Driving in the High Country
beneath the melted mountain,
seeing life edge by as barren trees,
picket fences enclosing sheep in pens.
the solitude of that earth, that sky
not real, not Summer tourists Christmas picnicing.
The memory was of one steep plain
and a shore where the sea came in
Given time, the ethereal feel of Ole,
a Danish student,
ocean hunting and high on heroin
will trespass as I have trespassed
on his solicitude.
Leaving us, coasters kiss the waves;
the throb of his engines,
the scent of peeling citrus in his galleys.
one of us the slave
the other, a lover
'There's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a red-headed girl'.
'Remembering all those sons of bitches who said we'd never get back up'
'And a screen without a picture since "Giant" came to town'
Worst Film Critic
Andrew Sarris - I don't know why Andrew Sarris bothered. He seemed to me to be a film critic who didn't like films, just the sound of his own voice as he rubbished almost every decent director in the history of movies in his so-called 'bible' 'The American Cinema'
Best Film Critic
David Thompson - Anyone who doesn't already own a copy of Thompson's 'Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema' should rush out and buy one as Thompson is by far the most enlightened, (and enlightening), critic the movies have seen. While he can puncture the most inflated ego with one cutting remark, unlike Sarris, he actually does seem to love movies and those whom he has championed should be forever in his debt
MY TOP 250 FILMS
1 PSYCHO (Hitchcock 1960)
2 SINGIN IN THE RAIN (Donen/Kelly 1952)
3 VIRIDIANA (Bunuel 1961)
4 PATHER PANCHALI (Ray 1955)
5 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Welles 1942)
6 CITIZEN KANE (Welles 1941)
7 THE GODFATHER PART 2 (Coppolla 1974)
8 THE QUIET MAN (Ford 1952)
9 LES VANCANCES DE M HULOT (Tati 1953)
10 L'AVVENTURRA (Antonioni 1960)
11 DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (Bresson 1950)
12 LA REGLE DE JEU (Renoir 1939)
13 BICYCLE THIEVES (De Sica 1948)
14 BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Eisenstien 1925)
15 INTOLERANCE (Griffith 1916)
16 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Kubrick 1968)
17 CASABLANCA (Curtiz 1942)
18 VERTIGO (Hitchcock 1958)
19 THE DEAD (Huston 1987)
20 MADAME DE ... (Ophuls 1953)
21 LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (Carne 1945)
22 THE SEARCHERS (Ford 1956)
23 THE SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa 1954)
24 ORDET (Dryer 1955)
25 PERSONA (Bergman 1966)
26 SALVATORE GUILIANO (Rosi 1961)
27 THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Lubitsch 1940)
28 LAWERENCE OF ARABIA (Lean 1962)
29 SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (McKendrick 1957)
30 NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Laughton 1955)
31 THE CROWD (Vidor 1928)
32 TOUCH OF EVIL (Welles 1958)
33 THE GODFATHER (Coppolla 1972)
34 LOCAL HERO (Forsyth 1983)
35 DR STRANGELOVE or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Kubrick 1964)
36 MULHOLLAND DRIVE (Lynch 2001)
37 HEIMAT (Reitz 1984)
38 FANNY AND ALEXANDER (Bergman 1982)
39 THE BAND WAGON (Minelli 1953)
40 EIGHT AND A HALF (Fellini 1963)
41 LES QUATRES CENTS COUPS (Truffaut 1959)
42 BIGGER THAN LIFE (Ray 1956)
43 ALL ABOUT EVE (Mankiewicz 1950)
44 MEET ME IN ST LOUIS (Minelli 1944)
45 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Almodovar 1999)
46 SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (Riesz 1960)
47 LOS OLVIDADOS (Bunuel 1950)
48 PULP FICTION (Tarantino 1994)
49 THE SEVENTH SEAL (Bergman 1957)
50 FEAR EATS THE SOUL (Fassbinder 1973)
51 THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (Fellini 1957)
52 ET - THE EXTRA TERRESTIAL (Spielberg 1982)
53 THE WIZARD OF OZ (Fleming 1939)
54 SOME LIKE IT HOT (Wilder 1959)
55 THE DECALOGUE (Kieslowski 1988)
