Like many a youngish man with a NetFlix subscription, I’ve taken advantage of the enormous NetFlix back catalog to catch up on film classics that I’ve heard about but never seen. Also, like many a youngish man, I’ve had a creeping feeling that I was born too late to get much pleasure out of some of them. Some films have been so influential that they’ve entered the bloodstream of cinema, and their innovations feel like cliches now. Some were made for an audience with different expectations than mine about pace and acting style. (I don’t think we’ll ever see another movie star like Rock Hudson, for example.) Some are just not for me. (Sorry, Gone With The Wind.)
Of course, this is not always true. I’d be interested to hear about movies that were released ten or more years before your birth that you genuinely enjoyed, rather than appreciated. Here are a few of mine:
Paths of Glory– I don’t know why you don’t hear more about this one. I love Stanley Kubrick and think that his movies have aged well because he doesn’t feel like anyone else. The uncompromisingly bleak story, and the odd rhythm to the long shots, make for a timeless war movie.
Casablanca– When movies dream, they dream that they’re Casablanca.
The Third Man– A gorgeous film, shot in the ruins of postwar Vienna. Dark and hugely fun, even if the big reveal isn’t much of a surprise.
M– I don’t know if I would recommend this to everyone, because it’s a little slower than we might be used to, but I really enjoyed it. It’s the story of a child killer loose in (Berlin?) as the police and the underworld team up to find him. Peter Loore plays the killer with a wonderful, creepy, wild-eyed, pathetic fury.
High Noon– Exceeded my expectations by a mile; just a wonderful movie. What makes it special, IMHO, is Gary Cooper’s lack of swagger. As his friends and colleagues back out on him one by one, he doesn’t chastise them, even though he knows he’s right. When he goes out alone to fight, he’s plainly scared to death. If the Gary Cooper role had gone to a cocksure John Wayne, I don’t think it would have been long remembered.
{ 108 comments }
Brendan 04.14.06 at 12:27 pm
More or less everything by Hitchcock, especially North by Northwest. Although the crop dusting scene still doesn’t make much sense. Oh and Charade, the best movie he never made.
Glenn Bridgman 04.14.06 at 12:32 pm
Lawrence of Arabia
Matt 04.14.06 at 12:35 pm
Judgement at Nuremberg is one for me- not just becuase of its surprising display of moral complexity, but also becuase of some very interesting techniques and enjoyable acting. I also like Jules and Jim a lot. (This will probably turn in to one of those ‘look how cool and obscure I am’ threads, so I’ll blow my cred by saying that The 400 Blows did nothing for me at all.)
Kieran Healy 04.14.06 at 12:40 pm
All About Eve.
Chris Bertram 04.14.06 at 12:41 pm
Here’s a few … revealing a penchant for films of Dashiell Hammett, James M.Cain and Chandler. Bringing Up Baby just has to be the funniest film ever made.
1946: The Big Sleep, Great Expectations, The Postman only Rings Twice
1945: Brief Encounter
1944: Double Indemnity
1941: The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane
1938: Bringing Up Baby
robert the red 04.14.06 at 12:43 pm
Bright Victory (1951) is a movie I caught by accident on TV once and really enjoyed. Not available on DVD, unfortunately. A semi-realistic story about a soldier blinded in WW2 and his long recovery from bitterness to a new life.
Chris Bertram 04.14.06 at 12:43 pm
Unfortunately, I couldn’t nominate All About Eve because I was born within 10 years … but Kieran is so right. One of the greatest ever,
keef 04.14.06 at 12:44 pm
I agree about Hitchcock. Here are two non-Hitchcock movies.
Passion of Joan of Arc: A silent movie that looks contemporary in cinematography, editing, and in use of original (documentary) sources to tell the story. I appreciated it as well as enjoyed it, but one must be in the mood for a silent movie I suppose. As a bonus, I recently learned that the (recent) score was written by Tristero from Digby’s Hullabaloo.
Double Indemnity. Joyous sleaze and better than the ripoff Body Heat (which I like also).
todd. 04.14.06 at 12:44 pm
The Hustler. Vertigo.
Urizen 04.14.06 at 12:50 pm
I’ll second the Hitchcock, especially Vertigo and Rope. Chaplin’s The Kid, too. Lolita, Touch of Evil . .
Randy Paul 04.14.06 at 12:53 pm
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Sullivan’s Travels and virtually everything by Preston Sturges.
Much of the film noir ouevre. Most of Jean Renoir’s films.
CG 04.14.06 at 12:54 pm
Not sure if it’s “old” enough, but no movie has ever moved me the way Felini’s 8 1/2 has. No time-translation difficulties at all. It could have been made yesterday… or tomorrow, or twenty years in the future, and it would still feel new.
–CG
Peter 04.14.06 at 12:56 pm
Trouble in Paradise. It’s 1932, just a few years after full sound, and Ernst Lubitsch was totally drunk on the possibilities. It’s got a bunch of charming performances, too… I’ll second The Passion of Joan of Arc; it is awesome.
catherine liu 04.14.06 at 12:58 pm
Anything by Douglas Sirk, Fritz Lang, King Vidor — don’t forget the early Hitchcock, especially The 39 Steps. The Postman Always Rings Twice.
I have a particular weakness for noir and melodrama though –and let’s not forget the brilliance of Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati.
Claudette Colbert is worth watching in anything as well.
Slayton I. Mustgo 04.14.06 at 1:07 pm
Bringing Up Baby — I consider it the perfect movie.
But I love The Lady Eve too. You see, I think Henry Fonda is a dope and a stiff. I never liked him in anything from Grapes of Wrath to On Golden Pond. But in The Lady Eve, he is humiliated from start to finish – and by Barbara Stanwick too. What’s not to like. Also, Eugene Pallette AND Charles Coburn. AND William Demerest. And Eric Blore…
Peter 04.14.06 at 1:08 pm
The first couple Thin Man films,
His Girl Friday and, though it has already been mentioned,
Bringing Up Baby.
The generous humor and quick wit displayed in these films has rarely, if ever, been matched.
y81 04.14.06 at 1:09 pm
Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Most Cary Grant comedies.
But I don’t go to many movies, or watch much TV, so my expectations as to pacing etc. may match those who lived well before I was born.
