Cinema's greatest classics

[ajay124]

THE GHOST WRITER (USA? 2010)
My Roman Polanski experience is limited to watching to watching the classics Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby in the 70's.Two of Hollywood's best films.Later I watched "The Pianist" and found it moderately interesting.My personal take was that "The Pianist" like Spielberg's "Schindler's List" was primarily targeted at the hearts and minds of the Oscar jury.Of course both are well made films and received an enthusiastic response all around the world.
The Ghost Writer is a more potent film,targeted straight at the heart of Britain's "special relationship" with the world's only superpower.An 'incredible plot' of which I will not reveal even one move.I suggest to all potential viewers of this film to not read any reviews as there would be too many spoilers.If one knows the stunning climax in advance,most of the pleasure of watching this great film would be lost.
A few minutes into this film at the IFFI I realised what a wonderful and 'polish-ed' director Polanski is.His mastery over the medium and the budget and technical back up he had at his disposal was in stark contrast to the other films at IFFI,many by first timers on a shoestring budget.Cinema for me is about imagination and not money,but I am all for mainstream films as well made as The Ghostwriter.The casting of Ewan McGregor as the perceptive 'ghostwriter' who will always remain in the background is perfect.And Ewan is brilliant.I was initially surprised that Polanski had cast Pierce Brosnan(a wooden faced non actor IMO) in a crucial role,but the casting works because the role demanded a charming,good looking,not very 'deep' persona.
The Ghostwriter is a film I would wholeheartedly recommend to everyone when it comes to a nearby multiplex.
Not so the other mainstream film I viewed.Woody Allen's "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger".Strictly for Woody Allen fans and I have never been one.I find his wisecracks banal and predictable,his subject matter and characters 'low brow' rather than 'middle brow' as they are generally considered .The film begins with a quotation from Shakespeare "Life is....full of sound and fury,signifying nothing".An apt description for this film and indeed for the entire oeuvre of Woody Allen.

 

[Pratters]

Don't see how you can justify Schindler's list being some thing which was made "primarily targeted at the hearts and minds of the Oscar jury". Not that it needs validation but it won numerous awards from various countries. I would love to hear the reasons you feel the film was primarily targeted at the Oscar jury.

Regarding Allen, I am a huge fan and think he is a genius. I love so many things about his films. I can start with this clip. So we have completely opposite views, what's new. What I always find most interesting is that Woody Allen seems to create a lot of reactions in people, often extremes. I have a Kiwi friend who absolutely riles off at the name of Allen. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger has been receiving very mediocre reviews and given that you aren't an Allen fan, to put it mildly (you have stated you don't like his films at least once before), maybe you should have skipped this film and watched some thing else given so many options which are available at film festivals. I do have A Tall Dark Stranger as well as Ghost Writer and I want to see both but I doubt I will see any any time soon.

Regarding the altercation I had with you Ajay, you were rude and so I behaved rudely in return. I really don't mind some one having a different opinion compared to mine as long as they are not rude with me. Let's end the matter, shall we?

Regarding Brosnan, I too didn't think much of him as an actor. However, I was really pleasantly surprised by his performance in the film The Matador. It is a hilarious little film which I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

 

[ajay124]

@Pratter's
I think we both went a little over the top earlier in this thread,but let's call it quits and smoke a peace pipe.
We may have very different views about cinema,but that is all the more reason for us to contribute what we 'know' in an amicable manner.Of course a lot of what we write in our posts are subjective opinions and generalisations.I don't consider myself an authority or even somebody with an original perception of cinema.As I quoted in an earlier post on the forum "All that I know is that I know nothing".That I believe is a sound foundation for the sand castle's we build,knowing that soon the tide will come in and remove every trace of our 'sweat and tears'.
"Life is....full of sound and fury,signifying nothing"As usual the Bard Of Avon is bang on target.
A major generalisation in my Woody Allen post which I would like to point out.I have used the words 'entire oeuvre' in my post,yet have seen only 6-7 Woody Allen films,out of which at least Manhattan and Annie Hall were pretty decent.I suffer from the urge to write fast and furious,without giving myself the time to digest what I am writing.I don't like television in any form,but that was no reason for me to use the strong words I did.
However my other point that the media(newspapers,magazines,books,films,television,the internet is the new or perhaps the original matrix,is something which I believe is possible.Recently I noticed a couple of newspapers used the 'Matrix' as an analogy in their write ups on the Radia tapes.

 

[Pratters]

I am glad.

