Thanks for your comments. It's always wonderful how talking to fellow film lovers and hearing their favorites inspires a renewed interest and perspective on them. I need to revisit your top 2 films again in particular, it's been a while...and as far as Tarkovsky goes, let's hope those rumors of Criterion re-releasing Andrei Rublev actually happen soon!
As for Ordet and Nashville, I see them as 2 sides of the same great heavenly coin. Above all else, I admire and love them for their fundamental benevolence and see this as indicative of something much greater. Kind masterpieces are hard to find. Both are deeply spiritual to me; Ordet naturally being the more obvious in this regard, but Nashville, for its joyous compassion toward humanity and exhilaration in depicting life, is certainly its earthy Chestertonian equal. I would say Altman made something like 8 perfect films in the 70s and everything else is just varying degrees of fascinating icing on the cake. Quintet? Yow! And (as I'm always quick to mention) I even like OC and Stiggs! As far as benevolence, I view Frederick Wiseman in much the same way. It's tempting with him to just list "all films" because his work is so interconnected. By virtue of "Near Death"'s profundity and length, it wins by a nose. These films offer so much all you can really do is sit back and be grateful.
Thanks for commenting! Those three are certainly a triple-threat of Glory in my (and many people's) book! I think they're possibly the three most overtly transcendent films out of the lower list, as well. And as for that last one: man o man, PT really did it, didn't he?
Thanks for your comments. It's always wonderful how talking to fellow film lovers and hearing their favorites inspires a renewed interest and perspective on them. I need to revisit your top 2 films again in particular, it's been a while...and as far as Tarkovsky goes, let's hope those rumors of Criterion re-releasing Andrei Rublev actually happen soon!
As for Ordet and Nashville, I see them as 2 sides of the same great heavenly coin. Above all else, I admire and love them for their fundamental benevolence and see this as indicative of something much greater. Kind masterpieces are hard to find. Both are deeply spiritual to me; Ordet naturally being the more obvious in this regard, but Nashville, for its joyous compassion toward humanity and exhilaration in depicting life, is certainly its earthy Chestertonian equal. I would say Altman made something like 8 perfect films in the 70s and everything else is just varying degrees of fascinating icing on the cake. Quintet? Yow! And (as I'm always quick to mention) I even like OC and Stiggs! As far as benevolence, I view Frederick Wiseman in much the same way. It's tempting with him to just list "all films" because his work is so interconnected. By virtue of "Near Death"'s profundity and length, it wins by a nose. These films offer so much all you can really do is sit back and be grateful.
Thanks for commenting! Those three are certainly a triple-threat of Glory in my (and many people's) book! I think they're possibly the three most overtly transcendent films out of the lower list, as well. And as for that last one: man o man, PT really did it, didn't he?
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