Brad and I have been talking a lot lately about our favorite films, classics, and various elements of the movies and why we love them. This may be in part because of the lackluster year 2013 has been, I’m not sure. Not that it takes much to make us talk about this subject, anyway. So, after expanding our favorite films list last week, this week we’re looking at movie pairings; movies that are especially good to watch together. Not just sequels, like Crank & Crank 2 or Alien & Aliens. But films that go together like peanut butter & chocolate, cheese & crackers, or Kool & the Gang.
5. An American Werewolf in London & Cat People: Two movies about doomed love and the beast within. In both films, an innocent is cursed with an inner monster that must come out. Both are about love & sex, and romance against the odds. Both are interesting in their use eroticism; An American Werewolf is playful and cute, while Cat People is deeply intense and kinky.
4. Apocalypto & The Fountain: Both films are about going the extra mile for love, about risking everything to save that special someone. And both feature Mayans as a central element, not a common thing in film. When I watched Apocalypto with a friend a few years back, part way through the movie, I realized we had to follow it up with The Fountain, and they worked very well as a pair.
3. The Omega Man & Soylent Green: Two profoundly 70s Charlton Heston visions of unpleasant futures, these two movies have been linked in my mind for a long time. I guess part of it is that I’ve frequently shown them together at HestFest celebrations. Yet, each movie has its own strengths, and somehow they work well as a pair; one about a world where everyone is gone, and the other a world where there are too many people.
2. Double Indemnity & Lost Highway: Double Indemnity is one of the nastiest, ugliest movies lumped into the Film Noir genre, with two extremely unlikable characters doing some awful villainy. And it’s obvious that David Lynch’s work has always been steeped in the Noir aesthetic, but nowhere is it more obvious than in Lost Highway. Even the whole look of Renee/Alice harkens back to Barbara Stanwyck, a woman too fake to be attractive, but somehow sexually galvanizing, able to lure a sucker into the most vile of evils.
1. The Rocketeer & Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Two extremely fun homage films deeply rooted in the classic era of movie serials and early comic books. Neither of the films can be watched while harboring an ounce of cynicism. From battles atop zeppelins to mad science, these two movies cover a lot of pulp bases. The Rocketeer might also be paired with The Shadow (1994), The Phantom (1996), or Dick Tracy (1990). And Sky Captain would work well with Lost Horizon (1937) or King Kong (1933).
-Matt
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