Carmen Gray
Film critic and Berlin International Film Festival programmer
New Zealand/Germany
Voted for
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Mirror | 1975 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Daisies | 1966 | Věra Chytilová |
| The Exterminating Angel | 1962 | Luis Buñuel |
| Shoah | 1985 | Claude Lanzmann |
| Die BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT | 1972 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Sátántangó | 1994 | Béla Tarr |
| The Colour of Pomegranates | 1968 | Sergei Paradjanov |
| Empire | 1964 | Andy Warhol |
| The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On | 1987 | Kazuo Hara |
| The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola |
Comments
Mirror
This intuitive, uncanny channeling of memories, dreams and the compulsion to return home is vivid with mystery and longing. The essence of cinematic poetry.
Daisies
Rebellion against institutionalised power has scarcely before or since embraced such audacity, glee or playful invention as this anarchic crowning glory of the Czech New Wave.
The Exterminating Angel
The ultimate skewering of privileged hypocrisy, this surrealist satire and social leveller reveals decorum as a ruse, in the most madcap, disquieting of ways.
Shoah
The devastating, essential power of cinema in bearing witness to history through testimony, and confronting what can never be fully understood, is exemplified by this record of the Holocaust, the defining horror of the last century in Europe.
Die BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER PETRA VON KANT
Radical melodrama, or maximalist artifice as worldview: what Fassbinder's extravagant take on power and obsession doesn't offer in romantic consolation, it makes up for in arch delight.
Sátántangó
The mud of relentless rain grounds us deep in a world that's winding down. A last gust of weighty, old-world beauty, transmitted into our hyper-consumerist, disposable present.
The Colour of Pomegranates
Parajanov, as a visionary of the past and future of the Caucasus, transforms the life of 18th-century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova into sublime visual poetry of esoteric, surreal tableaux.
Empire
The ultimate landmark, and object of elusive fantasy. Warhol channels the thrall of American make-believe, and its ability to perpetuate itself through time as a reality.
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
As bonkers as it is riveting, this documentary shadowing a relentless, enraged investigator, who seeks accountability for secret atrocities, complicates the question of what constitutes reasonable human behaviour.
The Godfather
The ultimate epic morality drama of the human condition, and the epitome of blockbuster greatness. Its immersive world has a magic that transcends its commercial confines.