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RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:44:18 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

Actually, your'e not too far off the mark there

I want you to watch Unwilling Lovers and then to try and get others to watch it.

Or Golden Showers of the 70s.

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1951

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:44:53 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

Moju is fucking brilliant. Also, I think I only saw it because of your first list.

Have you seen any of his other films?

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1952

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:47:42 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

Richard Pryor was a comedy god back in the day and I love all of his concert films.

Unfortunately his regular films mostly ranged from patchy to piss poor, but I do like Stir Crazy.

He was better than his films for the most part, but he did do stuff like Blue Collar, and he was in Lost Highway and California Suite and In God We Tru$t, The Mack, Uptown Saturday Night, etc. It was just the more family friendly stuff didn't suit him.

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1953

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:48:21 AM

jiraffejustin

Posts: 446
Joined: 29/3/2011

quote:

ORIGINAL: rawlinson

quote:

Moju is fucking brilliant. Also, I think I only saw it because of your first list.

Have you seen any of his other films?

Nope, I can't say that I have.

(in reply to rawlinson)

Post #: 1954

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:50:14 AM

MonsterCat

Posts: 6230
Joined: 24/3/2011
From: St. Albans, Hertfordshire

quote:

ORIGINAL: rawlinson

He was better than his films for the most part, but he did do stuff like Blue Collar, and he was in Lost Highway and California Suite and In God We Tru$t, The Mack, Uptown Saturday Night, etc. It was just the more family friendly stuff didn't suit him.

I always forget Blue Collar and Lost Highway for some reason. Both good flicks.

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Post #: 1955

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 12:56:16 AM

elab49

Posts: 51645
Joined: 1/10/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: rawlinson

quote:

It's more how spoilers ruin the viewing (well, for me, which might make it a piss-poor analogy tbh). But you seem to know so much about so many comedians and it seems to affect the way you listen to them - eg is it possible you might have a different view on Kay's work initially if you hadn't been aware of some stories around him? I wondered if you'd ever thought if you might find them funny if you didn't know the backstory? I just tend to know stuff I find out in passing (quite often from you!). Or is it irrelevant because you pretty much know how you feel about them before the other stuff trickles through?

Well, with Kay, I think That Peter Kay Thing and the first series of Phoenix Nights are actually ok. Neither are brilliant, but there was potential to both. My dislike of Kay comes from the abysmal stand-up, the second series of Phoenix Nights, all the joke-free X-Factor stuff that's come since, the singles, etc. I think most comedians do something they're ashamed of, or that reflects really badly on their other stuff. Look at some of the films Pryor churned out. I don't really care if someone does something for the money, as long as that money gets fed back into allowing them the chance to do the stuff they really want to do. I think I tend to have a problem with bigger name comedians a lot of the time because I think they're making some abysmal things and they're given a pass on it, and they're often the kind of comedians who thrive on their adoring fans. And those adoring fans generally won't hear a bad word about them. And I think it's something that's got even more extreme in the Twitter age, when you can have someone like Gervais turn in something like Derek and then turn in some of the most cynical pr I've ever seen. Did you catch what he was doing on Twitter? He was quoting the show, and telling people how much he loved Derek. As if Derek was a real person. And he got waves of support for this, from people who should be intelligent enough to realise that this is a person quoting lines he's written, and talking about how much he adores his own creation. And I think that overwhelming praise, and a consensus in comedy, is never a good thing. I can't remember who said it, it may have been Bill Hicks, but he basically said that when a comedian sees a consensus forming they should immediately turn the other way. And I really think that's when comedians and comedy shows lose their way, when they have a very large and vocal consensus telling them how wonderful they are all the time. And sadly, because everyone is so connected to each other today, that point seems to come quicker. But I can find out someone is a gigantic prick in real life, and still be ok with their work if they're turning in great stuff. But if someone is a prick and mediocre, it annoys me all the more because I don't think they've earned the right to be a prick.

Seems to be a happy medium (which, sadly, thanks to report writing may be about the 5th time I've used that phrase today - I need to shoot myself

).

I hope you don't mind me asking - I was interested with the reviews of the show you've been listening (?) to in TV and Radio. And I hadn't seen the Gervais stuff - I pretty much avoid all mention with him. Life is less 'throwing things at the TV' that way.

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Post #: 1956

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 1:30:47 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

Nope, I can't say that I have.

Give Red Angel a try.

quote:

I always forget Blue Collar and Lost Highway for some reason. Both good flicks.

Probably because they're dramas and the mind just doesn't go there with Pryor.

quote:

I hope you don't mind me asking - I was interested with the reviews of the show you've been listening (?) to in TV and Radio.

No, that's fine.

Do you mean the WTF and Nerdist stuff? WTF is endlessly fascinating because it really allows people to open up about some of the less endearing stuff they've done. It was nice to see Robin Williams asked about the joke thefts, and have him own up to it and give a reasoning for it that I could mostly understand. It's actually like a less respectable Desert Island Discs, just without the music. Craig Ferguson is going to be on this Thursday's episode, can't wait, he's a fascinating guy in general. Nerdist is far more laid-back and geeky and they've interviewed Matt Smith, David Tennant, etc as well as comedians. WTF can be far more confrontational.

There's also Doug Loves Movies, which is a movie based panel game, They have comedians/actors/directors on to chat a little and then play The Leonard Maltin game. Which I am awesome at. John Lithgow was amazing on that, btw, just came across as a really nice and funny guy with a good sense of humour about himself.

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ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1957

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 1:46:14 AM

elab49

Posts: 51645
Joined: 1/10/2005

I think the WTF ones? That seems to be the comedians.

I was envisaging something like Mornington Crescent but the Maltin game sounds much more doable! I've not really gotten into podcasts - I've been spending too much money on Audiogo for that.

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Films watched 2012

Annual Poll 2012 Countdown Started.

