[kenberg]

A while back Breathless was on TCM. I remembered that I had seen it in c. 1960. It was a huge success but I didn't get it. On TCM I watched the first little bit, thought perhaps I had misjudged, but it was late so I taped it. Tonight I told my wife that the beginning seemed to be better than I had remembered and suggested we watch it. We got maybe half way through.

There is this interminable scene in a room in Paris where Jean-Paul Belmondo is trying to get Jean Seberg to go to bed with him. On and on and on. My wife decided she would agree, just to get him to shut up. I'll do anything, just stop this idiotic chatter.


I fast forwarded to the end, after which the host, Robert Osborne, noted that when Belmondo first viewed the finished product he thought it was so awful that he feared he would never be given another role. I can understand that view.

Feel free to add your own candidate for Great Movie I will watch only at gunpoint.


Another movie that got high ratings at the time is High Wind in Jamaica, also from hte 60s. On a very hot day in Minneapolis we (different wife and myself) went in to the theater, mostly because it was air conditioned. After 45 minutes or so, we decided that we would rather put up with the heat. I realize no one thinks High Wind compares with Breathless, but it was regarded as pretty good.

[mike777]

I see this is the second great movie we stongly disagree on. The other one was North by Northwest.

This movie is in many ways considered the first modern movie.

Everyone talks about its jumpcuts but it is really the first modern movie in many other ways.

If nothing else it influenced movies for the next 15 -20 years.

It may not seem to be so much now if you compared it to movies made after 1960 but compare it to movies made before then and I think you can see and feel the difference.


Seberg was great and that boring leading man was brilliant in the way he is really a bad guy but we root for him. Think Bonnie and Clyde.

If nothing else this movie made millions of American women want to look like Jean Seberg and go visit Paris. And men to follow after her.


"and what is most revolutionary about the movie is its headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society."
http://rogerebert.su.../307200301/1023





I am not saying this is a top 20 all time movie but it is a top 100.

FWIW I still enjoy North by Northwest more.


My all time fav great movie is the Graduate. I dont know If you will only watch it at gunpoint.

[kenberg]

I enjoyed The Graduate when I saw it but it is one of those movies I have no interest in seeing again. However influential Breathless may have been, I remember being bored silly when I saw it in 1960 and, seeing it (well, part of it) again, I had the same reaction.

However Becky (my wife) did think Jean Seberg was a nice looking woman. I remember her as one of those fifteen minutes of fame people. St. Joan, and if I remember correctly (apparently I don't remember correctly, I just looked it up), Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Then oblivion.

A Touch of Evil is another great movie I can't watch. Boring beyond belief.

Mike, we probably should not double date. Or even date.

[Hanoi5]

I have never stopped watching a movie willingly. No matter how bad it is, I have to watch it till the end 'cause I'm always hopeful something good can come out of it.

My wife always complains that I choose bad movies. I have seen quite a number of bad films and some that I haven't understood. Like Lost Highway by David Lynch.

[kenberg]

My daughter and her husband are big on David Lynch. Me, much less so although in this case I am willing to revisit the idea. I liked Wild at Heart, but I don't actually recommend it.

Just another guy, on the Lost Highway.

[PassedOut]

Could not take more than an hour of Eraserhead. Saw all of Kramer vs. Kramer, but that's right up there in my list of The Ten Worst Movies Ever Made.

[ggwhiz]

On Being John Malkovitch got a lot of hype and critical aclaim but probably doesn't belong here since I thought it was the most pretentious piece of crap ever.

I later saw an interview with the pimply faced kid that wrote the screenplay. He was so full of himself that I wanted to throw up.

[kenberg]

I guess I have seen worse (maybe not a lot worse) than Being John... or maybe I was just in a charitable mood. I did wonder why the hell I was watching it. But as I recall I made it to the end. (Which is not the same as saying I recall how it ends!)

