It's the New Year (or it was when I
started writing this) and I didn't finish by the end of 2013. I'm
down to the last nine films now though:
- Gone with the Wind (I just keep putting this one off. Might as well make it the last on purpose)
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Les diaboliques
- Judgment at Nuremberg
- The Best Years of Our Lives
- Shadow of a Doubt (Another Hitchcock!)
- Stalag 17
- The Battle of Algiers
- The 400 Blows
Since my last post I've managed to
track down and watch
- Roman Holiday – My first exposure to Audrey Hepburn and she is a delight. That along with Gregory Peck's performance made it worth watching despite the film being a bit lightweight otherwise.
- The Seventh Seal – Unsettling, but brilliant. As with many of the best subtitled films I've watched after about twenty minutes I'd forgotten it wasn't in English. It felt like it belonged in the middle ages and definitely deserves its place.
- Wild Strawberries – Quite different to the other Bergman on the list. Still very character based, but a personal rather than supernatural drama. It doesn't suffer for it. I'm really looking forward to more Bergman now.
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – A rare modern film. Slightly off the wall feel to it that gives it a slightly otherworldly feel, but helps accentuate how strange it must have been to go through. Also a lovely film. Great viewing.
- A Streetcar Named Desire – I just don't buy Brando as the great actor. He was good certainly, but he never learned to talk with his mouth open. Vivian Leigh on the other hand was fantastic; brilliantly unhinged.
- 8 ½ – Surrealism from Fellini. It's apparently a comedy, but I didn't get it if it was. Unless it's only a comedy in the sense that it isn't serious. I've struggled with Fellini and this was no different.
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf – A master-class in marital craziness from Taylor and Burton, not much more to say.
