Post#51 » by Jammer » Mon Jan 7, 2008 5:13 am
Before commenting on your list, I thought that I'd mention some of my favorite films.
1. Potemkin (AKA Battleship Potemkin)
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Some Like It Hot
3. Coming to America
5. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
6. M (Lang again)
7. Stagecoach (1939)
8. The Four Feathers (1939)
9. Grand Hotel
10. Annie Hall
11. American Graffitti
12. American Hot Wax
13. Star Wars, Return of the Jedi
14. Casablanca (How do you like that Eisensteinian montage that opens the film, reminescent of the Odessa Steps Sequence in Potemkin. And tell me that Claude Rains as Captain Renault doesn't steal the film from Bogart and Bergman)
15. A Night at the Opera
Moving on to your list, I thought that the premise for The Life of David Gale would be difficult to attract theatre goers (a terminally ill lawyer commits suicide, but plants evidence to convict someone willing to take the wrap to prove that capital punishment is wrong because it can lead to convicting an innocent person). The box office for the first year out was dismal, perhaps as low as $3 million. Anyway, from a marketing viewpoint, I just saw it a tough sell.
Fritz Lang's M is a classic. His wife co-wrote his films with him, and he had the same cinematographer on all his films, I believe. Really great one. That film made 19 year old Peter Lorre an international star before he ever came to America.
The Pianist was quite enjoyable. The screenwriter emphasized the day after the Oscars that year that lead actor Adrian Brody required "a lot of work", meaning a lot of coaching by Director Roman Polanski to get the part down. The screenwriter emphasized that he thought that Brody was "a little sh*t" for not acknowledging all the coaching that he received from his Director. Fortunately, Polanski received the Best Director Oscar, accepted in abstentia due to his 1977 warrant for seducing a minor. After watching Brody act in a multitude of sketches on Saturday Night Live, I realized "the narrowness" of his work, and that he really had been coached into his amazing performance. Other actors, like Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston, have excelled in every sketch they performed in Saturday Live Guest Host appearances, demonstrating their versatility and completeness.
There's a huge hole in the plot for The Usual Suspects, although it's a great film. The fax that comes in at the end of the film to Chaz Palmentieri's detective office with a photo of Kevin Spacey's character - if no one knows what he looks like, how does that coincidence (deux ex machina) happen??
