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Favorite Movies

Where does one start?  If you are ever stuck at a party or gathering and you don't know what to say, you can always ask the person you don't know about their favorite movies.  That's a real icebreaker.  I haven't met a person yet who doesn't have a favorite movie.

I tend to like movies in these genres:  comedy, dark side of romance, foreign language films, sci-fi, and film noir.  I also like an unhealthy dose of B-films on occasion.  I like quirky films such as "Russian Doll."  There is no doubt that IMDB.COM is the best place to get info on your favorite films.  I love how they cross-link all actors so you can easily check out what other films they have done. 

I just bought the 3-DVD set of that 80s classic "Back to the Future."  I love that wacky sci-fi adventure.  I always get a kick of the Detention guy "Mr. Strickland" who calls everyone slackers.   That's classic!

Here are some movies I've seen in 2009:

  • A Walk Among the Clouds

Here are some movies I recently bought in 2006:

  • White Christmas
  • Batman Begins
  • Connie and Carla
  • This Island Earth
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
  • Citizen Kane
  • Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • National Treasure
  • War Games
  • High Fidelity
  • Tais-toi
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Roustabout
  • Flatliners
  • and more...

Here are my favorite Quebec movies that I recently bought:

Here are my favorite French comedies (France) I recently bought:

  • Le dîner de cons (The Dinner Game) 

  • Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie) See this one!!!
    A great French comedy about a Parisian café waitress looking for love who decides instead to make everyone else's life around her wonderful as an anonymous do-gooder. Très original. Amelie

  • Le placard (The Closet) 
    A funny French comedy about an Parisian accountant who is about to be fired for being so bland that he pretends he's gay to keep his job. This is not a Drew Carey episode (I like that show), but it's subtle and really funny. 2001 France).

Here are my favorite Finnish films:

My fav. sci-fi flicks:

My fav. comedy films (too many to mention)

  • Fawlty Towers is #1 (the whole TV series but "don't mention the war!" hehehe)

  • Groundhog Day
    My  favourite comedy film is GroundHog Day which stars Bill Murray as an irate weatherman and who keeps reliving the same day over and over as he tries to hit on Andie MacDowell.   I love the incarnations of his personality that he goes through:  mean, meaner, depressed, etc...    
    "There is no way that this winter's ever going to end... if this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow.   He's gotta be stopped.  And I've got to stop him."  Classic lines!!!
    I also love how he learns piano.  A film after my own heart!

  • Wonder Boys 
    A great movie about the adventures of an aging has-been writer and an off-beat young protégé.  Who is the crazier? Anyone considering writing a novel should see this hilarious movie.   Though, learn to make backup copies of your work! hehe
  • Bagdad Cafe
    It's the story of a German housewife who is dumped by her husband in the middle of a desert highway in the USA and she wanders up to a beat-up roadside truck stop/hotel run by a black woman with already a host of problems.  It's a great little tale of two cultures clashing then coming together.  German and African-American culture collide in this zany fun tale.  Even Jack Palance is in this nutbar adventure as a washed out Hollywood set painter.  Great film!
  • Addams Family Movie
    I really loved the first Addams Family Movie with its dark humour.  I don't seem to get tired of it.  Raul Julia was great as Gomez and I love the Addams Family Waltz theme which I made of a midi file of that I use on the House of Usher.  
  • What about Bob?
  • Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
  • The Big Picture
  • Room to Rent
  • Abbott and Costello movies - One weird aberration of my personality concerning comedy - I love those classics made by Abbott and Costello:
    • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
    • Hold That Ghost
    • Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
    • Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer
    • Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
    • and all the rest...

My fav. serious films:

  • Citizen Kane (what else!)
  • Pleasantville 
    Two teenagers find themselves in a 1950's sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.  The young writer (Tobey Maguire) who was in Wonder Boys stars in this work. I like his meditative style of acting.  The great thing about this movie is that it mixes black and white and color as people start to realize their inner passions, and the world beautifies itself.  Very tastefully done.
  • Keiner liebt mich (Nobody Loves Me
    I love movies that mix a character's dark side with romance.    This movie relates the tale of a cool woman with a dark side who is looking for romance.  I can't get enough of that theme and I have found it superbly portrayed in this wunderbar German film.   It was written and directed by Doris Dörrie who is also a great short story writer in German.  She has done many films and did the well-known film Männer (Men).  The main character Fanny Fink (played by Maria Schrader) dresses in black, wears skeleton earrings, lives in a crummy apartment, and is taking a course on dying.   She waxes and wanes between needing to be loved or not.   It starts out with her going to a video dating service and she messes up her video by ranting about her life.   It is an amazing rant.     "it all starts with a cup of coffee..."   My favourite movie of all time.
  • The Snows of Kilimanjaro
    I enjoyed the Snows of Kilimanjaro which is an old classic based on the Hemingway short story.  It's basically the story of a writer dying on the slopes on Kilimanjaro and reflecting on his whole life.   Where did he go wrong?    How does a man miss the boat?

Miscellanous Films:

A great poetic movie is Henry Fool (1997 USA).  It is a very dark comedy about a reprobate poet coming to town and teaching a garbage man to become a famous poet.   If you ever wanted to see what a true poet is like,  go see this film!  The screenplay won a Cannes award and it is easy to see why when you watch this film.

This was a independent film written and directed by Tiffanie DeBartolo.   I think I'm seeing a pattern, women directors/writers seem to create my favorite films. It is the story of a cool woman with a very strong personality and who won't settle for second best. "Settle for anything and you're doomed, my biggest fear in life is being mediocre. There are too many mediocre things in life and love should not be one of them.  Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of my time."   The quotes from the movie are superb since the whole movie is full of them since it was written by a philosophy major.   It's basically the story of a woman with a dark side who unexpectedly meets the man of her dreams (a writer with writer's block) who already has a girlfriend and her goal is to make him fall in love with her instead.   The lead actress Ione Skye and her character is amazing. I fell in love with her during this film!!!

Will add comments later...

  • The Truman Show
    I love this so much!!!

I am a big Bogart fan, no less.   I love the film noir genre and I own Key Largo, Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, Dark Passage,  and To Have and Have Not.

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