TheGirlWhoHadAllTheLuck_'s Top 100

Unfortunately not

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You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

Are you talking about Joe Wright's version with Kiera Knightly? I don't see how it was dreadful at all. It was a very fine film with one of my favorite soundtracks. As a mild appreciator of the novel, I thought it followed the text quite well and cut out, combined and distorted scenes very cleverly. The cinematography was top notch and ultra-modern. The tracking shots are some of the best ways to get to the f'ing point in the plot and are perfectly done. Having just seen Rear Window last night, I quite appreciate this technique.

Actors... Darcy was perfect and Elizabeth too. The other girls quite aptly fit their novel personalities and suggested their novel characters with their appearances.

The most faithful version was the 6 hour BBC one. Now THAT was dreadful. The story is just not worth stretching out for that amount of time.

Dreadful...

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

87- The Lost Weekend (1945)



"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I can't take quiet desperation!"

This was the first Hollywood film to deal with alcoholism as a serious problem and not something funny or cool. The film follows Don, a hack with an alcohol problem, as he degrades himself more and more over a 4 day binge. Ray Milland does a brilliant job portraying Don's alcoholism and Billy Wilder as director makes sure that it doesn't fall into some moralistic preaching. Yes, there's a moral but Wilder doesn't let that get in the way of the story. The hospital scene where Don starts hallucinating is surreal and crazy but pretty scary too.


86- Tea and Sympathy (1956)



"Manliness is not all swagger and mountain climbing. It's also tenderness..."

The play it's based on caused quite a scandal- partly for the homophobic bullying the teenage protagonist Tom faces (it's never clear whether he is gay or not, although one character is definitely outed) but mainly for the seduction.
Set in the early fifties, it stars John Kerr as a schoolboy whose lack of interest in sports and enjoyment of sewing and poetry makes the other boys accuse him of being gay (not openly- this is the fifties after all). Deborah Kerr (no relation to John apparantly) is frustrated by her husband's lack of interest in her and she is pleased by the affections of Tom. But then she offers him a lot more than tea and sympathy...
It's a fun melodrama which gives a good insight into fifties' masculinity and the idiocy of stereotyping. I do like my schoolboy films


85- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)



"I would my horse had the speed of your tongue."

Yeah, people complained about miscasting but the two pairs of lovers aren't miscast and that's really what it all hinges on. Emma Thompson is brilliant as smart sharp-tongued Beatrice and Kenneth Branagh is very good as pouting Benedick. For those shy of Shakespeare, this film shows that Shakespeare really was the master of rom-coms.


84- Easy Virtue (2008)



Marion: "I don't feel like smiling."
Mr Whittaker: "You're English dear- fake it."

Noel Coward's plays are pretty hard to get right on film. For a start, they're drawing-room comedies and so the action is confined to a small space, and secondly, you need very good actors who can deliver Coward's witty lines effectively.
Set in the thirties, Ben Barnes is the son of a posh English family bringing home his wife who is older and American- an amusing clash of cultures follows. Colin Firth is particularly good as Jim Whittaker, delivering the dialogue brilliantly and Kristen Scott Thomas is very good also. The soundtrack is fun- thirties' spin on modern songs- Coward hasn't sounded so good for years.

It entirely missed the point of the novel. The novel's a satire on 19th century customs but instead they try and turn it into a mawkish love story that you could find in any chick lit. I doubt the director even read the book and the American ending...urgh, it was dreadful. It looked pretty enough though.
The BBC version was very faithful (apart from the infamous pond scene): you got the sense of the period- vital to appreciating the novel- plus Austen's humour and wit and all the nuances. Plus Colin Firth The guy playing Mr Collins got it spot on.

Ghostbusters, Pans Labyrinth..now we're talking baby.

5 of the movies on your top 100 are also in mine

83- Henry V (1989)



"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves acursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day!"

I was never really keen on Shakespeare's histories, or war films, but Branagh's version of Henry V changed my mind about both. Instead of being a patriotic play, Branagh finds darkness in it and he gives us a 'grittier' version. Only in his late-twenties when he directed it, Branagh does a very good job, and his portrayal of Henry V is not as a regal Shakespearean but as a boy forced to become a man. You can see the sparks between him and Emma Thompson as the French princess.

82- Metropolis (1927)



"There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."

