THE ESSENTIALS: Standard Viewing Protocal For All Film Buffs
I've included essays and reviews that I have written on select items. If you haven't seen these films, you better run out and do so immediately. I am no movie snob, I have a very honest taste. I am not just including safe titles.
This list is not in any sort of order. Just a checklist of sorts for beginners.
This list is not in any sort of order. Just a checklist of sorts for beginners.
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- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsMia FarrowJohn CassavetesRuth GordonA young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.Rosemary's Baby is my favorite horror film of all time. Its got it all: a genius director, marvelous actors, a haunting tale, spooky neighbors, dastardly witches, and, of course, Satan. The film revolves around a young woman named Rosemary Woodhouse. Rosemary and her husband are expecting a child. But Rosemary doesn't look so good. Rosemary is starting to believe that she has been impregnated by evil itself, and everyone she knows might be in on it. As a thriller it works on a level Hitchcock only hinted at. Its a film that surpasses masterpiece and classic, and rests snug atop the terrain of legend.
This film only gets creepier and creepier with time. My Fiance and I are having a baby soon, the delivery date is alarmingly close to Rosemary's, and it is a particularly eerie film to watch given our situation. There are several different ways to view this amazing film. And this film, in turn, tries to tell us many several different things. As film scholar David J. Skal points out in his fantastic book 'The Monster Show':
"Whether Levin's strategy was conscious or not, the plot of Rosemary's Baby was a brilliant metaphorical distillation of the widespread ambivalence and anxiety over sex and reproduction, concerns overshadowed by the garish glare of the swinging sixties. On a simplistic level, both Rosemary and the reader share lingering doubts about the chemical-occult tinkering of their reproductive systems. Rosemary drinks the stinking tannis-root cocktail that her neighbor provides while the reader(likely) swallows the magic candy of birth-control pills. Neither has a deep understanding of the effects of either substance on their bodies and their lives; they rely trustingly on patriarchal authority. Rosemary Woodhouse is led repeatedly to believe she is making her own carefully considered reproductive choices, but the decisions are all being made for her. No matter what assurances are offered, no matter what charms and preparations she uses or ingests, she is not really safe. One of the many indelible images in the film version of Rosemary's Baby is the pregnant but wasted-looking Mia Farrow dashing out against the light into midtown traffic, an apt metaphor for child-bearing under socio-technological seige."
Roman Polanski is my favorite living Director. He is without a doubt the most cathartic of any, living or dead, and damn near the most personal. To think that just one year after making Rosemary's Baby, tragedy would strike his home, wife, and child, is far too horrifying a concept to accept as reality. Polanski fought back with films like Macbeth and Chinatown, both are nothing short of cinematic exorcisms; Polanski fighting off his demons. His films are usually deeply personal, and Rosemary's Baby is no exception.
Another one of my personal heroes had a hand in the creation of Rosemary's Baby.
John Cassavetes gives an outrageously good performance as Rosemary's husband, Guy Woodhouse. The performance Cassavetes lays down gets better and better, and more and more complex the more you watch the film. Mia Farrow is the obvious force to be reckoned with here, but Cassavetes' performance is quickly overshadowing her's for me. Its a performance of subtlety and nuance. Each look, motion, action, pause, and word takes on different meanings after repeated viewings. Sadly, Cassavetes and Polanski hated each other. Polanski has gone on record discrediting Cassavetes' abilities as not only an actor, but as a filmmaker. And Cassavetes can be quoted as saying, "You can't dispute the fact he's an artist, but yet you have to say Rosemary's Baby is not art". The two nearly came to blows, and by the end of production had grown loathsome of each other. But you could've fooled me. It seems as if everyone involved with this film were in tune with each other, in perfect sync.
What Mia Farrow does in this film is indescribable. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more empathetic portrayal of a damsel in distress. I felt all of her fears, and shared more than just basic emotions. Mia Farrow had the ability to communicate feelings effortlessly on film, a very rare and unique gift that Polanski skillfully manipulates and fine-tunes. Not only a great performance but an iconic one. "What have you done to its eyes" will stay with me forever.
