Martin Bradley

IMDb comments

As best as I can here are my top 40 in order of preference:

  1. Salvatore Giuliano (1962) Francesco Rosi
    Why this masterpiece isn't in most lists of ten best films is beyond me.
  2. The Sun Shines Bright (1953) John Ford
    Not the most politically correct of films but a stunning piece of Americana.
  3. Les Grandes Manoeuvres (1955) René Clair
    This great bitter-sweet romance is almost the equal of Madame De...
  4. Lilith (1964) Robert Rossen
    Rossen's best film, period!
  5. Saint Francis, God's Jester (1950) Roberto Rossellini
    One of the cinema's few great spirtual movies.
  6. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) Terence Davies
    The British cinema's greatest poet's greatest film.
  7. Roxie Hart (1942) William A. Wellman
    'Chicago' as it should have been.
  8. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) Leo McCarey
    The film for which McCarey should have won his 1937 Oscar
  9. The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) Frank Launder
    The funniest film ever made in Britain.
  10. A Girl in Black (1956) Michael Caccoyannis
    The great Greek director before he found Zorba.
  11. Comanche Station (1960) Budd Boetticher
    Only one of several masterpieces which Boetticher made with Randolph Scott.
  12. The Pumpkin Eater (1964) Jack Clayton
    If you must have a nervous breakdown in Harrod's this is the way to do it.
  13. Tea and Sympathy (1956) Vincente Minnelli
    One of several masterpieces made by this most undervalued of directors.
  14. Outcast of the Islands (1952) Carol Reed
    The best screen Conrad.
  15. The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938) Mark Donskoy
    The first part of a great trilogy.
  16. The Travelling Players (1975) Theo Angelopoulos
    One of the cinema's few great political epics.
  17. Lola (1961) Jacques Demy
    His first musical in all but name.
  18. A Brighter Summer Day (1991) Edward Yang
    In America this would be Rebel Without a Cause meets Peyton Place but in Asia it is just another masterpiece.
  19. Ride Lonesome (1959) Budd Boetticher
    Just another of the several masterpieces Boetticher made with Scott.
  20. An Actor's Revenge (1963) Ichikawa Kon
    Kabuki theatre turns into stunning wide-screen cinema.
  21. Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960) Bert Stern
    Is this the best 'concert' movie ever made?
  22. Man of Iron (1981) Andrzej Wajda
    Along with 'Man of Marble' one of the greatest political films of our time.
  23. Charulata - The Lonely Wife (1964) Satyajit Ray
    Love and pain and the whole damn thing...Satyajit Ray-style.
  24. I Was Happy Here (1966) Desmond Davis
    A memory piece worthy of Proust.
  25. Bamako (2006) Abderrahmane Sissako
    This political film from Africa is unlike any other you will ever see.
  26. The Middle of the World (1974) Alain Tanner
    A true lost classic of European art-house cinema.
  27. The Ladies Man (1961) Jerry Lewis
    Thank God for the French!
  28. Un Chant d'Amour (1950) Jean Genet
    The most homoerotic movie ever made...and they don't even touch.
  29. A Diary for Timothy (1945) Humphrey Jennings
    One of the greatest of all factual films.
  30. A Slave of Love (1976) Nikita Mikhalkov
    Making movies the Russian way.
  31. Went the Day Well? (1942) Alberto Cavalcanti
    Largely ignored for showing that when it comes to defending their turf the British could be just as vicious as the Nazis.
  32. The Family Way (1966) Roy Boulting
    Very touching late addition to the Kitchen Sink movies (and in colour) and John Mills finest hour.
  33. Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937) Marcel Varnel
    The best of the Will Hay’s comedies.
  34. Culloden (1964) Peter Watkins
    Made for television but a film of great power and importance nevertheless.
  35. A Kind of Loving (1962) John Schlesinger
    The most unjustly neglected of the early Kitchen Sink movies.
  36. The Lace-Maker (1977) Claude Goretta
    If only for giving us Isabelle Huppert.
  37. Poor Cow (1967) Ken Loach
    For the great Carol White.
  38. Gumshoe (1971) Stephen Frears
    Movie stars may or may not die in Liverpool but its mean streets can be just as evocative as those in New York or LA.
  39. Rachel, Rachel (1968) Paul Newman
    Newman's beautiful valentine to his wife Joanne Woodward.
  40. Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) Karel Reisz
    Nolte, Moriarty and Weld at the top of their game in Reisz' little seen American classic.

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