CFB's Greatest Movies by Country, Chapter 22: Brazil

1. City of God (2002)
2. Black God, White Devil (1964)
3. Pixote (1981)
4. Central Station (1998)
5. Black Orpheus (1959)
6. Barren Lives (1963)
7. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
8. Behind the Sun (2001)
9. Entranced Earth (1967)
10. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976)
11. Antonio das Mortes (1969)
12. Limite (1931)
13. Bye Bye Brasil (1980)
14. Elite Squad (2007)
15. Madame Satã (2002)
16. The Age of the Earth (1980)
17. The Year My Parents Went on Holiday (2006)
18. Assault on the Pay Train (1962)
19. Foreign Land (1996)
20. Carandiru (2003)

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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Essential Viewing

France/Italy/Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Cinematographer: Edmond Richard

Cast: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Julien Bertheau, Milena Vukotic

A group of wealthy friends attempt to enjoy a dinner party but are constantly interrupted, in Buñuel’s bitingly funny, enigmatically satirical, and delightfully cynical portrait of the idle rich, attackingly depicting corruption, prejudice, double standards, and illogical social conventions. Iain.Stott

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The Man Who Can't Stop Hiccupping (2010)

Recommended

UK

Short Television Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Luke Menges

Narrator: Amanda St John

Featuring: Christopher Sands

This brief but effective documentary follows Christopher Sands, a 25-year-old aspiring musician who has suffered from hiccups for nearly three years, as he attempts to find a cure or explanation for his debilitating condition, which makes it impossible for him to work and nigh impossible for him to eat, sleep, or socialise. Iain.Stott

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Robinson in Space (1997)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Patrick Keiller

Narrator: Paul Scofield

Following on from the oft delightful London (1994), Keiller’s docu-essay again sees an unseen narrator and his companion, Robinson, setting out on a journey to paint a picture of the state of the nation, this time leaving behind the capital to explore the provinces, seeking out sights of historical interest whilst lamenting modern trends, and whilst it’s just as insightful and informative as its predecessor it is decidedly less witty. Iain.Stott

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London (1994)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Patrick Keiller

Narrator: Paul Scofield

Our narrator, accompanied by his former lover, Robinson, take us on several journeys around London throughout 1992, imparting pithy observations and pessimistic insights about the state of the nation, observing John Major’s re-election, the IRA’s sustained bombing campaign, and numerous other rather depressing events, in Keiller’s delightfully irreverent but decidedly unnerving docu-essay. Iain.Stott

Followed by Robinson in Space (1997)

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Love in the Afternoon (1972)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: L'amour l'après-midi

Writer/Director: Eric Rohmer

Cinematographer: Néstor Almendros

Composer: Arié Dzierlatka

Cast: Bernard Verley, Zouzou, Françoise Verley

When the sexy former girlfriend of an old pal re-enters his life after a gap of six years, a Parisian businessman, happily married with a young family and a comfortable bourgeois existence, finds himself reassessing his life and questioning his ingrained notion of sexual ethics, in Rohmer’s subtle, authentic, and thoroughly compelling film, the sixth and final instalment of his Moral Tales series. Iain.Stott

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Rock & Chips (2010)

UK

Television Film

Director: Dewi Humphreys

Writer: John Sullivan

Cinematographer: John Sorapure

Cast: Nicholas Lyndhurst, Kellie Bright, Phil Daniels, Shaun Dingwall, James Buckley, Stephen Lloyd, Lewis Osborne, Ashley Gerlach, Lee Long, Jonathan Readwin, Paul Putner, Emma Cooke, Robert Daws, Roger Griffiths, Jodie Mooney, Katie Griffiths

Rock & Chips (2010)

John Sullivan’s gently humorous, surprisingly touching, and reassuringly familiar prequel to his long running sitcom Only Fools and Horses presents – with a wonderful performance from Bright and a gorgeous soundtrack – a bitter-sweet portrait of the Trotter clan in early ‘60s Peckham, concentrating on Joan Trotter’s illicit but beautiful and all too fleeting romance with Fredrick ‘Freddie the Frog’ Robdal.

