Pablo Conde
Artistic Director, Mar del Plata International Film Festival
Argentina
Voted for
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Seven Samurai | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa |
| The Searchers | 1956 | John Ford |
| Vertigo | 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Playtime | 1967 | Jacques Tati |
| Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | 1975 | Chantal Akerman |
| Videodrome | 1983 | David Cronenberg |
| Détective | 1985 | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Blue Velvet | 1986 | David Lynch |
| Assault on Precinct 13 | 1976 | John Carpenter |
| Suspiria | 1977 | Dario Argento |
Comments
Seven Samurai
"Manzo, don't be angry. When the dawn threatens our very lives, the weight of it makes us all a little reckless."
The Searchers
"By what you preach, none. But what that Comanche believes, ain't got no eyes, he can't enter the spirit-land. Has to wander forever between the winds.You get it, Reverend."
Vertigo
"It's wonderful how they've got it all taped now, John. They've got music for dipsomaniacs, and music for melancholiacs, and music for nymphomaniacs. I wonder what would happen if somebody got their files mixed up?"
Playtime
"How do you say 'drugstore' in French?"
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
"I could have made mashed potatoes, but we're having that tomorrow."
Videodrome
"I am the Video Word made Flesh."
Détective
"We're not in one of those little French films, where the actors believe talking is thinking."
Blue Velvet
"In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, you're mine, all the time. Forever. In dreams…"
Assault on Precinct 13
"In my situation, days are like women - each one's so damn precious, but they all end up leaving you."
Suspiria
"Bad luck isn't brought by broken mirrors, but by broken minds."
Further remarks
Subjective, as much ludic as it is an impossible task, this list of films is fixated on the number ten: that is how many "truths" each film has inside of itself. At the very least.
Ten irrebatible truths about what "cinema" is. What are its margins, the core, the vast field?
It is an auto-accepted canonical list: how not to? It is impossible for me to stay away from those titles, maybe because of them truths.
If it were a Cannonical list, it would be easier: Love Streams, Lifeforce, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, King Lear, Runaway Train, Revenge of the Ninja, Hero and the Terror, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, Tough Guys Don't Dance, House of the Long Shadows, being a purist on the Golan-Globus titles, of course.
But, subtracting the extra N, canonical was the means to an end. Ten, the restriction, from ALL films, to an exact handful. Ten perfect tens. Ten ways to understand the world. To live it.