We're past the halfway point - it's all down hill from now on in my A-Z list of my favourite films
And it’s on to the letter “N”, thankfully a much smaller category than M. I’ve already decided the top five, but first a quick look at a few that didn’t make it:
From 1921 come 2 very different silent films. There’s the comedy short Never Weaken; Harold Lloyd’s last short film before he moved to feature length films. Lloyd plays a man trying to commit suicide when he thinks (erroneously) that his girlfriend is cheating on him. Sounds grim but is in fact hilarious at times and contains some great stunt work from Lloyd. The other 1921 offering is Nosferatu, Murnau’s German expressionist film based on the Dracula story. Shadows abound, and the film is full of atmosphere and innovative film techniques. Max Schreck’s portrayal of the vampire is unsurpassed.
Back to comedy and the Marx Brothers classic A Night at the Opera, from 1935, very nearly made our final five. There’s great comedy in it – the famous stateroom scene where a growing number of people try and cram into a tiny cabin, and the puntastic “there ain’t no sanity clause” line. The only thing that counts against the film are the musical interludes which slacken the pace rather.
Skipping past the 40s which only provide one film (that made the final five) and we arrive in the 1950s. The Narrow Margin is a fine thriller set on a train from 1952, The Naked Spur from 1953 sees James Stewart teaming up again with director Anthony Mann in a psychological Western; Niagara, a film noir from the same year was dominated by the presence of Marilyn Monroe, and also starred Joseph Cotton.
Nuit et Brouillard from Alan resnais is a hard-hitting French documentary from 1955 – a documentary about the concentration camps of WW2. It’s only half an hour long and consists of shots of the now abandoned concentration camp mixed with stock footage, with a simple commentary track. The lack of sensationalism makes it all the more powerful and emotional – a film that’s a must see, even if you it’s not one you really enjoy. Another contender was the 1957 Fellini film, Nights of Cabirira, in which Fellini’s real-life wife plays a naïve prostitute.
Our entry from the 1960s is the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. Directed by George A Romero, this low budget zombie horror is highly influential and still packs a punch, even viewed 40 years later.
2 excellent American films from the 1970s films, Robert Altman’s ensemble Nashville – if they’d been a final ten instead of five, it would have definitely made it, and from 1976 Sidney Lumet’s Network with Peter Finch as the newsman who’s mad as hell and isn’t going to take it any more. He won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar for his troubles. Werner Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu in 1979 is also worthy of mention.
Into the 1980s and we’ll ignore Nightmares in a Damaged Brain as it’s really not that good. Never Say Never Again was an unofficial Bond from 1983 with Sean Connery reprising his role as the secret agent. A year later Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street spawned numerous sequels, and also gave an early glimpse of Johnny Depp. From 1984 came, well, 1984 in Michael Radford’s decent enough adaptation of Orwell’s book, though not up to the standard of Terry Gilliam’s similarly themed Brazil from the same year. No Way out was a good Kevin Costner thriller in 1987, and then from the Airplane team came The Naked Gun in 1988, a spin off from the TV series Police Squad starring Leslie Nielson. Very funny though two slightly less funny sequels would emerge in 91 and 94.
In 1993 came the stop motion animation Nightmare Before Christmas – an excellent gothic tale from director Henry Selick, though produced and co-written by Tim Burton whose hallmarks can be seen all over it. In 1999 came the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts-starring romantic comedy Notting Hill, and in the same year, The Ninth Gate came from Roman Polanski.
Which brings us to our final five
Notorious (1946) Hitchcock directs one of his best thrillers starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. Bergman is the daughter of a German spy, and is recruited by the Allies to infiltrate a group of Germans in Brazil. Bergman falls in love with Grant who is her contact, but he asks her to pretend to be in love with Rains, one of the gang. Espionage, love, thrills and spills; it’s a tightly constructed film and one of the classics.
Night of the Hunter (1955) What a shame Charles Laughton only directed one film, but the one he directed was top class. Robert Mitchum is the sadistic preacher/serial killer trying to infiltrate a family in order to find a stash of stolen money – only the young children know where the money is. Filmed in an expressionist style with a foreboding atmosphere and great performances all round, this is a fine film influenced by the film-noir movement.
North by Northwest (1959) – Sorry, 2 Hitchcock films in the top five again, but this is a truly great film starring Cary Grant and Eve Marie Sant. Grant is the businessman who finds himself mistaken for a secret agent and goes on the run. Crop-dusting planes, assassins, drunk car rides, shoot-outs on Mount Rushmore – the film is full of iconic moments and is one of American cinema’s finest achievements.
No Man’s Land (2001) A great satirical war film set in the war-torn former Yugoslavia. A Bosnian and a Serbian find themselves stuck together in a trench in no-man's land with a booby trapped corpse The film follows the twists and turns in the relationship between the two soldiers and also takes in the wider picture; the frustration of the UN soldiers who are unable to interfere due to orders from above and the way they get around it by getting the media involved. Quite a cynical take on the situation but one gets the sad feeling it is perhaps rooted in reality
No Country For old Men (2007) The one that finally brought home the Oscars for the Coen Brother garnering their first Best Picture and Director awards. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Kelly McDonald star in the tale of Brolin coming across drug money and trying not to be caught by psychotic hit man Bardem with a comedy haircut. Lee Jones is the policeman also trying to stop the confrontation. Fine cinematography and story-telling – the ending upset some, but it’s true to the original novel.
And the winner is North By Northwest. I can never decide on Hitchcock’s best film, but this is certainly one of my two or three favourites. Cary Grant has never been better and it’s an all out entertainment fest from Hitch.
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