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Top Ten List, from summer 2001

Since there are dozens of ways to appreciate or appraise a film, there are hundreds of films that deserve to be on any given all-time top ten list. It's more than just saying something like "these films realize the power of the film medium to its greatest potential," because there are limitless ways to do that. For me, I have to go on my nerve, pick the ones that mean the most to me right now.

But even doing this, I'm still stuck at 15-20, and so finally I have no choice but to employ an arbitrary measure to bring it down to 10. This is what Jonathan Rosenbaum did with his most recent top 10 list, when he selected one film from each decade of the 20th century. But even this seemingly arbitrary measure has a clear purpose to it: he is implicitly asserting that at least one film from every decade has an inherent, ineffable greatness to it, debunking the notion of a "Golden Age" of cinema, insisting that cinema is equally alive in its past, present and future so long as we wish it to be. So I have taken this as my inspiration; but instead of decades I have selected films from 10 different countries of origin, in the mad pursuit of a cinema that truly reflects and examines the world we live in, with dazzling cinematic originality and skill and a relevance that extends beyond borders of nations, cinematic conventions, or any type of restriction.

Of course, 10 movies aren't going to accomplish this, but I think the list deemphasizes the dominance of Hollywood and creates a map that, like the Dodo in PORKY IN WACKYLAND, point to numerous directions and possibilities for movies to go. In the words of our modern-day Porky, George W. Bush, in his inaugural address: "make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom." Cinematic freedom: this has been my objective in watching and reflecting on movies over the past year.

AWAARA, (1951, dir. Raj Kapoor)

Dickensian social drama. Sweeping romance. Inspired slapstick. Gorgeous musical numbers. An old lady getting hit by a truck on her way to save her sonÕs life. The fate of a nation encapsulated in 193 minutes. This ain't Hollywood. This is Bollywood.

CITY OF SADNESS/Beiqing chengshi (1989, dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien)

Hou Hsiao Hsien rewrote the rule book on how to make historical movies with this elliptical, emotionally gripping account of the brief period of TaiwanÕs liberation from Japan before it was brutally taken over by the Chinese Nationalist regime. What Hou does is recreate the sensation of living at that moment in time, where everything was up in the air, and the only thing one could hope for was that their family remains intact. Hou keeps us from knowing any more or less than the characters; we are kept in perpetual yearning and uncertainty until the final frame shows us, with devastating impact, how far we have come from where we started. No director has done more to reclaim for movies the sense of living in the real moment and how it relates to our sense of personal and collective history.

CLOSE-UP/Nema-ye Nazdik (1990, dir. Abbas Kiarostami)

Werner Herzog calls this the best documentary on filmmaking ever made, though that doesnÕt account for how this film blows away the very notion of what the term ÒdocumentaryÓ is supposed to mean. A man is arrested for pretending to be a famous movie director and camping out in the home of a well-to-do family, claiming that he will turn their lives into a movie. Kiarostami assembles everyone involved to re-enact the events, including the judge of the trial, who wonders why Kiarostami is wasting his time on such a ÒmeaninglessÓ story. I canÕt think of any other film with more to say on the effect that media, entertainment and movies have on our lives. Just thinking about the ending puts tears of joy in my eyes.

THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES/Sayat Nova (1968, Sergei Parajanov)

I donÕt consider myself qualified to give an adequate description of this film. IÕll just say that watching it was like opened a treasure chest that had somehow landed in my VCR. It floods the senses with sounds and images of passionately personal and cultural significance, written in a cinematic language that seems as ancient as Scripture.

IMITATION OF LIFE (1958, dir. Douglas Sirk)

My favorite American movie of the moment, because for me itÕs the definitive statement on the American way of life: crude and sophisticated, compassionate and prejudiced, it willingly harbors all the paradoxes of AmericaÕs attitudes towards success, race relations and women. Done up with fireworks and flair to spare, and no less profound for turning our own social hypocrisies into compelling entertainment.

ORDET (1955, dir. Carl Dreyer)

A movie that seems to move while standing still, creating a sense of time that is both passing and eternal. And thatÕs one of several paradoxes to be found in this story that pits family vs. the individual, inspiration vs. insanity, love vs. lust, life vs. death, and just when it all seems figured out, the contradictions in the story turn everything over.

PLATFORM/Zhantai (2000, dir. Jia Zhangke)

Two years ago, I staggered out of the 3 _ hour US premiere of this movie, wondering whether I had just seen the greatest Chinese movie ever made. ItÕs more than just that. Chronicling the ten year period in which the Peasant Culture Group of Fenyang transforms itself into the All Star Rock nÕ Breakdance Electronic Band, this film is a drama, comedy, musical, history and sociology lesson, hiding its immense ambitions behind the unpretentious veneer of everyday life in rural China, moving past our eyes like a phantom parade. This is the ultimate slacker masterpiece.

THE THIRD MAN (1949, dir. Carol Reed)

This film is probably to me what others have termed a ÒfavoriteÓ, but I am not ashamed of putting a guilty pleasure on the list of my best films. IÕve grown up with this movie, IÕve been captivated by it countless times, and IÕve wrestled with its flaws while still retaining deep affection for its virtues. Through it all IÕve learned a hell of a lot about thinking on what movies should be. In any case, it gives a haunting depiction of a fractured world turned upside down, and is one of the rare instances where anti-Americanism proved to be commercially viable among American audiences.

TOKYO STORY/Tokyo monogatari (1953, dir. Yasujiro Ozu)

Ozu is one of the trickiest filmmakers ever, with films that all seem identical to the untrained eye but reveal far more visually and thematically than what they appear to be. This particular masterpiece, often misunderstood as a quiet, polite meditation on family dysfunction, seems to barely hold back a vicious outrage at Japanese societyÕs complicity to sell its soul for some ambiguous promise of prosperity, facilitated by a ritualized order that itself can be found in OzuÕs technique, a paradox that Ozu is all to aware of. ItÕs all in Setsuko HaraÕs heartbreaking tears. As such itÕs a immensely complex meditation on both modern society and filmmaking, as relevant to our future as it is to our past.

LES VAMPIRES (1915, dir. Louis Feuillade)

A seemingly unassuming 6-hour serial that unleashes a world of limitless dark wonders, hurtling through a world of playful terror that winds and unwinds and reinvents itself at the drop of a hat, never to be pinned down. Well Philipp, looks like you're now the lone skeptic among the listmongers. On behalf of everyone else (who probably resent you too much to bother [laugh]) I cordially invite you to join the throng. You can be like Chris and I and add a dose of subersion while gratifying everyone's curiosity; hell you can be anything you want, you always have!