Apu trilogy (can’t break up the set)
I considered this one also. When Wonka opens the Chocolate Room and begins to sing “Pure Imagination”, that is to me the most beautiful and joyful movie moment of all time.
The Goonies
BRAZIL
The real version, not the one with the happy sanitized ending.
The baby-masked torturer working in “Information Retrieval”, De Niro the renegade HVAC repairman, the deterioration of technology rather than its advancement, the end…
I’ve heard it called “a flawed masterpiece”. Nope. Just a masterpiece.
Can’t do a single film, but I can narrow it down to a few.
Drama: The Last Detail, with Nicholson, a very young Randy Quaid, and small roles for both Gilda Radner and Carol Kane, both then in their 20s. Ties with Paul Newman’s Nobody’s Fool for me.
Comedy: Young Frankenstein, and all props to Gene Wilder for telling Mel Brooks that he would only star in the film if Brooks stayed the hell out of it. Brilliant cast.
That’s a tough choice. Contenders are Groundhog Day, Terminator 2, Star Wars, and The Empire Strikes Back.
I will say The Empire Strikes Back. It had drama, humor, action, and not a happy ending.
Choose just one favorite? Doesn’t exist. Just can’t do it.
I’m on board with almost all the movies mentioned in this thread. But, I can name three for which I have a particular fondness:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh’s view of a few years of the lives of Gilbert & Sullivan)
- Mulholland Dr (David Lynch’s best work??)
Other movies I love and can watch over and over again…
- Blade Runner (I like the director’s cut)
- Young Frankenstein
- Lost in Translation (recreates the feeling of being “lost” in Japan so well, I suppose you had to have experienced it)
- Ran (Kurosawa’s take on King Lear)
- Seven Samurai (of course)
- Kagemusha (you should see it)
- Tonari no Totoro (ditto)
- Departures (Japanese guy returns home to the countryside and learns to be a “body preparer” for the funeral industry…surprisingly touching movie)
I go back and forth between Jaws and Casablanca.
“Fuck that shit!”
So you’re gonna need a bigger vote, then?
…a reply to post #43. It’s my reaction whenever I see someone drinking a Heineken.
…if you’re a lover of of dialogue that stays true to the original works, it’s a wonderful thing to watch…and listen…to ‘Jackie Brown’ (Elmore Leonard’s ‘Rum Punch’) and Tarantino’s version of Cormac McCarthy’s ‘No Country for Old Men’.
Gone With The Wind. The only movie I’ve seen 12 times on the big screen, and countless times on tv. Sadly, I’ve watched it so many times that I can recite the dialogue.
Tarantino did Jackie. Coen brothers did No Country.
Lawrence of Arabia
That’s my pick, and it has to be on the big screen!
Followed by The Man Who Would be King.
What can I say? I have something for mid-century epic films about British imperialism.
Casablanca. Bogie, Bergman, endlessly quotable dialogue, intrigue, laughs, romance, an exotic setting, hissable Nazis, a patriotic sing-along, etc. I can easily overlook some of the more far-fetched aspects of the script.
Never Let Me Go
For the aching sadness when the movie ends. And brilliant performances
Sounds like me! In addition Days of Heaven is probably my favorite Malik. It gives me chills just thinking of it.
Interestingly, most of the movies mentioned here are probably not in my top 200 or 300…if I’ve seen them. I couldn’t come up with an absolute favorite because I love so many nearly equally, but two movies I can never pass up if I come across them channel surfing are Joy Luck Club and Gosford Park. I’ve seen the latter at least 6 or 7 times, and I still find things I didn’t notice in previous viewings. Comedy, tragic, great social commentary and snappy dialog…what is there not to love?
Oh, I don’t know if I could watch that one again. Yes, achingly sad. I loved the book, but the performances were so letter perfect, I have to actually give a slight nod to the movie.
I forgot that *Miller’s Crossing * is close to my favorite movie. So many ways it’s perfect…you could probably watch it with the sound off it’s so beautifully photographed. Cinematagraphed???