Podcast

Saturday, June 26, 2010

While I'm Away: My Top 20, Part 2

I’m out of town for the weekend, so the countdown of my top 20 favorite movies continues! For the top ten, we'll include one fun fact about each!


10. The Apartment, 1960, Billy Wilder
Fun Fact: The opening sequence recreates a shot from my favorite movie (to be revealed tomorrow!)


9. Vertigo, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock
Fun Fact: This was written by the same fun folks who wrote the great French thriller Diabolique.


8. It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946, Frank Capra
Fun Fact: This film is adapted from a story the author sent out with his Christmas cards.


7. Brother from Another Planet, 1984, John Sayles
Fun Fact: Sayles wrote the early drafts of E.T., back when it was called Night Skies


6.
The Battle of Algiers, 1965, Gillo Pontecorvo
Fun Fact: Both the Pentagon and the Black Panthers screened this movie to learn tactics.

...to be concluded tomorrow!

2 comments:

Hans said...

For reasons I won't go into here, I've actually done a pretty fair amount of research on the source material for It's A Wonderful Life, a short story called "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern. It's true that he sent it out in booklet form as Christmas presents after he failed to find a publisher, but I've never heard it referred to as a poem. You can read the text in its entirety here. Wikipedia entry is here.

Matt Bird said...

I'm gonna give the win to Hans here. I don't know where I got the poem thing. I'll change it.