Lovely by Surprise (2007)

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Kirt Gunn
Cinematographer: Steve Yedlin
Composer: Shelby Bryant
Cast: Carrie Preston, Michael Chernus, Austin Pendleton, Dallas Roberts, Reg Rogers, Kate Burton, Richard Masur

Gunn’s beautifully acted and distinctively shot Kaufmanesque debut, combining three intertwining narratives (a woman struggles to kill off the main protagonist of her novel, her characters struggle to exist in and out of their fictional world, and a doleful car salesman struggles to deal with the loss of his wife) is a funny, imaginative, and very moving examination of loss and grief and the redemptive possibilities of the artistic process. Iain.Stott

A Night at the Opera (1935)

USA
Feature Film
Director: Sam Wood
Writers: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, James Kevin McGuinness
Cinematographer: Merritt B. Gerstad
Composer: Herbert Stothart
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter King, Siegfried Rumann, Margaret Dumont, Edward Keane, Robert Emmett O'Connor

Although probably the best of their post-Paramount work, and an hilarious film by itself, this entertaining yet overlong movie, in which Grouch, Chico, and Harpo cause havoc on an ocean liner and at the titular theatrical event, proves to be, never the less, merely diluted Marxian madness – if only we could cull all the non-Marx musical numbers and romantic nonsense that get in the way of the good stuff. Iain.Stott

L'Argent (1928)

France
Feature Film
Original Title: L'argent
Director: Marcel L'Herbier
Writers: Arthur Bernède, Marcel L'Herbier, Émile Zola
Cinematographers: Louis Berte, Jules Kruger, Jean Letort
Composer: Jean-François Zygel (2008)
Cast: Pierre Alcover, Marie Glory, Brigitte Helm, Henry Victor, Alfred Abel

Featuring a number of excellent performances – Alcover as an ill-dealing fat-cat, Glory as an angelic innocent, and Helm as a sexy femme fatale – L’Herbier’s visually arresting adaptation of Zola’s novel about fraud and deception in Parisian big business proves to be a gripping and unsettling work, which has had a great deal of influence on subsequent generations of film-makers. Iain.Stott

Sons of the Desert (1933)

USA
Short Feature Film
Director: William A. Seiter
Writer: Frank Craven
Cinematographer: Kenneth Peach
Composer: Marvin Hatley
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Dorothy Christy, Charley Chase

Laurel & Hardy’s finest feature (in fact, the only one of comparable quality to the best of their short works) – in which Ollie feigns illness in order for him and Stan to attend a convention of the eponymous lodge, in Chicago, whilst their wives think they are on a cruise to Honolulu – is a trouser soilingly funny film from beginning to end, without a single wasted moment, which also boasts perhaps Stan Laurel’s greatest performance (which is no mean feat). Iain.Stott

Silence (1971)

Japan
Feature Film
Original Title: 沈黙
Director: Shinoda Masahiro
Writers: Endo Shusaku, Shinoda Masahiro
Cinematographer: Miyagawa Kazuo
Composer: Takemitsu Tōru
Cast: David Lampson, Don Kenny, Matsuhashi Noboru, Kato Yoshi, Iwamatsu Mako

Shinoda’s film about humanism’s battle against the evils of religious fanaticism, religious persecution, and martyrdom - in which a pair of Portuguese Jesuit priests land on the shores of 17th century Japan, where Christianity is banned, attempting to spread the word of Jesus, but end up captured by the authorities - is a fascinating, harrowing, and uncompromising work. Iain.Stott

F for Fake (1974)

France/Iran/West Germany
Feature Documentary
Original Title: ?: About Fakes
Director: Orson Welles
Writer: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar
Cinematographer: François Reichenbach
Composer: Michel Legrand
Featuring: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving
Welles’s final film is a documentary of and about fraud and fakery, taking a look at the art forger Elmyr de Hory, notorious biographer Clifford Irving, as well as at Welles himself, which proves to be a fun, playful, and absorbing look at the role of the artist in a capitalist society. Iain.Stott

Killer of Sheep (1977)

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Charles Burnett
Cast: Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry, Jack Drummond
Taking an episodic view of everyday working class life in Los Angeles, portraying work (bleak), play (joyously authentic), and familial relationships (touchingly credible), Burnett’s ultra low budget feature debut, despite some slightly amateurish acting in some of the supporting roles, is an entrancing, poetic, and thoroughly convincing portrait of ordinary lives. Iain.Stott

The One-Line Review Presents “1000 Films from the First Century of Cinema that Every Self-Respecting Film-Buff Should See at Least Once”

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See also:

Jonathan Rosenbaum's 1000 Essential Films

Have You Seen...? - a Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thomson

The New York Times: The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made

They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

Halliwell's Top 1000 Movies

The Guardian: 1000 Films to See Before You Die

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Guide for the Film Fanatic by Danny Peary

Piero Scaruffi’s The Best Films of all Times

1000 DVDs to See

Sanderson Beck’s List of the 1,000 Greatest Movies in Alphabetical Order

The One-Line Review Presents “1000 Films from the First Century of Cinema that Every Self-Respecting Film-Buff Should See at Least Once”

I present a list, not of my own personal favourites, but a list of films that every serious filmlover should really see at least once. In fact, I rather disliked a number of films on the list, and many more were little more than diverting, but they are all films that have many admirers and/or have great historical or social value. And furthermore, I didn’t include many films that I admire greatly, simply because I am perhaps in the minority in doing so. That’s not to say that some subjectivity hasn’t crept in to my selection making, but for the most part, this is a list that goes some way towards definitiveness, or at least reaches for it in a fairly honest way.

Film-makers, actors, genres, major film-producing nations, movements – just about everything is covered. Of course, there’s bound to be one or two eyebrow raising omissions and the odd dubious inclusion, but for the most part this is a list that few will find inaccurate when measured against its rather inelegant but precise title.


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