50 Films to See Before You Die

Channel 4 are the UK Champions of listing programmes and this is their latest, meant as a taster for their changing the FilmFour Channel from subscription to Freeview -- which means that more people can access the channel, as long as they don't object to the movies being interrupted by ad breaks.  OK, I can live with this and save myself £7 a month, but given my druthers...   Anyhow, this marathon programme presented an eclectic choice of films to turn the average viewer into a film buff.  Ha, ha.  In its favour it did include four movies not in the English language (and a rather peculiar selection too) and did go as far back as 1935 (A Marx Brothers movie since you ask), but there were no silents and a definite emphasis on films of the last 25 years or so.   It also included one film which it is virtually impossible to view in this country: "Pink Flamingos" -- and yes, I do have a copy.  Mind you, any programme of this sort is by definition guaranteed to court controversy by omitting certain old favourites and warhorses and also eschewing the blockbuster franchises.  They could easily make another offering tomorrow with the same title and featuring a different fifty films.  Still it is always pleasant to watch film clips of movies one knows (well, in my case) and to hear some reasonable talking heads.  Then again I have far more than fifty films left to see before I die which unlike the ones included above I have not yet seen, and oh dear, I'm running out of time!