Best Shot Mosaic. Plus: April Schedule
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 9:00PM Have you been enjoying the second season of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"? Here's a wee reminder of the movies that are coming up in the series. Put them on your queues. The more participants the merrier the discussion / makeshift gallery.
I'm not going to take requests exactly but suggestions for future films to cover are welcome.
Suggestion Guidelines and a Special Gallery of "Best Shot Mosaics" after the jump.
As a reminder here is the complete list of films covered with links. We've covered a lot of ground in those first 15 episodes in terms of genre and decade though I just realized 3 decades of film are unaccounted for thus far: the 1930s, 70s and 80s. Strange. Maybe we've leaned a little too hard on the Aughts and the 1990s.
Do you see any big glaring holes? Some genre we haven't gazed upon? Some director that deserves our group eyeballs? In the comments, if you would like to suggest a film, don't go overboard. Limit it to three. Any suggestions from the 30s, 70s and 80s?
Just for fun I thought I'd combine all the shots chosen on our Psycho episode for a mosaic. Here it is.
Brings back so many memories. And not just old memories of the film, but brand new memories of several interesting posts from the participants.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Reader Comments (27)
Nothing from the 1930's? That's surprising (although I hadn't noticed, myself); how about The Grapes of Wrath? Too obvious? Or Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise"?
I'm tickled that you've included a Chaplin silent comedy in your upcoming schedule, even if it happens to be one I haven't seen yet.
Hmm... What about a 'Hit Me' with Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"? Or with "Cabaret"? And if we're talking recently... I'd love to take a stab at "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". That is one gorgeous film. Or "Children of Men".
Sunset Blvd has my favorite shot of all time. But if you do 30s/70s/80s, might I suggest Wizard of Oz, Blue Velvet, or Apocalypse Now?
(Best Psycho shot is the car one.)
Okay, my first vote goes to the best shot film of the last decade....okay, not really, but close Bright Star. Although if you do get ever get around to that, I don't know if I would be able to sustain the verbal diarrhea.
From the 70s I'd love something Vanessa Redgrave, she just has a face I want to keep taking pictures of all the time.
And from the 30s Alice Adams. George Stevens' films usually have great shots, but this is unfortunately forgotten...and it has Kate Hepburn, who I mentioned before I'd love to do an episode on.
(but Jorge's choices are excellent, especially Cabaret and Jesse James)
For the 70's, what about The Exorcist, Chinatown, or Annie Hall? Better yet, what about Carrie?
Hmm I didn't notice we were talking about 30s/70s/80s picks.
Hmm seeing it that way:
1930s: "M" (go Fritz Lang) - it's its 80th anniversary; or if you want to cheat: "Metropolis"
1970s: "Cabaret" or "All That Jazz"
1980s: "Out of Africa" (beautiful photography)
@Andrew K: Thank you for the compliment.
I love your BRIGHT STAR suggestion. It would be awesome. It's such a marvellous sensorial experience, that movie.
How 'bout 'Star Wars'? Maybe that's too broad? For 80s.. 'Ordinary People'? I highly enjoy reading this series, BTW.
2001: A Space Odyssey for this series is the best idea I've heard all year.
Films from the 30s? There are so many to choose from with merit. Young Mr. Lincoln was a stellar performance by a young Henry Fonda and highly entertaining.
Night Nurse, Three on a Match, Baby Face, Female, Waterloo Bridge, The Private Life of Henry the VIII, The 39 Steps are others I have enjoyed recently.
I think CIty of God, Do the Right Thing or Manhattan would make for interesting episodes of the series.
From the 30's, how about some screwball? Someone upthread mentioned 'Trouble in Paradise', or 'The Awful Truth' could be good too.
'M' would also be a great choice.
