The 30 Greatest Films

the idea of a Canon or any form of a

list is both a meaningless as well as an

obsessive Endeavor I know I share the

sentiment of many others in resolving

the definitive list of anything

particularly when it comes to a

categorization of the greatest pieces in

something I care deeply about I've put

it upon myself to attempt to create my

own list of the films that I believe to

be the greatest and with any list of

this kind there are always self-imposed

rules and defining precisely what each

person creating each list means by

greatest but if I were to overthink this

list would never be made whatever the

thought process was these were the films

that clearly somewhere resonate with me

at my deepest level for all I know I

could organize the exact same list in a

year's time and every entry could be

different however I shall commit to my

claim and say that these are my 30

greatest films of all time innumerable

masterpieces have been left off this

list simply due to space and all films

that have currently been displayed sadly

were caught just short thank you and I

hope this list ends up finding a purpose

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number 30 old boy directed by Park Chan

walk

if we were to Simply judge the medium of

Cinema solely as a narrative-based

medium then old boy would remain as

highly resonant at peace as film could

achieve a man is mysteriously kidnapped

and kept alive for 15 years alone in a

room his torture is that of a

totalitarian kind he remains fed groomed

even with access to television and the

goings-on of the outside world he's

alive it is anything but living

and she followed

up

this is until an unexplainable almost

miraculous circumstance dictates that he

had to be released from his confinement

he's given an opportunity not to find

out who did this to him but the grand

question of why and perhaps like many

things some are just not meant to be

known

this gripping mystery thriller narrative

is the propelling factor of old boy and

it's what most people are going to find

is most fascinating aspect though it

takes something more than a great story

to claim the mantle of one of the

greatest films of all time

foreign I have to comment on the

transgression all boy has of the great

tradition the immemorial storytelling of

the tragedy part of Park Chan walk's

Vengeance Trilogy the yearning for

Retribution is felt with such force in

old boy it's hard not to support our

protagonist ode Sue's Quest For answers

by any means necessary the Revenge tale

most aptly related to old boy is the

tale of Oedipus the King it is Notions

of utilizing the Primal storytelling

tools of Greek tragedy to fit into

modern Cinema and nothing short of

brilliant

I couldn't

Talk number 30. old boy directed by Park

Chan walk

the Mastery of Maison sen delivers an

ostentatious and almost melodramatic

aura that swallows the film whole

Desu is animalistic the complete

embodiment of Vengeance resulting in

operatic scenes such as the hallway

fight that flowed the frame with his

overwhelming fur

all right

old boy speaks to was like a legend or a

myth that lingers through time is

hyper-stylized World forces us to watch

its brutal levels of violence while

elevating them to a transcendental level

just as we perceive the stories of

Vengeance from the Greeks the depictions

of Revenge in old boy are not intended

to Simply Be depicted solely as personal

matters to the characters they are

vessels that represent all encompassing

facets of The Human Condition their

sorrow is the sorrow of all Humanity as

is their hatred their desire and their

love the catharsis that's reached upon

the finale of old boy is a feeling so

unique the credits roll and weak gaze

over a mountainous landscape whether the

feeling that everything is finally over

and we know that there is nothing more

to be said yet there's something missing

in your soul you don't feel content but

you don't feel sadness either is

something in between

and that is where old boy succeeds most

from its use of hyper real segments to

an unreliable narrator from Slice of

Life realism to operatic grandiosity old

boy is a film that exemplifies the

modern concept of a legend to run the

gamut of human emotion at its highest

stake and emerge out the other end

perhaps it may not be a direct lesson

for Humanity but such a deep

understanding of our emotional Journeys

must quantify a Mastery of the art

honey

number 29 Sunrise a song of two humans

directed by f w myrno when I think of

Sunrise a song of two humans I think of

an Ode To Life mono's silent Masterpiece

is a film that begins on a contentious

premise

a man's desperation for an escape from

the life he's grown to resent decides he

must murder his wife this notion alone

would make a story subject almost

instantaneously irredeemable yet Sunrise

manages to achieve an almost miraculous

Redemption for our characters the First

Act of the film follows this

heart-wrenching struggle of the two

characters whom we spend the entirety of

the film with and within the film's

first half an hour Mano presents the

picturesque pastoral Paradise which By

Night transforms into a playground of

the Damned beautifully shot and we see

the great emotional depth our two

characters carry with them one filled

with love the other tortured by dread

foreign

[Music]

[Applause]

though the most incredible aspect of

Sunrise lies not in the turnaround of

its climax in regards to narrative

structure sunrise's primary conflict is

resolved much sooner than we may

anticipate it seems as though by the

halfway point of the film The resentment

and anguish that was so present has been

Cast Away it shouldn't work but for the

film's remainder it's not the undoing of

what has been taken for granted but it's

the Resurgence of our protagonist's love

of Life what we witnessed throughout the

majority of Sunrise is two people

displaying the sheer exhilaration not of

falling in love but merely to be in love

thank you

sequences of taking photos enjoying food

dancing the simplest gestures heightened

to the completely joyous experience of

what it is to Simply Be Alive to be to

humans appropriate for the film's title

Sunrise takes on a song-like structure

it doesn't take the minutia of daily

life and show us how nice it is manoa's

filmmaking shows the impressionistic

sensations of all emotion and he sings

them out loud his danger is brooding and

murderous wearing even the literal

language of the film begins to sink like

our protagonist's vengeful desires

foreign

and in the same breath our expressions

of Love teleport us to the heavens when

nothing else matters

[Music]

the initial Redemption that occurs in

Sunrise asserts the power of one

another's love but in an incredible feat

of Storytelling our two characters must

Brave the very power of nature itself

putting their love to the ultimate test

yet as we watch these characters grow we

watch as their love has overpowered

everything it has encountered thus far

it's become the most important thing in

their world

Sunrise a song of two humans thus

creates a Redemption for all life as if

just life itself is beautiful enough to

redeem all sin to watch this film is to

feel a deep love for the life that you

live at this very moment and as the sun

rises we're reminded of the Majesty of

Being Human

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

number 28 Citizen Kane directed by Orson

Wells

how does one discuss Citizen Kane

without divulging into cliches

can't however in this one instance

cliche and contrivance should be

permitted because the obvious statements

that you can and will inevitably make

about Citizen Kane exist for a reason

Citizen Kane Remains the most

influential film of all time it's almost

an objective Truth at this point when

learning about the language of film you

can learn everything you need to know

about framing a scene pacing character

Montage all from Citizen Kane

foreign

[Music]

because what people perhaps neglect most

when talking about Citizen Kane is

explaining its inescapable importance

within the realm of cinema cinema in

1941 was still in many ways fighting to

assert itself as a medium that could

stand alongside High literature and even

though great film theorists such as emel

gaunts and Sergey eisenstein had

furthered the discourse of the form

there was still the barrier of its

emergence as a unique form of

Storytelling but Citizen Kane seemed to

change that the density of Citizen

Kane's narrative is an incredible feat

in two hours we learn of a boy that was

born into a poor family and watch how he

morphs into a newspaper Tycoon the

growth and disintegration of his

marriage the perception of the Myriad of

those closest to him until he becomes a

reclusive old man leaving the world with

a mysterious whisper

perfect screenplay premise centering

around one of the most emblematic and

transformative performances an actor has

ever put on film with Orson Welles as

Charles Foster came

[Applause]

out

[Applause]

Jim Gettys has something less than a

chance and though the story of Citizen

Kane is a fascinating character study

it's its methodology That Remains The

Shining Jewel in this box of treasures

the stories within Stories the

flashbacks the non-linearity is play

with the passages of time and all shot

by Greg toland with some of the most

magnificent photography that's ever been

shot in cinema the way space is used in

this film every frame tells us something

about the characters their relationships

to one another and is ultimately just a

spectacle of cinematic creativity

[Music]

foreign

Kane and add any additional depth

everyone has to watch this film and if

you don't come out realizing what a

spectacular achievement in the world of

cinema this is then you need to watch it

again

most people still regard Citizen Kane as

the greatest film of all time and it

would be difficult to dissuade them

so why is it not higher well I still

hold one conviction in regards to

Citizen Kane not being the greatest film

of all time Citizen Kane was the only

film that Wells made under RKO and there

he had full creative control but if he

had creative control over his follow-up

film The Magnificent Ambersons and the

studio hadn't altered the final cut then

that undoubtedly would have been the

greatest film that Orson Welles ever

made but for now I'll make do with

citizen games I expect to lose a million

dollars next year

you know Mr Thatcher at the rate of a

million dollars a year I'll have to

close this place in

60 years

number 27 My Dinner with Andre directed

by Louis male

show don't tell this is the first rule

you hear about filmmaking but rules are

meant to be broken

so what could be a better example of

this than a film which is nothing more

than two people having dinner and

talking that's the premise two friends

meet and discuss one another's lives and

wear one character Andre recites his

Grand and mystical experiences his

artistic immaterial Lifestyle the other

man at the table Wally discusses a

simpler more subdued life that he leads

and we sit and we listen

who am I

why am I here

where do I come from and where am I

going

but instead of applying them to a role

you apply them to yourself

to speak about my Dinner with Andre

would lead to levels of irony that I'm

not ready to explore here essentially I

would just get in the way for the only

thing that occurs in this film is the

conversation two friends sit and have a

conversation and that is it

however I hope that in saying that this

is one of the greatest films of all time

can help get across the importance and

impact of that conversation the great

thing about my Dinner with Andre is that

it covers a diverse array of topics One

Moment The Talk explores theater then it

explores modernity then traveling the

world friendship it flows and Peaks

interest the way any good conversation

does some things we directly relate to

and can comprehend but many of them we

don't have a direct connection with and

yet we learn quite intimately the life

philosophies that these two men employ

and as they begin to challenge and

question one another's choices the

resulting dialogues are incredibly

resounding ideas for us the viewers the

film is a war of words with nothing at

stake other than where these topics may

take us next explaining what's discussed

in My Dinner with Andre is tantamount to

spoiling the entire experience

is a meditative piece with far more in

common with a play than with Cinema and

yet it simply belongs inside the film

frame Andre and Wally in many ways

represent our inner voice whereas one

says that we should strive to throw away

and be spontaneous and everything will

work out the other says how life is

about the Simple Pleasures and if you

can be happy with what you have then why

ask for anything more

I mean why is it necessary to have more

than this or to even think about having

more than this I mean I don't really

know what you're talking about

I mean I mean I know what you're talking

about

I don't really know what you're talking

about

and they are both correct for the film

gives time for them to expound on these

Grand monologues to defend their ideals

and challenge the status quo so even

though whoever is watching may have no

Affinity with Andre's perspective on

spiritualism we begin to respect both

ways of living and ultimately that's

what the film is a meditation on the

innumerable ways that one can live one's

life or we must have values and if we

hold those values true and help others

understand them then we can still have a

splendid dinner together

what does that mean a wife a husband

son

a baby holds your hands and then

suddenly there's this huge man lifting

off the ground and then he's gone

number 26 Akira directed by katsuhiro

odomo

if coolness was a currency then Acura

would make us all very rich

sink into the sublime chaos that is near

Tokyo a post-nuclear re-envisioning of

how Japan will look after World War III

teenage biker gangs commit acts of

brutal violence on one another

revolutionaries bomb the buildings of

the new hybrid governmental military

facilities all the while the very real

corporations maintain their advertising

prowess as their logos fill the neon

colored skylines

[Music]

that is what Akira is actually about

we follow one of the emerging biker

gangs most notably our two main

characters Canada and tetsuo both of

their stories diverging greatly from one

another as they're swept up into a world

much greater than they are and like

every other inhabitants of this universe

they persist in an existence that they

can no longer control their personal

stories becoming all the more

insignificant in a world that's about to

figuratively and literally explode

foreign

does not Center on a simple narrative in

which we're invested in its cause and

effect based on otomo's original manga

it's an accomplishment in and of itself

that Akira was able to compress this

Rich world into the format of a motion

picture

the film focuses on the hyper violence

that's assuming rain in our ever more

technological world the children are

purposeless whereas the adults are

indoctrinated in one ideology or another

yet the presence of a very real threat

lies underneath the city the remnants of

the young boy Akira hidden in a military

base underground this secret of what

makes neo-tokyo exist simultaneously

will be the thing that will destroy it

Acura brawl anime to the Western World

with its complex style of Storytelling

as well as its absurdly detailed level

of animation

hand-drawn animation had never looked

this good and the team behind acura's

luck created a super fluid style of

motion by increasing the amount of

Animation cells

[Applause]

it also had the most amount of different

colors used in any animation at the time

to this day just watching Acura is still

unbelievable that they were able to

achieve the visual Splendor that unfolds

in front of you

Akira was a feat for the form of

Animation anyone could watch this film

with the sound off and you would still

be completely astounded but amongst

Being A Feast for the eyes it's the

complex layers of society it depicts

with Nuance how normal people from all

walks of life managed to fit into a

story that's so beyond their recognition

you can't believe

[Music]

how it displays the looming threats that

have emerged in globalized Worlds

destroying cultures and breeding intense

violence between factions

some of the best sequences in Acura are

not simply its magnificent scale of

Destruction or how every event no matter

how big or small can drag a normal

person into an abnormal mode of being

ah

Akira furthered what was capable in the

filmic depictions of dystopian worlds

that seemed so familiar it developed an

aesthetic that raised Supreme even today

the West was introduced to anime with

Akira and with it the mature and

intricate philosophies that came with so

much of the medium Akira remains a

milestone in these worlds and in the

world of film alike

foreign

[Music]

