Cries and Whispers: "Seen through the medium of fever"

Before I get too carried away, I should note the honest truth is that Martin Scorsese is enough of a genius and filmmaking witch that he can basically do anything he wants and the world should just be thankful the guy is still working. That said, his film-preservation crusade keeps bleeding over to this parallel PR universe that can only be described as... icky.

Scorsese and electronics manufacturer Philips have teamed off-and-on since 2001 to promote the virtues of widescreen TV's--far from an ignoble cause, especially considering Scorsese probably wanted to do anything he possibly could to get his mind off his last decade of crappy films. And, you know, watching a classic on a widescreen TV gets back to protecting the integrity of the image, so on, so forth. Seems reasonable enough.

But now Philips is milking Scorsese the Aesthete for the sake of its Ambilight TV, which really moves beyond advanced technology into the more infernal realm of electronic gimmickry. Scorsese has selected 20 films--10 English-language, 10 foreign-language--that he thinks make the best use of color and light. In other words, The Last Emperor and Duel in the Sun will look sooooo much better with that soft background light enveloping the edges of your television. And you will jump higher and your waist will be slimmer and you will get more girls than you can handle.

Click below for the complete lists...

English Language Films

1. Barry Lyndon (1975, Dir. Stanley Kubrick; Cin. John Alcott)

2. Duel in the Sun (1946, Dir. King Vidor; Cin. Lee Garmes, Ray Rennahan, Hal Rosson)

3. Invaders From Mars (1953, Dir. William Cameron Menzies; Cin. John F. Seitz)

4. Leave Her to Heaven (1946, Dir. John M. Stahl; Cin. Leon Shamroy)

5. Moby Dick (1956, Dir. John Huston; Cin. Oswald Morris)

6. Phantom of the Opera (1943, Dir. Arthur Lubin; Cin. W. Howard Greene, Hal Mohr)

7. The Red Shoes (1948, Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; Cin. Jack Cardiff)

8. The Searchers (1956, Dir. John Ford; Cin. Winton C. Hoch)

9. Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Dir. Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly; Cin. Harold Rosson)

10. Vertigo (1958, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock; Cin. Robert Burks)

International Films

1. Contempt (1963, Dir. Jean-Luc Godard; Cin. Raoul Coutard; France/Italy)

2. Cries and Whispers (1972, Dir. Ingmar Bergman; Cin. Sven Nykvist; Sweden)

3. Gate of Hell (1953, Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa; Cin. Kohei Sugiyama; Japan)

4. In the Mood For Love (2000, Dir. Wong Kar-Wai; Cin. Christopher Doyle, Mark Lee Ping-bin; Hong Kong)

5. The Last Emperor (1987, Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci; Cin. Vittorio Storaro; Italy/United Kingdom/China/Hong Kong)

6. Red Desert (1964, Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni; Cin. Carlo Di Palma; France/Italy)

7. The River (1951, Dir. Jean Renoir; Cin. Claude Renoir; India/France/United States)

8. Satyricon (1969, Dir. Federico Fellini; Cin. Giuseppe Rotunno; Italy/France)

9. Senso (1954, Dir. Luchino Visconti; Cin. G.R. Aldo, Robert Krasker, Giuseppe Rotunno; Italy)

10. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964, Dir. Sergei Paradjanov; Cin. Viktor Bestayev, Yuri Ilyenko; Russia/Ukraine)

The Last Emperor: Even Vittorio Storaro could not save Peter O'Toole

And even if Scorsese has forgotten about more movies than I'll ever see, I have to wonder about a few of these selections. The Last Emperor is not even Storaro's best Bertolucci collaboration (gotta go with The Conformist here) or best overall work (gotta go with Apocalypse Now). And where is The Wizard of Oz? Or Russell Metty's work on All The Heaven Allows? Or Nestor Almendros and Days of Heaven? Or anything by Gordon Willis? And why are there only two selections made post-1975?

Anyway, Scorsese had much more to say about all this earlier this year in an interview with Millimeter, and in much more potent, graphic detail for all you film wonks out there. Feel free to add to or take umbrage with Scorsese's picks (or The Reeler's, if you must) on the comments page.