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.
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