The 20 Best Films of all Time chosen by me - Part 2

It's been difficult to limit myself to just five films, but this is a list which I could happily watch on a regular basis:

1. Duck Soup - The Marx Brothers
While growing up I'd seen A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, A Night in Casablanca and The Big Store on TV as a regular bass as my father was a great fan.  But when I read up about the Marx Brothers saw that there were several early films that never seemed to make it to TV.  And then one wet Sunday afternoon BBC2 screened Duck Soup and I was hooked.

2. Notting Hill

I'd always regarded Four Weddings and a Funeral as a piece of cinema verite as  saw it at the time that most of my college contemporaries were getting married, and so far only one has died.  However Notting Hill has a more complex plot, a wonderful role for a beautiful Julia Roberts, and Elvis Costello singing She over the credits.  Need I say more?

 

 

3. Manhattan
It's a bit of a cliche to choose Manhattan as it regularly appears on Best Of Lists, but it is pretty good and I do like Rhapsody in Blue...  I've seen all the films that Woody Allen directed in the 10 years after Annie Hall and many of those from the later period, although only his recent Midnight in Paris comes close to his legendary brilliance.

4. Kind Hearts and Coronets
I had to choose an Ealing comedy and to me this is by far the best.  Apart from the virtuoso series of character parts from Alec Guinness the plot is razor sharp with a brilliant twist at the end.

 

 

 

5. Best in Show

This comes from the same team that produced This is Spinal Tap and is set in the world of competitive dog shows.  Against my better judgement I once went to Crufts to accompany my wife, who is a confirmed dog-aholic and it confirmed all my worst nightmares.  However Best in Show is a very funny satire - in the form of a dog-umentary.



The 20 Best Films of all Time chosen by me - Part 1

The various film critics on The Daily Telegraph have all been busy listing their favourite films of all time: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/9995693/20-greatest-films-of-all-time-selected-by-Robbie-Collin.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/10000742/20-best-films-of-all-time-chosen-by-Tim-Robey.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/10025946/20-best-films-of-all-time-chosen-by-Jenny-McCartney.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/10004264/20-best-films-of-all-time-chosen-by-David-Gritten.html

I thought it was time I joined the party and produce my own list: it may not be definitive, but these are all films that I have seen and enjoyed:

Part 1 - Foreign Language

Day for Night (1973) - Francois Truffaut
When I was in school the local amateur theatre doubled as a film theatre.  I used to help on the bar and one quiet night I wandered into the auditorium to see what was being screened and got hooked.  This was the beginning of my life long fascination with film:

Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman
This is another memory of my schooldays.  I was absolutely stunned when I saw this as a callow 17 year old and it reinforced my desire to see more by Bergman:

The Leopard - Visconti
Believe it or not, we were taken to see this as part of our A Level History course - which included the reunification of Italy.  It was also the first time I'd ever seen a major Hollywood star in a non English language film.

 

Downfall - Hirschbiegel
We screened this at our film club several years ago.  The film was brilliant but utterly relentless and totally exhausting.  More recently it has become the source of thousands of parodies - of varying levels of sophistication and amusement.

 

Throne of Blood - Kurosawa
I finally saw this about thirty years ago in my mid film society phase.  I've seen some excellent productions of Macbeth and thought this captured the essence of the play totally.  I was initially tempted to include Ran, but finally opted for Throne of Blood.

The Ten Best Horror Films

Here's another list from The Daily Telegraph to argue with:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/10001332/10-best-horror-films-chosen-by-Tim-Robey.html

I can accept most of the choices (especially Night of the Demon), and have seen eight of them, but where is the Bride of Frankenstein?

And, more recently, where is Let the Right One In (original version)?

 

Here's the trailer for Night of the Demon:

 

 



Are superheroes the new gods?

In a typically brilliant article Anne Billson argues that superheroes are the new god and laments the lack of what, in The Guardian, would be called female gods:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10125441/Man-of-Steel-Are-superheroes-the-new-gods.html

I came later to graphic novels after giving up Batman  comics at the age of 11, but ultimately I gave in and read Watchmen before seeing the film.  The graphic novel was superb in its range and execution, and its episodic structure made it difficult to adapt into a coherent story (would it have worked better as TV series?), but ultimately I missed the words.

The film was close to its source in many scenes which were famed exactly as drawn, but i think i would have enjoyed the film as much without having read the novel.

I've never been a Superman fan, but loved the X-Men (especially the first two films) and the Christopher Nolan Batman reboot, ie the Dark Knight Trilogy.  However my all time favourite superhero films have to be Hellboy and Hellboy and the Golden Army.

