My Favorite Movies

Orson Welles can be considered as the man who woke up American cinema artistically. Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made, because it can still be seen as a unique work of art. It has lasted through time and had a big influence on all the Hollywood films that followed. The only film which can be thought to approach the quality of Kane is The Magnificent Ambersons, another great Welles classic.

Brilliant black humor on Cold War by Kubrick.

How much more intelligent, sarcastic, surreal, insane, silly and revolutionary can a comedy be? King Arthur is depicted as a drunk, stupid sod who can't even count to five. Launchelot is gay (!) and the peasants are aware of the basic theories of communism and anarchism. The film is so absolytely crazy that there are moments you think you are begining to lose your sense of time and place. Only Life of Brian can hold a candle to this excellent sample of a positive humor evolution.
"-If she waights the same as a duck, she is made of wood -And therefore...? - A WITCH !!"

I have watched Winter Light more than ten times and I have enjoyed every single one of them. Gunar Bjornstrand's character is, in a way, the God and Ingrid Thulin's character is the Believer. God finds his Believers repulsive, because they are demanding -all they want is attention and love- and they are troubled -either psychologically or physically ill-. The Priest lost his wife, God lost his son. The Teacher loves the Priest who hates her, the Believer loves a God who is silent. The Teacher and the Priest are never going to be together, so is God and the Believer. Because the Believer is meant to suffer for having faith in his soulless creation (God) as the Teacher, who can't realise that the Priest's love for her doesn't really exist and it is entirely her "creation".

Satiric, bourlesque, terrifying, scary, comic, masterpiece.

Madness is like a broken down elevator: it can take you up, but what happens if it would suddenly crush? It takes you and anyone else in "it" down. The mathematician is too troubled solving complicated equations, but he later realizes that real problems are even more difficult to solve. Hoffman gave Peckinpah a character based on logic, not morals. And as it happens in every Peckinpah film, he protects himself in every possible way. No mater what the cost. The ending doesn't make us feel better or understand what the hero was thinking when he did whatever he did, but displays the simple truth: people are animals and when they sense danger coming closer, they only care about their survival.

The best film about the war in Vietnam. Who can forget Lee Ermey as Surgeant Hartman and Matthew Modine as Private Joker ?

The greatest horror film of all times was a mixture of political "satire" by Passolini and social "satire" by Marquis De Sade. If you can't stand watching the whole film, go straight to the last scene. Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and Cantos by Ezra Pound will haunt your minds for ever.

C. Deneuve's shocking beauty, Polanski's genius use of camera and strange sound effects all in one excellent psycho thriller. It doesn't have much blood, but the brutal ways of killing (mind the razorblades)and the disgusting rotten rabbit on the plate, all combined in a creepy black-and-white picture, are scarier than many modern thrillers. Carole is mad. Any other director would show us Carole's madness at the end of the film. Polanski shows it during the film, not because he doesn't want to take us by surprise but because the film IS supposed to display how her insanity grows into the obsession of protecting herself. We don't care how it started, only thing we need to know is how it ends. If it ends.

I'll start by making a few venomous comments on Schindler's List. First of all, what we are watching is not original black and white, because original black and white is too expensive. That brings to mind an old Groucho Marx joke: "That dress is red, but technicolor costs.". And why did mr Spielberg film Schindler's List in black and white -not even original black and white- and not in colour ? Because black and white is supposed to be "serious"...So, what we have here is more of a Max Factor makeup tribute than a "serious" movie. But there are some good things in this film: screenplay, leading actors and costumes. Everything looks nice, until the moment that the film is no longer black and white and we get to see Jews visiting Schindler's grave. I'm not so sure about that scene. German's were "the bad guys", Jews are thankful, but don't treat us as if we don't know that mr Spielberg.

