One of my best memories of childhood is settling down on a winter afternoon, with my mum, in front of the TV for the Sunday Afternoon Classic.
Together we sobbed our way through Waterloo Bridge, failed to follow the thread of The Big Sleep, learnt American history from Scarlett O’Hara, hummed along with West Side Story and tut-tutted when Alida Valli rejected Joseph Cotton in The Third Man.
I always imagined I’d enjoy the same bonding sessions with my own children but somehow Casablanca failed to grip their imaginations – black and white? No CGI? What’s this guy called again? Humphrey? Weird name for an actor.
I soon found I had to jump a decade or three before they could engage in what they saw as a “classic” movie. But there was an upside. Films I had experienced as part of my own progress through adulthood were presented in an entirely new light. Some had vintage stamped all over them; others were, well, showing their age. And some were a revelation. I had been too young, or too distracted, or too prejudiced, when I had first seen them but now they revealed their hidden delights to me.
So here’s a small sample of the good, great and not so great from the past three decades or so.
Triple-a bona fide masterpiece
The Last Picture Show
Days of Heaven
The Conversation
Blue Velvet
American Beauty
Mean Streets
Throne of Blood
Midnight Cowboy
Chungking Express
Chinatown
Spirit of the Beehive
Downfall
Absolute must-sees
Star Wars
Hana-bi
Run, Lola Run
Lone Star
The Sweet Hereafter
Hoop Dreams
Pixote
The Godfather
The Vanishing (original Dutch version)
Unforgettable
Apocalypse Now (first half)
Wake in Fright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Manhattan
Blade Runner
Alien
Red Sorghum
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Annie Hall
Taxi driver
La Haine
Raise the Red Lantern
In the Mood for Love
Fargo
The Barbarian Invasions
Gallipoli
Definitely worth your time and commitment
The Killing Fields
The Graduate
Don’t Look Now
All the President’s Men
Network
American Graffitti
Pulp Fiction
Dog Day Afternoon
Do the Right Thing
Thelma and Louise
The Usual Suspects
Body Heat
Matador
Chariots of Fire
2001: A Space Odyssey
They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
Dr Strangelove
The Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink, Man Woman
Once Upon a Time in China
Ran
Kagemusha
The Odd Angry Shot
Saturday Night Fever
Deliverance
Talk to Her
Donnie Darko
Newsfront
Still worth a look
This is Spinal Tap
Koyaanisqatsi
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Easy Rider
The Electric Horseman
Kinda weird but interesting
The Swimmer
Rocky Horror Picture Show
What was I thinking?
The Piano
Shine
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Deerhunter
Apocalypse Now (second half)
Enjoy!
