ILX All-Time Film and Morbsies Poll: RESULTS Thread for ILX's Favorite Movies, Films, Cinema, Flicks & Moving Pictures

A year in the making, with results collated from 60 ballots and 2,182 nominated films (438 of which received no votes, so). Pour one out for Morbs and lets get this show on the road ... starting Monday!

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We’ve had this date coming for a long time, Eric.

Morbius, Morbius, Morbius!

Here’s hoping all your hard work ain’t been in vain for nothing.

Hello! This is a demonstration of a polling rollout!

oh boy

brilliant! I once again pledge to watch h the whole top 100, at least the ones I haven't seen before.

excited for this poll to finally confirm that the greatest film of all time is indeed 'green book'

Yay!! And that's the pic I took of him at David Zwirner when we found out we could actually touch Richard Serra'sFour Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Measure. Original pic here.

Don't understand why people nominated films they weren't voting for? "Here's a great film, someone (not me) should vote for it!"

I nominated a load of films but in the end didn’t submit a ballot. I don’t know if I was the only one.

Thought a lot of the nominations were merely cut and paste by Eric from somewhere as suggestions. Also should lol because there were a multitude of posts on the prior thread to the effect of “Hey, where are the nominations?” “You don’t need them see previous discussion here” etc.

yep

Then there was even one post collecting all of those.

ILX All-Time Film and Morbsies Poll: Voting And Campaigning Thread (Ballots Due Like I Dunno Maybe March 1, 2021?)

Oh I missed the start yesterday cos drinking and that pic of Morbs has made me fill up

I pledge to not watch any of the terrible movies that will have numskulled their way into the 100

Thought a lot of the nominations were merely cut and paste by Eric from somewhere as suggestions.

I did automatically add all of the top 1,000 TSPDT movies as nominees, so that accounts for a little less than half the movies in the overall pool.

That being said, I think I also ended up having to line-item add at least 200 or so movies as I tabulated ballots.

Ha, I tried to make it difficult for you as a I got to the bottom of my ballot, no doubt others started earlier.

When did TSPDT first do that poll? Date on website seems recent.

Isn't this a lovely thread? The ILX film poll. What a lovely, clever name. Where the elite meet. Never have I seen so much elite -- and all with their eyes on Eric.

All About Eric

Fasten your seatbelts, ILX, we're in for a bumpy ride.

I wish I could've gone to Radcliffe too, Soto, but father wouldn't hear of it. He needed help behind a notions counter. I'm being rude now, aren't I? Or should I say, "Ain't I?"

Awright, stoked for some rolling rollout!

A milkshake?

Bumpy ridenight, sorry

https://c.tenor.com/8k3SHWKIwGEAAAAC/bette-davis-margot-channing.gif

Haven't you heard of science's latest triumph, the doorbell?

Sorry, making a reference to this exchange

And then this, later

i hope some awful trash places

joedallesandro.jpg

wakefieldpoole.gif

wooooooooooooooo! can't wait!

is it going to be a top 100?

Indeed, 100 killers, no fillers.

Monster Horror Killer Theater. So scary! Ah-ooh!
joeflaherty.jpg

Wondering if SCTV ever did any Warhol/Morrissey movie send-ups, as I am imagining, or trying to imagine, Joe Flaherty instead of Joe Dallesandro in Trash.

We had to rush to throw together ballots when they closed - time to send revisions now?

Sorry, the order is finito, and I don't want you retracting your vote for Bloodsucking Freaks.

anything that places will now officially be "not awful trash"

Preview of coming attraction: Several movies that placed got Morbs "gold" and "silver" medals from the two-tier ballot I curated last fall of his top 25 and runners-up.

(About one quarter of the top 100 are medaling films.)

hoping this places tbh https://metrograph.com/the-church-of-fun/

Roll picture!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PtdpI-D6mM

Last call to mix your stiff cocktail before the rollout begins!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/97bc67e2308fc41989b8fb3a62383b83/tumblr_mtgbb5n3lK1qedb29o1_500.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYoMKVOslhg

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100. ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, Roman 1968, USA) [620 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 237 | TSPDT: 130 | BOXD: 235

MORBS SEZ: "never have Charles Grodin as your OB/GYN"

Rosemary's Baby 3: Rosemary's Baby's Baby is really boring. I mean, cool twist and everything, but it was just a nice baby.
― Bob Bop Perano (Deric W. Haircare), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 6:11 PM

Sorry dude: Rosemary's Baby > Rock n Roll Pt. 2
― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Friday, October 2, 2009 3:49 PM

This is really happening!

Fabulous images.

I may not want Charles Grodin as my OB/BYN but I want John Cassavetes to scratch my back.

No MORB SEZ, no comment

I didn't care for Rosemary's passivity when I watched it as a teenager. probably worth a rewatch.

She's not -- she's a step ahead of the enemies who consistently underrate her. She just fails to make the obvious connection.

Yeah it's a really impressive piece of work, that film, a really sharp portrait of a women being gaslit and how few options she has to fight it. The fact that this insight didn't stop the director from being the monster he was is horrible, ofc, but the film's great.

Polanski showed even more of that contradictory insight with Repulsion.

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99. LA JETÉE (Chris Marker, Chris 1962, France) [623.33 points; 9 votes; 1 first-place vote; Morbs silver]
S&S: 61 | TSPDT: 117 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "The best time-travel film is still easily La Jetee … really, La Jetee, Sherlock Jr, Wavelength, Flaming Creatures, Rose Hobart, Duck Amuck are among my fave films of all time, period."

Only last week I emailed Chris suggesting he tell people he was suffering from a case of Morgellons picked up from Joni Mitchell, and had coloured threads in the shape of cats' whiskers growing on his upper lip. Unfortunately, Chris stopped responding to any of my communications in 1962. I think the success of La Jetée went to his head a bit, to be honest.
― Grampsy, Monday, July 30, 2012 9:36 PM

Anyone who knows me knows that first-place vote was mine.

Great start to the rundown, 2 for 2 here

I’ve had my eye on you for a long time, Eric, so yeah, of course I knew that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZWgCLMsW8
Jump cut, they say. DO U SEE?

It's a good sign for consensus that even at the lower end of the poll, the entries have nine or ten votes apiece.

Right. Resisting any urge to say “Too Low!”

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98. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (Miyazaki Hayao, 1988, Japan) [623.9 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 175 | TSPDT: 227 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: … nothing; there is no evidence I found that he ever watched this one.

i can no longer deny the obvious: the catbus has catballs
― A victim managed to capture evidence of the gimp (bizarro gazzara)

The Totoro and US Politics threads are on a similar vibe right now.
― jmm, Tuesday, November 26, 2019 12:52 PM

unimpeachably brilliant

Convenience link to Chris Marker

totoro's structure or rather its lack of it is always what impresses me

She's not -- she's a step ahead of the enemies who consistently underrate her. She just fails to make the obvious connection.

No, do tell.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/14/2a/4e/142a4e23b74eed1a03d77d7b52d0b8c9.jpg

totoro's structure or rather its lack of it is always what impresses me

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 25 October 2021 15:32 (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've come to think there's something quite Ozu-esque about Totoro - its domesticity, its understated drama, the relationship between the countryside and the city and the movement between them

No, do tell.
🖼

A friend of mine discovered Totoro decades ago and told me "it's amazing! Nothing happens!"

Maybe the best film about what it feels like to be a little kid

h8 the fan theory that Mei is dead

I'm pretty sure that I haven't sat through a full movie since July. A Totoro rewatch is tempting.

Everything that people say there is to like about Totoro I indeed like in virtually all of Miyazaki's other films ... just not in Totoro for some reason.

Tho this moment is cute as hell:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/22/4b/e3224b702a90e5b273e0c42d91018b02.gif

MORBS SEZ: … nothing; there is no evidence I found that he ever watched this one.

It was on his Letterboxd watchlist.

BILL WANTS TO SEE 416 FILMS

;_;

Bummed that we won't get to hear what Morbs thought of Moment By Moment.

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97. SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa Akira, 1954, Japan) [624.67 points; 9 votes]
S&S: 19 | TSPDT: 10 | BOXD: 7

MORBS SEZ: "Kurosawa is a more versatile filmmaker than given credit for, imho … AK-Mifune pairing nearly as fruitful as Ford-Wayne."

Seven Samurai would be greatly improved if it had Bill Murray in it.
― Johnney B (Johnney B), Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:01 AM

Yojimbo isn't actually all that good, is it. It's like if you took Seven Samurai and took out everything interesting. But maybe left in Mifune. And gave him lice. And the lice were the best thing in the movie.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, September 17, 2005 11:03 AM

I will accept this only if Ikiru and Throne Of Blood end up in the top20

No American directors so far.

this is the best movie ever made

Not a huge Kurosawa fan, my favourite is High and Low, with Mifune at a lower key of intensity.

Somehow have never seen this, though have seen three other Kurosawa films. La Jette & Rosemary's Baby were in my honorable mentions, like Totoro but, yes, not going to talk about the fan theories, which are imo.a bit more than just fan theories.

Like Rashomon somewhat diminished by Film Studies 101 but I look forward to the afternoon my local art house will screen it.

we should do a poll of 100 best mifune facial expressions after this

Ope, I trust no one needs clarification that S&S equals Sight & Sound 2012, TSPDT indicates They Shoot Pictures Don't They's 2021 edition, and BOXD is from the Letterboxd top 250 from a couple weeks ago.

You didn't mention Armond White.

By design.

Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai will make you either want to rewatch this immediately or never want to hear it mentioned again, I'm not sure which.

we're expecting more Kurosawa to place, right? like this is his most canonical work but if nothing else places that's a fucking scandal

we should do a poll of 100 best mifune facial expressions after this

― grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Monday, October 25, 2021 10:30 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a good one

http://thebigpicturemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Mifune-2.png

here

https://putthison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tumblr_mjz9oxG0wv1qa2j8co3_400.jpg

Not sure if anyone had better style.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pvBwUYOaNTI/YIZPjCyaU5I/AAAAAAAAulA/JKutjOywaxEro4Im71AmAwwRb6LeoCd1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/159108454_232115771968576_4321267911198124944_n.jpg

I mean, maybe.

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96. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA) [625.71 points; 7 votes]
S&S: 139 | TSPDT: 276 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "that kneeslapper Maya Deren"

I've seen Meshes at least once a year for the past six years and I never really figured out why. It's not particularly interesting in and of itself, but one can see the horror that came from it -- that is to say, every art school stereotype stems from it. The closeups, the pretensions, narciscisim disgused as melancholy and the idea that, in order to be considered a serious artist, one must avoid any sort of accessability. You want good female directors? Ida Lupino and Lina Wertmuller. Deren is garbage.
― JM, Friday, September 21, 2001 7:00 PM

Lol at Morbz sez quote.

never seen it

It's like 12 minutes long, Addison.

An opinion.

i didn't vote for any short films but no film has had a more profound impact on me probably????

didn't vote at all but 'meshes' + 'mulholland drive' = perfectly apposite short + a feature combo

I can't remember if this is the one we watched in 1998 at uni or not.

A ballot without shorts (and longs) is foreign to me.

It's fun to watch that Totoro tree growing scene with little kids who've seen it before. They do that motion along with the characters.

I suspect there is one higher short in the list, unless a Looney Tunes short also made it.

One of my film professors worked with Maya Deren when she came to Toronto in 1951. He said, "I found her very funny because she had no sense of humour whatsoever"!

depending on how you draw the line for shorts i can think of a few that should be up the list

"I found her very funny because she had no sense of humour whatsoever"!

heh -- Gore Vidal said the same about Anais Nin.

The aforementioned duck amuck could well show up I think, along with the dog I think is being alluded to by abanana

Halfway: who?! Is this York or UT?

Doug Davidson, who taught at York. He would have been 22 then, attending U of T I believe.

Maya neighbour Toronto

One of my film professors worked with Maya Deren when she came to Toronto in 1951. He said, "I found her very funny because she had no sense of humour whatsoever"!

She might not have been all that humourless: here's a quote from a local article written at the time:

"She was astounded to find we had been running her silent films at silent speed, calling us 'long-suffering ones'." (They were shot at the faster, sound speed.)

i just watched meshes of the afternoon (here)

what a fantastic score!

_ "I found her very funny because she had no sense of humour whatsoever"!_

heh -- Gore Vidal said the same about Anais Nin.

i did not expect a 1943 film to have slapback echo that reminds me of the caretaker and fusion era miles davis

Doing a youtube mashup of Meshes Of The Afternoon with the Curb Your Enthusiasm soundtrack. Gotta say it erally works.

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95. SHOWGIRLS (Paul Verhoeven, 1995, USA) [628 points; 4 votes]
S&S: 1,176 | TSPDT: 1,297 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "Sorry kids, it sucks. (Every counterrevolution has to begin somewhere.) ... my central problem w/ Showgirls is it's juvenile, and not in a way that personally appeals to me (ie not THAT gay)"

Cronenberg's doesn't really have anything comparable to Showgirls in his ouevre - can't decide if that's a good or bad thing
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:14 AM

You know that scene where they imply that Nomi is going to be a big star in the tradition of LaToya Jackson and Paula Abdul? They totally imply Paula Abdul starred in topless musicals on broadway! I swear, Showgirls totally slanders Paula Abdul's good name!
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, November 11, 2003 9:20 PM

"Showgirls" wins [over "Roadhouse"], and I haven't even seen it. What decides it? Believe it or not, KILLING JOKE have a track ("Hollywood Babylon") on the soundtrack (unavailable elsewhere). Huzzah!
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, November 11, 2003 10:27 PM

Not a huge Kurosawa fan, my favourite is _High and Low_, with Mifune at a lower key of intensity.

Behind-The-Poll: Yes, these point totals are weighted with a combination of the number of voters against the average ranking each movie got on the ballots it placed. Don't kvetch, weighting the results didn't change the makeup of the top 100 aside from letting two movies in and ushering two movies out. Showgirls was one of the two beneficiaries. I owed Morbs that much.

I just watched the Deren, or, rather, re-watched b/c my film professor screened it. Just about every cool Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel video is a descendant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teiji_Ito
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshes_of_the_Afternoon

what did i learn about on wikipedia today?

The original print had no score. However, a musical score influenced by classical Japanese music was added in 1959 by Deren's third husband, Teiji Ito.[1][4][5]

ok, now it makes more sense. i could not reconcile the music i was hearing with 1943, even though it seemed just barely possible!

The YouTube version I saw had an electronic score.

Meshes is my favorite Kate Bush video.

Possibly nothing more needs to be said about Showgirls, now officially a Great Film, but here I'll note that both KJB and myself were among the four voters.

Meshes also referenced in Sun Ra's Space is the Place movie.

"Cronenberg doesn't really have anything comparable to Showgirls in his oeuvre"

Stereo has some gratuitous topless scenes, but it's not the same.

Possibly nothing more needs to be said about _Showgirls_, now officially a Great Film, but here I'll note that both KJB and myself were among the four voters.

Rose: “I know what you mean. I should have said no to the Miss St. Olaf beauty pageant. It was 1951. That was the first year they let humans enter too. I was way ahead after the evening-gown and log-rolling competition. People don't realize how hard it is to roll a log when you're wearing an evening gown. And the shocker is I lost out on the intelligence quiz.”

Dorothy: “Quelle surprise!”

voted for a different verhoeven but showgirls ebbed at the edge of my top 25 anyway

I had several Verhoeven in top competition.

he is the goat

did you all abide by the "one per director" rule? or wait, was that an actual rule in the poll? i can't remember. either way, i followed that rule

my ballot is as boring as all of mine on any other poll, but i'm hoping some of them place so i can see how bill trashes them! :)

I tried to.

Wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule, rather a helpful guiding principle to come up with a more balanced ballot. Think Eric set the example when he did his personal countdown elsewhere.

I have never seen Showgirls. Is it considered camp?

It used to be considered crap.

HO

I have never seen Showgirls. Is it considered camp?

― adam t. (abanana), Monday, October 25, 2021 10:43 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

majestic mgm musical-esque grandiosity married with a script someone unearthed from an oil drum. feels like a potential definition of camp

Notes on Concentration Camp Ehrhardt.

“We do the concentrating and the POLLs do the camping!”

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94. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, Turkey) [636 points; 6 votes]
S&S: 418 | TSPDT: 538 | BOXD: 204

MORBS SEZ: "i will rewatch Anatolia at some point but i found it distended and not very deep."

Climates is a great film, absolutely. And it has a bit of nudity. Not as great as Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, but then again, what is?
― Frederik B, Monday, December 2, 2013 10:39 AM

Last night I was watching Mia Hansen-Løve's Eden, set in the electronic music world of Paris, where one character repeated shows the others Showgirls, trying to convince the skeptics that it's a masterpiece.

I've thought all of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's films were very good, none quite great.

Good film. I remember recommending Once Upon A Time In Anatolia to my brother's mum and she never forgave me lol.

Better your brother's mum than your mother's bum.

EXCELSIOR!

(didn't know which was the current LOLZ thread)

Can't say I loved this one but if this motivates people to check it out, it'll be worthwhile.

xp - they all are
#onethread

In my top 25. I watched Climates recently and hated it, to the point where it made me wonder about the rest of his films. So I'm probably due a rewatch but I'm p sure my feelings for it would hold up

saw 'climates' when it came out and thought it was a snooze, haven't seen anything else of his

I've seen 5 of 8, and would probably say that Distant or Winter Sleep are the best. Anatolia is basically a two-and-a-half hour setup for the shock of the final scene.

I love OUATIA, Winter Sleep, Uzak and The Wild Pear Tree but christ Climates was bad

Just getting caught up, only comment I'll add is that Totoro is my youngest son's favorite movie, to the extent that when we rented a local indie theater for his 13th birthday, it's the movie he picked to watch. It was really sweet to watch this group of 12- and 13-year-old boys sit rapt through this quiet movie about two little girls. It's a magical movie.

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93. ERASERHEAD (David Lynch, 1977, USA) [636.9 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 200 | TSPDT: 268 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "damn u guys took Eraserhead personally. It's not real you know. I mean, look at his hair."

if eraserhead reminded you of a kitchen sink drama remind me to stay out of yr kitchen
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, May 17, 2012 8:58 PM

My Dad honestly thought that my sister's Eraserhead video was a tape head cleaner...
― Jez, Friday, September 20, 2002 6:08 AM

#2 on my ballot, and my Lynch pick (one per director imo). everything that felt so subliminally off and familiar at the same time in The Return was present in Eraserhead, right from the beginning. it's a lot funnier than it's reputation, too - it's one gag after another, even if one of the gags is this baby from hell

and jack nance in a defining performance. i don't know how he resumed his daily life after that. perhaps it helped that it took them 3-5 years (or whatever) to film it, so he was used to just slipping in and out of the character

Gonna predict 1st of 5 Lynch placements.

Love Eraserhead but I didn't even put in my runners up, too many other Lynches I wanted to place. Absolutely true that it created the Lynch Cinematic Universe, in which we have all been living since.

also the film that influenced an entire music genre

it's a movie that you can listen to on headphones, and it's incredible just that way

xp which genre?

industrial!

Oops I lied, it was in my extended list. Excellent choice by me.

So with Totoro, Meshes and Samurai that's 4 of 8 for me so far.

Without Eraserhead no Low.

loving the images

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92. THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, USA) [643.4 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 15 | TSPDT: 7 | BOXD: 4

MORBS SEZ: "Brando's performance is mostly hammy crap. And if you ever see [Godfather] I in a theater, Diane Keaton's assorted hairstyles draw gales of laughter."

mean for all the great sadness and double-layered story of the second, with the first you've got brando... james caan... clemenza dude (forgot his name)... abe fuckin' vigoda!!
― s1ocki, Sunday, January 13, 2008 2:25 PM

You really do need to see the first one first. I saw the third one first, and was all WTF the entire time.
― the monte cristo is like the greatest collective cry for help (B.L.A.M.), Sunday, August 2, 2009 2:13 PM

Watch Tetro instead. There's a hot 18-year-old boy in it.
― sir-mounter (Eric H.), Sunday, August 2, 2009 7:29 PM

this one is pretty good, imo

please congratulate me, the first person to enjoy the film 'the godfather'

are there any performances of note in this picture?

I can't argue with it. Prefer Brando in The Freshman ("When they met him, they based the movie!").

