I used to go to Forum de l’image after a long long school day to watch this movie over and over again. The lady at the desk got to know me.
Larry Clark rules! I like all of his movies, so it’s a hard pick. The beauty of this movie lies in the utter senselessness and the inherent amorality in life.
Bonnie and Clyde, a cult movie par excellence, and Fay Dunaway at her most memorable.
Catherine Breillat is my hero, and I had the chance to tell her about my admirations in person a few years ago. This was Breillat’s first feature and is based on one of her first novels. It was made in 1976 and wasn’t shown on screen until 2000. I first saw this film late night on Arte France and was completely mesmerized. I’ve since seen it many times on screen. Very Georges Bataille, very dark, and very powerful. I’ve seen all of her movies also. Try A ma soeur (Fat Girl), 36 fillettes, Romance X, and Love is a comedy.
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. Meet me and I’ll sing you, “Est-il loin est-il proche est-il à Rochefort…Son amour c’est ma vie mais à quoi bon penser?” Michel Legrand is simply brilliant.
The imagery is breathtaking – luminous shades of grey, and the ZONE is kind of a metaphor for life. For a while, my photographs were heavily Stalker-tainted. Every single movie of Tarkovsky is a masterpiece.
L’Empire des sens is unquestionably the most beautiful movie on love and obsession ever made. I also enjoyed Taboo and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.
This movie is so multi-layered that even though the narration is fairly traditional, and even though I have a fairly firm grasp on Chinese contemporary history and culture, I always come out with new insights. Farewell resumes contemporary Chinese history (feudal China, Japanese occupation, New China, Cultural Revolution), and re-confirmed my belief that love and betrayal are indeed flip sides of the same coin.
Godard is a giant and this movie is a monument.
Time stands still and the rest of the world drops off. Like a well-brewed tea that makes you want to linger, and linger some more…
Old Boy. I had to watch it a second time to get over the violence. A modern Greek tragedy. Breathless.
Charlie Chaplin in the final scene of The Circus (1929). Chaplin was the greatest of all poets. Did I mention that all my pre-pubescent fantansies consisted of running away with an itinerant circus? That was back in the old days when there were still street magicians and artist/vagabonds in Beijing, and on my way back from painfully long piano lessons, I would stand transfixed for hours until darkness arrived and crowds slowly dispersed, dreaming of a vagabond life free from daily grind and responsibilities (and screaming mother because I had come back home late, again)…
Spirited Away. An epic fairy tale conceived by a mastermind of phantasmagoric animation. I’ve watched this so many times and am still captivated by the poetry and the boundless imagination of this super brain.