The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

Recommended

Italy/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Il vangelo secondo Matteo

Writer/Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli

Cast: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante, Ferruccio Nuzzo, Otello Sestili, Rossana Di Rocco, Paola Tedesco

Although it feels a little rushed at times and could be somewhat confusing for those with merely a passing knowledge of the New Testament, Pasolini’s dexterous adaptation of the eponymous book – a retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, the son of God, from immaculate conception to ascension to heaven – is never less than compelling. Iain.Stott

Read More

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Essential Viewing

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Ladri di biciclette

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writers: Oreste Biancoli, Suso D'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gerardo Guerrieri, Cesare Zavattini, Luigi Bartolini

Cinematographer: Carlo Montuori

Composer: Alessandro Cicognini

Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Saltamerenda, Vittorio Antonucci, Giulio Chiari

Avoiding the sentimentality that often blighted his subsequent films, De Sica’s magnum opus – a delightfully simple tale about a man and his young son traversing the streets of Rome in search of a stolen bicycle, which is essential to their family’s survival – is a beautiful and moving exploration of the devastating effects of post-war privations on the dignity of ordinary people. Iain.Stott

Read More

Léon Morin, Prêtre (1961)

Recommended

France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Léon Morin, prêtre

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Writers: Jean-Pierre Melville, Béatrix Beck

Cinematographer: Henri Decaë

Composer: Martial Solal

Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva, Irène Tunc, Nicole Mirel, Gisèle Grimm

Provocative, absorbing, and strangely erotic, Melville’s adaptation of Béatrix Beck’s autobiographical novel, exploring the fascinating relationship between a sceptical, young communist woman and a handsome, young liberal priest in German occupied France, is a work of quiet power and adept artistry. Iain.Stott

Read More

Milou en Mai (1990)

Recommended

France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Milou en mai

Director: Louis Malle

Writers: Jean-Claude Carrière, Louis Malle

Cinematographer: Renato Berta

Composer: Stéphane Grappelli

Cast: Miou-Miou, Michel Piccoli, Michel Duchaussoy, Bruno Carette, Paulette Dubost, Harriet Walter, Martine Gautier, Rozenne Le Tallec, Jeanne Herry-Leclerc, Renaud Danner, François Berléand, Dominique Blanc

Pitched somewhere between Renoir and Buñuel, Milou en Mai, Malle’s satirical, farcical, and very funny final (entirely) French film, sees a wealthy family gathering at their country home in May ’68 for the funeral of their recently deceased matriarch, whilst across France (and on the family’s radio) students and workers strike and riot. Iain.Stott

Read More

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Recommended

Denmark/Finland/France/Germany/Iceland/Italy/The Netherlands/Norway/Sweden/UK/USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lars von Trier

Cinematographer: Robby Müller

Composer: Björk

Cast: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Cara Seymour, Jean-Marc Barr, Siobhan Fallon

von Trier’s polarising, excellently acted provocation – a bleak tale of maternal martyrdom with brief, Björky musical interludes, in which the aforementioned mother, a Czech immigrant with rapidly deteriorating eyesight, struggles to cope in small town America, as she strives to save enough money for an operation for her precious son – is a powerful, often painful work, but a rewarding one none the less. Iain.Stott

Read More

Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour (1963)

Recommended

France/Italy/West Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour

Director: Alain Resnais

Writer: Jean Cayrol

Cinematographer: Sacha Vierny

Composer: Hans Werner Henze

Cast: Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée

The excellent Seyrig plays a widow, living with her step-son, who invites a former lover, whom she hasn’t seen for twenty-odd years, to visit her in her Boulogne home, but, unexpectedly, he also brings along his “niece” and a whole lot of memories, in Resnais’s third feature, an enigmatic, unsettling, and menacing examination of the organic nature of memory. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Children Are Watching Us (1944)

Recommended

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: I bambini ci guardano

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writers: Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gherardo Gherardi, Margherita Maglione, Cesare Giulio Viola, Cesare Zavattini

