Movies can be very personal experiences and can, in instances, be incredicly eloquent in explaining the intricacies and complexities of the human condition. Everyone has these movies, that hit you and stay because it's on your "frequency." I live for these movies, the ones that take me by surprise and that stay with me always.
As always, in no particular order:
1. Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948) -Vittorio De Sica
As always, in no particular order:
1. Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948) -Vittorio De Sica
"This is how the cool kids are carrying their 25.000kr bikes nowadays, son!"
To my shame, I saw this only a few years ago as a student in Melbourne. The course, Italy On Film, explored the geopolitical- and cultural changes that Italy has gone through, interpreted through film. It was probably one of the most interesting university courses I've ever done, and I still feel warm when remembering that I got up at 6.30 to catch the tram and bus to uni every friday, in order to get a fantastic coffee from the bistro next to the uni-cinema, before sitting down in the movie-theater to enjoy the week's masterpiece and subsequent lecture.
Hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, very few, oddly, know about it. De Sica had a clear vision that was partly driven by the situation in postwar Rome: no professional actors and real locations. The story is heartbreakingly simple; it follows one economically distraught man (Lamberto Maggiorani) who is heading down a desperate path. Things look up when he gets a job putting up posters around town, but he must sell what few meager possessions he and his family have to buy a bicycle to uphold his end of the business bargain. The bicycle gets stolen, prompting the man and his son on a mission to track it down.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
2. The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg - (1964) - Jacques Demy
Let me le-kizz you!
Another film I saw relatively late, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is another masterpiece, by Jacques Demy, starring Nino Castelnuovo and Catherine Deneuve in the role that catapulted her into a megastar. The whole film's dialogue is SUNG (although commonplace now, in 1964 it was quite progressive) and is full of color. One of the really fantastic lovestories ever told, it tragically tells of young love and broken dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiQikPxCF9A&fmt=18
3. The Thin Red Line - (1998) - Terrence Mallick
"Look, over there! Nick Nolte is talking to that tree!"
No other movie, not even Saving Private Ryan, comes close to this, I think. Alot of people have difficulties with this movie, but I cannot say that I've seen any movie that encompasses the brutalities, the poetry, the beauty and horrors of war in such an effortlessly polysemic way. It simply tells a story without judgement, and manages to go closely into characters while at the same time looking at humanity as a whole. If you need genre and onesided storytelling to allow you to understand this, then by all means this is not for you, but if you realise that being human is paradoxical and multifaceted, give this one another go.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
4. The English Patient (1996) - Anthony Minghella
"Can you find it, there in my pocket?" "No, I think the mobile is at home dear..."
Maturely and warmly told, few movies stand up to this. A killer cast in the capable hands of the now deceased Minghella turned this story, which could've easily been fubar'ed beyond belief, into a classic. 9 oscars, every one of them deserved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuP0ZeatjE8&fmt=18
5. Garden State (2004) - Zach Braff
Maturely and warmly told, few movies stand up to this. A killer cast in the capable hands of the now deceased Minghella turned this story, which could've easily been fubar'ed beyond belief, into a classic. 9 oscars, every one of them deserved.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
5. Garden State (2004) - Zach Braff
Na-na-na-na-NAAAAH!
Braff showed with this that he can do more than just be funny in Scrubs. He accomplished, I think, something very few filmmakers achieve, which is to make a film that speaks fluently to an entire generation.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
6. Children Of Men (2006) - Alfonso Cuaron
Try..not...to..stick..out...in...any...way....
Cuaron's tour de force of a movie starring Clive Owen does what very few sci-fi movies manage to do, which is to tell a story placed in the believable future that speaks to us of how we are as humans now. The movie is mature and expertly told and tells of a future not long from now where several pandemic flu's have caused infertility in women, which again leads to no children and a tumbledown society.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
7. Life Of Brian (1979) - The Pythons
Nice to get out and stretch the ol' limbs, ey!?
How a movie can be so lighthearted, so silly, yet so intelligent and warm, I cannot answer. I had trouble choosing between Brian and The Meaning Of Life, but had to choose this because I think it's the Monty Python movie that's the most well made. It tells the story of Brian, who in his bids to get laid, gets more than his share of bad luck, gets mistaken for Jesus and is subsequently nailed to the cross.It's hilarous!
http://www.youtube.com/wat
8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) - Terry Gilliam
This is a movie so f'ed up and weird and so charmingly and creatively told, you just have to like it. it also has a killer soundtrack, a fat Benicio Del Toro and a bald Johnny Depp. Nuff said.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
9. The Sixth Sense (1999) - M. Night Shyamalan
You put the Wii-controller WHERE?
This movie brought back my hope in moviemaking. Even if I know the outcome, I can watch this and still revel in the joy of movies that seeps from every crack in this film. Shyamalan tells the story with two simple ingredients: rudimentary storytellingtechniques used the right way and great acting. Osment won critical acclaim for his role, but the whole cast puts in stellar perfomances.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
10. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou
"Gopher, Everett?" "No thanks, Delmar."
I had trouble choosing this last one, but had only one condition: it had to be a Cohen brothers film. And because I have a strong affinity to intertextality and Thomas Wolfe, I chose their southern-state opus to end the list. The Cohens have an unnatural savvy in telling The American Story, and a fluency in the rich, backdrop of cultural refences in film, literature and history that make almost every film they make unforgettable. The choice of Clooney as a Clark Gable type smoothtalker was in my eyes pure genius, but other characters are equally and sympathetically drawn. I can watch this over and over again and never get tired of it.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
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