Magic Lantern Video & Book StoreMy Dozen Most-Favorite
Films (and why)
Films (and why)
One person's viewpoint of the grandest and best motion pictures of all time,
narrowed down to a handful, including a few you may not be aware of . . .
They are in no particular order.
— G.E. Nordell, proprietor of Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
Revised 11/2012: The 'Ten Favorites' were actually eleven with the sequel to "Wings of Desire", so when I considered
adding another (new) favorite in October 2012, it just made sense to revamp the page to 'Dozen Favorites'.
the dozen films, in no particular order
and then books that list top films • and • Great Movies collections on DVD
See also Magic Lantern Video & Book Store's
"A Christmas Story" 1983 Movie Page
"A Star Is Born" Movies Page
"The African Queen" 1951 Movie Page
"All The President's Men" 1976 Movie Page
"Apocalypse Now" 1979 Movie Page
"The Birth of A Nation" 1915 Movie Page
"Blade Runner" 1982 Movie Page
"Casablanca" 1942 Movie Page
"Citizen Kane" 1941 Movie Page
"Doctor Who" TV Series Page
"Easy Rider" 1969 Movie Page
"Walt Disney's Fantasia" 1940 & 2000 Movies Page
"Fellini's 8½" 1963 Movie Page
"The General" 1926 Movie Page
"Ghostbusters" Movies & TV Page
'The Godfather Saga' Page
"Gone With The Wind" 1939 Movie Page
"The Grapes of Wrath" 1940 Movie Page
von Stroheim's "Greed" 1924 Movie Page
'Lord of The Rings' & 'The Hobbit' Movies Page
'Harry Potter' Novels & Movies Page
'Lone Wolf & Cub' Samurai Film Series Page
'Lord of The Rings' & 'The Hobbit' Movies Page
"Metropolis" 1927 Movie Page
"Pandora's Box" 1929 Silent Movie Page
'Pirates of The Caribbean' Movies Page
Godfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi Trilogy' Page
'Rocky' Movies Page
"Salt of The Earth" 1954 Movie Page
"Seven Samurai" & "Magnificent Seven" Movies Page
"Sunset Blvd." 1950 Movie Page
"Treasure Island" Movies [1912-2010] Page
Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" Movie Page
"The Wizard of Oz" 1939 Movie Page
and also Spirit of America Bookstore's "Alice In Wonderland" Books, Stageplays & Movies Page
and Spirit of America Bookstore's "Ben-Hur" Novel & Movies Page
and Spirit of America Bookstore's 'Tarzan' Movies Page
and at BlackHat Mystery Bookstore:
Dashiell Hammett's 'The Thin Man' Movies Page
and Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" 1941 Movie Page
 click poster to enlarge | Look at the video/poster image: The movie was about a visionary who hauled a steamboat up a mountain by chains and ropes and brute manpower, in the steaming jungles of South America. Herzog did the same damn thing – his boat weighed 320 tons! – while producing and directing a 35mm feature motion picture – on a budget! Co-produced, written & directed by Werner Herzog; starring Klaus Kinski & Claudia Cardinale
Anchor Bay widescreen color DVD [11/99] for $31.48 Anchor Bay widescreen color VHS [10/99] for $14.99 Les Blank documentary + book | full credits from IMDb "Fitzcarraldo: The Original Story" by Werner Herzog Fjord Press pb [1/83] out of print/used |
"Wings of Desire" [1987]
 | A brilliant, stunning, gorgeous subjective look at what it means to be human. "Luminously optimistic." Directed by Wim Wenders; German title "Der Himmel über Berlin" (Heaven Above Berlin); starring Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander & Peter Falk; many awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography & more; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (10/2005) Criterion Collection Blu-ray [11/2009] for $22.76 MGM/UA widescreen DVD w/English subtitles [7/2003] out of prodn/many used MGM/UA color VHS w/English subtitles [6/2000] for $9.98 Orion color VHS w/English subtitles [5/93] for $7.99 Fine Line import soundtrack CD [5/90] for $18.04 Nonesuch soundtrack CD [10/90] out of prodn/many used full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
[ The 1998 remake "City of Angels" was dreadful – forget it. ]
sequel "Faraway, So Close" [1993]
 | The sequel to "Wings of Desire" (above), this film is superb in its own right
Directed by Wim Wenders; German title "In weiter Ferne, so nah!"; starring Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander & Nastasia Kinski; several awards for direction & cinematography
Col/TriStar widescrn DVD w/Engl subtitles [9/2000] for $22.49 Col/TriStar color VHS w/English subtitles [3/2000] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb |
"The Wild Bunch" [1969]
 | A deep meditation on the ending of the Western frontier, controversial for the vividness of the on-screen violence, yet superbly romantic: All that a Western tale should be • Directed by Sam Peckinpah [1925-84]; starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, and the scurrilous L.Q. Jones & Strother Martin; nominated for Oscars for Best Script & Best Music; award for Best Cinematography from N.F.S.C.
