1. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
2. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
3. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
4. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
5. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese 1990)
6. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
7. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
8. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz 1942)
10. Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
11. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
12. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
13. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
14. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
15. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
16. Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
17. Some Came Running (Vincente Minelli, 1958)
18. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)
19. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
20. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
21. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
22. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
23. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
24. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
25. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
26. Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949)
27. The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
28. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
29. The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers, 1998)
30. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
31. Black Narcissus (The Archers, 1947)
32. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
33. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford COppola, 1974)
34. Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
35. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
36. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
37. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
38. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
39. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
40. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
41. The Red Shoes (The Archers, 1948)
42. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
43. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
44. Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
45. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)
46. Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, 1962)
47. Red River (Rio Bravo, 1948)
48. Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954)
49. I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
50. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
51. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
52. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
53. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1958)
54. The Navigator (Buster Keaton, 1924)
55. Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma, 1991)
56. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
57. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1996)
58. The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)
59. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
60. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
61. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)
62. Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, 1964)
63. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
64. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
65. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophuls, 1953)
66. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
67. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
68. The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh, 1939)
69. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
70. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
71. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
72. The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928)
73. Pandora’s Box (George Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
74. The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)
75. Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder, 1943)
76. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
77. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
78. From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
79. Diabolique (Henri-Georges CLouzot, 1955)
80. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
81. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
82. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
83. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh, 1989)
84. Pitfall (Andre de Toth, 1948)
85. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
86. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
87. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
88. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
89. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
90. The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
91. It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934)
92. Othello (Orson Welles, 1952)
93. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)
94. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
95. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1996)
96. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
97. The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928)
98. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)
99. Le jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939)
100. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1984)
My shot at a list, off the top of my head and keeping myself to one film per director… I too am a sucker for things like this:
1. The New World (Malick)
2. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
3. Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick)
4. JFK (Stone)
5. Out of the Past (Tourneur)
6. Casablanca (Curtiz)
7. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
8. The Conformist (Bertolucci)
9. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
10. Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
11. The Apartment (Wilder)
12. The Lady Eve (Sturges)
13. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
14. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
15. Army of Shadows (Melville)
16. Some Came Running (Minnelli)
17. Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch)
18. Modern Times (Chaplin)
19. Black Narcissus (Archers)
20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
The Hired Hand (Peter Fonda)
The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Who’s That Knocking at My Door (Martin Scorsese)
Pi (Darren Aronofsky)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)
Thief (Michael Mann)
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
20’s – Buster Keaton
30’s – Josef von Sternberg
40’s – Preston Sturges
50’s – Alfred Hitchcock
60’s – Jean-Pierre Melville
70’s – Francis Ford Coppola
80’s – Woody Allen
90’s – Martin Scorsese
00’s (and I’ll include the last two years into this) – Terrence Malick
1. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
2. Unforgiven (Eastwood)
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
4. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Peckinpah)
5. The Searchers (Ford)
6. Red River (Hawks)
7. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford)
9. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman)
10. Ride Lonesome (Boetticher)
11. The Man From Laramie (Mann)
12. The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah)
13. Tombstone (Cosmatos)
14. Johnny Guitar (Ray)
15. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Eastwood)
16. Ride the High Country (Peckinpah)
17. Bend of the River (Mann)
18. Seven Men From Now (Boetticher)
19. Stagecoach (Ford)
20. High Plains Drifter (Eastwood)
I’m a sucker for things like this too, so I’ll chime in just for the hell of it:
Rear Window (Hitchcock)
The New World (Malick)
JFK (Stone)
Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick)
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
Out of the Past (Tourneur)
Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
Rio Bravo (Hawks)
Goodfellas (Scorsese)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
1. The New World (Malick, 2005)
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, 2007)
3. Zodiac (FIncher, 2007)
4. Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
5. The Tree of Life (Malick, 2011)
6. Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
7. True Grit (Coens, 2010)
8. Drive (Refn, 2011)
9. The Black Dahlia (De Palma, 2006)
10. Shutter Island (Scorsese, 2010)
I would agree that at the top, the 1980s is as strong as any other decade. But I would also say that there is not the depth of great films that other decades have, IMO. My top 10 looks like this:
1. Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
2. Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)
3. Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984)
4. Fitzcarraldo (Herzog, 1982)
5. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Allen, 1989)
6. The Big Red One (Fuller, 1980)
7. Henry V (Branagh, 1989)
8. Empire of the Sun (Spielberg, 1987)
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
10. Ran (Kurosawa, 1985)
Off the top of my head…some of these might be sometimes mentioned as great films, but not enough IMO:
Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder)
Black Robe (Bruce Beresford)
Tombstone (George Cosmatos)
I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock)
Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah)
Man on Fire (Tony Scott)
Infernal Affairs II (Andy Lau)
The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro)
The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma)
I almost put Some Came Running down, but feel like it truly is revered by almost all that have seen it.