Back to David Lynch for a moment. Enough people have told me how great he is, and in particular how great Mulholland Drive is, that I keep intending to give it another try. But then I read that if you buy the DVD it comes with some extra stuff that gives hints about how to interpret what you are seeing. Now there is a guy with a gimmick a huckster could love. Get people to see your movie, then tell them if you pay some more money you will be given some clues about what to make of it!

I've always wondered who calls in to newspapers to buy hints to the crossword puzzle. Probably the same people who buy the Mulholland Drive DVD.

[dicklont]

I love the Coen Brothers (and not just the Big Lebowski) but I could not stand No Country for Old Men.
The violence was too much for me, I did not see more than 20 minutes.
I know it has won 4 Oscars.

[luke warm]

 kenberg, on 2011-April-01, 14:36, said:

I've always wondered who calls in to newspapers to buy hints to the crossword puzzle. Probably the same people who buy the Mulholland Drive DVD.

LOL... now that's funny... i actually liked mulholland dr., but i'm sure part of it was rebekah del rio

[Winstonm]

How can you call it a great movie if you can't watch it? A better heading might be, Movies with great reputations that I think sucked.

In that category, my top candidate is Dr. Zhivago.

[Foxx]

 ggwhiz, on 2011-April-01, 10:43, said:

On Being John Malkovitch got a lot of hype and critical aclaim but probably doesn't belong here since I thought it was the most pretentious piece of crap ever.

I later saw an interview with the pimply faced kid that wrote the screenplay. He was so full of himself that I wanted to throw up.

I remember seeing that and thinking it was awesome. But that's probably just because of who I was. Nowadays, if I were to see it I'd probably be like, OK, WTF.

My "good but can't watch" movie is The English Patient. I saw it once, and I would never see it again, even at gunpoint.

[kenberg]

Right. I am sure that The English Patient is the great thing the critics say it is but watching it once was more than enough.

[ggwhiz]

 kenberg, on 2011-April-01, 14:36, said:

Now there is a guy with a gimmick a huckster could love. Get people to see your movie, then tell them if you pay some more money you will be given some clues about what to make of it!

I've always wondered who calls in to newspapers to buy hints to the crossword puzzle. Probably the same people who buy the Mulholland Drive DVD.

I read about some poll where you could text in your response at 50 cents a pop and 23% spent that to respond "I don't know".

Great call on The English Patient. I made it to the end and then went on the 15 day dl. I guess you can go on the 7 day dl now if No Country For Old Men gives you a concussion.

[BunnyGo]

At the top of my list is "2001: A Space Odyssey." I know it is very widely regarded, and I do enjoy several other Kubrick films, but I thought this one was a pretentious, and self-indulgent piece of "art."

[luke warm]

of the movies mentioned by you all, the only opinion i absolutely disagree with is no country... i thought it was a great movie with marvelous acting

[y66]

The English Patient was definitely ponderous in parts, esp. some of those Ralph Fiennes scenes in the desert. But I thought Fiennes partially redeemed himself in that bath scene with Kristin Scott Thomas, who was awesome throughout, and totally redeemed himself in all those scenes in Italy. And what about all those unforgettable scenes with Juliette Binoche?

[Aberlour10]

No doubt, #1 on my list is Cameron's "Titanic". I am sure, I would not watch it again, even if this movie would be the only one I have on the desert island.

[Fluffy]

I have avoided to watch Titanic, and I plan to remain the same for the rest of my life.


*EDITED FOR A BETTER WORDING*
Watching mullholland drive was the same feeling like watching a piece of art composed of whatever 2/3 simple things (for example an empty can and a feather) and you look at it and see nothing but an empty can and a feather, but it is worth millions, and people say it is wonderful and faboulous and hwo ironic that the feather is "just slightly above the can", but you can't see anything but a damned empty can and a feather. That's what I though when watching mullholland drive.


I haven't watched english patient nor No country for old men yet.

[655321]

Saw The English Patient once, never again, I have the same opinion of it as Elaine.