Rank: 10
Release Year: 1952
Genre: Musical/Comedy
Plot
Summary: With the advent of sound, the transition for silent film
companies and actors is a bit awkward, many left behind. Silent movie star Don
Lockwood is determined to make the jump, doing everything he can to succeed –
but will it all be enough.
What
Makes It Special: Singin’ in the Rain does what few musical do, and does
it extraordinarily well – it both puts on a brilliant show with grand,
wonderful, and even funny musical numbers and it tells a great story (a
cinematic imperative). Kelly, O’Connor, and Reynolds are fantastic, creating
many of cinema’s most memorable moments. Though this film came out over sixty
years ago, it still feels as fresh as ever and its music is just on the tip of
our tongues.
Rank: 9
Release Year: 1972
Genre: Gangster
Plot
Summary: Don Vito Corleone is facing a choice. He must decide who will
take over his crime syndicate. He has three sons to choose from: Sonny his
eldest is a hothead, Fredo is very ill-suited, and Michael is reluctant (having
never really taken an interest in the family business).
What
Makes It Special: The Godfather is the quintessential gangster film in
American cinema, building off all the great genre films that came before it
(like: Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, Scarface, White Heat, and The Big Heat),
creating a crime drama that is emotionally dense, with some of film’s most
iconic characters, moments, and aesthetics. In many ways, it is still the genre
film that all other genre films look up to and aspire to be.
Rank: 8
Release Year: 1963
Genre: Drama
Plot
Summary: While working on his latest film, film director Guido Anselmi
retreats into his memories and fantasies for inspiration.
What
Makes It Special: 8 ½ is Federico Fellini’s surrealistic narrative,
built on wonderfully evocative imagery. It is a film about creativity and
inspiration, which can come from anywhere. It also about embracing passions:
artistic, emotional, and physical. Simply, it is about life, and what we make
of it. Aesthetically, it is utterly compelling as Fellini blends fantasy,
memory, and reality into one continuous stream of consciousness. Life is
inherently chaotic – we grasp for meaning through our passions, but like Guido
we too can become overwhelmed as our own creativity is stymied by our own
assigning of meaning – if everything is meaningful then nothing is meaningful.
Fellini uses 8 ½ to project artistically the emotional turmoil of life (and
more specifically, one’s mid-life crisis, as one realizes that death is ever on
the horizon). It is smart, flashy, and essential.
Rank: 7
Release Year: 1939
Genre: Satire
Plot
Summary: At the onset of WWII, a rich French family throws a hunting
party for their friends. Everyone seems to be gracious, but they hide how they
really feel, often involving their poor servants in their tangled affairs. Theirs
is a frivolous existence.
What
Makes It Special: Jean Renoir released The Rules of the Game in 1939 to
an audience that was not ready to accept the truth about their decedent and
trivial lives and decaying culture. The film was a disaster critically and
commercially. Satirizing the dominate culture of one’s country is a bold move.
Renoir was fed up with the way the upper classes lead unsubstantial lives at
the cost of everyone else. Following WWII and the advent of New Wave Cinema in
the 1950s-1960s in France, his film finally found its audience and has been
regarded as a masterpiece ever since. The film works very well as a romantic
dramedy, but it is also very cynical towards its characters. In fact, Renoir
actively seems to detest them. It is funny, biting, and dramatically resonate.
Rank: 6
Release Year: 1979
Genre: War Drama
Plot
Summary: During the Vietnam War, American soldier Captain Willard is
tasked with a dangerous mission. He must travel deep into the jungle of
Cambodia to assassinate a renegade U.S. colonel. Kurtz has set himself up as a
god among a local tribe. It is a journey into the darkness of man’s heart.
What
Makes It Special: Francis Ford Coppola almost killed himself making his
adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The production was marred with
delays, tragedy, and hardship; but, Coppola emerged with something magnificent
and utterly compelling and absorbing (the documentary chronicling the making of
the film Hearts
of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is very good as well). The film goes
down the rabbit hole, showcasing the horrors that man’s heart is capable. It is
beautifully filmed (Vittorio Storaro’s
photography and lighting are wondrous) and acted. It is wholly iconic.
