Your favourite ever film?

[NickM]

I like Mulholland Drive better than any other film, because it shows what can be achieved when imagination is not bound by the almost-universal filmic narrative conventions and a director is willing to exploit the medium of film to the full. Quite apart from which it is a thrilling, beautiful and fascinating experience, and carries not one excess minute.

Last Year in Marienbad attempts the same sort of thing but succeeds only in being dismal, mystifying and protracted.

Among more conventional films I really, really like Fargo and The Big Lebowski for their wit and essential humanity (no, that last word was not a typo, before anybody jumps on it...).

 

[Maz]

Napoleon Dynamite

I really enjoyed this, too. Very quirky.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I can't say I liked Mulholland Drive much, except for the jitterbug scene at the beginning and the lesbian scene. Otherwise, it was rather nightmarish, like most his films.

Bladerunner is definitely up there, although nothing like the book. I prefered the film myself, especially the director's cut once I worked out the significance of the unicorn; before I couldn't see what the fuss was about.

My favourite films are probably The Big Lebowski, Millers Crossing, Reservoir Dogs and The Unforgiven.

 

[Wolf04]

I dispute this actually, and I am a serious Dickhead (as many people will tell you here .

Films and books are different. They cannot be the same, and I don't think they can even be compared in this way. Ridley Scott took the basic themes and the plot of Dick's book and made something new which works on its own as a thing, and actually does not need to justify itself in comparison to the book. That's how all good adaptations should be.

It would have been very difficult to replicate the ironic dark and absurd humour that absolutely permeates Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, in the same way that you couldn't have had the rambling interior monologues from A Scanner Darkly in the film version (or not without making it seriously tedious). Instead, in the latter Linklater uses visual cues to indicate the breakdown of Arctor's mind in the film of ASD, and in the former, Scott updates the setting of DADoES, which was largely suburban, helping to define the urban imagery of cyberpunk in the process. And if for nothing else, Blade Runner is a classic for its imagery, drawing on things as diverse as the factories in Stockton, contemporary Tokyo and early expressionist SF films like Metropolis, but creating an entirely fresh dystopia...

I agree with the majority of your post other than I think comparison between the original book and film adaptions is an entirely acceptable process. Although as you point out Bladerunner doesn't need to be viewed or judged in conjuction with Dick's book, it couldn't exist without it. I agree entirely that Bladerunner visual imagary was stunning and even trend setting, without the books basic themes however the visuals would have been for nothing. Where do you stand on the original versus directors cut?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Where do you stand on the original versus directors cut?

I am one of the rare people who actually likes the original theatre release with the world-weary 40s-style voice-over... up to the happy ending however, which was ridiculous. The director's cut is a better film. I have the 'final cut', which I hope really is final because I am not buying another one!

 

[NickM]

I can't say I liked Mulholland Drive much, except for the jitterbug scene at the beginning and the lesbian scene...

Oh, come on - what about the scene where Gene, the muscle-bound pool man (played by Billy Ray Cyrus) who's shagging the film director's wife gets knocked cold by the unfeasibly large heavy? You must have liked that bit, surely?

 

[Chris James]

My favourite films are probably The Big Lebowski, Millers Crossing,

I'm a Coen brothers fan too.

Favourite films of mine include

Miller's Crossing
The Hudsucker Proxy
Delicatessen
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Goodfellas
City of God

 

[rich p]

Deerhunter

 

[Dayvo]

Another vote for The Big Lebowski.

And Zulu
K-Pax
All Quiet on the Western Front (the original)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (the 1968 version)
Gladiator
Debbie Does Dallas, oh, that's a different category!

 

[GaryA]

I remember the visual impression the radical documentary Yu Koyo Peya* by Tyler Kimble....made in 2006-even more relevant now ......it is now on you youtube in 3 parts......
Someone like NickM would find it interesting




*( 'the land is ending')

 

[Melvil]

Here's my top five:

1) The Shawshank redemption - cliche I know but its fab
2) The big lebowski - FAF!
3) Oldboy - turns you inside out
4) Beau Travail - absolutely stunning cinematography
5) Goodfellas - immaculately played by the cast

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Watched OldBoy, a Korean film about a guy who is kidnapped and locked up for fifteen years on Friday, and Blood Diamond last night, a fantastic film (dodgy 'Rhodesian' accents apart, huh?). A really great story and nice mix of action scenes, story telling and even a bit of lovey dovey stuff! Best film I've seen for ages.

I thought you said you didn't watch films?

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Kes

 

[Night Train]

I think the directors cut improved it a lot.

I think the directors cut was loads better then the original version. I get it and I like it and would add to my list.
Shawshank Redemption is great too.

 

[Mr Pig]

I am one of the rare people who actually likes the original theatre release with the world-weary 40s-style voice-over

I think 'The Final Cut' is the best version of Blade Runner. I've got the box set in the tin which has a really interesting documentary too. I don't like the voice-over.