My 5 for Your 5, Part II

Well, hats off to Andy after the big premiere of "The Tain" last Thursday night. The man is equal parts Kurosawa, Tim Burton, and Peter Jackson, but all Andy Smetanka! Seriously, though, it was a delightful and (momentarily) restorative interlude in my evening of class prepping (and if he can learn from the epic inclinations of Kurosawa and Jackson for his next film, maybe he can detain me from school work for three hours instead of twenty minutes!).

All of this begs the question, of course, of what you would nominate as your Top 5 films from your moviegoing resumes. This may be the most difficult and provisional Top 5 list to do (I guess music will be next?!), but here's an attempt:

• Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders' most transcendent film; haunting, poetic, beautiful)
• Jaws (I can never get enough of this one, perhaps because, while still thrilled by the narrative, I increasingly appreciate the craft and the genius of the filmmaking. It's also probably the most memorable "film event" of my life: my grandparents took me to see it as an eleven year-old, against my mother's strict warning that they not do so! I remember wearing brand new sneakers that night, which ensured that my visceral discomfort stretched from head to toe. Incidentally, my grandparents would further enrage my mother by taking me, the following summer, to see Tarzan -- the version where Bo Derek is naked for about 100 minutes; this film (but for Bo, of course) would undoubtedly be in my list of Top 5 most horrible films I've ever seen).
• The English Patient (This was also in my Top 5 literary works list. I'm a sucker for this film. I hope Anthony Minghella has a long career, because I think he's an amazing director. This is one of those rare cases where book and film nourish and augment each other).
• It's a Wonderful Life (Do I really need to justify this one? Is there a film with a bigger emotional payoff at the end than this one?)
• Cinema Paradiso (This is perhaps the most flawed of the five films I include, but you have to love a film that celebrates the love of film. And it comes with its own wallop of an emotional payoff during the poignant coda).

It's painful to leave out Jackson's stirring Lord of the Rings films, and somehow I feel Star Wars should be in the running merely because of the movie experience it offered to this then twelve year-old ("You're all clear, Kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!" ah, the goosebumps!) -- it's also the only film I ever saw more than twice (five times, in fact) in the theater ... and I've neglected comedies (but I'm expecting Tim will help me out there!). So, have at it. And, Kate, we're not going to let you get away without an offering here!