I recently purchased a book entitled 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (I have seen 420, by the way). While the range of the movies profiled is very broad, covering everything from box office smashes to art house favorites to purely experimental cinema, 1001 is an awfully large number of movies to watch, and most people will probably never see ten percent of the titles set forth in the book. So I decided to do a Cliff Notes version, and reduced the number down to 52, or one a week for a year.
Each of the 52 movies is excellent (in my opinion, and in the opinions of many other cinephiles, both professional and amateur). Most are also important in some way or another. I have tried to cover the entire range of 20th century feature films (the 21st century films being still too recent to have achieved classic status), and have included movies from ten different countries (21 American, 6 German, 6 French, 6 British, 3 Japanese, 3 Italian, 3 Swedish, 2 Danish, 1 Australian, 1 Brazilian). I have also tried to include films from most of the greatest directors and many of the most renowned actors and actresses. These are not necessarily the 52 "best" movies, nor even my 52 "favorite" movies, and there are a couple that I don't even like very much (excellence not always being equal to enjoyable). You will love some of these selections, you will hate others, but if you make it through the entire list, you will have a new appreciation for what cinema has to offer.
The purpose of cinema is not to recreate reality, but to create unreality. And this, I think, is the great difference between the screen and the stage, which is constantly trying to convince us that what we see is somehow "real", even though it patently is not. Moreover, a "movie" is, after all, a "motion picture", so a film should "talk" to its audience primarily through its visual images and not its spoken dialogue. Keep these thoughts in mind when watching these films.
01. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (German, 1920, silent, directed by Robert Wiene, starring Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt)
02. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Swedish, 1922, silent, directed by Benjamin Christensen)
03. Metropolis (German, 1927, silent, directed by Fritz Lang)
04. Napoleon (France, 1927, silent, directed by Abel Gance)
05. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (American, 1927, silent, directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Janet Gaynor)
06. The Passion of Joan of Arc (French, 1928, silent, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
07. Pandora's Box (German, 1929, silent, directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Louise Brooks)
08. The Blue Angel (German, 1930, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich)[sup]1[/sup]
09. M (German, 1931, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre)
10. Queen Christina (American, 1933, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Greta Garbo)
11. It Happened One Night (American, 1934, directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert)
12. Grand Illusion (French, 1937, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim)
13. The Wizard of Oz (American, 1939, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland)
14. Citizen Kane (American, 1941, directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
15. The Maltese Falcon (American, 1941, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre)
16. Casablanca (American, 1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt)
17. Day of Wrath (Danish, 1943, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
18. Beauty and the Beast (French, 1946, directed by Jean Cocteau)
19. The Bicycle Thief (Italian, 1948, directed by Vittorio de Sica)
20. Hamlet (British, 1948, directed by Laurence Olivier, starring Laurence Olivier)
21. The Third Man (British, 1949, directed by Carol Reed, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
22. Rashomon (Japanese, 1950, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune)
23. Orpheus (French, 1950, directed by Jean Cocteau)
24. Ugetsu (Japanese, 1953, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi)
25. The Seventh Seal (Swedish, 1957, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot)
26. Vertigo (American, 1958, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak)
27. North By Northwest (American, 1959, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint)
28. Some Like It Hot (American, 1959, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon)
29. Black Orpheus (Brazilian, 1959, directed by Marcel Camus)
30. Psycho (American, 1960, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins)
31. Last Year At Marienbad (French, 1961, directed by Alain Resnais)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (British, 1962, directed by David Lean, starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif)
33. 8-1/2 (Italian, 1963, directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni)
34. Dr. Strangelove (British, 1964, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott)
35. Persona (Swedish, 1966, directed by Ingmar Bergman)
36. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Italian, 1966, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef)
37. A Clockwork Orange (British, 1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell)
38. Chinatown (American, 1974, directed by Roman Polanski, starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway)
39. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australian, 1975, directed by Peter Weir)
40. Eraserhead (American, 1977, directed by David Lynch)
41. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (German, 1979, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinsksi, Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani)[sup]1[/sup]
42. Apocalypse Now (American, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper)[sup]2[/sup]
43. Raging Bull (American, 1980, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci)
44. Kagemusha (Japanese, 1980, directed by Akira Kurosawa)
45. Blade Runner (American, 1982, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer)[sup]3[/sup]
46. Blood Simple (American, 1984, directed by Joel Coen)
47. Henry V (British, 1989, directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh)
48. Zentropa (Danish, 1991, directed by Lars von Trier, narrated by Max von Sydow)
49. Schindler's List (American, 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes)
50. Pulp Fiction (American, 1994, Quentin Tarantino, starring Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman)
51. Twelve Monkeys (American, 1995, directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt)
52. Pi (American, 1998, directed by Darren Aronofsky)
If you don't think that you can make it through all 52 films, then here are the 12 that are the most essestial (the movie-a-month plan):
01. The Passion of Joan of Arc (French, 1928, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
02. M (German, 1931, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre)
03. Citizen Kane (American, 1941, directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
04. Casablanca (American, 1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre)
05. Rashomon (Japanese, 1950, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune)
06. Orpheus (French, 1950, directed by Jean Cocteau)
07. The Seventh Seal (Swedish, 1957, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow)
08. Vertigo (American, 1958, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak)
09. Lawrence of Arabia (British, 1962, directed by David Lean, starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif)
10. 8-1/2 (Italian, 1963, directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni)
11. A Clockwork Orange (British, 1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell)
12. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (German, 1979, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinsksi, Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani)
To follow are some brief notes on each of the films. For plot synopses and user reviews, check out IMDb (a link is provided for each movie above), or see Roger Ebert's website for more extensive discussions of these movies. Many of these films cannot adequately be described with words, so it is best to watch them first and then read detailed reviews and commentary afterward.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is often lauded with the title "the first": the first artistic film, the first horror movie, the first psychological drama, even the first cinematic masterpiece. What cannot be argued is that Caligari was the first in a series of great post-war German films that are generally collected under the rubric of "Expressionist". The goal of Expressionism was to use a work of art to project the artist?s inner psychological state, and with its highly stylized sets and unusual lighting effects, Caligari achieved "a perfect transformation of material objects into emotional ornaments." Apart from its artistic accomplishments, which are considerable and groundbreaking, Caligari is perhaps even more important as a projection of the German national mentality. According to Siegfried Kracauer, "the films of a nation reflect its mentality in a more direct way than other artistic media." In discussing Caligari, Kracauer states that the movie "exposes the [German] soul wavering between tyranny and chaos", and is "a premonition of Hitler."[sup]4[/sup] To explain Kracauer, in Caligari, a sleepwalker (Conrad Veidt) is under the hypnotic control of a svengali-like mountebank (Werner Krauss), who forces him to commit crimes while he slumbers unaware.[sup]5[/sup] Now substitute "Hitler" for Caligari and "the German people" for the sleepwalker, and you can see where Kracauer is coming from.
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Day of Wrath - Two vastly different takes of witches and witchcraft. Haxan is an early dramatized documentary on the subject. The presentation ranges from grotesque to lurid to sensational to sexy to silly, all in a dizzying array of striking images, many achieved with special effects. Day of Wrath is another matter altogether. In that movie, set in 17th century Denmark, the young wife of an old priest falls in love with his son from a prior marriage. The woman, of course, is branded a witch for her infidelity, with predictable results. Day of Wrath is slow, stark, somber, yet beautiful.
Metropolis; M - It has been said that "every German has one foot in Atlantis, where he seeks a better Fatherland and a better patrimony. This double nature of the Germans, this faculty they have of splitting their personality ? enables them to live in the real world and at the same time to project themselves into an imaginary world."[sup]6[/sup] No filmmaker embodies that Teutonic "double nature" better than Fritz Lang. During the height of the German Expressionist movement, Lang projected himself into the imaginary world of Metropolis, a huge, lavish, outlandish, fantastical city of the future, where the privileged live in an earthly paradise, the workers toil in Hellish subterranean factories, and medieval magicians, sexy robots, and dancing skeletons lurk in the shadowy margins.[sup]7[/sup] Rumored to be the most expensive movie of its time, the raucous, extravagant production relied on groundbreaking special effects, employed 37,000 extras, reportedly cost five million marks, and nearly put the studio (UFA) into bankruptcy. If Metropolis was a soaring trip to the ultimate fantasy island, then M made a harsh crash landing back in reality. Gritty, chilling, intense, depressing, M describes the hunt for a serial child killer (Peter Lorre), an anonymous everyman who leads a prosaic existence in the very real underworld of a Berlin on the brink of Nazism. While Metropolis is a glitzy, glamorous, non-stop roller coaster of action and emotion, M is a slow, steady, often painful descent into the dark heart and sick mind of a psychotic murderer. The two movies could not be further apart in terms of style, pacing, depth, content, and characterization, but paradoxically both are as quintessentially German as wiener schnitzel and weiss beer.
