Which--or at Least How Many--of Sight and Sound's Top 50 Films Have You Not Seen?

There are 13 I haven't seen. The most glaring one is 8 1/2 -- I've rented it a few times, but ...

32. The highest-ranked one I haven't seen is Tokyo Story, but I have that out from Netflix now, so I'll see it ... eventually.

Journey to italy is the only one i'd never even heard of though.

Fwiw:

Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia has been distributed in English under many different names, including Journey to Italy, Voyage to Italy, Strangers, The Lonely Woman, Love is the Strongest, and The Greatest Lore.

15 I haven't seen, of which the most egregious is possibly Taxi Driver. I keep meaning to go take it out.

Of the 8 or 10 I haven't watched in their entirety (and, in a few cases, at all), the ones I'm probably least interested in watching are La Dolce Vita and Shoah. The highest ranking of those is Persona.

Mirror, Shoah, Metropolis, Satantango, Journey to Italy, Gertrud, Play Time, Close-Up

LOL, Shoah aside, this is like a list of some of the coolest movies on the list.

is there a version of Shoah available with a Zucker-Abraham-Zucker commentary track?

Or Wet Hot American Summer-style extra farts?

Of the 52, there are only three I don't believe I have in my video library: Seven Samurai, Journey to Italy and Pather Panchali.

(A few are on DVD-R's that may have disc rot by now, tho.)

The movies here that I'd list among my own top favourites are The General, La Règle du jeu, Citizen Kane, and Seven Samurai.

One factor that's affected my own gaps is a thing I've always had about seeing a film for the first time in a theatre. I'm pretty sure that's true of all 42 that I've seen (counting the handful I once saw in class, which was more of an auditorium). I'm not as stringent about this since I bought the big-screen last year, although I'm much more open to seeing documentaries at home for the first time--that doesn't bother me at all--and I'll make an exception if it's something like Welcome to L.A., where I know I'll simply never get the chance to see it anywhere else. As I'm always quick to acknowledge, I'm lucky enough to live in a city where, with a little patience, virtually everything screens sooner or later.

I'm guessing it's a safe assumption that Shoah and Histoire(s) du Cinema are the two least seen from the Top 50.

I thought Shoah was relatively buzzy in the '80s. My guess is that Close-Up and, still, Dielman and Balthazar might be less seen, tho all 3 are on Criterion now, so who knows.

x-post
dunno if that's a safe assumption at all - i mean, weren't they both made for tv (they've def had screenings on uk television)?

my guess is that Gertrud and Satantango are are just as, if not moreso, little-seen

I've seem 20 of these, it'd be 21 but both times I've had to watch The Searchers for class I've walked out of the screening because it bored me so much that it was making me angry

I should add that I can't use theatre-preference as an excuse for the eight I haven't seen--they've all played rep theatres here, some like Metropolis frequently. Either the timing hasn't been right for me, or, as indicated earlier, the interest wasn't there.

I mostly singled out Shoah and Histoire just because of their length; they do require a significant time commitment. I got two or three hours into Shoah once and had to leave. Nothing to do with the film--work-related anxiety/exhaustion at the time.

xpost Too bad it wasn't a silent or you could've done what I used to do to non-canonical silent movies that bored me in class: listen to '90s house through my headphones.

I would put money on Histoire(s) being the least-seen, tho, you're right.

Satantango, yeah--forgot that's another really long one.

But a lot of people wanna tackle that one. Far fewer are, I think, interested in sitting through hours and hours of latter-day Godard.

Speaking of boring films...

That's a funny Searchers story. When I'm bored, i just drift off.

Histoire is a real test because of the non-stop drony narration. I liked it, found myself very moved at times, but I must have caught it when I was in exactly the right frame of mind; I can imagine being a lot less open-minded under different circumstances.

I sad in an almost unheated theater in January in an uncomfortable seat with a blanket I brought wrapped around me to watch Satantango. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The only one I haven't seen is Histoire(s) du cinéma, on reserve at the library. I'm pretty sure I've seen the other 49 in a theater at least once, or at least 45 of them.

Feel boredom at Glitter instead.

Two theatrical viewings of Satantango, I'm done. Wouldn't make my top 500. It's good, though.

I liked Werckmeister Harmonies enough that I'm anxious to see Satantango. I'll force myself to wait for a Lightbox showing.

