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Post by jill on Oct 15, 2008 17:04:10 GMT
Been trying to work today and just had permatations of film lists in my head, so I'll get it over with now 1. Taxi Driver (Scorsese) Brilliant idea/ screenplay, brilliant performances from DeNiro and Foster especially, great shots, wonderful score, have watched this film loads of times. 2. Badlands (Malick) For me there is something hauntingly lovely about Malick’s films. Again, stellar performances, some truly memorable scenes and one I can watch over and over again. 3. Rushmore (Anderson) Funny, first time I saw this my reaction was ‘oh, quirky, nice, funny’ but not 'memorable.' Got better and better with each view. Love Anderson’s style, perfectly cast and love the music. 4. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kai-Wai) Looks stunning. Understated, subtle. Another film with a lot going on you miss first time around so makes repeated views just as enjoyable as the first one-maybe more. 5..Harold and Maude (Ashby) As with Rushmore, one I found ‘quirky’ and enjoyable first time around, but wasn’t especially knocked out by it. Must have been half asleep because this film is knock out. 6. It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra) What can I say? This is on every Xmas morning in my house. If you don’t love it there’s something not right about you 7. Edward Scissorhands (Burton) Never gone in for the Cure look, but have a bit of a fetish for things Goth (literature, architecture etc) Great re-working of the classic Frankenstein idea, looks fantastic, lovely music and Depp is wonderful in this. 8. The Shining (Kubrick) Just class-no need to say why really and another one I can watch over and over and enjoy every time. 9. Twenty-four Seven (Meadows) Very much doubt this’ll make the top 100 even on this forum. ‘Objectively’ (whatever that means) Meadows fans can make good arguments for why the other films are better, but I just have a real soft spot for this one. 10 Short Film About Killing (Kieslowski) Kieslowski is one of only a few directors whose entire collection (almost) is on my shelf. As touching and tragic as it is bleak and harrowing. Really got to me-thought about it for hours after the first view. It was a wrench not to include also: Pyscho; Rebecca; Room for Romeo Brass; Silence of the Lambs; Kes; Billy Liar; A Taste of Honey; The Bicycle Thief; Secrets and Lies; Chungking Express; Nosferatu; East of Eden; Night of the Hunter; City Lights, The Magnificent Seven and dozens more ‘I’ll kick myself when I think of them later’ films.
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Post by fattaxi on Oct 15, 2008 21:52:02 GMT
1. Vertigo (Hitchcock - 1958 ) 2. Buffalo 66' (Gallo - 1998) 3. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Domonik - 2007) 4. Rocky (Avilidsen - 1976) 5. Almost Famous (Crowe - 2000) 6. The Motorcycle Diaries (Salles - 2004) 7. Dead Mans Shoes (Meadows - 2004) 8. The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont - 1994) 9. The Hustler (Rossen - 1961) 10. Stand By Me (Reiner - 1986)
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Post by fattaxi on Oct 15, 2008 21:53:52 GMT
Honoruble mentions for: Thin Red Line, Cool Hand Luke, Badlands, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Bottle Rocket, Amores Perros.
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Post by Gareth on Oct 16, 2008 0:35:23 GMT
(just wanted to edit the post and explain why I picked what I picked)
This is obviously an impossible task, looking back at my list I think I've picked the films I'm most jealous of, every time I sit down and try to write a script or come up with an idea for a film these are the films I either attempt to live up to or avoid competing with e.g who's ever going to write a better pisshead than Withnail!
1) Deadmans Shoes - modest budget, fantastic story, proving that nothing else matters other than story, character and performances. Also the first Meadows/ social realist film I ever saw and the first film I ever saw that was set in a small English town. Paddy and Toby's performances are flawless and the fact this film can make you laugh as much as cry make it one of the best films ever made.
2) Taxi Driver - write what you knows the first advice any writers given and Schrader knew this story inside out. I totally buy into the story that he wrote this with a gun beside the type writer, write this down or blow my brains out, which might be compete bollocks, probably is, but this story feels like one that had to be written to cure the writer of his sickness, The screenplays amazing to read and there's things Scorsese managed to put there up on screen that are usually left to novels rather than film to express, an amazing exploration of the inside of one mans head. I won't even begin to talk about De Niro's performance. 3) This is England - take away the 80's setting, the skin heads and narrow the age gap a little and no film sums up what it was like growing up for me better than this, the complexity of the characters along with the reality of the whole thing is unbelievable, each performance serves the story perfectly and the switch in tone is exactly right. 4) Made in Britain - as pure as a character exploration film gets, the cameras almost attached to Trevor for the entire film, a complete wanker turns out to be charismatic intelligent and almost like-able, you cringe as you watch him fuck up his life more and more, how you can be empathetic for this character is a mystery but each time you watch it you are.
5) The Straight Story - a narrative stripped right back, I've never seen a film that does so much with so little, it takes a master of his craft and amazing confidence in story telling ability to pull off a film like this, the only film on my list that all of my family (including grandparents) would enjoy as much, if not more than me.
