films we like

In Memoriam Danièle Huillet (May 1, 1936-October 9, 2006)

With Jean-Marie Straub Danièle Huillet made some of the most beautiful and challenging of all films: films resolutely open to the radiance of the real, profoundly ethical, responsible to and extending the best in Western culture. Poto would like to pay tribute to these great artists--to Huillet's memory, to Straub's continuing, to their enduring work.

100 Essential Films

Poto takes its name from Jean-Pierre Gorin's 1978 film Poto and Cabengo; the image on our home page is Ryuta Nakajima's reworking of a still of J.P. directing Tout va bien (1972), which Criterion has just released (February 2005) on DVD (with Letter to Jane); and J.P. has had a large influence on many in the Poto community, as artist and mentor. For an introduction to his work, see Erik Ulman's overview in Senses of Cinema's Great Directors series, at www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/gorin.html .

On the subject of recent DVD releases: in my view the most exciting since Tout va bien and Letter to Jane is New Yorker Films' release (December 2005) of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968). These great filmmakers are far too little known in this country: let's hope that this release, however unwelcome to them (they are apparently very hostile to DVDs), will bring them renewed attention, and that such other masterworks as Not Reconciled (1965), Othon (1970), and Too Early Too Late (1981) will become available as well... See Tag Gallagher's excellent essay on their work in Senses of Cinema, at

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/37/straubs.html

.

Now, in 2007, the most important DVD releases are Fantoma's two-disc set of the films of Kenneth Anger. The first has been out for some months; the second has just (October 2007) been released. Although I'm disappointed that the 1966 Magic Mushroom edition of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome is not included (it is instead the 1954 version, in a beautiful restoration funded by J. Paul Getty, Jr.; it's very good to see but in my view doesn't equal the later version for density and splendour), this is an essential set: a meticulous presentation of the works of the greatest living American filmmaker.

I can't speak for all in the Poto community; but what follows is a personal list of 100 favorite films. Numerous other favorites have been sacrificed to this arbitrary number (where are Rossellini's history films? or such less reputable but treasured items as Corman's X? or Moullet's A Girl is a Gun, or Sternberg's Shanghai Express, or Welles' Chimes at Midnight, or...). In some cases I have selected less well-known movies at the expense of more famous ones; and I have tried to balance variety with the natural predominance of particular enthusiasms. Directors were restricted to no more than three or four films, so that Ford, Godard, Rossellini, Straub & Huillet, and a few others didn't dominate too absolutely. Some omissions reflect ignorance--contemporary cinema is represented by very few items, as I don't know much of what is probably the best work now being done; but I hope what follows may be of value.--Erik Ulman

1. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

2. Andrei Roublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969)

3. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

4. L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

5. Au hasard Balthasar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

6. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

7. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

8. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, 1933)

9. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958)

10. The Bridegroom, the Actress, and the Pimp (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1968)

11. Broken Blossoms (D. W. Griffith, 1919)

12. Céline et Julie vont au bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

13. The Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol, 1966)

14. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

15. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)

16. Colloque de chiens (Raul Ruiz, 1978)

17. Corner in Wheat (D. W. Griffith, 1909)

18. Le crime de M. Lange (Jean Renoir, 1936)

19. Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)

20. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

21. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1965)

22. L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)

23. La fièvre monte à El Pao (Luis Buñuel, 1959)

24. Gare du Nord (Jean Rouch, 1965)

25. Gertrud (Carl Dreyer, 1964)

26. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)

27. The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)

28. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)

29. L’Hypothèse du tableau volé (Raul Ruiz, 1978)

30. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

31. Ici et ailleurs (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, and Anne-Marie Miéville, 1975)

32. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1966)

33. Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916)

34. Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969)

35. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)

36. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976/78)

37. La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)

38. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)

39. Life and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami, 1992)

40. Le lit de la vierge (Philippe Garrel, 1969)

41. Lola Montes (Max Ophüls, 1955)

42. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)

43. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)

44. Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)

