Contemplative Cinema: Classics & Contemporary
I owe this list to Harry Tuttle. His blog has been a major source of information to me like many others, regarding CCC. Yet I did not keep the guidelines too stringent as Harry would prefer. So quite possibly, the presence of some films here might be debatable. I tried to keep a broader perspective on this topic. Nevertheless this is the kind of cinema which stimulates me and inspires me and hopefully will determine the path I take in my career. I have not seen all of these films featured here so some are here by their reputation. Please suggest the names of the films you think fit the bill and should be added here. Also let us know if you think any film is misrepresented on this list. Share your opinion about your experience so far with Contemplative Cinema.
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P.S. The films are not represented chronologically or rankwise.
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P.S. The films are not represented chronologically or rankwise.
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- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsNatalya BondarchukDonatas BanionisJüri JärvetA psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsMargarita TerekhovaFilipp YankovskiyIgnat DaniltsevA dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsOleg YankovskiyErland JosephsonDomiziana GiordanoA Russian poet and his interpreter travel to Italy researching the life of an 18th-century composer, and instead meet a ruminative madman who tells the poet how the world may be saved.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsErland JosephsonSusan FleetwoodAllan EdwallAt the dawn of World War III, a man searches for a way to restore peace to the world and finds he must give something in return.
- DirectorMiklós JancsóStarsJános GörbeZoltán LatinovitsTibor MolnárIn Hungary, the national movement led by Kossuth has been crushed and the Austrian hegemony re-established, but partisans carry on with violent actions. In order to root out the guerilla, the army rounds up suspects and jails them in an isolated fort. The authorities do not have the identity of the guerilla leaders, who are supposed to be present among the prisoners. However, they know enough about some of the suspects to apply perfidious forms of coercion effectively.
- DirectorMiklós JancsóStarsKrystyna MikolajewskaMikhail KozakovTatyana KonyukhovaDuring the Russian Civil War, the Red Army - aided by Hungarian Communists - and the White Army fight for control of the area surrounding the Volga.
- DirectorMiklós JancsóStarsMari TörőcsikJózsef MadarasZoltán LatinovitsMiklós Jancsó's Silence and Cry is set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian Republic of Councils falls victim to a nationalist counter-revolution. Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalist far right movement, becomes the self-proclaimed regent of Hungary, and assumes power as the legal Head of State. Soldiers of the short-lived Hungarian Red Army are now on the run from relentless secret policemen and patrol units of the nationalist Royal Gendarme. If caught, ex-Red Army soldiers are executed without mercy or proper trial. István Cserzi, a former soldier of the Red Army has fled to the Great Hungarian Plains and has taken refuge on a farm, which is run by two sympathetic women. Due to the generosity of these women and a former childhood pal, who is now a commandant of the local Royal Gendarme outfit, István is safely hidden from the ever-prying eyes of the secret policemen, who relentlessly roam the countryside searching for ex-Red Army men and their sympathisers. However, upon discovering that the women are secretly poisoning the mother-in-law and the husband, the legal owners of the farm, István must make the most difficult decision of his life. As a personal war is waging within his own consciousness over morality and self-preservation, István must decide whether to remain silent about the women's devious secret and preserve his own life, or to report their heinous crime to the Royal Gendarme, which would also mean certain death for him.
- DirectorMiklós JancsóStarsAndrea DrahotaGyöngyi BürösErzsi CserhalmiSet in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in-which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsIvan MikolaychukLarisa KadochnikovaTatyana BestayevaA timeless Carpathian story - the young Ivan falls in love with the daughter of his father's killer among the Hutsul people of Ukraine.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsSofiko ChiaureliMelkon AlekyanVilen GalstyanThe life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from childhood to death: his spiritual journey, artistic endeavors, and inner conflicts within the cultural and historical context of Armenia. Hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovDodo AbashidzeStarsVeriko AnjaparidzeTamari TsitsishviliDudukhana TserodzeA film version of a well-known Georgian folk-tale. A young boy has to be immured into the walls of a fortress in order to stop it from crumbling to pieces.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsHenrik MalbergEmil Hass ChristensenPreben Lerdorff RyeFollows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsEva KotamanidouVangelis KazanAliki GeorgouliGreece, 1939-1952: Fascist, Nazi, and Communist conflict, as seen through the eyes of a family of travelling provincial players.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsMarcello MastroianniNadia MourouziSerge ReggianiA bee keeper, Spiros, travels from the north to the south of Greece with his bees to meet the spring.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsMichalis ZekeTania PalaiologouStratos TzortzoglouTwo children journey the long road to Germany to find the man they believe to be their father.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsHarvey KeitelMaia MorgensternErland JosephsonAn exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsBruno GanzIsabelle RenauldFabrizio BentivoglioFamous writer Alexander is very ill and has little time left to live. He meets a little boy on the street, who is an illegal immigrant from Albania, and goes on a journey with him to take the boy home.
- DirectorTheodoros AngelopoulosStarsAlexandra AidiniNikos PoursanidisGiorgos ArmenisThe story starts in 1919 with some Greek refugees from Odessa arriving somewhere near Thessaloniki. Among these people are two small kids, Alexis and Eleni.
- DirectorBéla TarrStarsMiklós Székely B.Vali KerekesGyula PauerA lonely barfly falls in love with a married bar singer.
- DirectorBéla TarrStarsMihály VigPutyi HorváthLászló feLugossyOn the eve of a large payment, residents of a collapsing collective farm see their plans turn into desolation when they discover that Irimiás, a former co-worker who they thought was dead, is returning to the community.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsLars RudolphPeter FitzHanna SchygullaA naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsMiroslav KrobotTilda SwintonErika BókAfter witnessing a crime during his night shift as railway switchman near the docks, a man finds a briefcase full of money. While he and his family step up their living standards, others start looking for the disappeared case.
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsJános DerzsiErika BókMihály KormosA rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriele FerzettiMonica VittiLea MassariA woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.