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• Saturday, July 12, 2008 11:59 AM

  And still more --

  My 7-year-old daughter was recently entranced by Jacques Demy's THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, a candy-colored bauble which can stand up proudly next to any classic Hollywood musical. Some of her other favorites that no one has mentioned yet:

  NATIONAL VELVET

  A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

  ANNIE (the Kathy Bates TV version, far better than the movie)

  HAIRSPRAY (the musical, not the John Waters original)

  THE POLAR EXPRESS (which I find creepy, but she loves)

  THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (the 1940 version)

  THE MUSIC MAN

  OLIVER TWIST (the live-action Roman Polanski version -- she's watched it over and over)

  PETER PAN (the Mary Martin TV musical, sadly unavailable on DVD)

  THE NUTCRACKER (the version narrated by Kevin Kline and featuring Macaulay Culkin)

  THE WAY THINGS GO (an indescribable art piece which chronicles a 30-minute-long chain reaction involving ordinary household objects)

  TARZAN THE APE MAN (the Johnny Weissmuller original, another movie that can provoke useful conversations about the historical depiction of Africans on film)

  She's also nuts about the usual Disney and Pixar classics, as well as:

  PETER PAN (the live-action P.J. Hogan version, which is as peculiarly magical and memorable as Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST);

  THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER, which is by far her favorite Muppet movie;

  THE POINT, about which much has already been said;

  THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, ditto;

  MICROCOSMOS, ditto.

  For the record, she was either unmoved or frightened by several movies I love:

  THE COURT JESTER

  WAY OUT WEST

  MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

  To each their own, I guess...

  —Jack Lechner Read Jack Lechner's other letters
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