Films @ MindSay

I have lots more, but these perhaps are my top favorites!

1. Double vie de Véronique, La/The Double Life of Veronique (1991, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
   
   
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)
   
   
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, Woody Allen)
   
   
4. Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
   
   
5. Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)
   
   
6. Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)
   
   
7. Trois couleurs: Rouge/Three Colors: Red (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
   
   
8. Bon voyage (2003, Jean-Paul Rappeneau)
   
   
9. La Cérémonie/A Judgement in Stone (1995, Claude Chabrol)
   
   
10. Sense and Sensibility (1995, Ang Lee)
    
    
11. Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
    
    
12. Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler)
    
    
13. Cléo de 5 à 7 /Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Agnes Varda)
    
    
14. A Star is Born (1937, William A. Wellman)
    
    
15. The Royal Tenenbaums(2001, Wes Anderson)
    
    
16. Angst vor der Angst /Fear of Fear (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
    
    
17. Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
    
    
18. Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
    
    
19. Dangerous (1935, Alfred E. Green)
    
    
20. All About Eve (1950, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
    
    
21. Todo sobre mi madre/All About My Mother (1999, Pedro Almodóvar)
    
    
22. Confidences trop intimes/Intimate Strangers (2004, Patrice Leconte)
    
    
23. My Life Without Me (2003, Isabel Coixet)
    
    
24. M (1931, Fritz Lang)
    
    
25. Cet obscur objet du désir, That Obscure Object of Desire (1977, Luis Buñuel)
    
    
    
26. Vivement dimanche! (1983, François Truffaut)
    
    
27. Ensayo de un crimen/The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955, Luis Buñuel)
    
    
28. À bout de souffle/ Breathless (1959, Jean-Luc Godard)
    
    
29. Camille Claudel (1988, Bruno Nuytten)
    
    
30. Memento(2000, Christopher Nolan)
    
    
31. Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
    
    
32. La Fille sur le pont/The Girl On the Bridge (1999, Patrice Leconte)
    
    
33. Quai Des Orfèvres/Jenny Lamour (1947, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
    
    
34. Au hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson)
    
    
35. (Nuovo) Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)
    
    
36. Demoiselles de Rochefort, Les/Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Jacques Demy/Agnès Varda)
    
    
37. The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols)
    
    
38. My Man Godfrey (1936, Gregory La Cava)
    
    
39. Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)
    
    
40. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952, Vincente Minnelli)
    
    
41. Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
    
    
42. The Sweet Hereafter (1997, Atom Egoyan)
    
    
43. It Happened One Night (1934, Frank Capra)
    
    
44. Alice (1990, Woody Allen)
    
    
45. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985, Woody Allen)
    
    
46. Another Woman (1988, Woody Allen)
    
    
47. Coup de torchon/Clean Slate (1981, Bertrand Tavernier)
    
    
48. The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
    
    
49. L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)
    
    
50. Inside Daisy Clover (1965, Robert Mulligan)
    
    
51. Final Destination (2000, James Wong)
    
    Also:
    Final Destination II (2003, David R. Ellis)
    Final Destination III (2006, James Wong)
    
52. Se7en (1995, David Fincher)
    
    
53. Antoine and Colette (1962, François Truffaut)
    
    
54. Volver / To Return (2006, Pedro Almodóvar)
    
    
55. Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)
    
    
56. Mulholland Dr. (2001, David Lynch)
    
    
57. Three Days of the Condor (1975, Sydney Pollack)
    
    
58. The Thin Man (1934, W.S. Van Dyke)
    
    
59. Now Voyager (1942, Irving Rapper)
    
    
60. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
61. The Godfather: Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
    
    
62. Bringing Up Baby (1938, Howard Hawks)
    
    
63. The Dead Zone (1983, David Cronenberg)
    
    
64. Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen)
    