Five Gold Rings (2010)

With his schooldays behind him, Del, imported American records and fake diamond rings in hand, sets out on a life of dodgy-dealing and bird-pulling, whilst his beloved mother, Joan, as put-upon as ever, struggles to resist the advances of a recently bailed Freddie the Frog, in this entertaining though less affecting second outing for Sullivan’s ‘60s-set Only Fools and Horses prequel. Iain.Stott

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The Dublin Film Critics Circle's Top Ten Irish Films of the Decade (2009)

1. Hunger (2008)
   Adam & Paul (2004)
2. Garage (2007)
3. Once (2006)
4. Bloody Sunday (2002)
5. Intermission (2003)
6. In America (2002)
7. How Harry Became a Tree (2001)
8. Omagh (2004)
9. Kisses (2008)
10. Isolation (2005)

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Garage (2007)

Highly Recommended

Ireland/UK

Feature Film

Director: Leonard Abrahamson

Writer: Mark O'Halloran

Cinematographer: Peter Robertson

Composer: Stephen Rennicks

Cast: Pat Shortt, Conor Ryan, Anne-Marie Duff, Tommy Fitzgerald, John Keogh, Andrew Bennett, Tom Hickey, Denis Conway, George Costigan

A sweet and agreeable if rather slow and terribly lonely middle-aged man, who has spent his entire life in the same small western Irish town, and most of it working at the same small, independent petrol station, forms an unlikely friendship with a confused 15-year-old boy, who has recently started working at the garage on weekends, in Abrahamson’s subtly written, expressively shot, and affectingly acted character study. Iain.Stott

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Field (2001)

Recommended

UK

Short Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Cast: Kevin Firkins, Tim Dyer, James Peacey, Jim Gladwin, Paul Billing, The Staff and Pupils of Stour Valley Community School

Three boys – with a bottle of Coke, a bottle of booze, an aerosol, a lighter, and a BMX – spend a delinquential afternoon/evening in a farmer’s field, causing untold havoc, in Duane Hopkins’s enigmatic, understated, and poetically beautiful debut short. Iain.Stott

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Love Me or Leave Me Alone (2003)

Recommended

UK

Short Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Cast: Jay Firkins, Zoe Rietti

In Duane Hopkins’s poetic, beautifully photographed, and enigmatically moving short film, a young teenage couple argue strongly; she walks off determinedly; he sits and sulks for a while before realising his mistake; he searches for her, finds her, and pesters her until she relents; they have sex; he says I love you; she replies, “I’ll see you at school on Monday” – and we are left wanting for more. Iain.Stott

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Better Things (2008)

Recommended

UK/Germany

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Composer: Dan Berridge

Cast: Liam McIlfatrick, Che Corr, Tara Ballard, Freddie Cunliffe, Rachel McIntyre, Patricia Loveland, Betty Bench, Frank Bench, Megan Palmer, Kurt Taylor, Mike Randle, Michael Socha, Katie Samuels, Kerry Rowe

Although some of the performances are a tad wooden, and the dialogue occasionally feels a little awkward, Duane Hopkins’s feature debut – following on from a pair of excellent shorts – is an often ethereally beautiful concoction (one sequence in particular, in which a grieving heroin addict fantasises about embracing his dead girlfriend whilst his drug of choice makes its way through his veins, is amongst the most achingly beautiful sequences I’ve ever seen), but at other times, this portrait of disaffected, lovelorn, drug-addled youth is merely wrist-slittingly depressing. Iain.Stott

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The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)

Highly Recommended

West Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Händler der vier Jahreszeiten

Writer/Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Cinematographer: Dietrich Lohmann

Cast: Hans Hirschmüller, Irm Hermann, Hanna Schygulla, Andrea Schober, Gusti Kreissl, Klaus Löwitsch, Karl Scheydt, Ingrid Caven

A violent, hard-drinking Munich man returns from serving in the French Foreign Legion and, after an unhappy spell in the police force, becomes a street vendor, selling fruit to bored hausfraus; he marries, has a child, suffers a heart attack, gives up drinking, and slowly loses the will to live, in Fassbinder’s powerful, bleak, and thoroughly compelling melodrama, which paints a damning and decidedly unpleasant portrait of early ‘70s bourgeois life. Iain.Stott

