With all of us being movie fanatics, film aficionados, filmmakers, and/or once film students in college, a movie screening room surfacing here in the hotel was absolutely inevitable. One day Adam Blai showed up at the hotel with a magnificent projection screen device! The next day he added an incredible wrap-around state of the art sound system! So we boarded up the windows and rewired the lighting for the room to resemble an old in-house movie theater. We hung a large white wall-size screen. We arranged several long sofas in rows pointing toward the screen. Add to this the cozy fireplace heater, smell of buttery popcorn, theater candy, movie posters and stacks of DVDs, and the enchantment level became suddenly overwhelming. This room has brought great delight to the hotel experience for all.
Three of the movies that we've returned to over and over as a group since the screening room has been set up, for whatever reasons, have been The Life Aquatic -2004, Gothic -1986, and A Mighty Wind -2003. We've watched hundreds of great films here, but I would say The Life Aquatic has played the most. Bill Murray's character Steve Zissou throughout the film takes a real beating, but, gloriously, he's got a lot of heart.
The Life Aquatic
A girlfriend of mine's favorite Disney movie long ago was Bambi. She explained how she had lost her mother when she was very young and this movie just worked for her in that Bambi experienced the same pain, thus she gravitated toward this film. We are a creative group. The films one loves are a real signature. It would be interesting to hear a quick list of everyone's favorites, or favorite movie moments, and why.
So the assignment? I ask fellow hotel inner cirle guests to list 8 and 1/2 movies they've gravitate toward at some point in their life. Not the best movies of all time, simply some movies you particularly appreciated. (Why the 1/2? I don't know...just naming it after Fellini.)
-Blair
Ok, I can do this one.
1. American Graffiti - I come from a family that has always been into classic cars. This movie was one of the first movies I remember seeing. With a cast of people like Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and Harrison Ford it tops my list of favorite movies.
2. Bullitt - This is easily my second favorite movie. Im a HUGE fan of Steve McQueen, oh and Ford Mustangs.
3. The Outsiders - I had to read this book in my freshman year of highschool, the movie was just as good.
4. 2001: A space Odyssey - Science Fiction freaks me out.
5. Red Dawn - Being and 80's child, I remember seeing this movie a long time ago.. I finally bought it about 3 years ago, and have watched it many times. While some might think its subject is a little extreme, it displays some of the worst fears of the 80's and the Cold War.
6. Kelly's Heroes - I absolutely love this movie, if you havent figured out by now, im kind of a war buff and a history buff for that matter. Clint Eastwood, Telly Salavas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'connor, and Donald Sutherland are some of my favorite actors of all time, especially Sutherland (Oddball)
7. Ben-Hur - Just a favorite, I remember seeing it as a kid, probably one of the most played movies on TV around easter.
8. Top Gun - As a kid growing up, I always wanted to be a fighter pilot. After spending years in the Airforce Aux. I have come to love this movie.
8.5 Soylent Green - Not really a reason why.. Just like Charlton Heston Films.
-Tom Leslie
1," the godfather," hey im italian, i could get killed if i dont praise this one, LOL. Seriously, a Coppola masterpiece. The baptism scene showing the pure of the faith and the horror of the mafia is classic. Coppola's daughter, a director in her own right( ( Lost in translation) was the baby in that scene.
2. "To Kill a mockinbird" a powerful message dealing with racism and prejudice that still stands today. The courtroom scene where the lawyer leaves and all the afro-american folks who had to stay up in the balcony, stand to honor him is very moving. I also like the way the director used simple shots and techniques showing shadow and emotion with close ups of hands as in the fight scene with jim , boo and mr yuell and with boo and jim as he lays in the bed.
3." Ben Hur " ive always liked big storys where the little man is wraped up in a major historic event. The power of Rome and the life of Christ all intertwined in Ben Hur's struggle in life. Again along with spectacular camera work as in the chariot scene, the director uses simple yet very powerful angles to convey very powerful emotion, as in when ben is marched off to the ships and encounters jesus and when in turn Ben hur meets christ on his way to calvary. Simple shots , close up of hands , low camera angles.
4. "The Searchers" considered the greatest and most classic western ever made. John Wayne and John Ford and Utah's monument valley--- enough said.
