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1. Michael Powell - The Red Shoes - The Black Narcissus - Peeping Tom 2. Orson Welles - Citizen Kane - Touch of Evil - The Magnificent Ambersons - The Trial 3. Carl Dreyer - The Passion of Joan of Arc - Day of Wrath - Vampyr 4. Stanley Kubrick - Lolita - 2001: A Space Odyssey - The Shining 5. David Lynch - Twin Peaks - Blue Velvet - Mulholland Drive
OMG thank you! She mentioned a Carl Dreyer film about vampires, but she didnt mention the title. Came to the comments to see if anyone mentoned it. Now I feel silly, haha!
Knowing your love for movies and for anyone else, I would like to suggest a few. I highly recommend Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Hidden Fortress. His cinematic style has a very nice flow and the way in which he tells the story visually is exceptionally interesting, especially in Rashomon. Hidden Fortress is another exceptional movie. My personal favorite are Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Hidden Fortress, in that order. If you dig old Japanese culture these would be enjoyable just for that alone. Another director I just have to mention is Andrei Tarkovsky. I mean this guy is like unearthly when it comes to everything before him. Solaris and Stalker are one of my all time favorites. Solaris takes the viewer through such a soulfull journey that is indescribable that you just can't forget the experience. And, his movie Stalker is magnificent start to finish with cinematography and story. The final scene is impeccable. I love it.
I recently watched two movies by Yorgos Lanthimos: Dogtooth and The Lobster. I don't think anyone else is as good at satire as he is. Both of these movies, especially Dogtooth, can drain one's soul and make you question the society. HE IS A GENIUS!!!
You immediately won my vote when the first film maker you mentioned was Michael Powell. He's responsible for some of the absolute masterpieces of tje 40s and 50s. 'Black Narcissus' and The Red Shoes' are so unique and extraordinarily flamboyant (in their own distinctive manners) that they can't be compared to anything else. Great to discover you love them!
Mike Leigh's "Naked" is also a good suggestion - the characters, the story, the dialogue and the cinematography - all of that is very interesting in "Naked".
Cannot talk about great film making without talking about Hitchcock I love the quote by William Friedkin, “ if you want learn about film, just watch Hitchcock”
Alien. Very few movies frighten me, but DAMN. #1 for me (the rest are not in order.) Jaws was pretty scary, but Alien was far worse. By an order of magnitude. The Thing. Oh brother. It was at the same time a tale of extraordinary courage in the face of doom. Predator. Yes, really. The antagonist was extraordinary, especially when you see it the first time. OMG. Terrifying and yet simultaneously awe-inspiring. The Exorcist. Ooooooooh. OMG. Especially the Director's Cut. What capped it was the ending. Extremely touching and life-affirming.
My favourite director working nowdays is probably Dennis Villeneuve (sure i'm writing it wrong). His movies are blockbusters but in the way blockbusters should be. Prisioners, Enemy, Sicario, Arrival, Bladerunner 2049, all really good, with a great balance between entertainment and deeper meanings. He also surrounds himself with great artists. Cinematography, sound design, it's all beautiful, all the time. Can't wait for Dune. Love your videos and love you. Keep up the good work
You are my Guru. I am now a fanatic over your reviews. Your knowledge and your humane insights are so unique and incredible. I do not hear this point of view from any other Reviewer. I love the work of Stanley Kubrick. I never predict a Kubrick film. Barry Lyndon is my favorite.
The first time I saw Black Narcissus I couldn't believe I'd never heard of the location where it was shot, it was so spectacular. I thought maybe this would be a great place to visit. Ends up they never left England to shoot it. It was all done at Pinewood Studios in London, except for the coda which was shot at some park in England that happened to have an Indian garden. Powell, Pressburger and the cinematographer Jack Cardiff were all geniuses. The acting in that movie was awesome too.
This is such a great clip - you really have a solid foundation for exploring your passion for film - wonderful recommendations. To have such appreciation for Michael Powell (love "The Red Shoes" and "Black Narcissus"), and also David Lynch, shows the kind of range that's most rewarding when it comes to a love of film, or any art form - music, painting, literature, etc. When they talk about style versus substance, I think you're an example of a beautiful balance of both. I appreciate your take on things - your passion reflects conviction and perception, without any flexing of ego. I think movies can make us feel things that we don't have names for, things we don't necessarily understand, or maybe even need to, but the most creative ones really become mirrors for us to see what's inside, even beyond what the filmmaker was even consciously expressing. By sharing your insights and passion you're opening yourself and providing some light in the world. Have you seen Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev"? That's a unique and beautiful film - it's my favorite Tarkovsky, a real epic.
@@deepfocuslenswatching Mirror during lockdown and then Andrei Rublev in a cinema once they had reopened (the PCC in London), were two of the most powerful movie-watching experiences of my life
That was a glorious kind of suggestion. I love these movies too. I was stunned when you mentioned Michael Powell. He is one of those underrated directors that apparently has made a serious impression on Martin Scorsese. David Bordwell has regarded him in "Film history, an introduction". I would recommend you to look through Abbas Kiarostami's Koker trilogy. Your voice which is clear and distinguishable to me as a foreigner reminds me, master critic Susan Sontag who is my idol figure in aesthetic.
As a long time cinefile myself I found this very interesting ... I share your love of Kubrick and Welles already and I've seen Mulholland Drive but I'll defo be checking out Powell, Dreyer and more of Lynch .. cheers !!
I just think that it needs some kind of "calling" to become a film lover, like a lover of anything. Everybody "loves" movies in the sense that everybody has seen them and enjoyed at least some of them. But how many people necessarily "love" the medium of film itself, or even think of films in those terms? It takes something extra for you to feel a special significance about films and the medium.
Spielberg was the first filmmaker I doscovered as a kid with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I love him for his explicit visuals and heart of love. He's one of a few directors who create excitement and pleasure through sheer visual images, along with Scott, Lean, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Welles, etc.
Comparing blockbuster director like Spielberg who uses green screen with no effort whatsoever to masters like David Lean, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles is disgraceful.
@@dawsondjodvorj2408 Had green screen been available at the time, those other directors would've used it, and Alfred Hitchcock used yellow screen, sodium vapor matte process, for The Birds!
Everyone should feel comfortable with what they like but Spielberg is not a great director. Not even close. The Duel and Jaws are excellent films but he and Scorsese can simply not be in the same conversation as the great directors of all time.
@@chrisballas3356 I mean he's great at the physical act of directing, maybe the best. However, maybe what you mean is he doesn't choose scripts with themes that would challenge him, to which I agree.
Kubrick supposedly was thinking of adapting Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian after Eyes Wide Shut. Unfortunately he passed away, but he is the only director who I instantly believe would have been capable of making something of such an unfilmable epic. I am not the biggest Kubrick fan, I do not connect with his characters as well, but he is certainly brilliant and makes great films about humanity as a whole.
I like your taste! When i got started in 2005, it was the likes of Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God), Fellini (8 1/2), Godard (Vivre sa vie), Antonioni (L'eclisse), Bergman (Wild Strawberries) Dreyer (Passion of Joan of Arc), Bunuel (The Discreet Charm), 2006 saw Jarman (Caravaggio) and Fassbinder (The Marriage of Maria Braun), Jodorowsky (El Topo), and so on. I've found that i gravitate more to mainstream classics now, genre stuff, had a Giallo, SOV, and now 50's to early 60's Science Fiction phase.
Yep, Mulholland Drive. The love scene with Rita and Betty is one of the tenderest, most beautiful scenes in modern cinema - all the more remarkable for the cynical times we live in. Brings tears to my eyes just recalling those voices in that quiet dark room...
When I started, my quintessential cinemaphile starter pack were: Jean Luc Godard- Vivre Sa Vie, Breathless, A Bande Apart (Band of Outsiders), and Pierrot Le Fou Ingmar Bergman- Persona (My fave film of all time), Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Through a Glass Darkly Orson Welles - Touch of Evil, Lady From Shanghai (my Favorite of His along with Citizen Kane), and The Stranger Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker, Solaris, The Mirror, and Andrie Rublev Federico Fellini - La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, La Strada, and Roma
Good taste, but most of these are not apt for the inexperienced watcher. I would streamline it to: Godard - Breathless, Bergman - Wild Strawberries, Orson Welles - Touch of Evil, Tarkovsky - Andrie Rublev, and Fellini - La Strada.
Touch of Evil is considered to be the last film noir. It's one of my favorite movies! That opening sequence was so brilliant, the lighting, the acting, Mancini's score. Great film!
It would be heaven to get a bunch of cinephiles together in a room and ask them, "Which films do you consider truly essential viewing for beginner cinephiles?" I would love to hear everyone's differing opinions. Good video with good suggestions!
Pretty good stuff :) Just a quick suggestion. Maybe for the future, if you make another reference video like this one, it'd be very helpful to have a list in the description with the films/directors you mentioned in the video. I tend to revisit videos like this if there's something that I want to explore in more detail, and a list like that really helps as a reminder.
My favourite filmmaker would have to be David Fincher. Probably the most contemporary filmmaker to choose but screw it, he's my favourite and has inspired me the most. LOVE Stanley Kubrick, I find it hard to love film and not like Kubrick. Though I can't speak a word about Kubrick in the household because my family hates his movies.
Edoardo Padoan Oh I know plenty who don’t like his works. My family goes on a tirade how he’s “boring” and “pretentious”. Yet when I criticise something, my brother immediately says “it’s not meant to be an Oscar worthy film” 😐
Maybe my favourite movie. Don't think it's underrated tho, it's probably the most beloved movie to come from Australia (tho Mad Max would be more known).
Stanley Kubrick will always be my favorite. Also loved Terry Gilliam (Monty Python alum)....I think he is equal in visuals, but Kubrick was a much better storyteller.
Nothing beats Stanley Kubrick, but David Lynch comes close. They are very different, but on many ways really similar also. Kubrick has many films in the top 10 of best films ever made, David Lynch's Twin Peaks the Return is the best thing that has ever come from TV.
@@dawsondjodvorj2408 I said "they are very different, but on many ways similar also", perhaps "... on certain ways similar also" would have been closer to the truth. On the surface they seem really far away from each other. But as someone that have been researching Kubrick for at least a thousand hours, and who thinks Lynch is the best director alive today, I can be fairly certain of my comment. I only said this so that either Lynch fans would get more interested on Kubrick, and vice versa.
@@juzujuzu4555 I get what you're trying to say. Lynch and Kubrick are different, yet alot similar too. Lynch is also one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. But Scorsese is the best working filmmaker now, atleast in my opinion.
@@dawsondjodvorj2408 It's easy to justify why Kubrick is the best of all time. But it's much harder to justify any other director being the 2nd best, or who is the best still working director. Twin Peaks the Return did so many things to me that nothing else have ever done. I get what Lynch tried to accomplish with that piece of art. I think he did the best possible job that one could do with all the limitations that returning to the story and with the characters after 26 years put on him. Lynch said that The Return needs to be seen with big screen (preferably OLED TV) on a darkened room, and with the best quality headphones/earpuds available. I had already seen the show when I bought the best earpuds money can buy ( reviews said that getting any better earpuds than 1more Triple Drivers, you need to +$500 ). And I rewatched the show, now also within darker room. I never could have imagined how much different that experience was. It was like watching a completely different show. I also watched Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire again. All improved by a mile. But The Return is in it's own league. I regarded Lynch really high before The Return, but that show changed everything. It's so complex that it's not far from Kubrick's best work.
Kobayashi's Harakiri, all the stuff from Lynch, Coppolla, Leone, Scorsese, Jodorowsky, Chinatown by Polanski(People hate to drop that directors name, but the film is superb), Michael Mann's Heat, Tarkovsky, Seven Samurai by Kurosawa, Park-Chan-Wook("Oldboy" especially),Memories of Murder and Parasite, 400 blows, Persona, Wong-Kar-Wai's Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, The Thing by Carpenter, Kubrick, I hate Jean-Luc-Godard with a fiery passion but I guess you should watch him too or something, also Last Year in Marienbad(Great kafkaesque vibe!).
Hey, I think I have already mentioned him to you once but I would suggest to you to check out the polish film director Wojciech j. Has, especially if you are into the esoteric stuff. The Hourglass Sanatorium and The Saragossa Manuscript are his masterpieces. David Lynch actually stated that The Saragossa Manuscript is one of his most favorite films.
One of my favourite quotes from a Powell film, A Matter of Life and Death, has an angel come to earth and sees colour all around him, and says: One of starved of technicolour up there
My top 4 favorite directors are The Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Terry Gilliam. I have plenty of other favorite directors like Nolan, Coppola, Tarantino, Cronenberg, Leone, Chaplin, Paul Thomas Anderson, Edgar Wright, Tim Burton, Nicolas Winding Refn, and so many more.
You forgot to mention the name of the last Dreyer film, but I know you're talking about Vampyr. I love that damn slow-moving half-nonsensical thing. :) It's just about perfect.
A real key to the great look of the Powell/ Pressburger films is the work of Jack Cardiff, one of the great technicolor DPs. He also worked on the African Queen, later becoming a director.
Mine is David Fincher but I also love Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick, Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Roman Polanski and there’s probably others I’m also forgetting lol
@@lizardpeople nice, I also really like Fincher, P.T. Anderson, Kubrick, and Lynch. I really recommend Terrence Malick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Jacques Tati, Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa and Paul Schrader.
Dang I already became a cinefile last year. I saw like 150 films last year. Most I have ever seen. Already seen 60 films this year. So I guess I got the quantity part down.
What do you think of P.T Anderson? He is my favourite director and I wouldn't mind seeing you review some of his films since he is an incredible artist and storyteller. Peter Weir is my second favourite, his films tell fascinating and intriguing stories with highly emotional content, especially Fearless which I would highly, highly recommend you to watch. It's my second favourite film of all time and it left me in an emotional daze for weeks after I saw it!
