Stylite

A few weeks ago over a business dinner, a friend of mine posed the old “what’s your top five favorite films” question. “Not fair” I said, because really, how can you choose just five? Since I’ve spent the last few lazy days off, updating our Apple TV library, I think I may be able to limit it to to a top ten at the most. In no particular order:

• Godfathers 1&2: Because you just can’t separate the two. #3 I don’t rate at all but 1&2 really have to be taken as one single narrative. As a Sicilian American, this series has a special cultural resonance for me, but I think the theme of slippery slope between personal loyalty and personal destruction is universal.
• Chinatown: I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it and every single time I’m glued to the screen for the whole film. The ultimate meditation on the human capacity for good, evil and indifference. Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown…
• The Exorcist: I love horror films, but what I really love about this one is that it’s just a masterpiece, perfectly constructed from start to finish. Shot by shot, no film has ever been more perfect from script to character development. It scares the pants off me every time.
• La Femme Nikita: The first version of course, by Luc Besson. I grew up watching James Bond movies with my dad and my brother and it always left me disappointed that being a spy wasn’t a career choice for me. that I could never be a spy. Finally, a girl gets to be the secret agent.
• Blade Runner: Do I really need to explain? I’ve watched this movie at least once a month for the past ten years and it’s still time well spent.
• Rosemary’s Baby: I’m a horror movie freak and this is my second favorite after the Exorcist. I think the best part is that it’s a monster movie but you never see the monster so at the end, you don’t know if it’s all real or is Rosemary is just nuts. And what’s scarier than that? Modern horror movies just give too much away…
• Full Metal Jacket: Beautiful and haunting and terrifying and still the best movie on war and youth ever made. I saw this in the theater with my mom when I was sixteen (Mom has great taste in films) and it was my first big screen experience with Stanley Kubrik.
• Last Tango in Paris: A lot of people may disagree with me on this one - the general consensus still seems to be that it’s just self-indulgent softcore. But if you can appreciate the way that Marlon Brando - both the character and the actor - lays his soul open, than you can see how brilliant it really is.
• To Kill a Mockingbird: One of the first classic films that ever made an impression on me - my mom taught Harper Lee’s novel to her 9th grade class in the 80’s and always showed this film at the end of the school year. One of the best movies ever made about racism and justice.
• Do the Right Thing: I saw this in the theater when I was a film student in Boston in the early 90’s. The only theaters that would play it at the time were in Roxbury, which just shows you how times have changed. Heartbreaking and perfect in every way.