Pretend you have a ballot for the 2022 edition of Sight & Sound's top 10 movies of all time list

My final film for the 2022 Sight & Sound top ten is Philadelphia. A movie that opens with music by Springsteen and closes with music by Neil Young is a keeper.

He's 84 so the only film that predates him on his list is The General. I have to admit, on my own list, I probably have at least as many films older than me than not, so I can't point fingers about being out of touch with film culture.

I kind of want to defend him too, although "weird" in my original post may suggest otherwise. I found it weird he would publically lobby for a ballot. I hope he gets one, though. "Hey, I founded Film Heritage"--I guess only someone as stuck in that moment (when it comes to film critics) as I am would find that touching. I also wonder if Andrew Sarris's ballot, if he were alive, would be appreciably different.

Here's the Agee piece on Griffith. Only the first two pages are on Birth of a Nation. Their final paragraph:

(Today, The Birth of it Nation is boycotted or shown piecemeal; too many more or less well-meaning people still accuse Griffith of having made it an anti-Negro movie. At best, this is nonsense, and at worst, it is vicious nonsense. Even if it were an anti-Negro movie, a work of such quality should be shown, and shown whole. But the accusation is unjust. Griffith went to almost preposterous lengths to be fair to the Negroes as he understood them, and he understood them as a good type of Southerner does. I don’t entirely agree with him; nor can I be sure that the film wouldn’t cause trouble and misunderstanding, especially as advertised and exacerbated by contemporary abolitionists; but Griffith’s absolute desire to be fair, and understandable, is written all over the picture; so are degrees of understanding, honesty, and compassion far beyond the capacity of his accusers. So, of course, are the salient facts of the so-called Reconstruction years.)

My final film for the 2022 Sight & Sound top ten is Philadelphia. A movie that opens with music by Springsteen and closes with music by Neil Young is a keeper.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, May 31, 2021 9:53 AM (forty-eight minutes ago)

"Who could ask for anything more? It's a film for a Philly guy -- and a human being."

I can read between those lines, old man.

Having watched the full, unexpurgated version of Birth of a Nation last year, can I just say fuck DW Griffith, fuck Jim Agee and fuck Tony Macklin.

D. W. Griffith - "Accidental Racist"

What's o_O about BOAN defenders is that it was widely perceived as provocatively racist in *1915*. To be fair, I didn't know that when first getting into film history in the 90s, but it's a fact that has been broadly established by now (even something as popular-history as Longworth's You Must Remember This mentioned it briefly in the most recent series)

The most amazing leap in that Agee piece is that it's supposedly "contemporary abolitionists" who would "cause trouble and misunderstanding" around the film.

To be fair to Agee, they're still doing it to this day, to hear some tell it.

(Disclaimer: I am being facetious there. It's definitely revisionist history to paint Birth of a Nation as some sort of guiltless artifact that in only the last 40 or 50 years or so has been unpacked for its racism.)

Clicked a few of the reviews on the homepage and got a kick out of his two-star assessment of the PBS Hemingway.

The Old Man and the Sea is a profound, personal vision.

But there's little recognition in the documentary of the importance of going beyond the surface into the art.

Androgyny and suicide are more important in the documentary.

Glibness trumps credibility. It is as though the film was made by the tourists on the shore.

Such is Ernest Hemingway in 2021.

The Old Man and The Old Man and the Sea

Happy New “we get a new S&S fill poll this year” Year!

Went to a screening of City Lights this afternoon and was wondering when exactly this thing comes out.

Starting to feel like later than last time, maybe even December

Obviously, please post here when it does; I never check magazines anymore, and--at least where I am--getting one won't be easy.

I mean, some of us might not have to pretend after all:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/poll-position-kaned

We invited more than a thousand people last time; the ambition is to at least double that number in 2022.

Gonna go on the record in saying 2001 will win this time around.