Ryan Barlow 04.14.06 at 1:10 pm
Ted im ashamed, what about Grandma Jo’s favorite The Great Race. Ive been trying to get my friends to watch it.
joe o 04.14.06 at 1:12 pm
The Awful Truth is pretty funny. Comedy usually doesn’t hold up over time, but this one does.
Richard Bellamy 04.14.06 at 1:12 pm
1. The African Queen — Something about Katherine Hepburn, maybe, brought out the “Actor” in Bogart in a way that Lauren Bacall never did. If Casablanca was his most expansive movie, The African Queen could have been almost done in a black box theatre.
2. The Thin Man series — I don’t know. You either loved it or you didn’t.
3. The Manchurian Candidate — because I’m only 33 and it just fits on the right side of the year criterion, unlike Mary Poppins/ Sound of Music.
Ben Alpers 04.14.06 at 1:14 pm
I’m a big fan of older movies (heck, some of my scholarship is about older movies), so I’m probably the wrong person to ask. But here are six wonderful films that those who aren’t big fans of older movies might not otherwise think of seeing…
Sunrise (1927) Fox lured German director FW Murnau to Hollywood to make this masterpiece. Unavailable for years on DVD, it’s finally out in a beautiful transfer. Don’t miss it (even if you don’t think you like silent films)! (And if you like this film, be sure to check out Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924)).
Fury (1936) While we’re on the subject of German directors working in Hollywood, this is Fritz Lang’s first English language film (Lang went on to direct many others). It stars Spencer Tracy as a man wrongly accused of a crime. Interesting movie that concerns mob violence and how to limit it.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) How do make a comedy that’s all about premarital sex (and attitudes toward premarital sex) under a Production Code that essentially prohibits directly discussing or depicting premarital sex? Let writer-producer-director Preston Sturges show you how it’s done!
“I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945) A romance set in Scotland by the always brilliant British team of Michael Powell (who later directed the rather twisted Peeping Tom) and Emric Pressburger. If romance (or black and white) is not your cup of tea, check out instead Powell and Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) This film about veterans returning from World War II wrongly developed a reputation for sappy sentimentality. Though there are certainly sappy moments to it, it’s actually fairly subtle and, in many ways, hardheaded about the post-war transition. As such, it’s a very useful corrective to all the simplistic “greatest generation” blather that developed in part in response to the post-Vietnam experience. Best Years features the beautiful, deep focus cinematography of Gregg Toland, who also shot Citizen Kane and Grapes of Wrath.
Night of the Hunter (1955) The only film Charles Laughton directed, this noir stars Robert Mitchum as a seriously creepy preacher who threatens two young children. A cinematically beautiful movie that’s been thoroughly raided for ideas by later directors like Martin Scorsese.
itty 04.14.06 at 1:19 pm
I have many I think, but the two that stick out and that also haven’t been mentioned are:
1. The Apartment – Great Billy Wilder movie featuring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. What romantic comedies should be (I also should recommend Some Like it Hot)
2. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg – I think people either hate this or love this. If you can get past the musical dialogue and appreciate the art direction and the score, and a great story, then it’s well worth it.
Rick 04.14.06 at 1:27 pm
The Ladykillers with Alec Guiness (& Peter Sellers in a supporting role that didn’t come close to his better roles.) I haven’t seen the Tom Hanks remake and don’t intend to anytime soon.
Gaslight – the 1944 version with Angela Lansbury, if only to see that her face was matronly even before the age of 20. Which reminds me…
The Manchurian Candidate – the 1962 release, where Lansbury played the mother of Laurence Harvey, who was only 3 years younger than her. In this case I saw the remake and it wasn’t anywhere near as good.
Casablanca still remains one of my favorites.
Urinated State of America 04.14.06 at 1:32 pm
Some like it hot.
The Midwich Cuckoos.
Alexander Nevsky.
As you’ve said, Paths of Glory is great and surprisingly obscure these days.
Enjoy the sword-and-sandal films as well – 300 Spartans, Jason & the Argonauts.
C.J.Colucci 04.14.06 at 1:35 pm
I’ve always said there were two types of people: those whose favorite Marx Brothers movie was Duck Soup and those whose favorite was A Night at the Opera.
Paul Newman 04.14.06 at 1:38 pm
Cool Hand Luke
"Q" the Enchanter 04.14.06 at 1:39 pm
The Great Dictator.
Jaybird 04.14.06 at 1:41 pm
Dangit, I was going to mention Night at the Opera.
I think that Night at the Opera has a ton of better moments but it also has a lot of fast-forward material.
Duck Soup won’t make you feel like fast-forwarding, but you won’t throw up because you’ve been laughing too hard. (The music’s also better in Night at the Opera.)
"Q" the Enchanter 04.14.06 at 1:41 pm
I would have said Manchurian Candidate, but my advanced age disqualifies me.
Sharon 04.14.06 at 1:47 pm
This is too easy. I like old films.
Everything ever made by Billy Wilder (genuflects). Falling into the 10 years before my birth bracket: Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, Some Like it HOt, Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole (brilliant in a particularly evil and twisted way. Plus, Kirk Douglas).
The Wicked Lady (1945). Gainsborough melodrama about a highwaywoman. Co-starring Margaret Lockwood’s magnificent heaving bosoms (and James Mason); allegedly some scenes had to be re-shot for the US market because the censors found the bosoms too outrageous. Terrible acting, ridiculous story, utterly hilarious.
La Kermesse Heroique (1935). How to describe this? The BFI calls it “a joyfully immoral satire”. It’s set in an early-17th-century Flemish town facing invasion by the Spanish; the men of the town are a bunch of useless cowards and the women take over to avert the threat. I haven’t even started on the anticlericalism. It’s really gorgeous to look at too.
I’ll add another vote for His Girl Friday. Other favourite Cary Grant: Holiday, Talk of the Town, Arsenic and Old Lace. (I think Bringing up Baby is OK but overrated.)
Rand Careaga 04.14.06 at 1:52 pm
I’m going to break your ten-year rule for a few of these selections, ’cause I’m older than dirt, and my recommendations will be influenced by the fact that I’ve been on an Italian film tear (monthly dinner parties w/postprandial flick) since the beginning of last year. In approximately chronological order:
Assorted Errol Flynn swashbucklers and oaters such as Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dodge City (1930s & 40s)to name a few. The acting’s a little broad, but Flynn enjoys himself so much that it’s hard to resist him.
The Thin Man and a few of its followups. The franchise was starting to look a little threadbare by the end of its sixteen-year run, but the first few innings (1932-36) were giddy fun, and featured, apart from suave William Powell and spunky, ravishing Myrna Loy, some future stars, then little-known and occasionally cast against eventual type.
The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Umberto D (1953), two landmarks of neorealism, bracing, unaffected, and featuring some extraordinary performances from nonprofessionals (the sorrowing stoicism of the little boy in Bicycle Thief; the tattered dignity of Umberto D‘s eponymous pensioner in the face of his declining fortunes).
Roman Holiday (1953) is not strictly speaking, an “Italian” flick, although–unusual for that Hollywood back-lot era–it was actually filmed, and in a very creamy black-and-white at that, on location, and seems to have been made under a supremely favorable alignment of the stars, with some potentially fatal casting mistakes averted. Gregory Peck was cast in a role for which Cary Grant was originally sought, and while Peck had to stretch to portray his character’s raffishness, which Grant could have communicated in his sleep, it’s tough to imagine Grant matching Peck’s bedrock solidity and decency: there would inevitably have been a knowing smirk to spoil the illusion. The young Audrey Hepburn had only a couple of walk-on parts to her credit before her role here; she was, as everyone connected with the production understood by the time they wrapped, perfect for the role. Having seen the rest of her career we can appreciate even more the utter freshness of that first star turn: it is not that she ever subsequently phoned it in, but thereafter directors were sometimes tempted to cast her as “Audrey Hepburn.” In Roman Holiday a romantic comedy doubles as a poignant fable of of duty, escape, responsibility, renunciation and honor (some credit here to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, whose name was finally restored to the opening credits forty years later, a gesture I’m certain he would have appreciated had he not been, you know, like, dead for over a quarter of a century by that time) in a film as perfect in its way as Casablanca.
I Vitelloni (1953) was Fellini’s second solo directorial effort. It’s an affectionate look at Italian “slackers” in a provincial resort town (the American films Diner and Mean Streets are both acknowledged by their directors to have borrowed liberally from this one) rendered without condescension or with any of the self-indulgent foibles that characterized Fellini’s work from 1963 forward.
marcel 04.14.06 at 1:57 pm
Kieran Healy (4) said All About Eve.
My wife rented it and we watched it this week. I got up right after the party scene because I found Eve so creepy I couldn’t stand to watch her anymore.
I’m a sucker for Bogart and Bacall, so I’ll add To Have and To Have Not to the list. It’s more than a bit of a Casablanca knockoff/ripoff, but it totally redeems itself in being Bacall’s first movie, age 19 or so. I saw it at that age, and boy, was I in love. Also, I can’t believe that no one has mentioned The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn’s very well managed comeback movie. It’s one (of many) of the movies that likely prompted Grant to say “Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” I agree with jaybird (28) about the Marx Brothers. I’d also add most (but not all) of Chaplin’s other features: Modern Times and The Gold Rush come immediately to mind.
More recently, and if Ted is youngish enough (probably not – Tim, you in your mid-20s?), this qualifies, Blazing Saddles.
Chris (5) mentioned The Big Sleep. I discovered, to my surprise when I checked out a DVD from my library, that a different cut was released in Canada a year before the US one. The two versions were on flip sides of the disc. The Canadian version makes a lot more sense, but, perhaps as a result, is much less noir-ish. As I was watching it, thinking I was watching the US version, I kept on thinking that scenes were in a different order than I remembered, but it had been 15-25 years since I’d last seen it. Finally I saw a scene that I’d never seen before, and realized my mistake. Watched it all the way through with my teenaged son, and we watched the real version the next night.
George 04.14.06 at 2:01 pm
Naughty Marietta (Jeanette McD, Nelson E.) Intentionally or not, it’s hilarious. I can hardly type, just thinking about it.
washerdreyer 04.14.06 at 2:04 pm
Shadow of a Doubt doesn’t get enough credit when people talk Hitchcock.
Richard Bellamy 04.14.06 at 2:10 pm
A few more that jumped into my head:
Along Came Jones — Gary Cooper not taking himself seriously in a Comedy-Western, to very good effect.
Duck Soup — And the rest of the Marx Brothers
12 Angry Men/ Inherit the Wind — Courtroom dramas that still seem fresh.
Some Like It Hot
peter ramus 04.14.06 at 2:35 pm
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).
The Criterion Collection DVD features a soundtrack of Richard Einhorn’s opera/oratorio Voices of Light. Push this one to the top of your Netflix queue today.
peter ramus 04.14.06 at 2:36 pm
And if, like most people, you’ve wondered what the French see in Jerry Lewis, Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932).
Matt McGrattan 04.14.06 at 2:46 pm
In the vein of the Marx Brother’s stuff already mentioned.
Hellzapoppin’ which I saw years ago and thought was fantastic.
Hogan 04.14.06 at 2:54 pm
The Palm Beach Story. Really anything by Preston Sturges, but I saw this again recently and wanted to mention it. Maybe it’s the fact that it was my first Sturges, or maybe it’s Claudette Colbert, but this one just goes right to my pleasure centers. And it’s also because Sturges could figure out how to turn Joel McCrea and Rudy Vallee into comedy gold.
OK, it’s mostly Claudette Colbert.
Second the motion on Shadow of a Doubt, and would add The Lady Vanishes. (“People don’t go about tying up nuns.”)
You see, I think Henry Fonda is a dope and a stiff. I never liked him in anything from Grapes of Wrath to On Golden Pond.
THANK YOU. I enjoy watching Fonda only when he’s the bad guy (Fort Apache and Once Upon a Time in the West).