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Post #: 1958

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 5:49:54 AM

Gimli The Dwarf

Posts: 73480
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Central Park Zoo

quote:

ORIGINAL: rawlinson

Yeah, but childhood love is different to adult love, as the police keep telling me. You don't still run around pretending to be your favourite character do you? If you do, when do we get to see the gold bikini shots?

It wasn't a childhood fave of mine. I was well into my teens when I saw it but it very definitely boosted my love of films, and my desire to watch anything and everything came from this. And I never pretended to be my favourite character, though I do often tend to find myself talking in Yoda speak and there are literally hundreds of situations (well, a few anyway) when it's appropriate to make the noise of either a lightsabre, a TIE fighter or Vader's "most impessive". I also tend to find myself saying, when any urgency is needed, "Open the blast doors". Only the Muppets and LOTR have seeped into my life more

< Message edited by Gimli The Dwarf -- 9/5/2012 5:55:03 AM >

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Post #: 1959

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 5:54:15 AM

Gimli The Dwarf

Posts: 73480
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Central Park Zoo

Rope's great, Arsenic and Old Lace is a masterpiece, 400 Blows is awful,, Way Out West should be 257 places higher, quite like I Walked With A Zombie, When The Wind Blows is just gorgeous, adore The Ladykillers, A Single Man is a bit meh, Solaris is a cure for insomnia, Witchfinder's brilliant and Moju was wonderfully mad.

_____________________________

So, sir, we let him have it right up! And I have to report, sir, he did not like it, sir.

Fellow scientists, poindexters, geeks.

Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science!

Much more better!

(in reply to rawlinson)

Post #: 1960

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 7:42:25 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

It wasn't a childhood fave of mine. I was well into my teens when I saw it but it very definitely boosted my love of films, and my desire to watch anything and everything came from this. And I never pretended to be my favourite character, though I do often tend to find myself talking in Yoda speak and there are literally hundreds of situations (well, a few anyway) when it's appropriate to make the noise of either a lightsabre, a TIE fighter or Vader's "most impessive". I also tend to find myself saying, when any urgency is needed, "Open the blast doors". Only the Muppets and LOTR have seeped into my life more

So you were just a really geeky teen then?

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1961

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 7:43:53 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

230. The Bitter Tea of General Yen

1933; Frank Capra

Barbara Stanwyck plays Megan Davis, who arrives in Shanghai to marry a missionary, just as civil war breaks out. Caught up in the turmoil, she is knocked unconscious and wakes up in the palace of General Yen. The seemingly cruel Yen becomes infatuated with her and keeps her prisoner. It is discovered that Yen's concubine, Ma Li has been spying for the enemy. Yen sentences her to death but Davis pleads for her life, offering to answer for Ma Li's actions if she betrays Yen again. Davis tries to instill her beliefs in Christian forgiveness in Yen, while at the same time finding herself drawn to not only Chinese culture, but to Yen himself.

The film looks incredible, the most impressive of Capra's work on a visual level. But it's also surprisingly subversive for Capra. I never really believed that Capra had the naive belief in the basic goodness of people that is often used to describe his work, and once you get past the sentimentality there is a bit more of an edge to his film. But I don't think he ever made a film like this again, not only was he never as cynical again, but he was never as sexual and sensual again.

Casting Stanwyck was an obvious help, but the fact that the film has this deeper sensuality is down to far more than just her performance. And here she never really has to be as alluring as she is in Double Indemnity or Ball Of Fire. So much of the focus is on her and her psychology. She's prim and proper, with that sense of horrible cultural superiority that could often go along with missionary work. She rejects her sexuality and her attraction to Yen for so much of the film. She's unable to break down the cultural boundaries that have been erected around her, and this enigmatic man is threatening to both her ideas on race and on sexuality. The sense of revulsion mixed with sexual attraction she feels for Yen is suffocating. The most striking exploration is in the much lauded dream sequence, where Stanwyck finds herself menaced in her bedroom by a threatening Chinese man, only to be saved by Yen, dressed in western clothes and ready to seduce her. As for Yen himself, what could have been a simple cultural stereotype is undercut in ways that were incredibly daring for the period. Yen is cruel, and he's cynical, but he's also cultured and wise. And you just know that Davis would have lived a far happier life with that complicated man than she ever would with her oh so proper missionary.

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

(in reply to rawlinson)

Post #: 1962

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 7:47:53 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

229. The Exterminating Angel

1962; Luis Bunuel

An aristocrat named Nobile has invited his elite friends to his home after seeing an opera. The guests are all the elite upper classes. The guests exchange pleasantries, gossip and bitch about each other while waiting for a feast to be served. After the meal, the guests talk through the night, none of them wanting to leave. In the morning, they discover the servants have all fled but they are now unable to leave with no rational reason why they're stuck. The people outside can't get in to help them and eventually they quarantine the manor for fear that a disease may spread.

Bunuel uses this surreal scenario for a savage attack on the bourgeoisie. Bunuel mocks the snobbish attitude of the guests, exposing their rules and politeness as nothing but a sham. The guests become prisoners in their superficial world and soon the manor starts to decay around them. The people deteriorate along with their surroundings, dispose of their society manners, and are soon fighting over scraps of food. Suicide, incest and witchcraft become the order of the day. Once they eventually escape they find themselves trapped once more, this time in a church, replacing one empty lifestyle for another.

Bunuel himself said there was no explanation for the film, but the allegories are there for everyone to see. In the best tradition of the theatre of the absurd, there's a streak of sardonic black comedy running through the film that makes the social indictment all the more powerful. It's all too easy to dismiss Bunuel as pointless surrealism but there's a power to his films beyond the imagery and even if the point of the story is elusive, so what? What's so wrong with having to work a little when watching a film? There's an eerie power to Bunuel's films and The Exterminating Angel is quite possibly his creepiest work. A superb film from a creative genius.