I don't know much about cinema and I have certainly watched far fewer great films compared to what you have. Some one might think why is he saying he doesn't know much of cinema. That's just a pretense but I really don't. I have always loved cinema but I was exposed to mostly crap films till around 2004. So technically, I have only been watching proper cinema for the last 6 years. I always find myself more deeply immersed in films. It is so amazing. My hunger from cinema is always to getting a new, different kind of experience which I have never had before. So when I am shocked while watching Dogtooth, and can't stop thinking about the film hours after I have watched it, I feel really great.

I am also not much of a TV fan. There are loads of people who are in my age group who love television, many even more than films and I have often debated with them. Cinema is magic while television is a narrative which I find quite dull and drawn out most of the time.

Regarding Allen, I really liked some of the lesser known films of his like Interiors, Zelig, Shadows and Fogs. I love the dialogues in his films a lot. There are a lot of opinions thrown at you which are really perspectives. Allen doesn't judge in his films. You aren't told this perspective is right or that perspective is wrong. A lot of ideas and thoughts are thrown at you, often at a pace which means that before you can dwell on one, you are given another one. I was just browsing the channels the other day and Vicky Cristina Barcelona was coming on TV. Javier Bardem was telling a dialogue to S. Johansson and it was such a deep thought. If I watch a Woody Allen film at different stages of my life, what the characters say through the film will mean different things to me. It strikes a cord. A lot of people don't like his films at all though. If there is only one film of Allen's I would have to recommend to people, it would have to be Hannah and Her Sisters. It is the film which I think most people would find a very good emotional drama. If some one can handle a slightly heavier film, it would be Interiors.

 

[trinitron]

woddy allen is the director who makes me smile and laugh with a meaning which feels good. i only watched few of his films annie hall i loved the most the first scene itself woody allen talking to the camera gave me a feeling that i am watching something truly interesting! his films are very smooth and mild which always keeps me smiling thought the movie. Hollywood ending was also hilarious. ill try watching the above mentioned films mentioned by Pratters and please some one recommend a list of atleast 5 to 10 films by woody allen? thanks

 

[Pratters]

Ten in no particular order -

Broadway Danny Rose
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Match Point
Husbands and Wives
Interiors
Zelig
Manhattan
Annie Hall
Hannah and Her Sisters
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

 

[ajay124]

@Pratters
Steven Spielberg and Schindler's List.
My impressions will have to be retrieved from the hazy,misty valleys of my youth but I will try to remember.Although I did watch most of the early Spielberg movies and really enjoyed Jaws,Close Encounters,Poltergeist,ET and most of all Raiders Of The Lost Ark(5-6 times in a movie hall),I never took him seriously as a director.New frontiers in technology.Yes.Entertaining.Yes.New stories.Yes.But I used to feel that his cinema was targeted at children or towards the child in adults.He seldom signed good actors capable of strong portrayals.While the child protagonists in his films were carefully crafted,he seldom fleshed out his adult characters.Roy Schieder in Jaws was one of the few exceptions,possibly because the role was quite close to the original in the Peter Benchley bestseller.
Before Schindler's List,he had broken every box office record but had never received an Oscar for Best Director.Three nominations but no wins.Therefore IMO,he set out to make a 'serious' film for adults which would be taken seriously by the Oscar jury.To underline his serious intentions he chose to shoot in black and white.For a topic he chose the Holocaust,a subject that would go down well with the Jewish dominated Hollywood.Somehow even before the Oscar's were announced I 'knew' this would be Speilberg's year,and it was.Schindler's was a good film,but personally I rate Raider's Of The Lost Ark as his masterpiece.If it ever comes to a cinema hall nearby I would still rush to see it.But only the first episode.
Back in the late 70's/early 80's in Chandigarh,we used to have daily shows of different Hollywood films in various halls.It was easy and cheap to watch 5-6 films every week.I was in a hostel and spent those years watching something like 20-25 Hollywood/Bollywood movies every month.The first time I watched a movie alone in a movie hall was in Simla at the age of 11-12.I have continued this practise and prefer watching films alone or with my wife or a solitary cinephile friend in Chandigarh because they have similar tastes as mine.Although my wife has never been able to sit through a Tarkovsky!
Even in Simla in the early 70's I was watching 2-3 Hollywood films every week.The film which ignited my tender schoolboy imagination,and lit the fuse of my passion for cinema was Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.I watched all 7 shows of it's one week run.I felt I was on to something special!I spent several months after that pretending to be Robert De Niro,mumbling to every mirror I passed 'You Talkin' To Me?

