My Fair Lady

This film is nearly perfect.

Henry Higgins is one of the finest characters ever created, and Rex Harrison plays him beautifully. The beauty of the story is that Henry Higgins is so desperately trying to reform Eliza into a lady and add refinement to her life, but the thing is that Higgins is just as crass and behind as she is. He has no tact, no manners, and is utterly childish in his dealings of personal relationships. So, while she seems like the young and foolish one, in the end, we realize that it is really the professor who has maturing and lessons to learn from the cockney "gutter rat." What's more, the lesson Eliza learns is not that she has anything to learn from Professor Higgins, she finds that no one is responsible for her fate, but her own self. It's a statement of self reliance. And, what seems to be such a misogynist film at first glance (I'm thinking of the song "Never Let a Woman in my Life" where he describes the idiocy of females) is in reality a film of the idiocy of men, just think of foolish young Freddie waiting outside the house for Eliza or Henry Higgins pathetic state towards the end. Plus, it is rare to find a film that so celebrates the English language, of which I'm very personally enamored.

Oh, and Colonel Pickering and Mrs. Pierce and Henry Higgin's mother. The songs! The flowers! Simply marvelous.