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/091-last-year-in-marienbad.jpg

91. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Alain Resnais, 1961, France) [645.82 points; 11 votes]
S&S: 96 | TSPDT: 99 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "much more visually overwhelming than I'd recalled -- must be the print quality. It IS funny, but not as funny as its loose remake."

how can a 94 minute movie be so long
― iatee, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:19 PM

Man, the organ music in this movie is suffocating.
― windy = white, carl = black (polyphonic), Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:57 AM

not enough explosions in last year at marienbad, imo
― max, Monday, July 19, 2010 10:58 PM

I'll admit that I haven't thought of Marienbad too much in queer terms. I'm sure that someone could probably mount a great reading of the film, though, looking at not only the Chanel gowns but also the secrecy/repeptitiveness of the all-important "location" (hotel/gay club), the role-playing and double-faced-ness, the translation of emotions through "body architecture" (i.e. voguing)... Straight audiences would undoubedly find such a reading intensely reductive, but then again they probably find queer readings of anything reductive.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, July 20, 2005 12:16 PM

that assertion is itself reductive!
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, July 20, 2005 4:48 PM

And that's a wrap on day one!

100. ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, Roman 1968, USA) [620 points; 10 votes]
99. LA JETÉE (Chris Marker, Chris 1962, France) [623.33 points; 9 votes; 1 first-place vote; Morbs silver]
98. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (Miyazaki Hayao, 1988, Japan) [623.9 points; 10 votes]
97. SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa Akira, 1954, Japan) [624.67 points; 9 votes]
96. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA) [625.71 points; 7 votes]
95. SHOWGIRLS (Paul Verhoeven, 1995, USA) [628 points; 4 votes]
94. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, Turkey) [636 points; 6 votes]
93. ERASERHEAD (David Lynch, 1977, USA) [636.9 points; 10 votes]
92. THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, USA) [643.4 points; 10 votes]
91. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Alain Resnais, 1961, France) [645.82 points; 11 votes]

I might have thought that Marienbad was a little stodgy, too much of its time for the voters here. There are a bunch of Resnais films I'd rather watch, and maybe a couple of Robbe-Grillet as well.

I didn't think Marienbad was stodgy. It was mysterious and memorable. And beautiful!

didn't vote at all but 'meshes' + 'mulholland drive' = perfectly apposite short + a feature combo
― donna rouge, Monday, October 25, 2021

agree, but Inland Empire seems like the film of Lynch's that is most related to it, not just with fractured personas and mysterious transformations but also its hall of mirrors quality

I just opened my ballot to refer to and already have so many bones to pick with whoever I was in May. Oh well. But I did vote for one of that group of 10.

My favorite Ceylan films are his two most recent ones, The Wild Pear Tree (which I voted for) and Winter Sleep. I remember really liking Distant also

nothing i voted for had placed yet but y’all make me wish i voted for seven samurai

The Wild Pear Tree I watched at the beginning of the pandemic; I was prepared to anoint it a best-of-decade.

Stoked to see the rollout happening, and it's lovely so far. Didn't vote for <i>La Jetée</i> but I'm glad to see it here. And I was one of the votes for <i>Showgirls</i> and <i>My Neighbor Totoro</i>. Might have to re-watch them together as a double feature.

>__<

yeah, those three together are a wonderful trio for the first day here, though none managed to be Jurassic Park for me, which did make my ballot.

so far then

1 40s
1 50s
3 60s
2 70s
1 80s
1 90s
0 00s
1 10s

MORBS SEZ: "never have Charles Grodin as your OB/GYN"

This is the greatest calling-card of any poll ever on this damned website.

Incidentally, I'm not sure how I ever missed the voting but fwiw La Jetee would have had a top 10 vote from me.

I love Seven Samurai for its immersive storytelling and humor and the way ancient Japan was reimagined by Kurosawa in the 50s

nino rota's godfather theme has been stuck in my head all day long, thank you poll

even though now it doesn't remind me as much of the movie as much as "don homer, i have baked this special donut just for you"

that's-a nice-a donut

I liked this: “Seven Samurai represents a great divide in his work; most of his earlier films…subscribe to the Japanese virtues of teamwork, fitting in, going along, conforming. All his later films are about misfits, noncomformists and rebels.”

interesting but I don't really believe it, his films before and after were too complex to categorize like that

Enfin! The images are lovely. Did you do them, Eric? Sorry if it was explained earlier.

List looking good so far. I voted for Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Disagree that its all about the final scene. I love the movie because its a sort of slice of life comedy set to immersive landscapes. None of the characters seems to do their job well, but each one does something crucial for the mission at some point, just not what they are "supposed" to do. That felt really authentic, especially with the endless steppes as backdrop which give the whole episode a sort of existential dread in that it doesn't matter if you are nominally a "doctor", "detective" or "driver" you need to contribute with anything you got or everyone will wander around forever.

Didn't watch any other Ceylan or Turkish movies in general, but plan to.

Godfather at 92 is *chef's kiss*

yeah, looking forward to Citizen Kane, Vertigo & Casablanca placing outside top 77 and a DNP for Shawshank.

i love the first 2 Godfathers but they are what they are, 92 seems reasonable

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is great, one of the few times where a director using Once Upon A Time... works because the atmosphere truly is worthy of Leone (I know not every instance is a director nodding to that directly).

Also taught me the hierarchy of soft drinks: yoghurt drink will only do if there's no coke.

Hope my other votes from "world cinema in the last decade" place as well: Burning, Separation, Timbuktu

Burning and A Separation were both late scratches from my list sorry. You're otm about Anatolia if that's any consolation

KJB, I'm picking the stills and then slapping some templated filters on the top of them, basically. I'm no graphics pro by any stretch.

(I, too, love The Godfather at #92. Because I do actually like the movie fwiw.)

would be very interesting to find out what's the highest number of honorable mentions for a movie which didn't receive any top 25 votes.

10, a feat achieved by two films.

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90. MANDY (Panos Cosmatos, 2018, USA) [646.5 points; 8 votes]
S&S: DNP | TSPDT: 6,054 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: … nothing; there is no evidence I found that he ever watched this one, or (uncharacteristically) that he badmouthed those who loved it?

well this certainly delivered. in a funny way it felt like every scene was better than the one before it
― Οὖτις, Monday, July 1, 2019 10:00 AM

Kinda feel like there's a stain on my soul now that I can never fully scour away. Fuckin' evil. Deeply admire the commitment to pulling zero punches. Not sure I ever need to see it again. Fairly sure I will nonetheless see it again soon.
― Extra Shprankles (Old Lunch), Sunday, October 14, 2018 8:51 PM

It has its moments but no way should it have been two hours long.
― You like queer? I like queer. Still like queer. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, October 7, 2018 10:49 AM

yeah it should've been at least three
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Sunday, October 7, 2018 11:01 AM

hey, i voted for this one!

oh well

This is the spot Drive might have had in if this poll was done in 2014.
(I like Mandy ftr)

i assume this is not my thing

xp lol

of course every horror film these days has to be about dealing with trauma but this is the one that really takes that in an interesting direction. It's completely ott of course but feels emotionally truthful. Score is incredible too

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89. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (Rob Reiner, 1984, USA) [650.91 points; 11 votes]
S&S: 418 | TSPDT: 303 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "Cute and funny, but mocking trad metal bands -- HOW DIFFICULT."

There was supposed to be a 'hilarious' BJ scene that got cut or unfilmed, purely because it wouldn't have been included in a 'real' documentary.
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, November 16, 2005 10:24 AM

Spinal Tap, in particular, is one bitchy little film. We'll call it the pierced nephew of All About Eve.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, November 7, 2003 1:00 AM

fave subtle line: the argument about going on AFTER the puppet show
― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, November 16, 2005 11:54 PM

The Stonehenge thing will never fail to make me lose my shit.
― her performance (ie, her pubes) stood out for me (HI DERE), Wednesday, July 8, 2009 3:22 PM

I love this movie, but "Some Kind of Monster" is almost as good, and in many ways even better and funnier.
― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:27 PM

Just because somethign is quotable doesn't mean you people should quote from it.
― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, October 14, 2003 5:03 AM

Today is very metal so far.

Definitely exhausted this one by the time I turned 20. I remember tuning in to watch it the first time it aired on Comedy Central in the 90s.

Oh and lol @ the number placement in the graphic.

I thought this would be higher

I thought Best in Show was considered the Christopher Guest pick.

xp Me too

I was just thinking on the weekend how the fact that the group had been together 20 years was one of the jokes about how out of touch they were. Now, they would probably be announcing their 60th anniversary tour and no-one would find it strange.

I thought this would be higher

I thought it would go to 11?!?

i have to note that introducing somebody to Spinal Tap and them not really feeling it is an excruciating moment

(I, too, love The Godfather at #92. Because I do actually like the movie fwiw.)

― Milm & Foovies (Eric H.), Tuesday, 26 October 2021 bookmarkflaglink

It's great btw, there are just 91 films that are better.

(DJP's screenname on the Tap quote btw is why I love finding old quotes)

i have to note that introducing somebody to Spinal Tap and them not really feeling it is an excruciating moment

Probably not the last time this could be said during this rollout.

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88. JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray, 1954, USA) [651 points; 6 votes]
S&S: 279 | TSPDT: 246 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: would've considered JG if any of the rest of it was in this ballpark:

Johnny: How many men have you forgotten?
Vienna: As many women as you've remembered.
Johnny: Don't go away.
Vienna: I haven't moved.
Johnny: Tell me something nice.
Vienna: Sure, what do you want to hear?
Johnny: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited. Tell me.
Vienna: [without feeling] All those years I've waited.
Johnny: Tell me you'd a-died if I hadn't come back.
Vienna: [without feeling] I woulda died if you hadn't come back.
Johnny: Tell me you still love me like I love you.
Vienna: [without feeling] I still love you like you love me.
Johnny: [bitterly] Thanks. Thanks a lot."

Starring Joan Crawford in Red, Mercedes McCambridge in White (with a voice scarier than the one she provided for The Devil in The Exorcist), and, oh yeah, Sterling Hayden as the title character.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:15 PM

I'm a terrible gay for not loving Johnny Guitar.
― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 12, 2011 7:41 AM

Can confirm, Alfred is a terrible gay.

I think Johnny Guitar is a blast, but my top Ray pick would be In a Lonely Place.

I'm fonder of it now. Gays too!

