A Casual Favorite Movies / Films List

[mahlertitan]

Wow, I've never seen Barry Lyndon before... Maybe, I should change that.

any film by the great Kubrick is worth watching, especially his later works.

[bhodges]

Wow, I've never seen Barry Lyndon before... Maybe, I should change that.

It is worth at least one viewing for its technical aspects alone, and specifically, the photography.  Since Kubrick wanted to film the entire thing in natural light, Zeiss developed some ultra-fast lenses to accommodate the low light levels.  So the interior scenes, shot in nothing but candlelight, have an amazing magic and realism, since they give you a very good idea of how people saw interiors before the dawn of electricity. 

--Bruce

[Kullervo]

It is worth at least one viewing for its technical aspects alone, and specifically, the photography.  Since Kubrick wanted to film the entire thing in natural light, Zeiss developed some ultra-fast lenses to accommodate the low light levels.  So the interior scenes, shot in nothing but candlelight, have an amazing magic and realism, since they give you a very good idea of how people saw interiors before the dawn of electricity. 

--Bruce

There is one shot in particular that I thought was amazing. Barry's wife is sitting in a chair with her baby and older son, none of them moving — it looks like a painting.

[Steve]

any film by the great Kubrick is worth watching, especially his later works.

I really liked Clockwork Orange 

[Don]

Star Wars movies (all six) are my absolute favorites. They surpass effortlessly everything else I have seen. The way George Lucas transfers his vision on silver screen is extraordinary. Especially the newer Star Wars movies are very underrated.

I want art in my movies.

If you want art in your movies, how can you have such a high opinon of Star Wars?

[bhodges]

There is one shot in particular that I thought was amazing. Barry's wife is sitting in a chair with her baby and older son, none of them moving — it looks like a painting.

Yes!  It's like you're looking at something by Vermeer -- that has suddenly come alive. 

--Bruce

[71 dB]

If you want art in your movies, how can you have such a high opinon of Star Wars?

Because no other movie has as much art in them as Star Wars. 

[mahlertitan]

I really liked Clockwork Orange 

I love Clockwork Orange, no matter how many times i watch this film, i always manage to find something new.

[71 dB]

It is worth at least one viewing for its technical aspects alone, and specifically, the photography.  Since Kubrick wanted to film the entire thing in natural light, Zeiss developed some ultra-fast lenses to accommodate the low light levels.  So the interior scenes, shot in nothing but candlelight, have an amazing magic and realism, since they give you a very good idea of how people saw interiors before the dawn of electricity. 

--Bruce

Yes, the candlelight shots are impressive.

[Sean]

Good thread- I'm always concerned to have seen the most important films, and I have a list I want to get hold of.

The most important film ever made is The Wicker Man (1972), closely followed by The Devils (1971); third place I'd give to Apocalypse Now Redux (1979).

[Tancata]

Good thread- I'm always concerned to have seen the most important films, and I have a list I want to get hold of.

The most important film ever made is The Wicker Man (1972), closely followed by The Devils (1971); third place I'd give to Apocalypse Now Redux (1979).

I love The Wicker Man, it has a very unique feel and the music rocks. I haven't seen The Devils, but I've heard it's really bizarre. I don't think it's available on DVD here. It has music by David Munrow, right?

[bwv 1080]

An interesting interview with Kubrick on Barry Lyndon, where he talks about the music and that he took direct inspiration from period paintings:

Did you have Schubert's Trio in mind while preparing and shooting this particular scene?

No, I decided on it while we were editing. Initially, I thought it was right to use only eighteenth-century music. But sometimes you can make ground-rules for yourself which prove unnecessary and counter-productive. I think I must have listened to every LP you can buy of eighteenth-century music. One of the problems which soon became apparent is that there are no tragic love-themes in eighteenth-century music. So eventually I decided to use Schubert's Trio in E Flat, Opus 100, written in 1828. It's a magnificent piece of music and it has just the right restrained balance between the tragic and the romantic without getting into the headier stuff of later Romanticism.

You also cheated in another way by having Leonard Rosenman orchestrate Handel's Sarabande in a more dramatic style than you would find in eighteenth-century composition.

This arose from another problem about eighteenth-century music -- it isn't very dramatic, either. I first came across the Handel theme played on a guitar and, strangely enough, it made me think of Ennio Morricone. I think it worked very well in the film, and the very simple orchestration kept it from sounding out of place.

...
You are well-known for the thoroughness with which you accumulate information and do research when you work on a project. Is it for you the thrill of being a reporter or a detective?

