0001. My Top 10 Films
Submitted by lbangs on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:14
Tags:
- My favorite 10 (or 16) films:
- 1) Amateur / Simple Men - I'm cheating, but these two films represent my favorite Hartley output, and they both can reduce me to tears even after the tenth viewing.
- 2) Citizen Kane - Not much I can say that hasn't been said. The innovations may not seem quite so novel anymore, but the sheer energy, creativity, and genius that went into those innovations still shine through. Shakespeare for the film.
- 3) North by Northwest - All the Vertigo fans will whine, but my favorite Hitchcock film, as well as the best adventure / suspense film ever.
- 4) Cabaret - The best musical film is a surprisingly mature tour-de-force from the criminally neglected Fosse, with layers and levels continuously waiting out of reach to be explored. And I don't even dig Liza that much.
- 5) Once Upon a Time in the West - I like lots of Westerns, but this queer bird hits a melodramatic, ecstatic height that mesmerizes me. The Western as soap opera? Perhaps, but all the better for it.
- 6) Bringing Up Baby - The best comedy. Grant and Hepburn playing against type as, respectively, a nerd and an air-head. Never fails to crack me up or to force me to believe in romance.
- 7) 2001 - Science fiction and science as religion. No, don't ask me what it is about, though I have my theories. Like most religious encounters, it is the experience that counts.
- 8) The Garden of the Fitzi-Continis - Alright, I have only had the chance to see this once, and the film does take a bit to get off the ground, but it moved me in mysterious ways I can't explain.
- 9) Chinatown / The Maltese Falcon - Film noirs par excellent.
- 10) Metropolis / Blade Runner - These two films have directly affected 99% of all science fiction that follows. There's a good reason for that: vision melded with intelligence.
- Honorary mentions:
- Pulp Fiction (Next to Hartley, still the best of the 90s, hype aside)
- 8 1/2 (A tour of Felini's subconscious; you might get lost, but you won't forget it)
- The Producers (Very flawed, but no film ever, EVER, makes me laugh this hard; miles ahead of Brook's much-praised Young Frankenstein)
- Lawrence of Arabia (This actually belongs in the top ten, but I just now remembered it and haven't worked it in yet...)
- Hannah and Her Sisters (My fave Allen, although some days I might just as well choose Manhattan)
- Shalom, y'all!
Author Comments:
Feel free to disagree!
Nice list! A small technical note:
If you view your list as everyone else sees it, you'll see a bunch of annoying purple bullets next to each line instead of next to each item. This is because you put in explicit returns instead of just letting the lines wrap. Your list will look at little nicer if you only put returns after each item, and let the automatic wrapping take care of the rest.
Thanks! I think it should read better now.
Great List especially Bringing Up Baby, Once Upon a Time in the West, 2001, Chinatown, and Citizen Kane (the incumbent). I prefer the other incumbent, Casablanca, and I definitely prefer Double Indemnity or Big Sleep to Maltese Falcon. I need to see The Producers; I love Blazing Saddles. Also, I will check out Amateur and Simple Men since you seem to have good taste in movies.
bufdet
Thanks! While I didn't enjoy Casablanca quite as much as Citizen Kane, let that be no slight to Casablanca, which is a great film.
As for Double Idemnity and Big Sleep, I love both of them. I still prefer the tight, dark Maltese to the atmospheric Big Sleep, but it's not an easy call. I haven't seen Double Idemnity in quite a while, which may account for its absence here.
By the way, I recently realized to my horror that I somehow left out Lawrence of Arabia. I'll have to work it in somehow later...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
"Be with you in a minute, Mr. Peabody" is oe of the great lines I can still remember from Bringing up Baby--one of the best comedies in the twentieth century. However, I must disagree on 2001 as a movie for a top ten, even though it defined much of the science fiction genre. I can't seem to enjoy a donut rolling in space as much as I still enjoy the primitive space invaders, asteroids, and, of course, pong. And what about that amazing harmonica in How the WEst... which so well establishes the mood and scene of the movie. What about "M"? (jon)
I meant Once Upon a Time... and not How the West Was Won. Sorry! (jon) Another brief note: I'm almost certain the adult version of 2001 would utilize the rolling donut much more effectively than the original version.
Bringing Up Baby is sheer joy. 2001 is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it film. I personally never cared much for it until I saw a re-mastered wide-screen version of the film. With very little dialogue and a sparse plot, the film relies heavily on visual and musical effects to carry it, and unless one sees the film in a format where these effects are given full power, it just ain't happening.
Of course, lots of people still won't like it, and that's cool. I do.
I love M, but it, along with at least 50 other films, just couldn't fit into this tight list.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Aaarrggghhhh!
Jim, do you know what in the world happened to my list?
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
LBangs,
Sorry, it looks like my list ended up over-writing your list - I think my computer must have convinced listology that I was you. My post didn't seem to work first time I sent it, then it did, then I noticed someone had the same list as me!
ChrisJM
Yeah, I noticed our lists matched, but I guessed it was probably a computer's fault, not yours. I just hope the problem can be fixed so that it doesn't happen again (please o please). I'm sure we'll hear from Jim, the webmaster, soon.
I hope I still have a copy of my old list somewhere so I can repost it.
By the way, welcome to Listology!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Thanks mate - hope you find the copy!
Cheers
ChrisJM
Totally bizarre. I restored from backup, but I don't know how it happened. Redesign is coming by the end of the month, and it's a rewrite from the ground up. So hopefully the old bugs got lost in the transition, and we can deal with new, exciting bugs instead. :-)
Thanks, Jim!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
It is indeed a beautiful day. Tonight, Friday, February 2, 2001, the Independent Film Channel is showing both of my very favorite films of all time in a row. Yep, they are even showing Amateur, which as far as I know is the first time in at least five years this film has been shown on American television. If you are curious about the films on my lists, I plead with you to check these films (the other film, obviously, being Simple Men) out. If I could remember how to post news (lost the link, I did!), I'd post this on the home page.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Ok, Mr Bangs. I have just watched Lawrence of Arabia on DVD (smashing remastering). I am wondering where it fits on your top ten. I have not seen this movie in about ten years and was amazed how good it really was.
I honestly think as a screenplay it has to be near the top of the list. T^hey will never be able to make movoes like that anymore. Economics will not allow it. I am going back to check on the special feature tonight.
I'm thrilled that the DVD contains a smashing remastering, as the disc is on my birthday wish list. Hopefully, I'll see this first-hand soon.
Where would it fit into my top ten? Probably around number 5. I have a bit of trouble pinpointing it since I probably need to update this list to reflect my current taste (not that it would be very different at all, but a few films toward the end might sag off, a few favorites I've reviewed recently might jump up a space or two, and the order of a few might be switched out). I'm hoping to take AAA (where has he been lately?) up on his challenge and create a top 100 list soon, so hopefully oversights such as Lawrence will be included at last.
So, I guess the short answer is #5. I think...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
What do you think of "Trust", and the OTHER Hal Hartley film "Henry Fool"? Are there any reviews anywhere?
Trust was my first Hartley film, and I think both it and Henry Fool are well worth viewing.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs