Nelci's Favorite Movies

1) "The Legend of 1900" (Year: 1999)



A great film (my favorite!!) from Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the Academy Award-winning Cinema Paradiso. It's a remarkable fable about a boy raised on a steam ship who never once sets foot on the land. Tim Roth stars as "1900" who grows up during dozens of journeys across the sea, discovering that he can do absolutely anything he wants within the confines of the ship he calls home. Anything, that is,except be ordinary.

On the very first day of the brand new century, a baby boy is found on the Virginian, a ship that ferries immigrants from Europe to the USA. Danny Boodman (Bill Nunn), a coal room worker, discovers the abandoned newborn in a lemon crate in the first-class cabin. Not wanting to give the child up, Danny raises him hidden in the great ship's belly. He christens the boy Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900, but the boy becomes known simply as 1900. Knowing nothing of the world beyond the coal room and his porthole view of the sea, 1900 is devastated when his adopted father is fatally wounded in a terrible ship accident. His identity is revealed to the captain who threatens to expose him to the authorities. But 1900 saves himself when he wanders into first class and finds a shipboard piano discovering he is a prodigy who can naturally play glorious, soulful music. 1900 stays on the ship, entertaining the world, 2,000 people at a time.

Three decades later, a down-and-out jazzman named Max (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who is about to sell his beloved trumpet, discovers in a dusty English music shop the only remaining recording of 1900 playing the piano. Max is haunted by the sound, not only by its beauty, but because he knew 1900 years ago. Thrust backwards into dizzying memories, Max begs the shop owner to tell him how he came upon the "impossible" record.

The shopkeeper tells Max that the recording was removed off a rusting ship scheduled for immediate demolition. This sets Max reeling. He is convinced that 1900, who was never willing to go ashore, still remains alive on board. Battling against time, Max rushes to the shipyard hoping to convince the demolition crew to halt their dynamiting. In a last ditch effort to save 1900's life and prove he exists, Max tells the story of how the recording that brought him to the shipyard came to be the fairy-tale of 1900's miraculous rise to fame and disappearance from existence.

I'm pretty sure that you'll love "Lost Boys Calling", the film song theme, beautifully performed by Roger Waters.

2) "The Color Purple" (Year: 1985)

Steven Spielberg's masterful adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel stars Whoppi Goldberg, in her impressive screen debut, as Celie, a sharecropper's daughter living in rural Georgia. The film opens in 1909 when Celie is a young girl, a victim of incest, pregnant with her father's child. Ugly and unloved, separated from her children and her sister, Celie's only option is marriage to an abusive, philandering husband (Danny Glover) who treats her little better than a slave. Her life changes forever when her husband brings his mistress, a beautiful blues singer named Shug (Margaret Avery), into the house. THE COLOR PURPLE was also the film debut for Oprah Winfrey, who beautifully plays Celie's sister-in-law, Sofia. THE COLOR PURPLE was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including one each for Goldberg, Avery, and Winfrey) but surprisingly won no Oscars, and although the film was nominated for a Best Picture award, Spielberg was snubbed by the academy and was not nominated for Best Director.

Below you can find scenes from Color Purple with a background track of "God Is Trying To Tell You Something". Vocals: Tata Vega (the real singer), or Shug Avery :0)

If you wanna see the video before finishing listening to "Lost Boys Crying" (The Legend of 1900 music theme), just scroll down to the end of the page and turn off the song.

“I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.” / Shug Avery

3) “The Shining” (Year: 1980)

Frustrated writer Jack Torrance takes a job as the winter caretaker at the ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. When he arrives there with his wife and son, they learn that the previous caretaker had gone mad. Slowly Jack becomes possessed by the evil, demonic presence in the hotel.

Stanley Kubrick's film, with Jack Nicholson. Based on the novel "The Shining", by Stephen King




4) "Cinema Paradiso" (Year: 1989)

A nostalgic look at a young boy's coming-of-age in postwar Italy and his fascination with a small local cinema, CINEMA PARADISO from director Giuseppe Tornatore is a famed and beloved classic.

"Alfredo is dying." Those words jolt the successful filmmaker Salvatore (played as a child by Salvatore Cascio, as a teen by Marco Leonardi, and as an adult by Jacques Perrin), into contemplating his childhood and the hours he spent in the projection booth of his adored local movie theater, Cinema Paradiso. Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), owner of the moviehouse, befriended and encouraged young Salvatore, known as "Toto" as he grew up in his small Sicilian home town, ravaged by the horrors of the war. The cinema offered escape and fantasy to the townspeople, including Toto's mother, a grieving war widow. In one breathtaking scene a popular comedy is projected onto the walls of the town square and the entire town glows in the dreamy light of projected celluloid, washing away the harsh realities of poverty and grief. As Toto grows to manhood, his friendship with his mentor deepens. With the love and guidance of the aging man, Toto navigates the trials of first love and builds on his ever-growing passion for the cinema. Ultimately, it is Alfredo who convinces Toto to leave his village to pursue his dreams of becoming a director. But as Salvatore thinks back on his youthful romances and his innocent love of movies, he comes to realize that perhaps his success has come at a very high price. A beautifully filmed tribute to the power of movies that captivated an entire generation of filmgoers, CINEMA PARADISO is an unforgettable masterpiece.

A Giuseppe Tornatore's film, with Philippe Noiret as Alfredo.


5) “Bridges of Madison County” (Year: 1985)

The path of Francesca Johnson's future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life. While her husband and children are away at the Iowa state fair in the Summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid happens upon the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Rosamunde Bridge. He explains that he is on assignment from National Geographic magazine to photograph the bridges of Madison County. She agrees to show him to the bridges and thus begins the bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes down the story of this four-day love affair in a 3-volume diary. The diary is found by her children among her possessions and alongside Robert Kincaid's possessions after Francesca is dead. The message they take from the diaries is one of hope that they will do what is necessary to find happiness in their lives -- whatever is necessary. After learning that Robert Kincaid's cremated remains were scattered off Rosamunde Bridge and that their mother requested a similar disposition for her own ashes, the children must decide whether to honor their mother's final wishes or bury her alongside their father as the family had planned. Adapted from the novel by Robert Waller, this is the story of love that happens just once in a lifetime -- if you're lucky.




6) “Love Actually” (Year: 2003)

This ensemble comedy tells ten separate (but intertwining) stories of love in London (with a small portion set in France), leading up to a big climax on Christmas Eve. One of the threads follows the brand new (unmarried) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who on his first day in 10 Downing Street falls in love with the girl who brings him his tea . Another story follows the relationship between a stepfather and his young stepson.




Other movies Nelci loves - Schindler's List, Mister Nobody, Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Pianist, Casablanca