Your Favorite Movies - YLB Memorial Edition

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Some of my favorite filmmakers don't have anything specific that quite scales the heights for me: Scorsese, Preminger, Minnelli, Renoir, Tarkovsky, Ford, etc. But they would all be popping up on a list expanded out to 30+ I imagine.

Lists like these are tough because my gut says I enjoy several more Rivette, Welles, Powell & Pressburger films than most anything else I could list and should have put more in there, but we all have that competing impulse to spread the love around. I'm glad to see you didn't hold back when it comes to Ozu, especially the mention of the underrated Tokyo Twilight. Personally I feel the stuff on that Late Ozu set can be put right up there with his earlier masterworks.

I started off just listing honestly and inclusively, and immediately had that same impulse, so the list on the last page is pretty wonky. There are probably 6 or 7 each of Kiarostami, Ozu, and Hou that I prefer to certain films on there, but that would be of little interest to list for people. I like what we used to do with the yearly listed, keeping it to one representative choice per filmmaker or something along those lines.

There are a handful of strangely underwhelming films Ozu made after the silent period, Flavor of Green Tea Over Rise (still good) and maybe one or two others), but honestly each and every other film from the period is just as miraculous as the next. Also another half dozen or so silents. Tokyo Twilight has always been a standout to me though. Ozu at his most melodramatic, but just as meticulously beholden to his unique aesthetic as any other film he made around that time. It's an amazing spell that one conjures.

Another film I completely forgot to put high on the list was The Long Day Closes. Huge mistake.
 
Almost as essential is the There Was a Father/The Only Son double-set. Shame An Autumn Afternoon was already issued individually. Hopefully it gets a blu upgrade some day soon at least.
 
I greatly admire Ozu, but personally I'd put the two key Mizoguchi films above any of his films: Ugetsu and Sansho The Bailiff. Those two are transcendent in a way that only few filmmakers have achieved.
 
No, i'm not portuguese. But i spent a great deal of my childhood in Ilha da Madeira (Madeira Island) and there i discovered some great portuguese books and writers like Camilo Castelo Branco, Eça de Queiroz (my favourite."Os Maias" is a top 3 book for me) etc

I was thinking of a movie that had a great emotional impact over me some years ago: Les Choristes (2004) by french director Christophe Barratier.

And my 2 favorite movies as a kid: First Men in the Moon (1964) and, of course, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).

Eça de Queiroz is one of my favourite Portuguese authors. Did you read o crime do padre amaro? Probably my favourite of his. And I've always wanted to visit Madeira.

Also, glad to see Bertolucci and Leone mentioned somewhere. Gian Maria Volonté might be the most underrated Italian actor of all time.
 
Adding movies to my Netflix queue, I see Mysteries of Lisbon is streaming. I'm assuming the 4 hour version is still worth seeing, right?
 
Eça de Queiroz is one of my favourite Portuguese authors. Did you read o crime do padre amaro? Probably my favourite of his. And I've always wanted to visit Madeira.

Also, glad to see Bertolucci and Leone mentioned somewhere. Gian Maria Volonté might be the most underrated Italian actor of all time.

I did. Os Maias, O Crime do Padre Amaro, A Relíquia and O Primo Basílio are all awesome books.
 
Adding movies to my Netflix queue, I see Mysteries of Lisbon is streaming. I'm assuming the 4 hour version is still worth seeing, right?

Yes.

As for Mizoguchi. I don't know. I really feel I need to revisit most of his films. I adored some of them when I saw them, wasn't ready for others probably, and feel like my opinions both ways might be likely to switch at any given moment. I've delved a lot deeper into classical Japanese cinema recently, and talked to a lot of passionate people about it, and been on podcasts about Naruse and Kurosawa, and Mizoguchi always tends to come up, along with Ozu regarding a few key points. Mainly, things have brought into doubt Mizoguchi's treatment of women. His so-called women's films tend to martyr them from a weird sort of male-gazey perspective, not that I'm a big fan of that line of critical theory. But it is something to consider when compared to somebody like Naruse, who maybe directs films about women in a most truthful, three dimensional, grounded, evenly empathetic, and ultimately more interesting way. Which is then weird why I still list The Life of Oharu as my sole Gooch pick. But I haven't revisited these films at all yet, like I said, and it's possible nothing will change when I do. I'm curious to bring this perspective to his work whenever I do though. Shansho the Bailiff and Ugestu kind of get around that intrinsically by the nature of the stories they're telling, and maybe stronger for it.

or whatever amiright
 
I'm woefully underversed in Japanese cinema outside the major players like Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. And the Oshima's Outlaw Sixties set from Criterion.
 
There are some great ones worth exploring outside of that set in the classical period - Hiroshi Shimizu, Masaki Kobayashi, Tomu Uchida, a few others. Not all are auteurs on the level of Ozu or Gooch of course. I'd very strongly urge you to check out Naruse though. Most of his available films are on Hulu, actually. Very much the equal of Ozu or Mizoguchi. His visual deftness is remarkable, though his aesthetic is far more transparent than that of the other two that it's easy to mistake it for being nonexistent. He's a supreme craftsman though, and more than that, one of the best actors directors I know of. I think if you start with something like Yearning or Flowing, you'd probably be hooked.

As for the Japanese New Wave, there's almost too much going on there to list. If you really like Oshima though try looking at Shohei Imamura, who once worked under Ozu and burst out in his own directing to completely subvert the old school (which is true for a lot of these guys I guess, but still). The Insect Woman is my favorite. Also Yoshishige Yoshida, who has one of the boldest visual styles of any of the New Wave directors. Eros + Massacre is maybe his best.
 
all-time favorite: Taxi Driver

runner up: Gangs of NY

Hilarious, and somehow their jokes never get old: arsenic & old lace, monty python & the holy grail

John Huston's adaptation of Joyce's The Dead belongs somewhere on here for the arbitrary category of best thing I've ever watched on film based on either a short story or novel. Both Fight Club and American Psycho made for movies that were much, much better than their respective books, but that's because the books sucked. Uh, Nick Hornby...high fidelity over about a boy (major points lost for the casting of Hugh whathisface, and swapping Nirvana for the shake dat ass song)--at least the books and movies were of about the same quality/enjoyability, even though they're a tier lower than James Joyce.

Favorite Mamet: The Spanish Prisoner

Favorite X-men: the second one
 
There are some great ones worth exploring outside of that set in the classical period - Hiroshi Shimizu, Masaki Kobayashi, Tomu Uchida, a few others. Not all are auteurs on the level of Ozu or Gooch of course. I'd very strongly urge you to check out Naruse though. Most of his available films are on Hulu, actually. Very much the equal of Ozu or Mizoguchi. His visual deftness is remarkable, though his aesthetic is far more transparent than that of the other two that it's easy to mistake it for being nonexistent. He's a supreme craftsman though, and more than that, one of the best actors directors I know of. I think if you start with something like Yearning or Flowing, you'd probably be hooked.

As for the Japanese New Wave, there's almost too much going on there to list. If you really like Oshima though try looking at Shohei Imamura, who once worked under Ozu and burst out in his own directing to completely subvert the old school (which is true for a lot of these guys I guess, but still). The Insect Woman is my favorite. Also Yoshishige Yoshida, who has one of the boldest visual styles of any of the New Wave directors. Eros + Massacre is maybe his best.

Queer bag
 
YLB would mention Big Trouble in Little China.

It's all in the reflexes.

1. Vertigo (Hitch, '58)
2. Big Trouble in Little China (Carpenter, '86)
3. The Red Shoes (Archers, '48)
4. Jaws (Spielberg, '75)
5. The Big Lebowski (Coens, '98)
6. Blow Out (De Palma, '81)
7. Young Frankenstein (Brooks, '74)
8. Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Burton, '85)
9. Chinatown (Polanski, '74)
10. The Searchers (Ford, '56)
11. GoodFellas (Scorsese, '90)
12. The Thing (Carpenter, '82)
13. The Life and Death of Col. Blimp (Archers, '43)
14. Citizen Kane (Welles, '41)
15. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Dante, '90)
16. Nashville (Altman, '75)
17. Phantom of the Paradise (De Palma, '74)
18. Rear Window (Hitch, '54)
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, '81)
20. Ghostbusters (Reitman, '84)
21. Singin' in the Rain (Donen & Kelly, '52)
22. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, '76)
23. North by Northwest (Hitch, '59)
24. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, '79)
25. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Meyer, '82)
26. The Godfather Part II (Coppola, '74)
27. Annie Hall (Allen, '77)
28. Rosemary's Baby (Polanski, '68)
29. Raging Bull (Scorsese, '80)
30. Dr. Strangelove... (Kubrick, '64)
31. Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, '50)
32. The Exorcist (Friedkin, '73)
33. Heat (Mann, '95)
34. Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks, '39)
35. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Tashlin, '57)
36. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford, '62)
37. Rio Bravo (Hawks, '59)
38. The Long Goodbye (Altman, '73)
39. The Apartment (Wilder, '60)
40. Manhattan (Allen, '79)
41. Artists and Models (Tashlin, '55)
42. Raising Arizona (Coens, '87)
43. The Third Man (Reed, '48)
44. The Godfather (Coppola, '72)
45. A Matter of Life and Death (Archers, '46)
46. Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, '55)
47. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Miller, '82)
48. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, '94)
49. Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, '99)*
50. Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, '01)*

*sensual journeys, to be sure

And, as always, AMERICA.

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Nice to see you.

h-eyyyy bud-ddddy

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1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
2. Eraser
3. True Lies
4. Kindergarten Cop
5. The Terminator
6. Last Action Hero
7. The Running Man
8. Predator
9. Total Recall
10. Batman and Robin
11. Commando
12. Conan The Barbarian
13. End of Days
14. Jingle All The Way
15. Twins
16. Red Heat
17. Red Sonja
18. Junior
19. The 6th Day
20. Collateral Damage
 
The thing that sticks with me about Eraser is the scene where Ahnood goes to the bar where Robert Pastorelli is working to enlist his help and the editing error shows Pastorelli wearing vest, not wearing vest, wearing vest, not wearing vest, taking vest off....kind of Like Angry Edge's magical red to black to red to black guitar during Gone on the Elevation Boston DVD.
 
Hah! Well, at least it only happens once. It sounded like it comes off/on/off/on or something worse.
 
I was just going from memory, I remember noticing it when I saw the movie in the theater and it is the lasting impression I have of the movie.

I also remember first time I saw 48 hours, scene where Nolte gets Murphy out of jail, then handcuffs him, then there's an overhead shot of them riding in Nolte's convertible, Murphy's left arm is stretched over the back of the seat and his right is over the passenger side door like he's enjoying a leisurely Sunday ride, then they park and he's handcuffed again. Always amazes me when something so obvious slips by.
 
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