It is a truly mystifying picture. Its impossible to not feel Rosemary's paranoia, or even question her sanity, or your logic. Atmospheric and isolated at the same time, this film will play with your sensibilities. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend this one. This is a film that should not be missed by anyone. It is just that good. - DirectorAlex ProyasStarsRufus SewellKiefer SutherlandJennifer ConnellyA man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.A pillar of 90s cinema. The best film of its decade and one of the finest science fiction movies ever made. A film that you can lose yourself in over and over again. A very important piece of cinema and a film that earns its cult status.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksFritz KortnerFrancis LedererThe rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.No one could create Louise Brooks, just like no one could create Pabst's 'Lulu'. No. Pabst's 'Lulu' had to be real, had to exist, and had to do so naturally; unaware. No. Louise Brooks is not a Pabst invention, and neither is her performance in Pandora's Box. What Pabst did, quite simply, was find his 'Lulu'. The film itself is pure invention, Pabst used psychology as his weapon and his intellect as his charm. He pinned actors against each other, he favored one actor on Monday only to dismiss him by Tuesday. Pabst created the purest form of realism possible. By exposing his actor's insecurities, hiding the plot from them, and initiating mind games with every member of the cast on and off set. Pabst loved chess. His love of chess is evident in Pandora's Box. Pandora's Box is his 'check-mate'.
So. No. Pabst did not create Lousie Brooks. Pabst made Lousie Brooks what she is today; an ultimately tragic relic of a bygone age. I cannot believe how astonishingly perfect Pandora's Box was conceived. Pabst is a true nobleman of the cinema for a number of reasons, my confidence will never sway in that regard. Pabst made the perfect film. A rarity, a pleasure, and a true art. His direction, the key to the enigma, only comes out of its perpetual hiding after a few viewings. It is Louise Brooks, and only Louise Brooks, that your eyes and heart feast on during the first time you watch Pandora's Box. Brooks was the most enchanting, dazzling, and transcendental of the silent screen goddesses. In the scene where Shon's is caught making love to her by his fiancé and his son, Brooks delivers the greatest facial expression ever captured on film. An act of dominance and sexual achievement. A grin that is truly timeless, as if she's staring through time and space, testing your wildest urges, daring you to love her, and begging you to beg to forget it. Although Brooks didn't know then, or even cared to know at the time, soon she would have Pabst all figured out. She realized that the greatest performance of her career, and one of the most legendary in all of cinema, was not a performance at all, it wasn't even acting. It was her. It was documentary. I was real. Perhaps the greatest invention belonging to G. W. Pabst was the invention of truth. Things look different when they are being filmed, it is a natural reaction to put on on an act of sort when one knows he or she is being watched. Pabst bypassed that fault in cinematic realism and created reality. Untouched by fabled hands, pure and innocent, L. Brooks. Arguably, Pabst is the only director who has ever accomplished such a remarkable feat. - DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.The Third Man is one of the most beautifully photographed films of all time. This achievement is director Carol Reed's, and his alone. The dominating force behind the film is Harry Lime, a name heard countless times before we are given a face to go along with it, this achievement is belongs to Graham Greene and Orson Welles. The trust between celluloid and the audience comes from the film's hero, Holly Martins. This achievement belongs to Joseph Cotten. But its the atmosphere that is the most endearing aspect of this classic 1949 treasure of a movie. This is film presents an engrossing experience from start to finish, and absolutely everything about it is pitch perfect. From Vienna at midnight to Trevor Howard's often dismissed, but completely wonderful performance as Major Calloway (Not Callahan, He's British, Not Irish). Orson Welles delivers one of the best performances of all time, due partly to the scene atop a Ferris Wheel, and mostly to his absence, and the care taken by writer Graham Greene in creating a perfect character without ever actually seeing him. Joseph Cotten is superb, hasn't been this good since his lead role in Shadow Of A Doubt or his strong support in Citizen Kane. He makes Holly Martins down to earth, brave, headstrong, and truly American. Alida Valli is breathtaking, and because of her, Anna Schmidt is a character we take joy in watching, making Anna Schmidt one of the greater love interest in the Film Noir genre. The photography is incredible, the city enormous and isolating, the characters are canon, the story is timeless, and the film is perfect. The only hands down and flat out perfect film of the 1940s. A true treasure. A real gift.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.Roman Polanski's genius is questionable. Whether or not he does possess a certain cinematic genius is neither urgent or necessary to conclude. His body of work speaks for itself, his 1974 magnum opus speaks for its decade, reality in the face of theatricality, and for the sanctity of the cinema itself. Now although it is not completely justifiable to prove whether Polanski is or is not a genius, it is rather important to discuss the life of this idolized and wanted man. Roman Polanski was born in the year 1933 in Paris to Polish parents. When his mother and father were forced into concentration camps for being Jewish, Polanski was faced with the unmeasurable difficulty of surviving the Holocaust on his own. His Mother ultimately fell victim to the horrors of Auschwitz. If that's not enough, if you would so melodramatically, fast forward to the year of 1969. To the Summer Of Love. To the end of the small portion of Polanski's life he would later recall as the happiest he's ever had. He had a beautiful, talented, and adoring wife. Her name was Sharon Tate. The baby inside of her, she and Roman would never name. In August of 1969 the Manson Family laid slain to Sharon Tate and the baby inside of her, both terrorizing and taunting, the darkest chapter of Polanski's life was marooned with notoriety and fear. It was only a few years after the death of his wife where Roman would leave his mark on the world forever.
