Ryan McNeil
“It’s on The List”
I say these words often, and usually when I do, you can hear the capital letters. The List is sometimes a source of much frustration. The List is often a source of great joy. The List is also neverending.
This List I refer to is something I’d wager you have as well. I’m fairly certain of this, because I’ve seen that same weary look in other movie bloggers’ eyes when they say those same four words back to me. Since I don’t think I can draw this out anymore, and if you haven’t figured it out by now, The List I refer to is the list that we all have…typed out somewhere on your computer I’d wager…of “Movies To See”.
I got two good ones scratched off mine this weekend in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE KILLER. That’s two down, a few hundred to go. I’m aware that I could whittle it down in a hurry if I ever really wanted to…however, I’d wager that would involve me giving up all other pass times, and an unhealthy chunk of the outside world.
Today though I find myself thinking about parts of The List – specifically parts that I want to scratch off soon. There’s a reason why I’m thinking about this today, a reason which I’ll get further into tomorrow. But for now, I need your help.
What movies should I be sure are on my list?
Suggest me a few if you don’t mind. Perhaps ones that took you a few years to finally see, but blew your mind when you did. Perhaps something foreign or classic…something not quite on the new release wall. Perhaps something independent…or even *gasp* a documentary!
Lemme hear those suggestions people, and come on back tomorrow to find out why I’m asking.
Over the last few years I've turned into an indie geek and as there is always a huge gap between festival screenings, screenings in my area and DVD releases, I find that I completely forget about loads that I thought initially sounded interesting. Yesterday I went through ALL of my previous blog posts, making note of the films I mentioned I want to see and put them into a word document, noting US and UK cinema and DVD releases and immediately put anything that has already been released on DVD in the UK on my LoveFilm list. I know, I'm such a dork. But at least now I know I won't miss anything. And that's just recent releases. Every week I scroll through the cinema and film programme listings on my Sky+ box and book anything I've missed (and usually end up deleting loads as I just don't have time to watch them). Classics I'm trying to find the time for are How to Marry a Millionaire and Dial M For Murder. As for ones I'd recommend, I saw the likes of Citizen Kane, Good Will Hunting, Blood Simple, The Shawshank Redemption, Stranger Than Paradise and Stand By Me fairly recently. I've still not seen the likes of The Godfather, Back to the Future and The Deer Hunter. The shame!
I have a "list" more metaphorically than anything. I suppose I should start writing it down since I forget about the movies like nobody's business.
If I had to make a list of films to make sure you'd seen, my Top 100 Films would just about be it. (though don't worry, I'll give you a pass on the 3 anime films on the list since I know they aren't your thing). Granted my top 100 films is lacking in the documentary department. Night and Fog if you've never seen it I recommend (but I must warn you it's a very painful watch).
When I finally saw The Philadelphia Story, I was blown away by the humor, double entendres, and drama. Still a terrific movie.
I love how you spell out "the list" for us…because we all have one!! It's miles long for me, as I'm around all the movie bloggers and learning I'm quite behind in the times.
I cannot claim credit for these, someone else far better at movies told me to watch these and they were wonderful:
'Bright Star' and 'The Diving Bell and the butterfly'
A few Meryl Streep films were suggested, as well as Fabulous Baker Boys and AntiChrist.
Personally, I love 'Heart & Souls' with Robert Downey Jr and other such genres. I was thinking of going to the theatre myself today. Got the day off work and would like to say I've been recently!
@ Filmgeek… "I know, I'm such a dork". In that case you're in the right place! If I have a fault to my list, it's that I haven't updated it in quite some time. There's likely stacks of indies and foreign films from the last five or six years that I wanted to see, but forgot to note.
As for your suggestions, DIAL M FOR MURDER is one I've been meaning to chase down for a while. Good call!
@ Univarn… Way back when I actually did a post about the five films I was most ashamed for not having seen. I'm happy to report that I have since seen two or three of the five, but sitting in the number two spot was SPIRITED AWAY. So perhaps that will be your ultimate inclusion.
