Let’s talk about our favorite movies — or, in my case, a movie I haven’t seen yet because it just opened, and only in major cities.
A couple evenings ago, I was treated to a half-hour interview by Charlie Rose of a very articulate and observantly attuned Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my favorite actors, about his starring role in the new film, Capote. Hoffman studied for the role by viewing clips from Truman Capote‘s earlier years, and his years in Kansas while interviewing and writing the stunning book, In Cold Blood — a pioneering work of documentary novel or “nonfiction novel” and later a great film — with the considerable help of his friend since childhood, Harper Lee. 
Hoffman said he avoided the later clips of Capote, during his decline and his gossipy, sometimes drunken, TV interviews. Hoffman also said it took him two months to perfect Capote’s very different voice (and you can hear Hoffman as Capote in an All Things Considered clip on Sept. 30).
The film was written and directed by two of Hoffman’s oldest friends, neither of whom had written or directed a feature film before. The film also draws on the popular book by George Plimpton, Truman Capote: in which various friends, enemies, acquaintances, and detractors recall his turbulent career. Both the reviews — and the high ratings at IMDb — indicate that this is a must-see film.
About Hoffman’s acting, Rolling Stone says that “Hoffman gets the flamboyantly gay public image of the whiny-voiced gadfly who swanned through New York literary circles.”
It surprised me to learn yesterday, as I looked up all of this, that Capote’s first novel was shunned by major book critics because it touched on homosexuality. Good lord! At least in that regard, times have changed. For now.
I’ve read that Spielberg’s “Munich” is supposed to be the hot film for the Oscars. IT’s coming out in December, I think. It’s about the Israeli team that hunts down the perpetrators of the slaughter of the Olympic athletes at the 1972 Munich games.
(There’s an old TV movie that airs sometimes on stations like Encore that did a good job of that story.)
I’m skeptical of most of Spielberg’s films, especially after getting burned by the hype about War of the Worlds and finding it a ridiculous waste of $6.
Another film I’m looking forward to is “Syriana,” starring George Clooney, and based on the book by Robert Baer on his real experiences in the CIA and how the U.S. has screwed up its Middle East policy.
$6.00? I haven’t seen a movie for that ticket price since, umm, maybe 1990. Of course these days I see few movies in the theater, the 6 year old boran2 boy having seen to the doing away of that. 😉
Matinee! I’d have hated to pay full price for that tripe.
So you’re a better parent than I … I used to take little Darcy to R movies, and let her watch them on TV too. It was strange sometimes what she took to — she was mesmerized by the old Lon Chaney film about the Phantom of the Opera.
He was so good playing a dull, obsessed, dishonest banker. I mean it is much easier to play a charismatic exciting person. Mahowny eluded authorities because of his dullness.
Then there was “Love Lisa” – some of my favourite scenes were the adult remote control toy boat races. Again Hoffman’s acting is amazing.
Today, I saw “The Constant Gardener” – good movie but I might have to read the book to understand the story better. Africa needs our attention.
I haven’t seen that film, Sybil! Will look it up at imdb and make a note of it.
Susan,
My brother-in-law, Christopher Tellefsen edited Capote & I’ve been so excited to see the good reviews. I live in Kansas City and won’t get to see it until next month, but I can’t wait.
It’s so weird. I just went to IMDB to follow their “outside reviews” link to see if there was anything new. Read the great EW review, came back here to see your story.
Katie, that’s incredibly exciting. Here’s his link at IMDb, which also links to the NYT list of movies that he’s edited.
I doubt it’ll come here so I’ll wait for it to come out on tv or DVD. Hope it works on the small screen!
It is exciting.
I love hearing about his work. He’s a very good editor and worked on a lot of very fine films. (Here’s his IMDB page
Where is “here” for you? I’ve asked around “here” for me (Overland Park, Kansas) and Capote isn’t on the schedule yet, even though a lot of the In Cold Blood action happened around here.
I heard a rumor that it would open here on October 28, but still haven’t found the theater.
Here is the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. When I look out my front window, I can see Sybil standing over on Vancouver Island .. and when politics really get me down, am often tempted to swim on over (or take the ferry, for pete’s sake).
I live in Port Angeles in a county of about 68,000 people. But it’s growing rapidly, particularly in Sequim (pronounced Squim) where a lot of moneyed old people are retiring and a lot o big box stores are coming in.
We have two movie theaters in Port Angeles, and one being built in Sequim. None show indy films although the downtown theatre manager heard about Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 and decided to take a risk and show it! The LINES! It was marvelous! (I wish he’d do it more often.)
