Top Ten Movie Countdown Blogfest! (lots of British films) and Excited ROW80 Check In

earing up for the Top Ten Movie Countdown blogfest, hosted by Ninja Captain Alex Cavanaugh! (I knit a Doctor Who scarf for mini-Alex, look!):

The blogfest officially starts tomorrow - can't wait to see what the other 150 participants have chosen!

I find it harder to list movies than books as I don't watch as many as I read... And then I'm also wary of forgetting some important ones and doing a headslap as I make the rounds of other participants!

Let's see... I think I'll go with movies that have made the strongest impression on me, rather than classics and such.

Waking Ned Devine

Loveliest, sweetest movie ever.

I give it top billing in honour of the 190th St Patrick's Day parade of Montreal!

How Green Was My Valley

From Ireland, across the sea, to Wales!

I watched this movie and The Corn Is Green back to back one summer day, closeted inside a room for hours, mesmerised. When I finally emerged, stumbling into the sunshine outside, I felt like I'd returned from a long time travel journey.

Solomon and Gaenor

Another Welsh one.

I've blabbed before about my love for Solomon and Gaenor - a heart-wrenching movie. It was 11 years ago this very day that I saw it for the first time!

E.T.

Do you know, after the first time I saw the part where Elliott finds E. T. all white and ill, I've never once been able to watch that part again. I always close my eyes!

Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

I love every song on this soundtrack!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I had to mention a Python one. Especially since I can quote most of it...

"That's not my nose, it's a false one!"

"There are some who call me... Tim."

"It is the rabbit!"

And so forth...

Shallow Grave

Deliciously creepy.

I think it was my first Ewan McGregor film. Yes, before Trainspotting.

I love their apartment!

Last of the Summer Wine: Getting Sam Home

I'm slipping this in here.

It really is a movie, but I'm also going to have it stand for every British show I love to watch over and over, from Blackadder to Red Dwarf to Doctor Who to The Young Ones to Bottom to Fawlty Towers to Absolutely Fabulous to The Vicar of Dibley ("Get a move on you strange and insane idiot!") to...

Well, you get the gist.

Nobody's Fool

Do you know, this is one of the very few movies that really captures the essence of a book?

I finally read Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool a few months ago, and asked: have you ever had a book on your wishlist for twenty years?

Trivia: this was Jessica Tandy's last film before she passed away.

Beautiful Girls

I love Natalie Portman in this.

She's exactly like a character I have in mind for a screenplay I'll write someday, based partly on a true story...

Honourable mentions to Chariots of Fire, wherein I heard Jerusalem for the first time, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

As for ROW80 - the editing has been going swimmingly. I have to confess, this is the first time in my life I've sat down to do a full read-through of one of my books, and managed to read half of it without getting bored or distracted or disgusted by the hopelessness of it all (not counting novels I wrote in high school, when I wasn't so concerned with editing). I was gripped! Finally, I think I'm getting somewhere with this. I only hope my editing skills get even stronger.

Watch out for DL's Blog Blitz!

"Sign up on the linky list below, making sure to record your email address, and you’ll instantly become a member of the Blog Blitz Team. Then from time to time, I will select a deserving blog (that must be part of the Blitz Team) and a specific date. I will then email the team members that information and on that date we all will go out of our way to visit that blog and leave an encouraging comment on their most recent post. I'm talking about hopefully a 100+ comments appearing out of the blue in one day!"

Hope everyone has a great week of watching and writing!