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Your "perfect" films

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
I didn't always feel this way, but I think now I like that Ilsa didn't stay with Rick. Sure the noble-self-sacrifice thing and all (and being married to oh-so-perfect Lazlo would be a sacrifice) is impressive and, of course, Rick has to go fight in the war to bring a severe beat-down on the nazis and save the world for freedom, but the real reason is that, for Rick, I think Ilsa will be a better memory than a life-long relationship.

We all have those few women (and, I assume, women have those men) that we dated in our lives - the connection, the passion, the sex, the moment, the frisson was all perfect, all toe curling, all, well, all. Maybe we broke up and got back together (like Rick and Ilsa, for one night of everything), but then it was truly over.

You look back on those as some of life's perfect vignettes - perfect even in their, sometimes, messiness. They are all bookended nicely in your memory. You can go there, feel them, relive them and put them back on the shelf. They don't have to evolve, change, grow, adapt or compromise - they are over, but they are all yours forever. That is what Ilsa will always be for Rick - a perfect vignette, a perfectly messy and wonderful moment in his long life.
I know this may be taken as heresy but Lazlo is my least favorite character in that entire picture. He comes across as too perfect and in spite of his work, I take him as somewhat of an ass. He needed to struggle at least a little.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,207
Location
Troy, New York, USA
Crikey... How'd I'd miss this first time around?

War:
"12 O'clock High"
"Sahara"
"They Were Expendable"
"Das Boot"
"Glory"
"The Cruel Sea"

Romance:
"Casablanca"

Drama:
"The Godfather" (Parts One and Two)
"The Imitation Game"
"The Seven Samurai"
"The Browning Version"
"Goodbye Mr. Chips"

Westerns:
"Red River"
"Fort Apache"
"Tombstone"
"The Outlaw Josey Wales"

Monster/Sci-Fi & Fantasy:
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
"Them"
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (Original please
"King Kong" (Original)
"The Thing From Another World" - Both versions different reasons.
"Gojira" - There can be only one "king".
"Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan"
"Raiders of the Lost Ark"

This is the best I can do off the top of my head. All of these are "stop and drop" movies for me.

Worf
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Comedy:
Most films by Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd,
Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Sullivan’s Travels.
Young Frankenstein.

Westerns:
1. Shane
2. The Searchers.
3. Gone With the Wind.
 
Last edited:

NattyLud

New in Town
Messages
27
As much as I love film, it is so tough to make a list; there's too many that I like and my favorites among them are always changing. So some notables in roughly chronological order--

City Lights
It Happened One Night
Laura
Double Indemnity
Fallen Angel (1945)
Bicycle Thieves
Carrie (1952)
The Hustler (1961)
Through a Glass Darkly
Pierrot le Fou
High Plains Drifter
Lacombe Lucien
 
Messages
17,213
Location
New York City
As much as I love film, it is so tough to make a list; there's too many that I like and my favorites among them are always changing. So some notables in roughly chronological order--

City Lights
It Happened One Night
Laura
Double Indemnity
Fallen Angel (1945)
Bicycle Thieves
Carrie (1952)
The Hustler (1961)
Through a Glass Darkly
Pierrot le Fou
High Plains Drifter
Lacombe Lucien

Don't know most of these, but am surprised I never thought of mentioning "The Hustler" before as everything is really well done in that one - no boring or false scenes, incredible acting, fantastic directing, great B&W and, as Worf would say, it's a "stop 'n' drop" movie.
 
Messages
15,259
Location
Arlington, Virginia
Don't know most of these, but am surprised I never thought of mentioning "The Hustler" before as everything is really well done in that one - no boring or false scenes, incredible acting, fantastic directing, great B&W and, as Worf would say, it's a "stop 'n' drop" movie.
100% with you there. One of my all time favorites.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Messages
17,213
Location
New York City
100% with you there. One of my all time favorites.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

And if "The Sweet Smell of Success" and few others hadn't told you the bell was wrung and the code-enforced era of movie making was over, "The Hustler" made it very clear. Crime and corruption were endemic and weren't always punished by society; sex (of the pre-marital or in-exchange-for-money kind) and drugs (not prescribed) were prevalent and a general seediness, squalor and moral decay were on display - this was not your parent's movie.
 
Messages
11,164
Location
SoCal
Recent great watches:

Rashomon
Barton Fink
Pattycake$
La Grande Belezza
Rope
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The secret of Roan Inish
The Straight Story
The Black Stallion

I also liked I Tonya and Ladybird.
 

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