Great Movies: Selection of Must See Films
Great Films — List includes: China Town, Apocalypse Now Redux, Mon Oncle, and many more!
Let us start with the greatest of all:
Barry Lyndon
A masterpiece: Barry Lyndon is a period drama based on the 1844 novel ‘The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.’ (later to be renamed ‘The Luck of Barry Lyndon’) by William Makepeace Thackeray. Director Stanley Kubrick.
Sunset Boulevard
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Many see this as Billy Wilder‘s greatest film and a classic for all time. It stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent film star who draws him into her fantasy world where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen, with Erich von Stroheim as Max von Mayerling, her devoted servant. In the movie, Norma Desmond’s address is 10086 Sunset Boulevard in the film but in reality, the filming location was 641 S. Irving Blvd at the corner of Irving and Wilshire. See the home right before it was demolished in 1957.
8½
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Amazing classic Italian neorealism film sharing the contrasts of life (from rich to poor, to beauty and loss of virtue). A film about films by Federico Fellini | See this review in the Guardian.
Apocalypse Now Redux
FOR ADULTS ONLY! If this is the first time you are going to see this AMAZING movie, then, I suggest going out of your way to find a way to see this film on a LARGE MOVIE THEATRE SCREEN!
There are 3 theatrical versions of Apocalypse Now. Without a doubt The REDUX version is the best!
Introduction: Secret ops assassin Captain Willard / Martin Sheen is sent on a mission up a river during the Vietnam War to “terminate with extreme prejudice” the errant Colonel Kurtz / Marlon Brando.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
Radio Days
FOR ADULTS ONLY! A nostalgic reminiscence about growing up in 1940s Rockaway, Queens, New York. - Directed by Woody Allen. Features Mia FARROW and Diane KEATON.
Bananas
FOR ADULTS ONLY! A simply wonderful Woody Allen comedy.
জলসাঘর বাংলা ছবি — “The Music Room”
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Bengali film from 1958 directed by Satyajit Ray.
Chinatown
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Los Angeles private eye J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to investigate her husband’s activities, (…)
An amazing film (for adults only). Director: Roman Polanski.
Dekalog | TV Mini-Series 1989–1990
FOR ADULTS ONLY! 10 films, each based on a BROKEN commandment, set in and around an apartment block in Warsaw, Poland. The stories share the fractured quality of modern family life, its dreams, hopes and sadness; focus on the CHOICES we all make, every day of our lives.
- Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski.
Three Days of the Condor
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a bookish CIA researcher with the code name Condor. Director: Sydney Pollack.
Mon Oncle
Mon Oncle has to be understood in the context of a world that is being replaced by technology and “progress” that is actually not an improvement.
- Director: Jacques Tati
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot
At the beach the most surprising things are to happen on Mr. Hulots vacation. This is an all-family-fun movie of great charm!
- Director: Jacques Tati
Sleeper
FOR ADULTS ONLY! After health-store owner Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) dies during a routine surgery, his family has him cryogenically frozen. He awakens 200 years later, revived by a group of underground radicals who oppose the oppressive regime in power. Once the police arrive to arrest the group, Miles flees, disguised as a robot. - Director: Woody Allen.
North By Northwest
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is pursued by ruthless spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) after Thornhill is strangely mixed up in one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films. Includes: the famed scene on a country road with the dust cropper. - Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
2001 — A Space Odyssey
FOR ADULTS ONLY! A contemplation on the nature of humanity in a science fiction masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick.
Scarface
FOR ADULTS ONLY! After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, …
- Director: Brian De Palma.
The Godfather Part II
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Of the 3 films — the second is the best.
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
Dog Day Afternoon
FOR ADULTS ONLY! At times darkly comic and touching film. With Al Pacino and John Cazale. Director: Sidney Lumet.
Dr Strangelove
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Peter Sellers taking on several roles in this great classic by Stanley Kubrick.
Main plot: U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely insane, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He thinks that the communists are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people.
Fanny and Alexander
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Two young children experience the many comedies, tragedies and magic of life. Director: Ingmar Bergman. (Theatrical version is 188 minutes long. Director’s cut is 312 minutes long).
Wikipedia has an exceptionally well made page about this movie!
City Lights
“City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill) and mistakes him for a millionaire.” See More: Source
MY 4.5 STAR LIST OF MOVIES:
12 Angry Men — 1957 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
25th Hour — 2002 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
A Night at the Opera — 1935
All the President’s Men — 1976
American Psycho — 2000 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Amélie — 2001
Annie Hall — 1977
Argo — 2012 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Body of Lies — 2008 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Brazil — 1985 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Casablanca — 1942
Die Hard 2–1990 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Heat — 1995 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
High Noon — 1952
Inglourious Basterds — 2009 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Jarhead — 2005 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
La Cage Aux Folles — 1979
La La Land — 2016. See this film on a large screen!
Manhattan — 1979
Marathon Man — 1976 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Matchstick Men — 2003
Midnight in Paris — 2011
Modern Times — 1936
Moonraker — 1979
Munich — 2005 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Nikita — 1990 film known also as “La Femme Nikita”. FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Platoon — 1986 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Psycho — 1960 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Ran — 1985. See this film on a large screen! FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Rashomon — 1950 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Rear Window — 1954 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Return of the Jedi — 1983. See this film on a large screen!
Saturday Night Fever — 1977 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Seven — 1995 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Spartan — 2004 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Stalag 17–1953. Written by Billy Wilder and my grandfather Edwin Blum.
Stranger Than Paradise — 1984 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Super 8–2011
Syriana — 2005 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The China Syndrome — 1979 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Day of the Jackal — 1973 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Firm — 1993 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Great Dictator — 1940
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie — 1976 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Little Drummer Girl — 1984 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Passion of Joan of Arc and this link FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Producers — 1967
The Shining — 1980 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
The Sum of All Fears — 2002 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Tootsie — 1982
Trading Places — 1983
Vanilla Sky — 2001 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
War Games — 1983
War of the Worlds — 2005 FOR ADULTS ONLY!
Zero Dark Thirty — 2012. FOR ADULTS ONLY!
EXTRA — SOME REALLY REALLY GOOD TV:
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Fauda — All 3 seasons are great (the second is almost better than the first). Great acting by “Walid” (Shadi Mar’i) and “Shirin” Laëtitia Eïdo.
FOR ADULTS ONLY! Narcos — All 3 seasons are great. Love the acting of “Navegante” (Juan Sebastián Calero Hernández) and “Chepe” (Pêpê Rapazote).
