Miguel Valverde

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Rear Window

Like Antonioni, Fellini and Orson Welles, Hitchcock is one of its kind. It's difficult to choose a film among so many superbe films he directed like: The Birds, Rope, Notorious, Vertigo, Psycho or Marnie. But, in the end, the story of a man, recovering from a broken leg, that has a window to the world, as he sees everything (even a potencial murder) is probably the best. Stewart, Kelly and Ritter are all amazing and the intriguing thriller keep us awake until the end.

Citizen Kane

The history of cinema will always come to this film. Orson Welles is not only a master of film in the full perception and sense of it, but also a magistral story teller, by words and images. Watching the film today is equal to when I watch it 40 years ago. Rosebud will be always Rosebud, and the cinema will always mention Welles as a master (like Hitchcock).

La Jetée

I don't know how many times I saw La Jetée by the enfant-terrible Chris Marker, a man of another time, that we received on earth as one of us. But he wasn't. The circle story of a man marked by an image of his childhood that will be responsible for its coming to the past to see his own death is a photo-roman, a war story, a science fiction film, a love story, an architecture construction and a painting of its time. This 30 minute piece reveals the history of our future.

Taxi Driver

Scorcese's Taxi Driver is a hell of a film. This portrait of a disturbed man (a veteran of war guided by phantoms) in search for something good ends up in a very violent mood. Some sentences from the film still echoes today. Mirrors will never be the same. And the generation of actors in the film: Robert de Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel and Albert Brooks, among others, is truly from out of this world.

Vitalina Varela

In current cinema it's difficult to find a film that could enter the film history. Since the world premiere at Locarno Film Festival, Pedro Costa's latest feature showed to the world how painting can become cinema, and how cinema can reproduce the history of painting. These marvellous tableau-vivants show Vitalina Varela, a strong woman turned into actress by the hands of Costa, and the cinema turns into something new.

Blowup

Antonioni's prolific career in cinema could give the best 10 films ever from one only director. In between Zabriskie Point, L'avventura, La notte or L'eclisse I have to choose Blow Up. It was one of the first films I saw in my life as a young adult. This intriguing story of a young fashion photographer that discovers (while revealing photos) a possible crime and meet Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles. The trio builds up an intriguing thriller that we cannot stop to watch. And the tennis scene without a ball it's still one of the most remarkable scenes in the film history.

8½

When you loose your inspiration go and film. This implies 8 1/2 by master Fellini but also this Bartleby complex is an excentric film, full of life, full of music (the Ride of the Valkyries scene is unforgetable), full of ideas, portraying a man is desesperate mode to shoot a science fiction film. Alter-ego Fellini is played by Marcelo Mastroianni, in another excellent performance.

Cléo from 5 to 7

In Cléo de 5 à 7, Varda portrays a young woman during two hours in town. She waits the results of a medical exam that can possibly tell her she has a cancer. But all we see is freshness, a clever eye and a dancing mode with the camera. This city ballet overtakes us and breathlessly we go wherever she wants us to go. Michel Legrand's songs are unforgetable too.

Les Amants du Pont-Neuf

A love story between two homeless in Paris during the rebuilt of Pont Neuf in 1989. Carax exciting camera work and the strangeness of that relationship, in between water, fire and paintings show us the Sène river like we never saw before.

PALOMBELLA ROSSA

A great film that talked about its time, but seeing today, it's seems more modern than ever. The protagonist Michelle Apicella (Moretti's alter-ego) is losing contact with reality, while trying to score and imagining a victory. Due to the very well done script structured, a very effective editing and a magistral actor (Nanni Moretti), Palombella Rossa is one of the best films ever made.

Further remarks

Lots of other great films were not mentioned like Apocalipse Now, 2001 - Space Odyssee, West Side Story, Singing in the Rain, Love Letter, Os Canibais, Amor de Perdição.