griggs's - Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time 2022 List
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Spirited Away (2001)Sen to chihiro no kamikakushi
Chihiro, a headstrong 10-year-old girl, is unhappy that her family are moving house and that she will have to make new friends. As they make their way to the new home, Chihiro's father takes a detour to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what seems to be a deserted theme park but is in fact a ghostly town. Unwittingly, they have strayed into the Land of the Spirits, a world of dreamlike scenery inhabited by ancient gods and magical beings, ruled over by the sorceress, Yubaba. With her parents held captive and Yubaba set on enslaving them forever, Chihiro must use all her energy to survive in this strange new place. With the help of Haku, a brave young spirit, she is forced to overcome her Pears and join an epic battle for her family's freedom. - Director:
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Cast:
- Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino
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A Brighter Summer Day (1991)Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian
Among the most highly praised titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang, was unavailable for years and much sought after. Set in the early 1960s, 'A Brighter Summer Day' is based on the true story of a crime that rocked Taiwan. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual but inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chang Chen, in his first role) from innocence to delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil. - Director:
- Edward Yang
- Cast:
- Chen Chang, Lisa Yang, Kuo-Chu Chang
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Sátántangó (1994)Satan's Tango
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bela Tarr's epic rendering of Laszlo Krasznahorkai's novel, about the decline of Communism in Eastern Europe, is a unique and visionary masterpiece that defies classification and transcends genre. Set in a struggling Hungarian agricultural collective, a group of lost souls reeling from the collapse of their Communist utopia face an uncertain future, until the arrival of a charismatic stranger in whom they believe lies their salvation. The collective's individual experiences and fates are gradually revealed in Tarr's immaculately composed, brilliantly photographed and bleakly comic tour-de-force, which confirmed his place as one of contemporary cinema's few genuine auteurs. - Director:
- Béla Tarr
- Cast:
- Ferenc Kállai, Mihály Vig, Putyi Horváth
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Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)Céline et Julie vont en bateau - Phantom Ladies Over Paris
Celine (Juliet Berto), a magician, and Julie (Dominique Labourier), a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, finance, clothes, identity and imagination. Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired 'film-within-the-film' - a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the 'Phantom Ladies Over Paris' (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier), a sinister man (Barbet Schroeder) and his child. - Director:
- Jacques Rivette
- Cast:
- Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier
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The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes. Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating night watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as tramp and waif walk arm in arm into an insecure future we know they've found neither bliss nor a paycheck but, more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in 'Modern Times'. - Director:
- Charles Chaplin
- Cast:
- Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman
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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Sunset Boulevard. Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances. - Director:
- Billy Wilder
- Cast:
- William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
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It's night over Europe, the night of 2nd of May 1945. A crippled Lancaster Bomber struggles home across the English Channel, all crew dead save for the young pilot desperately scanning the radio for signs of life. His prayers are answered, June (Kim Hunter), a young radio operator, picks up his signal, and in the final moments of the young flyer's life, a special bond is formed. The next morning washed up on an English beach, Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) is alive. He finds June, and the two fall in love. Somehow he survived. It's a miracle...or is it? Peter Carter should have died that night; a heavenly escort missed him in the fog above the Channel, and now he must face the celestial court of appeal for his right to live. - Director:
- Michael Powell
- Cast:
- David Niven, Howard Marshall, Kim Hunter
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Set in the picture-postcard small town environs of Lumberton, Kyle MacLachlan plays the clean cut Jeffrey Beaumont, who, whilst returning from a visit to his hospitalised father, makes the shocking discovery of a severed human ear. After reporting his discovery to a local police detective, Jeffrey decides to pursue his own line of enquiry, aided by the detective's daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). This sets Jeffrey on a voyage of discovery that takes him to the very heart of Lumberton's seedy and sinister underworld where he encounters a collection of misfits whose various chronic compulsions to engulf him in their twisted and nightmarish world. - Director:
- David Lynch
- Cast:
- Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper
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Pierrot le Fou (1965)Pierrot Goes Wild / Crazy Pete
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. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani
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Histoire(s) du Cinema (1998)???????(?) ????
