TEN BEST COMING OF AGE FILMS!

[Snick's Guy]

Little Women
The Mosquito Coast
Little Darlings
The Blue Lagoon
Stand By Me
Imitation Of Life
Since You Went Away
River's Edge
Smooth Talk
Endless Love

[cam]

No one has mentioned Tea and Sympathy.

[Sabin]

Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. I know it's a bit vague but I'm compiling something of a research list.

My favorites in reverse chronological order:

The Squid and the Whale
Almost Famous
Wonder Boys
Rushmore
Before Sunrise
Wild Reeds
Flirting
The Year My Voice Broke
Stolen Kisses
The 400 Blows
Forbidden Games

[Penelope]

COMING OF AGE - FRIENDSHIP:

1. Babe (1995; Chris Noonan)
2. The 400 Blows (1959; François Truffaut)
3. Platoon (1986; Oliver Stone)
4. Peyton Place (1957; Mark Robson)
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007; Andrew Dominik)
6. Heavenly Creatures (1994; Peter Jackson)
7. The Fallen Idol (1949; Carol Reed)
8. Rebel Without a Cause (1955; Nicholas Ray)
9. The Wizard of Oz (1939; Victor Fleming)
10. Forbidden Games ( 1952; René Clément)

COMING OF AGE - YOUNG LOVE:

1. Ballad of a Soldier (1959; Grigori Chukhraj)
2. Sense and Sensibility (1995; Ang Lee)
3. Titanic (1997; James Cameron)
4. The Big Parade (1925; King Vidor)
5. West Side Story (1961; Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise)
6. Chasing Amy (1997; Kevin Smith)
7. Gigi (1958; Vincente Minnelli)
8. Wild Reeds (1994; André Téchiné)
9. Splendor in the Grass (1961; Elia Kazan)
10. Almost Famous (2000; Cameron Crowe)

COMING OF AGE - FAMILY:

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)
2. Shane (1953; George Stevens)
3. The Bicycle Thief (1948; Vittorio De Sica)
4. Little Women (1994; Gillian Armstrong)
5. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944; Vincente Minnelli)
6. Atonement (2007; Joe Wright)
7. Amarcord (1973; Federico Fellini)
8. Fanny & Alexander (1982; Ingmar Bergman)
9. Ordinary People (1980; Robert Redford)
10. East of Eden (1955; Elia Kazan)

[Damien]

1. Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray)
2. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini)
3. Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli)
4. The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci)
5. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
6. To Kill A Mockingbord (Robert Mulligan)
7. Before The Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci)
8. The World Of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill)
9. Because They're Young (Paul Wendkos)
10. Little Women (Gillian Arrmstrong)



Edited By Damien on 1224874134

[Zahveed]

I'm going with the Coming of Age as a state of mind, which will give me more films to choose from since I haven't seen as many as most of you, so my choices are related on some level.


The Breakfast Club
The Darjeeling Limited
To Kill A Mocking Bird
Hannah and Her Sisters
The World According to Garp
Edward Scissorhands
Charlie Bartlett
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The 40 Year Old Virgin

[paperboy]

The Graduate
Whistle Down The Wind
The Year My Voice Broke
Presque Rien
7/14/21/28 Up
The Virgin Suicides
The Squid & The Whale
Welcome To The Dollhouse
Hairspray
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure



Edited By paperboy on 1224851085

[rain Bard]

Ten great ones that come to mind, that nobody else has mentioned yet:

Walkabout
Kiki's Delivery Service
My Name is Ivan
Il Posto
Sansho the Bailiff
Esther Kahn
the Ice Storm
Aparajito
a Brighter Summer Day
the Last Picture Show

[Hustler]

I would like to add the beautiful Secrets of the Heart directed by Montxo Armendariz (Spain), nominated in the foreign language category at the 70th annual academy awards.

[Greg]

Breaking Away

I was born in Bloomington, IN. So, that film has a special place in my heart. My favorite scenes are where the boy races the trucker on his bike, and the trucker gets a speeding ticket; and, the father walks dumbfounded into the kitchen and there is this exchange:

"Father: My boy's shaving.

Mother: What's wrong with that?

Father: He's shaving his legs."

[Sabin]

Wow.

Um, my bad. I didn't think to clarify. Basically, I'm compiling a list of various Coming of Age films for research. I've seen quite a few but I want to make sure I'm not discounting any.

How about instead of generic Coming of Age Top Ten Listing, we list the the ten best within the following Three Categories:

1. COMING OF AGE - FRIENDSHIP (ranging from 'Stand by Me' to 'Son of Rambow' in terms of intensity)

2. COMING OF AGE - YOUNG LOVE (be it with an older woman or a contemporary)

3. COMING OF AGE - FAMILY (straining within the family for one's own individuality)

Some like 'Running on Empty' could conceivably fit in all three of these lineups but...um...well, help a brutha out here.

(I guess nobody's mentioned 'Rushmore' b/c I haven't been the one to do it yet. What's wrong with you people? Last Nomination Game was delightful. I knew what I was going to have to do every fucking turn. Is there a record at this point for one person citing a film the most times?)



Edited By Sabin on 1224808789

[Damien]

Webster's defines "Coming of Age" as "the attainment of prominence, respectability, recognition, or maturity."

More relevant to our purposes id this from a Glossary of Literary Terms from a websire called Virtual Salt:

"Coming-of-age story. A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence.

Some of the shifts that take place are these:
ignorance to knowledge;
innocence to experience;
false view of world to correct view;
idealism to realism;
immature responses to mature responses."
=================================

I haven't had a chance to formulate my 10 choices, but I'm shocked that so far no one has mentioned Rushmore.



Edited By Damien on 1224806255

[Big Magilla]

I think you guys are confusing maturity with coming of age.

Coming of age, as I've always understood the term, means the point at which an adolescent becomes an adult.

Yes, some adolescents are forced to becomes adults sooner than expected but I think it's a bit of a stretch to put children of six and ten, the ages of Scout and Jeb in To Kill a Mockingbird, who are not even adolescents, in that classification. Even Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a bit of a stretch.

But you're free to think what you want to think, I was merely expressing my own opinion.

[OscarGuy]

In that case, couldn't you consider a film like Driving Miss Daisy a coming of age story?

[Penelope]

I have to agree with Flipp; I think of "coming of age" as a state of mind moreso than anything biological. One can "come of age" even well into one's 30s, 40s, or even older.