Greatest Films (hearts, 2-10) first of an ongoing series

These aren't in order of greatness, and there are many great movies left off, but you wouldn't be doing yourself any harm if you sought out viewing any of these films on a rainy Saturday.

Hearts are about blood, passion, lust, love and all that so these 9 films reflect those aspects of human nature.

2 of hearts - Crimes of Passions, Ken Russell (dir)
This film represents Russell at his crazy best. Kathleen Turner is amazing, and Tony Perkins is creepy (big surprise). There are depths here, and a lot of surface too, and there are some scenes that border on soft-core porn, what more can you ask.

3 of hearts - The Moderns, Alan Rudolph (dir)
Linda Fiorentino, yumm, Paris in the 20s, even better. Stagey, and talky, and obsessed with what makes an artwork or an emotion authentic. It's a bit pretentious, but hey it was the 80s.

4 of hearts - Matador, Pedro Almadovar (dir)
This has it all, blood, crime, sex, and very early Antonio Banderas.

5 of hearts - Der Blaue Engel, Josef von Sternberg (dir)
This film focuses on the destructive nature of erotic obsession and Marlene Dietrich is mesmerizing. The professor's fall is heart breaking, and his crowing and clowning pathetic yet touching.

6 of hearts El Amor Brujo, Carlos Saura (dir)
The dancing, photography, music and story all conspire to sweep you into the world of this gypsy camp. His version of Carmen is very good, but this is better, this is one of the best displays of dancing ever filmed (not for the technique, but the passion and feeling, especially the older dancers) and Laura Del Sol, mmmmmmm.

7 of hearts Written on the Wind, Douglas Sirk (dir)
Ridiculously ridiculous film making at its ridiculous best (ain't that ridiculous). Overwrought, overacted, overshot, overframed, overscored, overeverything, yet enjoyable and just about perfect.

8 of hearts Kozure Okami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma (aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx), Kenji Misumi (dir)
All the Lone Wolf and Cub films (inspired by the manga that inspired the graphic novel that inspired the film Road to Perdition) are amazing, but this one has female ninjas! What's this doing with all those other films? blood, baby, blood (and lots of it)

9 of hearts Devdas, Sanjay Leela Bhansali (dir)
A terrific film and a great introduction to the joys of Bollywood. Accessible, sad, romantic, and lots of sumptuous sets, pretty woman, handsome men, and music, music, music, seek it out and enjoy.

10 of hearts Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff (dir)
At its heart this is a love story, both the falling out of love of two friends, and the resistance to love of two lost, damaged and mismatched people. This movie is actually kind of sweet in a cynical way and well shot, acted and written.


UPDATE:

For ease of navigation, and just in case anyone comes to any of these individual posts randomly, I'm adding a link to each of the nine posts within each posts.

Summary
2-10 of Hearts
JQKA of Hearts
2-10 of Clubs
JQKA of Clubs
2-10 of Diamonds
JQKA of Diamonds
2-10 of Spades
JQKA of Spades
Jokers