Billy Wilder is one of the great American writer/directors of the 20th century. He made films like The Apartment (1960), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Sabrina (1954), all considered to be classics. So, I found it strange that the comedy Some Like it Hot is his most revered and remembered film. I have only seen …
Category Archives: Sight & Sound Top 50
Gertrud
“A man’s work and the love of a woman are mortal enemies.” That is the thesis of the 1964 Danish film Gertrud. The film is composed of long shots, wide angles, and feels like it is taking place on a stage, much like a play. The actors are all delivering their monologues while staring …
Playtime
Playtime, the 1967 film by French comedy director Jacques Tati, might just be the first film on the Sight & Sound top 50 that I didn’t care for. How’s that for an intro? I can appreciate how elaborate the sets are and the big vision that Tati had to maintain to complete this film, …
Close-Up
I have seen several films in recent years where the line between documentary and narrative feature are blurred. I think my first foray into the format was 2011’s Richard Linklater film Bernie. In fact a lot of Linklater’s work has a documentary type feel (Boyhood, the Before Trilogy). This year alone there are a few …
The Battle of Algiers
I’ve come to realize as I have gotten older that war really has no winners, and both sides are likely in the wrong in some way. Perhaps this is why, in cinema, we are slightly obsessed with World War II. It is one of the few wars where the line between good and evil seems …
City Lights
I have, until this point, never seen a Charlie Chaplin movie. I haven’t even seen the 1992 Robert Downey Jr. biopic Chaplin. I know that he is a legend, especially of the silent film era, and that his most popular character, the Little Tramp, is in a lot of his most popular films. Even still, …
Ugetsu
I need to start this off with a confession. Old, black and white movies are hard for me sometimes. It’s not the kind of admission an aspiring film enthusiast should publish online, but there it is. I think it’s because most films of that era are staged with wide shots, have theater-like acting, and …
A Picture Worth 1,000 Words
There are several images or moments from my childhood that I can recall at a moments notice, to be brought up with a particular smell or when the lighting outside matches the lighting of the memory. Faces or moments kind of stick like images instead of video reels. I’m not sure if that is the …
The Sight & Sound Top 50 Plan
The british film magazine Sight & Sound has polled a large sampling of critics and filmmakers every decade since 1952. They simply ask them to pick the top movies of all time (an easy task). The last list was released in 2012 (The 50 Greatest Films of All Time). As I looked through it, I …
