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Jan. 2nd, 2007 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnyI have an odd request.
My education in film is sorely lacking, really dreadfully so. I should make more of an effort to watch TCM or something, I suppose, but I do tend to get distracted by the internet. I reckon the DVD collection at the library is the way to go, really, but I do need input from your side of things, since I have no idea whatsoever where to start.
What I'm wanting is classics. Bergman and Hepburn and Cary Grant and whoever, very restrained drama, repressed men and feisty women... XD God, I don't know. Like I say, I have watched pretty much nothing. Basically I want films I Ought To Have Watched. Anyone have any ideas?
My education in film is sorely lacking, really dreadfully so. I should make more of an effort to watch TCM or something, I suppose, but I do tend to get distracted by the internet. I reckon the DVD collection at the library is the way to go, really, but I do need input from your side of things, since I have no idea whatsoever where to start.
What I'm wanting is classics. Bergman and Hepburn and Cary Grant and whoever, very restrained drama, repressed men and feisty women... XD God, I don't know. Like I say, I have watched pretty much nothing. Basically I want films I Ought To Have Watched. Anyone have any ideas?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:28 am (UTC)And that icon is unreasonably cute. XD
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:45 am (UTC)Okay! I am better at wide than edjumacating, really. You may well have seen most of these, but here's a mix of movie what I like and movies what I had to watch for schools:
Shaolin Soccer is the best movie ever made. HANDS DOWN. If you don't believe me, know that the antagonist soccer team is called Evil Team and a girl bakes bread with kungfu.
Apocalypse Now is freakish about race and gender, but it's trippy and so gorgeous. Plus it is hilariously pastiched in a Buffy episode and that endears it to me despite it being For Schools.
Pi's crazy, crazy math manic crazy. A man looks into the sun. It's trippy as hell and will give you a headache. I'm not sure it's worth watching for entertainment, but it is fun to wander around muttering, "Mathematics is the language of nature" for days afterward.
Citizen Kane is . . . so not worth it if you don't plan to become a director, but it is a classic.
The Searchers is, according to my dad, the best movie ever made. I am bound by law to consider my dad's tastes insane, but whatever. Also I have never seen it. If you haven't seen The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I do recommend that. You can make "WAA WAAA WAAAAA" jokes for the rest of your life!
Spirited Away, if you haven't seen it already.
The Secret of Roan Irish is one of my childhood favorites that is still a favorite; it's solemn and eerie and sweet and it has selkies.
Okay, that was only three movies I liked. Maybe I will try this again when I am awake. :(
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:52 am (UTC)I have seen the Apocalypse Now pastiche! With Xander and Snyder, yes? Haven't seen the film, but it's always been one I've meant to.
PI! OMG, I have totally seen pi, it's one of my favourite films. Beauuuutiful. And heeee, I read a SG:A AU the other day based on The Searchers. Shall have to watch that one at some point.
And of course I have watched Spirited Away. I love the music and the story and and I don't even mind the sappy, which bothered me in Howl's Moving Castle. Possibly because (although I haven't read the book) I know DWJ's style, and that wasn't really it. XD
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:32 am (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2007-01-02 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:38 am (UTC)- Citizen Kane (directed by Orson Welles, written by Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles in the title role) - without a doubt one of the best films ever made, includes love-story/stories (or something similar)
- The Third Man (directed by C. Reed, written by Graham Greene, Orson Welles as Harry Lime) - fantastic movie, but no love story...,
- Casablanca - of course!,
- Some Like It Hot - yay!,
- The African Queen (Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in a hell of a love story),
- Sabrina (the original version with Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larabee and Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina) - though I do like the remake better...,
- Doctor Zhivago (OMG - the drama!),
- Gone With The Wind (*weeps),
- Lawrence of Arabia,
- almost everything by Alfred Hitchcock (Marnie and Vertigo are my favourites, though)
and about a thousand more...
(That was aqua_alta, BTW, I'm not logged in since I'm at work...)
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 11:41 am (UTC)(I'm an old movie buff, can you tell?)
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Date: 2007-01-02 11:45 am (UTC)So what's good about them, then? I've heard of a few of 'em... I've read AUs based on a few of 'em, actually. XD Thank you, also. :D
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Date: 2007-01-02 12:04 pm (UTC)Casablanca is perhaps the classic when people talk about classics, it's the standard by which other things are measured.
The Thin Man series is a milestone in the detective/noir genre and manages to be deeply suspenseful and very funny.
Woman of the Year is Hepburn and Tracy, which means wit and those feisty women and romance and some rather sharp social commentary.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is the other Heburn (Yes, I consider Kate the Hepburn, in one of her most classic roles.
Operation Petticoat is hilarious and a great look at war movies from a lighter perspective, and it's Cary Grant and Tony Curtis.
