должна была быть вторая на этот год пятидесятка...
... но я немного просчиталась
1. "Breathless" by Jean Luc Godard
"She is an ordinary girl. That is rare".
"Sleeping is sad because it means you have to separate. They say "sleep together", but it's not true".
"- What is you greatest ambition?
- To become immortal and then die".
2. "Good Night and Good Luck" by George Clooney
3. "De Wisselwachter" ("Стрелочник") by Jos Stelling
4. "Northfork" by Michael Polish
In search for the unknown angel...
5. "Antichrist" by Lars van Trier
6. "Koyaanisquatsi" by Godfrey Reggio
7. "Fast food nation" by Richard Linklater
8. "Wheel of Time" by Werner Herzog
9. "Tibet: Cry of the Snow Line" by Tom Piozed
Even those the topic is very relevant to my current interests, I couldn't help my self to switch it off and go for a break few times, so that the hour and a half long film would last me for nearly three days. Not good...
10. "El laberinto del fauno" by Guillermo del Toro
Visually stunning, this film, unlike most modern fairytale, is closely linked with reality, brutality of which is emphasized through the juxtaposition to the beauty of the world the little girl is finding her escape at. I particularly liked the fact that, as the spectators, we know that the magic world exists only in the girls imagination, yet willingly believe in it being real and are ready to give the girl a chance just to keep the last glimpse of hope that the plot will work out according to the commonly known rules of the magic stories and the kindness, purity and innocence will overcome the evil. And I truly liked the fact that creators of the film were brave enough to play against this rules.
I just wish I watched it on the big screen!
11. "The Lord of the Ring. The Fellowship of the Ring" by Peter Jackson
12. "Watchmen" by Zack Snyder
13. "La belle personne" by Christophe Honoré
14. "An Education" by Lone Scherfig
15. "Little Children" by Todd Field
16. "Little Ashes" by Paul Morrison
Just reminded me of a questions that bothers me since recently: are there straight men in the art world?
17. "The Prestige" by Christopher Nolan
18. "The Illusionist" by Neil Burger
It's hard not to draw parallels with The Prestige, however, if such a comparison to be made, Burgers' picture is hardly worth any attention.
19. "American History X" by Tony Kaye
20."Inglorious Basterds" by Quentin Tarantino
This probably will be the most pointless comment to the film you have ever heard, but, damn, I actually begin to like Brad Pitt!:)
21. "Good bye Lenin!" by Wolfgang Becker
22. "Twelve Monkeys" by Terri Gilliam
Very alike "La Jetee" with a flavor of "I am a legend" added to it.
+1 for Pitt again!
23. "Seven Pounds" by Gabriela Muccino
24. "The Queen" by Stephen Frears
25. "A Beautiful Mind" by Ron Howard
26. "Creation" by Jon Amiel
Another pair of each-other-like motion pictures with the same actress (Jennifer Connelly) in the leading role...
27. "Capote" by Benett Miller
28. "Almost Famous" by Cameron Crowe
29. "The Terminal" by Steven Spielberg
Could hardly imagine that Spielberg would make such a sweet and naive fairytale...
Tom Hanks' brilliant performance, however, was quite predictable!
30. "Million Dollar Baby" by Clint Eastwood
31. "Thank you for smoking" by Jason Reitman
So this is your favorite one?...
Perhaps I was not the easy one to convince to go for a Hollywood comedy, but this one some how worked.
32. "Adaptation" by Spike Jonze
In order to create a good script you have to choose a topic that really concerns you, even if it means writing about yourself.
33. "The Departed" by Martin Scorcese
Nobody survived.
34. "Eyes wide shut" by Stanley Kubrick
My tutor once said that Kubrick was insane and this is the best of proof.
35. "XXY" by Lucia Puenzo
Sex makes us a man or a woman. Or both...
36. "Crash" by Paul Haggis
There was something too much in this film - too many simultaneously running stories? characters? too many black people? or perhaps too much racism? crime? injustice?... And although director successfully decorates his works with as many "happy endings" as there possibly can feet without destroying the plot, it still leaves this deeply unpleasant feeling of constant danger coming from everywhere around you, as if living with a gun constantly pointing into your forehead just because the colour of your skin differs on few tones from the one of your neighbor, friend, beloved one.
37. "Doubt" by John Patric Shanley
38. "Match Point" by Woody Allen
I really like then first part of the movie when it was a sort love geometrical figure of many edges and sharp angles and reminded me of "Closer" by Mike Nichols... but soon after the midpoint the story lost its' charming simplicity and turned into a jet another crime-thriller of an arguable artistic value.
39. "The Edge of Love" by John Maybury
40. "Genova" by Michel WInterbottom
41. "Wilde" by Brian Gilbert
42. "Miss Potter" by Chris Noonan
Just lovely!
43. "Man on wire" by James Marsh
...with palms wet.
44. "Морфий" Балабанова
На удивление слабый фильм. Не скучный, ни примитивный, а именно слабый. С кинематографической точки зрения однообразный, бледный, вялый... Сюжетная линия кажется непродуманной - и за правдивую документацию сойти не может, и до пронизывающей драмы не дотягивает...Актерская игра не блеск, операторская работа оставляет желать лучшего, режиссеру еще долго придется замаливать грехи... А разговоров-то было!...
45. "Synecdoche New York" by Charlie Kaufman
Quite a disappointment. The reviews were promising, the comments mainly positive, but the film itself...
It says 'comedy' in the genre line and, as I learned from previous experience, the main danger of this definition is that I more often the not don't find the things that make average film consumer roll on the floor laughing funny at all. In contrast, I find them quite primitive and base, but this was not the case... The film just felt as if, for instance, Spike Jonze was trying to make something more... traditional let's say, by which I mean, that the film is 1) weird 2) not weird enough to justify itself with such a definition.
I only got till half those, so let me know if there were any hidden gems in the second hour!
46. "Being John Malkovich" by Spike Jonze
I can appreciate films artistic value and directors ability to make something out of nothing and would probably be amazed if this was made by one of my mates, knowing what a young filmmaker has to go through... But I just feel like it's non of my business that the director decided to save some money and make all the effects on the lover cost - after all, it doesn't give me a discount on the cinema ticket or a pack of free pop-corn to fell all the benefits of a low-budget production.
47. "My summer of love" by Pawel Pawlekovski
48. "It's a free world" by Ken Loach
Similarly as it was with the "Dirty pretty things", the film is interesting only because it is made around the issue of immigrant workers in UK. Nothing more.
49. "Love actually" by Richard Curtis
50. "Before Sunrise" by Richard Linklater
I had an internal fight between relatively poor artistic quality of the film and truthfulness and relevance of the story to my own life experience. After a while I gave up and actually enjoyed the film.
51. "Hotel Chevalier" by Wes Anderson
Sketch of passion.
52. "La Jetee" by Chris Marker
Somewhere at the edge of film and photography, between the memories of the past and expectations for the future, as a mirrored reality of a present day...
53. "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
The only disadvantage of the cartoon is that some of the great bits from original graphic novel (my favorite book by the way) are missing. Otherwise +5!
+ 54. "Changeling" by Clint Eastwood
added later