And now, finally, we come to the very best of the older movies that I saw last year. There are 13 movies that I rated an 8.5 or higher, including a 10 (which, you will note, I did not originally rate as a 10). I strongly suggest that each and every one of you reading this (yes, all seven of you) immediately rush out and watch these thirteen movies. They really are that good. Sticking with ascending order, here is number 13:
13. Bicycle Thieves
8.5
This core work of Italian Neo-realism is an exercise in dragging you through the mud of human misery. Sure, it sounds unpleasant, but it looks so good doing it.
12. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
8.5
It's a musical unlike any musical I've seen before, completely lacking in what could reasonably called songs. Instead, the music is infused throughout every word in a way that probably shouldn't work, but does. Audacious and wonderful.
11. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
8.5
How can you go wrong with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy (oh, wait . . .)? Hilarious, charming, and a terrific example of Hollywood doing the Hollywood thing well.
10. Last Year at Marienbad
8.5
This movie is utterly terrifying, without ever being scary. The puzzle of the narrative will probably never be solved, but the pieces are completely engaging on their own.
9. The Fall of the House of Usher
8.5
Not my very favorite silent film, but still a tremendous visual feast well ahead of its time and completely engrossing.
8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
8.5
Take what I said about Usher above and add in the most emotionally compelling drama I've seen in a silent film. It's all built around a deceptively simple story that snuck up and tore out my heart while I was busy snickering at its simplicity.
7. Le Mepris (Contempt)
8.5
The easiest way to justify my love of this movie is to point out that Godard stuck a thirty-minute two-character scene right in the middle of it, and made it work so well that I had no idea it was that long. Couple that with Raoul Cotard's gorgeous cinematography, probably the most beautiful of all his collaborations with Godard, and you have a winner.
6. A Woman is a Woman
9
Hey, look, it's another Godard film. Like the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, this could be considered a sort of atypical musical - in this case, a musical without music. It's an endlessly joyous and energetic exploration of what you can do with the mechanics of cinema.
5. Stardust Memories
9
Woody Allen's only truly cinematic movie (in my limited experience, granted). Charlotte Rampling steals the show, and Allen doesn't even try to stop her.
4. The General
9
Buster Keaton's crowning achievement, this is a spectacle of stuntwork that seems completely inconceivable today. It's completely jaw-dropping from beginning to end, and if that wasn't enough, it's funny too!
3. The Orphanage
9.5
The ending of this movie is so awful (in a good way) that it still kind of hurts to think about it. The rest of the movie is just a competent, slightly above-average ghost story - but when you see what's really going on, everything changes.
2. Ace in the Hole
9.5
Kirk Douglas has never been better than he has here, sympathetic and disgustingly twisted all at the same time. It's also the highlight of Billy Wilder's career, which is saying something. The last shot is a doozy.
And finally, the best of the best:
1. Pierrot Le Fou
10
I originally rated this movie somewhere in the 8 range, and in my review, I even explicitly stated that I didn't like it as much as A Woman is a Woman. Afterward, though, I couldn't get it out of my head, and after a second viewing, I realized I had seen something truly special. It's often interpreted as Godard's final statement on his failed marriage to Anna Karina, or as a look back across his films, and I think to some degree both of these things are true. But it's also something a little more expansive, an exploration of incompatability on several levels. It plays out the beats of a romance and a thriller, but the people inside the story don't belong in either and are destroyed by their insistence on continuing to live out the wrong story. I don't think there's a thing about this movie that I don't love.
Next up: what happens next year.
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