Charade is Audrey and Cary and murder and suspense.
Indiscreet is Bergman and Grant taking the basic romantic comedy storyline and elevating it to an art form.
Brigadoon is delightful ridiculous period musical fun with Gene and Cyd. An American in Paris is Gene Kelly at his finest, which is really fine. Rebecca is great period horror based on classic literature and still freaks me out occasionally.
Little Women (the Kate Hepburn version) is Little Women and Kate is the best Jo there's been.
The African Queen...Bogie and Kate. They're...amazing.
Roman Holiday is early Audrey and she's luminous and lovely.
Road to Morocco is the best of the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby/Dorothy Lamour Road movies.
Holiday Inn is gorgeous Irving Berlin music and Bing and Astaire doing what they do so well.
On a slightly more recent note,
Ladyhawke with Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick, and Michelle Pfeiffer does some really interesting things with classic folklore and is quite lovely.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is Marilyn Monroe at her finest.
A Star is Born for Judy Garland's comeback. (I also like Easter Parade)
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Date: 2007-01-02 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 12:46 pm (UTC)Dinner at Eight: Wonderful comedy-drama of the thirties with a cast who are all notable actors of the era.
Grand Hotel: Another thirties classic, also with an amazing cast.
The Wizard of Oz: Which I'm sure you've seen before. One of the first major films to use color. Fantasy. Musical. And for decades, the gay (male) community used code from this movie to find like-minded people ("Are you a Friend of Dorothy?")
Marx Brothers, especially Night at the Opera and Day at the Races (yes, clearly Queen used to like the Marx Brothers too *g*): Brilliant, ahead-of-its-time comedy. Puns and double entendres and yes, slapstick too. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo yay! Zeppo's a stiff. :)
My Man Godfrey: Carole Lombard and William Powell. Wonderful screwball comedy.
The Lady Eve: Another screwball comedy, the driector of which is absolutely brilliant. I'd recommend anything at all by Preston Sturges: Palm Beach Story, Christmas in July, and Sullivan's Travels are personal faves (the latter of which is referenced heavily in "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?")
The Philadelphia Story and Woman of the Year and Adam's Rib: all the sorts of comedies you seemed to be looking for above. Very strong, feisty women and suave, yet amusing men.
The Maltese Falcon: A brilliant detective film, with an exceptional cast, including Bogart and Peter Lorre.
Casablanca: Not on the list, but...God. Bogart as an out-for-himself bar owner in Casablanca, with the Second World War as backdrop. Het-romantic and slashy, all at once.
Citizen Kane: Orson Welles' jab at media tyrant Hearst. Cinematically brilliant. If it seems dated to you, it's only because it's been plagiarized for fifty years. *g*
Born Yesterday: Like a modern-day Pygmalion. William Holden and Judy Holliday are great.
The African Queen: Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Absolutely brilliant. Repressed missionary's daughter meets dissolute "captain" of a broken-down ship during WWII in Africa. Wonderful adventure and romance.
Rear Window and Vertigo and...pretty much any classic Alfred Hitchcock, who specialized in murder mysteries, but very sophisticated ones.
A Streetcar Named Desire: from Tennessee William's play. Young Marlon Brando heads the cast as Stanley Kowalski.
Some Like It Hot: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon and cross-dressing, oh my!
Singin' in the Rain: A musical about the start of "talkies" (and so, a sort of meta-film). Great cast and great songs/dances.
***
Once it gets into the sixties and beyond, well...I still have tons of recs, but that's sort of a different category.
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Date: 2007-01-02 02:18 pm (UTC)Hmph.
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Date: 2007-01-02 02:42 pm (UTC)Mostly I will, I think, be stealing this post as a list of films I Ought To Have Watched Too. *grin*
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Date: 2007-01-02 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 03:32 pm (UTC)Two favourite utter classics are:
The Maltese Falcon (Bogart) -- wonderful dialogue! They don't write 'em like that anymore! And it's such a classic plot that it gets referenced in all sorts of places. And Peter Lori at his finest!
The Court Jester (Kaye) -- witty twists, catchy tunes, high adventure, madcap comedy, and Danny Kaye doing pattersongs! Again, one that gets quoted and referenced all over.
"Get it?" "Got it." "Good!"
"The chalice from the palace has the pellet with the poison; the vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true!"
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Date: 2007-01-02 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 03:58 pm (UTC)The Mouse That Roared / The Mouse That Went To The Moon. I haven't watched them since I was rather small, so they may not be as good as I remember, but the former has Peter Sellars in and the latter has Terry-Thomas.
