Sunset Boulevard (1950) A Film by Billy Wilder

There's something sweetly ironic about seeing the end title of Sunset Boulevard slapped on top of the Paramount Pictures logo. The juxtaposition is the culminating frame in a film that is held taut by its indictments of Hollywood's numerous corruptions, set around (and sometimes within) the Paramount Pictures Studios. Sunset Boulevard is typical of Billy Wilder's penchant for risky subject matter, but it's also more visually appealing than some of his films combined. It's a film that succeeds on many levels of production; the script is intricate and boldly conceived (if at times melodramatic), the set design is marvelous, Wilder's direction is fluent, and the lighting and camera movements are stately. Aside from these concrete elements, the film also seduces the viewer into its own special world that is rather indescribable; if you don't believe me, ask the devout admirer David Lynch, who will tell you so in one of his famously vague ramblings.

In a passage that is pure Golden Age Hollywood, screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) escapes his shadowy creditors to the side of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles where he unearths the crumbling mansion of the equally crumbling, self-proclaimed silent film "star" Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Well, Desmond truly was a star; her heyday was marked by several memorable collaborations with director Cecil B. DeMille, who even makes a cameo showing in the film. However, her problem is that she hasn't come to accept the reality of her current situation, which manifests itself into the several misshapen aspects of her life: the "fan letters" she believes she receives (but which are actually sent by her butler Max, another has-been filmmaker, Erich Von Stroheim), the general otherworldliness of her mansion, which seems to be fusing into the shrubbery that surrounds it, or the lack of locks on her vast doors as a safeguard for Max in the instance of a possible suicide attempt. "I am big. It's the pictures that got small," Desmond claims. She's an extremely fascinating screen persona, and the scene where she revisits DeMille at the Studio to consult him about a poor script she wrote for herself stirs up feelings of both pity and compassion.

While her personal corruption seems to be associated with her loss of fame and aging body, Gillis is on the opposite side of the spectrum. He's a writer who has frequently been on the cusp of a big hit, but whose minor failures have progressively made him more and more cynical. When asked by Norma to assist her in writing her script, he jumps at the opportunity, being well aware of the status she had reached as an actress. Creepily however, Norma takes hold of Gillis, scrutinizing his every move, an action that eventually turns for the worst when Gillis begins a love affair with an engaged script reader. When ambition runs in Sunset Boulevard, self-absorption is not far behind. Gillis seems to lose his identity, grabbing hold of the promise of money over a more worthwhile situation. The fact that we too lose a connection with Gillis speaks to the power of the film; he narrates the entire film with gusto (from what we perceive as the afterlife) but Wilder spins the plot around so deftly that eventually even we are unaware of who he is morally or professionally. Sunset Boulevard is certainly one of the most handsome productions of the 50's, and Wilder's knack for weaving a complex psychological tale while also keeping his taboos close to mind is undeniable.

Bottle Rocket (1996) A Film by Wes Anderson

While at the University of Texas, roommates Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson did not necessarily have plans of making several films together. However, when they co-wrote the short Bottle Rocket in 1994 and received accolades at Sundance, their plans changed. This gave them the possibility to make the feature-length Bottle Rocket, which was the first burst of energy out of the collaboration.

Owen Wilson plays Dignan, a twentysomething who escapes from the nuthouse he's stationed in to jump impromptu into an ill-prepared life of crime with his friends Anthony, played by Owen's brother Luke Wilson, and Bob. When the gang's first attempted robbery succeeds, albeit clumsily, they hide out at a motel on the side of a vast strip of land where Anthony woos the Spanish maid Inez. Communication between the two is nearly impossible, allowing Anderson to find drollery in Anthony's earnest attempts at cheering her despite the fact. He follows her closely around the symmetrical corridors of the complex (ones that, with their peachy red color scheme, are characteristic of Anderson's milieu), even slipping into the rooms with her to fluff a pillow or two, much to the patron's confusion. Anthony assumes Dignan's jealousy, and when Dignan hears through a translator "tell Anthony I love him", one can imagine something else at work in Dignan's decision to keep hush about it until later in the film.