1930s: The Wizard of Oz
1970s: All That Jazz, Mean Streets, New York, New York
1980s: Heathers, Blade Runner, Amadeus, Scarface
Others: How about giving your favorite, Miss Natalie Wood, some love by doing Bob&Carol&Ted&Alice or Splendor in the Grass? Repulsion sure has some great shots, but a few have become very well known so maybe that's too obvious. I would also love to see what people choose from Election, To Die For, The Color Purple, Pulp Fiction, The Witches of Eastwick, There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Little Children, Titus, Black Orpheus, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Ever After, The Darjeeling Limited, Bonnie & Clyde, Birth, The Stepford Wives (Nicole Kidman version...not afraid to say I like it), and 25th Hour as well.
Wow, I just wrote way more than I intended to and yet I still have other films I want to suggest...but I won't assault your brain with anymore titles. lol
I can still hardly believe that one of my all time faves, Heavenly Creatures, is about to come up - I have been trying to narrow down my favorite shots all week long, literally can't do it. Might have too many to mention. Very excited!
I would love to echo some of the previous suggestions, especially Heathers and Blue Velvet...and the recent, brilliant Bright Star (frankly, anything Campion always deserves a spot in the 'Hit Me' lineup)
Some others...
30's: Vampyr, Jezebel, Grand Illusion
70's: Cries and Whispers, 3 Women, Le Cercle Rouge
80's: A Room with a View, Drugstore Cowboy, Raising Arizona
Also, anything Ingmar Bergman, any decade, always thrills me shot by shot...
As I've said it before, foreign films.
One suggestion for decade:
1930's - Murnau and Flaherty's Tabu.
1970's - Bertolucci's The Conformist.
1980's - Elem Klimov's Come and See.
thefilmjunkie -- ooooh, Bob & Carol would be interesting. and i don't always want to go with movies everyone has seen like Psycho. One of my favorite episodes of this series was
I have been meaning to watch BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for ages. this might be the excuse i need...
Me too Simon. Hence the pick (well that and that readers poll last week). I don't think i've seenit in like 10 years.
You've manages to mix up the periods, genres and styles pretty effectively so far, so I don't particularly feel the need to suggest a particular direction; but the last film I saw that really struck me as an interesting candidate for this series was William Wyler's 'The Letter'. But really, the surprise of the choices is part of the pleasure.
My suggestions:
1. Law of Desire, Women on the Verge... or Talk to Her - Almodóvar
2. Ran or Throne of Blood - Kurosawa
3. Nights of Cabiria or La Dolce Vita - Fellini
What I did try to say was: The serie needs more movies in other languages than English :)
Luiserghio -- we already did LA DOLCE VITA -- i included a link for the complete series thus far with links (new page under the "series" tab.
lol! I remember all the entries, but La Dolce VIta... and I was wondering, why? then I saw the date of the blog (October 14) and realized it was around the deadline of one of my final projects at college.
I'll watch La Dolce Vita soon, and I'll make a late late late entry :p
I'm also super-excited about Heavenly Creatures coming up - "best shot" is a daunting task on that masterpiece! I can't wait to see what you select...
I'd definitely throw in another vote for Heathers and how about Todd Haynes' Safe? The visual language of Safe is exquisitely thoughtful and precise. Ooh, also just thought of Sjostrom's 'The Wind'? Sheer terror in Gish's eyes and all that crazy swirling dust - amazing!
Technically Performance, which is, personally, one of my ten most beautiful movies ever, is a 70s movie (held back two years, released 1970), for the 80s I would second Come and See and for the 30s, I'd say it would be a choice between M, Bride of Frankenstein and The Rules of the Game.
I'll third Trouble in Paradise for the '30s and suggest Nashville for the '70s and Dangerous Liaisons for the '80s.
I think you need some more musicals so I will humbly suggest my very favorite movie of all time and one of the most gorgeous-to-look-at movies ever, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
This might be too obvious a choice, but: In The Mood for Love. Wong Kar-Wai is such a freaking genius and that film is GORGEOUS. Or you could do Chunking Express.
Also: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and one of the Lord of the Rings films. You haven't done a whole lot of fantasy (unless you count X-Men, which is a super-hero/comic-book movie, or Angels in America, large parts of which could count as fantasy).
I also agree with the others who mentioned Cabaret and All That Jazz. Let's see the Bob Fosse love, people!