Variation on a Theme

The AFI once again handed out their list of 100 Best American Movies, and once again the number one spot went to “Citizen Cane.” Don’t get me wrong, “Citizen Cane” is a great movie, but it has hogged up the number one spot on every list of best movies ever made for so long that it needs to be put aside to make room for, oh I don’t know, Billy Wilder’s “Ace In The Hole.”

Glenn Kenny over at Premiere.com did the heavy lifting of putting together a list of alternate choices for the best 100 American Movies and, although I agreed with many of his picks, I felt there were still a lot of films that should have been on his list that weren’t. No “Faster Pussycat, Kill!…Kill!”? The title alone does more to make you want to see the movie than most titles. And, no “He Ran All the Way”? The late great John Garfield’s last movie (directed by the late great John Berry) will stop you in your tracks.

Anyway, putting this list together was a lot of fun, so enjoy.

1. "Ace In The Hole" (1951, Wilder)

2. "Greed" (1924, von Stroheim)

3. "Matewan" (1987, Sayles)

4. "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955, Ray)

5. "Mean Streets" (1973, Scorsese)

6. "Blue Velvet" (1986, Lynch)

7. "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975, Lumet)

8. "He Who Gets Slapped" (1924, Sjostrom)

9. "Frankenstein" (1931, Whale)

10. "Dracula" (1931, Browning)

11. "Young Frankenstein" (1974, Brooks)

12. "The Killing" (1956, Kubrick)

13. "The Big Heat" (1953, Lang)

14. "He Ran All The Way" (1951, Berry)

15. "Rebecca" (1940, Hitchcock)

16. "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947, Chaplin)

17. "D.O.A." (1950, Mate)

18. "The Exorcist" (1973, Friedkin)

19. "Imitation of Life" (1959, Sirk)

20. "Night of the Living Dead" (1968, Romero)

21. "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974, Peckinpah)

22. "The Sweet Smell of Success" (1957, Mackendrick)

23. "Touch of Evil" (1958, Welles)

24. "Cape Fear" (Thompson, 1962)

25. "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, Kramer)

26. "The Great Escape" (1963, Sturges)

27. "Rosemary’s Baby" (1968, Polanski)

28. "Five Easy Pieces" (1970, Rafelson)

29. "The Big Sleep" (1946, Hawks)

30. "Serpico" (1973, Lumet)

31. "The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three" (1974, Sargent)

32. "The Honeymoon Killers" (1970, Kastle)

33. "Moonstruck" (1987, Jewison)

34. "Full Metal Jacket" (1987, Kubrick)

35. "Footlight Parade" (1933, Berkeley)

36. "Hair" (1979, Forman)

37. "Little Big Man" (1970, Penn)

38. "Stagecoach" (1939, Ford)

39. "Atlantic City" (1980, Malle)

40. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (Rafelson)

41. "Hangmen Also Die" (1943, Lang)

42. "Silkwood" (1983, Nichols)

43. "The Right Stuff" (1983, Kaufman)

44. "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (1968, Miller)

45. "Amadeus" (1984, Forman)

46. "Once Upon a Time In America" (1984, Leone)

47. "Sorcerer" (1977, Friedkin)

48. "Harold and Maude" (1971, Ashby)

49. "Alien" (1979, Scott)

50. "Harlan County" USA (Kopple)

51. "Halloween" (1978, Carpenter)

52. "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984, Reiner)

53. "Badlands" (1973, Malick)

54. "Supervixins" (1975, Meyer)

55. "Fargo" (1996, The Cohen Brothers)

56. "Eraserhead" (1977, Lynch)

57. "Starship Troopers" (Verhoeven)

58. "Robocop" (1987, Verhoeven)

59. "Crybaby" (Waters)

60. "Team America" (Parker)

61. "Goodfellas" (1990, Scorsese)

62. "Empire of the Sun" (1987, Spielberg)

63. "Boyz N the Hood" (1991, Singleton)

64. "Naked Lunch" (Cronenberg)

65. "King of New York" (1991, Ferrara)

66. "Reservoir Dogs" (1992, Tarantino)

67. "The Ice Storm" (Lee, 1997)

68. "Magnolia" (Anderson, 2000)

69. "Coal Miner’s Daughter" (1980, Apted)

70. "A Place In the Sun" (1951, Stevens)

71. "Safe" (1993, Haynes)

72. "Traffic" (2001, Soderbergh)

73. "Pollock" (2000, Harris)

74. "Lolita" (1998, Lyne)

75. "Ms. 45" (1981, Ferrara)

76. "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962, Axelrod and Frankenheimer)

77. "Borat" (2006, Charles)

