Peter Matthews
Academic
UK
Voted for
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo Story | 1953 | Yasujirō Ozu |
| Greed | 1923 | Erich von Stroheim |
| Diary of a Country Priest | 1951 | Robert Bresson |
| Intolerance | 1916 | D.W. Griffith |
| Ivan the Terrible | 1945 | Sergei M. Eisenstein |
| Vertigo | 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | 1975 | Chantal Akerman |
| All That Heaven Allows | 1955 | Douglas Sirk |
| Die BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT | 1972 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| The Big Trail | 1930 | Raoul Walsh |
Comments
Is it significant that my list stops in 1975 (with Akerman’s supremely unnerving Jeanne Dielman)? Probably. On another day, I might well have included Tsai Ming-liang’s Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) or Albert Serra’s The Death of Louis XIV (2016), two slow cinema masterpieces. Richard Linklater’s miraculous Before Sunset (2004) would be right up there too. But essentially, and however indefensibly, I can’t help feeling that cinema is done. Most of the films I’ve chosen have accompanied me for the best part of a lifetime. A couple (such as Walsh’s The Big Trail, with its awesomely creative use of early widescreen) are new discoveries. I sheepishly admit to having so far avoided Jacques Rivette’s vast, intimidating Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (1971), a likely candidate for the next poll, if I’m still breathing then.