Napoleon; The Passion of Joan of Arc - France's two greatest national heroes are portrayed in this pair of films, which could not be more different. Although Napoleon is an ambitious, massive, bombastic, sprawling epic, director Abel Gance keeps the viewers' interest throughout with innovative filmmaking techniques such as handheld cameras, horse-mounted cameras, location shooting, wide screen, montage, color tinting, distorting lenses, and superimpositions; the climactic scene was shot with three cameras and is projected on three screens simultaneously. In contrast, The Passion of Joan of Arc is a solemn, somber, introspective look at the trial and subsequent execution of the nineteen year old Sainte Joan.[sup]8[/sup] Known for his static direction, Carl Theodor Dreyer eschewed the pomposity and pretentiousness of the epic, and instead created a simple, beautiful, horrible, sublime character study, a veritable portrait of suffering. Using the transcendent Renee Maria Falconetti as his lead (her one and only film role), Dreyer took full advantage of her expressive face by shooting almost entirely in close up on a single studio set, so there is very little extraneous stimuli to interfere with our relationship to her character. This technique, unusual then and unheard of today, creates ?an unsettling experience ? so intimate we fear we will discover more secrets than we desire.?[sup]9[/sup]
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - Director F.W. Murnau was one of the first European movie talents to emigrate to Hollywood. With several German Expressionist classics already to his credit - Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922); The Last Laugh (1924); Tartuffe (1925); and Faust (1926) - Murnau created perhaps his best movie on his first Hollywood attempt. Sunrise is simple and oft-told story - a married man falls in love with another woman, who eventually persuades him to kill his wife (Janet Gaynor, who won the first ever Best Actress Oscar, in part for her performance in this movie) and run away with her - but Murnau had a rare talent of making the mundane extraordinary through the power of the image. Unfortunately, Sunrise was Murnau's last masterpiece, as he died in an automobile accident four years after its release, at the age of 42.
Pandora's Box - This film by G.W. Pabst provides a sort of bridge between the outrageous expressionism of Metropolis and the stark realism of M. Starring American actress Louise "Lulu" Brooks, one of the first and sexiest screen sirens, Pandora's Box details the lusts, desires, and ultimate downfall of a wanton young lady of loose morals. As Roger Ebert notes, the plot "could apply equally to a great or a laughable film. Brooks makes it a great one."[sup]10[/sup] And so does Pabst, an underrated director who was able to combine seediness and sexuality in perfect combination. With the sultry and seductive Brooks leading the action, the film simply oozes with passion, but it does so not in the lush, priggish, and staid environment of the typical Hollywood romance (see Pretty Woman (1990) for a particularly egregious and offensive example misplaced propriety), but in the decadent and degenerate fringes of a society in decay. Want one good reason why you should watch an eighty year old silent film? Because it made Quentin Tarantino's top ten list.
The Blue Angel; Queen Christina; Casablanca - In the golden era of Hollywood, the silver screen was dominated by three Germanic goddesses - Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel), Greta Garbo (Queen Christina), and Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca).[sup]11[/sup] Not only were they beautiful, but they could also act, as each of these lovely ladies is in the top ten of the American Film Institute's list of best actresses - Bergman was voted #4, Garbo #5, and Dietrich #9.
It Happened On Night - This romantic comedy was the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra), and Best Screenplay. The only other movies to match this feat are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It Happened One Night is one of the first Hollywood classics, and it still entertains to this day.
Grand Illusion - This movie is set in a German prison camp during World War I, but it is not really a war movie, nor an anti-war movie, nor a prison camp movie, nor an escape from prison camp movie. Rather, Grand Illusion is about class structure, and suggests that a captured French officer (Pierre Fresnay) has more in common with the aristocratic German camp commandant (Erich von Stroheim) than he does with his own fellow prisoners who served under him. With fascism growing among the European working classes and the upstart Hitler trying to spark the second Great War, Grand Illusion seems almost sentimental, a longing for the days when war, however brutal and deadly, was nevertheless fought by gentlemen as a matter of honor and duty. Seen in that light, World War One was the last medieval war of chivalry, the end of the cycle of "romantic war" that began with King Arthur.
The Wizard of Oz - Because musicals have so little room for such standard cinematic conventions as plot, dialogue, and dramatic action, they are the perfect vehicles for fabulous, fantastical sets and wild, colorful costumes, which keep the viewer visually interested in the movie while the songs interrupt the story. The Wizard of Oz is a prime example of this technique (as are Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001)). The Wizard of Oz was perhaps the first film to take full advantage of color technology, and the palette ranges from lush to lurid with proper dramatic and cinematic effect. Most likely, you were fascinated by this movie as a child. Now watch it again, and I bet that you will still be fascinated today.
Citizen Kane; Casablanca - Produced just a year apart, Citizen Kane and Casablanca are often considered to be the two best American movies ever made. Of the two, Citizen Kane is the artier, and the movie is often cited for its technical innovations and stylistic refinements, such as deep focus photography, extreme close-ups, low angle shots, overlapping dialogue, and flashback; it is also praised for its social commentary (Kane is an unflattering portrayal of a media mogul cum politician not unlike the real life William Randolph Hearst). On the other hand, Casablanca is a fairly standard romantic melodrama ... fairly standard in structure and content, that is, but quite extraordinary in execution. Rarely has such a talented cast been assembled[sup]12[/sup] (Bogart and Bergman were huge stars, and the rest of the cast provide excellent support), and the production team outdid themselves (director Michael Curtiz and principal screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein never came close to such success, either before or after this movie). Nearly seventy years after its release, the movie is still the ultimate crowd pleaser - it will make you laugh, cry, cheer, jeer, maybe even sing along as Sam plays it again ... but whatever you feel, you will want to watch Casablanca over and over.
The Maltese Falcon; Chinatown - These movies represent the unofficial beginning and end of film noir, and roughly correspond with the beginning of World War II and the end of the Vietnam War. Film noir is that "unique example of a wholly American film style ... [films] that evoke the dark side of the American persona ... a true cultural reflection of the mental dysfunction of a nation in uncertain transition."[sup]13[/sup] Film noir literally means "black film", and the movies are dark both stylisitically and thematically. The Maltese Falcon is a faithful adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name. Today, the movie is most notable for casting Humphrey Bogart (the AFI's #1 actor of all time) as the reluctant hero, a role that he would reprise several times throughout the remainder of his film career, most notably in Casablanca, The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), and The African Queen (1951) (the middle two selections co-starred Bogart's wife, the stunning Lauren Bacall[sup]14[/sup]). In Chinatown, Jack Nicholson plays a private detective who is hired to solve a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. You may need to watch this movie twice to figure out what's going on. John Huston directed The Maltese Falcon and played a small but key role in Chinatown.
Beauty and the Beast - Although he directed only a handful of feature films, director Jean Cocteau possessed one of the most unusual and intriguing cinematic visions of all time.[sup]15[/sup] His movies are magical, haunting, poetic, and dreamlike, and he used a myriad of special effects to bring his artistic concepts to the silver screen. Beauty and the Beast is the standard fairy tale, but the Cocteau's extraordinary images are mesmerizing and compelling. This movie can be enjoyed by the entire family.
Hamlet; Henry V - Who's the greatest screenwriter in the history of movies? Undoubtedly, the answer is William Shakespeare. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Shakespeare has an incredible 831 writing credits, covering everything from relatively standard adaptations (Orson Welles' Othello (1952) and Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971)) to modern interpretations (Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996)) to direct inspirations (Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985), based on King Lear) to deconstructions (Tom Stoppard's Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)) to the truly bizarre (Troma's Tromeo and Juliet (1996), "the movie with all the car crashes, body piercing, and kinky sex that Shakespeare always wanted but never had", with Lemmy from Motorhead as the narrator). Two of the greatest Shakespeareans of the silver screen were Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, who directed and played the title roles in two of The Bard's best, Hamlet and Henry V, respectively.
