The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

 75 years later, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre remains a stark example of the boundaries Hollywood was able to push in the golden age of cinema. Many people may think of old black-and-white movies from the 40s as lacking any teeth, of being reasonably chaste or easy-going films where the good guys win, and the bad guys get theirs.

But 1940s Hollywood, especially post-WWII Hollywood, was particularly cynical, and that was reflected in the films made in the wake of the great conflict. Eventually, optimism would win over in the 50s (before naturalism wormed its way into the movies of the late 60s and 70s), but out of that cynicism, we got the terrific The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Humphrey Bogart stars as Fred C. Dobbs, an American wandering through Mexico in the 1920s, begging other Americans for spare change to get by. He's tipped off at the potential of gold in the nearby mountains and sets out with two other estranged Americans, Curtin (Tim Holt) and Howard (Walter Huston), to go prospecting. Along the way they encounter bandits, other enterprising Americans with a nose for gold, and of course the envy and suspicion that builds when the treasure is finally found.

Directed by John Huston (The African Queen, Key Largo), the film contains a remarkable amount of plot packed into a tight two-hour running time. There's a certain economy to the storytelling that is remarkable, and you get a good sense of who everyone is pretty quickly. It's also a film that doesn't pull any punches; Bogart is wonderful as Dobbs, a man who is friendly enough but demonstrates a deep mistrust of everyone, and as their gold stock slowly grows he gets more and more greedy, hoarding his share and suspecting his companions of ill intent. It's a standout performance by Bogart that proves he really was one of Hollywood's greatest stars.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of those films that truly is timeless. The story of man's greed and hunger for more never ages, and the performances and filmmaking are some of the finest of the decade. It's remarkable Warner Bros took a chance on such a dark film with few redeeming characters. I had seen the film many years ago and had forgotten just how great this was, but it really is one of the best Hollywood films of the 1940s.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

No recent review of Jeanne Dielman can begin without acknowledging the elephant in the room; we've all arrived here because of BFI's latest Sight & Sound poll, a once-in-a-decade exercise where esteemed film critics are invited to send in their personal top 10s, and the results are tabulated into a list of 100 films meant to represent the greatest of all time. In the past, The Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane, and Vertigo have all topped the list. In 2022, Jeanne Dielman stunned everyone by becoming crowned the new, eponymous "Greatest Movie of All Time."

As it happened, Jeanne Dielman was next on my queue of movies to watch, and I was well aware of its reputation. Jeanne Dielman is a long, boring movie. That's not a derogatory remark, simply a statement of fact that few would disagree with. It's a 201-minute exercise in presenting the minutiae and everyday mundanity of a housewife. Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig) goes about her day, cleaning, cooking, and occasionally prostituting herself to support her plain life with her son, who only appears briefly for dinner. Told over three days, director Chantal Akerman stages the film with long, unbroken takes as we watch Jeanne do menial tasks, like peeling potatoes, taking a bath, or watching a pot of coffee brew.

While the film is boring by definition, there's a certain hypnotic fascination that develops watching these routine tasks carried out. For a film as long as The Return of the King there's so little that actually happens, but that's the statement Akerman is making. Before smartphones and streaming services, a housewife had little to do in their daily life and was consigned to keeping the house while their husbands and offspring went out and explored the world.

The film's status as the greatest of all time in many ways will draw a lot of criticism from those that come to it blindly, not knowing what they are in for. It's a challenging film that I watched over a few days, as watching it all at once would probably feel like an interminable experience. But it's also a fairly audacious, bold piece of filmmaking. In the final two shots of the film, Jeanne finally does something unexpected and shocking, an action that normally wouldn't shock were it not for the proceeding three hours where it felt like almost nothing happened. When she drops a potato late in the film it's almost an upsetting moment, as it breaks the hypnotic flow of the routine.

We come to films for many different reasons, to be entertained and transported to other places. But we also look for reflections of ourselves or lives lived we could never imagine. I can't really recommend Jeanne Dielman because I know for most people it will be a struggle to sit through, but if you do choose to view it, be ready to surrender to the film's languid pace and structure. It's a film I probably won't find myself revisiting anytime soon, but I'm glad I experienced it at least once.