 

[Pratters]

Schindler's List

That's interesting. Spielberg is some one who was always fascinated by the Oscars. Also, despite doing more commercial films which could lead some one to believe he couldn't do an aesthetically great film, he had already proven he can with some thing like The Color Purple (which didn't win Oscar too). Spielberg was some one who always would eventually make a film on the jews in my opinion. It wasn't a matter of if. I really don't know if the lack of winning Oscars earlier drove him all the more harder to make the film as good as he possibly could.

Black and White was necessary in Schindler's List in my opinion. The film would be too grotsesque in color and wouldn't appeal enough to the sensibilities. It would be repelling like say Irreversible. Maybe a case can be made about making Irreversible in black and white too. I can definitely see people being kinder to it if that had happened. Any ways, not sure how many modern films from the color era made in black and white won the Academy Awards. So that was definitely a risk. So I will say I don't agree Spielberg made it styled to win an Oscar.

Schindler's List Criticisms

I am reading some criticisms of the film and I have changed my opinion that Schindler's List was as great as I thought it was. Firstly it shows the Germans in a type of way which is almost like exploitation cinema. The shot of the German officer shooting jew(s) from the balcony was a spectacle all right. This is my main reason. Then there is Kubrick's criticism that the holocaust was about failure in stark cotrast to Schindler's list which is about success. It has taken me ages to see some criticisms of the film. I was discussing it with a cousin a couple of weeks back and while I didn't agree with him that it was the greatest war film ever (well, he hasn't seen many war films apart from JP Dutta films lol, so he was talking out of his ass but whatever), but I definitely agreed with him that it was a superb film. Given that I took so much time to see flaws in the film, I don't blame the Academy Awards or the millions of other Nations which heaped awards on the film. How highly I would rate Schindler's List now, for that I would have to re-watch.

Scorcese

I am SO glad you at least love Scorcese among American directors. Scorcese had an impact on an entire generation. His films continue to inspire people but that generation which saw it when it was released in theatres saw the phenomena occur live and were obviously changed forever because of it. I often read views of film makers. I saw an interview of Farhan Akhtar where he has a huge Raging Bull poster on the wall. Zoya Akhtar talked about how she loved Scorcese too in an interview. Anurag Kashyap said once that he would have liked to be there on the sets when Scorcese was making Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. It is always interesting to listen to people about who or what films inspired them. Paul Muni was Brando's idol. I find it interesting though that the young directors today are not inspired by the films which are termed as classics as much any more as much as they are by films from say the last 15-20 years. Some one like Imtiaz Ali talks about Underground. This shows that film making as an art is evolving at a faster rate than ever before. The one biggest disagreement I had with you was that you thought today the cinema was not very good. I think 21st century cinema is amazingly good and path breaking. New countries, new types of films, new expressions are emerging. It is really fascinating. I was reading a piece in a book by Satyajit Ray in which he said that when he started out all the books on cinema could be arranged in one bookshelf. Now (at the time of writing the book) he had innumerable books. He also talked about how he would long to watch films by European aueters about whom he read in Sight and Sound. He finally did see some as a few started making films with American productions. Today we can see so many diverse films. There is the internet, there are DVDs. Even if you don't want to spend any thing, there are exceptionally good films coming on TV in so many movie channels. One day a few weeks back I set out to record a few movies on my set top box just on a whim. I ended up recording 19 films for a period of 7-10 days. There was stuff like a Battle of Algiers, A Ki-duk Kim film, a Guru Dutt film and a nation al award winning film from 2009 among others. Seeing so many different kinds of films, it is bound to have an effect to make people to make even more innovative films.

Coming back to Scorcese, the way he talks about films and writes about them show not only his knowledge but also his love for cinema. When he was being given an honorary award (I think it was at Bafta), the luminary who was giving it said that when people talk about the history of painting people say x y z names etc. Cinema is a new form of art just about 100 years old. When many years from now people talk about cinema, people will take the name of Scorcese.