These minor moral predicaments - Anthony's subtle lovesickness after he leaves the motel, Dignan's uncertain thirst for criminal success, Bob's brother difficulties and troubles with the law for sustaining marijuana in his backyard - are ironically underplayed by Mark Mothersbaugh's carefree ditties, assuring the film never dips into weighty themes. The Devo frontman has brought zest to each of Anderson's films, although in Bottle Rocket it is probably the lesser performance; the songs sound as if they've been extracted from a company learning video. Anderson's visuals were not yet refined in his debut either. Stage-like compositions are not as abound, and the informational overhead shots are few and far between. Often times close-ups feel amateur; for example, the characters are frequently placed on the wrong side of the frame looking out with no lead room. Nevertheless, one can sense his style beginning to take form, and if anything, Rushmore was a great leap.

Whereas the camerawork may be primeval, the themes and sets are noticeably Andersonian. The yellow jumpsuits that are worn in the film's semi-climactic (and most hilarious) heist are reminiscent of the uniform orange hats worn by Team Zissou in The Life Aquatic, and the bromance that ensues between Dignan and Anthony shares the same foundation of that of the three brothers in The Darjeeling Limited. Male bonding - forged through hilarity and absurdity - is common in Anderson's work. Bottle Rocket never feels fully inspired, but in its successful dryly comic moments, it can be seen as a strong primer for the wonderful films that followed from this great young American auteur.

Prologue (2004) A Short Film by Bela Tarr

If you ask Bela Tarr about his contribution to 2004's Visions of Europe, a collaboration from 25 pioneering European directors on, quite simply, their visions of Europe, he'll treat it no different than he would his mammoth seven-hour Satantango. Or any of his features for that matter. Prologue is approximately 445 minutes shorter than his magnum opus, but he approaches it in the same way. It involves one fluid tracking shot that watches rather closely the destitute faces of a seemingly endless line of mangily characters. The shot instantly reflects Tarr's remarkable string of recent (last two decades) works, with its interest in slow lateral movement and stark black-and-white cinematography. 1988's Damnation contains a shot that is very similar, although this time around the camera is moving to the left as opposed to the right, and there lacks a rhythmic exchange of dirty wall to dirty faces.

As usual, the models in Tarr's films appear to be waiting for something, and given their air of general pessimism, it is likely out of desperation. This notion is resolved once the camera reaches the end of the line and a smiling woman opens a sliding window on the brick wall to commence giving rations to the men. A mood of curiosity develops as the eager faces glide by the screen at a continuous rate, only revealing profiles and teasing frontal glances multiple times. There is something to be said of Tarr's views of gender roles; his outlook is quite classical, treating the men as hungry laborers devoted to the difficult inevitabilities of life (such as waiting in an expansive line), and the woman - who are nonetheless cut from the same cloth - as nourishers. Most of his work shares this sentiment, save in Werckmeister Harmonies, when Hannah Shuygulla emerges as an ambitious, independent thinker. Prologue, while being formally stunning paired with Mihály Vig's repetitious and mournful waltz, is a singular and far-reaching addition to Visions of Europe that once again cements Tarr's grim view of the working class in Hungary or elsewhere.

And the Ship Sails On (E la nave va) A Film by Federico Fellini (1984)

Many have said Federico Fellini approached lunacy in the latter half of his career, but these have often been self-defensive critical stabs that result from Fellini's journey into more unconscionably personal works. The elements that peppered the films he received acclaim for (8 1/2, La Strada, La Dolce Vita) do not differ greatly from those present in his more festive late films; rather, they are exemplified - frequently overblown, but always striking. In a way, 1984's And the Ship Sails On feels like a nutty cross between 8 1/2's high culture and Amarcord's fantastic incoherence.

The film is set in 1914 on the brink of World War I - which becomes evident in its finale - on a cruise ship titled Gloria N. On board there is an eclectic horde of Italy's intelligentsia: wealthy aristocrats, musicians known for their abnormally high or low registers rather than their genuine musical merit, painters, political thinkers, hopeless romantics, and even a stenchy rhinoceros. They are headed to the island of Edmea Tetua's birth (a sublime opera singer whose death has left the artistic world in mourning), where they will scatter her ashes according to her wishes. A frizzy-haired journalist, who resembles both palpably and thematically the tour guide in Sokurov's Russian Ark, introduces himself to the camera as an outsider on a mission to document the monumental funeral. When he breaks the third wall in a number of silly scenes, Fellini is suggesting him as the viewer, equally new to the unusual circumstances.

