![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakTagged by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iamsab, in whose safe return to ljdom I hardly dare believe.
1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
No idea. Though I try to reduce the number of videos by giving those in a good condition to friends. Let's just say... a lot.
2) The last film I bought:
Aviator, yesterday.
3) The last film I watched:
In the cinema? Batman Begins. But on DVD, it was Attack of the Clones, due to my recent SW rewatching after the release of RotS. I watched a lot of Dr. Who episodes after that, but that wasn't the question.
4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
a) Lawrence of Arabia. Still my all time favourite movie. David Lean at his directing best, Robert Bolt's script, top performances from everyone (everyone being the likes of Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif and of course Peter O'Toole in the title role) - I never get tired of it. Or of the desert. The DVD has the complete restored version Lean sanctioned a few years before his death and some neat extras, like a making of documentary and Steven Spielberg completely going fanboy over this film. It's very endearing.
b) The Lion in Winter. Aka the film that made me fall for Eleanor of Aquitaine and Katharine Hepburn both. (I saw the classic Hepburns, from her youth, afterwards.) In retrospect, I suspect that a couple plotting against each other all the time and yet loving each other might have imprinted me for certain types.*g* Anyway: KH as Eleanor: rules. O'Toole as Henry is superb, too.
c) Blade Runner. My favourite sci-fi film of all time. Ridley Scott at his directing best, perfect noir, and the replicants - the androids - hit all my buttons with their anger at their slave existence and their desperate wish to live. Rudger Hauer was never as good as he was here, playing Roy Batty. Oh, and of course this would be the film from which a lot of others took their cue as to aesthetics and looks. TV shows as well; you can't tell me that the design for Chiana in Farscape isn't influenced by Pris. I don't have it on DVD yet, but I have both the director's cut and the cinematic release on video. (Siding with the director's cut version here.)
d) The Kid. My favourite silent movie. The one to show to anyone who doesn't get why Chaplin was one of the cinematic giants. The funny scenes are still funny - like the most often shown outtake, the kid breaking windows so the Tramp can repair them - and the heartrendering scenes (the kid being taken away, the Tramp in pursuit and finally catching up) are still heartbreaking. So many decades later. Ave, Charles. My DVD version is part of the excellent complete edition of Chaplin's films.
e) Citizen Kane. My favourite Orson Welles movie is actually Othello, but Kane I rewatch more often because it's easier to take. I'm not getting into an argument as to whether CK deserves the "best film of all times" accolades. But it's, to use a Dr. Who term, bloody fantastic. And as opposed to many brilliant debuts, it has an element of exubarant playfulness in it instead of the more usual worthy earnestness. Young Mr. Welles called a movie set the biggest train station a boy ever was given to play with, and it shows. The DVD has several good documentary extras, but I am somewhat irritated it didn't come with the big documentary about the Welles vs. Hearst showdown, The War over Citizen Kane.
5. Tag five people who have to do this meme.
Hm.karabair, honorh, andrastewhite, k_julia and thalia_seawood.
iamsab, in whose safe return to ljdom I hardly dare believe.1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
No idea. Though I try to reduce the number of videos by giving those in a good condition to friends. Let's just say... a lot.
2) The last film I bought:
Aviator, yesterday.
3) The last film I watched:
In the cinema? Batman Begins. But on DVD, it was Attack of the Clones, due to my recent SW rewatching after the release of RotS. I watched a lot of Dr. Who episodes after that, but that wasn't the question.
4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
a) Lawrence of Arabia. Still my all time favourite movie. David Lean at his directing best, Robert Bolt's script, top performances from everyone (everyone being the likes of Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif and of course Peter O'Toole in the title role) - I never get tired of it. Or of the desert. The DVD has the complete restored version Lean sanctioned a few years before his death and some neat extras, like a making of documentary and Steven Spielberg completely going fanboy over this film. It's very endearing.
b) The Lion in Winter. Aka the film that made me fall for Eleanor of Aquitaine and Katharine Hepburn both. (I saw the classic Hepburns, from her youth, afterwards.) In retrospect, I suspect that a couple plotting against each other all the time and yet loving each other might have imprinted me for certain types.*g* Anyway: KH as Eleanor: rules. O'Toole as Henry is superb, too.
c) Blade Runner. My favourite sci-fi film of all time. Ridley Scott at his directing best, perfect noir, and the replicants - the androids - hit all my buttons with their anger at their slave existence and their desperate wish to live. Rudger Hauer was never as good as he was here, playing Roy Batty. Oh, and of course this would be the film from which a lot of others took their cue as to aesthetics and looks. TV shows as well; you can't tell me that the design for Chiana in Farscape isn't influenced by Pris. I don't have it on DVD yet, but I have both the director's cut and the cinematic release on video. (Siding with the director's cut version here.)
d) The Kid. My favourite silent movie. The one to show to anyone who doesn't get why Chaplin was one of the cinematic giants. The funny scenes are still funny - like the most often shown outtake, the kid breaking windows so the Tramp can repair them - and the heartrendering scenes (the kid being taken away, the Tramp in pursuit and finally catching up) are still heartbreaking. So many decades later. Ave, Charles. My DVD version is part of the excellent complete edition of Chaplin's films.
e) Citizen Kane. My favourite Orson Welles movie is actually Othello, but Kane I rewatch more often because it's easier to take. I'm not getting into an argument as to whether CK deserves the "best film of all times" accolades. But it's, to use a Dr. Who term, bloody fantastic. And as opposed to many brilliant debuts, it has an element of exubarant playfulness in it instead of the more usual worthy earnestness. Young Mr. Welles called a movie set the biggest train station a boy ever was given to play with, and it shows. The DVD has several good documentary extras, but I am somewhat irritated it didn't come with the big documentary about the Welles vs. Hearst showdown, The War over Citizen Kane.
5. Tag five people who have to do this meme.
Hm.
karabair, honorh, andrastewhite, k_julia and thalia_seawood.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-24 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-24 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-24 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-24 05:44 pm (UTC)Just a quick question from a postal paranoid: A certain parcel did arrive at your place, did it? During the last couple of months I had such a terrible streak of bad luck whenever it came to sending things across the country that I've become somewhat anxious...
Oh, and of course this would be the film from which a lot of others took their cue as to aesthetics and looks. TV shows as well; you can't tell me that the design for Chiana in Farscape isn't influenced by Pris.
Oh, and speaking of Farscape and influential design: Even though it's probably still too early to tell for sure, I think that Farscape has already proven to be quite an influence itself, and this seems to go for visuals as well as for content. Just think of the new "Dr. Who"...the doctor's mental state, switching between perfectly sane and rather unhinged, almost manic. A gun-swinging, leather-clad Jack in "Bad Wolf" and "Parting of Ways"...
no subject
Date: 2005-06-24 05:46 pm (UTC)Farscape: oh, good point, yes.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-25 05:10 am (UTC)*feels old*