List of 100 Favorite Movies

I make no claim to a cinematic canon. These are my favorite movies. Subjective. No claim to objective standards of taste. Drum roll please:

1. Les Quatre Cents Coups (The Four Hundred Blows), Dir. François Truffaut (1959)

2. The Wizard of Oz, Dir. Victor Fleming (1939)

3. Billy Elliot, Dir. Stephen Daldry (2000)

4. Psycho, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1960)

5. Au Revoir Les Enfants, Dir. Louis Malle (1987)

6. Kes, Dir. Ken Loach (1969)

7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dir. Michel Gondry (2004)

8. Los Olvidados, Dir. Luis Buñuel (1950)

9. Vertigo, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

10. Where the Wild Things Are, Dir. Spike Jonze (2009)

11. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso), Dir. Giussepe Tornatore (1988)

12. Dekalog (The Decalogue), Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski (1988)

13. Det Sejunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal), Dir. Ingmar Bergman (1957)

14. Rear Window, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1954)

15. Some Like it Hot, Dir. Billy Wilder (1959)

16. The Kid With a Bike, Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2011)

17. Welcome to the Dollhouse, Dir. Todd Soldonz (1995)

18. Citizen Kane, Dir. Orson Welles (1941)

19. The Tree of Life, Dir. Terrence Malick (2011)

20. Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog), Dir. Luis Buñuel (1929)

21. Fahrenheit 451, Dir. François Truffaut (1966)

22. The Mirror, Dir. Andrey Tarkovsky (1975)

23. The Graduate, Dir. Mike Nichols (1967)

24. Le Souffle au Coeur (Murmur of the Heart), Dir. Louis Malle (1971)

25. Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games), Dir. René Clement (1952)

26. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975)

27. Orpheus, Dir. Jean Cocteau  (1950)

28. The Phantom of Liberty, Dir. Luis Buñuel (1974)

29. The Firemen’s Ball, Dir. Milos Forman (1967)

30. Midnight Cowboy, Dir. John Schlesinger (1969)

31. La Strada (The Road), Dir. Federico Fellini  (1954)

32. Mulholland Drive, Dir. David Lynch (2001)

33. Habla con Ella (Talk to Her), Dir. Pedro Almodovar (2002)

34. Stella Dallas, Dir. King Vidor (1937)

35. Olivier, Olivier, Dir. Agnieska Holland (1992)

36.  Battleship Potemkin, Dir. Sergei M. Eisenstein (1925)

37. 晩春 Banshun (Late Spring), Yasujirō Ozu (1953)

38. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dir. Stanley Kubrick (1968)

39. My Night at Maud’s, Dir. Eric Rohmer (1969)

40. The Royal Tenenbaums, Dir. Wes Anderson (2001)

41. A Trip to the Moon, Dir. Georges Méliès (1902)

42. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dir. Steven Spielberg (1977)

43. Au Hasard Balthazar (Balthazar, At Random), Robert Bresson (1966)

44. Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul), Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1974)

45. Harold and Maude, Dir. Hal Ashby (1971)

46. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Dir. Steven Spielberg (1982)

47. La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast), Dir. Jean Cocteau (1946)

48. The Squid and the Whale, Dir. Noah Baumbach (2005)

49. Spoorlos (The Vanishing), Dir. George Sluizer (1988)

50. La Cite des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children), Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (1995)

51. Mighty Aphrodite, Dir. Woody Allen (1995)

52. La Stanza del Figlio (The Son’s Room), Dir. Nanni Moretti (2001)

53. Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too), Dir. Alfonso Cuarón (2001)

54. 雨月物語 Ugetsu, Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi (1954)

55. 羅生門 Rashomon, Dir. Akira Kurosawa (1950)

56. The Night of the Hunter, Dir. Charles Laughton (1955)

57. Le Plaisir, Dir. Max Ophüls (1952)

58. Being John Malkovich, Dir. Spike Jonze (1999)

59. Synecdoche, NY, Dir. Charlie Kaufman (2008)

60. High Noon, Dir. Fred Zinnemann (1952)

61. Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Dir. Alain Resnais (1959)

