#615 The Gold Rush 1925 // USA // Charles Chaplin Criterion Collection (LINK) Watching Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush with hundreds of audience in the theater is one of my greatest cinematic experience ever. But what intrigues me the most is the fact that I could hardly remember which version of The Gold Rush I have watched… Continue reading #615 The Gold Rush (1925)
#887 Lost in America 1985 // USA // Albert Brooks Criterion Collection (LINK) Breaking the American Dream With the four Albert Brooks directed films I have watched, they’re either high concept film which I appreciate (Real Life and Defending Your Life) or simply decent one that I don’t care much about once it ends (Modern Romance),… Continue reading #887 Lost in America (1985)
#888 Stalker 1979 // Soviet Union // Andrei Tarkovsky Criterion Collection (LINK) Wandering in the Zone It’s weird to say I absolutely love Stalker (I would say it’s one of my top 10 favorite films of all time) even it’s utterly beyond my logical comprehension. I have watched Stalker three times, each time my confusion grows and thickens… Continue reading #888 Stalker (1979)
Robert Bresson, The Sublime Minimalist Part 13 #886 L’argent 1983 // France // Robert Bresson Criterion Collection (LINK) Exchange of Sin and Absence of Redemption If I have to pick the most idiosyncratic director of all time, I would definitely vote for Monsieur Bresson, who single handedly revolutionized the philosophy of cinema and championed the art… Continue reading #886 L’argent (1983)
Robert Bresson, The Sublime Minimalist Part 5 #314 Pickpocket 1959 // France // Robert Bresson Criterion Collection (LINK) Bresson’s Sleight of Hand Bresson’s fifth feature Pickpocket opens with a statement asserting the nature of the film and proclaiming a non-thriller itself, probably too self-concern for a master to insert such a preface, but indeed for anyone expecting a… Continue reading #314 Pickpocket (1959)
#499 Germany, Year Zero 1948 // Italy // Roberto Rossellini Criterion Collection (LINK) Roberto Rossellini’s venture into the realm of realism on his war-torn homeland in Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946) had portrayed the German, aka the Nazi, as a pure corruption with hubristic personality and introverted sexuality, or otherwise a nameless, faceless abstraction… Continue reading #499 Germany, Year Zero (1948)
#498 Paisan 1946 // Italy // Roberto Rossellini Criterion Collection (LINK) After gaining critical acclaim for his post war neorealism entry Rome, Open City (1945), Roberto Rossellini, together with his collaborators Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini and others, expanded their trait of approaching “reality” from one city to the whole country. Following the same spatial direction and chronological order of liberation… Continue reading #498 Paisan (1946)
#497 Rome, Open City 1945 // Italy // Roberto Rossellini Criterion Collection (LINK) People expecting an utter “realism” in Rome, Open City as allured by the attached label of the groundbreaking neorealism may find themselves be disappointed by the artificiality of melodrama and the ordinariness of the style. The paradox is they are having a different kind… Continue reading #497 Rome, Open City (1945)
Robert Bresson, The Sublime Minimalist Part 3 #222 Diary of a Country Priest 1951 // France // Robert Bresson Criterion Collection (LINK) All is Grace Diary of a Country Priest is the landmark film that signifies a turning point in Bresson’s aesthetic while itself being Bresson’s first true great work. All the melodramatic flair… Continue reading #222 Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
Robert Bresson, The Sublime Minimalist Part 9 A Gentle Woman 1969 // France // Robert Bresson Amidst Robert Bresson’s oeuvre, A Gentle Woman is the last film I watched, and I can’t deny that it could be part of the reason why I’m unimpressed by the film itself, since I had seen better of his. Adapted… Continue reading A Gentle Woman (1969)
The Films in My Life (OnCriterion) 