My 20 best films
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- DirectorChristian-JaqueStarsRenée FaureLucien CoëdelLouis SalouFabrice del Dongo, a young archbishop, gives his all to romance rather than to the Church, creating complications for everyone around. The Countess of San Severina, is but one of the women who love him a la folie, spurring jealous retribution in high places from those who in turn want her. From his prison window, Fabrice falls in love with the jailer's daughter who takes a vow to the Virgin Mary to never see him again if his escape succeeds.Christian-Jaque directed this wonderful version of Stendhal's classic novel. Gerard Philipe and Maria Casares play superbly, and the supporting players are everything you could want. Enjoy!
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsAdriana AstiFrancesco BarilliAllen MidgetteFollowing the death of his friend, an Italian youth grows increasingly closer to his young aunt.Ah, to be young in Parma again. This is a companion piece to La Chartreuse de Parme. Adriana Asti is fantastic. Watch for the unbelievable scene at Puck's country house.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques DutroncAlexandra LondonBernard Le CoqThe final sixty-seven days of Van Gogh's life are examined.Pialat directs Jacques Dutronc, who manages to make us forget Kirk Douglas's attempt to play the tortured painter. Gerard Sety as Dr. Gachet does a fine job, as does Elsa Zylberstein as one of the prostitutes.
- DirectorArthur PennStarsGene HackmanJennifer WarrenEdward BinnsLos Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter. Moseby tracks the daughter down, only to stumble upon something much more intriguing and sinister.Arthur Penn directs Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, James Woods and a teen-aged Melanie Griffith in a cool thriller that's a delight to watch. What you can see when you go diving in the Florida Keys might drive you crazy.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigJean-Pierre KérienNita KleinIn the seaside town of Boulogne, no one seems to be able to cope with their past, least of all Hélène, an antique furniture saleswoman, her stepson Bernard, and her former lover Alphonse.Resnais made a fine film out of Jean Cayrol's story. Delphine Seyrig is superb as an antiques dealer in northern France who dredges up memories of a love affair gone bad during the War.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsRalph MeekerAlbert DekkerPaul StewartA doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit"."Va va voom, Mike!" A great noir from Robert Aldrich, with memorable performances from Ralph Meeker, Cloris Leachman, and many more.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBibi AnderssonLiv UllmannMargaretha KrookA nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.Possibly Bergman's greatest film (but I don't want to rank them). Bibi Andersson is great as the nurse, Liv Ullmann holds your attention throughout in a mute role.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsUlla JacobssonEva DahlbeckHarriet AnderssonIn Sweden at the turn of the century, members of the upper class and their servants find themselves in a romantic tangle that they try to work out amidst jealousy and heartbreak.Bergman did superb comedies, this is one of his best. The female cast may be the best ever assembled: Eva Dahlbeck, Ulla Jacobsson, Margit Carlquist, Harriet Andersson.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsDaniel Day-LewisJuliette BinocheLena OlinCentral Europe, 1968: A Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.A film that is better than the book it's adapted from. Philip Kaufman does great epic films and this is probably his best. The Daniel Day-Lewis-Juliette Binoche pairing is superb.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsMargarethe von TrottaMatthias HabichRüdiger KirschsteinA countess' unrequited love for an army officer leads to disaster.I prefer Coup de grace for the title, it refers more directly to the terrifying ending. A love story gone terribly bad, if ever there was one. Margarethe von Trotta is the doomed Sophie, and Matthias Habich is Erich, an impossibly conflicted man.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsMaurice RonetLéna SkerlaYvonne ClechDepressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living. Will this help him?I could have chosen at least three Louis Malle films for this list, but will content myself with this one. Maurice Ronet gives the performance of his life as Alain Leroy, and is surrounded with excellent supporting players in Alexandra Stewart, Jeanne Moreau, Henri Serre.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsGene HackmanJohn CazaleAllen GarfieldA paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered."he'd kill us if he knew". Coppola never did anything as good as this (not even the Godfather series). Nightmarish, moving and tending to make the viewer wish electronic spying was impossible.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsEddie ConstantineAnna KarinaAkim TamiroffA U.S. secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.Godard taught me a lot about the possibilities of cinema. Breathless, Pierrot le fou, 2 ou 3 choses..., I devoured them all. Alphaville remains one of my favourites. Watch Eddie Constantine as he slinks around a futuristic Paris with his sidekick Anna Karina.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsSandrine BonnaireMaurice PialatChristophe OdentAn erratic young woman's family desperately tries to prevent her increasingly erotic ways.Pialat never made it easy for his admirers. Sometimes you want to throw something at the screen--he could get you that angry. Happily the right instincts are at work here, and this is a masterpiece. Sandrine Bonnaire makes one of the greatest debuts in film history.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartKim NovakBarbara Bel GeddesA former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.The world's critics have recently picked Vertigo as the greatest film of all time. I don't know whether it is, I just like it a lot. Barbara Bel Geddes and James Stewart are terrific, and Kim Novak looks appropriately mysterious as Madeleine.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartGrace KellyWendell CoreyA wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.I don't like many of Hitchcock's pictures; I found him too willing to do trashy Victorian stories. Rear Window shows him in an ideal light, as he marries story to technique. The set he had built is superb.
- 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.Everybody talks about Orson Welles and the cuckoo clock story, but for me it's Joseph Cotten nervously going around Vienna on his search, abetted by Trevor Howard as the British army commander trying to keep crime down. Alida Valli is splendid.
- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsPatrick DewaereMyriam BoyerMarie TrintignantFranck Poupart is a slightly neurotic door-to-door salesman in a sinister part of Paris' suburbs. He meets Mona, a teenager, who's been made a prostitute by her own aunt. Franck would like to change his life and also save Mona from her aunt. Murder is the only solution he finds to achieve his goal... A very gloomy movie, exuding despair and uneasiness, with pathetic characters.I wanted to put one of Patrick Dewaere's films on the list. The problem was to pick one out of a half-dozen terrific pictures he made in his short life. Serie noire is black, all right, but Patrick's virtuosity carries the day and will keep you watching. He's ably supported by Bernard Blier and Marie Trintignant (another actor whose life ended too soon.)
- DirectorAtom EgoyanStarsIan HolmSarah PolleyCaerthan BanksA bus crash in a small town brings a lawyer to defend the families, but he discovers everything isn't what it seems.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJean-Louis TrintignantStefania SandrelliGastone MoschinA weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.A cowardly repressed homosexual in fascist Italy gets an assignment to kill his former professor. His mental state starts to deteriorate... Bertolucci was the greatest director of that period, and he got me interested in Italian cinema.