The 10 best classic films I watched in 2016

At least half the films I watched in 2016 were so-called "classics" (thank you, Criterion!, and the Providence Public Library!), most of which lived up to their reputation. Here's the list of the 10 best classic films I watched in 2016:

All About My Mother. Pedro Almodovar's great 1999 film about the complex relationships among a disparate group of Spanish women: actors, prostitutes, transgendered people, addicts, gay, straight, and even Penelope Cruz as a pregnant nun.

Aparajito. Part 2 of Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy (1957), this part following the young man from rural India as he earns a scholarship and moves to Calcutta to pursue a college education.

Autumn Sonata. A really dark (even for) Bergman "chamber film" from 1978, in which Liv Ullman and Ingrid Bergman as troubled daughter and neglectful mother go at one another. 

Coup de Grace. A little-known film from German director Victor Schlondorff (1978) about a group of German aristocratic soldiers holed up on an old estate toward the end of the first World War fighting against the Communist insurgents. Strangely, it reminded me of Seventh Seal.

A Day in the Country. A 1936 film that Renoir never completed but that, even in its truncated form, beautifully evokes the complex relationships among a group of Parisians who set off for the day. Typically Renoir open-air settings.

I Vitelloni. Early Fellini - 1953 - about a group of young men, each with his own ambitions, stuck in a provincial Italian town and dreaming of getting away.

Jeanne Dielman. Chantal Akerman's feminist classic from 1975, a close-up of the life and pent-up rage of a seemingly conventional young widow who is anything but conventional.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Tony Richardson's 1962 British b-w classic about a  working-class teenager sent to reform school where he earns some renown as a runner and makes a courageous decision.

Loves of a Blonde. Milos Forman's 1965 Czech film about a group of women working in a factory and dreaming of a better life - with some great comic scenes when a troupe of older reservists come to town and try to strike it up w/ the much younger women.

Through a Glass Darkly. Another Bergman chamber film, this one from 1961: Put 4 people, one of whom is a severely disturbed young woman and another of whom is a sensitive aspiring artist, and see what ensues.