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In the Loop (2009)

Recommended

UK/Cayman Islands

Feature Film

Director: Armando Iannucci

Writers: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, Ian Martin

Cinematographer: Jamie Cairney

Composer: Adem Ilhan

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison, Anna Chlumsky, Enzo Cilenti, Paul Higgins, Mimi Kennedy, Steve Coogan

Armando Iannucci’s trouser-soilingly funny and worryingly credible feeling spin off from his BBC sitcom, The Thick of It, presents the political machinations of a bunch of British and American politicians, spin-doctors, and aids in the build up to a morally dubious middle-eastern conflict, a war that painfully and hilariously mirrors the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iain.Stott

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Nil by Mouth (1997)

Highly Recommended

UK/France

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Gary Oldman

Cinematographer: Ron Fortunato

Composer: Eric Clapton

Cast: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse, Edna Doré, Chrissie Cotterill, Jon Morrison, Jamie Foreman, Steve Sweeney

Ray Winstone is extraordinary as a bullying yet charismatic small time criminal, who spends much of his time drinking heavily and taking out his frustrations on his long-suffering wife’s face, in Gary Oldman’s painfully visceral, emotionally devastating, and absolutely convincing portrait of booze soaked, blood stained lives. Iain.Stott

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Hana-Bi (1997)

Essential Viewing

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: はなび

Writer/Director: Kitano Takeshi

Cinematographer: Yamamoto Hideo

Composer: Hisaishi Jō

Cast: Beat Takeshi, Kishimoto Kayoko, Osugi Ren, Terajima Susumu, Watanabe Tetsu, Hakuryu

A laconic former police detective, whose wife is slowly dying of cancer in a hospice, and who is seriously indebted to a Yakuza boss, resorts to drastic measures in order to solve his problems; whilst a friend and former colleague of his, who has become wheelchair bound after being struck by a hitman’s bullet, approaches his problems in a decidedly different manner, in Kitano’s painfully violent, poetically beautiful, and terribly moving film. Iain.Stott

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Starship Troopers (1997)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Writers: Ed Neumeier, Robert A. Heinlein

Cinematographer: Jost Vacano

Composer: Basil Poledouris

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Seth Gilliam, Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside

Verhoeven’s viscerally compelling, blackly comic, and cynically perceptive sci-fi film presents a satirical portrait of a group of Buenos Airean high school graduates, who sign up for the armed forces, in a culturally homogenised, Americanised military dictatorship, following them as they become involved in their War on Bugs (which proves to be eerily foreboding of the American-lead War on Terror). Iain.Stott

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Xiao Wu (1997)

Highly Recommended

China/Hong Kong

Feature Film

Original Title: 小武

Writer/Director: Jia Zhangke

Cinematographer: Nelson Yu Lik-wai

Cast: Wang Hongwei, Hao Hongjian, Zuo Baitao Ma Jinrei, Liu Junying, Liang, Yonghao, An Qunyan, Jiang Dongdong

Xiao Wu, a twenty-something pickpocket who has yet to graduate to the more socially acceptable forms of pilfering proffered by rampant capitalism that his former friends have, begins to question his lot in life when his best friend fails to invite him to his forthcoming wedding, leaving him to seek comfort in the arms of a bar girl, in Jia’s witty, touching, and thoroughly compelling portrait of provincial (low)life. Iain.Stott

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Lost Highway (1997)

Recommended

USA/France

Feature Film

Director: David Lynch

Writers: Barry Gifford, David Lynch

Cinematographer: Peter Deming

Composer: Angelo Badalamenti

Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake, Gary Busey, Lucy Butler, Natasha Gregson Wagner

Lynch’s enigmatic, disquieting, and thoroughly bonkers thriller presents a pair of intertwining lives brought nightmarishly together with dream logic, combining tales of gangsters, jazz musicians, mechanics, and porn stars in a sexy, blood-stained Los Angeles. Iain.Stott

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100 Most Acclaimed Films of the Decade: 1920s (and earlier)

