Fellini – 8 1/2
Bergman – Through a Glass Darkly
Kurosawa – Red Beard
Truffaut – The 400 Blows
Renoir – The Rules of the Game
Fassbinder – Berlin Alexanderplatz
Herzog – Kaspar Hauser
Godard – The Contempt
Antonioni – L´Avventura
Bresson – Au Hasard Balthazar
Hitchcock – Vertigo
Buñuel – The Exterminating Angel
Lang – The Nibelungen
Tarkovsky – Stalker
Mizoguchi – Sansho the Bailiff
Rossellini – The Flowers of St. Francis
Altman – 3 Women
De Sica – The Bicycle Thief
Polanski – Tess
Rivette – Celine and Julie Go Boating
Wenders – Wings of Desire
Rohmer – The Green Ray
Melville – Army of the Shadows
Kubrick – 2001:A Space Odyssey
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
Sans Soleil (Chris. Marker)
The South (Víctor Erice)
L´Argent (Robert Bresson)
Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz)
Ballad of Narayama (Shohei Imamura)
The Boys from Fengkuei (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
That Day, On the Beach (Edward Yang)
And the Ship Sails On (Federico Fellini)
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
EUREKA
DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
PEPPERMINT CANDY
ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU
THE CIRCLE
AT THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
THE RETURN
THE SEVENTH CONTINENT
COME AND SEE
SHOAH
LILYA 4-EVER
CYCLO
A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING
SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
YOUR NAME IS JUSTINE
SANSHO THE BAILIFF and AU HASARD BALTHAZAR may be among the most depressing movies ever, though there´s so much beauty in them that one feels nothing but joy.
There´s no doubt about it that many of the great classics of Latin American Cinema remain undiscovered in most other parts of the world, and DVDs of those films are usually hard to come by. I made of list of those films from Latin American countries which I managed to see and would consider masterpieces of world cinema, and I´d like you to add other titles which you regard as the greatest of Latin America. -———————————————————————————————————————————-
1. DEUS E O DIABO NA TERRA DO SOL (Black God, White Devil, Glauber Rocha, Brazil 1964)
2. MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO (Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba 1968)
3. ROSAURA A LAS 10 (Rosaura at 10 o’clock, Mario Soffici, Argentina 1958) -
4. MARÍA CANDELARIA / XOCHIMILCO (Maria Candelaria, Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, Mexico 1944)
5. LIMITE (Limit, Mario Peixoto, Brazil 1931)
6. EL CHACAL DE NAHUELTORO (Jackal of Nahueltoro, Miguel Littin, Chile 1969)
7. LA CIUDAD Y LOS PERROS (The City and the Dogs, Francisco Lombardi, Peru 1985)
8. LA VENDEDORA DE ROSAS (The Rose Seller, Víctor Gaviria, Colombia 1998)
9. ORIANA (Oriana, Fina Torres, Venezuela 1985)
10. LA NACIÓN CLANDESTINA (The Clandestine Nation, Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia 1989)
Andrei Tarkovsky was planning an adaptation of Germany´s Romantic novelist E.T.A. Hoffann and wrote the script “Hoffmanniana” which like many of his other proyects finally couldn´t be realized. Federico Fellini´s “Viaggo di G. Mastorna” which he wanted to make right after “8 1/2” would also have been fascinating to watch, but it developt into a nightmare project for him, that he effortlessly tried to realize until his death. In an interview Robert Bresson gave in the 1980s he talked about his planned film “Genesis” for which he was still searching funds, but ultimately L´Argent remained his last film.
I agree on the masterpieces mentioned by Kenji. There are also two great film trilogies which center around 20th century history, one of them is formed by Theo Angelopoulos´ films Days of 36, The Travelling Players and The Hunters and showcasts the development of Greece shortly before the Metaxas dictatorship, during the Second World War while fighting against Italy and getting occupied by German troups and until the following Civil War. The other trilogy which is comparable in its scale though not chronological consists of Hou Hsiao-Hsien´s films A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster and Good Men, Good Women, and focusses mainly on Taiwanese history from the beginnings of the Japanese colonization of the island after the Sino-Japanese war in 1895 until the retreat of Japanese troups in 1945, the first film A City of Sadness centers around the later violent regime of Chiang Kai Check´s Kuomintang who became infamous for the 228 Incident which marked the beginning of the so-called “White Terror” with thousands of victims. Both Angelopoulos and Hou understand to transcend history into art, and created some incomparable documents.
Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman)
Suzaku/Shara (Naomi Kawase)
The Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli)
An Angel at my Table (Jane Campion)
The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad)
Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
Oriana (Fina Torres)
36 Chowringhee Lane (Aparna Sen)
The Woman Without Head (Lucrecia Martel)
Vagabond (Agnes Varda)
Abbas Kiarostami
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Theo Angelopoulos
Manoel de Oliveira
Michael Haneke
Béla Tarr
Lee Chang Dong
Jiang Wen
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Shinji Aoyama
Chris Marker
Wong Kar-wai
France – AU HASARD BALTHAZAR; THE RULES OF THE GAME; THE CHILDREN OF PARADISE
Italy – 8 1/2; L´AVVENTURA; BICYCLE THIEVES
Korea – THE HOUSEMAID; PEPPERMINT CANDY; SOPJONJE
Hong Kong – IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE; MADE IN HONG KONG; FALLEN ANGELS
Germany – THE NIBELUNGEN; THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER; WINGS OF DESIRE
Sweden – FANNY AND ALEXANDER; THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY; THE BEST INTENTIONS
Denmark – ORDET; BREAKING THE WAVES; DAY OF WRATH
Spain – THE SUR; CRÍA CUERVOS; THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
I´d say Charles of Bresson´s “The Devil Probably” or Baptiste Debureau of Carné´s “The Children of Paradise”, but there are also many similarities with the character Guido Anselmi of “8 1/2”.
He´s certainly one of the masters of surreal filmmaking, and his version of The Hour Glass Sanatorium is a fascinating puzzle that somehow reminds me Tarkovsky´s Mirror in the way it recollects subjective memory in an almost stream-of-consciousness-like fashion. It´s sad that the majority of Has´ work remains almost unseen.
The following list has been published by the renowned Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo and does indeed include 118 films which are supposed to be the greatest produced in the 20th century. Of course one can argue that a list of 118 Japanese films which doesn´t even include Mizoguchi´s Sansho the Bailiff cannot be taken seriously at all, and I really don´t understand what motivated them to leave out a masterpiece of world cinema for including films like My Neighbour Totoro which they even consider superior to Ozu´s Early Summer. I also found it strange that there´s no single film by some of Japan´s greatest directors like Masahiro Shinoda or Hiroshi Shimizu listed, although both are well acknowlegded in Japan. There seems to be a strong affinity towards Yakuza, anime and horror films, but apart from that do I think that the list showcasts an amount of very interesting films many of which are almost unavailable for an Western audience. I´d like you to give your opinion on the films included, which of those you already managed to see and what titles you consider the most fascinating ones.
1. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
2. Floating Clouds (1955, Mikio Naruse)
3. A Fugitive from the Past (1965, Tomu Uchida)
4. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
5. The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era (1957, Y. Kawashima)
6. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
7. Intentions of Murder (1964, Shohei Imamura)
8. Battles Without Honour & Humanity (1973, Kinji Fukasaku)
9. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita)
10. Tales of Ugetsu (1953, K. Mizoguchi)
11. To Live (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
12. The Life Of Oharu (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
13. Vacuum Zone (1952, Satsuo Yamamoto)
14. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
15. The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
16. My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
17. Muddy River (1981, Kohei Oguri)
18. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)
19. The Rickshaw Man (1958, Hiroshi Inagaki)
20. Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
21. Fall Guy (1982, Kinji Fukasaku)
22. Boy (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
23. All Under the Moon (1993, Yoichi Sai)
24. Early Summer (1951, Yasujiro Ozu)
25. Vengeance is mine (1979, Shohei Imamura)
26. Family game (1983, Yoshimitsu Morita)
27. The castle of sand (1974, Yoshitaro Nomura)
28. Cruel Story of Youth (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
29. The Human Condition (1959-61, Masaki Kobayashi)
30. Till We Meet Again (1950, Tadashi Imai)
31. Ichijo Sayuri (1972, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
32. Cupola (1962, Kiriro Urayama)
33. Fighting Elegy (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
34. The Yellow Handkerchief (1977, Yoji Yamada)
35. Shall we Dance? (1995, Masayuki Suo)
36. The Insect Woman (1963, Shohei Imamura)
37. Marital Relations (1955, Shiro Toyoda)
38. Begging for Love (1998, Hideyuki Hirayama)
39. A Woman With Red Hair (1979, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
40. Distant Thunder (1981, Negishi Kichitaro)
41. Graveyard of Honor (1975, Kinji Fukasaku)
42. Sonatine (1993, Takeshi Kitano)
43. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
44. Japan’s Longest Day (1967, Kihachi Okamoto)
45. Night and Fog in Japan (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
46. Emperor’s Naked Army Marches on (1987, Kazuo Hara)
47. Ryuji (1983, Toru Kawashima)
48. Ball at the Anjo House (1947, Kozaburo Yoshimura)
