Favorite TV Sagas…
EVASIONARY TACTIC #1
LONG FILMS ORIGINALLY MADE FOR TELEVISION
I ran into two immediate problems. It immediately struck me that an outsized number of my favorite films were made for television and ran many hours. Americans call these mini-series, but since only two on my list are American, I prefer to think of them as long movies, best seen over many short session via VCR. I’m not much into the distinction between movies for theatres, movies for television, and videos. Quality is quality, garbage is garbage, whatever the medium. But some of the long movies simply extend excellence from two hours to sometimes over 20 hours, and that makes the achievement more than remarkable. You’ll see what I mean as I name some of this terrific stuff.
THE LIST OF FAVORITE TV SAGAS
1.
2.
3. The Boys of
4. Brideshead Revisited (Waugh/UK)
5. Buddenbrooks (Mann/Germany)
6. Crime and Punishment (Dosty/UK)
7. Das Boot (
8. Dekalog (Kieslowski/Poland)
9. Fanny and Alexander (Bergman/Sweden)
10. The Forsyte Saga (Galsworthy/UK)
11. The Golden Bowl (James/UK)
12. Heimat (17
hours/Germany)
13. Heimat Two (24 hours/Germany)
14. Hotel Terminus: The Life and Time of Klaus Barbie
(
15. I, Claudius (Graves/UK)
16. Jewel in the Crown (Scott/UK)
17. The Kingdom, Parts One and Two (Von Trier/Denmark)
18. Lonesome Dove (McMurtry/USA)
19. Middlemarch (G. Eliot/UK)
20. The Norman Conquests (Ayckbourn/UK)
21. Our Mutual Friend (Dickens/UK)
22. The Pallisers (Trollope/UK)
23. Pennies from Heaven (Dennis Potter/UK)
24. Pride and Prejudice (1996 version/Colin Firth/
25.Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman/Sweden)
26. SevenUp ( and14, 21, 28, 35, and 42/six British
documentaries,
made seven years apart, beg. 1964, following the same people through the life
span)
27. The Singing Detective (Dennis Potter/UK)
28. Smiley’s People (LeCarre/Guinness/UK)
29. The Sopranos (
30. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (LeCarre/Guiness/UK)
These 30 movies add up to over 300 hours of viewing, they are almost all available on video, and would, I think, just by themselves, provide enough good viewing for a very long time. They can offer years (decades?) of delight and drama. (Obviously this is a form in which I think Britannia rules the airwaves.)
While I’m on about television there are ten comedy, documentary and detective series (again mostly English) which I think are so good, even though they can’t qualify quite as movies, that I must mention them. Again they are all on video.
Ascent of Man (Jacob Bronowski)
The Avengers (Diana Rigg)
Civilisation (Kenneth Clark)
Cosmos (Carl Sagan)
The “Cracker” series (original English version/Robbie Coltrane)
Larry Sanders Show (Gary Shandling)
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Prime Suspect series (Helen Mirren)
Sherlock Holmes series (with Jeremy Brett). (I enjoy other British
Detectives as well, e.g.: Morse, Dalgliesh, Frost, Wimsey,
Samantha Ryan,
and Poirot. My
favorite
EVASIONARY TACTIC #2
THE SHAKESPEARE FILMS
That the TV sagas have given me so much pleasure is a sure sign of some of my retrograde tastes. I don’t think film need be self-referential, that film has to be mostly about film or about “cinematic style.” I came to movies when the best moviemakers thought film could be a tool in illuminating things outside itself: character, human stories that moved one, even large questions about love, meaning, and society. I don’t pooh-pooh the ideologies of Pauline Kael, or Quentin Tarantino, or film school graduates. But I believe their aesthetic narrows the range of what movies can do.
So . . .most of the TV sagas turn out to be adaptations of writings from other sources, as indicated above (though exceptions like Dennis Potter and Ingmar Bergman are also very prominent). Though they rarely lack for style, they are works that are wonderful for acting, storytelling, music, their “look,” and for substance. All these figure in my second way of avoiding a straight-on Best 100 list: the inclusion of the great Shakespeare movies.
Shakespeare the screenwriter has given directors and actors the greatest characters and the richest tales to tell, and those listed below (some taking greater liberties than others) have produced some of the finest films ever made. Here again in alphabetical order I mention the best and then place them later at the bottom of my raw list.
.
THE LIST OF SOME FAVORITE SHAKESPEARE FILMS
Hamlet (Olivier’s 1948 and Branagh’s 1996; Mel Gibson did an
under-rated 1990 Hamlet)
Henry V (Olivier’s 1945 and Branagh’s darker 1985 version)
King Lear (Olivier’s, 1985 and Holm’s, 1998). Also Kurosawa’s
Lear—“Ran,”1985)
Macbeth (Orson Welles’, 1948; Kuroswawa’s—“Throne of Blood,” 1957;
And Polanski’s,1971)
Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh’s, 1993)
Othello (Welles, 1952 and Zefferelli’s filming of Verdi’s Otello
with Domingo, 1987)
Richard III (Olivier’s 1955 and McKellen’s 1995)
Titus (Julie Taymor, 20000
Twelfth Night (Trevor Nunn’s, 1996)
Also: Welles’ retelling of the Falstaff stories in “Chimes at
I call my lists of Shakespeare movies and TV Sagas evasionary because with the 30 TV films listed above and the 18 versions of Shakespeare (several also made for TV), I already commit myself to too many productions which crowd out others. So quite arbitrarily, since I’ve already got them into this message, I’m going to limit my final list to 20 of the TV Sagas and Shakespeare films together.
