Christmas is for movies
Okay, inspired by Political Umpire, here are ten movies I've never seen. Maybe I'll see some of them this holiday season. (Warning: if you have a delicate constitution, maybe look away now. Some of them might be pretty surprising.)
1. Citizen Kane
2. Psycho
3. Godfather 2
4. Taxi Driver
5. Love, Actually (hurrah)
6. Blade Runner
7. Alien
8. Reservoir Dogs
9. Raging Bull
10. anything by Woody Allen in the past ten years
I'm sure there are more shocking things I've never seen, but such is my state of denial that I can't even think of them right now. To make up for that, I will list (only) ten movies I love:
1. The Philadelphia Story (about which I could go on for hours, speaking of Jimmy Stewart)
2. What's Up, Doc?
3. Goodfellas (lest I appear a lightweight)
4. The Godfather
5. North by Northwest
6. Casablanca
7. Swing Time
8. Guys and Dolls (but I love the books by Damon Runyon even more)
9. The Piano (sorry)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean
...and, for balance, and because I'm kind of in the swing of it now, ten I hate:
1. ET
2. The Hours
3. Don't Look Now (brilliant, but couldn't watch it)
4. Far From Heaven
5. The English Patient
6. Amelie
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. Damage
9. Pretty Woman
10. Life is Beautiful
12 comments:
Thanks Ms B. I could go on for many an hour on this, as I imagine could we all. On your to-do list, NEVER see 5. but see 6. several times. I'm not up on Woody Allen films of any era, for no particular reason. Raging Bull, despite the fact I like Scorcese as much as any teenage boy who never grew up, I don't actually like. That's because I grew up watching boxing and I just can't cope with the unrealistic portrayal, particularly as all the critics gush that the boxing is realistic (no, it isn't).
The Piano ... well it was filmed in my home country, so I should be nice. Didn't you think the actual piano in it was awesome? Sent on a tall ship from Scotland to New Zealand, sat in the surf for a bit and then played beautifully without so much as a tuning fork? Auckland, especially the West Auckland area where it was filmed, is very humid so not kind to pianos, but clearly that one was up to the job.
2001. Hmm. I'm thinking of making a new blog: "The Political and Cultural Re-Education of Ms Baroque". First there are the technical aspects. There is no CG trickery involved, it was ingenuity and mechanical genius, just as with the innovative shots on Citizen Kane.
The space scenes are beautiful. The design touches are a delight (the table and chairs in the orbiting station - magnificent!). The stewardess (did you know that the longest word typed with only one hand on a QWERTY keyboard is "stewardesses"?) is a prima ballerina, that's why she walks with the impression of using velcro shoes in zero gravity. Shame about the VPL (Mrs Umpire noticed this with disapproval)
It was also a masterstroke of Kubrick to use classical music rather than some inferior modern electronic score; it ensured that that part of the film never dates.
Then we come to the ideas and the characterisation. I just love the idea that a computer which develops human intelligence also develops human foibles - jealousy, pride and paranoia primarily - and is in fact the most 'human' of all the characters. Notice too the careful way that HAL's insanity or malfunction develops and is revealed to the audience - first he makes a mistake in describing the chess game, which no machine would do, then he tests the water to see if the others are as nervous as him, then he gets paranoid about a malfunctioning part that isn't malfunctioning, then he gets paranoid about having made a mistake, prompting a full scale nervous breakdown. When the game is up, he pleads desperately as might any cornered criminal.
I'll admit the apes bit doesn't really stand up to a modern audience, but it does set the scene and is important in conveying the ideas about human development. So too the last scene; the hotel part is quite baffling to watch but easily understood once the basic idea is grasped: that the aliens (unseen so they wouldn't be some silly bug-eyed monsters) placed Dave in a generic hotel room (presumably having read his mind and decided what he would think was a nice place to stay) just as we would put a pet mouse in a cage with things to make it feel at home.
I could go on. I can't go on. I'll go on. Actually I will just go, I have to meet Mrs Umpire at the station, you'll be relieved to hear.
Till soon,
P-Ump
I'd be interested to hear why you hate Amelie. I loved it.
I've never even seen the first Godfather, never mind 2.
P-Ump, the way you describe it I can see that it is a fgreat film. But I was taken to see it many times by my mother and her best friend when it was new - I was just a little girl, for Chrissakes... the only bit I could enjoy at all was - come to think of it - the baroque bit. I thought maybe it had scarred me, so I tried to watch it again as a grownup but my main impression was one of boredom. Extreme boredom.
