talkmagic.co.uk

I didn't want to hijack the New years resolution thread but one of mine this year is to watch more 'classic' films.

Throughout university I was really into music and DJing and so I didn't watch the obligatory greats and now I'm suffering when everyone gets drunk and I'm left with absolutely no knowledge.

I've just bought the three Godfather's, Psycho, The Birds and I'm getting One flew over the cuckoo's nest on the way home.

What im looking for is everyone's suggestions of what to watch. I know i could read a '100 greatest films' article but i'd rather get some that have been recommended personally (plus they should be cheap with the HMV sale and the inevitable demise of Zavvi).

Anything before 1990 will be considered - any genre, and when i say i havent seen many, i mean it. Some of the films i havent seen include 'The Italian Job', 'The Shining', 'Blade Runner' etc (although im sure someone will recommend these)

thanks for any help

You've got a lot of watching to do! Off the top of my head:

Rear Window
North By Northwest
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
Blazing Saddles
The Producers
Dr Strangelove
The Shining
Alien
Airplane
The Blues Brothers
The Italian Job
Kelly's Heros
Take the Money and Run


God, the list is endless, as I'm sure you're about to discover from other posters!

Good choices from Tomo. Dr Strangelove and Casablanca being two of my favs from his list. I will add:

Citizen Cane
A Matter of life and death
Fistful of dollars trilogy
Once upon a time in America
Brief encounter
Withnail and I
The devil rides out

The shining
One flew over the cookoos nest
Coming to america
see no evil hear no evil
commando, Arnie
i second citizen kane

I think there all before 1990 but a couple may be around that sort of era late 80s maybe 90/91

Here's a few (mainly horror and sci-fi)...

Akira
Alien
Blade Runner
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Dead of Night
Halloween
The Shining
Taxi Driver

There's more, but that's all for now.

cheers - so far of the ones suggested ive seen

Alien
Airplane
and
Taxi Driver

to the sales i go!

Ideas are coming to me thick and fast now:

For a damned good laugh: Ghostbusters, Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda and Trading Places!

I know it's not pre-1990, but Belleville Rendezvous is genuinely superb, as is Amilee and pretty much any of the Coen Brothers stuff (The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?). And who could forget Withnail and I?!

Tell you what though, for the sheer, schmaltzy life-affirmingness of it all, watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with someone you really love and have a bloody good cry. It's very good for your mental health to just let go and have a good sob about absolutely nothing.

just had a thought, perhaps i should start with the ones on Directors Cut to help my performance!

The Elephant Man
Original hunchback of notre dame
Withnail & I
Citizen Kane (again!)
F is for Fake
The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky dvd set (Holy Mountain especially)
All early Mel Brooks films - young frankenstein and history of the world part I
especially.
The Invisible Man (claude raines original)
Get Carter
the first Rocky

There you go - thats ten suggestions for you.

Oh, as for magic related (i know you didnt ask, but...)
Magic - 1971 i think, Anthony Hopkins going mental in more ways than one, and the finest Do as I Do effect ever!

and

Harlequin - Robert Powell, a politically framed re-write of Rasputin, but set in the late 70s

finally,

The Dead Zone - from the Steven King story - alledgedly based on Peter Hurkos in some respects, a dutch psychic. But far more gruesome.

I know The Notebook is post-1990 (2004, actually) but it's a superb love story if you fancy a good old sob. Possibly the saddest film I have ever seen and one of the best I have seen recently.

Cul de Sac
Rope
Amadeus
Brazil

The Apartment
Ace in the Hole
Dark Star
M. Hulot's Holiday
Mon Oncle
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Silent Running
Night of the Hunter
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Raise the Red Lantern
To Live
Bone
Being There
Harold and Maude
Dead Ringers
Miracle Mile
Repulsion
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Shogun Assassin
La Belle et la Bete

That'll do for now.

Pete

Only one from me: Clockwork Orange

Rebecca
Shawshank Redemption
Jacobs Ladder
Crying Game
The Killing Fields

Don't quote me on the years but in my mind these are films everyone should see!!

I forgot to add one to my list:

PLANET OF THE APES

And by that I mean the original one with Charlton Heston - not the substandard sequels or Tim Burton's painfully-bad remake.

Pete