In Honor of Oscar
Yes, it's Oscars time. I thought I would list my top-five favorite movies. This list changes constantly. But each one, for me, is chosen not just for the acting, but for the scripts . . . .
1. My number one is The Lives of Others. It's a German flick with subtitles, and won the Oscar for best foreign picture in 2006. It should have won for Best Picture--period. For those of you who don't ever watch foreign films, I suggest it for a very real reason as a writer. When you watch an American film, it all blends together--the performance, the score, the setting, the dialogue. When you watch an intense foreign film, you READ the script as it unfolds and you gain a very real sense of the process of writing . . . at the same time, you also gain a sense of just how incredible the acting is because you are forced to see it through the lens of a foreign language and just watch the nuances and acting. The script for this film is amazing.
2. Choice number two is also a foreign flick. Danish. After the Wedding's script is not quite as amazing as The Lives of Others, but for a pure emotional punch and an incredible bunch of performances . . . this one is terrific. What I especially like is that if this was an American movie, the lead character would be a saint and the industrialist would be a sinner. Instead, they are both flawed characters in full three dimensions.
3. You Can't Take It With You . Directed by the same man who brought the world It's a Wonderful Life, this is a lesser-known flick, but no less wonderful for me. It's in my top-five for largely sentimental reasons. This is the film I watch when the world has me down and I need to be lifted up by the spirit of truly good but eccentric people.
4. The Seven Samurai. Okay, another film with subtitles. This one, to me, gets my nod for its themes. It's an epic . . .
5. Rushmore. Remember Rosebud in Citizen Kane? This Wes Anderson film has the line "She was my Rushmore." It's one of those films that, like all Wes Anderson films, is likely an acquired taste. If you like sccentric, then it's for you. Bill Murray delivers an amazing performance, but it is Jason Schwartzman, playing aspiring film director Max Fischer that is the heart of the movie. It's about grief and redemption, and most of all about what you would do for love.
So that's my list. As I said, it changes almost daily. I love films . . . and now, after years of watching films, have a very clear idea of what I look for in a movie. I could add a hundred for faves. I loved 2006's Once. I like obscure films . . . Heavenly Creatures. The Krays. But I'll stop listing mine now.
In honor of the Oscars, what are your faves and why?
30 comments:
Love Actually because it's not only got the soppy love story that I fall for every time, it's got all kinds of love stories and not all of them have a happy ending.
Slumdog Millionaire: one from this year's crop. It has everything and subtitles.
Secret Life of Walter Mitty,
Horatio Hornblower
Lots of B&W's including:
Young Frankenstein - a classic,
Gentleman's Agreement,
Keys to the Kingdom,
Father Goose,
Charade
Oh, just bunches with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Gregory Peck.
Slumdog Millionaire is one of my recent faves as well, even though I don't care for subtitles. Intense story, splendid cinematography and editing, great acting, cool songs...
Pulp Fiction--Vinnie Barbarino grows up to be a gangster and a heroin addict. The conversation about foot massages was alone worth the price of admission.
The Graduate--"Elaine!!!!" Need I say more?
Sometimes I even like sickly sweet love stories like The Family Man or The Lake House. What can I say? Guess I'm just a hopeless romantic at heart.
Hi Sarah:
Loved Love Actually, and I usually re-watch it a couple of times a year.
Like the old B&Ws too--Key to the Kingdom . . . How Green was my Valley. All the ones you named.
E
Jude:
I liked Pulp Fiction when I saw it. And I still like scenes . . . the dance contest, the overdose. But later, I think I thought that a series of vignettes doesn't make it a compelling picture and I didn't enjoy it from that film perspective as much.
E
I wouldn't dare to answer that. My choices are so much more ordinary than yours!
Did you know Adriana Trigiani who is on the best seller list has to produce her own movie? Hollywood wouldn't touch it and she's written for the Cosby show, etc. so she understands screen writing.
So where does that leave the rest of us? No movie deal.
Joe:
LOL! I admit, I like odd flicks. But movies are about what make you feel good. The Lives of Others (my top choice) was just SO compelling, but it also gave me a satisfying feeling at the end.
E
Richmond:
I've had my books optioned before . . . it's a crazy roller coaster in Hollywood--and so far . . . no luck for me.
E
"Picnic" with William Holden and Kim Novak. My reasons? Its subtle look at "love at first sight," as well as depicting lines drawn between classes, a/k/a, "The other side of the tracks." One more thing, it reminds me of the simple joys of small town living pre-mid-sixties.
Hi Kath:
I saw that one ages ago . . . but it's been a while, and I really don't recall it well. I'll have to re-check it out!
E
Hmm. I think Pulp Fiction works as a cohesive whole, with the three main characters' stories intersecting at various points along the way. It's out of chronological order, of course, and full of anachronisms, but that's part of the beauty--how it messes with our sense of time and forces us to construct the story linearly in our minds after watching it. It was so unique and ultimately influential, I think it will be in my top five for a while.
When I think of a series of vignettes...I think The Kentucky Fried Movie or something. To me, Pulp Fiction is nothing like that.
I've noticed people either love it or hate it, though. I guess it's just that kind of film.
Jude:
I loved Reservoir Dogs a lot more . . . I guess I just thought it was better storytelling--same jumps and so on. But just a more compelling story.
But I didn't HATE Pulp Fiction . . . just didn't like it a year after the buzz as much as when I first saw it and thought it was such audacious filmmaking.
E
I loved Reservoir Dogs too!
I have a hard time picking my favorites, but I've been on a Baz Luhrman kick for a while and adore his Moulin Rouge and Romeo & Juliet. They both make me cry every time, even though I've seen them each a zillion times.