Then there’s Port Townsend, about an hour northeast of us — and a spectacularly beautiful town where Debra Winger just visited as the special guest for their annual film festival. (Winger starred in An Officer and a Gentleman, a lot of which was shot in and around Pt. Townsend (and also in Seattle, at what is now Magnuson Park.)
Pt. Townsend has a wonderful little theater — the Rose Theatre — that shows lots of indy films. I think Capote will come there. Weather and budget willing, we’ll go there.
I LIKE that theater — it’s very beautiful and old, and they have a theater employee come to the front of the audience, and introduce each film!
How do people in Kansas City feel about the book and the film?
Do you remember a reporter for the Kansas City Star, and a writer about town, named J.J. Maloney? He was my friend and mentor until he died suddenly in 1999.
He wrote a blistering criticism of Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” In Cold Blood. J.J. was a criminal himself when he was a juvenile, and wrote to Karl Menninger about Capote’s book:
Read all. Agree or not, J.J. was a great writer — who was saved from prison by the literary editor of the Kansas City Star. Unlike the spectacular failure of Norman Mailer’s attempt to save a criminal who wrote well, the literary editor’s risky effort paid off because J.J. became a famous, hard-working writer.
I’ve never heard anything negative.
We moved here in 1967 while they were filming the movie (my sister’s 5th grade teacher was in it — although her part was cut) and they did a lot of local filming. My limited experience is that people are usually fairly proud of “local” movies.
I’m sorry that I don’t remember your friend. I’m afraid I’ve never read the KC Star closely enough to notice the journalists.
some of my favs:
It’s a Wonderful Life (a must-watch every Xmas)
To Kill a Mockingbird (for obvious reasons)
The Usual Suspects (excellent writing)
Being There (the truth is simple)
Legends of the Fall (the drool factor)
Airplane (’nuff said)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (who doesn’t like that movie?)
Do you rent movies? “Being There” was such a great film … when I lived in L.A., I got to see it with my friend who was a member of the writer’s guild. So I was thinking that you’d also like the HBO movie, “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.” It might be out on DVD now. This afternoon, I watched — again — the Frankenheimer movie for HBO, “Path to War,” about Johnson, McNamara, Clark Clifford, etc. Love that movie. Felicity Huffman, now on Desperate Housewives (yech), played Lady Bird, and did it very well.
Airplane! Such a scream! Love those silly movies … Zoolander is another. Dumb, dumb, dumb, but it makes me giggle 🙂
It’s been a while since I rented a movie, but I’ll look for that one. Thanks!
It just one a bunch of Emmy awards. Geoffrey Rush, who won an Emmy, plays Peter Sellers. Charlize Theron does well as Britt Ekland.
IMDb indicates that it’s out on both VHS and DVD. There’s more about the movie — including links to the reviews.
Legends of the fall…mmm…BP has never looked so good again!
Wow. Never seen it. Will look for it… which stations replay it, do you happen to know?
I don’t know (don’t have cable tv), but he was yummy in that movie. Worth the rental fee.
Well… speaking of great movies. BRAVO is playing The Godfather back to back. It is one of the rare movies that I have seen I don’t know how many times and yet can and will watch it again. The whole series is superb.
I saw that listed! ABC is playing “Commander In Chief” again right now … off to watch it.
When I saw ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ with Diana Ross as Billie Holliday in or about 1976 I was pretty blown away. And I thought she was robbed of her Oscar which that year went to Liza Minnelli(then again I can’t stand her so that may have had something to do with my feelings about that)
The documentary of Ali-‘When We Were Kings’.
Any Cary Grant movie-he made it look to easy. All the old Fred Astaire movies. Almost any Kevin Spacey movie, ditto for Jeff Bridges..when in the hell is he going to get an Oscar anyway?
L.A. Confidential with Russel Crowe
Monster’s Ball with Halle Berry
The Thin Man movies with Dick Powell and Myrna Loy
Judgement at Nuerenberg-amazing cast…and quite topical for today really.
One of my incredibly inexplicable guilty pleasures is a movie from at least ten years ago I think with no redeeming value called ‘Marlboro Men’ with Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke.
Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler
Hero with Jet Li
This list could go on/on but time for me to go watch a movie as a matter of fact that just came out on video..Girl in the Cafe with Bill Nighy.
So many great films my mind would blow a fuse if I tried to rank them in my head.
A few favorites.