Tipsy otm. Also: Bitter Victory

In a Lonely Place and Johnny Guitar more or less tied for first for me.

johnny guitar RULES

i saw it in a theater where a bunch of uncultured teenagers laughed at it!!!! but i??? i fell in love

i should do a ray double feature when i finish the book of in a lonely place

Also: Bigger than Life!

I like They Live By Night but not as much as Altman's remake, Thieves Like Us.

Convinced there was never a great film that was not laughed at in rep screenings.

Anyone willing to make a case for The Savage Innocents?

Ray also made one of the key Mitchum films, The Lusty Men.

Ray assembles movies with marvelous scenes and bat shit stupid scenes sometimes seconds from each other yet he gets away with it.

Spinal Tap and Christopher Guest in general are foundational for my taste in humor and movies. Along with John Waters.

I like Johnny Guitar as well as its offspring, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and I’m not even…oh wait.

Burning and A Separation were both late scratches from my list sorry. You're otm about Anatolia if that's any consolation

― ignore the blue line (or something)

It is! Looking forward to individual lists.

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87. THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (Victor Erice, 1973, Spain) [652 points; 8 votes]
S&S: 85 | TSPDT: 105 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "'army of shadows' and 'spirit of the beehive' are two of the most overrated movies ever."

spirit of the beehive is the most visually stunning movie i have seen. the images stick with you and it has the finest performance by a child... ever. ana torrent was amazing.
― todd swiss (eliti), Tuesday, May 25, 2004 5:11 PM

Huge fan of Spirit of the Beehive and every single thing that Erice has done.
― Pastel City Slang (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:30 PM

The Spirit of the Beehive is really one of those films one just has to experience. No talking or writing about it will ever suffice.
― BabyBuddha (BabyBuddha), Thursday, April 8, 2004 8:42 AM

The other best film about what it feels like to be a little kid

Love this, and The Quince Tree Sun is even better.

The South is great too. Maybe even saw the omnibus film once, The Challenges, but can't remember.

The other best film about what it feels like to be a little kid

and Ana Torrent was in yet another one: Cria Cuervos.

Is the list this good all the way down? I like-to-love every single film that's shown up so far

Will make a special exception for ILE self-exile. Mandy was in my 25! It's so great. Hope Ceylan turns up again

The South was also in my 25, alas doubt we'll see it show up now. Beehive still fairly beguiling but that one...that one...

This is fine, ideal for Cinema 101.

would love to disagree with morbs in the present about how good army of shadows is :(

I agree with Morbs on Army of Shadows, but I've never been much for Melville.

The other best film about what it feels like to be a little kid
and Ana Torrent was in yet another one: Cria Cuervos.

― Chris L, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 12:01 PM (four minutes ago)

I appreciate it as a record of Franco's rural Spain, a time not enough films about.

I agree with Morbs on Army of Shadows, but I've never been much for Melville.

― Milm & Foovies (Eric H.),

I had to stop watching Le Doulos Sunday night. Le Samourai's the only one I can watch because of a certain feline actor in a trenchcoat.

Can imagine sitting through Léon Morin, Priest for a similar reason, swapping feline for lupine and trenchcoat for clerical collar.

https://filmforum.org/do-not-enter-or-modify-or-erase/client-uploads/thumbs/leonmorin.jpg

I appreciate it as a record of Franco's rural Spain, a time not enough films about.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, October 26, 2021 12:08 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I liked Léon Morin, Priest, but thought Army of Shadows was much more fun to watch. Voted for Le Samouraï

I ate the lasagna.

Is Melville maybe a bit For The Straights*? His thematic preoccupations are very trad masc. I'm a sucker for that stuff myself tho - LOVE Army Of Shadows, especially SPOILER the ending narration casually telling you that none of the characters we'd been following survived until the liberation. Just ice cold noir matter-of-factliness.

* I am white straight btw

My wife loved catching up w/ both Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge this year (I'm fully aware what part of the appeal is).

Maybe, tho even some of the directors who fit into that category (thinking John Huston) have managed at least one For The Rest stroke (The Dead).

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86. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Edward Yang, 1991, Taiwan) [655.5 points; 6 votes; 1 first-place vote]
S&S: 86 | TSPDT: 124 | BOXD: 12

MORBS SEZ: "I often found his pre-Yi Yi work frustratingly languorous" (however, Morbs did give the movie a ❤️ on Letterboxd upon rescreening it)

this was absolutely magnificent, so rich and subtle and rewarding on so many levels and i resented having to take a bathroom break halfway through.
― i am a big fan of japanese women (donna rouge), Sunday, February 28, 2010 9:34 PM

A Brighter Summer's Day is totally not tedious! I found it a lot more engaging than Yi Yi, but that's just me.
― ed.b, Monday, August 25, 2014 7:45 PM

i sat through a brighter summer day in theaters and it wasn't bad
― 龜, Wednesday, March 28, 2018 8:15 PM

it is weird to me that somebody can watch all four hours of brighter summer day and respond with a shrug. i mean, that movie has so much going for it, and so much going on /in/ it, that it seems really willful to be indifferent to it. but chacun a son gout etc.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, January 7, 2015 12:48 AM

I bought the Criterion Blu-ray without having seen the film before.

I've seen this three times, and my response is more than a shrug but less than a heart. I'm glad other people love it more than I do.

My first shameful blindspot of the countdown, and I've seen/like Yi Yi.

(Mandy and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia I am less ashamed about not knowing, as they are relatively newer, and don't appear to be available on any of my streaming services at the moment)

I like ABSD but might prefer Taipei Story

The first one I saw was A Confucian Confusion, then was let down by Mahjong. It's a real shame Yang is gone.

Yi Yi still my favourite, but this is about equally great.

I had Yi Yi on my ballot but somehow have never seen this, will rectify.

just noticed that In Our Time and The Terrorizers are available on my Kanopy subscription, will have to watch them

I was pretty disappointed by Yi Yi so haven't got around to this. It's on youtube tho, sacrilegiously probably

I hope this low placement doesn't mean Hou Hsaio-Hsien got shut out.

Some of the novelistic plot turns and payoffs of A Brighter Summer Day remind me in some ways of watching The Wire.

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85. THE LADY EVE (Preston Sturges, 1941, USA) [656.4 points; 10 votes; Morbs silver]
S&S: 120 | TSPDT: 140 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "The five stone masterpieces from Lady Eve thru Conquering Hero are maybe the most amazing 4-year feat by a Hollywood writer-director. My fave has always been Morgan's Creek, but I can't argue vs picking any of those"

'lady eve' is good filthy fun.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Thursday, July 12, 2007 10:27 AM

Stanwyck and Fonda are both excellent, and it's got maybe the greatest last word punchline I've ever seen.
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Thursday, March 29, 2012 3:08 PM

The Lady Eve, now and forever
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 2, 2009 8:35 PM

i haven't seen it, but a morbs silver medal goes a long way

Is Melville maybe a bit For The Straights*? His thematic preoccupations are very trad masc.

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, October 26, 2021 1:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Les enfants terribles--Melville adapting Cocteau--is a case of two great tastes that don't taste great together.

Great job with the pics, Eric! Fun poll.

I showed Double Indemnity to my film students yesterday afternoon and was delighted/relieved they thought Barbara Stanwyck kicked ass.

Lady Eve too low! Also wondering whether I should be vaguely insulted or not that you didn’t include a quote from me about that one.

By all means, everyone add your favorite quotes!

let me axe you a hypothermical question

But maybe I was talking about a different film, the one by Preston Sturges.

let me axe you a hypothermical question

I’ll take over from here, Mr. Murgatroyd.
I said I’ll take over from here, Ambrose.

To Napoleon and Josephine!

Gimme a spoonful of milk, a raw pigeon's egg, and four houseflies.

^another pvmic

Positively the same dame!

Which I guess was already referred to.

They don’t want nothing else
They want the ale that won for Yale

Let us be crooked, James, but never common.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/14d286750bd45c8f21fefcbc3f9c5f96/tumblr_ml256dGTyo1snb74so1_500.gif

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/86/57/d786575d1dc4a7fcf60b9274ebfa2feb.gif

https://i.gifer.com/NFk7.gif

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84. CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jacques Rivette, 1974, France) [658.57 points; 7 votes]
S&S: 151 | TSPDT: 213 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "Celine & Julie, Go to Hell"

what i love about celine and julie is that no matter how long Rivette is stretching the whole thing out for it's never so long that he won't throw in another leghty, pointless and just plain funny digression. coming up for the three hour mark there's a needless plot development which involves the sweets running out and C&J having to steal a book from the library so that they can make up a potion. for some reason they have to steal the book wearing wetsuits, balaclavas and rollerskates (hott). the other night this struck me as the funniest thing ever whereas first time round i just found it frustrating. what changed?
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, October 26, 2006 9:52 AM

"Celine & Julie" was one of those films that I found sooooooo tiring to sit through but when it was done I was like "Oh damn that was kind of wonderful!" but still with no desire to ever see it again.
― "Jiggle It" - 2 in a Zoo (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, March 27, 2014 9:56 AM

i seem to be the only cinephile in existence who doesn't like "celine and julie,"
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, April 22, 2015 1:32 PM

hallooooo
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, April 22, 2015 1:34 PM

hi!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, April 22, 2015 4:39 PM

hello!

Hubba hubba!#fellawhosbeenuptheamazonforawhile
xp

Voted for 2 other Rivettes I like more than this one.

no La Belle Noiseuse coming, I guess.

Tried a few times with Celine and Julie, maybe one day I'll find a way in

I don't know if any of you have made it through Tony Judt's 952-page Postwar but he spends a paragraph trashing Celine and Julie as the moment French New Wave cinema devolved into self-parody (I do not agree).

If it did, it did so yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrssssss earlier.

has anyone seen his 13 hour-long "Out 1"?

Oh cmon this is absolutely classic, ofc in my 25. Need to see it again mind, first time might have been a dream innit!! Also it was about 10 years ago

I like it but have to check whether I voted for it.

*checks*

Made it onto unranked section

M

On the long list of canonized classics that put me to sleep.

David Thomson's favourite film incidentally

M

I think falling asleep in installments is the way to watch this.

Looking at my unfamiliar-seeming ballot now, I think Mabuse must have written that as well.

has anyone seen his 13 hour-long "Out 1"?

