I can never answer the question “what’s your favourite film?”
Often what makes a film special to you depends on mood, age, what was going on when you saw a particular film, etc.
And so this is kind of a two-parter. Wondering what your favourite films of all time are and also what films – seen recently or twenty years ago, whatever – you simply enjoyed.
It would be good to have a bit of a critique of each film – so a bit more than simply saying ‘saw Superman yesterday – awesome!’, and also some info about the story . . . but without spoilers, of course.
casa azahar 
This one should be fun- and I do think that one film per comment, with a little “critique”, would be more fun than just a list.
So, for starters… one of my favorite films of all time is “The Loved One”. The tagline was “Something To Offend Just About Anybody”, but I don’t think it’s as offensive now as it would have been seen at the time.
It’s a wonderful adaptation of an Evelyn Waugh novella. Terry Southern wrote the screenplay. Without giving too much away, it’s a brilliant anti-war, anti-bourgeois satire. It also pokes fun at society’s morbid obsession with death.
I love it, and would recommend it to darn near anyone with a slightly warped sense of humor. It was released on DVD a couple of months ago, too!
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Pc, have you read ‘The Loved One’? I highly recommend it… I haven’t seen the film; all I know about it is that Evelyn Waugh hated it – but he hated lots of things. (I also recommend Jessica Mitford’s ‘The American Way of Death’…)
Getting back to films (and leaving my natural habitat behind)… ‘The Lion in Winter’. Katharine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton, and various others. It’s Christmas in 1183 at the court of Henry II. He’s been good enough to let the Queen out of prison for the holidays; she spends her time plotting against him, as do the children, who are also plotting against each other and against her too. The dialogue is splendid, the acting is good, and Katharine Hepburn gives one of her best performances.
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I read The Loved One many years ago and loved it – have never seen the film.
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The best movie that I’ve seen this year is V for Vendetta. It’s an adaptation of a graphic novel from the 1980s, about a futuristic London controlled by a Big Brother figure and the masked marauder called V who fights against him. Despite being a tad dated, it’s actually surprisingly prescient to today (as dystopias often are, I find) – raising questions concerning the nature of terrorism and its motivations. Stephen Fry also features in a small role, and as he is my favourite actor that was quite nice.
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‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’
Possibly the funniest film ever made. Not bad for a B&W almost entirely set in a single room. They really don’t make them like this any more (and nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be either).
And after the intermission, the second feature:
‘Duck Soup’ starring the Marx Brothers. How can you go wrong with this. Utterly ludicrous, and marvellously inventive with sight gags and the sharpest one-liners.
Craig /|\
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Cinema Paradiso (1989 dir.Giuseppe Tornatore)
I first saw this in Toronto in 1990 on a first date, so it was already kind of a romantic setting.
Did somebody mention nostalgia?
An Italian filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village’s theatre and formed a deep friendship with the theatre’s projectionist.
Wonderful acting, gorgeous soundtrack (Ennio Morricone) and a beautiful ending that always leaves me in a flood of happy tears.
Hmmm…think I’ll watch that one again this weekend. 🙂
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Oooh, so many good films! I loved “Cinema Paradiso”, and “The Lion in Winter”. “Arsenic and Old Lace” is really funny- it was one of my favorites when I was little.
I have indeed read “The Loved One”. Evelyn Waugh’s one of my favorite writers- he’s so darn funny.
I’ll be back later to enjoy this some more. Right now, I have to think about work.
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The Godfather, Parts 1 & 2
I was 15 when I saw Part 1 at the cinema (after having read the book) and fell totally in adolescent lust with Al Pacino. Those eyes!
And Part 2 is the only example I can think of when a sequel was just as wonderful as the original.
Shame about Part 3, which I thought was a complete waste of celluloid…
I’ve been looking for V for Vendetta at the dvd rental place but so far no luck.
And a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve never seen Lion in Winter. 😳
We recently saw Arsenic and Old Lace on dvd – Nog had never seen it before. Wasn’t the mostly one-room setting because it was originally a play? Fabulous film.
As for the Marx Brothers I think Animal Crackers is still my favourite.
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In it’s genre you can’t beat the original – and best – Alien. Atmospheric sets, shock scenes, the sense of lurking menace….
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Oh, totally agree about Alien. The anticipation of the monster was actually more frightening than seeing it (briefly) at the end.
