griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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In the summer of 1960 anthropologist filmmaker Jean Rouch (Moi, un noir, Lcs maitres fous) and sociologist Edgar Morin set out to chronicle the everyday lives of Parisians using a mixture of intimate interviews, debates and observation.

Artists, factory workers, office employees, students and others open up to the camera to share their experiences, fears and aspirations. The result became one of the most influential films of the sixties, and redefined the documentary form.
Rouch, whose work inspired the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Roberto Rossellini, trained his ethnographic lens on the metropolis, recording a series of extraordinary sequences, including a French survivor's Holocaust testimony, to reveal the political underlying the personal in a society struggling into the post-colonial era.

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Perhaps the crowning achievement of Bunuel's career, the film centres on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal).

Before she is allowed to take her final vows, the Mother Superior requests that she visit her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who has "selflessly" provided for the girl over the years. Having always considered him an unspeakable beast, she is surprised when he graciously welcomes her into his home. Just as graciously, he sets about to corrupt Viridiana beyond redemption - all because the girl resembles the wife that died on their wedding day.

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In a vast and opulent hotel, an unnamed man (Giorgio Albertazzi) attempts to persuade a similarly unnamed married woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they have not only met before, but they were also romantically involved and had planned to escape together.

The woman recalls no such encounter and so begins a sensual and philosophical examination into the uncertainty of truth.

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Move Over, Don Juan and Casanova - you've got competition from none other than Herbert H. Heebert. After being jilted by his gal, a depressed Herbert swears off romantic entanglements and is determined to live his life as a confirmed bachelor.

However, he then finds employment at a Hollywood boardinghouse for women - and the female residents go wild over the newly hired help! And that's when the hapless Herbert graduates from being a simple handyman to becoming The Ladies Man!

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The Exiles chronicles one night in the lives of a group of young American Indians living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles.

Based entirely on interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows this group of exiles -transplants from Southwest reservations - as they flirt, drink, party, fight, and dance. With its vivid, high-contrast blade and white photography, and soundtrack by The Revels, Kent Mackenzie's gritty, frills-free depiction of this marginalised Los Angeles community draws comparisons to John Cassavetes, Charles Burnett and Vittorio De Seta.

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Paul Newman heads a superb cast featuring Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie in this riveting film that received an Academy Award nomination as Best Picture of 1961 and brought all four of its stars Oscar nominations.

Newman is electrifying as Fast Eddie Felson, an arrogant, amoral hustler who haunts back street pool rooms fleecing anyone who'll pick up a cue. Determined to be acclaimed as the best, Eddie seeks out the legendary Minnesota Fats, who's backed by Bert Gordon. The love of a lonely woman could turn Eddie's life around, but he won't rest until he bests Minnesota Fats, no matter what price he must pay.

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Blake Edwards' screen adaptation of Truman Capote's novella stars Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, an eccentric high-class escort working in New York.

Rubbing shoulders with Hollywood agents and wealthy politicians at glamorous parties, Holly plans to marry into money and save up to help support her brother who is due to return from the army. However, when young writer Paul Varjak (George Peppard) - the kept man of a wealthy older woman - moves into Holly's apartment block, the pair soon find their worlds turned upside down.

Deanie (Natalie Wood) is a teenager eager to do what's right in her 1920s Kansas town. But the emotions she shares with boyfriend Bud (Warren Beatty) are too strong. Soon the conflict between respectable behavior and human desire will push Bud to physical collapse. And Deanie to madness.

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A schizophrenic girl (Harriet Andersson) sinking into madness, is the focal point for the emotions of three men - her husband (Max Von Sydow) a doctor, who is helpless to cure her, her father (Gunnar Bjornstrand), who is horrified to find that he can watch her disease with complete detachment, and

her brother (Lars Passgard) for whom she represents the mysterious attractiveness of the opposite sex. A crisis is reached when, after a number of hallucinations, she seduces the boy.

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The Greatest Love Story Ever Told...in the most acclaimed musical of all time...! Experience every sensational song, dazzling dance number and magical movie moment of 'West Side Story' as never before, in sparkling high definition with pure digital sound.

A triumph on every level, this electrifying musical sets the ageless tragedy of 'Romeo and Juliet' against a backdrop of gang warfare in 1950s New York. Featuring an unforgettable score, exuberant choreography and powerful performances by Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, West Side Story will forever resonate as a true cinematic masterpiece.

New York beat cronies slumbering through Harry Smith, Burroughs and Ginsberg, University Columbia, Colombia, or the crazy is just what we need, not to "explain" tears in the fabric but to widen them with signs of solidarity that engage with the spiritual every day.

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Spanning two decades at the start of the 20th century, "Jules and Jim" follows the lives of two inseparable friends - timid German, Jules (Oskar Werner), and gregarious Parisian, Jim (Henri Serre) - and their shared love of the beautiful, capricious Catherine, played in mesmerising, luminous style

by Jeanne Moreau. Overcoming the destructive rift of World War I the trio create a new life for themselves, away from the structures imposed by society. But as the idyllic menage a trois begins to succumb to jealousy and rivalry their idealised existence finds itself slowly buckling under pressure. Frequently hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, "Jules and Jim" is a dazzling, boldly original tale of love, friendship and the vagaries of history that combines romance, comedy and tragedy in breathtaking, near-perfect dramatic harmony.

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One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue, 'La Jetee' and 'Sans Soleil' couldn't seem more different - but they're the twin pillars of an unparalleled and uncompromising career in cinema.

Filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, videographer, and digital multimedia artist, Chris Marker challenged moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his investigations of time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. These two films - a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan - remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

La Jetee (1962)
This unique film was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 'Twelve Monkeys'. It is a cinematic landmark using black and white stills almost entirely to narrate the story. Set in Paris destroyed by a third world war, the survivors have been forced to retreat underground where scientists conduct strange time travel experiments to escape from a terrible present to a better past or future...
Sans Soleil (1983)
Director Chris Marker takes the viewer into a different dimension, weaving footage from Japan, Africa, Iceland, France and the USA to produce a study of 'the dreams of the human race'. He is particularly attracted to the two extremes of Japan and Africa, and discusses the images that he creates with the woman, ever mindful of the astonishing store of memory he has created.

A shockumentary consisting of a collection of mostly real archive footage displaying mankind at its most depraved and perverse, displaying bizarre rites, cruel behavior and bestial violence.

Agnes Varda's classic 'Cleo from 5 to 7' from 1962 manages to successfully capture Paris at the height of the sixties in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a biopsy test result.