The Last 50 Movies I've Watched

1. White Material
2. Monsieur Verdoux
3. The Master
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Searching for Sugarman
6. The Turin Horse
7. Tyrannosaur
8. Prince Of The City
9. Groundhog Day
10. The First Of The Few
11. Made in USA
12. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
13. Seven Psychopaths
14. Marley
15. Flight
16. Waking Life
17. Killing Them Softly
18. Prison
19. Life of Pi
20. I Am Cuba
21. The Hobbit
22. Moonrise Kingdom
23. These Three
24. La Strada
25. The Adversary
26. Monrak Transistor
27. Looper
28. Headhunters
29. Sisters
30. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
31. Lolita (1962)
32. In the Shadow of the Moon
33. Compulsion
34. Zero Dark Thirty
35. Rosemary’s Baby
36. Compliance
37. The Orphanage
38. The Little Foxes
39. Claire Dolan
40. The Hit
41. The Big Sleep (1946)
42. The Maltese Falcon (1940)
43. Belle de Jour
44. Barney’s Version
45. Deconstructing Harry
46. Becket
47. The Andromeda Strain
48. Holy Motors
49. A Bridge Too Far
50. Jack Reacher

I Am Cuba is a famously lost but rediscovered film made by a Russian crew in Cuba in 1964, though set 1959 or earlier. It has a lot of clunky communist propaganda in it and its depiction of Americans is about as nuanced as a WW2 Hollywood depiction of ‘evil Japs’. The story is a bit too episodic: there are four separate storylines. And the version I watched had an unremovable Russian voice-over which repeats nearly everything said in Spanish, which was annoying. (Apparently it is possible to find versions without that). But still I’d have to recommend it. It has many powerful moments, including a great climax, and amazing camerawork. The film is visually sui generis, with many scenes shot in broad daylight with an infra-red camera (which produces a very strange effect in black and white), or with a fish-eye lens. And there are a couple of stunning tracking/flying shots in it, the likes of which you won’t find anywhere else. It’s a must-see.

As for the other films, of the new ones, these are all worth seeing:
Silver Linings Playbook
Marley
Flight
Looper
Moonrise Kingdom
Holy Motors
Zero Dark Thirty
Jack Reacher
Compliance
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
...though best of all were:
Life of Pi
Searching for Sugarman
Headhunters

Of the older films, the following are very good:
Groundhog Day
Monsieur Verdoux
Waking Life
La Strada
Monrak Transistor
Lolita
The Little Foxes
The Hit
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
Barney’s Version
Deconstructing Harry