    
65. Witness for the Prosecution (1957, Billy Wilder)
    
    
66. Chelovek s kino-apparatom/Man With the Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
    
    
67. Les Yeux sans visage / Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)
    
    
68. I Heart Huckabees (2004, David O. Russell)
    
    
69. Rushmore (1998, Wes Anderson)
    
    
70. Shopgirl (2005, Anand Tucker)
    
    
71. The Squid and the Whale (2005, Noah Baumbach)
    
    
72. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Milos Forman)
    
    
73. Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman)
    
    
74. Leon: The Professional (1994, Luc Besson)
    
    
75. Fem benspaend, De /The Five Obstructions (2003, Jørgen Leth)
    
    
76. Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)
    
    
77. Scaphandre et le papillon, Le/The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, Julian Schnabel)
    
    
78. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961, Blake Edwards)
    
    
79. Lola (1961, Jacques Demy)
    
    
80. You Can Count on Me (2000, Kenneth Lonergan)
    
    
81. Broken Flowers (2005, Jim Jarmusch)
    
    
82. Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, Die/ The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
    
    
83. Scarface (1983, Brian De Palma)
    
    
84. All the President's Men (1976, Alan J. Pakula)
    
    
85. Something's Gotta Give (2003, Nancy Meyers)
    
    
86. Angst essen Seele auf /Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
    
    
87. Amores Perros (2000, Alejandro González Iñárritu)
    
    
88. His Girl Friday (1940, Howard Hawks)
    
    
89. Bad Timing (1980, Nicolas Roeg)
    
    
90. Jeanne la Pucelle - Les prisons (1994, Jacques Rivette)
    
    
91. Heavenly Creatures (1994, Peter Jackson)
    
    
92. Coeurs/Private Fears in Public Places (2006, Alain Resnais)
    
    
93. Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica)
    
    
94. Tess (1979, Roman Polanski)
    
    
95. Persona (1966, Ingmar Bergman)
    
    
96. Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
    
    
97. The Untouchables (1987, Brian De Palma)
    
    
98. Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
    
    
99. Deserto rosso, Il /The Red Desert (1964, Michelangelo Antonioni)
    
    
100. Angèle (1934, Marcel Pagnol)
     

In no particular order:

 

1. Jesus poses

 

I don't think anything gets me quite as much as this. As a metaphor, the 'crucifixion' pose is about as subtle as an Adam Sandler film, and just as weak. OK, we get it - he sacrificed himself. And Jesus sacrificed himself. So deep.

 

By the way, I understand there's only so many ways someone can fall to the ground when killed, and YES, it's tempting. But please, for Christ's sake (see what I did there?)... just don't.

 

Examples of this vice: Gran Torino, and, in a whole class of its own, Superman Returns. God that was stupid.

 

Exception to the rule: The Omega Man. The closing scene is still kind of silly (as is the film, actually), but it does actually make some kind of sense in the context.

 

2. Shaky cam

 

Yes, I'm far from alone on this one, but it had to make the list. Now, it's not that I hate handheld camerawork without reservation - some films have used it very well. Still, there's a special place of loathing in my heart for especially obnoxious handheld. You know what I mean.

 

Examples of this vice: Half Nelson, The Idiots, and, of course, The Blair Witch Project.

 

Exception to the rule: The Child, or, in fact, any film by the Dardenne brothers. The cinematography manages to give these films a sense of heightened realism and immediacy, which is what handheld is actually supposed to do.

 

3. Not knowing when to stop

 

You know the film. It seems to be drawing to a close, and it has actually been a pretty decent movie. The credits, it seems, will roll at any second.

 

And then the film keeps going. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. Soon, another half-hour has passed and you're just hoping for the audience's sake, and your own sanity, that the film could just end. But no, this movie isn't going to finish until every single loose end has been tied, every character has hugged every other character and your bottom is experiencing a new feeling of intense numbness.

 

Examples of this vice: Cinema Paradiso, The Lives of Others and the brain-freezing drivel that was Australia.

 

Exception to the rule: Jacques Rivette's La Belle Noiseuse. With a running time of about 240 minutes, it seems like it will never end... but in this case, you don't want it to. The key is in the pacing - the films I've listed above just seem rushed and sloppy towards the end.

