My Greatest Films Ever

As you might have noticed, this blog is no longer active.

But the occasion of the 2012 Sight & Sound "Greatest Films of all time" poll was to good to be passed up. The poll, which is only conducted every 10 years, is considered to be the most important of its kind because every important film critic on the planet is contributing to its result. The latest poll, which was published in September, brought one major shift: "Citizen Kane", which won the last five polls, has been replaced at the top by "Vertigo" and has been degraded to Number Two. This, of course, has led to numerous discussions among critics and film buffs alike whether Hitchock's masterpiece really is better than Welles's miracle. And of course the raison d'etre of polls itself has been questioned once again.

Truth is, every serious film lover on the planet laughs at the impossible task of reducing film history to a mere 10 films when there are so many great ones to choose from by now and - even more important - the greatest pleasure is to be had not with the canonical classics but with the personal favourites, the films you grew up with, the imperfect film maudits or the newly discovered obscurities. Nevertheless, lists are huge fun and the extended results - which can be found here - do provide a valuable checklist for important films one has (or has not) already seen. And since not it not only fun to read about the lists of others but also to come up with an own one, what follows is my list of the greatest films ever made, a mixture of films I absolutely love and films I deem essential:

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (USA 1927, F.W. Murnau)
Citizen Kane (USA 1941, Orson Welles)
Letter from an unknown Woman (USA 1948, Max Ophüls)
Sunset Boulevard (USA 1950, Billy Wilder)
À bout de souffle (France 1960, Jean Luc-Godard)
La Dolce Vita (Italy 1960, Federico Fellini)
L'année dernière à Marienbad (France 1961, Alain Resnais)
Il Gattopardo (Italy 1963, Luchino Visconti)
I am Twenty (Russia 1964, Marlen Khutsiyev)
2001: A Space Odyssey (UK 1968, Stanley Kubrick)

Consider this the final entry on this blog but not the last word...

Blog no longer updated!

Dear readers,

since I am now writing film reviews regularly for the German-language online newspaper DrehPunktKultur I will no longer have the time to write this blog.

Thanks for your support!

Andreas

Barbara (Germany 2012)

Das Kino des Christian Petzold – das ist der Augenblick, bevor wir aufwachen. So hat es ein Kritikerkollege einmal sehr treffend beschrieben. Es versetzt uns in einen tranceartigen Zustand, in dem man stets die Wirklichkeit des eben Gesehenen anzweifelt. Wie kaum ein anderer zeitgenössischer Regisseur versteht er es, mit einfachsten Mitteln Atmosphäre zu erzeugen und eine Geschichte durch Stimmungen zu erzählen. Verbunden mit seinem genauen Blick auf seine Charaktere ist er – in Anspielung auf eine Szene in seinem neuen Film – so etwas wie der Rembrandt des deutschen Kinos.

Sein neuer Film „Barbara“ erzählt von einer Kinderärztin, die von Berlin in die Provinz strafversetzt wurde, da sie einen Ausreiseantrag in den Westen gestellt hat. Ihrem neuen Chef Andre und den Kollegen gegenüber bleibt sie vorerst distanziert und verschlossen. Ihr Geliebter aus dem Westen kommt gelegentlich für heimliche Treffen in die DDR um ihre Flucht zu organisieren. Als die Ausreißerin Stella in das Krankenhaus eingeliefert wird, kümmert sie sich gemeinsam mit Andre intensiv um das Mädchen. Dabei lernen sich beide langsam besser kennen. Barbara beginnt an sich und ihren Plänen zu zweifeln. Einerseits möchte sie weg aus dem Land, das keine Zukunft für sie bietet, andererseits wird sie plötzlich gebraucht…

„Barbara“ ist Petzolds bisher emotionalster Film – was jedoch nicht bedeutet dass der Film nicht wie gewohnt kühl und reduziert inszeniert ist. Ein Liebesfilm zwar und einer der einen durchaus berührt, aber eben auf eine ganz und gar unsentimentale Art. Diese Widersprüche sind es auch was Petzolds Film so faszinierend machen. Die Strenge und emotionale Abgestumpftheit der Charaktere einerseits, die Zärtlichkeit und der inhärente Humanismus andererseits. Dieser zeichnet auch den Regisseur aus der zwar die Gesellschaft als eine konstante Bedrohung darstellt, jedoch ein großes Mitgefühl für seine Figuren zum Ausdruck bringt. Der Schauplatz der ehemaligen DDR wurde hierbei zwar bewusst gewählt, im Grunde ist die Geschichte aber nicht an einen Ort und eine Zeit gebunden. Erfrischend ist auch dass die DDR weder als heruntergekommener Ort der Unterdrückung noch als schrullig-heitere Idylle dargestellt wird.

„Barbara“ ist das Reifezeugnis von Christian Petzold, welches er bereits in Form des Regiepreises bei der Berlinale erhalten hat. Ein elegant konstruierter, erhabener Film der kleinen Momente. In Hauptdarstellerin Nina Hoss, mit der er nun schon zum vierten Mal zusammen gearbeitet hat, hat der deutsche Antonioni zudem endgültig seine deutsche Monica Vitti gefunden. Ihre diskrete Darstellung unterdrückt zwar jegliche Emotionen, dennoch gelingt es ihr, die innere Unruhe ihrer Figur zu vermitteln. Diese fragile Kühle ist die perfekte Ergänzung für die Filme von Christian Petzold bei denen es auch stets unter der Oberfläche brodelt. Auch wenn sie in einer der schönsten Szenen des Films plötzlich etwas macht dass man von ihr – und dem Kino von Christian Petzold – nicht erwartet hätte. Sie lächelt.

8/10

Fremdkörper: Nina Hoss als "Barbara"

The Artist (France 2011)

JOE GILLIS:
You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
NORMA DESMOND:
I am big. It's the pictures that got small.

from Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard"

Next time you're watching a current movie on TV, turn off the volume and reduce saturation to the minimum. You are then watching a silent movie - but with the sole effect that the small, insignificant film will be even smaller and more insignificant. No magic anywhere. Without the dialogues, which in modern movies are mostly there to advance the storyline, there is hardly anything left that will keep you watching. In the early age of film the story was told primarily through images which was much more appropriate for the medium film. Back then, the actors were responsible for the emotions. Their overacting rich on gestures and facial expressions may have been far from reality but the audience got a great show in return. In those times, film was much closer to an original art form - and the actors contributed their part to it.

Such an "artist" is George Valentin, the main character in the silent film homage "The Artist". He is a big movie star who is suddenly - thanks to the introduction of the talkies - not in demand anymore which puts him into a severe crisis. Of all people, the young actress Peppy Miller, who he helped to fame, is the new talk of town and on the way to stardom. But what the washed up stars doesn't know that she is also one of his biggest remaining fans...

With his charming silent film, which adopts the style of the silents, French director Michel Hazanavicius celebrates Hollywood's golden era. This - and the high average age of the Academy voters  - may be the primary reason the film is a strong contender at this year's Oscars. The film does not shy away from the dark sides of the dream factory but the director portrays them in a much less cynical fashion than Billy Wilder did 1950 in "Sunset Boulevard". He also manages to touch the audience with a simple, but lovely told story. The flair of the time is captured with some nice details as well. One has the feeling of actually watching an "old" movie. Even if the director does not strictly adhere to the aesthetics of the silent films which has been the subject of some criticism. But what is much more important anyway is that the film is emotionally authentic. To a large part this is due to the two wonderful main actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo who appear to come right out of Hollywood's heyday themselves.

"The Artist" is - if not much more - a great piece of entertainment that stylishly captures the magic and fascination cinema once exuded. And in a time of the downfall of cinema, "The Artist" is also a film about the downfall of cinema. Many film lovers will leave this exhilarating film with a bittersweet, nostalgic feeling. And with the assurance that Norma Desmond was right...

8/10

Silence is golden: Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo

Låt den rätte komma in (Sweden 2008)

"Let the right one in" is a film full of contradictions. Tender yet brutal, beautiful yet gritty, realistic yet supernatural. Like many other great films, it is also not immediately classifiable in any common genre. Is it a vampire/horror movie, a slice of social realism or a coming-of-age film? Probably a little bit of everything but for me it is mostly a sublimely touching love story between two lonely outsiders. But if it is then it is a love story for people who don't like love stories just as it is a horror movie for people who don't like horror movies.

The film is directed with delicate empathy by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. It seems implausible that he mostly worked for Swedish Television before this film since "Let the right one in" is so cinematic. There are some shocking scenes but the director is careful not to overdo it. To the dismay of some readers of the original novel, the hints on pedophilia that were much more present in the source, have been toned down. But since the novel's author John Ajvide Lindquist also wrote the screenplay, we can assume that he is perfectly fine with it. And the film proves that the open dealing with such dark subjects is not necessary anyway: under Alfredson's subtle direction, we can already sense that there is something wrong in a society that is constructed around the dominance of the alpha male.

The music in the film is extraordinarily beautiful - it is no coincidence that composer Johan Söderqvist is credited right after the director. It further enhances the atmosphere already created by the brilliant use of bleak winterly locations in and around Stockholm. The performances by the two young leads are great too. They both display a vulnerability while also hiding a latent violence under the innocent surface. It says a lot that the human boy and the vampire girl are essentially treated as equals. The female may - as always - be the stronger one but is the boy who acts out the violence by choice and not by destiny. In this world - the films seems to suggest - everyone needs to be a vampire to survive.

"Let the right one in" is a unique, extraordinary and incredibly touching film. It is a bittersweet tale of loneliness and alienation that transcends genre limitations to become something greater.

9/10

To die for: Lina Leandersson as "Eli"

The Ides of March (USA 2011)

A film is not the sum of its elements. "The Ides of March" has a sharp script, great actors and is quite entertaining. However, it is still "only" a good movie, not a great one. The primary reason for this is that George Clooney's film about the US pre-elections does not really reveal anything new. Or did you not know before that politicians tend to have a weakness for pretty interns, young career types get it all while the "good" guys finish last? And most of us already sensed that politics is a dirty business...

Nevertheless "The Ides of March"is one of the better American films of recent times. It is a captivating behind-the-scenes look on politics. George Clooney, himself supporter of the Democratic party and president Obama, again shows his keen sense for the subject matter after "Good Night, and Good Luck". And it is remarkably how he manages his double identity between smiling movie star and deadly serious filmmaker without an image loss in either one of his personas.

As a director he may not be an artist but a solid craftsman but his experience as an actor certainly helps with the casting of his fellow actors. And "The Ides of March" is mostly an actor's film which reunites the most talented American actors of different generations (Evan Rachel Wood, Max Minghella, Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Philipp Seymour Hoffman). But contrary to Hollywood's common practice they have been cast here not just because of their famous names and talent but because they actually fit for their respective roles. And Clooney himself is so convincing as the candidate that some viewers might wish that he would run for office in reality. He probably would not do much worse than his former colleague Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"The Ides of March" also poses an interesting question: is it even possible to stay true to one's ideals in the battlefield of politics? If one considers the cynical final image of the film, the answer seems to be "no".

Because of this pessimistic message nobody will accuse Clooney of campaigning for the Democrats or any other political party. But this clinical approach may be the reason why the authentic film lacks emotions. The same goes for the mise-en-scène which mostly sticks to Hollywood conventions.

Sort of a conservative film from a liberal director.

8/10

In no one we trust