Hit Me With Your Best Shot ~ Season 4
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 11:30AM Oscar season comes to an abrupt end at the end of February which frees up our time. One of The Film Experience's most popular series, a communal viewing party of sorts, returns for another season. BYOE (Bring Your Own Eyes) to these blog-a-thon like events wherein participates choose their single favorite shot from movies from all eras. Watch, Read, Converse -- It's Edumucational!
Wed March 6th THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) since Oz, the Great and Powerful is about to hit
Wed March 13th BARBARELLA (1968) ...I've been itchy to revisit
Wed March 20th ???
Wed March 27th JACKIE BROWN (1997) Quentin Tarantino Week for his 50th birthday
...and more to be scheduled including, as ever, a mix of genres, eras, and anniversary celebrations. It's a great way to have a virtual visual conversation from other cinephiles, catch up on classics you've never seen, revisit films you've never looked at in terms of cinematography, and curiousities of other sorts.
I'll take suggestions in the comments too!
...so, break out the bubbly! We begin again
These are all the previous episodes in chronological order of the films (though not the episodes). These group viewing parties bring such fond memories back... 1920s Sherlock Jr (24), The Circus (28), Pandora's Box (29) 1930s Tarzan the Ape Man (32), Snow White (37) 1940s The Woman in the Window (44), Black Narcissus (47), Possessed (47), Easter Parade (48); 1950s A Streetcar Named Desire (51), Singin' in the Rain (52), How to Marry a Millionaire (53), Night of the Hunter (55), Rebel Without a Cause (55), Picnic (55), A Face in the Crowd (57) 1960s Rocco and His Brothers (60), Psycho (60), La Dolce Vita (60), Bonnie & Clyde (67) 1970s Pink Narcisuss (71), The Exorcist (73), Dog Day Afternoon (75), Story of Adele H (75), Eraserhead (77) 1980s Ladyhawke (85), Aliens (86), Law of Desire and/or Matador (86/87), Peggy Sue Got Married (86) 1990s Edward Scissorhands (90), Beauty & the Beast (91), Raise the Red Lantern (91), Heavenly Creatures (94), Se7en (95), Showgirls (95) 2000s Bring it On (00), Requiem for a Dream (00), X-Men (00), Moulin Rouge! (01), Memento (01), The Royal Tenenbaums (01), Road to Perdition (02), Angels in America (03), Mean Girls (04), Serenity (05) 2010s Pariah (11)
Reader Comments (42)
I must participate this season.
As for a few suggestions...
Y Tu Mama Tambien
A History of Violence
The Long Goodbye
Tokyo Story
BrianZ -- you must! I need Timothy in here to testify that participating every week makes the experience unexpectedly richer.
Hmm. I'll try to mix it up:
Jurassic Park
In The Mood for Love
Romeo + Juliet
The Godfather
Death Becomes Her
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)
though BrianZ's are cool too.
I was looking through some of the past episodes and found this comment on the X-Men article:
"I actually don't mind seeing Hugh Jackman in relentles close up."
Interesting foreshadowing right?
one thing i've found weird is that people dont tend to get into the 1940s episodes. Maybe it's the film selections. but i wanna educate myself on Noir.
Yayy!
If you want to do more 40s films, can we please do They Live By Night, The Maltese Falcon, or Double Indemnity, or Rome, Open City if we can do foreign fare?
Ashes of Time
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a great suggestion! One of my favorites from the '90s.
I third the Talented Mr. Ripley vote!
steve -- lol
sad man -- three votes already? well it IS gorgeous and i haven't seen it in forever so I think i shall say DEFINITELY on this one.
Given the richness of East Asian cinema, I think you need more movies from that place! Personally, I'd love to watch and write about Lee Chang-dong's films, like "Secret Sunshine" or "Poetry" or Kim Ki-duk's "Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...Spring" or Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" or the other Korean films like "Mother" and "Thirst' and "The Host". I know you're a fan of Korean cinema Nathaniel! and there are sooo many films from that country to love! :)
If not Korea, maybe we can take a trip to Japan and explore Akira Kurosawa's filmography, especially "Ran" and "Seven Samurai". If not, we can always go animation and do Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," or (my personal favorite) "Castle in the Sky".
My point is, I hope to see some Asian film selections this season!
Hiroshima Mon Amour, in praise of Emmanuelle Riva!
Or something by Wong Kar-wai. Ashes of Time seems a perfect choice, since he is back now with another romantic martial arts movie.
And you know you have to put a movie by WKW here. His movies are ALWAYS the most beautiful ones.
Yeah, I've been campaigning for Asian movies in this series forever, because they are always beautiful; I think most of the greatest cinematographers ever are Asian, but they are forgotten. And Russian movies too. They are SO visually striking!
Asian suggestions:
Classics:
Tokyo Story
Kagemusha
Kwaidan (this one is so incredible)
Gate of Hell
Contemporary:
Anything by WKW
Dolls, by Takeshi Kitano
Russian:
Classics
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
The Ascent (this is the best movie ever made by a woman, in my opinion)
Ivan's Childhood
Contemporary
The Return
Faust (!!!)
How I Ended This Summer
I like the idea of globe-trotting cinema, a month for each region, e.g., Latin America, India, South Korea/China/Japan, Scandinavia. Or maybe compare a foreign film with its English language remake (like when Lee's Oldboy is released) in specific genres.
