These days, you can feel a palpable stirring, culture-wise, in Dumaguete City. Not that the arts are dead here. Of course not. It’s just that—starting more or less about half a decade ago—it has never been this alive. And how it sparkles in the kind of life it has now!
There was a time, especially in the early 1990s, when the cultural well seemed on the verge of going dry relatively speaking. (I play safe here, because there will be others with differing opinions. I can imagine somebody writing to me soon, thundering:
) But for some reason or other, many of Dumaguete’s resident artists, writers, and cultural workers were answering the outside lure of better jobs and bigger cities. (Some stayed. Many more just faded away.) The National Writers Workshop lost the support of the university it had been part of since its founding in 1962, and it floundered like an orphan until the Tiempos found generous institutions which pledged enough to continue the revered workshop’s existence. Around the same time, the Renaissance Man himself, Albert Louis Faurot, died in Dumaguete. A relative came “to settle his affairs,” so goes one story from Moses Joshua Atega, and gathered pieces of his collection—and proceeded to burn them for reasons we can only speculate over. That bonfire seemed quite metaphorical of the state of things. Faurot’s End House, site of many recitals and poetry readings, fell into disrepair. His book collection and paintings were scattered about—and some of us would occasionally wonder during meetings, “Where are those paintings now? And those books?” I saw some of those books. Vintage hardbound copies of the best of literature—some worn to old age by silverfish and dust. Oh, those were dark days. I came into my youth in those early years of the 1990s, and for me these were wisps of once mighty names I had to get to know because largely forgotten.
And yet, look.
Nothing can be farther than the reverse of all that, these days. Our artists and writers are flocking back to Dumaguete once more, making it—in the words of Carmen del Prado’s documentary on the subject matter—“an artists’ haven.” There’s a budding community of young writers and filmmakers starting to make waves. The older visual artists may still be squabbling with each other—but consider Razceljan Salvarita and Hersley-Ven Casero, the vanguards of the new wave: they hold their heads above the vicious sway, and their art is fresh and revitalizing. We have new filmmakers in the making—Hersley’s
just made it into the roster of SineRehiyon Film Festival, representing the film scene in Dumaguete. There’s a film club in the city now, also a photography club (under the guidance of master photographer Greg Morales), and a fledgling group of young writers. The National Writers Workshop is also back with Silliman University, which has also been in the process of creating a Creative Writing Center to be named after Edilberto and Edith Tiempo. Last year, the workshop celebrated its fiftieth year with a reverent nod to how it has helped shape contemporary Philippine literature. And Faurot has a lecture series named after him, with some of the world’s top artists, writers, and cultural workers—from Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones to poet Marjorie Evasco, from composer Ryan Cayabyab to sociologist Lorna Makil—coming to the city to share their thoughts on art and culture as well as their process, all under the shadow of Faurot’s name and memory.
I first thought of this for real when I was invited last weekend to a dinner being held at the Silliman President’s House last Saturday. Dr. Ben Malayang III and wife Gladys were hosting, and our guest of honor was the environmentalist Nicanor Perlas who was in the city to launch a book. Chef Andreino—Dumaguete’s Pasta King—had prepared a sumptuous dinner for us, a two-course meal punctuated with great dessert and fantastic wine. And so we came: among us, there were Jojo and Myrish Antonio, Dessa Quesada-Palm, Simon and Virginia Stack, Arlene Delloso-Uypitching, Esther Windler, John Stevenson, Ian Malayang, the master classical guitarist Michael Dadap, and some others. It was a night of conversation, as scintillating as they come, fueled by the red wine. One knows how that goes. And soon enough Mr. Dadap—the brother-in-law of the cellist Yo Yo Ma—gave us a mini-concert cum lecture. “I am going to play for you two Visayan folk songs,” he said. One is happy, he said, but the song itself is really sad; the other one sounds sad, but it really is happy. “I think we do sadness with a dash of happy attitude—to mask that sadness. And we coat our happiness with a sad tone, because we don’t want other people to take away that happiness.” First he played a masterful rendition of “Dandansoy,” plucking away its melancholic tone, but with a knowing wink that this is about a man who feels assured that his love for a woman is secure enough for him to say a temporary farewell. Then he goes on with “Pobreng Alindahaw,” playfully underscoring its upbeat tone with the song’s story of a dragonfly who is swept away by the wind while flying among flowers. Somebody—I think it was Simon—asked about folk music from Luzon, and Mr. Dadap went on to play a
favorite “Jocelynang Baliwag.” When we start asking him questions about the classical guitar, what we got was a brief and inspired “lecture,” with musical excerpts, escorting us to the world of the Egyptian kithara, the Spanish flamenco, and the consummate artistry of guitar giants Andrés Segovia and Agustín Pío Barrios—“whose genius,” Mr. Dadap proclaimed, “is perhaps equal to Mozart.”
I looked around the sala in the President’s House. This was also where some of us—Sir Ben, Ma’am Gladys, John, Simon, Tata, Annabelle Lee-Adriano, Bron Teves, Cesar Ruiz Aquino, Myrna Peña-Reyes, Mariglor Arnaiz, and sometimes RV Escatron and Indian scholar Annie Kuraichan—meet every Wednesday night, to talk about literature over food and drinks, and we have gone from John Donne to Robert Frost to Jorge Luis Borges to William Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot to Allen Ginsberg. A literary salon, so to speak. We have a merry time, a once-a-week exercise of our critical abilities as well as our imagination.
It seems fitting that all these stem from this house in Silliman campus. The President’s House as a center of culture, but done in a lovely fit, loose and easy-going. This is art, and its appreciation, with heart. And I am glad I live in this time, with a city buzzing with so many possibilities.
It is a good time to be an artist in Dumaguete.
gig, Rock Ed Dumaguete volunteer Mars Edding had this idea of asking donors of slippers for Sendong victims in Negros Oriental to write a short message for their recipients. As we sorted out the donations -- 475 pairs of slippers in all! plus clothes and books and other things -- this morning at the Oriental Hall in Silliman University, we proceeded to photo-document some of these...
It was a delicate balance. How to divide one’s body on a Friday night when you are part of the organizing teams behind two events happening simultaneously? At the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium, for the Cultural Affairs Committee of Silliman University, the young virtuoso Jimmy Tagala Jr. was making his debut as a solo headliner, with mentors—the legendary violinist Gilopez Kabayao and pianist wife Corazon—in tow. At the Amphitheater, for Rock Ed Dumaguete’s Tsinelas for Sendong Drive, Sandwich was amping it with the pure gusto of Pinoy rock.
Two different kinds of music, poles apart. (And yet, by evening’s end, I would find out the heart for both is the same.)
There was a reason why that polar bear—a white stuffed toy that oozed with such joy—felt special. There it was in the LBC box just newly arrived from Bacolod, glistening in its furry whiteness, in the midst of other toys (and underwear) sent in by donors from New York as well as from Negros Occidental. That Tuesday afternoon early in January, fresh off the devastations of December, some members of Rock Ed Dumaguete had gathered in Silliman Church, our meeting place before we’d leave for the mountains of Valencia to distribute the relief goods. And we all felt the strange urge to just hold the bear, to hug it.