I saw Out 1: noli me tangere over two days at Cinematheque Ontario, and I voted for the short version, Out 1: Spectre. Celine et Julie is good too. What I love about Rivette is how, wherever he sets his camera, he captures both the atmosphere of the actual place and also a sense that anywhere can be framed and transformed into a theatrical location.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/35/f3/10/35f3102f87882d1d136bd69048dc84d8.gif

Me while watching this movie, or while waiting for the next title to drop?

Up next, our first Morbs gold!

Daphne and Josephine Go Boating?

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83. THE KING OF COMEDY (Martin Scorsese, 1983, USA) [659.82 points; 11 votes; Morbs gold]
S&S: 324 | TSPDT: 394 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "the Genius inseparable from the Asshole … I find tKoC Kubrickian in that I don't think it matters if you can't identify w/ DeNiro or Lewis beyond the "have-not" and "have" level. It's primarily a cultural critique / anthropological study … my fave Jerry moment might be 'You've got a blank card' … Jerry wanted Sandra to do a pratfall into the glass table full of candles. he rrrreally hated her. … I think the last quarter-century of American culture is proof that Pupkin really became a star. Scorsese's best film."

gets scarier the more times you see it.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, May 2, 2013 3:53 PM

very underrated, but damn fine angry and mean
― goeff, Saturday, February 2, 2002 7:00 PM

Bernhard is absolute perfection
― lamey g. curtis (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, January 12, 2011 4:37 PM

the way there's absolutely nothing in the deniro-bernhard "relationship" except their mutual obsession, mutual fantasy, just enough to make them partners, and then when they have captured their obsession's object their fantasies diverge and even that connection is immediately gone, was p harsh
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Friday, January 31, 2014 2:48 PM

Man, there’s not a single false step in this movie, so good
― Οὖτις, Monday, December 31, 2018 2:26 PM

Scorsese and DeNiro's best
― flappy bird, Monday, December 31, 2018 5:22 PM

I think The King of Comedy is Scorsese's, um, masterpiece and is waaaay better than many of the films on this poll, e.g., Cinderfella, Boeing Boeing, etc. But the Scorsese dorks needed to stay off this thread.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, July 1, 2011 5:20 PM

I got nuttin. But when the donor restrictions on The Day the Clown Cried expire, do you want to carpool down to LOC-Culpeper to see it?

I'm not commodity!

ah man i forgot to vote for this one

My one thing I think people should know about this movie is that in the scene where Bernhard is on the street calling bystanders "street trash" you can see Joe Strummer crouching down saying "Oi!" on the VHS but not in current versions.

It might not mean a lot to you but it means a lot to me

And I agree with everyone who says it's Scorsese's best, maybe De Niro's too

I like Johnny Guitar, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and this movie, but I still don't like Jerry Lewis in general that much, so I guess that makes me...

…not like Hippie Johnny Guitar!

For one night I'd like to see myself out of my head! Wouldn't you like to see me out of my head?! Wouldn't that be great?! Wouldn't that be fabulous?!?!

I didn't often admit that Morbs was right to recommend a movie to me when I didn't think it would be in my wheelhouse, but damn, Morbs was right about The King of Comedy.

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82. WILD STRAWBERRIES (Ingmar Bergman, 1957, Sweden) [661.5 points; 6 votes]
S&S: 86 | TSPDT: 61 | BOXD: 123

MORBS SEZ: "I like Sawdust and Tinsel, Through a Glass Darkly, and Wild Strawberries (Giro, what's not to like in WS?) a whole lot."

Dud: Sawdust and Tinsel, The Silence, Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries
― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:11 PM

Wild Strawberries is still my favorite of all of Bergman’s films. It is expansive and kind-hearted. It worries about the regrets we all have over the instances of rejection and distance that take place in the course of our lives but in the end it understands that compassion overrides everything. It is amazing that he made this when he was 39 years old
― Dan S, Monday, November 18, 2019 8:28 PM (one year ago)

I love when he uses his morbidity or broodingness as a set up for a punch line--in Wild Strawberries (the kids having a fist fight over whether God is dead)
― Martin Van Burne, Monday, July 30, 2007 10:35 AM

I've just finished watching Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries, and the same thing still bugs me as the first time I saw it. The scene where Professor Borg returns to his childhood home and begins to reminisce bothers me. Maybe I'm missing something, but none of those events (the strawberry patch, the dinner table) could really be his memories- he was never present when any of those things happened. They even mention how he was fishing with his father? So how does one recall certain events at which one was not present? I've looked over the scenes carefully to make sure I just wasn't looking at it wrong, but if I remember correctly, he specifically uses the term "memories"- not "dreams."
― Anthony (Anthony F), Sunday, August 10, 2003 10:09 PM

Not only is it still great, but its numerous moments of humour and uplift remind me once again that anyone who calls Bergman's films depressing probably only knows them to the extent that they've read their plot synopses.
― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko), Sunday, April 30, 2017 9:27 PM

I once tried to watch Wild Strawberries when I was on the comedown off Ecstasy. It's a great movie, but dear god, what was I thinking? I will never understand why I thought it would be suitable for that frame of mind. Had to turn it off.
― mirostones, Sunday, April 13, 2014 9:41 AM

I like Bergman better after Winter Light, something became more natural and relaxed in his style after his 50s films, even as the tone got darker and darker.

Saw it again during lockdown. Rather uptight -- he got looser after 1960

lol xpost

Is that image from the Rick Linklater remake?

saw 4 or 5 Bergman films on TV when I was 16/17 and cannot remember names or which bits are from which film, have been planning a rewatch for ages, must actually do it.

Now somehow imaging a lost Get Smart episode, "The Day the Claw Cried."

Is that image from the Rick Linklater remake?

― Through with “What’s the Buzz” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, October 26, 2021 3:50 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol yes, the rosemary's baby image gave me the same thought

Catching up in between house move, so no brain energy to comment yet but two of mine have placed already: La Jetée (#8) and Meshes of the Afternoon (#13). Two honorable mention placements too for Rosemary’s Baby and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Makes me feel quite consensus at this point.

Most need to see Spirit of the Beehive of those that have placed so far. Most dubious about ever seeing Showgirls.

How many Morbs golds are there vs. Morbs silvers?

It might not mean a lot to you but it means a lot to me

Who, me? I voted for King of Comedy.

I was just throwing a Rupert Pupkin quote in there

Great that the Yang has placed. That was no.9 in my ballot. Probably the most powerful screening I went to before the cinemas shut, so it has that sad association for me.

re: Rivette. Celine and Julie is probably third best after Out 1 (even in its four hour cut) and L'Amou Fou (which has yet to come out on DVD?) Paris on the verge of breakdown...

And yeah saw King of Comedy recently and it's really great and up there with Raging Bull as the Scorcese-De Niro collab. I guess it's the film that led De Niro to make all those comedies but it's great enough to weather that one...

never been into Scorcese and only saw King of Comedy for first time this year, knew I loved this film when he turned out to have a pretty good stand up routine after everything, would have been so easy/predictable to have him fail

Haven't seen it in a while, but wasn't he kind of terrible at stand-up? I think of those weirdly robotic arm gestures.

No, he has a genuine rapport with the audience, and reasonably good jokes.

You're thinking of DeNiro on SNL.

Found Stanley Kauffmann's review online--I'd agree with this:

He also gets the unrhythmical quality of Rupert’s movement and gesture, epitomized in that one TV appearance. De Niro knows that Rupert has studied Langford and other comics, that he thinks he has learned how to do the stuff. But all Rupert has acquired is some of the mannerisms--the Bob Hope run-on, for instance. He doesn’t have central ease, his delivery is a collection of remembered inflections, he hasn’t a clue about what to do with his arms. Because that scene is the best in the script, De Niro, one of our best film actors, is able to blend Rupert’s imitation of professionals and his residual amateurishness into a spot of horror.

I realize you're not claiming he's great.

I took his rapport with the audience to be an indictment of the audience.

(I did rewatch some of his monologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajb8wd7jDFU.)

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/081-its-a-wonderful-life.jpg

81. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Frank Capra, 1946, USA) [661.63 points; 8 votes]
S&S: 200 | TSPDT: 83 | BOXD: 89

MORBS SEZ: "I like it in spite of myself. 'Why'd we hafta have ALL THESE KIDS!?' … very very dark til that sappy finale. this did come out in 1946 after all, the sacrifice theme is just as relevant as were those of The Best Years of Our Lives."

That very first glimpse of Clarence is perfect; one of the all-time great character intro shots
― piscesx, Tuesday, December 24, 2019 10:26 AM

those who complain about the schmaltz kinda miss the point. It's a fairy tale, of course it has schmaltz, but I don't see how that would make it any worse. Would it a better film if George never woke up from his nightmare, or if he'd manage to kill himself? I don't think so.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, December 25, 2007 5:08 AM

Uncle Billy and Harry Bailey are both kinda douchebags in this movie.
― ^likes tilt-a-whirls (Pancakes Hackman), Tuesday, December 23, 2008 5:07 PM

How come if George Bailey was never born, his wife would have to wear glasses? Is he a Lasik surgeon? … I mean, ok, if George Bailey wasn't born, so his town turns into like some kind of weird suburban version of the Bronx, and everyone else in his family would die, and the town pharmacy would be murdering people on the sly, that's all fair cop. But why would Donna Reed go nearsighted? Crazy jittery spinster librarian, sure, what the hell, but her eyes?
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, December 8, 2002 8:59 PM

what can i say, ally, masturbation makes you go blind thus the glasses.
― doom-e, Monday, December 9, 2002 9:06 AM

I never noticed the glasses thing before. I think I was too busy trying to knock myself senseless by bashing my head against the wall in a futile, desperate attempt to escape the schmaltz.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, December 9, 2002 9:36 AM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

desperate attempt to escape the schmaltz of anti masturbation. What??????
― doom-e, Monday, December 9, 2002 9:41 AM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Masturbation is so maudlin.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, December 9, 2002 9:47 AM

