Lists. Lists. I too love making lists.
Especially lists of favorite anything....
My five favorite movies of all time:
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - well, yeah. If I had to pick one movie, this would be it.
MASTER AND COMMANDER - though I'm not a big fan of Russell Crowe, I love him in this.
Love the cinematography. The score. The acting. The everything. There's one scene of
Crowe as the captain, hanging tight off the rigging on the side of the speeding
(well, wind-speeding)ship which is absolutely THRILLING. Also love the scenes between Crowe
and Paul Bettany as his best friend and ship's doctor. Love the battle sequences.
Love the minutia of 19th century ship life.
A couple of scenes: close up of live stock in the hold. The glitter of frightened bovine eyes.
Who knew?
View of the powder monkeys, little boys squirreling about in the dark hold,
risking life and limb. Sad but true.
There's a closeup of Crowe as he spots a beautiful native woman in a rowboat/canoe/whatever
by the side of the ship. His delight is palpable. He gives her such a lovely, wistful smile.
Hardly credit him capable of such tenderness.
Gorgeous.
As you can tell, I'm besotted with this movie.
Jean Cocteau's very early version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
In French, with subtitles.
This is such a gorgeous movie that it almost defies description.
Shot in black and white, but remembered in color.
In my very humble opinion, if you don't fall in love with Jean Marais's beast, then
you're not capable of love.
DIVA
My favorite thriller of all time.
In French with subtitles. (I don't like dubbed in mish-mash.)
Made in the eighties, it doesn't age one bit.
Three very quirky stories wrapped around each other, so you have to pay a bit
of attention. But it is SO worth it.
Love story featuring an opera singer who has never heard her own voice in recording.
An enigma.
The mail man (!) who loves her from afar.
These creepy Asian guys who are into the counterfeit music trade.
Murder.
Crooked cops.
Vile, evil, especially squirmy villains.
AND the hero's strange Paris apartment, (formerly a garage) is totally to die for.
AND last, but not least, the film features one (Or is it two?)
of the most GORGEOUS Citroens ever made!
I LOVE this movie!!!!
THE BLACK STALLION
What can I say?
Caleb Deschanel's cinematography is unbelievably, breathtakingly beautiful.
Moves me to tears everytime.
The scenes on the deserted island are beyond anything you can ever imagine.
Hard to describe this movie, it is so damned exquisite.
Yeah, that's the word: exquisite.
More than a movie, it is an experience.
The race in the end always, ALWAYS makes my heart pound.
This is the most gorgeous horse movie ever made.
Well, actually, one of the most gorgeous movies ever made.
Period.
And that black horse.....oh my goodness.
There's a closeup in natural light of his face as the sun sets on the island
that just captures and fills your imagination. Says all that needs to be said about
the 'otherness' of animals.
The overhead scenes of the shipwrecked boy riding bareback are wonderous.
The shipwreck itself is spectacular.
Even the underwater stuff...I'd never seen a horse's legs and hooves underwater.
I mean, how could I? The way the horse swims in that blue-green water.
The way the boy tames him.
It is magical.
There's not a lot of dialogue in this entire movie, so the visuals are even more
important to move the story along. The soundtrack by Francis Ford Coppola's brother
is perfection.
Deschanel was robbed of an Oscar that year and if I'm not mistaken, the guy who
won mentioned something about, "...we know who really won this."
Amazing.
