Post by london777 on Sept 24, 2021 23:23:06 GMT
Thanks, dagoldenage, I like this sort of thread. There is always the chance of my attention being drawn to some great movie which would otherwise have passed me by. Several additions to my collection have originated in this way.
I hope you will not mind my pointing out the small omission in your first sentence. You of course meant "Top 10 movies from the US studio system".
My own offerings are (and I hope lune7000 will not mind my adding my ratings to them):
A Matter of Life and Death Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger 9.0
Great Expectations David Lean 8.5. His best, I think, but most of that may be down to Dickens.
The Big Sleep Howard Hawks 8.5
The Best Years of Our Lives William Wyler 8.0
Utamaro and His Five Women Kenji Mizoguchi 7.5 (some 50 years since I last watched this, so I might have a different opinion today, but I was mightily impressed at the time.)
The Killers Robert Siodmak 7.5
Panique Julien Duvivier 7.0 (Patrice Leconte remade it as Monsieur Hire in 1989, which is also very good and rather different)
Enamorada Emilio Fernández 7.0 One of the highlights of Mexico's Golden Age (so should appeal to dagoldenage)
Green for Danger Sidney Gilliat 7.0 Great Brit murder mystery often overlooked in Film Noir listings. Would be an 8.0, but I knocked off 0.5 for the occasional insertion of misplaced comedy (a hangover from Hollywood 1930s murder mysteries. (The UK had yet to evolve its own cinematic styles). And another 0.5 for the godawful "Rank Starlet" dialog coaching. I am a Brit, but even I needed subtitles sometimes to understand their affected twangs. Its "reveal" was recently stolen (without acknowledgment) for a commercial smash-hit.
Paisan Roberto Rossellini 7.0
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That is my Top Ten, but I should also mention:
Die Mörder sind unter uns (Murderers Among Us) Wolfgang Staudte. Too rough and ready (understandably so in the circumstances) to be a great movie cinematically, but a historically important one. The Western occupying powers tried to suppress it, as they were sucking up to the ex-Nazi bureaucracy, but the Soviets backed its release.
La Bataille du Rail René Clément. Similar story here. Virtually a documentary. Again, not much support in the West where the Allies were trying to re-write the history of the French Resistance to minimise the contribution of the Communist Party and its supportive trade unions.
The Spiral Staircase Robert Siodmak. Highly rated by many good judges, but one which has strangely evaded my gaze. I will catch up with it before I kick the bucket, I hope.