Top Ten Movies

[osprey_archer]

Anyone who feels like it should post their ten most CRUCIAL CRUCIAL CRUCIAL-ASS movies, like the movies that explain everything about yourselves in your current incarnations (not necessarily your ten favorite movies but the ten movies that you, as a person existing currently, feel would help people get to know you) (they can change later on obviously).

I've been meaning to do this meme for a few days, but it took me a little while to put together the list. But here we go!

Casablanca
Sophie Scholl
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
The Social Network
The Producers (the musical version, not the Mel Brooks version. I know this means that I lose all my credit for classiness.)
Amelie
Heavenly Creatures
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Pan’s Labyrinth
Phoebe in Wonderland

I think this list raises an important question, viz., What is it with me and Nazis? (Or possibly me and fascists, if you include Pan's Labyrinth.) Suddenly the fact that the Captain America movies are my favorite MCU films makes even more sense...

I've been meaning to write reviews of many of these films for ages, and I think I should take this as a prod to actually make that happen. Film review Fridays or something like that?

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's funny when you notice a theme--like fascists!

Here's a question: if you were to make a graph of when you saw these movies, would they all be clustered within a narrow age range, or spread out?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness. Let's see. I know I saw The Producers in theaters, when I would have been 17. I think I saw Heavenly Creatures before that - I saw it because Peter Jackson directed it, and the LOTR movies came out when I was in junior high. So maybe when I was 15ish?

I can't really remember how old I was when I first saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but it would have been late high school or early college. Most of the rest were when I was in college, except The Social Network, which I saw when I was 23.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Interesting! So high school and college were a high point of significant movies.

I was noticing that at least on this pass at this meme, I had a couple from early childhood--then one during college, one during grad school, and the rest are all from after I became a parent. Huge sections of my life have no significant movies associated with them!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I did consider including a movie from early childhood - An American Tail, which I must have watched a thousand times as a preschooler. But I ended up deciding against it, because I haven't seen it in years, and it would be hard in any case to pinpoint why exactly it appealed to me so much when I was tiny. (I was also awfully fond of The Land Before Time, so clearly I had a thing for orphans.)

Do you have a theory why the significant movie distribution is so uneven? I wonder how much of it is just luck, about which movies a person sees when, and how much of it is related to how much they're growing (mentally) at a particular time. Like people are more receptive to art if their worldview is already in flux.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was thinking in my own case it might have to do with *why* I watched movies at different points (I wasn't watching for any reason other than pure entertainment for most of childhood, high school, and college), combined with where I am in life making me think in terms of certain things. That last bit's not very clear, but what I mean is, I think the issues and things I think about these days makes me tend to remember and assign value to certain sorts of films. … I could imagine creating a list, though, that (for instance) had things on it like War Games and Electric Dreams--which don't fit the parameters of my current list at all (they're both American and they're not animated), and which meant a lot to me at the time and which still have things about them that I like and value.

I like your thought about people being receptive to art if their worldview is in flux. At such times, too, they may actually seek out things that are challenging and memorable.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Have you posted your movie list, or is it just in your head? I don't remember seeing it. Are all the movies on it animated?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Six of ten were! Yeah, I did, but it was underneath a bunch of photos. Not the most recent post, but the one before, I think.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

I don't see the Princess Bride on that list. Blasphemy!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I am a born infidel.

[littlerhymes]

Guess you like the idea of struggling against authoritarian rule and corrupt government? Down with fascism!

I need to see a few of these. I've never even heard of Phoebe in Wonderland!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There's clearly something here about corruption and fascism! I also really liked On the Waterfront when I saw it recently, and that's also all about corruption and loyalty &c &c.

Phoebe in Wonderland is sort of obscure. I kind of hesitate to recommend it to people because I'm not sure how much it's actually good, and how much it's just perfectly tailored to my interests, but I really like it.