Rock Ed Dumaguete, along with Silliman University, was collecting stuff for relief efforts, and one of our volunteers—the amazing Greg Morales, photographer par excellence—once said that during one distribution round for victims of Typhoon Sendong, one thing he had noticed was that kids in the evacuation camps he had visited were getting bored. They had lost everything in the flash flood, and they had nothing to play with. Except perhaps dirt and stones and what-not. “Boredom can be deadly,” he said.
And so when Gang Badoy of Rock Ed Philippines forwarded me a message from Jane Uymatiao, which said that she knew of a guy in Bacolod who wanted to donate toys for the relief efforts in Dumaguete, I jumped at the chance. The guy was Bugsy Bongco, and with help from LBC who waived the fee for delivering the goods, we received the boxes. They were crammed full of fantastic toys, as well as clothes and underwear for children.
Joining me that Tuesday were some Rock Ed volunteers aside from Greg—Ron Jacob Calumpang, Robbie Yasi, Mariekhan Edding, and Arlene Delloso-Uypitching who came with her young daughter Hannah. We saw the polar bear, and we all said, “We’re going to give this to somebody special.” How we would know that we left to the universe. We knew we would just know. And so we went to five barangays that afternoon. By nightfall, we found ourselves in our last stop in one Valencia barangay near Palinpinon. It was full of kids. And one of them was this wee girl, perhaps three or four years old. She was being carried by her ate, and when we saw her, something clicked. This is the kid we were waiting for.
, first-prize winner of the recently concluded 2011 NAMCYA Violin Category C competitions, will be featured in a solo recital at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium in Silliman University. The gala concert is set on
by Sarasate.
The unique feature for this concert is the special participation of Filipino violin virtuoso and musical crusader, Gilopez Kabayao, as guest artist in Scherzo Tarantelle by Wieniawski and Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor together with the featured soloist. It is one of the rare occasions when Prof. Kabayao will once again be heard in Silliman University. Corazon Pineda Kabayao will be the assisting artist at the piano.
Mr. Tagala has been under the tutelage of Prof. Kabayao since he was 12. He was first place winner at the 2005 NAMCYA Violin Category B at 14 and at 15, and was the youngest among a hundred young musicians from Asia who were accepted to join the 2006 Asian Youth Orchestra in its concert tour of six Asian countries. At 16, Mr. Tagala gave his solo debut concert with a performance of the Beethoven and Khachaturian concertos to critical acclaim. He joined the Kabayao Family Quintet in their European concerts in 2009.
A matinee lecture-recital will be held at 2:00 in the afternoon of January 13 as part of the cultural-education program for the students. Season tickets honored during the gala show. Gala tickets are available at P200 and P300. Matinee tickets are available at P100. All tickets and season passes for Luce Auditorium shows are available for sale at the College of Performing and Visual Arts Office in Guy Hall, and at the theater lobby before the show begins. For inquiries and ticket reservations, call (035) 422-4365 or 0917-323-5953.
, meanwhile, headlines a concert/donation drive for rubber slippers for the Sendong relief efforts in Negros Oriental. The Silliman University Student Government (SUSG) and Rock Ed Philippines Dumaguete Chapter co-sponsor this event to spread the word about Sendong and the relief efforts still necessary to alleviate conditions in affected areas. The concert for a cause, titled “Tapok ‘Ta, La!—A Tsinelas Drive for Victims of Sendong,” is slated at 7 P.M. at the Amphitheater.
.
“To know that one does not write for the other, to know that these things I am going to write will never cause me to be loved by the one I love, to know that writing compensates for nothing, sublimates nothing, that is precisely there where you [my beloved] are not—this is the beginning of writing.”
A drive for rubber slippers is the target for the latest Sendong relief efforts in Negros Oriental. The Silliman University Student Government (SUSG) and Rock Ed Philippines Dumaguete Chapter are spearheading a concert featuring Sandwich and other bands to spread the word about Sendong and the relief efforts still necessary to alleviate conditions in affected areas. The concert for a cause, titled “Tapok ‘Ta, La!—A Tsinelas Drive for Victims of Sendong,” is slated on
.
“When we scouted around during our previous relief efforts in affected areas around the province, we noted that besides food and water, people needed other important things which we tended to overlook—this includes underwear and slippers,” says Rock Ed Dumaguete Coordinator Ian Rosales Casocot, who is also a faculty member of Silliman University.
According to SUSG President Mahogany Rae Bacon, also a Rock Ed volunteer, the concert is open for free to the public, but encourages everyone to bring donations of new or usable rubber slippers when they come to enjoy the music. “We are particularly interested in people bringing in rubber slippers of all sizes, since usable pairs for kids are usually overlooked in such drives,” Bacon said. Rubber slippers will also be on sale in the concert site to make donations easier.
Rock Ed Philippines was formed in 2005 by Gang Badoy, Noel Cabangon, Lourd de Veyra, and other creatives and private citizens to spearhead—using music and the arts—alternative education campaigns in the country and to coordinate relief efforts during disasters. The Dumaguete chapter includes many of the city’s young artists, musicians, writers, and entrepreneurs.
Local bands such as Motion will also take part in the concert-for-a-cause. The event is also co-sponsored by Globe, Florentina Homes, Bethel Guest House, McDonald’s, and ADS Unlimited.
Let's begin this year right. It will be an interesting year, and it will be good.
is now accepting applications for the 51st National Writers Workshop to be held April 30 to May 18, 2012 in the Silliman University Rose Lamb Sobrepeña Writers Village.
This Writers Workshop is offering fifteen fellowships to promising writers who want to have a chance to hone their craft and refine their style. Fellows will be provided housing, a modest stipend, and a subsidy to partially defray costs of their transportation.
. All manuscripts should comply with the instructions stated below. (Failure to do so will automatically eliminate their entries):
• Manuscripts should be submitted in hard copy on short-size bond paper, using Times New Roman or Calibri in 12 pt. font type.
• Applicants for Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction fellowships should submit three to five entries. Applicants for Poetry fellowships should submit seven to ten poems.
• Applicants for Drama fellowship should submit at least a One-Act Play. For plays beyond the one-act length, a scene accompanied by a synopsis of the entire work should be included.
• Each fiction, non-fiction, or drama manuscript should not be more than 50 pages, double spaced. We encourage you to stay well below the 50 pages, since a submission half that length is more than sufficient as a critical gauge.
• Manuscripts should be accompanied by at least one letter of recommendation from a literature professor or an established writer.
Along with the manuscripts and the recommendation letter, the following requirements should also be included: resume, a notarized certification that the works are original, and two 2X2 ID pictures.
Send all applications or requests for information to Department of English and Literature, attention Dr. Evelyn F. Mascuñana, Chair, Silliman University, 6200 Dumaguete City. For inquiries, email us at nwworkshop_su@yahoo.com or call us at 035-422-6002 loc. 350.
The year that was—2011—has been a strange year. “I’m ambivalent about it,” my good friend Arlene Delloso-Uypitching tells me in a quiet note that tries to register all things in the recent past. I think back as well—and I know that I have been very happy, and I have been very sad. A seeming endlessness of both. Do we talk of the same gradient of things in the world?
And so this December ends, and the old year with it. In the waning days, when we have the strength for it, we also begin to catalogue the lives we’ve lived the past 365 days. The chill in the air is battery for remembrances and for this emotional accounting. As the bed weather—the exquisite remnant of a big storm—drags on, we find ourselves hanging on to the comforts of our beds, the only palpable joy within arm’s reach. We let the Christmas songs we play wash over us, each one underlining with a certain thoroughness what we feel.
