Version V December, 2022

This page: Films of Destiny 1960 - 2020 (Tap on “New Page” or “=” to reach earlier films, as well as misc films.)

I don't claim that the films presented on this web site are the best or the most influential. I do claim that you will find these films engaging. These films have begun to reveal the complex intelligence of their directors, writers, editors & actors. By accident or design, these films point toward the human dimensions of being…

— Austin Gallaher

1. La Jetee (French,1962) This 28 minute “film” is really a sequence of black & white images used to creative a poetic narrative about time travel. It is a love story unfolding within a dark science fiction story about what is left of Paris, after a nuclear war. The world, as we know it, is only a memory. Evil scientists are manipulating memories to send people into the future in the hope of the restarting civilization. Their gruesome experiments kill one subject after another; then, unexpectedly, one man survives the first round of experiments…

This film, made by Chris Marker, is unique —it is the most beautiful visual poem ever made. (Rarely seen outside film classes. )

2. Persona (1966) Two women are thrown together in a house near the seashore. One (Liv Ullmann) is an actress who has stopped speaking and the other is a psychiatric nurse (Bibi Andersson) who talks incessantly to fill the uncomfortable silences. It is a film in which silence speaks… This was one of Bergman’s favorite films. "Today I feel that in Persona—I had gone as far as I could go. And … when working in total freedom, I touched wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover."

3. Heavenly Creatures (1994) Peter Jackson’s first serious film. (This is also Kate Winslet’s first film.) This film approaches the events of the most famous murder in New Zealand’s history from an astonishing angle.  It recounts the events of the Parker-Hulme murder (1954). Two teenage girls, desperate to remain together, resort to matricide. The voice-over narration in this movie is literally taken from the diaries kept by Pauline Reaper.

Since the girls were too young to be executed, they were sentenced to prison for several years and then released with new identities. (They were prohibited from having any contact with each other) No one knew what had happened to them until the identity of the girl played by Kate Winslet was accidentally discovered by a reporter who was looking into the story behind the movie. Juliet Hulme had grown up to become a well-known Scottish murder mystery author (Anne Perry). She was on a book signing tour in the U.S when the movie was released!

This movie is Peter Jackson’s most brilliant and compelling work. It is one of the first films to deploy computer animation, which was used to illustrate the girls’ private fantasy world.

4. Holy Smoke (1999) Starring Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel, this film by Jane Campion, is a flaming attack on male vanity and a dark satire of conventional middle class life in Australia. Winslet (in her first movie after Titanic) plays a young woman who goes to India to explore the spiritual side of life. She finds an appealing guru and decides to stay in India to become his disciple. Her parents become alarmed and hire an expert cult de-programmer from the U.S. (played by Harvey Keitel). Kate Winslet is tricked into returning home in the belief that her father is dying. Instead she finds Harvey Keitel waiting to deprogram her. She reluctantly agrees to spend three days with him and a battle of wills begins between Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel that degenerates into all-out psychological warfare. Jane Campion surrounds their intense battle with some of the most poetic visual imagery in film. Kate Winslet & Harvey Keitel give stunning performances. Last but not least, Campion’s choice of music powerfully reinforces the emotional energy of the movie.

5. Bright Star (2009) Bright Star is a movie about the brief relationship (1818-1819) between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. After seeing this film Quentin Tarantino sent Jane Campion a handwritten note in red ink telling her that Bright Star is the best love story ever put on film.

Many moviegoers went to see this film expecting a classic Hollywood romance filled with sweeping emotions and cathartic tears. But that is not the film Jane Campion made. Instead Campion made a film that could be described as the poetic imagination of John Keats meets the steely common sense of Jane Austen. John Keats had no money and no prospects; he could not marry Fanny Brawne. There could not be a happy ending. This is a film about the genius of a great poet and the uncompromising bravery of a young woman. This is a film about impossibilities.

In 1819 Keats went to Italy in the hope that he could recover from his tuberculosis; unfortunately he died in Rome at the age of 25. Fanny Brawne saved the love letters Keats wrote to her in the last year of his life; they were published after her death in 1865. Although Keats was an unknown poet when he wrote his love letters to Fanny Brawne, when the letters were published 40 years (after his death) he was regarded as one of the greatest English writers. The literary public (1870s) was bewildered by the fact that Keats had written such beautiful, passionate letters to an unknown girl who lived next door. After Fanny died, her children waited until their father passed away before publishing Keats' letters to their mother. (Below is an excerpt from one of his letters to Fanny Brawne—written 200 years ago!)

I could die for you. My Creed is Love and you are its only tenet — You have ravish’d me away by a Power I cannot resist; and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavoured often “to reason against the reasons of my Love.” I can do that no more — the pain would be too great — My Love is selfish. I cannot breathe without you.

6. Let Me In (2010) The American remake of the original Swedish movie “Let The Right One In”. Both movies are based on the novel by Swedish writer John Lindqvist. Let Me In is very similar to the Swedish original; however the performance of Chloe Moretz sets this movie apart. Moretz, who was only 13 when she appeared in this film, gives a stunning performance as Abby, the child who has been 12 years old for a very long time. Stephen King called this movie “The best American horror film in the last twenty years.” One could also call it one of the best love stories of the last twenty years. 

7. Ginger & Rosa (2010) This film has the hallmarks of greatness: outstanding writing and direction (Sally Potter) as well as remarkable acting by the entire ensemble of actors. This coming-of-age story takes place in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. Ginger is growing intensely fearful that there will be a nuclear war….when she discovers that Rosa, her lifelong best friend, is sleeping with her father! The climax of this movie draws on a chain reaction of powerful performances by a remarkable ensemble of actors.

This film is lifted into the category of a classic by the performance of Elle Fanning (who was only 13). Sally Potter’s casting director had auditioned over 100 actors in England, when she finally contacted a casting agent in LA who suggested Elle Fanning. Potter was familiar with Dakota Fanning’s work but knew nothing about Elle Fanning (Dakota’s younger sister). However, she was blown away by Elle Fanning’s audition — she simply rewrote the screenplay to delete any references to Ginger’s age (closer to 17). Although Elle Fanning had appeared in a multitude of films starting at the age of five, this is the film that established her reputation as a remarkable young actor.

Films before 1960 can be found on Page 2…tap on “New Page” or “=”

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