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My Desert Island Films

Movie list created by kathy

Sort by: Showing 30 items

Decade: Rating: List Type:

168

7.3

7.2

Aimée & Jaguar (1999)

Director: Max Färberböck
Starring: Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, Johanna Wokalek, Heike Makatsch, Elisabeth Degen, Detlev Buck, Dani Levy, Rosel Zech and Ulrich Matthes

Based on real life events. Felice is living a dangerous life: in the middle of World War II in Berlin, she is a Jew and a lesbian, and works undercover at a Nazi newspaper from which she finds information to take to the Jewish underground. One day she meets her lover, Ilse's employer Lilly, and falls in love with this bourgeois, Nazi-supporting hausfrau. Their affair is as intense as it is dangerous, with Felice in constant danger of discovery. In their own ways, each woman challenges what is expected of her.

kathy's rating:

638

7.5

7.4

Bullitt (1968)

Director: Peter Yates
Starring: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon and Simon Oakland

An all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.

kathy's rating:

727

7.4

7.7

Cabaret (1972)

Director: Bob Fosse
Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, Marisa Berenson, Helmut Griem and Fritz Wepper

Berlin in 1930, a time when political unrest racks Germany, the economy has been destroyed and millions of unemployed roam the streets. Enter into this chaos an American cabaret dancer, working at the downtown "Kit-Kat Club" where anything goes on stage. Into this young dancer's life come several characters such as a rich German politician, a young Jewish man struggling with his identity, an Englishman teacher from London and, of course, the all-knowing, all-seeing Master of Ceremonies.

kathy's rating:

537

7.2

7.3

Carol (2015)

Director: Todd Haynes
Based on the novel 'The Price of Salt' by Patricia Highsmith
Starring: Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler

Set in 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.

kathy's rating:

6.9

The Champ (1979)

Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Starring: Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Ricky Schroder, Jack Warden and Arthur Hill

Billy Flynn, an ex-boxing champion, is now horse trainer in Hialeah. He makes just enough money to raise his little boy T.J., over which he got custody after his wife Annie left him seven years ago. T.J. worships The Champ, who is now working on his come-back in order to give his boy a better future. But suddenly Annie shows up again ...

kathy's rating:

1542

8.2

8.5

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili and Isa Danieli

Salvatore is a young boy in a small Italian village, where the only past time is a visit to the movies at the Cinema Paradiso. Enchanted by the flickering images, Salvatore yearns for the secret of the cinema's magic and is overjoyed when Alfredo, the projectionist, agrees to reveal the mysteries of movie making to him.

As their friendship grows, so does Salvatore. Growing older with his good friend and the movies he adores, he learns from them both how to court his first love. He also dreams of making his own films one day.

When the day comes for Salvatore to leave the village, Alfredo makes him promise to never look back, just to keep moving forward. Salvatore does just this - for 30 years. Until one day, a message arrives that beckons him back home...

kathy's rating:

1313

7.5

The Conjuring (2013)

Director: James Wan
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston

Based on true events, this spine-chiller tells the story of a New England family who begins having encounters with spirits in their farmhouse, and the paranormal experts who help them do battle with the supernatural forces.

kathy's rating:

292

6.4

6.5

The Cotton Club (1984)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwynne, Nicolas Cage, James Remar, Allen Garfield, Gwen Verdon, Maurice Hines, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Waits, Jennifer Grey, James Russo and John P.Ryan

The story of the The Cotton Club, the legendary Harlem nightspot, and the owners, staff, performers and customers who all passed through its doors.

kathy's rating:

6.8

7.5

The Dollmaker (1984)

Director: Daniel Petrie
Starring: Jane Fonda, Levon Helm, Amanda Plummer, Susan Kingsley, Ann Hearn, Bob Swan, Geraldine Page, Jason Yearwood, David Brady Wilson, Starla Whaley, David Dawson, Nikki Creswell, Raymond Serra, Dan Hedaya, Ellen Marchman and Sheb Wooley

During World War II, hard-luck farmer Colvis Nevels leaves his rural Kentucky home to take a factory job in bustling Detroit. Reluctantly accompanying Colvis is his long-suffering wife, Gertie, a talented woodcarver set in her traditional ways. When the perils of city life and Colvis' reckless squandering of money send the Nevels into precarious financial straits, Gertie starts a business making hand-carved dolls in order to provide for her family.

kathy's rating:

7.7

7.6

Duel (1971)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Based on a story by Richard Matheson
Starring: Dennis Weaver, Lou Frizzell, Lucille Benson, Eddie Firestone, Jacqueline Scott and Carey Loftin

A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the unseen driver of a mysterious tanker truck.

kathy's rating:

7.7

5.9

Escapade in Japan (1957) (1957)

Director: Arthur Lubin
Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Teresa Wright, Jon Provost, Roger Nakagawa and Clint Eastwood

A plane on its way to Japan is forced to land at sea just off the Japanese coast. A small American boy survives the ditching but is separated from the rest of the passengers and crew and is picked up by a Japanese fisherman, who takes the boy back to his village.

The boy is befriended by the fisherman's son, but when they see Japanese police swarming over the village, they are afraid that they've done something wrong and run away, although the police are only searching for the missing boy.

