Six favourite films (Movies)

[Karl Henning]

I will go for those that can be watched more than once. There have been some wonderful films that are just difficult to watch more than once or maybe twice in a lifetime. So I have focused on those that changed me, inspired me, or just made me think. Anyway, it's the list (of 7) for me...

Court Jester - The first time I watched this, I laughed so much that my family laughed the same even though they didn't like it as much. I liked it so much that I mesmerized some of the best parts: the Vessel with the pestle; the dirk, the doge with the dirk (and the dagger, but don't forget the Dutchess!).

Wall-E - I considered Up and the Incredibles, and while both are fantastic, I find this little guy has wormed his way into my heart. The fact that there is no talking for so long allows this one to work its magic.

Singing in the Rain - What is there to say about this one. A great story, great and clever text, wonderful singing, memorable characterization, and top notch dancing. It always makes me happy.

Stand By Me - This is a wonderful coming of age story. It has River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton (he actually acts here), and Kiefer Sutherland. The important thing in this one is the journey. If you like the Wonder Years, you will probably like this one too.

Buck Privates - Starring Abbot and Costello, this is probably their best film. I used to watch them every Sunday and I know so much of their schtick by heart. They will always be special to me.

Gosford Park - This one beautifully captures and era. I considered others like Remains of the Day, but this one captures the nostalgia and the atmosphere as well as any. Amazing cast.

Young Frankenstein - I chose this one over Blazing Saddles. It's as funny as any movie ever made, and yet it is also quite dramatic. It is, for me, a joy. Two of my favorite scenes involve the following lines: 'Put the candle back' and 'you didn't touch your food'.

There are literally dozens of other great films that could have made this list, but these are the ones that have touched me most over the years.

I like Young Frankenstein best of anything Mel Brooks has done.

[NikF]

Young Frankenstein - I chose this one over Blazing Saddles. It's as funny as any movie ever made, and yet it is also quite dramatic. It is, for me, a joy. Two of my favorite scenes involve the following lines: 'Put the candle back' and 'you didn't touch your food'.

"Igor, help me with the bags."

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Wall-E - I considered Up and the Incredibles, and while both are fantastic, I find this little guy has wormed his way into my heart. The fact that there is no talking for so long allows this one to work its magic.

+1! My favorite Pixar movie, even my dad liked it and he almost never gives any movie whatsoever a recognition. Incredibles and Toy Story 2 are also in my top 3 when it comes to Pixar. While Up is not among my personal favorites (it had some longueurs), after a rewatching, I like it a lot more now.

[mc ukrneal]

+1! My favorite Pixar movie, even my dad liked it and he almost never gives any movie whatsoever a recognition. Incredibles and Toy Story 2 are also in my top 3 when it comes to Pixar. While Up is not among my personal favorites (it had some longueurs), after a rewatching, I like it a lot more now.

Up has arguably the best 10-15 minutes. The love story at the start of the movie is so beautiful. I find it amazing that they are able to pass along so much information about the characters, their character, their strengths and weaknesses, their motivation, and their life experiences. Up, Wall-e and Saving Private Ryan have some of the best opening sections to a film - at least the ones I admire most.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I will go for those that can be watched more than once. There have been some wonderful films that are just difficult to watch more than once or maybe twice in a lifetime.

That is a good point. A film like Rossellini's "Roma, Città Aperta" is an incredibly intense experience, but (like Parsifal) not something you want to do every day.

I'll add a few more to my list:

Mike Leigh - Topsy-Turvy
Jacques Tati - PlayTime, Mon Oncle, M. Hulot's Holiday
Louis Malle - Au Revoir les Enfants
Eisenstein - Battleship Potemkin
Petri - Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion
Olmi - Il Posto
Chukhrai - Ballad of a Soldier
Majidi - Children of Heaven (not to be confused with Carné's Children of Paradise)

[Cato]

In no particular order, a list eclectic and eccentric, and a great effort in trying unsuccessfully to stick with 6...

King Kong 1933 - I find that Robert Armstrong's peformance as bigger-than-life impresario Carl Denham has held up well after 80 years.

Ben-Hur 1959 - Rumors of a remake are in the wind.  To be sure, this was a remake of a silent version.  The death scene of Messala ( Stephen Boyd is a marvel.  Not to mention the chariot race!

War and Peace 1966 - Sergei Bondarchuk's c. 8-hour vision of Tolstoy's novel: incredibly, I understand the movie needs restoration, but that nothing is happening.

Every Man for Himself, and God Against All - aka The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser 1974 - Werner Herzog's version of the  Kaspar Hauser incident.  Hauser was discovered in Nuremberg at age 14 or so, unable to walk properly or to speak.  It turned out that he had been kept away from all direct human contact since he had been a toddler.

Fantasia 1940  Leopold Stokowski and Mickey Mouse !  0:)

The Water of the Hills: Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring 1986 - Excellent movie of the novel by Marcel Pagnol which is not unlike reading a Greek tragedy by Sophocles.

Braveheart 1995 - Patrick McGoohan as the king of England, and Mel Gibson inadvertently causing a revolution in Scotland.

