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

haha true

the ones I can keep straight are Tokyo Story (obv) and The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice, not just because of the title but also because that's the one that has a sign for a snack bar called CALORIE HUT in it.

My Ozu votes went to An Autumn Afternoon and Tokyo Story, one or both of which I expect are still to place, but yeah there's a degree of interchangeability with his films

SMS is a documentary?

― Heavy Messages (jed_)

If Documentary Now! feel able to lampoon it then that’s good enough for me.

<<rockism is not akin to liking old european experimental art movies, because classic rock and its modern imitators are in no way the same as experimental / art music>>

Yes! I'm not a film rockist! (Filmist? Cinesnob?)

<<also there is nothing in music really equivalent to either marvel superhero movies or generic Oscar bait, thank god.>>

Probably not the place to debate this but... I'm having trouble coming up with music's Marvel superhero movie equivalent (although for some reason, the Black Keys keep popping up as a possibility; "real" rock 'n' roll as a franchise?). But there's plenty of corollaries to generic Oscar bait. Sting, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Nanci Griffith, Patty Larkin, Patti Griffin, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins, etc.

I voted for Early Summer but could've voted for Late Spring, Equinix Flower, Early Spring....

An Autumn Afternoon is the only Ozu I've watched multiple times so I guess that makes it my fave

Turns out I actually like more musical Oscar bait than movie Oscar bait.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/038-singin-in-the-rain.jpg

38. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952, USA) [841.82 points; 11 points]
S&S: 27 | TSPDT: 12 | BOXD: 105

MORBS SEZ: "I've liked Singin' fine since I was a kid, but Donald O'Connor grates occasionally, as does Kelly's robotic smile in closeup … the MGM musical for ppl who don't like actual great musicals … oh, the dancing's great obv -- the component of musicals that least interests me."

It's one of those rare films that seems to have no detractors. I'd just been putting it off due to my previous experience with musicals. Anyway, I went into this not really knowing how I'd feel, and found myself stunned on more than one occassion. I realize that my attitude towards musicals has been as condescending as most peoples' towards horror movies, and though I don't think I'll ever be a true connoisseur of the genre, I gotta admit - this movie kicks some serious ass.
― Anthony (Anthony F), Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10:31 AM

As far as movies are concerned, both "Singin' In The Rain" and "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" are bona-fide classics.
― Dan Perry, Thursday, May 3, 2001 7:00 PM

Singing In The Rain is a movie with one great song and a couple more good ones. It's a really fun movie, and maybe even the best "movie musical" (at least before the recent Bollywood-inspired wave). But that's because it was fundamentally a movie, not a musical.
― Vornado, Friday, September 2, 2005 9:53 AM

It's strange--if I met [Donald O'Connor] on the street I'd probably hit him with a stun baton until he stop breathing. But I loved him in this film.
― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:56 AM

Tom Cruise, reprising his Oprah role, as Cosmo Brown in Singin' in the Rain
― gabbneb, Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:40 PM

is Cosmo gay Y/N
― If I was a carpenter, and you were a douchebag (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, December 27, 2012 3:27 PM

I carry an umbrella all the time. It's a huge one with the music to "Singin' in the Rain" on it. I'm pretty sure it makes me look rather camp.
― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, August 16, 2004 2:35 AM

The 50 Best Musical Numbers in Movie History
Poll Results
30. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, "Make 'Em Laugh" (1952) 5
22. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (1944) 5
01. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, "Singin' In The Rain" (1952) 4

fn hate singing in the rain, gene kelly is such a sleazeball
― plax (ico), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 2:04 AM

An anarchist watches singing in the rain

Then a cop turns up and ruins it.

— Don't trust cops. (@MediocreDave) December 25, 2020

― xyzzzz__, Friday, December 25, 2020 8:27 AM

musical Oscar bait can sound pretty, actual Oscar bait is usually hard work as well as vapid

I think SITR's reputation is well deserved, I've watched a shit ton of MGM musicals hoping that more obscure selections would live up to or surpass it and so far no dice (The Band Wagon comes closest, not an obscurity of course).

It does do that MGM musical thing of introducing a totally artificial point of conflict right near the end and then resolve it immediately.