5. Staying with John Wayne, "True Grit" and "The Quiet Man", sometimes you just need a hero and Wayne is it. Also in the quiet man director John ford also does a masterful job in bringing the townspeople in that little irish village alive.
6. "Kundun " a masterful zen movie on the life of the Dali Lama. That other italian director, oh yeah martin produces this film like a zen koan, with artsy style and grace, yet very moving and powerful. Only our boy martin could show the devastation of Tibet at the hands of the chinese with peaceful floating musical pieces and slow camera movements.
7." Full metal Jacket" One of the most realistic war movies ever produced showing how war always leaves some kind of a mark, whether it is negative or postive to the human spirt and how when indivuals are thrust into that enviorment, right and wrong are put aside in favor of survival.
8.Horror flicks, im not a blood and guts guy although I like a really done well one like "Dawn of the Dead" I like Hitchcock when it comes to horror and suspense. I can take the time to watch any of his stuff. His total creativity in camera movement and angles is an art form. I also like those B 1950 Egar Allen Poe films, like "the Raven" cause they are all Poe masterpieces dealing with horror within the mind.
81/2."Forrest Gump," putting aside all the tricky computer photography. it tells the simple yet most basic aspect of life. We all want to be loved , by our friends , our family and our romantic interests, and by being a best friend , caring family member, and never giving up on your romantic dream you can achieve it all. Forest does this by simply being himself, showing compassion, being a friend and staying true to his heart for the woman he loves. For him life is simple and straight forward, he liked to run and cut grass, when he was tired he slept, when hungry, he ate, when he had to go, he went, LOL, very very zen in cutting through lifes complications and seeing what is truely important to us all. Well thats all i have to say, I guess by now you see a pattern with me and the simple quiet lay back aspects in life .
-Cool Hand Jaemi
Old Bone Daddy says favorite movies speak volumes about the person...
Naked Lunch seems like a good place to start. To me Cronenberg is one of the best yet most unsung of living directors. This movie is a good reason why. The combination of classic Cronenberg "horror of the body" mixed with Burrough's imaginative mythological and literary landscapes makes for a film that is disturbing and humorous. The cast is great. Howard Shore's score is great. The dialogue is smooth. Insect typewriters as correspondents from Interzone and Mugwump are as good as Weller's Bill Lee.
Angel Heart is like a Satanic Maltese Falcon. Mickey Rourke is at his best. The story is just so wonderfully perverse with the Robert Johnson soul-selling motif and erotic voodoo elements. Although certainly not the first movie to use this "trick" plot structure, to me it is certainly the best. Music is great with blues and gospel and Johnny Favorite's dark crooning. What is the story with the use of fans?
Viva Las Vegas! (these aren't really related, I'm cheating in fact)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a weird surreal spectacle of how film can be exceedingly effective in its superficiality. Acid-vaudeville of Icarus. Meaningful plot is a side note. Viewer must have come with context. You either love it or hate it I guess for having been or not been there. Acting is perfect. Dialogue is perfect thanks to being almost exactly as it is in the book.
Leaving Las Vegas. Nicholas Cage is brilliant and haunting. This movie is so good it hurts.
Mulholland Dr. David Lynch is my favorite living director. His movies are beautiful and ineffable. The acting is eerie and precise. One of the scariest moments in any film was in Lost Highway when Robert Blake approaches Bill Pullman at the party."I'm at your house right now. Call me." "What do you mean call you?" And by the way, it's Robert Blake!
A Clockwork Orange. This movie is too loaded to really get into. Best acting performance of all time for me is Malcolm McDowell as Alex. Kubrick is a master. Perhaps nobody labored as much as he on how the film would look. His films are like watching living Magical Realist paintings.
Hellraiser is like de Sade's vision of hell. Beautiful, mad, exquisitely painful. There is a significant following of women that find Pinhead incredibly sexy. I think that is great.
The Big Lebowski just gets better and better every time you watch it. "Shut the fuck up Donny!"
The Exorcist is one of the scariest movies of all time for so many reasons. Visually well done and the effects are of course brilliant and not CGI. But it is the modern rational in opposition with the irrational and unexplainable that makes it so compelling and perverse. Whether you are in, out, or in the act of falling in either direction in respect to Christianity, this movie will shove you in a different direction. It is like a horrific summary of the Western psyche's battle between faith in faith and faith in science. The direction is so masterfully dry and bleak that the feeling is that there is none in either.
