Which 7 Films Did Hitchcock Make That Were “Perfect”?
Seven films in which every shot, every camera move, every editing sequence is perfect. Four of the seven movies star either Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart.
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Category: Directors (Hitchcock and others)
My All-Time Favorite Horror Movies
Here are my 53 all-time favorite horror movies from 1934 to the present.1. Psycho | 2. Midsommar | 3. The Exorcist | 4. The Shining | 5. Alien…
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The 42 Most Honored Directors in Cinema History
Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford, William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese are listed.
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La Nouvelle Vague (The French New Wave)
Included are my favorite thirteen films. Four are directed by Godard, three by Truffaut, two by Renais, and one each by Chabrol, Demy, Malle, and Varda.
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Best Final Movie Made by a Great Director
Although Charles Laughton made only one and, therefore, final film, based on this film alone, he is of the Great Directors.
Number One: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Sidney Lumet: 2007). Number Five: Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock: 1976).
The Films of Sidney Lumet
Why did a great director make so many bad movies? How could the man who made “Dog Day Afternoon” make 24 unwatchable films?
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The Films of Edmund Goulding
For almost sixty years he was the ONLY director whose film WON Best Picture (Grand Hotel 1932) but he was NOT nominated for Best Director.
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Woody Allen’s Oscar-Nominated Screenplays
This is a good time to take a look at what is truly an incredible list: Woody Allen’s record-breaking sixteen Oscar Nominations for Best Original Screenplay.
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Scorsese-Ranked.
One masterpiece (“Taxi Driver”). Seven near masterpieces including “Raging Bull”, “The Age of Innocence” and “The Irishman”.
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The Films of Elia Kazan
Because of his naming names at the HUAC, what you think of Elia Kazan’s oeuvre depends on whether you can separate the artist from the art.
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The Films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz
All twenty JLM films rated to coincide with a retrospective at the Criterion Collection. This includes his masterpiece “All About Eve”.
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There Was A Crooked Man (1970) Queer Film B+
Hume Cronyn and John Randolph are our happy and well-adjusted gay couple. Yes, they fight and bicker all the time. However, they are clearly madly in love with each other.
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The Anderson Tapes (1971) Queer Film (F)
Hamming it up and mincing all over the place, this is a cringe-worthy performance from Martin Balsam who is not referred to by his given name, just The Fag.
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Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Queer Film. Lumet’s Masterpiece. A+
Pacino is magnificent. With Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies, “Dog Day Afternoon” is his defining role.
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Psycho (1960) Queer Film. Hitchcock. A+
Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates made him immortal while, at the same, time, ending his career in Hollywood. A masterpiece.
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The Group (1966) Queer Film. A Lost Opportunity. (C)
Sidney Lumet’s movie is like a microcosm of his career – he bites off more than he can chew. The dreadfully wooded Candice Bergen as lesbian Lakey.
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All About Eve (1950) Queer Film A+
Bette Davis in her greatest role with some of the best lines ever written. Both Addison and Eve are gay and he blackmails her.
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Queer Film A+
The best play to film adaptation of all-time, with two of the greatest performances: Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski.
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Strangers on a Train (1951) Queer Film. Hitchcock. A-
Hitchcock reverses himself here, having gay actor Farley Granger play the straight character and straight actor Robert Walker play the gay character.
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Rear Window (1954) Hitchcock A+
Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter are all magnificent. Kelly, looking radiant, gets to deliver one of the Big Screen’s all-time sexy lines.
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Vertigo (1958) Hitchcock A+
“Vertigo” is anchored by the unforgettable performances of Stewart and Novak, Hitchcock’s masterful direction and Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score.
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Suddenly Last Summer (1959) Queer Film C+
The movie is risible, its few pleasures come from Hepburn’s regal (but very nasty) mother who will do anything to protect her son’s memory.
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North by Northwest (1959) Queer Film. Hitchcock. A+
Eva Marie Saint gives Grace Kelly in “Rear Window” a run for her money as Hitchcock’s most elegant leading lady and the chemistry between the two leads is more palpable than in any Hollywood picture before or since.
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Rebecca (1940) Queer Film. Hitchcock. A+
“Rebecca”, marked the arrival in Hollywood of the man who was, or would eventually become, the greatest director in the history of cinema.
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Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Hitchcock A+
Alfred Hitchcock, the cinema’s greatest director, made seven perfect films in which every shot, every camera move, every editing sequence is, well, perfect. And this is one of them!
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Notorious (1946) Hitchcock A+
The term “MacGuffin” originated with writer Angus MacPhail and was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock. The MacGuffin in “Notorious” is the Uranium.
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Nightmare Alley (1947) Film Noir – Forget About the Remake! (A)
Working with master cinematographer Lee Garmes, director Edmund Goulding produced one of the GREAT film noirs, a genre he had never worked in before and would never work in again.
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Rope (1948) Queer Film A-
The story, which is based on the Leopold and Loeb case is irresistible. Granger and Dall are perfection and Jimmy Stewart is also amazing.
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