49. Young Brother (1960, Kon Ichikawa)
50. The Hidden Fortress (1958, Akira Kurosawa)
51. The Thirteen Assassins (1963, Eiichi Kudo)
52. The Crucified Lovers (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
53. Princess Mononoke (1995, Hayao Miyazaki)
54. Beyond the Green Hills (1963, Katsumi Nishikawa)
55. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968, Shohei Imamura)
56. Kids Return (1996, Takeshi Kitano)
57. The Cherry Orchard (1990, Shun Nakahara)
58. The Youth Killer (1976, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
59. Typhoon Club (1984, Shinji Somai)
60. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935, S. Yamanaka)
61. Angel Guts Red Classroom (1979, Chusei Sone)
62. Ballad of Narayama (1958, Keisuke Kinoshita)
63. She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955, Keisuke Kinoshita)
64. Miyamoto Musashi (1961-65, Tomu Uchida)
65. Ryoma Assassination (1974, Kazuo Kuroki)
66. Street of Shame (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi)
67. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
68. Station (1981, Yasuo Furuhata)
69. Twisted Path of Youth (1973, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
70. Sado (1978, Yoichi Higashi)
71. The Makioka Sisters (1983, Kon Ichikawa)
72. Narita?Heta Village (1973, Shinsuke Ogawa)
73. Failed Youth (1974, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
74. A Japanese Tragedy (1953, Keisuke Kinoshita)
75. Something Like It (1981, Yoshimitsu Morita)
76. The Naked Island (1960, Kaneto Shindo)
77. Stake Out (1957, Yoshitaro Nomura)
78. Scattered Clouds (1967, Mikio Naruse)
79. The Rendezvou (1972, Koichi Saito)
80. The Beast to Die (1980, Toru Murakawa)
81. In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima)
82. Red Lantern (1974, Toshiya Fujita)
83. Capricious Young Man (1936, Mansaku Itami)
84. The Devil’s Ballad (1977, Kon Ichikawa)
85. Lightning (1952, Mikio Naruse)
86. Singing Lovebirds (1939, Masahiro Makino)
87. The Funeral (1984, Juzo Itami)
88. Kagemusha (1980, Akira Kurosawa)
89. House on Fire (1986, Kinji Fukasaku)
90. Carmen comes home (1951, Keisuke Kinoshita)
91. Listen to the roar of the ocean (1950, Hideo Sekigawa)
92. Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
93. One Man of the Gambler’s Code (1966, Tai Kato)
94. Throne of blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
95. Crazed Fruit (1956, Ko Nakahira)
96. A Last Note (1995, Kaneto Shindo)
97. An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Yasujiro Ozu)
98. Jirochô sangokushi (1953, Masahiro Makino)
99. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
100. Woman in the Dunes (1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
And:
101. One Wonderful Sunday (1947, Akira Kurosawa)
102. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)
103. W’s Tragedy (1984, Shinichiro Sawai)
104. A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (1927, Daisuke Ito)
105. Zigeunerweisen (1980, Seijun Suzuki)
106. Sanjuro (1962, Akira Kurosawa)
107. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa)
108. Knockout (1989, Junji Sakamoto)
109. Nikudan (1969, Kihachi Okamoto)
110. A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs (1967, N. Oshima)
111. A Man Vanishes (1967, Shohei Imamura)
112. Wet Sand in August (1971, Toshiya Fujita)
113. The River Fuefuki (1960, Keisuke Kinoshita)
114. Pigs and Battleships (1961, Shohei Imamura)
115. Darkness at Midnight (1956, Tadashi Imai)
116. Repast (1951, Mikio Naruse)
117. Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
118. The Girl I Abandoned (1969, Kiriro Urayama
If there is anything like a guideline for understanding the “non-narrative” of Mirror, then it would most definitely be Tarkovsky´s book Sculpting in Time. He explains his concept of time and subjective memory far better than most critics have, and brings us a bit closer to the meaning of his art. Nevertheless must Mirror always be understood in the context of Tarkovsky´s personal life and his artistic development, since some of the episodes can be regarded as a “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. And I think that reading Joyce in general can be benificial for capturing the stream-of-conciousness-like development of the film, since Tarkovsky was trying to visualize thoughts and memories in an associative way. He sometimes also plays with it being a pseudo-genre-film and makes use of techniques that one is used seeing in a horror film which makes Mirror rather experimential, and also uses colors and sepia more deliberately than he has done before. I think that apart from all efforts in order to understand Mirror can there be no doubt about it that it´s one of the most astonishingly beautiful works of arts of the 20th century, and contains images that will forever stay with the viewer.
I agree on Floating Clouds not being Naruse´s masterwork, other of his films like The Sound of the Mountain suceed to avoid the overly melodramatic development and are nonetheless moving. I would also say that When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a superior film since it demonstrates the heroine´s hopelessness in a more subtle and complex way. But the election of Floating Clouds has most definitely to do with it being a Japanese magazine, since the film is based on the nation´s experiences after the lost war, which is something many people of Japan´s older generation can relate to.