Elmer Gantry
The Seven Samurai
The Razor’s Edge (Bill Murray version)
“Z”
Matewan
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Forbidden Planet
Once Upon a Time in America
Little Big Man
The Man Who Would Be King
Whatever else he did or did not do in his later life, Truman Capote will always be a star in my book–he wrote the story that became “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Jack Nicholson, early 70’s. Nicholson and a partner are 2 navy guys ordered to take a 3rd who’d been convicted of a petty crime, to the brig. On the way they decide to give him a fling. Definitely worth a look.
My favorite list includes
And it was the first time I ever saw Randy Quaid — I’ve liked him ever since.
One documentary some of you will remember:
Antonia: Portrait of a Woman.
By Judy Collins, about a woman symphonic conductor who can rarely work because of her gender.
Lawrence of Arabia — greatest epic film. Perhaps the greatest male only cast ever.
Rashomon and Ran by Kurosawa — Very different films but both in the same genre (historical period pieces) that Kurosawa placed many of his pictures.
La Dolce Vita — my favorite Fellini.
A Little Romance — best love story, and Diane Lane’s first movie as a child actor.
Apocalypse Now (the long version) — worth having a heart attack and suffering financial collapse over.
The Last of the Mohicans — Michael Mann and a great cast actually make Fenimore Cooper’s tale seem profound.
Unforgiven — Best Clint movie (though Mystic River wasn’t shabby either).
The Maltese Falcon — Bogey at top form.
Chinatown — Great, great movie. Great dialogue, great story, fabulous acting, and Polanski.
Almost anything by Hitchcock is good, but Vertigo is the best of Hitchcock, imo.
Mulholland Dr. — best David Lynch. You have to watch it about ten times before you start to understand anything, but only once to either love it or hate it. Me, I love it.
Star Wars (Episodes 4 and 5) — Just because.
AI and Empire of the Sun — My favorite Speilberg flicks (and coincidentally his darkest).
Philadelphia Story — Hepburn, Stewart, Grant.
An American in Paris — Gene Kelly in his best work.
Dogma — Fucking hilarious!
Flash Gordon — the one with the Queen soundtrack. Best camp movie.
Dark City — my favorite cult movie.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly — Leone’s best.
The Manchurian Candidate — the original, of course.
The Road Warrior — best Mel Gibson sado-masochistic fetish film.
Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, A clockwork Orange — best Kubrick, for me.
The Thin Red Line — best war movie.
Some Like it Hot — Best Gay movie. OK, seriously, best comedy.
Hero — favorite Chinese historical martial arts epic.
Kill Bill, Vol. I and II — That Tarantino is such a sentimentalist.
Blade Runner (Director’s Cut). If you’ve seen it you know where our society is heading these days.
Shane — best western not starring John Wayne.
The Searchers — best western starring John Wayne.
The Last Seduction — Best Femme Fatale movie.
The Lord of the Rings — best fantasy and special effects. And yeah it’s really one big movie, not 3.
Top Hat — always leave em dancing, I say.
Some good choices. I wish I’d remembered Witness while compiling my list — and since there’s a DVD of the new release literally at my elbow as I type, you would think I would have done so.
Rashomon might have made my list, because of my love for the unreliable narrator (a device Peter Straub works to perfection in his books). But I’m less thrilled with Kurosawa than many, no matter how much he influenced other films, and my wife really, really, doesn’t like this piece, so I haven’t watched it in some time.
As a western fan, I know I’m supposed to love The Searchers. I know it’s supposed to be the best western ever made. Everybody says so. On the other hand, I find it interminable, stiff, and falsely sentimental. I much prefer the honest schmaltz of True Grit or the genre upsetting characters of Unforgiven.
If my list were merely “best movies to look at,” Dark City would have been near the top, not only for the bleak, intense designs, but for the vision of Jennifer Connelly swaying gently in that 40’s era gown.
These were just what I thought of off the top of my head. There are so many movies that I love that I left out. But I don’t have all day to list them lol.
Most westerns of the 50’s have flaws, but The Searchers is still worth looking at. IMO of course.
I wish I could remember the name of some of the great documentaries I’ve seen.
. . . I pop in my tape of “Plan 9 from Outer Space.”
If I need a good cry, “Carrington” will do.
I just got back from seeing Serenity, and it rocks.
