Dirty Dozen Blogfest (12 fav movies)

This blog fest is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Please do go to check out the other entries linked to his blog.

These are my 12 most favourite movies. Some made me cry for hours afterward. Some made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. Some soothed my teen angst. Some I studied at high school or university and will never forget because they have been analysed to death (but I still love 'em), and some inspired me to write. I won't go into any detail about each (manly because I could spend an entire day writing how each affected my life and I don't have the luxury to do so), but I'll include short summaries from IMBd (linking it to save my arse) in case you haven't seen them and would like to. If you'd like to know any specific details about how any of these movies influenced me, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll reply. Enjoy! They're in no particular order. 

Director:

Stephen Daldry

Writers:

Michael Cunningham (novel),

David Hare (screenplay)

Plot summary:

The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.

 

Director:

John Erman

Writers:

Olive Higgins Prouty (novel)

Robert Getchell (screenplay)

Plot Summary:

Stella is determined, courageous, vulgar, unfashionable...and all her daughter has. Through the trials of teenagehood, to the problems of adulthood, Stella will do anything for Jenny...ending in an selfless, unforgettable sacrifice.

Director:

Jane Campion

Writer:

Jane Campion

Plot summary:

It is the mid-nineteenth century. Ada is a mute who has a young daughter, Flora. In an arranged marriage she leaves her native Scotland accompanied by her daughter and her beloved piano. Life in the rugged forests of New Zealand's South Island is not all she may have imagined and nor is her relationship with her new husband Stewart. She suffers torment and loss when Stewart sells her piano to a neighbour, George. Ada learns from George that she may earn back her piano by giving him piano lessons, but only with certain other conditions attached. At first Ada despises George but slowly their relationship is transformed and this propels them into a dire situation.

Director:

Penny Marshall

Writers: 

Kim Wilson (story) &

Kelly Candaele (story)

Lowell Ganz (screenplay) &

Babaloo Mandel (screenplay)

Plot synopsis:

Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amidst their own growing rivalry.

Director:

Mark Herman

Writers:

John Boyne (novel)

Mark Herman (screenplay)

Plot summary:

Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Hampton Fancher (screenplay) and

David Webb Peoples (screenplay) (as David Peoples)

Philip K. Dick (novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?")

Plot summary:

Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

Director:

John Waters

Writer:

John Waters

Plot summary:

"Drape" (or Greaser) Wade Walker, also known as Cry-Baby for his ability to shed a single tear, falls head over heels for square Allison Vernon-Williams who, incidentally, is tired of being good.

Director:

John Waters

Writer:

John Waters

Plot summary:

'Pleasantly Plump' teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Collins Dance Show. Now a teen hero, she starts using her fame to speak out for the causes she believes in, most of all integration. In doing so, she earns the wrath of the show's former star, Amber Von Tussle, as well as Amber's manipulative, pro-segregation parents. The rivalry comes to a head as Amber and Tracy vie for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963.

Director:

Jack HofsissWriters:

Barbara Gordon (book)

David Rabe (writer)

Plot summary:

Jill Clayburgh plays, as one character calls her, "a pill-popping dingbat" in this film adaptation of television producer Barbara Gordon's autobiographical account of her addiction to prescription drugs. Clayburgh plays Gordon in the film as a successful television documentary filmmaker whose mounting pressures force her to pop a Valium or two for nerves. She then ingests a few more pills after an argument with boyfriend Derek Bauer (Nicol Williamson). And thus begins her slow and steady compulsion to keep taking more and more Valium. Finally realizing her addiction, Gordon makes a disastrous attempt to go cold turkey but fails miserably, finally having to undergo a painful rehabilitation in an institution.

Post script:

This movie made my mother realise she wasn't sick, and that it was the Valium that was affecting her. This movie made her decide to quit taking the pills.

Director:

Marco Ferreri

Writers:

Marco Ferreri (scenario & adaptation) and

Rafael Azcona (scenario & adaptation)

Francis Blanche (dialogue)

Plot summary:

A group of men hire some prostitutes and go to a villa in the countryside. There, they engage in group sex and resolve to eat themselves to death.

Director:

Frank Darabont

Writers:

Stephen King (short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption")

Frank Darabont (screenplay)

Plot summary:

Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner.

This last film is my MOST favourite film ever. Check out the extraprdinarily brilliant scene in the vid below. If you intend to watch this film, don't watch the scene as it's the ending of the film.

Director:

Baz Luhrmann

Writers:

Baz Luhrmann

Plot summary:

Scott Hastings is a champion caliber ballroom dancer, but much to the chagrin of the Australian ballroom dance community, Scott believes in dancing "his own steps". Fran is a beginning dancer and a bit of an ugly duckly who has the audacity to ask to be Scott's partner after his unorthodox style causes his regular partner to dance out of his life. Together, these two misfits try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships and show the Ballroom Confederation that they are wrong when they say, "there are no new steps!"