So it seems this is a very masculine list... Tomorrow it could have been something completely different.
- Skot Jones
1. King Kong, 1933, the lead character who goes for Kong was a filmmaker! I was a child when I first saw it. When Fay Ray asks what does it mean? He shouts, "It's money and adventure and fame! It's the thrill of a lifetime!...and a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clock tomorrow!" Probably the quote that set my life path.
2. Altered States, 1980. Professor Jessup doesn't hesitate, pass the buck onto another, or wait to be safe about his explorations into the secrets of the Universe and the Cosmic Self. He throws caution to the wind and becomes his own astronaut and drives direct into the center of what he's curious to learn. In my teens this film was an example in conviction. Also, I was a little weird like him -even sought out deprivation tanks and took my teenage friends.
3. Lenny, 1974, All That Jazz, 1979, Star 80, 1983. Anything by Bob Fosse! In film schoool he was my God. Fosse's overlapping, saturated editing style was pre-MTV fast cutting. My entire student film STEPS, 1988?, was a tribute to Fosse's style. I was devasted when he died because I so wanted to work with him.
4. Apocolypse Now, 1979. Actually, any films where the director was bold and mad, shooting his film in an extreme location. My friends and I went to film school so our heroes were those filmmakers that only wanted to push the envelope. Werner Herzog with Fitzcarraldo, 1982, and Francis Ford Coppola with Apocolypse Now, 1979, were leading insane men we loved. People died on Herzog's set! At one time I aspired for this kind of endeavor -film location as furious over the top adventure- and everybody on Jugular Wine, 1994?, will tell you it was madness. Alaska? Baird was such a trooper.
5. Summer Lovers, 1982. I know, I know, if you rent this film you'll wonder why the heck this was on my list. But when everyone was gravitating toward other teen flicks like Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire I swam deep into Summer Lovers. They escape into a legendary Greek island landscape, explore an uninhibited sexual love trio, embody a bit of mythology...I'm there!
6. Ciao! Manhatton, 1972. With Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, it kind of haunted me. Didn't fully know why. Most of my friends hated it but I loved it. I saw it as the eventual wave of film to come when everyone would start making their own films when the ease of digital would arrive. Edie dies in the end of filming and they encorporate her real death into the film. I thought that was pretty hardcore. Now I'm making Coolsville, 2006?, and my brother Brett, also a character in it, died for real and is similarly in my pic. Strange parallel going on between these two films.
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968, and all those high end Art films. Hours of film school worshiping cinema. Disney's Fantasia, 1940. Anything black and white. All the French New Wave, Breathless, 1959, The 400 Blows, 1959. Russian Sergei Eisenstein's editing theories. At University of Bridgeport swooning over THX-1138, 1971, Stranger Than Paradise, 1984, Rumblefish, 1983, Taxidriver, 1976, Godfather I, 1972, and II, 1974, Citizen Kane, 1941, Stardust Memories, 1980, Bladerunner, 1982, Last Tango in Paris, 1972, Raging Bull, 1980, Woman in the Dunes, 1964. etc etc etc. Oh, I'm so cheating here by mentioning so many. I also loved all the early black and white horror films. The Mummy 1932. Later The Exorcist, 1973. The opening of The Hunger, 1983. So many works. More recent juicy works like Fight Club, 1999, Closer, 2004, Sexy Beast, 2000, Donnie Darko, 2001 -in it Donnie's imaginary friend Frank at the cinema asks, "Have you ever seen a portal?" and he turns to look to a film screen! Love it. Lately I'm back into long sweeping films about solitude or holy missions, Kundun, 1997, The Messenger, 1999, Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, Seven Samurai, 1954, Andrei Rublev, 1969...
(Andrei Reublev)
8. Not a favorite or anything, just ran across it the other day, Shattered Glass, 2003, about a jerk reporter who makes up his news stories and the struggling new editor who has to deal with it. Not like this is any great filmmaking or anything because stylistically there's not much too it. But a young magazine editor is forced to rise to the occasion and embrace total honesty regardless of the pressure from his peers. I see stories like that Richard Gere movie Unfaithful where he and his wife kill someone and the point of the story is how to get out of blame(?!), or the Jennifer Aniston character in Friends who lies as a way of problem-solving in every situation, and then each lie is followed by a laugh track(!?) and I just want to throw up! So I just wanted to tip my hat to a film that attempts to instead create an example of how to rise to an inner integrity. We need more films with examples like this. So bravo.