62. The Lady Eve, Dir. Preston Sturges (1941)

63. Lost in Translation, Dir. Sofia Coppola (2003)

64. The Up Series, Dir. Michael Apted (1964 - Present)

65. Weekend, Dir. Andrew Haigh (2011)

66. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dir. Mike Nichols  (1966)

67. La Mala Educación (Bad Education), Dir. Pedro Almodovar (2004)

68. Lord of the Flies, Dir. Peter Brook (1963)

69. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Dir. Peter Care (2002)

70. Andrei Rublev, Dir. Andrey Tarkovsky (1966)

71. Amour, Dir. Michael Haneke (2012)

72. Inglorious Basterds, Dir. Quentin Tarantino (2009)

73. Empire of the Sun, Dir. Steven Spielberg (1987)

74. A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Dir. Steven Spielberg (2001)

75. The White Ribbon, Dir. Michael Haneke (2009)

76. Margaret, Dir. Kenneth Lonergan  (2011)

77. Wild Tigers I Have Known, Dir. Cam Archer (2006)

78. Alice, Dir. Jan Švankmajer(1988)

79. Through a Glass Darkly, Dir. Ingmar Bergman (1961)

80. Passion of Joan of Arc, Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1928)

81. Arabian Nights, Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (1974)

82. 千と千尋の神隠 (Spirited Away), Hayao Miyazaki (2001)

83. La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher), Dir. Michael Haneke (2001)

84. George Washington, Dir. David Gordon Green (2000)

85. Niki Ardelean, colonel în rezerva (Niki and Flo), Dir. Lucian Pintille (2003)

86. Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), Dir. Wim Wenders (1987)

87. Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), Dir. Josef von Sternberg (1930)

88. Equus, Dir. Sidney Lumet (1977)

89. The Best Years of Our Lives, Dir. William Wyler (1946)

90. 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), Dir. Cristian Mungiu (2007)

91. Mon Oncle, Jacques Tati (1958)

92. Copie Conforme (Certified Copy), Dir. Abbas Kiarostami (2010)

93. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell (2001)

94. Louisiana Story, Dir. Robert J. Flaherty (1948)

95. Black Orpheus, Dir. Marcel Camus (1959)

96. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dir. Jim Sharman (1975)

97. Dancer in the Dark, Dir. Lars von Trier (2000)

98. Silver Linings Playbook, Dir. David O. Russell (2012)

99. Ordinary People, Dir. Robert Redford (1980)

100. The Silence of the Lambs, Dir. Jonathan Demme (1991)

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Aesthetic Thursday: Surrealism in Film

Perhaps one of my favorite films of all time: Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty (1974). 
Interpret this nonsensical "dream sequence" however you want - I think it is pure brilliance. Compare this scene to Buñuel's other dream sequence in Los Olvidados (1950). Interesting, right? 

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TV Review: I Like Girls

The following post is a deep dive into Girls, Lena Dunham's HBO dramedy about young privilege in NYC. Reflections on its unapologetic storytelling, intimacy, and cultural impact.

My roommate asked me today if I liked girls. My other roommate laughed. "No," my roommate said, this time more emphatic, "the show - Girls."
"Oh. Yeah," I said, I like that show. My roommate looked at me in that way I knew demanded more context, more explanation, a sort of impromptu lit crit discussion by the kitchen sink. He said, encouraging me, "I've watched it too. It's very popular, the show. That's why I watch it."

Lena Dunham in Girls

We then proceeded to talk about Girls in a way that everyone is talking about Girls: white privilege, young up and coming white girls living in a neighborhood in Brooklyn where only a certain kind of youth inhabit - and yes, the girls have trouble paying the rent, but, hey, it's real life, yada yada yada. Is it the same as Two Broke Girls? But that show stars Kat Dennings (what is not to like?) And why is James Franco ranting about this show? Why am I ranting about this show? If you Google Girls a ka-jillion hits pop up - the show is viral. Even my Dad watches it. Just kidding. I didn't ask.

