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CLASSICS VIDEO: TOP 10 OF 1999

Editor, Simon Leake

This has been a year to rediscover lost masterpieces, revisit old favorites, and celebrate brilliant careers. It was the centenary of Alfred Hitchcock's birth, and whether you prefer his '50s classics or his dazzlingly inventive early films there's no doubt that he still deserves his place in the Pantheon. A beautiful silent film of the story of Joan of Arc put more bombastic modern versions to shame, the "Yellow Submarine" sailed again, and the rerelease of "Peeping Tom" made me hope that, somewhere, Michael Powell and Alfred Hitchcock are sharing a bottle of wine and a sick joke or two. As both Frank Sinatra and William Shatner have sung, it was a very good year.

1. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928)(VHS; not rated, English subtitles)
starring Renee Falconetti; directed by Carl Dreyer
A breathtaking piece of cinema history--long believed lost--returned to video in 1999. Dreyer's film, based on the transcripts of Joan's trial, boasts one of cinema's greatest performances and direction that looks as fresh and daring now as it did more than 70 years ago. Renee Falconetti acts the part of the doomed Joan with an almost unbearable intensity, and Dreyer focuses his camera again and again on the play of emotions across her wonderfully expressive face. Together, actress and director created perhaps the most moving version of Joan's story ever told. Read more

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2. "Peeping Tom" (1960) (VHS; widescreen; not rated)
starring Carl Boehm; directed by Michael Powell
Michael Powell's twisted masterpiece gives a certain well-known Hitchcock movie a run for its money with a blend of voyeurism and murder. Carl Boehm plays a young man so damaged by childhood abuse that he's compelled to murder women and film their final moments. From this lurid premise Powell crafted a movie that shocked (and still shocks) audiences. Not only is "Peeping Tom" a fascinating and creepy glimpse into the mind of a madman, it's a disturbing meditation on the voyeuristic nature of cinema itself. Read more

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3. "The Third Man" (50th Anniversary Edition) (1949) (VHS; not rated)
starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles; directed by Carol Reed
Sometimes--but very rarely--every aspect of the process of moviemaking comes together perfectly. Script, direction, cinematography, acting, and music work in unison, and the result truly deserves to be called a masterpiece. Carol Reed's "The Third Man" is such a film. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an alcoholic pulp writer who goes to postwar Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). What he finds in the shattered city is not what he expects. Superb performances and a gripping, intelligent script make this a cinematic landmark. Read more

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4. "Yellow Submarine" (1968) (VHS; rated G)
directed by George Dunning
This quintessential slice of animated '60s psychedelia returned this year, better than ever. When the dreaded Blue Meanies turn the people of Pepperland to stone, Sergeant Pepper and the Fab Four set off on a musical journey to save the day. You'd be right to assume that a plot like that could only be inspired by something a lot stronger than a nice cup of tea, but even without chemical assistance the remarkable animation and (of course) memorable tunes are lots of fun. Thirty years after it was made, "Yellow Submarine" is still a hugely entertaining movie. Read more

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5. "The Apartment" (1960) (VHS; widescreen; not rated)
starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine; directed by Billy Wilder
Few actors have explored the more neurotic corners of the fragile male ego as successfully as Jack Lemmon, and he's at his best when he's working with the patron saint of movie cynicism, Billy Wilder. In "The Apartment," Lemmon plays a clerk who loans his apartment to his adulterous superiors, significantly improving his chances of promotion, but things get sticky when he falls for elevator operator MacLaine, who happens to be having an affair with executive Fred MacMurray. Wilder won three Oscars for "The Apartment," and it deserved every one of them. Read more

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6. "South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition" (1919) (VHS; not rated)
directed and photographed by Frank Hurley
A recent series of books and museum exhibitions has reawakened interest in the extraordinary story of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to Antarctica. Trapped in the ice, the explorers had to survive for almost two years until they were finally rescued, after an astonishing 800-mile voyage by Shackleton and a handful of men in a tiny boat. Frank Hurley was the expedition photographer, and in 1919 he released this film. When things began to go wrong, Hurley kept the camera running, and the result is a moving document of the human will to survive, and even to make light of the most desperate situation. What must it have felt like to film the ship that brought you to Antarctica as it was slowly crushed and dragged beneath the ice? Read more

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7. "Shock Corridor" (1963) (VHS; widescreen; not rated)
starring Peter Breck; directed by Samuel Fuller
Director Sam Fuller ducked beneath Hollywood radar to produce uncompromising, powerful cinema cunningly disguised as B pictures. Never hesitant to explore the darkened corners of contemporary life, Fuller depicts the chambers of an insane asylum as a microcosm of American society, telling the story of a cynical, ambitious journalist (Peter Breck) whose obsessive quest for a Pulitzer Prize leads him into the depths of madness. To investigate a murder, the reporter goes undercover in a mental hospital, having convinced a psychiatrist that he needs treatment. Once inside the asylum, he pieces together clues to the murder, but his own mind begins to deteriorate until he's trapped in a downward spiral leading to insanity. Read more

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8. "The Birds" (1963) (VHS; rated PG-13)
starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor; directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock spent almost three years in preproduction for "The Birds," and the result of this meticulous work was a film that transformed a Daphne du Maurier short story into a chilling and complex study of the breakdown of society. Tippi Hedren plays a young woman who arrives in a small California town only to find herself fighting for survival when birds begin attacking humans. Rich with metaphors and genuinely scary, "The Birds" is the master at his best. Read more

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9. "The Ipcress File" (1965) (VHS; widescreen; not rated)
starring Michael Caine; directed by Sidney J. Furie
In the spy-crazed film world of the 1960s, Len Deighton's antihero Harry Palmer burst onto the scene as an antidote to the James Bond films. Here was a British spy who had a working-class accent and horn-rimmed glasses and above all really didn't want to be a spy in the first place. The pre-"Alfie" Caine is superb--in only his second major film role--as the reluctant agent, and the brainwashing sequence is genuinely scary. This is a gritty, gripping '60s gem, and there's not a vodka martini in sight. Read more

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10. "Goldfinger" (1964) (VHS; rated PG)
starring Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, and Gert Frobe; directed by Guy Hamilton
People can argue all they want about Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, and even Lazenby (perhaps the most authentic Bond of all), but there's really only one 007: Sean Connery. "Goldfinger" was the third Bond adventure, and all the ingredients were in place. Gert Frobe is the dastardly villain who loves only gold, Honor Blackman is quite a handful as Pussy Galore, and Desmond Llewelyn pops up as Q for the very first time. At the center of it all is Bond himself, unflappable as ever, cracking wise and saving the world. Read more

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