Watch the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

In October I watched these films from the list:

221 – Trouble in Paradise (1932)
222 – An Affair to Remember (1957)
223 – Dracula (1931)
224 – The Unknown (1927)
225 – High Noon (1952)
226 – The Big Parade (1925)
227 – Les Diaboliques (1955) – a.k.a. Diabolique

All good stuff and all recommended :)

I’ve been watching movies, but nothing off of this list to speak of for nearly three months – just one or two here and there!

Sometimes I watch something and I think, “that must be on the list!” and it’s not. We watched Buster Keaton’s The Navigator the other night and it was fantastic. Okay, outside of the grossly uncomfortable moments of things that are just out-and-out racist today, but still the story was fun and the physical comedy was unbelievable. Not the Buster Keaton on the list (we have watched The General).

We did watch The Quiet Earth which was a New Zealand flick about a man that believes he’s the last man on Earth. He finds out he isn’t – but it’s almost more powerful as a film where he’s all alone. As he begins to crack and break, it’s amazing. No swells of orchestra music, no cheesy breaks of cats jumping out from behind things to scare him (they’re all gone as well), no hokey flashbacks with huge special effects. It’s just a person ALONE. And even when he does find another person, it’s still a nerve-wracking movie.

It’s better than the I Am Legends and Omega Mans (which I enjoyed), as it’s really about being at the end of things. The real end. No vampires, no zombies, nothing.

I didn’t do very well in September with watching movies from the list. I only managed to knock out 2 films.

In September I watched:

219 – In a Lonely Place (1950)
220 – Jezebel (1938)

Still thought both of the above were great, though. Recommended :)

199. Muriel’s Wedding

let’s test the moviemaniac..

I’ve seen 218 films from the list now.

In August I watched:

212 – GoodFellas (1990)
213 – The Wrong Man (1956)
214 – Footlight Parade (1933)
215 – Stand by Me (1986)
216 – The Awful Truth (1937)
217 – Gun Crazy (1949)
218 – La Strada (1954)

A great movie-viewing month. Enjoyed all the flicks I saw above. I just wish I had seen more films from the list! This is a fun goal :)

But not from the list…however, I am up to 471! The last one we watched was The Deer Hunter – a movie that I’d seen bits and pieces of, but not watched through the entire time. I do remember the controversy over the Russian Roulette scenes. Apparently, all of us impressionable kiddies were going to find that sort of thing terribly glamorous and set up our own at-home versions of Russian Roulette. I think the folks that end up focusing on that kind of miss the bigger picture.

On the vanity front, I really want to know what kind of moisturizer Meryl Streep uses – while she definitely looks older now, she has aged really well.

See what I mean?

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m aLifelong Learning Risk-Taking Builder

GoodFellas (1990)

Dir: Martin Scorsese. Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Samuel L. Jackson, et al.

I finally got around to seeing this and it was fantastic. A masterpiece of the gangster genre. Fast-moving, stylish, and violent with a terrific, well-chosen soundtrack.

Scorsese doesn’t disappoint and proves that he is one of the finest living directors today.

Broken Blossoms (1919)

Dir: D.W. Griffith. Cast: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, et al.

“The Spirit of Beauty breaks her blossoms all about his chamber.”

This is an exquisitely poetic silent film. Lillian Gish is luminous and heartbreaking as a sad, abused young girl. Its gorgeous images and tragic story will stay with me for some time.