How come if George Bailey was never born, his wife would have to wear glasses? Is he a Lasik surgeon?
1) Because George was not there to save brother he died.
2) Because brother died, every man on his platoon died.
3) One man on the platoon hurled rock upwards in dying action.
4) Rock hits exotic bird, disrupting its flight movement.
5) Bird lands dead on platform of Navy warship; crew men marvel.
6) One of the crew members decides to take dead bird to "Pottersville", where famed taxodermist (not existing in George's regular world) lives.
7) One step away from being flattened by a truck driven by callous, heart-hardened Pottersville resident, Mary (walking home from lunch break from the library) pushes the sailor out of the way just in time.
8) Mary gets struck by truck in his place; suffers neurological disorder requiring glasses for the rest of her life.
Isn't it strange how one man's life affects others...
― Joe, Tuesday, December 25, 2007 7:36 AM (thirteen years ago)

i think what really won me over to theory was my professor's reading of the broken bannister and how it so obviously signifies Freudian castration - and how George kisses it in the end in his acceptance of his fate. It's just such a perfect Hollywood story hero challenges the norm, then embraces it at the end re establishing order (Frederic Jameson theory IIRC).
― Spencer Chow, Thursday, December 25, 2014 2:51 AM

The broken bannister is an omen of Ed Asner's character in JFK, Guy Banister; George is a secret agent of history, hurling the country into the Cold War and a turbulent future.
― clemenza, Thursday, December 25, 2014 7:50 PM (six years ago)

Here we are so far:

100. ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, Roman 1968, USA) [620 points; 10 votes]
99. LA JETÉE (Chris Marker, Chris 1962, France) [623.33 points; 9 votes; 1 first-place vote; Morbs silver]
98. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (Miyazaki Hayao, 1988, Japan) [623.9 points; 10 votes]
97. SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa Akira, 1954, Japan) [624.67 points; 9 votes]
96. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA) [625.71 points; 7 votes]
95. SHOWGIRLS (Paul Verhoeven, 1995, USA) [628 points; 4 votes]
94. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, Turkey) [636 points; 6 votes]
93. ERASERHEAD (David Lynch, 1977, USA) [636.9 points; 10 votes]
92. THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, USA) [643.4 points; 10 votes]
91. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Alain Resnais, 1961, France) [645.82 points; 11 votes]

90. MANDY (Panos Cosmatos, 2018, USA) [646.5 points; 8 votes]
89. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (Rob Reiner, 1984, USA) [650.91 points; 11 votes]
88. JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray, 1954, USA) [651 points; 6 votes]
87. THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (Victor Erice, 1973, Spain) [652 points; 8 votes]
86. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Edward Yang, 1991, Taiwan) [655.5 points; 6 votes; 1 first-place vote]
85. THE LADY EVE (Preson Sturges, 1941, USA) [656.4 points; 10 votes; Morbs silver]
84. CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jacques Rivette, 1974, France) [658.57 points; 7 votes]
83. THE KING OF COMEDY (Martin Scorsese, 1983, USA) [659.82 points; 11 votes; Morbs gold]
82. WILD STRAWBERRIES (Ingmar Bergman, 1957, Sweden) [661.5 points; 6 votes]
81. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Frank Capra, 1946, USA) [661.63 points; 8 votes]

good list so far

Christ, I thought that was Sin City for a second

it's a waking life

How come if George Bailey was never born, his wife would have to wear glasses? Is he a Lasik surgeon? … I mean, ok, if George Bailey wasn't born, so his town turns into like some kind of weird suburban version of the Bronx, and everyone else in his family would die, and the town pharmacy would be murdering people on the sly, that's all fair cop. But why would Donna Reed go nearsighted? Crazy jittery spinster librarian, sure, what the hell, but her eyes?
― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, December 8, 2002 8:59 PM

True womanly love means never having to say "I see what you did there."

I really hope I remembered to vote for It's a Wonderful Life.

Haven't seen it in a while, but wasn't he kind of terrible at stand-up? I think of those weirdly robotic arm gestures.

The dog that ate your birthday cake.

the ilx quotes have been a real highlight of this

this list rules, only seen like 20% of these but KING OF COMEDY is in my personal top 10, the kind of film that only makes more and more sense as the years go on

Lots of enticing movies added to my Letterb*xd watchlist today.

Speaking of LB, has anybody started putting together a list of our results over there? I'd be glad to make one if not.

I wouldn't have expected Wonderful Life in the top 100, interesting. The scenes in Potterville are the highlight, right? I feel like that's kind of the crux of the movie.

I just found two ILX instances of maybe my favorite quote from Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve, neither from me, one on tcm alert thread and ten other on Barbara Stanwyck: An ILX Film Snobs Thread:
I need him like the axe needs the turkey

Ten = the

i don't think i voted for IAWL but i'll always defend it.

Oh, I meant to say I had a conversation today IRL that went from a mention of yet another TLE quote, “Who do you think you are, Houdini?” to a discussion of the Tony Curtis movie Houdini and then to Some Like It Hot, so I guess this thread is working its magic somehow.

https://boxd.it/dPPzw

here's a letterboxd list, i'll update it with the rollout

thank u sir

now with correct title

nice! thanks, Clay

The Lady Eve was my Number Two, The Spirit of the Beehive Number Twelve, Last Year at Marienbad
Number Nineteen, and La Jeteé Number Twenty-Four.

Potential side question: did anyone discover or rewatch anything after they sent their ballot that would have made it? Closest for me might be What Happened Was...

i rewatched something that made my top 25 that I wouldn’t even consider now but that’s life

I might've included Velvet Goldmine and PlayTime, both of which I first watched after voting.

Mandy is the only film so far that I've not seen in any canon whatsoever.

Watched Celine and Julie during lockdown, kind of going in with a half-idea of Rivette's rep (long films, serious) without having seen any &… I was startled by how much I loved it - I wasn't expecting to find something that would be a new favourite film, because I'm old and tired. The joy in the thing, the endless games, the fun that they have watching/jumping into the ridiculous time travel Henry james haunted house story, the perpetual feeling of 'let's try this!'.

Watched the full Out 1 after that. Great, but didn't love in the same way - guess I lean to games, films and the occult rather than crime, theatre and conspiracy.

Got Duelle lined up just because the summary sounds p wild.

(non voter, will be working my way through the list)

Histoire de Marie et Julien is along similar lines to Celine and Julie, if you are looking for more of that.

Duelle is my favorite Rivette that I’ve seen. Definitely has more of what you say you’re looking for.

the ilx quotes have been a real highlight of this

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson),

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80. CALIFORNIA SPLIT (Robert Altman, 1974, USA) [663 points; 6 votes]
S&S: DNP | TSPDT: 1,695 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "never cared for California Split all that much … Segal and Gould are funny, and a little sad. It's worth seeing once."

California Split is barely a movie. I mean this mostly as a compliment
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 9:08 PM

california split is great fun and very sad on a level.
― t0dd swiss, Wednesday, February 23, 2005 7:26 PM

he was already one of my favorites and then I saw California Split last year and was blown away. like "whoa how many more of these are there."
― dmr (Renard), Tuesday, November 21, 2006 1:50 PM

California Split is a lot of fun but I don't think its a patch on The Long Goodbye.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, March 26, 2007 12:58 PM

holy shit california split is amazing!!!!!!!!! why is this not altman canon??
― s1ocki, Thursday, March 6, 2008 11:57 AM

one of the best movies about addiction I've ever seen
― flappy bird, Sunday, February 17, 2019 11:31 PM

There's at least one scene in California Split that makes we squirm a little--Gould and Segal drunkenly hamming it up in the parking lot just before they get jumped (I do enjoy their Seven-Dwarts ramblings just before that)--but I think most of it's great, and I think it's a much better film about the rush of gambling than Uncut Gems. (Of which my experience is limited to low-stakes poker games with friends, so I supposed someone with actual experience will disagree with me on that.)
― clemenza, Friday, January 17, 2020 8:02 PM

Damn, california split is so good, tho it undoubtedly fails every variation of the bechdel test ever. But... i am not a big film person -- music has much more of a lasting impact on me. Even novelty songs about valley girls. But CS is one of those films that I couldn't stop thinking about for a long time after I watch(ed) it. The whole gambling thing is obv very fruitful metaphor on its own, w long long legs, but add in male friendships and i guess relationships in general, and damn. The ending is at once depressing, triumphant, and transcendent. There's a lot of ground covered there.
― dell (del), Friday, February 5, 2021 1:33 AM

Rewatched California Split, I didn't remember much about it from years ago except lots of patter. The patter is there and good, but what I really loved this time was friendship of the Gould and Segal characters, the way it springs up around this thing they both love — gambling — but then comes apart in the end because it turns out that thing means different things to them. Also, Gould's lightness in the movie is remarkable, it's like he's floating through it all, including his beatdowns. Nothing really fazes him, he's just there for the love of the chase.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, May 31, 2020 11:18 AM

Morbs otm

Like Hour of the Wolf tossed into Bergman's epic '60s run, I can't dislike California Split because where Altman was by 1974.

Based on this placing you'd have to expect another, what, 4 Altman's to show up? 3 at least

Can think of 2 more likely to appear and 2 others that wouldn’t surprise me

I knew I was home when ILX seemed to prefer 3 Women to Nashville.

Basically agree with Alfred (and Morbs) here. I gave it a rewatch in the last year and I'm still not on its wavelength but it's part of such a majestic run-up.

I knew I was home when ILX seemed to prefer 3 Women to Nashville M*A*S*H

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79. UNDER THE SKIN (Jonathan Glazer, 2014, UK) [665 points; 12 votes]
S&S: DNP | TSPDT: 1,986 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "this was significantly less dopey than Birth … I don't think this is ambiguous or mysterious enough to demand multiple viewings. At least chewier than "the brilliant Her," though."

I wasn't moved by Under the Skin at all. This kind of mystery-of-women subject tends to make me fidget.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, December 13, 2014 8:46 AM

I would have happily watched an entire film like the first 5 minutes of this, but then it turned into Killer Of Neds, oh well.
― めんどくさい (Matt #2), Wednesday, April 2, 2014 5:48 PM

I'm getting sick of asides suggesting that the film presents the protagonist as "constantly subjected to the predatory behavior of men". This is simply not true. The truck driver who appears at the end is really the only male character who fits this description.
― deliberately clunky, needlessly arty, (contenderizer), Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:29 AM

like how this reminds everyone of a different alien-vampire movie. Species, Liquid Sky, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Cat People whatever
― Οὖτις, Monday, September 22, 2014 11:51 AM

incredible film. was utterly absorbed at every moment and wished it wouldn't end - love films where you're in this bubble of seeing the world differently, it feels disorientating coming back to reality.
― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 3:56 AM

I love this movie cuz besides being aesthetically clobbering, there was a lot to think about afterwards. plus I'm a fan of stuff like taxi driver and gardner's grendel, monster movies where you're trapped with the monster for the duration. sympathy for lady predator. I'd call it deceptively meandering, the laissez-faire approach gives it that open ended feel, but there isn't a sequence in the latter half that doesn't contribute to the themes of desire and appearance, hidden motivations, gender dynamics, and our constant fucked attempts to connect w/ each other. it puts you so close to johannssen's character it's as though her wandering uncertainty infects the viewer, but this is a highly controlled piece of work.
― a hard dom is good to find (Edward III), Monday, June 16, 2014 10:02 AM

seriously who the fuck does this a hard dom is good to find cunt think he is
― conrad, Thursday, June 26, 2014 1:16 PM

oh man, what an incredible movie. had i gone beyond my top 25 it would've been on my ballot

I'm still sort of lol'ing at Killer Of Neds.

