armageddon (1998)

the final part of my look into the world of michael bays work sees the world in peril as its faces up against a rather large meteor. all of the usual bay-isms are in place; shoddy slow motion that doubles the films actual running time (usually involving people running towards or away from helicopters), slight racism towards anyone that isnt white (''the russian" is a new low), male and middle class and a hefty dose of unfunny comedy. in its defense though, "armageddon" does feature a great turn from steve buscemi, and iv always had a soft spot for ben affleck.

whilst watching the film i found myself comparing it to clint eastwood's "space cowboys", a film which deals with a similiar film albeit with much more class, dignity and credibility. "armageddon" is great popcorn trash, but little more else. considering the task at hand none of the cast seemed to hold down any kind of thought for it, no one questioned the task or even their own fate. i know thats hardly the point of a michael bay film, but a little bit of realism really wouldnt hurt.

the hopeandbullshitlist (at 03/02/2009)

just noticed i havent updated the list for almost two weeks! i blame the snow/credit crunch/idiots striking.


1. pierrot le fou (jean-luc godard)
2. the passenger (michelangelo antonioni)
3. au hasard balthazar (robert bresson)
4. se7en (david fincher)
5. the element of crime (lars von trier)
6. sunrise (f.w murnau)
7. the wrestler (darren aronofsky) *
8. a man escaped (robert bresson)
9. revolutionary road (sam mendes) *
10. the curious case of benjamin button (david fincher) *
11. traffic (steven soderbergh)
12. che - part one (steven soderbergh) *
13. pickpocket (robert bresson)
14. milk (gus van sant) *
15. bottle rocket (wes anderson)
16. twelve monkeys (terry gilliam)
17. the outlaw josey wales (clint eastwood)
18. red desert (michelangelo antonioni)
19. mon oncle antoine (claude jutra)
20. rome, open city (rossellini)
21. che - part two (steven soderbergh) *
22. shadow of a doubt (alfred hitchcock)
23. unforgiven (clint eastwood)
24. f for fake (orson welles)
25. the brothers bloom (rian johnson) *
26. changeling (clint eastwood)
27. l'argent (robert bresson)
28. lancelot du lac (robert bresson)
29. rear window (alfred hitchcock)
30. the dark knight (christopher nolan)
31. wall-e (andrew stanton)
32. the silence of the lambs (jonathan demme)
33. slumdog millionaire (danny boyle) *
34. frost/nixon (ron howard) *
35. the limey (steven soderbergh)
36. blow up (michelangelo antonioni)
37. spellbound (alfred hitchcock)
38. europa (lars von trier)
39. the shop on main street (ján kadár and elmar klos)
40. hellboy - the golden army (guillermo del toro)
41. the adventures of baron munchausen (terry gilliam)
42. the usual suspects (bryan singer)
43. lars and the real girl (craig gillespie)
44. out of sight (steven soderbergh)
45. days of heaven (terence malick)
46. la ricotta (pier paolo pasolini)
47. blindness (fernando meirelles)
48. killer's kiss (stanley kubrick)
49. dirty harry (don siegal)
50. mad detective (johnnie to & wai ka fa)
51. the idiot (akira kurosawa)
52. in bruges (martin mcdonough)
53. time bandits (terry gilliam)
54. tideland (terry gilliam)
55. play misty for me (clint eastwood)
56. bigger than life (nicholas ray)
57. bronco billy (clint eastwood)
58. withnail & i (bruce robinson)
59. the terminator (james cameron)
60. the wizard of oz (victor fleming)
61. monty python's life of brian (terry jones)
62. hancock (peter berg)
63. the day the earth stood still (robert wise)
64. iron man (jon favreau)
65. saboteur (alfred hitchcock)
66. the gauntlet (clint eastwood)
67. breezy (clint eastwood)
68. before the devil knows youre dead (sidney lumet)
69. rope (alfred hitchcock)
70. total recall (paul verhoeven)
71. mallrats (kevin smith)
72. die hard (john mctiernan)
73. magnum force (ted post)
74. casino royale (martin campbell)
75. valkyrie (bryan singer)
76. frenzy (alfred hitchcock)
77. body of lies (ridley scott)
78. solaris (steven soderbergh)
79. the trouble with harry (alfred hitchcock)
80. indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull (steven spielberg)
81. the puffy chair (duplass brothers)
82. "the birds" (alfred hitchcock)
83. i am legend (francis lawrence)
84. space cowboys (clint eastwood)
85. the rock (michael bay)
86. quantum of solace (marc forster)
87. wanted (timur bekmambetov)
88. the reader *
89. transformers (michael bay)
90. the magnificent ambersons (orson welles)
91. speed (jan de bont)
92. australia (baz luhrmann)
93. star trek - the motion picture (robert wise)
94. coogans bluff (don siegal)
95. the enforcer (james fargo)
96. joe kidd (john sturges)
97. spider-man 3 (sam raimi)
98. dear wendy (thomas vinterberg)
99. goldeneye (martin campbell)
100. night watch (timur bekmambetov)
101. judge dredd (danny cannon)
102. strangers on a train (alfred hitchcock)
103. jamaica inn (alfred hitchcock)
104. robocop 3 (fred dekker)
105. robocop 2 (irvin kershner)
106. my bloody valentine (patrick lussier) *
107. a nightmare on elm street 4 (renny harlin)
108. a nightmare on elm street (wes craven)
109. zack and miri make a porno (kevin smith)
110. goldfinger (guy hamilton)
111. a nightmare on elm street 2 (jack sholder)
112. you only live twice (lewis gilbert)
113. mad max - beyond thunderdome (george miller & george ogilvie)
114. die another day (lee tamahori)
115. a nightmare on elm street 3 (chuck russell)
116. a nightmare on elm street 5 (stephen hopkins)
117. a nightmare on elm street 6 (rachel talalay)
118. W. (oliver stone)

