Film # 6 The Cider House Rules

How many times have all of us said, "the book was better" after we've seen a screen adaptation of a popular novel. The length of the novel just doesn't lend itself well to a two hour film. It's the short story that translates best to film, with the novel, compromises must be made and often the story suffers in some way because of them.  John Irving novels, because of their length, multiple characters, and intertwining plot lines pose a particular problem for the screen adapter. For the Cider House Rules, John Irving himself took on the task of adapting his popular novel and rather than compromising the story he recreated it by eliminating two characters and their subplots. In 1999 Lasse Hallstrom took John Irving's re-imagined story and created a film that retains the integral spirit of the novel and received seven Oscar nominations, winning best supporting actor for Michael Cane and adapted screenplay for Irving. The Cider House Rules makes this list because it turned a novel I love into a movie I love equally. This film just works, from the writing to the acting, the music to the cinematograph.

Tobey Maguire and Michael Cane so embody the characters of Homer and Dr. Larch, that it seems as though their faces were used as illustrations in the original printing of the book and even though those of us who read the novel before seeing the film, know what we're going to find out about Mr. Rose, Delroy Lindo is still able to charm us as he leads the crew and teaches Homer about picking apples.

The Cider House Rules is a beautifully shot and edited film and Rachel Portman's score is as close to perfect a film score as I've heard. The biggest injustice of 1999 was that while she was nominated she did not win the oscar. The main theme from the film has a special place in my creative heart because it was the music I borrowed for the fund-raising trailer I created for my Farnsworth Documentary: The Farnsworth; Rockland's Treasure Lucy's Gift. Thanks to that trailer my friend, and Farnsworth board member, John Bird and I were able to raise funds to pay for that project with just a few visits to prominent Rockland business leaders. We walked in, opened the laptop, played the trailer and the rest is history (The Michigan State Board of Tourism is now using Ms. Portman's music in a campaign of their own). Here's the trailer from Lucy's Gift and in the words of Dr. Larch: Good night you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England

Film #5 Manhattan

In 1979 when I first saw Woody Allen's Manhattan I had yet to make my first trip to New York but thanks to Gordon Willis' glorious black and white cinematography I walked out of the theater feeling as though I had. Now I don't remember if I had seen Annie Hall at that point, but even if I had, I was still a lover of the Woody Allen of Take the Money and Run and Sleeper and as a twenty year-old somewhat sheltered Southern Ohio college student who had never been in a cab or on a train or plane, much of the humor in Manhattan was, I suppose, largely lost on me. That didn't matter, because the richness of those black and white images on that huge screen was more than enough. When combined with the music of Gershwin I would have loved the film even if the characters hadn't spoken a word.

As I grew older and hopefully a bit more sophisticated, I began to appreciate Manhattan on other levels and that's the real reason this film makes the list. In some ways I feel as though I grew up with this movie. Each time I would see it I would take something new away and I grew to appreciate that Woody, as he had first done in Annie Hall, was saying so much about love, loss and our society while still making us laugh. It would be several more years and multiple viewings of the film before I would actual set foot in Manhattan and even though much of the New York of 1979 was long changed by the time I began visiting there in the late eighties, I would think first of those Gordon Willis images as I approached Penn Station on the New Jersey Transit train.

In the last few years, as I have been begun staying and working in Manhattan for extended periods, I have replaced much of Gordon Willis' cinematography with a collection of my own personal images and memories, still yet, Manhattan represents a feeling and atmosphere that is as real to me today, as it was exotic and foreign in 1979. So now, thirty plus years later, Woody Allen's Manhattan, is new to me yet again. Now, I appreciate it as New Yorkers might have when it first opened in 1979 -  from the inside out and often when I'm walking through its' streets it still strikes me as "a town that exists in black and white and pulsates to the great tunes of George Gershwin".  

Film #4 Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick, Director, Auteur, Artist. In 1978 Mallick directed his second film which was for me, a recent high school graduate at the time, nothing short of a revelation. Suddenly I realized that movies could be so much more than entertainment - that they were in fact an art form. Lyrical and breathtakingly beautiful, Days of Heaven, as I think of most of Mallick's work, is a poem. A piece of art that effects you not only intellectually, but more importantly emotionally and often even physically. Yes, physically - just try and not draw a deep breath when the camera suddenly reveals to you the flight of a bird, the wind passing over the prairie grass or the deadly dance of flames. When I think of this film I recall those images and the story they tell, a story that at times seems to be working independently of the one being told through the dialogue. 

The sheer power of this film is lost on a small screen and Days of Heaven should never simply be watched, it should only be experienced on a large scale as the sights and sounds of this film flow over us -  casually draped across a matter-of-fact voiceover delivered by Linda Manz.

