film challenge
always under construction and revision
best opening to a movie:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Andrei Rublev
best ending to a movie:
The Marriage of Maria Braun, Ordet, Late Spring, The Wings of the Dove, Andrei Rublev, Les Diaboliques, Strangers on a Train, Das Boot, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Sting, Adaptation, Suzanne's Career, A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, Love in the Afternoon
favorite drama:
A Woman Under the Influence, Ordet
favorite comedy:
This genre's always difficult for me, because movies that are supposed to be funny the whole time tend not to be my thing (instead I'll find myself laughing uncontrollably inappropriately at something like, I dunno, Love Liza). Clue and Young Frankenstein I guess.
favorite romance:
City Lights, Before Sunrise, The Shop Around the Corner, Stealing Beauty, Love in the Afternoon (it's kind of a stretch to call it romantic, granted)
favorite action:
The Terminator, Cobra, The Parallax View, Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, some Dirty Harry movies, Die Hard, Escape From New York
favorite thriller/mystery:
The 39 Steps, Vertigo, Bound, Les Diaboliques
favorite horror:
Night of the Living Dead, The Thing, Troll 2, Tenebre, Black Magic, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, Don't Look Now, Vampyr, The Blair Witch Project (why yes I am a wuss, how'd you know? :b)
favorite sci-fi/fantasty:
La Jetee, Alien
favorite foreign language movie:
Late Spring
favorite childhood or coming of age movie:
I'm Not Scared, Let the Right One In, Picnic at Hanging Rock, L'ecole, Splendor in the Grass, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Slums of Beverly Hills, Stealing Beauty, Spirit of the Beehive
favorite animated or children's movie:
Kiki's Delivery Service, The Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, The Secret of NIMH, The Phantom Tollbooth, Babe, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Riki Tiki Tavi, Dumbo, Pinocchio, A Cricket in Times Square, The Rescuers, Bambi, Milo and Otis, Charlotte's Web, Fairy Tale, A Little Princess, The Secret of Roan Innish
favorite documentary:
Our Daily Bread, Guys and Dolls, The Power of Nightmares, Jonestown, Holy Ghost People, Theremin, Baraka, Man on Wire, Capturing the Friedmans, Jesus Camp, The Endless Summer, and if you wanna call them a single "movie" the Up Series
stylish movie you dig:
Le Samourai, Shoot the Piano Player, Le Cercle Rouge, La Dolce Vita, Russian Ark
favorite food movie:
Big Night, Like Water for Chocolate, Little Women
favorite epic movie:
hm...I honestly don't know anymore, it's been so long since I was into that sort of thing :/
favorite dream-like movie:
Meshes in the Afternoon, At Land, Three Women, most of Cocteau's, Picnic At Hanging Rock, In the Mood for Love, Russian Ark, Dreams, Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Night of the Living Dead
favorite terrible/cheesy movie, funniest bad movie:
Gymkata, The Blob, Manos, Flash Gordon, Dune, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Troll 2, Werewolf, Hard Rock Zombies, Them!, Tarantula, Top Gun, Doggy Poo
guilty pleasure:
Legally Blonde, French Kiss, Firefox, a bunch of early James Bond movies, The Craft, Hackers, Sliding Doors, Basic Instinct, Ocean's Eleven, Catch Me If You Can
movie you like based mainly or purely on nostalgia, favorite movie as a kid:
Anything with Natalie Wood, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Tippi Hedren, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, or Jack Lemmon in it. The Terminator, Kiki's Delivery Service, Gleaming the Cube, The Phantom Tollbooth, Better Off Dead, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Riki Tiki Tavi, The Last Unicorn, Circle of Friends, The Secret of Roan Innish
movie you used to adore but not so much anymore:
I loved Leaving Las Vegas when it came out but I've been wary of revisiting it 'cause an acquaintance who loved it too told me upon rewatch it wasn't nearly as good as she remembered. I have a feeling Splendor in the Grass would be much the same.
