600+ Films and Counting
Back in October I wrote this post about the couple of lockdown months I’d spent watching classic films.
Well, in the year since I subscribed to the Criterion Channel I’ve watched many, many more of them, so I think it’s time for an update.
As the title of this post suggests, the first year of my Criterion fun, between August 2021 and August 2021, took in just over 600 films. A lot? maybe, but remember we were mostly in lockdown, so it was a good diversion when I was unable to go out for dinner, drinks, and, crucially, to the cinema. So I bought a big telly and a good sound system and turned my living room into my Odeon/Arclight.
I’d say about 90% of the films were feature length, with 10% being shorts. I finished maybe 85% of the films, and gave up on the other 15% before they finished. Not sure of an average length, but as older films were closer to the 90-minute mark, and many were over three hours, I’d guess at around two hours.
I did see other films during this time – as a dad I am compelled to watch Disney and Marvel movies – and although I enjoyed many of them, and think they are good (in their own special way), I only included them if they were good good, by which I mean they had to have the kind of artistic merit that would allow them to seem at home on this list (examples include Pixar’s excellent Soul, and Mad Max: Fury Road).
I also found a few kindred spirits, some who were going through the same process as me and a few who had already been on a similar journey. It was fascinating to chat through some of these classics with those people, and discovering the depths of others’ movie fandom was always a real kick. I recently went through the production process of a commercial with directors whose references were movies like Playtime, and I was delighted to be able to understand them and discuss their nuances. It’s great to expand an artistic frame of reference, then use that expansion beyond just a nichey nerdiness.
If anyone wants to discuss the relative merits of Ozu vs Mizoguchi vs Kurosawa (and, at a push, Kobayashi, although he’s a little on the nose), hit me up. I will happily chat Rohmer/Malle/Chabrol/Demy/etc., or Fellini/De Sica/ Passolini/Antonioni/Visconti tilll the cows come home.
Here are some of the films you might not have considered watching because they’re kind of ‘deep cut’, but I loved them:
The Music Room (Satyajit Ray). Is about a rich Indian man who has spent all his money and is now on the verge of poverty. However, he decides to have one last blowout on a concert in the music room of his house. It made Indian music surprisingly (to me) compelling, and took me into a world I’d never even considered, let alone visited.
The Wages Of Fear (Henri Clouzot) is one of the most entertaining films you’ll ever see. It concerns a group of roughnecks who have to drive trucks of nitroglycerine across the bumpy terrain of an unspecified country in South America. Great characters combine with endless tension to make a Palme D’Or winner that never lets up.
Viridiana (Luis Bunuel) is funny, dark, twisty, crazy. Of Bunuel’s work, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is the best-known, but Viridiana is the bravest. He returned to Franco’s Spain after decades spent in exile in Mexico and made a shockingly irreverent film against the wishes of the religious authorities.
High And Low (Akira Kurosawa). Kurosawa kindly invented the action film (Seven Samurai), the medical procedural drama (Red Beard) and this film, the first police procedural. We begin by spending an hour in one very cool room, then the hunt is on…
Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls) is a kind of anthology, split into three. The great thing about Ophuls is his camera movement: although the lack of editing keeps you immersed in the story, at some point you realise you’ve been watching the same unbroken shot for ages, then you start to wonder where it began, rewind and marvel again. Have a look at the same technique in La Ronde and The Earrings of Madame de… In Le Plaisir you’ll see it to stunning effect in the first and third stories.
Closely Watched Trains (Jiří Menzel) is just so warm, charming and funny; full of delightful little touches, wonderfully observed moments and gorgeous photography. Yes, it’s a Czechoslovak film about some people running a rural train station, but that only proves that greatness can come from anywhere, through any story.
Z (Costa Gavras) is one you might have heard of. It’s the thinly-fictionalised account of the death of a Greek politician, and it’s insanely gripping. It feels as if it lands between a documentary and a movie, but not in the same way as, say, The Battle Of Algiers. It’s more fun than that: a tense ride unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Army Of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville) was dismissed on its initial release for being sympathetic to de Gaulle, so it languished, forgotten and unknown for forty years until it was reappraised as one of the best films of 2006. There’s a lot of great Melville out there, but this is his masterpiece: a fascinating, compelling tale of a small band of French resistance fighters in World War Two.
Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus) is a vibrant reworking of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, transplanted to the favelas of Rio during Carnival, it has colour, music, energy, passion, joy, tragedy and pretty much everything else.
