50 Films To See Before You Diet
Starbuck [19:12]
Comments: 9
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Now World+Wife is going to be blogging about this, but what the hell, my wife doesn't blog.
To celebrate the relaunch of Film4 as a free-to-air channel, Movie Experts (including Lord David Puttnam, Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson, though not sure about those last two...) have named the 50 films that they think everybody should see before they die. I hope that the accompanying show wasn't broadcast in the world's troublespots or famine-struck areas...
And so that you can "enjoy the list", and nothing at all to do with showing just how clued-up I am (or not), I'm going to self-importantly annotate it according to those films I've seen (labelled S), possess (labelled P, whether bought or those on dodgy VCR recordings off of the telly), or those that I possess but haven't got round to watching yet (PSX). And if you don't like it you can Psx off.
From the top, ladies and gentleman:
1. Apocalypse Now (PSX) 2. The Apartment 3. City of God (S) 4. Chinatown 5. Sexy Beast (P) 6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (S) 7. North by Northwest 8. A Bout de Souffle 9. Donnie Darko (P) 10. Manhattan (S) 11. Alien (P) 12. Lost in Translation (S) 13. The Shawshank Redemption (S) 14. Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India 15. Pulp Fiction (P) 16. Touch of Evil 17. Walkabout 18. Black Narcissus 19. Boyz n the Hood (S) 20. The Player (S) 21. Come and See 22. Heavenly Creatures (P) 23. A Night at the Opera 24. Erin Brockovich 25. Trainspotting (P) 26. The Breakfast Club (S) 27. Hero (S) 28. Fanny and Alexander 29. Pink Flamingos 30. All About Eve 31. Scarface 32. Terminator 2 (P) 33. Three Colours: Blue (S) 34. The Royal Tenenbaums (S) 35. The Ladykillers 36. Fight Club (P) 37. The Searchers 38. Mulholland Drive (PSX) 39. The Ipcress File 40. The King of Comedy (PSX) 41. Manhunter (S) 42. Dawn of the Dead (P) 43. Princess Mononoke 44. Raising Arizona (PSX) 45. Cabaret (S) 46. This Sporting Life 47. Brazil (S) 48. Aguirre: The Wrath of God 49. Secrets and Lies (PSX) 50. Badlands
Phew, I'm so knackered after that I can't really be bothered to put any editorial or opinion in. I'm worse than Paul Ross!
I think that a few have made it onto that list just because they always make it onto these lists - you have to be seen to have seen them. Films like Erin Brockovich seemed OK at the time, but haven't aged so well - certainly not a classic in my opinion (despite Albert Finney's usual faultless performance).
Plus, unless my mince pies are letting me down, there's no Casablanca, Citizen Kane or Blade Runner in there - what kind of a list leaves them out? :b
Scarface is one of those films which I think I might have seen whilst very very drunk, and as a result it doesn't count. Ulp.
But yeah, I guess I don't know that much about film. Even my mobile phone company thinks so. I got a text message from them today saying "This week you might like GARFIELD 2". Jeez, what kind of idiot do they think I am?!!
Also, must agree with Astolath - some big ommissions, but good to see a few things like Hero in there.
And just one thing on there which I've been dieing (but not getting round to) seeing, and that's Princess Mononoke . Yay!
i've lost count of the how many times i've seen scarface. you must, must, must watch it! there are so many on this list that i have yet to see. i might just have to start haunting the video store (a bit of a dumb name but i still call it that, even though i only ever rent dvds...)
I'm being picky, but P must mean "possess and seen" rather than simply "possess", right? Otherwise you would not need the PSX definition right? So S therefore means seen but do not possess? I really think this could have been a bit clearer.
