THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE FILMS... TODAY

Every now then I enjoy reevaluating my "favorite" movies.

These may not be considered by the cinematic "elite" as the greatest films ever made, but I don't always coincide with other critics, as my perspective of motion pictures --having been involved in the making of a couple myself-- is not, in a word, traditional.

I don't, for example, evaluate a light comedy like "My Life in Ruins" with the same measuring stick, the same criteria, let's say, that I would apply to another "light" comedy such as "The Circus" by Chaplin.

I like them both for completely different reasons, and I am certainly not equating the two or placing them in the same artistic category. What they have in common at their core is a stellar performance: Nia Vardalos in "My Life" and Charlie in "Circus".

They both satisfy me precisely because of the intelligence of the stars. Intelligence is a rare characteristic in modern comedy acting: very few actors have that spark of innate brilliance that comedians must have in order to enthrall a universal audience.

I also do not evaluate a drama such as "No Country For Old Men" as I would, for example, sacred cows of the cinema like "Citizen Kane" and "The Seventh Seal." All of these satisfy me also, but for different reasons--and I don't always have to consciously pinpoint what those reasons are--I simply, instinctively, know what works for me as a consumer of the seventh art.




No other art form can impact a human being more profoundly than the cinema for the simple reason that it encompasses all of the arts (an exception or two permitted) and that fusion, that cohesive sense of divine creation (if I may be allowed a touch of the esoteric) is what makes it such an intrinsically influential medium. If this were not so, films such as "Potemkin," "Olympia," "Triumph of the Will," "Z," "The Battle of Algiers," much of what Bergman, Fellini, Godard, Stone, Bertolucci, among others, have produced, would not exist because they transcend mere entertainments like "My Life" and "The Circus" and "No Country."

Can a "bad" film be a "great" film. Yes. "Titanic" is a perfect example.

Can a great film be bad entertainment? Obviously. "Weekend" is a prime example. I can't endure it and yet I cannot cease to recognize its inherent power.

"Last Year at Marienbad" is an impossibly difficult film to digest, and yet I'm usually riveted by it because I always think I've "finally" discovered/deciphered what it "means," only to dispose of my theories and start from scratch the second it concludes. The new Blu-ray edition that Criterion has released is a marvel.

What are my favorite films today? Here's the list (don't you just love lists?) without any explanation, except that I compare watching them to a mythical experience, and myths, as we all now, require no explanation.

Most are available on Blu-ray and/or DVD. One is yet to open theatrically, and try not to miss it because it contains the greatest performance of 2009 by any actor/actress thus far. I'll let you figure out which one it is. The selection, by the way, is in no particular order.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Knowing

Do The Right Thing

Revolutionary Road

Une femme mariee

The Seventh Seal

Last Year at Marienbad

Dr. Strangelove

Doubt

Frost/Nixon

The International

Trail of the Lonesome Pine (with Henry Fonda)

Australia

Queen Christina

The Searchers

The Stoning of Soraya M.

Zodiac - Director's Cut

8 1/2

Valkyrie

Falling Down

The Diary of Anne Frank

Two weeks (or two days) from now I may have a completely different list... but such is the subjective and elusive nature of favoritism.