I agree with some of the criticisms you have of the film – mainly in regard to Johansson, as I think she was just flat-out miscast. Not having read the novel, the film’s faithfulness to Ellroy isn’t something I had to consider. But you point out some of the stronger points that really resonated for me. Mia Kirshner as the Dahlia, in those scenes where she is interacting with De Palma, I thought were excellent and allowed me to connect to the strands of the story concerning Hollywood, destruction etc.
Mainly, though, my love of the film comes from being a De Palma fan and watching him do some great things in terms of moviemaking, IMO. I constantly seem complaints about the narrative being incomprehensible, but I didn’t find it to be. This is one of De Palma’s appealing qualities for me: his ability to make the viewer think he is being tricky, when in reality things are not as complicated as you think. Everything about the movie is laid out and can be picked up on if you go back and look. And some of the individual sequences – like: the shooting that leads to the discovery of the Dahlia’s body, and, the end, I thinking are very well done. These sequences are executed wonderfully and look spectacular thanks to Zsigmond.
And there is certainly a camp aspect to it all that I think can (and does) turn many people off. The entire Linscott family is bizarre and campy, but I think it works in a very Twin Peaks kind of way.
So those are some thoughts/reasons that immediately come to mind. I have since come off my previous position that The Black Dahlia is my favorite De Palma, but I do still consider it among my favorites of the 2000s. And I know what a minority that puts me in!
Rick Blaine (Casablanca)
Sidney Falco (Sweet Smell of Success)
Bama Dillert (Some Came Running)
Addison DeWitt (All About Eve)
Joey LaMotta (Raging Bull)
David Ferrie (JFK)
Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski)
Carlito Brigante (Carlito’s Way)
Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
Doc Holliday (Tombstone)
1. JFK (Stone)
2. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
3. Unforgiven (Eastwood)
4. The Big Lebowski (Coens)
5. Carlito’s Way (De Palma)
6. Lost Highway (Lynch)
7. The Last of the Mohicans (Mann)
8. Lone Star (Sayles)
9. The Silence of the Lambs (Demme)
10. Nixon (Stone)
JFK (Oliver Stone) – the theories are off the wall, but the film plays out like a great whodunit, with some brilliant editing and cinematography.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
Perfect Movie Endings almost 2 years ago
Go to Comment
Greatest Films (2011 Poll) over 1 year ago
Here’s my shot at a list…
1. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
2. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
3. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
4. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
5. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese 1990)
6. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
7. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
8. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
9. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz 1942)
10. Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
11. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
12. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
13. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
14. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
15. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
16. Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
17. Some Came Running (Vincente Minelli, 1958)
18. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)
19. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
20. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
21. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
22. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
23. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
24. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
25. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
26. Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949)
27. The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
28. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
29. The Big Lebowski (Coen Brothers, 1998)
30. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
31. Black Narcissus (The Archers, 1947)
32. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
33. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford COppola, 1974)
34. Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
35. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
36. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
37. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
38. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
39. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
40. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
41. The Red Shoes (The Archers, 1948)
42. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
43. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
44. Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
45. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)
46. Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, 1962)
47. Red River (Rio Bravo, 1948)
48. Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954)
49. I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
50. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
51. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
52. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
53. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1958)
54. The Navigator (Buster Keaton, 1924)
55. Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma, 1991)
56. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
57. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1996)
58. The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)
59. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
60. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
61. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)
62. Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, 1964)
63. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
64. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
65. The Earrings of Madame de… (Max Ophuls, 1953)
66. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
67. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
68. The Roaring Twenties (Raoul Walsh, 1939)
69. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942)
70. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
71. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
72. The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928)
73. Pandora’s Box (George Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
74. The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)
75. Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder, 1943)
76. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
77. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
78. From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
79. Diabolique (Henri-Georges CLouzot, 1955)
80. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
81. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989)
82. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
83. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh, 1989)
84. Pitfall (Andre de Toth, 1948)
85. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
86. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
87. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
88. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
89. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
90. The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
91. It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934)
92. Othello (Orson Welles, 1952)
93. The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)
94. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)
95. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1996)
96. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
97. The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928)
98. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946)
99. Le jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939)
100. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1984)
Go to Comment
Greatest Films (2011 Poll) over 1 year ago
AlexMystery -
Cincinnati, Ohio
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The MUBI Forum User's Top 20 Movie List, Curated by DIB over 1 year ago
My shot at a list, off the top of my head and keeping myself to one film per director… I too am a sucker for things like this:
1. The New World (Malick)
2. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
3. Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick)
4. JFK (Stone)
5. Out of the Past (Tourneur)
6. Casablanca (Curtiz)
7. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
8. The Conformist (Bertolucci)
9. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
10. Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
11. The Apartment (Wilder)
12. The Lady Eve (Sturges)
13. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
14. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
15. Army of Shadows (Melville)
16. Some Came Running (Minnelli)
17. Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch)
18. Modern Times (Chaplin)
19. Black Narcissus (Archers)
20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Go to Comment
The MUBI Forum Users' Top 20 List: Longform List and Voting Series over 1 year ago
The Godfather +2
Chungking Express -1
La Dolce Vita -1
Go to Comment
Your 5 Favourite Directors about 1 year ago
1. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Billy Wilder
3. Martin Scorsese
4. Preston Sturges
5. Terrence Malick
Go to Comment
Your favorite directorial debuts ever 11 months ago
The Hired Hand (Peter Fonda)
The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Who’s That Knocking at My Door (Martin Scorsese)
Pi (Darren Aronofsky)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner)
Thief (Michael Mann)
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
Go to Comment
Greatest Director of Each Decade 11 months ago
Pretty cool topic:
20’s – Buster Keaton
30’s – Josef von Sternberg
40’s – Preston Sturges
50’s – Alfred Hitchcock
60’s – Jean-Pierre Melville
70’s – Francis Ford Coppola
80’s – Woody Allen
90’s – Martin Scorsese
00’s (and I’ll include the last two years into this) – Terrence Malick
Go to Comment
Westerns 11 months ago
My Top 20 would probably look like this:
1. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
2. Unforgiven (Eastwood)
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
4. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Peckinpah)
5. The Searchers (Ford)
6. Red River (Hawks)
7. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford)
9. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman)
10. Ride Lonesome (Boetticher)
11. The Man From Laramie (Mann)
12. The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah)
13. Tombstone (Cosmatos)
14. Johnny Guitar (Ray)
15. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Eastwood)
16. Ride the High Country (Peckinpah)
17. Bend of the River (Mann)
18. Seven Men From Now (Boetticher)
19. Stagecoach (Ford)
20. High Plains Drifter (Eastwood)
Go to Comment
MUBI Greatest Films Poll- 2012 Edition 10 months ago
I’m a sucker for things like this too, so I’ll chime in just for the hell of it:
Rear Window (Hitchcock)
The New World (Malick)
JFK (Stone)
Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick)
The Conformist (Bertolucci)
Out of the Past (Tourneur)
Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
Rio Bravo (Hawks)
Goodfellas (Scorsese)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
Go to Comment
Top 10 films of the 21st century? 10 months ago
Right now, my list looks like this:
1. The New World (Malick, 2005)
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, 2007)
3. Zodiac (FIncher, 2007)
4. Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
5. The Tree of Life (Malick, 2011)
6. Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
7. True Grit (Coens, 2010)
8. Drive (Refn, 2011)
9. The Black Dahlia (De Palma, 2006)
10. Shutter Island (Scorsese, 2010)
Go to Comment
Top 10 Films of the 80s 9 months ago
I would agree that at the top, the 1980s is as strong as any other decade. But I would also say that there is not the depth of great films that other decades have, IMO. My top 10 looks like this:
1. Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
2. Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)
3. Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984)
4. Fitzcarraldo (Herzog, 1982)
5. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Allen, 1989)
6. The Big Red One (Fuller, 1980)
7. Henry V (Branagh, 1989)
8. Empire of the Sun (Spielberg, 1987)
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981)
10. Ran (Kurosawa, 1985)
Go to Comment
10 films you love that are rarely mentioned 9 months ago
Off the top of my head…some of these might be sometimes mentioned as great films, but not enough IMO:
Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder)
Black Robe (Bruce Beresford)
Tombstone (George Cosmatos)
I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock)
Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah)
Man on Fire (Tony Scott)
Infernal Affairs II (Andy Lau)
The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro)
The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma)
I almost put Some Came Running down, but feel like it truly is revered by almost all that have seen it.
