Top ten films to watch on Kanopy, April 2022
Monica Vitti in L’avventura
To celebrate Amazon Prime making every single boring Bond film available to watch – here’s something completely different.
1. Caravaggio (Jarman, 1986, UK)
Brilliant fictional recreation of the painter’s life told in a series of tableux. I’m currently reading Jarman’s Modern Nature, his diaries from 1989-90 written from his home in Dungeness.
2. L’avventura (Antonioni, 1960, Italy)
During a yachting trip, a young woman mysteriously disappears. Antionioni’s first feature caused a sensation when it was first released and heralded a new language for cinema. Actress Monica Vitti died earlier this year.
3. My Childhood / My Ain Folk / My Way Home (Douglas, 1972-78, UK)
Collectively known as the Bill Douglas Trilogy, a stunning series of films following the poverty-stricken childhood of a boy called Jamie. ‘One of the greatest experiences the cinema has to offer’ say the Observer. I wrote about these films here in 2008.
4. Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955, India)
Another trilogy of childhood, this is the first of Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
5. The Draughtsman’s Contract (Greenaway, 1982, UK)
Greenaway’s first ‘proper’ feature, a ‘witty, stylised, erotic country house mystery’.
6. Earth (Dovzhenko, 1930, Russia)
This impressionistic Russian masterpiece of silent cinema follows the fortunes of farmers on a collective. The end montage – “The longest and most elaborate example of parallel montage in the history of the cinema”, according to historian P. Adams Sitney – is a heady mix of funeral procession, the birth of a baby, a naked woman mourning her dead lover, a murderer going insane and a priest praying to God to punish sinners.
7. Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami, 1997, Iran)
A man drives around Tehran looking for someone to bury him after he commits suicide.
8. Fires Were Started (Jennings, 1943, UK)
Poetic propaganda mock-doc celebrating Britain’s World War II firefighters.
9. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Herzog, 2010, France)
Herzog explores the underground art of the Chauvet caves in southern France.
10. Radio On (Petit, 1979, UK)
England’s only road movie, with nods to West Germany via Wenders and krautrock.
Previously on Barnflakes
Top ten films on Kanopy, January 2022
Top 10 films about painters
Top ten greatest film trilogies
My childhood just flew by
Top ten British film directors
The Bill Douglas film museum, Exeter
The top 100 films
Top ten road movies