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ChristofBronner
IMDb member since July 2007
A cinephile from Germany.
“Three films a day, three books a week, and records of great music would be enough to make me happy to the day I die.” — François Truffaut
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ChristofBronner ranks the 1970s decade of cinema
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A list of my personal favorites.
The Best German Films of All Time – A Guide to German Cinema
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Die besten deutschen Filme aller Zeiten.
Some of the best films German cinema has to offer. In chronological order.
Number of films by decade:
1910s: 4 1920s: 18 1930s: 11 1940s: 6 1950s: 5 1960s: 8 1970s: 24 1980s: 12 1990s: 7 2000s: 11 2010s: 9 2020s: 7
Directors with the most entries on this list:
1. Fritz Lang (9 films) 2. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (9 films) 3. Werner Herzog (8 films) 4. Georg Wilhelm Pabst (5 films) 5. Wim Wenders (5 films) 6. Helmut Käutner (4 films) 7. Christian Petzold (4 films) 8. Edgar Reitz (4 films) 9. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet (4 films) 10. F.W. Murnau (3 films) 11. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (3 films)
small glossary:
Berliner Schule - Berlin School (A term used to describe a style of contemporary German auteur cinema. The movement's name was coined Berlin School because the first generation of its filmmakers all graduated from the film school DFFB in Berlin. The films of the Berlin School are often considered an alternative to contemporary German mainstream cinema.)
Neuer Deutscher Film – New German Cinema
Trümmerfilm – literally "rubble film", a short-lived movement in German post-war cinema, heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism, usually filmed on location in the post-war ruins of German cities
Some of the best films German cinema has to offer. In chronological order.
Number of films by decade:
1910s: 4 1920s: 18 1930s: 11 1940s: 6 1950s: 5 1960s: 8 1970s: 24 1980s: 12 1990s: 7 2000s: 11 2010s: 9 2020s: 7
Directors with the most entries on this list:
1. Fritz Lang (9 films) 2. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (9 films) 3. Werner Herzog (8 films) 4. Georg Wilhelm Pabst (5 films) 5. Wim Wenders (5 films) 6. Helmut Käutner (4 films) 7. Christian Petzold (4 films) 8. Edgar Reitz (4 films) 9. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet (4 films) 10. F.W. Murnau (3 films) 11. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (3 films)
small glossary:
Berliner Schule - Berlin School (A term used to describe a style of contemporary German auteur cinema. The movement's name was coined Berlin School because the first generation of its filmmakers all graduated from the film school DFFB in Berlin. The films of the Berlin School are often considered an alternative to contemporary German mainstream cinema.)
Neuer Deutscher Film – New German Cinema
Trümmerfilm – literally "rubble film", a short-lived movement in German post-war cinema, heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism, usually filmed on location in the post-war ruins of German cities
January 2024 Calendar for My Imaginary Repertory Cinema
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This list is just meant as a fun exercise. Basically, what if I were the curator or head programmer of a repertory cinema? Which movies would I pick to fill a whole month of programming? Since I had so much fun in making a list for December I wanted to make one for January too.
For me, January (a.k.a. Japanuary) is all about Japanese cinema. I also want to celebrate Nicolas Cage's 60th birthday and pay tribute to some master filmmakers (Sergio Leone, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Takeshi Kitano, David Lynch & Jim Jarmusch) who were born in January.
program: 1–30: evening shows 32–34: Friday matinees (Yakuza film) 36–38: Friday midnight shows (J-horror) 40–42: Saturday midnight shows (Erotica) 45–47: Saturday & Sunday family matinees (Ghibli)
special events: January 5, 6 & 7: Nicolas Cage 60th birthday celebration (film #6, 31, 35, 39, 43 & 44) January 29: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 60th anniversary screening
past calendars: December 2023 Calendar
For me, January (a.k.a. Japanuary) is all about Japanese cinema. I also want to celebrate Nicolas Cage's 60th birthday and pay tribute to some master filmmakers (Sergio Leone, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Takeshi Kitano, David Lynch & Jim Jarmusch) who were born in January.
program: 1–30: evening shows 32–34: Friday matinees (Yakuza film) 36–38: Friday midnight shows (J-horror) 40–42: Saturday midnight shows (Erotica) 45–47: Saturday & Sunday family matinees (Ghibli)
special events: January 5, 6 & 7: Nicolas Cage 60th birthday celebration (film #6, 31, 35, 39, 43 & 44) January 29: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 60th anniversary screening
past calendars: December 2023 Calendar
My Journey Through the History of Cinema – The 1980s Decade of Cinema Ranked
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Part of an ongoing project in which I rank my top 50 favourite films from each decade in the history of cinema.