6) Nil by Mouth - you can feel the blood sweat and tears in every frame, I've no idea what Oldman's life growing up was like and what his dad was like but you can tell this is a story that comes from deep inside him, so honest, real and unrelenting.
7) Apocalypse Now! - my favorite huge budget film, that some how manages to feel like an indie film, I don't quite know how to explain what I mean by that.
8) Withnail & I - if you haven't already read the screenplay! far from the best story ever told but possibly the best screenplay ever written, you laugh reading the screenplay more than you do watching the film. This is a deeply personal tale of a friendship with enough poetic license injected into it so it isn't mundane, he captures the soul of the story he wants to tell whilst at the same time baring the audience in mind every second. Withnail is the best pisshead there will ever be on screen making you cough up your lungs laughing from the beginning and breaking your heart at the end "chin chin".
9) Reservoir Dogs - I'm pretty pissed off this is on my list, but at the same time it deserves to be. I worshipped the ground Tarrintino walked on for a good few years when really all he is is a brilliant Thief, its a collage of everything he thought was cool in his favourite films, really he only ever had two brilliant films in him and he'll never top Pulp fiction, but the first time I watched this I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet.
10) Sexy Beast – I love watching films with one character that steals your attention from the film as a whole, it takes a good few watches to get passed that character and enjoy the whole film. Your either dying to see what they do next or waiting for them to appear on screen again, be it Morrel, Sgt. Hartman, The Joker (Ledger), Withnail or the vulnerable unrelenting tomahawk missile Don Logon, the film would be shit without him, but at the same time its the supporting cast that make the character so powerful as much as kingsley.
Other Films:
Romeo Brass, sweet sixteen, my name is Joe, Scum, Trainspotting, Terminator 2, City of God, Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction, Children of Men, Cuckoos Nest, Raging Bull, An American Movie, South Park, Team America,
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Post by jill on Oct 16, 2008 9:09:06 GMT
Update:
11 votes so far, 88 films mentioned.
Maniac’s top ten so far:
1.Taxi Driver 37 2. Dead Man's Shoes 26 3 Harold and Maude 23 3.The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 18 4.This Is Spinal Tap 16 5.The Shining 15/ Blue Velvet 15 7.A Room For Romeo Brass 14/ Apocalypse Now 14 9.The Big Lebowski 13/Clockwork Orange 13
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Post by jtrodreigez on Oct 16, 2008 9:35:33 GMT
ok here goes,
1. Magnolia 2. The Shining 3. Platoon 4. Goodfellas 5. Dead mans shoes 6. Lost in translation 7. Requiem for a dream 8. Donnie darko 9. Blue velvet 10. Taxi driver
some others, thin red line, black hawk down, deadman, alien, jesus' son, love liza, the pianist, anything by heneke or wes anderson.
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Post by shindig on Oct 16, 2008 9:49:50 GMT
Hmmmmmmm.... tough.
1. Point Blank 2. The Godfather 3. Amelie 4. Patton 5. The Third Man 6. The Big Lebowski 7. The Shawshank Redemption 8. One Day in September 9. When the Wind Blows 10. This is England
I had to sneak a documentary and animation into that.
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Post by Companero on Oct 16, 2008 11:58:20 GMT
That was tough, I know as soon as I put this down I'll think of more and more films that should be on it. 1. The Rock (Bay, 1996) The last of its kind action flick, I absolutely love this film, its cheesy, highly quotable and kicks major Hollywood ass. 7. Frenzy (1972) A underappreciated gem, I love Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window but this film for me was Hitchcock at his best. No production code to stop him from letting his twisted imagination manifest on screen and the film is so disturbing and yet very funny (black comedy). The shot when the camera goes all the way down stairs and into the street is amazing (In fact I'll pop that in the Fave Scenes thread!) Respect, Salv! I love THE ROCK; definitely one of the best summer action films Hollywood has produced. I also love the fact that the villain of the piece, Ed Harris, is a particularly grey character. A man that's will to do bad things but has a justafiable cause. All too rare in mainstream cinema. I love FRENZY too and as you say, it's not really afforded much love. I would say that VERTIGO is my favourite Hitchock film and really should have been in my top 10, as should have BRAZIL. The more I ponder and the more I read other people's lists, the more I want to change my own. It's an absolutely impossible task.
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Post by jill on Oct 16, 2008 13:02:15 GMT
I'm periodically updating the rankings (in my coffee breaks) otherwise it'll be an mamoth task. You might like to know Comp, that 6 of your 10 are currently in the top ten, so even if you are now dissatisfied, you do seem to have your finger on the Maniac pulse.
No chance of allowing changes I'm afraid-it'll just make this task impossible. Also, it provides some insight perhaps into why these kinds of ranking exercises are always unsatisfactory. Some of us are going to find that films we rank very highly don't make the top 100 even when the 'public' is as discerning as we are ;D On the other hand, it is interesting to see just what kinds of films Meadows fans like. I think it's a pretty impressive list so far.
