Friday 9 December 2022

Have You Seen ..... by David Thomson

 



Or to give it it's full title: Have You Seen .... ? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films including masterpieces, oddities, and guilty pleasures (with just a few disasters).  

I cannot say that I read every review of the 1,000 films described in this epic work. David Thomson devotes a whole page each film, so this is quite a labour of love. What I have done is to list the forty-eight movies that I do want to see. I have discounted all those that are too familiar or are just not to my taste. So, the first on my list is Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation" starring Nicolas Cage. I thought I had seen this film before, but the trailer suggested I had not. It was probably "The Player" that I was thinking of. And the last is Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point".

There are some on my list to watch that I have seen before, but either too long ago or I would like to see again. For example, "Ben-Hur", "Blade Runner" and "Brazil". I'm not sure how long it will take for me to catch up on all the forty-eight, but I have either recorded the first three or ordered a cheap DVD. They will not be  in any particular order, alphabetical or otherwise. Then I might get round to listing the huge number that were too familiar. For example, I watched "Rififi" on a DVD when the cinemas were closed and included in my post of 1st January 2021. I might watch it again and compare my thoughts with those of the author.

But I have to say that this book is Thomson at his perceptive best. Note the picture from Blow Up on the cover. 


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