10 films that influenced me (meme/game)

[solarbird]

I got invited by @Taweret on Mastodon to share one image (no posters, no titles, no explanations) from 10 films that impacted me, one per day. The full game involved tagging a new person every day to invite them, but I’ve been too swamped lately so I skipped that part.

Now that it’s done, here’s the list of my #10Films, along with the reasons I chose them. The links go to the frames I chose to post without explanation

1: Spirited Away: There was a time in my life when I’d’ve absolutely swapped places with Sen, and been just another spirit worker in that spa.

Really, there’re been a couple of times.

2: The Manchurian Candidate (1962): If you think this hasn’t affected my writing you either haven’t seen this film or haven’t read any of my writing. xD

3: Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer: What the hell is an early Rumiko Takahashi film spinoff from an anime based on her least interesting manga doing in this list?

It’s because the world is never what you think it is and this story tells you that beautifully. It’s a masterpiece made from harem anime and trash and I adore it.

4: The Lion in Winter: My gods, the dialogue. Every word a dagger, every line a cut into flesh, all perfectly performed. Magnificent. (Also, move over Die Hard, this is the best Christmas movie ever made.)

5: Casablanca: Because sometimes, yeah, you have to give up everything to do what someone – meaning you – absolutely has to do. And it sucks and it’s not fair… but it’s still true.

Also, because maybe, just maybe, even the biggest shitheel in the world can decide they’ve had enough and say no – no more. (And no, I’m absolutely not talking about Rick.)

6: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Because going everywhere every direction at once has kind of been my forte. I haven’t been an an MD but I have performed in front of tens of thousands of people and I have done original science and if you were using a computer in the early 2000s you probably had some of my code on it, and I haven’t seen that guy spin around news coverage of anti-queer initiatives in a day.

How do y’like them apples, Banzai? xD

7: The Magic Christian: Do not be confused: this is not a good movie. But it’s a lot better in our current context than the one in which it was made. The final sequence involving the actual Magic Christian of the title is about how people of intent and wealth can create a completely artificial world that everyone involved decides to believe in which ignores reality at essentially every level, only to pull the rug out from under them at any moment.

Completely unrealistic, I’m sure.

8: D.E.B.S.: Welcome to 95% of my sexuality.

Also, the Kim Possible/Shigo (a.k.a. Kigo) movie we so desperately deserved but Disney would never, ever make.

These are, yes, exactly the same things.

9: Snatch: A brutal story about brutal people, brutally written and most of all brutally edited. See also its companion piece, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which honestly I kind of prefer. But they’re both great.

Not long after this came out they finally figured out who that serial killer in Vancouver was, and we all learned that “Never trust a man with a pig farm” was far more true than we ever thought.

10: The Quick and the Dead: Welcome to the other 5% of my sexuality. And I don’t just mean Sharon.

Though I do absolutely mean Sharon.

Just… not just Sharon. xD

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[gwydion]

I too think A Lion in Winter is the best Christmas movie ever made.

We first saw the Magic Christian on late night TV in the early '90'ss. We'd come home from gaming and turned on the TV and it was just starting. We stared and stared, not quite believing we weren't hallucinating. I have exposed any number of Millennials too it. no, it's not a good movie, but it's fascinating.

[solarbird]

Yeah. The Magic Christian. It's an... experience. :D

I read somewhere that gay men at the time protested the film for its sexualised presentation of gay men and the thing is while I totally get it particularly in the context I was also like, "Outside the two leads, these are by far the most actualised and genuine people in this entire film." Which is hilarious to me, but it's true.

[gwydion]

And the leads are also gay of course. It's a little more obvious in the book, but "Youngman" was the period equivalent of "Rentboy." The Ringo Star character is literally a male sex worker the older gentleman picked up in the part and adopted so that he can inherit. The older gentleman is implied to be a confirmed bachelor aka gay. It's why he never married and had children.

[solarbird]

...I did not know that. That's excellent. :D

[corvi]

Lion in Winter is great, yeah.