Tuesday, April 5, 2011

200/1001 Movies Seen Part 2

On the Waterfront – Marlon Brando being awesome as always.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – An incredibly stupid and sexist musical.
Rear Window
Shichinin No Samurai (The Seven Samurai)
Rebel without a Cause
Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog) – This documentary really brings the horror of the holocaust home. Definitely something you should see.
The Night of the Hunter – Reverend Harry Powell is a great villain, but the ending left me bemused and almost all of the female characters are annoyingly stupid.
Forbidden Planet – It’s a good sci-fi flick which was clearly influential in it’s time, but appears a bit dated now.
The Searchers – A decent western mostly thanks to John Wayne’s unflinching portrayal of a vengeful and racist gunslinger.
All that Heaven Allows – A very silly melodrama.
The Ten Commandments
12 Angry Men
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Paths of Glory – An excellent condemnation of war and another on Stanley Kubrick’s long list of amazing films.
North by Northwest
Some Like it Hot
A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) – Goddard’s breakthrough film is worth watching if pretentious.
Ben-Hur
Pickpocket – The plot may be pretty bare bones, but the pickpocket scenes themselves will leave you on the edge of your seat and wanting to rewind so you can watch them again.
Rio Bravo – A very silly western, mostly because of Stumpy played by character actor, Walter Brennan.
Floating Weeds – If you’re only going to watch one film by Yasujiro Ozu, make it this one.
Shoot the Piano Player – Probably my favourite French film to come from Goddard’s generation, this movie has a little bit of everything and looks to me like it inspired Quentin Tarantino.
Psycho
The Apartment – Some critics say this film hasn’t aged well, but I still enjoy its humour.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – If it wasn’t for Mickey Rooney this film may be Hepburn’s finest. Also I don’t think it made much sense for them to end up together, but that’s just me.
Chronicle of a Summer – I did not much care for this documentary.
West Side Story – Some good songs and an interesting take on a classic story, but still not my favourite musical.
Lawrence of Arabia – Epic with lots of deserts. I don’t know how Peter O’Toole didn’t win an Oscar.
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Manchurian Candidate
The Birds – I found this to be the most chilling of all of Hitchcock’s films that I’ve seen despite the somewhat dated effects.
Goldfinger
My Fair Lady – A good musical, but it should have starred Julie Andrews much as I love Hepburn.
Dr. Strangelove
La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers)
The Sound of Music
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In the Heat of the Night
The Graduate
Cool Hand Luke
The Jungle Book – Yet another Disney movie I don’t particularly care for. I think they chose it because it was Walt Disney’s last film before his death. If they were going for milestones, I would have gone with The Little Mermaid which marked the beginning of a new era for Disney, rather than this one which marked an end.
Ostre Sledovane Vlaky (Closely Watched Trains) – I loved the book this is based on, and the movie is a faithful and darkly humorous adaptation.
The Producers
2001: A Space Odyssey
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Midnight Cowboy
Easy Rider – An unconventional, but thoroughly enjoyable movie with iconic characters, a freewheeling storyline, an awesome soundtrack, nice scenery, and excessive drug consumption.
Patton
M*A*S*H – This film has had an undeniable influence on popular culture, but I didn’t find it to be as hysterical as I was expecting. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Gene Wilder absolutely makes this film. Not even Johnny Depp can fill his shoes.

2 comments:

  1. RE: Breakfast at Tiffany's.
    It's overrated. It's good because of "Moon River" and Audrey Hepburn being classy and elegant. I like it because I like watching her. I could go on but I digress.

    I would say Audrey's finest is in an underrated film called, "The Children's Hour". So much better. It shows her real acting chops her depth and range are all packed into that one film. It wasn't as popular at the time it the time it came out because it addresses homosexuality and human nature. It brings children's innocence into question too and the world just wasn't ready for it. It's subtle in the beginning then it snowballs and then just explodes in the end.

    I'd tell who else is in it but just google it for yourself."The Children's Hour". Trust me.

    p.s.
    Not that I disagree but I'm curious: why doesn't it make sense to you for Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak to end up together?

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  2. I think it's partly because I view Paul as a stand-in for Truman Capote who was gay. Also it seems during the first part that Paul views Holly more as an interesting character than a love interest. Also, I'm pretty sure they don't get together in the original story.

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