(I have taken to listening to Michael Buble’s cover of “All I Want for Christmas is You” from his
album. It veers a long distance away from the manic cheer of Mariah Carey’s version of the song, and carries with it a strange mix of melancholy and hopefulness. I listen to the song in repeat mode, ten thousand times a day. I don’t know what that says about me.)
The brighter side of the year brims with good things. In that sense, it is one year I am not exactly ready to say goodbye to. And yet in the light of the disasters that have dimmed considerably the Christmas festivities, especially in my city of Dumaguete, it is also one that seems best ended, as soon as possible, if only for us to take in the phantom promise of new beginnings.
Everyone needs new beginnings. While the New Year will always be a kind of arbitrary marker—a fiction really to convince ourselves we can control and mark time and the dramatic arcs of our lives—it has become a kind of deeply-ingrained cultural convenience for blank slates. Fresh starts. Fervent resolutions. I think I have come to appreciate this very human wish to start over. The cynics among us call the effort “useless hogwash.” I can’t blame them, given human frailty and the crazy world we live in. But one learns to pity these dried up souls. Because if one has lost hope in our individual capacity to change for the better, what else is there except the abyss?
Sendong has been a sobering experience, if in retrospect. I slept through it, given the marathon of pre-Christmas parties that came before it. While I slept, the city was drowning. The riverbanks and once placid creeks were gorging up a voracious hunger of muddy water and trash. When I woke up that Saturday afternoon, post-storm, it was to an atmosphere of unbearable quiet I could not give a name to. The city was at such a stand still, and when I went out of my apartment in Tubod (which had miraculously escaped from the instant madness of a lake that swelled only a few meters away), the sun was already faintly shining in the sky.
But there was a taste of mustiness and destruction in the ether. I didn’t know it then, of course. I thought it was only a storm giving way slowly to the inevitable sunshine and the humidity that comes after. The water had subsided. I remembered feeling irritated over the closed shops and the tricycles that never materialized. When friends from afar began texting, “How are you in Dumaguete?” with concern laced all over, I innocently replied, “I’m in the mall. But I heard there was a big flood.” I would soon feel guilt, of course, when the horror stories began trickling in. How a colleague almost drowned in her own kitchen. How another colleague’s elderly mother struggled to get up to her roof as the water levels rose. How my mother’s male help had his house demolished by the mad gush of water. How a pregnant waitress we knew in our old watering hole was carried off to her death.
We became subtly schizophrenic about things. How to properly register horror and sadness, while not exactly canceling Christmas? The cheers were muted, and though we still celebrated, it was with a somber underlining to things. And so it was that we dressed to the nines—as planned—to the Sunday party with good friends, something concocted by Mariekhan Edding, Au Tabara, and Anna Katrina Espino. And so it was that we met on Monday with high school classmates as we celebrated both a house blessing and the holidays over at Niña and Eugene Kho’s. And so it was that we went to the festive and traditional Christmas party by my Wednesday reading group, and partook of ham and turkey and pecan pie, a reading of both Dr. Seuss’
, and singing of Christmas carols till near midnight at President Ben and Gladys Malayang’s. And so it was that we spent our Christmas Eve dinner at Don and Arlene Uypitching’s for their annual holiday feast in Valencia, which was breathtaking as usual. And so it was that we spent the early hours of Christmas morning with mother over the remains of lechon, which had lovingly devoured by family.
And so it was, too, that we began helping mobilize relief efforts—which never seemed enough—for those who could not celebrate because of Sendong. And for this, we have many people to be thankful for: the people at Silliman Church, Greg and Bernie Morales, Jojo Antonio, Jacqueline Veloso-Antonio, Angeline Dy, Babes Utzurrum, among many others. There were many people who rose to the occasion and bought or gathered donations of water, food, clothing (especially underwear), toys, medicine, and distributed them to badly-hit areas all over Negros Oriental. There was also a massive injection of help from Gang Badoy and RockEd Philippines, to whom we give an infinity of thanks. It is enough to restore one’s faith in humanity.
In the final analysis, I guess ambivalence is good. Being both happy and sad, both. They underscore so thoroughly the gravity of the other—and I guess that’s the kind of lesson best learned for the New Year: to embrace all happiness, to weather all sadness, to accept that both are the very fulcrums of our fullest lives.
And for the holiday season, we owe it to ourselves to turn to each other and give great cheer above the bleakness that surrounds us, and to also extend comfort where it’s most needed. I have been blessed to find friends who are capable of doing this precarious balance. Thanks to all of you, and if only because one has friends like you one can truly say one’s year has been blessed.
Here’s to 2012 then, and God bless us all.
A few nights ago, in the middle of doing something I can scarcely remember now, the constant dilemma occupying the uncharted grey regions of my waking moments gripped an instance of my consciousness. It goes about its business the way it always does -- subtly, like a terrible and sly underwater tremor that lets loose a tidal wave of existential despair. The way I express it is always in the form of a prayer, a short one. Not being particularly religious myself, I find some comfort in just uttering this as an address to the Divine. "Why, Lord," I remember asking suddenly that night, my head bowed, my dilemma circling me in the usual pattern. "Why me? Why do I still __________?"
You never really expect concrete answers to queries directed at the void like this. In a sense, I've always understood it as just your psyche trying to deal with the minute disorders that mar your inner tranquilities, with the air as your sounding board.
I did not expect then to have a tiny voice, right near the back of my head, whispering back to me an urgent reply. It was unpremeditated, unexpected. It felt like it was God talking right back to me. And what He said was, "Because I have plans for you, and this is not it."
I jumped at that.
Do I even trust it? Is it just my unconsciousness providing an answer I already know but cannot bring myself to accept? Who knows? But it was a comforting answer -- and suddenly, to fret about things that are not meant to be just doesn't seem too important anymore. There are other things, perhaps more important, that are there, just waiting for a chance to happen. And all these -- including the unconsolable quiet and the blankness that transcends this time of my life -- these are things that prepare me for the ultimate. What that is I don't know, but I await it like one does a gift. Is this what you call faith?
If so, it feels very much like comfort.
, a tale she first heard from her mother growing up in Cagayan de Oro.
The classics in literature seem to suffer something from their greatness: the sheer intimidation of their reputations most often propels us to keep them as graceful tokens in our bookshelves, often unread. (Every day I stare at my copies of James Joyce’s
, to take two examples, and I repeat my mantra: “Someday, someday…”) I think it takes a certain kind of innocence to tackle the classics — which is probably why the great period of my own voracious reading of them (Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and even the more contemporary ones like John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway) was in my grade school years. Later on, we found that just because we were told they were “important” was enough reason to stay away.
for a decade now. I was casually reading Anthony Lane’s
, his erudite compilation of New Yorker articles, and one of the articles he included in his book was his review of Martin Scorsese’s adaptation, which I loved — and which he found beautiful, but deficient, but certainly better than the “failures” of
, both of which I found exhilarating. I remember howling at this, and when I put down the book, somehow I found myself going to my shelves … and taking down my copy of Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winner from 1921.
I began reading the first chapter, aiming only to skim it and to put it down after sleepiness would take over — but did sleep come?