La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti) isn’t usually mentioned in the Italian Neorealism conversation, but as far as I was concerned it might as well have been a documentary. It features no real actors and follows the lives of some working class fishermen in a small Italian port. It really transports you to that time and place, and gets you deeply involved with one man’s tragic attempt to break out of his circumstances.
Ashes And Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda) is set on the day the allies win World War Two, and is impossibly cool. The lead actor modeled his performance on James Dean, bringing an oddly American vibe to a very Polish story. Again, it takes you right into that time and place, wondering how communist Russia would take control of war-torn Poland.
I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini) is the film that most other people who have been on this kind of journey bring up to me as a favourite. It’s Fellini at his best, telling us a wonderful story of a bunch of layabout young men in a small seaside town. It’s a clear influence on Swingers, Goodfellas, and any other film with a bunch of guys having fun and taking no responsibility for themselves.
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr) sounds like the dullest, most depressing film ever made, but it’s the exact opposite of those two things. Never will you find the sight of two people eating a potato so compelling. A man and his daughter live on a decaying, windswept Hungarian farm, then something happens to the well…
Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle) is the only film I saw that made me cry. I’m pretty sure I saw it when it came out, but I didn’t remember much about it. It’s one of several autobiographical films made by Louis Malle, which gives it an added poignancy. From Zero De Conduite and Les Quatre Cents Coups, to Les Murs and Etre Et Avoir, the French make such great films about childhood and school. This is one of the greatest.
The Servant (Joseph Losey) is an utterly English film, directed by an American. The plot is very unpredictable (although the makers of Parasite must have seen it a few times), as are the performances, but as it descends further and further into a rabbit hole of insanity, you’ll be dragged right along with it.
Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg) is among this year’s Oscar nominees. It’s a Danish black comedy that’s so wonderfully life-affirming (even though the director’s daughter died tragically at the beginning of filming), culminating in a giddy, delirious dance. I think the message was ‘drink more booze’; it certainly tempted me to do just that.
The Fireman’s Ball (Milos Forman) is another film made all the better for it’s use of non-professional actors. If you’ve ever wondered how and why Milos Forman was plucked from Czechoslovakia to direct One Flew Over The Cockoo’s Nest, watch this and all will become clear. It’s a sort of One Flew Over The Strange Little Community Get Together, hilarious, touching and beautifully observed.
Town Bloody Hall (Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker) is a documentary/filming of a debate on feminism in The New York Town Hall, featuring, among others, Germaine Greer and the provocatively sexist Norman Mailer. It’s shown in all it’s ugly, fiery energy, dumping you right in the centre of a full-throttle battle of the sexes.
The Kid With A Bike (Jean Pierre and Luc Dardennes) is a modern Belgian film with all the authenticity of Italian Neorealism at its best. The story of a young boy whose idolises his dad, who in turn would rather his son didn’t exist. It is played so realistically you feel as if you were given a front-row seat as all this happened for real. I’d also encourage you to seek out other Dardennes Brothers films, such as The Child, The Son and Lorna’s Silence, all similarly brilliant.
Il Sorpasso (Dino Risi) is a comedy, so it won’t be mentioned alongside all the serious dramas that tend to make up the lists of greatest-ever films. But this hilarious road movie, combining an uptight guy with a random ‘friend’ who doesn’t give a shit about anything, is as good as many more lauded Italian films of the 1960s, and has an ending you won’t see coming.
Le Trou (Jaques Becker) is the best prison break film of all time. It is almost entirely about five guys who tunnel out of jail, making more progress, night after night. It has all the tension, twists and great character acting (including some people involved in the real-life breakout it was based on) you need to make a film like this work perfectly.
But you want to know what they all were, don’t you? Relax, I’ve got you. Here’s the list, chronological from 15th Jan:
- Man with a Movie Camera
- Late Spring
- Au Hasard Balthazar
- L’Avventura
- Le Mépris
- Ordet
- Andrei Rublev
- Stalker
- The General
- Metropolis
- Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
- Sátántangó
- Pather Panchali
- Gertrud
- Pierrot le Fou
- Close-Up
- Ugetsu Monogatari
- La Jetée
- M
- Sherlock Jr.
