A few people I know have done this ambitious meme that highlights not your top 100 films, but 100 things you love about film. I’ve mostly interpreted that as “100 moments or scenes that I love”, but it varies from a single shot to whole films to certain tropes or techniques found in lots of films. Here’s the original directive:
Rather than posting your 100 favorite films (which has been done and overdone), you simply post your favorite things about movies. I dig the concept, because instead of obsessing over whether the films you put on a list are “objectively good enough” to put on said list, you simply jot down 100 moments/lines/visuals that have made a lasting impression on you or sneak their way into running gags between you and your friends.
Mine aren’t in any order. I tried that, but really, these are too varied and too personal at times to rank. So this is just a jumble of things I love in film, things that remind me why I’m a cinephile and why I spend so much of my time watching, thinking about, writing about, and talking about film. And I could come up with another 100 in a heartbeat. (But it would take me longer than that to make another post about it…I think I could’ve MADE a film in the time this took to put together!)
The 400 Blows – the messy notebook
I love almost every scene in The 400 Blows, but this one especially delights me, and it doesn’t get nearly enough press. This random kid who doesn’t appear much in the film (he’s also got a funny couple of seconds when all the kids are peeling off from behind the teacher when walking through town) can’t quite seem to get his ink pen and notebook to play nicely together.
Singin’ in the Rain
“Dignity. Always dignity.” Really, I could’ve picked any scene from Singin’ in the Rain and it would’ve fit the criteria for this list. Every moment in this film is perfection. So why not the moment when Don Lockwood proclaims his motto in life while the montage shows us quite the contrary? Perfection.
True Romance – the theme and voiceover
Sure, this music is based on Carl Off’s Gassenhauer, but it’s beautifully rendered by Hans Zimmer. And sure, the dreamy, poetic voiceover is an homage to Terrence Malick’s Badlands (which also used Gassenhauer-like music). But for me, these two things together made me fall in love with True Romance instantly, even more so than Badlands. The clip contains spoilers for the end of the film. Sorry about the aspect ratio. YouTube should be banning bad-aspect-ratio uploaders instead of legitimate fair use uploaders. But I digress.
The Thin Man – Nick and Nora’s marriage
It is my studied opinion that Nick and Nora Charles are the greatest married couple ever portrayed on film. As Anjelica Huston stated when presenting Myrna Loy with an honorary Oscar in 1991, Nick and Nora showed that there could be life after marriage. Indeed, in the Thin Man movies, they present a marriage that works on every level – they joke and kid and drink like the best of friends, but drop everything else when the other truly needs something. They’re spouting some of the most witty and sophisticated dialogue ever written, but when either of them are threatened, the concern is palpable. When Nick jokes about his relationship with a pretty girl, Nora matches him, clearly so sure of his love that no other woman holds any threat, and she’s right. It’s wonderful to see.
