dangermousie: (Simon)
[personal profile] dangermousie
Because I am list-obsessive, here are my favorite 10 movies, non-Bollywood, in no order.

1 Lawrence of Arabia: a 1960s epic about T.E. Lawrence, this one needs to be seen on the big screen. It's complex and complicated, and I think Lawrence is the most fascinating, tormented character I've ever seen. And it's probably one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking movies to be filmed.

2 Lord of the Rings: because it's pretty much one, 11-hour glorious movie that has love and honor and sacrifice and beauty and horror and everything.

3 The English Patient: the most romantic movie I've ever seen, and the first one I've ever cried at.

4 High Noon: the only Western on the list. Not a Western fan. But this is a very stark, brilliantly acted and written, taking place in real time story about a Sheriff who gets abandoned by the whole town when the men he put away a few years ago are coming back for him. This was supposed to be a parable for the cowardice of the McCarthy era, but it works just as well anywhere, any time.

5 Notorious: my favorite Hitchcock and one of my favorite love stories, this one has the dysfunctional couple to end all couples, with Ingrid Bergman as a party girl who is convinced to "get close" to a potential Nazi sympathizer by Cary Grant, an agent who is actually in love with her. A lot of hurt and OTP results.

6 Gone With the Wind: Oh come on! It's got all that angst, and drama, and epic and poofy dresses, and being carried upstairs by the virile Rhett Butler, and it's a really good adaptation of a favorite book besides!

7 The Crowd: this is a silent masterpiece. It's so realistic that sometimes you forget you are watching a movie at all, and feel you are watching a documentary on a real working family and their ups and downs. If you see only one silent in your life, make it this one.

8 Wings of Desire: German movie about an Angel who wanders the streets of Berlin and decides to become human to experience life and to be with a circus performer he falls in love with. The fact that they remade this surreal, amazing movie into the hideously trite "City of Angels" makes me boil.

9 Girl on the Bridge: a French tale of a knife-thrower and his assistant that is whimsical and cynical and romantic and just right. I want this on DVD already!

10 Revenge of the Sith: come on, it had to be on there!

Date: 2005-09-08 05:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] callmecaito.livejournal.com
Definitely had the screenplay for High Noon in our seventh grade literature textbooks. We read it, then watched the movie in class, and I thought it was incredible.

I completely disagree about your Star Wars choice. The original three were so much better than the new ones. Then again, I'm not like an expert or anything.

Date: 2005-09-08 05:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com
I actually like the newer SW movies better. I think the older ones have dated somewhat badly.

Date: 2005-09-08 06:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elvensapphire.livejournal.com
Lord of the Rings: because it's pretty much one, 11-hour glorious movie that has love and honor and sacrifice and beauty and horror and everything.

Best sum up of the triliogy I think I've heard. :D And ROTS, of course, a no brainer.

I also adore Notorious and Gone with the Wind, which are the only other two on your list I've seen all the way through!

Date: 2005-09-08 06:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com
Yay! I am so glad someone else has seen Notorious. It's my favorite of all Cary Grant roles, which considering he plays a passive-agressive, utterly screwed up and emotionally problematic character says something worrying about my tastes...

this is ayn_rand_fan_13, at school

Date: 2005-09-08 07:04 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I love LOTR, but I've actually neverseen Gone With the Wind. *hides from sharp objects being thrown*
Squee for ROTS!

Re: this is ayn_rand_fan_13, at school

Date: 2005-09-08 07:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com
You should totally watch it!

Date: 2005-09-08 07:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elvensapphire.livejournal.com
Oh, I adore Notorious. But then, I love Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. All you have to do is say Cary Grant and I'll probably watch the movie. ;)

passive-agressive, utterly screwed up and emotionally problematic character No, that's not worrying. I adore those characters, too. Anakin, anyone? ...Or maybe we're just both insane. But the angst is more fun in fiction.

Oh, and I didn't mention Lawrence of Arabia. That's an incredible film, I've just never had the opportunity to see it beginning to end. But Peter O'Toole and Obi-Wan Alec Guiness? Wonderful.

Date: 2005-09-08 08:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com
All you have to do is say Cary Grant and I'll probably watch the movie. ;)

I know how you feel. And he is at his sexiest in thr 40s movies. *drools at "Philadelphia Story"*

I've just never had the opportunity to see it beginning to end.

It's totally worth it!

Date: 2005-09-09 02:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
I HATED the stupid [i]City of Angels[/i] precisely because I'd already seen the original [i]Wings of Desire[/i].

Date: 2005-09-09 04:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dangermousie.livejournal.com
Exactly. Me too...

And don't even get me started on the stupidity of its ending.

Date: 2005-09-09 06:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
Aaaaagh! Worst. Ending. Eva!

Date: 2005-09-09 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elvensapphire.livejournal.com
I love the Philadelphia Story. The whole cast is made up of jewels.

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