Humiliation: The Movie

[chickenfeet]

owlfish has run a few successful rounds of Humiliation over the last little while. For those not familiar Humiliation is a parlour game 'invented' by David Lodge in one of his novels. Contestants have to name a classic work of literature that they have not read and score one point for each contestant who has. The humiliation, of course, consists in that to win one must admit to not having read something that a maximum number of other people have. In the book, the winner is an Eng Lit lecturer who admits to never having read Hamlet with appropriately dire consequences.

The snag, of course, is that today, most people cannot be humiliated by not being well read. Even among the most academic (perhaps especially among them) of the participants in owlfish's valiant efforts there are plenty who fall into anyone of a number of camps including but not limited to:

• They are just texts. Why should I care whether it's the Iliad or the back of a cornflake packet.
  
• I have spent the last fifteen years of my life glossing ancient Sogdian. If I had any spare time I wouldn't waste it reading 'classics'
  
• The whole idea offends my Marxist-feminist-sinistrist world view. Take your elitist pretensions elsewhere

and so on. None the less much fun was had.

So... I decided it might be fun to try it with film, Here's what you do if you want to play.

• Comment below, by Monday 12th September 1800 EST with a film you are somewhat embarrassed to admit you haven't seen
  
• Try to avoid ones that are already taken
  
• Watch for the poll which will follow shortly thereafter and vote for the films that you have seen

And may the worst film buff win!

ETA Monday 12 September 0800 EDT:

The following films have been picked so far:

The Seventh Seal
The Godfather
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Bicycle Thief
Citizen Kane
Seven Samurai
The Birds
Soylent Green
Star Wars - A New Hope
Schindler's List
Titanic
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Dr. Strangelove
Braveheart
The Great Escape
National Velvet
Gone With the Wind
Apocalypse Now
Pulp Fiction
Rocky
Jaws
The Wizard of Oz
The Third Man
Amelie
Battleship Potemkin
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Casablanca
Adam's Rib
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Trek II - Wrath of Khan
The Exorcist

Comments

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

Nice to know the Cooper's went over well. That's one case where the LCBO's attempt to stock at least one beer from every country in the world has paid off. Unlike all of those interchangable & generally awful Eastern European lagers.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

I was thinking I should try something new from the Czech and Polish section ... anything I should steer clear of?

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

I'm not up to speed on a lot of Czech beers, but aside from the obvious selections (Pilsner Urquell and Budvar/Czechvar), I found Kozel to be decent enough for the style. Staropramen is OK as well, but sort of seems like a lesser Urquell.

As for Poland, my favourite beer from there is the Okocim Porter that recently appeared on LCBO shelves. Out of the ubiquitous lagers, Lezajsk tends to be my favourite. Zywiec is passable, but not something I buy often. The non-porter Okocim brands I've tried have been awful, as is Tyskie.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Kozel and Staro are okay - nothing I'd want to buy repeatedly. I was in a couple of the larger LCBOs recently and noticed some new things from Latvia and such - thought that might be what you were referring to.

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

The Latvian beer, Zelta, is quite mediocre. Same goes for Golden Pheasant from Slovakia, and Zlatorog from Slovenia.

Svyturys from Lithuania was better than I expected. It has a nice floral hop character that I really enjoyed.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

Svyturys, that's what I was thinking of. Golden Pheasant looked like a cheap knockoff of Pilsner Urquell, labelwise.