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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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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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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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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Happy Together (1997)

Highly Recommended

Hong Kong

Feature Film

Original Title: 春光乍洩

Writer/Director: Wong Kar Wai

Cinematographer: Christopher Doyle

Composer: Danny Chung

Cast: Tony Leung, Leslie Cheung, Chen Chang

Two bickering lovers from Hong Kong, who have recently moved to Argentina for a fresh start, break-up and attempt to go their separate ways, but a violent attack brings them (sort of) back together, in Wong’s beautiful, bitter-sweet gem, filled with expressively composed and evocatively lit images. Iain.Stott

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My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1984)

Recommended

Soviet Union

Feature Film

Original Title: Мой друг Иван Лапшин

Director: Aleksei German

Writers: Eduard Volodarsky, Yuri German

Cinematographer: Valeri Fedosov

Composer: Arkadi Gagulashvili

Cast: Andrei Boltnev, Nina Ruslanova, Andrei Mironov, Aleksei Zharkov, Zinaida Adamovich, Aleksandr Filippenko, Yuri Kuznetsov

A man remembers incidents and figures from his childhood in a provincial town in the Soviet Union of the mid-1930s, detailing the death of Marxism, as Stalin’s regime began to take its toll, in German’s beautifully photographed and disorientatingly gripping yet rather cold and decidedly depressing work, which has often been hailed as Russia’s greatest film. Iain.Stott

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The Reckless Moment (1949)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Max Ophüls

Writers: Henry Garson, Robert W. Soderberg, Mel Dinelli, Robert E. Kent, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey

Composer: Hans Salter

Cast: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O'Neill, Shepperd Strudwick, David Bair, Roy Roberts

When her 17-year-old daughter accidentally kills her lowlife boyfriend, a respectable middle-class woman takes responsibility for matters and disposes of the body, but unfortunately for her this doesn’t put an end to the affair, as a charismatically enigmatic Irishman shows up at her door with a bundle of incriminating letters, demanding $5,000 in exchange for them, in Ophüls’s exquisitely photographed, expressively directed, and convincingly acted film Noir. Iain.Stott

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Veronika Voss (1982)

Highly Recommended

West Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writers: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich, Peter Märthesheimer

Cinematographer: Xaver Schwarzenberger

Composer: Peer Raben

Cast: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess, Annemarie Düringer, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Doris Schade, Erik Schumann, Peter Berling

Veronika Voss – a down-on-her-luck, drug addicted actress, who was a huge film star during the Nazi era, but now finds herself totally beholden to her morally dubious, morphine pushing doctor – stumbles into the life a sports journalist, who becomes obsessively intrigued by her and her perplexing lifestyle, in this beautifully photographed and adroitly acted film, the final part of Fassbinder’s BRD Trilogy. Iain.Stott

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Strike (1925)

Cautiously Recommended

Soviet Union

Feature Film

Original Title: Стачка

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Writers: Grigori Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov

Cinematographers: Vasili Khvatov, Vladimir Popov, Eduard Tisse

Composers: The Alloy Orchestra (1998)

Cast: Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov, Ivan Klyukvin, Aleksandr Antonov, Yudif Glizer

When a worker kills himself after being falsely accused of theft, his comrades go out on strike, demanding an eight-hour workday and a 30% wage increase; but the factory owners, with the aid of the police, violently quell the unrest, in Eisenstein’s formally playful and campily entertaining film, which is let down somewhat by its laughable depiction of the chin-stroking, baby-killing, and distinctly inhuman capitalists. Iain.Stott

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Lola (1961)

Cautiously Recommended

France

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Jacques Demy

Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard

Composer: Michel Legrand

Cast: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette, Annie Duperoux, Catherine Lutz

Demy’s playful feature debut, in which a collection lovelorn Nantesians interact serendipitously and fortuitously with each other over a period of just a few days, is rather overly-reliant upon chance to drive its slim yet complex plot, but just about makes up for it with wit, charm, and quality of performance, in this fun but forgettable little film. Iain.Stott

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A Place in the Sun (1951)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: George Stevens

Writers: Harry Brown, Michael Wilson, Theodore Dreiser, Patrick Kearney

Cinematographer: William C. Mellor

Composer: Franz Waxman

Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Keefe Brasselle, Fred Clark, Raymond Burr

A poor relation from Chicago, George Eastman, comes to Los Angeles to work for his uncle; he begins on the shop floor where he meets Alice, with whom he commences a sexual relationship, but when he is given a promotion and introduced into society, where he meets the delectable Angela, he is soon ready to leave her behind, but unfortunately for all concerned an unexpected pregnancy complicates matters irreparably, in Stevens’s visually distinctive film, composed of brave, atypical mise en scène, which also boasts some excellent performances, in particular Raymond Burr's forceful turn. Iain.Stott

