What's the greatest title of all time?

Speaking of Trek, "The Wrath of Khan" is a pretty good title... but probably lacks the complexity of some of these others...

I'm gonna add "Paradise Lost" though...

One nice thing about "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" besides all the 'D' alliteration is that it's basically in iambic pentameter (like Shakespeare) so it really rolls off the tongue...

I was thinking about adding "A Midsummer Night's Dream"... but I'm not sure if it has that surprise factor... maybe "Love's Labours Lost" dunno...
 
2 Days in the Valley

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Reservoir Dogs

Harlem Nights

The Hateful Eight

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
 
Run&Gun said:
2 Days in the Valley

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Reservoir Dogs

Harlem Nights

The Hateful Eight

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
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I think I'll add Lock, Stock and Reservoir Dogs

And I'll remove Dangerous Liaisons, much as I like that one
 
There's a bit of a redundancy when looking at film titles that are carried over from the books upon which they are based. War and Peace is War and Peace and Count Leo should claim credit for it, with the Master and Margarita likewise due to Bulgakov rather to any subsequent director or studio executive.

As to porn - sometime in high school, a buddy classmate of mine told me a joke, "Look or imagine at any graphic shot and then go read the newspaper headlines. You'll laugh your ass off". And so we did. Because, as any comedian will tell you, any joke about a bodily function is going to be funny. Bawdy humor works. With that in mind, any classic porn title is, at least, titillating. "The Opening of Misty Beethoven", "Pretty Peaches", "Talk Dirty to Me", "The Devil in Miss Jones", "Insatiable", "Blonde Ambition", "Debbie does Dallas", "Sensual Fire" and many others that should not be brought up in a polite company.
 
Debbie Does Dallas is a great title. Not sure it has the intrigue/surprise factor, though.

Yes, who gets the credit is another story. We're just talking about the titles and not the credit. (I thought about War and Peace and decided it was like Crime and Punishment - a great title, but also a very sensible pairing. Pride and Prejudice is as well but there's a greater tension/conflict evoked by those emotions, aside from the impressive "Pr" alliteration.)

The Master and Margarita is a title I've always loved. The Master of what? The Master of Margarita? Who is this Margarita?
 
I'm going to add Sleepless in Seattle, and Love in the Time of Cholera

I'll also add Desperately Seeking Susan

Something's gotta give, though....
 
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ahalpert said:
... The Master and Margarita is a title I've always loved. The Master of what? The Master of Margarita? Who is this Margarita?
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Believe it or not, a day or two ago, someone posted a Facebook analysis of the book and Bulgakov's meaning behind the characters and their interactions. It was lengthy and well reasoned.

The book's main story line is that Moscow is visited by a stranger, who goes by the name of Professor Wolland, a specialist in black magic. Wolland (or Voland) was the alternate name for Mephistopheles in Göthe's Faust. In other words, the visitor is Satan himself. And he's up to no good. Or, an alternate read, he dispenses just rewards to the various nefarious characters he meets along the way.

The Master is a writer, similar to Bulgakov himself, who writes a book about Christ's last days and is locked at a mental institution by the authorities for it. The literal meaning is it's a religious book in the officially atheist state. Ohers see it as a subtext of Bulgakov being an alcoholic and attributing the book writing process as being controlled by the devil.

Margarita is a married woman, who falls for the Master. More allegories from Bulgakov's personal life follow.

The most entertaining part is about Wolland's treatment of the corrupt Soviet bureaucrats, NKVD, writers and even regular citizens.

I linked to the Russian made miniseries on the "Soviet Films" thread. The book is available online. But I am not a big fan of the translation.

https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/estore/pdf/eben001_mastermargarita_glenny.pdf
 
The Creature from the Black Lagoon. You can close the thread now. We're complete. ->ducks for cover....
 
Gord.T said:
The Creature from the Black Lagoon. You can close the thread now. We're complete. ->ducks for cover....
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I watched the 3D version at home on my projector, and it's amazing how well the 3D holds up. The 3D probably didn't even look this good when they released it, as they used an early version of polarized glasses prone to ghosting. Was really shocked at how well the 3d photography was done.
 
Speaking of Bulgakov and film titles. Back in the mid-30's, Bulgakov wrote a time travel comedy play titled "Ivan Vassilyevich" (the second name is a patronymic, not last). For some reasons, the book was banned until 1965, at which point, an in-demand writer/director Leonid Gaidai decided to adapt it for film. The Soviet title was "Иван Васильевич меняет профессию" (Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession, although a better, non-literal translation would have been "IV's gets a new job"). In the US, it was marketed as, "Ivan Vassilyevich, Back to the Future"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vasilievich:_Back_to_the_Future

The title character, played by the late great Yuri Yakovlev, refers to both Czar Ivan the Terrible and his namesake apartment building superintendent of the modern Moscow, who swap places in time between the middle of the 15th Century and the early 1970's (1930's in the play) USSR. It was one of the great hits of the era with over 60 million tickets sold.
 
Taking the question as written, the greatest title in the world is clearly: Director of Photography.

:smile:
 
Toxic Avenger!

B-films can have some entertaining titles, since it's the only thing they've got.

(though the Toxic Avenger was both funny and gross at the same time)
 
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