favorite girl; favorite films
Crys has a different take on film than I do. Not better, not worse. Just different. She actually majored in film at college while I was devouring it in a much less scholastic manner. Yet our tastes are more frequently aligned than conflicting.
My wife is a huge fan of Wong Kar Wai, and I've been dutiful in obtaining for her DVDs of every one of his films. Similarly, she loves Spalding Gray, and forgive me if this sounds insensitive, but now that he's dead it shouldn't be so hard to get DVDs of his work. She recently purchased a copy of Paris is Burning, an early-90s documentary on the craft and community behind Harlem drag balls and the art of voguing. The film, directed by Jennie Livingston, received critical raves but disappeared after its initial release. I once asked the director if she anticipated a DVD release, and she didn't make it sound promising. But now Miramax has unceremoniously (and silently) dumped the film on DVD, with no marketing or promotion that I can discern. So my lovely wife has her copy of the film, one she prizes very highly. I always assumed that it was one of her favorites, but I learned that while very special to her, her favorite films are:
(listed alphabetically)
FALLEN ANGELS - Wong Kar Wai, 1995
THE GODFATHER, PART II - Francis Ford Coppola, 1974
SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA - Jonathan Demme, 1987
THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD - Francois Girard, 1993
VANYA ON 42ND STREET - Louis Malle, 1994
I have to say that I only learned about Gould and Vanya because of her interest, and fell in love with them immediately. Cambodia was something I discovered all on my own, and I gradually became a fan of the Godfather films over a couple of decades. Fallen Angels, I must admit, is one of those WKW films I have yet to see.
I recommend them all highly. My girl has great taste.
But since it's my blog and everything eventually comes down to what I think, listed below in no particular order are some of the best and most effective films I've ever seen:
BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY - 1973
Kinji Fukasaku's best entry from the Yakuza Papers series. The precursor to so many genre pictures it's just silly.
CHUNGKING EXPRESS / IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - 1994 / 2000
Okay, if we're going to talk Wong Kar Wai, these would be my choices.
DEAD MAN / GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI - 1995 / 1999
And when the discussion came up of how we both wished we liked Jim Jarmusch's films more, I threw these out as my favorites, both terrific examples of Zen storytelling and filmmaking.
REJECTED - 2000
Don Hertzfeldt's screamingly funny psychotic break of a short film about advertising.
MY BEST FIEND / BURDEN OF DREAMS - 1999 / 1982
Documentary cousins: Werner Herzog's valentine to frequent collaborator and thorn-in-side Klaus Kinski, and Les Blank's amazing look at the production of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Hands down two of the best documentaries ever filmed.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE - 1991
George Hickenlooper's chronicle of the near-disasterous production of Apocalypse Now. Another BEST doc.
THE THIN BLUE LINE / THE FOG OF WAR - 1988 / 2003
Two more: Errol Morris's look at a cop-killing in Dallas and at the life and philosophy of Robert S. McNamara. Fog, especially, is a very telling film that deserves all the attention it can get.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY - 1966
The Penultimate Western.
BARFLY - 1987
The Penultimate Bukowski Adaptation.
SEXY BEAST - 2000
An intimate shotgun blast of a gangster film. I'm not even sure if Fukasaku saw it coming.
SINGING IN THE RAIN - 1952
The best musical ever. The happiest film ever.
SONATINE / FIREWORKS (HANA BI) - 1993 / 1997
If you want a taste of renaissance man "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, start with these films.
BLOODY SUNDAY - 2002
Paul Greengrass's so-realistic-you'll-think-it's-a-documentary chronicle of an Irish civil rights march and the ensuing riot and massacre is one of the most intensely powerful films of recent memory.
Making lists makes me tired. To be continued...
My wife is a huge fan of Wong Kar Wai, and I've been dutiful in obtaining for her DVDs of every one of his films. Similarly, she loves Spalding Gray, and forgive me if this sounds insensitive, but now that he's dead it shouldn't be so hard to get DVDs of his work. She recently purchased a copy of Paris is Burning, an early-90s documentary on the craft and community behind Harlem drag balls and the art of voguing. The film, directed by Jennie Livingston, received critical raves but disappeared after its initial release. I once asked the director if she anticipated a DVD release, and she didn't make it sound promising. But now Miramax has unceremoniously (and silently) dumped the film on DVD, with no marketing or promotion that I can discern. So my lovely wife has her copy of the film, one she prizes very highly. I always assumed that it was one of her favorites, but I learned that while very special to her, her favorite films are:
(listed alphabetically)
FALLEN ANGELS - Wong Kar Wai, 1995
THE GODFATHER, PART II - Francis Ford Coppola, 1974
SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA - Jonathan Demme, 1987
THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD - Francois Girard, 1993
VANYA ON 42ND STREET - Louis Malle, 1994
I have to say that I only learned about Gould and Vanya because of her interest, and fell in love with them immediately. Cambodia was something I discovered all on my own, and I gradually became a fan of the Godfather films over a couple of decades. Fallen Angels, I must admit, is one of those WKW films I have yet to see.
I recommend them all highly. My girl has great taste.
But since it's my blog and everything eventually comes down to what I think, listed below in no particular order are some of the best and most effective films I've ever seen:
BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY - 1973
Kinji Fukasaku's best entry from the Yakuza Papers series. The precursor to so many genre pictures it's just silly.
CHUNGKING EXPRESS / IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - 1994 / 2000
Okay, if we're going to talk Wong Kar Wai, these would be my choices.
DEAD MAN / GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI - 1995 / 1999
And when the discussion came up of how we both wished we liked Jim Jarmusch's films more, I threw these out as my favorites, both terrific examples of Zen storytelling and filmmaking.
REJECTED - 2000
Don Hertzfeldt's screamingly funny psychotic break of a short film about advertising.
MY BEST FIEND / BURDEN OF DREAMS - 1999 / 1982
Documentary cousins: Werner Herzog's valentine to frequent collaborator and thorn-in-side Klaus Kinski, and Les Blank's amazing look at the production of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Hands down two of the best documentaries ever filmed.
HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE - 1991
George Hickenlooper's chronicle of the near-disasterous production of Apocalypse Now. Another BEST doc.
THE THIN BLUE LINE / THE FOG OF WAR - 1988 / 2003
Two more: Errol Morris's look at a cop-killing in Dallas and at the life and philosophy of Robert S. McNamara. Fog, especially, is a very telling film that deserves all the attention it can get.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY - 1966
The Penultimate Western.
BARFLY - 1987
The Penultimate Bukowski Adaptation.
SEXY BEAST - 2000
An intimate shotgun blast of a gangster film. I'm not even sure if Fukasaku saw it coming.
SINGING IN THE RAIN - 1952
The best musical ever. The happiest film ever.
SONATINE / FIREWORKS (HANA BI) - 1993 / 1997
If you want a taste of renaissance man "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, start with these films.
BLOODY SUNDAY - 2002
Paul Greengrass's so-realistic-you'll-think-it's-a-documentary chronicle of an Irish civil rights march and the ensuing riot and massacre is one of the most intensely powerful films of recent memory.
Making lists makes me tired. To be continued...
posted by scn at 7:51 PM
<< Home