And speaking of ‘lurking menace’ I also loved the first Jaws. THAT music, the suspense, the fabulous cast – Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Sheider.
Apparently all the sequels were total crap – I didn’t bother seeing any of them except this one (actually a re-make), which I think is rather fine. 😉
http://www.angryalien.com/0804/jawsbunnies.asp
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Speaking of re-makes, other than bunny ones, was there ever a re-make that was as good or better than the original?
I can’t think of any.
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I have still never gotten around to seeing the Godfather films. Maybe, one of these days, I will… I haven’t decided yet if it’s a quirk worth retaining or not. 😉
I’m thinking about the remake question… can’t think of any right offhand but there may have been one along the line, somewhere.
“Alien” freaked me out when I was a kid. I love films which build suspense to the point where you’re gnawing your fingernails off and ready to jump out of your skin. Haven’t seen one that had that effect in a LONG time.
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I think I’ve seen part of the first Godfather film. Not one of my favourites. My favorites inculde all the Star Wars films, most of the Bond films, all the Harry Potter films and all the Carry On films. Oh and any film with Peter Sellers in it.
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Next film: ‘Blithe Spirit’, 1945. Screen version of a Noel Coward play, starring Rex Harrison. Margaret Rutherford plays a splendidly bizarre medium.
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Just to show how much of a mutant I am, I have also not seen a single Star Wars film. 😆
I have seen “Seven Samurai”, though, the film “Star Wars” was obviously inspired by. I’m a big fan of Kurusawa to begin with, but “Seven Samurai” is fan-TAS-tic.
I may watch “The Godfather” films someday, but definitely not the “Star Wars” flicks.
Never seen “Blithe Spirit”, but I am going right now to see if Netflix has it available for rental…
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Nope, no dice. Will have to try to local vegetarian diner/arty-farty video rental shop, Earwax Cafe.
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I love the original Star Wars trilogy (the more recent Prequel trilogy is dire, however).
Apparently the original films were mostly inspired by talks George Lucas had with the eminent mythologist Joseph Campbell. I’ve also heard the Star Wars/Seven Samurai comparison before though I don’t think it’s accurate to say that this was what ‘inspired’ Lucas to make Star Wars.
Campbell, Star Wars and the myth
The first films really are very good, though the special effects will probably seem somewhat ‘primitive’ compared to today’s standards. Excellent story, good dialogue and basically just good fun.
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My absolute number one film of all time is Some Like It Hot, a film I could never grow tired off. The script, direction and performances are all spot-on, making it laugh-out-loud funny some fifty years after it was made. No matter what mood I’m in, it can always cheer me up.
For those of you who don’t know, it’s about two musicians who accidentally witness a gangland massacre, and must skip town to avoid any complications. However, the only band that can take them on is an all-girl group, so they have to disguise themselves as Josephine and Daphne to escape the city. Of course, one of them falls in love with the group’s singer (Marilyn Monroe), and their escape doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.
I won’tspoil the various complications they get themselves into, but it’s a classic farce with multiple disguises and cases of mistaken identity. And the last line of the film cannot be beaten.
David
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Somehow I didn’t expect to like Some Like It Hot as much as I did – guess I thought it would just be one of those ‘goofy madcap’ superficial Hollywood films. But I enjoyed it very much – especially the *surprise* ending. 😯
Just finished watching Narnia. I’ve never read any of the books (unlike Noggin) and we both found it charming and basically a nice kid’s film.
Kept our eyes peeled for all the *blatant Christian messages* that it was supposedly riddled with and couldn’t really find anything specific. Once again, a case of the media turning a molehill into mountain.
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The breaking of the Stone Table and Aslan’s rebirth have Christianity as a proximate source, but are by no means unique to that religion.
Going back into my childhood, or at least early teens, I greatly enjoyed the film “Zulu”.
Rather dated and unPC now, and with some historical inaccuracies (although fewer than you might expect), it still had some great moments – particularly the Richard Burton voiceover in the final, post battle sequence.
Sparked an interest in the Zulu War which lasted a few years.
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Two of my all-time favourite Christmas films are It’s A Wonderful Life and Scrooge (US title A Christmas Carol – the 1951 version with Alistair Sim).
It’s A Wonderful Life is corny as hell (typical Frank Capra) but such an endearing and heartwarming joy to watch.
