Who are Entropy’s Editors? Every Sunday, we’ll put up lists from our editors, starting with one that’s being kicked around the great fat digitized pond we call social media. 5 Top Films that Influenced Your Writing. I left fonts and ordering as sent to me as I found the taxonomy of punctuation as eclectic and diverse as the film choices, many of which have now been included on my must-see list:
Byron Campbell
1) Pan’s Labyrinth
2) Paprika
3) Being John Malkovich
4) Memento
5) Audition
Carla Gannis
Brazil
Meshes of the Afternoon
The Matrix
Conceiving Ada
Wings of Desire
Jarett Kobek
1. PERFORMANCE (1970)
2. The three Silvia Pinal/Luis Bunuel collaborations (Viridiana / The Exterminating Angel / Simon of the Desert ) 3. SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL a/k/a ONE PLUS ONE (1969)
4. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
5. TIMES SQUARE (1980)
M. Kitchell
La Femme Publique (Andrzej Zulawski, 1984)
La vie nouvelle (Philippe Grandrieux, 2002)
Gradiva Esquisse I (Raymonde Carasco, 1978)
Naked Blood (Hisayasu Sato, 1996)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
Janice Lee
1. Satantango – Bela Tarr
2. Stalker – Tarkovsky
3. The Element of Crime – Lars von Trier
4. Goodbye, Dragon Inn – Tsai Ming-Liang
5. The Breakfast Club
Felipe W.Martinez
deus e o diabo na terra do sol (glauber rocha, 1964)
weekend (jean-luc godard, 1967)
the seventh seal (ingmar bergman, 1957)
partner (bernardo bertolucci, 1968)
8 1/2 (federico fellini, 1963)
Joe Milazzo
+ Apur Sansar / The World Of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)
+ California Split (Robert Altman, 1974)
+ The Aviator’s Wife (Eric Rohmer, 1981)
+ Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
+ Nights Of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
Megan Milks
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)
The Beaver Trilogy (Trent Harris, 2001)
Otto; or Up with Dead People (Bruce LaBruce, 2007)
La piel que habito/ The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar, 2011)
Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
Kyle Muntz
1: In the Mood for Love/2046
2: Oldboy
3: Southland Tales
4: Let the Bullets Fly
5: Inland Empire
Gaby Torres Olivares
Even dwarfs started small (1970) by Werner Herzog.
In a year with 13 moons (1978) by Rainer W. Fassbinder.
The Falls (1980) by Peter Greenaway.
Gummo (1994) by Harmony Korine.
Otesánek (2000) by Jan Švankmajer.
Joseph Michael Owens
1) Memento
2) Brick
3) Pan’s Labyrinth
4) The Machinist
5) Inception
Justin Petropoulos
1. Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (Black God, White Devil)
Glauber Rocha, 1964
2. San Soleil, Chris Marker 1983
3. Blue Velvet, David Lynch 1986
4. Brazil, Terry Gilliam 1985
5. Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez 1981
Eddy Rathke
1. In the Mood for Love/2046 – Counting this as one because it should be watched as one. This was my introduction to Wong Kar Wai and it reshaped my brain. It’s beautiful and haunting and my whole life caught up in four hours. I used to watch them every six months, though it’s been too long since I last watched. Time probably for a rewatch.
2. The Return – A pretty simple film that’s absolutely brilliant in execution. When I discovered Andrey Zvyagintsev, I knew I had finally discovered what film was meant to be. He’s the first director I discovered who shared my vision of how important silence is in film, or how the language of film should by visual rather than vocal.
3. 3-Iron – By far the best of Kim Ki-duk, who is among the greatest and most frustrating directors around. He makes absolute masterpieces like this, but then many of his others are only interesting, and only good because he’s a genius. Another beautiful, haunting, and quiet film.
4. Last Life in the Universe – I’ve actually talked about this film so many times it probably doesn’t even mean anything anymore when I mention it. It’s the only one of Pen Ek-Rataruang’s films that’s really worth watching, but it’s so brilliant. Todonabu Asano sort of injected himself into my film life here, too. I watched this when I was like fifteen or sixteen or even fourteen, absolutely mesmerised, and even crying at this one specific scene that felt like it lasted two hours, where they’re lying on the couch and the camera just sort of hangs over them, sliding past–I got stuck there and maybe sometimes I still feel like I am. But after that, I couldn’t find it for years and years, couldn’t even remember the name, and then I found it again in Ireland, that scene so stuck in my head laid on the cover, and I’ve watched it probably twenty times since.
5. The Russian Ark – Sokurov’s hypnotic 90 minute single take film is astounding and I watched it as if in a dream. Most of Sokuov’s films are painfully paced while also being brilliantly directed, but I think this is his most accessible and probably best film, and it captures the long take in its most perfect form. I’m sort of obsessed with long takes, long sentences, and this is the kind of film I would make if I could.
Michael Seidlinger
1. Funny Games (german version)
2. Blue Velvet
3. Barton Fink
4. Oldboy (there is only one version)
5. Memories of Murder
Thomas Brewster Trudgeon
sherman’s march (mcelwee)
burden of dreams( les Blank)
what time is it there (liang)
After Life (Koreeda)
rushmore (anderson)/ or a woman is a woman (godard)
Meghan Tutolo
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Science of Sleep
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Revolutionary Road
Girl, Interrupted