1. Sunrise (1927)
2. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
4. The General (1927)
5. The Gold Rush (1925)
6. Intolerance (1916)
7. Metropolis (1927)
8. Greed (1924)
9. Nosferatu (1922)
10. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
11. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
12. Napoléon (1927)
13. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
14. The Last Laugh (1924)
15. Un Chien Andalou (1929)
16. Broken Blossoms (1919)
17. Pandora's Box (1929)
18. The Crowd (1928)
19. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
20. Faust (1926)
21. The Cameraman (1928)
22. The Wind (1928)
23. Nanook of the North (1922)
24. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
25. Strike (1925)
26. October (1928)
27. Seven Chances (1925)
28. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
29. Our Hospitality (1923)
30. The Navigator (1924)
31. Les Vampires (1915)
32. The Wedding March (1928)
33. The Circus (1928)
34. The Kid (1921)
35. Die Nibelungen (1924)
36. The Big Parade (1925)
37. The Unknown (1927)
38. Safety Last! (1923)
39. The Phantom Carriage (1921)
40. Foolish Wives (1922)
41. Destiny (1921)
42. Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
43. The Docks of New York (1928)
44. 7th Heaven (1927)
45. Mother (1926)
46. The Pilgrim (1923)
47. Berlin, Symphony of a City (1927)
48. Häxan (1922)
49. Storm Over Asia (1928)
50. Fantômas (1913/14)
51. Ménilmontant (1926)
52. The Kid Brother (1927)
53. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
54. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
55. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)
56. Girl Shy (1924)
57. Hallelujah! (1929)
58. One Week (1920)
59. A Woman of Paris (1923)
60. Big Business (1929)
61. Cops (1922)
62. The Skeleton Dance (1929)
63. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
64. The Freshman (1925)
65. The Man Who Laughs (1928)
66. The Play House (1921)
67. The Scarecrow (1920)
68. Wings (1927)
69. A Dog's Life (1918)
70. He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
71. Shoulder Arms (1918)
72. The Immigrant (1917)
73. The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
74. Easy Street (1917)
75. Go West (1925)
76. Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925)
77. Neighbors (1920)
78. Queen Kelly (1929)
79. Speedy (1928)
80. The Cameraman's Revenge (1912)
81. An Italian Straw Hat (1928)
82. Moana (1926)
83. The End of St. Petersburg (1927)
84. The Last Command (1928)
85. True Heart Susie (1919)
86. L'Argent (1928)
87. The Frogs Who Wanted a King (1923)
88. Spione (1928)
89. The Fall of the House of Usher (1928, Epstein)
90. The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924)
91. Varieté (1925)
92. Way Down East (1920)
93. Applause (1929)
94. Arsenal (1928)
95. Entr'acte (1924)
96. Le Locataire Diabolique (1909)
97. Lonesome (1928)
98. Never Weaken (1921)
99. The Insects' Christmas (1913)
100. Two Tars (1928)

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100 Most Acclaimed Films of the Decade: 1930s

