The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films, as ranked by the users of the biggest movie Internet site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of The Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case, we, is myself and Gary) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list! We’ve frozen the list as of 1st January this year. It’s not as simple as it sounds, as we’ll be watching them in one year, 125 each.

This is our fifteenth update, a rundown of my next five movies watched for the project.

(You can find last week’s update here)

 

His Girl Friday (1940) – 7.9 No. 241

Cary Grant was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His presence, charisma and good looks made him one of the most popular actors of the thirties, forties and fifties, so it is no surprise that he is in several of the movies on the imdb250 list. His Girl Friday is one of them, but as i soon found out, Grant wasn’t really the star this time.

Cary Grant plays newspaper editor Walter Burns. Burns is shocked to find that his ex-wife and former reporter Hildegard Johnson, played by Rosalind Russell, has become engaged. His wife used to work alongside him in the newspaper business, she was one of the best, but now she wants out. A big story is in the process of breaking, concerning a convict due to be executed, and a woman who has fallen in love with him. Burns tries to persuade his wife to interview the man in custody, one last job before she rides off with her new husband-to-be, insurance salesman Bruce.

Whilst she rushes around putting the story together, Burns slowly tortures her poor, naive fiance. Bruce is pushed from pillar to post as Burns tries every trick in the book to break the happy couple up. Hildegard  has known Burns a long time however, and is a tough cookie, so she uses her skills and savvy to to pull the story together, whilst keeping her fiance out of the trouble Burns is trying to put him in.

Cary Grant puts in his usual great performance, but this really is Rosalind Russell’s film. A woman working in a male dominated industry, she is believably tough, smart, and gives as good as she gets. The snappy banter between the pair is so rapid, it is exhausting to watch. As the story unfolds, and the plot thickens, the story of the convict starts to become very interesting, and when it is all pulled together at the end it is done in a very well constructed way.

His Girl Friday was remade in the eighties as Switching Channels, starring Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner. The newspaper was replaced by television news, but other than that there was very little difference. I loved Switching Channels as a child, but having seen His Girl Friday the dialogue here is better, the performance of Russell beats out that of Kathleen Turner, and the whole movie is better drawn together. A great satire on the newspaper industry, and a great example of a competent woman shown outshining her male counterparts at a time when this really was unusual. Definitely deserving of its position in the list.

 

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – 8.1 No. 167

Director Sidney Lumet and actor Al Pacino were both big parts of the New Hollywood era, and in Dog Day Afternoon they come together to create one of the most interesting works of that period.

Sonny Wortzik (Pacino) and friend Sal attempt to hold up a bank. Sonny used to work in a bank, so knows a fair bit about the security, however it turns out there is no money in the safe. Holding the staff hostage, the men are unable to make a quick getaway as the police,  the media, and then the FBI begin to camp out outside.

Sonny is clearly out of his depth, as he really isn’t much of a criminal. The staff are scared at first, but start to relax as they banter about with him, and the atmosphere amongst the bank workers begins to become much more relaxed, more of a day off. Detective Moretti, the cop in charge of the scene outside is out of his depth too. He tries to negotiate with Sonny, who really doesn’t know what to ask for, as a huge crowd look on. They yell support for the bank robber sticking it to the man, without really knowing anything about him.

Pacino is brilliant as the wannabe bank robber. He plays the part with confidence, great timing and a surprising talent for dark comedy. The movie is hilarious for the first two thirds, as Sonny and Sal start to sketch out an escape plan, and the excellent Charles Durning as the cop Moretti tries to keep control of the situation. When the feds get involved, and the robbers and their hostages begin to prepare for transport to the airport, the tension ramps up, and in contrast with the dark humour that has come before, the ending is shocking in its sudden violence.

Dog Day Afternoon is a very satirical look at the sensibilities of the seventies. The crowd are firmly on Sonny’s side, for the simple reason that they believe he has some sort of political agenda, that he is in some way fighting the powers that be. The gender bending storyline, Sonny’s attempt to pay for his male lover’s sex change operation, is handled with an impressive amount of sensitivity. The idea isn’t portrayed as disgusting, the characters don’t treat it as a completely alien concept, and Pacino plays the part of a man caring for his male lover completely straight, with complete sympathy.

An amazing film to watch, combining satire, slapstick, political comment, dark comedy and sudden violence to great effect. Dog Day Afternoon is a very important film of the period, it tells a lot about the social climate of the day, and is fully deserving of a spot in the top 250 films of all time.

 

The Seventh Seal (1957) – 8.2 No. 117

A few weeks ago i looked at Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. It had some fairly abstract ideas and scenes, but generally was quite a warm look at an old man evaluating his life. The Seventh Seal is a very different story, following a medieval knight who instead of reflecting on his life, is trying to prolong it instead.

Seventh Seal opens with the knight, played by Max Von Sydow, and his aide, washed up on a beach. The knight awakens to see Death, and realizes he is on the steps of purgatory. He challenges Death to a game of Chess, with the provision that he stays alive as the game goes on, and be allowed to live if he wins.

The knight travels the plague-ridden land, throughout the game, and through meeting various people, he questions the nature of man, and the meaning of life. He explores his own religious belief. He wants to hate God, but cannot stop believing in him. He meets a couple with a young child, who are concerned about how they will bring their child up. He comes across another man, the man’s wife and the actor she has had an affair with. Why does the man still love this woman when she shows so little respect for his love?

