Film staff member Julian Hanich presents his lists of best films and favorite directors. But here is a warning: The following list will inevitably reveal the author to be a white male European. The choice of films has nothing to do with willful exclusions, but depends both on the pitfalls of film historical circumstances as well as the author’s own subject position at this point in time. List of Best Films: “2001 – A Space Odyssey” (Stanley Kubrick, 1968): That’s HAL of a film! As sublime and impenetrable as a smooth black monolith. “Barry Lyndon” (Stanley Kubrick, 1975): Mr. Kiss two weeks ago: “Handel’s Sarabande meets John Alcott’s Zeiss lens.“ Mr. Hanich adds: “Schubert’s Piano Trio Nr. 2 meets Michael Hordern’s brilliant, sarcastic voice-over narration.” “The Wire” (David Simon, 2002-2008): From now on Balzac will be called “The Wire” of the 19th century. “C’era una volta il West” (Sergio Leone, 1968): Una grande opera – in every sense of the word. “Some Like It Hot” (Billy Wilder, 1959): Nobody’s perfect? Well… “Berlin – Die Symphonie der Großstadt” (Walter Ruttmann, 1927): From dawn till dusk and beyond in a city that barely sleeps: this film is not a classical symphony – this is electronic image-music-text. “Days of Heaven” (Terrence Malick, 1978): Malick. Almendros. Morricone. The South. The sun. The fire. Nature. Love. Murder. And the strange coarse voice of Linda Manz. “Le samouraï” (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967): The birth of cool. Alain Delon may be the single most beautiful actor ever on the silver-screen. “The Silence of the Lambs” (Jonathan Demme, 1991): In the words of its brain-eating main attraction: this film thrills us with its acumen. They Almost Made It: Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) Tabu (F.W. Murnau, 1931) Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982) La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962) Blue (Derek Jarman, 1993) Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006) Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) L’année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961) After the Wedding/Efter bryllupet (Susanne Bier, 2006) List of Favorite Directors: 1. Stanley Kubrick 2. Ingmar Bergman 3. Terrence Malick 4. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau 5. Martin Scorsese 6. Lars von Trier 7. Werner Herzog 8. Billy Wilder 9. Krzysztof Kieslowski 10. Jean-Pierre Melville They Almost Made It: 11. Max Ophüls 12. Michael Haneke 13. Michael Mann 14. Alfred Hitchcock 15. Errol Morris 16. Alain Resnais 17. Sergio Leone 18. Douglas Sirk 19. Atom Egoyan 20. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:04:06 +0000
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