Pretend you have a ballot for the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound's top 10 movies of all time list

will you get a ballot hm?

bresson is one of those geezers who suffer from not having one consensus pick from a generally p flawless filmography

REALLY hope that S&S don't treat first and second Godfather as one film this time round, that's such bs.

otm

xpost

idk

jed's gonna intercept your e-mail

and then write in his own list

with #1 donnie darko

and only five other films

#2 The Box

i'm sure hm would be fine with it.

yep!

Slightly lawless how, schlump? I think the films are interesting as projects, not necessarily as films themselves

i think Malick was relatively obscure prior to 1998 and TTRL, and considering that the next poll was 2001, i just feel that his profile is a lot higher, if probably pretty divisive.

thought the consensus Bresson was Au Hasard Balthazar...or Pickpocket. though I'd rep for a LOT of them.

ha, well; i think i just think of the s&s top 10s as quite a particular thing, maybe on account of the fairly canonical dominance of stuff like kane - of it being some kind of enquiry into the basically auteurist craft of feature-making. and so i think i'd feel daring putting 7Up in there because, vis a vis its TV origins & the nature of the project, they feel like they fit more neatly into a different box - that as much as s&s is going for a 'greatest films' list in one sense, it's really more about who used the toolset the best against different historical backdrops. this is obviously no reason not to vote for it, however, & i'd be including docus (gates of heaven) in my list, too, & included the Up series in my list for clemenza's thing. it's just a feeling (that i find you heretical).

i saw nick james talk, a while ago, at a thing that reviewed the last decade in film, not long after the most recent (and great) list of 30 films they put together was published in the magazine. and he'd tried to get yi yi, to screen, both as a highlight of the decade and as a representation of what he saw as a dying breed - he felt like making that kind of opus, on that scale, or on the scale of WKW's stuff, say, was not something that cinema was going to continue doing, that it would probably pad out in different directions. and while i don't think that's necessarily borne out by the facts - i think there are films from argentina & elsewhere that've basically taken the same approach, and not in small numbers - it does feel like there's some kind of truth to it, and i feel a shift in what making a film might mean, now, i guess in the same way that there are those occasional paradigm shifts in what the novel seeks to reflect about society (for me, w/films, it is more using the camera unobtrusively, as an eye, to paint portraits rather than to track action or tell stories, though i think that's probably me being overly gung-ho in appreciation of slow cinema, on account of having in a short spell got hip to a bunch of asian film that i'd slept on and suddenly feels like the future). & this kind of delineation of the shifting aims of films to me kinda exposes the older models, that i feel like the top 10s try to encapsulate - not really docus, not really newer impressionistic stuff but specific, systematic films that were made solidly with a command of their ingredients.

the most recent (and great) list of 30 films they put together

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49591
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49593, btw

^^^ great post. I'm feeling convinced lately that the next great thing in film – obv. not mainstream, american film – will be a reinvigoration of impressionistic styles, driven by the integration of video-game and powerpoint type media

wondering if killer of sheep is ever gonna get S&S love, or ilx love really

It got a few votes in the 2002 poll (four or five maybe?) To Sleep with Anger got a vote or two too.

Jesus God, what kind of maniac thinks Apocalypse Now is better than Raging Bull?

I mean, you did notice that the last third of AN just sucks?

i haven't seen it in a while but i think the first two-thirds of 'apocalypse now,' at least, are great. as someone who's never understood the appeal of any of the 'godfather' flicks, i think AN is probably the only coppola that's ever been a big deal for me (apart from 'rumble fish').

will be a reinvigoration of impressionistic styles, driven by the integration of video-game and powerpoint type media

curious for you to expand on this, remy

re: bresson - i'm not sure, but i think 'man escaped' wld prob be the brit consensus choice, maybe in france, too? the national film theatre in london's programme notes for 'l'argent' always used to claim that it was the best film ever by the best director, ever, and so... seems like 'pickpocket' is the american consensus pick, prob cos of schrader repping for it hard in 'transcendental style', tho i've always thought it was one of rb's less satisfying pics (relatively speaking, obv.) and of course, the correct ans. anyway is 'mouchette'...

Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang
Pootie Tang

Jesus God, what kind of maniac thinks Apocalypse Now is better than Raging Bull?

they're both flawed in interesting ways but I prefer AN's interesting ways.

ha, ward, that all sounds right. think that's probably true of a man escaped, & it sorta ticks the right boxes to be considered his definitive pick - as spare as any of them, as serious and as singular.

ages since i've seen mouchette. i think i actually have kinda conflated it w/onibaba. & i still for the most part haven't seen his historical films ...

Also: Antonioni's reputation has been more uneven than any other major director in these polls.

fuck, been thinking too much about this so now i have to do one. these are the movies i'd want to give a push, even if they'd never make the top hundred

spirit of the beehive
killer of sheep
my neighbor totoro
koyaanisqatsi
playtime
dekalog series
the iron giant
ikiru
the seventh seal
blade runner

that's 10 but wings of desire and russian ark and probably some more films are equal. gummo got a vote in 2002 and i might hypothetically vote for it in contrarian solidarity. or maybe i'd throw a vote to shawshank, which might be more contrarian in this context.

"semi-honest" ten
Scarface (1932)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Night and the City (1950)
Vertigo (1958)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Playtime (1967)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Crumb (1994)
Sin City (2005)

"strategy" ten
Sunrise (1927)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
The Third Man (1949)
Vertigo (1958)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Playtime (1967)
2001 (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)

i think i could be reasonably comfortable with a top 20, but a top ten is just brutal; everything that's an exemplar of great, well-executed narrative stuff gets pushed into 11 - 20 because i feel like the top ten should be populated by kinda sui generis weird stuff that's more about cinema as a medium (can't really explain this distinction, but something about montage & communication as priorities rather than narrative or performance).

is there any "action" movie that would ever have a shot at the top 25 or so? The Road Warrior?

The Opening of Misty Beethoven

battleship potemkin

seven samurai, duh!

Seven Samurai was tied for 9th last time in the directors' poll

xp!

Wages of Fear should get more votes.

Seven Samurai is a total duh, of course. I guess i was fixated on a particular post-70s idea of an action movie.

Any post-70s movie getting into S&S is sort of a quixotic proposal.

guys, the sight and sound poll has just become officially irrelevant. we are finally getting The New Canon.

Any post-70s movie getting into S&S is sort of a quixotic proposal.

i think we might've touched on this upthread, but isn't one of the perks of anticipating 2012 the 'changed viewing landscape' & you know celebrating that we live during the third act of kiarostami's career, with everything that means about recent films entering the canon?

Question for Eric, Morbs, etc. If you had to pick one film post 1989 to vote for in S&S, which would it be? What about post 1999?

I wouldn't give up on Raging Bull yet in terms of a (barely) post-'70s film. It tied for 6th in the directors' poll last time; probably its biggest obstacle in gaining further ground this time would be Scorsese's mediocre output the past 10 years.

i think i'd probably take issue with the idea that it totally works that way, but more immediately you're forgetting that this poll will be conducted post-hugo

Hugo will likely trigger a major re-evaluation of Scorsese's entire filmography...I can see where a mediocre decade could cut both ways. Maybe all the recent mediocrity makes Scorsese's earlier films stand out all that much more; but I also think there's a general loss of enthusiasm about someone when they play out the string, and that that can impact how you feel about the earlier work. I can think of musicians where it's worked one way with me, and others where it's gone the other way.

that GQ piece is vile.

if Sight and Sound isn't gonna honour movies post-1986, someone has to. I'm glad she's there, not giving a shit about Rules of the Game.

I wouldn't give up on Raging Bull yet in terms of a (barely) post-'70s film.

Yeah, not counting Raging Bull placing as a victory for post-'70s movies, Biskand.

Don't know if I'll get a ballot -- maybe they already went out -- and I'm too flibbertygibbet really to be much cop at these kinds of anti-historical monumentalisation, as the S&S peeps know, but I should totally rep for The Thing if I do.

Also Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.

Any ilxors get invited to participate? I promise not to (admit to) be(ing) jealous.

Question for Eric, Morbs, etc. If you had to pick one film post 1989 to vote for in S&S, which would it be? What about post 1999?

Respectively, Showgirls or Eyes Wide Shut and Inland Empire, probably.

first thoughts:

A Moment of Innocence

Mulholland Dr.

Recent films I'd back for all-time best: the Lynches, The Tree of Life and Être et avoir.

Être et avoir

English title: Come At Me Bro

Wow, that completely changes the tone of the film!

'double life of veronique,' 'my neighbor totoro'

lots of otm already. i can't really remember what 2002 included but i'd imagine that this poll will canonise a bunch of iranian stuff, maybe some slow Asian stuff like Hou.

when i think about post 89 films id vote for i get a little embarrassed at how conventional my taste is, but id vote for:

The Thin Red Line
A.I.
Eyes Wide Shut
Zodiac
In the Mood for Love
maybe Flowers in Shanghai?

trying to remember some more Euro or artier stuff but my mind's a-blank...