Nenad Polimac

Comments

L'avventura

It still intrigues me after all these years. It's very modern, very emotional and deeply disturbing, with beautiful black-and-white photography. It's a pity that Monica Vitti died this year.

The Wild Bunch

It's not very good news that they are planning a new version of this classic. How they can do it? The only way is to make it as different from the original as possible. The original version is still a very exciting film, with a beautiful visual style, very brutal scenes, and in spite of all this violence, it's a deeply poetic film. I like it today as passionately as I did in 1970.

All That Heaven Allows

Ten years ago I preferred Sirk's Imitation of Life, but today I think this is its director's most modern film. Socially provocative, bathed in beautiful colour, not afraid of sentimental images (little lamb in the snow), with two superb actors in the main roles. I don't think it will be ever forgotten.

The Searchers

Generally, I like westerns, but this one strikes me not as a genre movie, but more like an epic story about an impossible search: the leading man is not looking for his niece but for himself.

Vertigo

I still remember my days as a kid, as I watched this movie in a very big cinema in Zagreb. I sensed there was something quite different about it, some kind of emotional mystery which is not easy to solve. Ten years ago I was overjoyed that it won in the first place, but being a realist, I'm not sure how long it will hold that place.

Shoah

At first, I didn't intend to swallow the whole documentary in one session, but it so happened that I did. Of course, I came back to it many times, just to check that scene and this scene. I became obsessed with Lanzmann and saw everything that he directed, but very soon I realised that his Holocaust movies are his best.

Shoplifters

Generally, I'm not crazy about contemporary cinema, but this one had all the things I liked in movies: good story, complicated characters and a few dramatic nuances. I saw it a few times and it always succeeded in impressing me. Much better than Parasite from South Korea.

The Conformist

In the beginning, it looks like a Douglas Sirk movie, but it is only a matter of visual style. The story is very complicated, with the hero torn between two women and two ideologies, and his every step is completely wrong. It's pity that Bertolucci didn't make any more films like these.

Tokyo Story

It's the most obvious choice for any admirer of this great Japanese director. But, on the other hand, a lot of his films from the 40s, 50s and the beginning of the 60s deserve their position in this top ten. Still, this one is an exceptional story of an old couple and their children that has never been so movingly told.

Dirty Harry

Never was a crime film so indicative of his society. Siegel started his cycle with Madigan and Coogan's Bluff, but this one is his masterpiece.

Further remarks

Ten years ago, it was much more interesting making a top ten list. Today, television jumped in and we ignore a lot of what we loved before. I'm not sure how modern movies will hold that pressure.