The Wind is a masterful Western melodrama- via Sweden. Lillian Gish plays Letty- the protagonist. Gish also used her considerable clout getting the production made and picked Swedish auteur Victor Sjöström as director. The film also stars Swedish actor Lars Hanson as Lige. Sjöström brilliantly incorporates the vastness of nature (a phrase in the title text here) into his previous works like A Man There Was (1917) and The Outlaw and His Wife (1918) so he is a perfect fit here for the material. Shot in the Mojave Desert- aircraft propellers were used for the wind effect Letty moves

Brian De Palma refashions Howard Hawks’ 1932 film for the back half of the twentieth century. Instead of Prohibition, bootleggers, Italians, Chicago and the Tommy Gun—this is Castro exiles, cocaine, Cubans and Miami. “Prohibition” is in the text- tax evasion and even Capone. The cast and crew surrounding De Palma matches his brazen style and undeniable talent. The film is written by Oliver Stone, scored by Giorgio Moroder (these two back from winning Oscars in 1978 working with Alan Parker on Midnight Express), and acted by Al Pacino. The film is directed, written, scored and acted to the extreme-

Don’t Look Up is Adam McKay’s political disaster satire. This is his Roland Emmerich movie or maybe better yet his Dr.  Strangelove. Mars Attacks! (1996) from Tim Burton is a fitting companion as well. Burton’s film is an homage to 1950s science fiction films, is a sort of disaster film, and had a fantastic ensemble cast like McKay’s work. McKay is indeed an auteur. His films always open with a wild quote. This one is from Jack Handey- “I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers”- hilarious. McKay’s films largely

Antichrist is the first leg of Lars von Trier’s The Depression trilogy which would later include Melancholia (2011) and Nymphomaniac (2013). The film is broken up into four chapters- “Grief”, “Pain”, “Despair” and “The Three Beggars”. It also includes a prologue and an epilogue. The chapter markers (and von Trier always uses chapters to break up his work) display artwork from Per Kirkeby. Kirkeby often collaborates on von Trier’s films. Most famously, he did the art for the chapter titles in 1996’s Breaking the Waves as well. Per Kirkeby's titles- an important part of Antichrist The prologue

Ingmar Bergman spent much of his career making films about marriage- To Joy fights nicely into his oeuvre even if it is undeniably minor Bergman. This is already Bergman’s eighth (8th) film- and still before his international breakthrough. This “a story of marriage” told in a flashback. Victor Sjöström plays the conductor- perfect casting for the imposing authoritative figure. Surely, a conductor of an orchestra has much in common with a film director- which Sjöström was of course. This is notable for being a Sjöström acting performance in a Bergman film seven years before 1957’s Wild Strawberries. This film

1996’s Pusher marked the debut film for both auteur Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Mads Mikkelsen. 2009’s Valhalla Rising is their fourth (and second archiveable) collaboration together. Valhalla Rising is shot in a foreboding looking Scotland, Refn using digital (still fairly early on for a digital film this gorgeous) and breaking the film up into chapters (i.e. Part I: Wrath, Part II: The Silent Warrior, Part VI: The Sacrifice). the visuals certainly match the content- dread establishing shots and long shots- the setting is as important as any character in the film symmetry in

Stanley Kubrick’s final film is an enigmatic masterpiece. It was released after his death- but most agree that he was essentially finished working on the film before he passed. Eyes Wide Shut also marks Kubrick’s first film since 1987’s Full Metal Jacket- just a crazy long incubation period, endless preparation and high anticipation. It marks the third and final (perhaps because of this movie- this was famously a film that spend over a year in production) pairing of (at the time) real life husband and wife megastar couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The film opens with the

When one thinks of Steven Soderbergh’s acting collaborators over the years, undoubtedly George Clooney, Benicio Del Toro, Matt Damon and a few others come to mind and rightly so- but Channing Tatum is right there as well. Tatum worked with Soderbergh on Haywire (2011), Side Effects (2013) Logan Lucky (2017) and yes, Magic Mike (2012). Tatum was one of the producers and on this had a fairly low budget, this was one of the bigger box office surprises of the year. Shot and set in Tampa In a supporting role as “Dallas”, Magic Mike catches Matthew McConaughey in

There are films like I’m So Excited! (2013- Pedro Almodóvar’s subsequent effort) or 2019’s Pain and Glory where the thriller genre or the name of Hitchcock is not mentioned in analysis of his films, but certainly 2011’s The Skin I live In is an instance where the great Spanish auteur leans heavily into genre, influence of the master of suspense, and more pointedly here, Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960). The Skin I Live In stars Antonio Banderas. Banderas made five archiveable films with Almodovar in the 1980s (their last collaboration was Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! in

Lincoln does contain some battle scenes (the two minutes of Civil War fighting during the opening are hardly Saving Private Ryan), and the film is about Abraham Lincoln of course, but Steven Spielberg’s main interest in the film is telling the story of the thirteenth amendment- more so than telling the story of war or of a traditional biopic about a great man. Lincoln does stand as one of the most intelligent films ever made about politics. Thirteen minutes into the film there is a heavenly frame—nineteenth century lamps, firelight- the door is perfectly ajar with Lincoln’s son