(George Clooney's Michael Clayton is another example of a movie about rising to integrity. Loved it. )
1/2. Romeo + Juliet, 1996, by Baz Luhrumann, a canvas of deep romance, overly sensual, a dedication to enchantment and beauty, when the two young lovers meet and see each other through the fish tank...its wonderful filmmaking. The music in it rocks too. Speaking of wonderful filmmaking, there are moments in Spike Jonze's Adaptation, 2002, which also reach for profound beauty. Film is only 100 years old. It took writing thousands of years to find its Shakespear. Imagine the kind of profound beauty in film we have ahead of us yet to come?
That's my list this week.
-Blair
Hi Gang,
Relatively new to town (again) &
definitely new to this group. Heard
alot of good things about this group
& hope to meet you all soon.
Difficult to pick only 8 & 1/2 (I have my Top Twelve
broken down into these Genres: Top12 US Silents,
Top12 US Talkies, Top12 Foreign Silents, Top12
Foreign Talkies. Rather than bore younse guys with
a list of 48 titles, I'll try to just pick 8 & 1/2 from each list.
In chronological order:
1) "Phantom of the Opera" (1925)- Lon Chaney's defining role; the
atmosphere, the sets, the story, the Chaney...
2) "Metropolis" (1927)- Art Deco gone mad; the story, the sets,
a very hot Brigitte Helm, the Robotrix.... Has influenced everything
from Blade Runner to Dark City...
3) "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928)- one of Keaton's greatest comedies:
the cyclone sequence, the steamboats, the story, Buster pulls out all
the stops in this silent classic. (And being a Pisces I guess the water
played an effect on me choosing thsi one as well...
4) "Casablanca" (1943)- Bogie's best. Great story, great cast, great sets,
great music, great lines. Not a weak spot in this film; have watched it
countless times, never get tired of of it.
5) "Bachelor & the Bobby-Soxer" (1947)- One of the great screwball
comedies of all time (won Oscar for best screenplay that year).
Cary Grant & Myrna Loy go one-on-one in this romantic comedy, with
great support from a teen-age Shirley Temple & former '20's crooner
Rudy Vallee. Great lines, great scenes, great performances. Grant is an
artist with women getting him in trouble, & Loy is a judge & guardian
to her teen-age sister (Temple) who develops a crush on Grant. (She's
chasing him; he's running from her...).
6) "The Third Man" (1949)-Carol Reed's immortal classic of the mysterious
Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who is supposedly dead (but is not). Set in
post-WWII Vienna, with great cinematography, scenes (like the
ferris wheel scene), & performances by Welles & Joseph Cotten....
7) "The Quiet Man" (1952)- John Ford's classic film of a transplanted Yank
(John Wayne) returning home to Ireland, courting Maureen O'Hara, &
mysteriously avoiding fighting her bullying brother, played by Victor
McLaglin (ex-European Heavyweight champ). Great story, great
cinematography, beautiful countryside, great supporting cast (Barry
Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, & the rest of Ford's stock company...).
"Wings of Desire" (1988)-Wim Wender's ethereal musings of two angels
& one who becomes human (Bruno Ganz). Also starring Peter Falk (as
himself...) & Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Great cinematography,
great story & performances. (German classic remade with Nick Cage
as "City of Angels.")
8.5) "Cinema Paradiso" (1989)- A movie for movie-lovers. Italian classic
about a filmmaker who returns to his old hometown for the first
time since he left as a young man, to attend an old friend's (the
projectionist at the town's only movie theatre) funeral.
The ending will knock you out.
After looking this list over I realized that I have not really addressed Blair's followup question ("& why?") although I thought I did. While they are great (& I do not use that term freely) films on their own & highly regarded by most cinephiles, I guess the reason they are on my favorites
list is because they speak to me emotionally, aesthetically, artistically,
& cinematically. Sorry for being long-winded....(Not really sure why the Emoticon is appearing by "Wings of Desire"...it just popped up on its own;
maybe its a ghost in the machine....)
