Making lists is an activity moviegoers are fond of. Every year, the same ritual: compilation of the ten best films, with comparative analyses, debates, heated discussions. But what about the ultimate list of the most outstanding films in the history of cinema? That is to say, those films that must be seen, those that have forever transformed the art of cinema, but also our way of seeing a culture, of understanding the world as well as our own lives? This program aims to tackle this challenge with nearly eighty films, produced between 1916 and 1960, while waiting for your lists!
At the piano : Roman Zavada
In a Ukrainian village, the collectivization of land creates tensions. The young and zealous secretary of the kolkhoz is shot by a kulak, leaving his fiancée in despair.
Oleksandr Dovzhenko
Oleksandr Dovzhenko was a Soviet Ukrainian filmmaker. His best-known films are Arsenal (1939) and Earth (1930), which, along with Zvenigora (1928), form his "Ukraine Trilogy." For this reason, some historians consider him one of the founders of Ukrainian cinema. Ukraine inspired many of his films. He began working in the film industry as a screenwriter in 1925 and as a director at the age of 32. In 1935, after completing Aerograd, Joseph Stalin suggested he create a film featuring Nikolai Shchors, a nearly forgotten military figure of the Russian Civil War. After submitting several script versions to the General Directorate of Cinema and the Politburo and receiving additional advice from Stalin, he made the film which became a great success. In 1941, he became a war correspondent and prepared Ukraine in Flames, a documentary he filmed two years later. This time, the film displeased Stalin. Dovjenko was then summoned to a Politburo meeting, where he was severely criticized for the revisionist content of his work. From that point on, he worked partly in disgrace. Dovjenko was a mentor to the young Ukrainian filmmakers Larisa Shepitko and Sergei Parajanov. In 1994, the Dovzhenko Centre - the Ukrainian film center - was founded in his honor.