And since this is our only chance to suggest you to see something, I can't avoid mentioning the one that is maybe the best movie ever made, with the single greatest performance ever. You know the movie I'm talking about:
A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
(I tried to post this before, but I don't see it anywhere)
Yeah, I've been campaigning for Asian movies in this series forever, because they are always beautiful; I think most of the greatest cinematographers ever are Asian, but they are forgotten. And Russian movies too. They are SO visually striking!
Asian suggestions:
Classics:
Tokyo Story
Kagemusha
Kwaidan (this one is so incredible)
Gate of Hell
Contemporary:
Anything by WKW
Dolls, by Takeshi Kitano
Russian:
Classics
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
The Ascent (this is the best movie ever made by a woman, in my opinion)
Ivan's Childhood
Contemporary
The Return
Faust (!!!)
How I Ended This Summer
HMWYBS would be a great reason for you to see Suspiria (I know you can handle it. ;))
YES! for Hiroshima, Mon Amour. Such a gorgeous film.
The VERY pretty Down With Love is turning 10 in May.
This year is also the 25th anniversary of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Beetlejuice.
David Cronenberg will be 70 on March 15, so the timing couldn't be better. Slot in one of his films for the 20th and you are set.
Two Jeremy Irons in red. Dead Ringers is haunting!
WHITE OLEANDER!!!
Hitchcock's THE BIRDS is 50 years old this March.
YAYYY!! I've been thinking about "Hit Me" lately wondering how soon it will come back.
Nathaniel, don't forget we need to finally do a Western.
Bergman, Almodovar, Cuaron (A Little Princess!)
I will promise you to participate in Jackie Brown at least; my favorite Tarantino on certain days and, in my opinion, his last great film from pillar to post.
A Katharine Hepburn movie for her birthday week would be great and we've yet to do a David Lean film, so "Summertime."
possible "EVITA" ?
I can't even pimp my own suggestions. Summertime is such a GREAT movie!
March 20 is my birthday. Can this be my present? I would love to do Black Swan.
Definitely joining the push for more Asian cinema.
Wong Kar-Wai- Ashes of Time and In the Mood for Love feel tailor made for this series, but I wouldn't want to rule out Chungking Express
Miyazaki- if we're going to get our Studio Ghibli on, I'd really love to look at My Neighbor Totoro. I feel like, in spite of its greater pop cultural cache, its not explored as much in critical communities as it should be.
Kurosawa- Anything you pick would be awesome.
Children of Men
Let the Right One In
Ang Lee- have we really gotten this far without him popping up?
How 'bout some classic black-and-whiters:
-- It Happened One Night
-- Wings
-- Strangers on a Train
-- Johnny Belinda (jesus, I still can't believe they were allowed to tell that story)
Or some undersung Best Pic nominees?
-- Hope & Glory (love love love it so much I won't suggest others to distract you from this gem)
Squasher88: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Searchers.
Cabaret.
It's funny you mentioned 40's Noir -- first film genre I became familiar with as a budding filmster when a kid.
How about Out of the Past? -- quintessential Film Noir
Or Double Indemnity?
Another favorite -- The Postman Always Rings Twice
I still nominate "Wake in Fright". So many options. Kangaroo massacre or Gary Bond ass?
It seems like the choice should be female-centric in keeping with the other chosen films. I'll also limit myself to films that are celebrating a big anniversary this year. So how about:
Bringing Up Baby
The Song of Bernadette
Johnny Belinda
Roman Holiday
Cleopatra
Funny Girl (<3)
The Piano (<3)
Lost in Translation (not really female-centric, but whatever)
Also, from the Best Foreign Language montage a few years back, there were a few eye-popping films I've been meaning to catch up with:
Black Orpheus
Mephisto
All About My Mother (I know- I should be ashamed for not having seen it yet)
Oh, Volvagia. The Searchers was my favorite movie for several years, until I saw A Woman Under the Influence. Visually, it's the best American movie ever made. I can remember every single shot of it, the way the camera moves in key moments, the way the landscape is not there to be something pretty, but to enhance our perception of the characters' emotional state, the way every frame is so beautiful calculated but never sterile. It's such a beautiful movie in so many levels that I can never wrap my feelings about it. I think I've seen it at least 10 times, and it's always fresh, and it's always heartbreaking, and it looks ever more riskier, with its tragic racist protagonist, its downbeat tragedy, its slow paced editing that wants want to accentuate the rhythm of life within a western and the tiresome and exhausting nature of looking for revenge. I think it'd be a marvelous choice, even if the only appeal to your actressexual soul, Nat, is the young Natalie Wood.
Truth or Dare (In Bed with Madonna)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, please.
Evan, thanks for the sweet nod to The Song of Bernadette. One of the best films ever about a saint, and Jennifer Jones won a well-deserved Oscar for a difficult role that demanded she exude a youthful innocence and radiance throughout a long, complicated movie. One of my favorite Best Actress winners ever.
If I simply must offer suggestions, "Peeping Tom", "Coraline", "Meek's Cutoff", "Synecdoche, New York", "West Side Story", and "Barry Lyndon" are all bursting within me.
For a musical on the list how about a comparison of the black & white 1936 version and the 1951 technicolor versions of Show Boat?