The Best Japanese Movies of All Time – A Guide to Japanese Cinema
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Some of the best films Japanese cinema has to offer. In chronological order.
Number of films by decade:
1920s: 3 1930s: 12 1940s: 10 1950s: 33 1960s: 44 1970s: 25 1980s: 25 1990s: 28 2000s: 30 2010s: 21 2020s: 8
Why are there only so few early films on this list? Over 90% of Japanese films made before World War II don't exist anymore. There are several reasons for this: The destruction of film archives due to the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923 and the U.S. firebombing attacks during WWII. Furthermore the destruction of anti-ideological films by the Japanese military government during WWII and the destruction of overly propagandistic films by the U.S. authorities during the occupation of Japan. Also many classics were destroyed simply because of neglect and poor film preservation. The 1950s are considered the "Golden Age of Japanese Cinema" by many film scholars and in the 1960s the number of films produced in Japan reached its peak. That's why there are so many classics in these two decades. In the 1970s film production declined due to the competition of television. The 1980s are often described by film critics as the "Lost Decade of Japanese Cinema" because of the relatively low amount of great films. While this might be somewhat true for live-action films, the 80's were actually a great decade for Japanese animation. In the 1990s film production started increasing again.
Directors with the most entries on this list: 1. Akira Kurosawa (15 films) 2. Yasujirô Ozu (14 films) 3. Hayao Miyazaki (12 films) 4. Kenji Mizoguchi (10 films) 5. Mikio Naruse (9 films) 6. Kore-eda Hirokazu (8 films) 7. Shôhei Imamura (7 films) 8. Takeshi Kitano (6 films) 9. Masaki Kobayashi (6 films) 10. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (6 films) 11. Satoshi Kon (5 films)
Best director of each decade: 1920s: Teinosuke Kinugasa 1930s: Kenji Mizoguchi 1940s: Yasujirô Ozu 1950s: Akira Kurosawa 1960s: Masaki Kobayashi 1970s: Shûji Terayama 1980s: Hayao Miyazaki 1990s: Takeshi Kitano 2000s: Satoshi Kon 2010s: Kore-eda Hirokazu 2020s: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (so far)
small glossary:
anime [アニメ] – Japanese animation
chambara/chanbara [チャンバラ] – samurai film (named after "chanchan barabara", the Japanese onomatopoeia of swords clashing and bodies falling to the ground, chambara are very action-oriented with lots of swordfighting, less action-oriented films about samurais generally fall under jidaigeki)
eiga [映画] – film; movie
jidaigeki [時代劇] – Japanese historical drama
kaidan [怪談] – ghost stories set in the Edo period
kaijū eiga [怪獣映画] – giant monster film
nūberu bāgu [ヌーベルバーグ] – Japanese New Wave
pinku eiga [ピンク映画] – pink film (a type of Japanese erotic film)
pinkī baiorensu [ピンキー・バイオレンス] – pinky violence (a subgenre of pink film about female delinquents, less sex & more action-oriented)
seishun eiga [青春映画] - youth film
shōshimin-eiga [小市民 映画] – Japanese dramas that focus on working class people & lower middle class families with slice of life elements, also known in the West as shomin-geki (literally "common people drama")
yakuza eiga [ヤクザ映画] – Japanese gangster film
Number of films by decade:
1920s: 3 1930s: 12 1940s: 10 1950s: 33 1960s: 44 1970s: 25 1980s: 25 1990s: 28 2000s: 30 2010s: 21 2020s: 8
Why are there only so few early films on this list? Over 90% of Japanese films made before World War II don't exist anymore. There are several reasons for this: The destruction of film archives due to the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923 and the U.S. firebombing attacks during WWII. Furthermore the destruction of anti-ideological films by the Japanese military government during WWII and the destruction of overly propagandistic films by the U.S. authorities during the occupation of Japan. Also many classics were destroyed simply because of neglect and poor film preservation. The 1950s are considered the "Golden Age of Japanese Cinema" by many film scholars and in the 1960s the number of films produced in Japan reached its peak. That's why there are so many classics in these two decades. In the 1970s film production declined due to the competition of television. The 1980s are often described by film critics as the "Lost Decade of Japanese Cinema" because of the relatively low amount of great films. While this might be somewhat true for live-action films, the 80's were actually a great decade for Japanese animation. In the 1990s film production started increasing again.
