DEFINITIVE COLLECTIONS

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In recent years, the importance of the Best Original Song Oscar has been slowly downplayed as the instrumental breaks of Hollywood's Golden Age disappeared, and the rules that govern who and what can be nominated become even more complicated. That's without going into the system by which songs are nominated: for example, critics are asked to watch a clip of a movie where the song is played without context, and that clip usually doesn't play over the end credits. This year, only two songs—from ...

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There was a time when great music documentaries were being made on a regular basis. The closest things we have to popular music documentaries today are 3D concert movies starring barely-pubescent pop stars and the cast of a musical dramedy series. This collection doesn't really count those recent (albeit successful) music-based movies. This collection pulls together the definitive list of can't-miss musical documentaries that any fan of film or music needs to see.

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A score can make or break a movie. A great composer can add something of real value to the film, play with your emotions, or take a scene in unexpected directions. A sub-par arrangement can trip a line or a scene onto its face. How many times have you seen an amateurish deployment of the "scare chord" derail a good shock in a horror flick or heard a composer totally miss the point of a good love story? Chances are it's a lot for both. If you're not the kind of 'Buff to look out for these things,...

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The hills are not alive with the Sound of Music, because that movie would be far too obvious. Also it's way long, and we like other ones better. We have a soft spot for musicals. Real musicals take you to a place where you might feel uncomfortable but end up loving and wanting to move there. It's beautiful. It's real. OK, not really. Remember how you want to move there? Come back! It makes you feel warm and fuzzy. But in the age of crazy Hollywood revamps of our favorite stage musicals,...

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You could easily argue it’s the genius of a composer that cues us to the mood and spirit of a film. Just look at the recent popularity and success of the Oscars. There were no words, yet people connected to the content. Visuals help, but the music cues the audience to the heightened emotions. What conveys a film's tone more clearly and quickly than the score? A strong motif announces adventure. A low, lurking bass immediately conveys a threat, while mournful violins have become a musical cl...

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As you probably know by now, it's Oscar season, and the internet is all aflutter over directors, actors, writers, and so on. But we want to highlight the work of the too often unsung cinematographers who create the look and the feel of our favorite movies, even when we don't know their names. These are the people whose mastery of composition and light can draw you into the world of the movie. Here are just five cinematographers whose work was so influential or simply so awesome you probably alre...

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When all is said and done, the person that gets the true glory of a great film is always the director. Ask any regular moviegoer, and they can easily name at least one or two directors whose work they love and admire. However, what many people don't consider is that behind every great director is a great editor. While a director physically pulls the story together by directing cameramen, actors and working with screenwriters, the editor takes the result of these collaborations and weaves it into...

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More often than not actors and directors are the ones that receive widespread public recognition for a film. Rarely does a producer garner much credit or popular appeal. Yet, without the producer a film wouldn’t be seen! The job of a producer is flexible, but mostly it means acquiring the necessary funds for a film. Here are Hollywood’s top producers, those who earn the big bucks and consistently produce not just box office successes, but also quality films. Give them some respect because th...

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As the holidays approach quickly, we at Filmbuff take a look back at some of our favorite Christmas parodies. These classic satires help define their genre, and keep us jolly as we see the same Christmas movie plots recycled year after year.

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Mainstream media places the holiday season up on a pedestal so high that there is almost no real cause for comparison. I mean, think about it. Do we really know an Ebenezer Scrooge that suddenly became Mahatma Gandhi over night? While these holiday classics make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, they're not too close to reality. That's why we decided to take a look at the darker side of the holiday season, movies that are slightly edgier in nature, but hit a little close to home. Here are a c...

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So many qualities about Jimmy Stewart make us think of the holidays: his old-fashioned charm, his heartfelt banter, his optimistic sincerity. These reasons all together, plus a little "je ne sais quoi" must have been why directors cast the star in so many winter holiday-themed theatrical releases. Who else, but the grinning Mr. Stewart, could jerk as many tears from viewers while galloping through the snowy streets, gleefully cooing: "Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merr...