I don´t think that a list like this could have the purpose to provide an evaluation of the single director´s work, and to deciding how much of Ozu equals Mizoguchi and so on would not only be an impossible task, but also highly individual. And how would you try to formulate the significance of Mizoguchi´s work as a whole if more than half of his films is lost and cannot be watched? The only solution is to regard each singular film and decide about it´s cinematic quality, narrative techniques and historical importance. I think the critics deliberately disregarded some of these criterias in their selection and were obviously trying to support directors with a more dynamic, modern and New-Wave-like attitude by sacrificing some of the great classics, this is what makes the list both fascinating and ridiculous at the same time.
I´m still wondering what we can expect from his last picture I Come with the Rain since it hasn´t even been widely released, but I think that his version of Norwegian Wood might be a good film since he´s without a doubt one of the most talented Asian directors, though it will certainly be more crowd-pleasing than the three wonderful films he made in Vietnam. It´s sad that Tran Anh Hung has decided to finally go the commercial path, but at least did he write the screenplay himself what´s not often the case with Hollywood adaptations. I would nonetheless prefer to see a Japanese director like Shinji Aoyama or Shunji Iwai (which seem to me most fittingly since they´re both interested in pop culture) make an adaptation of a Murakami novel, such a film could maybe become a masterpiece.
The film I Come with the Rain is settled in Hong Kong and the Philippines where a cop played by Josh Hartnett who has been traumatized after hunting down a serial killer is now searching for the missing son of a millionaire. Tran Anh Hung made the film in 2008 and it was originally intented to play at Cannes, but the producers finally didn´t enter the competition, and the film is now waiting for its realease date, I think it has only been released in Japan so far.
I think the final tracking shot of The Sacrifice is among the most stunning ever filmed. While they recorded it didn´t Sven Nykvist´s camera work properly and the material couldn´t be used, so the crew had to build the house again which had already burned down during the filming, what made Tarkovsky become really desperate. The second time around they filmed it with two parallel cameras and fortunately there were no more problems since it wouldn´t have been possible to repeat the scene again.
Here´s a short trailer: http://cineconmcfly.com.ar/2009/06/i-come-with-rain-cartel-y-traileres.html . The fast pacing could certainly not be more different from his tranquil earlier films, I don´t think that I would watch it if it wasn´t directed by Anh Hung.
1. Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D
2. Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
3. Zoku Showa hito keta shachô tai futaketa shain: Getsu-getsu kasui moku kinkin
4. The Fable of the Throbbing Genius of a Tank Town Who Was Encouraged by Her Folks Who Were Prominent
5. Homework, or How Pornography Saved the Split Family from Boredom and Improved their Financial Situation
6. Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Madhubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva Donga Raja
7. Plan 9 from Outer Space
8. Shakespeare’s Plan 12 From Outer Space
9. All’onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze… e purché la nazione non lo sappia)
10. Kill Bill Vol. 2
Best film by each of these directors almost 3 years ago
Fellini – 8 1/2
Bergman – Through a Glass Darkly
Kurosawa – Red Beard
Truffaut – The 400 Blows
Renoir – The Rules of the Game
Fassbinder – Berlin Alexanderplatz
Herzog – Kaspar Hauser
Godard – The Contempt
Antonioni – L´Avventura
Bresson – Au Hasard Balthazar
Hitchcock – Vertigo
Buñuel – The Exterminating Angel
Lang – The Nibelungen
Tarkovsky – Stalker
Mizoguchi – Sansho the Bailiff
Rossellini – The Flowers of St. Francis
Altman – 3 Women
De Sica – The Bicycle Thief
Polanski – Tess
Rivette – Celine and Julie Go Boating
Wenders – Wings of Desire
Rohmer – The Green Ray
Melville – Army of the Shadows
Kubrick – 2001:A Space Odyssey
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TOP 10 FILMS FROM YOUR "BIRTH YEAR" almost 3 years ago
NINETEEN EIGHTY-THREE:
Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
Sans Soleil (Chris. Marker)
The South (Víctor Erice)
L´Argent (Robert Bresson)
Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz)
Ballad of Narayama (Shohei Imamura)
The Boys from Fengkuei (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
That Day, On the Beach (Edward Yang)
And the Ship Sails On (Federico Fellini)
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What films were shot in or near your hometown? almost 3 years ago
HAPPY TOGETHER (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
A HOUSE WITH A VIEW OF THE SEA (Mérida, Venezuela)
REQUIEM (Tübingen, Germany)
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TOP TEN 2000 - 2008 almost 3 years ago
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
EUREKA
DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
PEPPERMINT CANDY
ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU
THE CIRCLE
AT THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
THE RETURN
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Most depressing film you have ever seen? almost 3 years ago
THE SEVENTH CONTINENT
COME AND SEE
SHOAH
LILYA 4-EVER
CYCLO
A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING
SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
YOUR NAME IS JUSTINE
SANSHO THE BAILIFF and AU HASARD BALTHAZAR may be among the most depressing movies ever, though there´s so much beauty in them that one feels nothing but joy.
