My Favorite Movies -- The Graduate (1967)

This movie is most remembered for a young Dustin Hoffman being seduced by Anne Bancroft. This is much more than a coming-of-age sex farce. The Graduate is full of social satire as well as examining the state of being "adrift"... unsure of what directions your young life should take. Also, don't forget the wonderful and famous soundtrack featuring just about every Simon and Garfunkel song you would ever want to hear.

Great moments:

A. Ben being told by one of his father's friends that the secret to success in business is one word... "plastics."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk

B. The initial seduction by Mrs. Robinson.

C. Ben in his new scuba suit sitting forlornly at the bottom of his parent's swimming pool.

D. Ben awkwardly kissing a cold Mrs. Robinson... when the kiss is over she releases her mouthful of cigarette smoke.

E. Ben taking Elaine to a strip club.

F. Ben racing to stop Elaine's wedding and the ensuing church confrontation.

My Favorite Movies -- Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke famously begins with a drunken Luke twisting the heads off parking meters (one of my favorite openings ever). This is a great opening because it perfectly reveals the character of Luke... a rebel against authority.... that just wont bend... no matter what happens. Cool Hand Luke is many things... a parable of the life of Christ, a prison movie, a male bonding movie, a movie of rebelion against authority, a tragedy. I feel this is one of those classic movies that's just old enough to have fallen through the cracks for many people only to become forgotten.

This movie has so many fantastic scenes and of course one ultra-famous quote "What we have here... is... failure to communicate."

A few of my favorite moments.

A. The opening.
B. Luke sings Plastic Jesus

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xYqwYrbwHeM

C. Egg Eating Contest

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YL7Vc1QG_BE

D. Chain Gang Car Wash

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aO3aWRUmoSs

My Favorite Movies - Repulsion (1965)

Both Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are better movies, but I keep returning to this earlier work by Roman Polanski. There is a stark simplicity to Repulsion that I love. Essentially, it's just the story of Catherine Deneuve's character's descent into homicidal madness. What sets this movie apart from the other Psycho clones of the era is the way it is so claustrophobic and internalized. We spend almost the entire movie with Deneuve in a small apartment.


Half of the time we, like her, are not sure if what we are seeing is really happening or just the world from her broken point of view....

a rabbit carcass rots on the countertop to mark the passage of time, a strange man enters her room nightly to presumably rape her, large cracks form in the plaster walls, and hands emerge from the hallway to grasp at her. Highly symbolic and with nods to surrealism and earlier works (Les Daiboliques) Repulsion is definitely an acquired taste.

a scene from the end of repulsion http://youtube.com/watch?v=TTLAlBnoRlA

My Favorite Movies -- Psycho (1960)

I quite enjoy other Hitchcock movies and must admit the pacing of Psycho is uneven, but the good bits are sooooo soooo good. Of course everyone knows about the famous trick of killing off the famous heroine and how shocking that was at the time. It was also considered quite racy (the toilet is shown as is semi-nudity) and violent (mostly not shown and the blood was chocolate syrup). So, why does it resonate for me? What scenes do I keep coming back to.

A. The end of the shower scene. I love the slow pull-back shot from Janet's dead eye. It is amazing and mesmerizing. I always think it's a still shot... but then you see the water dripping and realize it's not. Beautiful.

shower scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOC-zvyhrCU

B. The clean up. For some reason I find Norman's cleanup of the body more interesting and surprising than the actual killing. And the scene ends with the fantastic scene of Norman sinking Janet's car in the swamp... and it stops mid-way....he looks worried... then it sinks the rest of the way. Wonderful.

C. Norman eats a sandwich. I love the scene where Norman is being questioned about the guestbook while he is eating a sandwich...strange low-angle shot... just weird acting and creepy.