![]() AFĬheck out more of the best romantic comedies of all time. Caught somewhere between “Scenes from a Marriage” and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s “The Long, Long Trailer,” Frederic Raphael’s nimble script won him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Stanley Donen, 1967)Īudrey Hepburn and Albert Finney journey through a surprisingly sad road trip comedy in Stanley Donen’s “Two for the Road.” The 1967 rom-dramedy charts a couple’s declining marriage across a decade of road trips through the south of France. No film has more perfectly captured the experience of being young and dumb and obsessed with your car like “American Graffiti.” George Lucas’ ‘70s period piece about a group of Modesto teens celebrating the last day of school takes place mainly behind the wheels of the character’s various automobiles, as they pick up fast food, head to parties, get involved in street races, hunt down crushes, run afoul of greasers, but mostly drive around their town for no reason in particular. Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection ![]() When a bright red 1958 Plymouth Fury comes off the assemblyline and later finds its way into the life of outcast Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon), a kind of “Child’s Play” friends-til-the-end saga ensues as Christine defends her owner like a demonically possessed Herbie. ![]() Not to be confused with the likes of lesser anthropomorphic horror (see 2010’s schlocky “Rubber” about a killer tire), “Christine” delivers the snappy terror and smart characterwork fans had come to expect for Carpenter, but this time with a lighter frame and a full tank of fun. John Carpenter adapting Stephen King for the story of a killer car named “Christine”? No wonder producer Richard Kobritz, who’d previously worked on the 1979 “Salem’s Lot” miniseries, jumped at the chance to secure the rights, and had screenwriter Bill Phillips working from King’s manuscript months before the 1983 book even hit shelves. Image Credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection While the latest adventure from Vin Diesel and Friends might be the beginning of the series’ final trilogy, history makes it clear that the car movie genre isn’t going anywhere. With “Fast X” rolling into theaters this week, it’s a great time to check out some great car cinema (assuming you’re not busy rewatching the other “Fast and Furious” movies). From nuanced dramas to thrillers about handsome guys making their cars go vroom vroom, the automobile has provided an enduring symbol that filmmakers of every stripe have been able to work with. Revisiting the best car movies is both an important film history lesson and a rollicking good time. Legendary filmmakers like Steven Spielberg cut their teeth on car chase movies before moving onto bigger things, and modern favorites including Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright made a point of paying homage to the genre after they had established themselves as notable auteurs. People pursuing each other in very fast cars is one of Hollywood’s most reliable subgenres, and car chase movies have only improved as we’ve invented new filmmaking technologies. When New Hollywood auteurs started making boundary-pushing road movies in the late 1960s and 1970s, cars became the ultimate symbol of the freedom they so openly yearned for.Īnd then, of course, you have the car chase movie. And when cars became faster and more colorful after World War II, the movies did too. The most glamorous vehicles of the 1930s and 1940s fit right into the lavish Art Deco sets of Old Hollywood. The two art forms have essentially grown up together, as the past 100 years of movies also serves as a document of the way car design has evolved. ![]() For as long as people have been driving cars, there have been people who wanted to stand next to them with a camera and film it. The timing was extremely convenient for the movie business, as cars quickly became a favorite subject for artists exploring their newfound abilities to capture moving images. The beginning of the 20th century was accompanied by two new technologies that would permanently alter life as we know it: the automobile and the motion picture.
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