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The longest movie you've ever sat through almost 3 years ago
BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (890 min.)
THE HUMAN CONDITION (580 min.)
SHOAH (545 min.)
DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (540 min.)
SÁTÁNTANGÓ (450 min.)
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TOP 10 LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA almost 3 years ago
There´s no doubt about it that many of the great classics of Latin American Cinema remain undiscovered in most other parts of the world, and DVDs of those films are usually hard to come by. I made of list of those films from Latin American countries which I managed to see and would consider masterpieces of world cinema, and I´d like you to add other titles which you regard as the greatest of Latin America.
-———————————————————————————————————————————-1. DEUS E O DIABO NA TERRA DO SOL (Black God, White Devil, Glauber Rocha, Brazil 1964)
2. MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO (Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba 1968)
3. ROSAURA A LAS 10 (Rosaura at 10 o’clock, Mario Soffici, Argentina 1958) -
4. MARÍA CANDELARIA / XOCHIMILCO (Maria Candelaria, Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, Mexico 1944)
5. LIMITE (Limit, Mario Peixoto, Brazil 1931)
6. EL CHACAL DE NAHUELTORO (Jackal of Nahueltoro, Miguel Littin, Chile 1969)
7. LA CIUDAD Y LOS PERROS (The City and the Dogs, Francisco Lombardi, Peru 1985)
8. LA VENDEDORA DE ROSAS (The Rose Seller, Víctor Gaviria, Colombia 1998)
9. ORIANA (Oriana, Fina Torres, Venezuela 1985)
10. LA NACIÓN CLANDESTINA (The Clandestine Nation, Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia 1989)
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TOP 10 LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA almost 3 years ago
You´re right. I just added them in the description.
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Greatest Films You'll Never See almost 3 years ago
Andrei Tarkovsky was planning an adaptation of Germany´s Romantic novelist E.T.A. Hoffann and wrote the script “Hoffmanniana” which like many of his other proyects finally couldn´t be realized. Federico Fellini´s “Viaggo di G. Mastorna” which he wanted to make right after “8 1/2” would also have been fascinating to watch, but it developt into a nightmare project for him, that he effortlessly tried to realize until his death. In an interview Robert Bresson gave in the 1980s he talked about his planned film “Genesis” for which he was still searching funds, but ultimately L´Argent remained his last film.
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History through Film almost 3 years ago
I agree on the masterpieces mentioned by Kenji. There are also two great film trilogies which center around 20th century history, one of them is formed by Theo Angelopoulos´ films Days of 36, The Travelling Players and The Hunters and showcasts the development of Greece shortly before the Metaxas dictatorship, during the Second World War while fighting against Italy and getting occupied by German troups and until the following Civil War. The other trilogy which is comparable in its scale though not chronological consists of Hou Hsiao-Hsien´s films A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster and Good Men, Good Women, and focusses mainly on Taiwanese history from the beginnings of the Japanese colonization of the island after the Sino-Japanese war in 1895 until the retreat of Japanese troups in 1945, the first film A City of Sadness centers around the later violent regime of Chiang Kai Check´s Kuomintang who became infamous for the 228 Incident which marked the beginning of the so-called “White Terror” with thousands of victims. Both Angelopoulos and Hou understand to transcend history into art, and created some incomparable documents.
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Favorite Movies by Female Directors almost 3 years ago
Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman)
Suzaku/Shara (Naomi Kawase)
The Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli)
An Angel at my Table (Jane Campion)
The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad)
Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
Oriana (Fina Torres)
36 Chowringhee Lane (Aparna Sen)
The Woman Without Head (Lucrecia Martel)
Vagabond (Agnes Varda)
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YOUR OPINION OF THE ABSOLUTE BEST DIRECTORS WORKING TODAY almost 3 years ago
Abbas Kiarostami
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Theo Angelopoulos
Manoel de Oliveira
Michael Haneke
Béla Tarr
Lee Chang Dong
Jiang Wen
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Shinji Aoyama
Chris Marker
Wong Kar-wai
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Top 5 (or rating) Mizoguchi almost 3 years ago
Sansho the Bailiff 10/10
The Life of O-Haru 10/10
The Story of Late Chrysantemums 10/10
Tales of Ugetsu 9.5/10
Streets of Shame 9/10
Let´s not give up hope that copies of “A Woman of Osaka” and “The Life of an Actor” will one day miracously be found.
