Do You Like Classic Films?

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i love movies from the beginning of film to now. once you sift through the stupidity and blandness of today's movies you find some well done movies. i like chaplin, keaton, and lloyd from the silent era. i really like metropolis as well. marx brother's, frank capra, hitchcock, seven samurai, foreign films in general...so many.

my favorite new film...i can't really think of one right now but i do love james mcavoy, joseph gordon levitt, marion cotillard, zooey deschannel, johnny depp, and daniel day lewis.

It's great to see so many people enjoy 'older' movies.
So many times I mention one at work and I get the reply 'ewww, you mean a black and white movie?'

Imagine people's reaction when I tell them I watch silent expressionist films from the 1920s

ha! yeah i don't even bring that up. ":? you mean with no sound? what?"

I do like some, but I'm afraid that there are some that everyone in the world except me seems to think is a "classic" that really just don't resonate. Take a movie like Casablanca: Ingrid Bergman's character is supposedly on the run for her life, has crossed the Meditteranean with the Nazis hot on her heels and lands in Casablanca. Where she promptly spends the rest of the movie walking in and out Rick's Cafe with what must be a different outfit in each scene, wouldn't even want to make a guess at how many. 30? 40? Some even with gigantic hats, never mind that not a hair is out of place or a smudge of lipstick in sight. Huh?

Surprising that the Nazis couldn't catch her, given the six tons of clothing she was obviously traveling with. Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly hate the movie, in fact I thought it was kind of cute and silly. I just fail to see what all the fuss was and is about. I mean, yes, there is the "willing suspension of disbelief" and all that, but please don't rub my nose in utter foolishness like what I described and expect me to take it seriously. Heck, I also get a kick out of the old Esther Williams/Sonia Hennig cast of thousands swim-/skate-athon numbers, but at least no one expects me to take those seriously.

(Must admit: There is one movie I loathe just about to irrationality, though it might or might not qualify as "classic," depending upon how the term is defined. As in, if there is a hell and I find myself there someday I know I'll be spending eternity strapped into a chair Clockwork Orange-style watching the Sound of Music. Gah. I'd rather listen to fingernails across chalkboard. Was surprised to read recently that Richard Widmark's opinion of the movie mirrors my own.)

"Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (1922) - 5/5
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) - 5/5
"Young and Innocent" (1937) - 4.5/5
"The Lady Vanishes" (1938) - 5/5 #3
"Gone with the Wind" (1939) - 4.5/5
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) - 4.5/5
"Citizen Kane" (1941) - 5/5
"Shadow of a Doubt" (1943) - 4.5/5
"The Stranger" (1946) - 4.5/5
"Fireworks" (1947) - 5/5
"Rope" (1948) - 4.5/5
"Puce Moment" (1949) - 4.5/5
"Un chant d'amour" (1950) - 5/5 #1
"Dial M for Murder" (1954) - 4.5/5
"Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" (1954) - 4.5/5
"Rear Window" (1954) - 5/5
"Lady and the Tramp" (1955) - 4.5/5
"Les diaboliques" (1955) - 5/5
"Dracula" (1958) - 4.5/5
"House on Haunted Hill" (1959) - 4.5/5
"Some Like it Hot" (1959) - 4.5/5

Yeah I like classic films. I can also enjoy black and white films like Now, Voyager. I watch old comedies as well like Sailor Beware and The History of Mr. Polly.
Of course I also like classic musicals such as:
State Fair
Calamity Jane
Seven brides for seven brothers
Annie get your gun.

Yes I do
I like Alfred Hitchcock.

Gone With The Wind
The Wizard of Oz
The Pit and the Pendulum
Rebel Without a Cause
A Streetcar Named Desire
Psycho
The Sound of Music
Mary Poppins

most old Disney films

there was a whole subtext of hays office [the motion picture censorhip arm of the MPAA] interference during the hays code years 1934-1968. during this period, there was a lot of hidden material finessed "between the lines" of the movie scripts, which had to be submitted to the hays office to be vetted by censors before filming would be approved. even if a script got approved, it also had to pass muster by the catholic legion of decency which had its own even more restrictive terms concerning what could be shown on the screen.
so i would say on the surface, diction was better [none of this silly muttering and mumbling that is so common nowadays] and there was less slang [another thing restricted by the hays office, btw] so dialogue speech was more direct and easier to understand overall. but so much adult material was implied or hinted-at rather than spoke out loud.

Most of the classic films I like would fall into the "film noir" category:

Double Indemnity (the original that inspired many of the "noir" film conventions that came later)
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Laura (one of my favorites)
The Thin Man (OK...not exactly "noir," but very entertaining nonetheless)

High Noon, with Gary Cooper, is my favorite classic western.

The Wizard of Oz is also a favorite of mine.

I enjoy older films and have seen most of the so-called "classics."

I get lost, however, in the innuendo of the day. After watching a classic movie, I will go to the Internet to read up on the history of the film's production and how it was perceived and received at the time of its release. I can't tell you how often I am taken by surprise when reading about something that happened in the film that I completely misinterpretted. Stanley raped Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire? I had no idea from watching the film. Norma Desmond was sleeping with Joe in Sunset Blvd? I watched the whole film thinking Joe was just writing her a script.

yes!! !!
cape fear
it's a wonderful life
the phildelphia story
to kill a mockingbird
anything with gregory peck & jimmy stewart in it

Yeah, I sometimes talk to people who point out key elements in stories which I have been blissfully unaware. It never occurred to me that Norma was sleeping with Joe. I thought they were "just friends" Sometimes I will be watching a film I have seen many times before only to realize something that should have been obvious from the start.

Some of my favorite classic movies:

The Battleship Potemkin - Kino is releasing it on Blu Ray soon. Yee-ha
The 39 Steps - and many others by Hitchcock
Wild Strawberries
A Night at the Opera
Duck Soup
Sunrise
Lots of Buster Keaton films
Citizen Kane
Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Recently saw "Gone With The Wind" which is actually quite entertaining. I had expected to prefer "The Wizard of Oz" but I found that film to be a bit unrealistic. Anyway, I don't much like musicals.

This thread has a great list of classics, I gotta see them all one by one. I love classic hitchcock and orson welles.

My Blu-Ray of "Our Hospitality" by Buster Keaton came today.

And a friend pointed out that Kino's Blu-Ray of "Sherlock Jr." has a shot that didn't make it into the previous DVD release. Nifty.