DB7

Eight films you would take to a desert island?

1) A Matter of Life and Death
My favourite film. Supremely watchable with an intelligent and magical script that ventures into fantasy whilst maintaining plausibility.

2) Dead of Night
I think it was either Freddie Francis or Terence Fisher that said the best horror's are told in vignettes. This one had multiple threads (including 'The Mirror' and Hugo the dummy) all leading to a nightmare finale for Mervyn Johns. Again.

3) Oh, Mr Porter!
If ever my spirits are down and I'm in need of an instant celluloid pick me up this is the film to turn to. For me it just shades Ask a Policeman but I can't pinpoint why. It's The Ghost Train with booster rockets.

4) The Ladykillers
A tough call between this one and Kind Hearts in the black comedy department, but the Ladykiller's is a funnier film that descends into farce as the crooks fallout amongst themselves (the railway signal poetically dealing with Alec Guinness) leaving the eccentric "Mrs Lop-sided"� with the cash.

5) Trainspotting
My favourite novel of the past decade and I was expecting the adaptation to fail in conveying the story to the screen. But Boyle gets it spot on and creates a stylish portrayal of anti-social anti-hero Renton attempting to "Choose Life". It's sometimes bleak, occasionally violent, often funny, but never moralizes.

6) The 39 Steps
Once again spoilt for choice between this and Hitch's other great early thriller The Lady Vanishes. From start to finish The 39 Steps never lags as Hitch employs his favoured chemistry of the innocent man and a McGuffin plot device driving the story.

7) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Python's first venture into feature films. It's low-budget, it has no production values, it's absurd, it's childish; but it's probably the most quoted comedy of all time. "Just a flesh wound"�.

8) Brighton Rock
A slice of seaside British film noir featuring Richard Attenborough as the baby-faced gangster with a sadistic streak. Memorable for it's sublime ending with the jumping record.

Carterh

My eight British films (in no particular order)

1. Night and the City
2. Get Carter
3. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
4. Rebecca
5. Went the Day Well
6. Blow Up
7. Kind Hearts and Coronets
8. The Long Good Friday

(If 10 add "From Russia With Love" and "Monty Python and The Holy Grail")

My eight all time Favourites not limited to British films (again, in no particular order)

1. The Conversation
2. Red River
3. Vertigo
4. Le Samurai
5. The French Connection
6. Battle for Algiers
7. Battleship Potemkin
8. White Heat

(if it was 10 films then add "Lady from Shanghai" and "The Maltese Falcon"�).


It changes every week.

mysteriesofedgarwallace

1/ The Ipcress File
2/ Day of The Jackal
3/ The Italian Job
4/ Dead of Night
5/ The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
6/ Act of Murder (Edgar Wallace mystery)
7/ A Home of Your Own
8/ Jigsaw

**EDIT**
Very nearly two years on from my original post and a few minor changes.
AHOYO to make me laugh!

**EDIT**
This is bloody impossible!!!!!!!

Brian Brandt

Casablanca
The Awful Truth
The Lady Eve
All About Eve
Action for Slander
Cool Hand Luke
Trouble in Paradise
The Searchers
The Maltese Falcon
Rashomon
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Enemy Below
Dangerous Corner
Dam Busters

Sorry, I had advanced warning and managed to grab a few extra.

Fellwanderer

For those outside God's Country, Desert Island Discs is a weekly radio programme to which guests are invited to choose eight gramophone recordings, a book and a luxury to keep them occupied whilst stranded on a desert island.

I've often whiled away a pleasant hour or three pondering various "Eights" - whether they be books, records, sporting moments or ...

I thought it about time to list my eight DVDS here. It proved harder than expected - I probably ended up with about 100 and then had to prune down radically! The easiest thing to do was to stick rigidly to British films, which I prefer anyway. Even so, some very hard decisions had to be made and I'm sure I'd come down a different way another time.

Those that didn't quite make it - oh, why couldn't RP have given his original guests a choice of 20?:

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush
A Canterbury Tale
Went The Day Well?
Spring and Port Wine
The Italian Job
The 39 steps [1935]
If
I Know Where I'm Going
Where Eagles Dare
The Eagle Has Landed
Zulu
Walkabout - sacrilege to leave that out but some would say it was Australian and it would make my list very top heavy in favour of one particular actress

My selection:
8 Passport to Pimlico - a lovely very English comedy of a time and place just beyond my memory.

7 Henry V [1944] - the Olivier film blew my mind away when I saw it back in the mid 60s as a teenager.

6 Whisky Galore - a fine book and rollicking good film, I can almost believe it happening.

5 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - a far better film than I'd originally expected: humour, pathos, honour and steadfast friendship.

4 A Matter of Life and Death - love conquers all, and a reminder of my mum who, like June, was a wraf radio operator and died tragically young.

and now, my top 3

3 Goodbye Mr Chips [1939] - I still want to believe that a Mr Chips exists for all school children and that they will find him waiting to guide them on the path to decency, strength of character, gentility of nature and spiritual purity. Goodbye Mr Chips is a reminder of what we are all really here for. Robert Donat and Greer Garson are simply superb.

