Film Favourites

Ione has asked for our favourite films of all time and here are mine (I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this):

Golden Oldies
It's A Wonderful Life The wonderful James Stewart is on the brink of suicide until he is rescued by an angel called Clarence, who shows him what life would have been like if he'd never been born. A beautiful film which reminds us that no matter how insignificant we feel, our lives have a big effect on the lives of others. Even if I only catch the last five minutes of this film, I can't watch it without crying.

Gone With The Wind after all, tomorrow is another day!

Rebecca My favourite book and this film is very true to it.

Romance Rules
When Harry Met Sally A quirky love story exploring the question, can a man and a woman just be friends? I love the last moments of this film, especially when Harry says, "I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Dirty Dancing I have no idea why, I just love this film. Nobody puts Baby in the corner.

Ghost Peter and I saw drove through deep snow to see this when we lived in Driffield not long after we got married. Aw!

Bridget Jones's Diary Colin and Hugh fighting in the street. Need I say more?

Just Like Heaven Lightweight but lovely. I love Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon.

August Rush Another of my most recently made favourites. An orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents. I loved this film so much the first time I saw it, that I watched it all over again the very next night with peter because I knew he'd love it too.

Four Weddings And A Funeral just too funny, especially the scene where Simon Callow enters the Scottish wedding and announces that it's Brigadoon.

Notting Hill Rhys Ifans is a hoot and I just love the story.

Music & Lyrics Pure cheese but I even love the music.
A little bit of action
Defiance ~ the most recent addition to my list. Deliciously Dashing Daniel Craig plays a real life accidental hero who ends up saving 1200 Jews from the Nazis. See my previous post about this one. I could watch it again and again and again.....

Lethal Weapon (all 4 of them) A lot of humour with enough action to keep Peter happy.

Rendition What if someone you loved just disappeared. Terrorism seen from all sides.

Saving Private Ryan again from the period of history that fascinates me the most and full of places I've visited.

Scary Mary
The Sixth Sense Before I saw this I never watched anything scary because it affected my minds for a long time afterwards. But on this occasion we were in my brother's spooky old house in Dorset in the middle of nowehere. Everyone else was watching it and it was a choice of sitting alone in a spooky old house or watching this film. I'm glad I did. It is such a clever film. At the end, the penny drops and then you have to watch it all over again watching for all the clues you should have picked up the first time. And just for laughs when you know the tag line of the film, this site makes me smile.

The Others I love a tale with a twist.

Deep and meaningful
The Power of One Another film about the effect of the individual, this time set against the backdrop of a South Africa torn apart by apartheid. The music in this film is awesome, lots of tribal choirs. Again I challenge you to watch and not weep.
Shine Another film about musical genius. This is based on the true story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, driven to a breakdown by his overbearing father and leaves us both in floods of tears. It also features Peter's favourite piece of music; Rachmaninoff's piano concerto number 3.

Schindler's List I watched this in preparation for my trip to Krakow and Auschwitz. I'm fascinated by this period of history and having been to so visit many scenes from the film (Schindler's factory, the Jewish ghetto, Auschwitz) it all seems so much more significant.
Comedy
Ferris Bueller's Day Off Wise guy Matthew Broderick takes one last illegitimate day off school, with style. Fave scene? Where Ferris performs Twist and Shout on a carnival float while his dad bops to it in his office, oblivious to the fact that his son is the performer.

Trading Places Eddie Murphy at his best; comedy with a good message behind it.
Blazing Saddles I apologize but the campfire scene creases me up.

Les Visiteurs such a good French film, they remade it en anglais as Just Visiting. But the actors were considered too ugly to appear in a Hollywood movie, so only the two main actors star in both. A medieval nobleman and his squire are accidentally transported to contemporary times by a senile sorcerer, leading to full throttle comedy moments as they try to live in a world they don't understand.

Musicals

Mamma Mia it's all Abba! I love watching James Bond looking constipated as he tries to sing.

The Sound of Music Made the year I was born. Sad but one of my dreams is to do the tour. I just love it. I even loved the open air singalong we went to (much to Peter's shame).

My Fair Lady Women are irrational, that's all there is to that! There heads are full of cotton, hay, and rags! They're nothing but exasperating, irritating,vacillating, calculating, agitating, Maddening and infuriating hags! Peter can quote the whole lot. He totally relates to Rex Harrison's character and has been known to call me a "squashed cabbage leaf". He actually sat next to Rex Harrison in the hairdresser's at Kendal's in Manchester before he knew who he was.