Vertigo (1958/Hitchcock)
Needless to say, this is indeed my favorite film. It isn't the most suspenseful film in the master of suspense's repetoir. It's the most tense, the most resonante, the one that is fresh today as the day it cameout. It is a film about obsession, and this theme is fully explored from Benny Herrmann's sublime score to Saul Bass's opening credits. But more than it is a film about love, betrayal, loss and those themes are brought together by the two principals. James Stewart has his finest hour here. A film relating to obsession is also indeed a film you'll find obsessing you.

Casablanca (1942/Curtiz)

Alright. Roger Ebert said it best, saying that he'd never heard of a single bad review of this film. I see what he means. This film is a cornerstone in American cinema, and so beautifully put together from the script by the Epstein's and Howard Koch to the moody lighting of Arthur Edson and of course the acting of Bogart, Bergman & Co. This is perhaps the best case of what happenes when all the elements of film making magically morph to make not just great melodrama but intriguing charecters.

Duck Soup (1933/McCarey)
It's hard to belive that upon it's release that "Duck Soup", a film which we commonly name as the greatest hour from those zany Marx's, bombed in the box office and nearly sunk the carrer of the Bros. It is so witty, so madcap, so insane. Again, it's also a film that stands the test of time (73 years) so well that it works even beter today.

Singin' in the Rain (1952/Kelly-Donen)

Simply put, this is the highpoint of the musical film. Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" number was accuratley noted by composer Leonard Bernstein as, "The Reafirmation of Life". The rest of the film is so enjoyable, full of happiness and glee.

Ikiru (1952/Kurosawa)
I haven't really seen a film that has made me want to change my way of living or inspired me to do something as much as this. The tale of Kanji Watanabe and his striving to give purpose to his life before he dies of cancer is so pogniant and beautiful.

The Maltese Falcon (1941/Huston)

In a year that Orson Welles was busy changing film practices forever, accross town John Huston was altering filmdom in his own right bringing us not only the birt of film noir but presenting to us some of the screen's most intriguing charecters and pronouncing to us the presence of Humphery Bogart in his greatest role. This is how a book should be aadapted; faithfully and briskly paced.

Modern Times (1936/Chaplin)
Chaplin was more than a comedian. He was a director, composer, writer and producer of his own films. he backed his own movies with his own money, added the emotions of pathos into his work and made film into a truly emotional medium. Here, he's perfected it all almost a decade into the sound era. This proves his artistry.

Greed (1924/von Stroheim)

Easilly the greatest look at the subject of the film: Greed. It is a feast of the eyes, probably the first true mastepriece of the sreen placing any of the work Grifith did in the teens and bitch slapping it with it's use of menace, Greed and darkness. The final frames are so so haunting.

The Big Red One (1980-2004/Fuller)
Band of Brothers (2001/Assorted Directors)
I'll combine my reviews for these both films. I usually never meantion "Band of Brothers" as a film and yet now I can't help but give it a place on my list alongside with, "The Big Red One". These two films portray perfectly not only the events of the war in gneeral. They understand the topic of men in war; and their pain, troubles, loss. "Band of Brothers" goes into that theme. "The Big Red ONe" however goes more into a statement of how stupid the romantic conceptions of war is. After all, the only glory of war is surviving.