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8½ (1963)
A picture that goes beyond what men think about - because no man ever thought about it in quite this way!
Filmmaker(s): Federico Fellini

Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.

The Petaled Swirl of Influences am generally not a fan of Fellini: his early work is too sentimentally trivial for his talent, and his later work is just lazy. But in this film, he reaches more than one height. In terms of basic worlds, it is...


Published December 9, 2024
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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Nothing is written.
Filmmaker(s): David Lean

The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.

A Vision that Defines Itself man has an inner drive that makes him peculiar and intense. He goes to the desert and falls in love with it and its people. Gaining powerful sponsors, he has a grand vision that he accomplishes by inspiring and directing...


Published December 10, 2024
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La Jetée (1962)
A man's obsession with an image of his past.
Filmmaker(s): Chris Marker

A man is sent back and forth and in and out of time in an experiment that attempts to unravel the fate and the solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world during the aftermath of WW3. The experiment results in him getting caught up in a perpetual reminiscence of past events that are recreated on an airport’s viewing pier.

Thirteen Monkeys wish I had seen this before "Twelve Monkeys." Except for "Fear and Loathing," Gilliam is artless (but reflexive). This is much more clever in how its manner (single images) reflects its story (how registration of images in the memory can fold time). Its a...


Published September 14, 2025
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Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Extraordinary! Hypnotic! Beautiful! Masterful!
Filmmaker(s): Alain Resnais

In a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.

Annotated Image -- Constructed Memory of the most influential films ever made, and must be seen on that basis. You create your own life by collecting Borgean memories and adding pieces from this film will greatly enrich your viewing of later, safer films along the...


Published December 9, 2024
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Hiroshima Mon Amor (1959)
From the measureless depths of a woman's emotions...
Filmmaker(s): Alain Resnais

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

The Pull of Connection saw this thirty or so years ago. I don’t remember it moving me profoundly, but then so many things at that age routinely inject you with massive change without you knowing. Seeing it now gives me great, great appreciation for what...


Published November 25, 2022
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Vertigo (1958)
Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!
Filmmaker(s): Alfred Hitchcock

A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

Two Dizzy really has to separate the idea of this film from its execution. I think the idea is terrific and the execution wobbly at least by today's standards. First, the story, which is clever and self-referentially about the making of itself. Initially, we are shown the...


Published December 11, 2024
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The Seventh Seal (1957)
The story of a challenge to death
Filmmaker(s): Ingmar Bergman

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Folded Narrative Folding is much loved because of his sheer passion, its intimate rawness and the ability to present it visually. He was able to sustain that uncomfortable ability for decades, but this film also has something else -- unique in his work -- a...


Published December 11, 2024
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12 Angry Men (1957)
Life is in their hands — Death is on their minds!
Filmmaker(s): Sidney Lumet

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

No Dissonance film deserves to be on anyone's list of top films. My problem is that it is so perfect, so seamlessly polished, it is hard to appreciate the individual excellences. The acting is top notch. I believe that monologue acting is quite a bit simpler...


Published December 11, 2024
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Forbidden Planet (1956)
Earthmen on a fabulous, peril-journey into outer space!
Filmmaker(s): Fred M. Wilcox

Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for 20 years, only to find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.

Parallel Futures creating my own list of favourites, I put this at the top of my SciFi category. But that was based on viewing a long time ago. So I rented it recently and was shocked. Times have changed, and science fiction depends so much...


Published December 10, 2024
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Rear Window (1954)
It only takes one witness to spoil the perfect crime.
Filmmaker(s): Alfred Hitchcock

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Copernican Cinema just don't like Hitchcock. I admit that he ‘delivered value' in his day, but as I review his films today, I find them trite, badly dated. The style of acting he used now looks ’actorly.' His camera framing is well considered but unimaginative...


Published December 10, 2024
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