Sunday, February 18, 2007

Favourite Movies

C. E. Chaffin mischievously tagged me to set out my favourite movies of all time. I usually ignore tags, but thought I’d do this one. But this list is what came to mind today. A good third of it might change by tomorrow as more movies come to mind. I have seen a lot of movies in my life. These are in no particular order – titles and directors.


1. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
2. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
4. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
5. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
6. Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair)
7. Crossing Delancey (Joan Micklin Silver)
8. L’Ora di Religione (Marco Bellocchio)
9. Amarcord (Federico Fellini)
10. L’Ultimo Bacio (Gabriele Muccino)
11. Lost Highway (David Lynch)
12. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
13. The Quiet American (Philip Noyce)
14. Abri Los Ojos (Alejandro Amenabar)
15. Cristo si è Fermato à Eboli (Francesco Rosi)
16. La Tregua (Francesco Rosi)
17. Ararat (Atom Egoyan)
18. Naked (Mike Leigh)
19. La Vita è Bella (Roberto Benigni)
20. Crimes and Misdemeanours (Woody Allen)
21. Raining Stones (Ken Loach)
22. Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)
23. Betty Blue (Jean-Jacque Beineix)
24. True Stories (David Byrne)
25. Faraway, So Close (Wim Wenders)

6 comments:

nmj said...
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nmj said...

I loved Monsoon Wedding & Naked. I saw L'Ultimo Bacio on DVD over Christmas, but wasn't sure about it.

My first comment was full of typos, I'm still waking up!

Rob said...

L'Ultimo Bacio was controversial when it came out in Italy. I thought it got the psychology of the male characters spot on. The end is just a touch cynical. I know one woman in Italy who broke up with her boyfriend immediately after seeing it with him, as it made her feel so depressed about their likely future.

It was the first movie I saw in an Italian cinema that I actually managed to follow in the original language, so I have a soft spot for it.

I believe a re-make has just come out, in English, and even the thought fills me with horror, but maybe it won't be too bad. I don't know how they're going to beat the scene when Giovanna Mezzogiorno has the most outstanding tantrum in cinema history though. Only an Italian actress could carry that one off!

Anonymous said...
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Aisha said...

Tried to comment earlier, but my migration to Google (decided without consulting me in the least: the Internet is fast becoming a benevolent(maybe) dictatorship) got me all entangled on an Escher staircase of Did you forget your password and Use your Googe account that you don't have NOW)--
Aaaaanyway: what is it with men and lists-- by that I mean hierarchical lists-- my first outburst-- followed by an appreciative Aaaah! Somebody else at last likes Crossing Delancey :)

If it wasn't for NUNS and Lent (look in my blog) I wouold order it right now if on DVD.

I share many of your other choices, except for some reason I could never get passed their arrival at the camp (squeamish-scared I guess) in La Vita e Bella.

Must try again.

Rob said...

Aisha, i don't know what it is about men and lists, but as far as lists go, I am a typical man. I love making them and reading them.

La Vita è Bella is brilliant. It's also heartbreaking and made all the more so by the comedy element. The last ten minutes are shocking and emotionally wrenching. I know some people criticized Benigni for "trivialising the Holocaust," but I suspect most of them never watched the movie. You'll laugh and you'll cry, often simultaneously.
Two scenes in particular are unforgettable - the barbed hilarity when Benigni "translates" Nazi orders for the Italian prisoners (although he can't understand a word of German), and the chilling scene near the end when he is marched into a cul-de-sac by a Nazi warden.