monsieurk's - Favourites List
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The Colour of Pomegranates (1969)Sayat Nova / Red Pomegranate
Sergei Paradjanov's celebrated, dreamlike masterpiece paints an astonishing portrait of the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, the 'King of Song'. Paradjanov's aim was not a conventional biography but a cinematic expression of his work, resulting in an extraordinary visual poem. Key moments in his subject's life are illustrated through a series of exquisitely orchestrated tableaux filled with rich colour and stunning iconography, each scene a celluloid painting alive with stylised movement. One of cinema's most revered and beautiful films, The Colour of Pomegranates is a unique and rewarding experience that haunts the memory long after viewing. - Director:
- Sergei Parajanov
- Cast:
- Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Vilen Galstyan
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Late Spring (1949)Banshun
Yasujiro Ozu's hugely influential award-winning masterpiece, 'Late Spring', is a tender meditation on family politics, sacrifice and the status quo. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) and her father, Professor Somiya (Chishu Ryu), live together in perfect harmony but old certainties are put at risk when an interfering aunt raises the question of marriage. Introducing Ozu's popular Noriko character, 'Late Spring' poignantly examines the gradual compromise between modernity and tradition. - Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka
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‘City Lights’ begins with an uproarious skewering of pomp and formality, ends with one of the most famous last shots in movie history and, from start to finish, so completely touches the heart and tickles the funny bone that in 1998 it was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American Films. Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the filmmaking tide with this forever classic that’s silent except for music and sound effects. The story, involving the Tramp’s attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl, provides a star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The tramp is variously a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich 0poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken, but universally understood: love is blind. - Director:
- Charles Chaplin
- Cast:
- Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee
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The Battle of Algiers (1966)La Battaglia di Algeri
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 - Director:
- Gillo Pontecorvo
- Cast:
- Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi
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The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo
Internationally hailed by critics as his masterpiece, Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St Matthew is a visually stunning, emotionally stirring film version of the life of Christ, based upon the writings of the apostle Matthew. Pasolini's vision is both deeply religious and determinedly polictical, with the messiah portrayed as a peasant outcast, driven by anger at social injustice. Convincing performances by an entirely non-professional cast, impressive cinematography and an inventive use of music, from Bach to Billie Holiday, combine to great effect in this landmark of world cinema. - Director:
- Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Cast:
- Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini
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Ordet (1955)The Word
A tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love, Ordet is an extraordinary expression of spiritual optimism without being either sentimental or pious. Religious intolerance and family tensions lie at the heart of the film, which explores the clash between orthodox religions and true faith. Dreyer achieves its powerful effects in deceptively simple ways, and has produced, in its closing moments, one of the most extraordinary scenes in all cinema. - Director:
- Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Cast:
- Birgitte Federspiel, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Hanne Agesen
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Andrei Rublev (1966)Andrey Rublyov
Widely regarded as Tarkovsky's finest film, 'Andrei Rublev' charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th Century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and Tatar invastions. Made on an epic scale, it does not flinch from portraying the savagery of the time, from which, almost inexplicably, the serenity of Rublev's art arose. The great set-pieces - the sack of Vladimir, the casting of the bell, the pagan ceremonies of St. John's night and the Russian crucifixion are tours-de-force of visceral film-making. - Director:
- Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast:
- Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Klara Rumyanova, Ivan Lapikov
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Story of my Death (2013)Història de la meva mort
Catalan maverick auteur Albert Serra has established himself as one of the boldest and most unique voices in contemporary cinema, with his beguiling work often drawing on the history of literature and art. Winner of the prestigious Golden Leopard award for Best Film at Locarno, 'Story of My Death' is a baroque reflection on pleasure and erotic desire dramatised from an imagined meeting between the ageing Casanova and Count Dracula. Serra's deliciously eccentric film mines history to blend the mythical with the everyday, charting the clash between an eighteenth century of rationalism and sensuality against a nineteenth century founded upon repression and violence. - Director:
- Albert Serra
- Cast:
- Vicenç Altaió, Lluís Serrat, Eliseu Huertas
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Come and See (1985)Idi i smotri / Ubit Gitlera
"Come and See" is one of the greatest war films ever made and one of the finest achievements of Soviet cinema. A devastating account of the Nazi occupation of Belarussia during World War II, it tells the story of a young boy's abrupt loss of innocence when he joins the Soviet resistance and is thrust headlong into the brutal horrors of combat. Featuring terrifyingly authentic battle scenes and poetic, almost surreal imagery, director Elem Klimov has fashioned a vivid and unforgettably powerful portrait of the terrible atrocities committed by men in the name of war. - Director:
- Elem Klimov
- Cast:
- Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius
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Children of Paradise (1945)Les Enfants Du Paradis
Set amidst the glittering theatre world of 19th century Paris, the story revoles around the beautiful and free-spirted courtesan, Garanace, and the four men who compete for her affections; a mime-artist, an actor, an aristocrat and a criminal. As the melodrama unfolds, we are treated to one of cinema's greatest love stories, a captivating tale of passion, deception and murder. - Director:
- Marcel Carné
- Cast:
- Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur
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Lancelot of the Lake (1974)Lancelot Du Luc
Winner of the International Critics' Prize at Cannes in 1974, Bresson's masterpiece has lost none of its power and continues to cast a mystical spell. In this compelling and hypnotic film about the Arthurian legend, the Knights of the Round Table, their numbers depleted by their bloody and fruitless quest for the Holy Grail, return to King Arthur's court. Once there, Lancelot's passionate relationship with Queen Guinevere causes the Knights to fall out amongst themselves, eventually leading to their downfall. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan
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Francis, God's Jester (1950)Francesco Giullare di Dio
Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly render the very spirit of Franciscan teaching in this extraordinary fresh and simple film - largely unappreciated at the time of its release, but now regarded as one of his greatest. Shot in a neorealist manner with non-professional actors (including thirteen actual Franciscan monks) it avoids the pious cliches of haloed movie saints with an economy of expression and a touching, human quality. - Director:
- Roberto Rossellini
- Cast:
- Aldo Fabrizi, Gianfranco Bellini, Peparuolo
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The White Ribbon (2009)Das Weisse Band
On the eve of World War I, the quiet order of a small protestant village in Northern Germany is disturbed by a series of mysterious and inexplicable accidents. To the mounting concern of the villagers, the events persist, becoming increasingly sinister and taking on the character of a perverse punishment ritual. But who is responsible. - Director:
- Michael Haneke
- Cast:
- Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Klaus Manchen
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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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Seven Samurai (1954)Shichinin no Samurai
In 16th century Japan a poor village is raided every year by a group of bandits until, driven to the brink of starvation, the villagers decide to hire professional warriors to protect them. With only three meager meals a day to offer as payment, their request seems an impossible one. A simple plot, flawlessly executed - 'Seven Samurai' combines comedy, pathos, memorable characters, gripping tension and some of the finest action scenes ever filmed. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima
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