rome, open city (1946)

my first foray into ''proper'' neo-realism (outside of education at least) comes in the shape of roberto rossellini's "rome, open city". the film is a true example of guerilla cinema, with rosselini shooting on location in the genuine aftermath of nazi occupied rome using scraps of found camera film. the film predates such fare as pontecorvo's "the battle of algiers", a film that looks at similiar fare with a similiar attitude.

"rome, open city" has a real charm. the flow of the narrative impresses this point, the way in which an incident is introduced and then revealed later works well (ie the girl moaning about her home, ten minutes before we see just why she hates it so much), and carries a humour that i didnt expect to find. the character of the elderly grandfather, a man paralyzed in some unknown incident projects this humour solidly.

the film struck me as a fairly basic parable on the battle between good versus evil. there is a fairly strong analogy between the tortured "hero" of the film and the suffering of jesus, enforced heavily by the presence of the priest.

unfortunately my copy of "rome, open city" was marred by poor subtitles. its hardly the most complicated film, but this still distracted rather heavily. regardless of this niggle, the film was an incredible portrait of an area that i had previously little familiarity with.

revolutionary road (2009)

kate winslett and leonardo dicaprio are reunited 12 years after ''titanic'' in sam mendes' adaptation of richard yates' 1961 novel. i found it interesting to discover that the novel was written so closely to the time of the films setting (1955), as it genuinely felt like a post-modern take on the subject matter, akin highly to "mad men". alas when taking into account the authenticity that the date of the publication of the source then an even higher level of praise is pushed onto the project.

in short, i loved ''revolutionary road", which came as quite the surprise to me. i actually enjoyed it much more than the other high profile releases of the awards season (excpet for maybe ''the wrestler"). im not sure why exactly, maybe it was that the themes spoke to me in a fairly direct manner, that whole thing about the hope of fruitility and of leading an extraordianary life struck me as quite real and rather timely. the performances were very strong too, with dicaprio once again proving why he is one of the best actors of his generation and winslett in the role that she should have received the oscar nomination for.

