Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Audiophilander (A) on February 04, 2007 at 02:03:42

In Reply to: Agree completely, but would add... posted by semuta on February 3, 2007 at 20:10:28:

I have to more or less disagree with both of you as to the 'best films' of all time from a historical standpoint, but no offense is intended. We are discussing subjective impressions, so there is no right or wrong.

The greatest films on my silent cinema list include at least one that is arguably euro-mustard fare as well, but old grey poupon gains something from being more universal in an unrelenting use of the silent medium to great effect:

From Europe:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer); very potent mustard
Pandora's Box (E. A. Dupont)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
Spies (Fritz Lang), but only the restored version
Faust (F. W. Murnau), the restored domestic version (European release)
Napoleon (Abel Gance) Note: This version doesn't star Victor, but it has been sliced and diced by Francis Ford Coppola so that he could give his old man's music score acclaim. The original as restored by Kevin Brownlow is supposedly VERY close to the original with a beautiful orchestral score, but we may never get the opportunity to see it because of the Coppola clan's defensive meddling.

In the U.S.:

Sunrise (F. W. Murnau)
The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin); arguably City Lights is better
Greed (Erich Von Stroheim); unfortunately we're left with only the Cliff-Notes version of this masterpiece, but oh, what a film!

Sound era films in the U.S. are somewhat sketchier in my estimation because they were heavily restricted as to content by code between mid-1934 and the mid-1960's when a rating system was devised, but even with the Hayes code in place several films stand out:

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles), which you mentioned
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise) okay, this is a guilty pleasure, but it's also a great film that I doubt would feature prominently on anyone else's 'best films' list even with it's use of SF themes to debunk the prevalent anti-communist paranoia of the period

From Europe in this period:

Beauty and The Beast (Cocteau)
The Seventh Seal (Bergman), not one of my personal favorites; it's literally reeks of GP, but a classic of the genre none the less.

With the code (english language releases):

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
Godfather (Coppola), begrudgingly; I usually don't like Coppola's work
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
Lord of The Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson)

This is far from a complete list, but these selections for 'best films' are personal preferences; of course, YMMV.

AuPh