griggs's - Favourite 100 Films List

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To the enigmatic question "Who are Seconds?", the film's original poster responded: "The answer is almost too terrifying for words.... The story of a man who buys for himself a totally new life. A man who lives the age-old dream - If only I could live my life all over again.

" John Frankenheimer directs Rock Hudson as a "second": that is, the newly plastic-surgery altered "reboot" of, in this instance, a listless banker named Arthur Hamilton. Such procedures are carried out by a secret organization known only as "The Company," with the promise of giving an individual a chance at making a fresh start at life... but at what cost? Master lighting cameraman James Wong Howe provides the paranoiac atmosphere to the skewed reality of what came to be widely considered one of Frankenheimer's very best films.

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"Taxi Driver" provoked fierce controversy when it was released, running into censorship problems in America as some of the scenes of violence were described to be "as gory as Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs".

In addition there was an outcry at a 13-year-old schoolgirl actress (Jodie Foster) co-starring as a prostitute. It won Best Picture at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival and received Academy Award Nominations for Best Film, Best Actor (Robert de Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Foster).

This powerful portrait of urban racial tension sparked controversy everywhere it played while earning popular and critical praise. The hottest day of the year and an explosive day in the life of Bedford - Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The community will never be the same again.

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A young policeman Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) is put in charge of a nearly deserted L.A. police station, in the process of moving to another location, that finds itself under siege by an interracial gang of cut-throats and escaped convicts.

Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston) is impressive as a heroic convict, so is Ethan as the unflappable cop.

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Stomping, whomping, stealing, singing, tap dancing, violating. Derby-topped hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has a good time - at the tragic expense of others.

His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick's future-shock vision of Anthony Burgess' novel.

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A deceptively simple tale of a group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse who find themselves fending off a horde of recently dead, flesh-eating ghouls, Romero's claustrophobic vision of a late-1960s America literally tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combined gruesome gore

with acute social commentary, and quietly broke ground by casting a black actor (Duane Jones) in its lead role. Stark, haunting, and more relevant than ever, 'Night of the Living Dead' is back.

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Brace yourself as one of the all-time spellbinders possesses you all over again.

Director William Friedkin and producer/screenwriter William Peter Blatty have revisited The Exorcist to integrate 11 minutes of scenes and images deleted before the film's 1973 release and digitally restore the picture and audio elements. The result is an experience more gripping than ever. Now seen are moments deepening the impact of the performances by Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow and Lee J. Cobb. They include a "nervous disorder" dianosis, expansion of Father Merrin's arrival before the ritual, priestly doubts during the ritual, an epilogue with Lt. Kinderman and Father Dyer and most notably, a shattering staircase descent by Regan. Winner of Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Sound, The Exorcist astonishes time and again like no other movie.

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On a cold, bright autumn day in Suffolk, England, a little girl in a red mackintosh drowns in a pond-the daughter of John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie).

Trying to recover from the tragedy, the couple arrive in Venice, Italy, where John has been commissioned to restore a church. In the eerie atmosphere of the lagoon city in winter, they encounter two strange sisters. Laura is suddenly released from her grief when one of them, a blind psychic, tells her that she is in contact with her dead daughter. Angered and sceptical, John carries on with his work, but witnesses an unsettling vision of his own: a little girl in a red mackintosh disappearing into the Venetian alleys. As Venice and his fate close in on John, illusion, reality and sudden terror spiral the story to its grotesque climax.

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Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) a naive writer of pulp westerns, arrives in Vienna to meet his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) but finds that Lime has apparently been killed in a suspicious accident.

Martins, too, curious for his own good, hears contradictory stories about the circumstances of Limes' death and as witnesses disappear he finds himself chased by unknown assailants. Complicating matters are the sardonic Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), head of the British forces, and Limes' stage actress mistress, Anna (Alida Valli). Will Martin's curiosity lead him to discover things about his old friend that he'd rather not know?

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The Dude, Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is unemployed and laid-back... until...victim of mistaken identity, two thugs break into his apartment in the errant belief that they are accosting Jeff Lebowski the Pasadena millionaire.

In hope of getting a replacement for his soiled carpet Dude visits his wealthy namesake and, with buddy, ex 'Nam' veteran, Walter (John Goodman) he is swept into a comedy/thriller of extortion, embezzlement, sex and dope. It takes guys as simple as the Dude and Walter to make a story this complicated...and they'd really rather be bowling.

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Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) prowls the steel-and-microchip jungle of 21st century Los Angeles. He's a "Blade Runner" stalking genetically made criminal replicants. His assignment: kill them. Their crime: wanting to be human.

A visual stunner, remastered for improved home presentation, director Ridley Scott's vision of this sci-fi cinema classic intriguingly differs from what 1982 moviegoers saw. This version omits Deckard's voiceover narration, develops in greater detail the romance between Deckard and Rachael (Sean Young) and removes the "uplifting" finale. Most intriguing of all is a newly included unicorn vision that suggests Deckard may be a humanoid. The result is a heightened emotional impact a great film made greater.

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Planned by the Soviet Central Committee to coincide with the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the unsuccessful 1905 Russian Revolution, this film was developed by the 27 year-old Sergei Eisenstein from less than one page of script from a planned eight-part epic that was intended to

chronicle a large number of revolutionary actions. Starting with the Potemkin's crew's refusal to eat maggot-infested meat, the mutiny develops and their leader Vakulinchuk is shot by a senior officer. The officers are overthrown and when the Potemkin docks at Odessa, crowds appear from all directions to take up the cause of the dead sailor and open rebellion ensues. What became the most celebrated sequence in world cinema history follows as the Czarist soldiers fire on the crowds thronging down the Odessa steps; the broad newsreel-like sequences being inter-cut with close-ups of harrowing details. Returning to sea, the Potemkin's crew prepares the guns for action as the ship, flying the flag of freedom, steams to confront the squadron. When they finally meet their worst fears are allayed as, with relief coupled with joy, they are universally acclaimed. This film, which was destined to become such an influential landmark in cinematographic history, opened in Moscow in January 1926. It ran for only four weeks.

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Orson Welles makes his feature-length directorial debut with this classic drama which often tops critics' polls of the best films of all time. In 1940, newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles) dies after uttering the word 'Rosebud'.

An anonymous reporter (William Alland) is assigned the task of uncovering the meaning of Kane's dying word, and in the course of his enquiries he receives varying accounts of his life from former colleagues Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and Bernstein (Everett Sloan), and ex-wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore). The film, which Welles also produced and co-wrote, was not-so-loosely based on the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

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After he saves her from drowning in the bay, Scottie's (James Stewart) interest shifts from business to fascination with the icy, alluring blonde. When tragedy strikes and Madeleine (Kim Novak) dies, Scottie is devastated.

But when he finds another woman remarkably like his lost love, the now obsessed detective must unravel the secrets of the past to find the key to his future.

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Directed by Jonathan Demme, Talking Heads concert film 'Stop Making Sense' film has been re-mixed and re-mastered allowing the brilliance of the music and visuals to take full advantage of state-of-the-art technology.

Tracklisting:
1. Psycho Killer
2. Heaven

3. Thank You for Sending Me An Angel
4. Found a Job
5. Slippery People
6. Burning Down the House
7. Life During Wartime
8. Making Flippy Floppy
9. Swamp
10. What a Day That Was
11. Nave Melody (This Must Be the Place)
12. Once In a Lifetime
13. Genius of Love
14. Girlfriend is Better
15. Take Me To the River
16. Cross-Eyed and Painless
Bonus Tracks:
17. Cities
18. Big Business / I Zimbra