Chinatown flows with a lavishly perfected Noir tone, and I should add here, the film is the Neo Noir archetype, the best of its kind and one of the best that Film Noir carries in its respective canon. Also, whenever one sets out to write about Chinatown, one cannot understate the delicacy, the supreme handling of pacing which is to be found in this particular film. Not before, and not since, has pacing been so well thought out, so marvelously calculated, and devilishly crafted.
Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway stand immortal in this film, bellowing through the tenement halls inside of every dirty city confined within every Noir film in rotation. If Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway stand luminous as Kings of their respective Kingdom, then John Huston stands apart; shrouded in darkness, transparent, eager, vicious, immediate. John Huston's 'Noah Cross' exists, alright, and the most dangerous thing about the 'Noah Cross's of the world is that the evil within them is otherwise ordinary, bottomless, and unstoppable. Robert Towne's script is simply impeccable. Flawless storytelling accompanied by snappy dialogue, and a climax that cuts deeper than that of documentary reality.
But it is Polanski who is the true star of this picture. You can see him in every shot, peering in through the lens, and directly into your heart. You can taste him in every dry patch of dialogue, smell him in the midst of gun smoke, and fear him as the tension culminates into the wake of tragedy. It is there, in the tragedy, he dares you to hope for the best, he wants to feel safe because films make you feel comfortable. He takes the trust that he'd earned from the audience, and crushes it, oh, and he makes sure it stings. He makes sure it hurts. And in in the aftermath of the his final act, his final betrayal, the ultimate tragedy, he makes sure you can feel him. He leaves you in pain. He leaves you guilty in satisfaction. Knowing that tragedy is the most universal of luxuries, Polanski makes that perfectly clear, and for the first time, his voice is heard, his war cry. Coherent and horrifying.
While Rosemary's Baby is my favorite Polanski film, Chinatown has always been a close second. Rosemary's Baby has also been selected by Criterion (along with other Polanski classics like Knife In The Water and Repulsion). While Rosemary's Baby has been given the care and respect it deserves with a stunning Blu Ray transfer by Criterion, Chinatown is in a sad state. A film this important should be treated as such. - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.What could I possibly say about Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterwork The Seventh Seal that hasn't already been methodically and unabashedly recorded by film scholars whom spent decades studying this truly powerful film about a knight facing off with Death, and the chess game they wage. But as scholars and fans of the film might suggest, and rightfully so, this film is so much more important than the sum of its parts. It is a film of the highest quality, dealing with questions of the most immediate importance. The film deals with, of course, that of life and death. Spirituality and fixations. Good and Evil. Perhaps no other film, Birth Of A Nation, Citizen Kane, and 2001: A Space Odyssey maybe-- has been so heavily researched, discussed, dissected, and studied. Of course the time spent researching the film is justifiable, Bergman really seems to have uncovered something here, he really seems to have made a film that people cannot only connect to but seek answers in their own private lives from. Now, I do not believe that by understanding Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' you can automatically unlock the puzzles of existence, but I do believe that the questions Bergman proposes here are vital, as well as important, and that the story itself is in the shortest amount of words, a remarkable and humbling experience. An entertainment of the highest value. A film of the highest quality.
