griggs's - Roger Ebert's Great Movies List
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Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)Les Vacances De Monsieur Hulot / Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated. As with Jour de fete, Vacances is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. There is little plot in Tati's beautifully orchestrated 'ballet' of comic action: it's a series of incidents, a seamless succession of gently studies of human absurdity. - Director:
- Jacques Tati
- Cast:
- Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Louis Perrault
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Mulholland Drive (2001)Mulholland Dr.
Los Angeles, city of angels. Amnesiac and wounded, a mysterious femme fatale wanders on the sinuous road of Mulholland Drive. She finds a shelter at Betty's house (Naomi Watts). an aspiring actress just arrived from her hometown and in search of stardom in Hollywood. First of all intrigued by the stranger who calls herself Rita (Laura Elena Harring), Betty discovers that her handbag is dull of dollar bundles. The two women get to know each other better and decide to investigate in order to discover Rita's true identity.... - Director:
- David Lynch
- Cast:
- Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux
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The Music Room (1958)Jalsaghar
With 'The Music Room' (Jalsaghar), Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali) brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to his way of life. His greatest joy is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years - now a shadow of its former vivid self. An incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity, and a showcase for some of India's most popular musicians of the day, 'The Music Room' is a defining work by the great Bengali filmmaker. - Director:
- Satyajit Ray
- Cast:
- Chhabi Biswas, Sardar Akhtar, Gangapada Basu
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After Wyatt Earp's (Henry Fonda) brother James is murdered by cattle rustlers, the frontier legend becomes Tombstone's marshal and sets out to avenge the younger man's death. Torn between his badge and his fury, Earp confronts the likely killers, the notoriously lawless family of Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan), setting the stage for the famed shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. Along the way, Earp falls in love with a schoolteacher named Clementine (Cathy Downs), which pits him against the cantankerous Doc Holliday. While 'My Darling Clementine' never loses its dynamism as a hard-hitting western, it is also a tender love story. - Director:
- John Ford
- Cast:
- Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature
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My Dinner with Andre (1981)My Dinner with André
"My Dinner with Andre" is a passionate, volatile and humorous encounter between two friends who have not seen each other for a long time, and decide to catch up on each others' lives over dinner. Andre Gregory is an intense, highly experimental theatre director and playwright in search of life's meanings and spiritual revelations. His friend, Wally Shawn, is an actor and playwright living in New York who is more preoccupied with the search for his next meal. As Andre recounts his global journeys involving esoteric theatrical experiments and mystical adventures, Wally listens with more skepticism, as his attitudes shift through wonder, puzzlement, admiration, and anger. What finally emerges is a sensitive portrait of a friendship that survives and transcends beliefs of love, death, art, and man's continuing quest for self-fulfillment. - Director:
- Louis Malle
- Cast:
- Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn, Jean Lenauer
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Rex Harrison reprises his signature role of Henry Higgins, the supremely assured phoneticist who wagers that under his tutelage, cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle can pass for a duchess at the Embassy Ball. In one of her best-loved roles, Audrey Hepburn plays Eliza. If ever there were a face that the professor could grow accustomed to, it's hers. In Hartford, Heresford and Hampshire (and elsewhere) no one's fairer than 'My Fair Lady' on of the most irresistible musicals ever. - Director:
- George Cukor
- Cast:
- Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway
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Carole Lombard and William Powell dazzle in this definitive screwball comedy by Gregory La Cava - a potent cocktail of romantic repartee and social critique. Irene (Lombard), an eccentric, wealthy Manhattanite, wins a society-ball scavenger hunt after finding a "forgotten man" (Powell) - an apparent down-and-out drifter - at a dump. She gives him work as the family butler and soon falls head over heels for him. Her attempts to both woo Godfrey and indoctrinate him in the household's dysfunction make for a string of madcap high jinks that has never been bested. - Director:
- Gregory La Cava
- Cast:
- William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady
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My Neighbour Totoro (1988)Tonari no Totoro
While their mother recovers from an illness, Satsuki and her little sister Mei (voiced in English by Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning) get away from it all in an idyllic rural retreat. Far from the bustle of the city, they discover a mysterious place of spirits and magic, and the friendship of the Totoro woodland creatures.
Conceived as a family film devoid of conflict and suffused with the carefree pleasures of the summertime, My Neighbour Totoro sees Hayao Miyazaki create a parable of friendship and imagination populated with unforgettable characters. A universal classic for all generations, My Neighbour Totoro shows Japanese animation's famous Studio Ghibli at its very best, and is an elegy to two ever-fading miracles: the fairytale world of childhood and the disappearing countryside.- Director:
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Cast:
- Hitoshi Takagi, Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto
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After the critical triumphs of Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law, director Jim Jarmusch was heralded as one of the most arresting filmmaker to surface in the American cinema. Mystery train is a smart and curiously affecting comedy, that is funny and thoroughly satisfying! Named after the Elvis Presley hit, 'Mystery Train'interweaves three engrossing stories, all centering around the Elvis Presley legend and his beloved hometown of Memphis. As the characters' path collide - through laughter, fear and fate - you can practically feel the presence of the King himself in every scene...and his legacy impressed on a generation of equally lost souls in this wry, brilliantly structured comedy. - Director:
- Jim Jarmusch
- Cast:
- Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Screamin' Jay Hawkins
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Hailed as amazing and a genuine surprise, it absolutely took New York by storm at the Capitol the week of June 11th.
- Director:
- Robert J. Flaherty
- Cast:
- Allakariallak, Nyla, Cunayou
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Taking place over five days in the nation's music capital Nashville, Tennessee, the film follows two-dozen characters struggling for fulfilment, both personal and professional, amongst a backdrop of country and gospel musicians, outsider political campaigning, and the peripheries of life inbetween, building from one encounter at a time to create a wide-ranging tapestry of rich drama and human comedy. - Director:
- Robert Altman
- Cast:
- Keith Carradine, Joan Tewkesbury, Karen Black
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Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) suddenly decides to propose to his neighbour across the street, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. When Betsy rejects his sudden offer however, he decides to go on the trip anyway, boarding without delay that night. Because the pier number is partially covered, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy's rich father has just sold to a small country at war. - Director:
- Donald Crisp
- Cast:
- Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom
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Even more compelling today than when it was first released, Sidney Lumet's 'Network' is a wickedly funny, spot - on indictment of the TV news media. Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky), this searing satire stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall. When longtime news anchor Howard Beale (Finch) is fired, he suffers a violent, on - air breakdown. Ironically, his angry rantings boost his sagging ratings - much to the surprise and delight of the UBS brass. Subsequently rehired and reinvented as the "mad prophet of the airwaves", he soon becomes a pawn of ruthless programming executives who milk his madness for every share point it's worth. Of course, when the "prophet" ceases to be profitable, something has to be done about Beale, preferably on camera, before a live studio audience... - Director:
- Sidney Lumet
- Cast:
- Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
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Night Moves (1975)The Dark Tower
L.A. detective Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) has problems. Missing persons and bedroom stakeouts are no match for his glory days as a pro-football player. His wife is having a not-so-secret affair. And while sorting things out, he takes on the case of a runaway teenager that may be a lot more than he can handle. - Director:
- Arthur Penn
- Cast:
- Gene Hackman, Neil Brooks Cunningham, Michael Ebert
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A tall, handsome 'preacher' - his knuckles eerily tattooed with 'love' and 'hate' - roams the countryside, spreading the gospel...and leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake. To Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), the work of the Lord has more to do with condemning souls than saving them, especially when his own interests are involved. Now his sights are set on $10,000 - and two little children are the only ones who know where it is. 'Chill...dren!' the preacher croons to the terrified boy and girl hiding in the cold, dark cellar...innocent young lambs who refuse to be led astray. - Director:
- Charles Laughton
- Cast:
- Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
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