Focus Features

If I like a director, I generally will see everything they see fit to show on the big screen. Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy is deeply moving and tenderly rendered. The three films fit together as a single story although each film stands on it’s own as a masterpiece of cinema. The trilogy traces the life of a Bengali boy, Apu, who has to learn how to cope after his father and mother die. Produced on a shoestring with an amateur cast, the film is one of the finest examples of Indian cinema, Bollywood not withstanding. 

As a kid I was taken to see all kinds of movies with my parents, most of them I found pretty dull. Somehow, the magic of Boris Pasternak’s story, realized on the screen by David Lean in 1965 enchanted me. Dr. Zhivago tells the story of a Russian doctor struggling with fidelity and passion, while caught up in drama of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. This film may have made me into a romantic. 

Stanley Kubrick’s films had a huge impact on me, none more so than A Clockwork Orange (1971). Anthony Burgess’ controversial story was perfect material for Kubrick. It tells the story of a young, opportunistic ultra violent man who is “volunteered” for several Pavlovian experiments in an attempt to condition his behavior. The film still has the ability to shock, which in our age is quite a feat for a film that is almost forty years old. 

I worked in a rep cinema for a few years in my early twenties, just when German cinema was making a name for itself with directors like Fassbinder and Herzog. For me, 1972’s Aguirre, The Wrath of God stands as a heroic work of art, if not sheer madness. Apocalypse Now was heavily influenced by the stunning magic of Aguirre.  The film loosely follows the story of 16th century conquistadors looking for Eldorado, the city of gold. In my opinion, Herzog found it. 

I’ve been a fan of the Joel and Ethan Coen for a long time. They usually make me laugh and they always have something to say about human behavior but I was not at all prepared for No Country for Old Men. Based on a story by Cormac McCarthy, the film sears like a hot poker. Javier Bardem is completely sinister as Anton Chigurh. This is one of the best adaptations of a novel I have ever seen, and I tend to believe films seldom do justice to literature.