Warner Home Video widescreen color Blu-ray [9/2007] for $11.49 Warner Video widescreen Director's Cut 145-min. DVD [8/97] for $10.99 Warner Video Anniv. Edition 179-min. color VHS [11/2001] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb Cambridge Film Handbook, edited by Stephen Prince Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 pb [12/98] for $23.00 via Amazon.com |
"Reds" [Paramount Dec 1981]
  | A radical combination of historical drama and actual history. The interspersed interviews with then-still-living witnesses to the story of American journalist and Bolshevik activist John Reed [1887-1920] give a resonance beyond any previous film about the Russian revolutionary era. Truly an epic film. • Produced, co-written, directed by & starring Warren Beatty; based on the Reed biography by Robert A. Rosenstone; also starring Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson & Maureen Stapleton; witnesses include Henry Miller & Will Durant; won Oscars for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress; nominated for 9 more; won DGA, WGA, two BAFTA Awards
Paramount color DVD [10/2006] for $14.99 Paramount color VHS [1/2002] 2 tapes - out of prodn/used BMG soundtrack CD [4/99] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
 | "Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed" [1975] by Robert A. Rosenstone Replica Books 9x6 hardcover [5/2001] out of print/used Random House hardcover [6/75] out of print/many used |
"Forrest Gump" [Paramount July 1994]
  | The hilarious and profound epic story of a dim-wit nobody. Directed by Robert Zemeckis; starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright & Gary Sinise; won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Script, Best Actor (Hanks), Best Effects & Best Editing, nominated for 7 more
Paramount widescreen color Blu-ray [11/2009] 2 disks for $19.99 Paramount widescreen color DVD [8/2001] 2 disks for $8.49 Paramount color VHS [9/96] out of prodn/many, many used Sony soundtrack CD [8/94] out of prodn/many used Sony/Legacy soundtrack double CD [8/2001] for $14.99 full credits from IMDb • theme music [2min:47sec midi file] • movie entry at Wikipedia "Making of.." documentary [1994] Directed by Peyton Reed
|
 | based on the 1988 novel by Winston Groom
Washington Square Press 8x5¼ pb [10/2002] for $10.80 Pocket mass pb [8/94] out of print/used Pocket 8x5¾ hardcover [11/94] out of print/used |
"Barry Lyndon" [Hawk/Peregrine Dec 1975]
 | Producer/director Stanley Kubrick translated Thackerey's novel into the fulfillment of Vachel Lindsay's classic "Art of The Moving Picture" [1915]: Each scene begins from the cinematic reproduction of a famous painting of the period. Kubrick and John Alcott also managed to film the interiors by candlelight! Directed by Stanley Kubrick; starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson & Patrick Magee; won Oscars for Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes & Music; nominated for Best Picture, Best Director & Best Script; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (10/2005)
Warner letterbox DVD [6/2001] for $22.48 Warner color VHS [6/99] 2 tapes out of stock/used full credits from IMDb 11"x17" white poster from Amazon for $9.99 11"x17" brown poster from Amazon for $9.99 11"x17" black poster from Amazon for $9.99 |
"Taxi Driver" [Columbia Feb 1976]
 | A veritable course in feature camera work, and the score by Bernard Herrmann may be the best ever written. Directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel & Cybill Shepherd; Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score; listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (10/2005)
Col/TriStar Special Edition widescreen DVD [12/2000] for $14.96 Col/TriStar widescreen DVD [9/97] out of prodn/used Col/TriStar Special Edition VHS [5/99] for $14.95 Col/TriStar color VHS [6/96] out of prodn/used Col/TriStar VHS w/Spanish subtitles [5/99] out of prodn/used Arista soundtrack CD [5/98] for $14.99 Varese soundtrack CD [10/90] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
