Ry Russo-Young’s Top Ten Films of All Time

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. We cap off the year with Ry Russo-Young, whose Sundance Film Festival selected and Gotham Award winner YOU WONT MISS ME finally receives a December 10th release followed by a nationwide roll out. Here are Ry’s Top 10 Films.

Close-Up – Abbas Kiarostami (1990)
“This film articulates the complex dialogue between art and life. Part documentary, part staged re-enactment with real subjects, it’s about the trial of a man who impersonates the filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf.”

The Conversation – Francis Ford Coppola (1974)
“The way sound is used, the paranoia and the incredible use of Gene Hackman’s grey raincoat.”

Days of Heaven – Terrence Malick (1978)
“I know a lot of people love this movie but that’s because it’s amazing! All the golden light and Linda Manz’s scratchy voice. Manz was also in Out of the Blue with Dennis Hopper which is cool in a different kind of way.”

F For Fake – Orson Welles (1973)
“An intricately layered movie with multiple narratives about the real art forger Elmyr de Hory, his biographer Clifford Irving who fabricated a book on Howard Hughes and Orson Wells himself as our unreliable narrator.”

In A Lonely Place – Nicholas Ray (1950)
“Hollywood Noir but with a more isolated, character based twist that tricks us to look and see in new challenging ways.”

Late August, Early September – Olivier Assayas (1998)
“Subtle and humanist. The delicate way we see these people navigate their lives, their work and the death of a friend. So much to admire in Assayas’ work.”

The Lives of Others – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (2006)
“An incredible movie about the Stasti, morality, empathy, survival- this flm is so good that trying to articulate anything about it feels foolish and insulting, just go see it!”

Los Angeles Plays Itself – Thom Andersen (2003)
“This movie is hard to find due to rights issues because it includes clips from so many other films in order to talk about the mythology of Los Angles as seen in the movies. It’s a documentary definitely worth hunting down.”

My Best Fiend – Werner Herzog (1999)
“A documentary about the complicated relationship between two characters (Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski) that are so out there you think they could be fictional.”

Postcards From The Edge – Mike Nichols (1990)
“Carrie Fisher wrote this incredibly sharp and funny movie based on her novel of the same name. Directed by Mike Nichols and Starring Meryl Streep, it’s about Fisher’s Hollywood upbringing and her relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds.”