Birthday Bash for AFI's 40th

In celebration of their 40th anniversary, the American Film Institute is throwing a celebration that will surely have classic movie buffs everywhere wishing they all lived in LA. I know I do.

On October 3 at the ArcLight Hollywood cinema, AFI will screen not one, not two, but eleven classic films. And that's not all: each of the films will be introduced by the star and/or director of that film:

• Julie Andrews for The Sound of Music
• Warren Beatty for Bonnie and Clyde
• Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner for When Harry Met Sally ...
• Kirk Douglas for Spartacus
• Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven
• Morgan Freeman for The Shawshank Redemption
• Tippi Hedren for The Birds
• Angela Lansbury for Beauty and the Beast
• George Lucas for Star Wars
• Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Sylvester Stallone for Rocky

Or maybe it's all for the best I don't live in Los Angeles. All of the films will be screened at the same time, so you can only see one! Talk about your Sophie's choice!

I'd probably see Beauty and the Beast, because I would love to see Angela. Plus, it's the shortest one, so then I could sneak into another theater to catch a glimpse of Julie, or maybe Tippi. Which one would you choose?

Tickets for the event go on sale today at AFI.com.

UPDATE: Wow, I'm not sure when it happened, but according to AFI's website today (Sunday, September 23), this event is now completely SOLD OUT.

Links via AFI.com.

AFI's 100 Movies: Facts & Figures

The AFI Top 10, circa 1998

"Can we ever get enough lists? Lists are the mix tapes of film buffs. Compilations of our favorites, presented to others in the hopes they'll love the selections as much as we do. Building a bond by finding mutual favorites. Showing what we love, and sharing it."

I love that quote (from "Rollerboy" over at AwardsDaily.com). It is such a fitting analogy for why movie lovers make so many lists of the best, worst, most, et cetera. It is also a great way to introduce this, the first of my "Facts & Figures" look at the best of the list makers, the American Film Institute.

The AFI began their annual countdown back in 1998 with this one, the ultimate "best of": AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies. It proved controversial then and, when they redid the poll earlier this year, it was controversial again.

However, whatever the critical pundits said pales in comparison to the exposure this list, and all the AFI lists for that matter, have given to classic films. In my opinion, there is no better starting point for someone interested in American film to use as a reference tool.

Sure, there are many great movies not included (not to mention foreign films and documentaries), but surely this is not the be-all/end-all of anyone's movie watching, nor was it ever intended to be; for example, if someone watches Gone With the Wind, and then moves on to other Clark Gable movies or other historical epics or other romantic dramas and so on, then the AFI -- and these lists -- did the job right.

Facts & Figures:

AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies was presented in 1998. 100 films were selected from a nomination list of 400, and films released in 1996 and prior were eligible.

By the Year:

• The oldest movie on the list: The Birth of a Nation (1915).
• The newest movie on the list: Fargo (1996).
• Most represented decade: The 1950's, with 20 movies total.
• Most represented year: 1939, with 5 movies total.

Sight & Sound:

• Total number of color films: 59 (including The Wizard of Oz, which has some black and white sequences).
• Total number of black and white films: 41 (including The Birth of a Nation, which has some color-tinted sequences).
• Total number of silent films: 5 (including The Jazz Singer, which has some sound sequences, and City Lights and Modern Times, which had soundtracks but no dialogue).

By Genre:

• Most represented genre is drama, with 46 films.
• Comedies come in next with 20 films.

And the Winner Is:

• 98 films on the list were eligible for the Academy Awards (The Birth of a Nation and The Gold Rush were released prior to the Oscars' first year, 1927).
• Total number of Best Picture winners: 33.
• Total number of Best Picture nominees: 41.

The Stars:

• Robert Duvall appears in the most movies, 6.
• James Stewart is the star of the most movies, with 5.
• Other actors who appear in 5 movies are Ward Bond, Robert De Niro and Thomas Mitchell.
• Katharine Hepburn is the most represented actress, with 4 movies.
• Actors who appear in 4 movies include Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, William Holden and Dennis Hopper.
• Note: these totals do not include uncredited bit roles.