movie you didn't like at first but then it grew on you:
movie no one would expect you to like:
In the Realm of the Senses, Unforgiven, High Noon, 28 Days Later, X2: X-Men United, Superbad
movie that reminds you of your past:
L'ecole, Romance, Rebel Without a Cause, Hiroshima Mon Amour
movie that reminds you of somewhere:
Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 21 Grams, Mystery Train, Ghostbusters
movie that reminds you of someone:
Late Spring, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
movie that depicts your life right now:
...?
movie you watch to feel good:
The Shop Around the Corner, Bringing Up Baby, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, A Little Princess, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Irma la Douce, Chungking Express, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Fifth Element
movie you watch to feel down:
La Dolce Vita, Late Spring, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, The Misfits, Chinatown, The Rules of the Game, Romance, Grave of the Fireflies, Safe, Trees Lounge
most obscure movie you've seen:
I can't remember its name and I've tried over the years to...a movie we saw in college at the old theater downtown about girls forced to work in a house sewing or knitting or something in a Middle Eastern country, where one wound up hanging herself. That or the fishmonger's wife maybe. Or that movie I caught the ending of on Bravo over 10 years ago, it had that garish n' grainy '70s look to it, with a young woman in a red coat matter-of-factly sitting down in the snow and setting herself on fire as the credits began, IIRC.
And if you wanna argue in terms of hard-to-get-legally quality, The Cremaster Cycle.
movie you find so overrated, annoying, and/or disappointing it's frustrating:
A lot of David Lynch's (Lost Highway and Blue Velvet especially, but then again I think Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and Eraserhead are all excellent so...), Cronenberg's, Godard's, Truffaut's, Bunuel's, von Trier's. High Fidelity, As Good As It Gets, Lost in Translation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, anything Miranda July touches, American Beauty, Amelie, Love Actually, Say Anything, Moon, Howl's Moving Castle, Suspicion (would be good if it wasn't for the fucking ending and the story behind it which makes my blood boil every time I think of it), I am Love (had elements that were promising but I had so many problems with this movie I almost wanted to write a damn paper). And I may hang for this but...The Blue Angel.
best movies you've seen in the last few years:
Revanche, Let the Right One In
best acting:
The Passion of Joan of Arc
best writing/dialogue:
Simple Men, Trust, Henry Fool, Before Sunrise, Claire's Knee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Y Tu Mama Tambien
best framing/composition:
The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, Touch of Evil, Citizen Kane, Late Spring, Andrei Rublev, The Mirror, La Dolce Vita, Pedro Costa's, Woman in the Dunes, The Trial
best colors or contrast:
Wings of Desire, Le Samourai, L'ecole, In the Mood for Love, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, Fellini Satyricon, Mediterraneo, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Henry and June, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, lots of Terrence Malick's stuff
best sound design or soundtrack:
No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker
best atmosphere:
Vampyr, L'ecole, Colossal Youth, Veronika Voss, The Rules of the Game, Pandora's Box, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Three Women, Pretty Baby, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The Spirit of the Beehive, I'm Not Scared, Meshes of the Afternoon, The Thing, Alien, Jaws, Fellini Satyricon, George Washington, Amateur, Let's Scare Jessica to Death
movie by your favorite director:
Can't pick just one, have no idea how to compare Dreyer to Cassavetes to Rohmer to Ozu, etc. Sorry!
movie by your least favorite director:
Godard or Kevin Smith probably (yes, I know there's much worse but their hype and ubiquity gets me)
most disturbing movie:
The Piano Teacher
movie you'd watch again for shallow purposes (actor crushes):
Anything with Cillian Murphy, Guy Pearce, Nick Stahl, Martin Donovan, Cary Elwes, Karen Allen, Lauren Bacall, Yvonne Furneaux in it. Chungking Express, La Collectionneuse, The Last Time I Committed Suicide
least favorite movie:
In Praise of Love, Dogma, Last Tango in Paris, Last Year at Marienbad, The Doors...or stuff with Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson, or Marlon Brando in it (yeah really)
favorite movie:
A Woman Under the Influence, but this is subject to change any given day (it's a revolving door of around 15 movies really...Late Spring, Ordet, City Lights, L'ecole, Three Women, Safe, Love in the Afternoon, Andrei Rublev, La Dolce Vita, Faces, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Romance)
best opening to a movie:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Andrei Rublev
best ending to a movie:
The Marriage of Maria Braun, Ordet, Late Spring, The Wings of the Dove, Andrei Rublev, Les Diaboliques, Strangers on a Train, Das Boot, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Sting, Adaptation, Suzanne's Career, A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, Love in the Afternoon
favorite drama:
A Woman Under the Influence, Ordet
favorite comedy:
This genre's always difficult for me, because movies that are supposed to be funny the whole time tend not to be my thing (instead I'll find myself laughing uncontrollably inappropriately at something like, I dunno, Love Liza). Clue and Young Frankenstein I guess.