 |
movie posters available 11"x17" poster from Amazon for $9.99 |
"Apocalypse Now" [Zoetrope Aug 1979]
 | A movie like no other: Wild and weird, cuts to the bone about the madness of war • Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, script by John Milius, based on a Joseph Conrad novella; starring Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford & Frederic Forrest; won Oscars for Cinematography & Sound, nominated for Best Picture, Director, Script, Supporting Actor, Editing & Art Direction
full credits from IMDb LionsGate widescreen color Blu-ray [10/2010] 3 disks for $41.99 Elektra soundtrack CD [8/88] 2 disks out of prodn/used "Apocalypse Now" posters at AllPosters.com "Apocalypse Now Redux" [15 August 2001]: re-release with never-before-seen 49 minutes added "Redux" info at IMDb "Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier" DVD box set [2006] Paramount widescreen color DVD [8/2006] 2 disks for $13.99 includes the complete 1981 release and the complete 2001 'Redux' release, plus outtakes, commentary & featurettes |
more details (synopsis, books, re-release, links, merchandise) on
Magic Lantern's "Apocalypse Now" 1979 Movie Page
"2001: A Space Odyssey" [1968]
| Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story "The Sentinel", the movie "2001" took sci-fi movies out of the drive-in theaters and into wide-screen movie palaces. Director Stanley Kubrick & special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull set the standard for space effects, which "Stars Wars" expanded upon nine years later. The movie is subjective – only 40 minutes of dialogue in its 139-minute general release version – and redefined the para-meters of cinema. The "Also Sprach Zarathustra" theme has become a melodic icon, evoking images that are deeply part of the culture – the black monolith, the apes, the space station, HAL's red light, and the surreal ending. Co-written & directed by Stanley Kubrick; starring Keir Dullea, Douglas Rain & Gary Lockwood; won Oscar for Best Effects, nominated for Best Director, Script & Art Direction; also Hugo Award from W.S.F.S.
Warner color VHS [6/99] out of stock/used Warner widescreen VHS [6/99] out of stock/used Warner VHS w/Spanish subtitles [6/2001] for $19.98 Warner letterbox DVD [6/99] out of stock/used Warner widescreen DVD [6/2001] for $21.49 Rhino soundtrack CD [10/96] for $14.99 11"x17" black poster from Amazon for $14.99 full credits from IMDb | theme music [1 minute] |
 |  novel by Arthur C. Clark
Roc pb (9/2000) for $6.29 Roc hardcover (10.99) for $14.01 NAL 25th Anniv pb [8/93] for $10.36 |
 |
"The Making of 2001" Edited by Stephanie Schwam & Martin Scorsese Modern Library 8x5 pb [3/2000] for $12.76 |
more details (synopsis, books, sequel "2010", posters, links) on the
Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" [1968] Movie Page
"Akahige" aka 'Red Beard'
[Japan April 1965; US release Dec 1968]
 | An earnest exploration of duty, honor and compassion. Yes, master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa also made "Yojimbo" and "Seven Samurai" and "Ran" and so many others, but "Red Beard" breaches all cynicism and puts the viewer in touch with the poignancy and poetry of humanity's condition. • Co-written & directed by Akira Kurosawa [1910-98]; starring Toshirô Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Kyôko Kagawa, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Terumi Niki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Yoshitaka Zushi & Takashi Shimura
Home Vision widescreen b&w VHS [2/99] for $29.95 Home Vision widescreen b&w DVD [7/2002] for $35.99 full credits from IMDb 11"x17" Japanese-language poster available at AllPosters.com |
"Moonrise Kingdom" [Focus Features May 2012]
 | Filmed in Rhode Island; difficult to describe without using the word 'precious'; essentially a fairy tale about a preteen boy & girl who run away from home on an island off the New England coast; the characters are written as strange (the kids act like adults, the adults act like children), the direction and camera work are full of surprises, and the more-or-less happy ending is as strange as the events of the film. Co-produced by Scott Rudin, Wes Anderson & others; directed & co-written by Wes Anderson; co-written by Roman Coppola; music by Alexandre Desplat; starring Jared Gilman {as the boy}, Kara Hayward {as the girl}, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel & Bob Balaban
Universal Studios color Blu-ray/DVD combo [10/2012] 2 disks for $19.99 Universal Studios color DVD [10/2012] for $19.96 ABKCo. soundtrack CD [5/2012] 21 tracks for $9.99 full credits at IMDb • official movie site • movie entry at Wikipedia |
another viewpoint [2019]
Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events organized showings nationwide of what they consider to be Big Screen Classics:
January — "The Wizard of Oz" [1939] 80th Anniversary
February — "My Fair Lady" [1964] 55th Anniversary
March — "To Kill A Mockingbird" [1962] 57th Anniversary
April — Ben Hur" [1959] 60th Anniversary
May — "True Grit" [1969] starring John Wayne 50th Anniversary
May — "Steel Magnolias" [1989] 30th Anniversary
June — "Field of Dreams" [1989] 30th Anniversary
July — "Glory" [1989] 30th Anniversary
August — "Hello, Dolly" [1969] 50th Anniversary
September — "Lawrence of Arabia" [1962] 57th Anniversary
September — "The Shawshank Redemption" [1994] 25th Anniversary
October — "Alien" [1979] 40th Anniversary
November — "The Godfather, Part II" [1974] 45th Anniversary
December — "When Harry Met Sally . . ." [1989] 30th Anniversary
Books: Lists of Top Films
 | "Jeffrey Lyons' 100 Great Movies For Kids" [1996] Lyons's choices range from obvious to surprising, such as: "A Christmas Story"; "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court"; "The Adventures of Robin Hood" [1938] with Errol Flynn; "Around The World In 80 Days"; "Bad Day At Black Rock" with Spencer Tracy; "The Bridge On The River Kwai"; "Captain Blood" [1935] with Errol Flynn; "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye; "Field of Dreams"; "Friendly Persuasion"; "Harvey"; "Hoosiers"; "How The West Was Won"; "Inherit The Wind"; Hemingway's "Islands In The Stream"; "The King and I"; "Little Women"; Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" [1937]; John Ford's "Mister Roberts" [1955]; Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" [1939]; "Mutiny On The Bounty"; Frank Capra's "Pocketful of Miracles" [1961]; "The Red Balloon"; John Steinbeck's "The Red Pony"; "Stand and Deliver" with Edward James Olmos; "To Kill A Mockingbird"; and "Treasure Island" Fireside 9x6¼ pb [4/96] for $18.95 |
 | "The New York Times Guide To The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" [1999] by Vincent Canby, Janet Maslin & others, edited by Peter M. Nichols St. Martin's 9x7¼ pb [2/2004] 1200 pages for $16.97 Three Rivers Press 9¼x7½ pb [11/99] for $17.00 N.Y. Times online list |
 | "The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films" [2002] Edited by Jay Carr Da Capo Press 9x6 pb [1/2002] for $11.67 |
 | "Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time" [2003] by Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza Black Dog & Leventhal 12¾x10¾ (5.2 pounds!) hardcover [10/2003] for $34.95 |
 | "America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide To The Landmark Movies In The National Film Registry" [2009] by Daniel Eagan Continuum Publng Group 9¾x7 pb [10/2009] for $17.96 Continuum Publng Group 10x7¼ hardcover [9/2009] for $97.06 |
 | "The Great Movies" [2002] by Roger Ebert [1942-2013]