 

[ajay124]

@Pratters
"The one biggest disagreement I had with you was that you thought today the cinema was not very good."
I don't recall saying this and I don't believe this to be true.Contemporary cinema may not be in the same league as the films made in France,Italy,Japan,East Europe,Germany,Scandinavia and Russia from 1945-1970 but there is a lot of good stuff being made today.It's just that a certain kind of mainstream cinema,a cinema which trivialises everything,relies on star's and stock formulas,melodrama,sensationalism,low brow humour,special effects shorn of any 'human' element,mindless violence and cheap sexual gimmickry,which I find detestable.
There were plenty of classics being shown at IFFI but I just viewed 3 Kolski's and 1 Jarmusch.The rest of the 28 films I viewed were all from 2009/2010.Most of them were good,some very good,many by debutant director's who were present for the screening.All these director's were hungry for interaction,for applause,for fame and fortune.Success had not yet come their way in large enough measures to turn their heads and make them arrogant.As much as the films,I enjoyed the brief interaction with the director's.Brief because the next film was about to begin
My only regret was missing back to back screenings of Goutam Ghose's 'Moner Manush' and a Czech film called 'Protektor'.As these films were being screened at a different venue,Kala Academy,I was reluctant to leave the festive atmosphere of the Inox Complex.A friend I had made that very day suggested the Woody Allen film and on a hasty whim I agreed.
And Goutam Ghose's film went on to win the Best Film in the competition section!Serves me right for being lazy.

 

[Pratters]

And I'm ocassionally posting about their films,because the purpose of this thread was not only to highlight the exciting things which have happened/are happening in non mainstream cinema,but also the banal and boring hole into which mainstream cinema has sunk.Not just in America or India,but anywhere in the world,where films are being made which address the lowest common denominator,rather than the highest.

Oh yes, I didn't read it properly and completely misunderstood this. There can be the argument that films till 1970 were better. I am some one who likes the new cinema more than any thing else but I can certainly understand some one who thinks the cinema of earlier was far better. Benegal was asked this question and he believes the same.

I read an argument in an article some where which I found quite interesting. It said that the older films have had the greatest film tags attached to them. And it has been used for ages. Movies like Citizen Kane and Seven Samurai were labelled as the greatest film ever. The newer films cannot take that title as it has already been taken. They can only take smaller titles now like say the greatest animation film or the greatest gangster film (even that has been taken by The Godfather and Goodfellas though I liked stuff of Cagney and the ilk far more). I did see some one say The Prophete was as good as The Godfather which I thought was an interesting way to talk about the film.
That's not a big point.

I really liked what Tarantino said. He said that in the early 70s the films which were being made were surprisingly having sad endings. For many years people in the US didn't see a major film with a happy ending. Then Rocky came along. Then Star Wars came along. Star Wars particularly changed every thing. People saw it work so magnificently that they went for the happier endings and he said he didn't like that change as he thought the early 70s was a good era. I found this observation very interesting. It may have changed the way movies are made forever. The entertaining film which the common people now associate with cinema is some thing which might have had strong base in the mid-late 70s.

 

[Pratters]

'Moner Manush' and a Czech film called 'Protektor'.As these films were being screened at a different venue,Kala Academy,I was reluctant to leave the festive atmosphere of the Inox Complex.A friend I had made that very day suggested the Woody Allen film and on a hasty whim I agreed.
And Goutam Ghose's film went on to win the Best Film in the competition section!Serves me right for being lazy.

Protektor is the official submission for foreign language film at the Oscars for 2011 by Czech Republic. I have the film and will be watching it soon. Don't worry regarding Goutom Ghose's film. I am sure it will be available soon.

 

[ajay124]

Protektor is the official submission for foreign language film at the Oscars for 2011 by Czech Republic. I have the film and will be watching it soon. Don't worry regarding Goutom Ghose's film. I am sure it will be available soon.

And to punish me further for my laziness,Protektor may go on to win the Oscar:sad:
Incidentally,The Ghost Writer shot on location at the German island of Sylt has great outdoor visuals.It is meant to be viewed on a BIG screen.Watching it on an LCD/Plasma would considerably water down the impact,akin to imbibing 30 ml.single malt with 200ml.water

 

[trinitron]

in my opinion late 50s, 60s, and early 70s i wont use the word best years but if we compare them with 100 years of cinema it had some uniqueness cinema was questioned, filmmaking with our own philosophy! throught the world our own cinema too & especially french new wave!. camera technology became more sophisticated, technicolor, film stock, cinemascope and many other technical stuff i wont go into; watch movies around mid 50s to late 50s i found it through observation camera precision and filmmaking drastically changed. i feel directors were major figures but i think film camera was also equally responsible and helpful since 1888 till now! camera increased the possibilities for filmmakers to produce the image and say what they feel! after all a motion picture is about writing with pictures. understanding and reading images is more important than Dolby digital plus to really enjoy a movie

