A-Z of favourite films - E by gum.

And now for the fifth in the A-Z of favourite films series and we’re on to E

This’ll be shorter than usual (stop cheering at the back) as I’ve only seen 35 films beginning with E whereas for B,C and D I’d seen over 100 for each letter. This means it's not as difficult to reach the top 5 in E as with other letters but hey, I set the rules and arbitrary as they are, I’d better stick to them.


One film NOT making the top 5 will be Easy Virtue, one of my least favourite Alfred Hitchcock film (along with Juno and the Paycock). Just shows a great director can occasionally make a stinker of a film.

In terms of Foreign language films, there’s just a handful of contenders – Fellini’s 8 1/2, arguably his greatest flm, and Marcel Carne’s mammoth undertaking Les Enfants De Paradis, all the more impressive for being partly filmed whilst France was still under occupation by the Nazis. Also, it’s a bit of a cheek as it should really be filed under O but I’ll bend the rules slightly and allow El Orfanato (The Orphanage) which is one of my favourite films of the last couple of years; a psychological horror which really affected me on watching it alone in the house in the early hours of the morning!

Turning to British films, there’s no real contenders here, though East is East and Elizabeth could possibly be up there at a push. Apart from that there’s Essex Boys and Enduring Love, neither of which I really rated and neither of which will appear in the final five.

In the US, Chaplin’s short Easy Street is an early silent contender from 1917 – in it he plays the tramp who becomes a policeman and it is very funny at times. I’m afraid I’ll pass by East of Eden and Easy Rider - I know people will disagree but I didn’t care for either of them very much. Woody Allen gets the prize for the longest film title in this blog with Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask). For Bruce Lee fans there’s Enter the Dragon, and then in 1973 comes the marvellously spooky The Exorcist, banned for 30 years and only allowed to be released on DVD in recent years.

The 1980s bring David Lynch’s remarkable The Elephant Man, John Huston’s Escape to Victory (stop laughing again at the back, I like it) and of course Spielberg’s classic ET: The Extraterrestrial. On a lower budget a young filmmaker called Sam Raimi came to the film world’s attention with The Evil Dead, a masterpiece of low-budget horror filmmaking.

In the 1990s Tim Burton has two entries; first in 1990 with Edward Scissorhands and then 4 years later he teamed up with Johnny Depp again for the excellent Ed Wood, a biopic of the much maligned director of such films as Plan 9 from Outer Space. Other 90s films of note include Enemy of the State and Election. Needless to say, the film The English Patient does not feature. Winning Best Picture Oscar does not always a good film make (rearrange sentence as applicable).

From the last decade comes Erin Brockovich which does what it says on the tin but which I found a little disappointing. A film which did not let me down in the least was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a contender for best film of the decade with the minds of Andy Kaufmann and Michel Gondry colliding in spectacular style.

Anyway, down to the final five shortlist:

The Exorcist – Up there with the best horror films ever made, the film that was banned and reportedly caused mass faintings in theatres still packs a punch today. The villain is the biggest one possible – the devil, who’s possessed a young girl, but can a priest save her soul?

E.T –Spielberg’s landmark film which I imagine has escaped very few people. A young boy, a lost alien needing to phone home, a bicycle ride in the moonlight – it all adds up to a perennial classic and even the appearance of ET in a British Gas advert can’t spoil it.

Ed Wood – Tim Burton’s affectionate tribute to the failed movie director Ed Wood. Shot in black and white, it’s full of atmosphere and you can feel the love that Burton has for his subject – he clearly empathises with him, and the enthusiasm of Wood for movie making really comes through.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are the leads in this romantic comedy that’s not a romantic comedy. A unique film in almost all respects, it’s an intelligent film and the influence of maverick Andy Kaufmann really shines through as well as the imaginative direction of Michel Gondry. A modern day classic

El Orfanato (The Orphanage) – Beautifully judged and filmed horror set in an old orphanage which perhaps is not ready to lay all its ghosts to rest. A sensitive mother, a missing child, a creepy old woman – all the horror ingredients are there but they’re blended together so skilfully it still seems fresh.

And the winner is:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – proof that there’s still original films been making these days and taking risks can pay off – I can see this being viewed as an all time classic in 50 years or so.

Ladybirds, Ladybirds

Wondering if the ladybirds hibernating at Steve Shark's are the same ones I saw on holiday in Norfolk this year. They were swarming like something out of a horror film. Albeit, a very non-scary horror film - ladybirds are not the most threatening of God's insects.

They probably weren't these though - they didn't look too healthy

Pics taken in Walcott, Norfolk in August 2009.

A-Z of favourite films - we reach D

So, it’s the fourth in my series of the A-Z of films and we reach D. Don’t panic though - The Da Vinci Code will be nowhere in sight, being as it is, utter crap.