Kindle Edition from Crown/Random House [2001 edition] for $14.99 Broadway 9x6 pb [11/2003] for $12.21 Broadway 9½x6½ hardcover [3/2002] out of print/used Ebert's first 100 includes chapters on "2001: A Space Odyssey" [1968] by Stanley Kubrick; "The 400 Blows" [France 1959] by François Truffaut; "8 1/2" [Italy 1963[ by Federico Fellini; "A Hard Day's Night" [1964] with the Beatles; "A Woman Under The Influence" [1974] by John Cassavetes; "Aguirre, The Wrath of God" [1972] by Werner Herzog; "Ali: Fear Eats The Soul" [1974] by Fassbinder; "All About Eve" [1950] starring Bette Davis; "The Apartment" [1960] by Billy Wilder; "Apocalypse Now" [1979] by Francis Ford Coppola; The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray; "Battleship Potemkin" [Russia 1925] by Sergei M. Eisenstein; "Beauty and The Beast" [1946] by Jean Cocteau; "Belle de Jour" [France 1967] by Luis Buñuel; "The Bicycle Thieves" [Italy 1948] by Vittorio De Sica; Raymond Chandler's "The Big |
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Sleep" [1946] by Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart;
"Blowup" [1966] by Antonioni;
"Body Heat" [1981];
"Bonnie and Clyde" [1967] by Arthur Penn;
"Bride of Frankenstein" [1935] by James Whale; "Broken Blossoms" [1919] by D.W. Griffith; "Casablanca" [1942] by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart; "Chinatown" [1974] by Roman Polanski; "Citizen Kane" [1941] by Orson Welles; "City Lights" [1931] by Charlie Chaplin; "Days of Heaven" [1978] by Terrence Malick; "The Decalogue" [1989] by Krzysztof Kieslowski; "Detour" [1945]; "Do The Right Thing" [1989] by Spike Lee; James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity" [1944] by Billy Wilder; "Dracula" [1931] starring Bela Lugosi; "Dr. Strangelove" [1964] by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers; "Duck Soup" [1933] with The Marx Brothers; "E.T." [1982] by Steven Spielberg; "The Exterminating Angel" [1962] by Luis Buñuel; "Fargo" [1996] by the Coen Brothers; "Floating Weeds" [Japan 1950] by Yasujiro Ozu; "Gates of Heaven" [1978] by Errol Morris; "The General" [1927] by Buster Keaton; "The Godfather" [1972] by Francis Ford Coppola; "Gone With The Wind" [1939]; "Grand Illusion" [France 1937] by Jean Renoir; "Greed" [1924 silent epic] by Erich von Stroheim; "Hoop Dreams" [1994]; "Ikiru" [Japan 1952] by Akira Kurosawa; "It's A Wonderful Life" [1946] by Frank Capra; "J.F.K." [1991] by Oliver Stone; "La Dolce Vita" [Italy 1960] by Federico Fellini; "The Lady Eve" [1941] by Preston Sturges; "Last Year At Marienbad" [1961] by Alain Resnais; "L'Atalante" [France 1934] by Jean Vigo; "L'Avventura" [Italy 1960] by Antonioni; "Lawrence of Arabia" [1962]; "Le Samourai" [France 1967] by Jean-Pierre Melville; "M" [Germany 1931] by Fritz Lang; Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" [1941] by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart; "Manhattan" [1979] by Woody Allen; "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" [1971] by Robert Altman; "Metropolis" [1927 silent] by Fritz Lang; "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" [France 1953] by Jacques Tati; "My Darling Clementine" [1946] by John Ford; "My Life To Live" [France 1962] by Jean-Luc Godard; "Nashville" [1975] by Robert Altman; "Network" [1976] by Sidney Lumet; "The Night of The Hunter" [1955] by Charles Laughton, starring Robert Mitchum; "Nosferatu" [1922 silent] by F.W. Murnau; "Notorious" [1946] by Alfred Hitchcock; "On The Waterfront" [1954] by Elia Kazan, starring Marlon Brando; "Pandora's Box" [Germany 1929] by G.W. Pabst, starring Louise Brooks; "The Passion of Joan of Arc" [Denmark 1928] by Carl Theodor Dreyer; "Peeping Tom" [1960] by Michael Powell; "Persona" [Sweden 1966] by Ingmar Bergman; "Pickpocket" [France 1959] by Robert Bresson; animated "Pinocchio" [1940] by Walt Disney; "Psycho" [1960] by Alfred Hitchcock; "Pulp Fiction" [1994] by Quentin Tarantino; "Raging Bull" [1980] by Martin Scorsese; "Red River" [1948] by Howard Hawks, starring John Wayne; "Schindler's List" [1993] by Steven Spielberg; "The Seven Samurai" [Japan 