All-Time Top Ten Favorite Movies

This list is subject to change without notice! Effective 7/27/04, here they are, in no particular order other than the first three:

The Mystery of Picasso Documentary. Watch as Pablo Picasso creates twenty original artworks before your eyes, sometimes stroke by stroke. Sensationally fascinating and educational for the Picasso fan (i.e., me), and should interest any viewer who is at all interested in art. Virtually a ballet of graphic art. The accompanying music is sometimes helpful, more often distracting; sound quality is primitive. "Full-screen" TV treatment mars some pictures. The accompanying short piece on the DVD, Guernica, is full of honest (I guess) sentiment but strikes me as an embarrassment of beat poetry, whining female voice, the sound quality of a mistuned AM radio, and chopped-up works of Picasso (who I’d guess had no input on this project). "Mystery" is highly recommended and utterly wonderful. Available from Netflix. Viewed 7/23 – 7/25/04.

Now, Voyager: This is the story of Charlotte Vail (Bette Davis), a spinster aunt, who is her mother's "late child," supposed to be a comfort to her mother's old age. But Charlotte is having a nervous breakdown, says Dr. Jacquith (Claude Rains). Under the Doctor's care, Charlotte blossoms, eventually finding love in the person of Jeremiah "Jerry" Durrance (Paul Henreid), a married man. What makes this film my all-time favorite, and sets it above its soap opera competition, is the growth of Charlotte from repressed spinster to self-assured woman of action. Often seeing myself as repressed, this film has been an inspiration; it was my all-time favorite until The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Gladys Cooper (did you see her in Song of Bernadette? great) is a marvel as Charlotte's mother, and Bette Davis, my absolutely favorite actress, was never better than in this role. The goodbye at the airport is a romantic scorcher, though it pales in comparison to Bergman/Grant on the balcony in Notorious. Good work from the entire veteran cast, which includes many familiar faces: Mary Wickes (the nurse), Bonita Granville (the annoying niece), Lee Patrick (Jerry's friend; she was the TV Topper's wife), John Loder (the fiance), Ilka Chase (the sister), and Franklin Pangborn (the ship's social director or something; remember him from W. C. Fields movies?). The full cast is available at Amazon.com. Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty.

Schindler's List: The Steven Spielberg Academy Award winner about Oskar Schindler and his efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust. Greater than Private Ryan, a deep and affecting movie. Neeson is absolutely brilliant, everyone else is excellent, but Ben Kingsley gets too little to do and is not allowed much range here--I'm not faulting him, you understand. The character is always so conscious of his vulnerability and lack of power that he can never let his guard down for a moment.

At the end, in to me the movie's most powerful scene, Oskar (Liam Neeson) asks himself whether he could have done more, to save more Jews from death; and seeing this I am forced to ask myself if I could not be doing more to save the victims of our social system. It is the pointed asking of this moral question that makes this movie uniquely valuable to me, beyond its many other virtues.

Watched it on video 3/12/04. This was my third viewing, and so it has lost some impact for me, but it moves right along and held my attention riveted to the screen.

Cyrano de Bergerac (Depardieu): I find Edmond Rostand's "heroic comedy" irresistible and compelling, largely because of the heroic, brazen personality of the man himself. I take him as a role model that I occasionally emulate. This is the overall best version of the four I've seen. Hearing the balcony scene in French was a revelation, or perhaps it was as much due to Depardieu's reading. Roxane's fainting over "Christian's" letters is a wonderfully affecting and comic touch that brings her role to life. The subtitles use Anthony Burgess's translation of the play, which I find unfortunate. I prefer Brian Hooker's translation.

Cyrano de Bergerac (Ferrer): I like José Ferrer as the best of the Cyranos, though the French language version is somewhat better overall.

Young Frankenstein: If Toy Story 2 isn't the funniest movie I've ever seen, then this probably is. Mel Brooks did everything right for once, and Gene Wilder has never had a role more suited to his considerable comic talents. The entire cast is perfect (Teri Garr, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Peter Boyle, Kenneth Mars, and Gene Hackman are all excellent). A brilliant homage to the good old films from Universal.

The Tales of Hoffmann: Offenbach's delightful, tuneful opera gets a lavish production. As beautiful to see as to hear, I can watch it over and over again. This is the semi-ballet version with Robert Rounseville and Moira Shearer, conducted by Thomas Beecham, not the later straight Domingo video of the opera, which is very good. I haven't seen this for many years and so can't say more about it; take a look at the impressive and detailed user reviews on Amazon.com.

Heavenly Creatures: Welcome to the private fantasy/nightmare of two remarkable girls. This powerful, disturbing film prompted me to write a lengthy review, which see. Here's a link to the full review.

The King of Masks: Here's the review I posted on the Studio Literati Yahoo club:

This is a recent Chinese film about an aging street performer who has no heir and who is afraid that his art (which is unique and almost worth the price of admission) will die with him. He buys a son and "gets more than he bargained for." The other important character performs in the Chinese opera, a male playing female roles.

To me this is a great and almost perfect film. I call it great because it moved me more deeply than any other film I can think of over the last ten years. It is also artistically respectable, though the plot could be called melodramatic. I call it almost perfect because the only thing I would change about it is the music, which is mediocre and unoriginal.

I should mention, however, that I have begun to question my judgment of "sentimental" films, thinking that I have become an easy mark. Maltin rates King of Masks at 3.5 stars.

Toy Story 2: Maybe the funniest movie I've ever seen, and the most surprisingly touching and wonderful. Since we have a copy on video and since my son is 5 years old, I've seen it many times in the past year, and I like it even more now than in the beginning. What puts this over the top for me is the character of Jessie, the cowgirl. I find her utterly delightful (especially when she pulls down on the brim of her hat in moments of extreme emotion), and her song, "When Somebody Loves You," (which is not the right title) is great. TS2 edges out Tarzan and Mulan as the best of the Disneys. Why not Lion King? I dunno; maybe because the deference of the other animals to the "royalty" of the lions grates on me.

The Ballad of Narayama: I can't say much about this film. I saw it once more than ten years ago, loved it utterly, and have been unable to manage to see it again. It's a tale of a small Japanese village and the joys and woes of its people. Full of striking images and scenes, at times very powerful and moving.

Slaughterhouse-5: Kurt Vonnegut's best novel is brought to vivid life in this modestly produced film. Less bitterly satirical than the book, this is something of a seriocomic sleigh ride through the life of Billy Pilgrim. I can't help laughing/crying when Billy's wife learns of his plane crash and tears off in the Cadillac. Costarring Valerie Perrine's delightful breasts, hard to beat.