The Bicycle Thief; 8-1/2 - Most of the important post-war Italian films were made in the "neorealist" style, which chronicled the underclass that had been dispossessed by fascism and war; as the name suggests, neorealistic films were generally shot on location and used naturalistic dialogue, and often employed non-professional actors. The best-known and most highly acclaimed Italian neorealist film is The Bicycle Thief, the story of a poor man and his young son who search the streets of Rome for the man's stolen bicycle, which is crucial for his job. Director Federico Fellini occupies the other end of the cinematic spectrum, namely surrealism, which focuses on the psychological state of being rather than on the physical. Fellini often relied on his own life experiences and dreams when making his films, and 8-1/2 is an autobiographical work about a director suffering through a creative block.
The Third Man - Alfred Hitchcock is generally considered to be the Master of Suspense, and rightfully so, but Carol Reed's The Third Man is perhaps the most thrilling, suspenseful movie even made. Starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, the principal actors in Citizen Kane, the film concerns an American writer's search for his childhood friend in war-torn Vienna. The screenplay is by novelist Graham Greene, and the famous zither score is by Antos Karas. Director Carol Reed is best known for Oliver! (1968), the musical version of Dickens' Oliver Twist, obviously a universe away from the noir world of The Third Man
Rashomon; Ugetsu - When we think of Japanese cinema, epic sword fights between armies of samurai immediately come to mind. And to be sure, many Japanese movies do fit this stereotype. However, Japanese cinema also tends to explore the spiritual and the supernatural, and these two films display the mystical side of the Japanese national soul. Rashomon is a study of the nature of truth, told from many perspectives, none of which is ultimately true. Ugetsu is best described as a poetic ghost story ... but better to actually see this movie, because its images can convey more meaning than mere words.
Orpheus; Black Orpheus - two very different versions of the traditional Orpheus tale. Black Orpheus, which is set during the Carnival in Rio, is the more conventional telling of the story - it is also the more sensual and colorful, as it is filled with plenty of song, dance, and wild Carnival costumes. By contrast, Orpheus is a cerebral film, shot in stark black and white. In this version, the title character is a brooding poet, not a joyous musician, so don't expect any song and dance routines. Moreover, the focus here is on the underworld, where director Jean Cocteau uses his cinemagic to its full extent.
The Seventh Seal - "All of Bergman's mature films, except the comedies, are about his discontent with the ways that God has chosen to reveal himself,"[sup]16[/sup] and The Seventh Seal is no exception. This is undoubtedly my favorite film, and I believe that this is the best movie ever made. Certainly, The Seventh Seal is one of the most visually striking movies, but it also has comedy, tragedy, and pathos interwoven into an interesting story with a unique recurring plot device. In The Seventh Seal, a disillusioned and disconsolate knight recently returned from a Crusade (Max von Sydow, tall, blonde, athletic, the Nordic ideal) plays chess with Death (the appropriately grim Bengt Ekerot) while simultaneously searching for an ever-absent God. Knowing that he will die as soon as Death beats him at their game (and Death always wins), the knight uses his remaining days to look for meaning in his own fleeting life.
Vertigo; North By Northwest; Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock is the Shakespeare of filmmakers, a man who made movies that will still be meaningful, relevant, entertaining, and even definitive hundreds of years from now. A few other directors made films that occasionally equalled, and in very rare cases exceeded, Hitchcock's best work, but no other director ever has (or likely ever will) make so many great pictures over such a long period of time (Hitchcock made 54 feature films from 1925 to 1976). The three movies listed here are arguably Hitchcock's best, but he made so many masterpieces that I could just as easily argue that they are not (how about Rebecca (1940), Strangers on a Train (1951), and Rear Window (1954)? And there are several other candidates, as well.). I chose these three movies not only because they are undeniably great works, but also because they present Hitchcock's primary cinematic themes - the doppleganger (Vertigo), the wrong man (North By Northwest), and the deranged killer (Psycho) - and they portray women, respectively, as the unattainable virgin who enchants (Kim Novak), the deceitful nymph who seduces (Eva Marie Saint), and the old crone who destroys (Anthony Perkins[!]).[sup]17[/sup]
Some Like It Hot - Director Billy Wilder was yet another refugee who left Germany in the wake of the Nazi takeover. Despite not being a native speaker of English, Wilder is perhaps the greatest screenwriter in the history of Hollywood, and his scripts are especially known for their salty dialogue full of double entendres and sexual innuendoes. With his love of language, Wilder was never the most visual director, but his rich, racy dialogue and impeccable sense of timing generally provide adequate compensation for his relatively mundane camerawork. Some Like It Hot is based on the standard "gender bender" theme that is as old as Achilles - musicians Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in order to hide out from gangsters who are on their tails, dress as women and join an all-female band, the leader of which is Marilyn Monroe. Hijinks ensue.
Last Year At Marienbad; Persona - These two films may be described as postmodern in the way that they deconstruct and re-assemble time and personality, respectively. The emphasis in both movies is on the subjective rendering of ostensibly objective traits, on the melding of reality and illusion (or delusion) to create a surreal experience. In my opinion, Last Year At Marienbad succeeds much better than the more-highly regarded Persona, but as with all movies of this sort, insight is strictly in the mind of the beholder.
Lawrence of Arabia; Raging Bull - Two biopics that are quite different in scope and tone. Lawrence of Arabia, the story of British soldier/adventurer T.E. Lawrence, is a true epic, maybe the biggest epic picture that has ever been produced. Lawrence is portrayed by the legendary Peter O'Toole, in his first significant role, and he gave an amazing performance that was deemed the best of all-time by Premiere Magazine. Another legendary actor who made Premiere Magazine's list was Robert De Niro, who checked in at #10 for his protrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, a gritty, raw, brutal movie about a man who destroys others while destroying himself.
Dr. Strangelove; A Clockwork Orange - Besides being one of the best directors, Stanley Kubrick was also one of the most versatile. Early in his career he dabbled in film noir (Killer's Kiss (1955); The Killing (1956)), and then produced everything from historical epic (Spartacus (1960)), to literary adaptation (Lolita (1962)), to costume drama (Barry Lyndon (1975)), to science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)), to horror (The Shining (1980)), to war movie (Full Metal Jacket (1987)). On the set, Kubrick was a control freak who was known for his methodical productions and his obsessive desire for technical perfection. In his movies, his overriding theme is the effect of the outsider (or outside forces) on a world striving for utopia or on people striving for an ideal. Kubrick always had a dark sense of humor, and Dr. Strangelove is the best example of his comedic side; the fly in this ointment is a Doomsday Device that will destroy earth to prevent nuclear war. A Clockwork Orange is a brilliant mix of mordant humor and theatrical violence set in a surreal rendering of Anthony Burgess's dystopian future. Alex DeLarge, an ultraviolent criminal perfectly portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, runs amok in society until he is "cured" of his sociopathy ... but is the cure worse than the disease? This film is equal parts horrible and beautiful.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Not every cinematic masterpiece is an intellectual exercise. Although The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a beautifully filmed movie with an iconic soundtrack and a star-making performance from Clint Eastwood, this Spaghetti Western is first and foremost a crowd pleaser (as attested by its 9.0 rating on IMDb, good for fourth place on their top 250 list). Although the movie can easily be enjoyed on its own, it is actually the third part of The Man With No Name Trilogy, three lossely connected movies all directed by Sergio Leone and starring Eastwood as the eponymous anonymous title character - the first entry in the series is A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and the second is For a Few Dollars More (1965).
Picnic at Hanging Rock - This eerie, ethereal, dreamlike movie has a subtle eroticism that constantly propels the characters toward their doom, even as the conventions of Victorian society desperately try to hold them back. This counterpoise creates a wonderful tension throughout the movie, until the allure of the unknown becomes just too great. Often described as either "psychological" or "supernatural", Picnic at Hanging Rock is certainly a beautiful and haunting film, regardless of which interpretation you prefer.
