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TOP TENS.
Not
necessarily the best films ever made but, if I could only ever watch ten titles
again for the rest of my life, these would be the ones.
1.
A Matter of Life and Death. Powell and Pressburger on exquisite form - my very
favourite film. 2.
Blade Runner (Director's Cut). Bleak sci-fi excellence - aeons away from the usual
shiny cloned future of others in this genre. 3.
A Private Function. Tasty Alan Bennett morsels delivered by pros. Tremendous filming of unfilmable book.
Also for personal reasons (see biog) 5.
Fight Club. Wow. Horribly
different, shockingly clever. 6.
The Shawshank Redemption. Beautifully acted, soul destroying, credible - more
than just a sum of its parts. 7.
Bullets Over Broadway. John Cusack, Jim Broadbent, a Woody Allen script …
but no Woody Allen? Hey, I think
they've cracked it! 8.
Jean de Florette / Manon de source. I blubbed like the girl I am.
9.
Jaws. Twenty years on and still damn good. 10.
Big.
Tom Hanks on fine form in this splendid, feel-good
comedy.
If
I can only have the 10 titles for life, I think I might need some comedy
compilations and therefore I choose: Blackadder
- all 4 series plus Christmas specials. Buffy - all 7 (yup, 7) series. Most definitely 'Once more, with feeling' musical episode. Assorted
League of Gentlemen, Vicar of Dibleys, Spaced, Coupling and of course the
Simpsons. Ahhhhhh. Pass the maltesers.
1.
Swan Lake -
(Matthew Bourn's 'Adventures in Motion Pictures'.) Quite simply superb. Don't think I managed to exhale for the entire performance! 2.
Shockheaded Peter 2002. Missed this first couple of times around.
Edgy, gothic staging of the Heinrich Hoffman scary children's classics.
Fantastic. 3.
The Iceman Cometh. (Almeida
& Old Vic. Kevin Spacey.) First time I'd seen this and boy, was it good?
I'll answer that - Yes! 4.
Hamlet. (Ralph Fiennes.
1995) Wonderfully brooding. Seen a few Hamlets (in my time) but this was by far the best.
(Francesca Annis: May I have
my programme back, please?) 5.
The Normal Heart. (Tom
Hulce. 1986) Think this was the first play I had seen to tackle
the Aids issue in the 80s - not a dry eye in the house. 6.
Blood Brothers. (Kiki Dee
and Con O'Neill. c. 1986?) Still running in the West End and perennially springs
up around the country. Saw it
countless times for the above run, bought the tape and my sister and I would
sing along whenever we drove distances above 1/2 a mile. 7.
Rocky Horror / Return to the Forbidden Planet. Good excuse to dress up and have a wild time. 8.
Carmen. Pretty much every production I've seen I've wanted to
join in. 9.
Road. (Royal Court - Ian
Dury, mid 80s) Gritty, involving, exciting, edgy threatre. 10.
All My Sons. (RNT - Julie
Walters, James Hazeldine - 2001). Beautifully acted, involving and painful. Click here to go back to my homepage
1.
All the Harry Potters (J K Rowling). I know, I know but I really enjoy these. 2&3
Grapes of Wrath / Of Mice and Men.
(J Steinbeck)
Must read these again. Yep,
I blubbed. 4.
If This is a Man.
(P Levi). An amazing book written without bitterness, but
memories must have tortured - he took his own life in 1987. 5.
Regeneration Trilogy. (P
Barker). Only read these after seeing the film (also v good),
some images stay with me and when I see documentaries about WWI, there they are
again. 6.
The Firm. (J Grisham) Bought this after hearing a couple discussing it on
the bus. For about the last dozen
or so pages, my heart was really
racing.
7.
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (P Ackroyd). First Peter Ackroyd book I read and it kept me
guessing all the way to the end. Master of historic London through which his
tales are woven. 8.
L'Assommoir. (Emile Zola) My introduction to Zola and, again, a book I really
ought to re-read. Though Therese Raquin or Nana are the better known, this is my
favourite. 9.
Last Chance to See. (Douglas
Adams and Mark Carwardine) Have recommended this to several people and they have
all enjoyed it. Adams gives account of his and Carwardine's search to
find near extinction species from around the globe.
I was particularly interested in the Kakapo bird and wrote to the
sanctuary in New Zealand, asking if I could visit.
They 10.
The Man Who Listens to Horses. (Monty
Roberts). Inspirational autobiography of a hero of mine.
I've only seen him live once, so far.
He works with difficult horses and his methods are outstanding. QED did a documentary on him and I had to find out
more - this book tells it all. Click here for a picture of Monty Roberts (to find out more click here for a link: www.montyroberts.com |