number 25 Gone With the Wind directed by

Victor Fleming

what became Hollywood's first Grand epic

of its newly emerged Studio system would

remain to this day the archetype for its

synonymous genre although directing is

attributed to Victor Fleming Gone With

the Wind should perhaps be attributed to

producer David o'selznick what was the

most expensive film at the Time starring

Hollywood's most famous actor scored by

Max Steiner and shot in three strip

Technicolor the studios were banking on

Gone With the Wind with everything that

they had and it just so happened to work

at four hours in length featuring an

intermission as well as an overture Gone

With the Wind presents us with the

Romantic Civil War epic and by romantic

this isn't merely referring to the

actual romance story Gone With the Wind

presents everything of the Once Upon a

Time us on a grand immense Vista it's a

film where everything is large the story

sprawls many years the family at the

center traverses all of their Joys and

tragedies all the while a war rages in

the background transforming the

landscape

going with the wind is a film that sings

the Praises of its image not cutting a

single corner to make the film frame the

Pinnacle of its storytelling device the

film loves film the image itself shot on

Technicolor doesn't show us how life

truly is it's revealing the hidden

beauty that can only be exposed through

Cinema the colors are warm the love is

sweeping and the loss catastrophic does

Gone With the Wind appeal to our

sentimentalities absolutely but within

this genre with this approach it only

works in its favor going with the Wind

from a narrative sense is many things

it's the story of the American Civil War

of a tumultuous love of a wealthy family

losing what they have of a changing

Society but what Gone With the Wind

really is is a staple for the

capabilities of Cinema

the moments and the people are a joy to

spend time with particularly the

protagonist Scarlett O'Hara being one of

the most fascinating portrayals of

femininity that Cinema has conjured

delicate and Powerful her childish

stubbornness also being her greatest

asset going with the wind is a giant

film in every sense of the word we

follow the horror of Civil War America

while at the same time deal with the

doomed Romance of a young couple Clark

Gable as Rhett Butler giving his most

memorable and vulnerable performance the

shared drama on display is an

orchestrated Feast of Kohler music and

character and as the score swells up and

Scarlet stares over the hazed landscape

we're reminded of what Cinema can be

there still aren't many films that can

take on a larger task than Gone With the

Wind this is a film of multiple

Craftsmen working together to make piece

of art and their effort is on display in

every frame going with the wind as I am

to describe it is a romantic view of

bygone times and bygone people a

testament to people's strengths and

hardships their pride and their Follies

I know much of the discussion of the

film has become focused on more

historical issues it remains a Triumph

and from a cinematic lens an example

that Studios can exist and are able to

deliver not only spectacles for the

masses but to make those spectacles

Something Beautiful

I'm not tired

Ashley

number 24 The Cook the Thief His Wife

and Her Lover directed by Peter

greenaway

and whilst on the subject of Romanticism

it's now time to examine a film that too

goes out of its way to warp reality

displaying its lack thereof although

this time Beauty shall lie in the

grotesque

the very best and that's expensive The

Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover

takes place over several nights in an

otherworldly Warehouse turn luxurious

restaurant every night Albert his wife

Georgina and his parade of thugs barge

their way into the restaurant and enjoy

their meals at the expense of everybody

else all the while Georgina has many

sexual rendezvous with the stranger

she's seen and immediately fallen in

love with fueled by Michael gammon's

portrayal of Albert speaker perhaps the

most vile character to ever exist in

cinema we're subjected to all manner of

degrading animalistic and vile Behavior

what did you say what did you say what

did you say

pressle

and what is all this in the service of

well for a film whose interpretation of

many different ideas I still haven't

exactly settled on cook Thief wife lover

is a kind of anti-cinema green away

wears the film's theatrical tropes like

a badge of honor structurally the film

is presented in Acts each Act served to

us via a menu the sequences play out as

if beneath the proscenium arch of a

stage we move almost exclusively

laterally throughout the film we never

leave the seat of The Spectator

remaining on the axis of the Observer

almost forced to endure the horrors that

occur on screen and although what's on

screen is horrific it's also in its own

Macabre completely glorious

his mother is a Roman Catholic he's been

in prison in South Africa he's as black

as the Ace of Spades and he probably

drinks his own pee

The Shakespearean resolve of our actors

only heightens the intensity of

greenway's intense choice of topics

orchestrating the movements to the score

of Michael nyman costume designed by

Jean-Paul Gaultier in each room a

monochromatic set piece we remain

trapped in a beautifully revolting world

the context of the film is wondrous you

can take each element of mnsen and

admire its beauty yet it's the content

which aims to do nothing but revile us

don't you like muscles you gotta learn

to like them if you get awake with me

Mitchell or I'll get Spangled the stuff

and back down yeah

a character speaks such disgusting

jargon that some of their conversations

seem to make no sense at all the

violence of the film is so gut-wrenching

that it moves from an uncomfortable

watch to Pure horror an already

difficult to watch scene will be made

even more disgusting by Greenway almost

as if he's putting us through an

endurance test

oftentimes it feels that Greenway

himself doesn't like the fact that we

are still watching the film

so why what's the purpose of the film is

it a misanthropic tale of depravity and

the gluttony of the human spirit is it

an attack on the buffoonery of the

bourgeoisie ingratiating themselves into

places of culture regardless of their

own lack of refinement or decorum is it

an anarchistic mood piece aimed to have

no real meaning other than shake the

foundation of the Cinematic medium well

it feels like all of those things many

times I find myself questioning the core

intent of The Cook the Thief His Wife

and Her Lover yet I still find myself

returning and Amazed by its unflinching

look at degeneracy and elegance rolled

into one Unforgettable tasting course

all right

I'm going to the loo

number 23 mirror directed by Andrei

tarkovsky

the dream world has become an integral

realm of Cinema just as it has our own

realities we attempt to understand the

translucent domain of these mirages but

in Mirror we do not approach dreams with

a Freudian or jungian perspective rather

this is a uniquely tarkovsky in

perspective one that shows that all of

life is inseparable from a dream

foreign

to be described for it may not even be

possible to describe it it's a story of

subjective memory a life passes in front

of us they seem to be of a young boy we

catch glimpses of his mother we witness

dramatic vignettes that appear as

suddenly as they fade away

Mira is a collection of experiences of

image and sound and these images though

crafted in the film are our own images

too the wind blowing through a field the

water dripping from cracked walls

we have experienced these before

Mira is an exercise in the blurring of

multiple subjectivities the same actors

play multiple characters the materiality

of the world will alter with the

movement of the camera and that which

clearly possesses no Grand meaning now

with a new lens holds the answers to all

the mysteries of life

foreign

has always utilized the elements of the

natural world to tell his stories yet

what's most unique to mirror is that

permeable barrier between reality and

the unreal a barrier which we

continually pass in between

the gust of wind in the field becomes

the rattling on the ground which becomes

a touch of snow which becomes the frost

in the air we move through the sensorial

experiences which unite us all our

personal experiences that make us who we

are are not trapped in a singular place

in time we carry them with us wherever

we go

Mira is like a Quantum map of one boy's

fleeting thoughts and I've done my best

to describe it but to watch it talks of

that feeling of being alive the one

that's somewhere in the middle of

everything that place that hovers above

time not quite Silent not quite real it

may sound abstract but for those that

have seen mirror they too have been to

that place

number 22 or debt directed by Carl

Theodore dryer it was the work of Carl

Dreyer wherein I had the most difficulty

in selecting my favorite film of his I

knew one of his films was to be on this

list but in looking at his uvra that

included The Passion of Joan of Arc day

of Wrath and Gertrude I had to select

Odette as my choice of his masterpiece

foreign

or that like much of Dryer's work is

about his own views of faith and the

Divine based on a play of the same name

all that is a theological and spiritual

piece on the lives of a rural family a

widower and his children are all

undergoing a differing and unique

struggle one of the children aims to be

married while another is about to have a

child of Their Own and one of the sons

has proclaimed to be Jesus Christ in the

flesh and wanders the farm decrying the

ages lack of faith

it's an unforgettable and haunting

performance as the eldest son meanders

through scenes like a ghost all the

while the camera drifts with the same

ethereal demeanor

Odette carries the character of a play

long scenes of people talking are

presented as long uninterrupted takes a

very somber and quiet piece the staging

of our debts is incredibly calculated

shooting a few rooms in very few shots

seems like a simple task but Draya's use

of lighting throughout our debt conveys

the depth of what we're watching light

appears more akin to Dryer's silent

Works deep tall shadows and varying

degrees of lightness displaying

intricacy in what we see people talking

in a room suddenly becomes drenched in

drama not only because of what they say

but how we see it their solemnity is

worn on their bodies and on the world

around them

British dance

come to Bay

beautiful

to Sky

or that is a muted experience to explain

its Rising tension and then you want

would be perhaps to misinterpret its

purpose as an art piece the film is

incredibly subdued to the point where

action takes a backseat of thoughts and

meditation are placed at the Forefront a

deeply spiritual and religious film or

that features characters with opposing

views on faith and although the film's

finale may be difficult to view through

any secular interpretation it doesn't

matter

for much like many of the Great films

its themes transcend its immediate

topics and carries them to astonishing

Heights a film about the simple yet

painful struggles of the Pastoral is a

film that in reality is about the great

mysteries of life and death

is

number 21 lion directed by Matthew

cassowitz

very rarely can a film adequately

capture the world it attempts to depict

with the grit and feel necessary to

truly understand it film in many ways

has become an elitist art form we only

need luck at the Gilded film festivals

and award ceremonies that spend Millions

on celebrating real art but a true Urban

Cinema can be found in land not just

because it's good at its depiction of

the outer suburbs of Paris but because

of its legitimate authenticity

[Applause]

lion follows three boys from these

suburbs over the course of a single day

it captures the culture the kinetic

energy and the unpredictability of life

in these Urban Holdings because the crew

that made the film understood them when

filming land the crew opted for

primarily non-professional actors and

moved into the suburb for where they

were filming and as the lives of these

people hangs on a thread with disruption

around the corner from police violence

exploding from everywhere they turn and

simply looking for their means of

survival kasabits employs a

hyper-energetic handheld style that puts

us right in the middle of this world

cutting and moving with the same

neurotic Edge that's needed in a world

just to get by

foreign

the first in what will later be realized

is the more honest suburbs comes with an

edge although we're in an environment

that thrives in danger there's an

honesty in what's presented to us we

smash into scenes like a car colliding

with its victim we caught on the sounds

of gunfire we're constantly snapped into

this precarious reality but at least we

know where we are it's only in the

second half of the film when we see our

characters in the city of Paris the more

civilized the more correct part of town

the tower characters become outcasts and

the film becomes a more uptight

experience but there's still something

dangerous here only it lurks in the

seemingly Pleasant area from the very

second the location changes we see the

visible barrier between our protagonists

and this new surrounding

Lion's image of class separation is one

that's mature without fetishizing the

life of the poor struggles do exist but

sometimes bad decisions are made the

saddest part being that most decisions

are Beyond anyone's control

Lions celebrates Paris all the while

begging for it to change we fly above

the tower blocks and are hit with a

moment of Serenity all the while we know

the instability that lies just below as

the Mantra of foot the police Rings

through the boulevards

lion is not just capturing a certain

place it's a vessel for a certain time

just before the Millennium wherein we

are moving toward a much more

hyperactive World some parts of those

worlds are still moving while some are

inert and in this world there is

constantly moving some people are going

to be left behind

lion is a mood piece perfectly depicting

not only this world but The Angst that

persists in those that have an urge to

destroy the world

our characters don't want that they want

to destroy the world as it is now

the two most vital thematics of land are

space and time and they are both moving

is it going to be bad or do we just

exist in a case of so far so good

number 20 love exposure directed by Xiao

Sono

if ever there were a film that would be

deemed so low brow and pathetically

absurd that just the act of describing

it would be so ridiculous you would

either question that person's taste

mental faculties or think they were just

lying then it would be my next entry

love exposure

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

so let's get right into it our main

character you is the son of a Catholic

priest his mother dies and as he senses

the growing distance between himself and

his father realizes the only way to

maintain their relationship is to commit

sins for his forgiveness eventually this

leads him to progress further and

further until he becomes a professional

pervert in a crew of friends that take

photographs of the skirts of girls one

day upon losing a bet he has to

cross-dress and walk the streets wherein

he finds a girl that reminds him of his

sexual fantasies of the Virgin Mary

kauri a damaged girl that hates all men

except for Kurt Cobain and has a tattoo

of Jesus falls in love with use Alter

Ego all the while a Christian cult led

by its leader who genitally disfigured

an abuser is creating a sexless sect

which is important as user action is

also an integral plot point this

alongside an underground hentai

Collective a mental institution and a

love triangle and love exposure is one

of the most Charming Phil films you can

come across

love exposure is the kind of film that

attempts to display that life does have

a purpose for everyone our main

character you is a young man that

commits awful acts but we get to see his

intentions he's naive and he's simply

someone attempting to win his father's

attention and the love of his life all

the while navigating the most lurid

outrageous and downright cartoonish

aspects of modern Japan

see myself

you just

love exposure is a critique of

contemporary Japanese culture but all

the while Sean Sono wants us to try and

understand it shooting on handheld

digital camera the Lo-Fi aesthetic of

Love exposure is worn with pride as is

its ridiculous content John Sono wants

us to find some meaning any level of joy

in what we see and that means exploring

every possible Avenue of existence there

is you is an endearing character because

he has purpose in life and wherever we

find him his morality never fails

Ohio

perhaps there's a life lesson in love

exposure for us of course if you are to

watch it go along for the ride and just

accept what's put in front of you but

then take that mentality and apply it to

the real world if someone lives their

life to the fullest with a purpose and

with a code perhaps that is the true

love for life on display that's what it

means to be exposed to love who would

have thought that a four hour film about

perverted cross-dressing sexually

dysfunctional Christians would be one of

the most genuinely sincere and touching

films I've seen honestly there's really

nothing else quite like it

foreign

Persona directed by ingmar Bergman

when people discuss High art it's very

rare that they're referring to cinema

that realm is reserved exclusively for

literature and paintings of Masters only

a few films are considered part of that

high Echelon and the first film I think

of when I think of Cinema as high art is

in fact persona

foreign

of his career Persona is the perfect

blend of all the Bergman s traits that

made his work so memorable his deep

philosophical quandaries on our place

within the world as well as this very

human lens on the emotional depth that

individuals carry with them following

Elizabeth an actress that has suddenly

become mute and her carer Alma on an

isolated island trying to pinpoint the

meaning behind Persona is a riddle in

and of itself Alma being the voice of

the film is the primary source of

conflict as she begins to use the

voiceless Elizabeth as a vessel for her

to pour her own insecurities and doubts

into

foreign

but Elizabeth does not respond to this

and as we see growing similarities

between the two we begin to question is

all of this a projection from Alma is

any of what we're seeing rarely going on

Persona first and foremost is a film

about identity with a rich psychological

depth questioning the person we present

ourselves as is our memory of ourselves

different from the real self can we

absorb someone else's Persona to make it

our own the ghostly presence of

Elizabeth is where the film talks about

such enigmas through its radical

aesthetic shot in Stark black and white

by bergman's longtime cinematographer

sveninkfist never has there been a more

vital use of framing in cinema

foreign

cutting an image to create an illusion

The Duality represented by Persona is in

every frame in every boundary of light

and dark that paints the screen and

speaking of screen this doesn't even

touch one of the fundamental aspects of

persona beginning with a truly

experimental prologue we're bombarded

with shots and sequences of screens and

cameras Persona opens with a statement

that it is a movie then it resets never

to mention it again

[Music]

