Sight and Sound 2022 Top 20

I voted Vertigo. My relationship to it was pretty organic thankfully. Bought a vhs tape at around 17 without ever having seen it before, or very many classic movies at all, and became obsessed without totally understanding why. Probably almost wore out that tape. Only later did I discover becoming obsessed with Vertigo was practically a cliche. But that’s where my love of movies started and it’s pretty much the experience I’m always hoping to have again every time I go to a movie.

I’ll go to bat for Apocalypse Now! I mean, in that I think it’s great, not top 20 of all time great though.

2001 probably one of the funnier options here?

I use the first 10 minutes of Apocalypse Now because the match cuts, fades, sound design, and POV storytelling lend themselves to that sort of context.

Use them in class, that is.

When I talk or think about Kubrick I almost place 2001 in mental brackets, it’s so, ahem, monolithic, that I unconsciously shunt it off to the side when contemplating the killing, the shining, paths of glory, eyes wide shut, etc. But I do love it. I’m sorry but HALs death is an astonishing moment, dancing spaceships, the light show, the star child, it’s just a fun fucking movie.

I watched the end of In the Mood for Love (another movie I’ve watched too many times) and I’ll be damned if the ending sequence didn’t fucking floor me for the first time in years.

I'm digging your posts, ryan.

I took my mom to lunch yesterday and talked about these moves. There’s a famous story in my family that my dad took my mom to see 2001 on their first anniversary. She hates it to this day.

I described Jeanne Dielman to her and she immediately went home and watched it. Got some amusing text messages.

Every time I think I'm skeptical of 2001 I watch it again and it's always great. Most recently watched it with the kids, who — despite being raised on MCU/new Star Wars/etc — were totally engrossed. It's not a personal favorite or a movie that does much for me emotionally, but it is a stellar (ha) piece of filmmaking.

Makes me wish for his Napoleon movie

Maybe part of the issue is that with almost all his other movies you can kinda have this personal relationship to it, your own take, etc….but 2001 belongs to everyone, for better or worse. I can’t imagine it being anyone’s “favorite” movie, or even favorite Kubrick.

I'm going to hold off on trying it again until I can see it on the big screen.

One of the repertory theatres near here is showing Jeanne Dielman in a few weeks. Gonna be lit.

Anyone doubtful of Seven Samurai should just watch the final battle. There’s this one long tracking shot looking outward from inside some buildings that’s just exhilarating.

Also, the totally deflated feeling afterwards at what should be their moment of triumph seems to come from a very deep place in Kurosawa.

I'm part of this and am excited.

Really want to vote for something that includes jokes, which narrows things down pretty severely

A guy at a screening of Beau Travail burst out laughing at the dancing in the final scene, otherwise you might want to stick to Singin' in the Rain.

Makes me wish for his Napoleon movie

Just multiply Barry Lyndon by Eyes Wide Shut and add Pacino.

Godard only appears here in his silent-film cameo in the Varda film; I suspect this is Fate punishing him for not answering the door when she came to visit him in Faces Places.

But I do love it. I’m sorry but HALs death is an astonishing moment, dancing spaceships, the light show, the star child, it’s just a fun fucking movie.

― ryan, Sunday, 8 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Not the movie I watched.

"They're doing the complete Kurosawa at the BFI right now."

Definitely looking forward to seeing a couple more of them on the big screen.

Do you like other Kubrick movies?

I went to see Dielman today at the cinema. I feel different. I'm not sure how. I don't drink by my own. I don't drink on Sundays as a general rule. I had to drink afterwards.

Beau Travail for me, not a tough pick but I love a lot of these.

And Mizoguchi bangs gavel
And Ozu bangs gavel
And Naruse bangs gavel
And Kiyoshi Kurosawa bangs gavel
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Sunday, January 8, 2023

don't forget Imamura

still haven't seen a Naruse film

Don't forget Oshima either!

I've seen four Naruse films but I would have guessed I'd seen two, he's one of these directors where the films blend together if you're not super attuned to the aesthetic.

They do but he's friskier than Ozu, who also addresses family

I’ve seen only one of these. Got some homework to do.

Oh, wait - seen two.

which two?