Very worthy inclusion. There's not a lot that phases me in movies anymore but I found the beach scene in particular very unsettling.

Never seen anything like it. It’s just searingly singular and extremely weird to watch if you’re from Glasgow.

Incredible, unlike morbs I also love Birth and voted for both

For a horrible moment there I thought Birth of a Nation had made its way into the 100.

78 slots left for that to still happen

eric, if you put a dw griffith in as a fakeout I am afraid I cannot be responsible for my actions

I had Under the Skin on my long list, it has an indelible atmosphere. It has a lot of reference points, but I don't think it feels like anything else. And like Matt Damon's roles where he's supposed to seem fake, I think ScarJo makes a virtue of some of her usual weaknesses — her blank affect is perfect.

Love California Split, that and The Long Goodbye are the only Altmans to have truly clicked for me so far.

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78. THE WICKER MAN (Robin Hardy, 1973, UK) [668.5 points; 8 votes]
S&S: 1,176 | TSPDT: 645 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "The Wicker Man is extra special to heathens … at least The Wicker Man is better than The Shining."

Wicker Man is more like a comedy to me … nothing remotely scary/horrifying about it
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:47 AM

I guess I should rewatch The Wicker Man again. Like, when I'm not actively dozing off throughout it's runtime, maybe.
― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 5:15 PM

Wicker Man rules, fuck y'all
― Simon H., Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:28 PM

whoa crazy according to wikipedia the wicker man opened its us run in...minneapolis? now i have to try and find a way to like it out of hometown pride. plus i really dig anthony schaffer.
― I want L'interieur chicken, not Hausu chicken (jjjusten), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:00 PM

with the wicker man there is the sense that the usual movie rules don't apply and anything could happen. this is a key ingredient for horror imo.
― the acquisition and practice of music is unfavourable to the health of (abanana), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:01 PM

is everyone just ignoring that half of its creepiness... well, we actually did that shit (still do, in some cases/places)? Maypoles and morris men and animal costumes and fertility dances are real, and they tap into a sense of England that is both pastoral and primal, bucolic and highly dangerous... We're a strange people in an ancient land.
― emil.y, Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:10 PM

I think my favourite thing about the film is that the hot air currents have failed so that the island is dying / it's not even an unbroken chain back to the pagan past, because it was Lord Summerisle's grandfather who instigated the paganism - so it's about pagan reconstructionism, not just paganism. Neither the island's way or the policeman's way 'work'. So viewed in terms of 'Environmental Cinema', that edge is what keeps the film from being a regressive fantasy like Avatar or LotR.
― cardamon, Tuesday, July 23, 2013 1:10 AM

It was interesting and fine and everything, but the protagonist was SO unlikeable that I really just didn't give a shit that he died. And when it's him vs. Christopher Lee, I mean who am I supposed to be cheering for? Chris Lee needs to be eating puppies or some shit before I stop rooting for him.
― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Sunday, July 30, 2006 6:00 PM

Christopher Lee is one actor from whom I'd tolerate puppy eating.
― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, July 30, 2006 6:10 PM

The apoplexy over The Wicker Man's 5th place finish in the ILX horror poll (over Psycho, Carrie, NotLD, Texas Chainsaw, etc.) was probably the biggest headline from that thread.

Fun double bill these last two would make.

i think that just as with its many-flowered 21st-century analogue, we are definitely meant to be in some sense cheered by the final conflagration

scarymonsterrr in 2006, yes it is more than OK to be on Christopher Lee's side in this fil.

love the image for this one

Been meaning to watch this one forever.

Under the Skin and The Wicker Man are both "interesting enough to watch once" movies, for me.

skewing kinda more culty than canon thus far, nothing i voted for but im here for it

the last three were on my list, all three create their own very specific sense of place that i have to revisit every once in a while

Did not vote for Wicker Man, but I love it. The best parts are just the depictions of daily life on the island. Seems influenced by The Prisoner? Or maybe they were both products of that particular time, channeling a lot of paranoia and instability.

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77. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966, Italy) [670 points; 12 votes; Morbs silver]
S&S: 136 | TSPDT: 138 | BOXD: 23

MORBS SEZ: "Leone > ultraviolent-phase Peckinpah … I need Ford, Hawks, Mann and Boetticher along with Leone, tho. 'Johnny Guitar' too."

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly gets better with each viewing. And what is often forgotten is that it contains one of cinema's more inexplicably haunting depictions of war. Aside from the battle between a couple of liquored-up armies fighting over a useless bridge, the war is nothing but retreating armies, dead bodies, military cemeteries, and prisoner-of-war camps.
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Wednesday, March 9, 2005 1:31 AM

The more I watch it, the more I am convinced that is my favorite movie.
― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Wednesday, March 9, 2005 10:45 AM

it's hardly ever noted how Eastwood gives such a good performance, and he's so understated throughout that it's hard to miss next to Wallach and Van Cleef and the more colorful supporting turns. And he's very good with the low-key comedy
― omar little, Thursday, October 11, 2018 11:12 AM

Tuco is better in A Few Dollars More.
― CaptainLorax, Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:15 PM

Wicker Man is my #16, first of my 25 to place. Agreed about sense of place, think that sums up about half of my balot.

skewing kinda more culty than canon thus far

To me this list is more "100 films that ILX likes" rather than a definitive take on film history, it's that balance between canon and cult that I'm interested in seeing.

omar little otm

i voted for this one

i have butch cassidy on my list and not tGood, tBad, a tUgly, wtf

Wicker Man is more like a comedy to me … nothing remotely scary/horrifying about it
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:47 AM

this has always been my experience w/this one as well, i try & try to be scared by it but the camp is just too much for me... scene after scene of that guy getting apoplectic over people drinking alcohol and singing folk songs, and then they torch him... its high regard as a legit scary movie has always baffled me

I love it but don't find it scary at all

scary is a strong word, but i do find the enthusiastic cultishness of the summerilse community eerie, even as (or maybe especially as) i root for the death of the prude

didn't vote at all but 'meshes' + 'mulholland drive' = perfectly apposite short + a feature combo

― donna rouge, Monday, October 25, 2021 11:21 AM

Delivered! From the Criterion Channel November titles announcement:

Short + Feature: Trance-Formers
Meshes of the Afternoon and Mulholland Dr.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Two giants of the American avant-garde speak through the language of the subconscious in a pair of surrealist masterpieces set in the shadow of the Hollywood dream factory.

sorry, can't make that showing, i have a poll to read

whoa whos out there lurking show urself

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76. DAISIES (Vera Chytilová, 1966, Czechoslovakia) [674.29 points; 7 votes; 1 first-place vote]
S&S: 297 | TSPDT: 292 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "8/10"

It is truly a great work of art, almost certainly the best of the Czech New Wave. Though in recent years I have grown increasingly irritable with people who don't realise/don't want to realise that its superficial absurdist joy masks deeper messages.
― emil.y, Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:44 PM

i doubt i'll ever figure out what half of it 'means' in any literal sense, but such a great, fun, bracing, life-affirming experience.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:51 PM

daisies is fun, but it can be tiring.
― sarahel, Friday, August 20, 2010 9:39 PM

That photo gives me '70s food nightmares.

TOO LOW

Surprised (and happy) to see California Split. The Long Goodbye and 3 Women will place higher, and guessing Nashville won't. I left Altman off my list, just to break age-old habits.

Never even heard of Daisies!

Daisies is the Daphne and Celeste of surrealist Czech cinema. It's a wonderfully annoying riot and I hope I voted for it.

really into Czech films and shamefully have never heard of Daisies, will check it out asap

TOO LOW

otm. In my top 20! I love this movie. Rewatched it a few years ago, was still charmed and surprised. (And I agree the whole thing has an implicit dark side, its anarchy is a reaction to oppression.)

...and the anarchy is also condemned as self-indulgence on the part of the main characters, it's not just a celebration of making a mess.

The director actually got into trouble with Czech authorities for depicting wasting food and it set back her career.

Or that was the pretext, anyway.

daisies is dope

hope we get at least one more Czech film

Gahhhhh, forgot to put the Morbs silver medal on The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Just imagine it's there.

Onto another gold medalist....

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75. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (John Ford, 1962, USA) [683.63 points; 8 votes; Morbs gold]
S&S: 120 | TSPDT: 93 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "Perhaps the best 'career summation' by a major filmmaker … being a Man of Civilization has its price."

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is high in the running for best western film of all time. It puts Shane to shame.
― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, November 2, 2020 3:02 PM

Wonderful performance from Wayne, but what a sad ending. Stewart's character has been a good man throughout the film, yet is left with a sense of unfulfilment.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:01 AM

oh you do not need to see very much ford, honestly. man who shot liberty valance is fucking great tho.
― ghost rider, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 10:33 AM

I recently watched Man Who Shot Liberty Valence... well, ok, there are like 50 racially awkward scenes in every John Ford movie, but the one that really stood out in my mind is when the attorney is teaching the class about the Declaration of Independence and the black guy blanks out on the part about "all men are created equal." Fuck off, John Ford.
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, January 11, 2007 9:02 PM

My two favourite Westerns show up on the same day!

I too can imagine this being my favorite western and maybe one of my favorite movies period once I've gained another 20 or so years.

What a strange way of calling me old!

unused MORBS SEZ (because it was more about Ford as a whole) from the ILX directors poll:

"who are the 27 clowns who don't think Ford is one of the 50 best filmmakers, Christ on a cracker"

followed almost immediately by:

"i really don't get ulcers over what a bunch of ahistorical anime wankers pull out of their hairless butts"

Hoping that's all the John Wayne westerns to show up

What about all the John Waters westerns?

