Here we go again with films you might like to see with your children - I stress "with". I cannot guarantee that nothing in these films will upset some children, so parental presence is very important as a safety factor, and to talk about the experience afterwards.
So, first, here are ten (not my top ten, just the ten I thought of today) films that are, broadly, about a child's experience of the world, and of family:
1. Meet Me in St Louis (1944) Margaret O'Brien is the youngest sister in the family: she has a big night on Halloween and experiences crisis at Christmas. But with Mary Astor as her mother and Judy Garland as one sister, she has help.
2. The Fallen Idol (1948) Bobby Henrey is the lonely child of a rich household. He adores the butler, Baines (Ralph Richardson), but Baines is a troubled man, and the boy has to share the pain.
3. The Black Stallion (1979) A tale of a boy and a horse, beginning on a desert island before moving on to the races. Kelly Reno is the boy. Mickey Rooney (a great child actor for nearly 85 years) is his trainer.
4. Shane (1953) A classic Western with Alan Ladd as the gunfighter who helps the small Wyoming settlement and Brandon De Wilde as the little boy who watches him.
5. Les 400 Coups (1959) The feature film debut of Francois Truffaut in which Jean-Pierre Leaud plays a boy growing up in Paris - will he end in delinquency or as a film-maker?
6. Paper Moon (1973) Tatum O'Neal stars with real-life dad Ryan in Peter Bogdanovich's story of small-time confidence tricksters in the '30s.
7. How Green Was My Valley (1941) Roddy McDowall plays the youngest child of a Welsh mining family in this John Ford classic. It doesn't really feel like Wales but certainly feels like childhood.
8. The Secret Garden (1949) Be sure to get the old version, with Dean Stockwell and Margaret O'Brien.
9. Oliver Twist (1948) As filmed by David Lean - frightening sometimes, but true to the spirit of Dickens, with John Howard Davies as Oliver, Alec Guinness as Fagin and Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger.
10. Pather Panchali (1958) The debut film from Satyajit Ray, in black and white and set in an impoverished Bengal, as seen and felt by a young boy, Apu.
I recently wrote on this blog about why I believe many adult films, particularly those from a few years ago, are perfect for kids. Here are a few prime examples of movies which are really about adult experience but which involve children.
1. Citizen Kane (1941) Don't just stand there, show it to your child, show it to yourself. And feel the sense of lost childhood.
2. Red River (1948) A boy grows up to challenge his adopted father, driving cattle from Texas to the railhead, with John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.
3. The Miracle Worker (1962) With language and education themes, this Helen Keller story stars Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft.
4. Bicycle Thieves (1948) A classic of Italian neo-realism about a boy and his father, directed by Vittorio de Sica.
5. The Sixth Sense (1999) Some call it a horror film, some a mystery. Haley Joel Osment sees dead people, but then most children do.
6. Cria Cuervos(1976) An astonishing Spanish mystery film directed by Carlos Saura, with Geraldine Chaplin and a great child actress, Ana Torrent.
7. East of Eden(1955) James Dean's debut, from Steinbeck and directed by Elia Kazan, is an agonised story of a "bad" teenager searching for love.
8. To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) From the Harper Lee novel: Gregory Peck is a country lawyer, Mary Badham his daughter.
9. The River (1951) Frenchman Jean Renoir made a film about an English family (teenage girls and a little boy) in India (from a book by Rumer Godden) - a truly great film.
10. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) This is why there was once so much fuss over Leonardo Di Caprio as a child actor. Also with Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis.