subconsciously we watch all of persona

with this in mind ultimately where do we

fit into this picture how does our role

as a viewer affect these two fictional

characters blurring of identity it would

be impossible to even introduce all of

the themes in Persona it's just that

layered of a piece it's stripped down of

all non-necessities and what it gives us

it gives so much a truly mature

philosophical and hopefully

introspective masterpiece

flamethrowers throughout California

directed by Chantal ackermann

over the course of three days a woman

cleans her home she prepares dinner and

she completes her chores the cycle then

repeats her actions are invisible and

thus she is invisible

foreign

highlights with a drab aesthetic a

crucial look of the female experience

with more in common with a video art

piece than traditional cinematic

storytelling Jean dealman utilizes the

inertia of its character's actions to

highlight their meaninglessness

completely removing her from any kind of

agency or even any kind of humanity

clocking in at over 200 minutes long

many of which are spent watching

completely mundane tasks in their

entirety John dealmon for Chantal

ackermann was to represent a lifestyle

that's been accepted as a form of living

uncomfortably forcing us to view the

normalized tyranny of so many men and

the meek subservience of so many women

the acts of John dealman are presented

without any intrusion from the filmmaker

the camera is static and there's no

point that they're cut away from or

compressed for ease of the viewer

this is the Unseen life of many women

and we are forced to watch it to bring

into reality that which is so often

ignored the robotic and routine actions

pervade as the drabness of time becomes

larger and larger just as is Jean's

submission to her son and to the sexual

objectification from other men but this

life becomes unsustainable and it's only

the most insignificant change within

this carefully crafted routine that

collapses Jean's world

[Music]

which is removed from her set regimen

which allows her to conform and all of a

sudden her individuality is screaming in

her face what is she doing and how could

she do this

the film requires a nothingness to its

actions which in turn requires an

ultimate kind of catharsis by the film's

ending there truly is only one way to

redeem everything that she's done it may

be a difficult watch and perhaps I

wouldn't even call it enjoyable but it

is most certainly a Sublime piece of

Cinema with a vital message for both men

and women alike

number 17 Mulholland Drive directed by

David Lynch if Mira is the capturing of

a Dream On Film then Mulholland Drive is

the capturing of a nightmare beginning

its life as a TV pilot before

transitioning into a feature film

Mulholland Drive is the warp story of an

aspiring actress trying to make it in

Hollywood though this isn't quite the

Hollywood that we know it's the

Hollywood of our subconscious one that

permanently exists in the pit of our

memory whose images and people are all

there but not exactly how we remember

them

this is the girl hey that girl is not in

my film

it's all over your film

the work of David Lynch is inseparable

from his work in Transcendental

Meditation and although he's been very

open about his process when creating a

film The actuality of what his films

represent remains opaque Lynch's work is

that of the unconscious mind they

operate on a dream logic which is when

we do when we are asleep the connections

between characters and places are

tenuous but they're by no means

meaningless their dark Labyrinth to

navigate uncertain of what we'll find or

everything within Mulholland Drive holds

a secret to its meaning truth is hidden

away behind Corners in mysterious

containers behind curtains were LED on a

neo-noir mystery and constantly have our

expectations subverted one moment we're

following the story of a missing

identity only to then believe that

nothing that we've witnessed even

existed

foreign

time to wake up

[Music]

Lynch's work has been attributed to his

very specific stylistic form of

Storytelling but then what is it about

Mulholland Drive that separates it from

the rest of his work I think that

there's something about the world that

Mulholland Drive creates that's exactly

how we imagine a real living nightmare

to be people aren't intrinsically a

threat yet everything about their

presence we want to reject the Eerie

almost prophetic story of becoming a

star memories that seem to have never

existed many of these elements are

pervasive throughout Lynch's work but

there's just something about the

specificity of a feeling that's captured

in Mulholland Drive that's perfect

[Music]

Mulholland Drive is a frustrating film

for many however I believe that it's

simply because it's being viewed in the

wrong sense Mulholland Drive never

seemed to me to be a film to figure out

I believe that instinct is how this film

was made and thus instincts is how this

film should be read it utilizes all of

the signifiers that make her work

lynchian the nightmarish Landscapes of a

razor head the sadism in the underbelly

of Americana we see in blue velvet the

immaterial world of personas in Lost

Highway they're all present here and

these things aren't logical but we get

them

to want us to shut everything down

then we'll shut everything down

the use of an image of a man standing

under a single light as he talks to us

in a never-ending world of Blackness two

strangers emerging from nowhere talking

about the monster that lives behind the

building we know these experiences we've

had them in the abyss of our mind we

remember them more than some real

encounters we've had this metaphysical

logic is where Lynch speaks to us and he

does it know better than in Mulholland

Drive the horror that is Hollywood is a

world of fake identities plasticity and

aggressive pop culture Mulholland Drive

is if you take that world at night shake

it up and then dream about it the

nightmare may be awful but only because

the reality isn't far off

number 16 The Searchers directed by John

Ford

for reasons that I can't explain when I

first watched the searches I didn't like

it but I think that with time I've come

to realize that I simply didn't

understand what I was watching

the Western is perhaps the most genre of

any genre pieces with iconographies more

anticipated and expected than other

genres to the point of cliche even to

have John Wayne is in itself an

archetype of the western genre

story of Revenge on a tribe of natives

by an old cowboy seemed so generic to me

I was missing something and it was only

after expanding my own knowledge of

Cinema realizing the grand influence of

John Ford's work and re-watching again

that I instantly saw the sheer

Brilliance that was the Searchers

first of all the tropes of the western

epic begins with the Searchers Ford's

Mastery of shooting Landscapes with

extremely wide vistas of Monument Valley

was so idiosyncratic of his style that

to even shoot there now is tantamount to

plagiarism Ethan the main character of

the film is not the gung-ho Macho Cowboy

we anticipate he's an anti-hero plagued

with prejudice and loss finding the idea

of settling into civilized society in

impossibility his return to the

Homestead at the film's finale is the

climax of a Greek epic perhaps even a

Greek tragedy there's great complexity

within the Searchers dealing with themes

of racism the relations of Natives and

being an outsider of your own world

well I'm in that Jersey

no and you stay out of this I love you I

don't want you with me

I'll need you for what I gotta do

[Music]

but especially when you examine the

searches alongside the remainder of John

Ford's filmography we see that the

humanism of The Grapes of Wrath or The

Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is the

central point of the searches we're

excited to see Ethan embark on his

adventure and to follow the hero's

journey but he's a myth Ethan can never

be the hero the hero is sacrificial and

most of the time the world doesn't need

a hero or doesn't want him this is

emblemized in what's probably the most

famous final shot in the history of

Cinema the searches is a film that's

swelling with emotion on its surface

it's a Revenge story but besides that

mechanical action the film is about

people it's about struggle

hey wait a minute

somebody's fatal

hey Sam

like many Ford films the setting of the

old west is shot so beautifully that it

renders a mythical quality to the

stories that are being told but the

greatest moments of the film are in the

Silence of nature when people talk and

try to find how they fit into this world

what does a hero do when the world is in

no need for one the Fingerprints of the

searches exist all around us any epic or

Adventure film can't avoid its

monolithic presence in the public

subconscious if you've seen Star Wars

then you've seen a decent amount of the

searches and has awesome well said

himself when asked about his favorite

filmmakers he said I prefer the Old

Masters by that I mean John Ford John

Ford and John Ford

Ford created romanticized tapestries of

the old American West poetic Landscapes

that tell the stories of an era that's

passed but the stories of the kind of

complex characters that caller our lives

forever

you die

that'll be the day

number 15 Barry Linden directed by

Stanley Kubrick

at some point after its release Barry

Linden became the Forgotten film of

Kubrick's filmography it was for reasons

unknown the black sheep and it was only

in recent memory that there began to be

a reappraisal of it how this occurred I

have no idea but we have to ensure that

this never happens again because Barry

Linden remains a Powerhouse of Ingenuity

captivating storytelling and a level of

skill that only a master such as Kubrick

could possibly create

that his father had been bred like many

other young sons of a gentile family

to the profession of the law

and there is no doubt he would have made

an eminent figure in his profession

had he not been killed in a duel

Barry Linden is an 18th century period

drama and one that's utterly kubrickian

in every possible sense its extravagant

presentation the downfall of humanity in

a decadent society and an operatic

theatrical approach whose style screams

in the face of its audience

and as such things so often happen these

thoughts closely coincided with his

setting First Sight upon a lady who will

hence fourth play a considerable part in

the drama of his life Barry Linden is

split into two chapters and follows the

rise and subsequent fall of one Redmond

Barry the story is a quintessential

period piece of a gilded cage Society

that's become disenfranchised with the

reality of life yet in the manner in

which Kubrick tells the story of Barry

Linden that remains its crowning Jewel

to watch Barry Linden is to be taken on

a tour of the history of the great

masters of painting many of whom were

the inspiration for the film's

unbelievable compositions being the

perfectionist he was Kubrick required

lenses from NASA so that he could shoot

the interior scenes by candlelight as

was done at the time

let those laugh that win

[Music]

