My Desert Island Movies

I've stumbled upon a neat little idea for movie fanatics such as I from Matt Zoller Seitz a renowned film essayist. He took the time to make up his desert island list of movies he would take with him. He did have some ground rules, it would include ten movies you couldn't live without followed by a season from a television show and a short film, making a total of 12. In my moments of reflection I've taken upon myself to construct such a list for myself since making lists are so much fun for movie fans such as myself. So in lieu of a Top Ten films of 2011 (Which I will post once I'm caught up with more films from last year) I give you 12 films I certainly can't live without.

Television Season If it had to be one season from one television show I know I certainly couldn't live without "The Simpsons" for very long. I simply can't remember what television was like without "The Simpsons" so how could I imagine what a desert island would be like without them. Though there are many seasons to choose from, my preference would probably be season six. This was the season that ended with the cliffhanger of "Who Shot Mr. Burns", and it also had perhaps my favorite sentimental episode "And Maggie Makes Three" which features a sweet story of how Maggie said her first words.

Short Film Along with "The Simpsons" another animated institution I couldn't dare live without would be Bugs Bunny. He's simply a comic genius this side of Buster Keaton and Groucho Marx. Of the many Bugs Bunny short films I could choose from it would be "Rabbit Seasoning" featuring Bugs and his two greatest foils Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd.

Now for the feature films, they are...

Tokyo Story In my mind there has never been a more perfect film than this one. If there is one film I would say shows what life is all about it would be this film. I've talked much about this film and its director Yasujiro Ozu at length throughout the years this blog has existed.

It's a Wonderful Life A tougher film than its reputation, it's dark, grim, but also uplifting and hopeful, a film for me that has taught me a series of life lessons I'm still learning today.

The Three Colours Trilogy I'm cheating a little bit by adding this three-piece series as a whole movie, I can't live without them as individuals only as a whole. They are metaphysical masterpieces of movie making, philosophical in their motives and I'm fascinated by them. I can ponder these films forever on my desert island.

Horse Feathers Still my favorite comedy of all time. How can I spend the rest of my life on a desert island without The Marx Brothers? I ask you how? I can't and I won't which is why it will go with me.

The General While I'm at it, how can I exist without Buster Keaton, the most innovative, and compelling silent comedian known to man. So many to choose from, but "The General" was the first one of his films I ever saw, the first silent film, I declare you can't take a shot away from this film, it's perfect.

City Lights I've taken Keaton, I cannot banish Chaplin I'm sorry. To hell with those who choose one over the other, they are both geniuses sir, and both will be with me until my dying day.

The Shop Around the Corner The greatest romantic comedy known to man, it's witty with two people who deserve to fall in love with eachother, it's by Ernst Lubitsch and he is for sure one director who I can't be without.

Top Hat I need music and romance to get through my lonely days on the island and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers can take me out of any funk into their world of wonderful melodies, dance, and art deco. I choose this one over "Swing Time" because it has Edward Everett Horton one of the greatest character actors playing Astaire's best friend.

Casablanca This is for my cynical days where there is no hope to remind me that perhaps my life doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world but that's only because there are bigger things. Humphrey Bogart also proves that cynics can also be poets.

Jules and Jim Because it's like a dream, a memory, a life I may have lived long ago. It's a film that captures love, youth, and cinema perhaps better than any other film, because it's alive and in those dark days on the island I may have to be reminded of what feeling alive and in love is.

There are many others, I regret not picking a film with Cary Grant or Barbara Stanwyck, a Hitchcock, or a Kurosawa. No Billy Wilder or The Coen Brothers, to them and a hundred others I wish I could bring you all, the truth is I can't live without any of you, and I hope I never have to choose.