20 greatest documentaries - life - stylist magazine

7/7/2014 20 Greatest Documentaries - Life - Stylist Magazine

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20 GREATEST DOCUMENTARIESStylist's pick of non-fiction greats

Fact is stranger than fiction, and often so much more entertaining. With that in mind we've gathered

20* of the best documentaries from the worlds of music, sport, art, human interest, politics, history

and y es sorry - we couldn't resist - mockumentaries. Some subjects are too cool - think DA

Pennebakers portrait of Bob Dy lan in Dont Look Back - a rock documentary rebellious even in its

use of apostrophes, while others are fascinating in their fragility , like the fallen socialites Big Edie

and Little Edie liv ing in their crumbling mansion in Grey Gardens. We've included those who used

the powerful medium for good, like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Eroll Morris' Thin Blue

Line to the talented filmmakers like Leni Riefenstahl who used revolutionary techniques to promote

a lie. Next time y ou're in the mood for some real life but there's only TOWIE on the TV, consider

checking out some of the great works, listed in no particular order, below.

*There are thousands of documentaries and hundreds of great ones - Sty list has picked 20 we like,

but why not let us know the ones that make your top list in the comments section below, or on

Twitter.

Words: Anna Pollitt. Picture credits: Rex Features

1. Man On Wire

In 197 4 French tightrope walker Phillippe Petit, 24, committed "the artistic crime of the century "

when he defied New Y ork authorities and walked, danced and performed acrobatics, on a wire he

had illegally rigged from one World Trade Center to the other.

Directed by James Marsh, this 2008 Oscar-winning documentary uses archive footage,

contemporary interv iews and recreated scenes to tell the tale behind the artist, the stunt and how it

changed his life and the lives of those around him.

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2. Valentino: The Last Emperor

An evening dress that reveals a woman's ankles when she is walking is the most disgusting thing I

have ever seen.

Valentino Garavani, one of the fiercest perfectionists in high fashion, is the subject of a fascinating

2009 documentary by Vanity Fairs Matt Ty rnauer, who spent two y ears shooting more than 250

hours of the great Italian designer at work and at play and his unique 45-y ear partnership with

Giancarlo Giametti.

3. Dont Look Back

"Give the anarchist a cigarette".

Pioneering director DA Pennebakers single camera followed the poetic, enigmatic, Bob Dy lans

every move on his 1965 three-week concert tour of England, as the 23-y ear-old star was teetering

on an extreme change in musical direction.



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With no fancy camera work, close-ups or explanations, the v iewer is allowed to share intimate

moments with the singer, including the famous party scene in which he effortlessly trampled over

the talents of Scottish rival Donovan by following up his rendition of To Sing for Y ou with an

astounding Its All Over Now, Baby Blue.

YouTubeThe app is currently unreachable.

4. This Is Spinal Tap

"There's such a fine line between clever and stupid"

Almost 20 y ears on from one of the greatest of all rock documentaries, Dont Look Back, came the

father of all mockumentaries, the genre-defining This is Spinal Tap.

The depiction of the worlds loudest band on their 1982 US comeback tour, supposedly filmed by

a fan, was so brilliantly shot and improvised that many cinema-goers at the time of the film's release

were unaware it was a parody .

5. Best In Show



Now tell me, which one of these dogs would y ou want to have as y our wide receiver on y our

football team?

This hilarious mockumentary follows the surreal lives of five dogs and their proud owners as they

head for Philadelphias May flower Kennel Club Dog Show. Written and directed by Christopher

Guest, of This Is Spinal Tapfame, his skeleton script is made brilliant by the improvisational talents

of actors including Catherine OHara, Eugene Levy and Parker Posey .

6. Man with a Movie Camera

Attention v iewers: This film is an experiment in cinematic communication of real events without

the help of intertitles, a story , or theatre. This experimental work aims at creating a truly

international language of cinema based on its absolute separation from the language of theatre and

literature.

In 1929 Russian propaganda director Dziga Vertov released a sensational, experimental silent

documentary film with no story and no actors - rely ing on the most advanced cinematic techniques

of the period to portray the v ibrant potential of post-revolutionary Russia.

Edited by his wife, Elizabeth Sv ilova, the daily routine of a city , from its inhabitants morning rush

through to relaxed evenings, is depicted through split-screens, double-exposure, slow motion and

ampliation. The film is still considered one of the most influential of all time.



7. Senna

Pure driv ing, pure racing, that's what makes me happy .

Both thrilling and heartbreaking, Asif Kapadias 2011 documentary examines Brazilian F1 legend

Ay rton Sennas 10 y ears in the limelight and how the strength of his passion and ambition made him

one of the greatest racing drivers the world has ever seen.

8. An Inconvenient Truth

"I've been try ing to tell this story for a long time and I feel as if I've failed to get the message across."

In 2006 Gore tried to get his message about global warming across through a movie. Directed

brilliantly by Davis Guggenheim, An Inconvenient Truth not only starkly highlights the damage

that man-made pollution brings to the planet, it really manages to entertain its terrified audience. A

critical and box-office success, it won two Oscars.



9. Grey Gardens

It's my mother's house and she owns it. She wanted the people she wanted in it, and she didn't want

the people that I wanted in it.

This 197 5 documentary by Albert and David May sles explores the reclusive existence of two

eccentric, y et charming, former socialites, who were aunt and first cousin to Jackie Kennedy , as

their mansion Grey Gardens descended into squalor.

