Films I Love: An Introduction

I am, for the first time, introducing a new ongoing series here at Only the Cinema. FILMS I LOVE will provide some contrast from my usual posting format, where I generally aim to strike a balance between journalistic reviewing and analytical criticism for each film I watch. This format is well-suited to the way I like to write about films in general, and — especially when I'm lucky enough to spark some spirited conversation in the comments section — it also satisfies my urge to elucidate and develop my thoughts about a film right after I've seen it. But the bulk of my writing here has fallen short, as I see it, in at least one key way: namely that I have been focused almost exclusively on the day-to-day immediacy of reviewing films, both new and old, that I have not seen before. There have been exceptions whenever I feel the need to revisit a film I know well, but these are relatively few. The fact remains that this site contains very little writing about or acknowledgment of the films I love the best, the films that I consider my favorites and that I saw (often many times) before starting this blog around a year ago.

FILMS I LOVE should correct this deficiency. This series will take a very different approach from my usual reviews, partly because I wish to distinguish these posts from the daily viewing diary I've been maintaining here, and partly because the last thing I want to do is turn this blog into a chore by piling even more writing requirements on myself. With that in mind, these posts will be much less verbose than my usual reviews (do I hear sighs of relief already?) and will instead provide a sampling of images from the films with a paragraph or two of introduction and commentary. Hopefully these posts will inspire further discussion about the selections, as well as providing my readers with some additional insight into the cinematic touchstones that make me tick. Hopefully, my choices will be idiosyncratic and revelatory — I don't want to produce a definitive list of "classics" so much as a personal chronicle of "favorites." I'll aim to post one of these pieces every week, though that timeline may be altered once the series is actually underway.

In conceiving of this series, I have been influenced by three more or less similar projects by other critics, and I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge these here. The first is the ongoing weekly feature Images from the Greatest Films of the Decade, maintained at Jeremy Richey's Moon in the Gutter. Jeremy's excellent blog has a lot of passionate writing about films he loves, but this simple and effective series highlights just ten stills from each film with no written accompaniment. It's often remarkable how much of the film's mood and style is communicated in his judicious selection of still frames. I'll be the first to admit that my own project is as much stealing his idea as being influenced by it, so I hope he takes this in the spirit of homage in which it's intended.

The second of my major influences here should require no introduction, and that is Roger Ebert's Great Movies project. I've always been drawn to this kind of writing that attempts to establish a personal and open-minded perspective on canonical works, and Ebert's accessible prose revisits familiar milestones and illuminates lesser-known but important works with equal panache. Ebert's ongoing effort to build a directory — both online and collected in books — of the movies he subjectively considers "great," is an admirable and very prominent exercise in canon-building.

Which brings me to the third major influence upon this series, Jonathan Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons. Rosenbaum's book, in addition to containing selections from his typically sharp criticism, makes a powerful case for the importance of canon-building to both personal film appreciation and the larger thrust of art in general. I lack the breadth or depth of Rosenbaum's movie knowledge in order to form my own version of his personal canon, organized by year — though I once flirted with the idea of trying anyway, in a here-and-then-gone post at this blog. My own canon will be more modest, not a monolithic listing but a one-by-one assembly that will, eventually, nevertheless serve the same purpose for me (and hopefully my readers) as Rosenbaum's does for him. That is to say, FILMS I LOVE will form a continually shifting account of the films that have shaped my cinematic consciousness, that I consider the highest achievements of the medium, and that point the way towards unexpected possibilities in cinema.

The Films:
1. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
2. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
3. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958)
4. Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1926)
5. The Aviator's Wife (Eric Rohmer, 1981)
6. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, 1974)
7. Sink Or Swim (Su Friedrich, 1990)
8. Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)
9. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
10. Three Crowns of a Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, 1983)
11. I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi, 1962)
12. Equinox Flower (Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)
13. Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold, 1998)
14. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
15. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
16. Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
17. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
18. Baby Doll (Elia Kazan, 1956)
19. First Name: Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard, 1983)
20. In a Year With 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)
21. Play Time (Jacques Tati, 1967)
22. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
23. Balance Beams (Jonas Leddington, 2002)
24. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
25. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
26. Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, 1981)
27. Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
28. Come To Daddy (Chris Cunningham, 1997)
29. Vendredi soir (Claire Denis, 2001)
30. Asyl (Kurt Kren, 1975)
31. Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
32. A Walk Through H (Peter Greenaway, 1978)
33. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
34. The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman, 1985)
35. Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)
36. Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
37. Little Murders (Alan Arkin, 1971)
38. Sex and Lucia (Julio Medem, 2001)
39. Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
40. 9 Variations on a Dance Theme (Hilary Harris, 1966)
41. Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
42. The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 1949)
43. La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991)
44. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
45. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
46. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
47. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
48. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)
49. Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
50. Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage, 1959)
51. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)
52. After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
53. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
54. Mr. Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976)
55. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)