film is just one incredible image after

another intricately framed the subjects

play around in this beautiful yet almost

aggressively perfect manner of shooting

the rigidity of the compositions

displaying the character's restrictions

in this world of societal pressure and

expectation

and if there is a trait of Kubrick that

I simply can't get enough of is his

explosions of chaos throughout his

meticulously crafted Works while the

majority of the film is made up of

sequences that only a master could craft

he still has the ability to transgress

his own techniques shooting handheld to

bring audiences into the picturesque

Sublime as they implode from the inside

foreign

ties of strict decorum will ultimately

still inhabited by people like us every

technique in Barry Linden is loud and

assertive as is all of Kubrick's work it

is pure genre exploring the depth of

humanity in these alien societies

completely authentic and filled to the

brim with images to rival the greatest

artists of our species Barry Linden

remains Supreme as a tale of a society

unsustainable in its Customs told by an

artist at the Pinnacle of his craft

Barry believed and not without some

reason that it had been a declaration of

war against him by Bullington from the

start

and that the evil consequences which

ensued were entirely of bullington's

creating

number 14 the Knight of the haunta

directed by Charles Laughton

the biggest tragedy of the night of the

hunter is that due to the terrible

reception it garnered upon its initial

release Charles Laughton was never given

another opportunity to direct again this

was to be his first and last feature and

due to its initial panning Lawton also

never had the opportunity to witness the

Legacy that the Knight of the hunter was

to have on Cinema

preacher and killer Harry Powell played

by Robert Mitchum infiltrates her family

after learning that their criminal

patriarch has left them the ten thousand

dollars he'd recently stolen with all

the elements of a Pulp Fiction novel

there'll be nothing to suggest what the

night of the hunter has to offer

although most discussion of the film

begins with the legitimate threat of the

Charming Harry Powell which results in

one of the most unsettling characters

and what's undoubtedly one of Cinema's

greatest performances

now watch and I'll show you the story of

life

these fingers dear Hearts is always a

Warren and a tug and one again to other

now watch them

oh brother left hand left hand hates a

fighting and it looks like loves are

gonna

but wait a minute

wait a minute

hot dog loves The Winning Yes siree

it's love that one

an old left-hand hate us down for the

count

the night of the Haunter serves as a

coming-of-age story that happens to be

in the setting of an American Gothic

folk tale A mysterious evil invades a

small close-knit community and the

children are the only ones that seem to

notice it's a thriller told from the

perspective of The Outsiders the

children don't understand the world but

they can distinguish a monster when they

see one

come on children

off to bed with the both of you

the world as such is almost Storybook in

its approach cinematography by Stanley

Cortez taking the majority of its

influence from German expressionist

Cinema

the Shadows are absolutely black and the

geometry of much of the world is painted

by the harsh intrusion of light I say

intrusion because the world of the night

of the Haunter is dark evil has spread

and consumes the Innocence that the

world once had so much of even much of

what the children see appears with an

almost fictitious aesthetic the view of

a man singing on a horse in the distance

shows the Simplicity of a child's

understanding of evil but the threat

Still Remains

plastic

[Music]

water

the night of the Haunter over time

became regarded as a staple of American

Cinema and yet it Still Remains so much

of an outlier even watching it now it

doesn't Nestle in with any genre it

holds too much love and hope for it to

be a traditional Noir it gradually moves

away from the story's main threat to be

considered a thriller and it looks and

plays out differently than any other

American film of the era there are

moments of the film in which the gritty

murderous tale becomes a dream-like

exploration of human nature

the reason why the night of the Haunter

stands the test of time is a multitude

of things one may point to Robert

Mitchum's pure encapsulation of the

human monster as the most obvious and

this is definitely true but I believe

that because there is no American Film

quite like Knight of the Hunter

at the midpoint of the film The now

iconic Eerie River sequence physically

transports the film into a children's

fable

she had two pretty children

we see little animals as a young girl

sings almost as if the film itself is

protecting the children humanism begins

to emerge and where we end the film is

not at all where we began the night of

the hunter spends most of its time as a

terrifying experience that perfectly

captures the feeling of dread but it

should be remembered most as a story of

the strength and courage of a child

out

[Music]

number 13 Tokyo story directed by

yasujiro ozu the work of ozu can be

identified just from the still images of

his work the ozurian style was an

approach to cinema that he never

deviated from intimate family dramas the

camera placed on a tripod at a low

height the composition dictated by the

ubiquitous straight-line geometry of

interior Japanese architecture his

stories were always quiet and slow

focusing on the Bittersweet moments of

what it is to live

foreign

[Music]

always evoked a kind of Joy but one

that's fleeting love that is intense and

Powerful but we know must end at some

point ozu as a director is one wherein

we look at his legacy as an entire body

of work although the standout piece

among all of his pieces the one where in

the culmination of his technique reached

this Pinnacle was his 1953 film Tokyo

story yeah

foreign

who travel from the countryside to Tokyo

to visit their son is soon revealed that

the family is too busy to spend any time

with them aside from their Widow

daughter-in-law played by setskohara

words can't express the emotional depth

that Tokyo story possesses it carries

with it a sentimentality of immense

proportions and its look at the fading

beauty of all life makes it a very

difficult piece to not be overwhelmed by

how do we transition between one

generation to another is it possible to

not lose all upon one generation's

departure

foreign

[Music]

Tokyo story is universal the silent

introspection that occurs with life and

death how we always wish that we could

have more time with those we love and

finding deep meaning in every passing

moment in life characters talk directly

to the camera in OZO films bringing a

degree of intimacy and subjective

experience that serves to highlight the

humanism of his tales for its people

that's what's most important to ozu

their meditations and Reflections on

life as the film Moves Like Us gradually

and inevitably towards its end

Tokyo story which like all of ozu's work

operates on an elliptical style of

editing important events aren't shown on

screen rather spoken about by the

characters after the fact

ozu wants to hear his character speak

and think and Ponder the external world

doesn't matter anywhere near as much as

the internal for even when we see a wind

chime or a boat passing by we think on

what this means to the characters but

perhaps more so what this means to

ourselves Tokyo's story is a constant

interplay between the tragedy and

Sublime of being alive finding Beauty in

the sorrow and the Majestic experience

of what it is to Simply Be

foreign

foreign

number 12 The Good the Bad and the Ugly

directed by Sergio Leone I still don't

believe that I've seen a better final

half hour to a film Than The Good The

Bad and The Ugly the premise is genius

in its Simplicity two hundred thousand

dollars is buried somewhere one man

knows the name and location of the

cemetery while the older knows the name

and location of the Grave all the while

they're both being tracked by a bounty

hunter and they all have to work

together before they can finally betray

each other why don't we tell each other

not have the secret

why don't we

you go first

no I think it's better that

you start

the goat Department ugly may be

considered as the ultimate Western

however it was initially created as a

satire of the traditional Western genre

that had emerged up to that point Sergio

Leone didn't aim to romanticize the old

west instead he focused on the chaos and

immorality of its inhabitants even if by

the end we still find ourselves

completely obsessed with these dubious

yet undeniably Charming criminals

foreign

[Music]

ugly is a tremendous cinematic spectacle

that all things put aside is just an

incredibly fun watch

the score by ennio morricone is one of

the greatest in all of Cinema and the

scenes that are conducted to his

soundtrack are elevated becoming some of

the most memorable scenes in cinema

Hitchcock may be considered the father

of suspense but Sergio Leone's use of

silence and editing throughout the film

makes everything seem so much more

exciting and that's what I always think

of when I think of this film I I think

of a bunch of joyous adjectives that

sometimes so much a film Mrs Alton

excitement spectacle tension comical

when you have to shoot shoot don't talk

it's just a wonderful film experience

it's one Adventure from start to finish

with fantastic characters amazing set

pieces and it's exactly what it needs to

be there are a few films better directed

than this

but it was being part of this kind of

experience that categorized it as a

spaghetti western meaning that it could

never be seen as the piece of art that

it's always been it has originality in

Spades and it made a man running around

a cemetery one of the most exciting

pieces of film ever captured

it's a film that's too enjoyable and too

well crafted to be looked at with any

kind of cynical gaze it may be a piece

of entertainment but it's a degree of

entertainment which also takes it to the

Pinnacle of Fine Art

but if you'll miss you I'd better Miss

very well

whoever double crosses me and leaves me

alive

he understands nothing about tulco

nothing

number 11 Taxi Driver directed by Martin

Scorsese

in a career as celebrated as Martin

Scorsese it's almost an insult to say

that his most celebrated work is also

the least Scorsese of his filmography

but this is also to do with the fact

that Taxi Driver belongs equally to

screenwriter Paul Schrader

I just want to go out

I really

I Really Wanna

I got some bad ideas in my head I just

pull straighter is no stranger to

stories of societal outcasts whose

obsessions explode in a spectacle of

violence yet Taxi Driver Remains the

standard for the Cinematic tale of

isolation of the Forgotten people that

we pass in the street every day of those

who have to escape the World by receding

into their own minds only to find a

landscape that's much much worse

well I'm the only one here

[Music]

who the [ __ ] do you think you're talking

to

oh yeah

Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle a New

York Taxi Driver who works nights he

loads and in many ways fears the

degeneracy that he Witnesses each night

he drives through the city his hatred

grows as his mental stability

deteriorates the world is vile and evil

and yet what Travis cannot see is that

this is a projection it's his

self-hatred for he is just another

person that's part of the world he loads

Travis visits pornography theaters deals

with the criminals he claims to despise

Taxi Driver asks whether it is weed

create the degeneracy of the modern

world or if we're the receptacles for

all of its rancid waste I think that the

President should just cleaning up this

whole mess so you should just flush it

right down the [ __ ] toilet

in the world of Taxi Driver is just that

one that's spent wallowing in its dregs

taxi driver is a character study we get

glimpses of Travis's perspective Bosco

says he takes the appropriate approach

in never letting us romanticize Travis's

world view rather we see the objective

truth of his descent into Insanity the

camera will turn away from Travis when

he becomes a creature too pathetic to

acknowledge and it will stare at him in

shock upon his point of no return

us into war

into poverty into unemployment and

inflation

today I say to you we have reached the

Turning Point Paul Schrader said that a

person only feels that they're loneliest

when surrounded by other people

scorsese's direction of the city of New

York is precisely that the people that

surround Travis are innumerable yet

faceless we see them through the

windscreen of Travis's taxi through the

rain illuminated by Neon Lights and the

score of Bernard Hermann plays as this

gentle soul is being dragged into the

depths of what a human being can become

De Niro delivers a performance of such

Nuance of a man battling his own psyche

his gestures and delivery are perfect a

man who could help himself by removing

himself from the situation but his own

radicalization comes at the fact that he

can't escape this world because he

doesn't want to he Revels in his hatred

why look away when he can stare at his

own hatred in the face

taxi driver is the story of one man's

psychology and yet the terror lies that

there is a little Travis in all of us

it's a good thing to have just as a

threat

number 10 Apocalypse Now directed by

Francis Ford Coppola

as we enter the top 10 I had to decide

which films I consider the top tier of

the top tier many of the films mentioned

thus far can switch places with one

another to some degree but from here on

I truly had to find the highest Echelon

and the first film that breaches that

category was Coppola's Palm Door descent

into the Heart of Darkness Apocalypse

Now

[Music]