Meta-plot: Firefly was a TV show created, written and (I think) directed by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. To reduce it to six words or less, it’s an oat opera in space. A western with good guys, bad guys, cattle rustlers, barn dances and six-shooters (I kid you not), but also with spaceships and some of the nastiest bad guys it will ever be your displeasure to encounter. The show developed a rabid and loyal following, but not rabid and loyal enough to save it from FOX-TV’s incompetence and/or indifference, and it died after about ten episodes. Fan reaction and DVD sales convinced Whedon to reassemble the cast and most of the crew to do a movie based on the show.
Plot: Serenity is a spaceship captained by a guy named Mal Reynolds. Its crew and passengers are a motley assortment of odd types, two of which are a mysterious psychotic telepath and her brilliant physician brother. The Alliance (the government/bad guys) are very interested in the telepath and have gone to great lengths to track her down. Reynolds makes it his business to find out why.
The characterization is great, the universe is as gritty/glitzy as anything since Star Wars Episode IV, and the dialogue is top-notch, as you would expect from Whedon. An example from the opening sequence where Wash (the pilot) is trying to land the damaged Serenity:
Wash: This is going to get interesting.
Mal: Define “interesting.”
Wash: Oh-God-oh-God-we’re-all-gonna-die.
Omir says check it out if you’re at all interested in science fiction or Joss Whedon. Maybe even if you aren’t. I’m hoping it gets enough box office to generate lots of sequels and give Serenity the audience and exposure it deserves.
Watching the episodes on DVD, in the order Joss intended, including the episodes that Fox decided not to air, caused me great sadness–because “Firefly” should have run for years. Wonderful, wonderful show.
I’ll definitely be going to see “Serenity.”
Yeah, I wish Firefly had run for ten seasons and won Emmys out the wazzoo. It certainly deserved to, IMHO. But truthfully, if it’s done right having it be a series of movies could work out better. David Gerrold once described writing for television as being like a prostitute — you have to climax every twelve minutes. There are layers of bureaucracy, tradeoffs, limitations of format and the like. In a movie series, though, you can take whatever time you need to tell the story the way it needs to be told, and if you do it right you have the budget and resources to do it up right.
And while I agree with Yaright about spoilers, let me say one thing about this movie: most science fiction movies these days rely heavily on CGI for things like alien species and firefights and the like. Serenity is refreshingly free of such folderol, proving once again that it’s the characters and the story — not the explosions and the gimcrackery — that make science ficiton work. That make any movie making work, actually, but it’s especially true of science fiction.
nothing disturbs me as much as spoilers.
(so I’ll avoid them)
Which doesn’t leave me much to say about this movie.
If you’ve never seen Serenity on TV, there are plenty of twists and surprises. And being a self-contained movie, it manages to give you a sense of the setting and the characters that’ll catch you right up and you’ll never know you missed a thing. In that regard, its incredibly well done and in fact much more straightforward and less mysterious than the TV series had been, but still leaving plenty of room for exploration. (I think the first 5 minutes of the movie sum up everything far better than any true fan could do in 30 minutes of talking — and the action starts on minute 2, so its anything but boring).
If you have seen Serenity on TV or DVD, even you’ll be surprised by the twists. The bits that are predictable because you know the characters only set you up all the more for the surprises you won’t see coming.
If you don’t like spoilers tho, avoid anything to do with discussions about this movie — just go see it quick!
Best of all, the movie is relevant (Alliance — nuff said).
(And seeing it Friday afternoon put me in a mood I still haven’t shaken…)
to disagree. I just saw this movie last night for $10.75, and dragged along a friend who is not into science fiction. I thought it was terrible. I was so embarassed that I had talked my friend into it. I offered to leave half way through, but he said no.
Why was it terrible? The plot either made no sense, or it was hokey in the extreme. The message seems to be that those who want to create a perfect world are evil. Why does the black character, the uber-villain, completely reverse himself at the end? And there were all those interminable fight scenes. At least when you are watching from a DVD you can jump through those scenes or mute them.
I am turning into a science fiction fan. I am now teaching a class on science fiction and I am familiar with quite a few SciFi movies, all better than this one. The Matrix movies, at least the 1st, were way better than this, as were all 3 original Star Wars movies. And then there are quirky movies, like The 13th Floor and Existenz, and 12 Monkeys. Blade Runner: the director’s cut of that movie is great. The Cube: anyone seen that?–a real sleeper. Even The Butterfly Effect, which was a bit goofy, is better than this Serenity (isn’t that a brand of adult diapers?) movie.
However, if you thought Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and The Matrix Revolutions were better than Serenity and you think “sci-fi” is the same as “science fiction,” I suspect your tastes are different enough from mine to account for the disagreement.