Fine by me

I voted for this and it did make me feel old tbh.

Still, Daisies followed by this; that's variety.

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74. DAYS OF HEAVEN (Terrence Malick, 1978, USA) [683.63 points; 8 votes; 1 first-place vote]
S&S: 121 | TSPDT: 152 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "wd've been much better as a silent … his most overrated. needs a fan cut with music and intertitles, no dialogue"

overblown poesy. Attractively attired doggerel.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, December 5, 2005 8:08 PM

"Days Of Heaven" is ALL surface in a way that few films actually are. It's an achievement of some kind, but not necessarily that great for an audience.
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, January 2, 2004 6:06 PM

all films should be "all surface"
― amateur!!st, Wednesday, September 29, 2004 1:27 AM

i think it was pretty (definitely NOT the prettiest movie ever, maybe because nothing in it is ugly, stupid as that sounds) but i got tired of it always being in the late afternoon. the story was incredibly weak, the little girl was charming but unconvincing at times (too charming), i've just realized i don't think anyone in the movie had a name! i wasn't sure about the way-close-up nature shots (plants growing, locusts eating). didn't work for me. also i think the music was wrong for the movie. there were just things that didn't belong, too obsessed with prettiness. yes, all surface! no amateurist i don't think all films should be all surface but who am i to argue.
i would watch this again, if i had to, though.
― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Monday, December 5, 2005 7:42 PM

By European sensibility, I just meant the pacing of his films. Outside of the famous car chase in Days of Heaven, they tend to be slow.
― clemenza, Saturday, June 5, 2010 12:43 PM (eleven years ago)

theres a car chase in days of heaven???????
― has mia ever been so far as to go even do what more like? (Lamp), Tuesday, June 8, 2010 12:06 AM

Worst Morbs comment yet? Also, too low.

Morbs otm.

Not otm re Liberty Vallance, which frightens me.

How could you want to get rid of the Linda Manz narration. It's like outsider narration.

I disagree with caitlin about the plants and locusts, in my top 25. Also the only good voiceover xp

I don't love Days of Heaven, but it has one of the best (open) endings ever - life continues in a different direction while the film ends simply because we the viewers aren't following that way.

Not a big Malick fan, but I like DoH well enough.

Please no late Malick everyone!

Potential side question: did anyone discover or rewatch anything after they sent their ballot that would have made it? Closest for me might be What Happened Was...

― Chris L

Pontecorvo's Burn!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/073-being-john-malkovich.jpg

73. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (Spike Jonze, 1999, USA) [700.6 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 1,176 | TSPDT: 1,105 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: (asked about what his recent-ish nominees for the ILX comedy films poll would be) "I'll give you freebies: Groundhog Day, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine"

Malkovich hasn't aged well.
― milo z (mlp), Saturday, May 6, 2006 4:39 PM

Charlie Kaufman scripts are never quite as good as you want them to be for the simple reason that movies, like most stories, operate best from inside the heart, and Kaufman's anti-romances are really only concerned with your mind. But before the plot kicks in, and before things start making "sense," Jonze sets up a brilliant showcase for the plot's built-in disorientation, and Catherine Keener's Stanwyck-on-steroids turn.
-- Pete Scholtes

And Being John Malkovich I downright loved. I thought that movie was underrated even by a lot of people who liked it -- it got a lot of, "Oh, it's so zany, so fresh, so FUN" reviews, when I actually thought it was an intensely philosophical and deeply considered film. I think that movie grapples with some things (about the nature of existence and identity, the perennial struggle for transcendence via the Other, blah blah blah) that don't turn up in many films this side of Bergman. And it's funnier than Bergman.
-- JesseFox

Being John Malkovich was even better, and I think in both cases the PoMo games are not empty flourishes but ways that make very good sense to me as ways of addressing some genuinely interesting subjects.
-- Martin Skidmore

malkovich is maybe a 5 on the comedy scale, feel like it has cohen brothers syndrome where its more just a weirdo mindspace w/elements of black comedy w/o being an actual comedy, they try to say too much abt life to be an actual comedy, the end of malkovich is srsly p dire and not funny too for the record
― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 6, 2012 12:59 PM

guys, I could drop the screenplay for malkovich on the table and point to every other line as a joke. one of the few movies I laugh out loud at. Not only is it a comedy by definition & intended as a comedy by it's creators, but it is hilarius and has tons of classic scenes like the monkey flashback, the dude punching cusack, "let's have sex on the table an make malkovich eat eggs off it." "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO", "Think fast, Malkovich.", or the whole Charlie Sheen scene.
― (he did what!) (Austerity Ponies), Tuesday, March 6, 2012 1:16 PM

I also loved "Being John Malkovich" and I'm not emo.
― Dan (Bah) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, May 8, 2006 9:22 AM

malkovich was just way too dark for me. as in: i had trouble actually seeing what was going on at times.
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, May 8, 2006 10:10 AM

really though this movie is way too much concept not enough heart
― HOOS next aka won't get steened again (Hurting 2), Friday, August 9, 2013 9:47 AM

the first half of Being John Malkovich is ingenious. Although based on an extraordinary premise, the film doesn't just indulge in it, but instead uses it to explore themes such as identity, manipulation and celebrity. Strangely, much of this is thrown into the trashcan after we hear the explanation why there is a portal into Malkovich's mind (in my opinion, there was no need for explanation, and the one given was stupid and incoherent). After that, the film is nothing more than a battle of who controls John Malkovich; it suffers the exact fate it kept avoiding for its first half. The last 30 minutes of the film are nothing more than an intellectual masturbation with no direction nor a deeper meaning. The ending, albeit quirky, is unsatisfying and does little to save the movie. A minor letdown in the film is John Cusack. His literary lines and over-the-top acting would work well if Being John Malkovich were just a comedy. But when he tries to play the tragic character and display inner conflicts he simply isn't credible. This is hardly Cusack's fault, though; the dialogue, the characters and their emotional reactions are not crafted in a believable way (the only exception being John Malkovich himself). Whether this is deliberate or not, it ruins much of the films dramatic tension.
― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, February 21, 2005 4:51 PM

[after BJM landed #21 in the ILX comedy movie poll]
LOL looking forward to ILX's #1 Comedy of All Time, Eraserhead.
― I will transmit this information to (Viceroy), Tuesday, April 3, 2012 12:03 PM

https://c.tenor.com/RAcG0b5lOYoAAAAC/leespoons-malkovich.gif

malkovich, malkovich, malkovich

it made my list!

classic scott seward comment

Malkatraz! MaSheen!

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72. PIERROT LE FOU (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965, France) [705 points; 6 votes]
S&S: 56 | TSPDT: 63 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "God, I hate this board … I'd think you guys could at least bond w/ him over how much he hates Spielberg and Truffaut"

pierrot le fou is hilarious if you're a misanthrope like me
― dean! (deangulberry), Thursday, March 18, 2004 3:36 PM

I rewatched Pierrot recently, and it was definitely longer than I'd remembered, and tougher to get through. A thing I think is important to remember re: France/Vietnam is that they themselves were thrown out of Indochina in the fifties. You know: History repeats itself, as tragedy, then comedy. There is a certain cynicism on Vietnam, which I don't think is there when they discuss Algiers.
― Frederik B, Monday, February 3, 2014 4:52 AM

JLG's 60s run has some very strong use of colour, when he decides to use it.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, January 23, 2020 4:06 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Overdoes it a bit in "Pierrot le Fou" tbh. Overdoes everything a bit in "Pierrot le Fou" tbf.
― Frozen Mug (Tom D.), Thursday, January 23, 2020 4:58 AM

Other than Breathless and Band of Outsiders and maybe Pierrot le Fou, his films have as many dull or awful moments as wondrous ones.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, October 23, 2007 6:16 PM

Pierrot le Fou: So wonderful. A Jules Verne fantasyland.
― -8-(*_*)-8-, Tuesday, March 4, 2003 9:27 AM

would rather watch the Lost Boys than Pierrot le Fou again tbqh
― whyte mayne (corey), Tuesday, September 7, 2010 10:26 AM

my god is Belmondo sexy here

xposty but days of heaven was my #1 and i *like* how surfacey it is. it's distilled cinema and it's incredibly breezy for malick all things considered. the movie ends up feeling almost like an accident and i love that about it -- you can just feel how they found it in the editing process

PLF is p sick tbh

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71. MIRROR (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975, USSR) [708.38 points; 8 votes; Morbs gold]
S&S: 13 | TSPDT: 29 | BOXD: 85

MORBS SEZ: "my favorite (Tarkovsky) is The Mirror fwiw, but Andrei Rublev not far behind"

The Mirror is the best film ever made.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 6:23 PM

The Mirror is one of my all time favorite movies
― Dan S, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 6:46 PM

The Mirror is just moments of genius, wall-to-wall - I don't claim to understand it, but I view it more as a toolkit of scenes that the viewer must put together in their own way to form a unique emotional response. (That sounds rather cold and technical, but that's how it worked for me.)
― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, September 2, 2004 11:44 AM

I like Tarkovsky, but his theories on time don't scan to me (has any filmmaker taken them seriously?), some of the symbolism is cool when you first encounter them at an impressionable age but it can get tiresome. The films are often great, his dodging of the censors to make the kind of the thing he wanted almost miraculous - but I'm far more agnostic on the overall achievement. Parajanov is far more concrete with his flights of imagination. I like Mirror almost as much for the parts that allude to Soviet politics of a period. It just grounds things, in a way, making the symbolism richer.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, November 2, 2017 5:17 AM

And so Day 3 comes to a close.

100. ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, Roman 1968, USA) [620 points; 10 votes]
99. LA JETÉE (Chris Marker, Chris 1962, France) [623.33 points; 9 votes; 1 first-place vote; Morbs silver]
98. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO (Miyazaki Hayao, 1988, Japan) [623.9 points; 10 votes]
97. SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa Akira, 1954, Japan) [624.67 points; 9 votes]
96. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA) [625.71 points; 7 votes]
95. SHOWGIRLS (Paul Verhoeven, 1995, USA) [628 points; 4 votes]
94. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011, Turkey) [636 points; 6 votes]
93. ERASERHEAD (David Lynch, 1977, USA) [636.9 points; 10 votes]
92. THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, USA) [643.4 points; 10 votes]
91. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Alain Resnais, 1961, France) [645.82 points; 11 votes]