"First it controls your mind, then it destroys your body.". That's what television really does, with or without shows like Videodrome. David Cronenberg was mainly influenced by Marshall McLuhan, who was a lecturer in media studies at the University of Toronto the time Cronenberg was studying there (early '70s). Videodrome has a lot of scenes that involve physical transformation, which gave Cronenberg a hard time with censorship. But no matter how disgusting Videodrome gets at some parts, the message is still there: wether you like it or not, television is a new form of control over the masses. "Videodrome has programmed you to kill me." says professor O' Blivion's daughter, Bianca, to Max Renn. Doesn't television do that? "Buy this, live like that, make money". It makes people feel as if everything is their own choice and leads them to a new way of slow self-destruction. We might not as yet have holes on our stomach or guns stuck on our hands, but we all are victims of Videodrome. Long live the new flesh...

Based on Nabokov's novel, one of Kubrick's best works. Peter Sellers gives a great performance as Quilty.

Words are not enough to describe how I felt when I first watced The Wild Bunch. Being a girl, I was supposed to dislike westerns. But from the very first moment I was captured by this film. How can a western be so well-directed, (un)ethical, dirty, disrespectful and funny at the same time ?
Peckinpah questioned all the "rules" of the western genre. He rejected the pop image of John Wayne, Lee Van Clif, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda and created human characters instead. Cowboys who don't care how they look or how cool they shoot. What John Ford tried to achieve with "The Man who shot Liberty Valance", what Sergio Leone tried to avoid with the Clint Eastwood trilogy and what Eastwood copied in the amazing "The Unforgiven" was what Sam did with 13.152 bullets, 145 dead bodies and William Holden. He showed a filthy West, not a West living nice in its filth. John Wayne himself said that the film "Ruined the legend of the old West". True John, but it ruined it in the most artistic and creative way.
West will hate you, shoot you, make you bleed and then spit on your grave. No sympathy, no laws: every man fights alone. Peckinpah knew that. And that's why The Wild Bunch IS the West.

"My name is John Wayne and my westerns always get a good rating."
John Ford is the reason why I started watching westerns. He was dedicated and he knew what he wanted to show with his movies. John Wayne is the pop image of the old West. Typical American hero. Good combination. The Searchers is a very good example of what the cooperation between Ford and Wayne could achieve. The Monument valley, where Ford had filmed a lot of westerns, works as the perfect landscape. The main character, Ethan, is in the center of the action; portrayed perfectly by Wayne. The main theme of the film is racism, which is one of the large steps John Ford made in order to improve the western genre, and hate. A lot better than Rio Grande and a striking moment in cinema history.

Today it may not look that scary but imagine what those poor viewers must have felt like when they first saw this horror film. Scarier and better than any other vampire film.
tip: Max Schreck's last name means "fear" in German.

Ewan McGregor is like Gene Kelly in "American in Paris" in the begining of the film. He has such an outstanding voice and posture that he should definately dedicate himself to musicals. He shines more than any other member of the cast, yes, even more than Kidman. Now Kidman is good, but it feels as if she has based her performance mainly on how she looks rather than how she acts, a trap in which many beautiful actresses fall in. The directing is not anything special, but it works. The songs are nice: my most favourite is "The hills are alive" sang by McGregor. Luhrmann must be very proud, because he hasn't directed something better since Moulin Rouge (Australia was a bad moment).

It is most difficult for some people to forgive this film for beating Scorsese's masterpiece "Raging Bull" at the Oscars, but no one must oversee the fact that "Ordinary People" is one of the best films ever made about human emotions. What makes it special is the way the main characters are "treated". They are sad figures not because they share their feelings, but because they DON'T. They can't sit down and talk because they can't say anything. Maybe because they don't feel they need to. Maybe because there are no words to say how ruined, tortured and drained they feel they are. And it is sad knowing that people are so desperate and they don't have the strength and the will to share it. And even though they have the same feelings, they feel isolated and alone. The time they'll talk, the truth is what will eventually tear them apart. But only momentarily. Because people forgive.

