Beauty Vs. Beast: Ladies of the Night
Monday, April 7, 2014 at 11:03AM 
JA from MNPP here, back from vacation with a brand new round of "Beauty Vs. Beast." So here's the question (or rather the first question): what's your favorite Francis Ford Coppola movie? The legendary helmer's turning 75 today and so we look back through his work - the Godfathers, the Conversations, the Peggy Sues... the super sad undead love stories... listen, I'm not going to argue that his 1992 version of Dracula is his best film - I'd rather make it through the day without y'all calling the men in white suits to my door, thank you very much. But it's surely the movie of his I've watched the most times and have gotten the most pleasure from (give or take some Rob Lowe coming out of the shower in The Outsiders). The old fashioned effects work, Eiko Ishioka's astounding costumes - I wore my copy of the behind-the-scenes book down to a nub.
So this is the movie I'm going with for this week's competition. And instead of going the obvious route and pitting Gary Oldman's head bloodsucker against somebody (certainly not Keanu, but Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing perhaps) I felt like centering us on the objects of Drac's affections instead. Slip yourself into his velvety slippers and choose!
They may seem to be two beauties at first but they've both...
... got some beast in them. Ahem. So per usual you have exactly one week to vote and to make your arguments for and against your picks in the comments. Let's hear who gets your undying devotions!
PREVIOUSLY We've got two rounds to close up here since while I was away last week Nathaniel had some superhero-sized fun and asked you guys his own query Avengers-style - twas Black Widow who triumphed, dropping down from the rafters and wrapping her leather-clad thighs around The Hulk's throat til he went limp, taking a full 3/4s of the vote. No smash for him. As thefilmjunkie put it:
"I'll have to reevaluate everything I thought I knew about life if Black Widow loses on THIS site of all places."
Looking two weeks back to our Talented Mr. Ripley showdown y'all found the cruel sexy stylings of Dickie Greenleaf too irresistable to, uh, resist - we're all no better than Tom; all we want is Dickie's sunlight upon us. Henry summed it up nicely:
"It was Dickie all the way. I'll take a beautiful bitch (been there, done that) over a plain bitch (been there, done that) any day."
Reader Comments (9)
I'd say the ranking (of what I've seen) goes like this:
Apocalypse Now (A+)
The Godfather (A+)
The Godfather Part II (A)
The Conversation (A)
The Godfather Part III (B)
Dracula (B-, mostly due to Keanu's horrible accent. With a different actor in that role, maybe Paul McGann, it'd be a B or higher.)
I had no idea his birthday was coming up when I got the 5 film set last week, weird how that happens! So far I've revisited The Conversation (still great and as tightly-wound as ever) and watched One From the Heart for the first time. I've never seen any of the Godfather films, so I can't comment on those, but my favorite of his is The Cotton Club. It may not be his best, but it's the one I enjoy watching the most.
Oh, and thanks for the shout out!
My favorites (not the best, or most critically praised) are:
Youth Without Youth
The Cotton Club
Apocalypse Now
Lucy was EVERYTHING in this movie!! LOVED her
(blush) Thanks.
Apocalypse Now(the extended version) and the first Godfather (the casting--perfection) are top of my list although I've rarely found one of his films that I didn't enjoy. These two films helped form the core of my quality, film appreciation.
Lucy rules. Those costumes could overwhelm many actors, but she wore/destroyed them well. Plus I have a thing for gingers.
Lucy!
Lucy is great. Winona has her moments but also offtimes. I really thought Sadie was going to have a huge career after this but it didnot come to pass
Sadie got distracted by Jude Law in the 90's-who can blame her for not pursuing career over that?
I love LUCY.
Favorite Coppolas (as director): The Godfather (Parts I & II), The Conversation, One from the Heart, The Cotton Club , Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Rainmaker