1. La Règle du Jeu (1939)
2. L'Atalante (1934)
3. City Lights (1931)
4. La Grande Illusion (1937)
5. M (1931)
6. Modern Times (1936)
7. Gone with the Wind (1939)
8. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
9. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
10. Duck Soup (1933)
11. Stagecoach (1939)
12. King Kong (1933)
13. L'Âge d'Or (1930)
14. Earth (1930)
15. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
16. Partie de Campagne (1936)
17. Freaks (1932)
18. Vampyr (1932)
19. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
20. It Happened One Night (1934)
21. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
22. Tabu (1931)
23. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
24. Alexander Nevsky (1938)
25. Ninotchka (1939)
26. Zéro de Conduite (1933)
27. A Night at the Opera (1935)
28. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
29. The 39 Steps (1935)
30. Top Hat (1935)
31. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
32. The Blue Angel (1930)
33. The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)
34. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
35. The Scarlet Empress (1934)
36. The Awful Truth (1937)
37. Le Million (1931)
38. Frankenstein (1931)
39. Man of Aran (1934)
40. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
41. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
42. Triumph of the Will (1935)
43. It's a Gift (1934)
44. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
45. Love Me Tonight (1932)
46. Holiday (1938)
47. I Was Born, But... (1932)
48. Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
49. The Cheat (1936)
50. The Blood of a Poet (1930)
51. 42nd Street (1933)
52. Liebelei (1933)
53. Scarface (1932)
54. Angel (1937)
55. À Nous la Liberté (1931)
56. Morocco (1930)
57. Olympia (1938)
58. The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
59. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
60. Le Jour se Lève (1939)
61. Outskirts (1933)
62. Pépé le Moko (1937)
63. Que Viva Mexico! (1932)
64. Land Without Bread (1933)
65. La Chienne (1931)
66. La Kermesse Héroïque (1935)
67. Design for Living (1933)
68. Midnight (1939)
69. The Threepenny Opera (1931)
70. Fury (1936)
71. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
72. Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)
73. Limite (1931)
74. City Girl (1930)
75. La Femme du Boulanger (1938)
76. Peter Ibbetson (1935)
77. The Informer (1935)
78. You Only Live Once (1937)
79. Kameradschaft (1931)
80. La Bête Humaine (1938)
81. Le Quai des Brumes (1938)
82. Shanghai Express (1932)
83. The Black Cat (1934)
84. Dracula (1931)
85. Happiness (1934)
86. Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
87. Our Daily Bread (1934)
88. The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938)
89. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
90. By the Bluest of Seas (1936)
91. My Man Godfrey (1936)
92. Rose Hobart (1936)
93. Baby Face (1933)
94. Footlight Parade (1933)
95. My Apprenticeship (1939)
96. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
97. Stage Door (1937)
98. The Old Dark House (1932)
99. The Roaring Twenties (1939)
100. Toni (1935)

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100 Most Acclaimed Films of the Decade: 1940s

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
4. The Third Man (1949)
5. Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
6. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
7. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
8. Notorious (1946)
9. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
10. Double Indemnity (1944)
11. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
12. My Darling Clementine (1946)
13. His Girl Friday (1940)
14. Rome Open City (1945)
15. The Lady Eve (1941)
16. Build My Gallows High (1947)
17. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
18. Black Narcissus (1947)
19. Brief Encounter (1945)
20. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
21. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
22. Paisan (1946)
23. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
24. Red River (1948)
25. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
26. The Red Shoes (1948)
27. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
28. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
29. Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1944)
30. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
31. Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1946)
32. Late Spring (1949)
33. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
34. La Belle et la Bête (1946)
35. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
36. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
37. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
38. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
39. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
40. The Great Dictator (1940)
41. Laura (1944)
42. To Have and Have Not (1944)
43. Day of Wrath (1943)
44. Fantasia (1940)
45. The Big Sleep (1946)
46. Cat People (1942)
47. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
48. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
49. Pinocchio (1940)
50. Rebecca (1940)
51. Germany, Year Zero (1948)
52. Detour (1945)
53. A Canterbury Tale (1944)
54. White Heat (1949)
55. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
56. Great Expectations (1946)
57. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
58. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
59. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
60. Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945)
61. Listen to Britain (1942)
62. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
63. Dumbo (1941)
64. Henry V (1944)
65. Mildred Pierce (1945)
66. Spring in a Small Town (1948)
67. They Live by Night (1948)
68. Odd Man Out (1947)
69. Ossessione (1943)
70. On the Town (1949)
71. La Terra Trema (1948)
72. Now, Voyager (1942)
73. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
74. The Heiress (1949)
75. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
76. They Were Expendable (1945)
77. Duel in the Sun (1946)
78. Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
79. Hellzapoppin' (1941)
80. The Reckless Moment (1949)
81. Gilda (1946)
82. The Woman in the Window (1944)
83. Bambi (1942)
84. The Fallen Idol (1948)
85. The Killers (1946)
86. Fires Were Started (1943)
87. Jour de Fête (1949)
88. Portrait of Jennie (1948)
89. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
90. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
91. Fort Apache (1948)
92. Stray Dog (1949)
93. The Loyal 47 Ronin of the Genroku Era (1941)
94. Pursued (1947)
95. Scarlet Street (1945)
96. Shoeshine (1946)
97. A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
98. Rope (1948)
99. The Fountainhead (1949)
100. The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

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