the film is beautifully shot by roger deakins, the man whom i consider to be the best cinematographer in the world. if anyone has been snubbed at this years oscars it is deakins, but saying that he should have won last year for "the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford" too, but didnt. sam mendes direction is perfect for the source material; the nature of the raw emotion of the story doesnt require fast editing or over the top visuals. thats not to say that the film doesnt feature striking direction, it does, its just different to that of some of the other work in this vein. the soundtrack, courtesy of thomas newman compliments the tone of the film perfectly. the use of period jazz songs works well too.

transformers (2007)

michael bay's magnum opus has the honour of being the sole film i have walked out of a cinema screening of. i just found it to be a horribly slow and dull film, with poor special effects and no plot. for the sakes of my current studies i decided to give it another chance on dvd. over the course of 4 days i eventually managed to get through it. to be fair to it, its not actually that bad, its just not my type of thing. the sequel looks promising too, lets just hope they bypass the negatives this time.

the one over-ridingly awful aspect of "transformers comes in the shape of its absolutely terrible humour. its just awful, not funny and embarassingly scripted. michael bay cannot 'do' humour, i was cringing for a good chunk of ''transformers'' bloated running time. related to the humour is the bizarre decision to include a robot that is seemingly based upon a heavy stereotype of black people. it was very strange. iv christened this guy 'rap-bot'. seriously its like something from the 80's, when hollywood first tried to latch onto rap and other 'street' activity. in short its embarassing.

im glad to report that with his most recent fare, michael bay has evolved from the simple "use sun-glare to hide any problems" school of problems. seemingly this has been replaced, or at least split equally between the use of the usual sunlight and the newly implemented torchlight. its an effective technique, at least when it comes to hiding the poor viewers eyes from poorly shot landscapes.

the rock (1996)

once again my studies dictate that i must head into unchartered territory, and an unattractive challenge lies ahead. michael bay is perhaps the opposite to what i love about cinema. his "edit-so-fast-and-you-wont-have-chance-to-see-any-problems" attitude of filmmaking jars with my usual preferences, but in an attempt to understand just exactly what it is about his work that i dislike so much i have set myself a challenge; work my way through his body of work.

with that in mind i started with his sean connery and nicolas cage starring "the rock" from 1996. in all fairness it wasnt as bad as i expected it to be, but the usual bay hallmarks of slightly racist caricature's and lots of sun-glare is evident aplenty. the film leads with a semi-interesting premise, as a post modern james bond-type leads a group of marines and a scientist into alcatraz prison. therein lies the twist, how clever that they are actually breaking INTO a prison, as opposed to breaking OUT?! i hope the irony isnt too subtle for you. bafflingly enough, "the rock" is actually a part of the criterion collection.

my big problem with michael bay films are that they have a tendency to lack any kind of substance, and instead focus on trying to sell you cars and manipulate you into feeling some kind of emotion. alas bay seems more concerned with the former than the latter, so on the brief occasions where he actually managed to measure the pseudo-emotion right he throws it all away within seconds with another sun-glare enthused chevy advert.

the curious case of benjamin button (2009)

at first glance, "the curious case of benjamin button" may seem like an odd direction for the director of "fight club" "se7en" to go in, but rest assured that "the curious case of benjamin button" is very much a david fincher film.

