The Film Club

Right now I’m reading a book called “Film Club”. It’s a true story written by a man who let his 16 year old son drop out of school as long as he promises to watch 3 movies with him each week. The dad gets to choose the movies. The 16 year old kid, Jesse, likes movies alright, but is no film scholar and hasn’t really seen most of the classic and important films in history. Essentially, the father has a clean slate to work with and can choose anything. His choices are interesting, films like; The 400 Blows, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Shining, Notorious, Last Tango in Paris, On the Waterfront, and many more.

This got me thinking, if that was me, what would I choose? It’s a more difficult question to answer than I thought it would be, and then I decided to narrow it to ten, and the decisions became even more difficult. Would I choose ten films that teach about life? Maybe ten that reveal film from various eras’ or various countries from around the world? Then I just sat down and thought about it without a real criterion, and ten films just came to me. To be clear, these ten films are NOT my ten favorite films of all time. In fact, only two of these films make my personal top ten. But when it came time to pick ten films I would show someone wanting to know more about great films, these are the ten I came up with.

1) Casablanca
The ultimate film. Solid performances by an iconic cast, great dialogue, and the best romance ever put onto film. Bogart and Bergman were larger than life and ever supporting cast member delivers perfectly. This is a great example of how to make a war film without showing a battle or even taking place in a country where the war was being fought. As far as America goes, there is no more important film ever made. Directed by Michael Curtiz.

2) Seven Samurai
The greatest action film ever made, without question. Seven samurai battle 40 bandits to save a village that none of them live in, and they aren’t even being paid well. The 3 ½ hour running time isn’t a problem for this film that simply flies by. Each time I watch it I love it more, which is why every time a new transfer of the film is released I buy it, even if it’s expensive. I don’t mind owning multiple copies of this film at all. Shimura and Mifune get a lot of praise for their performances, but the entire cast is perfect and Kurosawa directs this film way ahead of its time. This film has been remade many times, and no one has come close to duplicating it.

3) Roshomon
The second Kurosawa film in a row, and its well deserved. This is the first film to introduce an important plot style to serious audiences. The film is about a murder being told from various perspectives, so we see the same murder scene multiple times from each person’s perspective but everyone’s story is different. Who is telling the truth? Mifune is excellent in the lead role, playing a villain, and the layout of the story is simply brilliant. Philosophies play an important role in the start and end of the film.

4) The Godfather
This is an obvious choice, but for me, the reasons are different than most. Coppola’s direction is flawless as we move from scene to scene getting into the midst of a powerful mafia family. Many people love this film for its gritty crime story and shocking violence, I love this film for its beautiful and haunting cinematography, equally haunting musical score, and superb acting from everyone but especially Brando. Perfect movie making.

5) Le Doulos
Melville made much more popular films, but I think this is his best. Jean-Paul Belmondo has probably never been better than in this crime drama where one moment you think he’s our hero, the next our villain, and then back and forth through the film until we finally get the real story. The thing is, in the end, I’m not sure if I would have cared whether or not he was our antagonist or protagonist, I just loved the ride to find out. In this film, the script is the standout. Simply brilliant.

6) Tokyo Story
Roger Ebert once said that all true fans of film eventually end up at Ozu, and this is his best film. Ozu is that rare director who can make essentially the same film many times over, and have each and every one of them be simply brilliant. Not all of his films are alike, Tokyo Twilight, Ohayo, and Floating Weeds for example are fairly unique, but Tokyo Story is actually very similar to a few of his other films, its just better than the rest of those which are already very good films. Ozu is a master at family drama, drawing in emotion that films rarely accomplish. Despite the fact that Ozu is the most “Japanese” of all great Japanese directors, I still feel myself completely resonating with his characters from all the way across the globe.

7) The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman can get a little tedious to watch at times because his pacing and temperament doesn’t change much from film to film, but this is by far his most intriguing and unique film, and also his most profound. The film gives us some iconic images, greatest of which is our knight played brilliantly by Max Von Sydow playing chess with the Grim Reaper (yes the one copied in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey). The film is about Death chasing down a knight to end his life, and the knight attempting to keep himself alive. The dialogue is brilliant despite being a bit too chatty at times, and the philosophical questions that arise as a result of close evaluation of the dialogue make the film worth many viewings.

8) 8 ½
I have an up and down relationship with Fellini’s films, but lately I have been nothing but up on this film. The film is shot beautifully despite being in black and white, and like Anotnioni’s “L’ Avventura” the film has so many perfect shots that they can be frozen and placed on postcards. The film seems semi-autobiographical, although Fellini has denied that to some degree, in that it is a film about a movie director making a film, but doesn’t know what he wants to make. He has no real script, no real vision, and is simply throwing things together as he goes in order to appease his producers. Many have speculated that Fellini made this film because he needed to make another movie, and was out of ideas himself, so why not make a movie about a director making a movie who is out of ideas? Whether this is true or not, the result is wonderful. Guido, our main character, takes us on a ride through his relationships with various women (who are no doubt autobiographical to some degree), as well as taking us through dream sequences and visions of his past as they are blended in with reality. The first time I saw this film I was a bit confused, the second time I was awestruck.

9) The Third Man
This British film Noir is my favorite example of a truly excellent style of film. A crime story starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles, the film centers around a man (Cotton) trying to figure out how and why his friend Harry (Welles) died. He’s been told the death was an accident, but he knows better. He gets a little too close to the truth, and the realities he uncovers are truly shocking if you haven’t already had them spoiled for you through the various pop culture references to the film over the past 50 years. Carol Reed directs the film beautifully, capturing haunting images through a perfect use of lighting. The sewer scene at the end is one of my favorite scenes in film history.

10) Raiders of the Lost Ark
What else can be said – Its Indiana Jones. This film seems to endure better with each passing year, and despite a strong misstep from the fourth film in the series, this film remains one of my favorite action-adventure films of all time. The way the journey is paced in accordance with the music just sounds off as adventurous, and the story and execution of the story are absolutely perfect. Probably the best film in the careers of two brilliant men, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford.