The Criterion Collection

Like most Antonioni this is a mystery of a movie that not many may be able to solve after one viewing (if ever). At times it seems deeply personal while at others far removed but after watching it you will never not be able to think of it while going through a fog.

Visconti's small story of people meeting perhaps too late sticks with you not just because of the characters but because of their surroundings. Everything seems to be closed or closing...nobody is on the streets. If you live in a urban environment take a walk on a Sunday around 9-10 PM and you get the same feel. It's as if time has run out and the dark loneliness of empty streets is setting in.

An impossible to shake drama that settles deep into your spine and won't leave. Whether it's the shouting or the awkwardness or even that piercing Cassavetes close up, there is no way to simply walk away from this movie. Try and it will crawl back up into your brain and stay there for days and anytime you see an argument or someone desperately trying to be heard your teeth will chatter with recognition.

Yet another film that's characters leave their indelible mark but more than that it's the color RED that stands out and those vast establishing shots of a mostly empty house filled to the brim with misery, unspoken anger and regret.

A movie so specific that even the trailer is fresh in my head. From those rain drenched streets to the wayyyy too tight apartments this is another movie that leaves the color RED on your brain. I've never seen anything like those curtains and I've looked...

It's one of De Palma's best (and my personal favorite) but it's not the split screen or the real time stuff that sticks as much as it is that pounding Bernard Herrman score. Hear it once and forever retain it's gong like intensity.

Movies that make you sit up and take notice immediately are very rare (especially nowadays) but that beginning on the train... even if you can't remember the exact words being spoken in the narration you will never forget that image.

Not so much a movie as a fever dream. To see it the first time feels like you're watching it for the tenth time. It's deja vu on film. Weeks later you remember the abadoned amusement park or the chilly visage of the man in the water but aren't able to connect the dots as to how it fit into the plot which makes it all the more creepy.

If I forget everything else about this movie I will always remember one thing...those damn fishing lures. Stewart's masterful wordless acting is on display and it is like watching a perfect game or a 400 yard day...just a G-O-D putting on a clinic.

Well...obviously.