Mark Cosgrove

Comments

It's an impossible task made more impossible by the increasing access to film history and the sheer volume of contemporary production. A number of my selections have come through seeing new restorations which we subsequently premiered at the Cinema Rediscovered festival, e.g. I was not aware of Kinuyo Tanaka's films as director. The impact of seeing the restoration of Forever a Woman on me and audiences has been a cinematic revelation. Similarly, I was not aware of Melvin van Peebles' debut feature, the French-made The Story of the Three Day Pass. Access to both films in the cinema retells the history of film…

Most if not all of the films I have selected struck me as essentially cinematic. All the directors deploy a distinct visual and aural aesthetic which stretch what the cinematic is and can do, and also reframe onscreen representations. They have also created memorable cinematic moments which, when asked to do my top ten, came immediately to mind.

A few years ago I had the privilege of working with musicians on a score to Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, and tour nationally and internationally with the film and live music. Seeing and feeling the response to the film and Maria Falconetti's performance across different audiences is testament to the ongoing power of Dreyer's cinematic imagination.