Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Decade's End

Ah December - must be the season of the list... and in a year ending with 9, that means, the season of the end of the Decade list.... It is too early, of course, to say definitively what really were the best films of the 00s - but... lists are fun. And favorite lists (however defined) are also fun, and useful. Why not chart your taste/interests/values? and why not take the chance to chart other people's?

So here goes - for some reason, a lot of lists I've seen have gone to 50 - so I think that's where I will stop now. These are "in order", though after the first dozen or so, that's usually a completely arbitrary designation, so I will probably not maintain the pretense the whole way down...

1. Inland Empire - 2006 - David Lynch - USA (I notice that my post "explaining" Inland Empire still seems to be the one that gets the most hits... I wish searchers luck - I don't know if I'd call it explicable... just mesmerizing.)



2. Yi Yi - 2000 - Edward Yang - Taiwan
3. In Vanda's Room - 2000 - Pedro Costa - Portugal
4. Kings and Queen - 2004 - Arnaud Desplechin - France... (found a Catherine Deneuve box set with this in it for $10 yesterday. Not bad.)
5. Colossal Youth - 2006 - Pedro Costa - Portugal
6. 2046 - 2004 - Wong Kar wei - Hong Kong/China
7. Death of Mr. Lazarescu - 2005 - Christi Puiu - Romania
8 L'Intrus - 2004 - Claire Denis - France
9. O Brother Where Art Thou - 2000 - Coen Brothers - USA
10. Los Angeles Plays Itself - 2003 - Thom Anderson - USA
11. Mulholland Drive - 2001 - David Lynch - USA
12. Secret Sunshine - 2007 - Lee Chang-dong - South Korea
13. Goodbye, Dragon Inn - 2003 - Tsai Ming-liang - Taiwan
14. The Son - 2002 - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardenne - Belgium
15. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - 2002 - Park Chanwook - South Korea
16. Syndromes and a Century - 2006 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand
17. There Will Be Blood - 2007 - Paul Thomas Anderson - USA
18. Memories of Murder - 2003 - Bong Joon-ho - South Korea
19. Platform - 2000 - Jia Zhang Ke - China
20. House of Flying Daggers - 2004 - Zhang Yimou - China
21. Ichi the Killer - 2001 - Takashi Miike - Japan
22. En Construccion (Work in Progress) - 2001 - Jose Luis Guerin - Spain
23. Che - 2008 - Steven Soderburgh - USA
24. Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors - 2000 - Hong Sang-soo - South Korea
25. Doppleganger - 2003 -Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
26. Royal Tenenbaums - 2001 - Wes Anderson - USA
27. Tokyo Sonata - 2008 - Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
28. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - 2007 - Christian Mungiu - Romania
29. The Headless Woman - 2008 - Lucrecia Martel - Argentina
30. Woman on the Beach - 2006 - Hong Sang-soo - South Korea
31. Songs from the Second Floor - 2000 - Roy Andersson - Sweden
32. Zodiac - 2007 - David Fincher - USA
33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - 2004 - Michel Gondry - USA
34. Va Savoir - 2001 - Jacques Rivette - France
35. Donnie Darko - 2001 - Richard Kelly - USA
36. The Flight of the Red Balloon - 2007 - Hou Hsiao Hsien - Taiwan/France
37.Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary - 2003 - Guy Maddin - Canada
38.Regular Lovers - 2005 - Philippe Garrel - France
39. Retribution - 2006 - Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan
40. Blissfully Yours - 2002 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand
41. Thirst - 2009 - Park Chanwook - South Korea
42. California Dreamin (Endless) - 2007 - Christian Remescu - Romania
43. Distance - 2001 - Hirokazu Kore-Eda - Japan
44. La Cienaga - 2001 - Lucrecia Martel- Argentina
45. Los Muertos - 2004 - Lisandro Alonso - Argentina
46. No Country for Old Men - 2007 - Coen Brothers - USA
47. Squid and the Whale - 2005 - Noah Baumbach - USA
48. RR - 2007 - James Bening - USA
49. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 2004
50. Liverpool - 2008 - Lisandro Alonso - Argentina

This has changed noticeable since I started the list yesterday, and will probably change half a dozen titles on or off before the year ends. But there you go.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Something Siegfried Kracauer Said

About girls...



and men and machines...



that applies to politics...