1956] by Akira Kurosawa; "The Seventh Seal" [Sweden 1957] by Ingmar Bergman; "The Shawshank Redemption" [1994]; "The Silence of The Lambs" [1991]; "Singin' In The Rain" [1952 musical]; "Some Like It Hot" [1959] by Billy Wilder; "Star Wars" [1977]; "Sunset Blvd." [1950] by Billy Wilder; "Sweet Smell of Success" [1957]; "Swing Time" [1936 musical] starring Astaire & Rogers; "Taxi Driver" [1976] by Martin Scorsese; "The Third Man" [1949] starring Orson Welles; "Trouble In Paradise" [1932] by Ernst Lubitsch; "Un Chien Andalou" [France 1929] by Luis Buñuel; The 'Up' Documentaries by Michael Apted; "Vertigo" [1958] by Alfred Hitchcock; "The Wild Bunch" [1969] by Sam Peckinpah; "Wings of Desire" [Germany 1987] by Wim Wenders; "The Wizard of Oz" [1939]; "Woman In The Dunes" [Japan 1964] by Hiroshi Teshigahara; and "Written On The Wind" [1956] by Douglas Sirk |
 | "The Great Movies II" [2005] by Roger Ebert [1942-2013]
Kindle Edition from Crown/Random House [2008 edition] for $12.99 Broadway 9x6 pb [2/2006] for $11.53 Broadway 9½x6 hardcover [2/2005] out of print/used Ebert's sequel 100 includes chapters on Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" [1983]; "A Sunday In The Country" [France 1984] by Bertrand Tavernier; "A Tale of Winter" [France 1992] by Eric Rohmer; "The Adventures of Robin Hood" [1938] by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn; "Alien" [1979] by Ridley Scott; "Amadeus" [1984] by Milos Forman; "Amarcord" [Italy 1973] by Federico Fellini; "Annie Hall" [1977] by Woody Allen; "Au Hasard, Balthazar" [France 1966] by Robert Bresson; "The Bank Dick" [1940] starring W.C. Fields; "Beat The Devil" [1953] by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart; Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There" [1979] by Hal Ashby, starring Peter Sellers; "The Big Heat" [1953] by Fritz Lang; "The Birth of A Nation" [1915 silent epic] by D.W. Griffith; "Bob le Flambeur" [France |
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1955] by Jean-Pierre Melville;
"Breathless" [France 1960] by Jean-Luc Godard;
"The Bridge On The River Kwai" [1957];
"Bring Me The Head of Alfredo García" [1974] by Sam Peckinpah;
"Children of Paradise" [France 1945] by Marcel Carné;
"The Color Purple" [1985] by Steven Spielberg;
"The Conversation" [1974] by Francis Ford Coppola;
"Cries and Whis-pers" [Sweden 1973] by Ingmar Bergman;
"The Discreet Charm of The Bourgeoisie" [France 1972] by Luis Buñuel;
"Don’t Look Now" [1973] by Nicolas Roeg;
"The Earrings of Madame de ..." [France 1953] by Max Ophüls;
"The Fall of The House of Usher" [1928 silent short];
"The Firemen’s Ball" [Czechoslovakia 1967] by Milos Forman;
"Five Easy Pieces" [1970] with Jack Nicholson; "Goldfinger" [1964] with James Bond; "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" [1966] by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood; "Goodfellas" [1990] by Martin Scorsese; "The Gospel According To Matthew" [Italy 1964] by Pier Paolo Pasolini; John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" [1940] by John Ford; animated "Grave of The Fireflies" [1988] by Isao Takahata; "Great Expectations" [1946] by David Lean; "House of Games" [1987] by David Mamet; "The Hustler" [1961]; Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" [1967] by Richard Brooks; "Jaws" [1975] by Steven Spielberg; "Jules and Jim" [France 1962] by François Truffaut; Buster Keaton; Kieslowski’s 'Three Colors Trilogy' [1993-94]; "Kind Hearts and Coronets" [1949] starring Alec Guinness; "King Kong" [1933]; "The Last Laugh" [1924 silent] by F.W. Murnau; "Laura" [1944] by Otto Preminger; "Leaving Las Vegas" [1995]; "Le Boucher" [France 1970] by Claude Chabrol; "The Leopard" [Italy 1963] by Luchino Visconti; "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" [1943] by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger; "The Manchurian Candidate" [1962]; "The Man Who Laughs" [1928]; "Mean Streets" [1973] by