10 films you must watch before you die..!!

I have put together a list of film which i have felt are probably the most original films ever made,who also have a very good entertainment value. Quite a few of my favorite films have not made to this list because either they were based on a book or were inspired by an actual event.
This list is also a compilation of top 10 films of world cinema, and i have put it together based on the little knowledge that i have on the subject matter and the films that i have seen,and how they have effected me .

So this list doesn't generalizes anything and its just the list of my personal favorites which i feel should be seen by people who are interested in watching quality films.


So here it goes......


1.

Chinatown (USA) -

Directed by Roman Polanski , the film redefined Noir, an exceptional film, multi layerd and complex this film is nothing short of brilliant, a killer screenplay by Robert Towne and beautifully acted by Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston.


2.

Children's of Heaven (Iran)

Directed by Majid Majidi, probably the simplest film ever made, People who think Tare Zameen pe and Masoom( Shekhar Kapoor) were sensitive..they must see this, the film totally depends on the interplay of the two protagonist which the child actors have pulled off with elen .


3.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Korea)

Directed by Chan-wook-Park whose more popular film is Old Boy and with Old Boy getting away with so much acknowledgment and focus.this little gem gets over shone by its predecessor ,which is a shame cause its is the strongest of three film in the Vengeance Trilogy ( Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance, Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance).


4.

Audition (Japan)

Directed by Takashii Mike, this film is a film which took Japan by a storm , starts out like a family drama/comedy later turning into what some calls Japan's answer to "Fatal Attraction", very Hitchcockian and still original in its own right.


5.

Man bites Dog (Belgium)

Directed by Rémy Belvaux & André Bonzel The film which set new trend in the convention of breaking the fourth wall, the mockumentary style of narrative, this dark comedy may sometime get very difficult to watch ,but this still remains to be a film which was way ahead of its time.


6.

Cinema Paradiso (Italy)

Although Guissipie Tornatore made a few other films which were widely accepted, this by far remains to be his best work till date , anyone who is in love with films and the whole craft will have no problem identifying with the central character and although on surface this looks like a coming of age film, its way more than that, probably one of the most satisfying cinematic experience.


7.

Blowup (UK)

Michelangelo Antonioni's first English Film and its a home run, so many films till today have tried to lift up the underlying themes of voyeurism and plot points from this one, but the original still outshines all of them..A timeless Classic thats what this one is.


8.

Seven Samurai's (Japan)

Its nearly impossible ,not to have this film in this list . since this is the film which put the Japanese Cinema on the world map, this film made in 1954 has aged like a wine with time and has actually become better. If you have reservations against watching a 3 hrs long foreign film done in Black and white and if you think its going to bore you out of your wits, you couldn't be more wrong..


9.

City of God (Brazil)

Directed by Fernando Meirelles this is a supernova of a film which explodes on the screen from the very first scene and hooks you,and then it plays backwards unveiling the chain of events that have lead to the opening sequence, the raw and agressive style of direction just compliments the story and keeps you riveted till the end credits start to roll.


10.

Dolace Vita La (Italy)

Federico Fellini probably started the trend of episodic film with interconnected stories with this one and though it was made in 1960 ,it still remains to be the best film with interpolated narratives of various stories,
the film is cold and poignant and leaves you awestruck once you are done watching it.



Following are worthy mentions who came real close to making to this list:

Blade runner (final Cut)
Amelie
Jamon Jamon
Fallen Angels
Rashamon
Dileverance
straw Dogs
2001 A Space Odessy
Funny Games

जिएंदा लाश मुर्दा आदमी ...!!

I have been absolutely and totally out of time for past several days due to increasing load of work, just didn't wanted to have a maiden week..so quickly did one today..just before we call it a day.

Haircut

A quick life study using Wacom

3 mins

Stoner chacha

Meet Uncle Peter

Death...

Drawing inspired by "George.A.Romero's Diary of the Dead"

Another One

Finally something worth Uploading

Wacom Zindabad..!! A homage to old school slasher films from the 80's

Khuda Ke Liye : In the Name of God

It takes guts of steel to make a film that is a true reflection of society, cause there is every possibility that the film will get construed as an arthouse cinema and will fail to get its true audience it deserves, its even harder when such film comes from Pakistan, a nation which has earned a reputation of being extremely volatile and highly explosive in recent times, a country which most of the world thinks is full of extremists and fundamentalists..so i thought,to be very honest, i was wrong..a country that can deliver a cinema so true and so hard hitting and still so human can not be so single dimensional. I have seen quite a few films which have walked a thin line between socially relevant and entertaining.. Do beegha Zameen, Naya Daur, Shor, Purab aur Pashchim, Main Azad Hoon,Akrosh, Ardha Satya, Swades, Parzania and Rang De Basanti..few successful and few not so successful..but even in these cases the audience were divided between commercial and art house flicks, the problem is being a nation thats is a "Secular Democratic Republic" the truth in the cinema is often underplayed and sugar quoted with diplomacy and thats why every time a cinema decides to unveil a mirror in front of us..its get embroiled in some sort of controversy (eg Hey Ram, Machis, Parzania).

