Hi, my name is Alex and I am a non-recovering, full-blown bad film junkie. I’ve traveled quite a bit and lived all around the east coast of America and currently reside among the beautiful wild greens of South Carolina. My favorite top ten movies?
1. The Outlaw Josey Whales
2. Evil Dead 2
3. Petey Wheatstraw The Devil’s son-in-law
4. Videodrome
5. Sex & Fury
6. HardTimes
7. PointBlank ( The real one with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson )
8. Yojimbo
9. Kurenai no buta a.k.a. Porco Rosso
10. Violent Cop
In reality, there are hundreds of movies that are my favorites…
but these currently stand out the strongest. I could, and have, watch these again. Many, many, many times over.
I’m being totally serious when I say that this list is easily one of the most interesting Top 10’s I have seen in quite some time….
Porco Rosso is a great film, one of Ghibli’s best which is saying something as most of their films are brilliant. How can you not like Casablanca with a pig - genius. One of the best endings in animation as well.
Hey Fellas! It was great to have in in the studio Samurai!!! Thanks for coming up to see us and enjoying some BBQ!
Anytime, I plan on coming up some other time to buy Andy some dinner as well….that Brisket was exceptional and I really enjoyed hanging with you guys….every one of you, some of the nicest and sweetest people I have met on this podcast venture…stay in touch!!! :)
Hey I’m Cody. I’m from Texas but currently live in Jupiter, Fl. Introductions are easy but picking a top 10 will be tough. Why not just ask me to pick a favorite testicle or Cabbage Patch Kid? After much thought and anguish, I managed to cobble this together.
Army of Darkness
The Big Lebowski
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cool Hand Luke
The Empire Strikes Back
Ernest Scared Stupid
The Exorcist
King Kong (2006)
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Wild Bunch
I’m Aaron. Living in Hawaii for the time being. My top ten films in no particular order are:
Oldboy
Hellraiser
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Natural Born Killers
Pulp Fiction
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
The Lost Boys
Fight Club
Blue Velvet
Labyrinth
Honorable Mention:
Raising Arizona
Up In Smoke
Brand Upon The Brain
Phenomena
Suspiria
Inside/High Tension/Martyrs
Evil Dead trilogy
Glengarry Glen Ross
Meet The Parents/Fockers
and more that I can’t think of right now.
Been listening for a while, but too lazy to join up on the boards. I’m in Orange County and I love Carpenter (watching They Live right now), Tarantino and Spaghetti Westerns. Here’s the 10 :
1. Escape from New York
2. Kill Bill
3. Re-Animator
4. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
5. The Empire Strikes Back
6. John Carpenter’s Halloween
7. Memento
8. The Killer
9. Reservoir Dogs
10. The Warriors
And here’s five more that rotate in depending on mood—Night of the Living Dead, Hard-Boiled, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Yojimbo and Die Hard. I sort of expect The Dark Knight and Watchmen will mix in with this shuffle in time as well.
Hello, Greg here from Massachusetts and this is my first post.
It’s extremely hard for me to come up with a top ten list, so this list is simply reflective of right now… ask me again in a month and it’ll prolly look different!
01. Videodrome
02. Robocop
03. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
04. Battle of Algiers
05. Bad Timing
06. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
07. The Vanishing
08. Body Double
09. Style Wars
10. Black Orpheus
Honorable mentions: Suspiria, Tout Va Bien, Phantasm, Xtro, The Great Silence, Vertigo, Spirit of the Beehive.
A genre fan since I dunno, maybe 4. Love all the stuff mentioned on the show and am learning about some good movies I would have never given a chance or heard of.
