The List, Draft One
Mar. 20th, 2007 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerSo I've been giving the top five movie choices for the AFI contest a lot of thought. They want me to select five films in order of preference, the top three being the most important. Here's what I have so far, counting down in order of preference:
5.) THE FOUNTAIN
--- This shouldn't be in here, as it's far too recent. By which I mean, too recently in people's minds, and it's going to need at least ten years before folks start to really realize what a gem this film is (not that everyone will or should, as I know some of you guys didn't care for it). But frankly, this is MY ideal list, right? And this is a film that touched me on a deeply personal level that so desperately needs to be seen on a huge screen, with the best stereo system available. Just for that ONE moment at the climax. I dunno, maybe I'll come to my senses and remove it, but it's there for now. It's my favorite film of 2006 and one of my favorites of all time, even if it is too soon.
4.) THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1958)
--- Like LEAR, this is mainly here because of how fucking rare it is, and if anyone could dig up a reel, it's the AFI. This film does a wonderful job of adapting Dostoevsky's mammoth novel and, by sacrificing the explicit philosophical segments (you'd just have to), you're left with a non-stop three hour piece of stellar entertainment. Of course, I haven't seen it in three, four years now, so would I still love it? I think so. And the cast! Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, William Shatner, Claire Bloom, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Baseheart, Albert Salmi... excellent.
3.) KING LEAR (1971, dir. Peter Brook)
--- This is my favorite version of my favorite Shakespeare play (RAN notwithstanding, as it doesn't really count), directed by the great theatre director Peter Brook (MARAT/SADE) and starring the utterly brilliant Paul Scofield. It's a very rare film, not even available on VHS anymore, and even though it only uses about 1/4 of the actual text, it deserves to be on my DVD shelf right between Branagh's HENRY V and Taymor's TITUS. It's also unrelentingly disturbing and even terrifying, as LEAR abso-fucking-lutely must be.
2.) Still Undecided. I'm weighing the options.
--- Maybe Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD, since I really need a geek movie in there, and I've come to love this film more and more each time I see it.
--- Another geek classic would be THE THING, directed by John Carpenter. This might well be my very favorite horror movie, and it only seems to get better with age. Watching that in a packed theatre could be a fucking brilliant experience, to say the least.
--- Or maybe THE STRAIGHT STORY, my very favorite David Lynch film, a small story set against a huge backdrop of expansive Iowa farmland, a slow little story that demands and deserves attention at every small moment. Beautiful.
--- AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS was the first Kurosawa film I'd ever seen, and while it's hardly his masterpiece and yeah, it's very uneven, it's the closest one to my heart. Because while three of these eight short films are kinda subpar, the other five are absolutely powerful, beautiful, surreal little wonders of cinema.
--- And then there's OPEN RANGE. Directed by and starring Kevin Costner, who self-financed this film because he clearly understood what he had on his hands and wanted the rest of the world to see it. A year ago, I became one of those very few to see it as well. He should have gotten a Best Picture nomination for this film easily, but the days of the slow, quiet, old-school American Westnern are pretty well gone. I need to rewatch this with someone else, to see if it really was an excellent as I'd thought. If so, then this film truly needs and deserves recognition, all the WATERWORLDS of the world be damned. Also, it has Robert Duvall. Nuff said, true believer.
... maybe I'll remove THE FOUNTAIN to make room for two of these?
1.) ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
--- A no-brainer, especially since the DVD has equalized the sound, so that the guitars don't blast you like they should, and as a result, the whole film experience is severely hindered. Especially for the scene on the farm, when the music kicks in, that scene should fucking punch you in the gut. I want to have that experience with this utterly epic masterpiece on the big screen. Charles Bronson. Jason Robards. Claudia Cardinale. And Henry Fonda, and one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time. Ennio Morricone's soundtrack is so amazing, Sergio Leone filmed around it, as Morricone recorded it before they even began filming. I still don't know which film is Leone's masterpiece, between this, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, and the superior-to-GODFATHER (but maybe not GODFATHER II) Jewish mob epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. My favorite film.
Whatchoo folks think?
5.) THE FOUNTAIN
--- This shouldn't be in here, as it's far too recent. By which I mean, too recently in people's minds, and it's going to need at least ten years before folks start to really realize what a gem this film is (not that everyone will or should, as I know some of you guys didn't care for it). But frankly, this is MY ideal list, right? And this is a film that touched me on a deeply personal level that so desperately needs to be seen on a huge screen, with the best stereo system available. Just for that ONE moment at the climax. I dunno, maybe I'll come to my senses and remove it, but it's there for now. It's my favorite film of 2006 and one of my favorites of all time, even if it is too soon.
4.) THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1958)
--- Like LEAR, this is mainly here because of how fucking rare it is, and if anyone could dig up a reel, it's the AFI. This film does a wonderful job of adapting Dostoevsky's mammoth novel and, by sacrificing the explicit philosophical segments (you'd just have to), you're left with a non-stop three hour piece of stellar entertainment. Of course, I haven't seen it in three, four years now, so would I still love it? I think so. And the cast! Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, William Shatner, Claire Bloom, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Baseheart, Albert Salmi... excellent.
3.) KING LEAR (1971, dir. Peter Brook)
--- This is my favorite version of my favorite Shakespeare play (RAN notwithstanding, as it doesn't really count), directed by the great theatre director Peter Brook (MARAT/SADE) and starring the utterly brilliant Paul Scofield. It's a very rare film, not even available on VHS anymore, and even though it only uses about 1/4 of the actual text, it deserves to be on my DVD shelf right between Branagh's HENRY V and Taymor's TITUS. It's also unrelentingly disturbing and even terrifying, as LEAR abso-fucking-lutely must be.
2.) Still Undecided. I'm weighing the options.
--- Maybe Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD, since I really need a geek movie in there, and I've come to love this film more and more each time I see it.
--- Another geek classic would be THE THING, directed by John Carpenter. This might well be my very favorite horror movie, and it only seems to get better with age. Watching that in a packed theatre could be a fucking brilliant experience, to say the least.
--- Or maybe THE STRAIGHT STORY, my very favorite David Lynch film, a small story set against a huge backdrop of expansive Iowa farmland, a slow little story that demands and deserves attention at every small moment. Beautiful.
--- AKIRA KUROSAWA'S DREAMS was the first Kurosawa film I'd ever seen, and while it's hardly his masterpiece and yeah, it's very uneven, it's the closest one to my heart. Because while three of these eight short films are kinda subpar, the other five are absolutely powerful, beautiful, surreal little wonders of cinema.
--- And then there's OPEN RANGE. Directed by and starring Kevin Costner, who self-financed this film because he clearly understood what he had on his hands and wanted the rest of the world to see it. A year ago, I became one of those very few to see it as well. He should have gotten a Best Picture nomination for this film easily, but the days of the slow, quiet, old-school American Westnern are pretty well gone. I need to rewatch this with someone else, to see if it really was an excellent as I'd thought. If so, then this film truly needs and deserves recognition, all the WATERWORLDS of the world be damned. Also, it has Robert Duvall. Nuff said, true believer.
... maybe I'll remove THE FOUNTAIN to make room for two of these?
1.) ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
--- A no-brainer, especially since the DVD has equalized the sound, so that the guitars don't blast you like they should, and as a result, the whole film experience is severely hindered. Especially for the scene on the farm, when the music kicks in, that scene should fucking punch you in the gut. I want to have that experience with this utterly epic masterpiece on the big screen. Charles Bronson. Jason Robards. Claudia Cardinale. And Henry Fonda, and one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time. Ennio Morricone's soundtrack is so amazing, Sergio Leone filmed around it, as Morricone recorded it before they even began filming. I still don't know which film is Leone's masterpiece, between this, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, and the superior-to-GODFATHER (but maybe not GODFATHER II) Jewish mob epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. My favorite film.
Whatchoo folks think?
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Date: 2007-03-20 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 03:32 am (UTC)Cape Cod Girls
Date: 2007-03-21 12:56 am (UTC)Cape Cod kids they have no sleds
Heave-away, heave-away
They slide down hills on codfish heads
We are bound for South Australia!
Re: Cape Cod Girls
Date: 2007-03-21 03:27 am (UTC)