One of the best dystopic films- if not the best-ever, Metropolis proves that you can make a great sci-fi/dystopic film without CGI or even spoken dialogue. The bit where Maria turns into evil debauched robot Maria is effectively done with a camera trick...this is just a great dystopia. It wasn't all being tied to train tracks and clowning about in the silent movie days! Recently some footage has been rediscovered so I'm hoping for a re-release

81- Orphée (1950)


"I am letting you into the secret of all secrets, mirrors are gates through which death comes and goes. Moreover if you see your whole life in a mirror you will see death at work as you see bees behind the glass in a hive."

Jean Cocteau was the master of French surrealism. This film's based on his play- a version of the legend of Orpheus, a musician who loses his wife in the underworld. Here, it's the modern day and Orpheus is a bohemian poet. Death is a glamorous woman he falls in love with and her minions are leather jacket-wearing motorbikers. A scene from the film, with Orpheus gazing longingly into the mirror that is the entrance to the underworld, on the cover of an album by The Smiths (an alternative eighties band for you youngsters).

80- A Star is Born (1954)



"Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine."
Although it was intended as a vehicle for Judy Garland, you don't need to be a big Garland fan to enjoy it. It's more tragic than the '37 version (apart from Frederic March's brilliantly tragic performance) because you can see Judy Garland is actually a star and so her guilt at husband Norman Maine (James Mason)'s collapsing career and personal collapse is so poignant.
James Mason expertly portrays Norman's struggle to be happy for his wife when his own career and life has hit rock bottom. The story is inherently tragic because it's so true but these two stars really add something.

79- The Great Gatsby (1972)



"They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."

I'd read the novel before hand and visually this film is spot on. It's faithful to the novel and very tragic. Nobody can participate in a loving two-sided relationship- the mechanic loves his wife one-sidedly, Gatsby loves Daisy one-sidedly and Nick loves Gatsby (the nature of which has been debated) one sidedly. Mia Farrow gives a suitably shallow Daisy but also suggests a mental illness aspect. Scott Wilson is particularly good as Wilson, the honest but rather blind and slightly stupid mechanic. The novel is full of symbolic landscapes which the film recreates hauntingly. The Valley of Ashes is particularly disturbing.

I agree that the ending was 'tarded; I think it should have cut off with Mr. Bennet laughing, but as for missing out on the satire, I don't understand what else they could have done but have Mrs. Bennet, Collins, and Mrs. Bingley act the way they act like, which Wright did. It is also a love story, and I never found P&P to be MORE of a satire than a love story.

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Hmmm... I really disliked the film version of Gatsby. I felt it was really reductive to the book, not in the sense of missing plot points or cutting things out (it didn't really) but, for me at least, the atmosphere of the film was very unlike that of the book. It failed to "capture" the feeling of the book for me where P&P did, somehow.

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Good choices by the way. I haven't seen a lot of these films like Easy Virtue, Tea and Sympathy, Orphee and the Shakespeare adaptations, but I'll appropriate them as recs! Thanks.

78- Blithe Spirit (1945)



If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch.

The second Noel Coward play to make it into the list. Charles (Rex Harrison) is writing a novel involving a spiritual medium, so he and his second wife Ruth invite a medium to their house. Unfortunately the medium manages to conjure up the ghost of Charles' first wife, the spirited Elvira. Of course, Ruth thinks he's just playing a mean joke, but Charles rather enjoys having two women squabble over him. But the enjoyment won't last long...
Yet again, there's a darker edge to Coward's light-hearted comedy and we get a neat twist that adds to the humour. My TV broke and so the first time I watched it was in black and white but it is in fact a colour film so the ghost has a horrible green colour.

If you enjoy good English wit, this is a brilliant example.


77- A Taste of Honey (1961)





"You don't look forty. You look a sort of well-preserved sixty."

Most people would cite 'Look Back in Anger' as being the best example of the kitchen sink/Angry Young Men genre. 'Look Back in Anger' was a good play and the film version wasn't bad, but A Taste of Honey is a good film in its own right. If you want 1960's kitchen sink realism, this is a brilliant example.
Rita Tushingham plays fifteen year old Jo, who is kicked out by her mother and her mother's slimy boyfriend because she gotten pregnant by a sailor (unbeknown to the mother, he is black). Jo goes to live with a young gay man she has befriended and they find happiness, until Jo's mother starts interfering.

Whilst America was still getting huffy about 'taboo' issues, Britain were making films that weren't afraid to tackle such things. Back when this film was made, racism was casual and to be gay was still a criminal offence. Shelagh Delaney was only 19 when she wrote the play yet it tackles the realities of working-class life head on.




76- Footloose (1984)



"If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days, of this obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality?"

There's three dance films that really stood out in the eighties, all of which begin with 'F'. Two of them feature in my list.

