Best 1000 movies ever made

The New York Times has writen a new edition of the Best 1000 movies ever made. It's at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/movies/1000best.html?mkt=moviesphoto

Anything is better than this blog that I never update.

ALL-TIME Best Films

TIME Magazine film critics present us their favourite 100 movies. There are plenty of top 100 film lists, and the best you can do with them is randomly picking a movie that you have never heard about before and get it from wherever you get the movies. Don't even read the name of the leading actor.

The Lion King

Simba has to go back from exile to claim his throne; overcoming his past, the belief that he has killed his father, and fighting his uncle Skar: an authoritarian king who spoiled the kingdom's economy. Civil War will be fought on Pride Rock.

This shakespearean plot of great characters with tragic faiths and always moved through human and universal emotions, alongside a creative vision and the best cast and crew in their craft, with millions at stake, make this one of the greatest works in film history.

I feel lucky for having seen this movie in the big screen when I was at young Simba's age; I saw it again at the age that Simba had to choose his faith, and it almost made me cry.

You'll find the DVD in the Disney shelf of movie stores, but it's not a movie for kids.

David Lynch III

“A 21st Century Noir Horror Film.

A graphic investigation into parallel identity crisis.

A world where time is dangerously out of control.

A terrifying ride down the Lost Highway.”

- David Lynch

Times has passed and Lost Highway is screened on theaters with an expective Lynch fandom on the queues, and they weren't dissapointed, despite Ebert's “thumbs-down”. Lost Highway has the most “Metal” stethic I ever saw, and it combines seamless with Marylin Manson's cameo and Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins and Rammstein's soundtrack, without forgeting original scores from Angelo Badalamenti.

The movies tells two separate stories, one about a Saxo player (Bill Pulman) who is accused of the brutal death of her wife (Patricia Arquette), and the other is about a mechanic (Balthazar Getty, the millionaire Getty heir) who falls in love with the gangster's girlfriend (Arquette again). There is no link between this two stories besides the fact that wife-girlfriend and jazz musician-mechanic are the same people. "They're living the same relationship, but they're living it in two different ways. They're victims in different ways, in both worlds." observes Lynch. Great interpretation by Robert Blake, who plays mystery man, began acting at the age of two and was recently on the news and “pseudo-news” blogs for his trial about his wife murder.

Following his heaviest movie comes his most tender one: from Laurens, Iowa, to Blue River, Wisconsin, The Straight Story is and insight into small town america trough the paced rythm of a lawn mower. Although it dissapointed most of those who where amazed by LH, I was totally atonished. It's filmed in sequence and in locations capturing all the course of the fall season. Watch this movie alone, on a peacefull moment, and it will be the most delicate movie you'll have seen.

This tranquil movie tell the story of Alvin Straight, who crosses states to see his estranged ill brother and to mend the relation with him before it's too late. He had to use a lawn mower because with 73 years, his failing eyesight kept him from holding a driver's license. As you can see, the movie centers its attention in human relations through this inner america odyssey, something Lynch has much to tell and we, city citizens, have much to hear. It's only an oppinion, but I think that if Jack Nance was still alive, he would have played Alvin considering his relationship with Lynch. Richard Farnsworth, the actor, died in 2000 at the age of 80. The real Alvin Straight died in 1996 at the age of 76. Also stars Sissy Spacek, who you'll remmember from Carrie. Angelo Badalamenti's masterpiece.

The Cinematographer of The Straight Story is Freddie Francis, who worked with Lynch in his early movies, the one from Lost Highway is Peter Deming, who maintained the style with Mulholland Drive, a great style.

Links and sources (pardon some rips):

Lost Highway:

http://www.geocities.com/~mikehartmann/losthighway/

http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpress.html

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/8994/LostHigh.html

The Straight Story:

http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/straightstory/

http://www.lynchnet.com/sstory/press.html

I didn't forgot Mulholland Drive, I'm preparing a monographic about it.