Go to Comment
10 films you love that are rarely mentioned 9 months ago
@ Steve
I agree with some of the criticisms you have of the film – mainly in regard to Johansson, as I think she was just flat-out miscast. Not having read the novel, the film’s faithfulness to Ellroy isn’t something I had to consider. But you point out some of the stronger points that really resonated for me. Mia Kirshner as the Dahlia, in those scenes where she is interacting with De Palma, I thought were excellent and allowed me to connect to the strands of the story concerning Hollywood, destruction etc.
Mainly, though, my love of the film comes from being a De Palma fan and watching him do some great things in terms of moviemaking, IMO. I constantly seem complaints about the narrative being incomprehensible, but I didn’t find it to be. This is one of De Palma’s appealing qualities for me: his ability to make the viewer think he is being tricky, when in reality things are not as complicated as you think. Everything about the movie is laid out and can be picked up on if you go back and look. And some of the individual sequences – like: the shooting that leads to the discovery of the Dahlia’s body, and, the end, I thinking are very well done. These sequences are executed wonderfully and look spectacular thanks to Zsigmond.
And there is certainly a camp aspect to it all that I think can (and does) turn many people off. The entire Linscott family is bizarre and campy, but I think it works in a very Twin Peaks kind of way.
So those are some thoughts/reasons that immediately come to mind. I have since come off my previous position that The Black Dahlia is my favorite De Palma, but I do still consider it among my favorites of the 2000s. And I know what a minority that puts me in!
Go to Comment
3 Directors 3 Films 9 months ago
1. Alfred Hitchcock – Rear Window
2. Billy Wilder – The Apartment
3. Terrence Malick – The New World
Go to Comment
Mubi's 100 Favorite Film Characters 9 months ago
Here is a list whittled down to 10…
Rick Blaine (Casablanca)
Sidney Falco (Sweet Smell of Success)
Bama Dillert (Some Came Running)
Addison DeWitt (All About Eve)
Joey LaMotta (Raging Bull)
David Ferrie (JFK)
Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski)
Carlito Brigante (Carlito’s Way)
Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
Doc Holliday (Tombstone)
Go to Comment
Best film of the '90's? 9 months ago
1. JFK (Stone)
2. Goodfellas (Scorsese)
3. Unforgiven (Eastwood)
4. The Big Lebowski (Coens)
5. Carlito’s Way (De Palma)
6. Lost Highway (Lynch)
7. The Last of the Mohicans (Mann)
8. Lone Star (Sayles)
9. The Silence of the Lambs (Demme)
10. Nixon (Stone)
Go to Comment
The MUBI Forum User's Top 20 Movie List, 2013 edition: SILENT CINEMA 6 months ago
Considering my love of list-making, I’ll put one up as well:
1. Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
3. The Last Command (von Sternberg)
4. The Circus (Chaplin)
5. The Wind (Sjostrom)
6. Pandora’s Box (Pabst)
7. The Navigator (Keaton)
8. The Kid (Chaplin)
9. 7th Heaven (Borzage)
10. Metropolis (Lang)
11. Menilmontant (Kirsanoff)
12. Intolerance (Griffith)
13. Faust (Murnau)
14. Sunrise (Murnau)
15. The Crowd (Vidor)
16. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
17. The General (Keaton)
18. Destiny (Lang)
19. The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
20. The Cameraman (Keaton)
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1924 Poll 5 months ago
Sherlock Jr. is my favorite silent film and comedy ever made, so it easily gets my vote.
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Looking for some great Thriller/Suspense/Mystery-type films about 1 month ago
Some I don’t see mentioned yet:
JFK (Oliver Stone) – the theories are off the wall, but the film plays out like a great whodunit, with some brilliant editing and cinematography.
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
All the other suggestions are good as well.
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