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
Michelangelo Antonioni
L’eclisse
One of my favorite films of all time. Over the years I have come to respect it even more than L’avventura.
-
2 (tie)
Ingmar Bergman
Through a Glass Darkly
-
Ingmar Bergman
The Silence
-
Ingmar Bergman
Winter Light
Winter Light is one of the most powerful studies of a human soul. The Silence is in a category of its own.
-
3
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Dekalog
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
Vittorio De Sica
Bicycle Thieves
Endlessly inspiring social humanist film. A great location film. The two hands in the end is one of the best shots in cinema.
-
5
Federico Fellini
La dolce vita
Expansive and deeply moving. Haunting.
-
6
Robert Bresson
Pickpocket
I can watch the train station sequence over and over again.
-
7 (tie)
Satyajit Ray
Pather Panchali
-
Satyajit Ray
Aparajito
-
Satyajit Ray
Apur Sansar
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
Akira Kurosawa
Ikiru
The structure is so unique, and the night sequence is a classic. Again, Kurosawa brilliantly translates the Russian writers.
-
9
Luis Buñuel
The Exterminating Angel
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
Agnès Varda
Vagabond
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.