So, to the first. Kevin Bacon stars as Ren, the new kid in a town where- brace yourselves for the most implausible plot ever- they have banned all public dancing and music. They seem to have banned some books too. Of course, Ren is going to have to get them boogying, whilst winning the heart of Ariel, the rebellious daughter of the local preacher.

This is a fun film about teenage rebellion- ignore the plot and enjoy the dancing. Ren dancing around his workplace (some sort of warehouse) is particularly funny.



75- Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)



"I don't remember your face, but your hands are familiar."

Although Tennessee Williams' plays always had to be bowdlerised to an extent before they could make it on the big screen, they still produced films that dealt with interesting issues. Chance (Paul Newman) is a drifter who returns to his home town to get his girl Heavenly back. He returns with Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page), an aging movie star to whom he is a rent boy, basically, and hopes that she'll be his ticket into Hollywood. However unbeknown to Chance, before he left he got Heavenly pregnant and her father's out to get him...

Paul Newman is fabulous- well, of course he is- as Chance, the good-looking player, and he and Geraldine Page have good chemistry.

In the actual play, Heavenly has an STD which forces her to have a hysterectomy. The other main thing they changed was what happens to Chance near the end...a line left in the film, "I'll sort you out like my dog when he went sniffing round the bitches"...that's a little hint.

74- 12 Angry Men (1957)




"We may be trying to let a guilty man go free, I don't know. Nobody really can. But we have a reasonable doubt, and that's something that's very valuable in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's SURE."

This may well be the best courtroom drama ever- probably the best I've seen. The vast majority of the action is contained in the room where the jury (the twelve angry men, all of whom are only referred to in the cast by numbers) in the title are deliberating the case of a Hispanic teenager who is accused of killing his father. It seems clear cut but Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) wants to look at the case a little more closely. My explanation doesn't really do justice- it's a great film about justice and prejudice. But what will be the verdict? Ah, you will have to watch...



73- Summer Interlude (1951)




"There are five or six films in the history of the cinema which one wants to review simply by saying, 'It is the most beautiful of films.' Because there can be no higher praise... I love Summer Interlude." (Jean Luc Godard on 'Summer Interlude')

I've only seen two Ingmar Bergman films so far- this one and The Hour of The Wolf. The latter is worth YouTubing for some scenes but this one is brilliant as a whole.
The story's simple- a ballerina looks back on her teenage romance that ended badly- but it's beautifully shot, beautifully acted...deserves to be mentioned amongst Bergman's best. It reminds me a little bit of The Red Shoes actually.


72- Chicago (2002)



"In this town, murder's a form of entertainment."


Most musical sceptics main problem with musicals is that the bursts into song are 'random' and 'unbelievable', which is sort of missing the point (I mean, children flying on broomsticks and hitting flying balls- that's not very realistic). Chicago solves that problem by having all the musical numbers, except those sung at the club, as fantasies of aspiring showgirl performer Roxie Hart (Renee Zellwegger).
It's the 1930's and Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones), star performer, has been arrested for killing her hubby. Roxie is also eventually arrested for murdering her lover, and what follows is the showbiz razzle dazzle of the media. Celebrity trumps all.

So, if you're not really into musicals, try this one. Good songs and a little bite.


71- Clue (1985)



"Communism was just a red herring"

The critics didn't like it much but this is actually a really fun film. It's a murder mystery spoof/farce based on the board game Clue. All the characters are there (Reverend Green has been changed to Mr Green but still) plus an appropriately named Mr Boddy and a butler called Wadsworth. Set in 1954 it makes many jokes about the government and the red scare. It's filled with one-liners (see IMdb for the proof)...if you want a cult camp classic and you've seen Rocky Horror, this'll do nicely.

70- Night of The Iguana (1964)



"I thought you were sexless. But you've just become a woman. And do you know how I know that? Because *you* like *me* tied up! All women, whether they wish to admit it or not, would like to get men into a tied-up situation."

Another Tennessee Williams adaptation here, with all the steam and anguish you'd expect. Richard Burton plays Rev. T Lawrence Shannon, a defrocked priest who has got a new job as a tour guide in Mexico. Throughout the tour he has been distracted by a pretty young woman (Sue Lyon), whose female guardian is not impressed and is trying to get him fired. He goes a little crazy and takes his busload of female tourists to a hotel run by his friend Maxine (Ava Gardener). The third woman in his life is eccentric painter Hannah, who looks after her 91 year old grandfather, a poet. Shannon, with the help of Maxine and Hannah, struggles toward redemption.

