Saturday, February 20, 2010

my top ten best pictures so far...



1968, STANLEY KUBRICK

in a dawn of men, a primate smashes its own species with a bone as a weapon, throws it into the vast blue sky , drops down, and suddenly becoming a modern spaceship floating in dark starry space in the next scene. This magnificent science fiction (or i'd rather say, science speculation is a more proper term) masterpiece lets the audience to be drown into Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz transcendental tune, along with the whimsical Ligeti's Requiem and Atmospheres as well as Richard Strauss' Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Following the music, this space opera will encapsulate the audience and transport them into the four acts segments of human evolution's stages, from the dawn of men, mission to the moon, the jupiter mission, and most importantly, the psychedelic trip to the jupiter and beyond; along with the appearance of the long-debated controversial black monolith throughout the film. This movie definitely will draw various perceptions from each viewers. It may be just simply a space travel experience, or it may be a complex extra-terrestrial God intervention conspiracy, or even can be a horrific speculation of technology takes over human life. However, as what has been stated in the last line of Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man (1956), "To God, There is no Zero"

2. Seven Samurai (1954), Akira Kurosawa

3. Persona (1966), Ingmar Bergman

4. Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) , Francois Truffaut

5. Ladri di Bicyclette (1948), Vittorio de Sica

6. Trainspotting (1996), Danny Boyle

7. Star Wars : Empire Strikes Back (1982), Irvine Keshner

8. Schindler's List (1993), Steven Spielberg

9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Rober Wiene

10. Les Enfants du Paradise (1945), Michael Carne

not in the list , but still in the list :

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. The Seventh Seal
3. Vivre Sa Vie
4. Metropolis
5. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings
6. Monthy Phyton : Holy Grail
7. Vivre Sa Vie
8. Paths of Glory
9. Roma Citta Aperta
10. The General

sorry, cameron, no place for your blue pandora creatures on my list.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cahier du Cinema on Ingmar

“The cinema is not a craft. It is an art. It does not mean team-work. One is always alone; on the set as before the blank page. And for Bergman, to be alone means to ask questions. And to make films means to answer them. Nothing could be more classically romantic.”

— Jean-Luc Godard, “Bergmanorama,”
Cahiers du cinéma (July 1958)

Sunday, January 31, 2010

QUEEN IS DEAD



oh has the world changed, or have i changed?