Ramin Bahrani’s Top10
Iranian-American writer and director Ramin Bahrani’s feature films include: Man Push Cart (2005), Chop Shop (2007), Goodbye Solo (2009), 99 Homes (2014), and Fahrenheit 451 (2018). They have won awards and acclaim all over the world, from Venice to Cannes to the U.S. In 2010, film critic Roger Ebert hailed him as “the director of the decade.” Bahrani is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Someone to Watch Independent Spirit Award in 2008. His films have won numerous awards: Goodbye Solo won the Critics’ Prize for best film at the Venice Film Festival (2009), and 99 Homes won Michael Shannon SAG and Golden Globe nominations in 2015.
-
1
L’eclisse
Michelangelo Antonioni
One of my favorite films of all time. Over the years I have come to respect it even more than L’avventura.
-
2 (tie)
Through a Glass Darkly
Ingmar Bergman
-
The Silence
Ingmar Bergman
-
Winter Light
Ingmar Bergman
Winter Light is one of the most powerful studies of a human soul. The Silence is in a category of its own.
-
3
Dekalog
Krzysztof Kieślowski
One of the masterworks of cinema that rattles me each time I see it. Kieślowski is perhaps the master of filming the unfilmable and unknowable.
-
4
Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio De Sica
Endlessly inspiring social humanist film. A great location film. The two hands in the end is one of the best shots in cinema.
-
5
La dolce vita
Federico Fellini
Expansive and deeply moving. Haunting.
-
6
Pickpocket
Robert Bresson
I can watch the train station sequence over and over again.
-
7 (tie)
Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray
-
Aparajito
Satyajit Ray
-
Apur Sansar
Satyajit Ray
I first saw Ray’s films at the Lincoln Plaza in college and they left a deep, indelible mark. It’s a masterwork that I return to over and over again.
-
8
Ikiru
Akira Kurosawa
The structure is so unique, and the night sequence is a classic. Again, Kurosawa brilliantly translates the Russian writers.
-
9
The Exterminating Angel
Luis Buñuel
For some reason my Spanish teacher in eighth grade thought this was an appropriate film to use to teach us Spanish. I was spooked and could not sleep for nights on end. One of my favorite Bunuel films.
-
10
Vagabond
Agnès Varda
One of the greatest portraits put on screen by one of the greatest directors cinema has known. Varda’s mixture of time and of light and dark is impeccable.