favorite romance:
City Lights, Before Sunrise, The Shop Around the Corner, Stealing Beauty, Love in the Afternoon (it's kind of a stretch to call it romantic, granted)
favorite action:
The Terminator, Cobra, The Parallax View, Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, some Dirty Harry movies, Die Hard, Escape From New York
favorite thriller/mystery:
The 39 Steps, Vertigo, Bound, Les Diaboliques
favorite horror:
Night of the Living Dead, The Thing, Troll 2, Tenebre, Black Magic, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, Don't Look Now, Vampyr, The Blair Witch Project (why yes I am a wuss, how'd you know? :b)
favorite sci-fi/fantasty:
La Jetee, Alien
favorite foreign language movie:
Late Spring
favorite childhood or coming of age movie:
I'm Not Scared, Let the Right One In, Picnic at Hanging Rock, L'ecole, Splendor in the Grass, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Slums of Beverly Hills, Stealing Beauty, Spirit of the Beehive
favorite animated or children's movie:
Kiki's Delivery Service, The Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, The Secret of NIMH, The Phantom Tollbooth, Babe, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Riki Tiki Tavi, Dumbo, Pinocchio, A Cricket in Times Square, The Rescuers, Bambi, Milo and Otis, Charlotte's Web, Fairy Tale, A Little Princess, The Secret of Roan Innish
favorite documentary:
Our Daily Bread, Guys and Dolls, The Power of Nightmares, Jonestown, Holy Ghost People, Theremin, Baraka, Man on Wire, Capturing the Friedmans, Jesus Camp, The Endless Summer, and if you wanna call them a single "movie" the Up Series
stylish movie you dig:
Le Samourai, Shoot the Piano Player, Le Cercle Rouge, La Dolce Vita, Russian Ark
favorite food movie:
Big Night, Like Water for Chocolate, Little Women
favorite epic movie:
hm...I honestly don't know anymore, it's been so long since I was into that sort of thing :/
favorite dream-like movie:
Meshes in the Afternoon, At Land, Three Women, most of Cocteau's, Picnic At Hanging Rock, In the Mood for Love, Russian Ark, Dreams, Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Night of the Living Dead
favorite terrible/cheesy movie, funniest bad movie:
Gymkata, The Blob, Manos, Flash Gordon, Dune, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Troll 2, Werewolf, Hard Rock Zombies, Them!, Tarantula, Top Gun, Doggy Poo
guilty pleasure:
Legally Blonde, French Kiss, Firefox, a bunch of early James Bond movies, The Craft, Hackers, Sliding Doors, Basic Instinct, Ocean's Eleven, Catch Me If You Can
movie you like based mainly or purely on nostalgia, favorite movie as a kid:
Anything with Natalie Wood, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Tippi Hedren, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, or Jack Lemmon in it. The Terminator, Kiki's Delivery Service, Gleaming the Cube, The Phantom Tollbooth, Better Off Dead, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Riki Tiki Tavi, The Last Unicorn, Circle of Friends, The Secret of Roan Innish
movie you used to adore but not so much anymore:
I loved Leaving Las Vegas when it came out but I've been wary of revisiting it 'cause an acquaintance who loved it too told me upon rewatch it wasn't nearly as good as she remembered. I have a feeling Splendor in the Grass would be much the same.
