movies you should see

i started writing this for suttonhoo, but decided to post it instead.

great films you should see, in no order:

* "strangers on a train"
i've seen everything hitchcock has done (including all the silents), except for 2 really obscure british propaganda war films. this is my favorite, and weirdly, it's relatively unknown. (as an aside, the merry-go-round scene at the end is not shot with special effects -- it is undercranked slightly.)

* "2001: a space odyssey"
kubrik's best film, which is saying a lot a lot. i won't say more because you've already seen it. (when the americans leave the russians at the hotel, there is an interchange between the two that is untranslated, they say:
"so, what do you think?"
"i think he's lying.")

* "fight club"
i consider this to be the second best film in my lifetime (next to 2001). who could imagine that brad pitt could pull off being a brash, bullying, prick?

* "casablanca"
probably the best paced film in cinema. rules despite mediocre acting by bogart.

* "metropolis"
the longest versions of this are the best. lang's version of the ring cycle are a very very close second, but much harder to find.

* intolerance
d.w. griffith manages to tell the story of christ *and* bring the kkk back to life. shot in single-tone -- super-cool.

* "videodrome"
cronenberg's best film (which is also saying a lot -- although
"history of violence" is in a deadheat for second), which essentially languishes in obscurity. debbie harry, brain tumors and overstimulated states of being. there is nothing more to want.

* "sanjuro"
kurosawa's follow-up to "yojimbo." noh theatre sensibilities and tohovision. as a piece, this is the best frame-for-frame composed movie i've ever seen. put a copy of this on my grave when i die.

* "gojira"
the original japanese print of "godzilla" (no raymond burr). far more than a man in a rubber suit, you see japan post world war ii but before the economic upturn. scenes of the american firebombing of tokyo are, unbelievably, cut into the film (an equivalent today would be to show the world trade center collapse as the result of monsters). great line cut from the american release (man is reading newspaper on subway), "how much do we have to put up with? nagasaki, black rain, and now this." filmed by inshiro honda, mr. kurosawa's right hand man.

* "hoop dreams"
in a way, similar to "28{/35/42} up," is this documentary of two inner-city chicago kids trying to make professional basketball (and one of them is bill gates(!)). turns of fate that are triumphant and wrenching.

* "the maltese falcon"
great film noir. huston, greenstreet and lorie are all making their debuts here. (my brother would tell you to watch "to have and have not" instead.)

* "the wizard of oz"
blah blah blah. if you're american, you've already seen it. i'll get you my pretty, AND YOUR MANGEY LITTLE DOG TOO!

* "apocalypse"
now whoa. whoa whoa whoa. never get out of the boat. absolutely goddamn right.

* "ameile" (or however the hell it's spelled -- i'm on my hiptop, i don't feel like referencing the web)
great story that moves right along. how can you NOT like a film that opens be following a flying bug in nearly first-person perspective, for several minutes no less, that then mashes into a windshield?

* "duck rock"
the video compiliation of malcom mcclaren's (former sex pistols manager) album of the same title. learn where paul simon get nearly all his "graceland" ideas. zulus on a time bomb (yeah, yeah, yeah).

* "the lost world" (the early silent one)
watch the guys who did "king kong" learn their craft. you can find this for a buck in lots of gas stations and 7-11's -- put down that slurpee,
pick up this movie.

* "star wars" (now known as "episode iv")
help me obi wan kanobe, before they turn this fricken franchise into a monstrosity and force me to watch muppets.

* "citizen kane"
to understand it, watch movies only made before 1940 for a month. then watch this. then watch anything after it for a month. "pulp fiction" is impossible without this film.

* "breathless"
jean-luc goddard both starts and ends new-wave cinema with this film. three words: un, believe, able.