Aleksandar S. Janković
film history professor and film critic
Serbia
Voted for
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | 1962 | John Ford |
| It's a Wonderful Life | 1947 | Frank Capra |
| Wings of Desire | 1987 | Wim Wenders |
| Le Mépris | 1963 | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Waking Life | 2001 | Richard Linklater |
| Big Wednesday | 1978 | John Milius |
| Sunset Blvd. | 1950 | Billy Wilder |
| A Matter of Life and Death | 1946 | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger |
| Escape from New York | 1980 | John Carpenter |
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | 2008 | David Fincher |
Comments
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Dark monument to American political and cultural changes during the Wild West period. Romantic but doomed, true yet idealistic.
It's a Wonderful Life
Forgotten for decades, now it's a sheer American and Christmas classic. Widely philanthropic and optimistic, but for 20 minutes extremely dark and brooding. A film about how Americans want to be seen. Along with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, possibly the truest movie about Americana.
Wings of Desire
Even a few years before 'wallfall', Berlin was as strange as always. A touch of expressionism, a touch of Americana, this film is about the myth of the fallen angel in the modern world of Nick Cave and a guilt-ridden world.
Le Mépris
Film meaning and semiotics at the peak of global artistic changes. Awkwardly directed, but so eloquent and erudite, it's one of the greatest meta films, full of hidden and not so hidden signs. Everything is in the wrong place – love affair, film job, betrayal – but strangely it works…
Waking Life
Maybe the truest film to its core that isn't a film. A lovely essay on film meaning, dreaming, film theory and the meaning of life itself, from the diverse and versatile Linklater.
Big Wednesday
In former Yugoslavia, this film is knowns as A Day of Big Waves. It's the most personal Milius film and a bittersweet glory of youth and Vietnam war. About broken dreams and a time that is no more.
Sunset Blvd.
Heavy film noir about casulties of the silent era. Sad and dark look at 'old age' in Hollywood, even though Norma Desmond was only 47 years old. Authentic and an unsurpassed Hollywood gothic.
A Matter of Life and Death
Martin Scorsese's most important and most loved director. His film ssuffered for decades for being too decorative and simpleminded, but there's no film director like Michael Powell today. This film of great imagination and metaphors tells a story about strange love, about a bureaucratic, Heaven and mostly about the hard relationship between the US and GB. And it's so British in every way.
Escape from New York
In former Yugoslavia, again, this film was translated as New York 1997 – and that year was sooooo far away back then. Kurt Russell at maybe his most muscular and laid-back, in a typical Carpenter B movie bonanza. As a political satire with western allusions, this was post-New Hollywood at its best.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Very loosly based on F. Scott Fitzgerald story, Fincher's most personal film is a strange fruit of our bipolar world. It's like that 20 minutes in Capra's It's A Wonderful Life with weird twists and layers, and again it's a sad and romantic believable fantasy novel in the vein of Henry Hathaway's Peter Ibbetson (1935). It’s the ultimate Hollywood doomed love story, attached to a man who represents our own little lives and mistakes but in reverse. And that's the poignant tragedy of life itself.