Sunday, November 16, 2008

From AZ to Z: The latest craze in memes

A recent blog meme (begun by Fletch over at Blog Cabins) that’s been making the rounds is the A-Z list. Each blogger I’ve encountered so far has had his own wrinkle on the list. My pal Adam Ross has made a list of notable titles he hasn’t seen, Larry Aydlette has compiled an alphabet of classic noirs, and SLH favorite Dennis Cozzalio has listed 26 films he believes to be underappreciated. I actually wrote a piece about four years ago along these same lines, but this meme has inspired me to try it again, even though nobody actually came out and asked me to do so. Seeking a unique angle, I decided to list movies I believe I need to see again, for whatever reason. In some cases, I was ill-prepared or ill-equipped to fully appreciate them the first time around (I’ve only seen one of the listed titles in an unsubtitled French print, with only a printout to aid me in translating in the dark). In other cases, I saw them too long ago that my initial impressions of them are hazy at best. In still other cases, they’re movies that have aged well in my mind and could very well hold up to a second viewing, should I ever give them another spin. Anyway, here’s my list, be it ever so humble.

Arizona Dream (Kusturica)
Beavis and Butthead Do America (Judge)
Crimson Gold (Panahi)
Demonlover (Assayas)
Edvard Munch (Watkins)
Freddy Got Fingered (Green)
Gregory’s Girl (Forsyth)
Harder They Come, The (Henzell)
Irma La Douce (Wilder)
Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini)
Kundun (Scorsese)
Lord Love a Duck (Axelrod)
Marnie (Hitchcock)
Notre Musique (Godard)
One From the Heart (Coppola)
Putney Swope (Downey [a prince])
Q: The Winged Serpent (Cohen)
Rock’n’Roll High School (Arkush)
Small Soldiers (Dante)
Tremors (Underwood)
Underneath, The (Soderbergh)
Visit to the Louvre, A (Straub/Huillet)
Wayward Cloud, The (Tsai)
X: The Thing With X-Ray Eyes (Corman)
Yellow Earth (Chen)
Z (Costa-Gavras)

I'm tagging Andrew, Jason, James, Craig, and Adam to keep this going. Go nuts, folks. Or, you know, don't. Up to you.

2 comments:

Adam Ross said...

I watched "Tremors" again last week, it holds up very well. It's fun to see how the plot is molded almost exactly like a 50s atomic monster movie.

Jason_alley2 said...

Yeah, "Tremors" rules - seen it more times than I can count and have loved it every time.

Ditto "Rock N' Roll High School"!