Àpropos de cinéma

Having read High Fidelity a couple months ago, I became interested in top 5 lists, and created the following list of my favorite movies:

1. 12 Angry Men (the best courtroom drama movie that manages to hardly ever enter the courtroom)
2. Heathers (nod to the 80’s films from my formative teen years, besides I need a sardonic comedy in here somewhere)
3. Big Sleep (film noir with Bogey & Becall, had to do it)
4. 12 Monkees (obligatory Sci-Fi, just beat out Blade Runner because I find Darryl Hannah’s thrashing at the end too over the top)
5. Mr. Deeds goes to Town (tough call, but I’ve got to nod to my childhood with a little Kapra)

Painfully missing:

• Casablanca (pushed off by Big Sleep, this one hurts the most)
• Any Hitchcock (39 Steps, Rear Window, and Rebecca all MIA)
• Blade Runner (original with the voice over, probably the best sci-fi ever but reeks fo the 80s)
• Dark City (stylish, slick, Jennifer Connelly, what’s not to like)
• The Graduate (just not topical enough anymore, but what a great film)
• Chinatown (70s aren’t my thing, one of the few I truly like from the era)
• Croupier (more sardonic than Heathers, but I needed to get the 80’s shoe-horned in there somehow)
• Star Wars, et al. (F*ng Lucas has been messing with my childhood….)
• Audrey Hepburn

The above list lent itself to a “best of each decade” list, but in doing so I ended up with different results (since I had more slots to fill):

• 39 Steps (1935)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Sabrina (1954)
• the Graduate (1967)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Dark City (1998)

This list is now romance heavy, (Star Wars and Croupier made appearances on the first draft of the list, but got dropped in favor of Chinatown and Dark City). I’m reserving judgement on the best movie of 200* until it’s all over.