Other films come and go from my favorites list, but these have not budged since I first saw them. Unless something fundamental changes in me, they will always be my three favorites.
Metropolitan. First saw it in January of 1991, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. I was amazed. Astounded. Blown away. I knew people who talked like that; I’d gone to school with them (hi, NinjaChick!), but I’d never seen such characters in a movie. I fell in love a little during that hour and a half, and when it was over, I raced up the street through a light rain, whooping and hollering. (Well, maybe not out loud, but I was that giddy.)
Then I got back to campus and found out that apparently, I was the only one who’d enjoyed it. What? Who were all those people in the theater with me, laughing at the appropriate times? What do you mean, you don’t like a film about college students sitting around talking? What do you think you are? How can anyone not love this film? If you’ve ever had an unrequited love, if you’ve ever been eighteen and trying out new ideas for size, if you’ve ever wondered where your life was going and resolved not to think about it, this is the film to see.
Leningrad Cowboys Go America. I was systematically going through the foreign films section at the local video store. A Finnish film? Well, I can’t say as I’ve ever seen such a thing before. Let’s give it a shot. Watched it with a friend, and afterwards, we simuntaneously clutched our heads and said, “What?!”
A Finnish bar band tours the American South en route to Mexico. “Don’t come back” is a commonly heard phrase. Other than that, not a whole lot of dialogue. The band manager is the same guy from the Helsinki sequence of Night on Earth. When I found out from the IMDB that he had died, I jumped up and said a word I can’t say in CS. Cameos by Jim Jarmusch and Ice Cube, both playing used car salesmen. Directed by Aki Kaurismaki. For years, people said, “Who?” Then he got a Best Foreign Film nomination.
Mediterraneo. Saw it at the Fulton Mini, also in Pittsburgh. Italian, set in WWII. The dregs of the Italian army are to do reconnaisance on a remote Greek island. “Dedicated to all those who are running away.”
So many great lines: “His feelings shot me in the arm!” “If it was always like this…if they took your guns and left this stuff…the world would be a better place.” “Italians, Greeks, my face, my race…One face, one race.” And beautifully photographed. The last scene should break your heart.