@ Jess… That was on my list for years. I finally saw it summer before last!
@ Celtic… I saw HEART & SOULS many moons ago, perhaps it's time for a re-watch if anything.
I'm avoiding ANTI-CHRIST like the plague.
BRIGHT STAR is an intriguing inclusion, since it's one of the few highly regarded 2009 films that I never got around to seeing.
MALENA!
One movie I kept putting off over and over again was Philadelphia. Finally saw it late last year. Loved it.
As for a recommendation and being the music fan that you are, I would suggest you see Walk the Line.
See Spirited Away!
I took forever to see Sunset Blvd and it absolutely blew me away when I did. For other classics, I'd say Laura, Harvey, It Happened One Night, The Thin Man, Mildred Pierce, Arsenic and Old Lace, M, and at least one Fred and Ginger film (I'd go with Shall We Dance? personally, but Top Hat is the most visually stunning).
Then of course there's all the crazy foreign and indie movies more people should be watching.
Foreign: The White Ribbon, Mother (aka Madeo), Akira, Citizen Dog, Tekkonkinkreet, Brother (aka Brat), Timecrimes, Bad Education, Head-on, and anything by Park Chan-wook.
Indie/lesser-known: Saved!, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Trust, Henry Fool, (anything by Hal Hartley, really), The Missing Person, In the Realms of the Unreal, Serial Mom, Cecil B Demented, How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass, The Rape of Europa, Sita Sings The Blues.
Wow that's definitely enough for now. I'm sorry, I really got carried away but I do feel pretty passionately about all of these movies. You can decide for yourself if they're "List-worthy". I assume you've seen several of them already anyway.
Why you're asking may have more to do with any suggestions I would have…You trying to build up the "proper" filmic background because of an upcoming writing job? Tackling some resolutions finally? New series for the blog/podcast? Guess I'll have to wait to find out and for now just plunge in from my own perspective…
I'm at about 1700 movies on my "To See" list, but it's not exactly in good shape – it's partially a mish mash of titles I've scribbled down for various books and guides, others I've heard about from film festivals (that will likely be hard to ever see), random titles I find from blog posts and older classics and b-movies that I haven't got to yet. It's also incomplete since I should add other films from certain directors I like and I don't typically add many of the new and upcoming releases to it. Do I really need to add "Inception" to remind me I want to see it?
Being a generalist is a "problem" because I find it hard to narrow down my scope. That's OK though, because I also go through phases – when I do, I scan for films in those genres and styles.
So in the spirit of all that (and trying to avoid ones I know you've seen), here's a few random films from various styles that help provide some film history and that I simply think are really good and are less widely seen (that's the problem recommending movies to other film bloggers – they've seen a bunch of them already):
– "My Man Godfrey" (great rat-a-tat 30s dialog)
– "Baby Face" (pre-code era)
– anything Buster Keaton (but you already know that)
– "Vampyr" (Dreyer – early disturbing and inventive horror)
– "Ball Of Fire", "The Lady Eve" (Stanwyck! And the second is Preston Sturges)
– "The Ox-Bow Incident" (dark western)
– "Out Of The Past", "Murder My Sweet" (top notch noirs)
– "Notorious" (one of my fave Hitchcocks)
– "The Bandwagon", "Royal Wedding" (highly entertaining musicals)
– "Diabolique", "Rififi", "Eyes Without A Face" (50s French)
– "Ugetsu", "Rashomon" (50s Japanese)
– "Le Doulos", "Le Cercle Rouge", "Young Girls Of Rochefort", "Playtime", "My Night At Maud's" (60s French)
– "Harakiri", "Onibaba", "Samurai Rebellion", "Double Suicide", "Branded To Kill" (60s Japanese)
– Aguirre: The Wrath Of God", "Ali: Fear Eats The Soul" (70s German)
– "Persona", "Smiles Of A Summer's Night", "Fanny And Alexander" (Bergman)
– "Raise The Red Lantern", "To Live" (Zhang Yimou)
– Three Colours Trilogy (Kieslowski)
– "Nashville", "Short Cuts" (Altman)
– "Cure", "Pulse" (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
– "Visions Of Light", "Mr Death", "A Perfect Candidate" (90s documentaries)
OK, I'll stop now before I get into the 2000s…Hey, you asked!