Dargie 04.14.06 at 2:56 pm
I was raised bya pair of movie lovers who were nearly 40 when I was born (1952), so my cinematic education was pretty extensive. I’d second many of the films suggested in the comments section (as well as your list, particularly “M” and “The Third Man”) and add “People Will Talk” which is arguably Cary Grant’s oddest film. While Jeanne Crain seems to be in another movie entirely, the rest of the cast just take the strange story and run with it. Also “The Shop Around the Corner” and “The Desk Set” for comedies. For drama, “All This and Heaven Too” which is just the most deliciously lush, romantic tear-jerker you can imagine. Bette Davis as the polar opposite of Margo Channing, and just as much fun.
Bill Gardner 04.14.06 at 3:03 pm
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Horse Soldiers
The Searchers
Mister Roberts
Rio Grande
Fort Apache
My Darling Clementine
Stage Coach
… no prizes for identifying what they have in common … I think The Horse Soldiers may be my favorite. I haven’t seen this one.
Mike Russo 04.14.06 at 3:17 pm
I’m surprised — no love for Kurosawa? Seven Samurai is brilliant (as is Ran, albeit it’s not that old). Throne of Blood and Yojimbo are also quite good, albeit I don’t think they rise to the same level. And Rashemon, of course.
W. Kiernan 04.14.06 at 3:17 pm
I saw Horsefeathers for the first time last night – “Whatever it is, I’m against it!” Another one that I saw for the first time last year was “Kiss Me Deadly,” wow!
Bill Gardner 04.14.06 at 3:19 pm
Mike Russo @#41:
Good point! And how about Ugetsu Monogatari?
Tom Ames 04.14.06 at 3:21 pm
Seven Samurai and Roshomon.
The commentary on these DVDs is fantastic.
Scott Spiegelberg 04.14.06 at 3:22 pm
City Lights, Cabiria, The Jazz Singer (the original), On the Waterfront, The Informer, Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben Hur, the Wizard of Oz.
And almighty seconds to Casablanca and High Noon.
Bill Gardner 04.14.06 at 3:23 pm
No one mentions Godard. Possibly because, after Breathless, no one ever enjoyed him.
Steve 04.14.06 at 3:46 pm
I’ve enjoyed every other Preston Sturges movie I’ve seen more than Sullivan’s Travels, although I’ve only seen his work through the peak of his career. I love His Girl Friday with a passion. Anyone a fan of Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera, my favorite silent movie?
I’ll take advantage of my youth: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and to a lesser extent For a Few Dollars More) are still really, really good. (And I was surprised how well Kubrick’s The Killing stood up, despite the lousy Code-ish ending.)
Rob MacDougall 04.14.06 at 3:47 pm
Star Wars.
Rob MacDougall 04.14.06 at 3:47 pm
Just kidding.
melissa spore 04.14.06 at 4:20 pm
Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju,1959): Not before my birth, but best horror ever.
My favourite Hitchcock were all made in England in the 30s: The Lady Vanishes, Young and Innocent, and Sabotage (Oscar Homolka is tremendous).
Renoir’s Grande illusion (1937) and anything by Jean Vigo (À propos de Nice & L’Atalante).
Of course, I agree about many of the movies mentioned above. But why have Franju, Renoir, Vigo and the early Hitchcok been forgotton?
Incidentally, I can’t speak anything but English. In very good movies the subtitle problem melts away.
wage slage 04.14.06 at 4:20 pm
Echoing a couple above, Preston Sturges is awesome. Also acutely enjoyable for me are That Obscure Object of Desire, Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, The Lion in Winter, The 39 Steps, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Kind Hearts and Coronets.
I can’t really say that I am more likely to appreciate vs. enjoy older movies. Actually, recent movies in my Netflix queue tend to be the granola and the older ones the popcorn. (TV series DVDs make up the rest of the popcorn. I just can’t stand recent-decade Hollywood popcorn.)
Brendan 04.14.06 at 4:31 pm
I’ll match your Monogatari and raise you a Teshigahara.
dq 04.14.06 at 4:50 pm
Laura – the score foiled Otto Preminger’s bizarre desire to portray Gene Tierney as a slut.
I Know Where I’m Going – or, really, anything by Powell and Pressberger.
Singing In the Rain – train your kid up on this one and you insulate yourself from a gazillion bad kiddie movies ;).
The Big Country – fabulous music.
Love Me Tonight – Mamoulian in Holywood, Chevalier and MacDonald in multiple gender role inversions and Myrna Loy plays the nymphomaniac younger sister. What’s not to like?
Jay Conner 04.14.06 at 5:25 pm
“Tomorrow”, the best movie you’ll never see, early Robert Duvall, based on a Faulkner short story (“Bend of the River” I think, I have never been able to find it) screenplay by Horton Foote.
A B&W Southern poverty film, about a man who takes in a battered, pregnant woman, and becomes father to her son when she dies, until the boy is about 6, is discovered by his brutish family and reclaimed by them.
“Fires on the Plain”, a japanese anti-war film about soldiers cut off and starving in the Phillipine jungles.
“King of Masks”, more recent, about a Chinese mask artist who is looking for a son to take on his craft, and finally accepts a daughter. Frankly sentimental, but great to take a 9 year old to.
Harold and Maude, no one has mentioned ??
BennettC 04.14.06 at 5:28 pm
Treasure of the Sierra Madre. you’ll get some more confirms on this one. Other John Huston films were, good, check out http://www.allmovie.com
Someone mentioned Powell and Pressburger. They were super. Try A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes.
Fellini – La Strada, 8 1/2, Nights of Cabiria
Quo Vadis 04.14.06 at 5:29 pm
I disagree about Fonda as Tom Jode in Grapes of Wrath. I grew up among a lot of Tom Jodes, and I think Fonda played the quiet passion of the “dirt framer†perfectly.
Agree about Roman Holiday; it touches my cheesy romantic side. Being a bit of an Audrey Hepburn fan, I like Breakfast at Tiffany’s perhaps even more than Holiday, but I’m not sure it meets the 10 year limit for me.
It is said that one either loves or hates Duck Soup. I love it.
Kurasawa is excellent. I’ve never seen anything else like it.
Bill Gardner 04.14.06 at 5:38 pm
Brendan @#53:
An unanticipated yet powerful move! But I will stand pat with Shin Heike Mongotari.
foolishmortal 04.14.06 at 5:39 pm
56 posts, the OP referred to Kubrick and noone’s mentioned Dr. Strangelove?(1964) In terms of plain enjoyment I’d put it above any other movie relased before it, and almost all since.
Sharon 04.14.06 at 5:49 pm
Yep, I agree that Man with a Movie Camera is fabulous. (And this is speaking as someone who tends to find silent film a bit too much like hard work.)
And god, yeah, I forgot about La Belle et la Bete and L’Atalante (kitties!!).
And you know what else I forgot: Top Hat. How could I leave out Fred and Ginger?!
Interestingly enough, Rashomon comes under the heading of films I probably ‘appreciate’ more than ‘enjoy’ (using Ted’s criterion in the post). There are great films, and there are enjoyable films, and the two things only sometimes meet up. Of course, when they do, the result is sublime.
Spoon 04.14.06 at 5:50 pm
No mention of Fred and Ginger movies yet?
Also, All the President’s Men. Adventures of Robin Hood. The 1935 Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jimmy Cagney as Bottom makes it more than worth it). Wizard of Oz. The Philadelphia Story. And, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
foolishmortal 04.14.06 at 6:26 pm
spoon(61): Holy Grail was released in 1975, and while there’s no shame in being 21, if you include this you have to start including The Godfathers I and II, Chinatown, The Exorcist and the like. You’re almost in Star Wars territory.
I would like to add,however, Dr. No (1962).
Liz 04.14.06 at 6:50 pm
I second The Awful Truth–brilliantly funny. Any Fred and Ginger movie, of course. And my favourite musical of all, Golddiggers of 1933, though Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang deserves honourable mention.
gmoke 04.14.06 at 6:51 pm
Anything by Buster Keaton, the earliest comedy shorts through the great silent features – The Navigator, Steamboat Bill Junior, The Cameraman, The General… Keaton is amazing on a wide variety of levels.
Can’t go wrong with Ozu if you’re into Japanese films, non-chambara Japanese films. Try Mizoguchi’s Princess Yang Kwei Fei too for a doomed love tht shattered the Tang dynasty.
Keith 04.14.06 at 6:53 pm
Doctor Strangelove is still hilarious, even after I’ve seen it about a bajillion times.
The Day the Earth Stood Still keeps getting better and I’ll always have a soft spot for Forbidden Planet
My wife recently saw Cassablanca for the first time and was surprised at how many famous lines/ scenes/ shots/ characters she knew, and that more than that they all came from one movie.
Ben Alpers 04.14.06 at 6:58 pm
On a noir note…
Sweet Smell of Success
Kiss Me Deadly (already mentioned, but wow!)
Phantom Lady
Gun Crazy
Out of the Past (perhaps the best film noir of them all)
Gilda
The Big Heat
and others….
The Crowd
My Man Godfrey
The Seventh Victim (and all the other Val Lewton pix, that are now finally available on DVD)
Port of Shadows (perhaps belong in the noir list)
Pepe le Moko (ditto)
On the Town
…I could really go on forever.
Ben Alpers 04.14.06 at 7:02 pm
Cheating to include some films made more recently than ten years before I was born….
Kwaidan
Onibaba
The Saragasso Manuscript
The Naked Kiss
The Exterminating Angel
Masculin Feminin
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors
Peter 04.14.06 at 7:20 pm
Well, none of these pass the 10+ years before birth requirement (although the first one is close), but I’d recommend:
The Day The Earth Stood Still A carpenter comes to the Earth, is listened to by wise men, women and children, is killed by the authorites and is returned to life. Sounds like a familiar story.
Bundle of Joy another 50s story. Starts out as a woman who loses her job, then as she walks home, she passes an orphanage where someone else dropped off an infant. As she rushes to prevent the infant from rolling off the steps, the door opens, they drag her in, and the misunderstandings go on and on.
Forbidden Planet Nice story, swell special fx. Has plenty of great lines in there. Such as:
Leslie Nelson: I’ll wait here while you put on your bathing suit.
Ann Francis: What’s a bathing suit?
(Leslie Nelson covers his eyes and looks away)
If FP ever got remade, there is no way that line could be duplicated these days.
My Hitchcock favorites have already been mentioned, and I was lucky enough to find the sheet music to the theme of The Third Man in a used book store. Was badly beaten up, but otherwise great shape for some 50-year old sheet music. Not that I have a zither.
Laura 04.14.06 at 8:25 pm
Now, Voyager. Not only for the double-barrelled cigarette-lighting trick….
Matt Weiner 04.14.06 at 8:40 pm
Beaten to the first three that leapt to mind: Duck Soup, Seven Samurai, and Shadow of a Doubt. (But washerdreyer is so right about that. Amazing black-comedy dialogue, and a tremendous job of showing how Teresa Wright feels fear in her own home.) And I’m just too old for La Jetée.
Nosferatu was pretty amazing but did require some adjustment of expectations. I’m pretentious enough that I get to name this version of Fall of the House of Usher, which I saw with live music by Tom Verlaine.
And the Cocteau movies I’ve seen; someone mentioned La Belle et la Bete, but also Blood of a Poet and Les Enfants Terribles.
Matt Weiner 04.14.06 at 8:42 pm
While I’m being Francophilic, The Wages of Fear and Rififi.
Jared 04.14.06 at 9:06 pm
I second To Have and Have Not. Its pace and acting style belong to a different era, but it’s still entertaining because Bogey and Bacall were just so damn cool.
Billy Liar is also great. It’s the cinematic equivalent of listening to the Kinks, all playful irony with just a little bit of violence. Plus no one has ever looked more beautiful on film than Julie Christie does here.
No one’s mentioned Bande à Part, the most fun Godard film I’ve seen. The scene in the café is one of my favorites of all time.
asg 04.14.06 at 9:11 pm
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
Casablanca (1942)
I appreciated many of the titles mentioned in comments above, but I enjoyed the above ones very much.
ProfWombat 04.14.06 at 9:12 pm
No WC Fields? ‘You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man’, ‘Never Give a Sucker an Even Break’, ‘The Bank Dick’
‘Million Dollar Legs’: with Mata MacRee, the Hottest Thing in All Klopstockia…
‘Kagemusha’, as a meditation of power and its seductions, utterly on point in the Bush years
Not much Ingmar Bergman up there either: “Seventh Seal’, ‘Fannie and Alexander’, ‘The Magician’, ‘Scenes from a Marriage’
bob mcmanus 04.14.06 at 9:16 pm
Too much, don’t know where to start.