 

4. Slow-mo for dramatic effect

 

Slow-motion is one of the oldest, and simplest, special effects in cinema. When used properly, it can convey drama, beauty and surrealism. When used unnecessarily, or overused within a film, it seems hackneyed, ham-fisted and ridiculous. The biggest problem is that there are some directors who seem to think that dramatic weight increases accordingly with number of slow-motion sequences.

 

Example of this vice: American History X. I can think of no other film that has used slow-motion quite so shamelessly, especially in such a self-important film (did YOU know that white supremacists were bad?). Also, the ending of Thelma and Louise uses slow-motion to unintentionally hilarious effect.

 

Exception to the rule: Stalker. No director has managed to use slow-mo quite like Andrei Tarkovsky, whose films are consitently visually extraordinary and filled with beautiful, dream-like imagery.

 

5. Violence

 

This one may be kind of contentious, but I am not a fan of on-screen violence, and more so, many audiences' disturbing fascination with it. This is not to say that it has no place in cinema, but there is no doubt that it is overused, and, indeed, glamourised in many Hollywood films. I wish more directors would take a leaf out of the book of Michael Haneke, who consistently manages to explore disturbing subject material and the theme of violence without showing anything explicitly: the result is far more effective.

 

Examples of this vice: Hannibal Rising probably has nothing on some of the more gratuitous films of recent years, but as I avoid most of them like the plague, it'll have to do. Other examples are 300, Resident Evil: Extinction, Pasolini's catalogue of cruelty Salo, and the vast majority of action and horror movies emerging from Hollywood in the last few decades.

 

Exceptions to the rule: Hidden (not coincidentally, directed by Haneke), Fight Club, and Peter Jackson's absurd ultra-violent comedy Braindead.

 

6. Overused pop culture references

 

In Beverly Cleary's children's novel Ramona and Her Father, the dad has a saying: "first time is funny, second time is silly and third time is a spanking." I wish that filmmakers would take note of this in regards to two terribly overused gags (although I'm sure there are others): 1) "Eye of the Tiger" appearing at any point of a film and 2) a group of characters walking towards the screen in slow-motion, Reservoir Dogs style (and even that itself was a homage to A Clockwork Orange). Funny the first time, but very quickly going the way of Paris Hilton jokes.

 

Examples of this vice: One need only sift through the internet movie database to find classics of cinema such as Epic Movie, Night at the Museum, Kicking and Screaming, Doctor Dolittle and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd which make use of the song at one point. As for the slow-motion one, pick any one of a handful of kids movies from the last few years.

 

Exception to the rule: Starter for 10 actually uses both (from memory, in the same sequence no less), but I'll forgive it on account of being a very funny and otherwise quite original romantic comedy.

 

7. Biopics

 

This may be harsh, but there is something about the biopic genre that just doesn't work for me (and, indeed, this applies to the majority of 'true story' films). Firstly, the film often tries to span many years, and I think this automatically weakens it. For me, movies which simply depict a short time period of someone's life, without back story, are far stronger. I also feel that biopics, bound as they are to follow real events and do justice to the people involved, often seem to lack a real point. No matter how extraordinary someone's life was, I find myself asking 'so what?' - what is this film trying to say, exactly? As a result I find these movies, almost without exception, boring.

 

Biopics also seem to have a tendency to wrap up with a description of what befell each character after the conclusion of the film's events, which (ironically) only adds to the incomplete feel of it all. Special mention must be made here to fictional films which end in the same manner, such as Unbreakable. To put it bluntly, it's ten times worse.

 

Examples of this vice: A French Woman, Camille Claudel, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.

 

Exceptions to the rule: Milk proved to me quite recently that a biopic could, in fact, be an excellent film. Boys Don't Cry might have been another example of this had the supporting cast known how to act and the director not been so bland.

 

8. Alternate endings

 

Although these aren't part of the movie per se, their inclusion on the DVD is a sure sign that the director had no idea how to finish the film, and almost seems like an apology for the weak cinematic ending. One thing that the endings usually have in common is that they are equally crap.

 

Examples of this vice: This seems to be a category exclusive to the b-grade thriller. Godsend, The Butterfly Effect and, most laughably, Hide and Seek (more on that in my next post) have all been guilty of this self-indulgence.

 

Exceptions to the rule: There are none. Most serious directors actually realise that the conclusion is absolutely crucial to the film, and as such, put a bit of effort in.

 

9. 'Foreign' characters speaking in English... with an accent.

 

Subtitles don't really wash with a lot of mainstream audiences, and as such, with some exceptions (The Kite Runner, Slumdog Millionaire), most Hollywood films set in a different country simply use English. This would be fine, but there seems to be a constant need to give the characters 'foreign' accents (or worse, British). The suspension of disbelief required for these films is absurd, and I feel that any movie with serious intentions should either drop the accents or do the brave thing and inflict the unthinkable terror of subtitles.

 

Examples of this vice: Hannibal Rising (again... it was a pretty bad film), almost any movie featuring Nazis, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

 

Exception to the rule: Nothing that strictly meets the criteria, but Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales is kind of an example of the reverse. Although, of course, the stories are set in England, the characters all speak in Italian, but inexplicably break into song in English from time to time. Despite this, it's an excellent, bawdy, completely insane film that loses nothing for its logical inconsistencies.

 

10. British bad guys

 

This says a lot about American attitudes and stereotypes, but it seems that no 'baddy' is truly evil without a British accent. Disney films are especially guilty of this.

 

Exception to this rule: Seeing as how even the presence of a two-dimensional 'bad guy' is generally the hallmark of a dull Hollywood film or a children's movie, it's no surprise that it's difficult to find an example of a good movie with an evil pommy. The closest I could find is Pulp Fiction, with Tim Roth attempting to rob the diner at the beginning and climax of the film.

 

So, that's it. Of course, this is a far from definitive list, and I didn't even get to sentimentality, overacting or sequels, but I have at least covered most of the flaws that turn me off a lot of movies. I can only hope that a fair proportion of filmmakers have learnt from these mistakes and will make some attempt to avoid them, thus sparing audiences annoyance, boredom and a fervent desire to throw popcorn at the screen.

In the past, on Mindsay, I've called my husband my Spice.  This is from the movie Charly (flowers for algernon) with Cliff Robertson in the title role, for which he won the Academy Award.  In it he says "If the plural of mouse is mice, is the plural of spouse, spice?"  Here's to you, Mr. Robertson!

 

Robertson is notable for his performances in PT 109 (chosen personally by John F. Kennedy to portray the then-Lt. Kennedy), The Best Man, Charly (an adaptation of Flowers for Algernon for which he won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor), Picnic, Autumn Leaves, Too Late the Hero, Three Days of the Condor, Obsession, J. W. Coop, Star 80 and Malone. More recently, Robertson's career has had a resurgence. He appeared as Uncle Ben Parker in the first movie adaptation of Spider-Man, as well as in the sequels Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. He commented on his website that ""Since Spiderman 1 and 2, I seem to have a whole new generation of fans. That in itself is a fine residual."^[3] He was also in the 2004 horror film Riding the Bullet.

Robertson's television appearances include the starring role in the live space opera Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers, as well as recurring roles on Hallmark Hall of Fame, Alcoa theatre, and Playhouse 90 (in the 1950s), Outlaws, The Twilight Zone, and Batman as the villainous gunfighter Shame (in the 1960s), Falcon Crest as Dr. Michael Ranson (in the 1980s), and most recently, The Lyon's Den. He had starring roles in both the 1960s and 1990s versions of The Outer Limits. He was awarded an Emmy for his leading role in an 1965 episode from Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre entitled "The Game." His second appearance on Batman featured his wife, Dina Merrill, as his sidekick and wife Calamity Jan. This two-part episode is considered by many Batman fans to be among the series' funniest. Also, in 1989, he narrated an AT&T promotional video documenting some of its technological improvements at the time. Incidentally, Robertson, who for ten years was a national TV spokesman for AT&T, (which won him the Advertising Age award for best commercial), was to be the keynote speaker at an AT&T stockholders' meeting during a strike by AT&T workers. Robertson refused to cross the picket line and did not speak at the meeting.