Together the two boys travel through the Japanese countryside, trying to avoid the police who are searching for them and meeting up with many different kinds of people along the way.

kathy's rating:

2250

7.5

7.8

Fantasia (1941)

Directors: Bill Roberts, James Algar, Paul Satterfield, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jnr., Jim Handley, Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen
Starring: Leopold Stockowski, Deems Taylor, Corey Burton, Walt Disney, James MacDonald, Julietta Novis and Paul J. Smith

A collection of animated interpretations of great works of Western classical music.

kathy's rating:

6.8

The Girl Can't Help It (1956)

Director: Frank Tashlin
Starring: Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Ray Anthony, Henry Jones, John Emery, Juanita Moore, Julie London, Abbey Lincoln, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters and Phil Silvers

A gangster hires down-and-out press agent to make his blonde bimbo girlfriend a singing star.

kathy's rating:

3310

8.5

8.8

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef and Rada Rassimov

A bounty hunting scam sees two men join forces in an uneasy alliance against a third man in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

kathy's rating:

6404

8.8

9.2

The Godfather (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri, John Marley, Al Martino, Sterling Hayden, Richard Bright, Abe Vigoda, Richard S. Castellano, Richard Conte, Alex Rocco and Morganna King

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

kathy's rating:

7.6

Hot Millions

Director: Eric Till
Starring: Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley, Cesar Romero, Lynda Baron and Peter Jones

A Cockney con-artist just out of prison replaces an insurance company's computer programmer and sends claim cheques to himself under various aliases at addresses all over Europe. Meanwhile, he falls in love with an inept secretary and frustrated flautist.

kathy's rating:

4626

6.5

7.2

King Kong (2005)

Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Jack Black, Jamie Bell, Thomas Kretzmann, Coiln Hanks, Andy Serkis and Evan Parke

In 1933 New York an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow.

kathy's rating:

1877

6.1

6.4

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Based on songs by ABBA
Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Rachel McDowall, Ashley Lilley, Philip Michael and Niall Buggy

Donna, an independent single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, is about to let go of Sophie, the spirited daughter she’s raised alone. For Sophie’s wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends — practical and no-nonsense Rosie and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya — from her one-time backing band 'Donna and the Dynamos'.

But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna’s past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier.

Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities.

kathy's rating:

304

7.7

7.9

Microcosmos (1996)

Directors: Marie Pérennou and Claude Nuridsany
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas (narrator)

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in and a mosquito hatching.

kathy's rating:

2130

6.7

7.1

The Mist (2007)

Director: Frank Darabont
Based on a novella by Stephen King
Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble and Alexa Davalos

A freak storm unleashes a strange mist containing a species of blood-thirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole-up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.

kathy's rating:

360

7.8

Mon oncle (1958)

Director: Jacques Tati
Starring: Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie and Lucien Frégis

Mr Hulot comes to visit his sister and her family, the Arpels, where Hulot's nephew, Gerard, is drowning in boredom. Hulot's bohemian provincial home life contrasts with the modern, gadget-filled concrete and glass home belonging to his relations. When Mr. Arpel contrives to secure Hulot a position at his rubber tubing factory, Mrs. Arpel simultaneously conspires to fix him up with an eccentric neighbor.

kathy's rating:

3247

7.9

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Director: David Lynch
Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux and Ann Miller

After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

kathy's rating:

5211

7.8

7.9

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Director: Henry Selick
Story: Tim Burton
Starring (voices): Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara and William Hickey

Bored and unhappy with the life of being The Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington of Halloween Town sets out to find something exciting. Jack discovers Christmas Town and takes it upon himself to take over the duties of Santa to deliver toys across the world to children.

kathy's rating:

4952

8.2

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring:Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo, Roger Casamajor and Ivan Massagué

In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of a labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

kathy's rating:

8630

8.3

8.9

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken and Bruce Willis

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

kathy's rating:

7.6

7.3

Red Dog (2011)

Director: Kriv Stenders
Starring: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Rohan Nichol, Luke Ford, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Noah Taylor

Based on the legendary true story of the kelpie named 'Red Dog' who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.

kathy's rating:

6.7

6.4

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

Director: Byron Haskin
Starring: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Adam West and The Woolly Monkey

Commander Kit Draper and Colonel Dan McReady are orbiting Mars in an exploratory surveyor. A malfunction forces them to eject with only Draper and a monkey named Mona surviving. Draper must learn to survive in this hostile environment fighting thirst, hunger and even hostile aliens if he expects to see home again.

kathy's rating:

1938

8.1

8.3

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Directors: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan
Starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno

1927: Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the darlings of the silent silver screen. Offscreen, Don, aided by his happy-go-lucky friend and piano accompanist, Cosmo Brown, has to dodge Lina's romantic overtures, especially when he falls for chorus girl Kathy Selden.

With the advent of sound in motion pictures, it is decided to turn Don and Lina's new film into a "talkie" and a musical at that. The only problem is Lina's voice, which mere words cannot describe. Thus, Kathy is brought on to dub her speaking and singing voice in secret, and Don's on top of the world. But then Lina finds out.

kathy's rating:

4419

8.1

8.3

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty and Ed Bishop

Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

kathy's rating:

2532

8.7

12 Angry Men (1957)

Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Henry Fonda, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and Joseph Sweeney

A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

kathy's rating:

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A list of the 30 films that I would choose to take with me to a desert island - to watch on my solar-powered portable DVD player.

Listed in alphabetical order.