Sight and Sound 2022 Top 20

Maybe it's seeing them on so many scratched 16mm prints and bad video transfers 30 years ago that has left the Renoir films seeming so dusty in my mind.

a scratched 16mm print sounds like a beautiful way to watch a renoir

The beginning of La Bete Humaine with Gabin and Carette wordlessly operating the train is so good.

I discovered Bunuel thanks to bad video transfers. My uni had every Mexican film on terrible VHS. I binged in the '90s.

on a formal level la nuit du carrefour is essential renoir imo, sublime and uncanny

Get on those Criterion versions!

I discovered Bunuel thanks to bad video transfers. My uni had every Mexican film on terrible VHS. I binged in the '90s.

It also travelled to the heel of Italy and then back to the FIDI Alamo Drafthouse.

The local library's VHS copy of Hiroshima Mon Amour was so fuzzy that I didn't realize I was actually coming down with flu while watching it, I thought it just looked that way.

Everything had haloes.

Hell of a story wrt La Chienne

In the film Michel Simon falls in love with Janie Marèse, and he did off-screen as well, while Marèse fell for Georges Flamant, who plays the pimp. Renoir and producer Pierre Braunberger had encouraged the relationship between Flamant and Marèse in order to get the fullest conviction into their performances (La Chienne was Flamant's first acting experience). After the film had been completed Flamant, who could barely drive, took Marèse for a drive, crashed the car and she was killed. At the funeral Michel Simon fainted and had to be supported as he walked past the grave. He threatened Renoir with a gun, saying that the death of Marèse was all his fault. "Kill me if you like", responded Renoir, "but I have made the film".[2]

christ

Forgot about that.

:(

Very French

Ah ha. Back to the Copacabana.

Wow, that is a strange story. Michel Simon's Legrand faints during the sentencing in the film as well.

Ended up voting for SITR, tho Kiarostami and Ozu are strong contenders too.

Watching Beau Travail again, I thought, Claire Denis could do Paul Bowles justice.

La Chienne was good. I like the seediness of the art world - basically no distinction between the pimps, critics, and art dealers.

I am puzzled on one plot detail: Is it supposed to be ambiguous whether Maurice killed Lulu? It looked to me like the knife fell on the bed and neither of them saw it, so I thought that she had accidentally been cut. The Wiki plot description says that he attacks her with the knife. But we don't see it happen; instead there's that strange cut to the outdoor scene and a kitten outside. I guess it's more explicit in the novel, probably.

Pulled the trigger for Close-Up but Rules of the Game was the closest of seconds, followed by Dielman

Missed this earlier this month:

RIP Michael Snow (1928-2023)

He cast his votes for the Greatest Films of All Time in the 2022 #SightAndSoundPoll, selecting four films, three of which are his own pic.twitter.com/d8bVeVk2G3

— Sight and Sound magazine (@SightSoundmag) January 6, 2023

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Watched the first 30 seconds of Seven Samurai last night

Just kidding

I liked what Ebert said, that Seven Samurai "represents a great divide in his work; most of his earlier films … subscribe to the Japanese virtues of teamwork, fitting in, going along, conforming. All his later films are about misfits, noncomformists and rebels.”

it still wouldn't be in my top 10 for this poll, though

I have made sure that some of you will be aghast when The Godfather's one vote places it above films you love.

lol, that is sure to be the case for In the Mood for Love

re In the Mood for Love, “The food culture of 1960s Hong Kong plays a central role throughout the film. The lonely pair continue to run into each other at the dai pai dong, ordering noodles to eat by themselves while their respective spouses “work late.” Mrs. Chan offers to make taro soup for Mr. Chow. When a drunken landlord accidentally traps them together inside Mr. Chow’s bedroom, they pass the time by eating.”

I have probably seen seven samurai over a dozen times and I will likely watch it again this year

I liked what Ebert said, that Seven Samurai "represents a great divide in his work; most of his earlier films … subscribe to the Japanese virtues of teamwork, fitting in, going along, conforming. All his later films are about misfits, noncomformists and rebels.”

I don't think that's true at all! Drunken Angel, Stray Dog and One Wonderful Sunday are all about outsiders; Ikiru and No Regrets For Our Youth explicitly go against going along and conforming. The demarcation line I'd trace, for Kurosawa as for most artists of his generation, is the defeat of Japan in WWII.

I love that after all the times I've said I very much enjoy The Godfather you still think I hate it, clem

Ozu does the quiet rebellion thing brilliantly

I have made sure that some of you will be aghast when The Godfather's one vote places it above films you love.

― clemenza, Thursday, 19 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Got to hand this one to you.

Not that you hate it, Eric, or even that you don't like it; it was that many people (I didn't even necessarily indicate you...) will hate seeing its one vote place it above films they like much more that won't get a vote.

Anyway, just a joke.

That's true; I do hate seeing movies I love get zero votes, but those are the règle du jeu

Be strong, Mr. Eric! People are watching.

Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of a cannoli

As if The Godfather will get one vote. If only!

I've been doing my darndest to direct the reactionary votes toward Seven Samurai this whole time evillaugh.gif

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol

lol -- see, clem? You weren't alone!

Who were the secret 2001 voters?

An even spread, though Murnau deservedThe Searchers' two votes.

yes, Sunrise deserved more love, but I like that all the rest got votes

The number that surprises me the most--shocks me almost--is 9 for Persona. Nothing to do with the film, which I love, but beforehand I was going to predict which five films I thought most likely to get zero, and that was going to be one of them. People just rarely talk about it in the context of these lists.

2 for Vertigo is a surprise given its Morbsies placement

Actually, that's just as or maybe even more surprising.

An even spread, though Murnau deservedThe Searchers' two votes.

otm, it's really stunningly beautiful top to bottom iirc

Being the only film to get zero votes is special in its own way!