- Silent Cinema Bill
When Aimee Kast lived here in the Grand Midway she played Tom Green's 2001 silly comedy Freddy Got Fingered over and over and over on re-loop, sometimes for days! So that counts as her entire 8 films.
The 1/2 would perhaps be the Disney film The Cat From Outer Space.
Filmmaker Baird Bryant wrote:
Hello, Baird here. Blair asked for a list of my favorite movies, so here goes:
Les Enfant de Paradis (Children of Paradise), Marcel Carne
Citizen Kane
La Strada, Fellini
Sunset Boulevard, Billlie Wilder
Au Bout de Souffle (Breathless), Godard
The Wild One, Laszlo Benedek
Casablanca, Michael Curtiz
The Maltese Falcon, Roy del Ruth
2001, Kubrick
Apocalypse Now, Coppola
-Baird Bryant
American History X - By far my favorite movie of all time. I absolutely believe the characters, and I cry for them every time. It's a story of the past chasing you and eventually catching up - and in so doing, hurting the inocent people you love. I can deeply relate to this. There are a LOT of people from my past who refuse to let me go, and a lot of friends now who are getting sick of it.
Fight Club - Okay, yes, the book was better, but what book isn't? We must make allowances. Still, this version hits pretty close. I love this movie because of the perfectly believable distorted reality. We all lose touch every now and then, to some extent. Isn't it sweet to not feel alone? Not to mention the fact that we have our own fight club in the basement...
Pi - My first gritty independent cinema experience which set the stage for my developing movie preferences. Besides, I adore the way the torture of a genius is presented. I was raised to think that you can never be too smart or study too much. Well, I ask you. I never quite believed it anyway. This movie proves said theory wrong. I think most of us would choose a regular level of intelligence over stalkers and searing headaches and eventual brain-drilling, eh? Beautiful nightmare.
Fearless - I am preoccupied with the psychology of near-death experiences, and never has a movie portrayed this so thoroughly, so romantically, or so eerily. I could watch it every day. The only thing more terrifying than the fear of death is the boundless liberation of LOSING that fear. Strawberries, anyone?
Quills - The most intense battle over censorship that has ever been put on film. But, I firmly believe we must have limits. And as this often-horrifying movie shows, I'm probably right. Go on, engage me in a censorship debate sometime. I'll make your head spin. Or perhaps I'll just show you Quills, and see what you think then.
Titanic - I have to include it. I've seen it more than any other movie, and I literally know every single line in the film. I used to have a Friday night tradition when I was a kid. Watch Titanic. Every single Friday. For like three straight years, I never missed a viewing. Love it, love it, love it! Oh, the drama...
Day of the Locust - The first movie to absolutely terrify me in quite awhile. And you won't find it under the horror genre either. No, it deals with the more true-to-life horror of Hollywood, back in its early days. Never will a movie torture you so much mentally. The first time I viewed it, I literally had to walk out for a few minutes and catch my breath. I swore I'd never watch it again. But ah, there is a fine line between love and hate, and it didn't take me long to realize I was straddling it. So I rented it and watched it again...and again...and again. It never gets easier, but something in me adores the genius that can make me feel so deliciously sickened without the use of gore and monsters. If you just walk in on someone watching it, all you'll mostly see is people talking. It's glorious, glorious subtle horror which builds to an unspeakably revolting climax! Watch this movie. I can't emphasize it enough. I guarantee you will think twice about fame and fortune and its true cost, and more than twice about losing yourself in the pursuit.
Napoleon Dynamite - It's charming! I dig it. It's just the story of some nerd and his adventures as he rides his bike, makes friends, and battles with his annoying dopey uncle. I say "sweet" all the time now. It's so simple, and yet so brilliant. It's like Seinfeld, only (dare I say it?) SWEETER.
Requiem For A Dream - This one is my half. I like it all right, the drug scenes are phenomenal, the story is heartbreaking, and the music is positively orgasmic. Those haunting violins... But it just feels too rushed in places, so rushed as to almost seem ridiculous at times. Maybe I ruined it for myself by reading the book first. The book goes into so much more depth with the characters. But all that characterization is tough to translate onto film, I know, especially within the set time limits, so I'd say it's sublime effort. It's by the same person who did Pi, and it was my second independent mindfuck which pointed me down the path of favoring dark, independent, surreal flicks. It's on my heart. And I can't finish this write-up without giving a nod to Jared Leto, star of this grim urban fable, for being my fsvorite actor and for being so darned sexy as a crackhead.
