Pablo O. Scholz

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Citizen Kane

The first time I saw Citizen Kane I froze. I remember that the final scene shook me - I was a child when I discovered it on TV. How Welles cut his character out of the scenery throughout the projection, and how the grandiloquence was reduced to nothing in a memory, in that sled that was the heart of Hearst. The handling of cameras continues to surprise me.

The Godfather

Another movie that one can not stop watching when you discover it (or look for it) on cable or streaming signals. It is the work of a young filmmaker, who had already shown signs of his talent, his ambition, and even without knowing the problems that Coppola endured, The Godfather stands out as the film that one would see with pleasure every week in the cinema of his neighborhood. And without interruptions.

Psycho

It is one of those films by the Master that one never tires of admiring. Let's leave aside the shower sequence: the construction of Bates's character, the surprise and early disappearance of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the music of Bernard Herrmann, the black and white photography of John L. Russell... A feast. There are other great achievements of Hitchcock, such as Vertigo and The Rear Window, but I prefer Psycho.

Metropolis

Among several silent film titles, I sadly put aside Nosferatu and Modern Times, but I preferred to opt for Murnau's film, because it synthesizes an also conscientious look at what the risks of dehumanizing us are. And German expressionism is one of the most portentous aspects of cinema.

Seven Samurai

The Seven Samurai is a major work by Kurosawa, only comparable to Rashomon, but I choose the 1954 film because of the enormous influence it had and still has on universal cinema, not only in the West.

It's a Wonderful Life

Capra's film knew how to perfectly combine all its elements: fantasy, the common man, social and family drama, and the need for solidarity and hope. And it has a monumental work by James Stewart.

2001: A Space Odyssey

I choose it because Kubrick, as a perfectionist, did a magnificent job, cutting through different arts to achieve one of his masterpieces. And he was also ahead of his time, marking the unequal struggle between man and machine or artificial intelligence.

The Seventh Seal

How difficult it is to choose just one of Bergman's films and sneak it into the top 10 of all time. Fantasy and drama united, and in an exquisite synthesis or conjunction in that chess game in which we hate Death... and love Max von Sydow.

Apocalypse Now

Perhaps the best movie about the war, a few steps above Full Metal Jacket - which is basically about the same thing: horror - and Saving Private Ryan. That journey into the unknown, into Evil, which has a surprising twist in the version of "Redux" that Coppola presented at Cannes in 2001, with those 49 minutes and Willard's stop at the plantation, which gives more meaning to his reaction with Colonel Kurtz. Not just the napalm scene, or Brando's presence. Apocalypse Now is cinema in its purest form.

Taxi Driver

It was very, very hard to fill this place. But Scorsese is a man of cinema that I could not leave out of my top ten. Travis's drama, that lonely man with whom in some of his behaviours we can find ourselves, and reflect ourselves, because yes, he is talking to us, and not merely "Are You talking to me?" that permeates the depths of our soul. And again our friend Bernard Herrmann pointing from the music track…

Further remarks

I want to deeply thank you for the honour that you have chosen me to express my knowledge, and my cinematographic choices. In addition to a degree in journalism, I graduated from the film school of the National Film Institute of Argentina as director, which has given me tools to enjoy rather than analyse the cinema of the great masters. Please continue with this type of task, so that the spectators, the public and people in general continue to think, caught up in a movie screen, developing their ideas. Thanks again.