Apparently it was a box office flop when it was first released in 1946 (though it received 5 Academy Award nominations) but later became *the* Christmas movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated television showings at Christmas-time when its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain and TV stations could air it for free. Frank Capra regarded this film as his own personal favorite – it was also James Stewart’s favorite of all his feature films.
I only have to think of the line – ‘To my brother George, the richest man in town’ – to have happy tears well up.
Scrooge is one of many film versions of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol but remains my favourite due to the excellent performance by Alistair Sim.
Both films are watched every Christmas at casa az, along with the wonderful animated short film of the Dr Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff.
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I love the Narnia books and the film is rather good fun. You can either get angry about the whole Aslan/Jesus thing or just ignore it. If you’re not a Christian, that is. I neither hate it nor ignore it, of course!
I don’t think I have a favourite Christmas film.
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I can’t see any parallels between The Seven Sammurai and Star Wars. The Magnificent Seven however transplanted the story completely into the old wild west.
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Just watched A History of Violence.
Can’t recommend it. Tell me I missed something, but it seemed to be lacking in any sort of credible back story (or front story, as far as the principal character was concerned), and left most of the action in the resultant limbo.
On the other hand, The Importance of Being Ernest, which we watched yesterday, was great fun, and very clever (as you’d expect from Oscar Wilde), with excellent performances, especially from Judi Dench.
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I have to say that one of my favorite films is Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble With Harry”, which also has the distinction of being Shirley McLaine’s film debut. The trouble with Harry is no one is sure what to do with his body. It is a very funny farce of no redeeming social value whatsoever. One of the notable things about the film was it was filmed in New England over the space of one (or it might have been two, no longer) week, the forced schedule adhered to because Hitchcock wanted the fall color to remain the same throughout the film and it was all filmed on location.
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Taxi Driver.
What a film! So moody and so New York 70’s – so very well captured.
Misfit weirdo, Vietnam war veteran, who ends up driving cab in NY and befriends a teenage prostitute … also developing strange ideas of his own.
Exquisite film.
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I’ll have to give Taxi Driver another go when I’m feeling good. The last time I tried to watch it I was feeling really low and had to turn it off. (Someone gave me the Video)
I’ve got loads of favourite films of all different genres.
I’ll chuck one of my faves in.
Visconti’s Death in Venice. Photography and Mahler’s soundtrack wonderful. Dirk Bogarde at his best.
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I love “Taxi Driver”. One film that I watched that really depressed me, but I’d love to give another try, was “The Deer Hunter”. I liked it, but found it pretty bleak.
Another favorite movie of mine, in a similar vein to the Deer Hunter, is “Apocalypse Now”. I can’t even come up with words right now to describe why or how much I enjoy it.
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Dang – there’s another one I feel embarrassed to admit I’ve never seen. Apocalypse Now.
Saw The Deer Hunter many years ago and don’t remember it well – just vaguely remember feeling it was somewhat ‘ploddy’ and yeah, quite depressing. But I’m not sure if the ‘depressed’ feeling came from the storyline or just from the manner in which it was filmed.
Have also never seen Death in Venice – hope I can remedy that situation before too long.
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You mentioned re-makes earlier az. I see “The Fly’ starring Jeff Goldblum is on TV late tonight. I may watch it again as I love the awful ‘horror’of the film, set against the love story. Apparantly it is a re-make of the 1958 version. I wondered if anyone else has seen both to judge. I certainly think the later one is excellent.
But I can’t think off hand of other examples where the re-make might be better.
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I’ve seen both versions of “The Fly”. I enjoyed the remake, and think the special effects are superior to the original (duh). Theyre also a bit more “graphic”, although that’s maybe not quite the word I’m looking for. The original is campier, and I think the characters are better developed in that one. I’m not sure I can say which I prefer.
We got an oldie from the Netflix for the weekend, and it’s one I haven’t seen for a long time. “Dead Ringer” stars Bette Davis as twin sisters. One sister steals the other sister’s boyfriend, marries him, and becomes wealthy; the other sister struggles financally. When the rich widowed sister dies, the other sister tries to assume her identity and lifestyle. I remember this being one of my favorite Davis films, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it again today! 😀
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I also remember seeing ‘Dead ringer’ years ago and really enjoying it. All I can remember is a vision of a tragic Bette Davis. She is one of my real favourite actresses for the sheer incredible emotional power she could project. Really operatic. But so aware and skilled in what she was doing. A movie genius.