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In real life as in movies, the holiday period is often used both as a commodity in itself and as a tool of consumerism. It's a time to give and/or receive the presents you bought for your loved ones, of course, but might it be about something else as well? The people behind these films certainly think so.

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The holidays can be great, but sometimes they really bum us out, man. Spending way too much time with family, the added holiday weight, the non-stop barrage of Christmas carols, it can all make a person feel super lonely. Fear not, 'Buffs, we have hand-selected a few films that will get you right back into the Christmas spirit. All these feature those who can’t seem to get into the spirit of the holidays, but then suddenly life doesn’t seem so grim. Hint, hint.

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In the last 20 years David Fincher has managed to redefine the thriller, reveal magic in a simple love story and uncover the humanness behind a very technical genius. A lush, modern storyteller who began his passion with an 8mm in Marin County, California, Fincher skipped the traditional film school route and began his career loading film into cameras. So how did he go from lackey to genius? By being a genius. His big break came through an ad he directed for the American Cancer Society; he act...

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Sometimes even a short career can be a definitive one. Jason Reitman may not boast a prolific body of work, but the films he has made bare a distinct thumbprint. From Thank You for Smoking to the upcoming Young Adult, Reitman's films have in common a very specific view of the world. And we're excited to watch him grow within his definitive filmmaking voice. Here are the best of his films so far.

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If you look up “badass” in the dictionary, no doubt you’ll see Clint Eastwood’s grimacing face right next to it. In fact, Clint Eastwood is so formidable he is starting to rival Chuck Norris in fearsomeness. At 81, this actor-turned director has been more prolific and praised in the last fifty years, both as an actor and a director, than most people in Hollywood. After rocketing to international acclaim as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy during the 1960s...

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Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has been making films since the early 1980s, but it is only in the last decade that he has been receiving international fame, specifically here in the US. Even though many of his films could be characterized as perverse (most feature sex prominently), Almodóvar has an excellent way of keeping you guessing all the way until the end. His pacing, his editing, his music all combine to create a perfect suspenseful tone. He never fails to take you on a wild roller co...

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Alfred Hitchcock, or as he is most commonly known The Master of Suspense, puts all other horror directors to shame because before they were even a glimmer in their parents’ eyes he was mastering the subtly of terrifying audiences. Born in London in 1899, Hitchcock started out making silent films in his native England before finally making the move over to Hollywood in 1939 to jump start his way into international fame and praise. His career spanned nearly five decades and various genres, both ...

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Who says horror can't be high class? Italian filmmaker Dario Argento expertly mixes slasher with style for distinctively unique brand of horror. An accomplished screenwriter and producer, Argento's best known to the horror community for his directing, particularly for his work in the giallo subgenre. Still working to this day, Argento's masterful technique still manages to mix genres and push the line of horror fantasy. Intrigued yet? Get ready to get to know Argento.

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Who knew that this aspiring young New York City-born commercial artist would become the renowned Zen-master of the Zombies? It was 1968 when Night of the Living Dead was released and ever since then George A. Romero took the world by storm with his army of flesh eating zombies. This film was a possible precursor to the flash mobs of today and with endless social commentary on the symbolic meaning of these “Dead” films—from Cold War paranoia to consumerism. George A. Romero trail...

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Honestly, it’s the voice. It’s probably nothing you didn't know about Vincent Price, but it’s the voice. This American actor who was born in 1911 and passed away 81 years later, has a sound that’s distinctively spooky. Starring in over 80 films, usually of the horror variety, as well as numerous TV shows, commercials, and voice-overs (Michael Jackson's Thriller, for example), Vincent Price's performances hold up as consistently solid acting, unmasked by special effects, and his so...

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Mexico’s fame and notoriety, in this country, vary between illegal statuses and soccer excellence. Rarely is the country mentioned in the same breath as profound cinema. We at FilmBuff recognized this disgrace, and recorded the following list to alleviate any potential preconceived notions of the U.S. masses. With filmmakers like Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo Del Toro, it is apparent that Mexico hosts no dearth of talent. Our southern neighbors cultivated a signature breed of film, opening a ro...

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In 1895, the Lumière Brothers invented cinema in Lyon, France and for the next 116 years and counting, the birthplace of film has innovated the medium, technically and artistically. France’s capital, the City of Lights, is said to have the highest density of movie theaters in the world, physical proof that the French culture prizes and delights in their films. Despite frequently living up to its charming stereotypes, French film has more to offer than berets, long cigarette breaks, moody lo...

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Consider us your "Tiger Mom," but instead of producing children who seem to display academic excellence we're producing Buffs' who display cinematic excellence! Hey, a country of 1.3 billion people can't all be wrong right? Listen up because here's your first lesson. The films and franchises of China are so hard to pin down due to the unfortunately named cultural revolution they went through. It kept the arts hidden and underrepresented until the 1980s when it got so massive it started to leak o...

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Before the Irish Film Board (IFB) was established, the island west of England was stunted, struggling to procure the assets necessary to promote and sustain a solvent film industry. However, when talent began to burgeon from the 'wee country (i.e. Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan), the IFB specifically conditioned the filmmakers to flourish with new approaches. Accordingly, we decided it was our imperative to share the singular and powerful work that transcends Guinness, Leprechauns and Lucky Charms...

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Is there anything the Italians can’t do? Pizza, pasta, coffee, philosophy and, of course, cinema. Italian cinema has been at the forefront of many cinematic movements, such as neorealism, the spaghetti western and cinecitta. The works of Italian filmmakers like Fellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Viconti, Rossellini and Leone are musts in film school because of their prodigious skill with filmic storytelling. Here are five Italian films that perfectly showcase this truth.

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Tapas, flamenco and Javier Bardem: these are just a few of the many great things to come out of Spain, not including their completely underrated cinema. Spanning decades, Spanish cinema has been around since the Lumiere brothers screened their films in Madrid and Barcelona in 1896. From the silent era to the advent of sound to the New Spanish cinema, Spain has been at the forefront of revolutionary filmmaking, consistently producing films that are truly unforgettable. Here are five classic Spani...

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Vodka, the KGB and Ivan Drago, what have you—Russian culture—done for us lately? Surely a true 'Buff can look beyond these superficial pleasures to uncover a treasure trove of cinematic goodness. Like much art born out of depression, oppression and basic unrest, Russia has been through two World Wars and a third one if you count the Cold one. Just couple that with the nation’s history of cracking down on its own artists and any cinephile would wonder who could flourish under these condit...

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The French New Wave hit us like a seductive punch in the late 50s and into the 1960s. To steal a line from The Nation of Ulysess, it was a deathly serious unserious attempt to revolutionize what film meant to a generation. It was more than big scores and production value; it became a symbol of vibrant and realistic cities where the camera could go anywhere on a whim. Let's get into your definitive primer for la nouvelle vague.

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The champion of film's neorealist movement was undoubtedly Andre Bazin, film critic and scholar who believed that cinema's truth, naturalness and authenticity were vital for the precision of art. Filmmakers who followed Bazin’s movement used previously unconventional techniques, such as using non-professional actors, minimal cutting, extensive amounts of shots on location and often scenes of the actors performing mundane task to create a more true-to-life film. This style of filmmaking was mon...

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Cinema verité is one of those film terms that people throw around a bunch because it sounds good and fancy. But verité isn't a stuffy school of thought or an elaborate style: it is all about capturing reality, real people going about their daily lives. Let's put it this way, cinema verité filmmakers were doing reality before Survivor and American Idol made it trendy. In the 1960's, filmmakers like the Maysles Brothers, D.A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock started to push back...

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Neurotic. New Yorker. Any idea who we might be talking about? This definitive collection is celebrating one of the most distinctive voices in film. That's right, we're talking about Woody Allen. We've got a couple other adjectives we can throw his way: hilarious, unique, philosophical, prolific, genius. With his latest movie Midnight in Paris scoring rave reviews and well on it's way to becoming Woody's best theatrical release ever (yes, ever), we figured it's the perfect time to share our defin...