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1963

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 7:51:04 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

I was envisaging something like Mornington Crescent but the Maltin game sounds much more doable! I've not really gotten into podcasts - I've been spending too much money on Audiogo for that.

Yeah, the Maltin game is fun. Although rather sad when you just hear a category and a year and you start yelling out negative names.

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

(in reply to rawlinson)

Post #: 1964

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 7:54:30 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

228. North By Northwest

1959; Alfred Hitchcock

North By Northwest is an odd combination between a comedy/romance, a nightmarish thriller and a conspiracy tale. Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, an ad exec who gets mistaken for an undercover agent named Kaplan. Grant is kidnapped and taken to the mansion of enemy spy James Mason and interrogated. When Grant refuses to admit he's Kaplan, Mason tries to have him executed. He escapes but is framed for murder and forced to go on the run, pursued by both the spies and the police. While escaping on a train he meets Eva Marie Saint, who seems to be helping him, but can she be trusted?

North By Northwest is one of the lightest films Hitchcock made in America. Taken on its own terms it's a charming and seemingly effortless affair, but in the context of Hitchcock's career, coming in the middle of between The Wrong Man, Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds it comes across as a light breeze of a film. That's not to say the film doesn't have darker elements, it's just that here Hitchcock seemed to be really indulging his fun-seeking side. He filled the film with amazing set-pieces, from Grant's drunken drive down a winding mountain road to the legendary escape through a cornfield from a crop duster and the Mt. Rushmore finale. The witty interplay between Grant and Eva Marie Saint, thanks to Ernest Lehman's wonderful script, adds greatly to the playful feel of the film.

One of Hitchcock's recurring themes is the innocent man accused, something he returns to here. Grant's Roger Thornhill is the latest in a long line of Hitchcockian heroes forced to prove their innocence. Although it has to be said that this has a much lighter feel than his last venture into this territory, The Wrong Man. It's almost as if The Wrong Man and Vertigo were so draining that Hitchcock needed to return to a film with the feel of The 39 Steps. Hitchcock also indulges another of his favourite themes, a character's loss of identity. Although here Roger Thornhill doesn't seem to have much of an identity to begin with, he's a bit of a blank page at the beginning, we're given all this information about him but he never really seems alive as a character. But when he finds himself mistaken for Kaplan he comes into his own, almost as if he's been relishing the chance to play the charming secret agent.

In fatc, Grant's performance here plays a spin on his familiar screwball comedy persona, and in Hitchcock terms, it's far more in line with To Catch A Thief than the darker characters he played in their earlier collaborations. It's no great shock to discover that Grant is as effortlessly charming as ever in the lead and Eva Marie Saint is a perfect romantic interest. But the cast is perfect down the line, but then again, when you get James Mason in support then that's to be expected as well. North By Northwest is one of the most perfect examples of pure cinematic joy, as stylish and elegant as Grant himself, it's the kind of film that phrase 'they don't make them like they used to' was invented for.

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

(in reply to rawlinson)

Post #: 1965

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:03:47 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

227. Brand Upon the Brain!

2006; Guy Maddin

Part of a themed 'Me Trilogy', all the films in the trilogy are fictional autobiographical ones. Brand... is the middle film in the trilogy and this one takes Maddin back to his childhood. Or at least to the childhood of his fictional counterpart, in this film Maddin's parents run an orphanage, in a disused lighthouse, on Black Noch Island, a small island somewhere near Canada. An adult Guy returns home for the first time in 30 years, and recalls strange events from his childhood. Several orphans are discovered to have mysterious holes in the back of their necks, all as a result of his mad scientist father's experiments to harvest 'orphan nectar'. Teen detectives Wendy & Chance Hale arrive on the island to investigate, and Guy and his sister find themselves attracted to them.

Brand... uses Maddin's familiar visual style, an experimental homage to silent movies, especially early German expressionist horror films, to create this phantasmagorical environment. Maddin also uses this exaggarated style to investigate deeper emotions. Certainly Maddin's portrayal of his parents, his father is a mad scientist while his mother is puritanical and overbearing, is deeply telling. So is the sexual development of Guy and his sister, both in love with the female half of the teen detectives.

Brand... is a tribute to gothic horrors, with the most obvious points of reference being mad scientist and vampire movies, and could easily appeal to fans of early horror. In fact, much of the film would sit easily in Universal's back catalogue. It would have made a nice companion piece to the 1932 Murders In The Rue Morgue, especially as much of the mood of the film evokes classic Poe.

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1966

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:17:39 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

226. Les jeux des anges

1964; Walerian Borowczyk

Borowczyk provides us with images and sounds and leaves it to us to impose our own vision on the film. Borowczyk started his career as a painter, and that influence is obvious here, there's a very impressionistic streak to this film. Les Jeux Des Anges, despite its lack of clarity, has become an influence on many director, including Terry Gilliam who thought the film to be one of the ten finest animations ever made.

So what do I think the film is about? Many people have claimed it to be a concentration camp metaphor and I can see why. We begin with a first person view of what appears to be a train journey. Various images rush through the screen, as if we're seeing them through the windows of a moving train. They soon give way to plain walls, torture instruments, and bodies in agony. But the bodies appear to belong to angels. There's even angelic wing flapping on the soundtrack. Other people feel that this is Borowczyk commenting on how modern life was destroying the spiritual as angels are torn apart by various mechanisms. Of course, both theories can be correct and I think there's elements of truth to both.

On a deeper level I don't think it actually matters if the destination of the train is a concentration camp or some sort of purgatory. Borowczyk obviously wanted the interpretation to be open to the individual and other viewers will no doubt have theories that I haven't touched on here. There's no way of knowing exactly what Borowczyk intended beyond the enigmatic statement where he said the film was 'A report on the city of angels.'

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I would plough my way through MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I desire MonsterCat to go down on me.