I notice a couple of other patterns in my choices so far. I seem to have no problem with the leisurely pace, if the story, acting, and substance are compelling. Some film theoreticians insist that cinema almost always requires jolts of kinetic voltage from big screen to isolated viewer in ways that only movies can generate. Maybe. But I still find the upraised eyebrow at the right moment far more thrilling than any car chase scenes or mass killings I’ve ever seen on screen.
Finally, my odd preferences so far render
(with my emphasis on the TV Long Form and the Shakespeare Adaptations) the
English as World Champions. This will be
less pronounced as I continue, but since I find The Word very important to my
favorite movies, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that the English, with
their glorious Literature and still-unmatched excellence in Drama, should
excel. If
Now for the final list: except for one more problem--
THE INGMAR
BERGMAN DILEMMA
Just
as I believe that Shakespeare towers above all writers and Michelangelo above
all sculptors, I am afflicted by the conviction that
But no matter how I tried different approaches, there was still an outsize bundle of Bergmans on the roll call. So what I’ve decided to do is just allow myself seven of his films among the 100, but why them and not others I can’t quite figure out. So I choose here just to mention, this time in chronological order, all of his films which I regard as great and all of which I highly commend to your attention if you don’t know them (most possibly my younger friends).
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Through A Glass Darkly (1961)
Persona (1966)
Shame (1968)
The Passion of Anna (1969)
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
The Magic Flute (1974)
Autumn Sonata (1978)
Fanny and Alexander (1983)
Also: Sunday’s Children (written by Ingmar, but directed by
his son, Daniel Bergman1993)
So, allow me to resume the raw list, continuing with clusters of films made by particular directors.
MORE FAVORITE FILMS (1950-2000)
31. Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman: Sweden/1955)
32. The Seventh Seal (Bergman: Sweden/1957)
33. Wild Strawberries (Bergman: Sweden/1957)
34. Cries and Whispers (Bergman: Sweden/1972)
35. The Magic Flute (Bergman: Sweden1974—best opera film
ever. Scenes From a
Marriage and Fanny and
Alexander also make my final list.)
36. La Dolce Vita (Fellini: Italy/1960)
37. 8 1/2 (Fellini: Italy/1963
38. Amarcord (Fellini:
Italy/1974)
39. Nights of Cabiria (Fellini:
Italy/1957)
40. 400 Blows (Truffaut: France/1959)
41. Jules and Jim (Truffaut: France/1961)
42. Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut:
France/1962)
43. Day For Night (Truffaut:
France/1973)
44. Annie Hall (Woody Allen: USA/1977)
45. Manhattan (Allen:
USA/1979)
46.
Zelig (Allen: USA/1983
47. Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen: USA/1986)
48. Exotica (Egoyan: Canada/1994)
49. Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan: Canada/1997)
50. A Clockwork
51. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick: USA/1964
52. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick: USA/1968)
53. Rashomon (Kurosawa: Japan/1951)
54. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa: Japan/1954)
55. Diner (Levinson: USA/1982)
56. Wag the Dog (Levinson: USA/1998)
57.
58. Au Revoir Mes Enfants (Malle: France/1987)
59. Lacombe, Lucien (Malle: France/1974)
60. My Dinner With Andre (Malle: USA/1981)
61. Phantom
62. Goodfellas (Scorsese: USA/1990)
63. King of Comedy (Scorsese: USA/1983
64. Raging Bull (Scorsese: USA/1980)
65. Life and Nothing But (Tavernier: France/1989)
66. Sunday in the Country (Tavernier: France/1984)
67. Padre Padrone (Tavianis:
Italy/1977)
68.Night of the Shooting Stars (Tavianis: Italy/1982).
69. Breaking the Waves(Von Trier:
Denmark/1996)
70. [Eric Rohmer’s] Six Moral Tales. The last two, My Night
at Maud’s (France/1969) and Claire’s Knee (1970)
may be two of the three most intelligent and wholly
satisfying comedies ever put on film. (The other is Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night.) Rohmer made miniatures, so few
individual movies shine out from the others. Collectively, and
in the three groups here, they make for a dazzling and
delicious body of work.