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Top 3 Films from each of these countries... almost 3 years ago
France – AU HASARD BALTHAZAR; THE RULES OF THE GAME; THE CHILDREN OF PARADISE
Italy – 8 1/2; L´AVVENTURA; BICYCLE THIEVES
Korea – THE HOUSEMAID; PEPPERMINT CANDY; SOPJONJE
Hong Kong – IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE; MADE IN HONG KONG; FALLEN ANGELS
Germany – THE NIBELUNGEN; THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER; WINGS OF DESIRE
Sweden – FANNY AND ALEXANDER; THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY; THE BEST INTENTIONS
Denmark – ORDET; BREAKING THE WAVES; DAY OF WRATH
Spain – THE SUR; CRÍA CUERVOS; THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
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A Character Just Like You almost 3 years ago
I´d say Charles of Bresson´s “The Devil Probably” or Baptiste Debureau of Carné´s “The Children of Paradise”, but there are also many similarities with the character Guido Anselmi of “8 1/2”.
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What if I say Wojciech Has? almost 3 years ago
He´s certainly one of the masters of surreal filmmaking, and his version of The Hour Glass Sanatorium is a fascinating puzzle that somehow reminds me Tarkovsky´s Mirror in the way it recollects subjective memory in an almost stream-of-consciousness-like fashion. It´s sad that the majority of Has´ work remains almost unseen.
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Favorite plays turned into films almost 3 years ago
Most definitely King Lear and its adaptation by Grigori Kozintsev, though I also love the adaptation of Who´s afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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Kinema Junpo's Top 100 Japanese Films of the 20th Century almost 3 years ago
The following list has been published by the renowned Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo and does indeed include 118 films which are supposed to be the greatest produced in the 20th century. Of course one can argue that a list of 118 Japanese films which doesn´t even include Mizoguchi´s Sansho the Bailiff cannot be taken seriously at all, and I really don´t understand what motivated them to leave out a masterpiece of world cinema for including films like My Neighbour Totoro which they even consider superior to Ozu´s Early Summer. I also found it strange that there´s no single film by some of Japan´s greatest directors like Masahiro Shinoda or Hiroshi Shimizu listed, although both are well acknowlegded in Japan. There seems to be a strong affinity towards Yakuza, anime and horror films, but apart from that do I think that the list showcasts an amount of very interesting films many of which are almost unavailable for an Western audience. I´d like you to give your opinion on the films included, which of those you already managed to see and what titles you consider the most fascinating ones.
1. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
2. Floating Clouds (1955, Mikio Naruse)
3. A Fugitive from the Past (1965, Tomu Uchida)
4. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
5. The Sun Legend of the End of the Tokugawa Era (1957, Y. Kawashima)
6. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
7. Intentions of Murder (1964, Shohei Imamura)
8. Battles Without Honour & Humanity (1973, Kinji Fukasaku)
9. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita)
10. Tales of Ugetsu (1953, K. Mizoguchi)
11. To Live (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
12. The Life Of Oharu (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
13. Vacuum Zone (1952, Satsuo Yamamoto)
14. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
15. The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
16. My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
17. Muddy River (1981, Kohei Oguri)
18. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Sadao Yamanaka)
19. The Rickshaw Man (1958, Hiroshi Inagaki)
20. Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)
21. Fall Guy (1982, Kinji Fukasaku)
22. Boy (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
23. All Under the Moon (1993, Yoichi Sai)
24. Early Summer (1951, Yasujiro Ozu)
25. Vengeance is mine (1979, Shohei Imamura)
26. Family game (1983, Yoshimitsu Morita)
27. The castle of sand (1974, Yoshitaro Nomura)
28. Cruel Story of Youth (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
29. The Human Condition (1959-61, Masaki Kobayashi)
30. Till We Meet Again (1950, Tadashi Imai)
31. Ichijo Sayuri (1972, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
32. Cupola (1962, Kiriro Urayama)
33. Fighting Elegy (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
34. The Yellow Handkerchief (1977, Yoji Yamada)
35. Shall we Dance? (1995, Masayuki Suo)
36. The Insect Woman (1963, Shohei Imamura)
37. Marital Relations (1955, Shiro Toyoda)
38. Begging for Love (1998, Hideyuki Hirayama)
39. A Woman With Red Hair (1979, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
40. Distant Thunder (1981, Negishi Kichitaro)
41. Graveyard of Honor (1975, Kinji Fukasaku)