The first two Tarzan movies. Clara Bow and Louise Brooks. The Wind. Louise Brooks and Clara Bow. Most of the good noir was before my birth. Busby Berkeley. Brooks and Bow.
Quo Vadis 04.14.06 at 9:19 pm
Speaking of Fritz Lang: Metropolis
Alex Earl 04.14.06 at 9:54 pm
All Quiet on the Western Front is still the greatest war movie I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen quite a few.)
Randy Paul 04.14.06 at 9:55 pm
How do make a comedy that’s all about premarital sex (and attitudes toward premarital sex) under a Production Code that essentially prohibits directly discussing or depicting premarital sex? Let writer-producer-director Preston Sturges show you how it’s done!
Not to mention naming the heroine Trudy Kockenlocker!
Unfortunately I’m too old (born in 1956) to include many of my favorites, but I want to call special attention to the films of Masaki Kobayashi, especially Hara Kiri and Rebellion, both out on DVD and unyielding attacks on the blind obsession with tradition in Japanese society.
I also recommend the films of Francesco Rosi, especially Three Brothers, The Mattei Affair, Christ Stopped at Eboli, Illustrious Corpses and Salvatore Giuliano.
Matt Weiner 04.14.06 at 10:53 pm
Double-checking the dates, I saw that Rififi is being remade. The first comment gets it about right. (And the screenwriter is Bo Goldman, who doesn’t seem to have worked since “Meet Joe Black.” I wonder why?)
Gene O'Grady 04.14.06 at 11:14 pm
Well, I’m too old to include a lot of wonderful movies but here goes —
Smart Money (1931), good crime film with sizzling sexual chemistry between James Cagney and Edward G Robinson.
The Wind (1928), perhaps Lillian Gish’s best film, a worthy complement to Sunrise as the silent movies expired.
Also the Lillian Gish film of The Scarlet Letter
Hitchcock’s 1929 semi-sound Blackmail
Hitchcock’s chilling heartwarming Young and Innocent/The Girl Was Young (from the world’s only Nova Pilbeam fan)
Harold Lloyd in Girl Shy and Safety Last
It Happened One Night (no film was ever so superior to its written source)
Since Clara Bow has come up but no Clara Bow movies, try It, her most Clara film, the pleasant college comedy The Plastic Age, and her first film Down to the Sea In Ships, or at least the whale hunt and the parts where Clara the tomboy steals the show.
Finally, and I’m cheating on the age thing here, since someone has mentioned The Lady Eve, in which Barbara Stanwick blasts Henry Fonda off the screen, try a similar film with Barbara Stanwick and the far stronger Fred MacMurray, Remember the Night, a movie flirts with every awful film cliche you could imagine and survives them all. Preston Sturges may have helped.
Since I mention a lot of silent movies I should say that in my experience except for the very best of them seeing them on large screen with large audience and live music makes a big difference.
nameless 04.14.06 at 11:32 pm
It’s usually overlooked, but it’s a Flynn masterpiece: Gentleman Jim. The only comedy about boxing that works, plus a little fable about class relations in America long ago.
Yankee Doodle Dandy–another tough guy who can dance. My father thanks you . . .
Grand Illusion–the greatest, most profound of all of Renoir’s films, which may make it the greatest of all time (but let’s not start that futile argument).
To Be or Not To Be–the Jack Benny and Carol Lombard original, of course. Perfect.
And one film that doesn’t fit within the ten year rule for me but has to be mentioned: Pather Panchali.
Frank 04.15.06 at 2:58 am
The Bitter Tea of General Yen–Frank Capra’s 1933 film which deals with the erotic, the exotic, and the transgressive. I hate the sickly sentimentality of Capra’s other films; but this one redeems him for me.
The Thief of Baghdad (1940)–Michael Powell’s wonderful homage to the 1001 Nights. A tyrant is overthrown and Sabu manages to trick the jinn back into the bottle (would that real life was like that!).
brooksfoe 04.15.06 at 4:35 am
The 1940s Barbara Stanwyck original of that movie that had the mediocre remake with Sondra Bullock where the girl is mistaken for the fiancee of the guy after the train accident and is welcomed into the family, and must pretend to be who they think she is because otherwise her life will collapse. The original is far bleaker – Stanwyck is broke and pregnant after her asshole ex-boyfriend dumps her in NY with nothing but a one-way ticket back to SF; the sweet couple she meets on the train die in the wreck (no bogus “coma” or “amnesia” crap); if she admits who she really is, she’ll be back out on the street with her baby instead of welcomed into the bosom of an all-American St. Louis family, so the high stakes make sense. The cinematography is superior, with numerous indelible shots: a CU of a woman’s foot kicking a man’s shin to clue him to give up his seat for the pregnant Stanwyck, the first moment of human kindness in the film, almost brings tears to your eyes. And the Freudian stuff is made explicit to the point of truly cool weirdness. The early turning point comes when the kind woman invites Stanwyck to the train bathroom to put on makeup together. She takes off her wedding ring to wash her hands. Stanwyck admires it. The woman suggests she try it on, see if it would look good on her. Stanwyck puts it on; she looks in the mirror. And the mirror cracks, the room turns upside down, we hear screams, and Stanwyck wakes up in a white hospital room, her baby born, transformed into the daughter-in-law of kind people she’s never met. Later, as she’s hanging up the star on the Christmas tree, secure in her new life, a telegram arrives that reads simply: “I know who you are.”
Who wouldn’t faint if they got a telegram like that?
helena 04.15.06 at 7:45 am
you all will take this as lowering the tone and/or age-bracket. but “the parent trap” (1961) is surely one of the most enjoyable movies ever, if only for hayley mills & the late 50s aesthetic of that superexcellent ranch. plus i saw “to kill a mockingbird” (1962, w/ the ultra dashing gregory peck) again recently, and it’s still *smashing*.