Jean-Luc Godard transformed the face of cinema with his prolific, influential and revolutionary body of work which includes such classics as 'Breathless', 'Weekend' and 'Slow Motion' to name but a few. His video series 'Histoire(s) du Cinema', consisting of eight episodes made over a period of ten years, is an extraordinary look at the medium through the eyes of this unique filmmaker. Hugely ambitious in scope, the series covers a wide range of topics from the birth of cinema to Italian neo-realism to Hollywood and beyond. A dazzling montage of sight and sound, 'Histoire(s) du Cinema' features a diverse array of film extracts, the voices of - among others - Juliette Binoche and Alfred Hitchcock, and an eclectic music soundtrack ranging from Beethoven to Leonard Cohen. - Director:
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast:
- Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Cuny, Sabine Azéma
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Spirit of the Beehive (1973)El Espiritu De La Colmena
Made under the Franco regime, Victor Erice's astonishing 1973 feature debut is quite simply one of the most remarkable, influential and purely poignant films to emerge from the 1970's. A bona-fide classic of European cinema, the film brought Erice instant and widespread acclaim. An audacious critique of the disastrous legacy of the Spanish Civil War, The Spirit of the Beehive is set in a rural 1940's Spanish village haunted by betrayal and regret. Following a travelling cinema's screening of James Whale's Frankenstein, seven year-old Ana (the mesmerising Ana Torrent, later to grow into an international star of some standing) becomes fascinated with Boris Karloff's monster. Obsessed with meeting the initially gentle creation, she transfers her entrancement to tending a wounded army deserter. Atmospherically rendered by legendary Director of Photography Luis Cuadrado, it's impeccably performed by both Torrent and veteran actor Fernando Fernan Gomez in the role of her emotionally scarred, bee-keeping father. Existing in a highly evocative dreamlike state, it's a powerfully symbolic, richly allegorical tale that is as unique as it is beautiful. - Director:
- Víctor Erice
- Cast:
- Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent
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Writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a former alcoholic, accepts a job as the winter caretaker for a hotel high in the Rocky Mountains, isolating him, his wife (Shelley Duvall) and their psychic young son until spring. But when the first blizzard blocks the only road out, the hotel's stored energy from evil past deeds begins to drive Jack insane...a and there may be no escape for his family in this haunting story of madness, memory and violence. - Director:
- Stanley Kubrick
- Cast:
- Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
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Chungking Express (1994)Chung Hing sam lam
'Chungking Express', cult filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's hugely influential international breakthrough, is a supremely stylish combination of love story and thriller, set in and around Hong Kong's infamous Chungking Mansions, a vast complex of shabby hostels, bars and clubs. The film tells the stories of two lovelorn cops and the women with whom they become involved: a mysterious drug dealer dressed in a blonde wig and sunglasses, and an impulsive young dreamer. - Director:
- Kar-Wai Wong
- Cast:
- Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu Wai
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Madame De. (1953)The Earrings of Madame de... / Madame de...
When, beset by debt, Madame de... (Danielle Darrieux) decides to sell a pair of earrings that were a wedding gift from her husband Andre (Charles Boyer), she unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will have serious consequences, not only for the Parisian couple but for Andre's mistress and for an Italian Baron (Vittorio De Sica) who purchases the, by then, much-travelled jewellery. - Director:
- Max Ophüls
- Cast:
- Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica
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The Leopard (1963)Il Gattopardo
Luchino Visconti's masterpiece, The Leopard, is now available on DVD for the first time. Featuring the complete and uncut version of the film, with fully restored picture and sound, this stunning high definition digital transfer from the film's original 70mm negative materials, overseen by the film's director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno, is presented here in its original widescreen aspect ratio.. - Director:
- Luchino Visconti
- Cast:
- Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale
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