These are my prime choices for viewing pleasure in our cozy screening room, the first room I ever hung out in on my fateful original visit to the hotel. We watched The Life Aquatic. I'll never forget it. It was mind-blowing, all those colors on that massive screen. Thanks to Adam Blai for making it all possible!
Also, I must mention one more movie. I can't count it amongst movies that have shaped me because our aquaintance has been too brief and other films deserve the placement more, but one movie I have watched numerous times in the room is The New World, the story of Captain Smith and Pocahontas. Such a beautiful love story which eliminates all the annoying flirting and graphic sex of love flicks anymore. It puts the sanctity back in relationships. In fact, the lovely young girl's narration about her lover is all done in the form of gorgeous prayers. It really touches the heart. The forest scenery is incredibly breathtaking. It all takes me back to Starwood...and the fairy trees...and the man of my heart.
I close with my favorite quote from the New World (ironically!)
"He is like a dream
He shelters me
I lie in his shade.
Can I ignore my heart?
...I will be faithful to you,
True."
-Pocahontas
- Renee Angle
Holy Mountain
Bedazzled (The original with Cook & Moore. Avoid the remake!)
Wicker Man (Again... The original... Avoid the horrid remake!)
9th Configuration
Salo
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
The Graduate
Phantom Of The Paradise
When You Coming back Red Ryder?
-Damien Youth
1. Deer Hunter, for the friendship in the war and after between friends.
2. The Great Escape, because the rebel character of Steve Mcqueen.
3. Apocalipsis Now, Special effects and the superb delivery by Marlon Brandon.
4. Scar Face, an all americana 20th century movie, gangsters , drugs and sex.
5. Gangs of New York, after slavery had been abolished New York still was the biggest slavery market.
6. E.T , a funny way of portraying a more advanced culture from outer space.
7. Blow, an enterprise way to become rich out of the commerce of drugs.
8. Fahrenheit 9/11, the real truth of 9/11 events, cover ups and players.
1/2 Taxi driver, because I drove a taxi before.
My best wishes, sex , love and money and wine. -Manuel Ibarra
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8 and ½ Movies – by Deanna Kane
Not in any particular order…I love them all pretty much equally….
1. The Exorcist: Hands down scariest movie ever made. I remember walking through our living room when I was little & my parents were watching this. I saw the part where Regan’s head was spinning around and had nightmares for a week. I couldn’t watch it the whole way through until I was about 17-18.
2. Romeo & Juliet: Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann versions both! I watched the original in 8th grade, I believe & fell in love with love. I had a girl crush on Olivia Hussey and her lovely flowing long hair. Then later when the Baz Luhrmann version came out I was enthralled again. (loved Claire Danes from her “My So-Called Life” days) I think this later version was again beautifully well done, a visual feast for the eyes.
3. The Dark Crystal: Classic tale of Good vs. Evil, fantastically done by Jim Henson & Frank Oz. This is one of the most enchanting movies I’ve ever seen. I love it as much now as when I first saw it. I love Augra’s crazy dog Fizzgig in this too, he’s a total scene stealer!
4. It’s a Wonderful Life: by Frank Capra. It’s a staple on nearly every channel around Christmas! I resisted & resisted, until one day I sat down and watched…..wow! Truly a classic, I was charmed by Jimmy Stewart, I thought he was fun to watch. Must admit, I’ve often wondered myself what would life be like if I had never existed?
5. Goodfellas: I’m pretty much a sucker for any mob movie, but this one is hands down my favorite. Got some heavy hitters here, DeNiro, Pesci, Liotta, all brilliant. Awesome story. Action packed. Great music. This movie is just so freaking good, I can’t find any flaw whatsoever. A true gem.
6. Heathers: I loved Winona Ryder in this, and had a huge crush on Christian Slater so this one was a win-win for me! Wicked, fun, dark & twisted high school comedy.
7. A Christmas Story: Another Christmas one makes my list! This is another I so avidly dodged every time it was on! I finally sat down one day & watched & realized hey!, this is an incredibly fun, smart, endearing movie! So ahead of it it’s time too, I think anyhow, with addressing the camera directly. I can still hear the Santa at the mall with the bellowing “HO….HO….HO….” & the boot to the face to push the kids down the slide.