The initial half of the film is rife with lightweight, quietly affecting moments that play like a satire on snobby, highbrow culture. The camera stops by several of the ship's peculiarly lavish interiors to capture scenes that range from delightfully surreal to softly touching. Some highlights include a symphony of silverware in the kitchen, an tacit battle of singing voices in the depths of the ship between a multitude of aristocrats, a basso stoning a chicken to sleep with his bellow, and a stroll on the deck at dusk to a gentle piano accompaniment. This somewhat inchoate rhythm is hindered by the arrival of a group of Serbian refugees, rescued from a shipwreck by Gloria N's captain. Many of the passengers are wrongfully discomforted by the refugees, thinking of them as possible threats, so they are ordered to stay behind an expanse of rope. What results is the eventual acceptance of the Serbs, translated vivaciously into a mutual celebration on the ship deck beside a glistening cellophane sea in one of Fellini's trademark motifs (the setting aside of woes for the genuine excitement of hoopla).

The film also invites political significance into its repertoire with the coming of the Serbs. Eventually an Austro-Hungarian battleship is spotted making threatening requests to the Gloria N to hand over their refugees. Deliberately stagy spectacle begins to overwhelm the carefree charm of the first half of the film. It's an opportunity for Fellini to showcase his creative bravura but it feels slightly uncharacteristic in relation to the rest of the film. There is an even more overt acknowledgment of the artifice towards the end when the camera reveals the vast film set and its busy crew; it feels gratuitous when given the number of times this ground is covered less directly. There are a multitude of moments in And the Ship Sails On however, especially when Fellini's sympathies lie with his jaded central bunch, that feel like a very fond farewell to Edmea Tetua, a symbol of shimmering humanity and perhaps even of fine art itself; interestingly, the film may have been Fellini's final work of art.

The Naked City (1948) A Film by Jules Dassin

When taking into account the widely acknowledged schematics of "film noir", Jules Dassin's influential procedural drama The Naked City seems not to fit at face value. However, if one takes noir in the grim, direct, and realistic sense of the word, the film does not seem too distant from the trend. This is because Dassin separated himself from the influx of glossy studio-produced dramas of the period and created a film that was shot entirely on location in New York City. In order to capture a documentary-like immediacy, Oscar-winning cinematographer William H. Daniels went to the great length of lugging his bulky camera inside a car with tinted windows, explaining some of the perplexed glances the onlookers give to the focused actors.

Dassin tells the step-by-step story of the murder investigation of Jean Dexter, a popular fashion model in the country's most vibrant city. On the prowl for suspects are Lieutenant Muldoon (the prolific Hollywood actor Barry Fitzgerald), his right-hand man, Detective Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor), and the remainder of steadfast crew members. Dassin is relentlessly economical in his delivery, never hanging for a moment on a scene inconsequential to the investigation, which includes a crooked jewelry business, seemingly unlikely connections, and jealousy and lies of all sorts. Unfortunately, the film dips into some lousy characterization, a result of the story's matter-of-fact, newspaper-like presentation (famously deemed by radio-personality-turned-producer Mark Hellinger as just one of the "eight million stories in the naked city"). Muldoon, despite being played splendidly well by Fitzgerald, verges frequently on caricature; he is a classic hard-boiled lieutenant committed wholly to doing his job and earning his salary. Halloran is broadly sketched, and a scene involving him at home with his wife before being ripped away by an important business call feels like a strained attempt to toss in some depth to his character, and the fact that he's young and married and juggling several commitments isn't given any future resonance.

However, where the film may lack in emotion, it shines in verité quality and deft pacing. Dassin's direction is taut for its entirety, and in the end, memorably exciting. He treats the city as a microcosm of society as a whole, where truth is continually elusive through a number of subjective views. The images, albeit not as flashy or atmospheric as some of the other 40's productions, are - due to practical reasons - flooded with sunlight, creating harsh snapshots of the busy daytime streets of the Big Apple in the mid 20th-century. The Naked City's influence on television shows like C.S.I and Law and Order remains noteworthy, and the film still has the ability to lock viewers in.

The Peter Bradley Show

Last night as I perused the supplementary disc to Criterion's version of Wes Anderson's brilliantly deco-stylized family study, The Royal Tenenbaums, I came across a feature titled "The Peter Bradley Show". At first I felt I was in for a nice, organized interview with Wes Anderson or perhaps some of the central actors in the film. What I got was a sloppy session of a man named Peter Bradley, who was likely the most oafish television personality I've ever encountered, conversing with five of the most minor characters to have participated in any of Anderson's initial three films. For a while, I believed the program to be authentic yet incompetent, but eventually, as it went completely haywire, I realized it was one heck of a spot-on parody of PBS's The Charlie Rose Show. And in all sincerity, I can't remember laughing this hard in months. I don't actually watch The Charlie Rose Show, but I feel that having a knowledge of the late-night chat program is unneeded, because for anyone who gets a grand kick out of deadpan comedy, the short does not disappoint.

