen, Suyun Ke, Michael Tao, Shushen Xiao, Adrian Lin
"Audiences in 2000 were astonished by how fluently Edward Yang’s Yi Yi portrays contemporary life through the intermingling stories of members of a Taipei family separated by the dilemmas specific to their stations in life. That’s quite ironic, because in today’s world of personal alienation through the allure of social media, the film now feels like a period piece, yet somehow, it resonates with an even greater urgency." - Oggs Cruz
IMDB
Edward Yang
2000 / Taiwan / 173 min / Color / Drama, Romance
Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issei Ogata, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Xisheng Chen, Suyun Ke, Michael Tao, Shushen Xiao, Adrian Lin
"Audiences in 2000 were astonished by how fluently Edward Yang’s Yi Yi portrays contemporary life through the intermingling stories of members of a Taipei family separated by the dilemmas specific to their stations in life. That’s quite ironic, because in today’s world of personal alienation through the allure of social media, the film now feels like a period piece, yet somehow, it resonates with an even greater urgency." - Oggs Cruz
IMDB
17
SPIRITED AWAY
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
2001 / Japan / 125 min / Color / Animation, Adventure, Family
Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashûin, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Yumi Tamai, Yô Ôizumi, Koba Hayashi
"It's easy to lose sight of Chihiro's preordained spiritual journey beneath Miyazaki's fantastical sights. From the lower depths of Yubaba's fortress to the watery exteriors of the spirit kingdom, Chihiro moves closer to spiritual enlightenment with every conquest. When an already empowered Chihiro takes to the sky aboard Haku, Miyazaki evokes poetry in motion: they fall into each other (literally and figuratively), their mutual liberation perpetuated by the simple acknowledgement of a name." - Ed Gonzalez
IMDB
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (original title)
Hayao Miyazaki
2001 / Japan / 125 min / Color / Animation, Adventure, Family
Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashûin, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Yumi Tamai, Yô Ôizumi, Koba Hayashi
"It's easy to lose sight of Chihiro's preordained spiritual journey beneath Miyazaki's fantastical sights. From the lower depths of Yubaba's fortress to the watery exteriors of the spirit kingdom, Chihiro moves closer to spiritual enlightenment with every conquest. When an already empowered Chihiro takes to the sky aboard Haku, Miyazaki evokes poetry in motion: they fall into each other (literally and figuratively), their mutual liberation perpetuated by the simple acknowledgement of a name." - Ed Gonzalez
IMDB
16
THE WORD
Ordet (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1955 / Denmark / 126 min / BW / Drama, Fantasy
Hanne Aagesen, Kirsten Andreasen, Sylvia Eckhausen, Birgitte Federspiel, Ejner Federspiel, Ann Elisabeth Groth, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay Kristiansen
"What drove me nuts [about the film] as a teenager is far from unconnected to what makes me consider Ordet one of the greatest of all films today. The experience of the film demands a certain struggle, regardless of one’s beliefs, and the fact that it can’t be easily processed or rationalized or filed away is surely connected to what keeps it alive and worrying..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Ordet (original title)
Carl Theodor Dreyer
1955 / Denmark / 126 min / BW / Drama, Fantasy
Hanne Aagesen, Kirsten Andreasen, Sylvia Eckhausen, Birgitte Federspiel, Ejner Federspiel, Ann Elisabeth Groth, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay Kristiansen
"What drove me nuts [about the film] as a teenager is far from unconnected to what makes me consider Ordet one of the greatest of all films today. The experience of the film demands a certain struggle, regardless of one’s beliefs, and the fact that it can’t be easily processed or rationalized or filed away is surely connected to what keeps it alive and worrying..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
15
GOODBYE, DRAGON INN
Bú sàn (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
2003 / Taiwan / 82 min / Color / Drama
Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Miao Tien, Shih Chun, Chen Chao-jung, Yi Cheng Lee, Yang Kuei-Mei
"Goodbye Dragon Inn represents the apex of Tsai's work so far, though it's difficult to conceive that Tsai could take his remarkable aesthetic any further. For he has finally, fully achieved the mystical stasis towards which all his films have been working. The emotional affect is no longer thematic, but experiential. No longer simply the medium for the materialization of emotion, film—this film, any film—is the resulting object of that materialization as well." - Andrew Tracy
IMDB
Bú sàn (original title)
Tsai Ming-liang
2003 / Taiwan / 82 min / Color / Drama
Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Miao Tien, Shih Chun, Chen Chao-jung, Yi Cheng Lee, Yang Kuei-Mei
"Goodbye Dragon Inn represents the apex of Tsai's work so far, though it's difficult to conceive that Tsai could take his remarkable aesthetic any further. For he has finally, fully achieved the mystical stasis towards which all his films have been working. The emotional affect is no longer thematic, but experiential. No longer simply the medium for the materialization of emotion, film—this film, any film—is the resulting object of that materialization as well." - Andrew Tracy
IMDB
14
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
Werckmeister harmóniák (original title)
Béla Tarr
2000 / Hungary / 145 min / BW / Drama, Mystery
Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, János Derzsi, Djoko Rosic, Tamás Wichmann, Ferenc Kállai, Mihály Kormos, Putyi Horváth
"This is as conventional a film as Tarr is likely to ever make, but this too serves as a formal analogue to the issues under consideration – the sense of an ending which can only in fact be a set of vague questions, hanging palpably in the air like a dominant chord. Despite its cohesion, this film is astonishing even as a collection of set pieces... It's a film which applies pure cinema at its most hypnotic and seductive, precisely in order to indict collective hypnosis and demagogic seduction." - Michael Sicinski
IMDB
Werckmeister harmóniák (original title)
Béla Tarr
2000 / Hungary / 145 min / BW / Drama, Mystery
Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, János Derzsi, Djoko Rosic, Tamás Wichmann, Ferenc Kállai, Mihály Kormos, Putyi Horváth
"This is as conventional a film as Tarr is likely to ever make, but this too serves as a formal analogue to the issues under consideration – the sense of an ending which can only in fact be a set of vague questions, hanging palpably in the air like a dominant chord. Despite its cohesion, this film is astonishing even as a collection of set pieces... It's a film which applies pure cinema at its most hypnotic and seductive, precisely in order to indict collective hypnosis and demagogic seduction." - Michael Sicinski
IMDB
13
TROPICAL MALADY
Satpralat (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2004 / Thailand / 118 min / Color / Drama
Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Huai Dessom, Sirivech Jareonchon, Udom Promma
"In terms of both formal chutzpah and sheer, jaw-dropping beauty, this radical stretch of celluloid leaves nearly everything else I’ve seen this year looking rather shabby, by comparison. In fact, it’s such strong, ambitious filmmaking that, initially, the far less radical opening half may retrospectively appear lacking, or uninspired. Repeat viewings, though, reveal a carefully conceived masterpiece, replete with a myriad of compositional and thematic rhymes linking the seemingly disparate halves." - Josh Timmerman
IMDB
Satpralat (original title)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2004 / Thailand / 118 min / Color / Drama
Banlop Lomnoi, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Huai Dessom, Sirivech Jareonchon, Udom Promma
"In terms of both formal chutzpah and sheer, jaw-dropping beauty, this radical stretch of celluloid leaves nearly everything else I’ve seen this year looking rather shabby, by comparison. In fact, it’s such strong, ambitious filmmaking that, initially, the far less radical opening half may retrospectively appear lacking, or uninspired. Repeat viewings, though, reveal a carefully conceived masterpiece, replete with a myriad of compositional and thematic rhymes linking the seemingly disparate halves." - Josh Timmerman
