griggs's - Roger Ebert's Great Movies List
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Nights of Cabiria (1957)Le Notti Di Cabiria
Welcome to a bittersweet world of episodic adventures and strange encounters. Welcome to a sordid, nocturnal world of ruthless, callous boyfriends and stray movie stars looking for seedy kicks. Welcome to the harsh, unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome where hope can still prevail and dreams cradle the lost. Welcome to the world of Cabiria, a feisty, loud, outspoken and somewhat naïve prostitute waiting for a miracle, and one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters of European cinema. Eventually remade in Hollywood as 'Sweet Charity', 'Nights of Cabiria' is a often humorous, poignant, unflinching and vivid portrait of one woman's picaresque existence and her perseverance through adversity. Starring Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, as the irrepressible protagonist, 'Nights of Cabiria' marked Fellini's last foray into gritty neo-realism before venturing into the surreal satire and dream logic of 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Eight and a Half'. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi
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Nosferatu (1922)Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Made in 1922, on location in the Carpathians and several Baltic Towns, Nosferatu is in all but name Bram Stokers Dracula with the lead names changed. Starring Max Schrek as Nosferatu the film relies heavily on lighting, shadow and pictorial compensation. Following closely Bram Stokers novel. Stokers wife took offence and won her case against the producers forcing them to destroy all prints. Luckily a couple survived. - Director:
- F.W. Murnau
- Cast:
- Max Schreck, Greta Schröder, Ruth Landshoff
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Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
It is 1850 in the beautiful, perfectly kept town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is about to leave on a long journey over the Carpathian Mountains to finalise real estate arrangements with a wealthy nobleman. His wife Lucy (Isabel Adjani) begs him not to go and is troubled by a strong premonition of danger. Despite her warnings, Jonathan arrives four weeks later at a large, gloomy castle. Out of the mist appears a pale wraith-like figure with a shaven head and deep sunken eyes who identifies himself as Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski) The events that transpire slowly convince Harker that he is in the midst of a vampire. What he doesn't know, however, is the magnitude of danger he, his wife and his town are about to experience as victims of the Nosferatu. - Director:
- Werner Herzog
- Cast:
- Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz
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Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) gains notoriety when her father, a Nazi spy is convinced of treason against the US following World War II. At a party thrown soon after, Alice meets a handsome stranger named Devlin (Cary Grant) who reveals after a clash of wits and temperament that he is a U.S. Intelligence Agent. Because she has fallen in love with the dashing FBI Agent, Alicia is persuaded into helping Devlin trap and catch Nazi mastermind Alex Sebastian. The more she gets involved in her work, the more at risk she becomes... - Director:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
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On the Waterfront (1954)Bottom of the River / Crime on the Waterfront / The Hook / Waterfront
Marlon Brando gives one of the screen's most electrifying performances and was named Best Actor at the 1954 Academy Awards for this film. Ex-fighter Terry Malloy (Brando) could have been a contender, but now toils for boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) on the gang-ridden waterfront. Terry is guilt-stricken, however, when he lures a rebellious worker to his death, but it takes the love of Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the dead man's sister, to show Terry how low he has fallen. When his crooked brother Charley the Gent (Rod Steiger) is brutally murdered for refusing to kill him, Terry battles to crush friendly's underworld empire. - Director:
- Elia Kazan
- Cast:
- Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
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When free-spirited petty crook Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the state mental hospital, his contagious sense of disorder jolts the routine. He's on the side of a brewing war, soft-spoken, coolly monstrous Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) on the other. At stake is the fate of every patient on the ward. - Director:
- Milos Forman
- Cast:
- Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman
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Ordet (1955)The Word
A tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love, Ordet is an extraordinary expression of spiritual optimism without being either sentimental or pious. Religious intolerance and family tensions lie at the heart of the film, which explores the clash between orthodox religions and true faith. Dreyer achieves its powerful effects in deceptively simple ways, and has produced, in its closing moments, one of the most extraordinary scenes in all cinema. - Director:
- Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Cast:
- Birgitte Federspiel, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Hanne Agesen
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Orphee (1950)Orpheus / Orphée
The magical retelling of the Orpheus myth turns the lyre-playing singer of Greek legend into a famous left bank poet in post-war Paris. Fallen our of favour and lost for poetic inspiration, Orphee (Jean Marais) becomes obsessed with a mysterious black-clad princess who first claims the life of a rival poet, and then Eurydice (Marie Déa), his wife. With its unforgettable imagery-the dissolving mirror throughout which characters pass into the next world, the leather-clad, death-dealing motorcyclists, and Cocteau's magical special effects, 'Orphee' is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of a dream. - Director:
- Jean Cocteau
- Cast:
- Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares
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Manic stunt work, elaborate sight gags and mind-boggling mechanical comedy are just some of Keaton's work featured in these movies. Known the world round as the 'Stone' face comedy actor, with charming moments of intimate humour flavoured with rich pathos, uniquely graceful and characteristically hilarious. That's Buster Keaton'
Our Hospitality
Keaton plays a New Yorker who returns to his roots in the South and finds himself involved in a feud between his family and those of the woman he loves. Packed with superb visuals and sight gags including a train journey, which has to be seen to be believed.
Sherlock Junior
A mild mannered theatre projectionist dreams of becoming a great detective when he enters the film he is projecting! This is one of Keaton's finest masterpieces which within its fourty-four minutes manages to present a dazzling display of cinematic inventiveness, non-stop comedy and dare-devil stunts.- Director:
- John G. Blystone
- Cast:
- Joe Roberts, Ralph Bushman, Craig Ward
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Out of the Past (1947)Build My Gallows High
Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas star in this quintessential film noir which catapulted Mitchum into superstardom and set the standard for the genre for years to come. When Kathie Moffett (Greer) shoots her admirer, Whit Sterling (Douglas), a big-time gambler, and absconds with $40,000 of his money, Starling hires private detective Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) to find her. Bailey leaves New York and catches up with Kathie in Mexico. Kathie denies taking the money and after falling for her charms, Bailey notifies Sterling that he could not find her. - Director:
- Jacques Tourneur
- Cast:
- Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
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Pale Flower (1964)Kawaita Hana
In this cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave, a yakuza, fresh out of prison, becomes entangled with a beautiful yet enigmatic gambling addict; what at first seems a redemptive relationship ends up leading him further down the criminal path. Bewitchingly shot and edited, and laced with a fever-dream-like score by Toru Takemitsu, this gangster romance from Masahiro Shinoda (Samurai Spy, Double Suicide) announced an idiosyncratic major filmmaking talent. The pitch-black 'Pale Flower' is an unforgettable excursion into the underworld. - Director:
- Masahiro Shinoda
- Cast:
- Ryô Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Takashi Fujiki
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Pan's Labyrinth (2006)El laberinto del fauno
Visionary director Guillermo del Toro creates a unique, richly imagined epic with Pan's Labyrinth, a gothic fairy tale set against the postwar era of Fanco's Spain. Pan's Labyrinth unfolds throught the eyes of Ofelia, a young girl uprooted to a remote military outpost commanded by her new stepfather. Powerless and lonely in a place of great danger, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both otherworldly and human after she discovers a neglected labyrith behind the family home. There she meets Pan, a fantastical creature who challenges her with three tasts which he claims will reveal her true identity. - Director:
- Guillermo Del Toro
- Cast:
- Ivana Baquero, Pablo Adán, Ariadna Gil
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Pandora's Box (1929)Die Buchse der Pandora
Adapted from a pair of plays by Frank Wedekind, 'Pandora's Box' tells the story of sex worker Lulu (Louise Brooks), a free spirit whose open sexuality breeds chaos in its wake. When Lulu's latest lover, the newspaper editor Dr. Ludwig Schdn (Fritz Kortner), announces plans to leave her to marry a more respectable woman, Lulu is devastated. Cast in a musical revue written by Schon's son, Aiwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu seduces Schon once more - only to have their tryst exposed, and Schon's plans for a more socially acceptable marriage shattered. Left with no choice but to marry Lulu, Schon meets with tragedy on their wedding night. Lulu stands trial for the incident, facing years of imprisonment. With the aid of her former pimp (Carl Goetz), an infatuated lesbian countess (Alice Roberts) and Aiwa, she flees toward a fate of increasing squalor and peril, finally crossing paths one Christmas Eve with Jack the Ripper. - Director:
- Georg Wilhelm Pabst
- Cast:
- Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer
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Out of nowhere, a gaunt man in a dark suit and a red baseball cap appears tn the burning heat of the desert between the US and Mexico. Travis (Harry Dean Stanton). He drinks the last sip from his water bottle, then he moves on, doggedly, into the inhospitable area that the locals call "The Devil's Playground". Travis might seem to be mute and amnesiac, but he's driven by the desire to reconnect with his family. - Director:
- Wim Wenders
- Cast:
- Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)La passion de Jeanne d'Arc
One of the most emotional film experiences of any era, Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' is a miracle of the cinema, an enigmatic and profoundly moving work that merges the worlds of the viewer and of saintly loan herself into one shared experience of hushed delirium. Drever's film charts the final days of Joan of Arc as she undergoes the debasement that accompanies her trial for charges of heresy - through her imprisonment and execution at the stake. - Director:
- Carl Theodor Dreyer
- Cast:
- Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley
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