Charade

Charade (1963)

a film by Stanley Donen

Juliet of the Spirits

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

a film by Federico Fellini

Persona

Persona (1966)

a film by Ingmar Bergman

"... it would be a serious misunderstanding to demand to know exactly what happens in Persona; for what is narrated is only deceptively, secondarily, a 'story' at all."

"Persona" by Susan Sontag

Sight and Sound, Autumn 1967

Speaking of Persona as a film about duality would be ignoring its first minutes, the burned film in the middle and its ending. Speaking of Persona as a film about a film about the soul of the artist, about the masks or about in-communication would be just an artifice if it is to be let like that without further explanation.

My reason to celebrate Persona is it open narrative, nothing is certain although everything is happening on the screen. The story unveils scene by scene but is the mind of the spectator were the story lives again and "makes sense" but there is not right sense, only swimming through our memory of the sequences and as Alma's character feel betrayed by speech itself.

My Dog Tulip (Bonus Track)

My Dog Tulip (2009)

a film by Paul Fierlinger

"What strained and anxious lives dogs must lead, so emotionally involved in the world of humans, whose affections they strive endlessly to secure, whose authority they are expected unquestioningly to obey, and whose mind they can never do more than imperfectly reach and comprehend. Stupidly loved, stupidly hated, acquired without thought, reared and ruled without understanding, passed on or put to sleep without care, did they, I wondered, these descendants of the creatures who, thousands of years ago in the primeval forests, laid siege to the heart of man, took him under their protection, tried to tame him, and failed – did they suffer from headaches?"

J. R. Ackerley

La Strada

La Strada (1954)

a film by Federico Fellini

“I like the pairing of La Strada with Chaplin’s Limelight: both are about clowns, they are both sad and funny and both offer kind of ‘life lessons.’ These films have the power of a grandmother’s voice when she puts a child to bed, and tells stories that will stimulate good dreams instead of nightmares.”

Isabella Rossellini

This film has the deep and sad beauty of a poor clown or a circus, both cruel and lyric.

Vertigo

Vertigo (1958)

a film by Alfred Hitchcock

Spartacus

Spartacus (1960)

a film by Stanley Kubrick

Spartacus is an epic like no other but there is more than the magnificence of the battles or the fight scenes, more than the amazing cast or even more than the incredible story of the rebel slave that put Rome in jeopardy and is still live in popular memory after twenty centuries. What separates Spartacus from just the holiday epic for the epic are the smart dialogues of Dalton Trumbo and all the meanings hidden in them and the eye of Stanley Kubrick in the visual language in a project that he didn't controlled from the beginning but in which he is able to show his talent for delivering memorable and unique images.

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

a film by Norman Jewison

Ugetsu

Ugetsu (1953)

a film by Kenji Mizoguchi

Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

a film by David Lean