As a nonfilm person myself, I would recommend The Heart in Winter [Le Coeur en Hiver], because it is stunningly well-composed and its use of colour, tempo, and visual effect in support of the plot and characterisation is masterly and unobtrusive.
I am immensely fond of Mikrocosmos for its filming and humour (3 years in a French meadow, filmed mostly as close-up work), The Lavender Hill Mob, anything by Buster Keaton, and the older version of Arsenic and Old Lace, which uses (IIRC) a very young Gregory Peck, and Peter Lorre as a wicked sub-figure, whose utterance - a lie, obviously - of the words "Heidelberg, 1919" as an answer to "where'd you get your medical degree?" was so masterly that I can hear it in my mind's ear even now.
I gather that the car chase scene in a famous film (name escapes me) starring Gene Hackman is worth viewing: I have no stomach for violence in film and walked out of Braveheart in a state of wretched sickness after ten minutes.
It may be that this is why I also feel an outsider in my own culture: I lack the referents because so many of them are essentially violent.
Films you haven't seen which you "ought" to see? Well, The African Queen (Hepburn, Bogart); at least one Clint Eastwood Western and one John Huston Western; one with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for perfect, perfect footwork and sheer professionalism; Singin' in the Rain, a Perfect Film for its costumes, actors, settings, camera angles, composition, and pace.
Enjoy!
I like the films I do like because they are not archly manipulative and self-conscious; I loathe being manipulated and bullied, visually or through action and dialogue.
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flimsies
Date: 2004-10-07 06:25 am (UTC)I am immensely fond of Mikrocosmos for its filming and humour (3 years in a French meadow, filmed mostly as close-up work), The Lavender Hill Mob, anything by Buster Keaton, and the older version of Arsenic and Old Lace, which uses (IIRC) a very young Gregory Peck, and Peter Lorre as a wicked sub-figure, whose utterance - a lie, obviously - of the words "Heidelberg, 1919" as an answer to "where'd you get your medical degree?" was so masterly that I can hear it in my mind's ear even now.
I gather that the car chase scene in a famous film (name escapes me) starring Gene Hackman is worth viewing: I have no stomach for violence in film and walked out of Braveheart in a state of wretched sickness after ten minutes.
It may be that this is why I also feel an outsider in my own culture: I lack the referents because so many of them are essentially violent.
Films you haven't seen which you "ought" to see? Well, The African Queen (Hepburn, Bogart); at least one Clint Eastwood Western and one John Huston Western; one with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for perfect, perfect footwork and sheer professionalism; Singin' in the Rain, a Perfect Film for its costumes, actors, settings, camera angles, composition, and pace.
Enjoy!
I like the films I do like because they are not archly manipulative and self-conscious; I loathe being manipulated and bullied, visually or through action and dialogue.