Ginger Yellow 04.15.06 at 8:32 am
I was born in 1979 and I can’t stand most 80s movies (the work of Scorsese, Leone and Stone excepted), so the vast, vast majority of films I enjoy were released 10+ years before my birth. In fact, the only films in my top 30 not to be released 10+ years before my birth would be The Big Lebowski, Blade Runner, Requiem For A Dream, The Godfather, Mean Streets, Ran, Hana Bi, Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China.
Back on topic, types of film I really, really enjoy from pre 1969 – spaghetti Westerns, film noir, screwball comedies, sci-fi (esp. The Day The Earth Caught Fire, 2001 and Barbarella), Marx Brothers, Keaton, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Lang and Hitchcock.
Brendan 04.15.06 at 9:00 am
Bill Gardner
I throw my celluloid hand in and admit defeat, although i have actually see Ugetsu monogatari. If anyone hasn’t actually seen Woman in the Dunes incidentally, they should (isn’t it a shame that you always feel so pretentious recommending Japanese films that aren’t horror, animated or by Ozu or Kurosawa?). You could make a case for it being the greatest film of all time. It’s certainly amongst the weirdest. I haven’t read the novel. Does anyone know if it’s meant to be any good?
fred lapides 04.15.06 at 9:37 am
Any and all Tarzan films, esp. with Johnny Weismuller
Bill Gardner 04.15.06 at 10:02 am
Brendan @#86:
Since you’ve thrown down your cards, I gleefully confess that I was bluffing. I haven’t seen Teshigahara, but I appreciate the pointers — I certainly will find these films. Mizoguchi, however, is God.
Your point about Japanese film is well-taken. Actually, film conoisseurship / snobbery appears to have fallen on hard times. If you had gone to school “in Boston”, as it were, in a certain era, the list above would seem pedestrian. Nothing like the sophistication that would have been on display if Ted had asked for recommendations of, say, world music. I blame Star Wars.
Matt Weiner 04.15.06 at 10:46 am
Does anyone know if [the novel Woman in the Dunes is] meant to be any good?
I enjoyed it; I’m generally a Kobo Abe fan. Abe reminds me of J.G. Ballard (sometimes Abe’s novels are new-wave mysteries instead of new-wave science fiction, maybe). On the other hand, I haven’t read Woman in the Dunes for a long time; my favorite Abe novels are probably The Ark Sakura and The Box Man.
Matt 04.15.06 at 11:54 am
At least half of the movies on the American Film Institute’s (decent) list of the ‘100 greatest American movies of all time’ were made more than ten years before I was born. So, there’s fifty movies without even leaving Hollywood.
I think no one has yet mentioned ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940), which would probably win the award for the greatest American romantic comedy not written by Billy Wilder. In it, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart play very funny caricatures of themselves.
fyreflye 04.15.06 at 12:30 pm
Released ten or more years before my birth? Since I was born in 1934 let me recommend Pauline Kael’s pick for the greatest movie ever made: D W Griffiths’ Intolerance. the first and still most impressive three-hour spectacle movie. And don’t miss The Passion of Joan of Arc, a creation of Carl Th. Dreyer that has yet to be topped among J of A movies. Unfortunately, even Netflix is a little short on silent movie titles. If you insist on a talkie try the recently re-released 42nd Street, with dance numbers by Busby Berkeley, part of the Criterion Collection’s Busby Berkeley package. And of course Duck Soup, released shortly before I was born.
grackel 04.15.06 at 2:05 pm
The only truly great film completely obviously missing from this list is Les Enfants du Paradis which in my experience easily bears repeated viewings and in which the three plus hours of running time barely seem to exist. The newly restored version is breathtaking. What man could not be in love with Garance? A minor cheat, filmed in the year of my birth.
clew 04.15.06 at 4:32 pm
The More the Merrier; fluff, but charming. It’s the blocking that gets me; early on, one gets to see a drawing of the floor-plan of the apartment, and with that background the subsequent hey-for-fours through bathroom doors are even funnier.
Ted's Mom 04.15.06 at 5:20 pm
TopHat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (I have to second Ryan’s The Great Race and add Without A Clue starring Michael Caine – even though since I am as old as dirt, these don’t fit the 10-year criteria)
Grandma Jo 04.15.06 at 5:30 pm
At 89, there weren’t any films 10 years before I was born, but I appreciate Ryan’s endorsement of The Great Race.
I do remember being taken to the silent movies because my Father was playing the organ accompanying the movies. But I kept falling asleep and don’t remember any of the them.
Tom 04.15.06 at 5:45 pm
For me the line between appreciated and genuinely enjoyed is not all that clear even for movies I saw long after college. Lucky for me I am old enough to have first seen many consensus masterpieces filling up hard-to-sell-ads-on UHF airtime on weekend afternoons.
But two I’ve seen in the last five years that fit the bill pretty well are
Bambi
and
Dumbo.
Rebecca Allen 04.15.06 at 6:07 pm
The Grand Illusion by Renoir is one of the all-time great films about war.
I love the Thin Man series, Asta alone makes them worth watching.
Shane is my favorite Western.
I don’t like GWTW either; too racist, and Scarlett O’Hara is just too unlikeable. If you want Vivian Leigh, watch A Streetcar Named Desire.
Brendan 04.15.06 at 6:34 pm
‘I’m…a Kobo Abe fan.’
Now there’s a sentence you don’t hear too often, at least in the UK. But I’ve read just about everything by J.G. Ballard, so this may be a case of Amazon to the rescue. Ugetsu monogatari is another possible for ‘best film ever made’ (actually it used to regularly feature in ‘best film ever made’ lists in the 50s and 60s, but seems to have been replaced by ‘Tokyo Story’ (another film I haven’t seen) as the token Japanese film in most Western film critics lists.)
The main problem is just getting hold of these movies nowadays. Arthouse cinemas will go out on a limb and have a contemporary Italian or French film season, but a season called something like ‘post war Japanese classics’ is more or less inconceivable. And TV (even cable) is just hopeless for movies like that.
maurinsky 04.15.06 at 8:35 pm
I love musicals, and the best of them were made many years before I was born in 1969: Singin’ In The Rain, On The Town, My Sister Eileen, Oklahoma, The Music Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Kiss Me, Kate!, Damn Yankees, all those goofy Judy Garland/Micky Roony “let’s put on a show!” musicals – basically, if it’s a musical, I will find something to enjoy about it.