2 The Snow Goose - I was brought up not far from the Essex sea marshes where the book was set and first read it as a teenager in the 60s. I first saw The Snow Goose during the Christmas holidays in 1971 and it has remained one of the most moving films I have ever been privileged to watch. Everything about the film is as near perfection as it is possible to get. Richard Harris gives a masterful performance as Philip Rhayader [was he ever better?] and the young and incredibly beautiful Jenny Agutter matches him scene for scene with a maturity beyond her years. I have a lump in my throat every time I watch it. It is criminal that this film is not commercially available for today's generation to see a truly great film about the things that really matter.

1 The Railway Children - someone said of this film "when the networks stop showing it, you'll know civilisation is coming to an end". This is a timeless classic that was directed and performed most beautifully. It depicts all that is worthwhile in humanity and climaxes in the conquest of love and faith over cruel injustice. Every performance is a gem, though Bobbie stands out and, like Judy Garland as Dorothy before her, Jenny Agutter makes it impossible for us to imagine anyone else in the role. The world is all the better for this film and the children of today would be much the better for watching it.

FELL

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

Harbottle

Impossible task but alone on a desert island I think comedy would be vital so my choices would not necessarily be all my favourite films :

The Ladykillers
Dead of Night
Dr Strangelove
London Belongs To Me
Kind Hearts & Coronets
The Ipcress File
Oh Mr Porter
Too Many Crooks

ollie

I simply cannot do this, i'd be there sinking on the ship goin but what about?...oh and theres... "i used to be indecisive but...now i'm really not quite so sure ?er...

cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

The_Late_Peter_Cook

My lists tend to change from day-to-day! But here's mine:

01. THE THIRD MAN 1949
02. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT 1964
03. DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE 1954
04. BEDAZZLED 1967
05. THE LADY VANISHES 1938
06. A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH 1946
07. THE REBEL 1960
08. MY LEARNED FRIEND 1943

Clinton Morgan

What would I like to have on a sunny desert island? In terms of British cinema I would have

The 39 Steps
The Lady Vanishes
Oh Mr Porter
A Canterbury Tale
Ask A Policeman
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Boys Will Be Boys
Night Mail

aaron

It's weird reading through everybodys 'eight', we all seem to share at least one film in our selections.....
And again, mine tends to vary from day to day..

No particular order....

Wicker man
School for scoundrels
Bedazzled (1967)
The family way
A matter of life & death
Withnail & i
Alfie
Kind hearts & coronets

Yes eight is VERY mean....

'He who is not one up...Is one down'

Third Man

in no particular order,

1.Third Man
slanted camera angles, zither music, Howard on top form and the best bit of Welles I have ever seen, don't leave home for a desert island without it.

2.Man in the White Suit.
my favourite Ealing comedy, a very dark and cynical film but Guinness is the 'hope eternal' and Theseiger what an actor.

3.Green For Danger.
Alistair Sim in great form as the detective and Howard in fine fettle again.

4.An Inspector Calls
more Sim, more mystery, I just can't get enough of films like this, there is just a overall fantastic feeling to this film.

5.Lavender Hill Mob.
Guiness, Holloway, Bass and James as the four crooks a great ensemble of characters and a feel good factor that never dulls the sharp wit and imagination of the film. The Eiffel Tower scene is one of my favourites bits of cinema.

6.39 Steps.
it's the Hitchcock film that I most regularly visit, Donat sparkles as the wronged man within the foggy, nefarious atmosphere.

7.The Red Shoes.
I love allot of other P&P films better as overall accomplishments but the ballet scene is something to die for and I really couldn’t leave this one behind.

8.The Man Between.
probably not in the same sort of calibre as the other films I have mentioned but it's a personal quirk that works well for me and the music makes the film feel like a dark dream.

sanndevil

In a particular order!

1. The Third Man (1949)
Come Zither!

2. The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
No-one does Pinter-esque dialogue like Pinter!

3. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)
The Second greatest voice in movie history!

4. Room at the Top (1959)
A Lithuanian does Grim Oop North!

5. The Beauty Jungle (1964)
Thora's daughter is gorgeous!

6. Billy Liar (1963)
ShaddyShaddyShaddyShaaadraack!

7. Beat Girl (1960)
Sir John's great soundtrack, and Gillian's mesmeric dance!

8. 5 Fingers (1952)
The greatest voice in movie history!

Billy Liar

This is tough and will no doubt change as soon as I click 'add reply'

British

1. Peeping Tom
2. The Red Shoes
3. Billy Liar
4. Clockwork Orange
5. Brazil
6. Dead of Night
7. The War Game
8. Kind Hearts & Coronets

World

1. Fanny & Alexander
2. A Women Under The Influence
3. Faces
4. Tokyo Story
5. The Wanderers
6. Eyes Without A Face
7. Ikiru
8. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

samkydd

Far From the Madding Crowd

Titanic

The Poseidon Adventure

Robinson Crusoe

Jaws

Mutiny on the Bounty

Castaway (Starring Ollie Reed and Amanda Donahoe)

Cast Away (starring Tom Hanks and Federal Express)

Nothing like wallowing in self pity when you've been shipwrecked on a desert island!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Jim

Not in order of preference but:-

TOO MANY CROOKS
THE DAMBUSTERS
I'M ALL RIGHT JACK
WHISKEY GALORE
THE MAGGIE
A.M.O.L.A.D.
OH! MR PORTER
THE LADYKILLERS

But the 'luxery item' would have to be to change them every week!!! Which demolishes the reason for the 8 discs in the first place doesn' t it?

Good morning boys.