Tag Archives: Quadrophenia

Five Favorite Films

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Cameron shared his five favorite films (okay, six) with Rotten Tomatoes recently. Here they are in no particular order.

localhero

Local Hero (1983)
Bill Forsyth, come back!  It’s hard enough to create a movie this deeply funny, so odd and so memorable… but to have a score like Mark Knopfler’s, too? Come on. This is the holy grail of personal filmmaking with a distinctive directorial touch. Also check out Forsyth’s other films like Comfort and Joy and Gregory’s Girl for his trademark touch: the random moment that has no reason to be in the movie, except it’s everything you think about later.

 

Quadrophenia (1979) and Control (2007)
Quadrophenia and Control. Franc Roddam and Anton Corbijn’s films both accomplish the rarest thing; they capture the feeling in the music of the bands that they’re covering. To watch these two great movies is to geek out on cinematic portraits that remind you exactly why you first fell in love with a Townshend power chord, or discovered Ian Curtis’ bleak genius. Character to look for: Steph (Leslie Ash), the scene-stealer from Quadrophenia.
rulesofthegame

The Rules of the Game
(La Règle du jeu) (1939)
Jean Renoir puts on a master class in ensemble comedy-drama. Period.
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The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
The Royal Tenenbaums is a mood masterpiece. Everything about Wes Anderson’s film is perfect; it immediately transports you to a world only he could create. Part Salinger, part idealized New York, but mostly Wes’ pleasantly devastating view of this family’s life, Tenenbaums succeeds on great writing and extremely particular filmmaking. Put this together with a score and a soundtrack for the ages, and you have a film that operates like the best of Hal Ashby or even a filmmaker like Miyazaki. It feels so good, it’s almost like a drug. Also, the Rolling Stones have never been used better in film history, and that’s just one of the movie’s many wonderful marriages of music and cinema. And then there’s Gene Hackman…
theapartment

The Apartment (1960)

You really can’t beat The Apartment for finding laughs and heartache and triumph in the life of a morally compromised schnook of an insurance salesman. The great Billy Wilder was at one of his many career peaks here, finding unforgettable depth in Shirley MacLaine as elevator operator Fran Kubelik, and pulling a delicious Mitt Romneyesque-bad-guy performance out of an unlikely casting choice, the Disney leading man from FlubberFred MacMurray.

The high-water mark in romantic comedy, this movie is so assured of its tone that even an attempted suicide is never far from a big laugh. It’s all wrapped up in giddy melancholy and — in a rare move — the Academy gave this comedy a whole bunch of Oscars too. Viva Wilder!

 

Courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes – January 4, 2017

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Jan 6, 2017

Archives: Greatest Rock Movies Ever

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don'tlookback

Cameron shared his Greatest Rock Movies Ever with Premiere magazine back in March, 2004. With recent docs like The Swell Season and new films such as Inside Llewyn Davis coming out soon, it might be time to revisit, but let’s check it out.

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Nov 7, 2013

Stormy Night Films

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As I look outside at the grey skies and rain here in Seattle, I thought it would be a great time to revisit Cameron’s 10 Essential Films For a Stormy Night. The list was put together for the September, 2005 issue of Paste magazine. Good timing too as Quadrophenia and The Royal Tenenbaums were recently announced as coming to Criterion Blu-ray in August!

1. Local Hero (Bill Forsythe) – Because of the characters, the things they say to each other and, of course, The Rabbit.

2. Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler) – Myrna Loy just plain rocks, and so does everybody else in the sprawling beautiful epic. In the words of Wyler’s buddy Billy Wilder, “I was crying five minutes into this picture and I did not not know why.”

3. The Apartment (Billy Wilder) – Because it’s perfect.

4. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) – A complete, compact, bittersweet world. And also, the music. Wes’s use of “Ruby Tuesday” is devastating, and let’s not even get started on the shot of Gwyneth Paltrow exiting that bus to Nico’s “These Days.”

5. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis) – Pryor starts out telling jokes, and then takes a turn. “Let me tell about my year…” Modern personal comedy would never be the same.

6. Live A Little, Love A Little (Norman Taurog) – There’s a good chance that within a few months, Elvis probably didn’t even remember making this movie. He’s a slurring, amphetamined mess…of perfection. Check out the only psychedelic number he ever performed, “Edge of Reality.”

7. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen) – Like The Royal Tenenbaums, it’s a complete world you can’t help but revisit. As addictive as whatever drugs Elvis was on during the above movie, and more.

8. Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam) – Because of Steph. And, of course, Jimmy.

9. Shampoo (Hal Ashby) – A quiet, timeless look at modern man, set to musical perfection…and all the best characters are women.

10. Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir) – The inspiration for Shampoo, and so much more. The gorgeous catastrophy of the human condition and love, on full display. Misunderstood and discounted in its day, this masterpiece is rich and deep and only gets better. I’m tempted to call it the Exile on Main Street of Jean Renoir’s catalog of brilliant work, but it’s deeper and more elegant and even better than that. And the best character is the sad fool played by Renoir himself.

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May 21, 2012

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