56 WINGS OF DESIRE (Wenders 1987)
57 LA STRADA (Fellini 1956)
58 A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (Godard 1959)
59 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Pontecorvo 1965)
60 THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (Allen 1985)
61 THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (Jackson 2001-2003)
62 ANDREI RUBLEV (Tarkovsky 1966)
63 BADLANDS (Mallick 1973)
64 NASHVILLE (Altman 1975)
65 THE PALM BEACH STORY (Sturges 1942)
66 THE THIRD MAN (Reed 1950)
67 O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU (Coen 2000)
68 UGETSU MONOGATARI (Mizoguchi 1953)
69 AMARCORD (Fellini 1973)
70 THE CHILDHOOD OF MAXIM GORKY (Donski 1938)
71 SUNRISE (Murnau 1927)
72 DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (Davies 1988)
73 TALK TO HER (Almodovar 2001)
74 GONE WITH THE WIND (Fleming 1939)
75 THREE COLOURS RED (Kielowski 1994)
76 HUD (Ritt 1963)
77 A TASTE OF HONEY (Richardson 1961)
78 L'ATALANTE (Vigo 1934)
79 THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Salles 2004)
80 ETRE ET AVOIR (Philibert 2002)
81 SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (Donen 1954)
82 THE MALTESE FALCON (Huston 1941)
83 SUNSET BOULEVARD (Wilder 1950)
84 THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Ford 1940)
85 BONNIE AND CLYDE (Penn 1967)
86 BLUE VELVET (Lynch 1986)
87 CHINATOWN (Polanski 1974)
88 I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING (Powell/Pressburger 1945)
89 Z (Costa-Gavras 1969)
90 MEAN STREETS (Scorcese 1973)
91 LA GRANDE ILLUSION (Renoir 1938)
92 THE AWFUL TRUTH (McCarey 1937)
93 WALKABOUT (Roeg 1970)
94 BARRY LYNDON (Kubrick 1975)
95 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Ray 1955)
96 BLOW UP (Antonioni 1966)
97 THE SERVANT (Losey 1963)
98 BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar 2004)
99 YOL (Goren/Guney 1982)
100 THE WAGES OF FEAR (Clouzot 1953)
101 THE WILD BUNCH (Peckinpah 1969)
102 ORPHEE (Cocteau 1950)
103 WENT THE DAY WELL (Cavalcanti 1942)
104 THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Frankenhimer 1962)
105 THE KING OF COMEDY (Scorcese 1983)
106 LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST (Angelopolus 1988)
107 THE THIN RED LINE (Mallick 1998)
108 ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Leone 1968)
109 THE 39 STEPS (Hitchcock 1935)
110 BELLVILLE RENDEZVOUS (Chomet 2003)
111 TAXI DRIVER (Scorcese 1976)
112 SHOWBOAT (Whale 1936)
113 NEVER ON SUNDAY (Dassin 1960)
114 LA DOLCE VITA (Fellini 1960)
115 PATHS OF GLORY (Kubrick 1958)
116 APOCOLYPSE NOW (Coppolla 1979)
117 SCHINDLER'S LIST (Spielberg 1993)
118 UNDER FIRE (Spottiswoode 1983)
119 THE PLAYER (Altman 1992)
120 TROUBLE IN PARADISE (Lubitsch 1932)
121 IMITATION OF LIFE (Sirk 1959)
122 DEATH IN VENICE (Visconti 1971)
123 SIDEWAYS (Payne 2004)
124 THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Bunuel 1972)
125 FAR FROM HEAVEN (Hayes 2002)
126 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Hitchcock 1959)
127 LA BELLE ET LA BETE (Cocteau 1946)
128 CITY LIGHTS (Chaplin 1931)
129 TOY STORY (Lasseter 1995)
130 ADVISE AND CONSENT (Preminger 1962)
131 JESUS OF MONTREAL (Arcand 1989)
132 THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (Arnold 1957)
133 ACCATONE (Pasolini 1961)
134 AMORES PERROS (Inarritu 2000)
135 VERA DRAKE (Leigh 2004)
136 LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Resnais 1961)
137 ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (Sirk 1955)
138 L'ENFANT SAUVAGE (Truffaut 1970)
139 THE GOLD RUSH (Chaplin 1925)
140 THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS (Angelopolous 1975)
141 RIO BRAVO (Hawks 1959)
142 GOODFELLAS (Scorcese 1990)
143 EL (Bunuel 1953)
144 THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT (Ford 1953)
145 MANHATTEN (Allen 1979)
146 DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Lumet 1975)
