The Godfather Trilogy
Adapting Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel, Francis Ford Coppola drew up several themes lying dormant within its pages and augmented them in a uniquely cinematic fashion to create a masterful saga.
Tag Archives: production design
395. The Conversation
It is said a film is made three times; writing, filming and editing. In which case, editor Walter Murch deserves enormous credit for this masterpiece.
376. The Passion of Joan of Arc
In Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent masterpiece, the story isn’t so much told through the Saint’s eyes as it is read on her face.
367. Kind Hearts and Coronets
How do you make a film about a sociopath who murders his entire extended family and still get the audience to root for him?
362. Last Tango in Paris
There are several good reasons to watch Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial drama. Not all of them make for palatable viewing.
339. No Country for Old Men
While Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed novel broke genre convention, the Coens’ adaptation is a study in audiovisual chaos.
288. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
With his Palme d’Or winning masterpiece, Jacques Demy wove more than a musical. He delivered a socially relevant story worthy of tragic opera.
246. Dreams
If the dream sequence is a crutch for many dull thrillers, horrors and mysteries, what makes a good one? One that challenges and stretches cinematic language.
245. Touch of Evil
Orson Welles is often referred to as a glistening talent who wasted his early promise. Touch of Evil, the last film he made in America, proves otherwise.
229. The Conformist
Few films are as layered as The Conformist. But whether you see it as an exercise in style, character study, or philosophical thesis, it’s a flat out masterpiece.
228. The Magnificent Ambersons
Orson Welles is celebrated for Citizen Kane but it was this adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s novel that defined his career.
221. Children of Men
Science-fiction sometimes predicts the future. Released a decade ago, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men grows more prophetic as the years go by.
214. Revolutionary Road
Like the novel, Revolutionary Road so probed its subject audiences stayed away. Their loss. It is Sam Mendes’ best film.
199. Se7en
Mention Se7en and chances are talk will lead to the head in the box. But while that makes the ending so unforgettable, it’s also the film’s biggest problem.
194. All The President’s Men
This Oscar winning adaptation of Woodward and Bernstein’s book is one of the great masterpieces of American cinema.
187. The Revenant
Originally pitched as a simple story of revenge, under Alejandro Inarritu’s direction The Revenant became a journey of spiritual release.
182. Gaslight
Made in 1944, Gaslight is an Oscar-winning melodrama concerning madness and murder. The film itself is guilty of attempted homicide.
181. In the Mood for Love
Mixing social history, European art film and a British melodrama, Wong Kar-wai delivered a masterpiece of aching beauty.
177. The King’s Speech
This film has two men talking. However, its strength lies in the way it uses sound to tell us one thing while showing us another.
168. Rear Window
He was called The Master of Suspense (a title he coined himself), but for all the thrills did Alfred Hitchcock not make rom-coms wrapped inside mysteries?
166. The Killing Fields
When it comes to America’s military intervention in South East Asia, David Puttnam’s Oscar winner is the anomaly. Less a war picture, it’s more a love story.
156. The Apartment
With six Oscars, five WGAs, a DGA and the Palme d’Or, Billy Wilder’s career was so blazing you’d be forgiven for saying, “Well, somebody’s perfect.”
154. The Verdict
Sidney Lumet hadn’t read Barry Reed’s novel when he brought it to the screen. Instead, he let David Mamet’s masterful screenplay be his guide.
139. Repulsion
Repulsion was Roman Polanski’s first film he made after defecting from communist Poland. Its depiction of mental disintegration is also his first masterpiece.
