Sansho the Bailiff
An emotionally devastating film, this movie proves that how you film is more important than what you film. The plot of parents and children separated during childhood and then reunited has been done so often. But, Mizoguchi through the long shots, fluid camera movements and eschewing close-ups creates deep emotional resonance without a hint of melodrama. The wonderful play of light and shadows created through beautiful black and white photography and the heart-rending lament of the mother at the end stays with the viewer for a long time.
Persona
Ingmar Bergman is one of the most spiritual of all directors and what makes him special is his strong female protagonists and deep insights into the human soul. Superficially, Persona is about an actress who stops to speak on seeing the atrocities in Vietnam on TV and her nurse who feels compelled to share her deepest thoughts and life experiences with her. It features arguably the greatest actress of all-time, Liv Ullmann.
My Life to Live
Godard is one of the most influential filmmakers of all-time and though Breathless may be even more revolutionary, this film combines his madcap innovations, emotional resonance and the mystical presence of Anna Karina. It seems that the camera and the director have a life of their own apart from the plot and the characters. In the long opening sequence, the camera is more interested in filming the small restaurant as a whole than only the protagonists, even as we hear their conversation.
The General
One of the greatest aesthetic delights of films has to be the face of Buster Keaton. His seemingly otherworldly stuntmanship and elaborate set pieces that he devised go well beyond the façade of comic movies. The epithet, Stone Face, does no credit and the only way to describe his expressive face is melancholia without a hint of melodrama. This in the era of silent movies. And the scene in which he sits completely unaware, moving with the rail engine like a miniature giant wheel has to be seen to be felt.
Unfaithfully Yours
Preston Sturges was a genius who burnt so brightly during his short period in Hollywood that his luminosity is still being felt. Most remarkable in his laugh-a-minute riots was his ability to skirt around moral landmines, with the nimbleness of a ballerina. Choosing a movie from his oeuvre is a very tough task but this film must take the cake for sheer bravado. Telling the morbid story of a husband’s imagination of his wife’s murder with the perfect marriage of classical music with visuals, with broad comedy always lurking under the surface, takes some talent.
Those that almost made it:
1. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Stalker
3. Charulata
4. Ikiru
***
Karthikeyan is a finance professional who believes that art, especially movies, are the gateway to the understanding of life and man.
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