The Conversation, 1974
A tense film about privacy and paranoia that morphs at its climax into borderline horror. Gene Hackman is a character he reprised years later in Enemy of the State, a very young Harrison Ford appears in a small but important role, and Robert Duvall has what amounts to a cameo. If you can watch it without clenching either your fist or your knuckles in certain scenes, you have stronger nerves than I do.
It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
Yes, everyone has seen this movie a hundred times, but here’s what people miss about it — It’s not just about the impact a single man can have on the people around him. It’s about the passage of time, about being alive in the early 20th century. People often overlook how much the film was aimed at middle-aged people in 1946 and all they had seen in their lives. The historic touchstones studded through it include the Spanish Flu epidemic, the Jazz age, Black Monday and the Great Depression, the rise of the automobile and, of course World War II. Then next time you watch, keep an eye on the sets — the banner at the High School dance (“Class of 1929”), the picture of Herbert Hoover on the wall of the Savings and Loan… Also keep in mind that Stewart himself was still suffering from PTSD from his active service during the war.
Chinatown, 1974
This neonoir set in 1930s Los Angeles, is, on the surface, a thriller about water-theft and graft but by its end becomes a stark meditation on conscience in the face of powerful, entrenched evil. (And yes. I mean “evil.”) Fantastic performances by Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and especially John Huston.
A Night to Remember, 1958
Forget Titanic. A Night to Remember, a docudrama based on Walter Lord’s book, is more heartfelt and does more more without color, CGI, or melodramatic nonsense about a lost jewel and forbidden love. Most of the stories it depicts are true, based on eyewitness testimony, and therefore far more compelling. I was left dry-eyed by Titanic. The moment in A Night to Remember when everyone on the sinking ship begins to pray never fails to hit me hard.
Shadow of the Vampire, 2000
In this blend of horror and satire, John Malkovich plays the great silent director F.W. Murnau and Willem Dafoe plays the vampire. Murnau is filming Nosferatu and, unbeknownst to the actors and crew, has cast the real thing in the title role. Never has a temperamental and demanding star done more damage on the set. “How dare you destroy my cinematographer!” Murnau shouts, shortly before his film’s lead smugly observes that they don’t really need the writer anymore.
French Cancan 1954
Imagine a sumptuous Hollywood musical without the Hays Code. That’s Renoir’s French Cancan, a lively, fictionalized retelling of the revival of the French Cancan at the Moulin Rouge in the 1880s. The heroine, a young laundress, casually loses her virginity within the first half hour of the film, then spends the rest of it concentrating on her dancing. (I believe this movie just might pass the Bechdel test.) The climax of the movie, the Cancan’s re-introduction at the newly opened Moulin Rouge, can be enjoyed on a device, but truly should be seen on a big screen. That scene alone would be worth the price of admission.
Carnival in Flanders, 1935
The plot is simple. It’s 1616, during the Spanish occupation of Flanders. A small Flemish town is preparing for its carnival when news comes of a Spanish duke and his entourage coming through. Fearing pillage and rapine, the mayor decides to play dead and the men go into hiding, while their disgusted wives choose to greet and welcome the visitors. The result is a funny, frequently biting film about the women running the town and having a helluva good time with the Spaniards. (I recommend the crisp Criterion copy, and not the older version of the original American release, which has bowdlerized subtitles.)
The Great Dictator, 1940
This film about the Nazis made its contemporaries uncomfortable. They felt Hitler was not a good subject for satire. It is now seen as one of Chaplin’s best. Charlie Chaplin plays a double role as both a poor, shell-shocked Jewish veteran of WWI, and the ruthless, anti-Semitic dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel. Excellent satire about anti-Semitism, media, and class — especially when the Jewish barber joins forces with a brave-but-cluelessly-entitled German aristocrat who opposes Nazism. Most famous now for Chaplin’s closing speech as the unnamed Jewish veteran disguised as Hynkel. Which brings us to…
Schtonk, 1992
Those of us old enough to remember the wall coming down also may remember the Hitler Diaries scandal in the early 1980s, which fooled Hugh Trevor-Roper, Stern, and The Sunday Times before being exposed, not only as a forgery but a bad forgery. Schtonk, is a blackly funny German satire about the scandal that makes Mel Brooks’ The Producers look like a heartwarming family comedy. (“Schtonk!” is an exclamation in the imaginary language of Tomania from Chaplin’s film.)
Look Who’s Back, 2015
Hitler has been inexplicably resurrected in 21st century Berlin — and not the addled, Parkinsons-afflicted old man of 1945, but the younger sharp-witted version who became chancellor in 1933. He quickly susses out where he is and adjusts, while Berliners assume he’s merely a performance artist who never breaks character. Though he never denies who he is, he soon achieves a frightening level of celebrity. One of the best scenes involves Hitler meeting an elderly survivor of the camps, a woman too far gone in dementia to doubt who or what she is seeing. She reacts, not with amusement, but with gratifying rage and contempt.
Pam Troy 