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afi updated its top 100 american films last year. interesting to see what rises and falls in their esteem. spielberg is a little overrepresented in my estimation. hard to see shindlers list cracking my top 100 much less the top 10. cant believe The Third Man, Giant and A Place in the Sun gets short shrift for the likes of The Shawshank Redemption Titanic The Sixth Sense and Toy Story. conversely nice to see Nashville, Sunrise The Last Picture Show and Swing Time crack the list.
just to maintain fealty to the log i will note that i watched Stage Door directed by gregory la cava starring kate hepburn and ginger rogers and Singin in the Rain with gene kelly, debbie reynolds and donald o'çonnor directed by stanley donen. also the previous day i absorbed the better part of two epics Fiddler on the Roof directed by norman (im not a jew) jewison and david leans Dr Zhivago with julie cristie omar sharif and alec guiness among others.
“CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” on skateboards — that was one of the early tag lines floating around the production of “Paranoid Park,” the new film by Gus Van Sant. Based on a novel by Blake Nelson, the story follows a teenage skateboarder in Portland, Ore., who accidentally kills a security guard and is then left to ponder his guilt in a void of suburban amorality.
watched The Philadelphia Story which for me was the equivalent of a gateway drug in terms of my interest in classic film. and after numerous viewings it still retains its intoxicating allure. in rock the question is often posed "do you prefer the stone or the beatles?" similarly one might ask the same of jimmy stewart or cary grant. ive always leaned towards the image of cosmopolitan sheen of grant versus the stuttering boyish cornfed all-american stewart. but its hard not to be charmed by stewarts oscar winning performance even if his character loses out in the end (a little to readily to my taste) to the more inwardly cynical grant. meanwhile hepburn is at her best here in a part she brought with her from broadway to save her flagging film career. watching grace kelly attempt to fill hepburns shoes in the musical adaptation, High Society, fifteen years later makes clear the excellence she brought to the role, to say nothing of the pallid performances of bing crosby and frank sinatra as the stand-ins for grant and stewart.
didnt watch any movies yesterday except for the first half hour of lubitschs version of To Be or Not To Be starring carole lombard jack benny and a remarkably youthful robert stack. im much more familiar with the mel brooks remake which is pretty faithful to the original but is more campy as most brooks films tend to be. that this film is made during world war ii gives it more bite than the remake. also lombard dies in a plane crash while out collecting money for war bonds three weeks after filming ended the knowledge of which adds an elegiac air to the political satirical.
then this afternoon i watched parts of two versions of Mutiny on The Bounty, the 1935 academy award winner for best picture starring clark gable (lombards husband) as the dashing mutinous mr christian and charles laughton as the excerable capt bligh. that was followed by the 1962 three hour epic starring marlon brando as a foppish christian and trevor howard as a colder, martinet bligh. this version fared less well critically and at the box office. supposedly mgm almost went down with the ship because of it. and brandos reputation as more trouble than he was worth was cemented with this effort. but i think over time this film has risen slightly in esteem as its judged on its merits. some sharp dialogue and sparkling technicolor although at times seemed like a tahitian travelogue.