...though more than politics...





though sometimes, more politics...



made me think about how images and politics work together...



...to do evil...



And how evil...



...might be countered:



by being reconfigured





Maybe?



...gave me something to write anyway.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Saturday Placeholder

Oy, another week without any posts... at least the last two were big ones. I am, as it happens, in the middle of writing a paper for class - more Nazis and their films... though I might get this one in there as well:



Anyway - once this class is done - well, it'll be Christmas, shopping season at any rate - so the odds are probably against getting any decent blogging material through the end of the year. The end of the decade, in cold fact! There have to be lists coming, right? Of course! Not yet though - for now, I'll offer a tease, with the Cinematheque Ontario poll that's been out a few weeks and gotten much comment already. Film lists are fun - and I will certainly take the opportunity to put one together... the more challenging task will be constructing a musical list - Joseph B. did, a couple weeks ago - that's going to be a troublesome project. I listened to and bought a lot of new music this decade - up through the end of 2007, for some reason. The last couple years, not so much. Strange phenomenon - mix of habits (more walking, less trains, so less listening to the iPod) and spending priorities (I've been spending money on DVDs instead) and - um - redecorating the apartment (which included boxing up CDs to create more space for bookcases....) - who knows. So - I look forward to thinking about the music of the 00s, since I care, but have let it slide for a couple years....

Anyway.. lately I've taken the Friday Random Ten to facebook, where it seems a bit more at home... but maybe a video is in order? count down some of my favorite music of the decade that way? I don't know. Maybe now, one of this year's most intriguing records (and an artist likely to figure large in my end of the decade lists) - "Small Metal Gods" from David Sylvain's Manofan:

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Winter Quiz

Whew! Finished! Dennis Cozzalio's Thanksgiving/Christmas quiz - a pleasure to fill in, but by god it's almost as much work as real classes! Anyway - here it is...

1) Second-favorite Coen Brothers movie.
A: Fargo (#1 - O Brother Where Art Thou)

2) Movie seen only on home format that you would pay to see on the biggest movie screen possible? (Question submitted by Peter Nellhaus)
A: I think I will say Tokyo Drifter - wide screen colors, the compositions and action - I think this is it.

3) Japan or France? (Question submitted by Bob Westal)
A: Japan. (France, of course, is the clear #2, or 3 if you will.)

4) Favorite moment/line from a western.
A: There are so many - always tempting to use Altman, but I think I'll say instead, the final Indian charge in Fort Apache - the devastating finality of it always gets me... as for lines - "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk" is hard to beat...

5) Of all the arts the movies draw upon to become what they are, which is the most important, or the one you value most?
A: I think films are too eclectic to say one is more important; I can say that novels are the most satisfying art form, and their satisfactions are the closest to those of films. Eclecticism again is important.

6) Most misunderstood movie of the 2000s (The Naughties?).
A: I'm tempted to say, Donnie Darko, primarily by the maker - the best thing about the film is its ambiguity, its ability to tread the line between scifi and It's All In His Head - when Kelly makes things clear, the film diminishes... But instead I think I will say Juno - it seems to me that no one notices that the main character in the film is the Jason Bateman character - he has a story arc, he makes decisions, he changes - he is the only person who, in the end, behaves responsibly, intelligently, and honestly. Juno the character is a conceit and the baby a MacGuffin; the wife is a nightmare... he is demonized by the film, but that's wrong - he is the protagonist, and he behaves properly. I don't know if anyone involved in the film realized this, though.

