I loved the Facebum 10 day movie challenge where you post a still a day from your 10 best movies and let your friends guess what they are. It was a delight to reconnect with and recommend the movies I love, so here is a bit more about my favourites.

  1. Brazil – I don’t know how many times I have watched this film. It is Terry Gilliam‘s masterpiece (he wrote it, with Tom Stoppard, and directed it) and it made Jonathan Pryce one of my favourite actors. There are so many scenes, lines, moments and visuals that I love. Too many to write about. But it is also Robert De Niro‘s greatest cameo. 

2. Spirited Away – when I think about this film I go to a place in my childhood    that remains unexplained yet deeply felt. Everything about this film is moving.

3. Whale Rider – This movie. Family drama. Cultural heritage. Feminism. Animals.

4. Funny Bones – the saddest deconstruction of what comedy is. This movie is the most triggering, heartfelt, brilliant, savage movie. And Leslie Caron. Wow.

5. Black Cat,White Cat – I didn’t know that movies could be anything until this one. The most creative, funny, dark, theatrical, visual and made film.

6. Volver – I love all of Pedro Almodóvar‘s films, but this one is my best. I also love Penélope Cruz the best.

7. As It Is In Heaven – This is a feel good movie that is beautiful and sentimental and so completely lovely, because it is character driven, and set in Sweden, and it has a choir. 

8. Big Fish – This is Tim Burton at his best, with a heavenly cast that includes Jessica Lange. And the theme song is by . I adore this movie.

9. Delicatessen – Another one of those movies that totally altered everything; performance, story, design. Saw this at least 5 times.

10. The Intouchables – Another French movie of utter fantasticalness. A deep connection tear-jerker. 

 

Then, a list of should be in the top ten only I thought about them too late, or forgot about them and then remembered. Everything is Illuminated. Pan’s Labyrinth. Beetlejuice. Finding Neverland. The Life of Brian. Silverado.