When inspired, I write about what I think makes a movie stand out among the pack. Face it there’s a lot of genre movies out there. Ocasionally one registers a blip to me. Right now I’m heading back to one of my favorite director and genre to write about and maybe if I think it’s good enough I’ll post it here. Sometimes I write a strait out review, other times it’s about a film technique used that exemplifies how it was used right, ex. montage. Maybe I’ll write a poem about Buster Keatons face. I have no real format I stick with. I’ve been doing creative writing since HS and it’s great getting something out that’s been building for a while, putting it on paper and calling it your own. I’m sure other’s here know what I mean
I’ve been playing the piano since 6. So I have a love for music (old and new, I’m not closed to new artists. One particular piece of genre music I love to play if anyone is familiar with 70s genre movies, once in a while I come across a film where in the background you will here Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique (it’s usually used as background music during a scene that builds to something ominous or dangerous. Or is playing in the background during a dinner scene where antagonists and protagonists share an uncomfortable meal. It’s probably used so much because it’s moody, emotional, pensive and heartbreaking at the same time. But most importantly, IT IS FREE. Anyway, I got a kick learning to play that one.
Lisztomania (ken Russell) was an inspiring film for me in that I love to learn to play classical music, once I learn it’s form and am comfortable playing it I like to re-interpret it to reflect a bit of myself in it. I approach writing the same way. No disrespect to top ten lists, but I would rather talk about film and how that film played through you, how it made you feel, and how it feeds and reinforces your love for film. Makes for interesting conversation.
I love the soft focus, soft curves of women used to look circa 1930-1940. Hips Hips Hooray! Women are the most beautiful things on this planet.
I’ve collected vhs, laserdiscs in the past. I tend to seek out stuff that cannot be released in today’s litigious or correct minded society. History is there for a reason, the good and the bad and films depicted the cukture or variation of how it should be portrayed on the big screen.
Before I go I just want to encourage you guys to do your exercises. Not the ones that helped me lose weight. I mean challenge yourself to try different genres, old and dead genres there are quite a few that are gone forever. I had a friend who moved away a long time ago. But in one conversation he mentioned Buster Keaton, Klaus Kinski (Fitzcarraldo) and The Brother’s Quay. I never forgot his reccommendations and they have lead to directions in film appreciation that I would never have thought. So don’t stay in one genre, after a while it gets stale.
I’ve been meaning to join the forumns, no excuses, just didn’t get around to doing it until today. So, I’m going to come in, take my hat off and hang my head here for a while.
“I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them, not necessarily the way they happened.” Fred Madison, Lost Highway
I love the callers and e-mailers to the show. I feel I know you all and your interactions with various hosts from other pods are quite entertaining, some even heartfelt. I’ve been listening to the trinity shows for a while and In my idealized little corner of my podcast mind you have faces that most likely aren’t yours. We’ve shared similar experiences over the past year that I gleened from rants, banter and shinfo. We may never meet but I want you to know through the love of film you are my family and look forward to hearing from you week after week and you often make my day.
These are two fine gentlemen friends. It’s not so much the films that draws me in support of the GGTMC. It’s your demeanor and kinship. Very, very smooth… J&B anyone?
Well, I am an old timer (will be 44 in a little bit). I have been a film fan for a lonnnnnnnnng time. I grew up in the late 60’s and 70’s and I remember being able to watch good movies and genre stuff on TV and in the theaters when it was new. Fritz the Night Owl from WBNS channel 10 out of Columbus Ohio introduced me to Godzilla, Dennis Hopper, Joe Don Baker, Electra Glide in Blue and on and on and on (not to mention Chiller Theater on Friday night which we all swore we were going to watch and then would either fall asleep or would watch thru our fingers over our eyes).
Just found The Gentlemans Guide to Midnight Cinema the other day and have been listening to the back podcast and laughing my butt off ever since.
Top 10? That is a hard one because there are so many but I will try:
1) The Ninth Configuration
2) Morituri
3) The Professionals
4) Le Samourai
5) Dr Strangelove
6) The Wild Geese
7) Path of Glory
8) Judgement at Nuremberg
9) American Friend
10) On The Waterfront
I like Werner Herzog, Burt Lancaster, Sterling Hayden, George Clooney, Viggo Mortenson, Lee Marvin, Yul Brynner and on and on and on. It is so hard to pick 10 cause when I do I immediately think “How could you have left out…?”
Glad to be here with all of you and glad to find a group that enjoys cinema as much as I do and can have a forum where everybody is friendly and helpful.
Hello to all, and especially the hosts of Gentleman’s Guide to Midnight Cinema.
My name is Dziugas, and I am from Lithuania; though I lived in Belgium for a considerable amount of time by now, and graduated from an American high school. Though I still identify myself as Lithuanian, and am fiercely proud of my heritage, my encounters with north-American culture have certainly formed my tastes - I’ve even begun following American football.
I’ve started listening to the show a couple of weeks ago, and it is fast becoming one of my favorites. A bit over a year ago, when I moved out of home for college, I witnessed my transition from a casual, albeit an avid viewer of film, to a devoted fan and full-time addict. Since then I have expanded my film knowledge exponentially, and have begun writing film reviews for the student newspaper here in Leuven, Belgium. I have fast become known in the social circle here as ‘the movie guy’, and everyone comes over to my house to borrow dvds. I am, however, humbled after listening to the podcast and reading through certain posts here on the forum. Despite my hard work in self-education over the past year, my film knowledge is sorely lacking. Therefore, I am here, above all, to learn! Many of the films I hear mentioned I have seen or heard of, but a great many more are completely new to me.
My list coming up in next post. Can you believe I ran out of space?
P.S. For those of you wondering how to pronounce my name, it’s pronounced like Judas. Except, you know… with a g in the middle instead of d.
Now, for my list of top 10. I have always thought that this is far harder to an actual fan of films than to a casual viewer, and so this will not be easy. I have decided, therefore, to go by director, and pick a film of their catalog which I would consider, for one reason or another, to be their “top” one. Do not expect, however, for me to rank the 10 in any particular order, as that task would be well beyond my abilities.
David Lynch
David Lynch, the master of the surreal, is one of the amazing influences of my dad. This director’s position on my list is NOT a coincidence. As for the film… This really is a tough call, but I suppose I would have to go with Lost Highway. I always have been a sucker for things I consider to be cool, and that’s what Lost Highway is…. WAY cool. Terrifying too, yes. David Lynch has the uncanny ability to get under my skin.
I am actually tempted to go with the parts Lynch directed of Twin Peaks, and I am listening to the brilliant score by Antonio Bandalamenti as I write this. I watched the series with my parents when I was just a small child, and certain things about it (most notably, the music) have stuck with me until I saw the show being rerun on Lithuanian television as a teenager. However, as it is a television series, and not a film, I would consider picking it cheating, and my verdict is, therefore: THE LOST HIGHWAY
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola, in my opinion, is one of those film makers that I could not overlook for this list even if I wanted to (and, lets face it, why would I want to do that?). As for a film… Godfather, either part one or two, would be an obvious choice. In the end, however, I simply have to go with Apocalypse Now. As brilliant a trilogy as Godfather is, it still, in my opinion, ends up glorifying the supposed anti-heroes to a certain extent. Frankly, it is my impression that while the films are definitely brilliant, the source material, is nothing above average. Apocalypse Now, on the other hand, is brilliant on many levels. It is simultaneously a satire, and a very serious critique of war. And as long as we’re talking about trilogies, lets face it - the Redux version is almost long enough to be one. The final selection is, therefore: APOCALYPSE NOW
Honorable Mention: Rumble Fish. While it certainly lacks the epic scale of the films discussed in the previous paragraph, I loved it. The smoke, the brilliant music, Mickey Rourke’s breathtaking performance, and the brief but memorable appearance by Tom Waits.