7) Name a filmmaker/actor/actress/film you once unashamedly loved who has fallen furthest in your esteem.
A: At one time, the answer was definitely Stanley Kubrick - he was one of the first directors I worshipped, but then I discovered other styles - through Altman, Hawks, classics in general, Cassavetes and Capra - and wrote Kubrick off, quite a bit. I don’t know if I can keep that up now though; I always end up enjoying his films when I see them. But I guess it’s still a good answer.

8) Herbert Lom or Patrick Magee?
A: Lom, I'd have to say.

9) Which is your least favorite David Lynch film (Submitted by Tony Dayoub)
A: Dune; I suppose I could say, Fire Walk With Me is my least favorite real Lynch film, though Dune is more Lynch than I would have thought.

10) Gordon Willis or Conrad Hall? (Submitted by Peet Gelderblom)
A: I would probably have to say Willis; maybe because I saw the Godfather movies within the last year. Though I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the last year too, so...

11) Second favorite Don Siegel movie.
A. Siegel's work is a substantial gap in what I've seen. The answer has to be Dirty Harry, because I have seen it, somewhere long ago. #1 of course is Charley Verrick, which ain't gonna change...

12) Last movie you saw on DVD/Blu-ray? In theaters?
A: As of today, the answers are: Cabin in the Sky on DVD & Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans in theaters. For what it's worth, the last movie I saw Online is more interesting than either - Romance in a Minor Key - a magnificent 1943 German melodrama that seems completely out of its time and place.

13) Which DVD in your private collection screams hardest to be replaced by a Blu-ray? (Submitted by Peet Gelderblom)
A: A Touch of Zen would probably be the winner... or Blue Velvet.

14) Eddie Deezen or Christopher Mintz-Plasse?
A: I'll say Eddie Deezen, at least for now - and because just looking at a picture of him brings back a flood of memories...

15) Actor/actress who you feel automatically elevates whatever project they are in, or whom you would watch in virtually anything.
A: There are quite a few, favorite actors, actors with unerring instincts for good films, whatever... But having just taken a class on Nazi cinema, I am going to name the most memorable performer of the era - Ferdinand Marian. As far as he is remembered, it is probably for playing the title character in Jud Suss - which itself is a strange film - utterly vicious, except Marian steals the picture completely, making the character seem human... he was in a number of other films as well - Munchhausen, Romance in a Minor Key, La Habenera, and steals them all - he's like a German Basil Rathbone, usually playing sleek villains, but always making them way more interesting than the heroes. (Though that's one of the odder features of Nazi era films - the heroes are a decidedly bland crew. No one can give Marian a run for his money - in the American films of the time, those great Warner Brothers adventure films with Rathbone vs. Errol Flynn or Tyrone Powers, both sides get their due - Flynn and Powers hold their own against the bad guys. The Nazis only seem to be able to make interesting villains.) Anyway - he's really astonishing - and seems to be coming back to attention. There's a film about him supposed to be coming out next year - and closer to hand - I think you can make a pretty good case that Tarantino and Christoph Waltz modeled Hans Landa on Marian's Joseph Seuss Oppenheimer.

16) Fight Club -- yes or no?
A: No way - dumb and fake.

17) Teresa Wright or Olivia De Havilland?
A: De Havilland, I think

18) Favorite moment/line from a film noir.
A: This is tough to come up with one, so I will go a bit off the main track - it's a cut, at the end of The Asphalt Jungle - we see the police commissioner giving a speech about the crooks, saying Sterling Hayden's character is a hardened killer - Huston cuts to Hayden, dying, driving through Kentucky, wishing he had his life back... cue music, cue daylight...

19) Best (or worst) death scene involving an obvious dummy substituting for a human or any other unsuccessful special effect(s)—see the wonderful blog Destructible Man for inspiration.
A: When in doubt, I think I will look for the most recent notable instance - in this case - Big Man Japan - the whole last 15-20 minutes is a surreal, Power rangers style fight, with plenty of dummy abuse along the way - it's - quite amazing, really...