We’ll take foreign language films first. La Dolce Vita is one of Fellini’s most highly acclaimed works, but here I risk the wrath of any sophisticated film critic reading and say that despite seeing it 3 times, I’ve never been that impressed by it, and crikey, doesn’t it feel long? More to my liking is the Wong Kar-Wai offering, Days of Being Wild and the tale of Algerain soldiers fighting for France during WW2 in Days of Glory. Talking of WW2, the German film, Downfall is also a contender, but probably the highlight of the foreign language contingent is Lars Von Trier’s work from 2000, Dancer in the Dark. Starring Bjork, this is a film that can quite honestly be termed unique and is utterly brilliant, but perhaps not one that you’d want to watch again and again – it’s rather hard hitting. Another film that splits audiences is Dumplings, a tale from Hong Kong that is either darkly amusing, or sick, depending on your viewpoint. I’d go for the former but don’t judge me for it!

The British contingent includes the marvellous Dead of Night from Ealing Studios – a series of spoky tales including one rather creepy one where a ventriloquist’s dummy comes to life. Then there’s the perennial classic, The Dambusters, and the brilliantly tense The Day of the Jackal. Two of the best entries in the James Bond series also appear with Dr No, the first of the series, and then 9 years later, Diamonds are Forever. Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is one of the finest examples of psychological horror you’ll see, and you’ll never see a red anorak in the same way again. From the last decade comes three very different British films; Dirty Pretty Things, a tale of immigrants in London, Shane Meadows’ superlative Dead Man’s Shoes, and then from this year Michael Sheen appeared in The Damned United, the tale of Brian Clough’s disastrous management spell at Leeds United.

From America in the 1930s came Tod Browning’s Dracula with Bela Lugosi making his mark as the vampire. Less scary, but utterly hilarious is the Marx Brothers with Duck Soup, arguably their best film. James Stewart makes an appearance (as he is contractually obliged to in this list) with Destry Rides Again. Our Billy Wilder contribution from the 40s is Double Indemnity, one of the best films-noir ever made.

The 1950s brought three American classics: The Day the Earth Stood Still – thankfully Keanu Reeves-free unlike its remake, Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, the one 3-D film he ever made, but still just as good in 2-D, and The Defiant Ones, a tale of racial tension as two prisoners Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier go on the run from the authorities. An oddity from the 1960s is the very simple but charming short, The Dot and the Line. More mainstream was The Dirty Dozen which, as action films go, is pretty good. The top film from the 60s though has got to be Dr Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick’s outstanding war satire.

1971 brought us two films from 2 icons; Clint Eastwood starred in Don Siegel’s classic Dirty Harry, asking us if we felt lucky, and Steven Spielberg brought us the high-concept Duel – basically Jaws but with a truck instead of a shark. It set the tone for many of his later films and though made for TV in the US, gained recognition and a cinema release in Europe and a directing career was born. Other notable films from the 70s up for the shortlist are Deliverance, Dog Day Afternoon, Dawn of the Dead and The Deer Hunter, though am I alone in finding The Deer Hunter overrated? What’s that? I am? Oh well, never mind.

Just the two entries from the 1980s with the archetypal action movie of the 80s, Die Hard, and Steve Martin’s post-modern film-noir pastiche, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Desperado and Deconstructing Harry are the 90s highlights, though a case could also be made for Dave, and possibly Dead Man Walking (though not a barrel of laughs) From the last decade comes the cult offering Donnie Darko, the guilty pleasure of Dodgeball, and Scorsese finally bagging his Oscar for The Departed – a fine film only let down by the fact that I had a soft spot for the original trilogy and they were of a high standard to live up to.


After all that waffle, it’s time for the final five


Duck Soup – From 1933 this is a comedy classic with Groucho leading his country in a war for the fictional country of Freedonia. One of the reasons for going ahead in the war – because he’s already paid a month’s rent on the battlefield – tells you it’s not exactly a serious war film – it’s very silly, very anarchist, but most importantly very very funny.

Double Indemnity – Billy Wilder’s film-noir with Fred MacMurray perhaps never better as the insurance salesman taken under the spell of housewife Barbara Stanwyck and plotting to do away with her husband. Great support from Edward G Robinson, tight direction, and a real sense of atmosphere make this a real standout of Wilder’s films.

Dr. Strangelove – Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers combine to create a heavily satirical take on the threat of nuclear weapons; the cold war being very real at the time of making. Not forgetting George C Scott who gives sterling support, but this is really Sellers’ career highpoint, starring in a film that packs a punch with its message but is never less than very very funny.

Duel – Spielberg’s early film, the blueprint of many of his later films as an ordinary man, driving across the country is stalked by a huge truck – we never see the driver of the truck and never learn the motives of the attack, arguably making it all the more sinister. That’s all the plot there is – a truck chases a car, but Spielberg stretches it out for a tension-filled hour and a half with creative direction and exciting editing. Judging by this film, I think the director’s got a good future in the film business

Dead Man’s Shoes – Paddy Considine stars as the man who comes back to his home town looking for revenge against the gang that had been bullying his disabled brother. All may not be as it seems in this bleak but beautifully made film which is a great example of British filmmaking and, along with This is England, one of Shane Meadows’ best movies.

And the winner is…



Dr Strangelove, arguably the best satirical comedy of all time and, in my opinion, Kubrick’s finest film, which with his back catalogue is praise indeed.



So to recap: the current winners so far are:

Annie Hall

The Big Sleep

Casablanca

Dr Strangelove