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My Top Ten Criterions
Ricky Jay
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Author, actor, and historian Ricky Jay first worked with director David Mamet on House of Games. They have since collaborated often, including on seven films, the TV show The Unit, the one-man Broadway show Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, and their new film, currently in production, Redbelt. |
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1. The 39 Steps Alfred Hitchcock Hitchcock’s great mystery includes a wonderful character called Mr. Memory, not present in the novel by John Buchan. He was based on a dropout know-it-all autodidact named W. J. M. Bottle, who was billed in vaudeville as Datas, the Memory Man. |
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2. Children of Paradise Marcel Carné In my formative years I was completely taken by this combination of low-life, stage pantomime, and romantic twizzle. Jean-Louis Barrault, Etienne Decroux, Arletty, and Pierre Brasseur on the boulevard of crime. Now, in my dotage, I like it more than ever. |
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3. F for Fake Orson Welles As a longtime student of deception, and occasional practitioner, I find much to admire in this playful paean to the psychology of the con. |
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4. Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa When I first came to Los Angeles I became addicted to Japanese cinema at the Toho La Brea Theater. Criterion has reissued many of Kurosawa's greatest films, and my list could easily have consisted solely of his titles. |
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5. The Lady Eve Preston Sturges My love of confidence games, cardsharps, and great filmmaking makes this the most obvious choice on the list. |
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6. Secret Honor |
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7. Oliver Twist David Lean My fondness for hooks, stalls, and dips made it difficult to choose between the pickpockets of David Lean and those of Robert Bresson. Both great, but Criterion’s transfer of Guy Green’s painterly cinematography put this one over the top. Please, sir, I want some more . . . |
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8. Samurai Trilogy Hiroshi Inagaki I cringe whenever I think of Pat Morita grabbing a fly with chopsticks. Toshiro Mifune’s original display of this technique is what film characterization is all about. His remarkable portrayal of Musashi Miyamoto grows in richness and complexity with each episode. |
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9. I Know Where I'm Going! Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger My wife worked with Michael Powell, and she treasures this as her favorite movie. Although I am genuinely fond of the film, it did not make my first cut. Upon reflection, however, its inclusion seems prudent. |
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10. Night and the City Jules Dassin What could be better than this riveting romp through the demimonde of London. Richard Widmark’s performance is a testimonial to excess and, for my money, The Rock can’t hold a half nelson to the wrestling or acting skills of Stanislaus Zbyszko. |