Category Archives: 1001BeforeDie

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 1961, Classic, FilmReview

The Hustler (1961)

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From NetFlix:

Paul Newman scores as tragic, flawed pool hustler ‘Fast Eddie Felson’
in a brooding drama that explores the synergies between good and evil,
love and desperation. Felson tours the country hustling games — even
challenging reigning champion Minnesota Fats (a fabulous Jackie Gleason).
Co-starring Piper Laurie and George C. Scott, The Hustler was followed
30 years later by the sequel The Color of Money, starring Newman and
Tom Cruise. Rack ’em up!

This Christmas visit Kate and Nigel requested “The Color of Money” which we enjoyed. In it Paul Newman is the older “teacher” for a new young hustler Tom Cruise. I just had to re-see “The Hustler” as a comparison. I felt I had to invent yet another film category “Classic”
because there is no other way to describe “The Hustler”.
It seems impossible that “The Hustler” was made 48 years ago. How many of us in the MovieFans list are even that old? In fact, I will occasionally revisit older “Classics” to see how they survive the passage of time. Not only does “The Hustler” survive, in my opinion it surpasses “The Color of Money”. Whereas Tom Cruise is his usual brat-like self, the young Paul Newman will be the warmly human ‘Fast Eddie Felson’ forever, a man who appreciates too late the love he lost.

Of the 4 principle actors Newman, Gleason, and Scott are dead. Piper Laurie still acts and has been in ‘Law and Order’ episodes. We should probably keep score on how many actors (young and old) in our movie list have also played in at least one ‘Law and Order’ episode.

Do you feel “The Hustler” is dated ?

1001BeforeDie, 100Unknown, 1987, Unusual

Withnail and I (1987)

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From NetFlix:

Two unemployed actors — Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and
Marwood (Paul McGann) — take a trip to the British countryside
in 1969. But instead of rejuvenation, they experience a lack of
food, an abundance of rain and a plethora of alcohol. Their host,
Withnail’s gay Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths), displays a love
for life and a lust for Marwood. This classic art-house comedy
won an Evening Standard British Film Award.

Daughter Kate and boyfriend Nigel (both movie fans) are with us for Christmas. I asked Nigel
to send me a list of films we could all watch together. His first pick was a British cult film
“Withnail and I” whose atmosphere is the alcohol and drug excesses of the sixties. Nigel had
never seen the film. In the film Withnail drinks just about everything and Nigel tells me that
the cult followers as a challenge try to drink everything that Whitnail drinks. Lighter fluid
anyone ?

This is one of the most unusual films I have ever seen. You almost certainly cannot afford
the time to watch this film unless you are retired with a lot of time on your hands or just plain
bored to death. But I don’t regret watching this strange “happening”.

You are warned.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 1989, DO NOT MISS, Feel Good Not For Children

My Left Foot (1989)

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From NetFlix:

Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Irish writer
Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy. Misdiagnosed
as mentally disabled for the first 10 years of his life, Brown
learned to write using his left foot, the only body part he
could control. The story unfolds in flashbacks, with Hugh O’Conor
as the young Christy equaling Day-Lewis’s performance as the adult.

“My Left Foot” is one of those classics that you should see at least once
before you die. Somehow Daniel Day-Lewis never seems to age. To me he looks practically the same in each of his films. Not only his performance but also that of the young Christy and Christy’s mother are phenomenal. I had seen this film years ago. It is ageless and I enjoyed it probably more the second time. Do not miss this movie!

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 1996, Unusual, Violent

Trainspotting (1996)

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From NetFlix:

Danny Boyle’s explosive 1996 film tracks the misadventures of
young men (played by a cast that includes Ewan MacGregor, Robert
Carlyle and Jon Lee Miller) trying to find their way out of
joblessness, aimless relationships and drug addiction. Some are
successful, while others are hopelessly not . Based on Irvine Walsh’s
novel, Trainspotting melds grit with poetry, resulting in a film of
harsh truths and stunning grace.

I am not so sure “stunning grace” is what would come to mind if you were daring enough to watch this film which offers the following delights:

o Drugs
o Sex
o Filthy hovels
o Disgusting bathroom scenes
o Crude language
o Degenerate amoral characters.

Now with all that to offer, how could you not see this film ? 1996 was 12 years ago. I am sure that this film was a shocker 12 years ago, and it still can shock. But to tell you the truth the characters were such moral idiots, and the dialog and (possibly disgusting) sight gags were so clever that I just kept laughing out loud. After awhile you start to cringe at how hideous these 4 boy-men were and you wonder just how would Ewan MacGregor (who really tries to go straight) ever get away from the other 3. It was just this question that kept me riveted to the end.

No doubt this film will become a cult classic.

NOT FOR EVERYONE. NOT EVER FOR CHILDREN.