Martin Scorsese
This, at last, is an easy choice. Without a doubt, Martin Scorsese has a large number of wonderful movies under his belt, but none, in my humble opinion, can hold a candle to the Dostoyevskian Taxi Driver. It is beautifully haunting, presents a brilliant characterization of a city and a time, and has one of my favorite endings. Therefore: TAXI DRIVER
Kevin Smith
This director is a definite outlier in the list, but all the same - I cannot ignore his unique style and ability to captivate me with dialogue and humor. He is the master of guy-aimed romantic comedies, of which there are all too few. My selection, however, is the one film that is not about a guy getting - or trying to get - a girl, but something with a bit more substance. My choice for the top film for this filmmaker is, therefore, the only film that manages to have wisdom and something to say while featuring a rubber poop monster: DOGMA
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino is, I feel, a definite must for a list on a forum dedicated to genre cinema. He is the man that brought back many aspects of pop culture that have been in hibernation mode for decades; and the gratitude of his fans is never-ending. The selection of the film is certainly difficult, as there is only one of his catalogue that I am not considering, that being Jackie Brown. Not because it’s a weak film, mind you, it’s not; but because it is the only film by Quentin that is not his own material, therefore limiting the extent to which it carries that special something that makes his movies brilliant. In the end, I have to go with the movie with the most recognizability and quotability even if it’s not objectively the best; the movie that once and for all solidified the style we have all come to love: PULP FICTION
These are the first five. Once again, I need more room for a list like this… I simply cannot write the list without certain qualifiers. Making my top-10 list is more difficult than writing 20-page essays on Nietzsche.
Jim Jarmusch
This art-house film director is, in my opinion, woefully under-appreciated in many circles. While I am not claiming that every single one of his films is perfect, there are two that most definitely do not skip a beat, those two being Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Dead Man. My selection between the two has to do with several variables, including which I saw first, the music, the setting… Therefore, while both are brilliant, my choice is definitely Dead Man. What is there to not love about a Native American named Nobody traveling with William Blake through the old west to the music of Neil Young? DEAD MAN
Stanley Kubrick
This is another one of those filmmakers I should not have to introduce to anyone, and therefore will not. The selection for the film is not an easy one because of the amount of brilliance the man put into all of his films. Ultimately, However, there is no match for the amazing A Clockwork Orange. This is a film perfect aesthetically, as well as intellectually. The main characters is someone you have to hate and love at the same time, and this is certainly not an easy emotion. It is not a fun film to watch, but it is also not non-rewatchable like a film like Funny Games by Haneke or Antichrist by Von Trier. Therefore, my vote has to go for: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone is the master of spaghetti westerns. I made the mistake of seeing his westerns before any others, because my dad is a big fan. The result of this is cinematic pampering, making all American westerns pale in comparison to the operatic scope of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Ultimately, however, as amazingly cool as the aforementioned performance of Clint Eastwood is, I have to go with the ultimate masterpiece; the film that cannot be matched in brilliance by any other director, with easily the most brilliant, though sadly not the most iconic, western score. That movie is: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Woody Allen
This is another director who may pale in brilliance to some of the other directors mentioned in the list when it comes to visually artistic qualities. However, I feel he is one of the group of directors who is felt heavily in writing, but not so much behind the camera. This, however, is not a sign of a lack of ability, but instead a supreme ability to occasionally allow things to happen rather than obsessively controlling all things. Besides, the man is prolific beyond words - he has put out nearly a film a year since 1970. As for my selection, it simply has to be Manhattan. While being one of his most brilliant comedies in its own, understated way, it is also more serious than the sillier, and often more-appreciated Annie Hall. MANHATTAN
Coen Brothers
This filmmaker’s duo is almost certainly going to be remembered for centuries to come. Considering brilliant achievements of filmmaking such as Miller’s Crossing and No Country for Old Men, I am almost ashamed to pick a film of the more lighthearted end of their spectrum. However, in my list of top films, I simply cannot overlook a film of such endless quotability and reviewability as The Big Lebowski. Iconic characters, dialogue, and brilliant humor make this an unforgettable film I know for a fact I will come back to dozens of times until my final day on this earth. My final addition to the list, therefore is THE BIG LEBOWSKI
That’s the end of it! Definitely the longest time I ever took to do a forum post. I hope someone enjoyed it!