78. "Mysterious Skin" (2004, Araki)

79. "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974, Cassavetes)

80. "To Live and Die in LA" (1985, Friedkin)

81. "The Big Red One" (1980, Fuller)

82. "Summer of ’42" (1971, Mulligan)

83. "Freaks" (1932, Browning)

84. "Opening Night" (1977, Cassavetes)

85. "The Night of the Hunter" (1955, Laughton)

86. "Flags of Our Fathers" & "Letters From Iwo Jima" (2006, Eastwood)

87. "Safety Last" (1923, Lloyd)

88. "A Place In the Sun" (1951, Stevens)

89. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest" (1975, Foreman)

90. "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995, Figgis)

91. "Angel Heart" (1987, Parker)

92. "Diner" (1982, Levinson)

93. "Mulholland Drive" (2001, Lynch)

94. "My Darling Clementine" (1946, Ford)

95. "Short Cuts" (1993, Altman)

96. "Tension" (1951, Berry)

97. "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959, Preminger)

98. "The Lady From Shanghai" (1948, Welles)

99. "A King In New York" (1957, Chaplin)

100. "Jacob’s Ladder" (1990, Lyne)

THE AFI TOP 100 U.S. FILMS

1."Citizen Kane," 1941.
2. "The Godfather," 1972.
3. "Casablanca," 1942.
4. "Raging Bull," 1980.
5. "Singin' in the Rain," 1952.
6. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.
7. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.
8. "Schindler's List," 1993.
9. "Vertigo," 1958.
10. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.
11. "City Lights," 1931.
12. "The Searchers," 1956.
13. "Star Wars," 1977.
14. "Psycho," 1960.
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968.
16. "Sunset Blvd.", 1950.
17. "The Graduate," 1967.
18. "The General," 1927.
19. "On the Waterfront," 1954.
20. "It's a Wonderful Life," 1946.
21. "Chinatown," 1974.
22. "Some Like It Hot," 1959.
23. "The Grapes of Wrath," 1940.
24. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982.
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird," 1962.
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 1939.
27. "High Noon," 1952.
28. "All About Eve," 1950.
29. "Double Indemnity," 1944.
30. "Apocalypse Now," 1979.
31. "The Maltese Falcon," 1941.
32. "The Godfather Part II," 1974.
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," 1975.
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937.
35. "Annie Hall," 1977.
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai," 1957.
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives," 1946.
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," 1948.
39. "Dr. Strangelove," 1964.
40. "The Sound of Music," 1965.
41. "King Kong," 1933.
42. "Bonnie and Clyde," 1967.
43. "Midnight Cowboy," 1969.
44. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.
45. "Shane," 1953.
46. "It Happened One Night," 1934.
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire," 1951.
48. "Rear Window," 1954.
49. "Intolerance," 1916.
50. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001.
51. "West Side Story," 1961.
52. "Taxi Driver," 1976.
53. "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
54. "M-A-S-H," 1970.
55. "North by Northwest," 1959.
56. "Jaws," 1975.
57. "Rocky," 1976.
58. "The Gold Rush," 1925.
59. "Nashville," 1975.
60. "Duck Soup," 1933.
61. "Sullivan's Travels," 1941.
62. "American Graffiti," 1973.
63. "Cabaret," 1972.
64. "Network," 1976.
65. "The African Queen," 1951.
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.
67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.
68. "Unforgiven," 1992.
69. "Tootsie," 1982.
70. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.
71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.
72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994.
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.
74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991.
75. "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.
76. "Forrest Gump," 1994.
77. "All the President's Men," 1976.
78. "Modern Times," 1936.
79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.
80. "The Apartment, 1960.
81. "Spartacus," 1960.
82. "Sunrise," 1927.
83. "Titanic," 1997.
84. "Easy Rider," 1969.
85. "A Night at the Opera," 1935.
86. "Platoon," 1986.
87. "12 Angry Men," 1957.
88. "Bringing Up Baby," 1938.
89. "The Sixth Sense," 1999.
90. "Swing Time," 1936.
91. "Sophie's Choice," 1982.
92. "Goodfellas," 1990.
93. "The French Connection," 1971.
94. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.
95. "The Last Picture Show," 1971.
96. "Do the Right Thing," 1989.
97. "Blade Runner," 1982.
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy," 1942.
99. "Toy Story," 1995.
100. "Ben-Hur," 1959.

Ted Rall in the Stans

My friend Ted Rall is currently in Khorog, capital of the Gordo-Badakshan Autonomous Oblast in eastern Tajikistan, working on several assignments about Central Asia. It's no secret that Ted was way ahead of the curve on the significance of the region, and he will surely have some very interesting points to make about the state of affairs there.

