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

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.