Downton Abbey Exclusive

Today I can exclusively reveal that the next series of Downton Abbey will include a scene set at a fete - and I will not be in it.

When we went to the local fete - my wife bought up the-plant stall and I made a beeline for the books, I noticed a stall advertising for extras for the next series of Downton Abbey.

I was interested - inevitably - but the date did not work: filming was during the week, and unfortunately I do not have the leave left to take time off.

The high point of the afternoon was seeing Penelope Wilton opening the fete.  apparently she has some kind of role in Downton Abbey, but to me she will always be Harriet Jones - one of a whole range of ancillary characters in Doctor Who.

I resisted the temptation to say "I know who you are"...

Ten Best Comedy Films of all Time

I think Robbie Collins is an excellent critic and a real addition to the film pages of The Daily Telegraph, but I have to disagree with hist lit of the 10 best comedy films of all times:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/9994938/10-best-comedy-films-of-all-time-chosen-by-Robbie-Collin.html

I can accept Some Like It Hot, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Life of Brian, Doctor Strangelove and Annie Hall.

But where are the Marx Brothers (specifically Duck Soup)?

And where is The Producers (original version rather than the musical travesty), Mel Brook's masterpiece?

Actors Laughing Between Takes

This is wonderful, especially the photos from the set of Harry Potter and [not sure which one] and Skyfall:

http://imgur.com/a/TpaJ2

The Ten Best British Films Of All Time

The Daily Telegraph, which usually includes some good journalism about films, has just published a list of the Ten Best British Films Of All Time:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/classic-movies/10027283/10-best-British-films-of-all-time-chosen-by-David-Gritten.html

There's plenty to argue about here, and although I would not dispute Don't Look Now, Kes, and Kind Hearts and Coronets, there is nothing by Hitchcock (in his pre-Hollywood phase), Bill Forysth (especially Local Hero) or John Boorman (Excalibur or Hope and Glory). 

Other major omissions are Peter Greenaway, Ken Russell and Terry Gilliam.

Trying to compile a list of best films is about as much use as speculating about who will be the new Doctor Who!!!

Quartet

It's our AGM on Thursday, so time for the final film of the season.

We try to choose something that will bring in the punters so that they will renew their subscriptions for next year, and this time we've chosen Quartet: something that will fit our age demographic perfectly :-)

I've not seen it and am looking forward to it very much.  Here are my notes:

Quartet

UK 2012                      90 minutes

Director:                      Dustin Hoffman

Starring:                        Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Pauline Collins, Sheridan Smith, Tom Courtenay

Awards and Nominations

• Nominated for one Golden Globe (Maggie Smith as Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy)
• A further three wins and one nomination

“There’s a gentle, sugared honesty in Quartet about old age: it stops short of anything too testing or tragic.  This is a lot closer to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) than it is to Amour (2012), and the only final curtain here is made of heavy, red velvet.”

Robbie Collins

At Beecham House, a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean (Maggie Smith), an eternal diva and the former wife of celebrated tenor Reggie (Tom Courtenay) one of the residents.

 

The screenplay is by Ronald Harwood, who adapted it from his play of the same name with the particular members of the film’s cast in mind.  In recent years Harwood has written the screenplays for films as diverse as The Pianist (2002), Oliver Twist (2005) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) as well as working on the screenplay for Australia (2008) but before this he had a distinguished career as a playwright and novelist.  Initially he had intended to become an actor, and a fascination for the stage and its performers is a recurring theme in his work: in addition to Quartet he wrote both the original play and the screenplay for The Dresser (1983) (one of the best plays and films ever written about the theatre) which starred Tom Courtenay as the general assistant to an elderly actor, After The Lions, a play about the French actress Sarah Bernhardt and All the World’s a Stage, a general history of theatre.

The director of the film is Dustin Hoffman, making his debut as a director at the age of 75.  Hoffman received much critical acclaim for his work on the film.  As the late Roger Ebert noted:

“What’s ... evident is that he loves the stage, loves show business and has a heart full of affection for these elderly survivors.  He also loves his location, here called Beecham House, and scenes are bridged with many shots of the elegantly landscaped grounds.”

After an award-winning career on stage and in film which has included, amongst many other nominations and awards, two Best Actor Oscars and three BAFTAs for Best Actor, in 2013 Hoffman won the Breakthrough Directing Award at the Hollywood Film Festival.

Here's the trailer: