Mark Cousins

Comments

NIPPON KONCHUKI

For decades, my favourite film. Driven by social energy and stylistic energy.

Pyaasa

Baroque and melancholic. Did Orson Welles ever see Pyaasa? It makes Touch of Evil look like social realism.

Touch of Evil

A moral and stylistic maelstrom.

Cemetery of Splendour

It creeps up on you like fear or realisation. Is it therapy? Or myth?

Cabaret

The first shot sets a high bar and the rest exceeds it. A film reborn at a time of fascism reborn.

The Ascent

A film of sobering grandeur. A film about war, snow, men and agony.

CHEKHOVSKIE MOTIVY

The first half is a yelled film, the second like a Von Sternberg movie. So daring, wilful and intoxicating.

A Moment of Innocence

Philosophical cinema can be heartbreaking.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

A film like a Jacques Brel song. Soaringly melodic and melancholic. I've met people who hate it, which makes me question if we're the same species.

D'EST

Many movie industry people say that film is about storytelling. I love a good story, but for me it's often too high in the mix, like a vocal that dominates the rest of the music in a song. There's almost no story in D'est. It's more like a letter, an eyewitness account, about the end of the Soviet empire. And it has shots to die for.

Further remarks

Most of my choices are in some way about loneliness, one of the great subjects of the movies.