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'Cabaret' and other musings...

Irene Wilde

Irene Wilde

New Member
At last a film forum for people who read! :) Perhaps next we'll get a music forum and life will be complete!

Anyway, was discussing 'Cabaret' with chum Billy O., and realized I hadn't seen it in a while. Went to the video cabinet and discovered it's now missing from the shelf. However, I was digging for it, I was reading some of the titles and it made me wish I had time for more than one selection. (BTW, I picked "The Exorcist" this being the season -- still an exceptionally well-made horror film).

Anyway, to get the ball rolling in this forum, how about a that good ol' forum standby, a list. Shall we say Top 10 favorite films? Just to get an idea of the types of films people are watching here?

Here's mine, in no particular order and subject to change moment-to-moment:

1) Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead
2) Diabolique
3) A Fish Called Wanda
4) Amelie
5) Now, Voyager
6) Chinatown
7) Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring
8) A Night on Earth
9) Rebel Without a Cause
10) The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Irene Wilde
 
Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead!!!!!!!!????

GREAT! Nobody else had ever heard of this movie dammit lol It's fantastic! Inspired! Love the coin flipping :)

You have some great choices in their!

What about mine? Hmmmm, that's very difficult.

In no real order of liking

  • Amelie
  • City of Angels
  • Blade Runner
  • When Harry met Sally
  • Princess Bride
  • Run Lola Run
  • Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead
  • Sleepless in Seatle
  • City of Lost Children
  • Pirates of the Carib.

Those are just off the top of my head. There are many movies that I like that are not included. Also I think it depends on my mood and my memory so that list is subject to total change! :D Although Amelie, City of Angels and Harry met Sally will always be in there :)
 
SillyWabbit said:
Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead!!!!!!!!????

GREAT! Nobody else had ever heard of this movie dammit lol It's fantastic! Inspired! Love the coin flipping :)
Click to expand...

Tim Roth and Gary Oldman in a comedy! Who knew!?!

A fabulous Tom Stoppard script, and great support by Richard Dreyfus.

And I'm ashamed I forgot to include "Blade Runner" on my list. Los Angeles looks more and more like that film every day! :)

Irene Wilde
 
Irene Wilde said:
And I'm ashamed I forgot to include "Blade Runner" on my list. Los Angeles looks more and more like that film every day! :)

Irene Wilde
Click to expand...

Is that good or scary? lol
 
Not as scary as the film would have you believe. The convergence of so many cultures and langauges all moving to the verge of evolving into something new is really exciting. It seemed to me that the film anticipated the growing influence of Asian cultures upon LA prior to the great Asian migration that occured in the late 80s and 90s. But the dividing lines between haves and have-nots continues to be troubling, and that sense that LA isn't really a city, just a collection of strip malls and billboards was with us long before "Blade Runner" and continues to this day. Eventually the folks at city hall will realize LA will never be a world-class city until it has a center (and restoring the river would be nice, too -- most great cities have a river, not a concrete flood control channel).

Irene Wilde
 
Delicatessen
Lawrence of Arabia
The Ladykillers (Ealing original!)
Monty Python's The Life of Brian
Zulu
The Killing Fields
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Wicker Man
It's a Wonderful Life
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 version)
 
Boy, I really like everyone's choices. I won't repeat them here, only add:

Great Expectations, the 1930s one with John Mills and Alec Guinness

The Day of the Jackal

The Fallen Idol, with Ralph Richardson--a brilliant spooky movie!

Three Days of the Condor, especially the tricky bits
 
Dammit, I forgot to include 'Midnight Cowboy'!

So now it's a Top 11 List! :)

And 'A Great Day in Harlem' that makes 12. Ok, a Top 12 list.

Doh! "Chocolat." 13. A Top 13 list.

Going off the the video store for that copy of 'Cabaret' before the number can climb any higher.

Irene Wilde
 
boy!! this is a great thread. glad to be informed each one can come up with 12! :D (i gonna make my life compelte with this super interesting moive list.)

few is on mind right now, though

1) Amelie.
2) war and peace
3) The good soldier shweck--spelling?
4) Gladiator
5)..update later.
 
The Shawshank Redemption
Leon
Akira
Monty Python: The Holy Grail
Disney
Amelie
Blade Runner
2001: A Space Odyssey
Superman
Star Wars (original trilogy)

This is a small selection off the top of my head - there's probably several I love that I can't think of at the moment :)
 
1. straw dogs
2. 2001: a space odyssey
3. blue velvet
4. seven samurai
5. chinatown, or just about anything by roman polanski ...
6. dawn of the dead
7. enter the dragon
8. midnight cowboy
9. eraserhead
10. raising arizona
 
for those of you who don't know about straw dogs: this is a personal favorite of mine. it stars dustin hoffman and susan george, as well as a list of other names that are, to you and myself, meaningless. it's a sam peckinpah film, so automatically people will infer that it is violent, which they would be correct in doing. however, unlike most films nowadays, straw dogs isn't pornographic, it isn't indulgent in any way. supposedly peckinpah intended for it to purge the audience's mind of violence through sequences of horrifying human behavior, so you end up, like dustin hoffman's character, empty and spiritually lost.
 
Compelling choice, Mr. Burns.

This film has been sitting on my shelf since a friend gave it to me several months ago (having purchased the DVD and no longer needing the videotape). My copy says the film is still banned in the UK.

Because its such an "uplifting, feel-good" film, I've been putting off watching it until I'm in a receptive mood. Not that there is anything wrong with films that attempt to render the audience empty and spiritless; I have several favorites among that genre. However, my spirit's been flagging enough these days without Peckinpah grinding it into the dirt.

Perhaps your recommendation will be just what I've needed to push me into seeing it (since I've wanted to for years).

Irene Wilde
 
I could watch Bruce Lee all day when I have a fever and it's raining out and there's cocoa. Everything Bruce. The Bruce channel. Way underrated comic actor. Return of the Dragon is superlatively the mostest.
 
Although I wouldn't call myself a 'buff' - I do have a six-pack though - I am certainly an aficionado of the silver screen...

Here are some of my favourites:

- Swingers
- The Big Lebowski
- The Boondock Saints
- The Sting
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
- Apocalypse Now
- Half Baked
- Super Troopers
- Casablanca
- The Life Of Brian

That's all I can think of at the mo-mo, but there are plenty more I like and I'd be happy to help educate your filmic(sic) tastes again in the future...peas and carrots.
 
irene, do you have the criterion version? aimg71.exs.cx_img71_4300_strawdogs.jpg the second disc has the most wicked interview with sam peckinpah. the entire interview he's throwing this knife at a door and reflecting on his youth, which he spent overseas in the military, when he first saw prisoners being tortured with razor wire tied to their groins. it's sick, but you gotta see it. anyway, if you don't I'll mail you my copy, because they discontinued the criterion version ... fucked if I know why. it's priceless.

novella, you're my dream girl.
 
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