Best films of all time....ever!!!!

[hobbes]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

In no particular order:-

Fight Club
La Fille sur la Pont
Silent Running
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Barefoot Contessa

there are any number of others that would float in and out of this list, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Un Couer en Hiver, House of Flying Daggers, Hero, to name but a few.

[Disco Child Ballads]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

If I'd done a Top 10, I'd have put All About Eve in there. What surpises me is no one else has yet mentioned it.

[delicatemoth]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Well you could always get round the top 5 requirement like I did. Not that I actually picked a top 20. Not that I actually HAVE a top 20. Blue Velvet was probably the one that just missed out.

I don't suppose anyone else finds all those Coppola/Scorsese macho movies dull and thoroughly over-rated do they? The worst is Goodfellas, the only film I've spent hoping the police would come in and kill every active character, that to be followed by half an hour of ordinary citizens happily going about their business, freed from this plague of Method psychopaths.

[Guest]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Vertigo is definitely one Hitchcock's creepiest films mainly because the "hero" (presumably the one who the audience is meant to identify with) is such an oddball. At its (icy) heart, it's the story of a man who loses what he regards as his "perfect" woman and then, upon seeing a similar-looking one, obssessively remoulds her so she looks exactly like the original. And, of course, it's not enough because she actually is the original and this "perfection" the guy fell in love with was actually a disguise. Huh?

So, a beautiful-looking film with two of the most glamourous stars of the day telling us about the impossibilty of desire and the futility in looking for perfection. And it's meant to be a thriller.

What's not to like?

[Guest]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

linus wrote:

the supporting actors and side characters are a gallery of grotesque 1950s Hollywood Frenchman cliches. This is one of several weaknesses of this movie; I wholeheartedly agree with Lyra there, "Casablanca" is way overrated.

1950s cliches in a 1942 film. Impressive.

The supporting actors are one of the main reasons Casablanca is great (although I do prefer The Maltese Falcon) - Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains - you couldn't get a better "non-star" line up.

[Incandenza]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

TonTon wrote:

So have we ever actually done "best" rather than "favourite"?

Not sure, but a while back we did to the taste knockout competition, ganja had us make a list of our 20 favorite films, and people voted on who had the best taste.

Do I need to remind you who was deemed by OTF to have the best taste in films?

[Jimski]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Five films really is impossible. You just have to pick five and go with them. I'm not sure any on this list is necessarily a 'guaranteed' top fiver - at any other moment I could pick a completely different five - but I've tried to spread them around a little.

Badlands
The Maltese Falcon
Muriel's Wedding
The Philadelphia Story
Talk To Her

Casablanca was almost on there. I plumped for the Falcon instead, mainly because it makes better use of Lorre and Greenstreet, but then again Casablanca has awesome dialogue. (Not sure how anybody could not love it btw.)

Then again I'm personally not so big on Citizen Kane, which feels to me more like a history lesson than a story one can really get into. A film that has many admirable moments, but one to be admired rather than one which draws the viewer fully into its world.

[amp]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Inca wrote:
[quote]TonTon wrote:

Do I need to remind you who was deemed by OTF to have the best taste in films?

Please.

[amp]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

If we're talking best 5 is no one going to mention Lawrence of Arabia?

[wingco]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Great capsule summary of the essence of Vertigo by Taylor. As with Rear Window in that film's more genial, less subtle way, Stewart is channelling Hitchcock's own, weird obsessions with the female form which have a borderline fetishistic quality about them - the female as inanimate, doll-like, malleable. (Didn't he send Tippi Hedren, or her daughter, a doll facsimile of herself in a coffin?)

[Heliotrope]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Yes, it was Melanie Griffith.

[Incandenza]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

archivedmusicpress wrote:
[quote]Inca wrote:

TonTon wrote:

Do I need to remind you who was deemed by OTF to have the best taste in films?

Please.

One clue:

[linus]

Best films of all time....ever!!!!

Melbourne Arab wrote:

linus wrote:

the supporting actors and side characters are a gallery of grotesque 1950s Hollywood Frenchman cliches. This is one of several weaknesses of this movie; I wholeheartedly agree with Lyra there, "Casablanca" is way overrated.

1950s cliches in a 1942 film. Impressive.

The supporting actors are one of the main reasons Casablanca is great (although I do prefer The Maltese Falcon) - Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains - you couldn't get a better "non-star" line up.

Well, they could have gotten a real French man to play the role of the French officer. And how cliche is it to name that french character after one of the most popular French brands, but I suppose the movie's Hollywood writers couldn't come up with a basic French name... 1950 or 1942, it's pretty much the same Hollywood cliches.