Rank: 70
Release Year: 1984
Genre: Gangster
Plot
Summary: Noodles returns home to the Lower East Side of Manhattan after
a thirty-year absence to find that he must still confront the ghosts and
regrets of his old life, as a Prohibition-era gangster.
What
Makes It Special: Sergio Leone is best remembered for his Spaghetti
Westerns, but his foray into the gangster genre also proved to be one of his
most fruitful cinematic endeavors. Once Upon a Time in America combines
wonderful elements from multiple collaborators: from the fine actors to
Ennio Morricone’s beautiful
score and
Tonino Delli Colli’s
magnificent photography. While American directors like
Martin
Scorsese and
Francis
Ford Coppola have seemingly co-opted the genre in modern thinking, Leone’s
film is still among the finest gangster films ever made.
Rank: 69
Release Year: 1947
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Plot
Summary: Five nuns try desperately to adapt to their remote, exotic
surroundings after opening a convent in the Himalayas. The beauty and vastness
of the landscape along with the way of life of the natives seems to be getting
to them, causing each of them to question their vows.
What
Makes It Special: Black Narcissus is a masterfully directed, acted,
designed, and shot film.
Jack Cardiff’s
Technicolor photography is lavishly alluring and stunningly evocative. It is a
haunting film that takes on what may seem to be the incorruptible vow a nun
takes and shatters it with glimpses of divine pleasure. Powell &
Pressburger create a wonderful sense of tension as the characters each feel
themselves engulfed by everything their surroundings represent, each losing
their devotion (or rather finding a new kind of faith).
Rank: 68
Release Year: 1945
Genre: Romance Drama
Plot
Summary: Laura is in a happy marriage, but one day she meets a charming
stranger in a train station and is tempted to cheat on her husband.
What
Makes It Special: Brief Encounter is a powerful and moving romance drama
about a doomed love affair. What makes it particularly interesting is that
Laura has no intension of cheating, as she is happy in her life with her
husband, but then she meets Dr. Alec Harvey and he ignites something within her.
Thus, Laura struggles internally with a choice – should she give in to her
desire? This creates wonderful moments of joy and despair, perfectly capturing
the feeling of falling in love (right at the beginning – the excitement and
terror). David Lean brings such a strong emotional energy to the film that it
is almost impossible not to be swept up in the narrative.
Rank: 67
Release Year: 1994
Genre: Romance Drama
Plot
Summary: Split into two stories about love. The first follows Cop 223, a
man who cannot seem to get over his recent breakup with his long-term
girlfriend – meanwhile, he is tracking a heroin dealer who is in trouble with
her boss after losing her latest shipment. The second follows Cop 663, a man
also dealing with a recent breakup – meanwhile, however, a local girl who works
at a lunch counter he frequents has a crush on him.
What
Makes It Special: Kar Wai Wong’s Chungking Express is visually
mesmerizing. Wong tells his stories with flashes of almost impressionistic
color and kinetic energy, matched by a brilliant and fitting soundtrack (specifically
The Mamas & the Papas’
California
Dreaming) and wonderful performances from his cast. The film explores both
the pain and happiness that love can provide – the romantic longing that we all
experience. It marks one of the clear turning points in cinema in the 1990s, embracing
the new auteurs of independent film.
Rank: 66
Release Year: 1940
Genre: Comedy
Plot
Summary: European dictator Adenoid Hynkel is leading his country towards
war. Meanwhile a poor and kind Jewish barber living in the slums bears a
striking resemblance to Hynkel. One day, the barber is mistaken for Hynkel.
What
Makes It Special: Silent-film auteur Charles Chaplin did something
extraordinary in 1940 – he made a film that both criticized and poked fun at
Adolf Hitler, while the United States was steadfast in its stance to stay out
of the war (most Americans believed that it was Europe’s war and that America
had no place in it, still reeling from the bad sentiment felt by many over
America’s role in WWI). Chaplin put his career on the line to justifiably and courageously
attack a man (who had been named Time’s Man of the Year in 1939) who was
brutally murdering and dehumanizing millions of people. This eventually
resulted in Chaplin being victimized by American authorities and eventually
deported. All that said, The Great Dictator is a brilliant political satire,
and even more than that an extremely funny Charlie Chaplin film. It is also magnificently
powerful and poignant. The final speech that the barber gives, posing as
Hynkel, is maybe the most moving in cinema history.
