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fpb(That's OK, actually. Just indulging a grumble. I really quite like memes.)
Total number of films I own on DVD/video - Some 50 or so.
The last film I bought: Lantana, because someone on my f-list had recommended it and it was for sale cheap. Haven't seen it yet.
The last film I watched On DVD: The Horse Soldiers. One of the greatest war movies ever done, except for a fairly irrelevant subplot about the commanding officer's prejudice against doctors. But the sequence of war scenes is awesome, and the climax of the movies - when a battalion of children, led by an old man, advances to fight - is one of the most shattering things I have ever seen in film. When we see it happen, we have already seen an adult troop of the same army falling into a trap and being wiped out on screen; and as we watch the children march on, we tremble. All the horror and pity and courage of war is there; and yet John Ford brilliantly manages to make us feel it without any slaughter of innocents. A masterpiece.
In the cinema: Lord of the Rings II. I found it beautiful but hyperkinetic and lacking in the odd but undoubted realism of Tolkien's book. Tolkien had really fought in war and had studied history, and knew what worked and what did not. For instance, the scene in which the cavalry of Rohan charges downhill against a solid shieldwall only looks good if you know nothing whatever about how war was actually fought: if you do, it looks like certain disaster for the horsemen. Massed ranks of pikemen on foot, behind locked shields, have the advantage over any cavalry, as the English learned at Bannockburn. The most successful army in history, the Roman legions, consisted entirely of lightly armoured foot-pikemen bearing large shields, with practically no cavalry. IN general, the LOTR movies only made me appreciate more how superb Tolkien really is.
Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) by Luchino Visconti. Most of you will never, I am sorry to say, be able to understand why I regard this as the greatest movie I ever saw; for the English version deserves the public flogging of all responsible. In Italian, it is a total masterpiece, a tragic epic of the Italian nation as well as the story of a man's greatness and decline; and indubitably the finest adaptation of a great work of literature ever done.
Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves. Except for the utterly infuriating protagonist, who makes me feel that the real hero of the movie is the poisoned apple, this remains matchless. Disney himself never approached it again, except possibly - in a wholly different way - in Fantasia. It is the most beautiful single movie ever made, and I cannot believe that anyone will ever again produce anything so full of utter gorgeousness. No, not even Hayao Miyazaki.
Casablanca What can anyone say? Every time I watch this, it looks better. Every time, I learn something new. Perfect casting (can you believe that they originally wanted Ronald Reagan for Rick?), an avalanche of the best one-liners in cinema, a dense and astonishingly tight story (it is hard to believe that this movie was scripted on the hop, as it was being filmed), photography that re-defines the word "ravishing", and, finally, a powerful moral content, makes this probably the best movie Hollywood will ever make.
Easter Parade The privilege of watching Fred Astaire and Judy Garland together. 'Nuff said.
Singin' in the rain Shouldn't have included another musical, but really, how can anyone not adore this? Only Debbie Reynolds can ever have had something to complain about it: this was her debut movie, and a movie actress who can never again match the brilliance of her debut is in trouble.
Special mention to Charlotte Rampling for being the most astonishing mixture of overwhelming beauty and shattering acting brilliance in movies. (And untrained at that, since she started her career as a model.) And to most anything featuring Katharine Hepburn. Spencer Tracy was a lucky man and I hope he appreciated it.
Finally, tag five people to do this meme: (If some of you have already done it, consider yourselves off the hook)
Avus
Private Maladict
Patchworkmind
Thepreciouss
Tashmania
Total number of films I own on DVD/video - Some 50 or so.
The last film I bought: Lantana, because someone on my f-list had recommended it and it was for sale cheap. Haven't seen it yet.
The last film I watched On DVD: The Horse Soldiers. One of the greatest war movies ever done, except for a fairly irrelevant subplot about the commanding officer's prejudice against doctors. But the sequence of war scenes is awesome, and the climax of the movies - when a battalion of children, led by an old man, advances to fight - is one of the most shattering things I have ever seen in film. When we see it happen, we have already seen an adult troop of the same army falling into a trap and being wiped out on screen; and as we watch the children march on, we tremble. All the horror and pity and courage of war is there; and yet John Ford brilliantly manages to make us feel it without any slaughter of innocents. A masterpiece.
In the cinema: Lord of the Rings II. I found it beautiful but hyperkinetic and lacking in the odd but undoubted realism of Tolkien's book. Tolkien had really fought in war and had studied history, and knew what worked and what did not. For instance, the scene in which the cavalry of Rohan charges downhill against a solid shieldwall only looks good if you know nothing whatever about how war was actually fought: if you do, it looks like certain disaster for the horsemen. Massed ranks of pikemen on foot, behind locked shields, have the advantage over any cavalry, as the English learned at Bannockburn. The most successful army in history, the Roman legions, consisted entirely of lightly armoured foot-pikemen bearing large shields, with practically no cavalry. IN general, the LOTR movies only made me appreciate more how superb Tolkien really is.
Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) by Luchino Visconti. Most of you will never, I am sorry to say, be able to understand why I regard this as the greatest movie I ever saw; for the English version deserves the public flogging of all responsible. In Italian, it is a total masterpiece, a tragic epic of the Italian nation as well as the story of a man's greatness and decline; and indubitably the finest adaptation of a great work of literature ever done.
Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves. Except for the utterly infuriating protagonist, who makes me feel that the real hero of the movie is the poisoned apple, this remains matchless. Disney himself never approached it again, except possibly - in a wholly different way - in Fantasia. It is the most beautiful single movie ever made, and I cannot believe that anyone will ever again produce anything so full of utter gorgeousness. No, not even Hayao Miyazaki.
Casablanca What can anyone say? Every time I watch this, it looks better. Every time, I learn something new. Perfect casting (can you believe that they originally wanted Ronald Reagan for Rick?), an avalanche of the best one-liners in cinema, a dense and astonishingly tight story (it is hard to believe that this movie was scripted on the hop, as it was being filmed), photography that re-defines the word "ravishing", and, finally, a powerful moral content, makes this probably the best movie Hollywood will ever make.
Easter Parade The privilege of watching Fred Astaire and Judy Garland together. 'Nuff said.
Singin' in the rain Shouldn't have included another musical, but really, how can anyone not adore this? Only Debbie Reynolds can ever have had something to complain about it: this was her debut movie, and a movie actress who can never again match the brilliance of her debut is in trouble.
Special mention to Charlotte Rampling for being the most astonishing mixture of overwhelming beauty and shattering acting brilliance in movies. (And untrained at that, since she started her career as a model.) And to most anything featuring Katharine Hepburn. Spencer Tracy was a lucky man and I hope he appreciated it.
Finally, tag five people to do this meme: (If some of you have already done it, consider yourselves off the hook)
Avus
Private Maladict
Patchworkmind
Thepreciouss
Tashmania
