52. Moulin Rouge (2001)
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pierce
Starring Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, and John Leguizamo
Oscar Nominations: 8 Oscar Wins: 2 (Best Costume Design, Best Set Direction)
The modern revival of the musical can all be traced back to Moulin Rogue. The film is often bombastic and overflowing with energy and it has a very beautiful love story to it. THe thing that really makes this movie for me is the music. It is completely and 100% apologetically anachronistic. That said, it's the moments like the Elephant Love Song Medley and Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend that the movie trully shines. Jim Broadbent probably puts in the best performance as Moulin Rouge owner, Harold Zidler. The character is conflicted between his role as a father figure to Nicole Kidman's Satine, and that as a business owner with the dream to open a theater. BTW, what is it with me and movies where a writer is a main character?
51. Strangers on a Train (1951)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, and Whitfield Cook from the novel by Patricia Highsmith
Starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Kasey Rogers, and Robert Walker
Oscar Nominations: 1
I love suspense and that's something that Strangers on a Train delivers in spades. Hitchcock gives us a film about the perfect murder: two unrelated people offer to kill the others intended victim. What follows is one believing it was a joke and the other being deadly serious. A lot can be said about Hitchcock's work. He is truly an auteur. Everyone of his films use certain themes and motifs to convey messages and meanings. In this case, its criss-crosses and doubles. It helps gets across that there are these two worlds: the good decent world and the world where people kill and that they're not that dissimilar. Those visuals alone make this movie worth viewing but then you get something else out of it upon the second or third viewing where you start noticing the theme everywhere and you start to doubt anyone is trully a double or anything. That's when you know that Hitchcock has you.
By the way, or those who want to know, the Hitchcock cameo is about ten minutes in. Look for the guy with the bass.
50. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Directed by David Lynch
Written by David Lynch and David Engels
Starring Sheryl Lee, Moira Kelly, Chris Isaak, and Ray Wise
David Lynch is the master at creating messed up visuals. Nowhere is that more evident than in Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me. Where else could you see someone eating creamed corn and make it into something so dark? The movie is a prequel to the popular tv series depicting the final week in the life of murdered Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer. Because we know she's going to die, the film takes on a tragic and depressing mood to it. Sheryl Lee's performance as Laura Palmer makes you wish she had appeared more in the show. She gets across this desperation in Laura to be accepted, to be herself, to be redeemed that carries much of the movie. Ray Wise as Laura's father is also another of the great performances. He's a man, mentally ill, also besieged by a supernatural force in himself that pushes dark urges on him. BOB, the evil inside of Leland Palmer, can be seen as a metaphor for the darkness inside us all and the mental torment for the evils we have done. The ending is my favorite part because it shows that for the tragedy that has befallen Laura, the evil that she herself has in her heart, she can be redeemed.
Next Time: "Some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty." "Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man!" "Darling, haven't you ever heard of a delightful little thing called boarding school?"
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