adapted from Joseph Conrad's novel

bringing the story away from the

colonized Congo into the more

contemporary setting of the Vietnam War

couple's depiction of Terror couldn't be

captured more perfectly than in the

insanity that is the jungle and deep

within the recesses of that alien

terrain there lies one American that has

ventured too deep Apocalypse Now is as

much of a horror film as it is a war

film our main character Willard sails

down a river with his company to

assassinate one Colonel Kurtz and as he

moves further and further Downstream

he's forced to address the declining

nature for what appears to be all of

humanity it's an otherworldly force that

takes over dragging him there closer to

Kurtz and further from reality

the morality of people is discarded for

their purely animal instincts and the

endlessly Setting Sun seems to cloak the

film in a blanket of dreamlike Stillness

we become more and more disconnected

from the real an analogy for the war as

a whole with cinematography by Vittorio

storaro Cola played a large role in

Apocalypse Now various Hues of smoke

waft through the scenes spotlights dance

through the night and the suffocating

warmth of the Jungle is shown in the

Deep yellow lighting of the delta this

world is chaos incarnate choreographed

to the spectral sounds of Carmine

Coppola's synthetic soundtrack

we are not just in the depth of the

Jungle Apocalypse Now is in a different

realm altogether

do you know who's in command here

Apocalypse Now progresses through a very

act-based structure hitting Salient

checkpoints as the film Works towards

its climax all the while there's an

overtonal progression as the film moves

onwards there is a sequence with the

platoon of Kilgore the segment at the

Uso show and the doll along Bridge

segment until we reach the heart of

Colonel Kurtz the film very clearly asks

us to measure the sequences against one

another as the deterioration of our

character's psyche mirrors the world

around them the characters feel

distinctly separate to the worlds they

encounter all the while the powerful

influence these worlds possess will

undoubtedly occupy some parts of our

character's Souls we're like Wanderers

drifting through lands observing what

has already been and what cannot be

undone Apocalypse Now truly captures the

feeling of a downward spiral as things

just grow worse and worse for everyone

involved and it's precisely because of

this that we have to keep going further

what truly lies at the depth of a man's

soul

you don't neither

you're an Aaron boy

sent by grocery Clerks

collect a bill

the film is an intense sensorial

depiction of psychological Decay and

dehumanization that occurs during war

the world we see in Apocalypse Now is

what one may imagine at the end of time

resorting back to our primitive nature

wherein only the mighty can rule and

this is where Colonel Kurtz comes in the

radical views that Kurtz holds true are

frighteningly prophetic and Marlon

Brando's portrayal carries such immense

weight and yet Kurtz is the only

character we encounter that seems to

speak the truth in all of this disorder

a Madman reveals Clarity this is what

the world has become and this is how the

world has to be led we are not civilized

we are animals look at what we've done

to our world we should accept our Fates

Apocalypse Now is a fully realized

vision of the language of film and how

art is something that's imperfect much

of the making of Apocalypse Now can came

with improvisation from the characters

immersing themselves in the world and

seeing what rang true and this is the

result one of the greatest films ever

created and it gaze into the face of

Horror

number nine

directed by Edward yang

I came to learn about myself that when

examining Stories the ones that resonate

most with me are the ones that I can

only describe as Grand

not Grand just in the idea of a large

piece or an epic but there's something

about a story that affects multiple

people that alters the very nature of a

world which I find very appealing it's

as though the story and the themes

represent something greater than us

which is what I've always found so

transcendental about art and ye by

Edward young is that kind of story

[Applause]

[Music]

the story follows the jam family and the

personal woes of each member the mother

the Father the daughter and the son as

well as the brother-in-law the stories

of each family member are not directly

connected however there does exist a

kind of existentialist thread between

them all the father ruminates on a lost

love that he never got over from

childhood the mother deals with losing

the family matriarch of the grandmother

all of their Tales seem unique to

themselves as they take place amongst

the empty tapestry of the Taipei

landscape Yi strikes a balance between

the intimate and the shared between the

personal and the public released in 2000

Yee captured more than any other film

I've seen that bridge at the dawn of the

Millennium between the end of one world

and the birth of another one where

culture becomes westernized and the

spaces that surround us lose all sense

of history and become something so

impersonal Yi focuses on people in these

places places that we've seen before

that we recognize that seems so familiar

and yet so foreign foreign

our characters are dwarfed in their

surroundings their stories ultimately

just a drop in the ocean of all stories

that surround us but what is it about ye

that makes it a film that could be

considered this good because it's the

perfect understanding of a modern

affliction

what does family mean in today's world

well we all ultimately live our own

separate lives

our characters yearn for personal

connections as we watch them at

different transitory stages in their

lives wherein one thing must die so that

another may continue

[Music]

the father must make amends with a love

that can never be rekindled the boy must

end the path of childhood so he may

become a man the world is constantly

changing and though we're desperate to

hold on to that world which gave us such

happiness and joy things change people

change Edward Yang shuts all of his

films in his distinctive subdued style

frames with the potential to be so loud

are in fact subtle and controlled his

Mastery of composition choosing to keep

the camera static for long takes

allowing the people to interact with the

world around them Yang's work is

sentimental and ye perhaps most of all

the human emotion in this film is Rich

and Incredibly authentic because that's

what the film's about it's about the

feeling of longing for happiness it's

about the love of a family that you wish

you had more of it's a story of sadness

yet it's comforting

when I first watch Yi I knew that the

way to describe it to people was not to

discuss narrative but how the film feels

Yee is that feeling at 3am as you sit in

an airport waiting for your flight parts

of the world move with rapid Pace others

are still and faster sleep

and meanwhile you watch it all in a

transitory State knowing that you're

leaving one thing behind but you'll be

going somewhere new and in the end it

will all be okay

Number Eight Seven Samurai directed by

Akira Kurosawa when it comes to which

film has had the largest direct

influence on the rest of Cinema from

this list I may have to put my money on

kurosawa's greatest film Seven Samurai

action and adventure Cinema to this day

still uses the storytelling devices many

of which were developed by this film the

idea of a group of Heroes banding

together finding one another before they

set out on a journey the story of Seven

Samurai recruited to defend a village

from Bandits it's exactly how you

imagine it to be and it's perfect

[Music]

foreign

[Laughter]

[Music]

as I mentioned earlier if you've seen

Star Wars you've seen a lot of the

Searchers but if you've seen Seven

Samurai you've seen nearly every

Adventure film ever made Seven Samurai

was kurosawa's longest and most

intricately designed film when it comes

to the filming itself Curacao was known

to create detailed storyboards of his

work but in Seven Samurai he was to

undertake sequences and styles of

shooting that hadn't even been

considered up until then the final

battle sequence is the film's most

dramatic and most spectacular moment

kurosawa's use of telephoto cameras

bringing dynamism to his images he

follows people as they run and move as

backgrounds fly past behind them

the entire sequence was explained to the

crew in diagrams and measured down to

the letter you can even count how many

Bandits are attacking the village

throughout the film and how many are

left that's how precise his directing

was the film grabs your attention with

the introduction of each of the Ronin

and throughout the film you legitimately

care for their troop but there is one

member that steals the show it's of

course toshiro mifuni huh

[Music]

the charm and Charisma of this man oozes

throughout the film he's wild funny and

just as much a hero as the rest every

facet of Seven Samurai has to be

analyzed because Cinema of today owes so

much to it and much like The Good the

Bad and the Ugly this is a film which is

a blockbuster it's pure entertainment

that so expertly crafted nothing about

the film feels of a certain time or

dated it's pacing its structure leave

the audience genuinely invested as to

what's about to happen some of the

action scenes are so subdued and quiet

compared to how we anticipate an action

film to present itself and yet there's a

layer of tension that makes each

sequence memorable building more and

more toward the ultimate climax

ah

Kurosawa made many types of films but

what he was most identified as was a

samurai director the filmmaker that

makes the Epic kind of films and

although not completely true Seven

Samurai is one of those epic films his

use of harsh weather his loud triumphant

score his revolutionary development of

filmmaking techniques everything about

Seven Samurai is large and enthralling

modern Cinema has taken so much from

Seven Samurai but they lack something

their beats are all the same but they

don't possess that same Soul whereas

many action heroes of now are exactly

that the archetype the heroes of Seven

Samurai were people they were genuine

characters and they did what they did to

help others amidst the fighting and

heroism lies the story of the resilience

of the human spirit

foreign

[Music]

to mention this perhaps my favorite

Seven Samurai piece of trivia is that

after a screening of Solaris tarkovsky

and Kurosawa were in a bar together and

as neither could speak one another's

language tarkovsky began to scream the

Seven Samurai theme at the top of his

lungs to which Kurosawa joined in and if

it's good enough for tarkovsky then it's

good enough for me

[Music]

number seven Andrea rublev directed by

Andrei tarkovsky although it didn't

possess the immense weight of the

tarkovsky touch there would be present

in his later films the dreamlike setting

of mirror or the grand inertia of

stalker Andre rublev Remains the birth

of the true tarkovsky style and in my

belief the greatest piece he ever

created

set in medieval Russia we follow Fresco

painter Andre rublev across eight

chapters each signifying a distinct

moment in either his life or the history

of Russia from the Tatar Invasion and

examining pre-sarist Russia although a

biographical film the structure of Andre

rublev is not to show the life of the

man in fact large sequences of the film

completely exclude him and in the final

third our nominal character takes a vow

of silence becoming The Ultimate Voyeur

of the events that surround him so then

why make him the focus of the story the

film opens on what may be the most

startling introduction to a film ever

made an unnamed man attempts to fly over

a field we see his POV as he begins to

ascend and look down upon his Deltas

below before he crashes into the

hillside at least you

are he

thank you

this sequence never to be mentioned sets

what kind of story Andre rublin is

telling for a brief moment we identify

with this man we become him we

experience his being before he's

discarded tarkovsky wants us to remove

any semblance of the intellectual when

dealing with certain criteria of Art and

focus solely on the inner Andre rublev

is a film about these kinds of

associations cause and effect is not at

play here the chapters show no distinct

progression or even relation to one

another Andre discusses Faith the nature

of being an artist and before we know it

we're greeted with a sequence reenacting

the crucifixion of Jesus Andre rublev is

an episodic film that attempts to

achieve some kind of symbiosis with the

workings of its titular character Andre

rublev the man is used as a

representation for all of what Russia

was and what it would become it explains

why he encounters the varying entities

of Russian Society without ever being

directly involved he is in essence the

spirit of all of Russia a being

omnipresent

s

tarkovsky never followed the traditional

logic of filmmaking his admiration for

Landscapes both natural and spiritual

would become what would typify his work

and it's this realm of the internal of

one's relation with the world around

them in transcendental means that was

birthed in Andre rublev

snow falls from indoors fires Blaze all

around the world is powerful much more

than we and tarkovsky shoots the world

of 15th century Russia to display its

awe-inspiring power backgrounds extend

beyond the Horizon as characters

communicate with these worlds in the

foreground the balance of human and

environment is so strong here we're

constantly reminded that the world is as

important as the inhabitants and this is

a world that shuts so beautifully and

otherworldly that it's hard to believe

that it's the same Planet as ours

perhaps tarkovsky wanted to show that

the Medieval World was precisely that

but what I find the most interesting

aspect about Andre rublev is that it

does possess a narrative a tenuous one

but there is story a play here and yet

most of the real goings-on of Andre

rublev are unknown tarkovsky knowingly

used a subject in which no one knows was

much about the world and events that

tarkovsky creates The large-scale

Assault on the church these were all

from the imagination of tarkovsky every

sequence has a chapter completely

dedicated to it yet they are all

essentially fictional though the

tapestry as a whole is a necessity to

understand the enigmatic world that was

early Russia tarkovsky curated the life

of Andre rublev whether it happened or

not but the work of tarkovsky was a

Dreamscape and people only exist in the

minds of those living whatever Andre

rublev was in his real life he's made

more real by the mythical portrayal of

tarkovsky's vision is

foreign

Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki

it has to be the greatest animation

that's ever been made a story of a young

girl trapped in a bath house for spirits

and finding a way to escape Is Not Just

A Feast for the eyes it's one of the

most beautiful stories ever envisioned

about a child trying to find their way

in the world

foreign

[Music]

Miyazaki has always been in tune with

the emotional turbulence of children and

the Insight that that brings jihiro is

the main character of Spirited Away and

she possesses an innocence but that

doesn't mean that she has complete

Purity she is stubborn and Petty and

childish and is surrounded by a world of

mysterious and strange creatures some of

which are threatening and some of which

are just there but where in a world we

cannot comprehend and one we cannot

control influenced greatly by Japanese

folklore and tales of the Yokai having

an understanding of Japanese mythology

will greatly enhance your viewing

experience of Spirited Away but it's a

film that possesses so much originality

that it could be the first film you've

ever seen and you'll still be dazzled by

its astonishing sensibilities from the

film's opening we see a young girl like

so many we've seen before so upset that

she's doing something she doesn't want

to and in a matter of minutes the

transition from reality to the spirit

world is a piece of Genius as the

adventure unfolds in front of our eyes

and we're cascaded into one of the most

amazing worlds in the history of human

imagination jihiro encounters a

multitude of characters all trying to

find their place in the spirit world

perhaps the most impactful and memorable

of these characters being no face the

avaricious and tempting spirit that is

as terrifying as he is misunderstood

jehero's traversal of this world is

filled with scene after scene of

excitement dragons fly through the air

and giant heads Bounce Around the Gilded

room of a witch and yet the emotional

purging that Spirited Away holds in

Spades is a very ozurian style silent

scenes of contemplation on the peaceful

Vista of an endless ocean a girl and her

spirit friend take a journey on a train

in what is one of the most Serene and

thoughtful moments of the entire film

foreign

[Music]

tations for Spirited Away it's

navigation of traditional Japanese

stories is allegories for the struggle

of many modern children however I see it

as a story of growth Chihiro reconciles

with her own identity her own flaws of

being a child it's who she is and as of

now the world is scary and full of

monsters in a way it always will be but

that innocent gaze that she possesses is

the only way to maneuver Through This

World In Search of her own name she must

ensure that she never lets go of this

she can never return to a time before

that innocence was challenged and put to

the test but if she's strong she can

keep hold of it and always keep it with

her

a beautiful magical story which some

people say is more than animation but no

this is pure animation and that is

Cinema

foreign

[Music]

number five Fanny and Alexander directed

by ingmar Bergman

bergman's final Masterpiece was to be

his crowning achievement his most

autobiographical film taking direct

inspiration from his own upbringing

Fanny and Alexander follows its two

titular siblings and the transition from

the happiness of their luxurious family

manner to the sterile and inhospitable

lodging of their new father figure an

authoritarian clergyman

foreign

exists in the same vein as I described

ye it's a family drama that exists on a

grand scale the set design and art

direction of the film is already

stunning the contrast of the Luscious

Reds make the sterile White Walls of the

latter half truly hit with an icy Touch

but to have all of this shot Once More

by bergman's longtime collaborator Sven

ninthvist elevates the imagery to

Sublime new levels where Fanny and

Alexander differs from many other family

dramas is that Bergman is at the helm

and although his philosophical style

permeated much of his middle era of

filmmaking here his Touch of magical

realism adds another layer of depth to

this already rich film

foreign

you're deeply invested in the goings-on

of this large extended family as drama

ensues between the members there's

jealousy between the aristocratic and

worker classes of the household and

Affairs seem to be just one of the many

secrets that are hidden in its walls the

family feels as alive as the characters

from a Tolstoy novel but Bergman adds

that otherworldly nature to the story as

though in order for our characters to

truly grow they must reconcile

themselves with this spiritual

connection that binds them all the

Encounters of family members that have

passed stay with us and we must carry on

their legacy like many of these

tapestry-esque epics however Fanny and

Alexander is still ultimately about

family

it exists amongst the greatest art

pieces that explore less of the meaning

of existence on a metaphysical scale and

how to exist with those people whom you

share the most intimate bonds with

what does it mean to Traverse life's

most troubling tribulations with your

family one of the Great Explorations of

one of the great questions what does

family mean

s

he didn't really love it

foreign

regardless of what happens throughout

Fanny and Alexander the sequences that

we see of truly deep love is that

reminder of the tenderness that only the

love of a family can evoke

one that may be flawed and whose

relations are all over the place but

they are still the people that can give

us the most Joy the greatest memories

and just to see the beauty of a family

that loves one another that has to go

through so much is perhaps enough for

this to convey just how brilliant and

how beautiful a piece of art Fannie and

Alexander trulius

[Applause]