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Truly one of the best actresses of her time. I remember many years ago in Toronto taping All About Eve while I was away at work at my restaurant job and coming home to watch it later. I used to often tape films or tv series like Twin Peaks to watch when I came home late as I need to wind down a bit after working.
And – grrrr! – imagine my frustration when the last bit of the film was cut off! Turned out they’d started the film later than advertised due to something or other news event … but I remember sitting there at 3am going Gaaaaaaaaaa!
And so I’ve never seen the ending. Another one to add to my ever growing list …
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So that was ‘Almost All about Eve’, then. 🙂
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Having just watched The Fly again, I’ve decided it is my favourite horror film, surpassing even Alien. I’d forgotten it was Cronenberg directing. The man is an absolute master at dealing with the whole subject of flesh and sex and love. Geena Davis is brilliant in it as well as Jeff Goldblum. And it’s funny and so sad as well. And philosophical. I love Cronenberg. My advice to all here is WATCH IT.
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I love Cronenberg, too. I can’t think of a Cronenberg I haven’t enjoyed. I particularly like “The Brood”, “Videodrome”, and “Dead Ringers”.
Speaking of “Dead Ringer(s)”… (what a way to segue…)
While I definitley recall enjoying “Dead Ringer” as a kid, I definitely think I liked it better this time around. Bette was pretty darn good.
I like “All About Eve”. I hope you get to see the ending, az. I think my favorite Bette Davis film is “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte”, though. Olivia de Havilland is awesome in that one, too.
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I have a cinematic ‘guilty pleasure’. Probably the film that I’ve seen more times than any other is Gregory’s Girl, a teenage romance set in a Scottish ‘New Town.’ (translation for North Americans…actually I think the concept is untranslatable. You’d have to see one.) It stars the gawky Gordon John Sinclair, who now trades under the name of John Gordon Sinclair, plus the pixie of pop, Clare Grogan (Altered Images). Oh…and the wonderful veteran Scots comedian Chic Murray as the headmaster. I can quote whole chunks of it – much to my wife’s annoyance.
“Jesu Bambino! That’s really nifty!”
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Oh man – I love that film! Haven’t seen it in ages, but I know I’ve seen it more than once, probably four or five times at least.
It’s just sooooooo luverly.
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Other favourite bits:
The penguin (“Room 16!”)
“Away you go, you small boys”
When Gregory steps out of his door and there’s thousands of toddlers everywhere.
Gregory’s breakfast of cheese and pineapple on a dog biscuit…and the electric toothbrush.
“At leat my dad’s old, so he’s got an excuse for being a prick.”
“How many elephants are you goung to use?”
The suggestive way one of Gregory’s pals asks him “Are you going to take her down to the Country Park?”
“I only know two words of Italian – bella and…bella.”
All the guys mowing their lawns.
“Ah’ve seen it all through the windaes…tits, fannies, the lot!”
“This is Gregory. He’s buying everone chips.”
“What’s my granny going to say when I kiss her at Christmas?”
etc.
etc.
And I still fancy Clare Grogan.
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I’ve never seen that one. I wonder if it’s available here at all.
Last night we watched a good one I’d never seen before, “Sullivan’s Travels”. The film is about a producer who specilaizes in comedy movies. He decides that too many people in the world are suffering and unhappy, and that he should make a serious film that they can relate to… so he hits the road without any money, to experience life as a “tramp”. He learns something, in the end, that he didn’t quite anticipate.
I really liked it!
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Last night we watched Return of the Jedi, completing our reprise of the Star Wars trilogy.
For anyone who hasn’t watched them they’re not *just* a space opera, but more of a mythological cycle that has “a galaxy far, far away” as its setting. But the themes of the hero’s calling, testing, and final overcoming of his fears go well beyond that.
Good story, good dialogue, and, for its time, good special effects.
So if you haven’t seen it, go get a copy and do so.
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We’ve just finished watching a Spanish film called You’re The One (2000; dir José Luis Garci).
Filmed in black and white, the story takes place in post civil war Spain, 1947. A beautiful story of spiritual renewal and learning to live (and love) again.
* * * * * (five stars)
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I’m sure Gregory’s Girl will be available on Netflix. It will be avidly rented by the Scots diaspora. When I was in Canada I had a friend with Scots parents who screened it regularly.
But beware…I believe there was a US release dubbed into a more comprehensible variety of English.
‘That’s no even how you spell Caracas’
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Azahar re Narnia:
[looked out for the] *blatant Christian messages* that it was supposedly riddled with and couldn’t really find anything specific.
