Films

I occasonally need to emit a list of my favourite films, and although i've seen hojillions of films and liked quite a few of them, i can never remember any. Therefore, i'm writing a list to remind myself. If you think there's anything missing let me know. I really should organise this by director.

• Memento - probably my favourite film ever
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - clever, funny, with serious bits; packs it all in but still manages to be good
• The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk - fantastic Jet Li HKKF film; superb fighting, but also entertaining (highly caricatured) characters and finely-honed comedy
• 28 Days Later - zombies!
  • Basically, if it has zombies, i like it. I really wish they'd make a zombie movie with Kate Beckinsale; then, my life would be complete.
• Blade Runner - a cliche, but a classic
• Π - that's 'Pi' (it's fuck-ugly and barely recognisable on my machine; shame on Mozilla/Apple/J. Random Font Designer); mental low-budget mathematics conspiracy theory madness
• Primer - one of the cleverest time-travel films i've seen, beautifully shot and scripted
• Taxi - this is the French original; c'est sympa!
• The Terminator - 1984, knows it, big Austrian man in leather, just basically a lot of fighting BUT a classic film; genuinely very good at what it does, and notable for having two sequels which do not suck
• Vanilla Sky - i haven't decided if this is great or rubbish; it has some definite weaknesses (hugely deus ex machina ending, occasionally clumsy foreshadowing and exposition), but it's also got some great bits, and it's impressively weird for a Hollywood blockbuster. And i love that they hire Tilda Swinton and use for all of five minutes; the audacity! Also: Penelope Cruz. Mmmm.
• Twelve Monkeys - so good.
• Brazil
• The Game - don't think this is very widely known, but it bloody well should be
• Fight Club - look beyond the violence and the semi-naked Brad Pitt, and see the incisive story of an ordinary man who responds to the jackboot face-stamp of modern society by raising an army and destroying it. Something we can all identify with, i think.
• Silent Running - Douglas Trumbull finally gets to do Saturn!
• Wings of Honneamise - slow, odd, gorgeous, thoughtful anime about humanity, technology, destiny, theology and, above all, rockets.
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Steven Spielberg manages to do aliens without (much) soppiness and with a decent dose of mystery and scale
• Dark City - not an all-time top favourite, but a good and often overlooked film
• GATTACA - genius; tied with Memento for 'probably my favourite film ever'. A really intelligent film about molecular genetics, but also just a really good film.
• Being John Malkovitch
• eXistenZ - not a particular favourite, but deserves an honourable mention
• Strange Days - don't remember much about it, but remember rather liking it, and thinking it was underrated.
• The Truman Show - despite having Jim Carrey in it, is great.
• Children of Men

Films i haven't seen, but would like to, or feel i should:

• Dark Star - haven't actually seen this; didn't realise it was a John Carpenter until i looked it up in IMDB!
• Abre Los Ojos - the Spanish original on which Vanilla Sky is based, so bound to be classier - plus, still has Penelope Cruz!
• Battle Royale
• All the David Lynch i haven't seen, which is most of it - Lost Highway, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild At Heart.
• All the David Cronenberg i haven't seen, which is most of it - Naked Lunch, The Dead Zone, Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood, Rabid, even Shivers. But not Spider. Looking forward to London Fields.

Achingly art-house directors the limited amount of whose stuff i've seen i like:

• Peter Greenaway - Jrmy gave me, as a christmas present, i think, a copy of 'The Early Works', which collects 'Water Wrackets' (superb), 'Dear Phone' (a grower) and 'A Walk Through H' (more than superb - ultrab!). Would really like to see the other early films ('Intervals', 'Windows', 'H is for House', 'Vertical Features Remake') and 'The Falls'. Could score the lot for 26 marigolds from various online sources; tempting.
• Morgan Fisher - i saw a programme of shorts at the Tate Modern a while ago, comprising 'The Director and His Actor Look at Footage Showing Preparations for an Unmade Film', 'The Wilkinson Household Fire Alarm', 'Cue Rolls', 'Projection Instructions', 'Standard Gauge', 'Production Stills', 'Picture and Sound Rushes', and '()' aka 'Parentheses' (twice); by and large, really wonderful stuff!
• Peter Watkins - i saw 'Punishment Park' and 'Evening Land' at the ICA a while ago; the former is brilliant, the latter is a trifle slow, but still rather good - and open to interpretation. Would very much like to see 'The War Game'.