Cobpyth's Top 101 Favorite Feature Films

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51. All About Eve (1950)



First of all I'd like to mention that (based on what I've seen from him so far) I think Joseph L. Mankiewicz was a great writer/director. His self-assured attitude is always very visible in his work. He knows how to write dialogue and he knows how to firmly and effectively put something on a screen. In All About Eve, his talent shines through the most, in my opinion.

All About Eve tells the story of many characters in the theater business. The most important ones are Margo Channing (brilliantly played by Bette Davis), an aging star of the theater, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), a seemingly innocent girl who starts working her way up into the business, and last but not least, one of my personal favorite film characters of all time, George Sanders' witty, but oh so deliciously malevolent theater critic, Addison DeWitt!
I am a huge fan of films that give the audience a view behind the curtains of a business or life that we don't usually come into contact with and show us new perspectives on certain things. This masterpiece is one of the best of that kind. It's clear from the opening scene (that takes place at a prestigious award show) that this film is going to show us the truth about what's behind all those fake smiles and empty praises. We're going behind the surface of the seemingly perfect and glide into a cynical cesspool of hypocrisy and emotions.



Besides offering us a dark and refreshing look on the theater business, this film also features a few very interesting character studies. Spoilers may be ahead!
There's of course Bette Davis' aging star, who is starting to feel aware of her transiency and who gets drunk on her own house party as a result of that. She's a true showbizz diva and she certainly acts accordingly, but when her self-confidence starts fading away, she shows signs of being very sensitive. She becomes just another insecure woman. She's definitely not larger than life...
Then there's Eve, the title character. She's probably one of the most despicable characters that cinema ever created. She has a dream of being succesful and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the means she uses to reach her goal couldn't be more evil. She lies, deceives, manipulates and even blackmails people so she can become the dream image she envisions for herself. It's all about her...
Addison DeWitt is the only person in the room who truly knows how this whole business works, how life works. He realises that people are willing to do a lot for succes. People are willing to pay a big price to let their dreams come true, even sell their soul to the devil. And that's who Addison DeWitt is in my opinion, the devil! He has the gift to read people and once he found his female prey that is obsessed with fame, he gives her what she wants (or at least temporarily) and then takes full control of that person's life. In a strange sort of way, he's like a dark moral compass. He lets his victims explore the darkest sides of the business and makes them taste their dream, but after that he confronts them with their deeds, humiliates them and ultimately claims their souls...



This wonderfully dark and classic tale about obsession with fame, self-importance and the exploitation of false dreams will stay a favorite of mine for many years to come. Immorality is not the key to unlock the doors to selfish dreams, although it seems to be the quickest and easiest way to do things, but it may have to take an even more immoral and darker being, like Addison DeWitt, to make you realize this...
All About Eve is an immortal classic!


Another great thing about this film is that it features one of Marilyn Monroe's early screen performances!

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019



I remember really liking All About Eve, but it's been a while since I saw it, I should rewatch it.
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I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages



Well I just went through all your choices just now and I must say very eclectic list so far, very enjoyable, maybe not quite my taste for most part. Older movies around 40s, 50s, 60s usually just don't do much for me. That's not to say I don't appreciate the path they paved for the films of today and that I would never watch them. I just don't connect with them like I do with more recent movies. The acting also just doesn't feel on par with today's films. They usually don't get much of a rise out of me however. I can appreciate them thou.

I repped you on my 3 favorite choices you made.

O Brother Where Art Thou- Absolutely adore the atmosphere of this film and I do like Greek mythology much like you, I think it's so cool. Admittedly not as proficient on it as you probably. Started my infatuation with Clooney, I put a lot more actors ahead of Clooney based on versatility and talent, but he has just made some of my favorite movies of all time.

Out Of Sight- Your sexiest movie of all time is definitely applicable here for me. J-Lo and Clooney's chemistry ranks at the top of any on screen chemistry for two actors I've seen in a movie. The sexiness is subtle and sophisticated as you said, but I think most of it stems from the sexual tension that they are not allowed to be attracted to each other. And that scene you shared is my favorite. Clooney just adding to my man crush with this one.

American Beauty - As I get older this movie gets better and better. You understand it the more experience you gain in life. If you don't like your life do something different. Kevin Spacey kills it and his character is my absolute hero in this film.

Anyways look forward to seeing the rest of your list, keep it up brother!
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I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)



50. Inglourious Basterds (2009)



Another Tarantino flick bites the dust! Unlike others, I'm also very much a fan of Tarantino's more recent films (you could already deduce that from the inclusions of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Django Unchained formerly). I like that his new films are tackling different genres, but still in a very Tarantinoesque manner. That's why I'm also one of those people that would like him to continue making other genre films (preferably genres that he hasn't tackled yet, of course)! I like seeing certain directors' visions of various kind of film universes. From Tarantino, I'd still LOVE to see a '30s gangster film or a Sci-Fi film for instance! I think he'd be able to add a very interesting twist to both of those genres. Let's hope he'll ever get to it when he's still in top form!

I've actually hesitated between Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds as my second favorite Tarantino film for a long time, but ultimately I think the latter is Tarantino's best recently made film. Django Unchained is more 'free' and more 'breathing' in tone, which gives it a great deal of charm, but ultimately the excellent firmness, the more consistent quality and the more satisfying and bold climax of Inglourious Basterds makes it rise above the former. The circle is just perfectly round in Tarantino's World War II epic. The whole plot works.



Tarantino really let himself loose in this film and did not shy away from showing off his awesome writing and directing skills. The dialogue in all the different languages (which I all understand, by the way, because German, English and French are all part of the Belgian education I got) is fantastic and Tarantino's directing is very solid and recognizable as usual! One thing that struck me is that Tarantino put a whole bunch of small details in the film to make the audience and his characters feel a certain way or even to make his plot suddenly move in an unexpected direction. Examples are the Sherlock Holmes pipe Christoph Waltz' Hans Landa is smoking in the beginning scene, the milk and food he shares with Mélanie Laurent's Shosanna in the restaurant, the napkin and the shoe of Diane Kruger's Bridget von Hammersmark that are left in the bar and of course the way Fassbender's Lt. Archie Hicox orders three drinks of Scotch. I love that kind of stuff! A seemingly very futile object, event or detail suddenly gets much more meaning to it.



I also love the pace of this film. There's a constant building of suspense (both in a microscopic and macroscopic manner) and the plot also contains a couple of very cool climaxes (the last one of course being the most notable of them all, which isn't the case in Django Unchained and that's probably why so many people think the third act of that film is less satisfying). We get slow moving, but meaningful scenes that mainly focus on small details and interesting, subtle dialogues, while there are other moments of very extreme violence (my bit about violence in Tarantino's films in my write-up on Django Unchained also very much fits in this movie's context). This variation in tempo makes every pay-off much more effective than usual action-based films. That perfect mix between action and build-up is one of the reasons why Tarantino's films are so exhilirating.



There are many other aspects that make this film brilliant, like its excellent international cast, some very cool performances (Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Diane Kruger are my personal favorites in this film), the always extremely enjoyable dark humor that Quentin implants in most of his films also works wonderfully in the context of this story, there's a very bold and daring twist at the end of the movie and of course there's that irresistible Tarantinoesque style to it all!

Inglourious Basterds is in my opinion a modern masterpiece. It's the film that finally fully proved and confirmed that Tarantino is one of the greatest and most important directors of his generation (you have to keep in mind that this was only his second film that got him any serious recognition at the high profile award shows) and on top of that it also introduced the world to one of the finest actors of our times, the great Christoph Waltz!
This film simply is cinematic entertainment at its best!


Major SPOILERS!!!

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2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Is Tarantino your favorite director? Or do you not really have a favorite and like a bunch of them? I still haven't seen Basterds



Fantastic film, definitely my second favourite Tarantino and it's very close to being my first. So many great things about it.
Ditto on both counts. I'll probably never put it ahead of Pulp Fiction, but it really gives it a run for its money. I was completely taken with it, and I've rewatched it at least a half a dozen times since. In some ways it might be his greatest achievement ("I think this just might be my masterpiece"), coming so long after Pulp and still reaching those same general heights, which based on the evidence seems to be a pretty hard thing to do. Just fantastic.



I like Inglourious Basterds, but it's not really the masterpiece the screenplay is. I've read most of Tarantino's screenplays and Inglourious Basterds takes the cake as his best. But in translating it to the screen he removed a lot of stuff that made it so good and would have made the film feel more like a film - as it is, it just feels like a bunch of great scenes to me, without feeling like a cohesive story.

This is a minor complaint though, I really do like the movie.