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Post #: 1967

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:18:09 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

226. Les jeux des anges 1964; Walerian Borowczyk
227. Brand Upon the Brain! 2006; Guy Maddin
228. North By Northwest 1959; Alfred Hitchcock
229. The Exterminating Angel 1962; Luis Bunuel
230. The Bitter Tea of General Yen 1933; Frank Capra
231. Street of Crocodiles 1986; Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay
232. Moju 1969; Yasuzo Masumura
233. Edvard Munch 1974; Peter Watkins
234. Tropical Malady 2004; Apichatpong Weerasethakul
235. The Man in the Back Seat 1961; Vernon Sewell
236. The Tenant 1976; Roman Polanski
237. Witchfinder General 1968; Michael Reeves
238. The Magician 1958; Ingmar Bergman
239. The Last Wave 1977; Peter Weir
240. Still Life 1974; Sohrab Shahid Saless
241. Le Paysagiste 1976; Jacques Drouin
242. The Woman in Black 1989; Herbert Wise
243. Husbands 1970; John Cassavetes
244. Unfaithfully Yours 1948; Preston Sturges
245. Italianamerican 1974; Martin Scorsese
246. The Seventh Victim 1943; Mark Robson
247. Solaris 1972; Andrei Tarkovsky
248. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! 1965; Russ Meyer
249. A Single Man 2009; Tom Ford
250. The Rebel 1961; Robert Day
251. The Ladykillers 1955; Alexander Mackendrick
252. The Bed-Sitting Room 1969; Richard Lester
253. Three Crowns of the Sailor 1983; Raoul Ruiz
254. When the Wind Blows 1986; Jimmy T. Murakami
255. Fando and Lis 1968; Alejandro Jodorowsky
256. To Sleep with Anger 1990; Charles Burnett
257. Greaser's Palace 1972; Robert Downey
258. Only Angels Have Wings 1939; Howard Hawks
259. Dougal and the Blue Cat 1970; Serge Danot
260. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert 1979; Jeff Margolis
261. I Walked with a Zombie 1943; Jacques Tourneur
262. Way Out West 1937; James W. Horne
263. The 400 Blows 1959; Francois Truffaut
264. Blanche 1971; Walerian Borowczyk
265. Arsenic and Old Lace 1944; Frank Capra
266. The Kid Brother 1927; J.A. Howe, Ted Wilde
267. Waterpower 1977; Shaun Costello
268. Tokyo Drifter 1966; Seijun Suzuki
269. The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928; Carl Theodor Dreyer
270. Mind Game 2004; Masaaki Yuasa
271. The Seventh Seal 1957; Ingmar Bergman
272. The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer 1970; Kevin Billington
273. Onibaba 1964; Kaneto Shindo
274. Viy 1967; Georgi Kropachyov, Konstantin Yershov
275. Rope 1948; Alfred Hitchcock
276. Marketa Lazarova 1967; Frantisek Vlacil
277. Day of Wrath 1943; Carl Theodor Dreyer
278. Island of Lost Souls 1932; Erle C. Kenton
279. Space Is the Place 1974; John Coney
280. The Red Circle 1970; Jean-Pierre Melville
281. The Phantom Chariot 1921; Victor Sjostrom
282. Martin 1977; George A. Romero
283. Careful 1992; Guy Maddin
284. Blood on Satan's Claw 1971; Piers Haggard
285. Blue Valentine 2010; Derek Cianfrance
286. The Cremator 1969; Juraj Herz
287. Simon of the Desert 1965; Luis Bunuel
288. The Man Who Planted Trees 1987; Frederic Back
289. The Punch and Judy Man 1963; Jeremy Summers
290. Goto, Island of Love 1968; Walerian Borowczyk
291. The Fog 1980; John Carpenter
292. Peeping Tom 1960; Michael Powell
293. Mikey and Nicky 1976; Elaine May
294. Les Vampires 1915; Louis Feuillade
295. The Tree of Life 2011; Terence Malick
296. Anger Magick Cycle 1947 - 1980; Kenneth Anger
297. The Last Picture Show 1971; Peter Bogdanovich
298. Under Milk Wood 1972; Andrew Sinclair
299. Fitzcarraldo 1982; Werner Herzog
300. The Color of Pomegranate 1968; Sergei Parajanov
301. Funeral Parade of Roses 1969; Toshio Matsumoto
302. Shock Corridor 1963; Sam Fuller
303. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring 2003; Kim Ki-duk
304. Let's Scare Jessica to Death 1971; John Hancock
305. Eden and After 1970; Alain Robbe-Grillet
306. Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein 1931 - 1935; James Whale
307. White Heat 1949; Raoul Walsh
308. Daybreak 1939; Marcel Carne
309. The Man Who Fell to Earth 1976; Nic Roeg
310. My Life to Live 1962; Jean-Luc Godard
311. Eating Raoul 1982; Paul Bartel
312. Meshes of the Afternoon 1943; Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
313. Rouge 1988; Stanley Kwan
314. Modern Times 1936; Charles Chaplin
315. Yi Yi 2000; Edward Yang
316. Of Time and the City 2008; Terence Davies
317. Monkey Business 1952; Howard Hawks
318. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh 1971; Sergio Martino
319. I Saw the Devil 2010; Kim Ji-woon
320. The Long Day Closes 1992; Terence Davies
321. Alice in the Cities 1974; Wim Wenders
322. Love and Death 1975; Woody Allen
323. The Thin Man 1934; W.S. Van Dyke
324. The Harder They Come 1972; Perry Henzell
325. A Face in the Crowd 1957; Elia Kazan
326. Oldboy 2003; Chan-Wook Park
327. Pretty Poison 1968; Noel Black
328. I, Vitelloni 1953; Federico Fellini
329. The Stunt Man 1980; Richard Rush
330. Gregory's Girl 1981; Bill Forsyth
331. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse 1933; Fritz Lang
332. Nostalghia 1983; Andrei Tarkovsky
333. Coonskin 1975; Ralph Bakshi
334. Messiah of Evil 1973; Willard Hyuck, Gloria Katz
335. The More The Merrier 1943; George Stevens
336. My Own Private Idaho 1991; Gus Van Sant
337. They Drive by Night 1938; Arthur Woods
338. Billy Liar 1963; John Schlesinger
339. Female Trouble 1974; John Waters
340. The Mouse and His Child 1977; Charles Swenson, Fred Wolf
341. You Can Count on Me 2000; Kenneth Lonergan
342. Down by Law 1986; Jim Jarmusch
343. The Devils 1971; Ken Russell
344. Suspiria 1977; Dario Argento
345. Kwaidan 1964; Masaki Kobayashi
346. The Wild Bunch 1969; Sam Peckinpah
347. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages 1922; Benjamin Christensen
