frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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Kon Ichikawa's documentary record of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo looks like a deliberate bid to make a film as different as possible from Leni Riefenstahl's notorious Nazified Olympiad Triumph of the Will--shot at the 1936 Berlin Games.

Where Riefenstahl glorifies muscular young Aryan bodies in heroic struggle and victory, Ichikawa goes for a more unassuming, human touch. Working with 164 cameramen, he undercuts the official pomp and pageantry with moments of humor and informality. Thousands of doves are released to mark the opening ceremony, and spectators duck and cover against a shower of droppings; meanwhile an official trots anxiously after one dove that doesn't feel like taking off. Ichikawa sidelines the competitive spectacle to dwell on small idiosyncrasies and revealing displays of emotion--a Russian shot-putter goes through an elaborate pre-throw ritual of twitches and tweaks; an American swimmer weeps when she's awarded her gold medal; a Japanese weightlifter emits a rousing Samurai yell as he hoists his barbell; a racing cyclist, grounded in a collision, clutches his leg in agony and frustration; and the camera impishly zooms in on the ungainly wobbling bottoms of competitors in a walking race. There are moments of sublime beauty, too: rowers scull over a mist-shrouded morning river; the Ethiopian marathon winner, slim and sinewy, calmly outpaces the field with a stoic dignity worthy of Buster Keaton. Finally, after all the fine speeches about aspiration and international brotherhood, a lone sweeper totes his broom across the vast deserted stadium.

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Gillo Pontecorvo's multi-award winning picture 'The Battle of Algiers' has perhaps never been as pertinent as it is now. Set from 1954 to 1962, the movie uses documentary-style black and white photography to recreate real events.

Algerian liberation fighters use terrorist techniques against the French colonial occupiers; the French retaliate with brutal military force. Brilliantly directed set-pieces and remarkable crowd scenes make the film a masterpiece; the ominous familiarity of its subject makes it a must-see" - The Times How to win battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point blank range. Women plant bombs in Cafes. Sounds familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film.'' - Pentagon tlyer for their in-house screening of Battle Of Algiers All the armies of the world - including the Pentagon - will never, but never, be able to conquer a country which wants to control its own destiny" - Saadi Yacef

The magical, heart-warming story, which has become the most popular family film of all time, tells the story of a spirited young woman, Maria (Julie Andrews), who leaves the convent to become governess to the seven children of the autocratic Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer).

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During Napoleon's invasion of Spain, two soldiers discover a strange manuscript at an Inn. The book chronicles the adventures of Alfonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski).

Alfonso's passage through the dangerous Sierra Morena mountains is repeatedly interrupted by seemingly random encounters with an assortment of larger than life figures. Tunisian princesses inform Alfonso that he is their cousin and their betrothed; an occult scholar ensnares Alfonso with confounding stories about feuds between Merchants and hardships faced by gypsies. And of course, Alfonso never did expect the Spanish Inquisition.

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Written and directed by Godard, 'Alphaville' is the strangely beautiful futuristic tale of Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine), an American private eye sent to a planet ruled by Von Braun (Anna Karina), a malevolent scientist who has outlawed human emotions in favour of logic.

The film deals with the fight between individualism in the face of inhumanity and blind conformity...

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On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his son's seeming neglect of his royal duties.

Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of "Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon". Hal's friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions.

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Carol (Catherine Deneuve), a young French girl living in Sixties' London, is repelled, yet fascinated by men. Her radiant beauty attracts the opposite sex, but she shrinks from their advances.

Her days are spent in an intensely feminine atmosphere: working in a beauty salon, and clinging to her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) for love. Things start to unwind however when Helen goes away with her married boyfriend (Ian Hendry). As Carol incarcerates herself in her sinister, shadowy flat, men begin to invade her dreams night and day, mixing her terror with delight as bizarre hallucinations take hold of her mind. The walls start to crack, literally, before her eyes. Finally, racked and depraved through her delirium, she is left with only one instinct towards the men who invade her life - that of a killer...

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Giulietta Masina gives a superb performance as the bored, timid, frumpy and ultimately unfilled housewife who suspects her husband is being unfaithful.