20) What's the least you've spent on a film and still regretted it? (Submitted by Lucas McNelly)
A: I will say Failure to Launch, though in a sense I did spend 20 bucks on it, since it played on a bus ride, but I guess that makes it just an incidental expense. Just glancing at it, it was utterly fucking atrocious - the worst looking film I can remember seeing. The editing was so bad it hurts - shot/counter shot sequences don't match, don't come close to matching, there are way too many cuts, in the course of every freaking conversation, fast, random... Come to think of it I think I had to see it twice, both directions on the bus, and it offended me...

21) Van Johnson or Van Heflin?
A: Heflin, I think

22) Favorite Alan Rudolph film.
A: The Moderns.

23) Name a documentary that you believe more people should see.
A: I suppose there are a ton of these, but - let's say Clouzot's Mystery of Picasso.

24) In deference to this quiz’s professor, name a favorite film which revolves around someone becoming stranded.
A: There must be a lot of good examples - since I've just seen the newest Herzog, though, I'm reminded of Wings of Hope - a documentary he made about a woman named Juliene Koepke, who survived a plane crash in the Amazon in 1971 - about the time he was shooting Aguirre there... she was stranded, but walked her way out of the jungle - Herzog takes her back and they retrace her steps... Aguirre, of course, is about being stranded in the jungle - most Herzog is about being stranded somewhere, a stranger in a strange land...

25) Is there a moment when your knowledge of film, or lack thereof, caused you an unusual degree of embarrassment and/or humiliation? If so, please share.
A: I can't answer this; nothing's coming to mind... not that it hasn't happened, but it's not coming to mind...

26) Ann Sheridan or Geraldine Fitzgerald? (Submitted by Larry Aydlette)
A: Not that familiar with them, but Sheridan has had a couple moments I remember...

27) Do you or any of your family members physically resemble movie actors or other notable figures in the film world? If so, who?
A: Robin Williams?

28) Is there a movie you have purposely avoided seeing? If so, why?
A: I avoided The Dark Knight for some reason - I'm not sure why; maybe I'm tired of "serious" superhero films.

29) Movie with the most palpable or otherwise effective wintry atmosphere or ambience.
A: Literally or figuratively? Oshima's Boy?

30) Gerrit Graham or Jeffrey Jones?
A: Jones

31) The best cinematic antidote to a cultural stereotype (sexual, political, regional, whatever).
A: Another one I am having trouble answering, though I think there must be a lot of good answers... they'll come to me... so I'll go with an example from this year - Adventureland does a nice job of stopping the "nice guy abandons slutty girl because he's uptight" plot line cold in its tracks. As well as a variety of stereotypes about Nice Guys and slutty girls...

32) Second favorite John Wayne movie.
A: Fort Apache (after the Searchers)

33) Favorite movie car chase.
A: This meme went around a couple years ago... Nobody does chases better than Harold Lloyd - Girl Shy has the chase for the ages, including cars... though for just cars - I am very fond of the original Gone in 60 Seconds, partly because it's put together like a silent film - a series of obstacles, situations, settings, each set up and paid off for the cars, with pieces circling back around to each other, and the added fun of the radio reporter's interviews on the street ("he hit a boat?")...

34) In the spirit of His Girl Friday, propose a gender-switched remake of a classic or not-so-classic film. (Submitted by Patrick Robbins)
A: How about Psycho? I thought at the time, that's what Gus Van Sant should have done...

35) Barbara Rhoades or Barbara Feldon?
A: What? 99!!! not to mention Smile...

36) Favorite Andre De Toth movie.
A: This has to be Crime Wave, in the end

37) If you could take one filmmaker's entire body of work and erase it from all time and memory, as if it had never happened, whose oeuvre would it be? (Submitted by Tom Sutpen)
A: Another tough one - at least since it ought to be someone I've seen enough of to build up an antipathy. Chris Columbus comes to mind, though, wait a second, that included Gremlins, doesn't it? As a director, call it...

