Desert island movies

Ok, this is war! A bunch of classmates and I had a heated but not unpleasant conversation a couple of days ago about desert island movies- not GREAT movies, but our FAVORITE movies. These are movies you'd watch over and over again and therefore deserve to be carted along to a far-flung island in the event of that happening. In other words, even though I think Silence of the Lambs is a great film, I don't think I can stomach (pun fully intended) the prospect of being stuck on an island with the spectre of Hannibal Lecter looming over me... So anyway, the challenge is to come up with the best list of 30 and winner gets her meal of choice. We haven't figured out what the booby-prize for the worst list should be, but I'm thinking a marathon viewing of Steven Seagal flicks... I've tried to be really honest and only thought of films I've watched so I wish I could take Being John Malkovich with me, but alas, I never got round to watching the whole thing.

The thing is, there're just more good movies out there than I have the luxury of watching, like more P. T. Anderson stuff, Woody Allen's early films and a whole bunch of older movies like One Flies Over the Cuckoo's Nest. There're also more movies I love that just couldn't fit in this list- The Ice Storm, Raise the Red Lantern, etc. I guess my criteria for the films I did choose is that they have to be movies which I respond to not just intellectually, but aesthetically and emotionally as well. I mean, if I'm going to be stuck on a desert island, the last thing I want to be doing is dissecting the metaphors of Trois Coleurs. Now Four Weddings and a Funeral on the other hand...

So girls, here goes and remember, I like Japanese food...

1) Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)
2) American Beauty
3) The Big Lebowski- This isn't exactly my favorite Coen brothers movie, but for reasons that continue to elude me, my desert island person loves this and I guess I need to bring a movie we can watch together...
4) Dead Poet's Society- The only reason I started reading Walt Whitman.
5) Edward Scissorhands
6) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
7) Fargo
8) Fight Club
9) Four Weddings and a Funeral- Hugh Grant at his floppiest and most delicious. Note to significant other- I want the Auden poem read at my funeral... Also, best ever declaration of love.
10) The Hours- I love this movie. LOVE.
11) The Hudsucker Proxy
12) I Heart Huckabees
13) Jerry Maguire
14) Léon a.k.a. The Professional
15) LOTR: The Two Towers- But only if you made me choose. If not, I'll get the LOTR: Extended Version and cart the whole darn thing with me.
16) The Matrix
17) Mighty Aphrodite
18) Monsters, Inc.- Between my two favorite Pixar films so far, this won out in the end. As much as I think the studio has truly outdone itself in terms of animation and storyline with The Incredibles, I watched Monsters, Inc. with my little sister and that was great.
19) My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)- This is the kind of world I wish for my children- no bad guys, no fighting between the two kids and no scary monsters. Just scurrying dustballs. As Roger Ebert says, "This is a world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap."
20) Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
21) The Piano
22) The Postman (Il Postino)- What's even better than the movie is the breathtaking soundtrack- a recital of Pablo Neruda's poems by some very famous people. The Material Girl is surprisingly good and Sting- well, this is a public site so I shan't say more... Listen to the snippets.
23) Requiem for a Dream- Ok, so I can't really watch this over and over again without my stomach squirming and wretching my guts out. But if you ever need a movie to remind you how blessed you are by showing you how low the human spirit can descend, this would do. Painful stuff.
24) The Shawshank Redemption
25) Some Kind of Wonderful- In my view, best '80s movie, at least of its genre.
26) The Sweet Hereafter- I finally understood what the Pied Piper of Hamelin means.
27) Tombstone of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka)- If there's anything I ask of you, it will be to please watch this film. Nothing you've ever seen before or after Pixar will prepare you for how powerful animation can be.



28) Untamed Heart- Every line in this movie is calculated to make you cry, and I fall for it every single time. We're talking buckets here...
29) Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin)
30) You've Got Mail

So there you go- after three days of hair-tearing agony, one plaintive international cry for help, hours of surfing the web, a smirk of disapproval from my husband, and one trip to Blockbuster's, this list has got to win me at least dessert if not the full meal...