the bittersweet story of a man who ages backwards, whom falls in love with a woman aging in the opposite direction at roughly the same time is told with a beautiful conviction that keeps a film that may usually head into "forrest gump"-territory feeling fresh and inventive. brad pitt is on top form as benjamin, providing much more than simply the award-fodder performance that the role requires. cate blanchett in a role much more forthright than expected is also outstanding. the real star of the film (and not one that usually interests me) is the special effects. the aging technique used on benjamin (in reverse) and daisy (traditionally) is awe-inspiring. i genuinely havent been so impressed with a special effect since first seeing gollum in 2002. the obvious benchmarks for the techniques are when the characters are aged to their most extreme, i.e infant and elderly, but for me the effects that stood out the most were those of the characters in their late teens and early 20's. to see cate blanchett with the body of a 17 year old girl ballet dancing truly is an incredible sight, as are the scenes of benjamin travelling throughout india. with brad pitt in the public eye for much of his twenties we are only too familiar with how he looked, and for this reason alone i think that many will not give these scenes credit enough. its a shame because they do look genuinely great, at one point i couldve sworn that brad pitt circa-"meet joe black" was actually on screen!

while a long film at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film doesnt ever seem to not work, which is a testament to fincher. the opening tale of gateau the blind clockmaker sets the audience into the required pace at hand, and the film doesnt ever get too sentimental. in fact i was reminded of the work of powell and pressburger in many ways. they too dealt with situations that could easily have come across as too emphatic or overdone, yet manage a control that keeps everything in check. this is the closest we will ever see fincher come to doing a "disney" film, and a chance that one should savour.

star trek - the motion picture (1979)

i have never been a huge fan of star trek. as a child i was way into star wars and so drew my allegiance to that side of casual science fiction at an early age. a couple of years back i saw "star trek 2 : the wrath of khan'' on late night television and absolutely loved it; i wasnt as stoic or stuffy as the later films and tv series had led me to believe, and the depth of character drew me in. the absolutely staggering (for its time) climax, in which a major character meets his fate left me eager for the next film. as a result the next night i watched "star trek 3 : the search for spock". well i say i watched, i lasted 15 minutes before the previous innaccessibility of the franchise alienated me once again. and there ends my brief fling with the star trek franchise.

having picked up robert wise's original attempt at a star trek film some months ago, yet never managing to actually finish the film i decided to give it another shot a few nights ago. with that in mind i can safely say that "star trek - the motion picture" is a bit of an unsuccessful venture. bearing in mind the success that is "the wrath of khan" i obviously dont think that the entire franchise is doomed, but the first one suffers from the same problem that a lot of post-star wars science fiction did - it doesnt know how to take itself. does it go for the traditional route, the one in which its series was founded, or does it go for the freewheeling attitude that star wars successfully introduced? to make matters worse, the filmmakers bizarrely seem to take kubrick's "2001 - a space odyssey" as its inspiration instead, taking the film in a far to pseudo-intellectual direction.

the usual suspects (1994)

and now, ladies and gentlemen, a confession. despite my keen interest in all things cinerama i have never, until now that is, seen bryan singer's seminal ''the usual suspects''. i have no excuses, this situation came down to nothing but a lapse in my studies, its no one else's fault, only my own. i take that responsibility.

"the usual suspects" is similiar to "se7en", in the sense that both feel like perfectly formed pieces of cinema. the way the plot falls together, the way that the performences meld and the way that the film pleases the eye is incredibly satisfying. the film has aged incredibly well, and despite the fact that i knew the story's 'twist', it still felt incredibly fresh and dramatic.

kevin spacey is incredible as 'verbal kint', the new york cripple that is revealed to be crime mastermind 'keyser soze'. with this screening following the recent 'se7en' showing, whereby his trademark role of 'john doe' is experienced in its full glory it would have been rather less than difficult for this role to have underwhelmed, alas it is a testament to the actor when i say that his performance as 'verbal kint' was as revelatory as 'john doe' with both feeling completely seperate but incredibly close. of the rest of the performances gabriel byrne, an actor whom i usually jar with, was great, as was stephen baldwin, in his first genuinely interesting performance. pete poslethwaite was horrible tho, i dont know whether or not his ridiculous accent was intended as a way of confusing the audience, but i suspect not. on the other hand, benecio del toro's mumbles were more obscure than ever, proving one of the bizarre highlights of the picture.