42. Sonatine (1993, Takeshi Kitano)
43. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
44. Japan’s Longest Day (1967, Kihachi Okamoto)
45. Night and Fog in Japan (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
46. Emperor’s Naked Army Marches on (1987, Kazuo Hara)
47. Ryuji (1983, Toru Kawashima)
48. Ball at the Anjo House (1947, Kozaburo Yoshimura)
49. Young Brother (1960, Kon Ichikawa)
50. The Hidden Fortress (1958, Akira Kurosawa)
51. The Thirteen Assassins (1963, Eiichi Kudo)
52. The Crucified Lovers (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi)
53. Princess Mononoke (1995, Hayao Miyazaki)
54. Beyond the Green Hills (1963, Katsumi Nishikawa)
55. The Profound Desire of the Gods (1968, Shohei Imamura)
56. Kids Return (1996, Takeshi Kitano)
57. The Cherry Orchard (1990, Shun Nakahara)
58. The Youth Killer (1976, Kazuhiko Hasegawa)
59. Typhoon Club (1984, Shinji Somai)
60. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (1935, S. Yamanaka)
61. Angel Guts Red Classroom (1979, Chusei Sone)
62. Ballad of Narayama (1958, Keisuke Kinoshita)
63. She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955, Keisuke Kinoshita)
64. Miyamoto Musashi (1961-65, Tomu Uchida)
65. Ryoma Assassination (1974, Kazuo Kuroki)
66. Street of Shame (1956, Kenji Mizoguchi)
67. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
68. Station (1981, Yasuo Furuhata)
69. Twisted Path of Youth (1973, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
70. Sado (1978, Yoichi Higashi)
71. The Makioka Sisters (1983, Kon Ichikawa)
72. Narita?Heta Village (1973, Shinsuke Ogawa)
73. Failed Youth (1974, Tatsumi Kumashiro)
74. A Japanese Tragedy (1953, Keisuke Kinoshita)
75. Something Like It (1981, Yoshimitsu Morita)
76. The Naked Island (1960, Kaneto Shindo)
77. Stake Out (1957, Yoshitaro Nomura)
78. Scattered Clouds (1967, Mikio Naruse)
79. The Rendezvou (1972, Koichi Saito)
80. The Beast to Die (1980, Toru Murakawa)
81. In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima)
82. Red Lantern (1974, Toshiya Fujita)
83. Capricious Young Man (1936, Mansaku Itami)
84. The Devil’s Ballad (1977, Kon Ichikawa)
85. Lightning (1952, Mikio Naruse)
86. Singing Lovebirds (1939, Masahiro Makino)
87. The Funeral (1984, Juzo Itami)
88. Kagemusha (1980, Akira Kurosawa)
89. House on Fire (1986, Kinji Fukasaku)
90. Carmen comes home (1951, Keisuke Kinoshita)
91. Listen to the roar of the ocean (1950, Hideo Sekigawa)
92. Cure (1997, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
93. One Man of the Gambler’s Code (1966, Tai Kato)
94. Throne of blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
95. Crazed Fruit (1956, Ko Nakahira)
96. A Last Note (1995, Kaneto Shindo)
97. An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Yasujiro Ozu)
98. Jirochô sangokushi (1953, Masahiro Makino)
99. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969, Nagisa Oshima)
100. Woman in the Dunes (1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
And:
101. One Wonderful Sunday (1947, Akira Kurosawa)
102. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)
103. W’s Tragedy (1984, Shinichiro Sawai)
104. A Diary of Chuji’s Travels (1927, Daisuke Ito)
105. Zigeunerweisen (1980, Seijun Suzuki)
106. Sanjuro (1962, Akira Kurosawa)
107. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa)
108. Knockout (1989, Junji Sakamoto)
109. Nikudan (1969, Kihachi Okamoto)
110. A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs (1967, N. Oshima)
111. A Man Vanishes (1967, Shohei Imamura)
112. Wet Sand in August (1971, Toshiya Fujita)
113. The River Fuefuki (1960, Keisuke Kinoshita)
114. Pigs and Battleships (1961, Shohei Imamura)
115. Darkness at Midnight (1956, Tadashi Imai)
116. Repast (1951, Mikio Naruse)
117. Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
118. The Girl I Abandoned (1969, Kiriro Urayama
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ZERKALO / The Mirror / Tarkovsky almost 3 years ago
If there is anything like a guideline for understanding the “non-narrative” of Mirror, then it would most definitely be Tarkovsky´s book Sculpting in Time. He explains his concept of time and subjective memory far better than most critics have, and brings us a bit closer to the meaning of his art. Nevertheless must Mirror always be understood in the context of Tarkovsky´s personal life and his artistic development, since some of the episodes can be regarded as a “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”. And I think that reading Joyce in general can be benificial for capturing the stream-of-conciousness-like development of the film, since Tarkovsky was trying to visualize thoughts and memories in an associative way. He sometimes also plays with it being a pseudo-genre-film and makes use of techniques that one is used seeing in a horror film which makes Mirror rather experimential, and also uses colors and sepia more deliberately than he has done before. I think that apart from all efforts in order to understand Mirror can there be no doubt about it that it´s one of the most astonishingly beautiful works of arts of the 20th century, and contains images that will forever stay with the viewer.
