1. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
The ultimate road movie. Zissou’s best friend is eaten, er, chewed by a shark. Zissou mounts a vengeance-driven expedition, hoping to find and kill the shark, and get his career back, too. He’s got a quirky crew of misfit team members to help, one of which may or may not be his son. Critics panned this one and I don’t know why. It’s my favorite of all Anderson’s films.
Dir: Wes Anderson, 2004, Color
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
No one does failure and redemption like Wes Anderson. A family of once child geniuses gathers for a homecoming brought on by the impending death of their deadbeat dad. Every Anderson movie has “that line” that serves as a tender climax for the entire film. That line in The Royal Tenenbaums is especially poignant. The soundtrack is especially noteworthy.
Dir: Wes Anderson, 2001, Color
3. The River
I first saw this one night on TCM during one of their foreign film nights. A beautiful film set in India by the Ganges and tinged with an almost opiate haze. The tranquil lives of a British family are disrupted by the visit of a young handicapped colonel. The movie is narrated by a lovesick teenage girl named Harriet, but the show is stolen by the particularly moving Melanie, a half Indian-half white girl who is trying to find her place in the world. A sitar drones throughout. Trivia: Jean Renoir is Claude Renoir’s son.
Dir: Jean Renoir, 1951, Color
4. Charade
I vividly remember the first time I saw this film as a pre-pubescent. It has an almost Hitchcockian quality to it. Cary Grant + Audrey Hepburn = Good fun. Mrs. Lambert (Hepburn) is mixed up in a whoddunit involving a missing treasure attributed to her deceased husband and a motley crew from his old Army unit. But is Carson Dyle (Grant) who he says he is? The film’s twist ending will get you. Music by the great Henry Mancini.
Dir: Stanley Donen, 1963, Color
5. The Cranes Are Flying
Considering the communist party’s stranglehold on all art in the former Soviet Union, it’s almost unbelievable that something so human, beautiful and devoid of politics ever came out of it. A tearjerker of a WWII-era film. The film’s climax will rip your guts out. You mean all of this torment and romantic misery was on account of a misunderstanding? Brilliant, timeless, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
Dir: Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957, B&W
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This film has so much heart. Surely, it can’t be a product of modern Hollywood. Based on one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s minor short stories, Benjamin Button is born with a disease that has caused him to be born old. As he ages, he becomes younger, physically. Historical events serve as a backdrop to this life-affirmingly bittersweet tale. Trivia: Benjamin’s advice to his daughter is taken from a letter Fitzgerald wrote to his daughter Scottie.
Dir: David Fincher, 2008, Color
7. Che
You could almost forget that Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a blood-thirsty murderer. This film is that good. I get the idea Soderbergh wanted to make a beautiful film, rather than an accurate one. How so? Well, he based his script on a bio edited and published by Fidel Castro. Be warned, this film is long.
Dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2008, Color
8. I Know Where I’m Going!
I came across this film on Netflix one night and after reading Scorsese’s recommendation, I had to see it. This is a real cinematic treasure. I love the idea that her plans and her path are being confounded by inclement weather. The beautiful scenery of the Scottish Hebrides is featured and the actors are quirkily brilliant. Some films cause the viewer to feel as though they’re getting away with something by watching them. This is one of them.
Dir: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 1945, B&W
9. Rebecca
I had the biggest crush on Joan Fontaine when I was a kid. This film is why. Rebecca was Hitchcock’s first film in America and the result is his moodiest mystery ever. A young girl marries the man of her dreams, only to discover his house is haunted by the memory of his deceased wife. The film was based on Daphe Du Maurier’s popular novel of the same name. Trivia: The audience is never told the protagonist’s name, as in the novel. Amazing stuff from the master of suspense.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1940, B&W
10. The Battle of Algiers
Banned in France at its release, this film is a disturbingly accurate and moving account of Algeria’s revolution in 1957. Of note is Pontecorvo’s decision to honestly tackle the matter of torture by the French colonials. This film is famous for inspiring political violence throughout the West. In fact, Andreas Baader of West Germany’s Baader-Meinhoff led Red Army Faction cited it as his favorite. Phenomenal soundtrack from the great Ennio Morricone.
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966, B&W
