The Five Most Important Movies for Ari Folman

(video by BigShuP)

Ari Folman, the author of Vals Im Bashir, gives in Newsweek his top of five:

1. Amarcord (his mother used to say there were no superheroes except for Federico Fellini)
2. Come and See (the best antiwar movie ever done, with no comparison)
3. Stranger Than Paradise (after he saw it as a film student, he knew budget would never be an issue for him. Jim Jarmusch is the god of free spirit in filmmaking)
4. Montenegro (he just loves this Serbian film dearly)
5. Brazil (he loves everything Terry Gilliam represents as a filmmaker. And this film is Gilliam in every frame)
   

I'm glad Ari Folman praised Stranger Than Paradise so highly. It is difficult to explain why this film is so great. It is there the special dry humor of Jarmusch, his appetite to be as dry as he can, it's not only that. It is a free spirit there, you breathe the total liberty of a no-budget movie. You feel there a free world where anything can happen, you feel you could just jump inside and be a free man. It's hard to explain. And it's the same mix of dryness, sarcasm, kindness, liberty from some Czech movies made in the sixties.

But let's talk a bit about the very movie of Folman, his Vals Im Bashir: it's a great movie, it's honest, it's courageous, it's a great artistic formula. I am however persuaded by a movie that was not made, having the scene with the dogs as a leit motif: it is too forceful this scene with the dogs and it deserves a movie of its own.

(Filmofilia)