movie you didn't like at first but then it grew on you:
movie no one would expect you to like:
In the Realm of the Senses, Unforgiven, High Noon, 28 Days Later, X2: X-Men United, Superbad
movie that reminds you of your past:
L'ecole, Romance, Rebel Without a Cause, Hiroshima Mon Amour
movie that reminds you of somewhere:
Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 21 Grams, Mystery Train, Ghostbusters
movie that reminds you of someone:
Late Spring, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
movie that depicts your life right now:
...?
movie you watch to feel good:
The Shop Around the Corner, Bringing Up Baby, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, A Little Princess, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Irma la Douce, Chungking Express, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Fifth Element
movie you watch to feel down:
La Dolce Vita, Late Spring, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, The Misfits, Chinatown, The Rules of the Game, Romance, Grave of the Fireflies, Safe, Trees Lounge
most obscure movie you've seen:
I can't remember its name and I've tried over the years to...a movie we saw in college at the old theater downtown about girls forced to work in a house sewing or knitting or something in a Middle Eastern country, where one wound up hanging herself. That or the fishmonger's wife maybe. Or that movie I caught the ending of on Bravo over 10 years ago, it had that garish n' grainy '70s look to it, with a young woman in a red coat matter-of-factly sitting down in the snow and setting herself on fire as the credits began, IIRC.
And if you wanna argue in terms of hard-to-get-legally quality, The Cremaster Cycle.
movie you find so overrated, annoying, and/or disappointing it's frustrating:
A lot of David Lynch's (Lost Highway and Blue Velvet especially, but then again I think Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and Eraserhead are all excellent so...), Cronenberg's, Godard's, Truffaut's, Bunuel's, von Trier's. High Fidelity, As Good As It Gets, Lost in Translation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, anything Miranda July touches, American Beauty, Amelie, Love Actually, Say Anything, Moon, Howl's Moving Castle, Suspicion (would be good if it wasn't for the fucking ending and the story behind it which makes my blood boil every time I think of it), I am Love (had elements that were promising but I had so many problems with this movie I almost wanted to write a damn paper). And I may hang for this but...The Blue Angel.
best movies you've seen in the last few years:
Revanche, Let the Right One In
best acting:
The Passion of Joan of Arc
best writing/dialogue:
Simple Men, Trust, Henry Fool, Before Sunrise, Claire's Knee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Y Tu Mama Tambien
best framing/composition:
The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, Touch of Evil, Citizen Kane, Late Spring, Andrei Rublev, The Mirror, La Dolce Vita, Pedro Costa's, Woman in the Dunes, The Trial
best colors or contrast:
Wings of Desire, Le Samourai, L'ecole, In the Mood for Love, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, Fellini Satyricon, Mediterraneo, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Henry and June, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, lots of Terrence Malick's stuff
best sound design or soundtrack:
No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker
best atmosphere:
Vampyr, L'ecole, Colossal Youth, Veronika Voss, The Rules of the Game, Pandora's Box, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Three Women, Pretty Baby, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The Spirit of the Beehive, I'm Not Scared, Meshes of the Afternoon, The Thing, Alien, Jaws, Fellini Satyricon, George Washington, Amateur, Let's Scare Jessica to Death
movie by your favorite director:
Can't pick just one, have no idea how to compare Dreyer to Cassavetes to Rohmer to Ozu, etc. Sorry!
movie by your least favorite director:
Godard or Kevin Smith probably (yes, I know there's much worse but their hype and ubiquity gets me)
most disturbing movie:
The Piano Teacher
movie you'd watch again for shallow purposes (actor crushes):
Anything with Cillian Murphy, Guy Pearce, Nick Stahl, Martin Donovan, Cary Elwes, Karen Allen, Lauren Bacall, Yvonne Furneaux in it. Chungking Express, La Collectionneuse, The Last Time I Committed Suicide
least favorite movie:
In Praise of Love, Dogma, Last Tango in Paris, Last Year at Marienbad, The Doors...or stuff with Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson, or Marlon Brando in it (yeah really)
favorite movie:
A Woman Under the Influence, but this is subject to change any given day (it's a revolving door of around 15 movies really...Late Spring, Ordet, City Lights, L'ecole, Three Women, Safe, Love in the Afternoon, Andrei Rublev, La Dolce Vita, Faces, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Romance)