It involves Peter Bradley in a darkened studio with two of Anderson's marginal extras, while on the phone with a separate studio containing two chairs - only one of which is filled - and a small room in San Francisco holding the most well-known Anderson minor, Dipak Pallana, and his son. Pallana can be witnessed as Gene Hackman's sidekick in The Royal Tenenbaums, or as a man who furtively rings his neck in a distant alcove of the frame in Rushmore. As an ardent admirer of Anderson's films, I especially got a kick out of seeing Pallana gradually reveal his mounting anger, culminating in San Francisco's line being cut. The interview features several clumsy cuts, bumbling camera movements, and graceless shifts in pacing. Peter Bradley continually cuts his subjects off to move on to another, and once he realizes they are all unworthy of television attention, begins to uncomfortably penetrate their personal lives. The virtue of the short is its ability to just nearly seem plausible, never overdoing its ineptitude to the point of indulgence. For the majority of the interview, it seems possible that Bradley is just simply an awkward character, much like Elvis Mitchell has frequently displayed (most notably in his chat with Christopher Nolan). Unfortunately, "The Peter Bradley Show" can only be found on the extras to The Royal Tenenbaums, but it nearly matches the film in merit, so why not indulge?

Fando Y Lis (1968) A Film by Alexandro Jodorowsky

Cult surrealist Alexandro Jodorowsky's debut film Fando Y Lis caused riots upon its release in 1968, and subsequently became lost for 30 years. It's discovery is a crucial step in getting a full Jodorowsky triple whammy, when placed alongside 1970's El Topo and 1973's The Holy Mountain. The film is the initial signs of blasphemous life (save his previous short film La Cravate) from one of cinema's most insane provocateurs. Jodorowsky's characteristically mythic storytelling - kitschy imaginings of the ancient etchings which his films often form their shape around (in Fando Y Lis' case, the opening credits closely resemble the graphics that open Zelda: Windwaker) - involves a hapless couple, both of whom have survived bizarre childhoods, traversing the world's rubble in search of the spiritual city of "Tar". "Tar" promises spiritual ecstasy, as it's the last remaining city after all were destroyed, and eternal happiness for the damaged (and in fact never even translucent) relationship of Fando and Lis.

Their trip is relentlessly burdened by ludicrous freak-shows that rummage through the rocky landscape and a sadomasochistic rivalry that always trumps the borders of reality. As the film progresses, the two sink further and further into madness, as Lis' desperate cries for Fando (which recall Gelsomina's for Zampano in Fellini's La Strada) become more and more inane. A laundry list of sight gags is available in Fando Y Lis, and as with most of Jodorowsky's work, attempting to commit to language the breadth of visual originality present in his preposterously hilarious images would most certainly ruin the indescribable feelings they evoke. Here his camera style is at its most primordial; the overexposed, high contrast black and white hand-cam shots differ greatly from some of the eye-popping cinematographic calculation that emblazoned The Holy Mountain, but one can still sense Jodorowsky's presence behind the camera. There are his obtuse zooms, bird's eye view observations, and deliberately nonrhythmic edits. Not to mention the soundtrack, while naturally rougher around the edges than in his later work, is typically contradictory and irritating (a peaking track of what sounds like a cluster of buzzing bees accompanies a scene involving elderly woman at a dinner table aside the dusty environment).

Although Jodorowsky throws several ideas together in tangled webs in his films (in Fando Y Lis, there is a generous helping of elementary symbols such as eggs or white ponies), there tends more often than not to be a coherent schema. The city of "Tar" seems to have the general notion of a utopia, or a God, but throughout the film it is unattainable, much like "The Holy Mountain" is. Lis even states in optimism, "If Tar does not exist, then we'll invent it". Jodorowsky's films function as elaborate methods of pushing aside humanity's profound claims, so that one can attempt to enjoy the wonder and absurdity of life that already is ubiquitous. Whether Jodorowsky took beaver tranquilizers while directing his films or not, there is an undeniable wealth of imagination that imbues his unceasingly wacky world.