one of the main things i took away from this screening, was the disappointed feeling that bryan singer hasnt gone back to the type of film that made his mark. having seen "valkyrie" earlier this week (see below) and been ever so slightly disappointed by just how pedestrien it was, it genuinely feels disconcerting when watched in close proximaty to his debut work.

frost/nixon (2009)

as someone who is a bit of an obsessive with this political era in general i entered 'frost/nixon' with may doubts. ron howard is perhaps the epitome of ''safe'' filmmaking, hes hardly known for his visual flare or even his political gravitas (although the recent 'happy days'-themed obama campaign video he did with henry winkler suggests there is a heavy political awareness in the man if not his work) so with this in mind i was of the staunch opinion that he was the wrong man for this film, and that someone more obvious should have been in his position, say george clooney, aparently attached to the project post-''good night, and good luck''. alas i was wrong. howard pulled off the film with an unfamiliar strong kick. his work in the past has shown a tendency to lean towards the over-emotional, yet the extent to which it was used in "frost/nixon'' actually worked.

much has been made of the projects theatrical origins. many have said (presumably those who havent actually had the pleasure of seeing it) that the film didnt need to be a film, and that at best it would lend itself to a tv movie of sorts. i couldnt disagree more, ''frost/nixon'' is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen. the whole 'theme', for want of a better word throughout of ''the power of the close-up'' is a unique and hugely strong point that exhibits itself throughout the film, and is one of the best uses of the technique that this viewer has ever seen. the cut of the film is very cinematic too, and while the scenes of the now-older participants commenting on the importance of what was happening jars and distracts a little, ultimately its a much more cinematic and powerful experience than maybe one would have anticipated.

while the fancy shooting and cutting may impress, ultimately it comes down to the performances in such an intimate project. having never been terribly impressed with michael sheen's turns as tony blair (iv often considered him to be a poor mans david tennant) i have to admit that i was sold on his david frost. frank langella as richard nixon is a powerhouse of a performance. he owns the screen, and while compared to the actual frost interviews his performance may be slightly bombast, its still a great perfomance that lends an emotional side to nixon that i had never considered prior to this. the best actor contest at this years oscars truly is a thing of great deliberation, what with langella being nominated alongside sean penn in milk and mickey rourke in the wrestler, both of which i have enjoyed hugely. as of the moment my money is going on langella, maybe not for the right reasons (i see it as a career oscar) but still justly deserved.

se7en (1995)

david fincher's creative debut (some of us dont like to talk about alien3!) represents, for this viewer at least, one of the highlights of the cinema of the 1990's. the pacing, the style, the performances all represent what i would consider to be the ultimate in cinematic expectation. stylistically the film shows the streets and locations of the unknown city to be a hellhole lit starkly by rain (rain features in every external scene with the sole exception being the desert-set finale), with the editing matching the pitch and tone of the onscreen interaction subtly but aptly.

in terms of performances ''se7en'' hinges on the transitionary period between morgan freeman's 'william somerset' and brad pitt's 'david mills'. the concept of the transitionary nature of their relationship hints at far more than what is on screen, with the subtext being reminiscent of this relationship in a way. morgan freeman as the grizzled detective who's seen too much and had enough performs in his own unique manner before it became cliche, while pitt as the rookie of sorts follows his work in twelve monkeys with another assured performance. gwyneth paltrow underperforms as pitt's wife, an act which is only a positive thing, as its easily the performance of her career. kevin spacey, unbilled as john doe practically reinvents the psychopath in one foul swoop. the role is reminiscent of a witless hannibal lector, minus the unintentional self deprecation-providing sequels and overt performance, and unbelievably the character still manages to completely shock and disturb almost 15 years on.

brad pitt would later go on to work with fincher on ''fight club'' five years later, and again in this years "the curious case of benjamin button'', with the partnership proving incredibly fruitful. i see their relationship as akin to one of the classic director/actor pairings, along the lines of scorsese/de niro or huston/bogart, and feel that both compliment each other hugely.