348. Listen to Britain 1942; Humphrey Jennings
349. Straw Dogs 1971; Sam Peckinpah
350. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning 1960; Karel Reisz
351. Penda's Fen 1974; Alan Clarke
352. Monsieur Verdoux 1947; Charles Chaplin
353. High and Low 1963; Akira Kurosawa
354. Desperate Living 1977; John Waters
355. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975; Chantal Ackerman
356. Quasi at the Quackadero 1976; Sally Cruikshank
357. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith 1978; Fred Schepisi
358. Persona 1966; Ingmar Bergman
359. Fantomas 1914; Louis Feuillade
360. A Christmas Carol 1971; Richard Williams
361. The Magnificent Ambersons 1942; Orson Welles
362. Paris, Texas 1984; Wim Wenders
363. Sleep Furiously 2008; Gideon Koppel
364. Scrooge 1951; Brian Desmond-Hurst
365. King-Size Canary 1947; Tex Avery
366. Secretary 2002; Steven Shainberg
367. This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse 1966; Jose Mojica Marins
368. The Devil and Miss Jones 1941; Sam Wood
369. The Outfit 1973; John Flynn
370. I Know Where I'm Going! 1945; Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
371. Hitler, a Film from Germany 1977; Hans Jurgen Syberberg
372. Death Line (1972; Gary Sherman)
373. Camera Buff 1979; Krystztof Kieslowski
374. Horse Feathers 1932; Norman Z. Mcleod
375. The Masque of the Red Death 1964; Roger Corman
376. The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes 2005; Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay
377. Fata Morgana 1971; Werner Herzog
378. Minnie the Moocher 1932; Dave Fleischer
379. Industrial Symphony No 1: The Dream of the Broken-Hearted 1990; David Lynch
380. Vinni-Pukh 1969; Fyodor Khitruk
381. The Navigator 1924; Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp
382. Wise Blood 1979; John Huston
383. Mr. Freedom 1969; William Klein
384. Them Thar Hills 1934; Charley Rogers/Tit For Tat 1935; Charley Rogers
385. Seconds 1966; John Frankenheimer
386. My Name Is Joe 1998; Ken Loach
387. Silent Running 1972; Douglas Trumbull
388. In the Mood for Love 2000; Wong Kar Wai
389. Overlord 1975; Stuart Cooper
390. Oh, Mr Porter! 1937; Marcel Varnel
391. Flaklypa Grand Prix 1975; Ivo Caprino
392. The Hound of the Baskervilles 1959; Terence Fisher
393. The Falls 1980; Peter Greenaway
394. Robin Redbreast 1970; James MacTaggart
395. Point Blank 1967; John Boorman
396. Harvey 1950; Henry Koster
397. Deranged (1974; Jeff Gillen, Alan Ormsby)
398. 3 Women 1977; Robert Altman
399. Kiss Me Deadly 1955; Robert Aldrich
400. Kings of the Road 1976; Wim Wenders
401. The Devil Rides Out 1968; Terence Fisher
402. The Kid 1921; Charles Chaplin
403. Singin' in the Rain 1952; Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
404. Amer 2009; H�l�ne Cattet, Bruno Forzani
405. Symptoms 1974; Jose Larraz
406. The Wind 1928; Victor Sjostrom
407. Three Cases of Murder 1955; David Eady, George More O'Ferral, Wendy Toye
408. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue 1974; Jorge Grau
409. Ghost Busters 1984; Ivan Reitman
410. Grey Gardens 1975; Albert Maysles, David Maysles
411. I Was Born, But... 1932; Yasujiro Ozu
412. The Butterfly Murders 1979; Tsui Hark
413. Belle de Jour 1967; Luis Bunuel
414. Case for a Rookie Hangman 1970; Pavel Juracek
415. Werckmeister Harmonies 2000; Bela Tarr
416. The Spook Who Sat by the Door 1973; Ivan Dixon
417. Dead of Night 1945; Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer
418. This Sporting Life 1963; Lindsay Anderson
419. Rolling Thunder 1977; John Flynn
420. Manhattan 1979; Woody Allen
421. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 1992; David Lynch
422. Heavy Traffic 1973; Ralph Bakshi
423. Syndromes and a Century 2006; Apichatpong Weerasethakul
424. Halloween 1978; John Carpenter
425. Between the Lines 1977; Joan Micklin Silver
426. A Chinese Odyssey 1994; Jeffrey Lau
427. Girl Shy 1924; Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
428. Long Weekend 1978; Colin Eggleston
429. Pets 1974; Ralph Nussbaum
430. Red Hot Riding Hood 1943; Tex Avery
431. Man with a Movie Camera 1929; Dziga Vertov
432. Trans-Europ-Express 1966; Alain Robbe-Grillet
433. Robin Hood Daffy 1958; Chuck Jones
434. Our Mother's House 1967; Jack Clayton
435. A Canterbury Tale 1944; Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
436. Scott Pilgrim vs the World 2010; Edgar Wright
437. Things 1989; Andrew Jordan
438. The Night of the Hunter 1955; Charles Laughton
439. Drive 2011; Nicolas Winding Refn
440. The Apu Trilogy 1955 - 1959; Satyajit Ray
441. Don't Go in the House 1980; Joseph Ellison
442. The Woman Who Powders Herself 1972; Patrick Bokanowski
443. My Dinner with Andre 1981; Louis Malle
444. West of Zanzibar 1928; Tod Browning
445. Scarecrow 1973; Jerry Schatzberg
446. Pan's Labyrinth 2006; Guillermo Del Toro
447. Titicut Follies 1967; Frederick Wiseman
448. Black Narcissus 1947; Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
449. Private Parts 1972; Paul Bartel
450. Theatre of Blood 1973; Douglas Hickox
451. Cash on Demand 1961; Quentin Lawrence
452. Ladybug, Ladybug 1963; Frank Perry
453. Project A 1983; Jackie Chan
454. Ashes of Time 1994; Wong Kar Wai
455. Maniac 1980; William Lustig
456. Django, Kill... If You Live, Shoot! 1967; Giulio Questi
457. Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity 1995; Guy Maddin
458. Sleeper 1973; Woody Allen
459. Forced Entry 1973; Shaun Costello
460. The Elephant's Graveyard 1976; John Mackenzie
461. Judex 1963; Georges Franju
462. Dog Day Afternoon 1975; Sidney Lumet
463. Hey Good Lookin' 1982; Ralph Bakshi
464. Sweet Smell of Success 1957; Alexander Mackendrick
465. The Intruder 1962; Roger Corman
466. The French Connection 1971; William Friedkin
467. On the Run 1988; Alfred Cheung
468. The Odd Couple 1968; Gene Saks