@ The Kid… Seen it! Loved it!!
@ 14… Really dug WALK THE LINE, especially for the performance pieces. I actually own quite a splendid copy of it.
@ Alex… I've seen a few, but holy hell are almost all of those indeed "List-Worthy". Thanks for the littany of suggestions, there are many that I will indeed be jotting down.
@ Bob… Like Alex, you have given me quite a bounty to choose between here. At a glance, I can tell you that THREE COLOURS would easily be on the tippy-top of what I'd pull from these suggestions.
As to why I'm asking…check back tomorrow.
It's not a "required viewing" film or anything, but I just watched Torremolinos 73 last night and really enjoyed it. At least 2 1/2 stars on the Hatter rating system.
Two documentaries for the documentary appreciator: "Thin" and "The Bridge." I don't watch docs often, but these came into my Netflix queue for one reason or other and both are exceedingly powerful (and, I should warn you, dark).
As far as other movies, I'd suggest "The Opposite of Sex" (one of my fave dark comedies), "Waxwork" (a great crap movie) and "The Station Agent" (terrific indie).
The Quiet Man, Singing in the Rain, and Paprika.
I saw the title of this post and was like, "Why is he writing a post about my site?" haha
I'll leave the link in a seperate comment (so I don't get Spammed), Hatter, but there's a page (under the PAGES section – halfway down on the sidebar) on my site that has my 3 FILMS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED TO SEE posts… it has (I believe) 41 films submitted by 11 different bloggers. They are all great and cover all genres. The next one is posting on the 25th and you still have an open invitation to contribute, sir!
Today's verification word was POODONA… as in "I was trying to make it to the toilet but POODONA floor by accident!" hehe… these words they have are classic!
Here's a link to the page:
http://kaispace.wordpress.com/films-you-didnt-know-you-needed-to-see/
In fact, M. Carter was a contributor and some of the films she mentioned are on their with more details… FYI. Sorry to comment 3 times… and for the POODONA thing. It seems poor taste in retrospect! 🙂
Poor taste? True. Funny? Also true…B-)
Hatter, you could certainly do a lot worse then Paprika, Tekkonkinkreet and Sita Sings The Blues if you are looking for something different animation wise. Throw in The Triplets Of Belleville and you have some of the better non-Pixar animation of recent years.
As for Citizen Dog, all you really need to do to decide whether you want to see the film is to look at a few screencaps. I just happen to have a few here. It's really gorgeous…
@ Sean… Congratulations, I've never even heard of that one! You must tell me all about it over dinner tonight.
@ Meredith… THE STATION AGENT is one of those touchstone indies from the last decade that I continually managed to miss. That might well be a keeper for the list.
I'll have to look into those docs too!
@ Fitz… Heard a lot of good things about PAPRIKA from the boys over at ROW THREE. Perhaps I'll make that an anime double bill with SPIRITED AWAY.
@ Kaiderman… Way to comandeer the comments section dude! Your links actually gave me an awful lot to run on, but of everything mentioned, I think I need to begin with OLDBOY as it's one of those cult faves I'm ashamed not to have seen yet.
Well Mad if you're going to double bill your anime I'd recommend Grave of the Fireflies. Easily the most emotional of all animes. Just be sure you clear your schedule that day, you're not going to want to do much.
Granted Paprika want leave you that way, so maybe going to GotF is not the better plan. 😮
Fanny and Alexander (Bergman)
Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder)
Ivan's Childhood (Tarkovsky)
The Seventh Continent (Haneke)
The Apu Trilogy (Ray)
Weekend (Godard)
These are all bitchin' films.
@ Blake… Muchos Gracias! Now go look at today's post for the reason to this madness.