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

Both if necessary.

Too low

Only Tarkovsky epics on my ballot, but Mirror is something else for sure. Visionary.

I like its focus on memory and time. In his words “no other art can compare with cinema in the force, precision and starkness with which it conveys awareness of facts and aesthetic structures existing and changing within time"

Godard and Tarkovsky are my two favourite directors!
Still, Mirror is the one film of his that I don't get on an emotional level. It seems too private to approach, even if you read about it to understand the personal and cultural references. I think in a way his work was helped by having some superficially corny or cliched genre elements - making an historical film, war film or sci-fi gave him a grounding that he lost when he turned to pure artistic self-expression.

it does seem very private and abstract

the story keeps shifting - between his failing health, his childhood reminiscences, dream sequences, and our collective memories expressed through archival footage

The first time I watched Mirror I was kind of perpetually dazed, not in a bad way. The second time I could follow the structure a lot more.

Anyone anticipating any silent films appearing in the countdown?

i put one in my top 10 but not counting on it tbh

https://boxd.it/dPPzw

updated the letterboxd list and reposting the link for anyone who missed it late last night

xp Sunrise, The Passion of Joan of Arc, L'Atalante, Battleship Potemkin, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

First two above + Sherlock Jr. would be my guess.

L'Atalante wasn't a silent film, but it felt like one

Yes, if any silent films appear on the list, I would expect some comedies.
Do people really rate Potemkin as a personal favourite these days? I'd have thought it's been strictly "historically important" for decades.

I love Sunrise and Joan of Arc, but my most thrilling experience with silent film was seeing Safety Last! at the Castro Theater

with pipe organ accompaniment!

j.lu is the expert on silent cinema

I had two silents in my top 25, and four overall. I'm pretty sure one of them will place.

Please no late Malick everyone!

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, October 27, 2021 4:15 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

;) fuck off, TO THE WONDER would have threatened to make my list

the DAYS OF HEAVEN quotes are funny. honestly ilx quotes pre 2007 about *anything* are embarrassing to read these days

Days of Heaven was on my list, also a late Malick

Lots of great stuff in this batch!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly I first saw at such a young age that I think on some level it's still my go-to for what movies are "supposed" to be like. Rate Once Upon A Time In The West higher but both are perfect to me. Love Tuco so much.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance is really great. I will have to shamefully admit I don't like Ford in general much - he has been far too big an influence on so many of my fave directors (Kurosawa, Hawks, Welles, Leone) for me to just dismiss him altogether but his corny moralizing and one of the worst senses of humour in classic Hollywood make him very hard to take. Liberty Vallance though I love because it pulls back the curtain on his mythology in such an honest way; I may not agree with the final message (is he convinced by it himself?) but I can respect it. That scene in the school with Woody Strode tho, urgh.

Pierrot Le Fou is my fave Godard. The anger in it is laser-focused and at the same time it's a great Summer movie!

Really need to get around to Mirror. I've only seen Solaris, Stalker and Ivan's Childhood but those are all bangers.

oh man this finally started. voted for these:

A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Edward Yang, 1991, Taiwan) [655.5 points; 6 votes; 1 first-place vote] - 1st
JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray, 1954, USA) [651 points; 6 votes] - 7th
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (Alain Resnais, 1961, France) [645.82 points; 11 votes] UNRANKED
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid, 1943, USA) UNRANKED

mandy placing higher than marienbad, disgraceful stuff

oh and THE LADY EVE - unranked

Designating Mandy as the "Drive circa early 2010s slot" entry is so devastatingly true.

i lolled

j.lu is the expert on silent cinema

― Dan S, Wednesday, October 27, 2021 10:53 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

And if any of the silents on my ballot (shoot, any films period from my ballot) place anywhere on this poll, I'll be surprised.

Designating Mandy as the "Drive circa early 2010s slot" entry is so devastatingly true.

― Milm & Foovies (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 October 2021 10:20 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a lamentable misreading of mandy's merits obv

winding refn doesn't even touch cosmatos' grasp of the psychedelic, nor the sincere and emotive sentiments that inform his work

winding refn is in the gaspar noe bracket and neither belong here

I hold Climax above anything I've seen by either of the other two...

