Last Ten Films I've Seen- Garbo Laughs

Among the last ten films I've seen is a notorious "Jaws" rip-off, two films directed by playwrights ("Margaret" and "Seven Psychopaths") and a vintage British horror film ("Repulsion").

There are also two films with Johnny Depp in the lead ("The Libertine" and "Dead Man") and the film in which cinematic goddess Greta Garbo laughs ("Ninotchka").

In addition, there are two films which are still in cinemas ("R.I.P.D., which I actually saw at a drive-in, and "The Way, Way Back"). Movies I have seen previously are marked with an *.

Here is the list:

1. "Holy Smoke" (1999. dir-Jane Campion)

2. "The Last Shark" ("Great White") (Italy. 1981. dir-Enzo G. Castellari)

3. "Dead Man" (1995. dir-Jim Jarmusch) *

4. "Seven Psychopaths" (2012. dir- Martin McDonagh)

5. "Margaret" (2011. dir-Kenneth Lonengan)

6. "The Way, Way Back" (2013 dir-Nat Faxon and Jim Rush)

7. "R.I.P.D" (2013 dir-Robert Schwentke)

8. "The Libertine"   (2004. dir-Laurence Dunmore)

9. "Repulsion" (1965. dir-Roman Polanski) *

10. "Ninotchka" (1939. dir-Ernst Lubitsch)

http://thesacodrivein.com/now-showing/ (Drive-in theatre in Saco, Maine, (not where I saw R.I.P.D)

http://www.therialto.com (Cinema in Raleigh, NC, that is now screening "The Way, Way Back")

http://www.filmcomment.com (The magazine that started the 'last ten films I've seen series)

A Top Ten Random List of English-Language Films I've Seen Multiple Times.........(except "The Godfather")

Here in America, National Public Radio (NPR) has had an interesting series of interviews with film directors, actors and other celebrities have talked about films they can watch over and over again.

Among the surprises is that David Fincher ("Zodiac," "Fight Club") loves "Mary Poppins"!

There aren't that many films I've watched more than five times. As someone with a wide interest in films, it is simply challenging to watch every film of social or historical merit over and over again.

There are also many world and European films like Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless," which I've seen multiple times, but for the sake of 'making it simple,' we are just going to focus on English-language films here.

I have also not decided to list films I watched often as a child, like "The Absent Minded Professor" or films I watched once too often as a teenager, such as "Bachelor Party."

And, this is not in order of preference:

1. "The Graduate" (1967)

2. "Planet of the Apes" (1968)

3. "Stagecoach" (1939)

4. "Psycho" (1960)

5. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex........." (1972)

6. "Dr. Strangelove........." (1964)

7. "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

8. "Taxi Driver" (1975)

9. "Chinatown" (pictured, 1974)

10. "Life of Brian" (1979)

http://www.npr.org


SIDEBAR: I have an article in a national Washington-DC based blog regarding the politically charged events happening in Turkey:

http://www.dcmiccheck.org/2013/06/06/gezi-park/

Quote of the Day/Week- Roman Polanski

For the second week in a row, we are quoting famous film directors with controversial personal lives. Last week, we quoted Woody Allen. But, the reason for this is not because we live controversy (ok,so we did say we would run to Costa Rica if Mitt Romney was elected president a few entries back), but because Roman Polanski, the subject of this week's quote, like Allen, is an Oscar-winning filmmaker. We are quoting Academy Award-winning film directors this month even though our personal favorite movie director Stanley Kubrick never won one! (Yes, not even for "2001:A Space Odyssey").

Currently, in some small-market art houses, Polanski's latest film "Carnage" with three Oscar winners (Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz) and John C. Reilly is now screening. The film has already been screened in large markets.

The film director was born in Poland, and now resides in France.

Polanski won an Oscar for his film "The Pianist" (2002).

Here is Polanski's quote (the above image is of him acting in his own film "Chinatown" (1974)):

"Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater."

SIDEBAR: The Film Forum in New York will be screening a very interesting film (well, we haven't seen it for ourselves) from Iranian director Jafar Panahi entitled "This Is Not a Film" starting on Feb. 29.

The film, co-directed with Mojtaba Miratahmasb, was entirely shot on a cell phone and a DV camera. Sine Panafi is under house arrest for his politics and not allowed to make films in Iran, he had the film hidden in a cake and sent to France for festival screenings. It became a huge sensation at the Cannes Film Festival.

Panafi is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Iran; his credits include "The White Balloon" (1995), "The Circle" (2000) and "Offside" (2006). His current film is an autobiographical documentary about isolation.

My friend Bilge Ebiri, a New York-based film critic proclaimed "Offside" to be the best film that was released in the United States in 2007. That film was about two girls in their late teens/early twenties try to sneak inside to see a soccer game. In Iran, women are forbidden to go to soccer games. Though we believe Irish women were allowed to see their national team play a game in Iran several years ago.

The Last Ten Films I've Seen

Here are the last ten films I've seen. No time for commentary, but we decided to feature an image of Roman Polanski not because of the current controversy he is embroiled in but because his latest film is on this list:


1. "The Art of the Steal" (doc. d-Don Argott. 2009)
2. "The Wages of Fear" (France. d-Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1959)
3. "Ghost Writer" (d-Roman Polanski, 2010)
4. "Roaring Twenties" (with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. d-Raoul Walsh. 1939)
5. "Four of the Apocalypse" (a spahetti western. Italy. d-Lucio Fulci, 1975).
6. "Heaven Can Wait" (d-Warren Beatty and Buck Henry, 1978)
7. "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (doc concert about David Bowie. d-D.A. Penebaker. Filmed in 1973, released in cinemas in 1982).
8."The Story of Floating Weeds" (Japan. d-Yasujiro Ozu, 1934)
9. "The Killers" (with Lee Marvin. Last cinematic role for Ronald Reagan. d-Don Siegel, 1964)
10. "Dr. Strangelove........" (d-Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

SIDEBAR: My friend Jason Garnett is showing the documentary "Cinemania" about film fanatics tonight at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va. That might be short notice, bue he is also screening a night of vintage '70s era trailers which he is calling "Trailer Trash Night" on May 17 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is five dollars.

Dead or Alive?- Klaus Kinski

We conclude our three entries devouted to the fall of the Berlin Wall by asking our blog visitors if the egotistical German actor Klaus Kinski is dead or alive.

Kinski collaborated with German director Werner Herzog five times even though the two openly despised each other. The making of one of those films "Fitzcarraldo"
(1982) is the subject of an excellent documentary entitled "The Burden of Dreams" by my friend Les Blank.

The German actor was born on Oct. 18, 1926, in what is now Sopot, Poland. He grew up in Berlin and was drafted into the German army. He was taken prisoner by British forces in Holland.

Kinski was married and divroced four times, and he is the father of actress Nastassja Kinski, best known for her starring role in Roman Polanski's "Tess."

Though he starred in some classic films of German cinema, Kinski also starred in some infamous or dreadful films like "Venus in Furs" (1969) from the sometimes notorious Spanish filmmaker Jesus Franco.

Kinski also turned down the role of the villain for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) because he thought the script was awful?!

PS- The subject of our last entry in this series Christopher Lee is indeed alive and well, and still starring in films.