I also love Auntie Mame, Some Like It Hot, The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, Citizen Kane, everything Hitchcock, The Quiet Man, Adam’s Rib, the first few Thin Man movies, and many others mentioned above.
As a child, I was very fond of anything featuring the Bowery Brothers. I haven’t revisited them, but I suspect they do not age well.
Matt Weiner 04.15.06 at 8:39 pm
Let me know what you think. And doesn’t the plot of Woman in the Dunes remind you of, say, Concrete Island? Maybe I’m just off base on this.
Gary Farber 04.15.06 at 9:10 pm
Not sure what to say, beside’s: kids!
That someone hasn’t see all of the above mentioned: kids!
I keep working to catch up on films, myself. I am ancient and senile. But oh, you kids.
I am so old and senile.
Oh, you kids. You have much to enjoy.
florentine 04.15.06 at 10:01 pm
Ikiru
mikep 04.15.06 at 11:42 pm
Wow. This is one of the best lists of movies I’ve ever seen. Inspiring. Only thing I can think of to add are the films of the great French silent film master Abel Gance. His Napoleon is awesome. Very good to see that there are so many Preston Sturges fans out there, those are great movies.
The Modesto Kid 04.16.06 at 5:30 pm
The Lifeboat and more generally all of Hitchcock’s ouevre. But especially The Lifeboat. Also: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Witness for the Prosecution, and Night of the Hunter.
lalala 04.17.06 at 1:31 am
Wow. Usually these threads make me feel so low-culture, but here I’m actually in agreement with a number of people.
The Grand Illusion.
The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.
Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Many Fred and Ginger, but especially Swingtime.
Singing in the Rain always makes me giggle helplessly because at so many moments it seems like such a thinly disguised story about closeted movie stars.
Peter 04.17.06 at 2:03 pm
Not much sci fi/horror up, so I have to put a shout out for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Much like the best Twilight Zone episodes, I saw it as a child, have seen it many times since, and it it captivates me every time.
Another Damned Medievalist 04.17.06 at 3:37 pm
Can I just say that I feel kinda old? There’s a weird cutoff, I think, for us late baby boomers. But since no one has mentioned this one yet, I’ll say not to forget Ball of Fire. And I would vote for anything Capra or Hitchcock up to the appropriate date. I think also the “St. Trinian’s” movies are old enough.
Pablo 04.17.06 at 11:28 pm
I was born in 1979, so if this is about “movies that were released ten or more years before your birth that you genuinely enjoyed, rather than appreciated”… well, there are a lot, of course. I’m only mentioning the ones I enjoyed the most, chronologically:
“The gold rush” (1925, Charles Chaplin), “Metropolis” (1927, Fritz Lang), “Sunrise” (1927, F. W. Murnau), “Asphalt” (1929, Joe May), “The invisible man” (1933, James Whale), “It happened one night” (1934, Frank Capra), “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935, James Whale), “The 39 steps” (1935, Alfred Hitchcock), “Gone with the wind” (1939, Victor Fleming), “Gunga Din” (1939, George Stevens), “Stagecoach” (1939, John Ford), “Wuthering heights” (1939, William Wyler), “Fantasia” (1940, Walt Disney, Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson & Wilfred Jackson), “Rebecca” (1940, Alfred Hitchcock), “The thief of Baghdad” (1940, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan & Michael Powell), “Ball of fire” (1941, Howard Hawks), “Citizen Kane” (1941, Orson Welles), “Shadow of a doubt” (1943, Alfred Hitchcock), “A Canterbury tale” (1944, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger), “Arsenic and old lace” (1944, Frank Capra), “Brief encounter” (1945, David Lean), “Spellbound” (1945, Alfred Hitchcock), “It’s a wonderful life” (1946, Frank Capra), “Letter from an unkown woman” (1948, Max Ophuls), “Rope” (1948, Alfred Hithcock), “Sunset Boulevard” (1950, Billy Wilder), “Miracle in Milan” (1951, Vitorio De Sica), “High noon” (1952, Fred Zinemann), “My cousin Rachel” (1952, Henry Koster), “No abras nunca esa puerta” (1952, Carlos Hugo Christensen), “Singin’ in the rain” (1952, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly), “The quiet man” (1952, John Ford), “On the waterfront” (1954, Elia Kazan), “La Quintrala” (1955, Hugo Del Carril), “The desperate hours” (1955, William Wyler), “Bus stop” (1956, Joshua Logan), “Friendly persuassion” (1956, William Wyler), “12 angry men” (1957, Sidney Lumet), “The fly” (Kurt Neuman, 1958), “Vertigo” (1958, Alfred Hitchcock), “North by Northwest” (1959, Alfred Hitchcock), “Psycho” (1960, Alfred Hitchcock), “The unforgiven” (1960, John Huston), “The misfits” (1961, John Huston), “Prisoners of a night” (1962, David José Kohon), “8 ½” (1963, Federico Fellini), “Charade” (1963, Stanley Donen), “Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb” (1964, Stanley Kubrick), “I am Cuba” (1964, Mikheil Kalatozishvili), “The sound of music” (1965, Robert Wise), “The professionals” (1966, Richard Brooks), “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966, Mike Nichols), “2001, a space odyssey” (1968, Stanley Kubrick), “Planet of the apes” (1968, Franklin Schaffner), “Rosemary’s baby” (1968, Roman Polanski), “Ufa con el sexo” (1968, Rodolfo Kuhn) and “Andrei Rublev” (1969, Andrei Tarkovsky).
Most of them are well known films, so the “particular” ones in this list are: “A Canterbury tale” (beautiful English comedy), “Letter from an unkwon woman” (the best romantic film ever done, and one of the 50 best movies of all time in my opinion), “I am Cuba” (which looks like a documentary but is really a masterful propaganda film that contains the most stunning use of photography ever), “Andrei Rublev” (probably the best movie ever made, an hipnotizing 3 hours+ Russian historical drama) and some Argentinian films, like “No abras nunca esa puerta” (thriller based on two William Irish stories), “La Quintrala” (powerful historical drama), “Ufa con sexo” (naive comedy from today’s perspectives) and “Prisoners of a night” (humble drama of a man a woman that takes place on one night).
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