Iron and Wine’s Top10
Samuel Beam is an American singer-songwriter (and former film studies professor!) better known by the stage name Iron and Wine. His last album was 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog, and a follow-up is in the works. When selecting his top ten Criterion titles, Beam says, “it was really difficult for me not to just write ‘my top 507,’ because that’s where your catalogue was at the moment I wrote this, and I cherish practically everything you guys have released. However, with that said, here’s a handful of favorites.”
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1
Brazil
Terry Gilliam
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” —George Bernard Shaw
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2
Yojimbo
Akira Kurosawa
“No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth.” —Harry Houdini
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3
The Third Man
Carol Reed
“Why is it there are so many more horses’ asses than there are horses?” —G. Gordon Liddy
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4
Down by Law
Jim Jarmusch
“I’m afraid we live at the mercy of a power, maybe a God, without mercy. And yet we find it, as I have, from others.” —Philip Levine
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5
By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume One
Stan Brakhage
“I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” —Truman Capote
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6
La strada
Federico Fellini
“The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.” —William Faulkner
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7
The Battle of Algiers
Gillo Pontecorvo
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” —Mark Twain
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8
A Woman Under the Influence
John Cassavetes
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.” —Gilda Radner
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9
Burden of Dreams
Les Blank
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” —Woody Allen
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10
Naked
Mike Leigh
“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” —Ludwig Wittgenstein