Comments on: The Return of the Friday Fun Thread

By: Pablo

Pablo — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:28:34 +0000

I was born in 1979, so if this is about “movies that were released ten or more years before your birth that you genuinely enjoyed, rather than appreciated”… well, there are a lot, of course. I’m only mentioning the ones I enjoyed the most, chronologically:
“The gold rush” (1925, Charles Chaplin), “Metropolis” (1927, Fritz Lang), “Sunrise” (1927, F. W. Murnau), “Asphalt” (1929, Joe May), “The invisible man” (1933, James Whale), “It happened one night” (1934, Frank Capra), “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935, James Whale), “The 39 steps” (1935, Alfred Hitchcock), “Gone with the wind” (1939, Victor Fleming), “Gunga Din” (1939, George Stevens), “Stagecoach” (1939, John Ford), “Wuthering heights” (1939, William Wyler), “Fantasia” (1940, Walt Disney, Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson & Wilfred Jackson), “Rebecca” (1940, Alfred Hitchcock), “The thief of Baghdad” (1940, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan & Michael Powell), “Ball of fire” (1941, Howard Hawks), “Citizen Kane” (1941, Orson Welles), “Shadow of a doubt” (1943, Alfred Hitchcock), “A Canterbury tale” (1944, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger), “Arsenic and old lace” (1944, Frank Capra), “Brief encounter” (1945, David Lean), “Spellbound” (1945, Alfred Hitchcock), “It’s a wonderful life” (1946, Frank Capra), “Letter from an unkown woman” (1948, Max Ophuls), “Rope” (1948, Alfred Hithcock), “Sunset Boulevard” (1950, Billy Wilder), “Miracle in Milan” (1951, Vitorio De Sica), “High noon” (1952, Fred Zinemann), “My cousin Rachel” (1952, Henry Koster), “No abras nunca esa puerta” (1952, Carlos Hugo Christensen), “Singin’ in the rain” (1952, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly), “The quiet man” (1952, John Ford), “On the waterfront” (1954, Elia Kazan), “La Quintrala” (1955, Hugo Del Carril), “The desperate hours” (1955, William Wyler), “Bus stop” (1956, Joshua Logan), “Friendly persuassion” (1956, William Wyler), “12 angry men” (1957, Sidney Lumet), “The fly” (Kurt Neuman, 1958), “Vertigo” (1958, Alfred Hitchcock), “North by Northwest” (1959, Alfred Hitchcock), “Psycho” (1960, Alfred Hitchcock), “The unforgiven” (1960, John Huston), “The misfits” (1961, John Huston), “Prisoners of a night” (1962, David José Kohon), “8 ½” (1963, Federico Fellini), “Charade” (1963, Stanley Donen), “Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb” (1964, Stanley Kubrick), “I am Cuba” (1964, Mikheil Kalatozishvili), “The sound of music” (1965, Robert Wise), “The professionals” (1966, Richard Brooks), “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966, Mike Nichols), “2001, a space odyssey” (1968, Stanley Kubrick), “Planet of the apes” (1968, Franklin Schaffner), “Rosemary’s baby” (1968, Roman Polanski), “Ufa con el sexo” (1968, Rodolfo Kuhn) and “Andrei Rublev” (1969, Andrei Tarkovsky).

Most of them are well known films, so the “particular” ones in this list are: “A Canterbury tale” (beautiful English comedy), “Letter from an unkwon woman” (the best romantic film ever done, and one of the 50 best movies of all time in my opinion), “I am Cuba” (which looks like a documentary but is really a masterful propaganda film that contains the most stunning use of photography ever), “Andrei Rublev” (probably the best movie ever made, an hipnotizing 3 hours+ Russian historical drama) and some Argentinian films, like “No abras nunca esa puerta” (thriller based on two William Irish stories), “La Quintrala” (powerful historical drama), “Ufa con sexo” (naive comedy from today’s perspectives) and “Prisoners of a night” (humble drama of a man a woman that takes place on one night).

By: Another Damned Medievalist

Another Damned Medievalist — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:37:42 +0000

Can I just say that I feel kinda old? There’s a weird cutoff, I think, for us late baby boomers. But since no one has mentioned this one yet, I’ll say not to forget Ball of Fire. And I would vote for anything Capra or Hitchcock up to the appropriate date. I think also the “St. Trinian’s” movies are old enough.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 19:03:00 +0000

Not much sci fi/horror up, so I have to put a shout out for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Much like the best Twilight Zone episodes, I saw it as a child, have seen it many times since, and it it captivates me every time.