- La maman et la putain
- Sansho Dayu
- Modern Times
- Pickpocket
- Sans Soleil
- A Man Escaped
- L’eclisse
- Beau Travail
- The Spirit of the Beehive
- Fanny and Alexander
- The Colour of Pomegranates
- Greed
- A Brighter Summer Day
- Partie de campagne
- Intolerance
- Yi Yi
- Touki Bouki
- Imitation of Life
- Madame de…
- The Conformist
- Meshes of the Afternoon
- Two or three things I know about her
- Stalker
- The Gospel According to St. Matthew
- Come And See
- Close-Up
- The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Playtime
- Viridiana
- Hour of the Wolf
- Vivre Sa Vie
- Husbands
- Los Olvidados
- Opening Night
- The Gold Rush
- Zero de Conduite
- L’argent (1983)
- The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
- Mouchette
- The River
- Meet Me in St Louis
- Memories of Underdevelopment
- Vampyr
- Nosferatu
- Chung King Express
- The Music Room
- The Story of Apu
- Chimes at Midnight
- Alexander Nevsky
- Daisies
- Closely Watched Trains
- The Great Dictator
- Madame Verdoux
- A Woman Under The Influence
- Husbands
- Wanda
- Sawdust and Tinsel
- Through a Glass Darkly
- Winter’s Light
- Red Beard
- Amarcord
- Dr Zhivago
- Giant
- The Virgin Spring
- Smiles of a Summer Evening
- High and Low
- Sanjuro
- Stray Dog
- The River
- The Most Beautiful
- The Life of Oharu
- The Tale of the Last Chrysanthemum
- Street Of Shame
- Scandal
- No Regrets For Our Youth
- Sanshiro Sugata
- I Live In Fear
- The Lower Depths (Kurosawa)
- The Hidden Fortress
- Dersu Uzala
- I was born but…
- An Autumn Afternoon
- Late Autumn
- Princess Yang Kwei Fei
- The Crucified Lovers
- Utamaro and his 5 Women
- The 47 Ronin (Mizoguchi)
- A Canterbury Tale
- The 49th Parallel
- The House Is Black
- Aparajito
- The Big City
- I Knew Her Well
- Ashes and Diamonds
- The Wages of Fear
- Cleo from 5 to 7
- The Devil and Daniel Webster
- A Nous La Liberte
- Dogtooth
- Mon Oncle
- Mr Hulot’s Holiday
- Two Men and a Wardrobe
- Beauty and the Beast
- Red Desert
- Umberto D
- An Angel At My Table
- The Philadelphia Story
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- Arsenic And Old Lace
- The Seventh Seal
- Pygmalion
- Cries and Whispers
- The Silence
- The Night Porter
- Rome Open City
- Germany Year Zero
- Journey to Italy
- Paisan
- Gallipoli
- The Year of Living Dangerously
- Army of Shadows
- Weekend
- Strike
- Lift To The Gallows
- Ivan’s Childhood
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- Belle De Jour
- Britain Is Listening
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
- The Shop Around The Corner
- The Exterminating Angel
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- 1917
- The Double Life of Veronique
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
- Mildred Pierce
- Le Plaisir
- Lola Montes
- Letter From an Unknown Woman
- Accatone
- I’m No Angel
- Holiday
- The Heiress
- Stagecoach
- The Men Who Tread On The Tiger’s Tail
- Drunken Angel
- The Bad Sleep Well
- Charulata
- Masculin Feminin (chronological order starts here, 15 Jan)
- Le Petit Soldat
- I Vitelloni
- Juliet of the Spirits
- Nights of Cabiria
- Il Bidone
- 8 1/2 + 8 1/2 with commentary
- La Strada
- Les Mistons
- Les 400 Coups + commentary
- Shoot The Piano Player
- Jules et Jim
- L’Atalante
- Day For Night
- The Last Metro
- La Regle du Jeu (Jan 26)
- Persona
- Wild Strawberries
- City Lights
- Meantime
- Le Corbeau
- Arrival
- The Mirror
- Night And Fog
- A Trip To The Moon
- Hiroshima Mon Amour
- A Bout De Souffle (Jan 31)
- Marketa Lazarova
- Tokyo Drifter
- Black Girl
- Faces
- Antoine and Colette
- The Soft Skin
- Stolen Kisses
- Bed and Board
- Two English Girls
- Love On The Run
- Throne of Blood
- Yojimbo
- Bande A Part
- Dodes’ka den
- Day of Wrath
- Soul
- Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (Feb 7)
- Osaka Elegy
- Sisters Of The Gion
- A Touch Of Zen
- La Bête Humaine
- Paths Of Glory
- The Secret Of The Grain
- The Seventh Continent
- Code Unknown
- The White Ribbon
- The Piano Teacher
- Gate Of Hell
- Rashomon
- Dheepan (Feb 14th)
- F For Fake
- Wavelength
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
- Divorce Italian Style
- Rocco and his Brothers
- A Taste of Cherry
- Certified Copy
- The Kid
- Black Orpheus
- La Notti Bianche
- Foreign Correspondent
- Floating Weeds (Feb 21st)
- Floating Clouds
- Three Colours: Blue
- Three Colours: White
- Three Colours Red
- .In A Lonely Place
- Celine and Julie Go Boating
- Nomadland
- Ivan The Terrible, Part 1
- Ivan The Terrible, Part 2
- Ministry of Fear
- Judas And The Black Messiah
- Senso
- Red River
- Kings of the Road
- Paris Texas
- The Bad and the Beautiful
- Vagabond (Feb 28th)
- The Traveling Players
- The Damned
- Fun With Dick And Jane
- Out of the Past
- A Tale Of Tales
- La Terra Trema
- Only Angels Have Wings
- The Black Panthers
- The Gleaners and I
- Le Bonheur
- Don’t Blink – Robert Frank
- The Battleship Potemkin
- The Revenant
- The In-Laws (1979)
- Kung Fu Master
- Let The Sunshine In
- October
- Zazie Dans Le Metro
- La Pointe Courte (March 7th)
- The Turin Horse
- Underground
- Distant Voices, Still Lives
- The Southerner
- The Sacrifice
- Riot In Cell Block 11
- Letter From Siberia
- Nostalghia
- Mauvais Sang
- Steamboat Bill Jnr.