I agree re the piano in The Piano - but come on!
Martin, hi, you have GOT to see The Godfather! You MUST. It is so tremendous, subtle and Shakespearean. It's the real deal.
Amelie, well I liked it in the cinema, but when I went to watch it again recently on DVD I was nearly killed stone dead by saturated, cloying, nuance-free whimsy.
Of course, that could just be me.
Well, let's see. Citizen Kane is spectacular. Psycho I can't watch - I have nightmares for weeks. I am not insanely crazy about the Godfather movies, but of course I don't see movies the way you do, so that changes things quite a bit in terms of one's viewing experience. Taxi Driver... hm. Years and years ago. Love Actually - I'm not sure. I don't think I've seen it. Blade Runner of course is a sort of cult film - for good reason. Alien gave me nightmares but Sigourney Weaver made it all worthwhile. Reservoir Dogs I think I have seen parts of a few times, but it was too violent for me. I can be sensitive, much like Mama but not as much so. Raging Bull I've never seen and have no desire to. Also I've seen no recent (ie, last ten years) Woody Allen and also have no desire to. Though I'm still quite fond of some of his older stuff.
Now hm. Ten I haven't seen and want to, or feel I should...
1. Mystery, Alaska. I like the name.
2. Garden State
3. The Brothers Grimm. Horrible reviews, but I'm still intrigued.
4. Babette's Feast
5. Chocolat
6. The Cider House Rules
7. A Man for All Seasons
8. The Long Hot Summer
9. Whale Rider
10. Iris
Ten I hate:
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2. Catwoman
3. The Naked Gun
4. Austin Powers
5. Blue Velvet
6. Sin City
7. Deliverance
8. Being John Balkovich
9. Pulp Fiction. Brilliant, but I can't watch it.
10. Raising Arizona
and ten I love:
1. Jane Eyre (1944 - Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine)
2. Closet Land (extremely difficult to watch - I had to split it in two)
3. High Noon
4. Dogma
5. The Last Temptation of Christ
6. Forrest Gump (yeah, I know...)
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
8. The Cell (thought I'd hate it and was very surprised)
9. How Green Was My Valley
10. Julia (this movie made a HUGE impression on me, I was about 15)
11. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter(I know I said 10... but I had to put this one)
Wow. This is long.
xxoo
Sis
Aw, sis, what great lists! You know I will always associate you with Jane Eyre.
I too hated Blue Velvet. Did I forget to put that? I would never even feel the need to avow an opinion of Naked Gun or Austin Powers. I had no room for To Kill a Mockingbird but I do love it, along of course with the ever-great Roman Holiday. I may have to re-do my list.
On the Waterfront.
Also, Westerns: underrated by many. The Big Country! Duel in the Sun (Peck as a baddie!)! Have you seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance? Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne!
Babette's Feast is another one I love. It's incredibly powerful. I thought of it just the other day, in fact: it would be a great Christmas movie. Well - maybe more an Easter movie. See it if you can.
I'll pretty much watch Alfred Molina do the grocery shopping, but Chocolat is almost as whimsical as Amelie. (Mind you, pleasant enough - I've seen it many times on video with Little Mlle B - Johnny Depp's accent is so lame I didn't realise he was supposed to be Irish till the third time I saw it.)
Your hatred of Crouching Tiger seems eccentric, though I know people do dislike it. I thought I would follow Ang Lee anywhere, until The Hulk. P-Ump, do you have any opinions on The Hulk for us? (In the trailers when the Hulk jumped, he seemed weightless when he landed. I couldn't believe in him.)
Sis, many of the movies you list are unhear-of here in Baroque Mansions: The Cell, Closet Land, Sin City, Mystery Alaska, Brothers Grimm... & Gump is on my "H" list.
Iris made me cry just in the previews. I thought that was a bad sign. Jim Broadbent looked amazing, I haven't ruled it out but I can't stand being tear-jerked. And, on a Kate Winslet tangent, I've left Titanic off my "H" list: how could I forget? (Which reminds me: I think Leo Di Caprio is a really fine, and underrated, actor. Other films to see, if you haven't: What's Eating Gilbert Grape?; This Boy's Story; and Romeo + Juliet.)
Ms B, (sorry never had the decency to ask if you like/mind being called that), 2001 really isn't a children's film so I don't blame you for that!