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Post by salvador on Oct 16, 2008 14:11:16 GMT
That was tough, I know as soon as I put this down I'll think of more and more films that should be on it. 1. The Rock (Bay, 1996) The last of its kind action flick, I absolutely love this film, its cheesy, highly quotable and kicks major Hollywood ass. 7. Frenzy (1972) A underappreciated gem, I love Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window but this film for me was Hitchcock at his best. No production code to stop him from letting his twisted imagination manifest on screen and the film is so disturbing and yet very funny (black comedy). The shot when the camera goes all the way down stairs and into the street is amazing (In fact I'll pop that in the Fave Scenes thread!) Respect, Salv! I love THE ROCK; definitely one of the best summer action films Hollywood has produced. I also love the fact that the villain of the piece, Ed Harris, is a particularly grey character. A man that's will to do bad things but has a justafiable cause. All too rare in mainstream cinema. I love FRENZY too and as you say, it's not really afforded much love. I would say that VERTIGO is my favourite Hitchock film and really should have been in my top 10, as should have BRAZIL. The more I ponder and the more I read other people's lists, the more I want to change my own. It's an absolutely impossible task. Hey thanks mate, yeah I have a very (un)healthy obsession with The Rock, such a wonderful film. Frenzy too, I was lucky enough to see this for the first time in the cinema when it played at a horror film festival. Choosing a Hitchcock film was very hard.
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Post by tonyyeboah on Oct 16, 2008 17:03:49 GMT
All these films and no mentions of Indiana Jones! Thats because we aren't 12 year old boys voting for the best films
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Post by shindig on Oct 16, 2008 19:26:24 GMT
My dad's still trying to convince me Point Blank got a remake at some point. He first told me he thought Eastwood had the lead, then it was Bronson. Now it's Steve McQueen. He mentions a punch-up in a car park.
I still can't find what he's on about. I reckon he's mushed two films together and came up with a third. My list lacks Dog Day Afternoon. Whoops. And Network. The 70s could have a top 20 of it's own, really.
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Post by jill on Oct 16, 2008 19:57:09 GMT
My dad's still trying to convince me Point Blank got a remake at some point. He first told me he thought Eastwood had the lead, then it was Bronson. Now it's Steve McQueen. He mentions a punch-up in a car park. I still can't find what he's on about. I reckon he's mushed two films together and came up with a third. My list lacks Dog Day Afternoon. Whoops. And Network. The 70s could have a top 20 of it's own, really. Wasn't it re-made as Payback (Mel Gibson??) Haven't seen it though. Dog Day Afternoon's a great film btw.
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Post by RydCook on Oct 16, 2008 23:53:26 GMT
1. Mongol: The Rise To Power Of Genghis Khan - Sergei Bodrov - 2007 Epic, sad, involving, enthralling, gory, funny, amazing imagery, excellent music and sound. An absolute masterpiece. 2. Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro - 2006 Beautiful mice-en-scene in the fantasy world, perfect contrast with the real world, spot on aesthetic. Perfectly cast. 3. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick - 1971 it's pretty much all been said on this. Shocking, but amazingly you do feel for a character that does terrible things. Great cinematography and music, as with most kubrick films, but this film's has stuck with me. 4. All About My Mother - Pedro Almodóvar - 1999 Wonderful use of colour, cinematography and editing. Themes shine through in dialogue. Superb acting. 5. Team America - Trey Parker - 2004 Hands down the funniest film I have ever seen. Laughed from start to end first time I saw it. Infinitely quotable, stupid in a great way, none of it isn't funny. 6. Fargo - Coen Bros. - 1996 Black comedy is great, and this is the perfect example of it. Margie is a wonderful character, and her and Norm a lovable couple. Fun, compelling way of saying, if you're good (margie) you have a good life. If you're bad (Jerry, Carl etc) you're fucked. You gotta feel sorry for jerry though... I could go on, This is why it's so great. 7. Somers Town - Shane Meadows - 2008 Very funny, happy, beautiful photography (both B/W and colour super8), subtly emotional and most of all really nice, makes you feel great. Sooo realistic. Awesome soundtrack. ;D 8. Caché (Hidden) - Michael Haneke - 2005 Tense, mind boggling in a fantastic way. Could not stop thinking about it afterwards. Truly stunning when a film does that to you. Perfect for re-watches. Contains most shocking, and brilliantly executed scene ever. Mental cinematography. 9. Häxan - Benjamin Christensen - 1922 Truly one of a kind. doco/drama/lecture/fantasy/horror Never ever seen anything else like it. Fascinating stuff here. Excellent use of effects that still look great. 10. The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky - 2006 Fantastic narrative, amazing effects and imagery, so epic. A lot to think over which is nice. A great performance from Hugh Jackman. Just wow.
Films that just fell short of the list: Shallow Grave, Children Of Men, Ghostbusters 2, Dead Man's Shoes, Closer, Brick, The Straight Story, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Edward Scissorhands, Requiem For A Dream, 2001: A Space Odyssey
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Post by jill on Oct 17, 2008 6:46:09 GMT
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