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

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/056-the-400-blows-1.jpg

56. THE 400 BLOWS (François Truffaut, 1959, France) [779.33 points; 9 votes]
S&S: 25 | TSPDT: 24 | BOXD: 107

MORBS SEZ: "The 400 Blows was reasonably highbrow to US audiences, I'd say."

best movie ever? yes, it is.
― fritz, Tuesday, February 19, 2002 7:00 PM

It's bollocks. Self-pitying, self-glorifying, ooh ooh ooh bollocks. It's dull and self-concious, and anyone reading this can probably name about 50 nouvelle vague films that are better. The 400 Blows is the sort of movie people like my ex-boyfriend short list as "a masterpiece". It's way too "I just started film school, ooer" for me, and quite frankly no film pisses me off as much as The 400 Blows, besides Titanic. Oh, and Waking Life, that really pissed me off.
― Ally, Tuesday, February 19, 2002 7:00 PM

It's self pitying, definetly. But thats part of the point. I think part of what Truffaut was trying to do was show a young man destroying his own life. The cages he find himself in throughout the movie can be seen as self-made. Oh, and come on people that final "whoa, I'm fucked" shot at the end is totally priceless.
― Ryan, Tuesday, February 19, 2002 7:00 PM

my only walk-out: "400 Blows"
― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Monday, October 30, 2006 1:13 PM

the end of 400 blows gives me chills every time.
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, March 28, 2005 7:38 PM

Without having seen more than 400 Blows, I can confidently pronounce upon Truffaut's overratedness.
― Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gentleee as you move (Leee), Wednesday, November 30, 2005 3:55 PM

Godard must've made 20 movies better than "The 400 Blows". I'm not certain whether "Breathless" is one of them.
― Kris, Wednesday, February 20, 2002 7:00 PM

Part of my students' final project this semester!

As much as going through old film threads has confirmed I've more or less mellowed with the years, I still stand behind my disgust at NRQ for his Sirk stances.

Still haven't read it. His book on All About Eve was exactly what I wanted from it, so I'll give it a shot soon.

Interestingly enough, most of the mentions of this one on ILX are (by and large) negative, and I guess I kind of understand given the trajectory of Truffaut's career and reputation thereafter. But accusations of sentimentality are ill-founded given the all-time ending.

Alfred's too much a dilettante in his snobbery.

― dor Dumbeddownball (Eric H.),

Has anyone read Born to Be Hurt?
― Through with “What’s the Buzz” (James Redd and the Blecchs)

Yep. Almost as exhaustive as the AAE book.

LOL at my taking potshots at jaymc's "film critic friend."

Was wondering about that.

still miffed I got no entry

Wasn't my dilettante snipe honor enough?

You're too short for that gesture.

Throw that dreary post away, it bores me.

Imagine if you all put this energy into updating the index!

And while I don't hate The 400 Blows, thinking too long on how much culture can be classified as men romanticizing their past assholishness makes me annoyed.

I mean, much like the protagonist in Drag Me To Hell, Antoine kinda gets what he deserves.

Truffaut's updating Antoine's life with new films over a 20 year period was fascinating to me

Was also interesting how JPL worked with so many other directors.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/458a648f4ee774b592c35355d7afeef2/tumblr_p9oglaHZpB1s9nbw1o1_500.gif

New ILF description Y/N?

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/055-the-graduate.jpg

55. THE GRADUATE (Mike Nichols, 1967, USA) [783.33 points; 9 votes]
S&S: 369 | TSPDT: 217 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "after Elaine discovers her mom's affair with Ben, The Graduate just isn't very good. Benjamin's dullness as a character to begin with is kind of the point. He was taken as a hero by dull '60s kids … my fave scene in The Graduate, however, might be the very last NOW WHAT one on the bus."

I've watched Bonnie & Clyde every few years over three-plus decades--from an initial "Huh?", it gets better every time I go back to it, and Harris's book helped that along a little more. But I still would have voted for The Graduate, which is part of my movie-going DNA.
― clemenza, Saturday, February 11, 2012 9:05 PM

this movie leaves me cold. i love "confused young man" black comedies of the era, but ennnh, you can't really build an entire movie out of coy winks and nods and no real script (unless you're french). i know it's supposed to be revolutionary and daring, but i don't feel it.
goodbye, columbus is better.
― oh ilx my lionheart (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, November 17, 2005 1:01 AM

The Graduate is one of my favourite ever films, yes. Just beautiful, and unbearably affecting re: becoming an adult, despite Benjamin's situation bearing little resemblance to my own post-graduation. I don't like the end so much as the beginning, and that section where he is having the affair with Mrs Robinson, lazing around the swimming pool and doing little else.
-- Nick

someone once said the last section of the graduate is like "crepey stalker gets the girl" and it made me go hmmm
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, April 24, 2009 12:02 PM

May I also say, I especially hate the song Mrs. Robinson. I'd always assume that seeing the movie would illuminate the lyrics for me (it wasn written about the character, right?) but the song doesn't seem to entirely "get" her.
― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Thursday, November 17, 2005 1:11 AM

it's not hard to love bonnie and clyde, but i think the graduate was smarter about where things were going. no blaze of glory, just a lot of wtf. plus -- anne bancroft.
― would you ask tom petty that? (tipsy mothra), Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:14 AM

elaine is an underwritten character, but ross is fine (in both senses)
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, March 24, 2016 12:17 PM

oh god, people, the graduate. please god no
― gear (gear), Monday, December 12, 2005 10:11 PM

when alex in nyc and dr morb yuppieromcom loving powers combine they give us - THE GRADUATE
― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, December 12, 2005 10:18 PM

oh god, people, the graduate. please god no
― gear (gear)

Today's 10 are sorta tearing themselves apart at the seams.

by the time i had finally gotten around to the graduate in college it was amazing to realize how much of it i had already seen through pop culture references

i've never completed the 400 blows

*Cue Jim Backus in an apron*

i assume my douglas sirk phase is imminent, had to abandon all that heaven allows when i attempted to watch it because it badly clashed with my mood, but i bet i would love imitation

i've never completed the 400 blows

Curious, any particular reason why?

idk i got the dvd from netflix back in the day and just never got past the first twenty minutes

i'm not much of a truffaut fan but 400 blows seems more or less flawless to me. i don't really get why it attracted so much hate in the olden days here on ilx, though some of those comments are pretty funny.