8. Pretty Woman: Don’t care if I get crap for this one. I loooove it! Guilty pleasure indeed! Modern Cinderella story, period. And…..I can recite every line.
½: Gia: I count this one as my half movie, since it was an HBO movie. Sex, drugs, models, glamour, it is all here. Based on the life of Gia Carangi, a model from the 70s, Angelina Jolie is so utterly captivating and breathtaking, you too would go anywhere with her.
-Deanna Kane
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1. Betty Blue - Beautiful, tragic, light and dark combined to play out some of the demons the artistic are meant to battle. And adapted so seamlessly from the book, which I do not find happens all that often.
2. All That Jazz - I really should just encompass all films Fosse as the list would be full of those anyway. This one in particular was such a phenomenal, flawless, epic management of subject matter and mentality that will endlessly inspire and fascinate me. But add to #2 Jesus Christ Superstar and Cabaret.
3. Diner - Endless wit and incomparable characters. A masterpiece of the art of a good storyline and good actors.
4. Local Hero - Timeless charm, humor, characterization and quirk combined to offset a gorgeous back drop.
5. Casablanca - Humphrey Bogart - have LOVED him for a lifetime. This classic piece of perfection never grows old for me. The old Hollywood studio factory production styling, actors, suggestions, subtle nuances. A rare and unique treasure.
6. Breakfast at Tiffany's - I know I know - how predictable. But please see above referenced Casablanca for the same timeless perfection description.
7. Fight Club - Too many reasons to even begin to list the love I have for this film and book. Mind blowingly intricate and clever and challenging and boastful and real and gritty and just LOVE LOVE LOVE. And i don't care much for Brad Pitt - but he redeemed himself for me in this (and Twelve Monkeys I guess).
8. Hair - I don't care what anyone says. Twyla Tharp and Central Park will FOREVER have my heart. Plus, the songs man...the SONGS.
1/2. Barefoot in the Park - For which I was named and will forever find delightful.
Thank you for including my opinion in this survey of yours. It was fun. -Courtney (Ford) Del Ponte
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1. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane
2. Cabinet of Dr. Calgari
3. Spider Baby
4. Trick R Treat
5. Metropolis
6. Quay Brother's Street of Crocodiles
7. Jan Svankmajer's Alice
8. Death Becomes Her
1/2. Addams Family/Addams Family Values
That was extremely difficult. I really wanted to toss Perfume in there too. -Kelly Macabre Noir
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1. 2001: a space odyssey: the most profound cinematic statement of man's place in the grand scheme of things. ponderous and unwieldy yet oddly compelling.
2. the wizard of oz: the very definition and practically the starting line of imagination in cinema.
3. the graduate: where irony and ennui meet on the battlefield of cross generational betrayal and lust to the dulcet sounds of silence and one word, plastic.
4. blue velvet: lifts up the rock in the well kept suburban lawns of the 80s and finds a surreal festering world teeming with ether-fueled slugs and candy colored clowns.
5. blade runner: atmospheric future noir that is still visionary.
6. repo man: densely packed punk sci fi/comedy hybrid that never fails to yield new details and insights on repeated viewings.
7. duck soup: satire, slapstick and anarchy reign supreme in freedonia
8. logan's run: i saved the guiltiest pleasure and my most personal choice for last. it inspired one of my favorite songs, city of domes. always loved the look of the city and admired the concept.
-Tommy Amoeba
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It was hard to pick just a few because I am a movie eater, you know. Not in some particular order.
1. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosava. Mifune's role; this energy, his powerful presence on the screen. Need I say more?
2. Seventh Seal by Bergman. It's literally the series of paintings in move.
3. The Last Temptation of Christ by Scorsese. The real study of man's spiritual path. And beautiful music by Peter Gabriel
4. Godfather I and II - the study of man's fall.
5. Mel Brooks's comedies. I needed to included all of them as one. All of them always made me laugh. I like this type of humour
6 Monty Python's trilogy - Yes, for the same reason as above - I had to include Pythons too.
7. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - for its surreal humour AND logic.
