187. The Revenant
Originally pitched as a simple story of revenge, under Alejandro Inarritu’s direction The Revenant became a journey of spiritual release.
Tag Archives: cinematography
183. Room
In adapting Emma Donoghue’s award-winning novel, Lenny Abrahamson extends a cinematic tradition established by French master, Robert Bresson.
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.
180. The Elephant Man
To call David Lynch a surrealist is to misses the point. This masterpiece proved he is one of cinema’s great humanists.
179. Traffic
Steven Soderbergh’s drama is fifteen years old but came of age the instant it was released because it dared to reimagine the war on drugs.
178. Brief Encounter
Once dismissed as parochial and passé, the influence of David Lean’s classic can be seen in such unlikely places as The Third Man, The Godfather and Carol.
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.
174. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
How well did Philip Kaufman succeed in adapting Milan Kundera’s ‘unfilmable’ philosophical love story?
173. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
How do you make a film about a character who can neither move nor speak, but can only blink his left eye?
167. Sexy Beast
Jonathan Glazer’s film is one of the most assured debuts in cinema history. But the film has another entrance that also stands with the best of them.
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.
164. The Parallax View
Adapted from Loren Singer’s poorly reviewed best seller, Alan J. Pakula’s conspiracy thriller is a classic of assured pacing and paranoia.
159. The Concert Film
With content pretty much always the same, what elevates one concert movie above others is not just the quality of the music, it is also the film’s form.
157. Jaws
For all the fun stories and anecdotes about how the shark didn’t work, none of them help explain how Steven Spielberg managed to deliver a masterpiece.
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.
153. Memento
Christopher Nolan’s time-warping mind-bending classic left many audiences very confused. But the director left more than enough clues to make sense of it.
152. Mad Max: Fury Road
Most action films are fuelled by testosterone. But Fury Road has so much estrogen coursing in its engines, let’s call it Mad Maxine.
150. The Bridge on the River Kwai
With this Oscar winning classic, David Lean stopped being an ‘English filmmaker’ and became an ‘international star director’.
149. The Last Picture Show
How did New York’s Peter Bogdanovich make a masterpiece set in small town Texas when he had never set foot in the state?
143. The Adventures of Robin Hood
The legend has endured for 500 years and Hollywood has filmed it a dozen times. But Errol Flynn is still the only Robin Hood.
141. Once Upon a Time in the West
Sergio Leone’s masterpiece doesn’t only reference American westerns. He also drew inspiration from an English film.
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.