I was hooked. I could not stop reading the travails of Newland Archer and his innocent “affair” with Countess Ellen Olenska, even as he tries to make a go with his engagement with May Welland under the eyes of 1870s New York society whose means to uphold strictures of form and manners was a violence of a totally different sort. It was violence, not without guile, but carried out with impeccable courtliness and subtlety — but violence nonetheless, which may be why Scorsese, he of
, probably felt compelled to helm its film adaptation. I love the book, and I loved discovering how faithful to the source Scorsese was. But I found myself surprised that I found the “villainous” May Welland — she of the timid intellectuality but sharp regard for societal propriety — blameless. Didn’t she give Newland so many chances to escape their betrothal? And in the end, after their marriage, wasn’t she only fighting for what was rightfully hers? I found Archer completely like a fool, timid and arrogant and blind, sure only of his indecisions which he mistakes for gentlemanly striving for dignity.
I’m glad I gave this great work of literature a chance. It was an education, and now I’m thinking I will really have to make a go at that Nabokov…
, Martin Scorsese’s HBO documentary about the wit and writer from New York, Fran Lebowitz? I was positively giddy, and I wrote something like: “By the end of this film, I’ve come to this foolish hope: that one day I’d be a companion around her dinner table, and just listen to her talk and talk and talk.” I still have not changed that opinion: it would certainly be such a different kind of theater to watch Ms. Lebowitz talk and talk and give opinion on God-knows-everything-including-the-brand-of-the-kitchen-sink — but when it came to reading the two seminal works of essays that have made her reputation as a funny woman who also happens to be an intellectual (these are
), I found myself … bored. This was it? These are supposed to be funny essays? They try to be, and they stink of such striving for an Oscar Wilde kind of epigram-making. I like the Introduction where Ms. Lebowitz tries to detail, hour by hour, the non-events that litter her day, but I was soon exasperated by her tendencies for lists, for tables, for the tiresome glee of having pronounced herself anti-nature, anti-work, anti-whatever. I usually find stuff like these rib-tickling (God knows I treasure Woody Allen’s
— two very funny books which Lebowitz’s own unconsciously seem to want to equal, but fails), but somehow not these ones. What a tiresome bore this volume was.
I was waiting for this book forever. I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon it. Probably some breathless mention in some blog, or some online article about literatures dissecting desire. But Andre Aciman’s
hooked me sight unseen, and samples of its first few pages only whetted my appetite. But I would like to think I am blessed with good friends — even people I have not even met — and one of them is the Filipino-American writer Veronica Montes, who read my tweets about my wanting, like a huge chasm of hunger, to have this book. “I have this book,” she tweeted back. “I’ll send it to you as soon as I find it.” Was that four or five months ago? I don’t exactly remember now — but I knew it was coming. And when it did, about four days ago, I pounced on Aciman’s love story and finished it within the next six hours, from midnight till the bright hours of dawn. And all I can say is: How can someone know me so much, enough to tell my own story? What strange alchemy did Aciman master to give a thorough mapping out of desire and love and time and the games we play in the name of carnal attraction so profound it borders on the spiritual? For his story, about a 17-year-old boy named Elio who falls for the 23-year-old scholar on a six-week summer fellowship in his father’s Italian Riviera home, is muscular, lovely, sexy, and lyrical about its explorations of its themes without once resorting to cheap sentimentalism. This book is a love letter to love, and I am a better man — so much understanding now of my own self — for having read it.
You must attribute this list to summer boredom or to the impending certainty of 2012, but I've listed down below the films checklisted by Steven Jay Schneider in his book
(2003), and I have decided to devote time in the foreseeable future to see the titles on this list ... before I die.
I like this list. And like any list, it necessarily leaves out personal favorites ("The Lion King" but no "Little Mermaid"?), and takes in too many things I suspect to be the result of editorial bias (there's too much Paul Verhoeven here than is necessary). But I like this list nonetheless, because it is generous with what it includes and becomes a virtual cineast feast. It includes celebrated short films and not just full-length features, and strange experimental films (it has Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid's "Meshes in the Afternoon"!), and strange independent films (it has Ken Jacob's "Blonde Cobra"!), and strange horror films (it has Dario Argento's "Suspiria"!), and strange documentaries (it has Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb"!), and avant-garde or risque films you don't think will make such a list (it has Kenneth Anger's very gay "Scorpio Rising"!), and films representative of major world cinemas (it even has Lino Brocka's "Manila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag"!).
I must take note, however, I've been watching movies my whole life -- and studying them as well -- and so there are titles here that feel like I've seen them, but I'm not exactly so sure of the fact, simply because their legend has made them so familiar my memory now plays tricks on me. So then I've decided to check only those titles I'm really sure I've seen.
So, how many films have you seen from this list?
☑ A Trip to the Moon (Georges Melies, 1902)
☑ The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
☑ The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)
☐ Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
☑ Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
☑ The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919)
☐ Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919)
☐ Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920)
☐ Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux, 1920)
☐ The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921)
☐ Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921)
☐ The Smiling Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1922)
☐ Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 and 2 (Fritz Lang, 1922)
☑ Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)
☑ Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
☐ Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1923)
☐ Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922)
☐ Our Hospitality (John G. Blystone, 1923)
☐ La Roue [The Wheel] (Abel Gance, 1923)
☐ The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924)
☑ Strike (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1924)
☐ Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
☐ Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
☐ The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924)
☐ Seven Chances (Buster Keaton, 1925)
☐ The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)
☑ The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
☑ The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)
☐ The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925)
☑ Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
☐ Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
☐ The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1927)
☐ The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)
☐ October (Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1927)
☑ The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927)
☐ Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
☐ The Kid Brother (Ted Wilde, 1927)
☐ The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
☐ The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
☑ Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1928)
☑ The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
☐ Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner, 1928)
☐ Potomok Chingis-Khana [Storm Over Asia] (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1928)
☐ Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929)
☑ The Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
☐ Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
☐ The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
☐ L'Age D'Or (Luis Buñuel, 1930)
☐ Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930)
☐ Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy, 1930)
☐ All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)
☐ À Nous la Liberté [Freedom For Us] (René Clair, 1931)
☐ Le Million (René Clair, 1931)
☐ Tabu (F.W. Murnau, 1931)
☐ Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)
☑ Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
☑ City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
☐ The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931)
☐ M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
☐ La Chienne [The Bitch] (Jean Renoir, 1931)
☐ Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
☐ Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)
☐ Boudu Saved From Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
☐ I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)
☐ Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
☐ Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson, 1932)
☐ Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932)
☐ Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
☐ Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, 1932)
☐ Zero de Conduite (Jean Vigo, 1933)
☐ 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)
☐ Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)
☐ Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)
☐ She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933)
☐ Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
☐ Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)
☐ Land Without Bread (Luis Buñuel, 1933)
☐ King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
☐ The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, 1933)
☐ Sons of the Desert (William A. Seiter, 1933)
☐ It's a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934)
☑ Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1934)
☐ L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
☐ The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
☐ Judge Priest (John Ford, 1934)
☑ It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934)
☐ The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)
☐ Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935)
☐ Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935)
☐ A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)
☐ The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
☑ Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
☐ Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)
☐ A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936)
☑ Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
☐ Swing Time (George Stevens, 1936)
☐ My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936)
☐ Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936)
☐ Camille (George Cukor, 1936)
☐ Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
☐ Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936)
☐ Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936)
☐ The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936)
☐ Captains Courageous (Victor Fleming, 1937)
☐ Song at Midnight (Weibang Ma-Xu, 1937)
☐ Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
☑ Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937)
☑ The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937)
☐ Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
☑ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell and David Hand, 1937)
☐ The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
☐ Pepe le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937)
☐ Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938)
☐ The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 1938)
☐ Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
☑ Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)
☐ The Baker's Wife (Marcel Pagnol, 1938)
☐ Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
☐ Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
☐ The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
☐ Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939)
☑ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)
☑ The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
☐ Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 1939)
☐ Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
☑ Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
☐ Le Jour Se Lève [Daybreak] (Marcel Carné, 1939)
☐ Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939)
☐ Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
☐ La Règle du Jeu [The Rules of the Game] (Jean Renoir, 1939)
☐ Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)
☐ His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
☑ Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
☑ Fantasia (James Algar and Samuel Armstrong, 1940)
☑ The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
☐ The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)
☐ Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)
☑ Pinocchio (Norman Ferguson and T. Hee, 1940)
☐ The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940)
