The Alphabet Meme

Fletch over at Blog Cabins started a fun new meme, and I've been tagged by Daniel at Getafilm to participate.

Here's the deal: You pick your favorite film to represent each letter of the alphabet. (There are some additional qualifiers here, but basically that's the gist of it.)

This is a fun little parlor game for any movie lover. I won't say that each of these films is my favorite title beginning with the letter (I tried to aim for some differences from the other lists I've seen, and "Zoolander" was chosen because it's the only movie I can recall ever seeing that starts with "Z"), but I'd watch any one of them again in a heartbeat if it was available to me.

A - Annie Hall - Now and forever, Woody's greatest, most perfect film

B - Brazil - Brilliant, surreal, beyond imaginative.

C - City Lights - One of Chaplin's very best

D- Day of Wrath - Dreyer's masterpiece (I actually watched it twice over this past weekend - my review is in the post below)

E - Entre Nous - great French film about the friendship between two women

F- Farewell My Concubine - Epic and emotionally devastating. 50 years of Chinese history as seen by two men in a complicated lifelong friendship.

G - Good Fellas - No other gangster movie I can think of delivers such an adrenaline rush. Most people pick "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull," but this is my favorite Scorsese film.

H - Hannah and Her Sisters - Another great Woody Allen film that I've watched more times than I can count.

I - It Should Happen to You - Judy Holliday was never lovelier or funnier than in the George Cukor comedy, and it marked the film debut of Jack Lemmon

J - Jezebel - classic, Oscar-winning Bette Davis

K - Kramer vs. Kramer - The acting is superb and the story always gets to me.

L - Life if Beautiful - I know, I know... but the first half is enchanting and the second half manages (if just barely) to walk that fine line between wrenching drama and bad taste. I saw it five times in the theater when it was first released.

M - Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle - the film from whence came the title of this blog. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Campbell Scott are amazing.

N - Nashville - Robert Altman's American classic is, quite literally, the movie that changed my life.

O - O Brother, Where art Thou? - Not to everyone's taste, but this might well be my favorite Coen Brothers film.

P - The Piano - erotically charged and brilliantly acted by Holly Hunter. I'm not much of a Jane Campion fan, but I do love this film.

Q - Quadrophenia - the film adaption of the Who's concept album. Haven't seen it since college, but I loved it then.

R - Rebecca - a Hitchcock classic; just thinking about Judith Anderson's Mrs. Danvers character creeps me out.

S - Some Like it Hot - still the funniest movie ever made IMHO - and Jack Lemmon's performance may be the greatest comedy performance of all time.

T- Tootsie - and, while we're on the subject of cross-dressing comedies, I can never watch this one too many times. It's sublime.

U - Umberto D - absolutely breaks my heart, everytime. "The Bicycle Thief" is a joyful romp compared to this.

V - Valmont - a alternative version of "Dangerous Liaisons" with a very young Colin Firth in the title role, Annette Bening and Meg Tilly. Directed by Milos Forman, a director I greatly admire. This isn't his best film, but it's got some great moments.

W - The Wizard of Oz - Hey, it's a part of history.

X - XXX - Yeah it's a Vin Diesel action flick and it's kinda dumb, but I remember more about it than I remember about either the X-Files or X-Men movies, so what are you going to do?

Y - You Can't it with You - Classic Capra, Classic Jimmy Stewart, Classic Kaufman and Hart

Z - Zoolander -If I'd ever seen "Zero for Conduct," "Zorba the Greek" or "Zulu," I probably wouldn't have picked it. But I do find Ben Stiller's dim-witted male model hilarious.

Now, technically, I'm supposed to tag five more people - but from what I've seen, the blogosphere is pretty well tagged out at this point. So I'm going to throw this challenge over to my friend Jen at Monkey Posh. It's not a movie blog, but I know she will come up with a fantastic list.