Lyrics: Science-Fiction Double Feature

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Michael Rennie was ill the day the earth stood still
But he told us where we stand
And Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear
Claude Raines was the invisible man
Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong
They got caught in a celluloid jam
Then at a deadly pace it came from outer space
And this is how the message ran:

Science Fiction - Double Feature
Dr. X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show.

I knew Leo G. Carroll was over a barrel
When Tarantula took to the hills
And I really got hot when I saw Janet Scott
Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills
Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes
And passing them used lots of skills
But when worlds collide, said George Pal to his bride
I'm gonna give you some terrible thrills, like a:

Science Fiction - Double Feature
Dr. X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh-oh at the late night, double feature, picture show.
I wanna go, oh-oh, to the late night double feature picture show.
By RKO, oh-oh, at the late night double feature picture show.
In the back row at the late night double feature picture show.

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source: lyrics

film: imdb

Quote from Auntie Mame: "Life's a Banquet"

Rosalind Russel as Auntie Mame (1958)

Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death. ~Auntie Mame 

What is so great about Auntie Mame's advice to her young nephew is not so much the hedonism that it espouses, but the grim observation that most of would not know pleasure even if it hit us smack dab in the face.

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Repost: How To Get The Girl According to Movies

image source: pleated jeans

How many of the above movies can you identify?

From The Graduate to Harry Potter the above funny infographic promises to be a primer to how to get the girl — according to the logic of American Hollywood cinema. See the key below for the identity of the movies.

The Trope of the Boy Hoping, Wishing, Wanting (To Get Laid)

Movies like Superbad are representative of a certain kind of American movie: the heterosexual teen boy who will stop at nothing to get laid. It's such a staple of American cinema that not only is it a trope, but I would hazard a guess, has been the basis of many a real teen boy's playbook.

Key (From Top to Bottom, Clockwise): ⓣⓗⓔ ⓖⓡⓐⓓⓤⓐⓣⓔ, ⓢⓐⓨ ⓐⓝⓨⓣⓗⓘⓝⓖ, ⓙⓤⓝⓞ, ⓙⓐⓜⓔⓢ ⓑⓞⓝⓓ, ⓛⓐⓓⓨ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓣⓡⓐⓜⓟ, ⓢⓟⓘⓓⓔⓡⓜⓐⓝ, ⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓚⓞⓝⓖ, ⓣⓦⓘⓛⓘⓖⓗⓣ, ⓟⓢⓨⓒⓗⓞ, ⓗⓐⓡⓡⓨ ⓟⓞⓣⓣⓔⓡ, ⓑⓔⓐⓤⓣⓨ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓑⓔⓐⓢⓣ, ⓣⓗⓔ ⓟⓡⓘⓝⓒⓔⓢⓢ ⓑⓡⓘⓓⓔ, ⓓⓐⓩⓔⓓ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓒⓞⓝⓕⓤⓢⓔⓓ, ⓢⓛⓔⓔⓟⓘⓝⓖ ⓑⓔⓐⓤⓣⓨ, ⓐⓝⓓ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓢⓘⓛⓔⓝⓒⓔ ⓞⓕ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓛⓐⓜⓑⓢ

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The Awful Truth: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne

In this post, I write about Carey Grant and Irene Dunne's performance in the movie The Awful Truth.

With "the holiday in his eye," Stanley Cavell quotes Emerson on Carey Grant's performance in The Awful Truth: "he is fit to stand the gaze of millions."

Carey Grant in the Hollywood
film "The Awful Truth"

A high class married couple (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) break up after a dispute on marital fidelity. After each tries their luck with a different lover the two come to terms with the "awful truth."

The comedy carries the basic plot structure of the romantic comedy. Boy meets Girl. Breakup. Hijinks. Come back together. Transformed. The End. But in certain movies from the 1930s, just after the advent of talkies, several films made during or just after the Great Depression dealt with a slight twist on the romantic comedy: the remarriage plot. The difference is both stars are already married and through a break-up and coming back together (after they realize they're "just the same, but different") both boy and girl learn to grow up together, as Cavell has pointed out in his deft review of 1930s comedies of remarriage, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage.

The Awful Truth (1937) Directed by Leo McCarey. Written by Viña Delmar, Arthur Richman. Starring Cary Grant, Irene Dunne,  Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Cunnigham, Esther Dale.

