Favorite Movie Of All Time

[Pierre Menard]

Through A Glass Darkly
2001: A Space Odyssey
Paris, Texas
Manhattan
Duck Soup
The Seventh Seal
Double Indemnity
Rear Window
No Country For Old Men/A Serious Man/Fargo
La Strada
Citizen Kane
The Maltese Falcon
Ran
On The Waterfront
Chinatown
Touch of Evil
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Memories of Murder
Autumn Sonata
Eyes Wide Shut
City of God
12 Angry Men

[hazelk]

Very impressed with yesterday's movie at my local cinema. It was a German film "Hannah Arendt" based on true events, Hannah reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker, her coverage caused a big uproar with the Jewish community and others world wide.

Her views have made for me lots of food for thought!!

[user name]

You seem to have lost interest in this site now, are we to presume you are on the move again?

[HCabret]

MASH
Goodfellas
Slumdog Millionaire
Amadeus
Gandhi
The Lion King
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Star Wars

[hazelk]

Two of my all time favorites are Coen brother's "Fargo" and "Oh Brother Where Art Thou".

[user name]

I have never seen the Kieslowski film you mentioned. I will have to look it up.

After you have discharged your chain obligations would be a good idea.

[R.F. Schiller]

I loved:

Glengarry Glen Ross (Al Pacino was absolutely perfectly cast as Ricky Roma)

Amadeus

Memento

[Emil Miller]

What begins as a seemingly heavy-handed satire on English upper-class eccentricity turns out to be a dazzling display of surrealistic black comedy with Peter O'Toole as the inheritor of an ancient family title who believes he is Jesus Christ. On his return to the the ancestral home from a mental institution, he becomes the subject of a plot by the family to get him married to a floozy so that an heir is produced before getting him certified as insane and the family fortune returns to the control of his relations. When, through violent means, a psychiatrist convinces O'Toole that he isn't Jesus Christ but Jack, the 14th Earl of Gurney, Jack begins to think he is Jack the ripper, with horrific consequences for the family.

The film could have been shorter but the surrealism is brilliantly done as these extracts show:

http://youtu.be/Vze0utkYypI

[Snowqueen]

Here are a few my favourite films.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Jinnah

The Godfather Part I, Part II

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

The Departed

[butterflylover]

the notebook and pearl harbor.

[Dkbogord]

Some of my all time favorite movies are:
Brave Heart,
Die Hard,
Terminator,
Gladiator,
The Troy,
The Matrix,
and Sky Fall.

[HCabret]

These are favorites among those I've actually seen.


MASH - this is my favorite above the rest.

Comedy:
Bananas (most laughing I've ever done watching a movie)
Annie Hall (had to watch it twice in a row)
Midnight in Paris (I love France, the 20s and TS Eliot)
The Hangover (funniest gen y movie)
The Gold Rush (bread rolls)
The Kid (it'll make you cry and laugh just as hard)
The Great Dictator (it's okay to laugh)
Ruby Sparks (everyone has a Pygmalion in their head)

Sci-Fi:
Star Wars (SciFi pulp at its best)
The Empire Strikes Back (brooding teenage Star Wars)
Star Trek: The Voyage Home (most uplifting movie ever)
Star Trek: Wrath of Khan (best Star Trek movie)
Back to the Future (all three put together are just pure fun)

Sports:
Field of Dreams (BOE scene stealer, movie is about America)
Ken Burn's Baseball (John McGraw will make you love sports more than ever)
The Sandlot (tequila!)

Western:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (am I supposed to like the bad guys?)
Django (symbolism and violence)
Django Unchained (made yah think, didn't it?)
How The West Was Won (American epic, a little racist)
Dances With Wolves (American epic, not as racist)

Action/Adventure:
Raiders of the Lost Ark (pulp at its absolute best)
Temple of Doom (lots of fun, lots of racism)
The Last Crusade (ahhhhh, Venice)
King Kong (1933) (stop motion)

Musical:
ONCE (grafton street is amazing)
Woodstock (I wish I was there)
Yellow Submarine (as good as the animation is, the music is even better)
Amadeus (Mozart was the original rock star)

Drama:
Goodfellas (don't cut the onions too thin)
Bicycle Thieves (just beautiful, just watch it)
The Godfather (both parts) (2nd part is better, 1st is world class)
Gandhi (thoreau's civil disobedience in movie form)
Slumdog Millionaire (I just really like Danny Boyle and Dev Patel)
Reservoir Dogs (best opening scene ever)
Pulp Fiction (structure, structure, structure, also The Black Mask)

Animation:
The Lion King (what millennial doesn't love this movie)
Castle in the Sky (adventure and gorgeous animation)
Porco Rosso (I just really love Italy and Illyria and airplanes)

Horror:
Let The Right One In
Carrie (1976)
Pan's Labyrinth

[108 fountains]

The Color Purple

I wouldn't be able to make a top-ten or top 25 list; there are too many great ones out there, but I can say The Color Purple is my favorite.
I often see Citizen Kane listed by people who make these kind of lists as at or near the top.
I watched it and really didn't see why it is so highly rated. What am I missing?

[Hawkman]

Yes, by contemporary standards, Citizen Kane isn't particularly special. However, it is an important film, as, at the time, it was groundbreaking and innovative. Orson Welles was not hidebound by Hollywood practice and consequently, he did things with the medium and introduced techniques that traditionally would have come under, "you just can't do that!" Or "that's impossible." Perhaps you have to be a movie buff or film historian to appreciate its significance.

[108 fountains]

Thanks for the explanation Hawkman. Can you give me an example of what I should be looking for.
I've watched some of the old Alfred Hitchcock movies and saw some of the things he became known for, such as movement of the camera and odd camera angles - I remember one spot (although I forget which movie) that simply showed a close-up of a slowly turning doorknob at a particularly tense moment in a scene.
What are some of the innovations or techniques I should be looking for in Citizen kane?