Last night, I watched Woody Allen's new film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and I found it extremely well done....very entertaining.  My friend was not familiar with Javier Bardem's talent and so I suggested we stop at Blockbuster after leaving the cinema to rent "Love in the Time of Cholera" which is another Bardem film.  This best selling novel by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez was adapted to film and directed by Mike Newell and starring Javier Bardem is about a young man who sets his heart on a lovely young woman whom he can not have.

 

His heart stays betrothed to Fermina while the young man, Florentino eases his void and lovesickness by bedding almost 700 women..

 

Finally at the end of his life, his dream of reconnecting with his heart comes true and he shares his deepest intimacy with Fermina.

 

I watched "Love in the Time of Cholera" again last night...It is the book that Sara wrote her name in ....in the lovely film "Serendipity" where love is left to fate. The book spoke to my heart.  He waited for his "Love" his entire life...He thought of her...He manifested himself with her...in love.

He had sex with other women but it was "her" he longed for, in order to satisfy his soul.

I find the notion overwhelming that a person can love another for an entire lifetime and never lose hope that someday they will be together.

 

The last scenes in the movie show the aged lovers finally together and in a sexually intimate moment.  Her breasts droop revealing all of her 73 years. She is shy and timid, afraid of showing her aged body but Farentino sees only beauty unconditionally.  He sees only his love.  Beauty is in the eyes of love...This man with his multitude of lovers yearns for this aged droopy breasted wrinkled body and that is most beautiful...Love sees Love...With Fermina, he is complete..He tells her,  "I have never been so happy". His soul has finally found rest...He has found his home.

 

Would you wait a lifetime for Love?

 

 

 

.The first 40 Films (plus one) I've seen this summer in chronological order of viewing with ratings on a 4 star scale (green--fiction, Netflix; blue--rented; yellow--documentary; red--seen in movie theater; black--watched online because it wasn't worth it):

.He Was A Quiet Man ** 1/2
The Gift  ***
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ***
Bad Education ***
The Strangers ***
Vertigo *** 1/2
Full Metal Jacket ***
Citizen Kane *** 1/2
Blade Runner *** 1/2
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters  ***
An Inconvenient Truth  ***
Lust, Caution ***
La Dolce Vita ***
The Happening **
The Godfather *** 1/2
Bringing Up Baby ***
Be Kind Rewind ***
The Last Unicorn **
Sunset Boulevard ***
The Godfather Part II ****
Get Smart ***
Persona ***
Spellbound ***
Female Trouble ***
Casablanca ***
Barton Fink *** 1/2
For the Bible Tells Me So *** 1/2
The Seventh Seal ***
Kaena: The Prophecy **
Wall-E ****
The Corporation ** 1/2
The Lady Vanishes ***
Ran *** 1/2
The Holy Mountain *** 1/2
Of Human Bondage ***
Taxi Driver *** 1/2
Lost in La Mancha ***
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ***
Short Cuts ***
Super Size Me ***
C.R.A.Z.Y.

 

.Many of them I watched for personal research purposes; however, there are a few I just felt like seeing. The color-coding was mostly for me, but I included it. Obviously. I didn't rate the last film, C.R.A.Z.Y., because I just saw it today. I'll wait until about 21 movies later to rate it and its group.

.Am I mad for doing this--all this movie-watching? No, I was probably mad before. And it gives me something to do. Something about which to discipline myself. I almost feel guilty if a day goes by in which I haven't seen a film. I'll be seeing more. A lot more. Trust me on this one.


.If you want to know about any of the films in greater detail or disagree (or agree) about any of the ratings, feel free to let me know.