147 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Spielberg 1977)
148 LOST IN TRANSLATION (Coppolla 2004)
149 BRIEF ENCOUNTER (Lean 1946)
150 A STAR IS BORN (Cukor 1954)
151 LAURA (Preminger 1944)
152 THE APARTMENT (Wilder 1960)
153 ORDINARY PEOPLE (Redford 1980)
154 MAGNOLIA (Anderson 1999)
155 LAND AND FREEDOM (Loach 1995)
156 THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND (Leconte 1990)
157 THE GENERAL (Keaton 1927)
158 DINER (Levinson 1982)
159 NUIT ET BROUILLARD (Resnais 1955)
160 WHERE IS MY FRIEND'S HOUSE (Kiarostami 1987)
161 DO THE RIGHT THING (Lee 1989)
162 LES PARENTS TERRIBLES (Cocteau 1948)
163 ALEXANDER NEVSKY (Eisenstien 1938)
164 STRIKE (Eisenstien 1924)
165 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Loach 2006)
166 TARNATION (Caouette 2004)
167 THE NEW WORLD (Mallick 2005)
168 ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (Hawks 1939)
169 CLAIRE'S KNEE (Rohmer 1970)
170 PINOCCHIO (Sharpstien/Luske 1940)
171 UNFORGIVEN (Eastwood 1992)
172 STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (Hitchcock 1951)
173 THE PRODUCERS (Brooks 1968)
174 SHANE (Stevens 1953)
175 SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (Bergman 1955)
176 RAISE THE RED LANTERN (Yimou 1991)
177 THRONE OF BLOOD (Kurosawa 1957)
178 BELLE DE JOUR (Bunuel 1967)
179 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (Scorcese 1993)
180 HEAVEN'S GATE (Cimino 1980)
181 HAPPINESS (Solondz 1998)
182 COMME UNE IMAGE (Jaoui 2004)
183 ROBIN AND MARIAN (Lester 1976)
184 A ROOM WITH A VIEW (Ivory 1985)
185 THE TIN DRUM (Schlondorff 1979)
186 TEA AND SYMPATHY (Minelli 1956)
187 FEDORA (Wilder 1978)
188 ALPHAVILLE (Godard 1965)
189 THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (Bogdanovitch 1971)
190 MAN OF ARAN (Flaherty 1934)
191 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (Cukor 1940)
192 RAGING BULL (Scorcese 1980)
193 MAN OF MARBLE (Wajda 1977)
194 KISS ME DEADLY (Aldrich 1955)
195 AMERICA AMERICA (Kazan 1963)
196 JOHNNY GUITAR (Ray 1954)
197 NOTORIOUS (Hitchcock 1946)
198 IF ... (Anderson 1968)
199 PERFORMANCE (Roeg/Cammell 1970)
200 SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (Sturges 1941)
201 STAGECOACH (Ford 1939)
202 ON THE WATERFRONT (Kazan 1954)
203 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (Nichols 1966)
204 THE PASSENGER (Antonioni 1975)
205 GROUNDHOG DAY (Ramis 1993)
205 KING KONG (Jackson 2005)
207 ROSEMARY'S BABY (Polanski 1968)
208 PARIS TEXAS (Wenders 1984)
209 LORD OF THE FLIES (Brooks 1963)
210 THE BIRDS (Hitchcock 1963)
211 THE NIGHT OF SAN LORENZO (Tavianni 1981)
212 THE HUSTLER (Rossen 1961)
213 WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (Aldrich 1962)
214 AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Spielberg 2001)
215 ROME, OPEN CITY (Rossellini 1945)
216 BRINGING UP BABY (Hawks 1938)
217 WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (Almodovar 1988)
218 SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS (Kazan 1961)
219 THE WOMEN (Cukor 1939)
220 THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE (Launder 1950)
221 GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (Hawks 1953)
222 THE WAR GAME (Watkins 1966)
223 MILDRED PIERCE (Curtiz 1945)
224 MYSTIC RIVER (Eastwood 2003)
225 JACKIE BROWN (Tarantino 1997)
226 DINNER AT EIGHT (Cukor 1933)
227 YOUNG FRANKENSTIEN (Brooks 1974)
228 AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD (Herzog 1972)
229 FREAKS (Browning 1932)
230 SEPTEMBER (Allen 1987)
231 12 ANGRY MEN (Lumet 1957)
232 HIGH NOON (Zinneman 1952)
233 BLACK NARCISSUS (Powell/Pressburger (1946)
234 WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Teshigahara 1963)
235 THE RED SHOES (Powell/Pressburger 1948)
236 INTERIORS (Allen 1978)
237 GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (LeRoy 1933(