Martin Scorsese; "Mon Oncle" [France 1958] by Jacques Tati; "Moonstruck" [1987]; "The Music Room" [India 1958] by Satyajit Ray; "My Dinner With Andre" [1981] by Louis Malle; animated "My Neighbor Totoro" [Japan 1988] by Hayao Miyazaki; "Nights of Cabiria" [Italy 1957] by Dino De Laurentiis; Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest" [1975] by Milos Forman; "Orphée (Orpheus)" [France 1950] by Jean Cocteau; "Paris, Texas" [1984] by Wim Wenders; "Patton" [1970] starring George C. Scott; "Picnic At Hanging Rock" [Australia 1975] by Peter Weir; "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" [1987]; "The Producers" [1968] by Mel Brooks; "Raiders of The Lost Ark" [1981] by Steven Spielberg; "Raise The Red Lantern" [Hong Kong 1991] by Zhang Yimou; "Ran" [Japan 1985] by Akira Kurosawa; "Rashômon" [Japan 1950] by Akira Kurosawa; "Rear Window" [1954] by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart; "Rififi" [France 1955] by Jules Dassin; Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" [1983] by Philip Kaufman; Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" [1968] by Franco Zeffirelli; "The Rules of The Game" [France 1939] by Jean Renoir; "Saturday Night Fever" [1977 musical]; "Say Anything" [1989]; "Scarface" [1932] by Howard Hawks; "The Searchers" [1956] by John Ford, starring John Wayne; Jack Schaefer's "Shane" [1953] by George Stevens; animated "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" [1937] by Walt Disney; "Solaris" [1972] by Andrei Tarkovsky; "Strangers On A Train" [1951] by Alfred Hitchcock; "Stroszek" [Germany 1977] by Werner Herzog; "Sunrise" [1927 silent] by F.W. Murnau; Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" [1934]; "This Is Spinal Tap" [1984]; "Tokyo Story" [Japan 1953] by Yasujiro Ozu; "Touchez Pas au Grisbi" [France 1954] by Jacques Becker; "Touch of Evil" [1958] by Orson Welles; "The Treasure of The Sierra Madre" [1948] by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart; "12 Angry Men" [1957] by Sidney Lumet; "Ugetsu" [Japan 1953] by Kenji Mizoguchi; "Umberto D" [Italy 1952] by Vittorio De Sica; "Unforgiven" [1992] by Clint Eastwood; "Victim" [1961] starring Dirk Bogarde; "Walkabout" [Australia 1971] by Nicolas Roeg; "West Side Story" [1961 musical]; and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" [1942 musical] by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney |
 | "The Great Movies III" [2010] by Roger Ebert [1942-2013]
Kindle Edition from Univ Chicago Press [10/2010] for $9.99 Univ Chicago Press pb [9/2011] for $12.24 Univ Chicago Press 9¼x6 hardcover [10/2010] for $19.80 Foreword by David Bordwell; Ebert's third set of 100 includes chapters on "A Woman's Tale" [1991]; "A Year of The Quiet Sun" [Poland 1984] by Krzysztof Zanussi; "Ace In the Hole" [1951] by Billy Wilder, starring Kirk Douglas; "Adaptation" [2002]; Jim Thompson's "After Dark, My Sweet" [1990]; "After Hours" [1985] by Martin Scorsese; "The Age of Innocence" [1993] by Martin Scorsese; "Army of Shadows (L'Armée des Ombres" [France 1969] by Jean-Pierre Melville; "Atlantic City" [1980] by Louis Malle, with Burt Lancaster; "Au Revoir les Enfants" [France 1987] by Louis Malle; "Babel" [2006] by Alejandro González Iñárritu; "The Band Wagon" [1953 musical] by Vincente Minnelli, with Fred Astaire & Cyd Charisse; "Baraka" [1992]; "The Battle of Algiers" [Italy 1966] by Gillo Pontecorvo; Ingmar |
|
Bergman's Trilogy:
"Through A Glass Darkly" [1961],
"Winter Light" [1962], and "The Silence" [1963];
"The Best Years of Our Lives" [1946] by William Wyler;