☐ The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940)
☑ Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
☐ The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
☐ The Wolf Man (George Waggner, 1941)
☑ The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
☐ Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941)
☑ Dumbo (Samuel Armstrong and Norman Ferguson, 1941)
☐ High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941)
☐ Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)
☑ How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)
☐ The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
☐ Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942)
☑ Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
☐ To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
☐ Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
☑ The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
☐ Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
☐ Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
☐ Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings, 1943)
☐ The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943)
☐ The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
☐ I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
☐ The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
☐ The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943)
☐ Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
☐ Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)
☑ Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
☐ To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)
☐ Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)
☑ Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944)
☐ Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944)
☐ Ivan the Terrible, Parts One and Two (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1944)
☑ Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
☐ Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944)
☐ The Battle of San Pietro (John Huston and Mark W. Clark, 1945)
☑ Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
☑ Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
☐ Les Enfants du Paradis [The Children of Paradise] (Marcel Carné, 1945)
☐ Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)
☐ The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
☐ Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)
☐ I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945)
☐ The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
☐ Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1946)
☐ Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
☐ The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)
☐ My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
☐ The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)
☐ Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
☐ The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
☐ The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
☐ A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
☐ Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)
☑ Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
☐ Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
☑ It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
☐ Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
☑ Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
☐ Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
☑ The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
☐ Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)
☑ The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
☐ Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
☐ Secret Beyond the Door (Fritz Lang, 1948)
☐ Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)
☐ Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
☑ Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
☑ Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)
☐ The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948)
☐ The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948)
☐ The Paleface (Norman Z. McLeod, 1948)
☑ The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
☐ The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
☐ Louisiana Story (Robert J. Flaherty, 1948)
☐ The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
☐ Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)
☐ Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949)
☑ Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949)
☐ Whiskey Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)
☐ White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949)
☐ The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)
☐ The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
☑ On the Town (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949)
☐ Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949)
☐ The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)
☑ Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
☐ Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
☐ Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950)
☑ All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
☑ Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950)
☐ Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950)
☐ In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
☐ The Big Carnival [Ace in the Hole] (Billy Wilder, 1951)
☑ A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
☑ Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
☐ The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951)
☐ Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)
☐ The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)
☐ Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)
☑ An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)
☐ A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
☐ The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
☐ The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
☐ Jeux Interdits [Forbidden Games] (René Clément, 1952)
☐ Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1952)
☑ Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
☐ Ikiru [To Live] (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
☐ Europa '51 [The Greatest Love] (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)
☐ The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952)
☐ The Big Sky (Howard Hawks, 1952)
☑ High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
☐ Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
☐ Le Carrosse D'Or [The Golden Coach] (Jean Renoir, 1952)
☐ The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953)
☐ The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
☐ The Earrings of Madame De… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
☐ From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
☑ Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
☑ Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
☐ Le Salaire de la Peur [The Wages of Fear] (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
☐ The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)
☐ Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)
☑ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)
☐ The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
☐ Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)
☐ Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)
☐ Tales of Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
☑ Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
☐ Beat the Devil (John Huston, 1953)
☐ Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
☑ On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
☐ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954)
☐ Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954)
☐ Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor and John Halas, 1954)
☑ Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
☑ A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954)
☐ The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954)
☐ La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
☑ The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
☐ Senso [The Wanton Countess] (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
☐ Silver Lode (Allan Dwan, 1954)
☑ Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger, 1954)
☐ Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
☐ Salt of the Earth (Herbert J. Biberman, 1954)
☐ Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955)
☐ Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955)
☑ Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
☐ Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
☐ Les Maîtres Fous [The Mad Masters] (Jean Rouch, 1955)
☐ Giv'a 24 Eina Ona [Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer] (Thorold Dickinson, 1955)
☐ The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
☐ Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955)
☐ Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
☐ Bob Le Flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1955)
☐ Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
☐ The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)
☑ Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
☐ The Phenix City Story (Phil Karlson, 1955)
☐ Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)
☐ Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)
☑ The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
☐ The Sins of Lola Montes (Max Ophüls, 1955)
☐ Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
☐ The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
☑ The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
☐ A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
☑ Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
☑ The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
☑ Giant (George Stevens, 1956)
☑ All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
☑ Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
☐ The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
☐ Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
☑ High Society (Charles Walters, 1956)
☑ The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)
☑ 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
☐ The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
☑ An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957)
☐ Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
☐ Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
☐ Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
☐ The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
☐ Aparajito [The Unvanquished] (Satyajit Ray, 1957)
☐ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 1957)
☑ The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
☐ Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957)
☐ The Cranes Are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
☐ Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
☑ Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
☐ Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)
☑ Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
☐ Bab el Hadid [The Iron Gate/Cairo Station] (Youssef Chahine, 1958)
☑ Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
☐ The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer, 1958)
☑ Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
☐ Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
☐ Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)
☐ Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
☐ The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)
☑ The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
☑ North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
☑ Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
☐ Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)
☐ Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1959)
☐ Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
☐ Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959)
☐ Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
☑ The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)
☐ Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
☑ Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959)
☐ Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
☑ Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
☐ Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
☐ The Hole (Frank Capra, 1959)
☑ Floating Weeds (Yasujirô Ozu, 1959)
☐ Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960)
☑ La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
☐ Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)
☐ Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960)
☑ L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
☐ The Young One (Luis Buñuel, 1960)
☐ Meghe Dhaka Tara [The Cloud-Capped Star] (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)
☐ Hanyeo [The Housemaid] (Ki-young Kim, 1960)
☑ Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
☐ Revenge of the Vampire/Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)
☑ Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
☑ The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
☑ Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)
☐ Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961)
☑ Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
☐ La Jetee [The Pier] (Chris Marker, 1961)
☐ One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
☐ Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
☑ Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961)
☐ La Notte [The Night] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
☑ Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961)
☐ Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
☐ The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)
☐ Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman, 1961)