238 THE LAST WALTZ (Scorcese 1978)
239 THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (Davies 2000)
240 PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (Ross 1981)
241 TOPSY-TURVY (Leigh 1999)
242 BREAKING THE WAVES (Von Trier 1996)
243 JOUR DE FETE (Tati 1947)
244 OUR HOSPITALITY (Keaton 1923)
245 SEVEN CHANCES (Keaton 1925)
246 THE INNOCENTS (Clayton 1961)
247 THE WIND (Sjostrom 1928)
248 THE BIG HEAT (Lang 1953)
249 FIVE EASY PIECES (Rafelson 1970)
250 THE NUN'S STORY (Zinneman 1959)
MY 20 GREATEST DIRECTORS
1 ALFRED HITCHCOCK (96 votes)
2 FEDERICO FELLINI (95 votes)
3 JOHN FORD (81 votes)
4 LUIS BUNUEL (78 votes)
5 STANLEY KUBRICK (76 votes)
6 INGMAR BERGMAN (74 votes)
7 MARTIN SCORCESE (73 votes)
8 ORSON WELLES (72 votes)
9 FRANCIS FORD COPPOLLA (61 votes)
10 PEDRO ALMODOVAR (59 votes)
10 STEVEN SPIELBERG (59 votes)
12 BILLY WILDER (54 votes)
13 VINCENTE MINNELLI (50 votes)
14 DAVID LYNCH (49 votes)
15 MICHEALGELO ANTONIONI (46 votes)
16 TERRENCE MALICK (43 votes)
16 NICHOLAS RAY (43 votes)
18 STANLEY DONEN (42 votes)
18 SERGEI EISENSTIEN (42 votes)
20 JOHN HUSTON (41 votes)
Nobody does vegetables like me. I did a whole evening of vegetables Off-Broadway
Don't fuck with me fellas; this ain't my first time at the rodeo
Hell of a thing killin' a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist
This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years.
First we'll have an orgy then we'll go see Tony Bennett.
Morons! I've got morons on my team! Nobody is going to rob us going DOWN the mountain
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter
Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!
I love the smell of napalm in the morning
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer
I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk
Top 12 Films of 2006 in alphabetical order:
BEFORE SUNSET (Linklater) - seen for first time
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Lee)
THE DEPARTED (Scorcese)
L'ENFANT (Dardenne Brothers)
HIDDEN (Haneke)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (Dayton and Faris)
PAN'S LABYRINTH (Del Toro)
SPIRITED AWAY (Miyazaki) - seen for first time
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Baumbach)
UNITED 93 (Greengrass)
VOLVER (Almodovar)
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (Loach)
The 100 greatest performances
1 Marlon Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT
2 Albert Finney in SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING
3 Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE
4 Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE
5 Laurence Olivier in RICHARD 111
6 Monica Vitti in L'AVVENTURRA
7 Celia Johnston in BRIEF ENCOUNTER
8 James Dean in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
9 Peter O'Toole in LAWERENCE OF ARABIA
10 Katharine Hepburn in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
11 Robert DeNiro in TAXI DRIVER
12 Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO
13 Jane Fonda in KLUTE
14 Michael Redgrave in THE BROWNING VERSION
15 Daniel Day-Lewis in MY LEFT FOOT
16 Geraldine Page in INTERIORS
17 Alec Guiness in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
18 Emily Watson in BREAKING THE WAVES
19 Al Pacino in THE GODFATHER PART 2
20 Agnes Moorehead in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
21 Marlon Brando in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
22 Elizabeth Taylor in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
23 Robert DeNiro in MEAN STREETS
24 Lila Kedrova in ZORBA THE GREEK
25 Jack Lemmon in MISSING
26 Alec Guiness in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
27 Al Pacino in DOG DAY AFTERNOON
28 Robert DeNiro in RAGING BULL
29 Dirk Bogarde in THE SERVANT
30 Jean Louis Barrault in LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS
