BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY AND TOP 10 MOVIES TO WATCH
If the sight of hand sanitisers on pub garden tables has you feeling depressed and you prefer to pretend COVID19 never happened, then here is a top ten list of films I've compiled for your enjoyment this bank holiday Monday.
10. North By Northwest (1959) & To Catch A Thief (1955)
Hitchcock made the first unofficial James Bond movie with North by Northwest (1959) as the Master of Suspense also delivers his best "wrong man" scenario type film. Plus, every bank holiday needs James Mason somewhere in the mix.
I believe Cary Grant was a bank holiday in human form. The guy looked like he'd never worked a day in his life and spent all his time making wry quips and enjoying copious amounts of champagne. Grace Kelly matches him perfectly in the sparkling location of Monaco.
9. Mary Poppins (1964)
Let's Go Fly a kite with Mr Banks and his children and forget that he basically turns from being a useful capitalist to a communist stooge in the final reel.
8. South Pacific (1958)
I'm not saying this is a great movie. It isn't, especially with its over use of graduated colour filters making it seem like the movie equivalent of a child spilling water all over their paint set and flooding their sketch pad. Yet somehow it's a perfect background movie whilst nursing an Easter egg hangover and wishing you were stationed in Bali Hai swimming in lagoons and singing Younger Than Springime to your partner.
7. The Godfather Saga (1972 & 1974)
"My offer is this. Nothing."
Re-focus those failed new year's resolutions and learn from the Corleone family how best to proceed with your various life projects for the rest of the year.
6. Oklahoma (1955) & The Quiet Man (1952)
"Oh what a beautiful mornin'!"
Good outdoorsy movie so you don't feel so guilty about staying in and falling asleep on the couch whilst everyone is out kayaking and mountain climbing.
John Wayne terrorises Ireland as a brash American who's never before tasted a pint of Guinness. Great romantic score by Victor Young also worth checking out.
5. It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
If MGM's On The Town got drunk with the TV show Mad Men then you'd have Stanley Donen's It's Always Fair Weather, a classic NYC musical with Gene Kelly skate/tap dancing like an actual mad man.
4. The Railway Children (1970)
Pre-internet idyll in the countryside where children actually love their parents rather than suing them for uploading their baby photos on instagram and facebook.
3. A Room With A View (1985) & The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
"How do you do. Come and have a bathe?"
Including, perhaps, the greatest male nudity scene in the history of film with The Reverend Mr Beeb and others cavorting and splashing in a forest lake, to say nothing of Florence, Puccini and that iconic kiss between Lucy and George.
Of all the cinematic incarnations of Highsmith's Ripley this is the only one I go back to quite honestly. Maybe it was a 90's thing. They just did sociopaths better than all the rest. Look at Tony Blair.
2. The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) & Casino Royale
Hobbits, orcs and a golden ring as well as a transgender elf who is handy with a bow and arrow.
The only Daniel Craig Bond film they needed to make. All the others were like bad photocopies that had run out of ink.
1.Barry Lyndon (1975) & The Age Of Innocence (1993)
Follow the Irish rogue Barry Lyndon from peasant to aristocrat as he manages to piss off everyone in Ireland and Europe aside from his own mother.
Repressed love, endless ballrooms and covert touching of hands in carriages, no better way to end the bank holiday Monday movie sesh than Martin Scorcese's elegant adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence.
And there you have it.
10 (plus 5) movies to remind you how pointless but utterly necessary bank holiday Mondays are.
Digital Renegade
18/04/2022