Number Four The Lord of the Rings

trilogy directed by Peter Jackson

the most popular film I'm going to

include on this list what more can be

said about the Lord of the Rings trilogy

in all of Cinema we've never seen a

spectacle and a labor of love of this

scale and it may never be replicated

when the Lord of the Rings films were

being released they exploded into

popular culture all of a sudden the

fantasy genre had struck the mainstream

like never before but what did we expect

the Lord of the Rings novels were

perceived as almost unfilmable Feats the

only way to film them were to make the

story at least 10 hours long give it the

budget of a major Blockbuster and have a

team of expert Craftsmen that are not

only perfect in their roles but have a

deep passion and understanding of the

source material and even watching it

today I still can't believe that they

actually did it it might be fair to say

that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is

the most impressive achievement ever put

on Celluloid the expansive law that

Tolkien created in his books was not

toned down for viewers in fact it was

placed at the very Forefront this Middle

Earth was the magical Fantastical and

alien world that was envisioned in the

novels the language settings the

costumes everything was made to bring

that Source material to fruition the

films are so big and it's precisely

because of that that the only way to

truly analyze the films would be to

devote many hours to it because the

amount of craftsmanship that went into

every frame is mind-blowing its use of

practical effects as well as the

advancements in all manner of special

effects are something to behold most of

what we see are real people interacting

with real environments and so there's

never a moment when Middle Earth feels

artificial in fact it's the extended

editions that I believe are the

definitive editions of the films you

want to spend more time in these worlds

that's how fully realized they are

designing each piece of armor to have

the correct coat of arms for individual

soldiers having daily makeup for actors

that would last several hours all of the

effort that went into these films was

not because they they needed to it was

because they wanted to

Peter Jackson and his team that worked

on these films took an impossible

undertaking of an esoteric world and if

there was one thing I think this Trilogy

has left as a legacy it was that you

don't have to appease the masses in

order for a peace to be impactful we

anticipate particularly in genre pieces

that you can't go too high concept you

can't be too of the genre we need some

reality to hold on to but the Lord of

the Rings did exactly that it celebrated

its fantasy it relished in its opaque

logic and its mystery we as viewers were

willing to suspend our disbelief and not

only were we willing we were excited to

do so

I've barely scratched the surface of

what these films are but truthfully

they've become so ingrained in our

collective experience that most of you

probably already know this I haven't

even touched the story of the film but

it's the archetypical hero's journey and

yet In This World Of Orcs Wizards and

elves it's the film's humanity which

makes them resonate still characters

that reach and fight for a greater

future those that sacrifice themselves

for the greater good and one of the most

powerful Tales of Friendship that you're

likely to see it's an indulgent

unbelievable colossal monolith of a

filmic experience the Lord of the Rings

is a celebration of everything that

Cinema can and should be

foreign

number three 2001 A Space Odyssey

directed by Stanley Kubrick it was a

difficult decision deciding which

Kubrick film that I ultimately thought

to be his magnum opus even thinking as

objectively as possible still wasn't a

significant enough option in separating

the two films both are the products of a

master at his absolute best though in

the end I believe 2001 A Space Odyssey

to be Kubrick's greatest achievement if

nothing more than the fact that although

an adaptation much like Barry Linden the

very specificity of how he presents the

genre of Science Fiction could only be

displayed through the visual

storytelling of Cinema

except for a single very powerful radio

emission

aimed at Jupiter

the four million year old black monolith

has remained completely inert

2001 was another genre experimentation

via Kubrick and would see us in the

space of 142 minutes traveling from the

dawn of man beyond time to the possible

final transcendental form for all of

humankind

2001 presents the potentiality for all

human beings our greatest achievements

to our self-destructive nature Kubrick

links these themes through all of

history on the idea of Technology the

same Sparks that birthed the first tool

is the same Ingenuity that allowed us to

Traverse the unknown reaches of space it

may also even be that we as a species

have advanced so much we can create an

object that even we can't destroy

distilled with an operational limits

right now yes

and it will stay that way until it fails

would you say we have a reliable 72

hours to pay yes

that's a completely reliable figure

Kubrick's filmography is often thought

of as a very misanthropic view of

mankind and even if that were the case

2001 stands separate from that

presenting us with a possibility for us

as humans and how we may create an

existence far beyond our imagination

though it's Kubrick's imagination that's

the most magnificent asset on display in

2001 the stories of Barry Linden's

production of replicating a

centuries-old era are exhausting in

their authenticity yet in 2001 Kubrick

aimed to actively portray a world that

was yet to exist and managed to do so

with the same accuracy and Devotion to

the authentic 2001 even in the role of

Technology within the Arts pushed the

medium forward all of its own accord the

developments of rare screen projections

the building of giant sets to give the

illusion of space travel and countless

ingenious techniques to display the

majesty and mystery three of the cosmic

world it's Kubrick's visual storytelling

which is why I think 2001 sets itself

apart from most films

it's a very clear piece in what it aims

to talk about yet it wears its secrets

on its sleeves so bravely that it

becomes a film open to vast

interpretations Kubrick almost set

himself a near impossible task of

creating a world that required immense

Exposition and removed it all the first

and final 20 minutes of the film have no

dialogue and the dialogue that is used

throughout is emotionless and used

sparingly we don't particularly have

characters some may even argue though we

don't even have a plot but there's a

confidence in Kubrick's loud filmmaking

that you can just sense that everything

in the frame is purposeful and necessary

the film is an opera filled with dancing

spaceships the crescendo of the emerging

monster and the triumphant celebrations

of Ascension this is a film that

celebrates humanity and everything that

we can be

foreign

2001 A Space Odyssey is a film that I

may be inclined to call Flawless every

composition is shared into your memory

the cola and Grading of the film is

exactly how it's supposed to be the

Searing whites of a world wherein

technology has become the be-all and

end-all to the Searing red light of the

HAL 9000 computer Kubrick being the

perfectionist he was was rumored on

having seen an initial cut of 2001 said

that the blacks of space were not black

enough the horror that's conveyed of the

mysterious monolith not only signifies

our innate reactions to the unknown it's

a stroke of Genius by a master filmmaker

recognizing the way of the message his

film carries everything in 2001 hits

with full force because it has to this

is a piece from an artist aiming to

convey perhaps some of the most

important messages you can convey in

your art

hair is a glimpse of our ideal and in

the presentation of such Kubrick is

reshaping our world so that we may reach

it

number two Satan Tango directed by

Bellator

and in what is the penultimate choice on

my list is a film that I encourage

everyone to see and yet never have the

opportunity to do so bellator's

Masterpiece the devouring and

earth-shattering drudge through

nihilistic existence Saturn Tango at

over seven hours long the length of

Saturn Tango is understandably the first

thing people discuss with the film and

it's also difficult for it not to become

a distraction upon introducing the film

to others because Satan Tango is a film

that crawls to its finale through the

mud and the rain that engorges its

frames

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

the film takes place in Hungarian

Village across 12 chapters in many of

the chapters we're introduced to some

inhabitants we'll learn that there is

some kind of conspiracy involving a sum

of money that some of the villagers are

intending to steal all of this occurs in

Whispers as news reaches the village

that the young man by the name of

irimiyash is returning the themes of

Saturn Tango deal with the crisis of

authority that corrects others Irene is

a character that appears as some type of

deity the villagers see him as so far

above them and he too has established

this kind of hierarchy in order to con

them out of their money he is the king

of the peasants refusing to let go of

the small degree of power he has so that

he can control others the villagers are

two people that have become content in

their own slavery the farm that they

live on possesses no joy the people

betray one another and yet at the same

time they remain stagnant in their

existence

okay

where is it too

oh

the in stagnation is the way Saturn

Tango's World exists the length of

Saturn Tango is not just an exercise in

filmmaking the slow almost unbearable

manner in which we tread through the

story is the most necessary tool at

tar's disposal the scenes in Saturn

Tango can play out for minutes at a time

beyond the point of recognition to the

point we feel almost trapped in the

scenes themselves

time is the dictator of all in Saturn

Tango when we move through the landscape

we do not simply see the Horizon and

move onwards we walk towards it and we

continue to walk until we realize that

we're getting nowhere we move with

characters for minutes at a time only to

realize we're not moving

foreign

the place where we are is suspended in

time the rain Cascades and it never

changes the music Loops in circles and

we slowly begin to realize that this

world shall never change it's been

forgotten nothing more than a memory

this interconnects with tar's filmic

decision making with the structure of

the film taking the shape of a Tango

there are six chapters that move forward

and six chapters that move backward

culminating in a full circle

Saturn Tango is not a happy film it's

the antithesis of a happy film shot in

black and white its characters carry a

hatred visions of the only path to

follow being one that annihilates all

life so why then do I consider it such a

spectacular feat because it truly

displays the capacity of what film can

be

few films are like Saturn Tango its

length of the film is never not

justified as time progresses you realize

you're in an inert world and that

stagnation only intensifies over time

the landscape the weather the movement

it all transposes into something we

start to dread you as a viewer begin to

literally feel the immensity of this

world to show with such Stark nature the

reality of people's lives and how they

can be victimized only to then continue

the cycle of Injustice against one

another is a fascinating setting Satan

Tango is a film to be experienced to be

pondered over and deciphered a film that

may alter your perspective on what a

film is it may confuse or enrage you

however that emotional turmoil you find

yourself self in is one that coincides

with the peace itself not all art is

supposed to be enjoyed and art is seldom

perfect it's often those imperfections

that make it the highest echelons of

humanity and in the realm of Cinema it's

harder to find a more impactful piece

than Saturn Tango

assistant

Mindanao

number one The Godfather part one and

part two directed by Francis Ford

Coppola and so I cheated I put two films

as my number one spot and it may even be

the two most obvious picks I could

choose for the greatest film of all time

but I would also be lying to myself if I

didn't put the Godfather 1 and 2 as the

greatest film of all time when I thought

about what was to be my number one pick

I had to think of a film that I could

never grow tired of a film that even in

discussing it I still get excited to

this day in a film whose Mastery of the

form still stands the test of time and

there was no other choice in what may

still be the greatest piece of

mainstream popular culture The Godfather

is what everyone wants Cinema to be it

seems to be the one film that everyone

agrees on not just that it's really good

but that it's in a tear of its own

Michael is it true

don't ask me about my business Kate

is it true

don't ask me about my business

and when discussing a film of that

caliber what else more can be said about

it that hasn't been said before and I'm

using the singular term of film because

I do consider part one and two of The

Godfather to be a singular piece at its

heart it's a simple Tale the rise from

nothing and the tragedies that before

one immigrant family in America when

analyzing each aspect of The Godfather

every element has become a template for

what a film is supposed to be adapted

from Mario puzo's novel the screenplay

written by Coppola and Puzo himself is a

sweeping exciting and epic tapestry of

20th century America

and really at spiritual sancti amen

just the screenplay alone features

everything that you could think of to

make a perfect story it has the

formalistic structure of three acts the

inciting incident but at the same time

still has a creativity within the form

the Breakaway sections such as the

sequence of the horse's head jumping

backwards in time all elements that

serve to enrich some of the greatest

characters that will ever exist in the

medium for if you strip away everything

else from The Godfather what you're left

with are rich complex characters and

that is the heart of the film

come on Frank you know my father did

business with Hyman Roth he respected

him your father did business with Hyman

Roth your father respected Ironman Roth

but your father never trusted diamond

the film grain and murmur talks in

darkened rooms flawed the film in

atmosphere Nina wrote this beautiful

score never allows us to forget the

tragic tale we're witnessing and every

performance is a career best from what

are already some of the greatest actors

to ever have featured in film but beyond

all of that The Godfather is about

character the growth of the honorable

veto Corleone who lives his life in

service to no one other than his family

whom he has undying Devotion to and his

children Santino a volatile and

charismatic Hot Head Fredo the awkward

weak link of the boys Tom Hagan an

orphan that was brought into the family

as a young boy and of course Michael

Corleone a character that should be seen

as Cinema's answer to Hamlet a character

with such depth with such Enigma with

such tragedy that befalls him to undergo

the most awe-inspiring transformation

Mike

you don't come to Las Vegas and talk to

a man like Mo green like that

Fredo

you're my older brother and I love you

but don't ever take sides with anyone

against the family again

Michael Corleone is the centerpiece of

The Godfather although it just happens

to help that every single moment from

every other person around him is for

lack of a better term perfect I've never

seen a film that is an equal part so

consistently enthralling philosophical

exciting and thought-provoking every

sequence is an icon of the form the

dinner sequence between so Michael and

McCluskey is a template for how to

direct tension in a scene the presence

of Hyman Roth and how he turns a dying

man into such a powerful figure every

moment is ingrained in my memory and I'm

not the only one from film theorists to

the average Cinema Watcher The Godfather

is special it's our Shakespearean

tragedy it's the Pinnacle of the art

form it's the greatest film of all time

they might like a story like that

I might they just might

[Music]

it's not personal something

strictly business