djaybee's - Favourites List

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A determined 12-year-old boy named Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment as a scout due to his uncanny ability to slip quickly through enemy lines undetected.

But as his missions become increasingly dangerous he is pulled from duty, something which he is quick to protest against because Ivan has an ulterior motive - to avenge the death of his family at the hands of the Nazis. Andrei Tarkovsky's first feature film is regarded as one of the most accomplished cinematic debuts and launched the career of the most influential and admired Russian filmmaker in history.

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From the celebrated Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky comes his most autobiographical work and one that is regarded by many as his magnum opus.

Reflecting upon his own childhood and the destiny of the Russian people, 'Mirror' is a sublime expression of memory, imagination, thoughts and dreams intertwined with real life and family relationships. A transcendent, inspired and multilayered masterpiece that continues to grow in stature, 'Mirror' has an exceptional resonance and rewards countless viewings.

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In a future world that has been seemingly ravaged by war and poverty there exists a myth of hope among the people - a forbidden place known only as the Zone, the heart of which, if reached, grants one's innermost desires.

Two men, a writer and professor, hire someone known as a Stalker; a guide who can navigate the treacherous and confounding path that leads to the centre of the Zone. 'Stalker' was instantly considered one of the most definitive artistic contemplations of human aspiration and the ambition we employ to achieve it.

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During the final hours before a nuclear war threatens to wipe out humanity, Alexander, surrounded by his family and friends as they descend into fear and turmoil, makes a deal with God: he will sacrifice all he holds dear to avoid the impending apocalypse.

Tarkovsky's final film, 'The Sacrifice' is a visually breathtaking meditation on existential terror and a melancholic swansong from one of cinema's true auteurs.

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Perhaps his most famous film, La Dolce Vita slices into the decadent amoral core of Roman society with Fellini's trademark attention to detail and spectacular photography.

Marcello Mastroianni plays a gossip columnist (the term 'paparazzi' derives from the in a film) who aspires to be a more serious writer but knows he never will be, because like society, he is fascinated by the decadent hedonist pursuits which are seemingly everywhere. The Vatican was appalled by the film, but the public adored it, relishing the images Fellini fed them, most notably the now infamous scene of Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Trevi Fountain.

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Marcello Mastroianni is (Fellini's alter ego) Guido, a successful filmmaker who, embarking on his next film, discovers he has a complete "director's block": he has no story to tell! Harassed by his producers, his mistress (Sandra Milo) and his wife (Anouk Aimee), while struggling to find the

inspiration for his film, he increasingly retreats in dreamy recollections of his life and lovers, until fantasy, memories and reality merge in the director's mind - and on screen, in an astonishing, masterful spectacle, culminating in an electrifying triumph of optimism. As Guido-Federico says at the end of 8 1/2: "Life is a party, let's live it together!"

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A truly literate and sophisticated film spectacle by perhaps the greatest of all film artists, this Oscar nominated masterpiece by Federico Fellini, the director of such world-renowned classics, as 'La Dolce Vita', 'La Strada' and '8 ½', is a fabulous trip into a totally decadent civilization

delivering a brilliant visual fantasy unlike anything you have seen. Step into the bawdy, erotic and titillating world of Rome during the days of Emperor Nero, Where two completing teachers play tricks on each other while vying for the same lover's charms, Paralleling the self-indulgence of modern society, these Roman citizens pursue their own gratification above all else, resulting in both intense pleasure and enormous despair, displayed in visually seductive scenes that are both shocking, unprecedented and brilliantly stunning.

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A proud woman in red draws leers and admiration. A bosomy tobacconist sparks the fantasies of adolescent boys. A mentally challenged uncle takes refuge in a tree and announces: "I want a woman!" They are among moments and events knit by memory...and a legendary filmmaker in peak form.

'Amarcord', which means "I Remember", is Federico Fellini's lusty, often funny look at growing-up perhaps not unlike his own. The setting is a village in 1930's Italy. Teen hormones are surging. Family, church and friendship are proving grounds of love and loyalty. Fascism's rise is just down the street. Sex is around any corner. And life viewed in the local cinema is a touchstone for life lived. The memories, big and small, endure.

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In an astonishing piece of screen acting, Donald Sutherland portrays Casanova in his waning days, engaging in various amorous and political adventures with an air of bored detachment as he travels through a disease-ridden Europe.

Imbued with a romantic pessimism, the film debunks the myth of Casanova as a great lover and instead presents him as an ordinary man swept along by extraordinary circumstances.

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In a small Hungarian town lives Karrer (Miklós Székely B.), a listless and brooding man who has almost completely withdrawn from the world, but for an obsession with a singer in the bar he frequents.

The first film in which Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr's fully realised his mesmerising and apocalyptic world view is an immaculately photographed and composed study of eternal conflict: the centuries-old struggle between barbarism and civilization.

An innocent young man, János (Lars Rudolph), sees violence break out after an isolated village is inflamed by the arrival of a circus and its peculiar attractions: a giant whale and a mysterious man named "The Prince".

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Taking its cue from Nietzsche's famous encounter with a mistreated horse on Via Carlo Alberto, The Turin Horse depicts the aftermath of this seemingly innocuous but destructively profound confrontation.

Following a man and his daughter in their daily routine, a bizarre series of disturbing events slowly begin to strip life of its very essence resulting in a terrifying, all-consuming finale...

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Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the remote forest, an important place from his childhood and, he believes, the possible location of his former existences.

Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and the spirit of his long lost son returns. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave - the birthplace of his first life.

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Innovative and enigmatic, Blissfully Yours is a languid celebration of the pleasures of the moment. In Apichatpong's heady, sensual and playful film, a leisurely road trip and a picnic in the jungle give way to uninhibited emotion and eroticism.

A meditation on happiness, superstition, politics and sexuality, nothing really happens except that it happens with a purpose. Blissfully Yours confirms the reputation of one of the most distinctive new filmmakers in world cinema.

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A mother, father and son live together in Taipei but lead very separate lives, barely communicating. When the son is stricken with agonising neck pain, seemingly from an ill-advised dunk in the polluted Tansui River, the family finds a new purpose.

But when they try everything from Western medicine to acupuncture to a faith healer, nothing alleviates the son's pain. Could his ailment be an unfortunate side effect of the family's silent dynamics?