Check out his blog at www.tedrall.com to read what he and his talented guest bloggers TheDon and Mikhaela Reid are up to.

Sweet Movie

On the eve of my departure to the West Coast for some undisclosed beer drinking, I take with me a fresh copy of the new Criterion DVD of Dusan Makavejev's classic anti-authoritarian film "Sweet Movie." I clearly remember seeing it at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco in the late '80s, and this banned film is a doozy of a political comedy. It premiered in Cannes in 1974 as the follow up to Makavejev's "WR: Mysteries of the Organism," a bright black comedy loosely based around Wilhelm Reich's theories on sexual liberation.

In "Sweet Movie," Makavejev dares to ask the existential question, "Is there life after birth?" and sets out to prove the limitations of desire.

Oh, I can't wait to watch this one again.

No End In Sight

Last night I screened writer/director/producer Charles Ferguson’s documentary "No End In Sight," which painstakingly goes through every misstep of the Bush Administration’s needless creation of a quagmire in Iraq. Organized, concise and plain as day, "No End In Sight" is necessary viewing for audiences the world over. Most impressive are Ferguson’s interview subjects that include Faisal Al-Istrabadi (Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations), Chris Allbritton (Time Magazine journalist), Amb. Barbara Bodine (In Charge of Baghdad for the U.S. Occupation), Gen. Jay Garner (Administrator, ORHA, Feb-May 2003), Barry Posen (Professor and Director, National Security Program, MIT) and a very dubious Walter Slocombe (Senior Advisor for National Security and Defense, CPA).

This documentary is the kind of news we should be seeing on our television screens nightly.

The End of the Collins Bar.

Sadly, I report that the Collins Bar will be closing at the end of July. They received a "termination of lease notice" that spells the end of one of New York City’s last truly great bars.

 

 

 

If you’re in midtown Manhattan between now and the end of July, by all means enjoy a refreshing beverage at the Collins Bar – on the west side of 8^th Avenue between 46^th and 47^th streets.

 

 

A few words about Catherine Deneuve

It’s not often that I get star-struck, but it does happen. I was star-struck when I met Nicole Kidman, John Irving and Martin Scorsese, but that’s about it for celebrities who have made me forget my own name.

And so, after having slept in that morning, I had reserved my energies for the first priority of the day, enjoying a great lunch and a couple of glasses of rose while interviewing Catherine Deneuve.

I believe I was officially introduced to the cinema of Catherine Deneuve around the early spring of 1988 when I went to see Roman Polanski’s "Repulsion" at the "Old Vic Cinema" on Haight Street in San Francisco, where I lived in the wild and wooly Sunset district. Of course I had seen Deneuve in "The Hunger" (1983) and was mad for her in her scenes with the also terrific Susan Sarandon, but that didn’t count. Anyway, the "Old Vic" is the theater where you sit on old couches instead of in single seats. Pretty cool.

I found "Repulsion" deeply frightening, and I was devastated by Catherine Deneuve’s psychologically damaged character. I was so affected by Deneuve’s brilliant performance and stunning beauty that I still had no compass to gauge her as an artist. All of that changed when I saw her next in Luis Bunuel’s "Tristana" (1970). Here she plays a period character filled with burning lust that is both sophisticated and primal. From this flawless performance, I understood that Catherine Deneuve was a force of nature that deserved my close attention.

I probably learned more about fetish from Bunuel’s "Belle du Jour" than I have from pornography. Here, Deneuve, the Ice Queen, revels in sensual dreams and addiction with a dignity and sincerity that hits like a libidinous H-bomb on the screen. I could watch it right this second.

"Donkey Skin," "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," "The Last Metro," "Ma Saison Preferee," "Indochine," "Place Vendome," and "Dancer In The Dark" are just a few of the 100 films that Catherine Deneuve has graced with her perfect poise and astonishing skill. She is as beautiful today as she was 40 years ago. Yeah, I was star-struck.

And the weirdest Movie Title Winner goes to...

The most absurd movie title encountered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival goes to "THE GOLDEN NAZI VAMPIRE OF ABSAM: PART II - THE SECRET OF KOTTLITZ CASTLE" (In German with English subtitles).

This is a movie title you have to eat with a knife, fork, spoon and a cattle prod. I can't wait to see what part III is called. Congratulations Muenchner Filmwerkstatt. You have gone above and beyond...far beyond. Why is it a "Golden" Nazi Vampire? What happened in part I? Where is Kottlitz Castle, and why should I care about its secret? So many questions.

Check out the link: http://www.muenchner-filmwerkstatt.de/nazivampir.htm