The callout for ballots dropped today

hope you will be able to get and submit one, we should have someone to represent us here

Eric, I think your and our collective posts in the last two all-time poll threads (directors, films) have been a significant contribution to the discourse about great films, more than any individual reviews I've read in highbrow publications

S&S voters should read them, and you should vote in this poll

You too Alfred

besos

oh lol I think I misread you. I thought I had contributed.

if you haven't already, you should lobby for a S&S ballot! I mean, you have to qualify

as long as you don't make your top ten all Buñuel films, I mean one is enough

2001: A Space Odyssey has ascended over time in the rankings, and was #6 on the 2012 list. It would be surprising for it to suddenly jump to #1, I don't expect it but I would love it if it did.

It seems like the critics only come around to agreeing what the best films of all time are 50 or more years after they are released. I don't see any other films above or below 2001 on that S&S list that are likely to rise in prominence at this point

The window's less than 50 years, I think. 2001 came out in '68, was tied for 11th 24 years later. Mulholland Drive was 28th in 2012, 11 years after release, probably higher this time. If you really go back, L'Avventura was #2 a year after it was released. Obviously, something like that isn't going to happen anymore, but I'd say the window for ranking high today is more like 20-30 years.

What I'm saying is, School of Rock could be really high this time.

I predict Mulholland Drive is gonna crack the top 10.

air bud
air bud 2
michael jackson thriller video
david at the dentist
field of dreams
barely legal #15
citizen kane
bringing up baby
esteban buttez: the first ten posts
goonies

― ice cr?m, Sunday, 12 September 2010 02:47 bookmarkflaglink

I predict Mulholland Drive is gonna crack the top 10

lol we had someone representing us before = me

and look how that turned out

zizek only placed second as troll but i no longer write for S&S

(this isn't actually official and is mainly a consequence of my indolence and detainment elsewhere)

lol we had someone representing us before = me

and look how that turned out

Agreed.

https://www.facebook.com/1631212662/posts/pfbid02exzLDGsJPE6poE1yLMmgxwYQX3Bwh8izRiPGwDCUTrKHPRRvEyhds3jLWx6K4Tpjl/?d=n

Paul Schrader denied a ballot?!

they told him they would contact him when they were ready for the directors' poll

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2012 votes (ten ghosts)

A Brighter Summer Day 1991 Edward Yang
The Conversation 1974 Francis Ford Coppola
La Captive 1983 Chantal Akerman
Empire 1964 Andy Warhol
Full Metal Jacket 1987 Stanley Kubrick
The General 1926 Buster Keaton
Goodbye, Dragon Inn 2003 Tsai Ming Liang
Rain 1929 Joris Ivens
Sátántangó 1994 Béla Tarr
Valentin de las Sierras 1967 Bruce Baillie

This site is a treasure trove and, if S&S achieve their goal of better representation among women, LGBT, and international voters, Jeanne Dielman in particular has a shot at the top 10.

http://www.phi-phenomenon.org/essay/S&S2012/

it's just an old kazoo with some sparkles

What a body, what a voice!

Interesting appetizer ... a poll of about 120 critics/scholars (mostly from Spain): https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiODhiOWQwMzUtNTVhYy00ZWYxLTk0MDEtNDRmNTQ1YWJjODk3IiwidCI6ImFmM2E0NDRiLTcwMWItNGVkNi05YzhlLTg0ZGE5MmQ0Zjk2OSIsImMiOjl9

When Satyajit Ray died in 1992, I think it was just before the S&S voting took place; Pather Panchali moved into the Top 10 that year. I don't think Godard has ever had a film in the Top 10; much harder, because the votes would be more diffuse, but I could see that happening this year (voting still to take place, I think). (Yes, I realize this is a trivial concern on the day of his death.)

The Queen (Frears, 2006) to displace Vertigo at #1.

Godard could certainly make gains this poll, but fwiw the bulk of ballots were due in August.

(Tho I understand they're being distributed in waves, likely to achieve the intended gender/geographic/LGBTQ representation.)

I saw The Bicycle Thief some 30 years ago and thought it was one of the most profound films I'd ever seen. It seems to have largely disappeared from the conversation.

I thought something was posted on one of the other threads last week that ballots had just been sent out...If August was the deadline, then no, obviously his death won't figure in. (Alba's joke crossed my mind right after I posted.)

Has Kiarostami's reputation been serious damaged by the accusations around Ten?