469. Dead Man's Shoes 2004; Shane Meadows
470. The Culpepper Cattle Co. 1972; Dick Richards
471. Fanny and Alexander 1982; Ingmar Bergman
472. Into Great Silence (2005; Philip Groning)
473. Le Quattro Volte 2010; Michelangelo Frammartino
474. Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly 1970; Freddie Francis
475. Putney Swope 1969; Robert Downey
476. The Conversation 1974; Francis Ford Coppola
477. Let the Right One in 2008; Tomas Alfredson
478. Broadway Danny Rose 1984; Woody Allen
479. Humanoids from the Deep 1980; Barbara Peeters
480. Little Malcolm 1974; Stuart Cooper
481. Prime Cut 1972; Michael Ritchie
482. The Offence 1973; Sidney Lumet
483. Carnival of Souls 1962; Herk Harvey
484. Assault on Precinct 13 1976; John Carpenter
485. Crazy Love 1987; Dominque Deruddere
486. Modern Romance 1981; Albert Brooks
487. Straight on Till Morning (1972; Peter Collinson)
488. Hellzapoppin 1941; H.C. Potter
489. Rat Pfink a Boo Boo 1966; Ray Dennis Steckler
490. The Orchard End Murder 1981; Christian Marnham
491. Lemora 1973; Richard Blackburn
492. Cropsey 2009; Joshua Zeman, Barbara Brancaccio
493. Black Moon 1975; Louis Malle
494. Frightmare 1974; Pete Walker
495. Last Year at Marienbad 1961; Alain Resnais
496. The Signalman 1976; Lawrence Gordon Clark
497. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 1974; Joseph Sargent
498. Oasis 2002; Lee Chang-dong
499. Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973; Christopher Speeth)
500. The Red Shoes 1948; Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
501. Boiling Point 1990; Takeshi Kitano
502. Re-Animator 1985; Stuart Gordon
503. Anna & Bella 1984; Borge Ring
504. Stroszek 1977; Werner Herzog
505. Charley Varrick 1973; Don Siegel
506. To Be Or Not to Be 1942; Ernst Lubitsch
507. River's Edge 1986; Tim Hunter
508. Harold and Maude 1971; Hal Ashby
509. The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941; William Dieterle
510. Heart of Glass 1976; Werner Herzog
511. Black Sunday 1960; Mario Bava
512. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane 1976; Nicolas Gessener
513. Bonnie's Kids 1973; Arthur Marks
514. Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell 1999; Tom Kinninmont, Peter O'Toole
515. The Mummy 1932; Karl Freund
516. Cops 1922; Buster Keaton
517. Magical Maestro 1952; Tex Avery
518. Black Swan 2010; Darren Aronofsky
519. The Great Silence 1968; Sergio Corbucci
520. One from the Heart 1982; Francis Ford Coppola
521. Submarine 2010; Richard Ayoad
522. Wake in Fright 1971; Ted Kotcheff
523. The Straight Story 1999; David Lynch
524. Annie Hall 1977; Woody Allen
525. Lord of the Rings Trilogy 2001 - 2003; Peter Jackson
526. Faust 1994; Jan Svankmajer
527. Possession 1981; Andrzej Zulawski
528. Gohatto 1999; Nagisa Oshima
529. The Saddest Music in the World 2003; Guy Maddin
530. Force of Evil 1948; Abraham Polonsky
531. Almost Human 1974; Umberto Lenzi
532. Howl's Moving Castle 2004; Hayao Miyazaki
533. The Merchant of Four Seasons 1971; Rainer Werner Fassinder
534. Johnny Guitar 1954; Nicholas Ray
535. The Warriors 1979; Walter Hill
536. Night of the Demon 1958; Jacques Tourneur
537. Ponyo 2008; Hayao Miyazaki
538. The Zoot Cat 1944; Hanna-Barbera
539. Archangel 1990; Guy Maddin
540. Local Hero 1983; Bill Forsyth
541. Winter's Bone 2010; Debra Granik
542. Alphaville 1965; Jean-Luc Godard
543. Videodrome 1983; David Cronenberg
544. Out of the Blue 1980; Dennis Hopper
545. The Jerk 1979; Carl Reiner
546. My Favourite Wife 1940; Garson Kanin
547. Barton Fink 1991; Joel Coen
548. Fast Film 2003; Virgil Widrich
549. Unman, Wittering and Zigo 1971; John Mackenzie
550. A Page of Madness 1926; Teinosuke Kinugasa
551. Hugo 2011; Martin Scorsese
552. Tales from the Crypt 1972; Freddie Francis
553. The Beguiled 1971; Don Siegel
554. Shack Out on 101 1955; Edward Dein
555. Baron Prasil 1962; Karel Zeman
556. Last House on Dead End Street 1977; Roger Michael Watkins
557. Detroit 9000 1973; Arthur Marks
558. One Froggy Evening 1955; Chuck Jones
559. Danger: Diabolik 1968; Mario Bava
560. Truck Turner 1974; Jonathan Kaplan
561. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari 1920; Robert Wiene
562. Cooley High 1975; Michael Schultz
563. Q: The Winged Serpent 1982; Larry Cohen
564. Strongroom 1962; Vernon Sewell
565. Thundercrack! 1975; Curt McDowell
566. The Steel Helmet 1951; Sam Fuller
567. The Fire Within 1963; Louis Malle
568. I Was a Male War Bride 1949; Howard Hawks
569. The Swimmer 1968; Frank Perry
570. Batman: The Movie 1966; Leslie Martinson
571. Rituals 1977; Peter Carter
572. Under the Skin 1997; Carine Adler
573. After-Life 1998; Hirokazu Kore-eda
574. The Tell-Tale Heart 1953; Art Babbitt, Ted Parmalee
575. Lorna the Exorcist 1974; Jesus Franco
576. Night Mail 1936; Harry Watt, Basil Wright
577. Who Killed Teddy Bear 1965; Joseph Cates
578. The Producers 1968; Mel Brooks
579. Tom Waits for No One 1979; John Lamb
580. Kill List 2011; Ben Wheatley
581. The Gambler 1974; Karel Reisz
582. Barry Lyndon 1975; Stanley Kubrick
583. I Start Counting 1969; David Greene
584. Candy Snatchers 1973; Guerdon Trueblood
585. The Wanderers 1979; Phillip Kaufman
586. In Between Days 2006; So Yong Kim
587. The Fatal Glass of Beer 1933; Clyde Bruckman
588. Inspirace 1949; Karel Zeman
589. The Best Pair of Legs in the Business 1974; Christopher Hodson
590. Short Night of the Glass Dolls 1971; Aldo Lado
591. Doggy Poo! 2003; Kwon Oh-sung
592. The Wind That Shakes the Barley 2006; Ken Loach
593. Lemonade Joe 1964; Oldrich Lipsky
594. Shoot 1976; Harvey Hart
595. A New Leaf 1971; Elaine May
596. Black Sun 2005; Gary Tarn
597. The Life and Death of a Porno Gang 2009; Mladen Djordjević
598. The Passenger 1975; Michelangelo Antonioni
599. Night of the Eagle 1962; Sydney Hayers
600. Doctor X 1932; Michael Curtiz

