GET CARTER
(1971)
Director: Mike Hodges
Starring: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne
Watson scale: 4.5
Many believe this to be the best British crime
thriller ever made. It's realistic, highly disturbing
and, without a doubt, a true gangster classic.
GET CARTER is also notable for having the famous
playwright, John Osborne, play the villain.
 
Michael Caine in 'Get Carter'
Anonymous
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HAPPINESS
Director: Todd Solondz
Starring: Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Cynthia
Stevenson, Jane Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Camryn Manheim, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser
Watson scale: 4.5
Todd Solondz's follow-up to his highly touted
WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE brilliantly exposes the
seamy under-belly of middleclass American life.
A very intense adult film that brings forth a
host of emotions and images; funny, horrifying,
bleak, sexual, and poignant, this piece of art
will stick in your mind for a long time to come!
Lara Flynn Boyle
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THE
39 STEPS (1935)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll
Watson scale: 4.5
This great British "spy-chase-thriller,"
considered by most to be Hitchcock's first great
masterpiece, set the tone for many of the legendary
director's later films (for example, the idea
of an innocent man that's framed and forced to
deal with a world that suddenly seems out of control
was used to great effect in his 1959 classic,
NORTH BY NORTHWEST). The key to any great film
lies not only in its entertainment value, but
also in how it forces us to peer into various
aspects of our own nature (HAPPINESS does this
in a very powerful way). In THE 39 STEPS, the
audience finds itself immersed in the rush of
a psychological thriller, while also being forced
to ponder the motif of marriage as a confining
and sexually frustrating construct.
Robert Donat
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DELICATESSEN
(1990-French)
Director: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Dominique Pinon
Watson scale: 5
A superbly acted, kinky black comedy set in a
cannibalistic French future. This alone should
whet your intellectual appetite and make you want
to take a bite out of this wonderful film.
BELLE
DE JOUR (1968-French)
Director: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel
Rated "R"
Watson scale: 4.5
Catherine Deneuve's best early film is an intense
character study that explores a rich, outwardly
proper housewife that struggles with her nymphomaniac/masochistic/hooker
obsessions. French perversion and French introspection
at its best!
Catherine Deneuve
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WAGES OF
FEAR
(1953-French)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel,
Watson scale: 4.5
Director Henri-Georges Clouzot, often called the
"French Hitchcock," is best known for
his 1955 masterpiece, DIABOLIQUE. However, in
my opinion WAGES OF FEAR surpasses that film and
stands out as one of the finest and most compelling
suspense dramas of all time.
CRUMB (1995)
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Documentary
Watson scale: 5
Every "shrink" I know has seen this
at least twice! This ultimate tragi-comedy of
a hugely dysfunctional but brilliant family took
six years to make. One of the greatest documentaries
of all time.
THE PIANO
TEACHER (2001-French)
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot
Watson scale: 4.5
This French film by the Austrian director (which
won best actor, best actress, best director, and
the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival)
is about a 40ish female piano teacher who works
at a prestigious Viennese conservatory. This scenario,
mixed with the magnificent musical backdrop of
Schubert, Bach and Beethoven, might make some
think they are in for a rather calm, relaxing
movie experience. The real story, though, concerns
her masochistic sexual tastes, and her S&M
affair with a much younger male student. A haunting
and often disturbing film that is filled with
a plethora of magnificently depraved scenes. A
truly incredible performance by Isabelle Huppert
makes this a virtual must-see!
THE
SILENCE (1963-Swedish)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom
Watson scale: 5
Ingmar Bergman's black and white classic about
two sexually repressed sisters holed up in a small
German town during World War II. The scene where
one is picked up by a waiter at a cafe is the
ultimate in screen sex writing. No dialogue--he
drops a napkin, and as he pick it up, he inhales
her from toe to crotch, to breast, slightly touching
her knee in passing--the next scene--he is wrestling
with the hotel room key in the lock. Next scene--she
is seen unzipping her dress and putting out the
light. Next scene--the other sister comes in later,
and sees huge scratch marks all down the waiter's
back. It's all left to the audience's erotic imagination,
and the result is one of the sexiest and most
sensual scenes ever written!
LA
DOLCE VITA (1960-Italian)
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Marcello Mastrianni, Anouk Aimee, Anita
Ekberg
Watson scale: 6
Federico Fellini's all time black and white classic
about jaded, perverted socialites and show business
types in 1960's Rome. I had a crush on Anita Ekberg--the
ultimate massively busted blonde--for years as
a teenager after seeing this film! The great Marcello
Mastroiani is at his best.
La Dolce Vita
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MILLER'S
CROSSING (1990)
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro,
Steve Buscemi, Danny Aiello, Frances McDormand
Watson scale: 5
MILLER'S CROSSING, my favorite Coen brothers movie,
is about Irish, Italian and Jewish gangsters during
the Prohibition era. A complex tale about lust
and vengeance, it can be relished over and over
again.
Gabriel Byrne
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THE
THIRD MAN (1949)
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Trevor
Howard, Alida Valli
Watson scale: 6
Carol Reed's black and white classic has just
had a technological makeover and the results are
stunning. Some of the greatest lighting and camera-work
in the history of cinema, and one of the most
gripping spy dramas, Orson Welles does not appear
till two-thirds into the movie, but it is worth
the wait!
Orson Welles
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BREAD
AND CHOCOLATE (1978-Italian)
Director: Franco Brusati
Starring: Nino Manfredi, Anna Karina
Watson scale: 5
This bittersweet comedy classic stars Nino Manfredi,
one of the greatest comedy actors of all time.
The first ten minutes goes as follows: Nino is
trying to beat out a rival Turkish waiter so he
can impress the owner of a Swiss Restaurant (thus
getting a job and a green card). It might not
sound like much, but Manfredi turns it into one
of the funniest sequences in film history.
ROCCO
AND HIS BROTHERS (1960-Italian)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Starring: Alain Delon, Annie Girardot
Watson scale: 4.5
This black and white classic made young Alain
Delon a star. An epic account of a family's descent
into corruption, backed up by exquisite acting
and photography.
Alain Delon
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THE
LADYKILLERS (1955)
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Starring: Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Katie
Johnson
Watson scale: 6
Alexander MacKendrick's (he also directed THE
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS) brilliantly funny black
and white comedy, with Alec Guinness (wearing
Kenneth Tynan-esque snaggleteeth) as the leader
of an inept band of robbers (his gang consisted
of a fat, young Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, and
Cecil Parker) who are completely outwitted by
a little old lady. Who knows how much Sellers
learnt for his future comedy roles, like THE PINK
PANTHER, by watching the master at work. Also
see Guinness in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, where
he plays eight different characters.
Alec Guinness
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