Apocalypse Now - My list absolutely needed to have a Francis Ford Coppola movie, so why not The Godfather (1972)? Movies, after all, are about images, and although The Godfather may have an exciting story with strong characterizations and memorable dialogue, what about that film is interesting to watch? On the other hand, Apocalypse Now has a visually powerful opening scene that hooks the viewer right from the start, and for the next three hours Coppola rarely lets up on the barrage of compelling, often surreal, images. Apocalypse Now is not really a war movie, but a tale of two men descending into the void.
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht - Did you notice how many German films appear at the beginning of my list? That's because Germany produced the best, most inventive films during the period from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Third Reich. With the advent of Hitler, however, many of the most talented actors and directors fled Germany for Hollywood, and the Nazis began to censor films and use cinema for propaganda purposes. The German film industry did not recover for decades. The man most responsible for that recovery was Werner Herzog. Although Herzog began making movies in the early 1960's, the tyrannical director did not hit his creative stride until 1972, when he hooked up with maniacal actor Klaus Kinski in Aguirre: Wrath of God (this is another must-see movie).[sup]18[/sup] Herzog and Kinski teamed up again for Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, essentially a remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic, similarly titled Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror. Herzog's movie is the rare example of the homage exceeding the original - not only does Herzog have better technology (including sound) at his disposal, but he was also blessed with three of the greatest European actors of their generation in Kinski, Isabelle Adjani (also one of the true beauties of the silver screen), and Bruno Ganz (best known to football fans for his portrayal of Hitler in Downfall (2004)). Although Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht is the umpteenth re-telling of the old vampire tale, it is the most subtle and intelligent, and the most visually striking.
Kagemusha - Director Akira Kurosawa was best known for his epic samurai movies, especially The Seven Samurai (1954) and Ran (1985). However, in my opinion, Kagemusha is better than its more famous companions because both the story and the cinematography are more interesting. In Kagemusha, a thief is forced to become the double of a famous warlord. When the warlord dies unexpectedly, the thief must temporarily take his place in order to convince rival clans that the warlord is still alive. The thief is clearly not capable of running a powerful clan ... or is he?
Blade Runner - Blade Runner is essentially The Seventh Seal set in Metropolis. Harrison Ford plays a specialized cop (blade runner) whose job it is to kill (terminate) rogue robots that look just like human beings (replicants). The blonde, Teutonic replicant Batty (played by Rutger Hauer, looking very similar to Max von Sydow in The Seventh Seal), returns to futuristic Los Angeles to find his maker, for the purpose of gaining more life from him.[sup]19[/sup] When he learns that not even his maker can grant his wish, Batty initially unleashes his rage before finally finding a meaning in his own "life" on the verge of his own "death".
Eraserhead; Blood Simple; Pi - These movies represent the directoral debuts of three of the top filmmakers working today - David Lynch (Eraserhead); the Coen Brothers (Blood Simple); and Darren Aronofsky (Pi). Each of these directors has made several classic films, but their initial offerings are arguably their best work; certainly Lynch and Aronofsky took full advantage of their independent status to create films that push the boundaries of conventional cinema, while the Coen Brothers from the very start concocted that uneasy mix of black humor and film noir that would inform most of their subsequent efforts. Other notable directoral debuts include Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) and The Maltese Falcon (John Huston).
Zentropa - Zentropa (a.k.a. Europa, not to be confused with Europa Europa which debuted just a year earlier) is the masterwork of Danish director Lars von Trier. Zentropa uses many astonishing technical tricks to create a "strange, haunting, labyrinthine film about a naive American in Germany just after the end of World War II."[sup]20[/sup] Ironically, just a few years after the release of Zentropa, a movie "that makes one feel privy to the reinvention of cinema"[sup]21[/sup], von Trier once again tried to reinvent cinema as a co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement. The Dogme 95 manifesto, which greatly restricts the ability of a filmmaker to use standard cinematic techniques such as studio sets, props, artificial lighting, and soundtracks, is a misguided attempt to create "pure film" - if I want to watch "reality", I'll simply look out my window. A shame, as von Trier was a modern day master of Expressionism.
Schindler's List - After making a number of heavy-grossing, light-weight films like Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Steven Spielberg decided to risk his reputation as a crowd pleaser in order to make a much more "personal" and "artistic" movie. The result was Schindler's List, a graphic, haunting, heart-wrenching tale based on the true story of a German industrialist who attempts to save Jews from a Polish concentration camp. Schindler's List has not been immune from criticism - some say that the movie focuses on a drop of joy amidst a sea of woe[sup]22[/sup] - but the film should be considered a triumphant masterwork from an industry in general, and a director in particular, that thrive on pure escapism and rarely venture too far away from their conventional commercial comfort zones.
Pulp Fiction - I imagine that many of you have already seen Pulp Fiction, and probably liked it for its dark humor, extreme violence, snappy dialogue, and all-around BAMF attitude. Now watch it again, and realize that this is actually a very well-made movie, which suggests that director Quentin Tarantino could have been the next great American auteur. Unfortunately, Tarantino would never again make anything remotely approaching Pulp Fiction. Tarantino admittedly uses many cinematic and pop culture references in his movies, and Pulp Fiction is simply loaded with them. One reference that has apparently escaped general notice is The Gimp - silent, clothed in black, living in a wooden box, under the complete control of other men - who is an updated version of the sleepwalker from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Twelve Monkeys - After leaving the Monty Python troupe, Terry Gilliam directed a series of quirky, offbeat movies such as Brazil (1985); The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988); The Fisher King (1991); and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). Gilliam's unique cinematic vision is best displayed on Twelve Monkeys, the story of a criminal (Bruce Willis) living in a post-apocalyptic world who is sent back in time in order to prevent the apocalypse from happening. Willis is outstanding, but Brad Pitt is even better as the crazed animal rights activist who may hold earth in the balance.
______________________________________
[sup]1[/sup] These movies are available in English language versions, but the German language versions are superior.
[sup]2[/sup] The original 1979 version is much better than the "redux" version from 2001.
[sup]3[/sup] There are several versions of this movie, the best of which is the so-called "Final Cut" that was released in 2007.
[sup]4[/sup] Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler
[sup]5[/sup] In real life, Krauss remained in Nazi Germany throughout the war, starring in propaganda films such as Jud Suss, while Veidt married a Jewess and fled the country, first for England, then Hollywood where he starred in the anti-Nazi Casablanca.
[sup]6[/sup] Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks
[sup]7[/sup] Ironically, the city of Metropolis becomes submerged at the end of the movie, just like lost Atlantis.
[sup]8[/sup] Joan of Arc, the French heroine, was played by an Italian actress (Falconetti), directed by a Dane (Dreyer), filmed by a Pole (Rudolph Mate'), on a set created by German (Hermann Warm).
[sup]9[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of February 16, 1997
[sup]10[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of April 26, 1998
[sup]11[/sup] Dietrich was German, and Bergman and Garbo were Swedish
[sup]12[/sup] Outside of Bogart and Dooley Wilson (Sam), all of the principal players were foreigners, many of whom left Europe in the wake of Hitler's war - Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet were British; Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, and director Michael Curtiz were Hungarian; Paul Henreid and composer Max Steiner were Austrian; Conrad Veidt, Curt Bois, and art director Carl Jules Weyl were German; Leonid Kinskey was Russian; and Madeleine Lebeau was French.
[sup]13[/sup] Film Noir, An Encyclopedic Reference of the American Style (Third Edition), edited by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward
[sup]14[/sup] Bogie and Bacall were married at Malabar Farm, near Mansfield, Ohio, on May 21, 1945.
[sup]15[/sup] Besides being a film director, Cocteau was a poet, novelist, playwright, artist (he painted the label for the 1947 Mouton Rothschild), and (allegedly) a Grandmaster of the Priory of Sion.
[sup]16[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of April 16, 2000
[sup]17[/sup] It is not surprising that Hitchcok, always the most poetic of Hollywood directors, created a tripartite paean to the Triple Muse. See Robert Graves, The White Goddess
[sup]18[/sup] The love-hate relationship between Herzog and Kinski is detailed in Herzog's documentary, My Greatest Fiend (1999).
[sup]19[/sup] "I want more life, fucker!" Batty says to the engineer who created him. The phrase was borrowed by White Zombie in their song "More Human Than Human", which by the way is the motto of the Tyrell Corporation, the company that makes replicants.