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ORIGINAL: matty_b

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Post #: 1968

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:25:28 AM

matty_b

Posts: 12897
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Rope - great, and I often find it unfairly dismissed because of its experimental nature.

Way Out West - love it. Probably my favourite L&H (although I'm not an expert in them like Gimli)

When the Wind Blows - heartrending.

The Ladykillers - I love, love, love this one to bits. Herbert Lom holding his violin like a shotgun always makes me hoot.

A Single Man - yep, that phone call scene. Firth should have won the Oscar - and Moore not even nominated? Get to fuck.

The Seventh Victim - good. Horrible ending (in a good way).

The Last Wave - amazing. I love very nearly everything that Weir has done, but this is top three stuff.

Witchfinder General - great.

North by Northwest - very good, but I rate a lot of Hitchcock's higher.

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Post #: 1969

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:33:16 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

225. Hannah and Her Sisters

1986; Woody Allen

Hannah (Mia Farrow) is the most sensible and together of a set of three sisters, or at least it seems that way to her siblings Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest). Born to old-time showbiz parents, Hannah has become successful in her professional and personal life, but her husband, Elliot (Michael Caine), has grown tired of his marriage and started to lust after Lee. Lee is living with a crabby artist (Max Von Sydow) but finds herself drawn to Elliot. Holly is the screwup, forever trying new careers, all of which fall flat. Allen himself is Hannah's ex-husband, a neurotic t.v. director whose hypochondria leads him to a discovery that he may actually be genuinely ill for once. Allen again demonstrates why he was considered such a great writer of women's roles. The men all get juicy scenes, and it was enough for Caine to win his first Oscar, but the three women are the real stand-outs. Farrow especially does wonders with a role that could have faded into the background against the other two. I understand that Allen can split viewers, but this is one of the key films from his most rewarding period and it staggers me that anyone could fail to be moved by its warmth and understanding of humanity.

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Post #: 1970

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:33:55 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

North by Northwest - very good, but I rate a lot of Hitchcock's higher.

Me too.

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Post #: 1971

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:35:56 AM

matty_b

Posts: 12897
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Glad to hear it.

Hannah and her Sisters - probably my favourite Allen. Yeah, probably.

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Post #: 1972

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:38:34 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

There's a couple of Allen still to come, but I'm really regretting how low Hannah is. It might be near the top 100 if I redid the list now.

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Post #: 1973

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:42:18 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

224. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

1974; Werner Herzog

After spending most of his life kept prisoner in a cellar, deprived of human companionship, Kaspar seemingly arrives out of nowhere to appear, clutching a note, standing in a town square in Germany in the 19th Century. Kaspar is a man who doesn't belong, out of time and completely 'other'. The police place him in a cell where he is visited by the educated people of the town. They use logic to try and examine him and make a chronicle of his life. But Kaspar is immune to such logic and their rational arguments soon fall apart. In an attempt to profit from the public interest in him, he is put on display as put of a circus sideshow. He's eventually rescued by a professor who attempts to teach him science, philosophy and theology, as well as the ability to talk, read and write. He becomes famous, and attracts the interest of high society, however his fame also leads to several assassination attempts.