It's another underrated play, and film (the film makers had the good sense to take out the singing Nazi family). If you like Under the Volcano or any of those 'going mad in a wild climate' style films, you'll love this.

Wow, I'm still sitting on zero.

69- A Single Man (2009)



"It takes time in the morning for me to become George, time to adjust to what is expected of George and how he is to behave. By the time I have dressed and put the final layer of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect George I know fully what part I'm suppose to play."

The film follows one day in the life of George (Colin Firth), a British professor living in America who is mourning the death of his long-term partner Jim. He is isolated but slowly brought out of himself by his best friend Charlie and a curious schoolboy.

Why Hollywood are still surprised that straight men can play gay characters is beyond me. Yes, Firth is convincing as a gay man but he's played gay characters before, so let's put that to the side. This is a brilliant portrayal of what it feels to be isolated and the importance of breaking through that isolation. George is just an ordinary guy, and Firth is one of the few actors that can play ordinary guys without being flashy.

68- Maurice (1987)




"England has always been disinclined to accept human nature."

I am a sucker for all these Brideshead stylee movies they had in the 1980's. If you loved Brideshead Revisited (the 1981 TV version not the pointless remake), you'll love the college romance between Maurice and Clive. Hugh Grant is actually pretty good in this and gives Clive a layer of depth. And if you love Lady Chatterley's Lover, you'll love it when Scudder, the young Mellors-esque character (Rupert Graves with an adorable accent) enters into the mix. My heart flutters when he climbs the ladder

67- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)



"Kidnap the Sandy Claws, / beat him with a stick, / lock him up for ninety years, / see what makes him tick."

Quirky and macabre animated Christmas tale from Tim Burton- and it doesn't star Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter, much to everyone's surprise. Basically, a skeleton from Halloweentown discovers Christmas and decides to take it back to his own country- with darkly amusing results. It's a welcome break from all those horrible mawkish films or 'seasonal' comedies you normally get at Christmas. And it has singing!

Nice mix of movies, impressive so far!

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"I know, honey. Look at the map. We go your way, that's about four inches. We go my way, it's an inch and a half. You wanna pay for the extra gas?"

I love your choices with The Great Gatsby and Sweet Bird of Youth. I don't think The Great Gatsby gets nearly enough love.

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66- Music and Lyrics (2007)



"Are you trying to tell me that you enjoyed that orgasm set to the "Gandhi" soundtrack?"

Yes, it's a bit cheesy but it didn't deserve the critical sneering it got. Hugh Grant stars as a washed up pop-star, the less successful member of an 80's duo called 'Pop!' (remind you of anyone?) So, the guy who is like-Andrew- Ridgely-but-not is asked to write a song for a pop star that's a bit like Shakira. He discovers that his housekeeper Drew Barrymore is pretty good at churning out lyrics- his lyrics are bad- and so they form a partnership which of course becomes romantic (you would've thought he's a bit too old for her but ah well). Then there's some misunderstandings.

The soundtrack is fun, although badly sung (I think Hugh Grant sings). A particular highlight is the music video for Pop!'s song 'Pop Goes My Heart'.

65- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)



"It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces."

Bridget Jones (Renee Zellwegger) is a thirty-something singleton, longing to lose weight and bag herself a man. But will it be bad boss Daniel Cleaver or stuffy Mark Darcy? As you probably guessed from the last surname, this is a modern day Pride and Prejudice varient, and if you watched the BBC version of P and P, you can have a good guess who plays Darcy in this one. Yep, it's Colin Firth, with Hugh Grant as the baddie for once and not a bumbling Brit.

64- Love Actually (2003)



"Now which doll shall we give Daisy's little friend Emily? The one that looks like a transvestite or the one that looks like a dominatrix?"

It's the run-up to Christmas and all over London, various love entanglements are happening, whether it's a young boy's crush or the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) starting to fancy his assistant. In all, there are about eight different story threads. Some threads are more interesting than others but the film quickly switches between threads. All your British stars are here- Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, etc. Basically this is just a nice film to watch when you're in a Christmassy mood- what other mood could you stand to hear 'Love is all Around' in? The Americans tried their own version with Valentine's Day, which I have yet to watch but it's apparantly not as good. And Bill Nighy is funny as aging rocker Billy Mack, hoping to do a Christmassy themed cover of 'Love is All Around.'

63- Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000)



"Have I chosen my name? My femininity? My appearance? Then why should I choose my husband? "

Its American alternative title is 'I have Found It'. Basically, this is an updating of Sense and Sensibility- the elder sister is cynical in romance, the younger sister is a hopeless romantic, both of which states have their downfall. Aishwarya Rai plays the younger romantic sister who is blind to the affections of the wounded Captain. The songs are wonderful...it's just a really nice film

62- Love's Labour's Lost (2000)




"Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; our court shall be a little Academe, still and contemplative in living art."

