DAVID THOMSON TELLS RICKSTER WHAT TO WATCH

MARTIN SCORSESE DID IT EARLIER THIS MONTH SO DAVID THOMSON GOT JEALOUS. 

As part of my "Tell Rickster What to Watch" Challenge (inspired by Edgar Wright, of course), this time around film historian David Thomson is gonna provide me with some watchin' fodder.  Actually, not really.  But Thomson's fantastic and indispensable book "HAVE YOU SEEN...?", which features one-page essays on 1,000 films recommended by the author when asked "What films should I see?", is going to do it for him.  Now, a good deal of the 1,000 I've already seen and the rest is still too big a list for me to conquer in any reasonable amount of time.  So instead I'm going to go through Thomson's book and I'm going to cherry-pick a dozen or two films that I would like to see the most -- and THAT will be the equivalent of Mr. Thomson telling me what to watch.  See?  Mr. Thomson commands I watch:

• AIR FORCE (1943)
• ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958)
• LA BAIE DES ANGES (1962)
• BLACK LEGION (1937)
• CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (1974)
• DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1946)
• HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937)
• MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
• MIDNIGHT (1939)
• PANDORA'S BOX (1929)
• PLAYTIME (1967)
• SEXY BEAST (2000)
• SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1942)

Now, I have chosen a "baker's dozen" here because, quite frankly, CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is impossible to buy, rent or steal; so knowing I'm going into it with one impossible-to-find film, I stuck another one on the list.  And that David Thomson has already done a pretty good job recommending movies -- just for your edification, these are the films that I've already seen as a direct result of reading Thomson's book:  Act of Violence (1948), Alphaville (1965), Le Amiche (1955), Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (1958), Bande a Parte (1964), The Big Lebowski (1998), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Carrington (1995), Cinema Paradiso (1988), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), Le Doulos (1963), The Great Train Robbery (1903), Late Spring (1949), Madame de... (1953), Mad Max (1979), The Man With a Movie Camera (1927), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Les 400 Coups (1959), 'Round Midnight (1986), The Rules of the Game (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), The Sting (1973), Tokyo Story (1953), Underworld U.S.A. (1961), Wagon Master (1950) and You the Living (2007).