Saturday, August 14, 2010

Favorite five, part 2

As I mentioned during my first entry in this series, I will periodically check in and mention the five films that have most resonated with me of late.  I'm taking in a good number of films at the moment, mostly via Netflix, but among what I've seen in the last month or so, here are the five I've liked the most:

Leo McCarey's Love Affair (Irene Dunne in as moving of a performance as I've seen from her)
Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro (A pretty damn personal film from one of my favorite American filmmakers)
Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (Some interesting spiritual subtext and thematic material)
William Wellman's A Star Is Born (Like the Cukor version, contains some of the most emotional scenes in all of Hollywood)
Ken Burns' Jazz, Disc 1 (For Wynton Marsalis being about as compelling a personality as I've seen in a long time)

It's discoveries like these that make me eager and ready to discover the next five.  Happy viewing to all.

2 comments:

  1. It's great Jeffrey, that you mention JAZZ and Marsalis (disc 1) here, as it's one Burns series that seems to have been lost in the shadow of THE CIVIL WAR, BASEBALL and THE WEST. That's a distinguished lot there, and I must say I share your passion, especially for LOST HORIZON and A STAR IS BORN, two Golden Age Classics by two of the greatest American directors. Both are deeply emotional films, and hard to resist, but the craftmanship and acting is top-rank on both.

    I couldn't agree with you more on Dunne, too!

    So thrilled that this series is back, my friend!

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  2. Thanks so much, Sam. Always such a treat to hear from you here. I'm looking forward to the MMD and the rest of those Burns' discs.

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