Residents of the upper-class East Hamptons area of New Y ork complained to the authorities about

the smell and animal infestation - there were over 300 cats in the house - and the cult documentary

follows the women as their home underwent what they termed raids by environmental

inspectors, and their fate after Onassis and her sister Lee Radziwill prov ided the funds to repair the

house.

10. 9/11: The Falling Man

Did that person have so much faith that he knew God would catch him, or was he so afraid to



experience the end up there?

This 2006 TV documentary explores the iconic AP image of a man falling from one of the burning

Twin Towers on 9/11 - a picture that represented the fate of many v ictims who were forced to jump

from the buildings but one that provoked criticism of the papers that chose to run it. The man in the

picture was later identified as restaurant worker Jonathan Briley , though this has not been possible

to confirm.


11. The Lumire Brothers - First Films

The French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumire are credited with making the first ever

documentary films in the 1890s. With titles such as The exit from the Lumire factory in Lyon, the

short films were primitive steps into the genre but the slapstick of L'Arroseur Arros, or The Tables

Turned on the Gardener, as it is known in English, demonstrated an early move towards comedy .


12. Bowling For Columbine

I'm here to open up an account I want the account where I can get the free gun.



Michael Moore provocatively explored the causes of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre

and the link between the American publics widespread gun ownership and the country s high crime

rate in his Oscar-winning 2002 documentary .

The film saw him needle National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston over his appearance

at a pro-gun rally a few day s after the school massacre, and interv iew singer Marily n Manson over

his v ilification by social pundits who claimed his music was a contributing factor to the killings.

13. Woodstock

This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place, and I think y ou people have

proven something to the world: that a half a million kids can get together and have three day s of fun

and music and have nothing but fun and music. And I God bless y ou for it! Farm owner Max

Y asgur, who prov ided the land for Woodstock

Billed as three day s of Peace and Music, the famous 1969 Woodstock Festival was documented from

preparation to clean-up, with music, drugs and naked mud-sliding in between, in an Oscar-winning

movie by Michael Wadleigh, edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese.

It may be three and a half hours long, but the movie prov ides such a unique and entertaining

snapshot of the people, music and ideologies that made the 60s swinging its still billed as one of the

most entertaining of all time.



14. Koyaanisqatsi

"It's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point

of v iew, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we

live." Godfrey Reggio

Also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, this v isually stunning art-house hit uses slow

motion, time-lapse footage and powerful music to convey humans impact on nature. Reggio spent

y ears filming the 1983 cult classic and followed it up with sequels Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi.

15. Shoah

Jewish-French filmmaker Claude Lanzmanns nine-and-a-half hour film about the Holocaust

features surv ivors, witnesses and even perpetrators, as well as v isits to key Holocaust sites.

Described by movie critic Roger Ebert as an act of witness, this 1985 film is an epic masterpiece

that makes for difficult but important v iewing.



16. The Thin Blue Line

Not many films can take the credit for sav ing an innocent man from the electric chair but thats

exactly what Errol Morris did with his 1988 film study of Randall Dale Adams, who was wrongly

convicted of murdering a Dallas police officer during a routine traffic stop in 197 6.

The techniques Morris applied in The Thin Blue Line - gripping crime scene reenactments and face-

to-camera interv iews - changed the face of documentaries forever and led the genre into a thrilling

new era.

17. When We Were Kings

I'm y oung, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty and can't possibly be beat. Muhammad Ali

Leon Gast documented Alis legendary 197 4 Rumble in the Jungle with a y outhful George

Foreman, but due to legal and financial setbacks the Oscar-winning movie did not hit cinema

screens until 1996.



The revealing portrait laid bare an ageing Alis talent, charisma and doggedness during the world

heavy weight championship fight in Zaire. A relentless Ali pioneered the rope-a-dope technique,

whispered insults such as y ou punch like a girl in reigning champion Foremans ear as they

fought, and still managed a wink for a ring girl while he was ly ing half beaten - despite hav ing a wife

at home and a girlfriend on tour - before eventually knocking Foreman out in the eighth round.

18. Supersize Me

"My body ... officially hates me."

Motivated by the increasing spread of obesity throughout the US, in 2004 the intrepid Morgan

Spurlock examined the influence of the fast food industry by making himself the subject of a unique

experiment - to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 day s.

With three square Maccy D meals a day averaging around 5,000 calories, the resultant damaging

effects on his phy sical, mental and sexual well-being certainly prov ided food for thought.

19. Triumph of the Will



"Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented

Western film maker of her era". Mark Cousins, The Story of Film

Riefenstahl 's infamous 1935 pro-Nazi film is one of the best-known examples of propaganda in film

history , using techniques that are still copied in political campaigns and advertisements today . The

power of the film, which centred on the Nuremberg rally , also provokes questions on the very

concept of a documentary and how reality is manipulated.

20. The Up Series

This remarkable series of documentaries follows the lives of 14 British kids from 1964 through into

adulthood, with the participants - who were chosen from a wide range of backgrounds - interv iewed

every seven y ears.

The original hy pothesis of Michael Apted's Granada Telev ision series was that the UK's class sy stem

would predetermine a person's life path. The next installment is due next month.



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20 greatest documentaries - life - stylist magazine

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gin snobberyknowing

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