Nothing specific about winter turning to spring when a long-awaited saviour appears, nor when the saviour sacrifices himself and is ressurected? Nah, maybe not.
That was a mere unobjectionable allegory, though. It gets more offensive when you put it in the context of Lewis he led up to in The Last Battle (with the set up in the racist ‘A Horse And His Boy’) which puts forward his own, bizarre brand of theology. There’s little bits scattered in other places, too – like Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader gaining redemption through pain. etc. etc.
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I’d read the Narnia books as a kid, and found them a bit heavy-handed even then- though I did enjoy them. I went to a parochial grammar school, and all the kids read them. The Madeleine L’Engle books, too, which I preferred over the Narnia books even then.
Maybe I need to re-read them to see what offensive stuff went over my head at the time. I think K still has his set.
Netflix does have “Gregory’s Girl”, but the blurb Netflix provides certainly doesn’t present it in a way that makes it sound like something I’d like. Should I chance it anyway? They make it out to be a rather typical adolescent-coming-of-age tale, and adolescent angst tends to grate on my nerves.
We recently watched an old favorite of mine, “Bridge on the River Kwai”. I find the way Alec Guiness’s character becomes so obsessed with his “mission” fascinating.
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I now have a DVD copy of the 1950 film ‘Orphée’, by Jean Cocteau… I’ve been looking for this for years. It’s a slightly surreal modern-dress version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Death has exquisite clothes and very simple special effects are used cleverly. Visually stunning. I recommend it. French dialogue, English subtitles.
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I love that one! And also “Black Orpheus”, which is a musical version of the story, which place in Rio de Janeiro during Carnivale.
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Watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the first time a few days ago. Loved it. Wonderful evocation of growing up in smalltown southern USA, and learning some of the hard facts of life. And with the ‘twist in the tale’, that things are not always what we imagine.
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<i>WAH!!!</i>
Our local video rental shop has closed! Now what are we going to do??? 😦
Well, one thing we did do yesterday was find Tod Browning’s Freaks on sale for 10€ so we bought that and will watch it sometime this weekend. Neither of us has seen it before.
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“Freaks” is an old favorite of mine. Maybe that means you won’t like it much. 😉
That’s awful that your rental shop has closed!! Do you have any rent-by-mail services available?
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“Freaks is an old favorite of mine.”
Oh no! And we’d had such high hopes that we were going to enjoy it . . . 😉
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Freaks was fucking amazing! Must watch it again very soon.
There is a second disk we got with this film that is mute with subtitles … still haven’t had time to watch it. Perhaps they were out-takes or whatever – not sure yet.
What surprised me most about the film was how ‘modern’ it seemed, in terms of script and dialogue (fabulous dialogue!).
The ‘one of us’ scene I had only seen previously … somewhere out of context. Seeing it as a part of the film made it something else altogether.
I also didn’t know that Tod Browning was an ex-circus contortionist. Interesting. And not just interesting, but his obvious caring for the people involved came through big time. The only ‘freaks’ in the film ended up being the nasty ‘normal’ people. The supposed ‘real freaks’ were all treated with the utmost caring and respect. Truly a beautiful film.
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The other day listening to The Girl from Ipanema somehow led to playing my Best of Harry Nilsson cd, which then led to Nog telling me that he had never seen Midnight Cowboy! 😯
Quick trip to Amazon found it on sale for about 8 euros, so it should be here this weekend. Can’t wait to see it again. 🙂
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Since I’ve been watching more films lately I decided to dust this post off and include it in my sidebar for easier access.
So back in November we did enjoy seeing Midnight Cowboy very much – Nog for the first time.
Recently I’ve seen the third Pirates of the Caribbean (snore), Lisbon Story (fabulous), The Queen (wonderful performance by Helen Mirren) and at the moment we have Woodstock and Bombón El Perro in the queue, the latter recommended over here by Blues Shark.
What have you been watching lately? Anything you recommend?
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Just finished watching El Laberinto del Fauno, directed by Guillermo del Toro … and I’m feeling quite overwhelmed by it.
The English title is a bit misleading – Pan’s Labyrinth – as it has nothing to do with Pan.
Anyhow, a dark and beautiful film that takes place in 1944 during the Spanish civil war.
Just watch it. And then you’ll maybe know why I can’t say more about it … it just needs to be experienced.
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