The Directors:

• The most represented director is Steven Spielberg, with 5 movies.
• Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder come in second with 4 movies each.

Studio Call:

• United Artist has the most films on the list, with a total of 17.
• Warner Brothers follows with 15.

Miscellanea:

• There are 2 animated films on the list (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia).
• Only 1 sequel made the cut: The Godfather Part II.
• The longest title, with 68 letters, symbols and spaces, is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
• Shortest title: Jaws.

For the full list of 100 movies, see the comments section below (and for the record, I've seen them all!).

Links via AwardsDaily.com and AFI.com.

100 Years ... 100 Posts

To celebrate the 100th post here at Movie Dearest, here is one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos, titled "100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers".

Don't say that "Alonzo Mosley FBI" has too much time on his hands. This meticulously researched, perfectly edited montage - a take-off on the "AFI's 100 Years" lists devoted exclusively to movie clips featuring dialogue containing every number from 100 to 1 - is pure brilliance.

All the classics are here, from "docking bay 94" to "but these go to 11" to "I can eat 50 eggs" (pictured). And numero uno is perfectly chosen. I spent a good afternoon figuring out what movie each quote was from (and still got some wrong), but now you don't have to: the full list is posted on Alonzo's blog. But see how many you can come up with on your own before you take a peek.

Enjoy! And here's to the next 100 posts.

Links via YouTube.com and Acrentropy.blogspot.com.

My Top 100 ... For Now

To give you a taste for my tastes in movies, I have listed the 100 films that I voted for in the American Film Institute's most recent poll. You can find it in the sidebar under the heading "My Ballot: AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition".

As is my prerogative, this list is certainly subject to change. For example, in the six months since I voted I have seen Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd, an awesome movie that certainly would be included if I were making the list today. Oh well, at least they will be re-polling members once more in another ten years.

For the record, 64 of my choices made the final cut, announced about a month ago. They are indicated on the chronological list in the sidebar with a *, and the links will take you to their respective IMDB pages.

What is most fun about these things (for me anyway) is figuring out the statistics of it all. You know, the most this or the least that. I have compiled facts and figures for each of the AFI lists, which will appear in this section eventually. To give you an idea of what I am talking about, here is some interesting data for the 100 movies on my ballot:

• The oldest film is Harold Lloyd's Safety Last; the newest is Brokeback Mountain.
• The most represented decade is the 1950's, with 18 films.
• The most represented year is (naturally) 1939, with 5 films.
• There are 3 silents on the list (I know, I need to see more).
• Dramas account for 45 entries, the most represented genre. Musicals, one of my favorite genres (go figure), comes in second with 17.
• Steven Spielberg is the most represented director (5 times), followed by Alfred Hitchcock (4 times).
• The actors who appear the most are Humphrey Bogart, Dustin Hoffman and James Stewart, with 4 films each, while the actresses are Faye Dunaway (purely coincidental) and Judy Garland, with 3 films each.
• The Godfather Part II is the only sequel (isn't that always the case?).
• There are 6 animated films, 7 if you count Mary Poppins.
• There are only 4 films with overt gay themes: Midnight Cowboy, Cabaret, Dog Day Afternoon and Brokeback. This is a case where foreign fare does infinitely better.
• 24 films were Oscar-winning Best Pictures. 43 more were nominated for that prize as well. (For the record, Safety Last was released prior to the Academy's existence.)
• The film with the longest title is The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (49 letters, symbols and spaces); the shortest is Jaws (4 letters).
• 37 1/4 * films are in glorious black and white.

* This figure includes the Kansas sections of The Wizard of Oz.

UPDATE: The list has been removed from the sidebar and can now be found in the comments section below.

Links via Imdb.com and AFI.com.