[sup]20[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of July 3, 1992
[sup]21[/sup] Leonard Maltin, 2011 Movie Guide
[sup]22[/sup] Stanley Kubrick allegedly stated: "Schindler's List is about success, the Holocaust was about failure."
Each of the 52 movies is excellent (in my opinion, and in the opinions of many other cinephiles, both professional and amateur). Most are also important in some way or another. I have tried to cover the entire range of 20th century feature films (the 21st century films being still too recent to have achieved classic status), and have included movies from ten different countries (21 American, 6 German, 6 French, 6 British, 3 Japanese, 3 Italian, 3 Swedish, 2 Danish, 1 Australian, 1 Brazilian). I have also tried to include films from most of the greatest directors and many of the most renowned actors and actresses. These are not necessarily the 52 "best" movies, nor even my 52 "favorite" movies, and there are a couple that I don't even like very much (excellence not always being equal to enjoyable). You will love some of these selections, you will hate others, but if you make it through the entire list, you will have a new appreciation for what cinema has to offer.
The purpose of cinema is not to recreate reality, but to create unreality. And this, I think, is the great difference between the screen and the stage, which is constantly trying to convince us that what we see is somehow "real", even though it patently is not. Moreover, a "movie" is, after all, a "motion picture", so a film should "talk" to its audience primarily through its visual images and not its spoken dialogue. Keep these thoughts in mind when watching these films.
01. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (German, 1920, silent, directed by Robert Wiene, starring Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt)
02. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Swedish, 1922, silent, directed by Benjamin Christensen)
03. Metropolis (German, 1927, silent, directed by Fritz Lang)
04. Napoleon (France, 1927, silent, directed by Abel Gance)
05. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (American, 1927, silent, directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Janet Gaynor)
06. The Passion of Joan of Arc (French, 1928, silent, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
07. Pandora's Box (German, 1929, silent, directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Louise Brooks)
08. The Blue Angel (German, 1930, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich)[sup]1[/sup]
09. M (German, 1931, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre)
10. Queen Christina (American, 1933, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Greta Garbo)
11. It Happened One Night (American, 1934, directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert)
12. Grand Illusion (French, 1937, directed by Jean Renoir, starring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim)
13. The Wizard of Oz (American, 1939, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland)
14. Citizen Kane (American, 1941, directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
15. The Maltese Falcon (American, 1941, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre)
16. Casablanca (American, 1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt)
17. Day of Wrath (Danish, 1943, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
18. Beauty and the Beast (French, 1946, directed by Jean Cocteau)
19. The Bicycle Thief (Italian, 1948, directed by Vittorio de Sica)
20. Hamlet (British, 1948, directed by Laurence Olivier, starring Laurence Olivier)
21. The Third Man (British, 1949, directed by Carol Reed, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
22. Rashomon (Japanese, 1950, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune)
23. Orpheus (French, 1950, directed by Jean Cocteau)
24. Ugetsu (Japanese, 1953, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi)
25. The Seventh Seal (Swedish, 1957, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot)
26. Vertigo (American, 1958, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak)
27. North By Northwest (American, 1959, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint)
28. Some Like It Hot (American, 1959, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon)
29. Black Orpheus (Brazilian, 1959, directed by Marcel Camus)
30. Psycho (American, 1960, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins)
31. Last Year At Marienbad (French, 1961, directed by Alain Resnais)
32. Lawrence of Arabia (British, 1962, directed by David Lean, starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif)
33. 8-1/2 (Italian, 1963, directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni)
34. Dr. Strangelove (British, 1964, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott)
35. Persona (Swedish, 1966, directed by Ingmar Bergman)
36. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Italian, 1966, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef)
37. A Clockwork Orange (British, 1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell)
38. Chinatown (American, 1974, directed by Roman Polanski, starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway)
39. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Australian, 1975, directed by Peter Weir)
40. Eraserhead (American, 1977, directed by David Lynch)
41. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (German, 1979, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinsksi, Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani)[sup]1[/sup]
42. Apocalypse Now (American, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper)[sup]2[/sup]
43. Raging Bull (American, 1980, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci)
44. Kagemusha (Japanese, 1980, directed by Akira Kurosawa)
45. Blade Runner (American, 1982, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer)[sup]3[/sup]
46. Blood Simple (American, 1984, directed by Joel Coen)
47. Henry V (British, 1989, directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh)
48. Zentropa (Danish, 1991, directed by Lars von Trier, narrated by Max von Sydow)
49. Schindler's List (American, 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes)
50. Pulp Fiction (American, 1994, Quentin Tarantino, starring Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman)
51. Twelve Monkeys (American, 1995, directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt)
52. Pi (American, 1998, directed by Darren Aronofsky)
If you don't think that you can make it through all 52 films, then here are the 12 that are the most essestial (the movie-a-month plan):
01. The Passion of Joan of Arc (French, 1928, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer)
02. M (German, 1931, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre)
03. Citizen Kane (American, 1941, directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten)
04. Casablanca (American, 1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre)
05. Rashomon (Japanese, 1950, directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune)
06. Orpheus (French, 1950, directed by Jean Cocteau)
07. The Seventh Seal (Swedish, 1957, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow)
08. Vertigo (American, 1958, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak)
09. Lawrence of Arabia (British, 1962, directed by David Lean, starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif)
10. 8-1/2 (Italian, 1963, directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni)
11. A Clockwork Orange (British, 1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Malcolm McDowell)
12. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (German, 1979, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinsksi, Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani)
To follow are some brief notes on each of the films. For plot synopses and user reviews, check out IMDb (a link is provided for each movie above), or see Roger Ebert's website for more extensive discussions of these movies. Many of these films cannot adequately be described with words, so it is best to watch them first and then read detailed reviews and commentary afterward.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is often lauded with the title "the first": the first artistic film, the first horror movie, the first psychological drama, even the first cinematic masterpiece. What cannot be argued is that Caligari was the first in a series of great post-war German films that are generally collected under the rubric of "Expressionist". The goal of Expressionism was to use a work of art to project the artist?s inner psychological state, and with its highly stylized sets and unusual lighting effects, Caligari achieved "a perfect transformation of material objects into emotional ornaments." Apart from its artistic accomplishments, which are considerable and groundbreaking, Caligari is perhaps even more important as a projection of the German national mentality. According to Siegfried Kracauer, "the films of a nation reflect its mentality in a more direct way than other artistic media." In discussing Caligari, Kracauer states that the movie "exposes the [German] soul wavering between tyranny and chaos", and is "a premonition of Hitler."[sup]4[/sup] To explain Kracauer, in Caligari, a sleepwalker (Conrad Veidt) is under the hypnotic control of a svengali-like mountebank (Werner Krauss), who forces him to commit crimes while he slumbers unaware.[sup]5[/sup] Now substitute "Hitler" for Caligari and "the German people" for the sleepwalker, and you can see where Kracauer is coming from.
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Day of Wrath - Two vastly different takes of witches and witchcraft. Haxan is an early dramatized documentary on the subject. The presentation ranges from grotesque to lurid to sensational to sexy to silly, all in a dizzying array of striking images, many achieved with special effects. Day of Wrath is another matter altogether. In that movie, set in 17th century Denmark, the young wife of an old priest falls in love with his son from a prior marriage. The woman, of course, is branded a witch for her infidelity, with predictable results. Day of Wrath is slow, stark, somber, yet beautiful.
Metropolis; M - It has been said that "every German has one foot in Atlantis, where he seeks a better Fatherland and a better patrimony. This double nature of the Germans, this faculty they have of splitting their personality ? enables them to live in the real world and at the same time to project themselves into an imaginary world."[sup]6[/sup] No filmmaker embodies that Teutonic "double nature" better than Fritz Lang. During the height of the German Expressionist movement, Lang projected himself into the imaginary world of Metropolis, a huge, lavish, outlandish, fantastical city of the future, where the privileged live in an earthly paradise, the workers toil in Hellish subterranean factories, and medieval magicians, sexy robots, and dancing skeletons lurk in the shadowy margins.[sup]7[/sup] Rumored to be the most expensive movie of its time, the raucous, extravagant production relied on groundbreaking special effects, employed 37,000 extras, reportedly cost five million marks, and nearly put the studio (UFA) into bankruptcy. If Metropolis was a soaring trip to the ultimate fantasy island, then M made a harsh crash landing back in reality. Gritty, chilling, intense, depressing, M describes the hunt for a serial child killer (Peter Lorre), an anonymous everyman who leads a prosaic existence in the very real underworld of a Berlin on the brink of Nazism. While Metropolis is a glitzy, glamorous, non-stop roller coaster of action and emotion, M is a slow, steady, often painful descent into the dark heart and sick mind of a psychotic murderer. The two movies could not be further apart in terms of style, pacing, depth, content, and characterization, but paradoxically both are as quintessentially German as wiener schnitzel and weiss beer.
