The Seventh Seal
Posted on 02/12/2011 9:19:45 AM PST by JoeProBono
10-4! Enjoy!
I've seen it, but I was a film major in college so I've screened a lot of "critically acclaimed" films. Of course, I watched the movie post real life "Soong-Yi scandal", so I saw it from a different perspective than those who viewed it in theaters back in 1979. Woody Allen plays a middle aged man who is in a romantic relationship with a 17 year old. Hmmm. Obviously the character he created was based on himself.
Pretty much most post 1965 or so films that are made in black & white are done so for "artistic" reasons. I'm usually neutral on it. (I did think putting the rest of the movie in B&W but the blood and little girl's hat in color for the filming of "Schindler's List" was over the top, though. Okay, Steven Speilberg, the holocaust was horrible, we GET it)
Woody Allen's late 70s and early 80s movies are mostly whimsical romantic comedies. I prefer the early-to-mid 70s Woody Allen era, when his movies were "zany comedies" instead. My favorite Woody Allen movie is Sleeper (1973). I'd much rather watch that than Annie Hall or Manhattan.
1. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
2. Touch of Evil (1958)
5. My Darling Clementine (1946)
7. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
11. Pandora's Box (1928)
12. Top Hat (1935)
13. On the Waterfront (1954)
15. The Haunting (1963)
21. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
23. The Defiant Ones (1958)
25. Portrait of Jennie (1948)
As for the remainder:
3. The Seventh Seal (1957) - Weird movie, we watched in film school as an example of surrealism. Well, it certainly does a good job of being an example of that genre. Interesting,
but I can't say it's my fav. I never understood that Bill & Ted's excellent adventure was parodying the “play games with the Grim Reaper” scene in this movie til I watched it and the movie opens
with the dead Knight having to play a game of chess with the Grim Reaper
4. Raging Bull (1980) - I liked it, can't say I'd rank it as one of the greatest black & white movies
ever, or even the best boxing movie. Good bio pic, too much swearing.
cinema history.
6. Schindler's List (1993) Good, very moving, but see my previous comments.
8. Night of the Hunter (1955) - Pretty awesome movie. One of Robert Mitchem’s best and probably his most memorial character. Never forget L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E
9. Metropolis (1926) - My favorite silent movie. Inspired dozens of later sci-fi movies from Star Wars to Blade Runner. But I was first introduced to it (and prefer) the 1980s Giordio Morodor version with the rock music soundtrack and color tinted scenes,
which many highbrow critics consider sacrilege.
10. Psycho (1960) - Ahead of its time. I also enjoy the sequels many thought should have never been made. The shot-by-shot remake of this movie proves nobody can relicate Hitchcock.
14. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Amazing movie. Shame on John Grisham for ripping off this brillant moving story with a lame retread plot set in the 1980s and calling it “A Time to Kill”
16. The Big Sleep (1946) - Eh, Bogie is fun. Most of the 40s “hard boiled detective” film noir
stereotypes we imagine have originated from this film. Wish he had done more Raymond Chandler novels, Humphrey Bogart was probably the best choice for the characther
17. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - Absolutely unique masterpiece that was way ahead of its time. Still hillarious today, and Peter Sellers was
wonderful in it.
18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - Very good movie for its time, except the lame tacted on “we saved the day” ending. You could make a decent case the remake was certainly as good,
as possibly better than the ‘56 version.
19. Manhattan (1979) - See the comments in my previous post.
20. Night of the Living Dead (1968) - I'm neutral on all zombie movies, but this is the great granddaddy of them all that established the modern zombie genre. I don't think it holds up well, but it's still creepy. Check out the 1990 remake (do NOT check out the 2006 remake)
22. Young Frankenstein (1974) - Don't know if it's the best B&W white movie ever, but certainly it's one of the best spoof movies ever. I love it and never tire of this movie. And you get more out of it if you've seen the original 1930s Frankenstein movies.
24. The Bicycle Thief (1949) - It was OK. Another artsy European film that critics claim is some kind of brilliant masterpiece but I fail to see what was so amazing about it. The director outshines the film itself. The ending was sad. Not a film I'd care to watch a second time. At least it was watchable, unlike the “brilliant” 1930 French film “Zero for Conduct”. What critics see in that movie, I'll never know. It would be lost in history if leading film experts weren't always asserting its brilliance.
The Seventh Seal
Hollywood Revue of 1929
Pigskin Parade (1936)
San Francisco (1936)
Gold Diggers of 1933
The Big Broadcast (1932)
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Gold Diggers of 1935
The Wizard of Oz (1925)
Borenosets Potemkin (1925)
Broadway Melody of 1938
>> 3) Manhattan — If you can even remember one character, one line, one theme you took away from this snoozer (besides the cinematography), I’ll stand down. But I can’t. So I suspect it I thought it blew and still does. <<
I guess for someone who grew up in NYC, they might get all sentimental and teary-eyed watching endless images of the Manhattan skyline set to "Rhapsody in Blue". It didn't do anything for me, though. I agree there's no memorial characters or lines in this movie, the only scene I remember is when Woody's jailbait girlfriend started crying. I couldn't watch this "romatic melodrama" with a straight-face since I viewed it post Soon-Yi scandal. I much prefer Woody Allen's late 60s and early 70s crazy comedies than his late 70s romantic pictures that the critics hail.
>> 4) The Bicycle Thief — Oh, stop it. One of those films everyone thinks is good because everyone says it’s good. Guy finally gets a job, so he steals a bike to get there and gets caught. Huh? Ever hear of a beginning, middle, and end? What you’ve got there is a beginning. It. Is. So. Boring. <<
Agreed. I watched this one in film school -- and that's exactly what it's purpose is -- shown in film schools as some kind of cinematic breakthru movie because high-brow experts get all excited about the 1940s Italian neorealist movement. This film is to audiences what Colin Powell is to politics -- completely bland and uninspirational, yet a small circle of intellilectural elite in the media worship every word. Bleh. I can't say I'd care to watch it again.
>> 3) Manhattan — If you can even remember one character, one line, one theme you took away from this snoozer (besides the cinematography), I’ll stand down. But I can’t. So I suspect it I thought it blew and still does. <<
I guess for someone who grew up in NYC, they might get all sentimental and teary-eyed watching endless images of the Manhattan skyline set to "Rhapsody in Blue". It didn't do anything for me, though. I agree there's no memorial characters or lines in this movie, the only scene I remember is when Woody's jailbait girlfriend started crying. I couldn't watch this "romatic melodrama" with a straight-face since I viewed it post Soon-Yi scandal. I much prefer Woody Allen's late 60s and early 70s crazy comedies than his late 70s romantic pictures that the critics hail.
>> 4) The Bicycle Thief — Oh, stop it. One of those films everyone thinks is good because everyone says it’s good. Guy finally gets a job, so he steals a bike to get there and gets caught. Huh? Ever hear of a beginning, middle, and end? What you’ve got there is a beginning. It. Is. So. Boring. <<
Agreed. I watched this one in film school -- and that's exactly what it's purpose is -- shown in film schools as some kind of cinematic breakthru movie because high-brow experts get all excited about the 1940s Italian neorealist movement. This film is to audiences what Colin Powell is to politics -- completely bland and uninspirational, yet a small circle of intellilectural elite in the media worship every word. Bleh. I can't say I'd care to watch it again.
No Clerks ?
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