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T 1953 - The first live-action Dr. Seuss movie is a satire on classical music.  But the real reason to watch: Hans Conried really believes that he is a piano-obsessed villain.  It is also the only children's movie that has a paean to cross-dressing!   

It's a Gift 1934 - W.C. Fields as the henpecked husband and incompetent shopkeeper trying to survive the Depression and his family and everyone around him

Horsefeathers - 1932  The Marx Brothers at a college, and chaos ensues: a good amount of satire on education and society which sadly still is relevant today!   0:)

[Rinaldo]

Tough. Had to cut a lot of amazing movies to stay honest and list those that are truly special to me.

Blade Runner. It's engraved in my DNA.

Apocalypse Now. Pulls me upstream.

Master & Commander. The only movie than can reduce me to tears with a shot of iguanas. Also, the usage of Tallis Fantasia lured me into the classical world. I owe Peter Weir big time.

The Truman Show. Did I mention I owe Peter Weir a lot? A celebration of individuality.

2001: A Space Odyssey. Bigger than life.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Ditto!

And although none of their movies crept into my list, a big shout-out to Herzog, Gilliam, Lynch and Tarkovsky.

[James]

King Kong 1933 - I find that Robert Armstrong's peformance as bigger-than-life impresario Carl Denham has held up well after 80 years.

Not enough to make the film .. and it is cartoonish, no one goes to see a film like this for that guy anyway .. the money shot is the monster, and it doesn't really pay off anymore in that film. It looks really dated. And the relationship between the beauty and the beast in that film could hardly be explored .. they didn't have the technology to really explore that. Just some thoughts.

[SimonNZ]

Olmi - Il Posto

That's the one about the young office worker? Must watch that again. Olmi deserves to be much better known.

[(poco) Sforzando]

That's the one about the young office worker? Must watch that again. Olmi deserves to be much better known.

That's right. It was released in the US as "The Sound of Trumpets," which alludes to a very minor piece of dialogue in the family's apartment. But the title is rightly "The Job," and it's a delightful satire on the anomie and impersonality of the big corporations that were springing up in Italy during the post-WW2 boom. (And which haven't stopped springing up.)

[Cato]

Not enough to make the film King Kong.. and it is cartoonish, no one goes to see a film like this for that guy anyway .. the money shot is the monster, and it doesn't really pay off anymore in that film. It looks really dated. And the relationship between the beauty and the beast in that film could hardly be explored .. they didn't have the technology to really explore that. Just some thoughts.

Well, I still find it a marvelous effort: our (dis)belief systems must be different.   0:)

[Brian]

Alpha by director. Going with 10 since everyone else has posted 15+. Subject to change by the day, hour, or minute!

Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
The Producers (Brooks, 1968)
Young Frankenstein (Brooks, 1974)
Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra, 1944)
Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Leone, 1967)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger, 1943)
Top Secret! (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker, 1984)

It appears that (thanks to Sarge sharing my love for Top Secret!) the only movie on my list that hasn't been mentioned so far is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. David Mamet's favorite film, and one Martin Scorsese loves so much he helped finance the restoration. Also a favorite movie of Wes Anderson, Nick Hornby, David Chase, and Elvis Costello.

[Cato]

Top Secret! (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker, 1984)

It appears that (thanks to Sarge sharing my love for Top Secret!)

An all-around fave! 

https://www.youtube.com/v/fZDrCXdiayk

[Karl Henning]

Alpha by director. Going with 10 since everyone else has posted 15+.

I haven't!

(Have I?)

[NikF]

I think I only chose six. And to do so was an exercise in restraint!

[Brian]

Admittedly I read the first 8-10 pages, and in those pages, people like vandermolen, Sarge, and Sonic Dave all chose 25+!

[Sergeant Rock]

Admittedly I read the first 8-10 pages, and in those pages, people like vandermolen, Sarge, and Sonic Dave all chose 25+!

I was always bad at math 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

It appears that (thanks to Sarge sharing my love for Top Secret!) the only movie on my list that hasn't been mentioned so far is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

I bought Blimp a few months ago. Haven't watched it yet. Will rectify that soon.

Sarge

[(poco) Sforzando]

I bought Blimp a few months ago. Haven't watched it yet. Will rectify that soon.

Sarge

That's a good one, with Roger Livesey playing Blimp as he evolves from dashing young cadet to - well, fat-bald-mustachioed old blimp, and Deborah Kerr as all three of his love interests. Scorsese I believe also backed the restoration of Powell+Pressburger's (AKA The Archers') The Red Shoes.

[Ken B]

Alpha by director. Going with 10 since everyone else has posted 15+. Subject to change by the day, hour, or minute!

Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
The Producers (Brooks, 1968)
Young Frankenstein (Brooks, 1974)
Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra, 1944)
Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Leone, 1967)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger, 1943)
Top Secret! (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker, 1984)

It appears that (thanks to Sarge sharing my love for Top Secret!) the only movie on my list that hasn't been mentioned so far is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. David Mamet's favorite film, and one Martin Scorsese loves so much he helped finance the restoration. Also a favorite movie of Wes Anderson, Nick Hornby, David Chase, and Elvis Costello.

Blimp is wonderful. And Walbrook's big scene is some of the best acting I have ever seen.