I do want to say that I'm grateful to my husband for introducing me to foreign films. He is a complete film snob and before him I never thought to seek out movies that didn't play at the local multiplex. Now my taste has broadened.
melanie:
I will go see the "big action flicks" when they come out. But I do tend to prefer the small indie pictures or foreign films. I don't know that it's a snobbishness so much as . . . sometimes there are just these gems of performances. It seems like foreign films--those actors are more into their craft, in a sense. They aren't world famous. Maybe it's the labor of love. But I can tell you, there is a scene in After the Wedding in which the industrialist breaks down, and it was SO raw. I thought, "You just wouldn't SEE that in an American film." It reminds me, in a sense, of how as writers we strive for that honesty.
E
American Beauty is my all time favorite.
Very glad Slumdog won--loved the message behind it!
Alyson:
I thought American Beauty was well-done. I think I gravitate toward more upbeat ones in general as my "faves."
I liked Usual Suspects too---another Kevin Spacey one.
E
Favorite movies? Oddly enough, I don't know that I could name a favorite movie. I, too, loved Seven Samurai, and On the Waterfront is pretty amazing. Thin Red Line. Lord of the Rings series. And where's the funny? Caddyshack will always be welcome with me. I loved Rushmore, too. And Once was great. We're big Almodovar fans around here ...
We end up watching a lot of documentaries and foreign films, but I don't think foreign films are often any better than indie American films. I like them because they give me a window into a culture, from that culture's point of view, that's impossible to get any other way. Check out The Color of Paradise from Iran for a whole new perspective on that country. It's lush and beautiful.
Lurker:
Oh, now you've got me thinking. Ever see Tigerland? And both of us loved Half-Nelson.
And for performance alone, American History X . . . Edward Norton proved he was brilliant.
E
Half Nelson! How could I forget?! I thought that movie was brilliant. I never saw American History X for some reason, or Tigerland, although both look good.
If you want an amazing documentary, check out Grizzly Man, a Werner Herzog movie. The subject of that movie is probably one of the most distinctive characters I've ever seen on film. Just an incredible and incredibly weird and compelling guy. The same is true of Man on A Wire, about that dude who tight-roped walked between the Trade Center towers. Very unique guy.
Lurker:
I highly recommend Tigerland. It's a really compelling story about drafted guys during the Vietnam war going through training . . . and this utterly brilliant . . . almost social anarchist. It never shows the war . . . it's about hte guys preparing to ship out to this hopeless situation in Vietnam--and about the types of kids who got drafted, often.
E
You've opened a can o' worms here, m'lady. There's way too many.
Umm, let's see.
Donnie Darko. It melds science fiction, heartfelt emotion and beautiful music into one fascinating Kool-Aid mix of wonderment and awe.
Hero, preferably in Mandarin, with English subtitles. You just can't get the same meaning with the english dub. Epic sweep of emotions, colors, tragedy and sacrifice all wrapped up into SOOO much more than what one would expect from a martial arts flick.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, for it speaks VOLUMES to me about integrity at 4 in the morning.
Gone With the Wind, a timeless classic, that even as a self-indulging, drug abusing teenager I could realize the beauty of.
Story of Us, true to the happenings of lasting relationships. I love all the small excerpts that Rob Reiner took his time to haul out, all in the name of building a beautiful empire of love, and he managed to only use one song throughout the whole movie to convey the message that I felt was most important: Love prevails.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry is pure genious at this same "building of empires" bullwhacky, yet with such an unconventional approach.
I Am Sam, excellent use of music, colors, and raw emotion to exude the promise of how absolutely breathtaking the universe can be. *I think you're the red in her paintings*....OUCH!! *clutches at heart strings*
Amelie, subtitles a must here. Such a storyteller's movie!! (I think we all secretly have a french hitman living inside our conscious, narrating our everyday lives.)
And yeah. Rushmore. Cause Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman's ever growing battle of "she's MINE" makes love to the camera, and then makes you cum when you realize that they are both just 2 simple men, trying to make their way in the universe.
See? Look what you've done? :DDD
Realm:
Oh . . . gosh. Love a lot of those--Hero . . . and AMELIE!!! Loved Amelie.
I also really liked Lost in Translation, but I have friends who loathed it. I bawled my eyes out . . . something about it very mush struck home for me.
E
Erica, I should point out I meant "snob" in a loving way. :P he's opened my eyes to a lot of things I wouldn't have found on my own.
I LOVED Amelie, too.
melanie:
Oh, I hear you. I think it's great when someone really into film introduces someone else to some great films they might not otherwise have seen.
E
Erica, I loved these:
Secret Life of Bees
Fried Green Tomatoes
Imitation of Life~Lana Turner.
Raintree County~Elizabeth Taylor
Peyton Place
Joy Luck Club
LaDonna:
Love Joy Luck Club. It was one of those I hadn't expected to like--not sure why. I generally don't rent "chick flicks." But I adored it.
E
Ooh. Confession time. I Love Chick Flicks. Sleepless in Seattle-You've Got Mail-Runaway Bride - Must Love Dogs - and of course, Love Actually. I love them all. I had forgotten about I am Sam. Fabulous script and acting. This last year, I discovered Stranger Than Fiction, and it's been added to my faves list. The first movie that truly affected me was South Pacific. It came out when I was eleven years old. I saw it twice. Twenty years ago, a friend and I rented the movie, and we both found that we could recite a lot of the dialogue along with the actors. Now, that's a memorable film.
Sandra:
Years ago, I worked with Meg Ryan's mother on her biography/memoir about having cancer. She was an incredibly nice woman, and so her stories about her daughter . . . just made me unable to watch any of her movies. Unfortunately, for a time, it seemed like you couldn't RENT a non-Meg Ryan chick flick. LOL!
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