1000NYTimes, 1001BeforeDie, 1963, Italian, Not Feel Good

The Leopard (1963)

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From NetFlix:

In this war drama set in 1860s Sicily, Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) attempts to hold onto the glory he once knew, while his nephew, Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon), has joined opposition forces and is being heralded as a war hero. As Falconeri begins to fall for Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of the town’s new mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa), Salina must learn to accept his changing political status.

Garibaldi landed in Sicily in 1860 (at the time of our civil war). Burt Lancaster (speaking Italian) is a Sicilian prince who can never adjust to the new egalitarian order. The film beautifully recreates the book. But the pace is very slow and you really might have to be motivated to watch this film. In my case I read “Il Gatopardo” in Italian.

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Could Be Hard To Watch, Could Be Sad, Feel Good Not For Children, German, Redemption, Revenge

The Lives of Others (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Set in 1980s East Berlin, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature (which earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) provides an exquisitely nuanced portrait of life under the watchful eye of the state police as a high-profile couple is bugged. When a successful playwright and his actress companion become subjects of the Stasi’s secret surveillance program, their friends, family and even those doing the watching find their lives changed too.

For me this compelling film (recommended in “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) was a “feel good” because it has the most memorable and wonderful ending. In between there is a lot of sadness. Also the film is somewhat illustrative of the phrase “the banality of evil”. Not that those times were easy: the Stasi blackmailed ordinary people into spying on their neighbors.

The banality of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal. This concept has it critics. See The Banality Of Evil

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Biographical, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, French, Not Feel Good

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

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From NetFlix:

In 1995, author and Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that put him in a coma; he awakened mute and completely paralyzed. Mathieu Amalric stars in this adaptation of Bauby’s autobiography, which he dictated by blinking. Julian Schnabel was nominated for the 2008 Best Director Oscar and won the Golden Globe in the same category for his poignant film about the strength of the human spirit.

This film (one of the “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) is the true story of an editor of “Elle” who suffered a stroke and descended into locked-in syndrome. All he could do was move his left eyelid. His ultra-patient caretakers devised a method of communication with him. Using that he wrote a small book “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” which Julian Schnabel made into this film.. You might want to read that short book. It might be difficult or unpleasant to imagine how it would be to be trapped in such a manner. Unfortunately I came away disliking Bauby. In the film he is cruel, even in his reduced state, to the woman who loves him even while she is helping him. Any comments on this ?

1001BeforeDie, 2007, Biographical, Could Be Sad, French, Musical

La Vie en Rose (2007)

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From NetFlix:

Marion Cotillard earned an Oscar for playing beloved Parisian singer Edith Piaf, whose passion for her music saw her through a life filled with tragedy. From her forlorn childhood in a brothel to her big break at Louis Leplée’s (Gérard Depardieu) nightclub and her premature death at the age of 47, director Olivier Dahan creates a loving portrait of the legendary chanteuse. Sylvie Testud and Pascal Greggory co-star in this critically acclaimed biopic.

“La Vie en Rose” is one of the “1001 Films to See Before You Die.” “Thrilling” is the word that comes to my mind. Any review I have read has been a rave. It is a long film (140 minutes) that seems short. The finale in which she sings her most famous “Non, je ne regrette rien” gave me goosebumps. I am glad I heard her sing this song in a theatre where the screen was the world and nothing else existed. If you want to hear the real Edith Piaf sing her theme song, click on Non, je ne regrette rien

1001BeforeDie, 2006, Redemption

Tsotsi (2006)

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From NetFlix:

This Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language film shows that no soul is too far gone from being reformed. After shooting a woman and driving off in her car, Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae), a ruthless thug, is surprised to discover he isn’t alone, kept company by a crying infant in the backseat. He grudgingly takes the child home, and through his efforts to care for the tyke, Tsotsi slowly rediscovers his compassion, self-respect and capacity to love.

I resisted seeing this film (recommended in “1001 Films To See Before You Die”) for a long time thinking it would be really dreary. But once I started the film I was hooked. Actually I was rooting for Tsotsi. Maybe I’m just a sucker for redemption films. At the very least I am grateful I live in the U.S.A. because life is a bit difficult in South Africa. Not for children.

1001BeforeDie, 2006, Comedy, Feel Good Not For Children, Gay theme

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

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From NetFlix:

Convinced little Olive (Abigail Breslin) is beauty queen material, parents Richard (Greg Kinnear) and Sheryl (Toni Collette) and the rest of the family embark on a life-altering road trip to a pageant in this madcap comedy. Struggling motivational speaker Richard pushes Olive to win, while her silent brother (Paul Dano), depressed uncle (Steve Carell) and nursing-home reject grandpa (Alan Arkin, in an Oscar-winning role) add their own quirks to the mix.

I did not need “1001 Films To See Before You Die” to tell me this is a “must see” film. The ensemble acting is well-done. The family bus all by itself is a real hoot. Little Olive is just plain cute and her final beauty queen performance is an unexpected riot. But with all its sexual references, it is not for small children.