Top 100 Films of the 20th Century – Part 19: 15-11

20-16

Rank: 15

Title: Seven Samurai

Release Year: 1954

Genre: Samurai

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shinura, Keiko Tsushima, Daisuke Kato, and Seiji Miyaguchi

Plot Summary: A poor village is under constant attack by bandits, so they hire seven unemployed samurai to defend the community.

What Makes It Special: It is easy to call Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai the greatest samurai film of all-time or the director’s most impressive masterpiece. The film is on one hand an epic action film that slowly builds to its brilliant and entertaining climax and on the other hand it is a beautiful piece about humanity. Kurosawa always played with richly textured characters, even when making what could be called a grand action film rather than a character drama; but Kurosawa balances it so well that it plays as both (when appropriate).

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 14

Title: Persona

Release Year: 1966

Genre: Thriller

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann

Plot Summary: Alma is a nurse put in charge of famous movie star Elisabet Vogler who is on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. At present, Vogler cannot even speak (this condition befalling her in the middle of her latest movie role). As Alma cares for her, she finds that her persona and Volger’s begin to blend, making it difficult to tell them apart.

What Makes It Special: Persona is a visually striking film – one that is also very unnerving and creepy. It is maybe the scariest film that was not made to be scary in the classical sense. Ingmar Bergman uses surreal and dreamlike imagery to both seduce and unhinge the viewer. Reality and illusion become indistinguishable. The film is raw, intimate, and unforgettable.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 13

Title: Tokyo Story

Release Year: 1953

Genre: Drama

Director: Yasujiro Ozu

Cast: Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, and So Yamamura

Plot Summary: An elderly couple decides to take a trip to the city to visit their children and grandchildren but find that the children are all too wrapped up in their own lives to take the time to be with them.

What Makes It Special: With Tokyo Story Yasujiro Ozu makes a film examines the post-WWII middle-class Japanese family dynamic. It is wholly compelling, as generational and personal barriers are put up and excuses made to limit true interaction between people, even those most beloved, all in the name of self-importance above all else (our own lives always feel more important than anything else to us). Ozu’s rigid directional style only exaggerates the space between characters. 1950s Japan was culturally very reserved, but Ozu is able to create a film that is still very powerful dramatically by really getting at the heart of what his characters feel and experience. Tokyo Story should feel foreign and yet its emotions, characters, and family dynamic resonate just as strongly today. Ozu addresses universal human truths that cross generations and cultures.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 12

Title: The Godfather: Part II

Release Year: 1974

Genre: Gangster

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, and Robert De Niro

Plot Summary: Michael Corleone takes tighter control of his family (crime syndicate); while back in the 1920s New York Michael’s father Vito gets his start as a gangster.

What Makes It Special: The Godfather: Part II is generally the film that comes to mind when critics discuss the best sequel of all-time – many even putting it ahead of The Godfather (although, I might retort that The Godfather: Part II’s narrative is dependent on The Godfather’s and thus is subservient to it). It is an astonishing character drama, as the audience seeing Michael transformation juxtaposed to his father’s. The film is also a stellar gangster genre piece, Francis Ford Coppola creating many iconic sequences and moments. It is magnificent aesthetically as well.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Rank: 11

Title: Taxi Driver

Release Year: 1976

Genre: Crime Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, and Cybil Shepherd

Plot Summary: Travis Bickle is a mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran who finds himself in New York working the night-shift as a taxi driver. The decaying city that Bickle perceives weighs heavily upon his subconscious driving him to violence. He also becomes infatuated with a young prostitute named Iris; thinking of himself as the hero, he wants to save her from her life on the streets.

