My 85

I enjoy making movies, watching movies, believing I’m living a scene from a movie. Since 2009, I’ve watched at least one new film per day. Often up to five. My small band of Twitter followers know these as my #nfotd (New Film of the Day).

Inspired by Scorsese’s recently published list of 85 films that influenced him, I decided to watch all the films on that list I hadn’t seen. 

And then I decided to craft my own list. 

These are not necessarily my 85 favorite films. They are 85 films that had the strongest influence on me and the type of DP/filmmaker/artist that I am. I reluctantly removed the film that inspired my name. And let’s see if I am still welcomed home for the holidays after omitting Bergman. The actual count is 89 to include four very influential documentaries.

This list is “as of March 14, 2012″. I saw Mishima yesterday and panicked that I would have to kick some film off my list to make room. There are also a handful that given the time, position of the stars and what I had for lunch could be swapped for a different film by the same director.

Watch a few and hopefully enjoy:

My 85

Title – Director  - DP – Year

 ”12″ -  Nikita Mikhalkov -  Vladislav Opelyants - 2007               
“12 Angry Men” - Sidney Lumet - Boris Kaufman- 1957               
“400 Blows” – Francois Truffaut – Henri Decae - 1959               
“After Life” – Hirokazu Koreeda – Masayoshi Sukita & Yutaka Yamasaki - 1998               
“Ali : Fear Eats the Soul” – Rainer Fassbinder -  Jurgen Jurges - 1974               
“Aliens” - James Cameron – Adrian Biddle 1986               
“All About Eve” – Joseph Mankiewicz – Milton Krasner 1950               
“All the Presidents Men” - Alan Pakula – Gordon Willis – 1976               
“Amelie” – Jean Pierre  Jeunet – Bruno Delbonnel - 2001               
“Apostle, The” - Robert Duvall – Barry Markowitz – 1997               
“Bad Day at Black Rock” – John Sturges – William Mellor - 1955               
“Belle De Jour” – Luis Bunuel – Sacha Vierny - 1967               
“Big Combo, The” – Joseph Lewis – John Alton- 1955               
“Birds, The” – Alfred Hitchcock – Robert Burks - 1963               
“Black Girl” – Sembene Ousmane Christian Lacoste - 1966               
“Black Narcissus” – Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger - Jack Cardiff - 1947               
“Blade Runner” – Ridley Scott - Jordan Cronenweth – 1982               
“Bonnie and Clyde” – Arthur Penn - Burnett Guffey - 1967               
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” – Blake Edwards – Franz Planer - 1961               
“Carrie” – Brian De Palma – Mario Tosi - 1976               
“Citizen Kane” – Orson Welles – John Toland - 1941                             
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” – Steven Spielberg – Vilmos  Zsigmond – 1977               
“Color of Pomengranates, The” – Sergie Parajanov – Suren Shakbazyan - 1968               
“Conformist, The” – Bernando  Bertolucci – Vittorio Storaro - 1970               
“Conversation, The” – Francis Ford Coppola – Bill Butler & Haskell Wexler – 1974               
“Corner, The” - Charles S Dutton – Ivan Strasburg - 2000               
“Cranes are Flying, The” – Mikhail Kalatozov – Sergei Urusevsky - 1957               
“Daughters of the Dust” – Julie Dash – Arthur Jafa – 1991               
“Do the Right Thing” – Spike Lee – Ernest Dickerson – 1989               
“Dogville” – Lars Von Trier – Anthony Dod Mantle – 2003               
“Double Life of Veronique” – Krzysztof  Kieslowski – Slawomir Idziak – 1991               
“Dresser, The” – Peter Yates – Kevin Pike - 1983               
“End of the Century (The Story of the Ramones)” – Jim Fields & Michael Gramaglia 2003               
“Enter The Void” – Gaspar Noe – Benoit Debie - 2009               
“Exterminating Angel” – Luis Bunuel – Gabriel Figueroa - 1962               
“French Connection, The” – William Friedkin – Owen Roizman – 1971               
“Fresh” – Boaz Yakin – Adam Holender - 1994               
“George Washington” - David Gordon Green – Tim Orr - 2000               
“Gone with the Wind” – Victor Fleming – Ernest  Haller & Lee Garmes - 1939               
“Grey Gardens” – The Great Maysles – 1975               
“Heat” – Michael  Mann – Dante Spinotti – 1995               
“Honeymoon Killers, The” – Leonard Kastle & Donald Volkman -  Oliver Wood - 1969               
“Human Condition, The” – Masaki Kobayashi – Yoshio  Miyajima - 1959               
“Hunger” – Steve  McQueen – Sean  Bobbitt – 2008               
“I Am Love” – Luca  Guadagnino – Yorick Le Saux – 2009               
“In Cold Blood” – Richard  Brooks – Conrad  Hall - 1967               
“In the Mood for Love” – Wong Kar Wai – Christopher Doyle, Pung-Leung Kwan & Ping Bin Lee - 2000               
“Inception” – Christopher  Nolan – Wally Pfister – 2010               
“Intentions of Murder” – Shohei Imamurai – Shinsaku Himeda - 1964               
“Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” – Chantal Akerman – Babette Mangolte – 1975               
“Juliet of the Spirits” – Federico Fellini – Gianni Di Venanzo - 1965              
“Kaagaz Ke Phool” – Guru Dutt – V K Murthy – 1959               
“La Jetee” – Chris  Marker – Jean Chiabau Jean & Chris Marker - 1962               
“La Ronde” – Max  Ophuls – Christian Matras - 1950               
“Last Time I Saw Paris” – Richard Brooks – Joseph Ruttenberg - 1954               
“Le Mepris” – Jean Luc  Godard – Raoul Coutard – 1963               
“Les Bonnes Femmes” – Claude Chabrol – Henri Decae – 1960               
“Limey, The” - Steven Soderbergh – Edward Lachman - 1999               
“Lost Highway” – David Lynch -  Peter Deming - 1997               
“Marnie” –  Alfred Hitchcock – Robert Burks - 1964               
“Medea” – Lars Von Trier – Sejr  Brockmann - 1988               
“Medicine for Melancholy” – Barry Jenkins – James Laxton - 2008               
“Medium Cool” – Haskell  Wexler – Haskell Wexler - 1969               
“Midnight Cowboy” – John Schlesinger – Adam  Holender – 1969               
“Mildred Pierce” – Michael Curtiz – Ernest  Haller - 1945               
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” – Terry Gilliam & Terry  Jones – Terry Bedford – 1975               
“Nashville” – Robert  Altman – Paul Lohmann –  1975               
“Opening Night” – John Cassavetes – Al Ruban – 1977               
“Paris Blues” – Martin Ritt – Christian Matras - 1961               
“Picnic at Hanging Rock” – Peter Weir – Russell Boyd – 1975
“Pina” - Wim Wender – Helene Louvart –  2011               
“Pink Floyd The Wall” – Alan Parker – Peter Biziou – 1982               
“Primer” – Shane Carruth – Shane Carruth (?)  -  2004               
“Ran” – Akira Kurosawa – Asakazu Nakai  & Takao Saito & Shoji Ueda –  1985               
“Seventh Continent, The” – Michael  Haneke – Peschke Anton – 1989               
“Shining, The” - Stanley Kubrick – John Alcott – 1980               
“Sorrow and the Pity, The” – Marcel Ophuls – Andre Gazut & Jurgen Thieme – 1969
“Sounder” – Martin Ritt – John Alonzo – 1972               
“Stalker” – Andrey Tarkovskiy – Aleksandr Knyazhinsky, Georgi Rerberg & Leonid Kalashnikov – 1979               
“Sunrise” – F W  Murnau – Charles Rosher & Karl Struss – 1927               
“Taxi Driver” – Martin Scorsese – Michael Chapman - 1976               
“There Will Be Blood” – PT  Anderson – Robert Elswit –  2007               
“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They” – Sydney Pollack – Philip Lathrop - 1969         
“Thin Red Line” -Terence Malick – John Toll - 1998                            
“Touch of Evil” - Orson Welles – Russell  Metty - 1958               
“Wages of Fear” – Georges Henri Clouzot –  Armand Thirard – 1953               
“War Game, The” – Peter Watkins – Peter Bartlett & Peter Suschitzky - 1965               
“Wings of Desire” – Wim Wenders – Henri Alekan –  1987
“Yo Soy Cuba” – Mikhail Kalatozov – Sergei Urusevsky – 1964

But Have You Seen

These are 15 films that I often recommend to film friends that are not frequently seen but should be.

 ”Aura” – Fabian Bielinsky – Checco Varese – 2005
“Aventurera” – Alberto Gout – Alex Phillips – 1950
“Blame It On Fidel” – Julie Gavras – Nathalie Durand – 2006
“Brodre (The Brothers)” – Susanne Bier – Morten Soborg – 2004
“Chop Shop” – Ramin Bahrani - Michael Simmonds – 2007
“Dogtooth” – Giorgos Lanthimos – Thimios Bakatakis – 2009
“Duck Season” – Fernando Eimbcke - Alexis Zabe - 2004
“Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi” – Sudhir Mishra - Jacques Bouquin - 2003
“I Saw The Devil” – Jee-woon Kim - Mo-gae Lee - 2010
“Les Biches” – Claude Chabrol – Jean Rabier – 1968
“Mirror, The” – Jafar Panahi – Farzad Jadat - 1997
“Day Night Day Night” – Julia Loktev – Benoit Debie – 2006
“Return, The” – Andrei Zvyagintsev - Mikhail Krichman - 2003
“Sarkar” – Ram Gopal Varma - Amit Roy – 2005
“Sorry Wrong Number” – Anatole Litvak - Sol Polito – 1948