- DirectorJules DassinStarsRichard WidmarkGene TierneyGoogie WithersA small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.A Film Noir is only as good as its city is corrupt. Night and the City presents the darkest. A Film Noir is only as tender as its women are vicious. A Film Noir is only as poignant as its hero is perilous. Meet Harry Fabian. Many disregard the character as unlikable, but I like to think of him as the most easily accessible protagonist in all of Film Noir. Richard Widmark, in his Kiss Of Death best, gives a bold, honest, engaging and truly sympathetic performance. I think when most watch Film Noir, they forget all about empathy, to truly fall in love with Night and the City, you must first empathize with its hero. Have you ever been so desperate you'd do almost anything? I have. Have you ever been so deep in a hole that it could very well become your grave? I have. Have you ever loved someone so much that you'd do anything to give her world? I have. Have you ever wanted to be somebody. I have. Harry Fabian is the desperate Man immortal. He is the most insecure of all Noir heroes, and the most certain to fail. But we're here, we're with him on his long descent straight to hell. The film's uncanny pacing will make you feel completely helpless, like Fabian ultimately does, and since you are a part of the audience and you are thereby privileged with information kept from Fabian, you become aware of the tragedy that awaits him at the end of his descent, unlike our unfortunate hero, Harry Fabian. Night and the City was directed by the exceptional and overlooked true pioneer of Noir, Jules Dassin. Dassin made a few extremely serene pictures at the very height of Noir, his best was Night and the City. Made shortly before his exile during the Communist Witch Hunts of which he fell victim to in 1952, Night and the City is everything a Film Noir should be, and everything it could have been if the genre's longevity had been harnessed and controlled early on, and if his film wasn't so easily swept aside in its time. And with God as my witness, I profess! Night and the City is better than every movie that has ever been made since then, with the one exception of Alexander Mackendrick's 1957 magnum opus and testament of the cinema Sweet Smell Of Success. Night and the City is one of the greatest films ever made, and also one of the most forgotten. Quite like what we'd expect of Harry Fabian. The way that this film seems lost simply mirrors the themes that made the film so wonderful in the first place, all Harry Fabian wanted to do was to be somebody, to be remembered. Sadly, in both film and history, he never was. And that, that makes Night and the City poetic.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Paul BelmondoJean SebergVan DoudeA small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder of a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.Jean-Luc Godard intended to shake the delicate world of cinema, that much is obvious. But did he intend to reinvent it? Whether it was his intention or not isn't the point, the point is this; he did. Jean-Luc Godard, and Francois Truffuat are the undisputed fathers of the French New Wave. Some cinephiles or historians may feel like pointing elsewhere, to Jean Renoir for example, protesting that he is truly the father of the French New Wave, I disagree entirely. The French New Wave was a product of the kindred spirits and talents of Godard and Truffaut. And no other film represents the French New Wave more coherently than Jean-Luc Godard's dazzling 1960 picture, 'Breathless'. Unorthodox and uninhibited. Raw and experimental. Godard broke every rule in the book, disavowed the laws of cinema, and scribed a new rule book, one where the pages are blank, and possibilities are endless. The story is so simple I can summarize the entire film in half of a sentence, but I refuse to give you or Godard the satisfaction. What counts in Breathless is not the story, but how the story is told. The very definition of 'cool', the film is robust in creativity, and exuberant in its flaws, and passionate about its reckless behavior. Self aware and rebellious. If there was no Breathless, there would have been no Tarantino, if there was no French New Wave, the streak of genius that ran through the nineties and 2000s wouldn't have existed. Before Breathless, it was believed that films took money, that you had to find yourself in a place of authority to make a film. Breathless broke this misconception. Breathless makes you want to run outside and make the film of your life. Breathless made that possible, Breathless made the amateur the auteur, Breathless reinvented the face of the cinema, and made you believe that could too. All you need is a girl and gun.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsMichael KeatonJack NicholsonKim BasingerThe Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being Jack Napier, a criminal who becomes the clownishly homicidal Joker.This film is awesome. My favorite Superhero movie of all time. As a life-long fan of the Caped Crusader, I have to say that if you want the real Batman, look no further. You found him.
