These are the movies that I could watch over and over again.
My favorites are listed in numeric order.
(Click on a highlighted movie to see its entry in the
Internet Movie Database.)
Celine and Julie Go Boating / Céline et Julie vont en bateau(Rivette; France; 1974)
A free-wheeling experimental film by the grandpappy of the French New Wave,
Jacques Rivette.
There's not really a plot - the multi-layered scenes repeat and expand endlessly
in this exuberant, hallucinatory film.
Celine the hippie magician meets Julie the librarian in a goofy chase through Paris.
They make friends and slowly discover that they're deeply linked
as they investigate a haunted house (with the help of some magic candies),
becoming involved in the "lives" of the resident ghosts.
I was charmed by the weird and unusual narrative,
and I love the hypnotic effect of seeing the same scene over and over.
Many would find this film boring or pointless,
but if it grabs you, you'll need to see it again and again!
Blood Wedding / Bodas de sangre(Saura; Spain, 1981)
Director Carlos Saura films the dress rehearsal of a story told by flamenco music and dance:
On the day of her wedding, a bride elopes with her lover.
The groom chases the couple, and in the ensuing fight, both rivals are killed.
A deceptively simple film with breathtaking images and fabulous dancing.
The passion of flamenco provides an interesting way to tell a story of deadly passions.
If you're a flamenco fan, you must see this film.
Dersu Uzala (Kurosawa; Japan/USSR; 1974)
A beautiful film about a Russian surveyor in Siberia and his guide, Dersu Uzala,
a "simple" hunter and woodsman.
As they travel the Siberian wilderness, they become friends,
and the surveyor learns much more from Dersu than nature lore.
Won the Oscar in 1976 for Best Foreign Film.
To best appreciate the magnificent landscapes and suble cinematography,
see this film in a theater if you can.
Solaris / Solyaris(Tarkovsky; USSR, 1972)
A cosmonaut-psychologist travels to a mysteriously crippled space station
and begins to experience the effect of the intelligent ocean planet, Solaris.
This 2001-era film avoids the dehumanizing technology of Kubrick's movie.
Instead, the space station is falling apart and
cluttered with the terrestrial possesions of the
apathetic cosmonauts who are struggling with
the dreamlike manifestations of their pasts.
A hypnotic, reflective film.
The Pillow Book (Greenaway; UK, 1995)
Absolutely magnificent! It's rare for a film to make it onto my top ten list after only one
viewing, but this film has done so. A lyrical and hypnotic study of obsession, creativity, and
writing. Less challenging than Greenaway's other films, but definitely not a Hollywood-style
movie.
Charade(Donen, USA, 1963)
A sparkling romantic comedy-thriller
with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn
in some of their best performances.
A beautiful widow is pursued by gangsters
who want the fortune her murdered husband had.
But can she trust the man who conveniently appears
to help her solve the mystery?
Why, oh, why don't they make movies like this anymore?
(Even Donen's other films aren't this good.)
Trust (Hartley; USA, 1990)
A breathtaking study of relationships by my favorite director.
Hartley regulars Martin Donovan and Adrienne Shelley
star as young adults from disfunctional families
who start a fragile relationship that changes them both.
This delicate, moody, nuanced film is spectacular.
ZOO: A Zed and Two Noughts (Greenaway; UK, 1985)
Macabre story about the process of grief –
don't watch this one while you eat.
Twin brothers, whose wives are killed in a car crash,
become obsessed by decay.
They make time-lapse photographs of decaying fruit,
then move up the food chain to dead animals.
They also become involved with a one-legged woman
who wants to amputate her remaining leg.
This hypnotic film has gorgeous, color-saturated scenes and
lots of Michael Nyman's wonderful pseudo-baroque music.
What fun!
Down By Law (Jarmusch; USA, 1986)
Beguiling film about two convicts (Tom Waits and John Lurie)
who escape through a Louisiana swamp
and meet up with an Italian (Roberto Benigni).
Deadpan and slow, it's the atmosphere –
not the no-action plot –
that makes this movie great.
The City of Women /
La Città della donne(Fellini; Italy, 1981)
Marcello Mastroianni plays a bewildered everyman
wandering through a surreal world of women.
I don't know why I love this film, but I do.
Letting Go (Bender; USA, 1985)
Actually, this is a trashy, made-for-TV movie with
a very soppy plot, but my own handsome father appears at the
end as a conductor (his real-life profession).