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Kinema Junpo's Top 100 Japanese Films of the 20th Century almost 3 years ago
I agree on Floating Clouds not being Naruse´s masterwork, other of his films like The Sound of the Mountain suceed to avoid the overly melodramatic development and are nonetheless moving. I would also say that When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a superior film since it demonstrates the heroine´s hopelessness in a more subtle and complex way. But the election of Floating Clouds has most definitely to do with it being a Japanese magazine, since the film is based on the nation´s experiences after the lost war, which is something many people of Japan´s older generation can relate to.
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Kinema Junpo's Top 100 Japanese Films of the 20th Century almost 3 years ago
I don´t think that a list like this could have the purpose to provide an evaluation of the single director´s work, and to deciding how much of Ozu equals Mizoguchi and so on would not only be an impossible task, but also highly individual. And how would you try to formulate the significance of Mizoguchi´s work as a whole if more than half of his films is lost and cannot be watched? The only solution is to regard each singular film and decide about it´s cinematic quality, narrative techniques and historical importance. I think the critics deliberately disregarded some of these criterias in their selection and were obviously trying to support directors with a more dynamic, modern and New-Wave-like attitude by sacrificing some of the great classics, this is what makes the list both fascinating and ridiculous at the same time.
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what can we expect from Tran Anh Hung's Norwegian Wood? almost 3 years ago
I´m still wondering what we can expect from his last picture I Come with the Rain since it hasn´t even been widely released, but I think that his version of Norwegian Wood might be a good film since he´s without a doubt one of the most talented Asian directors, though it will certainly be more crowd-pleasing than the three wonderful films he made in Vietnam. It´s sad that Tran Anh Hung has decided to finally go the commercial path, but at least did he write the screenplay himself what´s not often the case with Hollywood adaptations. I would nonetheless prefer to see a Japanese director like Shinji Aoyama or Shunji Iwai (which seem to me most fittingly since they´re both interested in pop culture) make an adaptation of a Murakami novel, such a film could maybe become a masterpiece.
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what can we expect from Tran Anh Hung's Norwegian Wood? almost 3 years ago
The film I Come with the Rain is settled in Hong Kong and the Philippines where a cop played by Josh Hartnett who has been traumatized after hunting down a serial killer is now searching for the missing son of a millionaire. Tran Anh Hung made the film in 2008 and it was originally intented to play at Cannes, but the producers finally didn´t enter the competition, and the film is now waiting for its realease date, I think it has only been released in Japan so far.
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Most impressive one-take tracking shot? almost 3 years ago
I think the final tracking shot of The Sacrifice is among the most stunning ever filmed. While they recorded it didn´t Sven Nykvist´s camera work properly and the material couldn´t be used, so the crew had to build the house again which had already burned down during the filming, what made Tarkovsky become really desperate. The second time around they filmed it with two parallel cameras and fortunately there were no more problems since it wouldn´t have been possible to repeat the scene again.
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what can we expect from Tran Anh Hung's Norwegian Wood? almost 3 years ago
Here´s a short trailer: http://cineconmcfly.com.ar/2009/06/i-come-with-rain-cartel-y-traileres.html . The fast pacing could certainly not be more different from his tranquil earlier films, I don´t think that I would watch it if it wasn´t directed by Anh Hung.
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? almost 3 years ago
Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, Ingrid Bergman, Monica Vitti, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Anne Wiazemsky, Louise Brooks,…
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What underrated, forgotten (or critically panned) films do you love? almost 3 years ago
Citizen Kane (a forgotten black & white film from the 40s)
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Ten Worst Movies You've Ever Seen? almost 3 years ago
1. Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D
2. Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
3. Zoku Showa hito keta shachô tai futaketa shain: Getsu-getsu kasui moku kinkin
4. The Fable of the Throbbing Genius of a Tank Town Who Was Encouraged by Her Folks Who Were Prominent
5. Homework, or How Pornography Saved the Split Family from Boredom and Improved their Financial Situation
6. Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Madhubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva Donga Raja
7. Plan 9 from Outer Space
8. Shakespeare’s Plan 12 From Outer Space
9. All’onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze… e purché la nazione non lo sappia)
10. Kill Bill Vol. 2
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Notable First Films almost 3 years ago
The Scent of Green Papaya (Anh Hung)
Maborosi (Kore-eda)
Ivan´s Childhood (Tarkovsky)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Erice)
Hiroshima mon amour (Resnais)
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In your opinion is there a movie everybody 'has to like'? almost 3 years ago
I think a movie everyone has to like is The Color of Pomegranates, though few people do.
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