Your Five Favourite Movies - And Why

[bkkmfj2648]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

If you are stuck in the apartment, do try to watch the Japanese gay movie Egoist from my list.

I agree with you.

I already saw this great Japanese love story film in November 2023.

I was sharing my enthusiasm for this film with my best friend back in Italy

[Olddaddy]

Transamerica was good

The woman who was a transexual driving across America with a teenage boy who didn't know the tranny 👗was his Dad😳

[kokopelli3]

On 4/28/2025 at 5:55 PM, Olddaddy said:

My favourite was that one with Matt Damon where he played a new Detective and his Uncle was a Irish🇮🇪 gangster , I think it was set in Boston  what was the name of that movie please ?

I think the Uncle was Jack ... someone?

And another movie I love was NO PLACE for old men , I think that's the title 

No Country For Old Men.

[PeterRS]

18 hours ago, kokopelli3 said:

My favourite was that one with Matt Damon where he played a new Detective and his Uncle was a Irish🇮🇪 gangster , I think it was set in Boston  what was the name of that movie please ?

@tm_nyc already has this on his list - "The Departed", Martin Scorsese's version of an earlier Hong Kong movie, "Infernal Affairs". Both great movies and the Scorsese version was particuarly well cast. Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen in addition to Matt Damon were outstanding.

[stevenkesslar]

So I know you said one sentence on each.   Sorry, with me that is impossible.   My list isn't meant to be so much "the best films". These are all very good films that I feel had a deep personal impact on me.

1 and 2. Cabaret and Chicago

Basically, the same movie (or play) thematically, in my view.  Both very entertaining and both won tons of awards. 

I was thinking about them when I saw the recent special on Liza Minnelli.  And I was thinking about the influence of John Kander and Fred Ebb, who made her what she is.  Cabaret was my first Gay film, which I saw many times as a young teen with my best friend, who also turned out to be Gay.  And both works developed a tone and Gay vibe that has stuck with me my whole life.  Somewhat a dark and cynical tone, I think.  But that's life.  That's Chicago.  And I put this in the context of the 1970's, when explicit Gay themes and Gay power were first starting to emerge.

The other three films are kind of the opposite, in that they embody reasons to be hopeful.

3.  God's Own Country

I feel like I have watched every obscure LGBTQ film ever made, including many cited above.  If I had to pick one that really resonated for me, this is it.  Delicious acting, and story, and cinematography.  I think the narrative resonates because it mirrors what happened with LGBTQ life in my lifetime:  something sad and brooding and viewed by many as a sickness was transformed into something loving and beautiful.  And we queer folks did it all by ourselves!  Well, with help from millions of allies all over the planet.

I love the way some fan of the film did this video.

4 and 5.  Holiday (1938 version) and Julia

Again, kind of the opposite of 1 and 2.  I saw both in college, and they fueled my youthful idealism.  Holiday isn't even explicitly political.  But like many films of that era it was filled with the Hepburn/Grant New Deal vibe, which was new to me and had deep appeal.  Many years after I saw Julia I learned about the problems with Lillian Hellman.  Including that the whole story is perhaps bullshit she just made up.  Oh well.  That's what idealism is, anyway.  The best of ourselves, rather than the worst.  Even if we just make it up sometimes.

[Pete1111]

I've seen many of the above films. 

From those listed that I hadn't seen,  I have now watched two, so far.

Enjoyed both a lot.  Thank you guys.

 

The Egoist      @PeterRS

 

 

 

Once Upon a Time in the West      @BjornAgain

 

[PeterRS]

On 6/7/2025 at 4:01 AM, stevenkesslar said:

1 and 2. Cabaret and Chicago

Basically, the same movie (or play) thematically, in my view.  Both very entertaining and both won tons of awards. 

I was thinking about them when I saw the recent special on Liza Minnelli.  And I was thinking about the influence of John Kander and Fred Ebb, who made her what she is.  Cabaret was my first Gay film, which I saw many times as a young teen with my best friend, who also turned out to be Gay.  And both works developed a tone and Gay vibe that has stuck with me my whole life.  Somewhat a dark and cynical tone, I think.  But that's life.  That's Chicago.  And I put this in the context of the 1970's, when explicit Gay themes and Gay power were first starting to emerge.

I was never a fan of Chicago, the movie or the Broadway show, but loved Cabaret. It was nearly in my top five. Liza Minelli and Joel Gray were both amazing. The film encouraged me to learn more about Christopher Isherwood and (1) his stories about gay life in the Weimar Republic, and then (2) the freedom and openness of gay life in California. For one still hovering in and out of the closet, Isherwood made it easier to open the door.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Talking of the gay influence of movies, I have written before about this John Schlesinger movie filmed in 1970 London. It features the intertwining lives of an openly gay doctor (played by the very heterosexual Peter Finch), his occasional bisexual lover (played by Murray Head) who also has flings with a rather wacky character played superbly by Glenda Jackson. The gay elements in the film meant it died in the USA but was widely praised elsewhere. When Shlesinger showed it to a bunch of executives from United Artists in New York, they are allegedly appalled! A number of actors including Dame Edith Evans turned down the role of Finch's mother as she thought the subject matter too risque. But gay men loved the movie, and not only because it features cinema's first full-on male to make kiss.

The soundtrack also features the glorious trio "Soave il vento" from Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte. And on a side note, I think it's interesting that another excellent movie The Shawshank Redemption mentioned by @unixmad gives major prominence to another excerpt from a Mozart opera - the letter duet from "The Marriage of Figaro". And then there is the composer's Clarinet Concerto featured in The King's Speech starring Colin Firth.

[PeterRS]

In terms of gay themed movies there is also "A Bigger Splash" - not the more recent one of that name but one about the life of the artist David Hockney made in 1973 and restored in 4K for re-release in 2019. I recall being surprised at one series of shots of two totally naked young men making out on a table. Not surprisingly that gave it an 'X' rating in the UK. Unless you really want to know more about the early life of Hockney, about half the film is a rather boring documentary. But after this move to California, the gay interest picks up, especially in his relationship with his model and muse Peter Schlesinger. His painting A Bigger Splash is arguably his most famous painting. The model is not seen in the painting, but as the film illustrates it was imagined after Schlesinger had dived in naked. Another painting in the same series shows Schlesinger swimming underwater, only the poster puts white shorts on the torso when he was in fact naked.

Hockney's painting "A Bigger Splash"

Poster featuring Peter Schlesinger

Another grainy shot from the movie