Most people like to go to the movies, and I am no exception. The
perfect movie for me has a clear story line much like a play, no
internal inconsistencies, and is visually stunning. You can find
details for all the movies and lots of comments in the Internet Movie
Database. These are some of my favourite movies, ordered
chronologically:
| Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
by F.W. Murnau (1922) |
| The story is a blatant rip-off of the
original Dracula story from Bram Stoker (Murnau didn't want to pay for
the rights I think). The film is the most unsettling horror movie
ever made. Maybe it's just the flickering black-and-white lighting,
but everything in this movie looks sick and threatening. Max Schreck
as Count Orlok, the Nosferatu, gives you the creeps. |
| Casablanca
by Michael Curtiz (1942) |
| Casablanca has love, loss, greatness
and character - without being sentimental. Especially all the little
roles are lovable. Everyone is a little illegal and a little corrupt
because, you know, you have to survive and the world is a though
place. Yet everyone secretly still hopes for love and freedom. Except
for the Nazis, naturally. So when they all start to sing the
Marseillaise, and even the lowly whore forgets her business and puts
her heart into it, you really have a tough time not to cry. |
| The seven Samurai
by Akira Kurosawa (1954) |
| The tale of how seven fighters are
hired to defend a small village from bandits, how they succeed and die
during the defense. This movies perfect composition was copied many
times later on, in western and fantasy films. |
| The good, the bad, and the
ugly by Sergio Leone (1966) |
| In this classic italo western three
men are hunting for a stolen gold treasure from the civil
war. Featuring Clint Eastwood - as The Man With No Name (The Good),
Lee Van Cleef - as the smart bad guy Sentenza (The Bad) and Eli
Wallach - as the mexican bandit Tuco (The Ugly), this is not only one
of the best westerns ever made, it's one of the best movies ever
made. There's two kinds of people: the one's who have seen it, and the
ones who do not take of their spurs when climbing through a
window. |
| A Clockwork Orange
by Stanley Kubrick (1971) |
| In the words of the tagline: Being the
adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape,
ultra-violence and Beethoven. This movie is about the importance of
free will. The message is that being able to decide and choosing evil
is better than not being able to decide. It tells the story of Alex
and his droogs, who rape, mutilate and steal. Alex is caught,
brainwashed and treated with drugs so he suffers nausea every time he
tries this again. In the end he is restored to his old evil self. And
Kubrick manages to make you feel appaled after Alex is broken, and
rejoyce when he is restored. This movie has amazing visuals without
any special effects, and coins it's own language. The whole sountrack
centers around the ninth symphony of Beethoven. Interestingly in the
novel by Anthony Burgess on which it was based, there is an additional
chapter that shows how Alex' brothers-in-crime in the end marry some
girl and settle into a life just like their parents. Kubrick also made
"2001: A space odyssey", "Full Metal Jacket" and "The Shining", all of
which could easily be in this list. He probably was one of the best
directors that ever lived. |
| Life of Brian
by Terry Jones (1979) |
| No film list could be complete
without one of the Monthy Phyton movies. I choose Life of Brian, since
it is more of a movie then others like "Monty Phyton and the Holy
Grail", which are more like a series of sketches. This is shrewd
British humor at it's best. This is one of those films, where two
people who have seen it will go on and on reciting the gags and
puchlines to each other. A lot of the lines from Monty Phython movies
have really become part of our cultural tradition and live on as
citations. |
| Alien
by Ridley Scott (1979) |
| This movie alone spawned the genre of
sci-fi horror. It's set in a future with dirty, badly-lit freigther
spacecraft run by a trucker like crew. Just the opposite of Star
Trek. The freighter comes in contact with an alien race, one of the
crew gets infected. From his chest bursts an infant alien, escapes,
grows, stalks and kills the whole crew before Ripley ejects it into
deep space. The design of the alien by H. R. Giger is pure genius. You
never see it during most of the movie, which gives you a strong
atmosphere of being stalked by an unseen horror. The lighting is also
very dark. This is a thrilling and highly aesthetical movie. "Blade
Runner" and "Gladiator", which easily also could be on this list are
by Ridley Scott, too. |
| The Terminator
by James Cameron (1984) |
| Another dark sci-fy movie. It tells
the story of a nearly unstoppable robot, the Terminator, who is sent
from the future to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to the
child that will destroy the Terminator's creator. Though fraught with
the usual time-travel problems, the movie is otherwise superb. The
story is told in a lean and gripping way. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
Austrian-pronounced "I'll be back" became common culture though this
movie. Terminator is one of the few movies, where the sequel
("Terminator II") is just as good. |
| Brazil
by Terry Gilliam (1985) |
| George Orwell meets Monty Phython in
a doomed love story. This movie has a turnaround end, which makes you
re-evaluate part of the movie afterwards and makes viewing it the
first time weird. There are other good movies employing this stunt,
for example "Angel Heart" and "The usual suspects". |
| The Princess Bride
by Rob Reiner (1987) |
| This is a fairy tale about true love,
complete with miracle pills, fencing duels, evil kings, dread pirates,
the brute squad, six-fingered villains and (eerch!) kissing. It's
charming, funny and narrated by Peter Falk as the grandfather. You
probaly will mutter "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father,
prepare to die!" sometime afterwards. |
| Reservoir Dogs
by Quentin Tarantino (1992) |
| Tarantino tells the story of a bank
robbery that was set up. The surviving gangsters escaped to meet in a
deserted warehouse. They discuss that there must be a traitor and
start killing each other. In the end, they all die. This is the film
that came before "Pulp Ficion". It's much more gory and brutal, but
breathes the same narrative style. Nearly the whole film takes place
in the warehouse, so it is much like a theater piece. |
| Clerks
by Kevin Smith (1994) |
| A day in the life of a convenience
store clerk and his friend, a video store clerk. This little gem was
shot by Smith with next to no budget in b/w. It's telling the truth,
it's funny and it has a great soundtrack. Unfortunately, Smith's later
works do not hold up against this one-shot work of
brilliance. |
| Leon
by Luc Besson (1994) |
| This is the most perfect movie I
know. The story is about Leon a professional "cleaner": a killer that
is called by the mob when something went out of hand and people have to be
disposed of. Leon witnesses how the family of a small girl is
assasinated by corrupt cops. In a moment of weakness, he lets the girl
into his flat and life, saving her from certain death. The film shows
how he slowly starts to feel attached to the girl. He also starts
making mistakes. In the end, he avenges the girl but pays with his
life. The film is a psychogramm of how a a professional killer would
have to be. Of course it's got a hell of a lot of cool moves,
too. |
| The Matrix by Andy and
Larry Wachowski (1999) |
| This one caught me and my brother
unaware, since we saw it in the U.S. on vacation, so we had not seen
any trailers (as they had not started in Europe, and were not running
any more in America). We were totally blown away. It starts out as a
normal present-day story, then the known reality breaks down and
you're on a wild ride through a dark future virtual-reality cyber
science-fiction movie. Some of the fight scenes were so cool, people
in the theater spontanoulsy applauded afterwards. There are some
logic-mistakes in this movie. Still the visuals are awesome, and the
characters are ubercool. |
The following films you probably should not put in a list of the
best films ever made, but they are entertaining and charming
nonetheless. You should give them a shot when you catch them on
TV.
Homepage:sparetime:movies
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