2010 was a path breaking year of cinema reason avatar 3D! which i watched 5 times in theater 3D brought a revolution in cinema it brought a revolution in entertainment! till our homes which happens in a long time. the jazz singer 1927 when sound was introduced in cinema which was the biggest revolution cinema ever saw singing in the rain is a good movie to watch if u are bored to read to know what really happened in 1927

Schindler's list is a good movie dosen't matter if ts made for oscar or any other virtue every director like oscar and Palme d'Or. it was my no.1 favorite movie once

 

[ajay124]

My 'favourite" films kept changing over the years till the age of 40.But opinions begin to harden as we cross the rubicon of our 40th year,and start lumbering sedately into old age.As the past rushes away into the dark and the first chill wind from the other side wafts into our soul,we tend to hunker down and build bunkers from where we plan to wage our final battle.Every retraction from our cherished beliefs seems like a betrayal,a defeat.As we grow older we loose our manners,our sense of humour and our touch with the present.A lot of our 'classic' memories are merely an attempt to relive our past.But in reality it is impossible to come to any valid conclusion about which period or which film is the 'greatest'.
I can only say with a reasonable amount of certainty what were the most influential films for me.
Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin"(1925)
Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"(1927)
Carl Dreyer's "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc"(1928)
Jean Renoir "The Rules Of The Game" (1939)
Marcel Carne "Children Of Paradise"(1945)
Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D" (1948)
Akira Kurosawa's "Roshomon" (1950)
Robert Bresson "Diary Of A Country Priest" (1951)
Kenji Mizoguchi "The Life Of Oharu" (1952)
Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Story" (1953)
Elia Kazan "On The Waterfront" (1954)
Satyajit Ray "Pathar Panchali" (1955)
Francois Truffaut's "400 Blows" (1959)
Alain Resnais "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (1959)
Jean Luc Godard "Breathless" (1960)
Federico Fellini "La Dolce Vita" (1960)
Michelangelo Antonioni "L'Avventura" (1960)
Luis Bunuel "Viridiana" (1961)
Ingmar Bergman "Winter Light" (1963)
Miklos Jancso "The Round Up" (1965)
Andrei Tarkovsky "Andrei Rublev" (1966)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder "The Marriage Of Maria Braun"(1979)
Istvan Szabo "Mephisto" (1981)
Shohei Imamura "The Ballad Of Narayama" (1983)
Bela Tarr "Damnation" (1987)
Chen Kaige "Farewell My Concubine" (1993)
Emir Kusturica "Underground" (1995)
Obviously there are multiple films I admire from most of these directors,but the list gives a general idea of what I have 'kept' after almost four decades of watching films.
My contenders for the 'greatest' film for all times are highlighted in bold

 

[bingo.bing]

strange collection . .

 

[ajay124]

strange collection . .

Strange
Bizzare,Peculiar,Odd,Curious,Queer,Quaint,Weird,
Unfamiliar,Unusual,Perplexing,Inexplicable,Outlandish,
Abnormal,Archaic,Alien,Ambiguous,Abstract,
Eccentric,Eerie,Exotic,Extraordinary.
G-R-E-A-T-F-I-L-M-S are all these and more.

 

[trinitron]

i would like to update the list, the updated films in red are the films which i have seen! there are many more films to add but i thought i should keep it short and update which i liked the most! waiting for everyone's inputs. cheers

Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin"(1925), october, alexander nevski, ivan the terrible
Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"(1927),M (1931)
Carl Dreyer's "The Passion Of Joan Of Arc"(1928)
Jean Renoir "The Rules Of The Game" (1939), bodu saved from drowning, the river
Marcel Carne "Children Of Paradise"(1945)
Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D" (1948), the bicycle thieves
Akira Kurosawa's "Roshomon" (1950), high and low
Robert Bresson "Diary Of A Country Priest" (1951) , "a man escaped" (one of my favorite films, au hasard balthazar.
Kenji Mizoguchi "The Life Of Oharu" (1952), ugetsu
Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Story" (1953), an autumn afternoon, late spring, early spring, late autumn
Elia Kazan "On The Waterfront" (1954)
Satyajit Ray "Pathar Panchali" (1955), charulata, apur sansaar, aprajito
Francois Truffaut's "400 Blows" (1959)
Alain Resnais "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (1959), Last Year at Marienbad
Jean Luc Godard "Breathless" (1960), my life to live (fav), band of outsiders, la chinoise, pierrot le fou, contempt
Federico Fellini "La Dolce Vita" (1960), 81/2
Michelangelo Antonioni "L'Avventura" (1960), blow up, the night, the eclipse.
Luis Bunuel "Viridiana" (1961)
Ingmar Bergman "Winter Light" (1963), the virgin spring, persona
Miklos Jancso "The Round Up" (1965)
Andrei Tarkovsky "Andrei Rublev" (1966)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder "The Marriage Of Maria Braun"(1979)
Istvan Szabo "Mephisto" (1981)
Shohei Imamura "The Ballad Of Narayama" (1983)
Bela Tarr "Damnation" (1987)
Chen Kaige "Farewell My Concubine" (1993)
Emir Kusturica "Underground" (1995)
Obviously there are multiple films I admire from most of these directors,but the list gives a general idea of what I have 'kept' after almost four decades of watching films.
My contenders for the 'greatest' film for all times are highlighted in bold