"Khuda Ke Liye" is one such film which is every thing you expect a thought provoking film to be and even more, it offers a closure and a solution. I will be very honest when i say that i haven't seen a film made in this subcontinent which has been able to change me as a person or my point of view towards anything..until i saw Khuda Ke Liye, it shook me ( i am not a politics aficionado, and i am not opinionated towards any religion..just to put things straight) but i love my country and i dont like when certain manipulative forces tries to disrupt our harmony with sheer act of cowardliness..but then those are a handful of people who are mislead to fight a war without a cause for certain someone else who is too scared to fight his own battle..and i cant hate any country for what these few individual do..i can only feel sorry for there ignorance, and thats exactly how this film has changed me. Its a difficult subject, a director could have easily decided in favor of playing safe and ended up as a narcissist storyteller, fortunately Shohib Mansoor is not a person who believes in patronizing and diplomacy and therefore he makes a film which is so unbiased that it will put geometry to shame.

Its a story of two brothers Mansoor (Shaan) and Sarmad (Fawad Khan) and their love for music, how they gradually drift apart as one goes on America to study music while the other gives up music and becomes a recluse and later a fundamentalist, its also the story of Maryam (Imaan Ali) who is living a London dream until her hypocrite father who himself lives with a English lady and still has zero tolerance towards her daughter dating a white guy, gets her married to Sarmad and packs her off to Afghanistan, the life which is worse than a exile and a marriage that borderlines kidnapping. In the meanwhile Mansoor becomes a prime suspect and gets implicated as a person involved in 9/11 just because he is a Muslim and hails from Pakistan and therefore ends up facing rendition, overnight his life turns from a symphony to a cacophony. Sarmad on the other side of the world discovers that fundamentalism may not be what he expected as he lands up in a war with Taliban, interpretation of holy book of Quran becomes murky,vague and unclear until he realizes that what he had assumed to be truth was only the half truth, his redemption forms the crux of the story.

The acting here is top notch.. Shaan seems to be hamming is the beginning but then he grows on you and gives a lovely performance, few of the best lines and best moments of the film are a part of his track..Iman Ali is a actress i will look forward to, the vulnerability and angst she conveys is impaccible, Rasheed Naz as Maulana Tahiri-the films pseudo villain is a veteran and he proves his metal yet again, but the film truly belongs to Fawad Khan who probably portrays the most complex character of Sarmad who may be on the wrong side but you still empathize with him, its a performance which is effortless and yet a powerhouse..and all this in his first film. A guest appearance by Nasiruddin Shah is brief but plays a pivotal part in films arc.

The film is a statement from the director Shohib Mansoor, of his convictions and his passion that addresses not just the Art of film but also to the society around him, His work comes across as a solid labor of love, although there are few places where the transition looks incoherent , those are minor quibble in the grand scheme of things.The film is linear and yet it doesnt follow the three arc routine, its episodic in nature and it works cause there are more than one perspectives here to tackle.

If somebody says its a revival of Pakistani Cinema..i will call it a understatement, this film is the kind of film which should also be understood by Indian film makers, and taken up as an example towards "how to make sensible films", this film totally deserves a nomination for best foreign film category in the Academy Awards..and it has a fairly decent chance even to win it.. (irrespective of the total runtime). Kudos to Shohib Mansoor and his team for making such an important film at the right time.Do not miss it.

Living with six fingers in my left hand now..

For past several days, i have been completely hooked to WACOM..and finally i am starting to like the last few paintings i have done using it, i am deliberately sticking to portraits and caricature as of now, cause its helping me learn faster..but i do intend to graduate into doing more elaborate set pieces..

John Rainbow...at your service

Sam an Me (cont..)

Episode 11
Sam an Me
in
Balls

Faces

Hostile Visitors

Sam an Me (cont..)

Episode 10
Sam and Me
in
Prejudice

2100 AD

i realized today that besides forearm and eyes..drawing with WACOM is even more hazardous to bladder and kidney,it just makes me hold my piss until i finish one painting..and i get stomach cramps..guess, there is a price to pay for everything now a days.. :D

Blast off

The Abyss

Sam an Me (cont..)

Episode 09
Sam an Me
in
No Country For Old Monk

1st Attempt with WACOM

I have lot to rant against WACOM touch pads..to start with, i really had trouble keeping my hand and eye co-ordination besides being a left hander i have a habit of keeping the paper perpendicular to my head (almost at 90 degrees)when i draw..which is like an insult to an injury.
As a matter of fact , i had been so scared of WACOM that even though i had one installed on my system for past one year, this is the first time i have actually used it. My forearms feel sore and eyes hurt but i figured one thing out at the end of the exercise..its was a mental block for me that was restraining me from using it other than anything else..now when i look at the image..i feel content and elated, i think its all a matter of getting used to things and then they become a part of you..like insticts.
So the next thing that i intend to do is to get really used to WACOM, lets see how it turns out.
Wish Me Luck..!!

Portrait

I came so close to not being able to post anything today..but finally , managed doing this portrait somehow..

Sam an Me (cont..)

Sam and Me
in
The Slingshot

Another Noir style

Oil

Eh..nothing much, just tried out oil painting style using photoshop..

Noir

Following the tutorials send to me by Chandan (see the comment section to this post)..i have done some changes to the previous image, i am posting both the images so that the comparisons could be drawn.. Thanks Chandan, the tutorials really did helped a lot
After tutorial


Before tutorial

Being very fond of Film Noir..here is something that i did

more sketches

This i have done from memory..without using any references..

Sam an Me (cont..)

Sam an Me
in
Bad Education

Intergallatic Space Vehical

inspired by 2001:A Space Odessy

Sam an Me (cont..)

Episode 06
Sam and Me in the "Ladies Man"