Napoleon; The Passion of Joan of Arc - France's two greatest national heroes are portrayed in this pair of films, which could not be more different. Although Napoleon is an ambitious, massive, bombastic, sprawling epic, director Abel Gance keeps the viewers' interest throughout with innovative filmmaking techniques such as handheld cameras, horse-mounted cameras, location shooting, wide screen, montage, color tinting, distorting lenses, and superimpositions; the climactic scene was shot with three cameras and is projected on three screens simultaneously. In contrast, The Passion of Joan of Arc is a solemn, somber, introspective look at the trial and subsequent execution of the nineteen year old Sainte Joan.[sup]8[/sup] Known for his static direction, Carl Theodor Dreyer eschewed the pomposity and pretentiousness of the epic, and instead created a simple, beautiful, horrible, sublime character study, a veritable portrait of suffering. Using the transcendent Renee Maria Falconetti as his lead (her one and only film role), Dreyer took full advantage of her expressive face by shooting almost entirely in close up on a single studio set, so there is very little extraneous stimuli to interfere with our relationship to her character. This technique, unusual then and unheard of today, creates ?an unsettling experience ? so intimate we fear we will discover more secrets than we desire.?[sup]9[/sup]
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - Director F.W. Murnau was one of the first European movie talents to emigrate to Hollywood. With several German Expressionist classics already to his credit - Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922); The Last Laugh (1924); Tartuffe (1925); and Faust (1926) - Murnau created perhaps his best movie on his first Hollywood attempt. Sunrise is simple and oft-told story - a married man falls in love with another woman, who eventually persuades him to kill his wife (Janet Gaynor, who won the first ever Best Actress Oscar, in part for her performance in this movie) and run away with her - but Murnau had a rare talent of making the mundane extraordinary through the power of the image. Unfortunately, Sunrise was Murnau's last masterpiece, as he died in an automobile accident four years after its release, at the age of 42.
Pandora's Box - This film by G.W. Pabst provides a sort of bridge between the outrageous expressionism of Metropolis and the stark realism of M. Starring American actress Louise "Lulu" Brooks, one of the first and sexiest screen sirens, Pandora's Box details the lusts, desires, and ultimate downfall of a wanton young lady of loose morals. As Roger Ebert notes, the plot "could apply equally to a great or a laughable film. Brooks makes it a great one."[sup]10[/sup] And so does Pabst, an underrated director who was able to combine seediness and sexuality in perfect combination. With the sultry and seductive Brooks leading the action, the film simply oozes with passion, but it does so not in the lush, priggish, and staid environment of the typical Hollywood romance (see Pretty Woman (1990) for a particularly egregious and offensive example misplaced propriety), but in the decadent and degenerate fringes of a society in decay. Want one good reason why you should watch an eighty year old silent film? Because it made Quentin Tarantino's top ten list.
The Blue Angel; Queen Christina; Casablanca - In the golden era of Hollywood, the silver screen was dominated by three Germanic goddesses - Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel), Greta Garbo (Queen Christina), and Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca).[sup]11[/sup] Not only were they beautiful, but they could also act, as each of these lovely ladies is in the top ten of the American Film Institute's list of best actresses - Bergman was voted #4, Garbo #5, and Dietrich #9.
It Happened On Night - This romantic comedy was the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra), and Best Screenplay. The only other movies to match this feat are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It Happened One Night is one of the first Hollywood classics, and it still entertains to this day.
Grand Illusion - This movie is set in a German prison camp during World War I, but it is not really a war movie, nor an anti-war movie, nor a prison camp movie, nor an escape from prison camp movie. Rather, Grand Illusion is about class structure, and suggests that a captured French officer (Pierre Fresnay) has more in common with the aristocratic German camp commandant (Erich von Stroheim) than he does with his own fellow prisoners who served under him. With fascism growing among the European working classes and the upstart Hitler trying to spark the second Great War, Grand Illusion seems almost sentimental, a longing for the days when war, however brutal and deadly, was nevertheless fought by gentlemen as a matter of honor and duty. Seen in that light, World War One was the last medieval war of chivalry, the end of the cycle of "romantic war" that began with King Arthur.
The Wizard of Oz - Because musicals have so little room for such standard cinematic conventions as plot, dialogue, and dramatic action, they are the perfect vehicles for fabulous, fantastical sets and wild, colorful costumes, which keep the viewer visually interested in the movie while the songs interrupt the story. The Wizard of Oz is a prime example of this technique (as are Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001)). The Wizard of Oz was perhaps the first film to take full advantage of color technology, and the palette ranges from lush to lurid with proper dramatic and cinematic effect. Most likely, you were fascinated by this movie as a child. Now watch it again, and I bet that you will still be fascinated today.
Citizen Kane; Casablanca - Produced just a year apart, Citizen Kane and Casablanca are often considered to be the two best American movies ever made. Of the two, Citizen Kane is the artier, and the movie is often cited for its technical innovations and stylistic refinements, such as deep focus photography, extreme close-ups, low angle shots, overlapping dialogue, and flashback; it is also praised for its social commentary (Kane is an unflattering portrayal of a media mogul cum politician not unlike the real life William Randolph Hearst). On the other hand, Casablanca is a fairly standard romantic melodrama ... fairly standard in structure and content, that is, but quite extraordinary in execution. Rarely has such a talented cast been assembled[sup]12[/sup] (Bogart and Bergman were huge stars, and the rest of the cast provide excellent support), and the production team outdid themselves (director Michael Curtiz and principal screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein never came close to such success, either before or after this movie). Nearly seventy years after its release, the movie is still the ultimate crowd pleaser - it will make you laugh, cry, cheer, jeer, maybe even sing along as Sam plays it again ... but whatever you feel, you will want to watch Casablanca over and over.
The Maltese Falcon; Chinatown - These movies represent the unofficial beginning and end of film noir, and roughly correspond with the beginning of World War II and the end of the Vietnam War. Film noir is that "unique example of a wholly American film style ... [films] that evoke the dark side of the American persona ... a true cultural reflection of the mental dysfunction of a nation in uncertain transition."[sup]13[/sup] Film noir literally means "black film", and the movies are dark both stylisitically and thematically. The Maltese Falcon is a faithful adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name. Today, the movie is most notable for casting Humphrey Bogart (the AFI's #1 actor of all time) as the reluctant hero, a role that he would reprise several times throughout the remainder of his film career, most notably in Casablanca, The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), and The African Queen (1951) (the middle two selections co-starred Bogart's wife, the stunning Lauren Bacall[sup]14[/sup]). In Chinatown, Jack Nicholson plays a private detective who is hired to solve a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. You may need to watch this movie twice to figure out what's going on. John Huston directed The Maltese Falcon and played a small but key role in Chinatown.
Beauty and the Beast - Although he directed only a handful of feature films, director Jean Cocteau possessed one of the most unusual and intriguing cinematic visions of all time.[sup]15[/sup] His movies are magical, haunting, poetic, and dreamlike, and he used a myriad of special effects to bring his artistic concepts to the silver screen. Beauty and the Beast is the standard fairy tale, but the Cocteau's extraordinary images are mesmerizing and compelling. This movie can be enjoyed by the entire family.
Hamlet; Henry V - Who's the greatest screenwriter in the history of movies? Undoubtedly, the answer is William Shakespeare. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Shakespeare has an incredible 831 writing credits, covering everything from relatively standard adaptations (Orson Welles' Othello (1952) and Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971)) to modern interpretations (Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996)) to direct inspirations (Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985), based on King Lear) to deconstructions (Tom Stoppard's Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)) to the truly bizarre (Troma's Tromeo and Juliet (1996), "the movie with all the car crashes, body piercing, and kinky sex that Shakespeare always wanted but never had", with Lemmy from Motorhead as the narrator). Two of the greatest Shakespeareans of the silver screen were Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, who directed and played the title roles in two of The Bard's best, Hamlet and Henry V, respectively.