32

Morbs I fucking hate westerns/John Wayne cliche machismo bullshit. Like its not that I find it offensive per se but it's just so corny to me

Have yet to see any Leone though so maybe that'll change shit up

so westerns/cowboy hats = unalloyed machismo? not true at all

Wayne gave a number of rather sensitive performances. Maybe you should see his last one where he (and his character) have terminal cancer.

I think the majority of The Searchers votes are indulgences in tokenism; people who are passionate about Ford have a much wider scatter of favorites.

My default response to westerns is boredom too, but there are definitely exceptions. Among them is The Searchers.

It might be tokenism, but I can safely say the only western that would've even come close to making my ballot is Assault on Precinct 13.

In the shamefully omitted Red River, John Ireland and Monty compare their guns.

http://www.kevinpratt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/13195770.png

Overrated both as a western and as a gay classic.

Well, the latter at least. Don't have much investment in following hierarchies for the former.

I like Red River less now but as a guy who resisted westerns in the early nineties it was a good gateway

the Stewart-Mann westerns are good entry points too.

Who gives a flying fuck what's overrated and underrated?

"I saw Ride the High Country. I'd love it, but damn, not enough other people do."

Red River as a "gateway Western" makes a good deal of sense if the intention here is to force Stevie to like westerns, tho.

I've not seen half, but since I plan to live to age 84 I'm right on track:

8 1/2, L’Atalante, Late Spring, Au hasard Balthazar, Mirror, L’avventura, Le Mépris, Battleship Potemkin, Ordet, Wong Kar-Wai, Andrei Rublev, Stalker, Shoah, Jeanne Dielman 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles, Sátántangó, Journey to Italy, Pather Panchali, Some Like It Hot, Gertrud, Pierrot le fou, Play Time, Close-Up, Histoire(s) du cinéma, La Jetée.

I'd love to be able to see Singin' In The Rain for the first time! The 20 minutes of Persona that make sense are awesome and La Dolce Vita is fun if only because it provided so much pop imagery of Italy. In general this list skews boring/beautiful.

If you want to hasten the aging process, Stalker's the one to see.

Maybe I'm revealing myself as Captain "All I Know About Cinema I Learned From The Canon," but I truly believe the overwhelming majority of the films on this list are way closer to beautiful than boring.

xpost OK, Stalker is a little bit of both.

Great ending, I'll give it that.

I'd love to be able to see Singin' In The Rain for the first time!

So true. For me, this is one of the very worst things about getting older.

A lot of these are beautiful but I mean anyone who actually earnestly thinks La Dole Vita isn't a bloated snoozefest is totally fronting

I did like Stagecoach fwiw

I have never seen Singin' In The Rain! Maybe I should

xp wait until older really kicks in and everything will be new for the second time.

really, I rewatched Solondz's Happiness recently and had forgotten 80% of it.

Did the #51-100 listing appear somewhere? Maybe Lubitsch & Sturges showed up there.

le mépris
jeanne dielman, 23 something something
pierott le fou
histoire(s) du cinéma

Random thoughts (do not read if you hate me)

* Haven't seen 31 of these films--would have seen more if I hadn't blown off seasons of Italian neorealism or Japanese actresses at the National Gallery.
* I have knee-jerk reactions against Iranian films, and Westerns. Can anyone recommend "gateway" films for these genres?

A Moment of Innocence
Red River / My Darling Clementine

A Moment of Innocence seems hardly a "gateway" film.

Gateway western is Assault on Precinct 13.

One of Mann's westerns with Jimmy Stewart, maybe.

If those don't work, Paint Your Wagon.

Among Iranian films, what's more broadly appealing? The White Balloon?

Damn, you are really pushing the Hawks baiting, honeybunch. (But I am envisioning you and Madonna in a remake of Destry Rides Again.)

Close-Up is a very moving film. Other than that, Life and Nothing More or This is Not a Film, perhaps? The House is Black is only fifteen minutes long.

I need to see nine of these. Histoire(s) was kinda great, the section on neo-realism was oddly moving.

I've seen half of the 50. A large number of them require one to deliberately seek them out, so anyone not dedicated to classic-film viewing is going to miss out on many of them. Of course, that is why these lists are made - to prod you into seeing the ones you've missed.

I'd choose Red River too as the best intro into westerns. Whether you applaud it or not, the western starts to get more and more self-conscious from The Gunfighter/High Noon/Shane onward, into The Searchers and beyond, and I wouldn't start there. Red River's great in a very classical, unselfconscious way.

Clementine 2 years earlier tho.

No excuse, haven't seen it. Don't chastise me, Sidney.