After a while I realized I don't like Mike Nichols much as a filmmaker. I get that he's good with actors, and there are good performances in his movies, but I find his affect sort of not here nor there. Boring, but not in an interesting way.

I had somehow never seen The Graduate until a few months ago and had the same experience as Brad - there's very little movie left underneath the torrent of overly familiar lines, scenes, etc. I enjoyed it but was underwhelmed as a result. Don't know if I can really fault the film for that but it wouldn't have sniffed my list (I think I had already submitted once I saw it anyway). I did throw an honorable mention to a dif Nichols

400 Blows and The Graduate are long-time favourites, may have been at the top of my ballot had it been sent 20 years before (instead of the #11 and #10 placements they got this time) - The Graduate in particular is something I have seen 20+ times but there is always something new for me, the tracking shot at the party, when he is underwater in the pool, the shot of their faces right at the end, just the wonder and despair at the possibilities of life and the constant snatching-away of their illusions of control, even Mrs Robinson is just a lost kid.

if you haven't made it all the way to the end of the 400 blows, you have to at least see the ending

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxNHPHpcj4

... which won't mean a whole lot in isolation

Not huge on The Graduate but that beginning is really beautifully shot for a director that always gets pegged as being more about the writing and acting.

xp Eric obv you haven't seen the cut CaAL posted

lol, didn't realize Tarr was such a Truffaut stan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ3-7C6RYOE

lol

of course, you've seen Léaud's Audition for The 400 Blows but in case you haven't:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULovABBn2ds

I don't know if this sounds weird, but Léaud was an unusually beautiful, austere young man. I find it hard squaring those virtues with the Doinel he played just a few years later. He looked hollowed out, callo.

Also: I can't recommend Mark Harris' Nichols bio more strongly.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/054-jurassic-park.jpg

54. JURASSIC PARK (Steven Spielberg, 1993, USA) [786 points; 9 votes]
S&S: DNP | TSPDT: 720 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "you ppl are pop-proctologists nonpareil, God save you … I saw it once, and thought all the accomplishments were technical, aside from Goldblum's meta japery."

get with the millennium morbs, we like jurassic park
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, January 29, 2016 4:02 PM

Has there ever been an ILX poll of Spielberg's films from Duel to Jurassic Park--before he became an artist?
― clemenza, Tuesday, January 30, 2018 5:23 PM

Jurassic Park a towering technical and marketing achievement but heartless.
― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Thursday, February 1, 2018 6:07 PM

I don't actually like Jurassic Park at ALL but Jeff Goldblum dresses fantastically in it so I'll give it a little bit of a pass (THAT FINAL SHOT OF THE T-REX AND THE RAPTORS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SHOT IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION AND THAT IS A STONE COLD FACT PEOPLE).
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, July 28, 2005 9:38 AM

I think there are highlights t/o Spielberg's filmography, so i wouldn't want to press the argument too hard. IMO Jurassic Park, Catch Me if You Can, War of the Worlds... these are all peaks of one kind or another. Jurassic Park may be the most emblematic Spielberg achievement.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, February 20, 2015 3:15 PM

really enjoyed "Jurassic Park" but the whole "I know this operating system... it's a UNIX system!" thing killed me with lols and came perilously close to throwing me out of the entire movie.
― DJP, Thursday, June 30, 2011 8:56 AM

all yall complaining about bad hacking scenes in skyfall need to appreciate the master of bad hacking scenes in jurassic park
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, November 20, 2012 11:52 AM

SLJ smoking in Jurassic Park was one of the last times we saw anyone do it (a) indoors (b) in front of children
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 20, 2012 4:45 PM

man what a great movie.
― ethan, Tuesday, January 15, 2002 7:00 PM

love this shit
― and what, Friday, May 11, 2007 2:29 PM

ethan wtf is up with your habit of reviving your own threads just to go "yup, i still agree with myself."
― Alex in Baltimore, Friday, May 11, 2007 2:42 PM

Feel like maybe JPL grew tired of playing that particular character, but perhaps just projecting.

He was often solid (Morbs and I loved The Death of Louis XIV) but he lost the glow -- the uniqueness -- after 400 Blows.

Surprised to see this, there’s a good half dozen Spielberg films I’d rate higher and I expect a couple will definitely place.

Fair enough, but he was well used by Godard and Eustache, and then later by Assayas and Kaurismäki or Bertolucci, to name several.(xp)

Maybe someone could make a claim that all those other roles were comments upon his first character and director.

yeah this is a strange and disappointing choice

You voters were so preoccupied with whether or not you could vote for Jurassic Park...

So it was one of the sanctioned nominees? Dang!

yeah this is a strange and disappointing choice

― mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Friday, October 29, 2021 2:38 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You voters were so preoccupied with whether or not you could vote for Jurassic Park...

― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

The Joe Biden of Spielberg films.