Fil-ums

I think I missed the boat on this films-wot-define-you meme thing, but I'm having a go at listing a bunch anyway. Because I exist! And am intrigued to see what they become. OK, here goes...

1. Legally Blonde (not 2) - this is the greatest fable about self-identity and knowledge institutions ever made for the cinema and if you can see how that works you probably have some idea how my mind functions.
   
2. The Mummy + The Mummy Returns (not that other pile of crap in the series) - because pulpy pastiche with great dialogue, great scenery, quest narratives is one of the best ways to roll. And I am apparently a massive fan of Rachel Weisz, because she will reappear and she was apparently cognisant enough to realise that the series was dead after Returns and got out while she could.
   
3. A Knight's Tale - not least because there was one family holiday where this was at length the only DVD we had. The epic, epic director's commentary made me sad for how serious the rest of them usually are. It gets dull in the second half, but again with the pulpy, anachronistic irreverence. I think he's getting worse ... He is getting worse.
   
4. About a Boy - might as well rattle through these Rachel Weisz films. This and the Bridget Jones films are the only good Hugh Grants. This is one of those films I got out as a video(?) rental for a week back in the day and watched it too many times. Then there was a spate of showings on the telly and if I start watching ten minutes I always get through to the end. Not sure why, but it must say something about me!
   
5. The Constant Gardener - different from the book and I am tempted to say not as good, but then Ralph Fiennes brings Justin alive in ways that Le Carré never quite manages. It's a shame that Tessa is not as clever in the film, but then everyone in films is stupid. Arnold isn't as interesting either, but Ghita is better. Bill Nighy is aces too. It's so evocative of a place and a mood, and the feel good better ending with Ham is what I always want from the book.
   
6. The Fugitive - I only remembered recently how much I love this film and miss it being on every Christmas, and I haven't even got it on DVD yet, but the whole thing is so well crafted. Every line of dialogue is shaped to perfection and the plot rattles along at exactly the right pace with exactly the right balance between realism and heightened reality. I suppose it is even more girl in a refrigerator than The Constant Gardener, but I'm basically willing to put up with that in isolation.
   
7. St. Trinian's (not 2) - this is the moment I have to start trawling through my DVDs for inspiration, so here is some. Girls' school culture amuses me; inevitable makeovers as an expression of personal evolution amuses me; Rupert Everett and Colin Firth amuse me; Lily Cole's inability to act amuses me; Sophie Ellis Bextor + Girls Aloud amuses me. It's complete trash built entirely on in-jokes and it's great.
   
8. The Hole - finding this makes me want to watch it again. Keira Knightley before she was famous (hmm, Bend It Like Beckham could have been on this list as well), but she's nowhere near as good as Thora Birch, who was doomed on the principle of never being likely to fit into a Hollywood costume, but who is brilliantly psychopathic. This is the film that made me love unreliable narrators and re-dos from different perspectives and always try to trace that line between fantasy and reality and how the two frame and re-frame one another. The moment that line comes round again, This is how it works at Brabourne; the creeping realisation that you've been completely had - it just kills me.
   
9. Brick - I forgot how much I love this film as well. Watched it enough times I don't know if I need it again, but I love the clash of Noir and High School. The dialogue has so much style.
   
10. Moulin Rouge - I've never got round to buying this on DVD, but I used to have a VCR copy. Saw it again quite recently and remembered how much I liked the circularity and inevitability of the narrative. Tragedies are always the best when you know they're going to happen. And I seem obsessed with dead women (+high school???), but I suppose what I like here, as in The Constant Gardener is how much the film seems to flag up the fact that we are seeing Satine completely from Christian's point of view and are in fact living in an opium-laced fantasy. I've often wanted the juicy, lengthy fic version of the story from Satine's point of view, probably in French; I just think it would be gorgeous and nasty and witty and everyone would swear a lot more. But still it would have El Tango de Roxanne.

Well, that's it! I dunno if I like being she of the fridges and high schools. But I suppose there are few other real models in Hollywood for psychological turmoil. Oh well. Bring on the turmoil, excellent dialogue and some shiny things!