☐ Chronique d'un Eté [Chronicle of a Summer] (Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961)
☐ The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)
☑ West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, 1961)
☐ Mondo Cane [A Dog's Life] (Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti, 1962)
☐ Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
☐ Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962)
☑ El Ángel Exterminador [The Exterminating Angel] (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
☐ An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujirô Ozu, 1962)
☐ L'eclisse [The Eclipse] (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
☑ Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
☑ To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)
☑ The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
☑ Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)
☐ O Pagador de Promessas [Keeper of Promises] (Anselmo Duarte, 1962)
☐ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
☑ What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962)
☐ Vivre sa Vie [My Life to Live] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
☐ Heaven and Earth Magic (Harry Smith, 1962)
☑ The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
☐ The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 1963)
☐ Blonde Cobra (Ken Jacobs, 1963)
☐ The Cool World (Shirley Clarke, 1963)
☑ 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
☐ Passenger (Andrzej Munk and Witold Lesiewicz, 1963)
☐ Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
☐ Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963)
☐ Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
☐ Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)
☐ The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963)
☐ Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963)
☐ Il Gattopardo [The Leopard] (Luchino Visconti, 1963)
☐ Vidas Secas [Barren Lives] (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963)
☐ Méditerranée (Jean-Daniel Pollet and Volker Schlöndorff, 1963)
☐ Khaneh Siah Ast [The House is Black] (Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963)
☐ The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)
☐ An Actor's Revenge/Revenge of a Kabuki Actor (Kon Ichikawa, 1963)
☐ The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
☑ Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964)
☑ Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
☑ Les Parapluies de Cherbourg [The Umbrellas of Cherbourg] (Jacques Demy, 1964)
☑ Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)
☑ My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964)
☑ Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
☑ Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
☑ A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
☐ Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)
☐ Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov, 1964)
☐ The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964)
☐ Before the Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1964)
☐ Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
☐ The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)
☐ Deus e O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol [Black God, White Devil] (Glauber Rocha, 1964)
☐ Onibaba [The Demon] (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
☐ Vinyl (Andy Warhol, 1965)
☐ Obch o Na Korze [The Shop on Main Street] (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1965)
☑ Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
☐ The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
☐ Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965)
☐ The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965)
☑ The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)
☐ Rękopis Znaleziony w Saragossie [The Saragossa Manuscript] (Wojciech Has, 1965)
☐ Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
☐ Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
☑ Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
☐ Giulietta Degli Spiriti [Juliet of the Spirits] (Federico Fellini, 1965)
☐ Pierrot le Fou [Pierrot Goes Wild] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
☐ Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965)
☐ Subarnarekha [The Golden River/The Golden Thread] (Ritwik Ghatak, 1965)
☐ De Man Die Zijn Haar Kort Liet Knippen [The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short] (André Delvaux, 1965)
☐ Hold Me While I'm Naked (George Kuchar, 1966)
☐ Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
☑ The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
☐ Sedmikrásky [Daisies] (Vera Chytilová, 1966)
☐ 大醉俠 [Come Drink With Me] (King Hu, 1966)
☐ Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
☑ Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
☑ Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
☐ Masculin Féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
☐ Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
☑ In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967)
☐ Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
☑ The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
☐ Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
☐ Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)
☐ Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967)
☑ Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
☐ Les Demoiselles de Rochefort [The Young Girls of Rochefort] (Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda, 1967)
☐ Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
☑ Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
☐ Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967)
☐ Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)
☐ Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
☑ Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
☐ Csillagosok, Katonák [The Red and the White] (Miklós Jancsó, 1967)
☐ Marketa Lazarova (Frantisek Vlácil, 1967)
☑ The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967)
☐ The Fireman's Ball (Milos Forman, 1967)
☐ Terra em Transe [Earth Entranced] (Glauber Rocha, 1967)
☐ Ostře Sledované Vlaky [Closely Watched Trains] (Jiri Menzel, 1967)
☐ Vij [Spirit of Evil] (Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, 1967)
☐ The Cow/Poor Cow (Ken Loach, 1968)
☐ Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
☑ Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)
☐ Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)
☑ Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
☐ If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
☐ Memorias del Subdesarrollo [Memories of Underdevelopment] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
☑ The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1968)
☐ David Holzman's Diary (Jim McBride, 1968)
☐ Shame (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
☑ 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
☐ Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
☐ Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)
☑ Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
☑ My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, 1969)
☐ Lucia (Humberto Solás, 1969)
☐ A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1969)
☑ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
☑ Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
☐ Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1969)
☐ Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)
☐ The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969)
☑ Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
☐ High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1969)
☐ In the Year of the Pig (Emile de Antonio, 1969)
☑ The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
☐ Andrei Rublev (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1969)
☐ Le Boucher [The Butcher] (Claude Chabrol, 1969)
☐ The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
☐ Kes (Ken Loach, 1969)
☐ Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
☐ Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
☐ El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
☐ Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
☐ Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)
☐ Strategia del Ragno [The Spider's Stratagem] (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
☐ Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970)
☐ Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyna, 1970)
☐ Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970)
☐ M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)
☐ Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
☐ Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles and David Maysles, 1970)
☐ Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970)
☐ The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)
☐ The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1970)
☐ Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1971)
☐ W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971)
☑ A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
☐ The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophüls, 1971)
☑ Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971)
☐ McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
☐ Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
☑ Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)
☐ Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
☐ Még Kér a Nép [Red Psalm] (Miklos Jancso, 1971)
☐ Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
☑ The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
☐ Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971)
☑ Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)
☑ Le Souffle au Cœur [Murmur of the Heart] (Louis Malle, 1971)
☐ Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)
☑ The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
☐ Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
☐ Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
☑ The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)
☐ Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
☑ Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
☑ Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)
☐ High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1972)
☐ Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972)
☑ Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
☑ Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
☑ The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
☑ Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
☐ Fat City (John Huston, 1972)
☑ Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie [The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie] (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
☐ Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant [The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
☐ Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972)
☑ Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972)
☐ Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)
☑ The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)
☐ La Maman et la Putain [The Mother and the Whore] (Jean Eustache, 1973)
☐ Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
☑ American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
☐ Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973)
☑ Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973)
☑ Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
☐ The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
☑ The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
☑ La Nuit Américaine [Day for Night] (François Truffaut, 1973)
☑ Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
☑ Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973)
☐ Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973)
☑ The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
☐ Turks Fruit [Turkish Delight] (Paul Verhoeven, 1973)
☐ El Espíritu de la Colmena [The Spirit of the Beehive] (Víctor Erice, 1973)
☐ La Planète Sauvage [Fantastic Planet] (René Laloux, 1973)
☐ Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)
☐ The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1973)
☐ Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
☐ Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1974)
☑ The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
☑ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
☐ Zerkalo [The Mirror] (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
☐ A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
☐ Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
☑ Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
☐ Céline et Julie Vont en Bateau [Celine and Julie Go Boating] (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
☑ Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)
☑ The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
☐ Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
☐ Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
☑ Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
☑ One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
☐ Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
☑ The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)
☐ Deewaar [The Wall] (Yash Chopra, 1975)
☑ Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975)
☐ Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
☐ Faustrecht der Freiheit [Fox and His Friends] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
☐ India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
☑ Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
☑ Manila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag [Manila in the Claws of Brightness] (Lino Brocka, 1975)