IMDB
12
THE RULES OF THE GAME
La Règle du Jeu (original title)
Jean Renoir
1939 / France / 110 min / BW / Comedy, Drama
Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Odette Talazac, Claire Gérard, Anne Mayen, Lise Elina, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Jean Renoir
"Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game has been part of the film canon for so long that it's valuable to remind audiences how gloriously alive and just plain fun it is. Low comedy walks hand and hand with tragedy and beauty throughout; the film is frothy one minute, nearly apocalyptic the next, and so you're never fully allowed to gather your bearings." - Chuck Bowen
IMDB
La Règle du Jeu (original title)
Jean Renoir
1939 / France / 110 min / BW / Comedy, Drama
Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély, Odette Talazac, Claire Gérard, Anne Mayen, Lise Elina, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Jean Renoir
"Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game has been part of the film canon for so long that it's valuable to remind audiences how gloriously alive and just plain fun it is. Low comedy walks hand and hand with tragedy and beauty throughout; the film is frothy one minute, nearly apocalyptic the next, and so you're never fully allowed to gather your bearings." - Chuck Bowen
IMDB
11
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (original title)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2011 / Turkey / 157 min / Color / Crime, Drama
Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Firat Tanis, Ercan Kesal, Erol Erarslan, Ugur Aslanoglu, Murat Kiliç
"Ceylan’s crowning achievement so far may well be Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, his unprecedentedly epic police procedural whose narrative engine is the interrelation of a group of male characters brought together, literally and spiritually, by a crime we never see. In the daily minutiae of police work, Ceylan discovers mystery upon mystery, as the film’s conversational density gradually becomes percolated by suggestive silences and charged tangents." - Michael Pattison
IMDB
Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (original title)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2011 / Turkey / 157 min / Color / Crime, Drama
Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Firat Tanis, Ercan Kesal, Erol Erarslan, Ugur Aslanoglu, Murat Kiliç
"Ceylan’s crowning achievement so far may well be Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, his unprecedentedly epic police procedural whose narrative engine is the interrelation of a group of male characters brought together, literally and spiritually, by a crime we never see. In the daily minutiae of police work, Ceylan discovers mystery upon mystery, as the film’s conversational density gradually becomes percolated by suggestive silences and charged tangents." - Michael Pattison
IMDB
10
LATE SPRING
Banshun (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1949 / Japan / 108 min / BW / Drama
Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka, Haruko Sugimura, Hôhi Aoki, Jun Usami, Kuniko Miyake, Masao Mishima, Yoshiko Tsubouchi, Yôko Katsuragi
"Like many Ozu movies, Late Spring (1949) is a triumph of sympathetic, respectful clarity and a surgical strike at the heart, but it also stands alone as a turning point in his development as a sociopolitical artist. It is, first of all, the magisterial archetype for the shomin-geki—the “modern family drama”—a genre Ozu helped define and that remains his kingdom to reign." - Michael Atkinson
IMDB
Banshun (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1949 / Japan / 108 min / BW / Drama
Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka, Haruko Sugimura, Hôhi Aoki, Jun Usami, Kuniko Miyake, Masao Mishima, Yoshiko Tsubouchi, Yôko Katsuragi
"Like many Ozu movies, Late Spring (1949) is a triumph of sympathetic, respectful clarity and a surgical strike at the heart, but it also stands alone as a turning point in his development as a sociopolitical artist. It is, first of all, the magisterial archetype for the shomin-geki—the “modern family drama”—a genre Ozu helped define and that remains his kingdom to reign." - Michael Atkinson
IMDB
9
RAN
Akira Kurosawa
1985 / Japan / 162 min / Color / Action, Drama
Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Hisashi Igawa, Pîtâ, Masayuki Yui, Kazuo Katô
"Due to his failing eyesight, Kurosawa used his paintings to help him frame the film’s often symmetrical compositions, yet any threat of static ornamentation is dispelled by the annihilating fury that throbs through them, by the awareness of a very tenuous balance between order and tumult. From its opening tableau to the cosmic closing image of sightless humanity at the edge of the abyss, Ran is a work of cold anger and stark splendor." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
Akira Kurosawa
1985 / Japan / 162 min / Color / Action, Drama
Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Hisashi Igawa, Pîtâ, Masayuki Yui, Kazuo Katô
"Due to his failing eyesight, Kurosawa used his paintings to help him frame the film’s often symmetrical compositions, yet any threat of static ornamentation is dispelled by the annihilating fury that throbs through them, by the awareness of a very tenuous balance between order and tumult. From its opening tableau to the cosmic closing image of sightless humanity at the edge of the abyss, Ran is a work of cold anger and stark splendor." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
8
MARKETA LAZAROVÁ
František Vláčil
1967 / Czechoslovakia / 162 min / BW / Drama
Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka, Frantisek Velecký, Karel Vasicek, Ivan Palúch, Martin Mrazek, Václav Sloup, Pavla Polaskova
"Engulfed by sensation, the film lies at the edge of comprehensibility. Rather than provide the typical mass of redundant cues that alert the viewer to location, character and purpose, Marketa Lazarová only provides the slimmest of suggestions. It’s there, but brief, scattered and hidden... Relationships are established through glances. Passing comments capture core details and major events are elided. Failing to infer, appraise and then re-appraise, is to become lost." - John Edmond
IMDB
František Vláčil
1967 / Czechoslovakia / 162 min / BW / Drama
Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka, Frantisek Velecký, Karel Vasicek, Ivan Palúch, Martin Mrazek, Václav Sloup, Pavla Polaskova
"Engulfed by sensation, the film lies at the edge of comprehensibility. Rather than provide the typical mass of redundant cues that alert the viewer to location, character and purpose, Marketa Lazarová only provides the slimmest of suggestions. It’s there, but brief, scattered and hidden... Relationships are established through glances. Passing comments capture core details and major events are elided. Failing to infer, appraise and then re-appraise, is to become lost." - John Edmond
IMDB
7
AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (original title)
Werner Herzog
1972 / West Germany / 95 min / Color / Adventure, Biography, Drama
Klaus Kinski, Helena Rojo, Del Negro, Ruy Guerra, Peter Berling, Cecilia Rivera, Daniel Ades, Edward Roland, Alexandra Cheves, Armando Polanah
"An essential hallucination, subsequently mined by Coppola, Weir and Malick but unsurpassed in its vision of the withering yet liberating madness beneath our armor: When Aguirre climactically announces his mania in the body-strewn boat, the circling camera mourns, mocks, and exults." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (original title)
Werner Herzog
1972 / West Germany / 95 min / Color / Adventure, Biography, Drama
Klaus Kinski, Helena Rojo, Del Negro, Ruy Guerra, Peter Berling, Cecilia Rivera, Daniel Ades, Edward Roland, Alexandra Cheves, Armando Polanah
"An essential hallucination, subsequently mined by Coppola, Weir and Malick but unsurpassed in its vision of the withering yet liberating madness beneath our armor: When Aguirre climactically announces his mania in the body-strewn boat, the circling camera mourns, mocks, and exults." - Fernando F. Croce
IMDB
6
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
Huāyàng niánhuá (original title)
Wong Kar-Wai
2000 / Hong Kong / 98 min / Color / Drama
Maggie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Ping Lam Siu, Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen, Man-Lei Chan, Szu-Ying Chien, Roy Cheung, Paulyn Sun
