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The Second Greatest 15 Movie Performances of All Time

CARY GRANT (ARSENIC AND OLD LACE) (1944)

The one and only Cary Grant is widely known for his cool elegance and romantic charm in front of the camera but he is that rare actor that can play comedy just as well. He especially excelled in crazy absurd comedic films (referred to as screwball comedies) and this is one of his best. The plot revolves around his two elderly sweet aunts who are serving poisoned wine to lonely old men and then burying them in the cellar figuring that they are doing them a favor. When Grant finds out that a little insanity runs in his family, he spends the whole film protecting his dear aunts from the law, and at the same time, providing hilarious laughter to the audience.

The 15 Greatest Performances of All Time

VIVIEN LEIGH (GONE WITH THE WIND) (1939)

Vivien Leigh is virtually in every scene of this four hour movie about love and war in the South during The Civil War. She plays the iconic Scarlett O’Hara made famous by Margaret Mitchell’s book of the same name. The film is a powerful epic with many great performances by the whole cast but it belongs to the dynamic Vivien Leigh. This film and her performance is required viewing for all that are interested in the history of art in film.

TEN FILMS THAT CHANGED CINEMA AND THE CULTURE OF AMERICA

It is ironic that the science and art of making movies all began as a small curiosity to determine “if horses have all four legs off the ground at the same time when they are trotting.” In 1872, the millionaire, Leland Stanford, began buying race horses and he became so intrigued by this question that he hired Edward Mubridge, a still photographer, to find the answer by taking a series of pictures of one of his horses in motion. And so the beginning of motion picture technology was born although the first images were crude because of the film speed needed to capture the trotting horse who indeed did have all four legs off the ground at the same time.

It wasn’t until 1877 that Mubridge improved his camera by adding shutters and more sensitive film that he was able to obtain stunning images that moved and he even invented a projector that showed his pictures and thus was cinema born. Others including Thomas Edison began to add and invent new techniques and the first movie to actually tell a story was a short ten minute Western called The Great Train Robbery in 1903. The film also employed a dramatic sequence where a bandit fires his gun directly at the camera and the audience, an event which must have been an astonishing revelation for the spectators of that time. You can watch it on YouTube and imagine that it is 1903.

And so, in advance of the 84th Academy Awards Presentation next week, I submit my list of the ten films that went on to change the movies and, at the same time, the culture of America.

“A” Movie Review From The Film Vault – The Descendants

This is an odd film that is mainly a comedy based around tragic circumstances such as a boating accident that places a woman in an irreversible coma which leads to her death. George Clooney is the husband of that woman and they have been both mired in a marriage that wasn’t working. In fact, he is such an absentee husband and father of two girls that he is the only person in Ha­waii that is not aware that his wife had been having an affair and was going to seek a divorce.

“A” Movie Review From The Film Vault – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

This film has received mixed reviews from critics so I went to see it recently with equally mixed expectations. To my great surprise, I came away from it emotionally exhausted with total appre­ciation for its heart wrenching story of a young overly intelligent boy who loses his father in the World Trade Center terrorist attack on 9/11. During the chaos, he hears his father’s frightened voice left on his telephoned messages while he is trapped inside one of the buildings and he is forever traumatized by his father’s impending doom.

“A” Movie Review From The Film Vault – The Help (2011)

We rented this movie the other day and when I checked the site, I was quite surprised to see that neither of my colleagues had reviewed this film. This is especially surprising since Viola Davis will undoubtedly win the Oscar for Best Actress. I say this even though I have not seen all the other actresses in their roles but it seems to me unlikely that anyone can beat her out.

“A” Movie Review – War Horse

I just saw the movie of the year. The one that will win the oscar for Best Picture at the next academy award presentation. It will also most likely win for best direction, best score, best cinematography, best screenplay and probably a few more categories. It is that good. The film is a deeply passionate portrait, or more precisely, portraits, about the interaction between human beings and a beautiful animal who connect on both an intellectual and emotional level.

“A” Movie Review From The Film Vault – Super 8 (2011)

This film can be viewed as a celebration of Steven Spielberg’s childhood when he made many of these types of films with his father’s super 8mm movie camera. He is the producer of this pseudo-sequel where a child connects intellectually with an alien from another world as was the case in E.T. : The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). In fact, it occurred to me that this alien can be thought of as ET’s father who was left behind and tortured for many years and now he’s a little bit pissed off!

THE TEN BEST ACTION THRILLERS OF ALL TIME

THRILLERS

We continue our analysis of thriller films which we have divided into sub-categories that include political, espionage, action, crime, mystery, psychological, and just plain drama. Categories not explored here are those of the serial killer and slasher films because those subjects are too easy to make viewers be overcome with excruciating anxiety. Also excluded are science fiction and horror films because they are thrillers inherently that have been discussed under their own subject matter. Our first and second lists covered political thrillers and psychological thrillers respectively and the following is our submission of the best action thrillers of all time.