6. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Tagline: Awaken to a World of Wonders!
Based on a classic fairytale dating to the 17th century, Sleeping Beauty is one of the great Disney animated films. The movie opens with the christening of a newborn princess. When the evil sorceress Maleficent is not invited, she curses the titular character, Princess Aurora, to die when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday. Her fairy godmothers secret her away and raise her in a cottage in the woods. Despite their protections, the curse is fulfilled. It is softened, however, and rather than dying she falls into a deep sleep until she is awakened by her true love’s kiss. The fairies put all the kingdom into slumber until the spell is broken, and she lies in repose with a red rose in her hand, waiting for the day when her prince will come.
Genre: Animation/Family/Romance/Musical/Fantasy
Length: 75 minutes
7. The Big Sleep (1946/1978)
Tagline: Some days business is good -- and some days it's murder! (1946) & The type of man she hated ... was the type she wanted! (1978)
This is the movie so nice they made it twice, first in 1946 and then again in 1978. Based on the novel by Ray Chandler and adapted into a screenplay by the great William Faulkner, The Big Sleep focuses on the work of a private investigator, Philip Marlowe. In the opening, he is called to the mansion of the elderly General Sternwood to investigate the blackmail of his daughter. While hot on the case, he becomes mired in the life and death of the blackmailer, who extorts clients from his rare book shop. It is a complex plot, consisting of many double-crossing characters in a seedy underworld, and is brought masterfully to the screen in both versions.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (1946); Robert Mitchum and Jimmy Stewart (1978)
Genre: Crime/Drama/Film-Noir/Mystery/Thriller/Romance
Length: 114 minutes (1946); 99 minutes (1978)
8. Somewhere in Dreamland (1936)
If you can find a copy of this short animation, perhaps edited into the 1995 movie Betty Boop Confidential, it is sure to warm your heart. Set in the Great Depression, a young boy and girl gather firewood and carry it home to their poor mother, passing by three merchants’ shops. After drooling over sweets in the window of the baker’s shop, they return to their dinner of stale bread and water. When the boy is finished eating, he in jest tells his mother he is still hungry, and she begins crying. The children are put to bed with a song, and dream of a land filled with all the treats they could desire. When they awake, they discover the kindness of strangers in their midst.
Genre: Animation
Length: 9 minutes
9. Chasing Sleep (2000)
Tagline: The nightmare begins when you open your eyes...
When a college professor’s wife doesn’t come home one day, it sets into motion a series of unusual events in his life. As he tries to piece together what became of her, he finds himself more anxious with great difficulties sleeping and increasing confusion. (Unfortunately he seems unaware of good sleep habits.) While he unravels the hidden past of his wife, and attempts to discover who may have killed her, he gradually loses contact with reality. The ambiguous ending will give you something to talk about, but may leave you scratching your head.
Starring: Jeff Daniels
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Length: 104 minutes
10. Sleepers (1996)
Tagline: When friendship runs deeper than blood.
Although medications that cause drowsiness, such as sedatives, are sometimes called sleepers, this movie has a different topic. In the summer of 1967, four boys play a prank by stealing a hot dog cart in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. When it falls down a subway station staircase and nearly crushes a man to death, they are sent to the Wilkinson Home for Boys where they are abused by their guards. When they encounter one of their former tormenters 15 years later, two of the boys, who are now gangsters, exact their revenge. (Incidentally, it is likely that they suffered from PTSD, which can often cause disturbing nightmares in REM sleep.) Subsequently the others seek to acquit their friends while systematically exposing the abuse that they endured as children.
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Minnie Driver, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Length: 147 minutes
