Alphabet Meme

The Rules

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. ... In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

OK, I had a list almost done, then I put my computer to sleep, and when it woke up it had restarted. Of course I saved all my hard work I decided I wasn't that into it anyway, so no big deal. But then Self-Styled Siren tagged me, so I had to do it again because she's awesome.

A couple rule changes/modifications/local variations: first, although I might not aspire to be King of Google, I am king of this blog, so I'm using either the English or the original language title of films depending on where I want them to fit. Honestly, I'm typing this before I do my list, so it might not even come into play. Second, just because I'm perverse and want to make things hard on myself, I can't use the first film I think of for a given letter. (Editor's note: I came to regret this around the letter H.) Third, with one exception, I'm not using any films made after 1990 because older films trip more readily off my tongue. Fourth, I found most of these my scanning my top ten lists for each year, because that was easier than the alternative, which was to never finish this post. So, without further blather:

After Death (1915) Affecting early Russian melodrama of guilt.
Brighton Rock (1947) Richard Attenborogh is the scariest thug in southern England.
Craig's Wife (1936) Brilliant multilayered study of gender politics, and Ros Russell in top form.
Duminica la ora 6 (1965) (aka Sunday at Six) A Romanian film about love and paranoia during the fledgling socialist revolution, and the only place on this list where I feel a little guilty for being deliberately obscure.
Elevator to the Gallows (1958) Jeanne Moreau in the rain, Miles Davis, and the perfect crime spoiled.
Die Freudlose Gasse (1925) (aka The Joyless Street) Dark, full of despair, censored to ribbons, and Garbo's big break.
Gabriel Over the White House (1933) Bizarre, scary fantasy from the depths of the Depression.
Hardware (1990) If you think it's just a ripoff of The Terminator, well, you're only half right.
I'm All Right Jack (1959) Brilliant British satire of labor-management relations.
Judge Priest (1934) Utterly objectionably racist, but one of the best portraits of small-town life.
Koroshi no rakuin (1967) (aka Branded to Kill) Seijun Suzuki's manic, incoherent satire of honor among assassins.
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928) One of the earliest and best films about dehumanization at the hands of the film industry.
Man's Castle (1933) Simply sublime. Plus, one of two or three films where I like Loretta Young.
The Narrow Margin (1952) The best film that takes place on a train.
One Way Passage (1932) One of the most romantic films of all time. I need a hankie.
Perfumed Nightmare (1977) Still the only Filipino film I've ever seen, a hilarious satire on the worship of the West
Queen Christina (1933) Because you can't ever have too much Garbo in a list. Plus, that hotel room scene with Gilbert.
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) The greatest standup act ever.
Stroszek (1977) Herzog's tragicomic, loveable mess treads a delicate balance between satire and adoration.
Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) The gruesomely funny mother of the slasher genre.
Union Pacific (1939) Cecil B. DeMille's epic of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Voyna i mir (1968) (aka War and Peace) Seven-hour Soviet epic is like nothing else in the history of film.
The Wages of Fear (1953) The most straightforward suspsense film ever.
X2: X-Men United (2003) There really aren't many films that start with the letter X.
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) My favorite actor in his best performance. (I just now came to both of those conclusions.)
Zabriskie Point (1970) Antonioni's best film, if only because I generally don't like Antonioni.

I'm not tagging anyone because this was hard and I'm tired. If you haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged.