(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

Think of this as a postscript to my entry about Time's list of books that I wrote yesterday.

I looked this morning at the Time list of movies. ALL-TIME 100. I'd seen less than a quarter of them - twenty-four and a third, actually. And I think I see a lot of movies. But I've seen very few old movies - by which I mean, movies that came out before I was old enough to see them - which means I haven't seen much that came out before 1970 or so. My parents didn't encourage movie-going. I have friends who were given a quarter every Saturday afternoon and sent to the movies, but that never happened to me; nor did I ever watch movies on television. So I haven't seen most of the 'old classics' that this list is full of.

And the "third of a movie" is because I've seen The Godfather, Part 1 but not parts 2 and 3, and the list puts them all together as one item. Fair enough.

Most of the movies they list that I've seen, I didn't much like, though I acknowledge their quality.

They do list three of my favourite movies of all time: Casablanca, Lord of the Rings, and Lawrence of Arabia.

I suppose I could use this as a guide of what to watch, but truthfully, I'm not impressed enough with it to do that. There are to many on the list that I didn't like, and some I didn't go to see because I didn't want to see them. Others (Bonnie and Clyde, Goodellas, Pulp Fiction, even maybe Brazil) went beyond my personal tolerance-level for violence.

Comments

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

third gets promoted to half, I believe. I don't think GF III was included in the Godfather list entry, justifiably, in my opinion. II is good, but considering your last paragraph, I do not recommend it.

I don't think I've seen any of the five that were the readers' top rated :<}.

I heartily agree with your three.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So Godfather III wasn't as good as I and II? I'll keep that in mind. I would like to see the whole trilogy one day, mostly because I rather like Al Pacino. But it's obviously no sort of priority, or I'd have seen them already.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

The Lion in Winter isn't on the list. I don't like the people in it. I don't like what they do. I don't like what happens. I have watched it several times and will do so again. I am not masochistic. It must be good.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The Lion in Winter is top of my list. In fact there is remarkably little loverlap between my own list and the Time list, which says something about Time and something about me, like I am not them. Which I'm not.

Of course it is good. It is brilliant. But it isn't the kind of movie that makes it way onto lists created by corporations.

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

I've seem even fewer, but I'm glad they included Farewell, My Concubine - it was honestly a movie that shook my world (well, I was maybe... 14 at the time, but still!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip - I'll take it as a recommendation and make a point of seeing Farewell, My Concubine.

[kikibug13.livejournal.com]

Just be warned - it's a very heavy movie. Out of the close to three hours thing, I cried for _at least_ an hour.
It also has _some_ level of violence, including, as far as I can recall:
(somewhat spoilerish)









a mother cutting out her son's sixth digit
a man committing a suicide
disruptions about Japan's conquering of China
disruptions and cruelty about China becoming a communist country

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Those all sound like things I can handle, though thanks for the warnings. The kind of violence that bothers me is people shooting each other, particularly with machines guns.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I have wanted to watch that for so long and keep interloaning it and not finding time.

Must find time.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Where is that list? (Though if the Godfather movies are on it, I doubt I'll agree with much of any of it.) Old movies I have seen a lot of.

Casablanca truly is great--saw a bit of it a week or so again, gosh it's good.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Where is that list?

Opps, sorry, I meant to put in the URL. (Done now.) It's at:
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/the_complete_list.html

Do tell me which of the old movies I should be making a point of seeing!

I love Casablanca in so many ways. Rick is one of my favourite heroes ever. And it never gets stale.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Huh. I thought Invasion of the Body Snatchers just dumb, and 8 1/2 unbearably pretentious. But Swing Time is splendid--not just making comedy romance seem effortless, but the very best Astaire/Rogers dance is in that one, done in one take (after a day of shooting); it not only tells the story of their relationship in the movies, but for all their movies. That's the one where she finished and her shoes were filled with blood. She hadn't made a peep.

There's one I haven't seen--the crime of Monsieur Lange. There are also unaccountable lacunae--there's a film made, oh, about '56, after the Czech Revolution, that was utterly terrific. One of the best i've ever seen. But damned if I can ever remember the title.

Anyway, most of those are worth seeing (I also thought King Kong pretty stupid) at least once. And if it's before, oh, 1960, it won't be hideous violence like a lot of those others.

I'm also surprised not to see Prisoner of Zenda in there, Ronald Colman, which is many ways is a perfect film--even film buffs will say so, though they do tend to have a penchant for some pretty odd stuff.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendations - I'd love to see Swing Time and Prisoner of Zenda. What's The Crime of Monsieur Lange about? If you recall the title of the Czech film, do let me know! I am curious.

I think the idea of King Kong is pretty stupid and haven't even forced myself yet to watch the Peter Jackson version, even though I like Peter Jackson's work and the actors in it. (Some of them.)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

A film student boyfriend took me to see the newly restored King Kong in an art cinema, oh, about 1970. And while he was totally enthralled, I was sitting there thinking, "It's a giant ape. People are actually going to a theatre and paying for tickets to see a giant ape? yes, it's a metaphor for bread and circuses, but does it really have to be this dumb?"

I don't know what Monsiuer Lange is about--I'd never heard of it till I saw it on this list.

I hope I can get back that film title...I'll ask my daughter the film student, but I don't know if she'll remember--she is cursed with a visual memory similar to mine. I believe Yul Brenner and Deborah Kerr were the stars, but I could be mistaken about that...I can see their faces, but I have severe name dyslexia along with everything else. Blurp. Blurp. "And I can hide my own Easter Eggs!"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My memory is no better, especially for titles, which seem to disappear faster than I can learn them - even for some things I know well. Grump.

Curiosity may drive me to look up some of those movies just because I'm intrigued as to why they were chosen.

I find that metaphorical movies often miss the mark.