I will agree with you that the fight scenes went on longer than necessary. That is by no means a fault of Serenity alone, though. Most movies anymore could be improved by the judicious editing of anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour, and often action sequences are to blame.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This is a great story, well acted, well directed, a very clever, moving, and insightful film. One of my favorites in recent years.
Notorious
One of Hitchcock’s best, in my opinion, close to flawless. Cary Grant is uncharacteristically withdrawn and enigmatic; Ingrid Bergman lights up the screen with uncanny beauty. It is chock full of astonishing performances. I love the dialogue, but I also watch the whole thing with the sound off sometimes just so that I can pay attention to the incredible photography and staging.
The Big Sleep
Based on Raymond Chandler’s wonderful detective novel, William Faulkner worked on the screenplay. It brings 1930s LA to life like nothing else I’ve ever seen. Bogie and Bacall are amazing.
Casablanca…..
of course! Goes without saying!!!
Mulhullond Drive
This film makes you ask questions, and it doesn’t give you any answers. I’ve watched it over and over and everytime it seems like a different movie. Naomi Watts should have been given two academy awards for her performance in this film.
Some others:
Groundhog Day
The Family Man
Disney’s The Kid
Princess Caraboo
Sense and Sensibility
Forrest Gump
Tootsie
Witness
Dave
Charade
Quiz Show
Citizen Kane
Rain Man
May I add Elvira Madigan
and Ship of Fools?
Here is Roger Ebert’s Great Movies List
WOW! What a great list . I’ll share that with Darcy who’s trying to rent NetFlix DVDs that’ll get her caught up on great movies.
In his top 10 movie list at his site — although I haven’t checked it in a few years — he listed “Body Heat,” also one of my favorite films. It’s terribly well done, and acted…. and always fascinating to watch.
Susan, I have the New York Times’ list of 1000 great movies. I hesitate to post because of the length.
Do you have it or would you like me to email it, (in sections)?
Susan:
I uploaded it to one of my webpages and sent you the URL.
in “Body Heat” a really great movie.
Willaim Hurt
Ask me how many times I have watched “Accidental Tourist.”
I’ve lost count but everytime I watch it, I find something new in it.
My favorite law school professor taught property and estates law, and he thought “Body Heat” was an excellent movie. He insisted that the only reason he liked it was because it was the only movie he knew of in which the rule against perpetuities played a starring role, but I think it had more to do with Kathleen Turner.
Is Blade Runner. Yes, the “director’s cut” is better, but even the original, stupid voiceovers and all, is head and shoulders above anything else. For twenty years, I’ve gone to the movies hoping, praying, that some other film would capture the sense of place, the nuance performances, the absolute convincing nature of the world. Hasn’t happened yet. It doesn’t matter if Harrison Ford doesn’t like the film. He shot over his head when making this one, and still doesn’t recognize how much better he was here than in anything else.
What’s more, Ridley Scott holds the #2 spot as well, with Alien, though I’ll entertain the idea that Alien is primarily a horror film, and only secondarily sci fi. Watch the first five minutes of this film, the part before anyone speaks. Heck, the part before we’ve even seen an actor. It’s already better done than 99% of the competition. Sound is used to better effect in this film than in any other ever made. You could watch this movie with the screen turned off, and it would still be frightening. Then turn the screen on, and it’s amazing.
After Scott’s two triumphs, comes Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The product of inspired close collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, together the two of them launched a film with more ambition than any other. That not all of the vast scale of time and space they tackled ends up translated to the viewer isn’t their fault. That they managed to get 10% of it across is to their credit. And the effects still hold up after all this time.
At #4, I go for Solaris. A purist would probably give the nod to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Russian original. However, I’m putting forward the 2002 remake by Steven Soderbergh. Like 2001, the film is insanely ambitious in scope, tackling unanswerable questions and giving no easy answers. A masterwork of giving you just enough to make you think, and never enough to make those thoughts simple.
After this, it gets hard for me to name a film that really stands above the others. Do I give a nod to The Day The Earth Stood Still for it’s perfect metaphor of its time and the cultural ripples that still lap at us today? Should The Empire Strikes Back (the only one of the Star Wars marathon worth considering) get a vote just for the huge commercial impact of the series, which has restructured the way films are made and packaged? Maybe Silent Running, for no other reason that Bruce Dern’s performance and the Joan Baez soundtrack? How about Donnie Darko? The best film ever with a giant talking rabbit.
Heck, I’ll leave the 5 spot up for nominations.
