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

Mine hasn't changed in a while.

1. Some Call It Loving (James B. Harris, 1973)
2. The Hart of London (Jack Chambers, 1969-1970)
3. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
4. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
5. Blow Job (Andy Warhol, 1962)
6. Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller, 1963)
7. Submit To Me Now (Richard Kern, 1987)
8. Illusions (Julie Dash, 1980)
9. Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1953)
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)

since i never posted mine, here goes:

1. a taste of honey (tony richardson, 1961)
2. city lights (charles chaplin, 1931)
3. daisies (věra chytilová, 1966)
4. loves of a blonde (milos forman, 1965)
5. persona (ingmar bergman, 1966)
6. an angel at my table (jane campion, 1990)
7. l'avventura (michelangelo antonioni, 1960)
8. my man godfrey (gregory la cava, 1936)
9. stranger than paradise (jim jarmusch, 1984)
10. fanny and alexander (ingmar bergman, 1982)

After Death (Bauer, 15)
The Scarlet Empress (Von Sternberg, 34)
L'eclisse (Antonioni, 61)
La Jetee (Marker, 62)
Simon of the Desert (Bunuel, 65)
Weekend (Godard, 67)
Pink Narcissus (Bidgood, 71)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 74)
Satantango (Tarr, 94)
Showgirls (Verhoeven, 95)

that's a nice list

All US/Euro+Russian tho, which does bother me.

"Nader voting" v popular itt

If I were to choose one title to bolster in the top 10-20 range, it would be Rules or Balthazar.

Eric, I'm sad that Women in Revolt got bumped.

Don't worry. Both Women in Revolt and Pink Narcissus will get the same amount of votes in the IRL S&S poll.

ha.

Belle de Jour (Buñuel, 1968)
Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch, 1932)
Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger, 1959)
Early Spring (Ozu, 1956)
Au Hazard, Balthazar (Bresson, 1966)
Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)
The Earrings of Madame De... (Ophuls, 1953)
McCabe & Mrs Miller (Altman, 1971)
My Own Private Idaho (Van Sant, 1991)
The Lady Eve (Sturges, 1942)

I guess since at least 8 of my selections could be construed as horror movies of some stripe, you can have two screwballs.

that's what I've been told more than once

At once.

Depending on who the newbies are, I could see Pink Narcissus getting some votes (like, 3).

Yay artistically defensible gay wankery!

^^ summer gay thread title

Who thinks about art in the summer?

have you such contempt for yourself?

always

Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream
Until the day is night and night becomes the day
Until the trees and seas just up and fly away
Until the day that 8x8x8 is 4
Until the day that is the day that are no more
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
Until dear Mother Nature says her work is through
Until the day that you are me and I am you

^^ summer gay thread title

Considering my top two can't-wait-to-see movies this summer are Magic Mike and Step Up Revolution, it's got my vote.

where does "defensible" fit in w/ Step Up Revolution?

Ask yourself, Occupy Film Threads.

To what degree are you guys just making lists that you like to look at? Like, Eric, do you really think Showgirls is better than other films by some of the directors on your list, like Tokyo Story or Werckmeister Harmonies or whatev? Not to pick on you personally but I wonder about how much of these lists involve some gamesmanship or eclecticism.

Not that I don't love Showgirls ...

I am for real with Showgirls.

Tho I understand the impulse to ask. Conversely, I want to ask people who list Raging Bull, 8 1/2, Battleship Potemkin and Seven Samurai if they're making a conscious choice to have boring taste.

those genuinely are my 10 favorite films! tho if i were actually voting in the S&S poll i'd prob replace one of the bergmans with something else just for the hell of it.

Tho I understand the impulse to ask. Conversely, I want to ask people who list Raging Bull, 8 1/2, Battleship Potemkin and Seven Samurai if they're making a conscious choice to have boring taste.

yeah, that too. i love 'rules of the game' and 'vertigo' but no one needs another xerox of roger ebert's top 10 list.

I don't think I would ever put Battleship Potemkin and Seven Samurai in a top 10 though I think they are both "great" -- and I'm not sure how "boring" enters into it, anymore than "asinine" necessarily does with something written by Joe Eszterhas -- but some films are canonical whether you like them or not.

also WTF Seven Samurai is less boring then every comic-book hero film ever made.

^^^^^

Whatever, you will all bow down before the superiority of my taste.

I might list Potemkin if I was making a conscious attempt (as opposed to my unconscious attempt above) to make a list of 10 great gay movies.

Sight and Sound is asking for "best", which is obviously a can of worms, but a lot of critics seem to be voting for films that are historically significant or formally innovative, whereas others are just voting for their favorites. I'm not really sure what the value of a poll is if the voters are not using the some criterion for their selections.

Anyway, my list would be 1. Shawshank Redemption, 2. The Fountain ....

What's gay about it -- sailors complaining about bad food?

xp

xp the "same" criterion

I have less interest in Kurosawa's samurai shit the older I get, i.e. less embarrassment admitting they bore me. I prefer the crime dramas/noir.

If pressed, I'm sure I could write a few thousand words about why Showgirls is one of the greatest movies about/embodying "the dream factory." And did.

So why did you dock it half a star?

Actually, I think that would be the movie I'm most equipped to defend on my list next to Chainsaw. Selling Narcissus would be a tougher sell. I suppose if it would make more people comfortable, swap that one out in your mind for Cocteau or something.

So why did you dock it half a star?

You mistake my methodology. Every time I watch that movie, I add stars to its rating. Right now, it's sitting at something like 73 and a half stars.

any time i try to make a list like this it becomes somewhat biographical (ie, maybe even narcissistic) but you want to balance that with a pretense to "objectivity."

So Seven Samurai appears because I got that first Criterion DVD in college and it was one of the first japanese films I ever saw and it put me in touch with a sense of film history that i didnt have before. and it was long and in black and white and I loved it anyway. it's a touchstone for me.

on the other hand there are other movies from that era of my life that don't hold up--too much of their time perhaps, they dont speak of anything beyond that moment. that one does, so on the list it goes.

impossible to be "objective" and discuss personal tastes

Which is part of the point, otherwise just let robots pick like they did in 2002.

In no order:

Taxi Driver
Vertigo
2001
Sansho the Bailiff
Playtime
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Third Man
A Brighter Summer Day
The Wizard of Oz
Andrei Rublev

Eric Harvey is selling some back issues:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140747591068#ht_734wt_1000

some ppl are just LIST QUEENS

(prompted by yet another solicitation in my inbox)

I have less interest in Kurosawa's samurai shit the older I get, i.e. less embarrassment admitting they bore me. I prefer the crime dramas/noir.

Pretty much what I think as well. I can watch High And Low, Ikiru (not noir, but mod. day), Stray Dog, and even the wonky overlong scrambled-Hamlet of The Bad Sleep Well repeatedly, while the period samurai stuff is a chore.

I'll just get my sword.

Some days I think Ran is his best.

I can't remember it too well but the florid nihilism of Kagemusha seemed pretty compelling at the time. I think if I don't count Seven Samurai then Throne of Blood might be my favorite. Not as big a fan of the non-period stuff for some reason.