Maybe he found his niche later. I've only seen Irreversible

Anyway, save us Eric, lol

Don't mind if I do!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/070-m.jpg

70. M (Fritz Lang, 1931, Germany) [708.67 points; 9 votes]
S&S: 58 | TSPDT: 56 | BOXD: 103

MORBS SEZ: "I rewatched M this week, now knowing that FL did 20 takes of the hoods throwing Lorre down the stairs. Lang couldn't figure out why Lorre was cool to him in the Hollywood years … Also if you're going to call (Fury) a "social issue" movie, you might as well call M one too. Lang usually gets at something existential in addition."

M is my favourite film ever. Amongst many wonderful things, it pre-empts modern Policiers with a vengeance.
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, September 6, 2007 5:29 PM

so awesome. another one I saw really young that I found surprisingly haunting and disturbing. Lorre's confession scene at the end is amazing.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, May 18, 2012 1:58 PM

Just saw M for the first time. Damn, that's a film.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, February 17, 2009 10:38 PM

M and Testament are both monuments to how to convey information via a combination of off-screen action and sound or lack thereof.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, July 23, 2010 9:29 AM

M is my favourite film ever. Amongst many wonderful things, it pre-empts modern Policiers with a vengeance.
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, September 6, 2007 5:29 PM

M was my first Fritz Lang. Walked into it as an obligation. Walked away with a full-body buzz and a sense of euphoria that I only get from a very few great movies.
― He's sick of the Swiss. He don't like em. (Austerity Ponies), Friday, May 18, 2012 2:03 PM

Good morning!

so true i said it twice

anyway TOO LOW but

LOL, given the difficulties that movie presents for search functionality, I forgive myself for doubling you up, NV.

Even I had this on my longlist. Surprised it's this low tbh

It's great. I've warmed to a lot of minor Lang, too - like Cloak And Dagger may not be a masterpiece, but as an interesting failure it's better than many director's successes.

First time I saw M was on the big screen, at the Fantasporto festival, which always had a bad rep for just screening DVD copies of shit (it has since been revealed there was some fraudulent business dealings going on, too). For some reason the copy kept skipping between a German and Spanish audio track! Dude accusing Lorre in German and Lorre replying "I don't understand what you mean" in Spanish was a lol.

i’ve seen drive. mandy was instantly one of my favorite films of all time bc someone painted the inside of my head on a screen. drive is in no way that personal

anyway most of these films placing above seven samurai is embarrassing

except for m tho which is dope

lol, that sounds awesome Daniel_Rf

Went with a different Lang.

Same, but M is obv mandatory on this or any list

Yeah, sure.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/069-the-life-and-death-of-colonel-blimp.jpg

69. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943, UK) [715.71 points; 7 votes]
S&S: 103 | TSPDT: 200 | BOXD: 168

MORBS SEZ: "If my favorite Archers isn't Blimp or Narcissus, it could be I Know Where I’m Going! So hard to pull off a romance like that without being fey or seeming contrived."

Col. Blimp to The Red Shoes is the best six-film run in the history of the medium.
― WilliamC, Friday, January 19, 2018 3:59 PM

Colonel Blimp is perfect. It's one indelible scene after another.
― jmm, Friday, January 19, 2018 4:07 PM

I've never managed to get much enthusiasm up for Colonel Blimp despite it probably being regarded as among their best (if not their best?).
― frankiemachine, Saturday, June 19, 2004 5:12 AM

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp is among my all-time favourite films, even ahead of A Matter Of Life And Death. Their films are full of stunning imagery that looks like nothing else ever (think heaven in A Matter Of, tolling the bell in Black Narcissus, lots in the red Shoes and so on), and really interesting things to say about people.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, June 19, 2004 8:32 AM

watched the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at the weekend... i have a question... Theo blanks him in the POW camp. why? pride? but then he calls him from the railway station and goes and has dinner with him. seems friendly enough. but then seems to mock him to his compatriots on the train back to germany. why the flip-flopping?
― koogs, Wednesday, April 9, 2014 3:37 PM

i think he's violently conflicted--torn between anger at what has been to done to his country and loyalty to his friend. i do think this is one aspect of the film that seems a bit miscalculated. one reason this has never been my favorite archer film even though it is completely enthralling front to back.
― espring (amateurist), Wednesday, April 9, 2014 6:22 PM

Not a very sexy film for the coveted #69 spot.

Love it, the Archers at that point really could do no wrong.

Same thing, went with another Archers, but yeah.