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Movie Review: The Time That Remains

The Time That Remains is Elia Suleiman's autobiographical account of his Palestinian family in Nazareth who lived under the post-1948 sovereignty of Israel.

A movie review
The Time That Remains (Al Zaman Al Baqi) (2009)
Director: Elia Suleiman
Starring: Elia Suleiman, Saleh Bakri, Zuhair Abu Hanna, Samar Tanus, Ayman Espanioli, Shafika Bajjali

The Time That Remains is Elia Suleiman's autobiographical account of his Palestinian family in Nazareth who lived under the post-1948 sovereignty of Israel. The film opens with the events that led Nazareth to surrender to Israeli forces in 1948. An Iraqi soldier runs through the streets of Nazareth after the Arabs surrender. White sheets of paper rain down from the sky announcing the details of the Israeli/Arab armistice. Fuad (played by a handsome Saleh Bakri), who we later learn is Elia Suleiman's father, is suspected of distributing arms to Arab fighters during the war and is tortured.

Cinema Paradiso: The Best Ending in a Film

One of the best endings in cinematic history is Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988).

First, There is the Film's Score
     The score by Ennio Morricone is the most moving cinematic piece ever produced for the silver screen. The music is deliberately made to induce emotions, and I think it adds to this movie's overall sympathetic tone.
Second, There is the Film's Meta-ending 
     To fully appreciate the ending, one has to watch the entire movie. The last scene is a kind-of-love-letter to cinema itself. As a boy, the protagonist, Totò, befriends his hometown's cinema projectionist, Alfredo. In this small skirt of a town in rural Italy, the Catholic Church has considerable sway over what her parishioners can watch at the local cinema. The parish priest personally censors the films on view and directs Alfredo to edit out any scenes that depict kissing. At the end of the movie, Alfredo, who has since died, and Totò, who has become a famous movie director, there is a discovery. Can you guess what it is? The discovery becomes the movie's final scene. And it brought me to tears. If there is such a thing as poignancy without sentimentality, it's this film.  

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Plato's Theory of Bisexuality

Read about how the song "Origin of Love" from the musical movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a primer on Plato's theory of bisexuality.

image credit: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Freud uses the myth of the three human figures (taken from Plato’s Symposium) to illustrate the human instinct to return to a former state, which he calls the death drive, which, as seen by the myth, is fueled by the libido of desire.

“‘The original human nature was not like the present, but different. In the first place, the sexes were originally three in number, not two as they are now; there was man, woman, and the union of the two.’ Everything about these primaeval men was double: they had four hands and four feet, two faces, two privy parts, and so on. Eventually Zeus decided to cut these men in two .... After the division had been made, ‘the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and threw their arms about one another eager to grow into one.’” (Freud Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 69-70).

In the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hedwig uses the same myth to inspire a song she calls “The Origin of Love.” 

Feel inspired? Use the lesson plan I added to the TpT catalog.

Lyrics from “Origins of Love”

Top Ten Films To Watch Over and Over Again

What movies are better on a second (or third) viewing? Here is a list of movies you can watch over and over again.

1 The Seventh Seal A knight fresh back from the Crusades plays a pivotal game of chess with Death.	2 Citizen Kane A journalist attempts to track down the real story of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane.	3 The 400 Blows A delinquent boy in Paris grows up and discovers himself.	4 The Wizard of Oz A girl from Kansas ends up in a magical world where she must find the wizard if she wants to go home.	5 2001: A Space Odyssey A crew on a mission to Mars finds an unexpected foe.
6 Mulholland Drive A dreamy-eyed girl arrives in Los Angeles but her dreams do not turn out quite the way she planned it.	7. Beauty and the Beast fdfd A girl in France makes a deal with a man-turned-beast to save her father.	8 Billy Elliot A young boy in a coal-mining town in England takes on ballet dancing against his father's wishes.	9 Cinema Paradiso A young boy in Italy is obsessed with movies and befriends his small town's film operator.	10 Vertigo A police detective in San Francisco is given a case that threatens to unhinge him.

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