What Makes It Special: Taxi Driver is a hypnotic film that plays in the darkness. The cinematography, score, writing, Martin Scorsese’s directing, and Robert De Niro’s performance are all stunning. Scorsese presents New York City as a cesspool (a common perception of the time period), creating feelings of extreme loneliness, anger, and paranoia in Travis Bickle’s mind. His isolation has a duality – it both makes him a sympathetic character for the audience to follow and maybe even root for and it drives Bickle mad and to violence as a means of push back against the oppressiveness of the city that seems to bleakly strangle him with its perceived corrupting filth. Bickle is sympathetic but also volatile and dangerous. Scorsese has created a hero who is also the villain with Bickle. Taxi Driver is a grim, unsettling look at humanity stripped of basic compassion, and it is electric.  

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

10-6

Martin Scorsese – Movies Spotlight – February 2010

Martin Scorsese is one of the best known and respected filmmakers of all-time. He is a student of cinema, constantly working to preserve its history. He has made a number of the finest films and continues to produce great work. His new film Shutter Island, staring Leonardo DiCaprio, has excellent buzz and is touted to be one of the best thrillers of the year.

Early Career:

Scorsese graduated from New York University’s film school in 1966 with an MFA in film and a BA in English and started working on his first feature film, I Call First, with fellow student and friend Harvey Keitel and long-time collaborator editor Thelma Schoonmaker. While it was only his first film, the Scorsese style was already apparent, including rapid editing, trouble protagonists that want to be accepted into society, New York City and Italian American life, gritty documentary style, unflinching realistic violence, rock music soundtracks, and long-term relationships with actors like Keitel and Joe Pesci. In the early 70s’ Scorsese became friends with the most influential young directors, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Brian (The Hack) De Palma, who incidentally introduced him to Robert De Niro. It was also during this time that he met John Cassavetes who became his mentor.

Collaborations with Robert De Niro:

Scorsese has made eight films with De Niro and they have an upcoming project called I Heard You Paint Houses in 2011. The first was Mean Streets in 1973. The year before, Scorsese had worked with producer Roger Corman, who had helped Coppola, James Cameron and John Sayles also launch their careers, on Boxcar Bertha. While the film was not a success, Scorsese learned from Corman how to make entertaining films for no money and without time. This, along with Cassavetes encouraging him to make movies he wanted to make rather than work on someone else’s project, prepared him for Mean Streets. The film was a breakthrough for Scorsese and actors De Niro and Keitel. The film also cemented his style (even though most of it was shot in LA). Next up, Scorsese and De Niro got together for Taxi Driver. The film followed a man’s decent into insanity and exhibited Scorsese’s talent as one of the top emerging directors of the time. The film also highlighted the work of De Niro and cinematographer Michael Chapman and would win the Palme d’Or (best film) at the Cannes film festival. The success of Taxi Driver allowed Scorsese to make his first big budget film, New York, NewYork, best remembered for its title song. A musical staring De Niro, made in the classic Hollywood style, the film was a complete failure (critically and box-office). The poor reception was not taken well by Scorsese and was attributed by critics to his style not working well within a studio setting. After taking some time, he returned to features with De Niro in Raging Bull. De Niro pulled Scorsese out of the slump he was in and convinced him to make the film. Thinking that he may never make another film, Scorsese poured all of himself into it, creating what is considered to be one of the top, if not the best, films of the 80s’, a master piece, and the height of his own personal style. It was also the breakout film for Pesci. De Niro and Scorsese then made The King of Comedy, which is a satire of media and celebrity also staring Jerry Lewis. It was a complete change of pace for Scorsese thematically and stylistically. As the film is surreal and is done with lots of long static takes. While the film was not a box office success at the time, it has picked up critical esteem in recent years. Scorsese considers it De Niro’s best performance in one of his films. The two took an eight year break from working with each other, which saw Scorsese receive mixed results in his work. Goodfellas marked their return to working together in 1990, a good thing as it proclaimed Scorsese’s reemergence as the talented confident director of Raging Bull (and it is my favorite of his films), thus restoring his reputation. All his acclaim back and he then goes and makes a remake: Cape Fear, based on the cult film from 1962. Interestingly, both films feature Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Scorsese and De Niro’s Cape Fear represents another attempt at appealing to the mainstream and Scorsese making a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock in this stylized thriller. The film only received mixed reviews and was criticized for its misogynistic violence, though it was his highest grossing film to date. The last collaboration (until this future project comes to fruition) was 1995’s Casino. While the film is loved by many fans, critics, at the time, were not as impressed claiming it to be too similar to Goodfellas stylistically. However, like with The King of Comedy, the film is now considered to be a top film for the director and one of the best of the decade.

Collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio:

Scorsese’s first film with DiCaprio was Gangs of New York, which began production in 1999 but was released in 2002. The film represented Scorsese’s biggest and most mainstream film of his career to date. The production of the film is rumored to have been troubled with creative arguments between Scorsese and then Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein. The film itself is mainstream and commercially accessible, and not one of his finer works. Scorsese’s final cut was 180 minutes, and the theatrical cut released was 168 minutes. Frequent collaborator, Elmer Bernstein’s score was rejected by Miramax and replaced by music from Howard Shore, U2 and Peter Gabriel. Ironically, while the film is not that good and likely has a compromised vision, it rendered Scorsese his first directing Golden Globe and was nominated for best picture at the Oscars. The Aviator was next for team Scorsese/DiCaprio. The film was both a critical and commercial success, garnering eleven Academy Award nominations but only winning five. The film (along with Catch Me If You Can) was also a breakthrough for DiCaprio who finally was able to shake the stigma of Titanic and could be again viewed as a serious, and good, actor. For the third film in a row, Scorsese and DiCaprio again got together to make The Departed. Another remake (Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs), the film is highlighted by an all-star cast including Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen and Matt Damon. It opened to acclaim, called the best Scorsese film since Goodfellas, while other ranked it with Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. It was finally Scorsese’s year. The film is his highest grossing film and at the 2007 Oscars he won his first best director Academy Award, which was presented to him by Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, as well as best film. It was his sixth time being nominated. This year’s Shutter Island marks their fourth consecutive (at least for Scorsese) film together. DiCaprio and Scorsese also have a number of future projects slated including: a remake of the French film Cache, a Frank Sinatra biopic, a Teddy Roosevelt biopic, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Documentaries:

Scorsese is also an accomplished documentary filmmaker. Here are a few of his best: The Last Waltz is a highly regarded piece chronicling the final concert by The Band. The set takes place in San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and features a number of guests, like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters. My Voyage to Italy catalogs and reviews the history of Italian cinema focusing on films of Roberto Rossellini. The film also talks about how these films influenced Scorsese’s own work, particularly the Italian neorealism period. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan traces the life of Dylan and his impact of American culture and pop music. The film concentrates on a period between his arrival in New York in 1961 and his retirement from touring in 1966, encapsulating the songwriter’s rise to fame and the controversy surrounding his switch to rock music.

Future Projects:

Along with the future colabos with De Niro and DiCaprio, Scorsese also has a George Harrison documentary upcoming as well as Silence and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Silence is about two Jesuit priests who face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to spread the gospel. The film is slated to star Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a mystery set in Paris involving an orphan, his late father and a robot; there is no cast yet announced.

Martin Scorsese Box Set (Selected Filmography/Career Highlights):

1.)                Mean Streets (1973) – [DVD]

2.)                Taxi Driver (1976) – [Blu-ray/DVD]*

3.)                The Last Waltz (1978) – [Blu-ray/DVD]

4.)                Raging Bull (1980) – [Blu-ray/DVD]*

5.)                The King of Comedy (1982) – [DVD]

6.)                Goodfellas (1990) – [Blu-ray/DVD]*

7.)                Casino (1995) – [Blu-ray/DVD]

8.)                The Aviator (2004) – [Blu-ray/DVD]

9.)                No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) – [DVD]

10.)            The Departed (2006) – [Blu-ray/DVD]*

* Editor’s picks