Cinematographers: Giuseppe Caracciolo, Romolo Garroni

Composer: Renzo Rossellini

Cast: Luciano De Ambrosis, Emilio Cigoli, Isa Pola, Adriano Rimoldi, Giovanna Cigoli

De Sica’s atypical bourgeois melodrama – a child’s-eye view of a messy marital break-up, highlighting the devastating effects that the selfish behaviour of adults can have upon their offspring – is an uneven film that is sometimes as obvious as its rather unimaginative title, but De Ambrosis’s outstanding juvenile performance and some nice visual flourishes from De Sica ensure that this wartime production is never anything less than entertaining and often quite moving. Iain.Stott

Read More

Shoeshine (1946)

Recommended

Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Sciuscià

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writers: Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, C.G. Viola, Cesare Zavattini

Cinematographer: Anchise Brizzi

Composer: Alessandro Cicognini

Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Rinaldo Smordoni, Annielo Mele, Bruno Ortenzi, Emilio Cigoli

De Sica’s moving examination of the effects of post-war privation on the children of Rome – focussing on two young friends that work as shoeshine boys, who are tricked into becoming accessories to burglary, and end up in a juvenile prison – is a passionate and heartfelt if perhaps occasionally slightly manipulative work, which tugs gently at the heartstrings. Iain.Stott

Read More

Le Boucher (1970)

Highly Recommended

France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Le boucher

Writer/Director: Claude Chabrol

Cinematographer: Jean Rabier

Composer: Pierre Jansen

Cast: Stéphane Audran, Jean Yanne, Antonio Passalia, Pascal Ferone, Mario Beccara, William Guérault, Roger Rudel

Prolific Chabrol’s hard to categorise film – depicting a bizarrely romantic and tender (almost) romance between a gruff, mildly insecure butcher and a prim-and-proper yet assertive primary school headmistress, set against the backdrop of a small town suffering at the knifepoint of a serial killer – is a quite unique work, boasting two excellent performances, inventively effective mise en scène, and a cracking, portentous score. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)

Highly Recommended

France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Le journal d'une femme de chambre

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière, Octave Mirbeau

Cinematographer: Roger Fellous

Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Daniel Ivernel, Françoise Lugagne, Muni, Jean Ozenne, Michel Piccoli

The first film of Buñuel’s French period, and his first collaboration with Carrière – a masterful adaptation of Mirbeau’s 1900 novel, updating it to the 1930s, setting it against a backdrop of the rise of fascism, following a Parisian woman’s rise from chambermaid to mistress in an idyllic country town – proves to be one of the Spanish master’s more subtle films, filled with sardonic wit and composed performances, but it’s also one of his bleakest works, taking, as it does, such an all encompassing swipe at just about every level of society. Iain.Stott

Read More

L'Appartement (1996)

Highly Recommended

France/Italy/Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: L'appartement

Writer/Director: Gilles Mimouni

Cinematographer: Thierry Arbogast

Composer: Peter Chase

Cast: Vincent Cassel, Romane Bohringer, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Monica Bellucci

Mimouni’s very flashy but thoroughly entertaining feature debut - an intricately plotted romantic thriller, mixing great chunks of Hitchcock, a dollop of Shakespeare, and a dash of Kieslowski - is a consummately constructed film, boasting excellent performances, sumptuous photography and production design, and an ending to provoke, baffle, enrage, or inspire just about everyone. Iain.Stott

Read More

Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Highly Recommended

Italy/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Le notti di Cabiria

Director: Federico Fellini

Writers: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Maria Molinari

Cinematographer: Aldo Tonti

Composer: Nino Rota

Cast: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, Dorian Gray, Aldo Silvani, Ennio Girolami, Mario Passante, Christian Tassou, Amedeo Nazzari

The delightful Masina is quite outstanding as the titular Chaplinesque prostitute whose misadventures in high and low Roman culture we follow over a series of nights, in this movingly played and beautifully shot episodic film from Fellini, which manages to both tickle the funny bone and touch the emotions, whilst also providing moments of genuine insight. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Dreamers (2003)

