Derek Malcolm’s Century of Cinema
While researching something else (as is always the way), I stumbled upon former Guardian critic Derek Malcolm’s A Century of Films - a survey of his personal Top 100, with a robust defence of each film’s inclusion.
And on glancing down the list again for the first time since 2001, I notice that nine of his choices came from central and eastern Europe (or, in the case of Blanche, from a Polish filmmaker adapting a Polish play). This is perhaps unsurprising for a critic who came of age in the 1960s when Jancsó, Tarkovsky and the Czech New Wave dominated cinematic proceedings, but it’s gratifying nonetheless.
So here’s a direct link to his individual reviews:
- Andrei Rublev (Андрей Рублёв, d. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966, USSR)
- Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament, d. Andrzej Wajda, 1958, Poland)
- Blanche (d. Walerian Borowczyk, 1970, France)
- Closely Observed Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, d. Jiri Menzel, 1966, Czechoslovakia)
- Love (Szerelem, d. Károly Makk, 1971, Hungary)
- The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, d. Miklós Jancsó, 1965, Hungary)
- A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu, d. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1987, Poland)
- Strike (Стачка, d. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925, USSR)
- W.R. - Mysteries of the Organism (W.R. - Misterije organizma, d. Dušan Makavejev, 1970, Yugoslavia)