Thursday, November 18, 2010

100 things I love about the movies

It's been a while since I've written anything here mostly because I didn't have anything to say. I still don't, but I ran across this and thought I'd include it for anyone interested in some fun things. If you don't understand any of the references, google it and then watch those movies. You'll thank yourself if you do:

1. The violence in Sam Peckinpah movies

2. “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

3. Nazi zombies

4. Vertigo is actually about necrophilia

5. Chest Rockwell and Brock Landers. And while I’m on the topic…

6. The tracking shot in Boogie Nights. And

7. The tracking shot in Goodfellas. And

8. The tracking shot in Contempt (Le Mepris). And

9. The tracking shot in Weekend.

10. “To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!”

11. Jean Gabin was the inspiration for Mel Blanc to create Pépé le Pew

12. This wallet

-

13. Roooooose Buuuuuud

14. The monkey funeral in Sunset Boulevard

15. The plague of locusts in Days of Heaven

16. Humphrey Bogart

17. The vulnerability and sexuality of Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits

18. The raw feminine independence and sexuality of Ava Gardner in Night of the Iguana

19. “You know, for kids!”

-

20. Robert Altman’s overlapping dialogue

21. Wes Anderson soundtracks

22. Karen Hill stuffing a gun into her panties in Goodfellas

23. Ingmar Bergman’s theological self-loathing

24. Heath Ledger as The Joker

25. Howard Cosell narrating the consummation of a marriage in Woody Allen’s Bananas

26. “She’s my sister!” (slap) “She’s my daughter!” (slap) “My sister!” (slap) “My daughter!” (slap)

27. Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock in Safety Last

-

28. Shut the fuck up, Donny.

29. Martin Scorsese’s love affair with Motown and the Rolling Stones.

30. Peter Sellers in Being There

31. High Noon was an allegory for film industry people blacklisted by McCarthyism

32. Oliver Stone’s nutty conspiracy theories

33. Sliced-up eyeballs in Un Chien Andalou

34. Toshiro Mifune…

35. and that he was almost cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi

36. John Huston’s rebellious streak

37. Christopher Lee vs. Peter Cushing in a billion Hammer Studio horror films

38. The hobo last supper in Viridiana

-

39. Peter Lorre’s creepy bulging eyes

40. The art deco architecture in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

41. Dennis Hopper screaming “DON’T YOU LOOK AT ME!” in Blue Velvet

42. Slim Pickens riding a nuclear bomb

43. The “Ride of the Valkyries” scene in Apocalypse Now

44. I see dead people

45. Terri Garr’s nice knockers in Young Frankenstein (“Sank you”)

46. Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder

47. The juxtaposition of the beauty of classical music with the brutality of boxing in Raging Bull

48. Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?

49. Charlie Chaplin in the feeding machine in Modern Times

50. Catherine Deneuve

51. The Bear Jew

52. Boris Karloff’s voice

53. Mickey Rourke’s clever use of a popcorn box in Diner

54. Counting all of the Star Wars influences in Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress

55. I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!

56. The final 20 minutes of Unforgiven

57. No, seriously. Catherine Deneuve.

-

58. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!

59. One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us!

60. The 50 egg challenge in Cool Hand Luke

61. and the Christ analogy that immediately follows

62. Wanna have a catch, Dad?

63. I know it was you, Fredo.

64. The Man with No Name

65. The overt genital symbolism in Closely Watched Trains

66. Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.

67. The last scene in Sleepaway Camp

-

68. Charlton Heston kissing a monkey

69. Günnar Bjornstrand’s monologue about Spider-Gods in Winter Light

70. And while we’re at it, let’s throw in Ingrid Thulin reading her letter to Bjornstrand for six minutes or so in the same movie.

71. And what the hell, Ingrid Thulin masturbating with a shard of glass in Cries and Whispers

72. The Dude

73. The crossdresser sequence in Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)

74. What business is it of yours where I’m from, friendo?

75. The cold, lonely specter of “23 Juillet” on Alain Leroy’s mirror, The Fire Within

76. Buster Keaton being chased by hundreds of cops and/or hundreds of angry brides

77. I made it, Ma! Top of the world!

78. The incredibly expressive face of Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc

-

79. I’m not even supposed to be here today!

80. Jack Nicholson as R.P. MacMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

81. Rhett Butler telling Scarlett O’Hara to go make love to herself

82. Andy Dufresne breaks free

83. Guido’s women come back to haunt him, all at once, in 8 1/2

84. Whistle while you work, Bridge on the River Kwai

85. Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter

86. Are you talkin’ to me?

87. The triptych in Abel Gance’s Napoléon

88. Mommy’s corpse in Psycho

89. The look of horror and defiance on Isabelle Huppert when she stabs herself in The Piano Teacher

90. Sven Nykvist’s cinematography

91. I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. Demille

-

92. The fact that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians exists

93. A town painted entirely red in High Plains Drifter

94. The crawling, severed hand in The Exterminating Angel

95. The look on Simon Pegg/Nicholas Angel’s face in Hot Fuzz when people start singing The Cardigans’ “Lovefool”

96. The creepy cult people dressed as animals in The Wicker Man

97. Clyde the Orangutan

98. The ending of Match Point

99. Annie’s soliloquy to baseball in Bull Durham

100. George C. Scott’s monologue, as Patton, in front of the American flag