'liberty valance' is my favorite ford western by a long way, but it's sort of a 'last hurrah' for ford westerns you might get more out of it if you try a few of the older ones first. i remember 'fort apache' being pretty great. i have fond memories of 'she wore a yellow ribbon,' which seemed to be on AMC every week when i was a teenager.

SO you might get more out of it, i meant to write.

seven samurai is top 5 for me, the searchers made me barf, but WHO GIVES A SHIT this list is almost as tedious as seeing the same film jerkwads do their pantomine for the 80 billionth time on ile. its like if ilm was marcello carlin (morbs) the lex (eric h) and mark g (clemenza) talking about mojo lists for all eternity then commencing to jo to christgau or whoever the choon equivalent of pauline kael is. if i never see another 'discussion' about her fifty year old 'opinions' on here i will die happy. take it to blogspot already!!

so glad you could stop by and play our game

That is one nutty hospital.

if you're saying "fuck a canon" i agree with you Matt P but if you're saying this isn't a list of amazing films then you crazy

4

I read the list, have seen some of these films, life is too long to have seen all these already, let's keep some good stuff for later hey?

hmm.....

eh?

you can see all 50 and keep other good stuff for later (and there are many)

Yeah, I suppose so.

I'm the same with music, I discover things every year that other people would expect me to have used up / worn out, like a couple years ago I decided "Physical Grafitti" and "Axis: Bold as love" were worth checking out for the first time.

me too

but my ability to continue listening to a new record for a long time, even if it's great, is shortened. lack of patience and time i guess.

life's too short not to see some of these as many times as possible

i have a feeling i'm never gonna be in the mood for 'satantango.'

Feel the same way about Seven Samurai, which is I'm positive always going to be the highest ranking movie I've never seen in its entirety.

This sounds odd to me, because despite it's length SS is not really "slow movie", and it's pretty entertaining from beginning to the end. What's the thing that has stopped you from watching it all the way through?

those picks for iranian gateway films are crazy imo the one you want is jafar panahi's Offside - quite fast, gently funny, extremely accessible. & it's a suberb film

itt Matt P coughs up his regularly scheduled hairball

the lex (eric h)

I have never once caused half a kitchen to go up in flames by opening up a can of soda.

What's the thing that has stopped you from watching it all the way through?

Sometimes fast movies are more boring than slow ones.

Oddly of the ilxors whose tastes I’ve been able to get a bead on, Lex is my polar opposite while Eric is probably most similar to me.

I've seen 12, haven't seen 38.

I thought 'gateway' -- if we're talking about the recent output of AN ENTIRE NATION -- required it actually be 'great' as well as relatively accessible. Offside is a good film but some '90s Kiarostami might do just as well; I really don't think most of em are impenetrable or difficult w/o context of other films (excepting maybe taste of Cheery).

itt Matt P coughs up his regularly scheduled hairball

― I Don't Wanna Be Dissed (By Anyone But You) (WilliamC), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 5:34 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just for you sweetums

fwiw i was taking the piss. i have a deep and undying love for this list, dr morbius, clemenza, and especially pauline kael. eric h can eat it though.

^lol

Offside has a bunch of characteristics that appeal about (and was marketed to us thru festivals as) "iranian cinema"―unforgettable non-actors, mixing documentary & fiction in startling ways, political issues & that great advantage of all "world cinema": simply a window on an unfamiliar world.

so seeing it should stand one in good stead i think for, say, this is not a film, the apple (sib), thru close-up etc., back to a moment of innocence. and in truth i think it stands in this company, tho i can show it to non-cineastes when putting on the wind will carry us would be gauche.

(i agree films like moment of innocence, the apple & even close-up are not especially difficult watches, but as much as i may imagine through the olive trees or TWWCU has a trancending universality, slow 90s kiarostami is sort of what i think someone who can't get into iranian film knee-jerks against.)(i also think this cinema is particularly helped by an actual cinema.)

but on a different tack, here's nanni moretti's slow wry 7 minute short The Opening Day of Close-Up, maybe as good a gateway as any, in which close-up looks intriguingly beautiful

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI4MzI3OTEy.html

eric h can eat it though.

Right up there with the best of them.

the apple is as rewarding as any film i can think of but is def a difficult watch imo, just wrt the first 20 minutes. i can imagine people turning off. what's satisfying is how the air in the room changes as this progresses, though, as the humour surfaces, as it becomes almost playful. really feeling your exemplary post btw so only being picky here.