Gina Telaroli
December 12, 2008 | 12:23 pm EST
Living in New York City, I have access to an incredible amount of repertory film programming and it seems that almost every night there is a chance to see an old film for the first time on the big screen. In making my list of the Top 10 films of the year it was hard to not also think about all the amazing films I saw for the first time in the theaters that weren’t new to 2008. So, as 2008 winds down, I decided to do another list, this one of the Top 10 Old Movies That Were New To Me in 2008. If you click on the title of each film you’ll get an article about it and below each title is a video clip (when I could find one) from the film.
If you are wondering about whether old films play near you, you should take some time to research repertory programming in your area. There are a lot of great theaters out there, like The Cleveland Cinematheque (one of my all time fav theaters), Seattle Cinema at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, The Music Box Theatre and Facets in Chicago and Harvard Film Archive in Massachusetts. A great place to start looking for old film screenings is art museums, if they don’t screen films themselves, they might know who does!
And in honor of making old things new, takepart with Earth 911 to learn more about recycling in your area.
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
Monsieur Verdoux
Charlie Chaplin’s controversial return to the silver screen in 1947 pitted him as a father during troubling financial times (hmmm.. sounds a bit like right now). After losing his job as a bank clerk, Monsieur Henri Verdoux turns to marrying older women with money and murdering them. On the surface it may seem like Verdoux should be nowhere near a series about inspiring films but of course this is Chaplin and the surface should be ignored (although it is quite humorous). Beyond making a point about troubling financial times, Chaplin adds an anti-war sentiment to the film, as Verdoux points out towards the end when he is asked to explain his “new job” (see clip above!)
However remiss the prosecutor has been in complimenting me, he at least admits that I have brains. Thank you, Monsieur, I have. And for thirty-five years I used them honestly. After that, nobody wanted them. So I was forced to go into business for myself. As for being a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison.
The film is funny, incredibly dark and uses that humor and darkness of convey a very important message. And I can’t help but tear up when he takes the shot of rum at the end (see above) - it somehow says more to me about life than most things I’ve seen that try to. Also of note, Chaplin makes a case for vegetarianism in the film!
Watch this film to see how it pushed the envelope and then takepart to learn about the benefits of being a vegetarian.
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Happy Father’s Day! (I hope you have a good one). Luckily for you these Top 10 Movie Dads are available all year round. Here’s the final Top 10, in a brands new order - including a new #1 and #2 that haven’t been listed yet. Keep in mind these Dads may not be the most typical (they’re all actually pretty unique) , but they are definitely the most dynamic and interesting to watch on the screen.
Be sure to look after the jump to see who are number 1 and 2 are!
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The seventh look at one of my favorite movie dads. (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 and #6)
Monsieur Henri Verdoux in Monsieur Verdoux
Charlie Chaplin’s controversial return to the silver screen pitted him as a father during troubling financial times. After losing his job as a bank clerk, Monsieur Verdoux turns to marrying older women with money and murdering them. On the surface it may seem like Verdoux should be nowhere near a Top 10 Movie Dads list, but of course this is Chaplin and the surface should be ignored (although it is quite humorous). As Verdoux points out towards the end of the film, murder is a part of business and when you compare his crimes with the crimes of the West, : As a mass killer, I’m an amateur by comparison. The film is funny (esp his scenes with Martha Raye) but not with out political commentary, Chaplin even goes so far as to point out that he and his family are vegetarians.
takepart to learn about the benefits of being a vegetarian - for you and the world and click click click to see a great series of scenes from Monsieur Verdoux
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