- Z
- Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
- Fear (Rosselini)
- The Servant
- Le Silence De La Mer
- Bamboozled
- The Go-Between
- La Collectionneuse
- Samurai Rebellion
- The Chase
- The Flowers Of St Francis (March 14th)
- Ma Nuit Chez Maude
- Doubt
- King Kong (1933)
- Stromboli
- Promising Young Woman
- Safety Last!
- Always Sometimes Rarely Never
- Les Enfants Terribles
- Saute Ma Ville
- The Sound Of Metal
- Love In The Afternoon
- Christmas In July
- Another Round
- Ida
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- The American Friend
- The Green Ray
- Magnet Of Doom (March 21st)
- Paris Belongs To Us
- Europa 51
- Locke
- Le beau Serge
- Les Cousins
- The Idle Class
- Lola (Demy)
- Autumn Sonata
- The Private Life Of Henry The Eighth
- Grey Gardens
- Shame (Bergman)
- Mon Oncle D’Amerique
- Victim
- Mad Max Fury Road
- Life And Nothing But
- Le Coup Du Berger
- The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant
- Charlotte Et Son Jules
- We Need To Talk About Kevin
- The Beaches of Agnes (March 28th)
- Tokyo-Ga
- L’Amore
- 24 Hours In The Life Of A Clown
- Mamma Roma
- Junkopia
- La Ricotta
- Lacombe, Lucien
- The Father
- Mur Murs
- They Live By Night
- California Split
- The World Of Gilbert And George
- Duck Soup
- La haine
- White Tiger
- A New Leaf
- The Mission (April 2nd)
- Tampopo
- McCabe And Mrs Miller
- Caught
- The Firemen’s Ball
- Days Of Wine And Roses
- Man Push Cart
- 35 Shots Of Rum
- Le chant du styrene
- Sunday In Peking
- Grand Illusion
- The Loves Of A Blonde
- Man On The Moon (April 12th)
- Gregory’s Girl
- Les Enfants Du Paradis
- One Night In Miami
- The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
- Sacrilege
- This Sporting Life
- Where Is The Friend’s Home?
- Nanook Of The North
- Life Goes On
- Bottle Rocket
- Through The Olive Trees
- Overlord
- Cast A Dark Shadow
- An Education
- Detour
- The Mattei Affair
- Town Bloody Hall
- The Big Short
- Brute Force
- Dark Days
- Accident
- In The Mood For Love
- Tom Jones
- Black Peter (April 19th)
- Sunset Song
- Gilda
- His Girl Friday
- The Thin Blue Line
- Nadja In Paris
- Eraserhead
- A Nos Amours
- Claire’s Knee
- Kapo
- The Bakery Girl Of Monceau
- Bad Timing
- Suzanne’s Career
- Police Story
- Losing Ground
- Mikey And Nicky
- Sons Of The Desert
- 48 Hrs
- And God Created Woman
- The Naked City
- The Fall
- Bob Le Flambeur
- Morocco (April 25th)
- Tunes Of Glory
- One False Move
- Wooden Crosses
- Le Samourai
- Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai
- Weekend
- My Brilliant Career
- Harlan County USA
- Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
- Salut Les Cubains
- La Chambre
- The Third Man
- A Clockwork Orange
- Secrets And Lies
- The Last Detail
- Kajillionaire
- Day Of Freedom
- House Of Games
- Minnie and Moskowitz
- The Last Movie
- Roman Holiday (May 2nd)
- The Wild Bunch
- On Dangerous Ground
- Irma Vep
- The Great McGinty
- Shane
- Phantom India Part 1
- Patton
- L’enfance nue
- L’amour existe
- Doodlebug
- Murmur Of The Heart
- Palm Beach Story
- Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
- Gloria
- The Reflecting Skin
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Bay Of Angels
- The Hustler
- Horse Feathers
- Remember The Night (delightful Christmas movie)
- Synonymes
- White Rock
- Weekends (May 9th)
- The Stranger
- Girlfriends
- Le Trou
- George Washington
- Ars
- La Luxure
- The Lady Eve
- Pixote
- The Taking Of Power By Louis 14th
- Le Havre (May 16th)
- Burn
- Revanche
- The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek
- How Green Was My Valley
- Donkey Skin
- The Gambler
- The Warriors
- Bad Trip (May 23rd)
- Adam’s Rib
- The Human Condition
- Le Amiche
- La Gente Del Po
- Le Deuxieme Souffle
- To Sleep With Anger
- Daguerrotypes
- Judex
- The Last Emperor
- Chocolat (Denis) (May 30th)
- Blood of the Beasts
- Tucker: The Man And His Dream
- The Kid With A Bike
- Sansho The Bailiff (again)
- L’Enfant
- Le Grand Melies
- La Promesse
- Mr And Mrs. Smith (Hitchcock)
- 2 Days And 1 Night
- Incoherence
- Rosetta
- Young Ahmed
- Lorna’s Silence
- Moonstruck
- Aguirre Wrath of God
- Fitzcarraldo
- Last Year At Marienbad
- Fantastic Planet
- The Cranes Are Flying
- Ikiru
- Kill List (June 6th)
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Safe
- A Week’s Vacation
- The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit
- Hard Eight
- Images
- Deep Blue Sea (2011)
- Ran
- Along For The Ride
- The Class
- Gimme Shelter (June 13th)
- Diabolique
- Under Satan’s Sun
- Panique
- Henry 5th (Olivier)
- The Aviator
- Orphée
- Hunger
- Sea Countrymen
- Rush
- Carnival of Souls (20th June)
- Jacquot De Nantes
- India Matri Bhumi
- The Tree Of Wooden Clogs
- Crossfire
- Cameraperson
- Cruising
- Miss Julie
- Bird
- Animal Crackers
- The Long Good Friday
- Il Posto
- I Fidanzati
- Il Sorpasso
- Golden Parable
- La Cotta (27th June)
- Late Chrysanthemums
- Moonrise
- Topsy Turvy
- Spartacus
- My Dinner With André
- Swimmer
- Born Yesterday
- Bad Day At Black Rock
- No Sudden Move
- The Blue Angel
- The Leopard (4th July)
- Drugstore Cowboy
- Mona Lisa
- Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer
- La Ceremonie
- The Blue Dahlia
- Scarface (1932) (11th July)
- Cold Water
- A Running Jump
- The Set-Up
- Drums Along The Mohawk
- Hoop Dreams
- The Children Are Watching Us
- The Primary
- The Young Girls of Rochefort
- Confidential Report
- Fat Girl
- Lenny Cooke
- Women Of The Night
- Clouds of Sils Maria
- The Trial Of Joan Of Arc (Bresson)
- Following (18th July)
- Day Of The Fight
- L’Assassin Habite Au 21
- High Fidelity
- Limelight
- La Ronde
- Kuroneko
- The Ruling Class
- The Steel Helmet (25th July)
- Minari
- Dis-Moi
- A Story Of Children And Film
- Knock On Any Door
- One Sings The Other Doesn’t
- White Material
- The Life Of Brian
- The Other Side Of Hope
- Toni
- The Steamroller And The Violin
- Au Revoir Les Enfants
- Clockwatchers
- Salesman
- Tout Va Bien
- Anatomy Of A Murder
- La Chienne
- It Should Happen To You
- Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (August 1st)
- The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
- Kings Of Pastry
- The Dead
- Richard The Third
- Vertigo
- Bicycle Thieves
- The African Queen
- Bells Are Ringing (August 8th)
- Lord Of The Flies (1963)
- Black Narcissus
- The White Sheik (August 15th)
- That Obscure Object Of Desire
- Night Moves
- Slacker
- Tristana
- Diary Of A Chambermaid
- Simon Of The Desert
- This Is Spinal Tap
- Death In The Garden
- The Asphalt Jungle
- The Phantom Of Liberty (August 22nd)
- The man Who Would Be King
- Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
- Knife In The Water