☑ Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
☑ Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
☐ Cria! (Carlos Saura, 1975)
☐ O Thiassos [The Travelling Players] (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1975)
☑ Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
☐ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
☑ Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
☐ The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
☑ All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
☑ Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976)
☑ Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
☑ Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
☐ Voskhozhdeniye [The Ascent] (Larisa Shepitko, 1976)
☑ In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Ôshima, 1976)
☐ 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
☐ The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
☑ Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
☑ Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
☐ The Last Wave (Peter Weir, 1977)
☑ Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
☐ Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977)
☐ Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
☐ Człowiek z Marmuru [Man of Marble] (Andrzej Wajda, 1977)
☑ Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)
☐ Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)
☐ Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
☐ Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene, 1977)
☐ Der Amerikanische Freund [The American Friend] (Wim Wenders, 1977)
☐ The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977)
☐ Soldaat van Oranje [Soldier of Orange] (Paul Verhoeven, 1977)
☑ Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
☐ The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Fred Schepisi, 1978)
☐ 五毒 [Five Deadly Venoms] (Cheh Chang, 1978)
☐ L'Albero Degli Zoccoli [The Tree of Wooden Clogs] (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
☑ The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
☑ Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978)
☑ Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
☑ Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
☐ Shaolin Master Killer/The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu, 1978)
☐ Up in Smoke (Lou Adler, 1978)
☑ Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
☐ The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)
☐ Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979)
☐ My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)
☐ Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
☑ Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
☐ Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)
☐ Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum] (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
☑ All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
☐ Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)
☑ Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979)
☑ Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
☑ Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
☑ The Jerk (Carl Reiner, 1979)
☐ The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979)
☑ Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
☑ Mad Max (George Miller, 1979)
☑ Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night (Werner Herzog, 1979)
☑ Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980)
☐ Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980)
☐ The Last Metro (François Truffaut, 1980)
☑ The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
☑ Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
☐ The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)
☐ The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)
☐ Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980)
☑ Airplane! (Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, 1980)
☑ Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
☑ Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
☐ Das Boot [The Boat] (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)
☐ Gallipoli (Peter Weir, 1981)
☑ Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981)
☑ Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981)
☑ Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)
☑ An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
☐ Tre Fratelli [Three Brothers] (Francesco Rosi, 1981)
☐ Człowiek z Zelaza [Man of Iron] (Andrzej Wajda, 1981)
☐ Trop Tôt, Trop Tard [Too Early, Too Late] (Daniele Huillet and Jean Marie Straub, 1981)
☑ Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Cameron Crowe, 1981)
☑ E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
☑ The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
☑ Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)
☑ Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
☑ The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1982)
☑ Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982)
☐ Yol [The Way] (Serif Gören, 1982)
☐ Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982)
☐ Fitzcaraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
☑ Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982)
☐ La Notte di San Lorenzo [The Night of the Shooting Stars] (Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, 1982)
☐ De Stilte Rond Christine M. [A Question of Silence] (Marleen Gorris, 1982)
☐ Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
☑ A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
☐ El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983)
☑ Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
☑ Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)
☑ The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983)
☐ Sans Soleil [Sunless] (Chris Marker, 1983)
☐ Le Dernier Combat [The Last Battle] (Luc Besson, 1983)
☐ L'Argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
☐ Utu (Geoff Murphy, 1983)
☑ Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983)
☐ De Vierde Man [The Fourth Man] (Paul Verhoeven, 1983)
☑ The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983)
☑ The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)
☐ Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983)
☑ Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1983)
☑ Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
☐ The Ballad of Narayama (Shôhei Imamura, 1983)
☑ Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
☑ The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
☑ Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
☑ A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984)
☐ This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
☑ Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984)
☑ Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
☑ A Passage to India (David Lean, 1984)
☐ Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
☑ The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé, 1984)
☑ The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984)
☑ The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985)
☑ Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
☐ Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
☐ La Historia Oficial [The Official Story] (Luis Puenzo, 1985)
☑ Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985)
☑ The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
☑ Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
☐ 童年往事 [The Time to Live and the Time to Die] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1985)
☑ Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
☑ Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hector Babenco, 1985)
☐ The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985)
☐ Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)
☐ Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985)
☐ Sans Toit ni Loi [Vagabond] (Agnès Varda, 1985)
☐ Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
☑ The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg, 1985)
☑ Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)
☑ Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, 1986)
☑ Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
☑ Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
☐ She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee, 1986)
☐ Le Déclin de L'Empire Américain [The Decline of the American Empire] (Denys Arcand, 1986)
☑ The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
☑ Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)
☑ Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
☐ Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, 1986)
☑ A Room with a View (James Ivory, 1986)
☑ Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines, 1986)
☑ Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
☐ Caravaggio (Derek Jarman, 1986)
☐ Tampopo (Jûzô Itami, 1986)
☐ 刀馬旦 [Peking Opera Blues] (Hark Tsui, 1986)
☑ Salvador (Oliver Stone, 1986)
☑ Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986)
☐ Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1986)
☐ 盗马贼 [The Horse Thief] (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1986)
☐ Yeelen [Brightness] (Souleymane Cissé, 1987)
☐ Der Himmel über Berlin [Wings of Desire] (Wim Wenders, 1987)
☐ Project A, Part II (Jackie Chan, 1987)
☑ Babettes Gæstebud [Babette's Feast] (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
☑ Raising Arizona (Joel Coen, 1987)
☑ Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)
☑ Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)
☑ Good Morning, Vietnam (Barry Levinson, 1987)
☑ Au Revoir Les Enfants [Goodbye, Children] (Louis Malle, 1987)
☑ Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)
☐ Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, 1987)
☑ The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
☑ Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987)
☑ The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987)
☐ 红高粱 [Red Sorghum] (Yimou Zhang, 1987)
☑ The Dead (John Huston, 1987)
☑ Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987)
☐ 倩女幽魂 [A Chinese Ghost Story] (Siu-Tung Ching, 1987)
☑ Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios [Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)
☑ Spoorloos [The Vanishing] (George Sluizer, 1988)
☑ Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
☐ Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki, 1988)
☐ The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988)
☑ Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
☑ Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
☐ Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (Marcel Ophüls, 1988)
☑ A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton, 1988)
☑ The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker, 1988)
☑ Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
☑ Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988)
☑ Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)
☐ Topio Stin Omichli [Landscape in the Mist] (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1988)
☑ Dekalog [The Decalogue] (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
☑ Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)
☐ Une Histoire de Vent [A Tale of the Wind] (Joris Ivens, 1988)
☑ Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis, 1988)
☑ Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988)
☐ Une Affaire de Femmes [The Story of Women] (Claude Chabrol, 1988)
☑ The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan, 1988)
☑ Alice (Woody Allen, 1988)
☑ Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)
☑ When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989)
☑ Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
☐ The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
☑ Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)
☑ My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989)
☑ 喋血雙雄 [The Killer] (John Woo, 1989)
☑ Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
☑ Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989)
☑ Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989)
☐ Astenicheskiy Sindrom [The Asthenic Syndrome] (Kira Muratova, 1989)
☑ sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh, 1989)
☑ Say Anything (Cameron Crowe, 1989)
☐ The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley, 1989)
☐ 悲情城市 [A City of Sadness] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1989)
☐ S'en Fout la Mort [No Fear, No Die] (Claire Denis, 1990)
☑ Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)
☑ Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
☐ Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990)
☐ King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)
☑ Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)
☑ Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990)
☑ Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990)
☐ Archangel (Guy Maddin, 1990)
☐ Trust (Hal Hartley, 1990)
☐ Nema-ye Nazdik [Close-Up] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
☑ Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)
☐ Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1990)
☑ Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
☑ 黃飛鴻 [Once Upon a Time in China] (Hark Tsui, 1991)
☑ Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
☑ 大红灯笼高高挂 [Raise the Red Lantern] (Yimou Zhang, 1991)
☐ Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
☐ 牯嶺街少年殺人事件 [A Brighter Summer Day] (Edward Yang, 1991)
☐ Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991)
☐ La Belle Noiseuse [The Beautiful Troublemaker] (Jacques Rivette, 1991)
☑ The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)
☑ My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