+deepfocuslens Magnolia is my favourite from him, and my No.1 film of all time. Have you also seen Mr. Nobody? That is a film you absolutely have to see because it is visually the most exquisitely beautiful film I have ever seen and it boasts an epic story that is philosophical and thought-provoking. It comes highly recommended by Sando the Mando!
Don't forget her recommendation to drop acid before seeing a movie. Maybe listen to some Fireside Theater to mentally warm up. .......Wow, man, this movie's heavy......l
Kubrick was a genius. But i totally agree with you, he was losing his ¨touch¨ over the years. Dr Strangelove is my favorite, and 2001: Space odissey is a masterpiece.But nobody can´t deny that movies like The Shining or Eyes Wide Shut were great too. Lynch is another god. Mulholland Drive It´s a heavy and complex film, but I think it is his best work with The Elephant Man (very different from the rest of his work, but it´s a beautiful movie) Have you seen any of andrei tarskovky films? I would like you to do a video about him, he was a great director, but his films are too thick,slow and hard to understand. I saw Solaris and I found it very difficult to follow. As always, it´s a pleasure to hear your comments!
Your videos and reviews are dope. The Forbidden Room was BAT-SHIT! Would have never seen it if it wasn't for you. Really would love to know how you feel about Martin Mcdonough and his films and plays. I think he's a genius.
Do you like foreign films like: The Pusher series? The Holy Mountain? Looking at your reviews and stuff we pretty much have similar taste in movies. I definitely suggest those 2, they are lots of fun to get lost in. My problem with movies is that I get really sucked into it and I want to "live it out" as well, vicariously. I know its corny. But anyways, here are the trailers for pusher and holy mountain last one is not a foreign film but directed by jodorowsky, however you spell his name): Pusher Series ( #1 is my favorite) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X6m9B-xk3sk.html Holy Mountain (trippy stuff) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bdXGhsAynGI.html I really enjoy your reviews, and will be checking out your suggestions as well!
I thought Tarantino was your favorite director? Or at least one of them. QT didn't even get a mention! I watched the whole video waiting for you to mention him but...nothing! haha its fascinating listening to you talk about movies by the way.I can see they mean a lot to you.
When I was younger Tarantino was one of my favorites. Now that I'm older I've moved passed that. I still respect him, but he's no longer one of my favorites.
I kind of understand that. Tarantino is really entertaining and he is a visual encyclopedia of films that have come before, especially from the exploitation genres. He introduced me to a deeper and bigger world that film occupied. Now I feel I have gone a layer deeper. Same could be said of the Coen Brothers. Now I am encountering Tarkovsky, Bergman, Wenders, Kurosawa, and so many others. I like this video here because it is sending me to some movies that I have skipped over, sadly, and need to get to.
Hello DFL, : ) I understand that you receive a lot of requests and that there are only so many hours in the day, but, *if*, by any chance, you have seen 'A Room with a View," I would love it if you were to ever to do a review of it. I am very interested to know what your opinion of that film would be.
Okay, cool. Thanks. *If* you do ever happen to set up an account, I would love it if you passed along the name of your account. If, of course, you were comfortable in doing so. It would be a nice, conveinent way to see what films you have seen, to get an overview of what your frame of reference is. And if you made specific lists, like a list of your favorites, it would be a great way to find films to check out that I haven't seen, yet.
Deep focus lens, you are the first person I've heard use the word quirky for Lynch. I don't think he would be flattered. I have heard a lot of people use the word quirky for the Coen brothers and I can assure you they're not flattered either. You seem to have an excellent command of the English language, a lot better than me, so you should not find it difficult to explain Lynch without using the word quirky.
+Quail Tail Pictures I can see that in some ways. Actually Mulholland Drive is meant to be more of a modern day Persona. It's pretty much the same concept.
xpallodoc Yeah, it happens a lot. I guess I don't have much of a problem with that. It's when the woman is always the damsel in distress that the man is trying to save that I start to have problems with it.
Mulholland Drive is truly a masterpiece of film making. I personally fell in love during that movie with Naomi Watts and became obsessed with her for a year which shows just how deep and disturbing a movie can be. It can change your life and this film changed mine.
+1 Mulholland Drive. One of the greatest of all time. John Vanderslice wrote a great song about it, called "Promising Actress": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-taF-1khCaWo.html
No Clockwork Orange? That's by far Kubrick's most interesting film in my opinion. I loved 2001 and the Shining as well, but a Clockwork Orange is so intense and beautifully shot and such an interesting social commentary.