The Seventh Seal is far less accessible than the more contemporary Wild Strawberries. Filled with symbolic ideas about death, and spiritual musings on life and religion, it is a fascinating film, but very difficult to follow, requiring of strict concentration. If you can keep with it, you’ll find some highly philosophical questions, though few answers, and the complexity of it all is testament to the amazing mind of its director Bergman.

You just don’t find films like this in Hollywood, mostly due to its poor commercial appeal, but that’s a shame. The Seventh Seal is certainly not for everyone, and i’ll need to watch it again (which will be a third time) at some point in the future when i have more time to appreciate it. A must watch movie, but only when it has your full attention, if The Seventh Seal wasn’t in the IMDb list i’d have been very disappointed.

 

8 1/2 (1963) – 8.1 No. 165

Federico Fellini is one of the most famous Italian directors, so it isn’t surprising  to find that the heavily autobiographical 8 1/2 is just one of several of his movies in the top 250 list, alongside La Strada and Le Notti De Cabiria

Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director in the midst of a midlife crisis. We follow him during the production of an elaborate movie, but not much of the movie seems to be getting made. The director finds himself distracted by his wife, his lover, and the unique set of people working around him, all wanting something from him, some involvement in his latest endeavor.

Guido’s thoughts are consumed not by his work, but by his past, present and future. He no longer has faith in his own ability, and the breakdown of his marriage is forcing him to reconsider his view of women, and how he has abused them throughout his adult life.

8 1/2 has a semi-coherent narrative, but is more of an art piece. A flavour of life rather than life itself, it is a semi-autobiographical look at the life of an artist, and how the creative mind is tangential by nature. From a story point of view, it is an interesting tale of a film director who has lost interest and focus on his subject.

But it is more of a filmic experience than a movie. Guido’s dreams, nightmares and waking musings are both abstract and highly telling. Guido has lived a life pf parties, social intercourse and romance, he has clearly enjoyed his life but it has taken its toll on both his psyche and his marriage. Faced with losing the woman he loves, he begins to realise that he has made many bad choices, and tries to explore when and where it all went wrong, but in the end, discovers he has only himself to blame.

Whether 8 1/2 is deserving of its place in the IMDb250 is highly subjective. It is a bit of a Marmite picture, and whilst i don’t have an aversion to the abstract, i found 8 1/2 to be a little too schizophrenic. The story is definitely there, and it is certainly a personal one, but i think the problem is that it just isn’t quite interesting enough for me. Certainly a must watch  for Fellini fans however.

 

The Pianist (2002) – 8.4 No. 53

In 2003, The Pianist won hugely talented filmmaker Roman Polanski his first Academy Award for Direction, on the third time of asking. It also made a star of lead actor Adrien Brody, who won the Oscar for best actor. There have been many, many movies based around the Holocaust of World War II, so what makes The Pianist so special?

Brody plays Wladyslaw Szpilman, a talented pianist working for Warsaw Radio. His fantastic life turns upside down when Poland is invaded by the SS, and in response the UK and France declare war on Nazi Germany. Szpilman and his family, along with the rest of the Jewish population of Poland find their human rights gradually taken away from them.

When the Jewish people are transported away for extermination, Wladyslaw is the only member of his family to escape. Calling in favours from non-Jewish friends from before the war, the pianist finds himself pushed from pillar to post as he desperately hides from Hitler’s death squads. His health deteriorates as he lives a rodent like existence, hiding out, desperately searching for foods whilst narrowly escaping death at every turn. Can he survive long enough to be saved by the Polish uprising, or assistance arrives from the troops of the allied forces?

Many Holocaust films use images of huge crowds of people being led to their deaths, using graphic images of the atrocities committed at the Nazi death camps. The Pianist is  a much more personal piece. By introducing us to the Szpilman family, letting us get to know them, and follow them from the beginning as their lives are slowly taken apart, it allows for a much more affecting experience. You feel much closer to the talented piano player as he is separated from his family, and struggles to keep alive in a devastated Warsaw.

Szpilman watches the war through windows, as he tries to stay out of sight, and one step ahead of the SS forces. He survives not through great heroism, but sheer strength of will and endurance. Brody is brilliant as the young survivor, portraying the desperation and great resolve of his character to perfection. Polanski’s direction is equally brilliant. Resisting the temptation to fill the tale with scenes of horrifying violence makes the shock moments of evil all the more affecting, and allows for a much greater understanding of the fragility of life for Jews during the Holocaust, as they are executed on the streets with no warning, and no provocation.

The Pianist is a hugely effective telling of the story of the Holocaust. Based on a true story , adapted from the real life pianist’s autobiography, it is easily deserving of all the accolades it has received, and of its place in the IMDb list. A compelling portrait of one Polish Jewish citizen’s experience of World War II, the fact that Szpilman’s story can be considered a lucky one is a truly horrifying reality.

You can find Gary’s next update next Monday, and i’ll see you here in two weeks time.

Don’t forget, you can follow our progress on Twitter at and http://twitter.com/gary_phillips_.

Bazmann