From a young age I've been enthralled by the glamour, magic and adventure of the silver screen. Weeks, maybe months of my life have been spent watching, analysing and day dreaming about films and the world they open up to us. Provoking dramas, heart warming romances, side splitting comedies, nail biting thrillers, other worldly fantasies, mind bending SciFis, nightmare inducing Zombie flicks and edge of your seat action; I love them all. I even have a penchant for a really bad / good movie. You know the kind; they have horrendous scripts, preposterous plots but there's delight in their on screen disaster.
A passion for film is something I am very grateful that Steve enjoys too. Before we were married we made the strategic purchase of a Cineworld Card so that we could pay an amount every month and be able to go on movie dates even if we ran out of money waiting for the next pay slip to arrive. Our little plastic cinema IDs have been put to good use as we've taken in dozens of films a year. We've been more open to taking risks as the only limit to the number we see is the time we have. New Actors, Directors and Screenwriters have become must see contributors and though, I'll be honest, we've seen a lot of rubbish, our passion for film remains.
Tonight Steve and I embark on a new chapter in our film following... a little informal film club. We have many friends who share our passion and a few of us have decided to stop reminiscing about film club of yester-year and planning a future one and to just get on and do it. The idea is we'll take one Monday night a month and watch one film together we can enjoy and maybe chat about. The big question is... how do we go about picking them!
We don't want to go too heavy every time we gather but I'd love to broaden my film pallet and maybe see some of those must see titles. Today I started googling "Films to see before you die" and some interesting links showed up. Most of them referenced this offering of 50 must sees by film critics and the good people at Film4. (The list is presented a little easier to scan through by the BBC here.) There were other lists online but this was the one to grab my attention.
Of the 50 recommended I have seen only 18. There were some that surprised me (Erin Brockovich? Good but top 50!?) and others that made me smile (Terminator 2 - classic!) It made me start to wonder if I were compiling a list from my limited viewing thus far what would I include? Missing from this list and definitely included on mine are: the original Star Wars Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (I'm assuming they were missed off because they weren't one film), Amelie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, The original Superman movie and recent films like Children of Men, Super 8 and Iron Man (it's an excellent example from the recent Marvel cannon). There are others not on this list that I have yet to see and am surprised aren't included: Seven Samurai, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind etc. but this list has definitely got me started with film club suggestions.
What do you think?
What are the films you feel you should have seen but haven't?
Which films would you beg others to see before they die? Answers in comments please!