There is a certain kind of magic to Batman that no other film adaptation has been able to successfully match. The main difference between Chris Nolan's more recent Dark Knight trilogy, and Burton's 1989 version, is the visual style. The main difference is a place they call Gotham City.
Tim Burton is known for many things, but above all else, it is his bizarre visual eye, a gift that works wonders in Batman. This film looks incredible! Burton creates a Gotham City that the viewer can get lost in. As opposed to Chris Nolan's outings, Tim Burton gives us a Gothic Fantasy of the highest order. Every visual element in this film is perfect; Gotham, the Batmobile, Joker, Batman himself, green ooze-- all of it. Nolan had a way of probing deep into the psyche of his characters, he seems to be a very psychological filmmaker, and he came to with fantastic results. Nolan was obviously interested in different aspects of the Dark Knight than what Tim Burton was drawn to. That makes for two very good and very different films. But the 1989 version reigns best of them all. Tim Burton gave us a work of Pop Art, a visual feast. A masterwork of the highest caliber. Tim Burton gave us a classic. Although his characters were not as moving as Nolan's would be, and the plot was not as complex as later adaptations would prove the Caped Crusader capable of, the film was pitch-perfect, ages incredibly well, and knows what it is. A comic book movie. And what does Tim Burton do with his comic book movie? He elevates the medium of film. Yes. I believe Batman changed the face of film, altered the practice of filmmaking, and raised the bar indefinitely. I have no doubt whatsoever that Batman is one of the finest Blockbusters ever assembled, and one of the best movies ever made.
This movie means a lot to me, and a lot to my childhood. The older I get, the more important this film becomes. Something else happens too. It becomes enormous. Powerful. An event every time I sit down to watch it. Classic Good vs. Evil, rich design, completely unforgettable. I appreciate Nolan's films, I like all of them quite a lot, but when Tim Burton made Batman he had something to prove. This is the only film I can use as concrete evidence to provide support to my claim that Tim Burton is in fact a genius. Sadly, the amount of good films he has made are dwarfed in size by the fleet of stinkers he has produced. But Batman is undeniably the work of a very talented filmmaker.
I wish that Criterion could somehow get their paws on this one. I know its impossible, but one can't help but dream. The film is such a powerful experience, a tour de force from beginning to end; Burton's Magnum Opus. Batman is so very important to a film fanatic like me. This should be taught in film schools around the country. A highly analytical dose of entertainment, the way Burton visually tells the tale is to be admired and studied for its precise tenacity and bold audacity. Tim Burton's Batman is a one of a kind experience that deserves to go down in film history as a pillar of 80s cinema. - DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsJim CarreyEd HarrisLaura LinneyAn insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.
- DirectorCharles LaughtonStarsRobert MitchumShelley WintersLillian GishA self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsNoomi RapaceLogan Marshall-GreenMichael FassbenderFollowing clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.What I find most charming about Ridley's return to Science Fiction is that he did not intend on reinventing the genre, but rather returning it to its most potent form. Ridley gave us Alien, Blade Runner, and now Prometheus; the best Science Fiction film since Dark City, and the absolute best of the new millennium. The plot is simple enough: A team of explorers uncover the origins of human life. But that very simple plot, that one sentence, when handled correctly, can wield an extraordinary consequence.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
- DirectorJohn CassavetesStarsBen GazzaraPeter FalkJohn CassavetesAfter the death of a common friend, three married men leave their lives together, seeking pleasure and freedom and ultimately leaving for London.
- DirectorLeo McCareyStarsGroucho MarxHarpo MarxChico MarxRufus T. Firefly is named the dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of his wealthy backer Mrs. Teasdale, contending with two inept spies who can't seem to keep straight which side they're on.The funniest thing ever made!
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinVirginia CherrillFlorence LeeWith the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJeremy IronsGeneviève BujoldHeidi von PalleskeTwin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsSean ConneryGert FröbeHonor BlackmanWhile investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsBrad PittDiane KrugerEli RothIn Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.