Little Edie

This wonderful, gentle creature is Little Edie Bouvier Beale. According to a biography, she and her mother were abandoned by her father, and had to rely on their family (the Bouviers) for financial support afterwards. In the documentary "Grey Gardens", she and her mother are charming and talented women who live eccentrically and reclusively with many cats and raccoons in a falling-down mansion in East Hampton. Apparently they could not pursue careers in the entertainment business because their family was "old money" and disapproved.

Edie's creative outfits are almost as important as her wonderful dancing and singing. In the follow-up documentary, "Beales of Grey Gardens" she does more of it. These movies are well worth seeing, if only for the bizarre scenes of Edie feeding raccoons in an upstairs room.

Elizabeth I

Helen Mirren is, of course, a total genie of acting. My hub Nod brought home the second part of this film, not realizing there WERE two parts, but it was still quite satisfying. They built the set in some eastern european country in a soviet enclosed stadium, so it is contiguous. When she walks from room to room the cameraman follows with a steadycam. That gives us a strong sense of three-dimensional reality.

The World's Fastest Indian

Now this is my kind of movie ... quirky, hopeful, and very well written, shot, acted and directed. Anthony Hopkins plays Burt Munro, this wild old dude from New Zealand who modified his 1920 Indian motorcycle and set off for the Bonneville Salt Flats to set a land speed record with it! It is a movie that makes you want to go out and follow your dream(s).
CAUTION: SPOILER:
He succeeded in setting a new land speed record at Bonneville in 1963. He later set other records there, including one in 1967 that STILL STANDS!

Raging Bull

This movie is a great accomplishment, but it was painful to watch. I guess I have to be careful about recommended films; two in a row ... I could feel my face contorting with horror and repugnance.

Movies: Some Sublime and A Few Ridiculous

Amadeus
The Apple War
The Best Years of Our Lives
Billy Elliott
Bird
Birdman of Alcatraz
Cape Fear
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Earth Girls Are Easy (SILLY!!!)
A Fish Called Wanda
From Here to Eternity
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Great Expectations
I Never Sang for My Father
In Cold Blood
Inherit the Wind
It Came from Outer Space
Kikujiro
Kiss Me Deadly
The Last Wave
Lost Horizons
Member of the Wedding
Le Milieu du Monde
Mrs. Miniver
Mulholland Drive
My Summer of Love
The Mystic Masseur
The Navigator
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Papillon
The Plumber
La Strada
A Taxing Woman
Ugetsu
Young Einstein

Osprey Tortures Me

I heard of the film "Umberto D" from Osprey, and sent for it. Tonight I saw it and it was a terribly sad story of an old man and his little dog, desperate and destitute. I did not know I was going to see a story of a DOG (!!! SUCKER FOR DOGS !!!).

Thank God, the dog chooses life, not knowing he and the man are in dire straits, but otherwise it was unrelievedly despairing. It was one of those stories I say "start bad and get worse", and yet it was beautiful and moving.

Short and Partial List of Fave Movies

The African Queen
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Amarcord
Annie Hall
Beetlejuice
Being John Malkevich
Black Orpheus
Brassed Off
Brazil
Bringing Up Baby
Cape Fear
Children of Paradise
Cinema Paradiso
Citizen Kane
The Commitments
Dr. Strangelove
8 1/2
The Elephant Man
Eraserhead
The Fifth Element
Five Easy Pieces
The Full Monty
The Gods Must be Crazy
The Graduate
Harold and Maude
Howards End
Jean Cocteau's Orpheus
Jean de Florette
King of Hearts
Knife in the Water
La Jette
Laura
Lawrence of Arabia
Like Water for Chocolate
The Manchurian Candidate
Manon of the Spring
The Matrix
Monsoon Wedding
My Left Foot
My Life as a Dog
My Man Godfrey
North by Northwest
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Lucky Man!
Pather Panchali
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Pi
The Piano
Pink Flamingos
Il Postino
The Producers
Pulp Fiction
Ran
Rashomon
Run Lola Run
The Secret Garden
Seven Beauties
Seven Samurai
She's Gotta Have It
Slaughterhouse-Five
Sleeper
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Sunset Boulevard
Swept Away
Tampopo
The Thin Man
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Unforgiven
The Usual Suspects
Wallace & Grommit (the first three)
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wings of Desire
A Woman Under the Influence
Young Frankenstein
Zelig