Here's my sets of ten (like you all, I suspect, one could easily make them sets of fifty or a hundred or more):
Ten I want to see:
1. Psycho (alright I can hear the boos and hisses for that gaping hole, my excuse is that it has never been on at a convenient time so I've only seen bits of it ... hang on, I've just noticed that it's in your list, and I'm slightly younger than you, so that's alright then)
2. The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoise
3. Once upon a time in America
4. Casablanca
5. Gone with the Wind
6. Triumph of the Will (no, not because I subscribe to the ideology, but because it's supposed to be a classic, and is in any event an important historical record
7. The Dam Busters
8. Touch of Evil
9. Hell's Angels
10. Brazil
Ten I love:
1. All Quiet on the Western Front (blogged about this at length)
2. 2001: Space Odyssey
3. Days of Heaven
4. The Thin Red Line (1998)
5. Dr Strangelove
6. Goodfellas
7. The Player
8. Went the Day Well? (blogged about this too)
9. O Brother Where Art Thou? (ditto)
10. Apocalypse Now + Hearts of Darkness
10.1 Sideways
10.2 Duel
Ok I'm cheating now.
Ten I hate
1. The Postman (worst film of all time)
2. Love, Actually
3. 2010
4. Moulin Rouge
5. Ok I can't go on any more, remembering all that trash is too painfull
Oh, Il Postino. Hmm, yes, and Mediterraneo.
I also hated Moulin Rouge. Cheap.
No no, I mean Kevin Costner's film The Postman. If you don't know it, I envy you.
Great post-
Ten I want to see
1. Gone with the wind
2. The 400 Blows
3. Seventh Seal
4. Annie Hall
5. Ivan the Terrible Pt 1
6. October 1917
7. In the Mood for Love
8. Philadelphia
9. Man for All Seasons
10. Ivan the Terrible Pt 2
Ten I love
1. Casablanca
2. Citizen Kane
3. Battleship Potemkin
4. Jules et Jim
5. The Big Sleep
6. Laura
7. Goodfellas
8. Shadow of a Doubt
9. Notorious
10. In a Lonely Place
11. and because I like cheating The Sweet Smell of Success
(sorry its so forties biased just realised that 6 of those are forties films and 2 are from the fifties)
10 I hate
1. Wimbledon (Dragged there by a friend never ever ever again)
2. Four Weddings and a Funeral (I hate Hugh Grant, I hate that portrayel of English people)
Can't do anymore.
Cool idea.
Sorry, just realised you asked me a question I never answered (clear breach of netiquette on my part, IMO).
Never seen the Hulk. CGI effects looked awful, and I remember the Bill Bixby/ Lou Ferrigno tv show (not very fondly). I take it that it isn't worth the effort?
Love the lists - this is exactly what the internet was made for! The 'not seen' list reminds me of the game in the David Lodge novel where a group of academics at a conference fess up to which canonical texts they've never actually read (I think a Shakespearean scholar admits to never having read Hamlet). Excuse the self-indulgence, but I felt compelled to add to it (esp since there was a fair bit of overlap with yours).
Ten I've not seen:
1. Blade Runner
2. The Godfathers 2 and 3
3. The Shining
4. Some Like It Hot
5. Love Actually
6. Rain Man
7. King Kong (any version)
8. Ben Hur
9. 2001 – A Space Oddysey
10. Any Indiana Jones movie
Ten I love:
1. Joseph Losey’s Don Giovanni
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets
3. Dr Strangelove
4. All Quiet on the Western Front
5. The Battle of Algiers
6. The Stepford Wives (original)
7. Festen
8. Napoleon Dynamite
9. Together
10. Cabaret
Ten I hate:
1. Dogville
2. Breaking the Waves
3. Amelie
4. Three Colours: Blue (so bad I never bothered with Red and White)
5. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
6. The English Patient
7. Something’s Gotta Give (though almost falls into the so-bad-it’s-funny category)
8. The Red Violin
9. The Stepford Wives (the remake)
10. Anything by Peter Greenaway
Excellent lists Clare! How could I forget Peter Greenaway?
Two more I love, speaking of Bill Murray (otherwise known as He Who Can Do No Wrong, though I haven't seen The Life Aquatic): Groundhog Day and the magnificent Royal Tenenbaums. For Angelica Huston, The Dead.
I loved the Three Colours trilogy though I agree that Blue is essentially utterly dishonest. My favourite one was Red.
And you have GOT to see Some Like it Hot! Jack Lemmon is my other hero. (Did I mention Depardieu? No?)
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