the list

There comes a time in everybody's life when you just HAVE TO try acupuncture. I did it for a couple months' time, before I decided it wasn't for me. However, I will always remember something my Chinese doctor said:

- Always have positive thoughts! Careful what you feed your mind, especially at night! Never watch the news or read the papers before bedtime! I generally don't approve of TV at all, but if you have to watch something, at least make sure it is a feel-good movie...

A Room with a View, 1985

A most sensible tip I have taken to heart ever since. In fact, I have seen so many feel-good movies through the years I consider myself an expert in the matter. I even have my own list of absolute feel-good classics of all times.

Watch out, though. For this is not just another movie fan's top ten. Actually, my list is more of a magical instrument with the power to transform lives. As such, it should by all means be handled with the utmost care.

Black Narcissus, 1947

I didn't build THE LIST out of personal taste alone. I chose these films because they all have patterns in common that I'd love to discuss with you at length. For example, many of them deal with the contemporary need for self-discovery among individuals in the Western world, in connection with an insightful experience of some foreign culture steeped in ancient Pagan values. Typically, Italy. But also Greece or India.

Under the Tuscan Sun, 2003

Mediterraneo, 1991

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011

These motion pictures tell us secular tales addressed at a secular public in secular democracies, and yet... they all glow with subtle forms of universal spirituality. Aldous Huxley may have called this philosophia perennis, but Robert Graves would have -most likely- named it just POETRY.

Shirley Valentine, 1989

Every single entry in this blog will inevitably be referring you to my fabled list over and over again, which is why I think best just to share it with you, NOW. So here it is:

1.- CAMELOT, Joshua Logan, 1967

2.- BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON, Franco Zeffirelli, 1972

3.- THE DECAMERON, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971

4.- ROMEO AND JULIET, Franco Zeffirelli, 1968

5.- PROSPERO'S BOOKS, Peter Greenaway, 1991

6.- ORLANDO, Sally Potter, 1992

7.- VANITY FAIR, Mira Nair, 2004

8.- THE BOSTONIANS, James Ivory, 1984

9.- DEATH IN VENICE, Luchino Visconti, 1971

10.- COMO AGUA PARA CHOCOLATE, Alfonso Arau, 1992

11.- WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, Charles Sturridge, 1991

12.- A ROOM WITH A VIEW, James Ivory, 1985

13.- GOOD MORNING BABILONIA, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 1986

14.- A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, Pat O'Connor, 1987

15.- ENCHANTED APRIL, Mike Newell, 1992

16.- ISADORA, Karel Reisz, 1968

17.- TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, Franco Zeffirelli, 1999

18.- MEDITERRANEO, Gabriele Salvatores, 1991

19.- BLACK NARCISSUS, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947

20.- THE RIVER, Jean Renoir, 1951

21.- LE NOTTI DI CABIRIA, Federico Fellini, 1957

22.- THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE, José Quintero, 1961

23.- MAMMA ROMA, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962

24.- NEVER ON SUNDAY, Jules Dassin, 1960

25.- THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, John Huston, 1964

26.- AVANTI!, Billy Wilder, 1971

27.- MOONSTRUCK, Norman Jewison, 1987

28.- SHIRLEY VALENTINE, Lewis Gilbert, 1989

29.- UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, Audrey Wells, 2003

30.- MAMMA MIA,  Phyllida Lloyd, 2008

31.- THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, John Madden, 2011

In case you are not familiar with some of these motion pictures, you can click on the titles to find out more. As you can see, I didn't list them in chronological order -that is, according to the year they were made in-, but according to the period the stories take place at. There is a reason for this: I see each one of these tales as parts of a bigger story, a mind trip that takes off in the Middle Ages with "Camelot" to come to an end in XXIst century's Jaipur with "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". If you are patient, I'll provide evidence for the connections that exist between one, the other, and everything in between them.

Camelot, 1967

I know. Some of the films on my list can hardly be described as feel-good movies, strictly speaking. Not even in my craziest deliria would I dare to label "Mamma Roma", "The River" or "Night of the Iguana" as such. They are heavy pieces of drama my Chinese acupuncturist would surely not have approved of. But they set aesthetic references for the other, much lighter, comedies listed. And they can certainly make you feel good too, can't they? Well, that is exactly the purpose of this blog. Just to make you feel good. As The Bard put it once, 

Sing no more ditties, sing no more 

of dumps so dull and heavy.

The fraud of men was ever so

since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so, but let them go,

and be you blithe and bonny.

Converting all your sounds of woe

into hey, nonny, nonny.

Personally, I love to remember this great Shakespeare's sonnet in the version Emma Thompson & Kenneth Branagh created for "Much Ado about Nothing" -which WILL NOT be part of the list, though.

One last thing: bear in mind everything I write here will be rotating around "A Room with a View", James Ivory's classic comedy of manners as well as a cornerstone for this blog. So, whether we analyse Dirk Bogarde's agony in "Death in Venice" or Cher's heart-throb in "Moonstruck", we'll really be secretly discussing the world of E.M.Forster. Capisci? Yes? Hai capito? Bene. 

Allora, Alla Salute!

Moonstruck, 1987