Last Ten Films I've Seen

Here are the last ten films I've seen, films I've seen before these viewings are marked with an asteriks (*) and films I saw in a movie theatre are marked with an exclamation point (!):

1) "Les Bonnes Femmes" (1960. France. dir-Claude Chabrol)

2) "The Baader Meinhof Complex" (2008. Germany. dir-Uli Edel)

3) "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (2009. Sweden. dir-Daniel Alfredson)

4)*! "Time Bandits" (1981. dir-Terry Gilliam)

5) "A Psycho Love Story" (2008. Turkey. dir-Biray Dalkiran)

6) ! "Beginners" (2010. dir-Mike Mills)

7) * "Marie Antoinette" (2006. dir-Sofia Coppola)

8) "Sounds Like Teen Spirit" (2008. doc. dir-Jamie Jay Johnson)

9) "The Big Uneasy" (2010. doc. dir-Harry Shearer)

10) "A Tale of Springtime" (1990. France. dir-Eric Rohmer)

Notes on films on this list:

1) This early French New Wave film about attractive young Parisian women has a very surreal ending which has become a discussion board topic on the IMDB, and after seeing the film I certainly understand why.

2) Perhaps, the most interesting film on the list. The German film, which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is about the radical left-wing terrorist group RFA, which started in then West Berlin in 1970. The group was responsible for political assasinations, kidnapping and an airplane hijacking that went across three continents, so this story is quite epic in tone and in my view, the film delivers. Interestingly enough, surviing RFA member Horst Mahler has now gone to the far-right, so much so that he was imprisoned (again) in Germany for being a Holocaust denier.

3) The Swedish film based on the last of the Millenium triology novels by Stieg Larsson seems quite timely given the heinous actions of the far-right, radical Christian terrorist suspect in Norway on Friday. Larsson researched far-right groups in Sweden and other Scandanavian countries before his own untimely death in 2004, and that is reflected in the novels he wrote as well as their filmed versions.

4) I forgot how dark the ending of this 'children's film' from Terry Gilliam was. I saw it at the Salem Valley-4 (now Salem Valley-8 back when the film was first released when I was a child).

5) Yes, as one might expect from the film's title (it was actually called "Heaven" in Turkey), it is a very strange movie, but the director's earlier effort "The Abortion" is even more over-the-top than this film.

6) Christopher Plummer will hopefully win an Oscar for his great performance in this film.

7) This Sofia Coppola film seems slightly better with the second viewing.

8) This doc follows teens in Cyprus, Georgia, Bulgaria and Belgium as they try to be the next European teen idol.

9) An interesting environmental doc from Harry Shearer, best-known for voicing Simpsons characters like Principal Seymour Skinner.

10) This is a typical Rohmer film, which means those of us who generally like his films will like it, everyone else might opt to watch infommercials, pro wrestling or radical televangelists praying for a new hot tub.

My Choice for the Best Films of 1981

Since information for this entry took a while to compile, I will simply list the films in my order of preference without commentary.

On a personal note, I hope my friend Moviezzz who has or had a great blog called Moviezzz (http://www.moviezzz.blogspot.com). I really enjoyed his review of a concert from the Go-Gos in Northhampton, Mass., earlier this summer. Moviezzz has alas not posted a new entry since June! That girl band was actually very popular in 1981 due their hit record "Vacation," which featured the mega-hit of the same name.

One film from the class of 1981, "Time Bandits" (dir. Terry Gilliam) will screen in a 35-mm print at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, NC, tomorrow night.

Last year, my friend Blake Lipscomb and I 'sweded' the film "My Dinner with Andre" which was shown at part of a sueded film festival at The Shadowbox Cinema in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., where we filmed our version of "Andre." Ironically, the actual film, which is set in New York, was filmed at an abonded hotel in Richmond, Va.

Here is the list:

1) "Atlantic City" (dir. Louis Malle)

2) "The Gods Must Be Crazy" (South Africa. dir. Jamie Uys)

3) "Das Boot" (Germany. dir. Wolfgang Petersen)

4) "An American Werewolf in London" (dir. John Landis)

5) "The Road Warrior" (Australia. dir. George Miller)

6) "Body Heat" (dir. Lawrene Kasdan)

7) "Prince of the City" (dir. Sidney Lumet)

8) "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (dir. Steven Spielberg)

9) "My Dinner with Andre" (dir. Louis Malle)

10) "Blow Out" (dir. Brian DePalma)

Special Quote of the Week- George Orwell

Today, we conclude our month-long series (yes, we know today is actually June 1, 2011) from novelists with a quip from the great English writer/essayist/novelist George Orwell (1903-1950) who died young at age 46.

On our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," we are quoting Albert Camus (1913-1960) who also died at age 46. Both men were also born in colonized territory as Orwell was born in India and Camus was born in Algeria. And, both writers, of course, are still well-known around the world for their highly political works.

Orwell has the distinction of being admired by both the right and the left. This is emphasized by the fact that his staunchest supporter in the modern day is the atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who has drfited from the left to the right to the middle, or wherever he is/may be at the moment. Hitchens wrote a book entitled "Why Orwell Matters" in 2002, and Hitchens also has the distinction of having spats with both left-wing philosopher Noam Chomsky and the late evangelical extremist Jerry Falwell.

According to Wikipedia, Orwell's works were written with regard to an awareness of social injustice and a concern for totalitarism. The terms Orwellian and Big Brother derive from his works. Due to his short life, Orwell is most regarded for just two novels, "Animal Farm" (1945) and his last and most famous work "1984" (1949).

Orwell's works also inspired the film director Terry Gilliam with his famous critically acclaimed film "Brazil" (1985) which is also about totalitarianism.

Here is Orwell's quote:

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who not fighting."