It got a lukewarm reception from the critics but it's actually a little gem. It's not the first time Shakespeare's been turned into a musical, but it's the first time anybody's taken an obscure Shakespeare comedy and turned it into a thirties musical. (Yes, Kenneth Branagh is behind it) It's set circa 1939 and so though the songs are from the thirties, the period style is more like fourties MGM.
The singing may not be accomplished but that adds to the charm- it is after all a comedy. One of my favourite scenes is a raunchy version of Let's Face The Music and Dance at a masquerade ball where the men hope to confuse the ladies by wearing masks and thus have fun with all of them, breaking their vow to abstain from women for three years. Distinctive and unique, this is well worth watching for Shakespeare and musical fans (or if you're like me, a combination of both). Another distinctive feature is the fact that it's very short (I think it's just under an hour and a half).

61- The Railway Children (1970)




"Apple pie for breakfast - we can't be poor after all!"

Totally charming film based on the children's novel. In Victorian England three children and their mother are forced to move from their London house to a cottage in the country when their father is taken away on a false charge. They become 'the railway children' when they save a train from crashing and make various friends along the way, including a helpful old gentleman. It's impossible not to cry with happiness at the final scene. Jenny Agutter, who plays the eldest daughter, played the mother in the 2000 TV adaptation of the book.

60- Mulan (1998)



"Who is that girl I see/ staring straight back at me?/ Why is my reflection someone I don't know? Somehow I cannot hide/ who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show/ who I am inside?"

First Disney film on the list. It's set in Ancient China- Mulan isn't cut out for being madeover into a doll by the matchmaker. When her injured father is called up to go to war, Mulan sneaks away and takes his place by dressing up as a 'son'. The insanely fit Captain provides distraction but Mulan must prove herself and make her family proud. The Huns are genuinely scary but this film is more comic and less tear-jerking then some Disney films. Eddie Murphy is great as Mulan's animal sidekick, a little dragon. The songs are pretty good- this film was the last film of the Disney Renaissance (a period between 1989 to 1999 when Disney started making films that got critical acclaim as well as box office success)

59- Grease (1978)





"I got chills / They're multiplyin' / And I'm losing control / Cause the power you're supplying / It's electrifyin'."

Everybody's watched Grease, haven't they? If you haven't, all you need to know is that John Travolta plays a cool kid, Olivia Newton John plays a prim new kid, and it's set in a fifties high school. The songs are wonderfully catchy- this is the perfect film to watch as a group, maybe at a party, maybe after a few drinks.

58- Bugsy Malone (1976)




"And now my friends, listen to what I'm telling you and listen good. There's only room for one Mr. Big in this town and that's me, Dandy Dan. And fellas, the time has come for us to play our next card, and believe you's me, Fat Sam and his dumb bumbs ain't gonna stand in our way."

I auditioned for a stage version of this once. Didn't get in because I was dreadful but it brings the memories back...
For those who don't know it, this is a gangster musical set in the thirties, the entire cast of which is teenage and below. That may sound either incredibly annoying or a bit creepy but it's actually neither. The songs are very good and it's all fun-wouldn't you just love a splurge gun? Fourteen-year-old Jodie Foster is particularly good as Tallulah, head showgirl and heartbreaker.



57- Oliver! (1968)




"No, I won't tell ya! Whatever else I do I won't turn on him. You wouldn't understand, but I've got to go back. I want to go back."

Dickensian London- a maltreated orphan, Oliver Twist (Mark Lester), wonders 'where is love?' and falls in with a nice gang of thieves, led by Fagin (Ron Moody). But the scariest thief is Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed), who beats his girlfriend, the tart with a heart Nancy (Shani Wallis) who's still hopelessly in love with him. The story doesn't seem to lend itself to being a family musical but it works. With classic songs 'Consider Yourself' and 'As Long As He Needs Me', this is a top musical. And Oliver Reed is terrifying as Bill Sikes.

Love your list... it's very personal... which is what these lists should be...

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I've slotted in two new ones. It's impossible to decide, considering how wildly different some of the films are.

Anyhow, the fact that they're in my top 100 is the main thing

Good to see movies like Mulan, Love Actually, Grease, Footloose. Some great choices.

Okay, due to my complete lack of organisational skills, I've slotted in some new movies- well worth having a look at

98- Suddenly, Last Summer
70- Night of The Iguana