The Bicycle Thief; 8-1/2 - Most of the important post-war Italian films were made in the "neorealist" style, which chronicled the underclass that had been dispossessed by fascism and war; as the name suggests, neorealistic films were generally shot on location and used naturalistic dialogue, and often employed non-professional actors. The best-known and most highly acclaimed Italian neorealist film is The Bicycle Thief, the story of a poor man and his young son who search the streets of Rome for the man's stolen bicycle, which is crucial for his job. Director Federico Fellini occupies the other end of the cinematic spectrum, namely surrealism, which focuses on the psychological state of being rather than on the physical. Fellini often relied on his own life experiences and dreams when making his films, and 8-1/2 is an autobiographical work about a director suffering through a creative block.
The Third Man - Alfred Hitchcock is generally considered to be the Master of Suspense, and rightfully so, but Carol Reed's The Third Man is perhaps the most thrilling, suspenseful movie even made. Starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, the principal actors in Citizen Kane, the film concerns an American writer's search for his childhood friend in war-torn Vienna. The screenplay is by novelist Graham Greene, and the famous zither score is by Antos Karas. Director Carol Reed is best known for Oliver! (1968), the musical version of Dickens' Oliver Twist, obviously a universe away from the noir world of The Third Man
Rashomon; Ugetsu - When we think of Japanese cinema, epic sword fights between armies of samurai immediately come to mind. And to be sure, many Japanese movies do fit this stereotype. However, Japanese cinema also tends to explore the spiritual and the supernatural, and these two films display the mystical side of the Japanese national soul. Rashomon is a study of the nature of truth, told from many perspectives, none of which is ultimately true. Ugetsu is best described as a poetic ghost story ... but better to actually see this movie, because its images can convey more meaning than mere words.
Orpheus; Black Orpheus - two very different versions of the traditional Orpheus tale. Black Orpheus, which is set during the Carnival in Rio, is the more conventional telling of the story - it is also the more sensual and colorful, as it is filled with plenty of song, dance, and wild Carnival costumes. By contrast, Orpheus is a cerebral film, shot in stark black and white. In this version, the title character is a brooding poet, not a joyous musician, so don't expect any song and dance routines. Moreover, the focus here is on the underworld, where director Jean Cocteau uses his cinemagic to its full extent.
The Seventh Seal - "All of Bergman's mature films, except the comedies, are about his discontent with the ways that God has chosen to reveal himself,"[sup]16[/sup] and The Seventh Seal is no exception. This is undoubtedly my favorite film, and I believe that this is the best movie ever made. Certainly, The Seventh Seal is one of the most visually striking movies, but it also has comedy, tragedy, and pathos interwoven into an interesting story with a unique recurring plot device. In The Seventh Seal, a disillusioned and disconsolate knight recently returned from a Crusade (Max von Sydow, tall, blonde, athletic, the Nordic ideal) plays chess with Death (the appropriately grim Bengt Ekerot) while simultaneously searching for an ever-absent God. Knowing that he will die as soon as Death beats him at their game (and Death always wins), the knight uses his remaining days to look for meaning in his own fleeting life.
Vertigo; North By Northwest; Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock is the Shakespeare of filmmakers, a man who made movies that will still be meaningful, relevant, entertaining, and even definitive hundreds of years from now. A few other directors made films that occasionally equalled, and in very rare cases exceeded, Hitchcock's best work, but no other director ever has (or likely ever will) make so many great pictures over such a long period of time (Hitchcock made 54 feature films from 1925 to 1976). The three movies listed here are arguably Hitchcock's best, but he made so many masterpieces that I could just as easily argue that they are not (how about Rebecca (1940), Strangers on a Train (1951), and Rear Window (1954)? And there are several other candidates, as well.). I chose these three movies not only because they are undeniably great works, but also because they present Hitchcock's primary cinematic themes - the doppleganger (Vertigo), the wrong man (North By Northwest), and the deranged killer (Psycho) - and they portray women, respectively, as the unattainable virgin who enchants (Kim Novak), the deceitful nymph who seduces (Eva Marie Saint), and the old crone who destroys (Anthony Perkins[!]).[sup]17[/sup]
Some Like It Hot - Director Billy Wilder was yet another refugee who left Germany in the wake of the Nazi takeover. Despite not being a native speaker of English, Wilder is perhaps the greatest screenwriter in the history of Hollywood, and his scripts are especially known for their salty dialogue full of double entendres and sexual innuendoes. With his love of language, Wilder was never the most visual director, but his rich, racy dialogue and impeccable sense of timing generally provide adequate compensation for his relatively mundane camerawork. Some Like It Hot is based on the standard "gender bender" theme that is as old as Achilles - musicians Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in order to hide out from gangsters who are on their tails, dress as women and join an all-female band, the leader of which is Marilyn Monroe. Hijinks ensue.
Last Year At Marienbad; Persona - These two films may be described as postmodern in the way that they deconstruct and re-assemble time and personality, respectively. The emphasis in both movies is on the subjective rendering of ostensibly objective traits, on the melding of reality and illusion (or delusion) to create a surreal experience. In my opinion, Last Year At Marienbad succeeds much better than the more-highly regarded Persona, but as with all movies of this sort, insight is strictly in the mind of the beholder.
Lawrence of Arabia; Raging Bull - Two biopics that are quite different in scope and tone. Lawrence of Arabia, the story of British soldier/adventurer T.E. Lawrence, is a true epic, maybe the biggest epic picture that has ever been produced. Lawrence is portrayed by the legendary Peter O'Toole, in his first significant role, and he gave an amazing performance that was deemed the best of all-time by Premiere Magazine. Another legendary actor who made Premiere Magazine's list was Robert De Niro, who checked in at #10 for his protrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, a gritty, raw, brutal movie about a man who destroys others while destroying himself.
Dr. Strangelove; A Clockwork Orange - Besides being one of the best directors, Stanley Kubrick was also one of the most versatile. Early in his career he dabbled in film noir (Killer's Kiss (1955); The Killing (1956)), and then produced everything from historical epic (Spartacus (1960)), to literary adaptation (Lolita (1962)), to costume drama (Barry Lyndon (1975)), to science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)), to horror (The Shining (1980)), to war movie (Full Metal Jacket (1987)). On the set, Kubrick was a control freak who was known for his methodical productions and his obsessive desire for technical perfection. In his movies, his overriding theme is the effect of the outsider (or outside forces) on a world striving for utopia or on people striving for an ideal. Kubrick always had a dark sense of humor, and Dr. Strangelove is the best example of his comedic side; the fly in this ointment is a Doomsday Device that will destroy earth to prevent nuclear war. A Clockwork Orange is a brilliant mix of mordant humor and theatrical violence set in a surreal rendering of Anthony Burgess's dystopian future. Alex DeLarge, an ultraviolent criminal perfectly portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, runs amok in society until he is "cured" of his sociopathy ... but is the cure worse than the disease? This film is equal parts horrible and beautiful.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Not every cinematic masterpiece is an intellectual exercise. Although The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a beautifully filmed movie with an iconic soundtrack and a star-making performance from Clint Eastwood, this Spaghetti Western is first and foremost a crowd pleaser (as attested by its 9.0 rating on IMDb, good for fourth place on their top 250 list). Although the movie can easily be enjoyed on its own, it is actually the third part of The Man With No Name Trilogy, three lossely connected movies all directed by Sergio Leone and starring Eastwood as the eponymous anonymous title character - the first entry in the series is A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and the second is For a Few Dollars More (1965).
Picnic at Hanging Rock - This eerie, ethereal, dreamlike movie has a subtle eroticism that constantly propels the characters toward their doom, even as the conventions of Victorian society desperately try to hold them back. This counterpoise creates a wonderful tension throughout the movie, until the allure of the unknown becomes just too great. Often described as either "psychological" or "supernatural", Picnic at Hanging Rock is certainly a beautiful and haunting film, regardless of which interpretation you prefer.
Apocalypse Now - My list absolutely needed to have a Francis Ford Coppola movie, so why not The Godfather (1972)? Movies, after all, are about images, and although The Godfather may have an exciting story with strong characterizations and memorable dialogue, what about that film is interesting to watch? On the other hand, Apocalypse Now has a visually powerful opening scene that hooks the viewer right from the start, and for the next three hours Coppola rarely lets up on the barrage of compelling, often surreal, images. Apocalypse Now is not really a war movie, but a tale of two men descending into the void.