45. La Maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)

46. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)

47. Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970)

48. Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

49. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)

50. Moses und Aron (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1975)

51. Muriel (Alain Resnais, 1963)

52. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

53. Nicht Versöhnt (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1965)

54. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

55. Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)

56. On Top of the Whale (Raul Ruiz, 1982)

57. Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1949)

58. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)

59. Ordet (Carl Dreyer, 1954)

60. Othon (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1970)

61. Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette, 1972)

62. Une partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1946)

63. La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Carl Dreyer, 1928)

64. The Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1970)

65. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

66. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

67. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

68. Poto and Cabengo (Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1978)

69. La région centrale (Michael Snow, 1971)

70. La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)

71. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

72. The Saga of Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg, 1954)

73. Le sang des bêtes (Georges Franju, 1949)

74. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1982)

75. The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)

76. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

77. The Secret Beyond the Door (Fritz Lang, 1948)

78. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

79. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

80. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966)

81. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

82. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)

83. The State of Things (Wim Wenders, 1982)

84. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)

85. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)

86. Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini, 1949)

87. The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953)

88. Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, 1927)

89. Tabu (F. W. Murnau, 1931)

90. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 1957)

91. Die Tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1960)

92. The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks, 1951)

93. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

94. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

95. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)

96. Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)

97. Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

98. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

99. Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, 1953)

100. Vinyl (Andy Warhol, 1965)

The following are among the films we most want to see: some we just haven't gotten around to, but others are inaccessible to us. If anyone can help out with special rarities, let us know...

Acts of the Apostles (Roberto Rossellini, 1969)

Antigone (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1992)

L'Argent (Marcel l'Herbier, 1928)

The Atomic Blonde (Lew Landers, 1953)

Le Bassin de J.W. (Joao César Monteiro, 1995)

Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981)

Beyond the Law (Norman Mailer, 1968)

The Brasher Doubloon (John Brahm, 1947)

Confessions of an Opium Eater (Albert Zugsmith, 1962)

*Corpus callosum (Michael Snow, 2002)

Couch (Andy Warhol, 1963; complete version)

The Death of Empedocles (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1986)

Doomed Love (Manoel de Oliveira, 1978)

Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976)

The Enchanted Desna (Yulia Solntseva, 1965)

Far from Vietnam (SLON Collective, 1967)

Filming Othello (Orson Welles, 1978)

Flight to Fury (Monte Hellman, 1965)

Gideon's Day (John Ford, 1958)

Haircut (Andy Warhol, 1963)

Hedy (Andy Warhol, 1965)

Histoire(s) du Cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1998)

The Illiac Passion (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)

Imitation of Christ (Andy Warhol, 1968)

Je t'aime, je t'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968)

Jealousy (Gustav Machaty, 1945)

Karl May (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, 1974)

Lumière d'été (Jean Gremillon, 1943)

Maidstone (Norman Mailer, 1970)

Mammame (Raul Ruiz, 1986)

Mediterranée (Jean-Daniel Pollet, 1963)

Metaphor (King Vidor, 1980)

Moana (Robert Flaherty, 1926)

Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948)

My Son John (Leo McCarey, 1952)

Noroît (Jacques Rivette, 1976)

Noviciat (Noel Burch, 1964)

La Nuit du carrefour (Jean Renoir, 1932)

The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 1976)

The Puppet Master (Hou Hsiao-chien, 1993)

Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)

Red Psalm (Miklós Jancso, 1971)

Le Revelateur (Philippe Garrel, 1968)

Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)

Roberte (Pierre Zucca, 1973)

Rosebud (Otto Preminger, 1975)

Run of the Arrow (Samuel Fuller, 1957)

Une Simple histoire (Marcel Hanoun, 1958)

Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)

Tih Minh (Louis Feuillade, 1918)

Trial of Carl Emmanuel Jung (Marcel Hanoun, 1966)

Von Heute auf Morgen (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1997)

The Waning of the Moon (John Ford, 1957)

Westbound (Budd Boetticher, 1959)

Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)