By: lalala

lalala — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 06:31:45 +0000

Wow. Usually these threads make me feel so low-culture, but here I’m actually in agreement with a number of people.

The Grand Illusion.
The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.
Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Many Fred and Ginger, but especially Swingtime.

Singing in the Rain always makes me giggle helplessly because at so many moments it seems like such a thinly disguised story about closeted movie stars.

By: The Modesto Kid

The Modesto Kid — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:30:18 +0000

The Lifeboat and more generally all of Hitchcock's ouevre. But especially The Lifeboat. Also: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Witness for the Prosecution, and Night of the Hunter.

By: mikep

mikep — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 04:42:31 +0000

Wow. This is one of the best lists of movies I’ve ever seen. Inspiring. Only thing I can think of to add are the films of the great French silent film master Abel Gance. His Napoleon is awesome. Very good to see that there are so many Preston Sturges fans out there, those are great movies.

By: florentine

florentine — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 03:01:36 +0000

Ikiru

By: Gary Farber

Gary Farber — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:10:05 +0000

Not sure what to say, beside’s: kids!

That someone hasn’t see all of the above mentioned: kids!

I keep working to catch up on films, myself. I am ancient and senile. But oh, you kids.

I am so old and senile.

Oh, you kids. You have much to enjoy.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 01:39:54 +0000

Let me know what you think. And doesn’t the plot of Woman in the Dunes remind you of, say, Concrete Island? Maybe I’m just off base on this.

By: maurinsky

maurinsky — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 01:35:36 +0000

I love musicals, and the best of them were made many years before I was born in 1969: Singin’ In The Rain, On The Town, My Sister Eileen, Oklahoma, The Music Man, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Kiss Me, Kate!, Damn Yankees, all those goofy Judy Garland/Micky Roony “let’s put on a show!” musicals – basically, if it’s a musical, I will find something to enjoy about it.

I also love Auntie Mame, Some Like It Hot, The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, Citizen Kane, everything Hitchcock, The Quiet Man, Adam’s Rib, the first few Thin Man movies, and many others mentioned above.

As a child, I was very fond of anything featuring the Bowery Brothers. I haven’t revisited them, but I suspect they do not age well.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 23:34:03 +0000

‘I’m…a Kobo Abe fan.’

Now there’s a sentence you don’t hear too often, at least in the UK. But I’ve read just about everything by J.G. Ballard, so this may be a case of Amazon to the rescue. Ugetsu monogatari is another possible for ‘best film ever made’ (actually it used to regularly feature in ‘best film ever made’ lists in the 50s and 60s, but seems to have been replaced by ‘Tokyo Story’ (another film I haven’t seen) as the token Japanese film in most Western film critics lists.)

The main problem is just getting hold of these movies nowadays. Arthouse cinemas will go out on a limb and have a contemporary Italian or French film season, but a season called something like ‘post war Japanese classics’ is more or less inconceivable. And TV (even cable) is just hopeless for movies like that.

By: Rebecca Allen

Rebecca Allen — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 23:07:30 +0000

The Grand Illusion by Renoir is one of the all-time great films about war.

I love the Thin Man series, Asta alone makes them worth watching.

Shane is my favorite Western.

I don’t like GWTW either; too racist, and Scarlett O’Hara is just too unlikeable. If you want Vivian Leigh, watch A Streetcar Named Desire.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 22:45:39 +0000

For me the line between appreciated and genuinely enjoyed is not all that clear even for movies I saw long after college. Lucky for me I am old enough to have first seen many consensus masterpieces filling up hard-to-sell-ads-on UHF airtime on weekend afternoons.

But two I’ve seen in the last five years that fit the bill pretty well are

Bambi

and

Dumbo.

By: Grandma Jo

Grandma Jo — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 22:30:09 +0000

At 89, there weren’t any films 10 years before I was born, but I appreciate Ryan’s endorsement of The Great Race.

I do remember being taken to the silent movies because my Father was playing the organ accompanying the movies. But I kept falling asleep and don’t remember any of the them.

By: Ted's Mom

Ted's Mom — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 22:20:12 +0000

TopHat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (I have to second Ryan’s The Great Race and add Without A Clue starring Michael Caine – even though since I am as old as dirt, these don’t fit the 10-year criteria)