- 15
- GREAT FILMS
FOR SEEKERS
1) KOYAANISQATSI
(USA/Godfrey Reggio) - outstanding
- for conveying humanity’s
head-long accelerated
rush towards self-destruction, along with the
sense of an impending radical change.
2) STALKER (Russia/Andrei Tarkovsky) - a great film, which
- offers a portrait of a
genuine seeker and depicts life as
a dangerous, yet necessary quest for Truth.
3) RED BALLOON (France/Albert Lamorisse) - without a
- word, communicates the
beauty and the preciousness
of our inner-self and awakens within us the
longing to regain the purity of childhood.
4) THE MAGIC FLUTE (Sweden/Ingmar
Bergman) - sublime
- music of Mozart sets the
stage for recapturing the
long-lost ideals of love, manly virtues, child-
like wonder and the quest for wisdom.
5) MIRROR (Russia/Andrei
Tarkovsky) - reveals
the inner world
- of the main character without
him ever appearing
on the screen. Instead: his memories, thoughts,
wishes and strivings are shown woven into the
fabric of world history, space and time.
6) A MAN ESCAPED (France/Robert
Bresson) - documents
- the naturalness with which
help is given from
Above to a man, who in complete simplicity
defies the hopelessness of his situation.
7) GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW
- (Italy/Pier Paolo Pasolini) -
- strives to convey the significance
and the
- tragedy of Christ’s
life in a natural,
- yet poetic way.
8) COLOR OF POMEGRANATES
- (Armenia/Sergei Paradjanov) -
- this film speaks in the
language of the soul. A work
of transcendent beauty unlike any other.
9) 8 1/2 (Italy/Federico
Fellini) - the
most honest
- portrayal of a filmmaker,
drowning in the
- world of his own dreams,
memories
- and indulgences.
10) WINTER LIGHT (Sweden/Ingmar
Bergman) -
- the most riveting, insightful
documentation
- ever of the crisis of faith.
11) NOSTALGHIA (Italy/Russia/Andrei Tarkovsky) -
- a depiction of a man in
a state of inner crisis: caught
- between two countries,
between two poles of reality,
between the here and the hereafter.
12) MILKY WAY (France/ Luis Buñuel ) - A blistering
- questioning of authentic
religious dogma and
- attitudes of piety, rigidity
and fanaticism.
13) SHADOWS OF OUR FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS
(Ukraine/Sergei
Paradjanov) -
- beauty and pulsation of
life in every shot testify to
- and celebrate the great
uniqueness of
individual perception.
14) L’ARGENT (France/Robert
Bresson) - a stunning,
- graphic illustration of
the chain-reaction of evil.
15) ANDREI RUBLEV (Russia/Andrei
Tarkovsky) -
- an epic masterpiece about
the profound spiritual
struggle behind one man’s great art.
10 Honorable mentions:
- Modern Times (USA/Charles
Chaplin)
- Oedipus Rex (Italy/Pier Paolo Pasolini)
- Seventh Seal (Sweden/Ingmar Bergman)
- Simon of the Desert (Mexico/ Luis Buñuel )
- Ashik Kerib (Azerbaidjan/Sergei Paradjanov)
- Ran (Japan/Akira Kurosawa)
- Rashomon (Japan/Akira Kurosawa)
- Solaris (Russia/Andrei
Tarkovsky)
- Persona (Sweden/Ingmar
Bergman)
- My Dinner with Andre (USA/Louis Malle)
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