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From “You talkin’ to me?” in Taxi Driver to “I’m a clown, I’m here to amuse you?” in Goodfellas to “A lot of people had to die for me to be me,” in The Departed , Martin Scorsese’s films always seem to produce the most iconic movie lines. Scorsese is what you would call a typical New Yorker, with most of his films focusing on his hometown and infusing that grimy toughness characteristic of the city that never sleeps. Born in 1942 in Queens, Sc...

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Foreign movies aren’t just movie snobs’ mainstay for looking down on their friends. Sometimes they’re fun, original, kooky, rich and quite enjoyable...you forget you’re even reading subtitles. While extrinsic and exotic, some foreign films are just unbearably difficult to get into. But when you see a foreign flick you love you can’t help but feel how the world is interrelated. You’re even reminded of why you love films so much in the first place. We asked our content team their ...

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Adaptations are a constant bench mark these days since studios want "safe" material. Twilight, The Hunger Games, comic books--all are about as safe as diamonds from a dentist. But some were done right and these are the adaptations that went to reel that we can get behind.

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Christopher Nolan is an artist. He knows how to make a film not only good enough for casual movie watchers, but good enough to challenge even the most learned cinema scholar. Many non-'Buffs just know him from the "Batman" franchise, but Nolan has been creating really compelling work for years now. Memento put him on the map well before he even had Batman on his radar. Taking very simple plots (usually), he creates films that are completely fantastical and mind-bending. Many of Nolan's films em...

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Ingmar Bergman is wildly underrated. Not by other directors or critics--they call him the best director ever--but underrated mostly by audiences. We think people are afraid to see his movies because they don't want to be uncomfortably confused by the existence of life. His movies reach deep into your soul and squeeze it until you feel something. He just wanted to bring you something new and make you feel. With over sixty films in his lifetime, we picked out five of our favorites. They made us fe...

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Dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute, Fritz Lang left an indelible mark on the early film movement, "German Expressionism." The Austrian-born filmmaker worked in Germany for many years before fleeing to America during the early stages of the Nazi regime. Having been credited with establishing the basic tenants of film noir, Lang's legacy still marks many movies years after his death.

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Ahhh Federico Fellini. King of Italian cinema. We constantly miss him, and we mean constantly--sometimes we find our interns cowering in a corner crying his name. He reinvented cinema--with colors, with emotion, with film angles you never thought possible. Bringing together fantasy with baroque imagery, his work continues to influence hordes of filmmakers. And even if we don't understand half of the stories he shared, we like watching it unfold. Here's to you Fellini!

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To say that Jean-Luc Godard is a filmmaker is an understatement. The man is an artist and innovator. His films revolutionized cinema in the 1960s, challenging the mainstream conventions imposed by traditional Hollywood cinema by breaking the 180-degree rule, using jump cuts and employing long tracking shots. Having begun his career as a film critic, Godard was one of the first writers for influential French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema. Slowly he began to experiment with directing with early ...

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Akira Kurosawa is one of the few directorial lynchpins that any FilmBuff worth their celluloid needs to view (he's seriously that important). His work is a complex paradox of lush set pieces and he is capable of translating Shakespearian themes to the bombed out streets of 1950s Tokyo or further back to the wandering ronin of the Edo period. Here are 5 Kurosawa flicks to help you on your journey to becoming a better 'Buff...

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A seminal Japanese director of the 60s and a leader of the “pink film” movement, Koji Wakamatsu has developed over the years from a stylistic maker of “pinku eiga” (Japanese soft-core pornographic theatrical films) into a politically challenging filmmaker. His films can be difficult, but if you can take the leap, they can be worth the faith. Here are 5 of his standout films for your perusal.

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No love, no chivalry, no romance left. Sigh. What’s a romantic heart to do? Wat ch movies, that’s what. Instead of worrying whether romance still exists in this cynical world, just live vicariously through these films. Here are 5 titles that define the modern “Rom-Com.” Don’t start crying.