griggs's - Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time 2022 List

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"Memories of Underdevelopment" follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri), through his life following the departure of his wife, parents and friends in the wake of the Bay of Pigs incident.

Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women all over Havana before finally meeting Elena (Daisy Granados), a young virgin girl he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself? Even though director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution, 'Memories of Underdevelopment' makes a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage, Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds from the culture of the very subject it is studying; Cuba.

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Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) once more combines the considerable talents of director Michelangelo Antonioni and star Monica Vitti. Cast as Giuliana, an unhappy wife, Vitti suffers from an unnamed form of depression and malaise.

Her quicksilver emotional shifts disturb everyone around her, but they, like she, pretend that nothing is truly wrong. British engineer Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) seems to understand what Giuliana is really after in life, and he acts upon it by entering into an affair with the troubled woman. Giuliana eventually comes to terms with her physical and mental pain, but this hardly means that she's "cured" in the conventional sense.

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Cited by Ray as one of his best films, this tale of a neglected housewife in Victorian-era Calcutta is adapted from a story by Rabindranath Tagore.

Sailen Mukherjee stars as a newspaper journalist who is driven more by professional ambition than the needs of his cultured and intelligent wife Charaulata (Madhabi Mukherjee). Sensing her loneliness, he enlists the help of his cousin Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee), a sensitive would-be writer, to keep her company. Charu and Amal hit it off and, almost inevitably, their feelings for each other begin to deepen...

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Struggling poet Vijay (Guru Dutt) is ridiculed by his brothers and scorned by publishers. Vijay finds encouragement in a sweet prostitute Gulabo (Waheeda Rehman). One day he meets his exgirlfriend Meena (Mala Sinha) and gets hired as servant by her husband Mr.Ghosh (Rehman) who is a publisher.

In a train mishap, the beggar clad in Vijay's coat dies while Vijay gets injured. Gulabo convinces Ghosh to print Vijay's poems, believing him to be dead. After recovering from injuries, Vijay's close friends and brothers refuse to recognize him for their ulterior motives and he is confined to mental asylum for claiming to be someone who is dead. He escapes from the mental asylum and arrives at the function held to honour him. There he denounces this corrupt and hypocrite world and declares that he is not Vijay.

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On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of one story.

Through coincidence, chance, human action, past history and divine intervention they will weave through each other's lives on a day that builds to an unforgettable climax.

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John McTeague (Gibson Gowland) was a simple slow man who became a dentist after working at the Big Dipper Gold Mine. He is now being hunted in Death Valley by his ex-best friend Marcus (Jean Hersholt) and the law.

His lot was cast the day that he meet his future wife Trina (Zasu Pitts) in his office. She was with Marcus and she bought a lottery ticket. Well Mac fell for her and Marcus stepped aside. When Mac and Trina married, she won the Lottery for $5000 and became obsessive about the money in gold. Marcus is steamed as he stepped aside and now she is rich so he has the law shut down Mac as he has no official schooling for his dentistry. Trina fearful that they will take her gold away sells everything and takes all Mac earns when he is working. She adds to her stash of gold as they both live as paupers. When Mac has no job and no money, he leaves and Trina moves. Driven to desperation at being poor and hungry he finds Trina and demands the gold.

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The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, (Bruno Ganz) wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin).

Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience.

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Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed study of power, revenge and retribution is set against the magnificent backdrop of feudal warfare in sixteenth century Japan.

Transposing the events of Shakespeare's King Lear to the blood-thirsty 'Period of Warring States', 'Ran' tells the story of a bitter power struggle within the family of Warlord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai). After fifty years of ruthless slaughter Hidetora divides his kingdom among his sons, seeking peaceful retirement. However, as his life descends into chaos, he is unable to escape the corruption within his family and the torment within his soul.

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As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull.

Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on school-children and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

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Yasujiro Ozu's elegiac final film, 'An Autumn Afternoon', charts the inevitable eclipse of older generations by irreverent youth. Revisiting the story of his earlier masterpiece Late Spring (1949), Ozu once again casts Chishu Ryu in the role of Hirayama, the concerned father to unmarried Michiko.

Harangued on all sides to marry off Michiko, Hirayama reluctantly prepares to bid his old life farewell. A cast of tragi-comic characters weaves seamlessly through this gently satirical portrayal of life's inevitable, endless cycle.

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'Paris, Texas' is probably Wim Wenders' most well known, critically acclaimed, and successful movie, winning a number of international prizes including the Cannes Palm D'Or for best film in 1984.

This unusual road movie, with screenplay by acclaimed playwright Sam Shepard, tells the tale of Travis, a man lost in his own private hell. Presumed dead for four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico border, world-weary and an amnesiac. He traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter, his seven-year-old son, his ex-wife Jane having abandoned him at Walt's door several years before. As virtual strangers, Hunter and Travis begin to build a wary friendship and conspire to find Jane and bring her back to be a real family. With extraordinary performances from Harry Dean Stanton as Travis and Nastassja Kinski as Jane, the film also boasts a soundtrack by Ry Cooder, ideally suited to the film's sunbleached landscapes and melancholy undertones.

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Following on from the success of 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg' comes 'Les Demoiselles de Rochefort' - Jacques Demy's large-scale tribute to the Hollywood musical featuring screen legend Gene Kelly The story centres on twin sisters Delphine and Solange (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve

and Frangoise Dorleac) who, tired of their humdrum existence, dream of finding success and romance in Paris. The superb ensemble, also featuring Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, George Chakiris and Grover Dale, weave and wander around the town, looking for and just missing the love of their lives.

Jean Renoir's intoxicating first colour feature - shot entirely on location in India - is a lyrical adaptation of Rumer Godden's autobiographical coming-of-age tale of an adolescent girl living with her English family on the banks of West Bengal during the waning years of British colonial life.

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In this emotional roller coaster ride, Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes) is a street-wise, sometimes obnoxious writer currently working on a book about the seamier side of buying/selling love, and Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) is an emotive wife and mother struggling through a divorce and custody

battle. When Sarah lands on Robert's doorstep with her suitcases, it seems at first that she has returned to her husband. Robert has several women staying at his place (research sources!), but when his real ex-wife arrives with their young son, he sends the women packing. Sarah, it turns out, is Robert's sister. As the two work out their own live's hurdles - Robert, the unaccustomed father with his 8-year-old son, and Sarah, trying to cope with her custody battle and its results - their way of handling adversity and personal burdens becomes the real subtext of the film.

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Made in the aftermath of the Second World War, 'Paisa' is constructed as a series of six encounters which take place during the liberation of Italy as Allied troops advance through the country from Sicily to the northern Po Valley, via Rome and Florence.

Shot on location using a non-professional cast alongside actors, the semi-documentary aesthetic and epic sweep of Paisa is both charming and devastating in its portrayal of the final days of war and the confusion that follows in its wake.