Sunset Boulevard

Holy moly! What a movie. I admit it is a slow starter, but once you get done, you will now be a fan of the film and Gloria Swanson. This is classic film noir piece by which all are judged by. Even if you've never watched another film noir piece in your life, this is one of those icons that you will recognize by the mere fact it is the base that all parodies such as bugs bunny cartoons are created off. I love the fact that Gloria Swanson is playing a figure so much like her real life and that the dramatic lighting angles (the projection light on her face, the studio lights on set at Paramount, and the mirror reflection in the final scene--to name a few) all focus on her. That, coupled with her over the top acting show that she truly does blend film life with real life. I think the best scene in the whole film is when she is melodramatically begging William Holden's character not to leave her while he cynically brushes her aside--as though even in this significant moment in her own life she still cannot drag herself out of her film-fantasy daydream. The last scene in particular is a scathing indictment of Hollywood and the masses, who allow a member of their own, to lead themselves to their ruin, solely for the sake of their own perverse enjoyment. It is the fans who created Norma Desmond, and in abandoning her, force her into this sad fantasy. Extra kudos to Billy Wilder for creating an engaging story, despite the fact the audience knows how the story ends--in the first scene we see Joe Gillis dead body in the pool, so we know he must die, yet Wilder still is able to create suspense surrounding what is going to happen to William Holden all they way up to Gloria Swanson physically pulling the trigger.

Needless to say, one of my new favorites.

Goodfellas

What can I say? I like Scorcese (especially when he works with Pesci and DeNiro, however I did enjoy Raging Bull more). A classic in it's own right that does a good job of stepping out of the shadow of The Godfather series. I have to say, Paul Sorvino and Ray Liotta really do shine in this film. I like the use of music and cut scenes that Scorcese employs since it kind of emmulates Henry Hill's 'wiseguy' persona--albeit breaking the fourth wall.

City Lights

While I am not giving this five stars, I reccomend that everyone go and watch this film just so they have the experience of watching a well-made silent film. Also, so that they can say they have actually seen a Charlie Chaplain picture. The plot moves along at a nice place alternating between the rich benefactor and blind flower girl subplots. The music, which Chaplain wrote himself is enjoyable and quite memorable, likewise, however the true genius of the movie is that Chaplian truly is one of the greatest physical actors of his generation. Also like many people who have seen this movie, I'd have to say the ending scene is perhaps one of the greatest moments committed to celluloid proving to be both satisfying but not overly saccharine for the audience.

Who knows, maybe I'll even go watch more silent films due to this?

Status Update

Hello lovely readers, it's been slightly over a year since I embarked on this quest and I've been making decent progress (IMHO). I am currently at 38/100 movies with the goal of 50/100 by the end of the year. It's much easier now that Netflix has their download service so I can watch while waiting for the DVDs to turnaround on Blockbuster Total Access. Now I don't want to criticize Blockbuster too much since they actually have the AFI lists as featured lists. They have all Top 10 categories (animation, epic, fantasy, gangster, etc) in addition to the one I am working on, the AFI 100 years top 100. Very nice since it doesn't make me have to search individually for the film titles. I think once I finish this endeavor I may start working on the top 10 lists (shouldn't take nearly as long since many of the films in each also represented in the top 100 list). Till then, take care, and leave comments.