#62 LE PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC Carl Theodor Dreyer 1928

The flock not needing the Church is the Inquisitors' great fear; indeed it evokes absolute satanic terror. "Seule avec Dieu..." --alone with god no church intermediaries needed, just the exact blasphemy that metaphorically alienates and isolates a modern believer, no need for a congregation, except if it is a congregation of one, with god.  Dreyer …

#695 BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman" Abdellatif Kechiche 2013

Adèle's story, from blissful childlike sleep to a long lonely walk down an empty street, is a full artistic creation as is any beautiful painting of the birth and/or death of love or any story of a youth struggling painfully to grow up.  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman.  We love to write and …

#515 THE FUGITIVE KIND Sidney Lumet 1960

Fly away little bird, fly away or you'll--get broke. The key to this film is not Brando, who is brilliant, not the tragic Italian classicism that Anna Magnani brings to all of her films, not even the language and poetry of Tennessee Williams, which is the exhalation of despair, but Joanne Woodward as Carol Cutrere. …

#74 VAGABOND: Lost in the French Wild Agnès Varda 1985

"It's good to be alone." --Simone/Mona Bergeron This film is a good bookend to Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.  Mona Bergeron and Christopher McCandless are kindred, and I was fascinated by the different cultural contexts inspiring very complementary reactions to these free but flawed spirits. The kindnesses and cruelties are of a different shade, of …