19 November 2005

Greatest Films (diamonds 2-10) 5th of an ongoing series

Diamonds, they are forever right? (if you buy debeer's propaganda) This should be the classics then (or not, I have odd taste, alright).

2 of diamonds, Jaws, Steven Spielberg (dir)
The first summer blockbuster, defines a genre and a straight line can be drawn from that film to all the crappy summer films that followed, but still worth seeing anyway.

3 of diamonds, Quick Change, Howard Franklin, Bill Murray (dir)
One of the best (and funniest) heist films. Jason Robards gives especially great performance and the script is really sharp.

4 of diamonds, The Third Man, Carol Reed (dir)
Damn, this film kicks so much ass! how's that for a review/description.

5 of diamonds, Cleopatra, Cecil B. DeMille (dir)
Claudette Colbert, still the best of the film Cleos. Sure she's too old, and sure she probably doesn't look the part, but she can act and hold the screen like few women ever could. I say this version has aged better than that other one that birthed a city (Century City, that is, Fox spent so much on the Taylor version that they had to sell a bunch of real estate).

6 of diamonds, La Planete sauvage, (aka Fantastic Planet), Rene Laloux (dir)
The best trippy animation film of all time (even better then Miyazaki's in trippiness, but many of Miyazaki's pictures are better otherwise).

7 of diamonds, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner (dir)
The best of the six so far (I don't believe that there won't be more episodes, if he's bothering to 3D-ize all six episodes he'll probably also start thinking about the money that can be made letting some else complete the last 3 films in the triple trilogy). A touchstone in American culture, really, nuff said.

8 of diamonds, La Belle et la Bete, Jean Cocteau (dir)
All films should start with a title card that says, "Once upon a time". Never heard the Philip Glass operatic version of the film, already pretty perfect already.

9 of diamonds, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Buster Keaton, Charles Reisner (dir)
Maybe his best work, maybe not, but still full of greatness. Many great comic set pieces, he was the greatest physical comic in an age of many great physical comics. You can have your Lloyd, or Chaplin, I'll take the Stonefaced one anytime.

10 of diamonds, L'Age D'Or, Luis Bunuel (dir)
See it. Be it. Live it. You will never be the same.



UPDATE:

For ease of navigation, and just in case anyone comes to any of these individual posts randomly, I'm adding a link to each of the nine posts within each posts.

Summary
2-10 of Hearts
JQKA of Hearts
2-10 of Clubs
JQKA of Clubs
2-10 of Diamonds
JQKA of Diamonds
2-10 of Spades
JQKA of Spades
Jokers

1 comment:

Pooh said...

Dude, I knew I liked coming here, and then you pimped the Third Man...I feel vindicated...