Directors with the most entries on this list: 1. Akira Kurosawa (15 films) 2. Yasujirô Ozu (14 films) 3. Hayao Miyazaki (12 films) 4. Kenji Mizoguchi (10 films) 5. Mikio Naruse (9 films) 6. Kore-eda Hirokazu (8 films) 7. Shôhei Imamura (7 films) 8. Takeshi Kitano (6 films) 9. Masaki Kobayashi (6 films) 10. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (6 films) 11. Satoshi Kon (5 films)
Best director of each decade: 1920s: Teinosuke Kinugasa 1930s: Kenji Mizoguchi 1940s: Yasujirô Ozu 1950s: Akira Kurosawa 1960s: Masaki Kobayashi 1970s: Shûji Terayama 1980s: Hayao Miyazaki 1990s: Takeshi Kitano 2000s: Satoshi Kon 2010s: Kore-eda Hirokazu 2020s: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (so far)
small glossary:
anime [アニメ] – Japanese animation
chambara/chanbara [チャンバラ] – samurai film (named after "chanchan barabara", the Japanese onomatopoeia of swords clashing and bodies falling to the ground, chambara are very action-oriented with lots of swordfighting, less action-oriented films about samurais generally fall under jidaigeki)
eiga [映画] – film; movie
jidaigeki [時代劇] – Japanese historical drama
kaidan [怪談] – ghost stories set in the Edo period
kaijū eiga [怪獣映画] – giant monster film
nūberu bāgu [ヌーベルバーグ] – Japanese New Wave
pinku eiga [ピンク映画] – pink film (a type of Japanese erotic film)
pinkī baiorensu [ピンキー・バイオレンス] – pinky violence (a subgenre of pink film about female delinquents, less sex & more action-oriented)
seishun eiga [青春映画] - youth film
shōshimin-eiga [小市民 映画] – Japanese dramas that focus on working class people & lower middle class families with slice of life elements, also known in the West as shomin-geki (literally "common people drama")
yakuza eiga [ヤクザ映画] – Japanese gangster film
December 2023 Calendar
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This list is just meant as a fun exercise. I recently talked with a friend about the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles and how great its repertory film programming is. He then asked me what kind of films I would choose if I were the curator or head programmer of a repertory cinema which gave me the idea for this list.
The month December is all about snowy winter movies and of course Christmas movies, lots of Christmas movies. Compiling this list was more challenging than I expected. Finding fifty movies of good quality that fit a monthly theme definitely requires a certain level of film-historical knowledge. Since this is my first try, I'm not sure if my list turned out well. But if you walk away from this list with one or two movie recommendations of what to watch during the month of December then this list will have served its purpose.
1–30: evening shows 31–35: Friday matinees 36–40: Friday midnight shows 41–45: Saturday midnight shows 46–50: Saturday & Sunday family matinees
special events: December 8: A Very Kubrick Christmas (9, 32 & 37) December 22: A Very Tim Burton Christmas (19, 20 & 34) December 25: triple cartoon special on Christmas Day (51, 52 & 53)
The month December is all about snowy winter movies and of course Christmas movies, lots of Christmas movies. Compiling this list was more challenging than I expected. Finding fifty movies of good quality that fit a monthly theme definitely requires a certain level of film-historical knowledge. Since this is my first try, I'm not sure if my list turned out well. But if you walk away from this list with one or two movie recommendations of what to watch during the month of December then this list will have served its purpose.