 

[ajay124]

@trinitron
"waiting for everyone's inputs"

That would be like "waiting for godot."
''Everyone'' goes to a different movie hall.
One that is less 'strange'.

But anyway....glad you are around.
Welcome to the Lonely Heart's Club.

I'm all for the cinema in Pic 1
....Would walk out of the cinema in Pic 2

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images...45752778928/Man-Sitting-Alone-In-Empt-001.jpg
http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1262770742/441/3210441.jpg

Over the years I have got used to watching films in empty halls.Would hate to watch a film in a 'house full'.:sad:
IFFI Goa is an exception,the Inox is the only hall I have experienced where one can watch films in pin drop silence
(no cell phones,no conversations,no fidgeting,no popcorn crunching)
with 400-500 like minded cinephiles.

A cinephile takes his cinema as seriously as the audiophiles in this forum.
Almost all the true blue cinephiles I have met over the years are lonely folks.
They travel in solitude.They don't descend in a group onto a multiplex to watch
a film to the accompaniment of constantly ringing cellphones,
not so hushed conversations,giggles,pops and crunches.

 

[trinitron]

lol good one ajay. i used to criticize a lot once but now i don't anymore because "criticism isn't an artistic creation" so it doesn't matter! for me criticism is a joke like audiophile is! i love cinema so much i even watch all Hindi films like recent i hate love stories, anjaana anjaani, robot, deshdrohi, all the films hollywood films too with my giggling, loud and crunching friends i only take cinema seriously where it really matters and it also depends with whom u go to watch the films! which keeps me away from denon, yamaha, onkyo home theaters. and i am the greatest cinephile i ever met and i knw how to enjoy every kind of cinema which will never keep or make me a lonely person!
i have multiple cinema going personality

i dont see a point in watching indian classics because it will not matter to me but my favorite hindi films are as follows

salaam bombay
pather panchali
dil chahta hai
mother india
pyaasa
boot polish
charulata
apur saansar
shaym chi aai
taare zameen par
do bhiga zameen
jis desh me ganga behti hai
guide
jaagte raho
love aaj kal and i hate love story too i want to watch raj kapoor films i like him. i dont take Hindi and Indian cinema seriously i don't see any reason because indian cinema don't have style of its own IMO.

if u just love movies enough! u dont need to study. loving movies is enough to be able to make a good movie is my mantra! afterall i want to make movies in my country!

 

[ajay124]

Wintersleepers by Tom Tykwer
There are films which lodge in some remote corner of your brain (a sticky!) and refuse to leave.These films may not be 'classics' or 'blockbusters',merely small films which by a happy conjunction of time,space,mood,the weather,who knows why,become a part of your cinema memories.
One such film for me was Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) second film 'Wintersleepers'.
A man is taking his horse to a vet in a blinding snowstorm.He is unaware that his daughter has climbed into the horse box.Another man coming from the other side has just witnessed his wife/girlfriend(don't remember,watched it 10+years ago)having sex with someone else.He is distracted,driving without focusing on the road.A horrific crash on an icy road.The horsebox overturns,injuring the girl and the horse.The 'horseman' trapped in his car watches helplessly as the other man,who caused the accident,takes a closeup photo of him and walks off.That's how it begins.Revealing more would spoil the pleasure of watching the film.
YouTube - Winterschlfer
I love films which have great visuals of 'nature'.Snowstorms,avalanches,thundering rain,mighty rivers,ravines,mountains,stormy seas.Probably goes back to my childhood in Simla,where 'nature' was always a reality,rather than an irritant,which could be obliterated with central air conditioning or heating.Also the Alistair Maclean books I read and re-read as a child,Where Eagles Dare,The Guns Of Navarone,Bare Island,Night Without End,Ice Station Zebra,South By Java Head,HMS Ulysses....