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact discplayers and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mordgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats that you've spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life. But why would anyone want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"
That is the short, brilliant introduction to Danny Boyle's best movie, with the sound of Iggy Pop's "Lust for life".
Renton seems to be rejecting the dominant ideals of his time, but deep down inside he doesn't. His "transformation" from drug addict to a proper citizen then back to drug addict and then to proper citizen is quite familiar from Alex's story in Clockwork Orange: psycho-harmless-psycho. Both movies mentioned end up showing us the same thing: No one wants to be last. Especially those who are always last. There are parts in the movie where Renton is quite optimistic and brings to mind an Oscar Wilde quote: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Boyle is using surrealism to depict certain points of the characters' life, with the most impressive being the scene where Renton dives into a lavatory to find his drugs. Surrealism had until then been used mostly from directors such as Kubrick, Pasolini and Bunuel.
Trainspotting did not receive any awards, in contradiction to Boyle's latest film "Slumdog Millionaire", which can not hold a candle to Trainspotting, that won eight Academy Awards. A bit unfair, maybe...?

"Alien is not a science fiction film, it's gothic horror.". John Landis is right. Alien is the story of the haunted house, but it is set in space "Where no one can hear you scream". There are many moments during which you'll probably shout "Don't go there!" or "Don't touch that!". There's something creepy in this movie and it has to do with John Hurt...

I just loved this film. There was so much inspiration in every single scene: people use the dining room as a bathroom and the bathroom as dining room, a strange man gives a girl some "nasty" pictures of historical landmarks, the dead sister calls her brother for an emergency meeting, some soldiers go for fox hunting in a tank and many more. It is so brilliantly directed that even the craziest thing looks totaly common. The film can not reach the level of the surreal masterwork called "The discrete charm of the bourgeoisie" but it is one of Bunuel's best. One thing I did not like was that Michel Piccoli had a very small part, but suppose I could forgive Bunuel this time...

This sixty-three minute film is the most accurate and frightfull portrait of human behaviour. The complexity of our mind is a blessing and a curse. Why is it wrong to kill people for fun when we do the same thing with animals? And why should we care about their thougts, emotions and feelings? What difference does it make if two or three or ten people get killed? Nature doesn't need us and perhaps this is the reason why we humans are self-destructive. Count Zaroff kills people for fun, but at least he has the nerve to support his "strange" hobby with some points. And this is what makes the film so unbarably horrific: he is crazy, but he is correct when it comes to the whole idea of his favorite "game". Men are animals when it comes to survival. They are thinking the same way an animal does. "If you want to act like a tiger, I will hunt you down like a tiger." screams count Zaroff to Joel McCrea. Count Zaroff gives us the most terrifying truth about our race: Man, with or without weapons, is the most dangerous animal.

Perhaps the greatest remake since "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
I myself am a sucker for Donald Sutherland films and this one is definatelly my second favourite (the first one being "MASH").
WATCH THIS INSTEAD OF THE CRAPPY KIDMAN-CRAIG SHIT CALLED "INVASION".

I only watched Hellraiser for two reasons: 1. Because I was curious and 2. because the other film my friends wanted to watch was Michael Bay's BULLSHIT "Friday the 13th".
I loved Hellraiser. I think it is brilliant. It's definatelly better than the latest torture porn crap Eli Roth keeps making (although I kind of liked Cabin Fever), a refreshing break from remakes-sequels-prequels of great horror classics (Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Str., etc).
Next time the new Hostel or Saw comes to a cinema near you, you stay at home and watch Hellraiser.

Perhaps the funniest film ever made -and I say "perhaps" because there's always Life of Brian and Young Frankenstein-. Witty, politically incorrect, well-written... Oh come on, seriously, Leslie Nilsen and Peter Graves (yes, the guy from 1966 Mission: Impossible) are in it! If you don't laugh at least 50 times during the film, you should have your head examined.

George Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you has been a lie. Including that.
Stanley Moon: Including what?
George Spiggott: That everything I've ever told has been a lie. That's not true.
Stanley Moon: I don't know WHAT to believe.
George Spiggott: Not me, Stanley, believe me!

"Bedazzled" is full of classic jokes, moments of absolute comic brilliance that the stupid remake didn't manage to destroy, Pete as the Devil and Dud as a cook who is in love with a waitress. One of the finest british comedies, a must-see.
"The magic words: Julie Andrews!"

Instant cult! The scene where they are running on the beach... I loved it! The film is incredibly funny, thanks to Moore's amazing performance. It's not a masterpiece, but it certainly has its moments.

MASTERPIECE! Seriously, this film is the definition of cult! Politically incorrect, as it involves some prostitutes being blown up, hilarious and a bit cheesy. The final scene is so perverted and at the same time so funny and deeply ironic that could belong to a Twilight Zone episode! Epic.

If you think Mullholand Drive is hard to understand, try explaining to yourself what the fuck is going on in Perfect Blue. Is it all the dream of a deeply disturbed pop idol? Is it reality? Just what is going on in Mima's head?! That's the beauty of it, though, Perfect Blue is messing with the viewer's mind. It's one of the best anime films ever made since it is not only visually perfect, but it also handles the whole pop star phenomenon in a strangely attractive, surreal way.

It's one of those films you either love or hate. Personally, I love it! Appart from the strong feeling that you are watching a film written by Monty Python, produced by Fellini and directed by Bunuel, The Bed Sitting Room will also make you feel smarter than those who think Scary Movie 1,2,3,4 are funny.
It satirizes everything; television, politics, royal family, country, state, marriage, health system, family life, weapons of mass destruction. It's without a doubt one of Lester's best moments.

"-How rich are you?
-I wish I had a dime for every dime I have..."
Classic Dudley... One of his best films, in which he gives his greatest performance. Witty, charming and -as always- adorable... Dudley certainly is what makes "Arthur" a great comedy. John Gielgud's performance is also very entertaining.

Landis's An American Werewolf in London is for werewolves what Browning's Dracula is for vampires. Funny, anything but boring, well directed, with stunning visual effects. Also, the soundtrack is fantastic.

It involves two things I love: Werewolves and Stephen Rea!

Three words: Masterpiece, masterpiece and masterpiece. The scene called "the raping of Christ" had been cut from the original print by the censors and was lost for many years. Film critic Mark Kermode met Ken Russell and some of the actors a few years ago for the needs of a documentary, which was made about the film, and showed them the original footage which everyone thought that had been destroyed. One of the most shocking and unique films I have ever watched.

BEST MOVIE ABOUT A ROCK BAND EVER!!!! And I'm not just saying so because I'm a big Who fan or because of my endless love for Pete Townshend. No, this IS the best rockumentary ever made, mainly because it was made by a fan of the group (Jeff Stein). Rare footage, interviews, live performances (how I wish I could have been there!) , everything a fan wants to watch.
Pete's powerslide is THE greatest moment in the history of rock. The second best is Keith Moon banging his wet drums in "The Rolling Stones Rock N' Roll Circus" performance of A Quick One While He's Away.

Classic, classic, classic. Absolute brilliance, from start to finish. In my mind, "Water", the bit after "My Generation" and Tommy's encore are the finest moments.
Finally, the cameras are zooming on John Entwistle! Because of the epic skeleton suit -apparently-, which according to him was bought in a hurry and turned out to be very small as well as uncomfortable, we get to see John a lot more than usual.
Well-directed, intense, fantastic!

Psychedelic, anarchic, the work of a genius (a.k.a. Zappa). Just the very idea of Ringo Starr as a dwarf who tries to steal the virginity of the Hot Nun -Keith Moon gives a whole new meaning to the words 'nun' and 'hot'- using a magic lamp (!) is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s! The other reason why you should watch this is the music. Great performances that really stand out and impress almost as much as the imagery and the trippy visual effects.