1–30: evening shows 31–35: Friday matinees 36–40: Friday midnight shows 41–45: Saturday midnight shows 46–50: Saturday & Sunday family matinees
special events: December 8: A Very Kubrick Christmas (9, 32 & 37) December 22: A Very Tim Burton Christmas (19, 20 & 34) December 25: triple cartoon special on Christmas Day (51, 52 & 53)
100 Essential Film Noir for Noirvember
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The main focus of this list is the "Golden Age of American Film Noir" which lasted from 1940 to 1959. But I also added noir films outside of the golden era because I like to mix things up during Noirvember and because I want to show the various styles of noir which developed out of classic film noir. Some of the noir styles you will find on this list are:
French proto-noir: Pépé le Moko (1937), Port of Shadows (1938), La Bête Humaine (1938), Daybreak (1939)
French noir: Panic (1946), Jenny Lamour (1947), Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954), Rififi (1955), Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
hitman noir: This Gun for Hire (1942), Le Samouraï (1967)
horror noir: The Seventh Victim (1943), Dementia (1955), Angel Heart (1987)
New Hollywood noir: The Long Goodbye (1973), Chinatown (1974), Night Moves (1975)
neo-noir: Body Heat (1981), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
neon-noir: Thief (1981), Drive (2011)
noir on steroids: Sin City (2005)
noir parodies: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) & Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Nordic noir: Insomnia (1997)
retro-futuristic noir: Alphaville (1965), Blade Runner (1982), Dark City (1998)
slacker noir: The Big Lebowski (1998), Inherent Vice (2014), Under the Silver Lake (2018)
surreal noir fever dream: Branded to Kill (1967), Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997)
Technicolor noir: Niagara (1953), Vertigo (1958)
French proto-noir: Pépé le Moko (1937), Port of Shadows (1938), La Bête Humaine (1938), Daybreak (1939)
French noir: Panic (1946), Jenny Lamour (1947), Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954), Rififi (1955), Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
hitman noir: This Gun for Hire (1942), Le Samouraï (1967)
horror noir: The Seventh Victim (1943), Dementia (1955), Angel Heart (1987)
New Hollywood noir: The Long Goodbye (1973), Chinatown (1974), Night Moves (1975)
neo-noir: Body Heat (1981), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
neon-noir: Thief (1981), Drive (2011)
noir on steroids: Sin City (2005)
noir parodies: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) & Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Nordic noir: Insomnia (1997)
retro-futuristic noir: Alphaville (1965), Blade Runner (1982), Dark City (1998)
slacker noir: The Big Lebowski (1998), Inherent Vice (2014), Under the Silver Lake (2018)
surreal noir fever dream: Branded to Kill (1967), Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997)
Technicolor noir: Niagara (1953), Vertigo (1958)
My 250 Favorite Movies of All Time
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My Year 2023 in Film
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260 films watched in total: 172 first time watches + 88 rewatches (so 34% were rewatches, I love rewatching my favorite films)
1–10: Top 10 new releases (released in 2023/late 2022) 11–20: Top 10 first time watches (released before 2022/2023) 21–30: Top 10 rewatches
most watched directors:
Buster Keaton (7 films) Howard Hawks (4 films) Akira Kurosawa (4 films) Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (4 films) Billy Wilder (4 films) Michael Curtiz (3 films) Willi Forst (3 films) Alfred Hitchcock (3 films) Helmut Käutner (3 films) Yasujirô Ozu (3 films) Christian Petzold (3 films) Chad Stahelski (3 films)
number of films watched by decade:
1890s: 1 1900s: 2 1910s: 4 1920s: 18 1930s: 22 1940s: 28 1950s: 47 1960s: 9 1970s: 13 1980s: 36 1990s: 17 2000s: 8 2010s: 17 2020s: 38
1–10: Top 10 new releases (released in 2023/late 2022) 11–20: Top 10 first time watches (released before 2022/2023) 21–30: Top 10 rewatches
most watched directors:
Buster Keaton (7 films) Howard Hawks (4 films) Akira Kurosawa (4 films) Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (4 films) Billy Wilder (4 films) Michael Curtiz (3 films) Willi Forst (3 films) Alfred Hitchcock (3 films) Helmut Käutner (3 films) Yasujirô Ozu (3 films) Christian Petzold (3 films) Chad Stahelski (3 films)
number of films watched by decade:
1890s: 1 1900s: 2 1910s: 4 1920s: 18 1930s: 22 1940s: 28 1950s: 47 1960s: 9 1970s: 13 1980s: 36 1990s: 17 2000s: 8 2010s: 17 2020s: 38
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