This is off-topic, but does anyone know anything about Naomi Kawase? Her films have been in competition for the Palme D'Or at Cannes five times since 2003, with one winning the Grand Prix and another the Ecumenical Jury Prize. I have yet to see one though, and she seems to be completely under the radar

Do you like other Kubrick movies?

― ryan, Sunday, 8 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Paths of Glory and Spartacus are fine, just sorta bog standard ok films.

Barry Lyndon is his only great film, but even then that's accidental. The lack of feeling that he brings to anything he touches perfectly suits the material.

Eyes Wide Shut is funny and that's probably the other one from him that pays repeat watching.

Anyway the guy isn't in the same league as most great directors. He is more like a really good technician. 10 mins from a b-movie like 'Out of the Past' is where it's at and he is only talked up because the US is insecure about great art. Really hope the work that's being done to take down this stuff down carries on. Like, Godfather II is finished now. The only way is up.

Most great films are accidental tbh. Too many x-factors.

Most of the great filmmakers get a crew together that end up consistently making great films.

you couldn't be more wrong about Paths Of Glory imo

but I do agree Barry Lyndon is his greatest

Re: Naruse, I think I’d take Yearning over any given Ozu, but thankful I get to have them all

This is off-topic, but does anyone know anything about Naomi Kawase? Her films have been in competition for the Palme D'Or at Cannes five times since 2003, with one winning the Grand Prix and another the Ecumenical Jury Prize. I have yet to see one though, and she seems to be completely under the radar

I'm not a fan of it, but I think The Godfather II is only 'finished' because everyone decided that The Godfather itself was the appropriate the stand-in for the trilogy

Most of the great filmmakers get a crew together that end up consistently making great films.

― xyzzzz__,

Kubrick got a great crew together consistently too. So did Renoir, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, etc. Spielberg often works with a great cinematographer (Janusz Kaminski). I love film because these people get crews together and still produce flawed work that I still wanna watch and you still can't control the results because there are too many people.

Unless it was Eric who was lukewarm.

Just about every film on this list has scenes that make me cringe from inappropriateness, silliness, and other instances of poor direction -- and that's okay.

I'm not a fan of it, but I think _The Godfather II_ is only 'finished' because everyone decided that _The Godfather_ itself was the appropriate the stand-in for the trilogy

I’ve never seen a Naomi Kawase film. There have been ample and consistent warning signs from the ones I trust

"Kubrick got a great crew together consistently too"

The difference with Kubrick is they were making stuff that was consistently bad.

Just a colossal folly for the studios to indulge him.

But that's not what you wrote -- it sounds as if you wrote that it takes a good crew to make good films. If you want to argue that Kubrick couldn't make good films because of his cramped vision or whatever, that's legit, because whatever else Kubrick was the one major director b/w 1957 and 1999 who had absolute control over what he wrote, directed, and organized.

Among Americans, that is, unless you include Woody Allen, which lol I'll agree with you

Often a good crew gets assembled under a director, they seem to go on a run of great films.

I am guessing Kubrick had a similar band, they all bought in on his vision, which I don't connect with at all xp

you couldn't be more wrong about Paths Of Glory imo

― calzino, Monday, 9 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

I'll give it another watch someday.

All fair enough! Was just curious.

Re: feeling in Kubrick, at least in the latter films (post-2001) the feeling I get is his palpable anxiety about the world's capacity for violence, terror, and chaos (and in the last movie...the possible safe haven, or illusion of it, in domesticity...). The Killing is probably the thesis statement.

I am guessing Kubrick had a similar band, they all bought in on his vision, which I don't connect with at all xp

― xyzzzz__,

Fair. I don't either. He's part of the He-Man Crew recognized by cineastes younger than 21.

Paths of Glory is actually the one Kubrick film where the thesis statement (politicians make wars happen) gets backed up.

Yes. I think after 2001 he definitely enters in a "late period" kind of style where the motivating traumas are very much metaphorized or occluded (ie, the shining) and I can totally get why someone wouldn't like that but for me the indirectness is an attempt to get closer by other means--and a healthy skepticism about what art can do or say about such things in the first place.

(though I suppose it also doesn't get much more direct than a literal river of blood...)