Emanuela Martini

Comments

Citizen Kane

The movie that brought cinema into the modern age. Any time I watch it I discover new ideas.

Nashville

The great American "novel" of the second half of the 20th century.

The Red Shoes

I could have chosen The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp or A Matter of Life and Death, but The Red Shoes is the quintessential European melodrama, likely the first example of auteur's blockbuster.

North by Northwest

The best of Hitchcock in one shot.

The Searchers

John Ford is cinema and The Searchers is Ford's poetic summary.

La dolce vita

The synthesis of Italian cinema and of Fellini's vision.

The Wild Bunch

The cry of an era, and the best editing ever.

Some Like It Hot

One great comedy for all, the link between Bringing up Baby and The Big Lebowski

Pulp Fiction

A perfect script and probably the most influential narrative style for the new century's cinema.

All about Eve

From an almost forgotten and sometimes underrated auteur, a perfect, wicked, witty dramedy.

Further remarks

Ten are not enough. And, after 130 years, 20 wouldn't be enough. So in the end I think these are just some of my favourites, mostly those which made me fall in love with cinema. And tomorrow some titles would be different: maybe The Apartment instead of Some Like It Hot, or Peeping Tom or A Matter of LIfe and Death instead of The Red Shoes, or I would choose De Sica instead of Fellini. Sadly, I had to leave out some of my favorite (and most influential) directors: Melville and Cassavetes, Scorsese and Allen, Sirk and Fassbinder, Hawks and Truffaut, Coen brothers and Almodovar… and the good movies of the last three decades, Paul Thomas Anderson's included. But definitely my 11th title would be Bergman's Wild Strawberries and my 12th Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show.