valkyrie (2009)

a lot of criticism has been levelled at the use of the respective actors own accent in bryan singer's "valkyrie", yet i feel this is a fairly trivial criticism. if anything the dropping of german accents actively helps the performances, pushing the accessibility whilst dropping any form of distraction. i think a lot of people are forgetting that, at heart at least, this is a popcorn adventure film, and nothing more (despite the best intensions of the filmmakers.

the film tells the story of colonel claus von stauffenberg, a key player in a plot to assassinate adolf hitler. obviously hisory dictates that he wasnt successful in his endevear, yet the suspense of the film still flows.

this is tom cruise's film, something that will be blazingly obvious to anyone who has seen the films marketing campaign or indeed any tom cruise film this decade. i once wrote an essay on how cruise is perhaps unique in the sense that he is the only actor who could be considered an auteur, in the respect that he makes the majority of the creative decisions on a film project, akin to how a director would usually. thats not to say that the rest of the performances in''valkyrie'' are invisible. kenneth branagh, terrence stamp and thomas kretschmann (the actor originally set to play von stauffenberg, prior to cruise's involvement) are all great, although bill nighy annoys (as usual).

stylistically the film isnt the usual thing that one would expect from bryan singer, its far too pedestrian. alas it does what it intends to do, and for a couple of hours at least, is an entertaining saturday night film.

monty python's life of brian (1979)

the second of the monty python film's is generally considered to be the best of the series, although this was actually the first time iv seen the film in its entirety. personally i think the film suffers a little from the focus on the narrative, it didnt feel as scattershot as "the holy grail", which for this type of comedy i think is key. the opening scene after the beautifully animated credits is genuinely a thing of wonder though, absolutely ridiculous and hilarious. the sight of the woman (man!?) carrying a rubber donkey over her shoulders is one of the sights i will never forget.

the hopeandbullshitlist (at 21/01/2009)

no real changes this week, ''the wrestler'' charts high, but that was to be expected. this week, theatrically we have "valkyrie", frost/nixon" and "rachel getting married", and i have tickets to previews of "the curious case of benjamin button" and "faintheart" too, so a busy week for sure!


