Rest in peace

I was going to abandon this blog altogether, until I saw that Elizabeth Taylor died. My second favorite actress ever after youknowwho. Tribute to come this week.

An American in Paris

Re-watching An American in Paris, I didn't like it as much as I thought it would the first time around. As it stars Gene Kelly, I was expecting another "Singin' in the rain". Watching it again, i can see that this is a gentler, subtler film. The dancing is at times, breathtaking, especially the ballet sequence at the end. It features a Gershwin soundtrack and the introduction of Leslie Caron.

"You're a very stylish girl, can't we end this stylishly?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penelope-andrew/the-remarkable-life-and-c_b_678418.html

I'm going to watch them all.

Ok, I've seen 46, 54 to go...and I HAVE to add that Jerry Maguire does not belong on this list. Most awkward, half baked romance EVER.



AFI's 100 Years…100 Passions
1 Casablanca 1942
2 Gone with the Wind 1939
3 West Side Story 1961
4 Roman Holiday 1953
5 An Affair to Remember 1957
6 The Way We Were 1973
7 Doctor Zhivago 1965
8 It's a Wonderful Life 1946
9 Love Story 1970
10 City Lights 1931
11 Annie Hall 1977
12 My Fair Lady 1964
13 Out of Africa 1985
14 The African Queen 1951
15 Wuthering Heights 1939
16 Singin' in the Rain 1952
17 Moonstruck 1987
18 Vertigo 1958
19 Ghost 1990
20 From Here to Eternity 1953
21 Pretty Woman 1990
22 On Golden Pond 1981
23 Now, Voyager 1942
24 King Kong 1933
25 When Harry Met Sally... 1989
26 The Lady Eve 1941
27 The Sound of Music 1965
28 The Shop Around the Corner 1940
29 An Officer and a Gentleman 1982
30 Swing Time 1936
31 The King and I 1956
32 Dark Victory 1939
33 Camille 1936
34 Beauty and the Beast 1991
35 Gigi 1958
36 Random Harvest 1942
37 Titanic 1997
38 It Happened One Night 1934
39 An American in Paris 1951
40 Ninotchka 1939
41 Funny Girl 1968
42 Anna Karenina 1935
43 A Star Is Born 1954
44 The Philadelphia Story 1940
45 Sleepless in Seattle 1993
46 To Catch a Thief 1955
47 Splendor in the Grass 1961
48 Last Tango in Paris 1973
49 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946
50 Shakespeare in Love 1998
51 Bringing Up Baby 1938
52 The Graduate 1967
53 A Place in the Sun 1951
54 Sabrina 1954
55 Reds 1981
56 The English Patient 1996
57 Two for the Road 1967
58 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner 1967
59 Picnic 1955
60 To Have and Have Not 1944
61 Breakfast at Tiffany's 1961
62 The Apartment 1960
63 Sunrise 1927
64 Marty 1955
65 Bonnie and Clyde 1967
66 Manhattan 1979
67 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
68 What's Up, Doc? 1972
69 Harold and Maude 1971
70 Sense and Sensibility 1995
71 Way Down East 1920
72 Roxanne 1987
73 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947
74 Woman of the Year 1942
75 The American President 1995
76 The Quiet Man 1952
77 The Awful Truth 1937
78 Coming Home 1978
79 Jezebel 1938
80 The Sheik 1921
81 The Goodbye Girl 1977
82 Witness 1985
83 Morocco 1930
84 Double Indemnity 1944
85 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing 1955
86 Notorious 1946
87 The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988
88 The Princess Bride 1987
89 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966
90 The Bridges of Madison County 1995
91 Working Girl 1988
92 Porgy and Bess 1959
93 Dirty Dancing 1987
94 Body Heat 1981
95 Lady and the Tramp 1955
96 Barefoot in the Park 1967
97 Grease 1978
98 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939
99 Pillow Talk 1959
100 Jerry Maguire 1996

An Education

This was about a sheltered, intellectual schoolgirl in 60's England who falls in love with an older man who is not all that he seems to be. What makes this movie so refreshing is that instead of the standard overbearing authoritarian parents I expected to see, her parents are as sucked in to the charm of this man as she is.
I knew this movie was going to be good once I saw the trailer because Nick Hornby, one of my favorite authors, wrote the screenplay. It did not disappoint.
Lovely!

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown's writing is crude and morbid. some of her novels are downright offensive. For some odd reason, hookers are always getting killed in her novels. The occasional sex scenes have made me laugh more than once. So why have I read most of her novels??

I guess because she's a great storyteller.

Lolita (1962)

This was one of the best movies I've seen in a while...it's a tale of a man's obsession for his teenage stepdaughter. James Mason gives a stellar performance as Humbert Humbert, and sue Lyons as Lolita was stunning. Its a rare movie that clocks in over two hours and yet is gripping the entire time. I've seen a few Kubrick movies and this is my favorite so far.