In Contention

Tag: Breathless

  • My stance on foreign cinema

    Beauty and the BeastOn Independence Day, no less…

    There seems to a huge misconception on the site that I dislike foreign language films and know little about them. While it is no secret I love American cinema and praise it frequently, I do indeed believe great films are made around the globe, and try to see every one I can at the festivals I attend and the screenings I attend on a weekly basis. My love for foreign language cinema, admittedly, is not as deep as the one I have for American cinema (and remember, I am Canadian), but when I see a great one (which is often) I do indeed champion it.

    Foreign language films can be extraordinary experiences, though the acting styles differ, the cultures are often radically different, yet the storytelling techniques, for the most part, are the same, which is what makes cinema a universal language.

    If I recall, the first foreign language film I saw was “Beauty and the Beast,” which was a stunning work of art from French director Jean Cocteau that I saw as a child on a French TV station here in Canada. It was wildly imaginative, fantastical and stunning, a black and white beauty. I watched as many films on that station as I could, including “Breathless,” which I knew as a teenager was bold and brilliant, and “Jules and Jim” from Truffaut.

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  • TCM’s top 15 most influential classic movies

    MetropolisWell, here’s something I guess.  Rope of Silicon points us to TCM’s list of the top 15 most influential “classic” films of all time.  I actually started working up such a list for the site a while back but abandoned it for whatever reason.  It was going to include all comers, though, not just classic films.  They seem to be listed in chronological order over at TCM.com.  The 15:

    “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
    “Battleship Potemkin” (1925)
    “Metropolis” (1927)
    “42nd Street” (1933)
    “It Happened One Night” (1934)
    “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
    “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
    “Stagecoach” (1939)
    “Citizen Kane” (1941)
    “The Bicycle Thief” (1947)
    “Rashomon” (1950)
    “The Searchers” (1956)
    “Breathless” (1959)
    “Psycho” (1960)
    “Star Wars” (1977)

    My list certainly included most of those, which are by and large hard to argue with.  “Birth,” “Battleship,” “Metropolis,” “Night,” “Snow White,” “Wind,” “Kane” and “Star Wars” were definitely included in my tally.  If we were to extend it beyond the “classic” realm, I think we’d have to include “Jurassic Park” and the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.  “Toy Story” would have to have a secure place, while “Pulp Fiction” obviously sparked a revolution some would argue had roots in “sex, lies and videotape” (also a contender for an “all-time” list).

    Since TCM’s idea of “classic” obviously stretches into the late 1970s, I think it’s rather foolish to leave off “Jaws” and/or “The Godfather” considering what they meant to big business theatrical revenue before “Star Wars” came along.  And going way back, “The Great Train Robbery” had people running from the theater screaming after the final image of a bandit firing his gun at the camera.  There’s something to be said for one of the first films to enthrall like that.

    And what about “The Jazz Singer?”  How do you leave that title off a list of “classic” cinema?  I guess it had to be narrowed to 15 but there are a couple of films on that list that could have been bumped, I think.

    Let’s put it to the readership.  Assuming an “all-time” list rather than limiting it to the classics, what would you say have been the most influential films?  I could make a mean case for “Die Hard,” but I’ll anxiously await your input.  Rattle off your lists and maybe we’ll settle things with a series of polls.