Favourite Old Film Discoveries of 2018
Here’s my list of favourite old films I watched this year. I am not ranking them this year (except for my top 5 and my favourite film retrospectives).
Unlike previous years, I am not including films watched on DVD/VOD*, I’m sharing films only watched on the big screen, the cinema venue, and which ones were screened on film.
I also normally include only films seen for the first time, but for this year I included a few that I had seen before on the small screen which felt like a first time experience (The Apartment, The Cruel Sea (more about this here), The Godfather).
I also re-watched a couple of films that I watched recently for the first time on the big screen, 2001: Space Odyssey (Unrestored 70mm) in the Village East Cinema and Barry Lyndon in Metrograph, both in New York. Both screenings were enriching to the mind, eyes and soul.
Another re-watch was Dawson City: Frozen Time, this time on 35mm at the Cinema Museum in London in October, a place I had never visited before. It was a lovely and intimate experience, a gathering of film lovers who turned up on a cold winter night to experience a visual time capsule from the past.
I once overheard a man at the BFI say when he was once asked why he re-watches films, he answered back saying it is the same as listening to a favourite song over and over again. I regret not giving him a high five at the time. What he said is spot on. The opportunity to re-watch films, old or new enriches your memory of the film and sometimes even changes how you relate to the film, especially if watched after many years, after getting older and hopefully wiser.
My top five:
Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971, 35mm, Metrograph)
Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009, 35mm, BFI)
Close Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990, 35mm, IFC Center)
35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2008, 35mm, Overnight Film Festival)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1988, Il Cinema Ritrovato)k
Lucretia Martel Retrospective at Hong Kong Film Festival:
La Ciénaga / The Swamp (2001)
La Niña Santa / The Holy Girl (2004, 35mm)
La mujer sin cabeza / The Headless Woman (2008)
Zama (2017) [This film was in my top 3 last year.]
John M. Stahl films at Il Cinema Ritrovato, all on 35mm:
Seed (1931)
Imitation of Life (1934)
Holy Matrimony (1943)
When Tomorrow Comes (1939)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
The rest (in alphabetical order based on the English titles):
11 x 14 (James Benning, 1977, 35mm, Berlinale)
The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Bound (The Wachowskis, 1996, 35mm, Overnight Film Festival)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
The Cruel Sea (Khalid Al Siddiq, 1972, NYUAD Institute)
Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Early Spring (Yasujirô Ozu, 1956, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Film (Alan Schneider, 1965, From Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Works from MACBA Art Collection exhibition, Manaret Al Saadiyat)
Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973, Metrograph)
The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968, EYE)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Introduction to the End of an Argument (Jayce Salloum, Elia Suleiman, 2005, NYUAD Arts Center)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988, Berlinale)
Lights out in Europe (Herbert Kline, 1940, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986, 35mm, La Cinémathèque Française)
My 20th Century (Ildikó Enyedi, 1989, Berlinale)
Once Upon a Time…the Nile (Youssef Chahine, 1964, 35mm, La Cinémathèque Française) [more about this here]
Paris is Always Paris (Luciano Emmer, 1951, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
The River (Jean Renoir, 1950, La Cinémathèque Française)
The Savage Eye (Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers, Joseph Strick, 1960, Dave Heath - Dialogue with Solitude exhibition, Le Bal)
Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige, 2000, 35mm, Berlinale)
Shiraz (Franz Osten, 1928, Louvre Abu Dhabi)
Silence is Golden (René Clair, 1947, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
A Touch of Love (Waris Hussein, 1969, 35mm, BFI)
Three Girls from Rome (Luciano Emmer, 1952, 35mm, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Tokyo Twilight (Yasujirô Ozu, 1957, Berlinale)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988, Il Cinema Ritrovato)
Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes, 1998, 35mm, Overnight Film Festival)
Wonderland (Michael Winterbottom, 1999, 35mm, BFI)
Tahia ya Didou (Mohamed Zinet, 1971, Berlinale)
* Side note: I do want to highlight the following 5 films as my favourite non-cinema film discoveries that I hope to see on the big screen, especially the first one:
The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990, OSN Play)
Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986, MUBI)
A Star is Born (George Cukor, 1954, Film Struck)
Taking of Pelham (Joseph Sargent, 1974, iTunes)
Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, 1959, MUBI)
Favourite Old Film Discoveries 2017
Favourite Old Film Discoveries 2016
Favourite Old Film Discoveries 2015