☑ Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
☑ Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
☑ The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
☑ JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
☑ Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1991)
☐ Tongues Untied (Marlon T. Riggs, 1991)
☑ Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, 1991)
☑ The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)
☑ Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992)
☑ The Player (Robert Altman, 1992)
☑ Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
☐ Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992)
☑ Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
☑ Unforgiven (Cint Eastwood, 1992)
☑ Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)
☑ Candy Man (Bernard Rose, 1992)
☐ A Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, 1992)
☑ Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 1992)
☑ The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
☐ C'est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous [Man Bites Dog] (Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel, 1992)
☐ The Actress (Stanley Kwan, 1992)
☑ 霸王別姬 [Farewell My Concubine] (Chen Kaige, 1993)
☑ Thirty-Two Films about Glenn Gould (François Girard, 1993)
☑ Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
☑ Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)
☑ Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993)
☑ Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
☑ The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993)
☐ 戲夢人生 [The Puppetmaster] (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 1993)
☑ Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
☑ Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
☑ The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
☐ 蓝风筝 [The Blue Kite] ( Zhuangzhuang Tian, 1993)
☑ 喜宴 [The Wedding Banquet] (Ang Lee, 1993)
☑ Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
☐ Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994)
☑ Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
☑ Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)
☑ Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994)
☑ The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994)
☐ Satantango [Satan's Tango] (Béla Tarr, 1994)
☑ Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994)
☑ The Last Seduction (John Dahl, 1994)
☑ Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
☑ The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
☑ Les Roseaux Sauvages [Wild Reeds] (André Téchiné, 1994)
☑ 重庆森林 [Chungking Express] (Wong Kar Wai, 1994)
☑ Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994)
☑ Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)
☐ Zire Darakhatan Zeyton [Through the Olive Trees] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994)
☐ Riget [The Kingdom] (Lars Von Trier, 1994)
☐ Caro Diario [Dear Diary] (Nanni Moretti, 1994)
☑ Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
☐ Deseret (James Benning, 1995)
☑ Babe (Chris Noonan, 1995)
☑ Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
☑ Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
☑ Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995)
☑ Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
☑ Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)
☑ Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
☐ Zero Kelvin (Hans Petter Moland, 1995)
☑ Seven (David Fincher, 1995)
☑ Smoke (Wayne Wang, 1995)
☑ Badkonake Sefid [The White Balloon] (Jafar Panahi, 1995)
☐ Cyclo (Anh Hung Tran, 1995)
☐ Podzemlje [Underground] (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
☐ Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride] (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
☐ Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
☑ The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
☑ The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway, 1996)
☐ Trois Vies et Une Seule Mort [Three Lives and Only One Death] (Raoul Ruiz, 1996)
☑ Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
☑ Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996)
☑ Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)
☐ Breaking the Waves (Lars Von Trier, 1996)
☑ The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)
☐ Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996)
☐ Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996)
☑ Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)
☑ Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
☑ Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997)
☑ L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
☑ Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai, 1997)
☑ Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
☐ Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
☐ The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan, 1997)
☑ The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)
☑ Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
☑ Kundun (Martin Scorsese, 1997)
☑ The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
☐ Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
☐ Ta'm-e Gīlās [Taste of Cherry] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
☑ Abre Los Ojos [Open Your Eyes] (Alejandro Amenábar, 1997)
☐ Mat i Syn [Mother and Son] (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1997)
☑ Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)
☐ Tetsuo [The Iron Man] (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1998)
☐ Festen [The Celebration] (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)
☑ Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)
☐ Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo, 1998)
☑ Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998)
☐ Lola Rennt [Run Lola Run] (Tom Tykwer, 1998)
☑ Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
☑ Pi (Darren Aronofsky, 1998)
☑ Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998)
☑ The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
☐ Idioterne [The Idiots] (Lars Von Trier, 1998)
☐ Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, 1998)
☑ Ringu [Ring] (Hideo Nakata, 1998)
☑ There's Something About Mary (Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly, 1998)
☑ Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
☐ Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
☑ The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999)
☐ Gohatto [Taboo] (Nagisa Ôshima, 1999)
☐ Rosetta (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 1999)
☑ Todo Sobre Mi Madre [All About My Mother] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
☑ Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999)
☐ Bād Mā Rā Khāhad Bord [The Wind Will Carry Us] (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)
☑ Ōdishon [Audition] (Takashi Miike, 1999)
☐ Le Temps Retrouvé [Time Regained] (Raoul Ruiz, 1999)
☑ Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
☑ Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
☑ American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
☐ Juyuso Seubgyuksageun [Attack the Gas Station!] (Sang-Jin Kim, 1999)
☑ Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
☑ The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999)
☑ The Matrix (Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 1999)
☐ Nueve Reinas [Nine Queens] (Fabián Bielinsky, 2000)
☐ La Captive [The Captive] (Chantal Akerman, 2000)
☑ In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)
☐ Ali Zaoua, Prince de la Rue [Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets] (Nabil Ayouch, 2000)
☑ Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)
☐ Kippur (Amos Gitai, 2000)
☐ Yi Yi [A One and a Two] (Edward Yang, 2000)
☑ Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
☑ Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)
☑ Meet the Parents (Jay Roach, 2000)
☐ Signs & Wonders (Jonathan Nossiter, 2000)
☑ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
☑ Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
☐ The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000)
☐ Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
☐ Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
☑ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, 2000)
☑ Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
☐ Ni Neibian Jidian [What Time Is It There?] (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001)
☑ Y Tu Mamá También [And Your Mother, Too] (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)
☐ Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001)
☑ Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
☑ La Pianiste [The Piano Teacher] (Michael Haneke, 2001)
☐ La Stanza del Figlio [The Son's Room] (Nanni Moretti, 2001)
☑ Ničija Zemlja [No Man's Land] (Danis Tanovic, 2001)
☑ Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
☑ Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2001)
☑ Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
☑ Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
☑ The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
☑ The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
☑ A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
☑ Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002)
☑ The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)
☑ Hable Con Ella [Talk to Her] (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002)
☑ Cidade de Deus [City of God] (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)
☑ Russkij Kovcheg [Russian Ark] (Alexandr Sokurov, 2002)
☑ Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)
☑ Les Invasions Barbares [The Barbarian Invasions] (Denys Arcand, 2003)
☑ Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
1:01 AM |
A Renaissance
The classics in literature seem to suffer something from their greatness: the sheer intimidation of their reputations most often propels us to keep them as graceful tokens in our bookshelves, often unread. (Every day I stare at my copies of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Vladimor Nabokov’s Lolita, to take two examples, and I repeat my mantra: “Someday, someday…”) I think it takes a certain kind of innocence to tackle the classics — which is probably why the great period of my own voracious reading of them (Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and even the more contemporary ones like John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway) was in my grade school years. Later on, we found that just because we were told they were “important” was enough reason to stay away.
Remember when I was most fanboy-ish when I saw Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese’s HBO documentary about the wit and writer from New York, Fran Lebowitz? I was positively giddy, and I wrote something like: “By the end of this film, I’ve come to this foolish hope: that one day I’d be a companion around her dinner table, and just listen to her talk and talk and talk.” I still have not changed that opinion: it would certainly be such a different kind of theater to watch Ms. Lebowitz talk and talk and give opinion on God-knows-everything-including-the-brand-of-the-kitchen-sink — but when it came to reading the two seminal works of essays that have made her reputation as a funny woman who also happens to be an intellectual (these are Metropolitan Life from 1978 and Social Studies from 1981, combined to one volume called The Fran Lebowitz Reader), I found myself … bored. This was it? These are supposed to be funny essays? They try to be, and they stink of such striving for an Oscar Wilde kind of epigram-making. I like the Introduction where Ms. Lebowitz tries to detail, hour by hour, the non-events that litter her day, but I was soon exasperated by her tendencies for lists, for tables, for the tiresome glee of having pronounced herself anti-nature, anti-work, anti-whatever. I usually find stuff like these rib-tickling (God knows I treasure Woody Allen’s Without Feathers and Getting Even — two very funny books which Lebowitz’s own unconsciously seem to want to equal, but fails), but somehow not these ones. What a tiresome bore this volume was.
I was waiting for this book forever. I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon it. Probably some breathless mention in some blog, or some online article about literatures dissecting desire. But Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name hooked me sight unseen, and samples of its first few pages only whetted my appetite. But I would like to think I am blessed with good friends — even people I have not even met — and one of them is the Filipino-American writer Veronica Montes, who read my tweets about my wanting, like a huge chasm of hunger, to have this book. “I have this book,” she tweeted back. “I’ll send it to you as soon as I find it.” Was that four or five months ago? I don’t exactly remember now — but I knew it was coming. And when it did, about four days ago, I pounced on Aciman’s love story and finished it within the next six hours, from midnight till the bright hours of dawn. And all I can say is: How can someone know me so much, enough to tell my own story? What strange alchemy did Aciman master to give a thorough mapping out of desire and love and time and the games we play in the name of carnal attraction so profound it borders on the spiritual? For his story, about a 17-year-old boy named Elio who falls for the 23-year-old scholar on a six-week summer fellowship in his father’s Italian Riviera home, is muscular, lovely, sexy, and lyrical about its explorations of its themes without once resorting to cheap sentimentalism. This book is a love letter to love, and I am a better man — so much understanding now of my own self — for having read it.