In the end, as with any great work of art, Days of Heaven relies on the viewer to complete its' artistic mission. And whether you come away struck by the themes of progress and a changing culture, the haunting story of love and loss or by the raw power of nature and its' indifference to man, this film stays with you and will continue to evolve within you.While many try to over intellectualize this and other Mallick films, for me, they will always be best understood and enjoyed when viewed through the lens in your heart rather than the one in your brain. Days of Heaven is a film that simply happens to you.

Film #3 North By Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant. Okay, I could stop right here and you'd have all the explanation you need as to why this film is on the list. North by Northwest is two pros at the top of their game. The perfect Hitchcock mix of mystery and wit, with the perfect leading man for the material. Jimmy Stewart, while great in the films he did with Hitchcock, always seemed to keep both feet firmly planted on the dark side of those roles, Grant, on the other hand, dances between the cross country thrill ride, urbane comedy and romantic road picture so effortlessly that we often forget just what genre of film we're lost in.

This was one of the first films I remember deconstructing in a college film appreciation class, specifically the iconic attempted murder via crop duster in the corn field scene, but even while I was studying Hitchcock's shot selection, I kept coming back to the twisting, keep you guessing, plot and the first-rate performances. Grant plays Roger Thornhill, the stylish Manhattan advertising exec, with just enough hapless everyman to keep us connected. Mysterious and beautiful, Eva Maria Saint is cool and seductive as the woman on the train and of course James Mason and Martin Landau are great as the evil sophisticates.

If you haven't seen North By Northwest in a while, or God forbid, you've never seen it, drop it onto your Netfilx list and when it arrives, throw in some microwave popcorn and sit back and remind yourself what going to the movies is all about.

Film #2 - Diner

In 1982 Barry Levinson, who was primarily know as a writer (the Carol Burnet Show & screenplays for the Mel Brooks films - High Anxiety and Silent Movie in the 70's), made the first of his "Baltimore films" with Diner. Levinson took a group of relatively unknown actors that included -  Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern, Paul Reiser and Ellen Barkin and created a film that, though set in 1959 in Baltimore, transcends time and place. Diner is short on real narrative plot and long on character and though there is the upcoming marriage of Steve Guttenberg's character, Eddie, and the football quiz he is requiring his fiancé to pass before hand, Diner is mostly about a group of friends and how they are dealing with impending adulthood. Again, it's all about the writing, (though I have read that Levinson encouraged improvisation among the actors) and scene after scene is filled with purely character driven dialogue that paints a vivid picture of these guys and their relationships.

Daniel Stern's Shrevie, the only one in the group who has already walked down the isle, shares a classic women are from Venus, men are from Mars scene with Ellen Barkin, who plays his wife Beth. Shrevie is outraged by the way his wife has mishandled his record collection. Not only has she placed a James Brown album under the "Js" but she's put him in the Rock-n-Roll section instead of R&B! Beth ask what he's getting so crazy about it's "just music." but to Shrevie it's so much more. He tells her that every one of his records is special and when he listens to them they take him back to certain places and times in his life. Movies do the same thing and in 1982, when this film was released, I had just finished college and this group of friends and their late night diner conversations reminds me so much of time I had spent hanging out with my own college friends and the conversations we'd shared (or at least how funny and quick-witted I wish our gab had been).

Diner is the film that introduced me to Barry Levinson, one of my favorite directors (one who's work will appear again on this list) and each time I watch it, I'm reminded of the fact that while plot might make films move it's character that makes them breathe.

Film #1 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

In 1969 Director George Roy Hill and screenwriter William Goldman turned the western genre on it's head with this unforgettable film. Teaming major superstar Paul Newman with a much lesser known Robert Redford this film refreshed one genre and created a new one - the buddy film.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid makes this list for several reasons. It's the first film I remember seeing multiple times, so many in fact that I knew virtual every single line (just ask my college roommates whom I drove crazy by saying them along with the actors). The thing that makes this film so special for me, is that as I studied film and as I would see it again and again, new things would take center stage. The use of music, especially in the Bolivian robbery montage, changed the way I perceived music in film and how they could work together.

In the end it's all about good writing and Goldman's screenplay is packed full of memorable scenes and lines that will pop into my head even if I haven't seen the film in a while. Like Aaron Sorkin today, Goldman's dialogue flows from the character's mouths like notes from a Mozart concerto. We all know that no one in real life is as witty or eloquent as this but hey this is art - a narrative film not a documentary.

From stunning cinematography to well rounded characters, from comedy to tragedy Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has it all. No wonder it winds up on so many best of all time lists. So I thought it a fitting film to kick off the list. Remember now, these films are listed in no particular order, I'm not saying this is the single best film or even my all-time favorite, just a good way to kick off the list. 2012 is just underway and there are 99 more to go, So, stay tuned. and remember, as Butch said,
"Boy, I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals."