What You Need By 30
Movies You Need To See by 30
07/28/2015
There are so many movies I think you should see before you are 30. I started with a list of like 100 maybe 150 and I'm having a hard time narrowing it down. Some of them are cliche but none the less I do believe you should see and some are just cheezy nostalgia that I have to add. You need to know that I am an old movie junkie by the time I was maybe 12 Katherine Hepburn became my role model. Personally I think I was an old soul born in the wrong time or it has something to do with how much I loved my grandfather and grandmother. I do actually like foreign films subtitles and all. When I was younger I hated them, too much work but after I forced myself to see a few that honestly I only watched because every party I ever went to people were talking about them and I was sick of the looks of dismay when I would say I never watched Cinema Paradiso I was hooked.
These are in no specific order:
1.The Philadelphia Story starring Katherine Hepburn, Carey Grant and James Stewart. A little history lesson, Katherine was considered office box poison and her career was over but Katherine doesn't give up. She bought the rights to the story and sold it with the condition that she play the lead. Remember the era and you realize she was an amazing woman that was a force to be reckoned with.
2.The Heather's starring Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater. A late 80's black comedy about the 'mean girls' was my favorite moving of my teens and I still watch it when it is on.
3.Blue Velvet staring Isabella Rossellina, Dennis Hopper and Kyle MacLachan. A David Lynch movie from the mid 80's this was my introduction to David and I have made my daughter and oldest step daughter watch this. I believe that it is still a movie that is shown and talked about it College film classes and the beginning is the best and only he would do this. You have the white picket houses, people mowing their yards and he than focuses on one man than we focus on the lawn mower, than the grass and to the ear. I mean you are hooked before anyone even talks.
4.Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart they remade it with Harrison Ford and it was not good some things should never be redone. Sabrina the daughter of the chauffeur is quite, awkward and invisible to the son of the man her father works for. She is sent off to live and study in Paris and comes back with a new haircut, new clothes and a new attitude. She goes from wallflower to being front and center great movie of a girl coming of age. This movie has made generations of women dream of going to Paris and returning a sophisticated, elegant woman.
5.Life Is Beautiful starring Roberto Benigini but you have to watch in Italian I know people hate subtitles but the dubbed version is not the same you just miss the feeling. It is a great love story, a comedy and a tragedy set in Italy just before the Holocaust. The love this man has for his wife and his son is inspiring, the way he tries to change the ugly reality for his son and creates this game to save him is just, well beautiful. I am not a big crier but this one every time I watch it I cry.
6.Cinema Paradiso another Italian movie and yeah it is a little cliche but it belongs on the list. It is set just after World War II and this boy falls in love with movies. It's a great movie of a boy coming of age and the relationship he has with the projector operator when he returns years later after Alfredo died. The music is amazing as well and you have to get past your issue with subtitles. I actually like the opera but I think it is ruined when they take an Italian Opera and translate it, it is about the feeling. For me it ruins the integrity.
7. Reservoir Dogs starring Tim Roth, Harvey Kaitel and Steve Buscemi written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. A crime movie that is done so well with flash backs and does an amazing job in character development. This is my all time favorite Quentin Taratino movie well written and an amazing cast you have to watch this movie.
8. Leon: The Professional staring a young Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman and Jean Reno. After a girl's family is murdered she becomes friends with an assassin who takes her in and teaches her how to be an assassin.
9. The Big Night staring Isabella Rossellini, Stanely Tucci, Tony Shalhoub and Minnie Driver. Two brothers that own a failing Italian restaurant when their competitor tells them that he is sending a famous singer to their restaurant to save their business. Great movie, great soundtrack and great food!
10.Belle De Jour staring the Parisian icon Catherine Deneuve. Obviously this is a French film. She is a bored housewife that decides to shake up her life as a prostitute in her afternoons. Really it has to be seen just for her. If you loved (not me), liked or hated Fifty Shades of Grey you must see this!
11. Bringing Up Baby staring Katherine Hepburn and Carey Grant. Katherine is this eccentric woman who gets a leopard as a present and Carey Grant is a curator of a museum. She ropes in to her escapades with the promise of a donation to his movie. It's a comedy and of course a love story. This is one of my favorite Carey Grant films.
12.Breathless starring Parisian icon Jean Seberg. Another French film made in the 60's a love story mixed with crime, murder and deception so what isn't there to love about this movie. An American student in Paris agrees to hide a man in her apartment begins to find out he is wanted for murder. She loves him, a Parisian Bogartesqe criminal with just enough good to make the bad a little sexy.
13. Charade staring Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant. Its a comedy, crime thriller and of course a love story. One of my favorite scenes of Carey Grant is from this movie when he jumps into the shower in his suit and proceeds to wash his suit with a bar of soap. They made a remake starring Mark Wahlburg, really? First why mess with perfection second come on Mark to play Carey Grants character? The ONLY actor that could even attempt to replace Carey (the love of my life) would be George Clooney! I think we all can agree on that.
14. Amelie staring Audrey Tautou another French film and another, although only 5 years old, cliche. A coming of age story and it is French so yes a love story and you are in luck because it is on Netflix right now.
15. Swingers staring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, written by Jon Favreau. If for no other reason you have to see this for the scene were Vince Vaughn is in a cafe baby talking to a woman a few tables away only to realize she is not talking to him but the actual baby she has, brilliant!
Really there are so many more movies to list but it would just be too long, too winded and too much work. Before I say good night I am going to throw just one out to you, To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren BaCall. The reason I love this movie has little to do with the plot or the complete obliteration of Earnest Hemingway's book. What I love is that we can watch Bogart falling in love with BaCall you can feel the energy between them. This 20 something young woman could go toe to toe with movie legend Bogart and you can see in his eyes that what he loves about her is her 'spunk'.