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Robert Wise

Writers: Edmund H. North, Harry Bates

Cinematographer: Leo Tover

Composer: Bernard Herrmann

Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin

An alien emerges from a flying saucer in Washington, DC, demanding a conference with all the leaders of the world so as to warn them about their use of nuclear technology, but when his request is denied he escapes into town, hoping to find another way to get across his message without resorting to violence, in this beautifully crafted, thoughtful, and very entertaining piece of science fiction. Iain.Stott

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An American in Paris (1951)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Writer: Alan Jay Lerner

Cinematographer: Alfred Gilks

Composer: Conrad Salinger

Choreographer: Gene Kelly

Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, Nina Foch

A struggling American painter, living in Paris, falls for a pretty young shop assistant who, unbeknownst to either of them, is being courted by a friend of his; to complicate matters further, a rich American lady, who offers to promote his artistic career, also has romantic intentions towards him, in this exuberantly joyous musical, packed with wit, style, and eye-catching song-and-dance numbers. Iain.Stott

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Strangers on a Train (1951)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook, Patricia Highsmith

Cinematographer: Robert Burks

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin

Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock, Laura Elliott, Marion Lorne, Jonathan Hale

A professional tennis player’s life is turned upside down when a chance meeting with a sociopathic socialite, and a casual conversation about the perfect murder, leads to the homicide of his estranged wife, leaving him as the only real suspect, in Hitchcock’s expertly shot, flamboyantly acted, and thoroughly entertaining if vaguely incredible thriller. Iain.Stott

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Miracle in Milan (1951)

Essential Viewing

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Miracolo a Milano

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writers: Mario Chiari, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Zavattini

Cinematographer: Aldo Graziati

Composer: Alessandro Cicognini

Cast: Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò, Emma Gramatica, Brunella Bovo, Anna Carena, Alba Arnova, Flora Cambi

Much like Capra’s It’s a Wonderful life (1946), De Sica’s fantasy comedy – following the ups and downs of the residents of a shanty town on the outskirts of Rome – is a much misunderstood film, with irony and social comment often being mistaken for sentiment and whimsy, feel-bad for feel-good, as it posits the distinctly bleak theory that the only way for the little man to defeat the nefarious capitalist is with divine intervention. Iain.Stott

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The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)

Cautiously Recommended

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Director: Robert Wiene

Writers: Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer

Cinematographer: Willy Hameister

Composer: Timothy Brock (1996)

Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Fehér, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Rudolf Lettinger

This stylish but rather silly tale of somnambulism, murder, and madness contains one or two scenes of breathtaking film-making (Cesare’s abduction of the girl is particularly well done), but the film’s over reliance on intertitles to tell its story, the twist ending, and a general feeling of absurdness ensure that it is no more than mildly diverting. Iain.Stott

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People on Sunday (1930)

Essential Viewing

Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Menschen am Sonntag

Directors: Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer

Writers: Billy Wilder, Curt Siodmak

Cinematographer: Eugen Schüfftan

Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin (2000)

Cast: Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert, Wolfgang von Waltershausen, Christl Ehlers, Annie Schreyer

Under the direction of Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a screenplay by Billy Wilder from an idea by Curt Siodmak, with assistance from Fred Zinnemann, this barely scripted little feature with documentary inserts has rather dazzling credentials, and whilst they may bring to mind cooks and broth, nothing could be further from the truth, with the final result being a delightfully light, sexy, and beautiful depiction of the joys of Sundays, summer, and youthful inconsequence. Iain.Stott

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Arsenal (1928)

Recommended

Soviet Union
Feature Film
Original Title: Арсенал
Writer/Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Cinematographer: Daniil Demutsky
Composers: The Alloy Orchestra
Cast: Semyon Svashenko, Amvrosi Buchma, Georgi Khorkov, Dmitri Erdman, Sergei Petrov, M. Mikhajlovsky, A. Yevdakov, Nikolai Kuchinsky, O. Merlatti, Nikolai Nademsky

Despite the Ukrainian ruling class being depicted as sub-human imbeciles, and the film’s promotion of the idea that glory is synonymous with the ability to kill or be killed for “righteous” reasons, this account of the 1917 revolution from a Ukrainian perspective is, never the less, a wonderful piece of film-making, filled with strikingly memorable images, not the least of which being the symbolically rich final shot of an undefeatable Ukrainian worker. Iain.Stott

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Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)

Highly Recommended

India

Feature Film

Original Title: Aranyer Din Ratri

Director: Satyajit Ray

Writers: Satyajit Ray, Sunil Ganguly

Cinematographers: Purnendu Bose, Soumendu Roy

Composer: Satyajit Ray

Cast: Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Soumitra Chatterji, Samit Bhanja, Subhendu Chatterji, Rabi Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Pahadi Sanyal

Four middle-class, twentysomething men from Calcutta head for the countryside for a week’s holiday; whilst there, they buy, demean, and patronise the locals, drink to excess, and vie for the attentions of a pair of Calcuttan girls holidaying at their country retreat, in this little seen gem from Ray – a winning mix of oft hilarious character detail and biting social comment. Iain.Stott

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