"The Big Red One" [1980] by Samuel Fuller, with Lee Marvin; "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" [1982]; "Cabiria" [Italy 1914]; "Cat People" [1942] by Val Lewton & Jacques Tourneur; "Chimes At Mid-night" [1965] by Orson Welles; "Chop Shop" [2007] by Ramin Bahrani; Chuck Jones: Three Cartoons; "Cool Hand Luke" [1967] starring Paul Newman; "Crimes and Misdemeanors" [1989] by Woody Allen; "Crumb" [1994]; "Dark City" [1950]; James Joyce's "The Dead" [1987] by John Huston; "Diva" [1981] by Jean-Jacques Beineix; "Dog Day Afternoon" [1975] by Sidney Lumet; "The Double Life of Veronique" [1991] by Krzysztof Kieslowski; "Easy Rider" [1969]; "El Norte" [1983] by Gregory Nava; "El Topo" [Mexico 1970] by Alejandro Jodorowsky; "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" [Germany 1974] by Werner Herzog; "Exotica" [1994] by Atom Egoyan; "Fanny and Alexander" [Sweden 1982] by Ingmar Bergman; "Fitzcarraldo" [Germany 1982] by Werner Herzog; "Forbidden Games" [France 1952] by René Clément; "The Godfather: Part II" [1974] by Francis Ford Coppola; "The Great Dictator" [1940] by Charlie Chaplin; "Groundhog Day" [1993] with Bill Murray; "Howards End" [1992] by James Ivory; "Inherit The Wind" [1960] by Stanley Kramer, with Spencer Tracy & Fredric March; "Johnny Guitar" [1954] by Nicholas Ray; "Juliet of The Spirits" [Italy 1965] by Federico Fellini; "Killer of Sheep" [1977] by Charles Burnett; "La Belle Noiseuse" [France 1991] by Jacques Rivette; James Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential" [1997]; Larry McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show" [1971] by Peter Bogdanovich; "Last Tango In Paris" [1972] by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Marlon Brando; "The Last Temptation of Christ" [1988] by Martin Scorsese; "Late Spring" [Japan 1949] by Yasujiro Ozu; "Léolo" [Canada 1992]; Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" [1973] by Robert Altman; "Magnolia" [1999]; "The Marriage of Maria Braun" [Germany 1979] by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; "Mephisto" [1981]; "Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters" [1985]; "Mon Oncle Antoine" [Canada 1971] by Claude Jutra; "Moolaadé" [Senegal 2004] by Ousmane Sembene; "My Fair Lady" [1964 musical] by George Cukor; "My Man Godfrey" [1936]; "Nanook of The North" [1922 silent] by Robert J. Flaherty; "Ordet" [Denmark 1955] by Carl Theodor Dreyer; James M. Cain's "Out of The Past" [1947] by Jacques Tourneur; "Pan's Labyrinth" [Mexico 2006] by Guillermo del Toro; "Paths of Glory" [1957] by Stanley Kubrick, with Kirk Douglas; "The Phantom of The Opera" [1925 silent] starring Lon Chaney; "Pixote" [Brasil 1981] by Hector Babenco; "Playtime" [France 1967] by Jacques Tati; Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" [2006] by Robert Altman; "Rebel Without A Cause" [1955] by Nicholas Ray, starring James Dean; "The Red Shoes" [1948] by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger; Patricia Highsmith's "Ripley's Game" [2002]; "The River (Le Fleuve)" [India 1951] by Jean Renoir; "Rocco and His Brothers" [Italy 1960] by Luchino Visconti; "Safety Last" [1923 silent] by Harold Lloyd; "Samurai Rebellion" [Japan 1967] starring Toshirô Mifune; "Sansho The Bailiff" [Japan 1954] by Kenji Mizoguchi; "Santa Sangre" [Mexico 1989] by Alejandro Jodorowsky; "The Scarlet Empress" [1934] by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich; "Secrets & Lies" [1996] by Mike Leigh; "The Shining" [1980] by Stanley Kubrick, with Jack Nicholson; "The Terrorist" [Italy 1963]; "The Thief of Bagdad" [1924 silent] by Raoul Walsh, starring Douglas Fairbanks; "3 Women" [1977] by Robert Altman; "Top Hat" [1935 musical] with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers; "Triumph of The Will" [Germany 1935] by Leni Riefenstahl; "Vengeance Is Mine" [Japan 1979]; animated "Waking Life" [2001]; "Werckmeister Harmonies" [Hungary 2000]; "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" [1962] with Bette Davis & Joan Crawford; "Withnail & I" [1987]; "Woodstock" [1970] by Michael Wadleigh; "W.R.: Mysteries of The Organism" [Yugoslavia 1971] by Dusan Makavejev; and "Yojimbo" [Japan 1961] by Akira Kurosawa, with Toshirô Mifune & Tatsuya Nakadai |
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