1. pierrot le fou (jean-luc godard)
2. the passenger (michelangelo antonioni)
3. au hasard balthazar (robert bresson)
4. the element of crime (lars von trier)
5. sunrise (f.w murnau)
6. the wrestler (darren aronofsky) *
7. a man escaped (robert bresson)
8. traffic (steven soderbergh)
9. che - part one (steven soderbergh) *
10. pickpocket (robert bresson)
11. milk (gus van sant) *
12. bottle rocket (wes anderson)
13. twelve monkeys (terry gilliam)
14. the outlaw josey wales (clint eastwood)
15. red desert (michelangelo antonioni)
16. mon oncle antoine (claude jutra)
17. che - part two (steven soderbergh) *
18. shadow of a doubt (alfred hitchcock)
19. unforgiven (clint eastwood)
20. f for fake (orson welles)
21. the brothers bloom (rian johnson) *
22. changeling (clint eastwood)
23. l'argent (robert bresson)
24. lancelot du lac (robert bresson)
25. rear window (alfred hitchcock)
26. the dark knight (christopher nolan)
27. wall-e (andrew stanton)
28. the silence of the lambs (jonathan demme)
29. slumdog millionaire (danny boyle) *
30. the limey (steven soderbergh)
31. blow up (michelangelo antonioni)
32. spellbound (alfred hitchcock)
33. europa (lars von trier)
34. the shop on main street (ján kadár and elmar klos)
35. hellboy - the golden army (guillermo del toro)
36. the adventures of baron munchausen (terry gilliam)
37. lars and the real girl (craig gillespie)
38. out of sight (steven soderbergh)
39. days of heaven (terence malick)
40. la ricotta (pier paolo pasolini)
41. blindness (fernando meirelles)
42. killer's kiss (stanley kubrick)
43. dirty harry (don siegal)
44. mad detective (johnnie to & wai ka fa)
45. the idiot (akira kurosawa)
46. in bruges (martin mcdonough)
47. time bandits (terry gilliam)
48. tideland (terry gilliam)
49. play misty for me (clint eastwood)
50. bigger than life (nicholas ray)
51. bronco billy (clint eastwood)
52. withnail & i (bruce robinson)
53. the terminator (james cameron)
54. the wizard of oz (victor fleming)
55. hancock (peter berg)
56. the day the earth stood still (robert wise)
57. iron man (jon favreau)
58. saboteur (alfred hitchcock)
59. the gauntlet (clint eastwood)
60. breezy (clint eastwood)
61. before the devil knows youre dead (sidney lumet)
62. rope (alfred hitchcock)
63. total recall (paul verhoeven)
64. mallrats (kevin smith)
65. die hard (john mctiernan)
66. magnum force (ted post)
67. casino royale (martin campbell)
68. frenzy (alfred hitchcock)
69. body of lies (ridley scott)
70. solaris (steven soderbergh)
71. the trouble with harry (alfred hitchcock)
72. indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull (steven spielberg)
73. the puffy chair (duplass brothers)
74. "the birds" (alfred hitchcock)
75. i am legend (francis lawrence)
76. space cowboys (clint eastwood)
78. quantum of solace (marc forster)
79. wanted (timur bekmambetov)
80. the reader *
81. the magnificent ambersons (orson welles)
82. speed (jan de bont)
83. australia (baz luhrmann)
84. coogans bluff (don siegal)
85. the enforcer (james fargo)
86. joe kidd (john sturges)
87. spider-man 3 (sam raimi)
88. dear wendy (thomas vinterberg)
89. goldeneye (martin campbell)
90. night watch (timur bekmambetov)
91. judge dredd (danny cannon)
92. strangers on a train (alfred hitchcock)
93. jamaica inn (alfred hitchcock)
94. robocop 3 (fred dekker)
95. robocop 2 (irvin kershner)
95. my bloody valentine (patrick lussier) *
96. a nightmare on elm street 4 (renny harlin)
97. a nightmare on elm street (wes craven)
98. zack and miri make a porno (kevin smith)
99. goldfinger (guy hamilton)
100. a nightmare on elm street 2 (jack sholder)
101. you only live twice (lewis gilbert)
102. mad max - beyond thunderdome (george miller & george ogilvie)
103. die another day (lee tamahori)
104. a nightmare on elm street 3 (chuck russell)
105. a nightmare on elm street 5 (stephen hopkins)
106. a nightmare on elm street 6 (rachel talalay)
107. W. (oliver stone)

(* indicates a theatrical release from 2009)

la ricotta (1963)

pier paolo pasolini's short film may last only 35 minutes, but it fits into it as many ideas, social comments and stylistic devices as any of his other films.

orson welles plays a director attempting to make a version of the story of 'the passion', and the resulting chaos that ensues provides the bulk of the film. style wise the film marks a rapid departure from the work immediately prior to this film, with the combination of the neo-realism mise-en-scene contrasting wildly with the technicolor of the scenes from welles' film intercut. the combination of the two styles is representative of the two different era's of pasolini's work collidin, likewise the scene with the talking dog and the one with the speeded up running are hugely different to the subtle nature of his earlier work and indicative of the work he would later go onto do in films such as "salo".

the religious nature of the film is but a small indication of the huge nature of the importance of religion as a theme in pasolini's work. in my opinion the fact that the film was banned upon initial release says more about the contradictory nature of the governing bodies at the time than the intention of pasolini. i honestly believe that pasolini's announcement/disclaimer of intent at the begining of the film is sincere, and that the offence caused, presumably in the scenes of the players acting around whilst waiting to film their scenes, was more of a comment than an act of genuine disdain. the comments would be more aptly applied to politics rather religion, with the character of stacci being an obvious analogy for christ.