my 15 movies
The 15 films I’ve seen that will always stick with me, in some order of importance:
Waking Life — I’ve seen this at least half a dozen times. It’s a divisive film — some people love it, some hate it. (Most of the haters I’ve met are women. This goes for Kerouac, too.) Waking Life consistently fills me with gratitude and excitement about our endless capacity to, first, explore the fundamental conditions of our shared human existences and then to share our findings. It glorifies thought, language and love. (This is one of three Linklater films on this list.)
Gabbeh — My first encounter with Iranian film. I saw it at a theater in London’s Hampstead neighborhood that I came to love over repeated visits. I was stunned by the vivid colors, the cinematography and the magical realism. Gabbeh inspired me to go on and enjoy many more Iranian movies by Kiarostami and others.
The Passion of Joan of Arc — I saw this in college, and it was a formative experience as far as my understanding of film. It’s a 1928 silent film in which a bunch of old male judges interrogate Joan of Arc. The version I saw had an organ soundtrack that was painfully distorted as it burst through the speakers in the small and uncomfortable viewing room at Wake Forest.
Watching this movie was not at all enjoyable. It induces claustrophobia as it piles up tight close-ups on Joan of Arc’s face, betraying her utter torment, and the faces of the judges, brimming with malice.
Most of my classmates in my “Cinema and the Sacred” class didn’t like it. I didn’t necessarily “like” it, either. Yet I had to admit that the film made me feel the way the director must have wanted me to feel — so I had to respect it and recognize its quality. This might be an obvious point now, but at the time I hadn’t yet teased out the difference between “liking” a movie (or a book or other work of art) and recognizing its accomplishments. Liking is less important to me now. Thinking, relating, is better.
The Three Colors trilogy — I think I saw Red first (although it’s last in the trilogy), then Blue, then White. Kieslowski’s films amaze me with their economy and emotional density. These might also have been some of my earliest discoveries of contemporary films made outside of the United States.
Dekalog — I still haven’t seen all 10 films in this series by Kieslowski, but was impressed by those I have seen, again by the density and economy. Each one is just an hour or less but bears a greater impact than many full-length films.
I Heart Huckabees — I didn’t know what to expect when I watched this and found total delight. Just see it. But I realize, looking at this list, that it is very much my kind of movie.
Darwin’s Nightmare — One of the best documentaries I’ve seen. I find myself recommending it to people more than almost any other film. It tells a story with great command despite lacking a narrator. It also highlights the injustices of globalized capitalism by showing their manifestations in the lives of a varied cast of characters — both the haves and the have-nots. For a documentary, all of these people play their parts very well.
What Time Is It There? — More placid and also free of the kinky sexual elements in Tsai Ming-Liang’s other films that I’ve seen, which in one film seemed too calculated to shock. It was my introduction to his wry sense of humor and very, very slow pace. I saw it at the old American Film Institute theater at the Kennedy Center. Somehow its mood fit very well with the amused and contemplative frame of mind I was in that night.
The Seven Samurai — See this if you haven’t — I need to see it again. Best battle scenes ever — I felt like I was actually in the thick of the melee.
Back to the Future — One of my favorites when I was a kid, and responsible for introducing me to Chuck Berry and classic R&B and Huey Lewis. Still listening to Chuck. Not so much Huey Lewis.
Slacker — My first Linklater movie, and one I watched many times with my friends in high school and college.
Before Sunrise — Very affecting Linklater film. After seeing it I had a possibly unrelated moment of satori. A weird experience that I won’t try to describe here.
The Holy Mountain — I saw this one relatively recently. What a wild movie, full of inventiveness and, like Huckabees, an allegory for the development of an individual’s consciousness.
Happiness — This warped film haunted me for days. It’s remarkable how it held its claustrophobic, squirm-inducing mood throughout. I saw it in a theater in Winston-Salem.
Amelie — I don’t have much to say about this one, other than that it’s fun and brilliant.