71. [Rohmer’s] Comedies and Proverbs. The Aviator’s Wife (1981);
Le Beau Mariage (1982); Pauline at the Beach (1983); Full Moon in
Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987)
72. [Rohmer’s] Tales of the Four Seasons. Tale of Springtime
(1989); Winter’s Tale (1992); Summer’s Tale (1996);
Autumn Tale (1998)
73. Viridiana
(Bunuel: Spain/1961)
74. Exterminating Angel
(Bunuel:Spain/1962)
75. Belle de Jour (Bunuel:Spain1967)
76. Discreet Charm of the
Bourgeoisie (Bunuel: Spain/1972)
77 That Obscure Object of
Desire (Bunuel: Spain/1977)
Now the rest of my raw, starting list, in chronological order:
78. The Third Man (UK/1950)
79. African Queen (USA/1951)
80. Forbidden Games
(France/1951)
81. Lavender Hill Mob
(UK/1951)
82. High Noon (USA/1952)
83. Man in the White Suit
(UK/1952)
84. Wages of Fear
(France/1953)
85. On
the Waterfront (USA/1954)
86. Diabolique
(France/1955)
87. Night and Fog
(France/1955)
88. Rififi
(France/1955)
89. Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (USA/1956)
90. The Bridge Over the River Kwai (UK/1957)
91. Twelve Angry Men
(USA/1957)
92. Witness for the
Prosecution (Wilder: USA/1957)
93. Black Orpheus
(Brazil/1959)
94. Some Like It Hot (Wilder:
USA/1959)
95. The Apartment (Wilder:
USA/1960)
96. Inherit the Wind
(USA/1960)
97. Psycho (USA/1960)
98. Tunes of Glory (UK/1960)
99.
100. Sundays and Cybele (France/1962)
101. Tom Jones (UK/1963)
102. Umbrellas of
of Rochefort Demy: France/1967).
Other
fine musicals:
103. Blow-Up (Italy/1966)
104. Man for All Seasons
(UK/1966)
105. The Graduate (USA/1967)
106. War and Peace (Russian original/1968)
107. Le Boucher (France/1969)
108. Catch 22 (USA/1970)
109. M*A*S*H* (USA/1970)
110. Sorrow and Pity
(France/1970)
111. Death in
112.
113. Last Picture Show (USA/1971)
114. Aguirre: The Wrath of
God (Germany/1972)
115. American Graffiti
(USA/1973)
116. Godfather I (USA/1972)
and II (USA/1974)
117.
118. One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest (USA/1975)
119. Picnic at Hanging Rock
(Australia/1975)
120. All the President’s Men
(USA/1976)
121. Seven Beauties (Italy/1976)
122. Seven-Per-Cent Solution
(UK/1976)
123. Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (USA/1977)
124. Star Wars (USA/1977)
125. Marriage of Maria Braun
(Germany/1978)
126. Breaker Morant (Australia/1979)
127. Murder By Decree (UK/1979)
128. Soldier of
129. Tin Drum (Germany/1979)
130. Elephant Man (UK/1980)
131. Melvin and Howard
(USA/1980)
132. Chariots of Fire
(UK/1981)
133. French Lieutenant’s
Woman (UK/1981)
134. Mephisto
(Germany/1981)
135. Basileus
Quartet (Italy/1982)
136. The Draughtman’s
Contract (UK/1982)
137. Fitzcarraldo
(Germany/1982)
138. Return of Martin Guerre
(France/1982)
139. Tootsie (USA/1982)
140. Ballad of Narayama (Japan/1983)
141. Betrayal (UK/1983)
142. Amadeus (USA/1984)
143. Passage to
144. Prizzi’s
Honor (USA/1985)
145. Shoah
(France/1985)
146. Vagabond (France/1985)
147. Room With
a View (UK/1986)
148. Babette’s
Feast (Denmark/1987)
149. The Dead (Ireland/1987)
150. My Life as a Dog
(Sweden/1987)
151. White Mischief (UK/1987)
152. Thin Blue Line
(USA/1988)
153. The Vanishing
(Netherlands original/1988)
154. Manon
of the Spring (France/1989)
155. My Left Foot (UK/1989)
156. Europa,
Europa (Germany/1990)
157. Hear My Song
(Ireland/1991)
158. My Father’s Glory
(France/1991)
159. Raise the Red Lantern (China/1991)
160. Crying Game
(Ireland/1992)
161. Howards
End (UK/1992)
162. Stolen Children [Il Ladro di
Bambini] (Italy/1992)
163. The Piano (New
Zealand/1993)
164. Remains of the Day
(UK1993)
165. Schindler’s List
(USA/1993)
166. Three Colors films (
[1994])
167. Tous
les Matins du Monde (France/1993)
168. Un Coeur en Hiver (France/1993)
169. Before
the Rain (Macedonia/1994)
170. Burnt By the Sun
(Russia/1994)
171. Crumb (USA/1994)
172. Heavenly Creatures (New
Zealand/1994)
173. Lamerica
(Italy/1995)
174. Nelly and Monsieur
Arnaud (France/1995)
175. Wild Reeds (France/1995)
176. Angels and Insects
(UK/1996)
177. English Patient
(UK/1996)
178.
179. Lone Star (USA/1996)
180. Ma Saison Preferee (France/1996)
181. Secrets and Lies
(UK/1996)
182.
183. Chambermaid on the
Titanic (France/1998)
184. Character
(Netherlands/1998)
185. Shakespeare in Love
(UK/1998)
186. Dreamlife
of Angels (France/1999)
(Plus 18 Shakespeare films
listed separately above.)