Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Excess and redemption combine in a way that is somehow both terrifying and ecstatic in Abel Ferrara’s infamous crime drama about a monstrously corrupt New York Police Department detective—Harvey Keitel’s unnamed perpetrator—who stumbles towards the self-destructive light.
Lola (1961)
No filmmaker from the French New Wave used the cinema’s grand past to subtly suggest an elegantly intimate future better than Jacques Demy did. From one gorgeous composition to the next, his wistful 1961 debut follows a cabaret dancer (Anouk Aimee) moving between a supporting cast of suitors.
Persona (1966)
Ingmar Bergman’s emotionally coruscating 1966 drama remains an intimate study of modern disenchantment, personal despair and our willingness to play the roles we need in our lives. Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson are mute patient and patient nurse, sharing a dynamic that allows for the transference of power and personality.
