All Quiet on the Western Front - It's a consensus "film of the year". It won the Best Picture Oscar. It's the highest rated and the most popular film from 1930 on IMDb and the only film from that year in the IMDb 250. It was also the first film from 1930 to be inducted into the National Film Registry, and the only film from that year to be listed on the original AFI 100 years, 100 movies list.
Hell's Angels - This was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made. The many trials of it's production were well documented in The Aviator. Another WWI fighter pilot movie from 1930 that I would like to see is The Dawn Patrol, but it is not available on DVD.
City Girl - I have never been disappointed by a Murnau movie.Blue Angel
Morocco - I couldn't decide between these two von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations. Blue Angel is a classic and is more highly-rated and popular, but Morocco is in the National Film Registry, and it's, well, gayer.
Blood of a Poet - I've already seen this Jean Cocteau movie (loved it), but I need a refresher since I'll be seeing the other two films in his Orphic trilogy - Orpheus (1950) and Testament of Orpheus (1960) - later this year (in May and June respectively).Monte Carlo - I'm a sucker for musicals, even though I wasn't exactly blown away by any of the early talkie musicals I saw last year (Applause, Broadway Melody, or Hallelujah!). Maybe the Lubitsch touch will help.
Animal Crackers - The Marx Brothers' classic.
and if time permits:
L'âge d'or - Before I saw Un chien andalou last year, I had never seen a Luis Buñuel film. I thought the 1928 adaptation, Fall of the House of Usher, where he was the writer and assistant director to Jean Epstein, was fantastic, but I was ultimately disappoint by Un chien andalou. I want to give Buñuel another look, but my expectations are lower this time.
Earth - I've enjoyed a lot of Soviet cinema from this era; Man With a Movie Camera rates as one of my all-time favorite films. The only reason why this film is so low on the list is that I've seen Dovzhenko's Arsenal two years ago and was underwhelmed by it. But this one is considered his best, so I'm curious.
2 comments:
Hey, Andrew!
Awesome movie lineup. I, too, love Man with a Movie Camera (it was one of my "favorite films seen in 2008"). I recently saw Cocteau's Orpheus and thought it was very good (I like old-fashioned special effects). I've never really liked a Bunuel film; I keep watching them since he is so well-regarded, but they always disappoint (I think The Exterminating Angel was passable). I think I quite liked "Earth"; I saw it not too long ago.
cheers,
Matt
What I like about Cocteau's special effects is not just the technique (the old-fashionedness does give them a quality of elegance), but that he incorporates them comfortably into the film. He doesn't just execute the trick and say "ta-da!", he composes the scene where the trick won't seem out of place, but doesn't lose it's gee-whiz factor.
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