Okay, Julia's still awaiting a call to have an interview in Alabama. Gabriel's worn out from his week at school and jumping, and we're all heading into Savannah tomorrow.
A new month means ten more selections to my list of 200 Essential Films.
Big Night (1996; directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott)
A wonderful film, ideally cast (Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm being the standouts), memorable for, if nothing else, all the appetizing Italian food on display. A nuanced, poignant tale of family and friendship, with a truly perfect final scene.
Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
Robert Towne's screenplay is generally considered to be the model of the form; dense and clever, instantly quotable, sad, allegorical, tense. Polanski has great, snaky control of the picture, and Jack Nicholson is at his best as war hero P.I. Jake Gittes, who can't understand where all the water in L.A. is going. She's my sister! (slap!) She's my daughter! (slap!) She's my sister and my daughter! Now do you understand!
Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
Rosebud.
City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
Where's the Chaplin, right? This is my personal fave, a beautiful film about the Little Tramp, kicked and beaten and laughed at all over town, who meets the woman of his dreams. Of course, she's blind. She has no idea that the man who is so nice and sweet to her is the lowest, most ridiculed man around. And at the end, when her vision is restored, she opens her eyes and sees him... And smiles.
Clue (1985, Jonathan Lynn)
Why not? Everyone loves this film. Julia and her brother David and me and my sisters have pretty much memorized every line. SO much fun.
The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
A cops-and-bad guys tale with a charismatic, obsessed antihero (Gene Hackman, in an Oscar-winning role), a dandy, cultivated villain (Fernando Rey), a famous car chase, grimy realism, some thrilling cat-and-mouse gamemanship, and a ending that haunts.
The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow)
One of the least-seen Best Picture winners of all time, Bigelow's film is arguably the finest vision of yet of the war in Afghanistan. It's not a film with easy answers and it's hero (played with layered ambiguity and force by Jeremy Renner) isn't very accessible, but by the end of the film, we're emotionally wrung-out and certain that there can't be any easy answers. Bigelow's muscular direction plants us right into the action in a way that isn't showy, creating a world of strangeness and uncertainty.
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)
Cary Grant will probably have more movies on this list than any other actor. Was there anything he couldn't do? Here he heads a South American freight company, leading a group of pilots who have to transport good over the mountains. Death is unavoidable, and Grant and his friends pass their free time drinking away their fears. In to this scene come two women vying for Grant's affections (Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth). Like many films on the list, it has a great final scene.
On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)
Sort of a given that this is going to be on here, even though it hasn't aged too well. Marlon Brando's performance has still retained some of its novel power, and his scenes with Eva Marie Saint are still touching. Karl Malden, as the priest, grates, but the scene with Brando and Rod Steiger in the backseat ("I coulda been somebody") is one for the time capsule.
The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
I think this will age really well. Aaron Sorkin's screenplay was justly lauded, but equally impressive is the Trent Reznor-Atticus Ross score, Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography, the acting (a special shout-out to Armie Hammer). Fincher might be too dark and naturally saturnine to ever make a movie about the way we actually live, but this will do.
Photography time:
Irving Penn (#4)
Born in 1917 in New Jersey, Penn studied painting, drawing, and graphic and industrial design in Philadelphia. Early positions after college included freelance designer and illustrator for Harper's Bazaar and director of ad design at Saks Fifth Avenue. He then began a long career at Vogue.
I could go on about Penn but here is a New York Times article on him, written after his 2009 death:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html?pagewanted=all
 | |||||||||
| Pablo Picasso, 1957 |
 | ||||||
| Woman in Palace, Marrakech, Morocco, 1951 |
Penn was later renowned for his use of platinum prints. He made them on aluminum sheets coated with a platinum emulsion. The result were photos with luxurious textures, rich tonality.
The Big Year was a really enjoyable movie. It was a box-office dud, a fizzle despite the presence of such stars as Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black and a supporting cast including Anjelica Huston, Rashida Jones, Brian Dennehy, Rosamund Pike, Joel McHale, and Kevin Pollak. Maybe people were expecting it to be a laugh riot. And it's not. It's an entertaining, amusing, at times touching movie, if not a particularly funny one. That's okay, though. Director David Frankel captures the frenetic spirit of Mark Obmascik's book. I smiled and nodded along, and if I didn't exactly laugh out loud, I certainly felt the same way I did watching it as I did reading the book. This is a film about obsession, plain and simple. The characters may be nutty, even crazy, but those are the traits that define obsession. And just maybe, maybe (and this is Frankel and the cast's achievement) obsession will eventually dissolve into the unique, singular, inspiring trait and driving force we know as passion. I kinda loved it. And the scene where Dennehy realizes his achieve-nothing son Black's passion? Loved that too!
Here's a review of the film by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/roundrobin/2011/10/15/the-big-year-our-movie-review/
No comments:
Post a Comment