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht - Did you notice how many German films appear at the beginning of my list? That's because Germany produced the best, most inventive films during the period from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Third Reich. With the advent of Hitler, however, many of the most talented actors and directors fled Germany for Hollywood, and the Nazis began to censor films and use cinema for propaganda purposes. The German film industry did not recover for decades. The man most responsible for that recovery was Werner Herzog. Although Herzog began making movies in the early 1960's, the tyrannical director did not hit his creative stride until 1972, when he hooked up with maniacal actor Klaus Kinski in Aguirre: Wrath of God (this is another must-see movie).[sup]18[/sup] Herzog and Kinski teamed up again for Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, essentially a remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic, similarly titled Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror. Herzog's movie is the rare example of the homage exceeding the original - not only does Herzog have better technology (including sound) at his disposal, but he was also blessed with three of the greatest European actors of their generation in Kinski, Isabelle Adjani (also one of the true beauties of the silver screen), and Bruno Ganz (best known to football fans for his portrayal of Hitler in Downfall (2004)). Although Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht is the umpteenth re-telling of the old vampire tale, it is the most subtle and intelligent, and the most visually striking.
Kagemusha - Director Akira Kurosawa was best known for his epic samurai movies, especially The Seven Samurai (1954) and Ran (1985). However, in my opinion, Kagemusha is better than its more famous companions because both the story and the cinematography are more interesting. In Kagemusha, a thief is forced to become the double of a famous warlord. When the warlord dies unexpectedly, the thief must temporarily take his place in order to convince rival clans that the warlord is still alive. The thief is clearly not capable of running a powerful clan ... or is he?
Blade Runner - Blade Runner is essentially The Seventh Seal set in Metropolis. Harrison Ford plays a specialized cop (blade runner) whose job it is to kill (terminate) rogue robots that look just like human beings (replicants). The blonde, Teutonic replicant Batty (played by Rutger Hauer, looking very similar to Max von Sydow in The Seventh Seal), returns to futuristic Los Angeles to find his maker, for the purpose of gaining more life from him.[sup]19[/sup] When he learns that not even his maker can grant his wish, Batty initially unleashes his rage before finally finding a meaning in his own "life" on the verge of his own "death".
Eraserhead; Blood Simple; Pi - These movies represent the directoral debuts of three of the top filmmakers working today - David Lynch (Eraserhead); the Coen Brothers (Blood Simple); and Darren Aronofsky (Pi). Each of these directors has made several classic films, but their initial offerings are arguably their best work; certainly Lynch and Aronofsky took full advantage of their independent status to create films that push the boundaries of conventional cinema, while the Coen Brothers from the very start concocted that uneasy mix of black humor and film noir that would inform most of their subsequent efforts. Other notable directoral debuts include Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) and The Maltese Falcon (John Huston).
Zentropa - Zentropa (a.k.a. Europa, not to be confused with Europa Europa which debuted just a year earlier) is the masterwork of Danish director Lars von Trier. Zentropa uses many astonishing technical tricks to create a "strange, haunting, labyrinthine film about a naive American in Germany just after the end of World War II."[sup]20[/sup] Ironically, just a few years after the release of Zentropa, a movie "that makes one feel privy to the reinvention of cinema"[sup]21[/sup], von Trier once again tried to reinvent cinema as a co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement. The Dogme 95 manifesto, which greatly restricts the ability of a filmmaker to use standard cinematic techniques such as studio sets, props, artificial lighting, and soundtracks, is a misguided attempt to create "pure film" - if I want to watch "reality", I'll simply look out my window. A shame, as von Trier was a modern day master of Expressionism.
Schindler's List - After making a number of heavy-grossing, light-weight films like Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Steven Spielberg decided to risk his reputation as a crowd pleaser in order to make a much more "personal" and "artistic" movie. The result was Schindler's List, a graphic, haunting, heart-wrenching tale based on the true story of a German industrialist who attempts to save Jews from a Polish concentration camp. Schindler's List has not been immune from criticism - some say that the movie focuses on a drop of joy amidst a sea of woe[sup]22[/sup] - but the film should be considered a triumphant masterwork from an industry in general, and a director in particular, that thrive on pure escapism and rarely venture too far away from their conventional commercial comfort zones.
Pulp Fiction - I imagine that many of you have already seen Pulp Fiction, and probably liked it for its dark humor, extreme violence, snappy dialogue, and all-around BAMF attitude. Now watch it again, and realize that this is actually a very well-made movie, which suggests that director Quentin Tarantino could have been the next great American auteur. Unfortunately, Tarantino would never again make anything remotely approaching Pulp Fiction. Tarantino admittedly uses many cinematic and pop culture references in his movies, and Pulp Fiction is simply loaded with them. One reference that has apparently escaped general notice is The Gimp - silent, clothed in black, living in a wooden box, under the complete control of other men - who is an updated version of the sleepwalker from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Twelve Monkeys - After leaving the Monty Python troupe, Terry Gilliam directed a series of quirky, offbeat movies such as Brazil (1985); The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988); The Fisher King (1991); and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). Gilliam's unique cinematic vision is best displayed on Twelve Monkeys, the story of a criminal (Bruce Willis) living in a post-apocalyptic world who is sent back in time in order to prevent the apocalypse from happening. Willis is outstanding, but Brad Pitt is even better as the crazed animal rights activist who may hold earth in the balance.
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[sup]1[/sup] These movies are available in English language versions, but the German language versions are superior.
[sup]2[/sup] The original 1979 version is much better than the "redux" version from 2001.
[sup]3[/sup] There are several versions of this movie, the best of which is the so-called "Final Cut" that was released in 2007.
[sup]4[/sup] Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler
[sup]5[/sup] In real life, Krauss remained in Nazi Germany throughout the war, starring in propaganda films such as Jud Suss, while Veidt married a Jewess and fled the country, first for England, then Hollywood where he starred in the anti-Nazi Casablanca.
[sup]6[/sup] Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks
[sup]7[/sup] Ironically, the city of Metropolis becomes submerged at the end of the movie, just like lost Atlantis.
[sup]8[/sup] Joan of Arc, the French heroine, was played by an Italian actress (Falconetti), directed by a Dane (Dreyer), filmed by a Pole (Rudolph Mate'), on a set created by German (Hermann Warm).
[sup]9[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of February 16, 1997
[sup]10[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of April 26, 1998
[sup]11[/sup] Dietrich was German, and Bergman and Garbo were Swedish
[sup]12[/sup] Outside of Bogart and Dooley Wilson (Sam), all of the principal players were foreigners, many of whom left Europe in the wake of Hitler's war - Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet were British; Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, and director Michael Curtiz were Hungarian; Paul Henreid and composer Max Steiner were Austrian; Conrad Veidt, Curt Bois, and art director Carl Jules Weyl were German; Leonid Kinskey was Russian; and Madeleine Lebeau was French.
[sup]13[/sup] Film Noir, An Encyclopedic Reference of the American Style (Third Edition), edited by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward
[sup]14[/sup] Bogie and Bacall were married at Malabar Farm, near Mansfield, Ohio, on May 21, 1945.
[sup]15[/sup] Besides being a film director, Cocteau was a poet, novelist, playwright, artist (he painted the label for the 1947 Mouton Rothschild), and (allegedly) a Grandmaster of the Priory of Sion.
[sup]16[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of April 16, 2000
[sup]17[/sup] It is not surprising that Hitchcok, always the most poetic of Hollywood directors, created a tripartite paean to the Triple Muse. See Robert Graves, The White Goddess
[sup]18[/sup] The love-hate relationship between Herzog and Kinski is detailed in Herzog's documentary, My Greatest Fiend (1999).
[sup]19[/sup] "I want more life, fucker!" Batty says to the engineer who created him. The phrase was borrowed by White Zombie in their song "More Human Than Human", which by the way is the motto of the Tyrell Corporation, the company that makes replicants.
[sup]20[/sup] Roger Ebert, review of July 3, 1992
[sup]21[/sup] Leonard Maltin, 2011 Movie Guide
[sup]22[/sup] Stanley Kubrick allegedly stated: "Schindler's List is about success, the Holocaust was about failure."
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