Guaporense's certified greats

Looking back at my top 100 thread, where I posted a list that I had elaborated in December 2012, I noticed that there were many movies among the 126 movies I listed there that I wouldn't consider top of the line stuff.

Given my state of ignorance relative to cinema (for instance, I have only watched 3 Bresson films, 9 Ozu films and 4 Kobayashi films), over the past 4 months I have watched several movies that I consider superior to many of those movies I listed as my favorites, thus I think that I would make a thread preserving these movies, which I think deserve a full because they managed to touch my soul.

All the movies listed here are unranked and are what I consider to be top of the line stuff: I wouldn't disagree with people putting any these films as their favorites of all time.

Also, all the movies here are those that I have watched relatively recently, so my impressions of these movies are all fresh. Differently from some movies that I listed in my favorites, some of which that I have watched over a decade ago.

So here are movies that I watched recently which I would rate .

Certified films:

1) Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer), 1943
2) The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), 2006
3) Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu), 1953
4) Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki), 2004
5) La Jetée (Chris Marker), 1962
6) Eraserhead (David Lynch), 1975
7) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica), 1948
8) Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal (Kazuhiro Furuhashi), 1999
9) Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica), 1952
10) Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone), 1984
11) City Lights (Charles Chaplin), 1931
12) Evangelion 2.0 (Hideaki Anno), 2009

Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer), 1943



What an impressive movie. Made in a beautiful black and white cinematography during the German occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, the film reflects the state in which the world had come at the time. Lacking any comedy and slowly paced, it is not a movie for the casual film fan but for those that are serious about cinema this is a must watch.



Some of the scenes have an almost overwhelming dramatic firepower. So great that made watching it a devastating emotional experience. The beauty of what film critics call the compositions is also a factor of note.



The score is also beautiful and heavy, a quality that I greatly admire.

Im definitely looking forward to this! You have a great taste in film imo. Nice start with Day of Wrath. Keep up the good work.

The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), 2006



Made on a tiny budget of 2 million dollars, this film proves that even today to make a great movie one doesn't need that much money. This German movie is one of the most powerful films made about the division of Germany (Berlin Wall, etc) and the whole Cold War.



It features all around impressive performances by the actors involved and is a movie build in on a rich collection of layers of emotional texture. By the time
of the climax I was greatly immersed into the movie.



These movies about the 20th century, from World War I, to World War II to the Cold War, always have that certain historical magic, specially the ones made by those that were at the center of it.



Germany is a country at the center of the 20th century and so the fact that everything happened there gives their historical movies a certain "magic" that I often find lacking in movies made in other countries about the same events.



I re-watched this movie yesterday and it was as good as the first time. So I certified this movie a .

I can't deny that The Lives Of Others is a quality film and I wanted to like it considering that I like history,dramas and some German films but sadly,I found this one boring.

Day of Wrath is undoubtedly a great masterwork of Dreyer. Only Passion of Joan of Arc tops it in my book. The Live of Others I find a very powerful movie in particular. Especially the ending that really impressed me.

Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu), 1953



This Japanese movie made 8 years after the country's defeat in the Second World War is easily one of the most emotionally exhausting two hours of film I ever watched. A true masterpiece and one of the movies which I wouldn't disagree if were considered the best ever made (a movie that I found significantly superior to Citizen Kane and Vertigo, for instance, other two movies usually considered among the three or four greatest movies ever). This is true top of the line stuff thanks to Ozu's talents.



This film really feels like real life as nobody else manages to do that as good as Ozu (though Takahata managed to really copy Ozu's style in his anime masterpieces, Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday). All Ozu's movies have that distinctive feeling of real domestic life and Tokyo Story uses that distinctive realism to maximum dramatic effect. Easily one of my top 2 favorite Ozu films, if not the one.



There isn't anything else that reaches deeper into the soul than Tokyo Story and probably very few other films that manage to equal it.

Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki), 2004



One of the two or three most gorgeous animated film ever made, Howl's Moving Castle is worth watching just for it's images but combined with the other elements it is also one of the few movies that I could certify a full .



Miyazaki is an artist without equals in his field of animation both in technical terms (his films show the best depiction of flowing motion in animation IMO) and in more general terms. Nobody else manages to equal his immersive quality, which makes his films so touching.



The plot in this movie is not told in a linear fashion, which makes it less accessible than Miyazaki's other movies, some critics even said that it was "a mess" and gave the movie mediocre scores (such as Roger Ebert review, who said it was one of Miyazaki's worst movies), but after watching it three time I still loved it. Miyazaki said that stories don't need to be told in a linear fashion and here he told one in a very experimental fashion. Incredibly, the film still made over 22 billion yen on the Japanese box office, making it one of the biggest blockbusters in Japanese history.



Also note how pseudo-European in visual style are some Ghibli movies, Howl's Moving Castle is set in a land that looked like it came out from a RPG computer game set in pseudo-19th century Germany with some retro-science fiction elements.

Can we just all take a moment to recognize how awesome a name the director of The Lives of Others has?

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"Puns are the highest form of literature." -Alfred Hitchcock

How many times in how many different threads are you going to talk about your love of Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli?

We get it. Really. We do.

So, perhaps you should focus on movies that you haven't talked about a million times already. Just a suggestion.

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La Jetée (Chris Marker), 1962



Running at only 28 minutes, La Jetée is possibly my favorite short film. A true work of art, this is a film that consists of a sequence of photographs with a narration.



It is a movie without any flaw or defect in it's sublime 28 minutes. Considered one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time and I agree.



It is also a wonder of low budget cinema, Marker didn't film it because he didn't have a camera and as result the movie probably came out as a superior work of art that way.



The also excellent Gillian film, 12 Monkeys is based on the ideas developed first on La Jetée, though the original is an even greater film.

La Jetee is wonderful. It's almost funny how a short moving picture features less than a minute (maybe less than 30 seconds) of actual moving images and still works better than most other short films.

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~ I am tired of ze same old faces! Ze same old things!

Eraserhead (David Lynch), 1975



Among of the most horrifying and beautiful movies I ever watched, Eraserhead is a true work of art.



Very few movies left an impression as deep on me than Eraserhead.



It features one of the ugliest creatures ever depicted on film, the protagonist's "baby", a very strange looking creature that looks like an oversized fetus:



And many very strange things:



Overall, an extremely impressive movie and one that I give a certified .

I watched La Jetee the other week and agree with you about it's brilliance. The few seconds where we see the woman's face (eyes) move are pure magic. Eraserhead I have ready to watch and I really must soon, been meaning to for ages as a massive Lynch fan, I'm sure I'll love it.

By the way I reckon in the first post you should link to the posts in this thread, build up a list/index

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While I like Vertigo better, Tokyo Story is by far a better movie. The simple fact that in can accomplish so much with so little is a testament to the talent in front of and behind the camera.

Also do not watch Eraserhead in a dark room in the middle of the damn night. Too creepy!

I had plans to make a thread of the same kind as this one for my certain + movies, but I think I'll wait another two years, when I have some more film experience for that.

I will certainly use this topic to watch some top movies that I overlooked in the past!

Everyone knows it was a premature baby, not a creature. That might explain why it looks like an oversized fetus.................................

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Isn't a premature baby a creature?

...

no.

it's a human.

Humans are creatures.