To kick it off, here's an unranked list of some older films that I watched for the first time this year and loved. I did not write reviews on most, but I'll leave brief thoughts on each, and why they moved / excited / fascinated me.
Tabu (F.W. Murnau, United States, 1931) - A tragic romance set in the South Seas that could be fairly accused of hokey exoticism (though a respectful portrayal of Polynesians for its time), but F.W. Murnau's expressionistic telling of this classic Romeo and Juliet story is movie magic, a joyful dream that turns into a nightmare. A silent film that creates a pure emotional experience through only its visuals, with an imaginative directness that puts most modern movies to shame.
Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, United States, 1941) - Opens with a peppy musical number set in the depths of hell and keeps getting weirder from there. The humor is shamelessly corny, lowbrow vaudeville, but delightfully anarchic and creative, even 70+ years on. Also contains maybe the greatest, and almost certainly the most fearless, dance sequence in movie history.
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, India, 1955) - A compassionate but unsentimental portrait of a year in the life of a regular Bengali family. It amazes me that this was Satyajit Ray's first film - its unforgettably specific characters and vivid evocation of life in rural India could only be the creation of a master filmmaker and keen observer of people.
Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1959) - A satirical but generous-hearted story of two young boys in newly-consumerist 1950s Japan who enter a vow of silence to protest their parents not buying a television. A rare comedy from Ozu, mostly a creator of quietly devastating melodramas, but his unique visual approach works beautifully for deadpan humor.
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Karel Zeman, Czhechoslovakia, 1962) - The tall tales of Baron Munchausen told through Karel Zeman's distinctive blend of live actors, animation, and stop-motion puppetry, like a psychedelic pop-art storybook brought to life. Fun and funny, also among the most visually inventive films I've seen.
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, Japan, 1964) - An anthology of four classic Japanese ghost stories. A horror film, but not one built for cheap thrills; a creepy, sublime and gorgeous excursion into the dark heart of folktales.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov, Ukraine, 1965) - Director Sergei Parajanov, a Georgian-born Armenian who did not play along with the rules of the USSR and spent much of his life in prison for it, had a style and approach to storytelling unlike any other. His films are wild, mythic immersions into forgotten ways of life and viewing the world - in this case, those of the Ukrainian Hustul culture. Soviet censors hated it for its religious and sensual imagery, but many ethnographers, historians, hippies, theologians, romantics, and adventurous movie-lovers over the years have embraced it. A one-of-a-kind movie.
A New Leaf (Elaine May, United States, 1971) - A very dark but ultimately good-natured comedy that ranks among the funniest movies I've ever seen. Directed, written by, and starring Elaine May, who is a genius, also showcases a brilliant comic performance from Walter Matthau.
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia, 1972) - A slow, sinister, spiritual experience, mysterious and soulful as science-fiction storytelling should be but so rarely is.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi, Italy, 1978) - A small-scale epic that shows the lives of a hard-laboring, devotedly Catholic peasant family in nineteenth-century Italy, based on stories from director Olmi's own ancestors. Small moments of unadorned honesty accumulate to make a film that radiates truth, both a religious and humbly human work of art.
Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1980) - Akira Kurosawa is just the greatest. My review.
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, Taiwan, 1991) - Has the expansive detail, thematic depth and character complexity of a great novel - also, at 4 hours long, the intimidating density of one, but it's worth the effort. Roger Ebert has famously called the movies "a machine that generates empathy". After watching A Brighter Summer Day, I really felt that I understood this time and place, this community, and the people who lived there.
The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, United Kingdom, 1992) - An impressionistic autobiography of Terence Davies as a boy in working-class 1950s Liverpool. On the surface it's a lovely, stream-of-consciousness reverie, a nostalgic trip through memories of family, school, church, movies and music of the era. Hidden in plain sight are deep currents of bittersweet mixed emotions, recalling the happiness and the guilt of that time in life (Davies was gay, and just beginning to realize it at the age portrayed), and a sweet tribute to his beloved family. Most autobiography feels like misguided attempts at squeezing complex lives into simplistic narratives, if not outright narcissism, but The Long Day Closes is something different, like witnessing the raw materials of a personality in formation.
More movies I loved - because the 13 listed above are just a few of the awesome movies I watched for the first time this year. Here's some more that I will remember and value for a long time:
- The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, United Kingdom, 1971)
- Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1974)
- Allegro non Troppo (Bruno Bozzetto, Italy, 1976)
- Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 1994) / my review
- Cafe Lumiere (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Japan, 2003)
- Children in the Wind (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan, 1937)
- Dead of Night (multiple directors, United Kingdom, 1945)
- Dragon Gate Inn (King Hu, Taiwan, 1967)
- Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 1995)
- Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, United Kingdom, 1980)
- The Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, France / Taiwan, 2007)
- Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan, 1998)
- Head (Bob Rafelson, United States, 1968)
- The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, United States, 1972)
- The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1958)
- Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 1995)
- Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, Italy, 1962)
- The Naked Island (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1960)
- Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, China, 1991) / my review
- Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1965)
- Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1962)
- The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, Poland, 1965) / my review
- Sazen Tange and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo (Sadao Yamanaka, Japan, 1935)
- Them! (Gordon Douglas, United States, 1954)
- Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1957)
- Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, United Kingdom, 1999)
- The Valley of the Bees (Frantiscek Vlacil, Czechoslovakia, 1968) / my review
- Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1987)
- Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1961)
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