Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD

957 Pages·2009·6.35 MB·English

by  Paul Simpson

Movie Lists
Paul Simpson
Movie Lists
Paul Simpson

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
John Atkinson, Jo Berry, Lloyd Bradley, Titus Chalk, Samantha
Cook, lan Cranna, Mark Ellingham, Damian Hall, Angie Errigo,
Rob Ganley, Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger, Andrew Lockett, Martin
Mazur, David Parkinson, Naman Ramachandran, Martin Rosser,
Helen Rodiss, Lesley Anne Rose, Sebastian Secker Walker, Jack
Simpson, Jamie Smart, Lesley Turner, Victoria Williams
Acknowledgments
Thanks to: Stephanie Jones, Sharon O’Connor, Martin Rosser, Mark Ellingham,
Duncan Clark and Susanne Hillen, and to all the crack team of reviewers.
Picture credits
Front cover photo: 3D glasses © Nicholas Rigg/Corbis All other photos are
licensed from the MovieStore Collection Back cover photos (left to right):
Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu The Vampyre; Matt Damon and
George Clooney in Syriana; Anne Parillaud in Nikita
Publishing details
Published by Profile Books
3A Exmouth House, Pine Street, London EC1R 0JH
www.profilebooks.com
Copyright © Paul Simpson, 2008
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
The moral right of the author has been asserted All rights reserved. Without
limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and
the publisher of this book.
Printed and bound in the UK by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow Typeset in Minion
Pro to an original design by Duncan Clark A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library ISBN: 9781846688720
Why read this book?
Because we’ve all had that queasy feeling in our stomachs as we peruse the
massed ranks of movies in video stores, movies-on-demand, or online rentals,
and begin to panic slightly as the realisation dawns that we can’t quite remember
the name of that film somebody recommended last week, don’t want to fall back
again on an old standby (you can’t spend every leisure hour watching Cary Grant
reruns), but don’t really know, as your eye runs through the titles, which film
you want to rent or buy. With this book you need never suffer again.
Because life is too short to watch bad movies, this book is purely about good
films – 397 lists of them – that I’m convinced you’ll enjoy watching. They are
listed under actor, director, genre, sometimes their country or region of origin
and sometimes under quirkier headings like surfing or psychos. The lists are
cross-referenced on a pseudo-scientific basis – Some Like It Hot, which could be
listed under Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe or Billy Wilder, sits atop the
“Screwball Comedy” list – although occasionally, where a list would be packed
with cross-references, we have chosen to review more and refer less.
This is designed to be the first edition of a book that will grow and grow, in
future editions and maybe online. And it would be great to have your
contribution. So if you feel we’ve missed out some vital movie, or you have a
list of your own you’d like to see up in lights, please feel free to email me at
[email protected].
And in the meantime, enjoy that movie …
Paul Simpson
Contents
The lists
A
Action
Africa
Alcohol
Robert Aldrich
Aliens
Woody Allen
Pedro Almodóvar
Robert Altman
Animated
Anime
Apocalypses
Argentina
Art
Asia minor
Australian gems
Avant garde
B
B-movies
Baseball
The Beatles
Warren Beatty
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Ingmar Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Bernardo Bertolucci
Luc Besson
Biopics
Blacklisted
Blaxploitation
Blonde bombshells
Budd Boetticher
Dirk Bogarde
Humphrey Bogart
Peter Bogdanovich
Bollywood
Bond
(Better than) the book
John Boorman
Boxing
Marlon Brando
Brazilian blend
Louise Brooks
Mel Brooks
Buddy movies
Luis Buñuel
Richard Burton
Tim Burton
C
Jimmy Cagney
Michael Caine
Jane Campion
Canadian club
Frank Capra
Claudia Cardinale
John Carpenter
Carry Ons
Cars
John Cassavetes
Cats
Charlie Chaplin
Chess
Chick flicks
Child stars
Chinese legends
Christmas
Julie Christie
Circus
Montgomery Clift
George Clooney
Coen brothers
Comedies
Coop
The Coppolas
Cops
Roger Corman
Costume drama (UK)
Costume drama (rest of the world)
Joan Crawford
Crime
David Cronenberg
Tom Cruise
Penélope Cruz
George Cukor
Czech list
D
Dance
Bette Davis
Doris Day
Cecil B. DeMille
Robert De Niro
Brian De Palma
Vittorio De Sica
James Dean
Alain Delon
Catherine Deneuve
Gérard Depardieu
Johnny Depp
Deranged
The Devil
Charles Dickens
Dictators
Marlene Dietrich
Matt Dillon
Dinosaurs
Disaster
Disney
Doctors and nurses
Documentaries
Dogs
Doppelgangers
Kirk Douglas
Michael Douglas
Robert Downey Jr
Carl Dreyer
Drugs
Dutch masters
Robert Duvall
Dystopias
E
Ealing’s finest
Clint Eastwood
Eastern promise
Sergei Eisenstein
Elvis!
English gents
English roses
Epics
European Union
Exploitation
F
Fame, fame, fatal fame!
Fantasy
Fashion
Rainer Werner Fassbinder