8. Apocalypse Now - I believe one could write another book about this film (and book by Conrad). Why do I like this film? I guess, I treasure this film because in a very frank and blunt way it tells us that it does not need much to turn a human into a primitive beast and that so called civilisation is just an illusion.
1/2 Interview with the Vampire - more for the sentiment, really. It's also a symbol for all these Gothic and quasi Gothic films I've ever seen and which bring back sweet memories of my teen years.
-Ania Seeks Duende
1. Conan the Barbarian. I saw this film as a young man and it was my first introduction to the archetypal hero's journey story. I had read Gilgamesh and other things in school was it wasn't tractable and I never "got it". Seeing this movie appealed to that go forth and conquer your challenges as well as the mystical and subconscious drives that are far more powerful than worldly concerns. I know this movie is considered juvenile by most, and in a way it is, but it was also my introduction to the oldest story in the world.
2. Koyaanisqatsi. I first saw this film with my late uncle John. Later I held John's hand along with the minister as his heart finally stopped. John introduced me to a lot of music (David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Phillip Glass, etc.) and art (Andy Warhol, classic sculpture, etc.). I had never heard minimalist music before and really appreciated it. There is certainly a presence of the mystical in the music. My primitive environmental concerns at that time were pointed to in an obtuse way I couldn't understand at the time. Later in life I got a degree in earth science and sat on the board of a landfill...so this film has run a sort of course of completion in my tiny life.
3. Star Wars. My father and I saw Star Wars 13 times in the year that it came out. Seeing Darth Vader step toward you for the first time through the smoke of the door breaking is a powerful thing for a child who has never seen such images. The mystical journey of Luke from bumbling child to semi-competent adept with no sense of his true connection to the force is also the hero's journey, with a more Eastern sensibility. I think this film tapped into that and also issues of meditation and the potential of magic in the human state. I wouldn't understand until much later in life that magic in the form of prayer and the response of the force (God) to intention is actually real and happens.
4. Prince of Darkness. This John Carpenter film explored the other side of the mystical coin and it came after the other films I've listed above. This film is cheesy and simple in some ways but the ideas behind it are not at all. In a sense this is more of a Lovecraft film to me than any cheesy attempts to make lovecraft stories into movies. The horror of the ideas behind this movie are far worse than the present dangers the characters are in. The greater fear of the side of evil "winning" and the implications of that are summed up in the woman's face before she throws herself through the mirror toward the end. More recently I've been working with a high energy physicist to understand the dimensional theories that might explain some of the data we gather in our work against the demonic...and that same kind of edgy fearful awareness that there is something on the other side of the mirror of our perspective all the time, good and bad, is back.
5. Urga - Close to Eden. This amazing film is from Mongolia. I saw this in college on one of our weekly "Thursday foreign film nights" where foreign grad students from many countries would come and crowd our beat living room. This movie was one of the best and most touching from that year. I loved living with people from all over the world as roommates to get a sense of the world and this movie was so strong that it gave me that same benefit in a way. There is no easy way to sum up the value of this movie or why it's worth watching. I still feel complex emotions and see images shifting in my mind just thinking about it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urga_(film)
6. Constantine. Since an ever expanding part of my life is taken up with helping people of all faiths with demonic problems I relate to this movie. There are actually many hints and clues to some of the rules and realities of dealing with demons in this movie. It is certainly over the top and hollywood but the basics of the issues are there. I don't think someone would be able to pick them out unless they were in the work but for those of us that are there are some neat moments.
7. The Life Aquatic. This very dry comedy is brilliantly written. For me this film is about the struggle of people to relate and interact in spite of and because they are being themselves. It is also about the struggle to be intimate with the world while being honest, a difficult and scary thing to do as the constant rejection can beat one down to the condition we find Zissou in...still valiantly himself but almost despondent for the worlds lack of appreciation, faith, and trust in what he offers...himself, honestly.
8 1/2. The films I'll appear in. On my own hero's journey, in art and spirit, the world seems to be taking an interest. I hope that when the key plot points are met and something is shown or said about this oldest story I walked through that there is something of value there. Perhaps encouragement, perhaps hints and clues about what's to come for that child sitting there, perhaps a warning or example that keeps the next generation on a long and fruitful journey of their own as opposed to a life slept through and through or wasted in fear. God, let me not waste mine!
-Adam Blai