One of the film's great themes is how society corrupts our proper nature. Kaspar is given the romantic vision of being a true force of nature, an unspoiled innocent. And we see him in his alienation and in many ways how much better alienation is, because forced conformity destroys a person's spirit. Kaspar learns to think, but not simply be taught to think the way others want him to, and as such he manages to fight against that ever-crushing conformity that so many people think should be the norm.

Bruno S. gives a superb performance in the lead role. Bruno was himself a schizophrenic whose life story had many similarities to Kaspar. His work is simple but effective, with a suprising amount of emotional clarity. In fact, next to Kinski, I'd say Bruno was Herzog's strongest leading man. Neither Herzog or Bruno ask for pity for Kaspar, they don't even ask for understanding. Kaspar's struggles aren't about his inability to fit in, they're about the problems we often have accepting someone different on their own terms.

In the wrong hands, Kaspar Hauser could have been a mess, something as gooey and charmless as Forrest Gump. But with Herzog you know you're in fairly safe hands, he's not going to aim for cheap sentiment or fake uplifting scenes. Herzog often deals with people who are 'eccentric', to say the least. But you never get the feeling that he's mocking his characters. I guess it's true that he has a bit of an idealistic view of Kaspar, but he treats him as a human with a human story, not as a myth or a parable. Herzog has created one of the finest films here, a gentle and poignant tale of what it means to be an outsider.

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Post #: 1974

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 8:51:16 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

223. Stand by Me

1986; Rob Reiner

Over a weekend in the late summer of 1959, a 12 year old Gordie (Wil Wheaton) and his friends Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) set out on a last summer adventure. They've heard that the body of a missing boy is somewhere out in the woods and they're determined to find it.

The film has the feel of a certain kind of boyhood myth, filled with tall tales and adventures with trains, leeches and menacing bullies. It's a coming-of-age film, but one that manages to feel like a genuine rites of passage. It has the odd effect of being a film that feels both universal and uniquely American. But the main focus of the film isn't the adventures, it's the relationship between the boys. The kids don't feel moulded to types. They could easily have been just that, a set of John Hughes-esque stereotypes that have no place in reality, but the cleverness of the writing and the chemistry between the actors make them feel real. Better than that, they actually feel like friends. All four characters are outcasts or misfits in their own way, but their bond is developed beyond the simplicity of being friends because nobody else wants them. They share the private jokes, rituals and taunts of friendship at that age when you think your friends are the most important thing in the world.

Phoenix expectedly steals the film. The sense of sadness and loss, both in his character and in his performance, is overpowering at times, but if it's an emotional film it's never one that deals in easy sentiment. Phoenix gives one of the finest child performances you could ever wish to see, a sad reminder of what a loss his early death was. But there's also great performances from O'Connell, Wheaton and Feldman. It's particularly shocking to see just how good an actor Feldman actually was.

It's become accepted wisdom that the greatest cinema adaptation of Stephen King is The Shawshank Redemption. As is often the case, accepted wisdom is wrong. There's never been a finer King adaptation than Stand by Me. But it's not only the greatest King adaptation, it's also one of the great films ever made about childhood and friendship.

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Post #: 1975

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 9:01:00 AM

matty_b

Posts: 12897
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Best Stephen King adaptation - Carrie.

Stand By Me is very, very good though.

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Post #: 1976

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 9:04:41 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

222. Winter Soldier

1972; Winterfilm Collective

Some films make you angry for the wrong reasons. My annoyance at certain films I've ranted about far too often stems from what I view as flawed and dishonest filmmaking. But then you get something like Winter Soldier that makes you angry at the degredation of the human spirit. The film is a documentary following the Winter Soldier investigations. For those unfamiliar, this was an event to make public war crimes and atrocities conducted by the U.S. army during the Vietnam war. Over several days, over 100 veterans gave testimonies about the war crimes they had witnessed or taken part in during the war. From rape to murdering civilians to stoning children, these men testify to an astonishing catalogue of atrocities. These former soldiers are obviously haunted by the things they've seen and done and they deserve a lot of credit for being brave enough to realise how wrong they were and to come forward to testify. You also have to question what it was about them that allowed them to be brainwashed enough to ever think their actions were ok. Obviously so much blame has to go to the government, the media, the top brass in the army, everyone who allows the state of mind that the enemy aren't human. Because once an enemy army becomes inhuman it's only a small step for the civilians of that country to become inhuman, and once somebody stops being human then it doesn't matter what happens to them. You can rape them, burn down their villages, kill their children, kill them, and you can think it's not important because that person isn't important. This is a terrifying and important film and one, that as the Abu Ghraib abuse proves, is still relevant.

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Post #: 1977

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 9:06:56 AM

rawlinson

Posts: 40229
Joined: 13/6/2008
From: Timbuktu. Chinese or Fictional.

quote:

Best Stephen King adaptation - Carrie.

Stand By Me is very, very good though.

Stand by Me > It > The Mist > Salem's Lot > Creepshow > Misery > The Shining > Carrie

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Post #: 1978

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 9:09:01 AM

hubu_phonk

Posts: 1052
Joined: 1/7/2009
From: between chit chat and analysis

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

Best Stephen King adaptation - Carrie.

Stand By Me is very, very good though.

I'd agree with Carrie, but Stand by Me is wonderful and charming. It has a place in my heart, and as i spent my pre teen years living next to a wild life reservation, promoted dead body searches by myself on a regular basis

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Post #: 1979

RE: My Top 650 Films - 9/5/2012 9:10:15 AM

matty_b

Posts: 12897
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: rawlinson

quote:

Best Stephen King adaptation - Carrie.

Stand By Me is very, very good though.

Stand by Me > It > The Mist > Salem's Lot > Creepshow > Misery > The Shining > Carrie