And if you haven't seen Dr Strangelove then, dude, you really have to. If you have, you have to see it again. *grins*
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Date: 2007-01-02 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:10 pm (UTC)Anyway, there are three documentaries that can steer you further: The Celluloid Closet, That's Entertainment, and Visions of Light. Some titles of movies:
People Will Talk (comedy)
His Girl Friday (feminist comedy)
To Catch A Thief (Hitchcock; Noir)
North By Northwest (Hitchcock)
My Favourite Wife -- this is not a classic really, but it has real-life boyfriends Cary Grant and Randolph Scott playing opposite each other in a romantic comedy, which is awesome.
Bringing Up Baby (comedy)
The Gay Divorcee (comedy)
Rear Window (Hitchcock; Noir)
Vertigo (Hitchcock)
Rope -- another must-see, the entire film was done in two long shots.
It's A Wonderful Life (comic drama)
Casablanca (Noir)
Sabrina -- a rare comedy with Bogart.
The Maltese Falcon (Noir)
Dark Passage (Noir)
The Barefoot Contessa -- a poem of a film from start to finish.
Lawrence of Arabia (Drama)
Singin In The Rain (Musical)
Holiday Inn (Musical)
The King And I (Musical)
Foreign:
M
Metropolis
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (silent)
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (the best of the Mabuse films)
Seven Samurai
Rashomon (sometimes called In The Woods)
Fictional films ABOUT the classic hollywood experience:
Valentino
Gods and Monsters
Sunset Boulevard
I was sort of struck, while making the list, at how un-repressed most of the male actors are. Classic film, particularly noir, is about high passion and drama -- the men are sometimes cool and suave, but rarely repressed. I suppose you could look to classic Westerns for that, but in that area I'm ill-equipped to recommend, though you could start with the work of James Stewart or Randolph Scott.
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Date: 2007-01-02 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 04:42 pm (UTC)La regle de jeu, by Jean Renoir (yes, they're related) -- translates to The Rules of the Game. (I give translation because I don't know if I spelled the real title right.)
Also, only ever watch anything by Ingmar Bergman if you're horrifically depressed. *helpful!*
Oh, and...also horrific, but: classic: D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. It's one of those things that ought to be watched just so you can say you did it.
Also, Chaplin's The Gold Rush.
I like Truffaut (or what I've seen of his work, anyhow). His most famous one is Les quatre-cents coups (The Four Hundred Blows -- again, my French is pastede on yay at this hour), but in terms of content I like L'argent a poche (Pocket Money) better.
Also, seconding the hell out of
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Date: 2007-01-02 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 06:03 pm (UTC)It Happened One Night- depression-era romantic comedy about an heiress and a newspaper man. Neither of them is repressed, but the banter flies fast and furious and is still funny today.
Notorious- Bergman and Grant, again, by Hitchcock- set post-WWII, she's the daughter of a Nazi, he's an American secret service man who wants her to spy on her father's associates in South America. Witty, elegant, suspenseful, and so emotionally violent it's hard to stand.
Holiday- more Hepburn and Grant- possibly the most realistically human of their romantic comedies.
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Date: 2007-01-02 06:04 pm (UTC)Casablanca, like everyone says: you'll wonder how you ever missed it.
For Hitchcock, try Strangers On A Train. It pretty much demonstrates the definition of suspense. Vertigo and Rear Window are also well worth watching, if you want to see James Stewart doing something different and focused. And of course Rebecca, a Hitchcock offering with Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.
I'm also a total sucker for the Olivier/Merle Oberon version of Wuthering Heights.
And of course any Sean Connery James Bond film. And I haven't even touched on classic westerns... I could go on and on here, but this seems like a good start.
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Date: 2007-01-02 10:49 pm (UTC)Also, just about anything with Fred Astaire in it. PRETTY PRETTY DANCING.
And now, slightly more modern recommendations:
*A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Apparently not the entirety of the musical, but still brilliant. Zero Mostel! Buster Keaton! Baby Michael Crawford!)
*Sneakers (Recent favorite. Intrigue and codes and whatnot all over the place.)
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Date: 2007-01-03 04:43 am (UTC)Cradle Will Rock: One of my favorite movies no one else has seen. About the Depression and production of a left-wing musical; kinda wacky, very dry, will make you think.
The Great Escape (I can't believe I got to it first!): I'm not a huge war movie person, but I love this movie more than just about anything. It will make you want to be a prisoner of war! - okay, just kidding. But it's definitely got some of the best moments in cinema history, and is also surprisingly funny.
Charade: Recced above, but I've got to second it. They call it the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made. So very, very classy.
A la folie . . . pas du tout: Everyone's heard of Audrey Tautou's Amelie, which is of course fantastic, but this one fascinates me. The title in English is He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. It's not quite a romantic comedy, and the twist is weird and disturbing and stuck with me.
And, on a lighter note
Saved: Probably my favorite romantic comedy. Very recent, kind of offbeat, extremely adorable and full of tolerance and love for everybody!