38) Name a film you actively hated when you first encountered it, only to see it again later in life and fall in love with it.
A: Variations on this get asked all the time; they should be easier to answer... I have, though, just thought the classic example - well, "love" is a strong word... but... I hesitated to type these words... but... Batman and Robin - the first time I saw it, I was primarily offended by the thought of stealing a Marlene Dietrich routine for a crappy Batman outing. Worse yet, wasting Uma Thurman playing Marlene Ditrich... But then I saw it again and was quite smitten - mostly by Uma, who camps it up for all it's worth, like she's in the TV show - but the rest of it has a strange, rather enjoyable B movie energy, never remotely takes a minute of this nonsense seriously - I suppose it's more Rose Hobart in East of Borneo than Dietrich in - anything - but that's better than the "serious" versions of Batman people keep foisting on us....

39) Max Ophuls or Marcel Ophuls? (Submitted by Tom Sutpen)
A: Max

40) In which club would you most want an active membership, the Delta Tau Chi fraternity, the Cutters or the Warriors? And which member would you most resemble, either physically or in personality?
A: I can't say this one moves me all that much.

41) Your favorite movie cliché.
A:This is the last question to answer - I'm going with one from the last movie I saw - Bad Lieutenant in New Orleans - the way cops always get a conviction from that One Magic Piece of Evidence - planted, found, whatever. Herzog and company mock the living shit out of it - the way the whole story winds itself up in one scene there, almost at the end - it's almost as funny as the Iguanas.

42) Vincente Minnelli or Stanley Donen? (Submitted by Bob Westal)
A: Very easy - Minelli, who has leapt into the forefront of my favorite directors, and gets more interesting with every film I see of his.

43) Favorite Christmas-themed horror movie or sequence.
A: I imagine something from Gremlins, though it's been too long since I've seen it to say what...

44) Favorite moment of self- or selfless sacrifice in a movie.
A: The sister walks into the water in Sansho the Bailiff

45) If you were the cinematic Spanish Inquisition, which movie cult (or cult movie) would you decimate? (Submitted by Bob Westal)
A: I should have a better answer for this - I'm going to say, all the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fans - that has always annoyed me to no end. If you're going to watch Chinese martial arts films, watch the real ones. Get Touch of Zen or Come Drink with Me or Once Upon a Time in China or something, leave the imitations alone. Or at least watch the Zhang Yimou's imitations - which are a lot closer to the real thing, thanks to Ching Siu tung...

46) Caroline Munro or Veronica Carlson?
A: No idea.

47) Favorite eye-patch wearing director. (Submitted by Patty Cozzalio)
A: Were there any that didn’t? Fritz Lang?

48) Favorite ambiguous movie ending. (Original somewhat ambiguous submission---“Something about ambiguous movie endings!”-- by Jim Emerson, who may have some inspiration of his own to offer you.)
A: Another one I could probably come up with a better answer for, but in the interests of hitting Post, will take a recent example - Andrew Bujalski's endings are generally neatly unresolved, but somehow precise - Beeswax is no exception.

49) In giving thanks for the movies this year, what are you most thankful for?
A: The release of 35 Rhums, the James Whale, Alexander MacKendrick & Kiju Yoshida retrospectives at the Harvard Film Archive, as well as appearances by James Bening and Lisandro Alonso, and Criterion's Imamura box set.

50) George Kennedy or Alan North? (Submitted by Peet Gelderblom)
A: Kennedy.

The end! Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Beyond the Canon Poll and Results

Iain Stott has been running a poll this year - it started with a 50 Greatest Ever poll - which yielded the standard list, and seems to have caused some soul searching. So he organized another poll - this time to try to find films that don't all make the usual lists... So he solicited more lists, but this time, prohibiting some of the usual suspects - a list of 300 established classics.

The results are in. It's an interesting idea, though the top films in this poll aren't as overlooked as they might be. The list, starting with Kubrick, Lynch, Hitchcock and Wong - is still pretty standard - though the high placing Gondry film is a neat touch... Iain addressed the problem with another list - a Further Beyond the Canon list - which weights films votes by their number of IMDB votes... But it's true, when you start playing with lists, you soon notice that 300 films is almost nothing. Even lists like the 1000 greatest at They Shoot Pictures Don't They? don't really exhaust the great films - though it might give you a better place to start.... I find myself trapped by the auteur problem - Iain's 300 films only included 2 Ozu films - what do I do with that? Me, I'd have 9 or 10 in the top 300 - does this mean Ozu is overlooked? I have no idea what to do about that. It's hard to think of Ozu (or Hawks, or name your example) as overlooked - on the other hand - you can't really afford to overlook them yourself in a poll like this can you?

But this is not about angst, for this is not an angsty project - it's a freaking delight, really. Playing with lists and numbers and all those films - there's real pleasure to be taken in just looking through a list of film titles you love - there is for me, anyway. So I'm not going to complain, and indeed, had to resist the urge to make about 6 lists.... In the end, I did, in fact, make 2 lists. One is my official ballot - that is by year, which seemed a way to balance the need to get those missing Ozu films on record with the desire to get some real variety on the list. Going year by year brings in some arbitrariness, which has to help.... But I also finished a straight list - the best films, in order, not included in the official, poll canon. And that - might as well post here. You'll note 1963 put 2 films in the top 5 - creating an odd auteur problem - there's plenty of Kurosawa on the official canon, no Imamura - I went out of my way to correct that, sticking 3 of em on the official ballot and 6 (I think) on here.... but if you can't use polls to champion your own favorites, well...

Anyway - there's plenty more to chew on at the Beyond the Canon site - I still haven't really looked through the lists all that closely... I look forward to it. And now - this is my straight list, if I'd just put out the 100 best films not on the canon, in order...

Early Summer - 1951 - Ozu Yasujiro
The Pornographers - 1966 - Imamura, Shohei
City of Sadness - 1989 - Hou HsiaoHsien
High and Low - 1963 - Kurosawa, Akira
The Insect Woman - 1963 - Imamura Shohei
Inland Empire - 2006 - Lynch, David
Rushmore - 1998 - Anderson, Wes
A Woman Under the Influence - 1974 - Cassavetes., John
Mystery of Kaspar Hauser - 1975 - Herzog, Warner
A Brighter Summer Day - 1991 - Yang, Edward
I Was Born But... - 1932 - Ozu Yasujiro
Intentions of Murder - 1963 - Imamura Shohei
Late Chrysanthemums - 1954 - Naruse Mikio
Ceremony - 1971 - Oshima Nagisa
Pigs and Battleships - 1961 - Imamura, Shohei
Yi Yi - 2000 - Yang, Edward
Fort Apache - 1948 - Ford, John
Killer of Sheep - 1977 - Burnett, Charles
Killing of a Chinese Bookie - 1976 - Cassavetes, John
Frankenstein - 1931 - Whale, James
Love Me Tonight - 1932 - Mamoulian, Rouben
The Long Goodbye - 1973 - Altman, Robert
Osaka Elegy - 1936 - Mizoguchi, Kenji
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs - 1960 - Naruse Mikio
The Sun's Burial - 1960 - Oshima Nagisa
A Night at the Opera - 1935 - Wood, Sam
Alphaville - 1965 - Godard, Jean - Luc
Camera Buff - 1979 - Kieslowski, Krystof
Fitzcarraldo - 1982 - Herzog, werner
Fires on the Plain - 1959 - Ichikawa Kon
Fallen Angels - 1995 - Wong Kar wei
Vanda's Room - 2000 - Costa, Pedro
Mabuse the Gambler - 1922 - Lang, Fritz
Colossal Youth - 2006 - Costa, Pedro
Breaking the Waves - 1996 - von Trier, Lars
Kings and Queen - 2004 - Desplechin, Arnaud
Wife! Be like a rose! - 1935 - Naruse Mikio
Crimes of M Lange - 1935 - Renoir, Jean
Goodbye South, Goodbye - 1996 - Hou Hsiao Hsien
Make Way for Tomorrow - 1937 - McCarey, Leo
Stray Dog - 1949 - Kurosawa Akira
A Touch of Zen - 1969 - King Hu
A Man Vanishes - 1967 - Imamura, Shohei
Hard Days Night - 1965 - Lester, Richard
Saint Jack - 1979 - Bogdanovich, Peter
Written on the Wind - 1956 - Sirk, Douglas
Peking Opera Blues - 1986 - Tsui Hark
Life of Brian - 1979 - Jones, Terry
Our Hospitality - 1923 - Keaton, Buster
Platinum Blonde - 1931 - Capra, Frank
Broken Blossoms - 1919 - Griffith, DW
Cleo from 5 to 7 - 1961 - Varda, Agnes
Eraserhead - 1977 - Lynch, David
Happy Together - 1997 - Wong Kar Wei
Boy - 1969 - Oshima Nagisa
An Inn in Tokyo - 1935 - Ozu Yasujiro
Passing Fancy - 1933 - Ozu Yasujiro
L'Amour Fou - 1969 - Rivette, Jacques
Some Came Running - 1958 - Minnelli, Vincente
Testament of Dr. Mabuse - 1933 - Lang, Fritz
Once Upon a Time in China - 1991 - Tsui Hark
Mother - 1952 - Naruse, Michio
The Only Son - 1936 - Ozu Yasujiro
Death of Mr. Lazarescu - 2005 - Puiu, Christi
2046 - 2004 - Wong Kar wei
Sisters of the Gion - 1936 - Mizoguchi Kenji
The Asphalt Jungle - 1950 - Huston, John
Vengeance is Mine - 1979 - Imamura, Shohei
Beijing Bastards - 1993 - Zhang Yuan
Through the Olive Trees - 1994 - Kiarostami, Abbas
Thirty Two Short Films About Glen Gould - 1993 - Girard, Francois
Trash - 1970 - Morrissey, Paul
Chelsea Girls - 1966 - Warhol, Andy
Dead of the Night - 1945 - Multiple
Two or Three Things I know About Her - 1966 - Godard, Jean - Luc
Flowers of Shanghai - 1998 - Hou Hsiao Hsien
Jour de Fete - 1949 - Tati, Jacques
October - 1927 - Eisenstein, Sergei
The Marriage of Maria Braun - 1979 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
Blind Chance - 1981 - Kieslowski, Krystof
Doomed Love - 1979 - Oliveira, Manoel de
The Big Red One - 1982 - Fuller, Sam
Death By Hanging - 1968 - Oshima Nagisa
O Brother Where Art Thou - 2000 - Coen, Joel
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On - 1987 - Hara Kazuo
Home From The Hill - 1960 - Minnelli, Vincente
One Fine Day - 1968 - Olmi, Ermanno
Terroriser - 1986 - Yang, Edward
L'Intrus - 2004 - Denis, Claire
Blessed Event - 1932 - Del Ruth, Roy
Shoot the Piano Player - 1960 - Truffaut, Francois
Charlie Verrick - 1973 - Siegel, Don
All Quiet on the Western Front - 1930 - Milestone, Lewis
The River - 1997 - Tsai Ming-liang
You're Telling Me - 1934 - Kenton, Erle C
The Sweet Hereafter- 1997 - Egoyan, Atom
Badlands - 1973 - Malick, Terrence
A Moment of Innocence - 1995 - Makhmalbaf, Mohsen
Swordsman II - 1991 - Ching siu tung
Grin Without a Cat - 1977- Marker, Chris