On other subjects, here’s my personal Top Ten overall list:
Kudos for bringing up Iron Giant. The previews for this were bad (a boy and his robot [yawn]), and completely misleading. Personal project of Brad Bird, who brought us The Incredibles last year, and worked on a number of Simpsons eps back in the day. This is possibly the best animated cartoon movie every made &emdash; I love the gorgeous drawing/coloring and the lush orchestration, but it’s the story that grabs you.
I forgot about the Lion in Winter — a true classic. Hepburn and O’Toole trading barbs is more violent than most cinematic sword fights.
No one here has mentioned Vertigo. A great film by Hitchcock with performances by Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novac, beautiful cinematography of the Bay Area and one of the greatest scores of all time by Bernard Hermann
In the interest of distracting myself from full-blown food poisoning, I’m not able to call up a nice completist list like others have here. (You had your lists on standby — admit it!)
So, these are not best-ever, or maybe even “great,” but well worth your time:
All the President’s Men: it’s better than you remember. Quiet and thoughtful and political — who knew you could have all three?
My Man Godfrey: The 1936 version, with William Powell and Carole Lombard. Screwball comedy with feeling, and a slightly subversive undertow (helping “forgotten” men). Rent the crisp Criterion version, not the bad earlier transfers.
The President’s Analyst: Another president movie, except there’s no president, just his analyst. “James Coburn spy spoof” doesn’t begin to do this one justice. Very smart 1967 satire, self-aware of its own period quirks (acid trip scene, silly music, “hip” clothing). Finally on DVD.
Alphaville: You want po-mo BW low-budget French SF? Godard did the best and only one! Don’t expect anything from the plot, especially via subtitles. But see how you can film an existing city into the future just with brilliant cutting. Poetique! But OK, it’s probably not for everyone.
Run Lola Run: Because we’ve all had days where robbing the grocery store seemed like the best plan.
And finally,
Twins: Much better than Junior, this shows the Scwharzenegger/DeVito team at their peak you’re not really actually believing this are you? Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a parallel universe where neither one of them had ever graced the inside of a Blockbuster?
Disclaimer: written with a high fever and ringing in ears. I will disavow all knowledge of this selection later. Excuse me now, nature calls.
I’m so sorry about your food poisoning. Take care of yourself.
I’m a big fan of All the President’s Men too. I will watch it whenever it’s on TV. It doesn’t matter that I know what’s going to happen — I’m always full of tension, just as the characters are. Jane Alexander has a small role, and she is very good — it must have been early in her career. Hal Holbrook is good as Deep Throat.
Hope you’re over it quickly!
Fever going down now, thanks for the concern. This wasn’t bad, just a fever and… well, I won’t go into the bathroom part. Have had it often enough to recognize it right away. Few cramps this time, which are the worst part. On the plus side, it gave me time to save all these great film lists, which I probably wouldn’t have gone through otherwise!
I forgot that one.
It desperately needs to be remade; though the 60’s love-culture aspect of it may not translate to anything contemporary.
Instead of TPC, TSC The Software Company. The implantable brain chips are even more plausible today.
Well, I guess I have to add in my 40% of a nickel:
There’s no order to these, but each, I think, holds up better than any of the movies coming out now:
The Four-Hundred Blows, Francois Truffaut.
The Seven Samauri, Akira Kurosawa
Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Leone
The Grand Illusion, Jean Renoir
Citizen Kane, Orson Wells
Metropolis, Fritz Lang
Singin’ in the Rain, Stanley Donetz and Gene Kelly
Casablanca, Michael Curtiz
Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder
Sunset Bouldevard, Billy Wilder
The Searchers, John Ford
Blade Runner, Ridley Scott
Modern Times, Charles Chaplin
His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks
Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola
Off the top of my head in no particular order. Soon as I post, I’ll probably think of a dozen more.
Robot Monster
Crimen de Padre Amarro
Baran
The Red Violin
Mother India
Children of Heaven
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Mission Kashmir
The King and I
The Exorcist
I have a hobby website on DVD Collections. I keep my DVDs in the sidebar of my blog, but the view here is more convenient.
Odd that there’s a similar thread to this one going on over at Kos tonight, though more politically oriented. I filed my political titles into a separate collection.
Anyway, been lurking for a while and finally signed up to chime in on this, of all things.
Maybe a better musical than An American In Paris.
Or Alien – best jack-in-the-box movie ever.
Or Rob Roy – worth watching for Jessica Lang, and the music ain’t bad either.