"What I hadn’t fully realized about In the Mood for Love [on the first viewing] was the extent to which Wong fringes his devastating beauty with self-critique. Glamorizing the past is another feeble attempt at controlling what can’t be controlled, yet it’s a human impulse that’s as reliable as heartbreak. I can think of no movie that better or more elegantly embodies this futility than In the Mood for Love. By its very design it only cuts deeper as it ages—and as I age." - Eric Hynes
IMDB
Huāyàng niánhuá (original title)
Wong Kar-Wai
2000 / Hong Kong / 98 min / Color / Drama
Maggie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Ping Lam Siu, Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen, Man-Lei Chan, Szu-Ying Chien, Roy Cheung, Paulyn Sun
"What I hadn’t fully realized about In the Mood for Love [on the first viewing] was the extent to which Wong fringes his devastating beauty with self-critique. Glamorizing the past is another feeble attempt at controlling what can’t be controlled, yet it’s a human impulse that’s as reliable as heartbreak. I can think of no movie that better or more elegantly embodies this futility than In the Mood for Love. By its very design it only cuts deeper as it ages—and as I age." - Eric Hynes
IMDB
5
EARLY SUMMER
Bakushū (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1951 / Japan / 125 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama, Haruko Sugimura, Kuniko Igawa, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Shûji Sano
"Two years before [Tokyo Story], Early Summer (1951) offers a more audacious effort. The movie features nineteen characters (twenty, if you count one who’s mentioned but never appears), and every one, it turns out, is poised between the idyllic prewar years and the new world they now inhabit. Ozu and screenwriter Kogo Noda make each person vividly memorable, then weave all the characters together in a leisurely series of conversations and confrontations." - David Bordwell
IMDB
Bakushū (original title)
Yasujirō Ozu
1951 / Japan / 125 min / BW / Drama
Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama, Haruko Sugimura, Kuniko Igawa, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Shûji Sano
"Two years before [Tokyo Story], Early Summer (1951) offers a more audacious effort. The movie features nineteen characters (twenty, if you count one who’s mentioned but never appears), and every one, it turns out, is poised between the idyllic prewar years and the new world they now inhabit. Ozu and screenwriter Kogo Noda make each person vividly memorable, then weave all the characters together in a leisurely series of conversations and confrontations." - David Bordwell
IMDB
4
THE WIND WILL CARRY US
Bād mā rā khāhad bord (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1999 / Iran / 118 min / Color / Drama
Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi, Shahpour Ghobadi, Reihan Heidari, Masood Mansouri, Ali Reza Naderi, Frangis Rahsepar, Masoameh Salimi
"Perhaps the most impressive of these things is the village itself, with all its intricate interweavings, ambiguities, and declivities--it's an architectural marvel both as a subject and a backdrop. The Wind Will Carry Us offers an intricately constructed spatial world that's as breathtakingly beautiful, as various, and as cosmically evocative as a Brueghel landscape--a world teeming with diverse kinds of life and activity--and it teases us whenever we want to get to know this world better, seducing and evading us at the same time." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Bād mā rā khāhad bord (original title)
Abbas Kiarostami
1999 / Iran / 118 min / Color / Drama
Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi, Shahpour Ghobadi, Reihan Heidari, Masood Mansouri, Ali Reza Naderi, Frangis Rahsepar, Masoameh Salimi
"Perhaps the most impressive of these things is the village itself, with all its intricate interweavings, ambiguities, and declivities--it's an architectural marvel both as a subject and a backdrop. The Wind Will Carry Us offers an intricately constructed spatial world that's as breathtakingly beautiful, as various, and as cosmically evocative as a Brueghel landscape--a world teeming with diverse kinds of life and activity--and it teases us whenever we want to get to know this world better, seducing and evading us at the same time." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
