My friend Bill sent me a list of his 100 favorite movies.
I love lists and I love movies and I’m very fond of Bill.
I figured I hadn’t made a list like that in a while and times change and movies continually get made and an activity is always a good idea during a pandemic, so I thought, what would my 100 look like now? It’s a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning while drinking a half a pot of coffee, let me tell ya, and I highly recommend it!
It’s like visiting old friends, some of whom you forgot you had. You find yourself smiling every now and then because you remember a specific scene, a beautiful moment. You wander every now and then, trying to remember how old you were when you first saw it…and where and with whom? You pause every now and then, failing to remember the name of the supporting actor who’s always so good (it’s usually Charles Durning).
Movies are visual accents that fill out our life stories. They take us to places we would otherwise never go, They show us staggering beauty and haunting ugliness. They expose feelings that are often hidden in real life. And they have soundtracks – soundtracks that stay with us in the back of our minds for the rest of time, so that every time we hear “that song”, we’re immediately transported back to Cinema Paradiso, or Out of Africa, or Bridge on the River Kwai or Moulin Rouge. And what could be better than that?
So, here is my list shared with you. Agree. Disagree. Makes no never mind to me, because it’s my list, based on my experiences and memories. And I’d love to know what your list looks like. Enjoy the journey. And thanks in advance for the recommendations.
Everything I learned I learned from the movies. – Audrey Hepburn
1. All About Eve - "Margo, you were an unforgettable Peter Pan. You must play it again soon."
2. Citizen Kane - "People will think..." "What I tell them to think!"
3. Chinatown - "She's my sister...she's my daughter...she's my sister and my daughter!"
4. Singing in the Rain - "I make more money than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!"
5. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - "Hate it! You married me for it!"
6. Vertigo - “Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere.”
7. Auntie Mame - "She's not English, darling...she's from Pittsburgh."
8. Two for the Road - "Bitch." "Bastard."
9. The Philadelphia Story - “The time to make up your mind about people is never.”
10. The Manchurian Candidate - "I keep telling you not to think! You're very, very good at a great many things, but thinking, hon', just simply isn't one of them."
11. Sunset Boulevard
12. Gone With the Wind
13. The Apartment
14. A Star is Born (Judy Garland/James Mason)
15. Suddenly Last Summer
16. Fantasia
17. Swingtime
18. Black Panther
19. Blade Runner
20. Remains of the Day
21.Double Indemnity
22. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
23. An American in Paris
24. Howard’s End
25. Shadow of a Doubt
26. The Godfather 1
27. The Godfather 2
28. Schindler’s List
29. Moulin Rouge
30. The Age of Innocence
31. Raiders of the Lost Ark
32. Amadeus
33. Sense and Sensibility
34. The Dark Knight
35. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
36. Cabaret
37. Reds
38. Shampoo
39. Manhattan
40. Raging Bull
41. Hannah and Her Sisters
42. To Kill a Mockingbird
43. Funny Girl
44. Jezebel
45. Black Narcissus
46. Great Expectations
47. Doctor Zhivago
48. Cinema Paradiso
49. Camille Claudel
50. Tootsie
51. The Wizard of Oz
52. The Graduate
53. Network
54. Silence of the Lambs
55. Ordinary People
56. Rebecca
57. Dr. Strangelove
58. A Place in the Sun
59. A Streetcar Named Desire
60. The African Queen
61. Some Like it Hot
62. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
63. Bonnie and Clyde
64. The Fountainhead
65. The Best Years of Our Lives
66. The Three Musketeers
67. The Magnificent Ambersons
68. A Clockwork Orange
69. The Piano
70. Darling
71. Bringing Up Baby
72. The Taming of the Shrew
73. Charade
74. The Last Emperor
75. The Little Foxes
76. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
77. Fahrenheit 451
78. Cries and Whispers
79. Pennies from Heaven
80. The Bad and the Beautiful
81. The Ice Storm
82. Dog Day Afternoon
83. The Prince of Tides
84. Nashville
85. Shakespeare in Love
86. The Talented Mr. Ripley
87. Separate Tables
88. Atonement
89. The Matrix
90. Shawshank Redemption
91. The Usual Suspects
92. The Princess Bride
93. Father of the Bride
94. Witness for the Prosecution
95. Touch of Evil
96. Rear Window
97. Amarcord
98. Carnal Knowledge
99. Judgement at Nuremberg
100. The French Lieutenant’s Woman