Excellent run so far.

Related to the Ozu discussion, does anyone think there are two approaches to understanding a director's work:

- it's better to rewatch a small handful (or maybe just one) of their films until you "get it";
- you learn more seeing a large number of films, some of them perhaps only once?

Are there some directors where one approach works better than the other?

My students applauded after the "Make'Em Laugh" sequence a couple weeks ago and I teared up.

Related to the Ozu discussion, does anyone think there are two approaches to understanding a director's work:

- it's better to rewatch a small handful (or maybe just one) of their films until you "get it";
- you learn more seeing a large number of films, some of them perhaps only once?

Why only two approaches? I often watch a couple films; if I don't get it, I move on. It's happened, though, that a Barry Lyndon transforms from a snooze to an essential after several years' distance.

I admit rewatches account for a tiny percentage of my viewing but that's more to do with FOMO and gotta-catch-'em-all collector's mentality than anything else, which are not good things.

It also used to be easier when I was in my 20's and had a buncha friends willing to hang out that I could foist my enthusiasm for some recently discovered masterpiece on.

Alfred, did you like it better the second time because you had seen more of his films, or understood Kubrick better by then?

I think watching a large number of films never hurts. You can also learn how to situate one director by watching a bunch of other directors.

Singin' in the Rain was just outside the top 10 for me, I love it to pieces. So entertaining and lively, the cast is great (shout-out to Jean Hagen), and the central dance sequence is as enchanting as it is out of place.

Late Spring is my 2nd-fave Ozu after Tokyo Story — which I saw first and is still my Ozu placeholder in terms of opening the door to him for me.

I've watched a shit ton of MGM musicals hoping that more obscure selections would live up to or surpass it and so far no dice

I suspect a lot of us had done that.

I was just thinking, for a director like Ozu, you might do better watching a few of his films over again and learning the particularities of his style that way, rather than watching a dozen in a short time and getting confused by an endless series of tatami mats, bars, train tracks, families, etc. You would certainly know what an Ozu film was like, but perhaps not in depth. Or maybe this is my issue.

Eddie in Stranger Than Paradise, big Ozu fan.

Confession: I find that central dance sequence a bore.

Alfred, did you like it better the second time because you had seen more of his films, or understood Kubrick better by then?

― Halfway there but for you

I saw my library had a copy of BL and I thought, "Well, let's give it another shot."

I prefer Meet Me in St. Louis to Singin' in the Rain. But I can't think of any other MGM musical that would come between them. Now Gentlemen Prefer Blondes... That's never bothered me, though. The musical is more a genre of indelible moments than balanced wholes. Small Town Girl (László Kardos, 1953) is so not a great film. But it contains several of the most incredible musical numbers ever pinned to celluloid.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/3o84ss8zrrZIUtxp9C/200w.gif?cid=82a1493bkcoj0lsv1mbddlcr23fzfudos5c5z8jjdgmiyp0u&rid=200w.gif&ct=g

I cannot watch The Passion Of Jean Of Arc without thinking of Limmy's Vines. It's quite striking, not only the facial similarity but also very much the camera angles and editing. I can hear the Glasgow accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-slxSyvAk

there's plenty of corollaries to generic Oscar bait. Sting, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Nanci Griffith, Patty Larkin, Patti Griffin, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins, etc.

A lot of them are concurrent with the '80s, which I still regard as the height of a certain kind of prestige Oscar bait.

"Oscar bait" and "middlebrow entertainment" aren't entirely synonymous.

Best Picture winners have always been prestige Oscar bait going back to All Quiet on the Western Front and The Life of Emile Zola.

And, actually, now that I think about it, the Black Keys would totally be the contemporary equivalent to generic Oscar bait. The War on Drugs too. Maybe Mumford & Sons.

<<"Oscar bait" and "middlebrow entertainment" aren't entirely synonymous.>>

True. 99% is not "entirely."

Can we go back to poptism?

Confession: I find that central dance sequence a bore.