I suppose you could say it is a bit like being a detective. On Barry Lyndon, I accumulated a very large picture file of drawings and paintings taken from art books. These pictures served as the reference for everything we needed to make -- clothes, furniture, hand props, architecture, vehicles, etc. Unfortunately, the pictures would have been too awkward to use while they were still in the books, and I'm afraid we finally had very guiltily to tear up a lot of beautiful art books. They were all, fortunately, still in print which made it seem a little less sinful. Good research is an absolute necessity and I enjoy doing it. You have an important reason to study a subject in much greater depth than you would ever have done otherwise, and then you have the satisfaction of putting the knowledge to immediate good use. The designs for the clothes were all copied from drawings and paintings of the period. None of them were designed in the normal sense. This is the best way, in my opinion, to make historical costumes. It doesn't seem sensible to have a designer interpret -- say -- the eighteenth century, using the same picture sources from which you could faithfully copy the clothes. Neither is there much point sketching the costumes again when they are already beautifully represented in the paintings and drawings of the period. What is very important is to get some actual clothes of the period to learn how they were originally made. To get them to look right, you really have to make them the same way. Consider also the problem of taste in designing clothes, even for today. Only a handful of designers seem to have a sense of what is striking and beautiful. How can a designer, however brilliant, have a feeling for the clothes of another period which is equal to that of the people and the designers of the period itself, as recorded in their pictures? I spent a year preparing Barry Lyndon before the shooting began and I think this time was very well spent. The starting point and sine qua non of any historical or futuristic story is to make you believe what you see.

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.bl.html

[bhodges]

Thanks, most interesting!  True, the costuming in Barry Lyndon is part of its effect as well.  And interesting comments about the challenges of using 18th-century music and the solutions he found. 

--Bruce

[Sean]

I love The Wicker Man, it has a very unique feel and the music rocks. I haven't seen The Devils, but I've heard it's really bizarre. I don't think it's available on DVD here. It has music by David Munrow, right?

The most important contribution is from Peter Maxwell Davies, whose score is among the best things he's done; the opening music with the King dancing is from Praetorius's Terpsichore (if I remember). I used to have the Wicker Man film music, some of the best ever written, by Paul Giovanni and using some fascinating Celtic scales, and intelligent and subversive lyrics.

[Haffner]

Wow, I've never seen Barry Lyndon before... Maybe, I should change that.

You won't regret watching that 'un, Steve!

[Tancata]

The most important contribution is from Peter Maxwell Davies, whose score is among the best things he's done; the opening music with the King dancing is from Praetorius's Terpsichore (if I remember). I used to have the Wicker Man film music, some of the best ever written, by Paul Giovanni and using some fascinating Celtic scales, and intelligent and subversive lyrics.

I have the Wicker Man soundtrack. It's great, and I love the way it includes some of the key moments of dialogue from the film. I think it's David Munrow directing the Praetorius at the start - I heard an interview with Russell where he said he thought Munrow wrote that music, but he was probably being ignorant.

[Sean]

Tancata, thanks for that. I'm a bit obsessed with The Wicker Man and have quite a few pages of analysis on it- I might start another thread on it if I can do a bit of proofreading.

[sidoze]

anyone who likes Clockwork Orange should have a look at Funeral Parade of Roses.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funeral-Parade-Roses-bara-Soretsu/dp/B000FOT6YW/ref=sr_1_1/202-6321677-2959036?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185309786&sr=1-1

Apparently Kubrick liked it very much and it influenced his film in some ways.

[jwinter]

Hmm, I haven't seen Barry Lyndon either, I'll have to check Blockbuster at some point.

Some of my personal faves, not terribly artistic but what the heck...

The Lion in Winter (and you think your family is dysfunctional... )
Lawrence of Arabia
Casablanca
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon (though Mary Astor may be the single most annoying woman in the history of movies)
The Empire Strikes Back (original theatrical cut - accept no substitutes  )
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Blade Runner
Alien
Dr. Strangelove
Richard III (Ian McKellen)
King Lear (Olivier's last role)
Hamlet (Derek Jacobi, BBC -- not sure if this & the above qualify as "movies")
The Searchers
Vertigo
Excalibur (all the Wagner and Orff had a huge musical influence on me as a young fellow)
Kelly's Heroes
The Lord of the Rings
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Superman
about 1/2 of the James Bond movies
Dracula (Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, Jack Palance, and the Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing ones, for various reasons)

[sidoze]

I still think BL is the greatest movie ever made

luckily for us great films come along quite often. This one arrived 13 years ago and, provided people can sit through it, will last as long as any ( ).