Not Recommended

France/Italy/UK
Feature Film
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Writer: Gilbert Adair
Cinematographer: Fabio Cianchetti
Cast: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Anna Chancellor, Robin Renucci

Set against a backdrop of the 1968 riots and strikes in Paris, this allegorical tale from Bertolucci, depicting a young American cinephile’s strange, incestuous (in all senses of the word) friendship with a pair of Parisian siblings, starts well as an ode to cinephilia, but soon gets bogged down with alienatingly obtuse metaphors, whilst ignoring logic - but the brave performances keep it watchable. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Boss of It All (2006)

Recommended

Denmark/Iceland/Sweden/Norway/Finland/France/Germany/Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Direktøren for det hele
Writer/Director: Lars von Trier
Cinematographer: Automavision
Cast: Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Iben Hjejle, Henrik Prip, Mia Lyhne, Casper Christensen, Louise Mieritz, Jean-Marc Barr, Sofie Gråbøl

von Trier’s frequently hilarious workplace comedy – employing the “innovative” Automavision process; a computer programme that randomly resets camera angles and sound levels (the small print in accompanying bumph would suggest that this is more of a publicity stunt than an exercise in capricious film-making) – is a cracking little allegorical farce, examining, amongst other things, the artistic process, office politics, emotional weakness, and the walls separating taste and theory from corporeality and validity. Iain.Stott

Read More

Don't Look Now (1973)

Essential Viewing

UK/Italy

Feature Film
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Writers: Chris Bryant, Allan Scott, Daphne Du Maurier
Cinematographer: Anthony Richmond
Composer: Pino Donnagio
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa, Adelina Poerio

By turns frightening, unsettling, beautiful, and painfully moving, Roeg’s incomparable masterpiece – part supernatural horror film, part unblinking portrait of grief – is a bravely acted, distinctively shot, disquietingly scored, and quite brilliant masterwork. Iain.Stott

Read More

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Highly Recommended

Italy/USA

Feature Film
Original Title: C'era una volta il West
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Sergio Donati, Sergio Leone, Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mickey Knox
Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Cast: Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti

Quite possibly the film with the best claim to the title of the ultimate Western, Leone’s beautifully phlegmatic, Bolognese-dipped portrait of an enigmatic stranger’s effect on the lives of some vicious outlaws, a corrupt businessman, and a former-tart-with-a-heart, is a stunningly acted, beautifully photographed, and distinctively soundtracked minor masterpiece. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Family Friend (2006)

Recommended

Italy/France

Feature Film
Original Title: L’amico di famiglia
Writer/Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi
Composer: Teho Teardo
Cast: Giacomo Rizzo, Laura Chiatti, Gigi Angelillo, Marco Giallini, Barbara Valmorin, Luisa De Santis, Clara Bindi

An ageing, small-time moneylender who lives with his elderly, bed-ridden mother, and is, thanks to his hideous looks and complete lack of charm, prolifically unlucky with members of the opposite sex, manages to manoeuvre his way into the knickers of the beautiful young daughter of an indebted client, in Sorrentino’s stylish and entertaining if mildly disappointing follow-up to the far superior The Consequences of Love (2004). Iain.Stott

Read More

The Consequences of Love (2004)

Highly Recommended

Italy
Feature Film
Original Title: Le conseguenze dell'amore
Writer/Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi
Composer: Pasquale Catalano
Cast: Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini, Antonio Ballerio, Enzo Vitagliano, Vittorio Di Prima, Nino D'Agata, Gaetano Bruno

With its playful mise en scène, lush palette of colours, gorgeous score, and cracking, subtle performances, Sorrentino’s patient, insightful crime film, chronicling the day-to-day life of a dour, disillusioned, middle-aged banker, virtually imprisoned by the Cosa Nostra in a Swiss hotel for eight years after losing over 200 billion dollars of Mafia money on the stock market, is a surprising, atypical gem that adds a level of poetry and humanity to a genre generally lacking such qualities. Iain.Stott

Read More