I would probably fast-forward it now unless I was watching with someone who hadn't seen it. But I'm glad it exists, it's so much a product of its immediate moment.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/037-contempt.jpg

37. CONTEMPT (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, France) [845.71 points; 7 votes]
S&S: 27 | TSPDT: 40 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "I've never liked it; i can go listen to my married friends argue anytime (albeit not on Cote d'Azur)"

Sex, sun, sea and twisted automobiles. We've got Brigitte Bardot, Odysseus, Fritz Lang, Jack Palance, and the Casa Malaparte. Cinematic heroin.
― -8-(*_*)-8-, Tuesday, March 4, 2003 9:27 AM

Paradoxically, Godard's most conventional and greatest movie. He's not usually esteemed as a director of actors, but here the ensemble (with no common language between them) achieves a magnificent balance between different performance styles (possibly including non-acting).
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, March 25, 2021 9:42 PM

I like this film in spite of the terrible performances.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 26, 2021 11:44 AM

contempt seemed sorta hollow and awfully pleased with itself
― would you ask tom petty that? (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, April 22, 2009 5:51 PM

I think contempt is a good description for the way he treats the artifice of cinema. Which I always found kind of adolescent.
― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Monday, August 27, 2012 9:00 PM

definitive godard flick.
― nutrasweet glider, Tuesday, November 8, 2005 7:34 PM

Well, I love Contempt, but I'd say it's probably the least "definitive" Godard I've seen.
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Wednesday, November 9, 2005 12:33 PM

Colin MacCabe has called it the greatest European work of art since WWII. I can't see that; not even sure it's the greatest Godard picture of 1963. Anyone else?
― the pinefox, Friday, November 23, 2007 4:14 AM

contempt is the worst date movie ever.
― s1ocki, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 6:13 PM

Delighted a film we don't much like did well.

my favorite Godard film

<<Can we go back to poptism?>>

Absolutely. I looooooooooooooved Booksmart so pretty please recommend any contemporary comedies as relentlessly witty and hilarious as this one.

Also, y'all should wrestle a bit with Hallmark Christmas movies. You don't have to watch any of them. Simply download the Hallmark Movie Checklist app and just look at all the titles! Literally hundreds of them! And they're freakishly popular. It's the closest film equivalent to Harlequin romance novels that I know. A fascinating phenomenon!

https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1606246582-il_570xN.2626207656_6skr.jpg

Zelda was relentlessly hilarious. Much better than Booksmart.

fond of this and la chinoise, the rest of the sixties stuff i find pretty trite. man didnt start making all caps great cinema till the eighties

lang quoting holderlin extremely good imo

which '80s Godard do you recommend? I didn't like Every Man for Himself and couldn't finish Lear. I haven't watched First Name: Carmen.

My second vote to place. If I'd forced myself to vote for 100 films instead of 26, I'd have included A Married Woman, Weekend and maybe Soigne ta Droite by Godard as well.
Je Vous Salue Marie is a good 80s Godard also.

y'all should wrestle a bit with Hallmark Christmas movies

I've had to watch dozens of Hallmark movies for work, you learn a lot about script structure, patterns and formulae.

i love hallmark christmas movies, many of them are totally bonkers

out of the 'narrative' stuff: carmen, l hail mary and germany 90 year zero for sure. i love oh woe is me even if it fails. among the experimental/video work i much prefer scenario du passion to the feature

Last Hallmark movie I watched was Christmas at Dollywood, which kept delaying Dolly's appearance while assuring that viewer that Dolly was indeed coming.

Now that Hallmark makes GAY-neuter Xmas movies, I'm all in, KJB.

Suck it, Godard!

(Also, I thought I was catching a glimpse of a lady jock strap in that sweatshirt pic.)

fond of this and la chinoise, the rest of the sixties stuff i find pretty trite. man didnt start making all caps great cinema till the eighties

― devvvine, Monday, 1 November 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Late 60s and some of the 70s are really great: Weekend, Le Gai Savoir, Numero Deux, Ici et Ailleurs.

Contempt is my favorite Godard as well. Just beautiful to look at. Absolutely love Jack Palance's over the top performance (basically as an American from the French point of view). I've only seen it once but that scene where Jack Palance is running, jumping and talking all over the place, eventually gets in his car to drive a really short distance on a film set while the two main characters leisurely walk to the same place definitely left an impression and is one of the funniest things Godard has ever done.