3
THE MUSIC ROOM
Jalsaghar (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1958 / India / 100 min / BW / Drama, Music
Chhabi Biswas, Sardar Akhtar, Gangapada Basu, Bismillah Khan, Salamat Ali Khan, Waheed Khan, Roshan Kumari, Padmadevi, Kali Sarkar, Pinaki Sengupta
"The Music Room is a bleak portrait into a sad life. The stark black-and-white cinematography by Subrata Mitra, Ray’s regular collaborator, is perfect for the somber mood of the piece. The camera works its charm from the first frame itself, as we see the lumbering frame of Roy slumped in a chair on a desolate balcony, staring out into emptiness." - Laya Maheshwari
IMDB
Jalsaghar (original title)
Satyajit Ray
1958 / India / 100 min / BW / Drama, Music
Chhabi Biswas, Sardar Akhtar, Gangapada Basu, Bismillah Khan, Salamat Ali Khan, Waheed Khan, Roshan Kumari, Padmadevi, Kali Sarkar, Pinaki Sengupta
"The Music Room is a bleak portrait into a sad life. The stark black-and-white cinematography by Subrata Mitra, Ray’s regular collaborator, is perfect for the somber mood of the piece. The camera works its charm from the first frame itself, as we see the lumbering frame of Roy slumped in a chair on a desolate balcony, staring out into emptiness." - Laya Maheshwari
IMDB
2
THE NIGHT OF COUNTING THE YEARS
Al-Mummia (original title)
Shadi Abdel Salam
1969 / Egypt / 102 min / Color / Drama
Ahmed Marei, Ahmad Hegazi, Nadia Lutfi, Gaby Karraz, Mohamed Khairi, Mohamed Morshed, Mohamed Nabih, Ahmad Anan, Shafik Nour El Din, Abdelmonen Aboulfoutouh
"The quality of light in the desert scenes is breathtaking, especially in the final minutes, as the dawn breaks and the silhouettes against the sky slowly light up. And while this risky bit of cultural rescue is carried out like a military mission in hostile territory, it is directed like a holy (and non-violent) crusade, an Egyptian answer to a Bressonian cinema of simplicity and grace." - Sean Axmaker
IMDB
Al-Mummia (original title)
Shadi Abdel Salam
1969 / Egypt / 102 min / Color / Drama
Ahmed Marei, Ahmad Hegazi, Nadia Lutfi, Gaby Karraz, Mohamed Khairi, Mohamed Morshed, Mohamed Nabih, Ahmad Anan, Shafik Nour El Din, Abdelmonen Aboulfoutouh
"The quality of light in the desert scenes is breathtaking, especially in the final minutes, as the dawn breaks and the silhouettes against the sky slowly light up. And while this risky bit of cultural rescue is carried out like a military mission in hostile territory, it is directed like a holy (and non-violent) crusade, an Egyptian answer to a Bressonian cinema of simplicity and grace." - Sean Axmaker
IMDB
1
A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY
Gǔlǐng jiē shàonián shārén shìjiàn (original title)
Edward Yang
1991 / Taiwan / 237 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Chen Chang, Lisa Yang, Kuo-Chu Chang, Elaine Jin, Chuan Wang, Han Chang, Hsiu-Chiung Chiang, Stephanie Lai, Chi-tsan Wang, Lawrence Ko
"Bearing in mind Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this astonishing 230-minute epic by Edward Yang (1991), set over one Taipei school year in the early 60s, would fully warrant the subtitle "A Taiwanese Tragedy." A powerful statement from Yang's generation about what it means to be Taiwanese, superior even to his recent masterpiece Yi Yi, it has a novelistic richness of character, setting, and milieu unmatched by any other 90s film." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
Gǔlǐng jiē shàonián shārén shìjiàn (original title)
Edward Yang
1991 / Taiwan / 237 min / Color / Crime, Drama, Romance
Chen Chang, Lisa Yang, Kuo-Chu Chang, Elaine Jin, Chuan Wang, Han Chang, Hsiu-Chiung Chiang, Stephanie Lai, Chi-tsan Wang, Lawrence Ko
"Bearing in mind Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this astonishing 230-minute epic by Edward Yang (1991), set over one Taipei school year in the early 60s, would fully warrant the subtitle "A Taiwanese Tragedy." A powerful statement from Yang's generation about what it means to be Taiwanese, superior even to his recent masterpiece Yi Yi, it has a novelistic richness of character, setting, and milieu unmatched by any other 90s film." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
IMDB
