Celluloid Buffet

Diabolique viewing

2007-07-30T19:38:00.000-04:00

I'll be screening Diabolique next weekend for anyone who wants to come. Probably on Saturday. Call me or comment.

Vote on which movie we watch

2007-07-09T09:16:00.000-04:00

Ed writes:

As I recall, the original idea behind the CB site was to discuss films - are you planning on posting a movies for people to watch and discuss? I'd be into that. I think I'm just not interested in making a list of movies I like. Let's get the site going, though.

OK. Let's decide which movie we want to watch:

Diabolique (Clouzot, 1955)
M (Lang, 1931)

Vote by posting in the comments.

Women in peril who kicked butt...

2007-06-29T20:19:00.000-04:00

Some nights when crossing dark parking lots, I think of the great brave movie woman who would know just what to do if Springheel Jack suddenly leapt from the shadows. I've decided to try to make the definitive list of fictional woman who I'd hope to emulate if I ever found myself locked in the trunk of a car or battling zombie bikers. I'm interested in who comes to your minds as well.

In no order: I'm bad with character names, so most are identified by actress, but some by character

Wait Until Dark - Audrey Hepburn

Alien(s) - Ripley!!!!!!

Silence of the Lambs - Jodie Foster was great, but I'm thinking of the woman in the well

Kiss the Girls - Ashley Judd

The Terminator I and II - Sarah Conner

Strange Days - Angela Bassett

I'll think of more, you think of more too...

My favorite movies in no particular order

2007-06-29T20:15:00.000-04:00

The Usual Suspects

Children of Men

Amalie

Things to do in Denver when you're dead

The Exorcist

The Replacement Killers

The Thin Man

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Basquiet

The Boondock Saints

Brazil

Dr. Strangelove

Jaws

The Crow

The Thirteenth Warrier

Night Breed

El Mariachi

A History of Violence

Blood and Doughnuts

Requiem for a Dream

Wait Until Dark

The Professional

The Last Seduction

Romeo is Bleeding

Full Metal Jacket

Harold and Maude

New AFI 100

2007-06-22T10:25:00.001-04:00

There's a MetaFilter discussion about the new AFI 100 list, which links to responses from Roger Ebert and the Herald Tribune. What do you think? What were the best movies of the last 10 years, and do any of them deserve to be on the AFI list?

List of great films lists

2007-06-20T11:40:00.000-04:00

Village Voice's Best Films of the Century
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
BFI 100 favorite British films of the 20th century
IMDB's user voted top 250 films
Sight & Sound's top ten critics' and directors' lists
TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films

UPDATE The Wikipedia entry about AFI's 100 list does not require annoying registration. It also has a side-by-side comparison with the original 1998 list.

Independent Lens filmmakers' favorites

2007-06-19T16:25:00.000-04:00

PBS's Independent Lens asked numerous filmmakers to list their three favorite movies. I added half a dozen films to my Netflix queue after reading this three part article.

All DVD's 3 for 2 at B&N

2007-06-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

I stumbled into Barnes & Knoble today, and discovered that they're having a 3 for the price of 2 sale on all DVD's. That's in a addition to B&N's everyday 10% discount. I think the sale goes through June 26th. This makes for especially good prices on Criterion discs. I picked up six titles that normally retail for $249.94; I paid only $152.95. My new discs are:

Seven Samurai (the shiny new transfer)
8 1/2
Rashomon
Bicycle Thieves
The Spirit of the Beehive
Playtime

(I apologize for any damage this post may do to your pocketbooks.)

The Uninvited (1944) on TCM June 18th

2007-06-16T07:31:00.000-04:00

Somewhere in my top 100 movies (and certainly in my top guilty pleasures list) I'd include The Uninvited. It's a ghost story with great atmosphere. Unfortunately, it's never been released on DVD, so your only chance to see it is on TCM Monday, June 18th at 8:00 PM (EST). Tune-in if you get a chance.

Directors' most favorite

2007-06-15T12:58:00.000-04:00

There are lists of directors' favorite films at Listology. I'm not sure how accurate the lists are, but I compiled a tallied list from them. The number in parenthesis indicated the number of times the film appears in the lists.

All the other movies in the directors' lists had less than three common occurances. No doubt this list could look very different if it was drawn from a different set of directors, but interesting.

Paul's favorites

2007-06-15T10:34:00.000-04:00

I've probably forgotten a few, but here's my favorites list.

Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
Wild Strawberries (Bergman, 1957)
M. Hulot's Holiday (Tati, 1953)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Erice, 1973)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001)
Chasing Amy (Smith, 1997)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (Zaillian, 1993)
An Angel at My Table (Campion, 1990)
Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1959)
The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
Key Largo (Huston, 1948)
M (Lang, 1931)
Ed Wood (Burton, 1994)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964)
Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
The Mummy (Freund, 1932)
The Uninvited (Allen, 1944)
Ginger Snaps (Fawcett, 2000)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (Solondz, 1995)

Michael's Favorite Movies

2007-06-14T23:39:00.001-04:00

This is hard, and these are in no particular order, and I'm sure I'll be leaving some out.

Schindler's List
Jaws
Godfather
Godfather 2
Lost In Translation
Casablanca
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
L.A. Confidential
The Usual Suspects
Chinatown
The Shining
Clockwork Orange
Full Metal Jacket
Spartacus
Alien
Bladerunner
Legend
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
A Streetcar Named Desire
On The Waterfront
Wuthering Heights
My Fair Lady
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Unforgiven
Mystic River
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
Outlaw Josie Wales
Tombstone
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
The Big Lebowski
Ghostbusters
Raising Arizona
The Hudsucker Proxy
Blood Simple
Blood And Doughnuts
Spider
A History Of Violence
Nightbreed
El Mariachi
Dawn of the Dead
(John Carpenter's) The Thing
Big Trouble In Little China
MASH
Trainspotting
Singles
Akira
Dark Crystal
Manhattan
Annie Hall
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Psycho
Aliens
The Crow
True Romance
The 13th Warrior
The Breakfast Club
Real Genius
Shaun Of The Dead
The Jerk
Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life
JFK
Natural Born Killers
Platoon
Die Hard
Scarface
Carlito's Way
The English Patient

Paul's favorite movies

2007-06-14T22:52:00.000-04:00

OK, I admit that making a list of your favorite movies is pretty hard, especially if you're trying to rank them. I'm still working on it, but my list starts:

Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
M. Hulot's Holiday (Tati, 1953)
Wild Strawberries (Bergman, 1957)

Favorite movies

2007-06-14T22:47:00.000-04:00

Blog members: your first assignment is to create a list of you favorite movies. It should include at least three but not more than 100 movies, and need not be sorted in order of preference.

Any readers are welcome to jump-on in the comments.

Welcome to the celluloid buffet

2007-06-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Last year I tried to start a reading group with a bunch of my pals, but it failed miserably. Few of us had the time to commit. I figure the barrier will be a little lower for a two hour movie. I know a bunch of film buffs, and hope that several of them will be able to watch one movie a month. Brief essays and reviews will be posted here. That's the plan.