In an effort to escape the hurtful reality of her situation she enters a surreal fantasy world of her own by conjuring up spirits who lead her into a world a world of sensual pleasure. The images that Fellini creates become more and more dazzling and hypnotic in their effect. Much of the fantasy involves Juliet's fabulously outgoing and sexually liberated neighbour Suzy, but are they part of plot or is Fellini exploring his own desires?

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Based on Lionel White's novel 'Obsession', 'Pierrot le Fou' transforms a story about a couple on the run into an entertaining, existential romance. Tired of his bourgeois life, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves his wife and elopes with his former baby sitter, Marianne (Anna Karina).

When a dead body is found in Marianne's apartment, the two lovers flee to the South of France in a futile bid to escape Marianne's dangerous past.

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Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! Is a story of a new breed of superwomen… three buxom go-go girls: Varla, Rosie and Billie, wildly dancing the watusi before the leers, jeers and lecherous come-ons on their drooling all-male audience.

The violence, implicit in the girls' tease, is quickly moved out of the microcosmic bar into outside world as they literally let go of themselves, embarking on a wild, violent, deadly journey of vengeance on all men. Varla, the outrageously abundant karate master leader of the pack, breaks the arms and back of one man, runs her Porsche over two others, grinds a fourth, a muscleman, against a wall and, eventually, deliberately goes down the path of her own self-destruction, dragging her two buxotic cohorts along with her.

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Made in 1962 (but not released until 1965), Bengali director Ritwik Ghatak’s film starts soon after the 1947 partition of Bengal. At a socialist refugee colony, Ishwar and his younger sister, Sita, adopt a low-caste boy, Abhiram, who has been separated from his mother.

To keep the two children from poverty, Ishwar abandons the colony to take an administrative job at an iron mill. Years pass. During one school vacation, the now-grown Sita and Abhiram acknowledge their love for each other. Ishwar, turned grimly bourgeois, opposes their match, and his interference leads to disaster for all three.

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Received with a combination of bewilderment and outright derision upon its initial release, André Delvaux's first feature film has undergone a critical reevaluation over the years and is now regarded as one of the seminal works of Belgian cinema.

Adapted from a novel by Flemish writer Johan Daisne, this is a story about Govert Miereveld (Senne Rouffaer), a lawyer from a small Flemish town who also teaches in a school for girls. He harbors a secret love for one of his young students, Fran (Beata Tyszkiewicz), whom he loses touch with after her graduation. Some time later, Miereveld has to attend an autopsy, and the shock of the experience deeply affects his mental balance. He finds out - or he believes so - that Fran has become a popular singer. He arranges to meet her to finally reveal his feelings. The film is decidedly ambiguous about the tragic denouement that follows, suggesting that it might be a figment of the protagonist's disturbed mind.

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Professional photographer Thomas saw nothing. And he saw everything. Enlargements of pictures he secretly took of a romantic couple in the park reveal a murder in progress. Or do they? Blowup is an influential, stylish study of paranoid intrigue and disorientation.

It is also a time capsule of mod London, a mindscape of the era's fashions, free love, parties, music (Herbie Hancock wrote the score and The Yardbirds riff at a club) and hip langour. David Hemmings plays the jaded photog enlivened by the mystery in his photos. Vanessa Redgrave is the elusive woman pictured in them. And the enigma of what you see, what you don't see and what the camera sees is yours to solve.

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Clint Eastwood returns as the invincible "Man With No Name", this time teaming with two gunslingers (Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach) to pursue a fortune in stolen gold.

But teamwork doesn't come naturally to such strong-willed outlaws, and they soon discover that their greatest challenge may be to stay focused - and stay alive - in a country ravaged by war.

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A satirical, subversive, surreal and irreverent story of rebellion, Vera Chytilova's classic film is arguably the most adventurous and anarchic Czech movie of the 1960's.

Two young women, both named Marie, revolt against a degenerate and decayed society by attacking symbols of wealth and bourgeois culture in hilarious and mind-warpingly innovative ways. Defiant feminist statement? Nihilistic, avant-garde comedy? Refreshingly uncompromising, Daisies is a riotous, punk-rock poem of a film that remains a cinematic enigma and continues to provoke, stimulate and entertain audiences and influence filmmakers even today.