Sight and Sound 2022 Top 20

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!

Unless I’m missing something, that’s a grand total of 1 vote for silent (or thereabouts) cinema?

At least this poll kept Regle in the top 10

Man With a Movie Camera is silent, unless you see it with the Shuffle Demons providing an improvised soundtrack.

I knew I was overlooking something

murnau was robbed

2002: pop critics are stupid rockists that can barely put a sentence together. ILX is where it's at.
2022: ILX doesn't get a ballot for the S&S poll. Let's keep it that way.

Seriously though, seeing Renoir at 2nd place and then the discussion was really great. I should rewatch Regle and get to French CanCan

2002: pop critics are stupid rockists that can barely put a sentence together. ILX is where it's at.
2022: ILX doesn't get a ballot for the S&S poll. Let's keep it that way.
2001: Wins yet again

Wow. I voted for either Cleo or Persona (can't remember which) but both Sunrise and Meshes of the Afternoon deserved better than this.

Michael Jeck’s commentary for Seven Samurai on the Criterion Channel is rather dry but super well observed and cool.

Sight and Sound 2022 Round 2: 21-40

btw when did Close-Up become the canonical Kiarostami but not Through the Olive Trees, A Taste of Cherry, Certified Copy, etc., all of which I prefer? (Close-Up is fine ftr).

Close-Up was also the only Kiarostami in the top 100 in 2002 (#68) and 2012 (#43).

My first watch was in 2012, yeah.

seemed like every public library in the county had a copy of A Taste of Cherry.

Same way Tokyo Story became the default Ozu … who the hell knows? (I love Close-Up, and it’s still maybe my #4 or #5 AK overall.)

TS became the default Ozu, I suspect, because it was easily available. Every Blockbuster I visited in the '90s had a VHS copy. Not the case with Close-Up, I don't think.

the meta quality of it, as a docufiction film that kind of becomes a documentary, makes it stand out among his other great films to me

Oh, I know: we're suckers for films about films. But this is Kiarostami's fascination.

That he inserted himself into the middle of the film and changed the course of events makes it unlike any other film I think

Tokyo Story became the default Ozu because it references neither a season nor a time of day and as such is easier not to get mixed up with a different Ozus.

Tokyo Story's '92 placement (surprise top 3) fed into its availability in the ensuing decade(s) ... I agree with Dan S that Close-Up is perhaps the slipperiest of Kiarostami's meta experiments, which is also to account for it getting pushed to the top.

(Also, '22 seemed to take a lot of cues from '12 in terms of what new masters' "default" picks would be)

Come by!

https://com.miami.edu/event/the-sight-sound-top-ten-jeanne-dielman/

I wish I was in Miami instead of cold and drizzly New Jersey. Speaking of how certain films seem to get selected as the representative for a director who often made many films in a similar style, of the 5 Wong Kar Wai films I’ve seen, In the Mood for Love is the one that made the least impression on me. But I get that it’s kind of the most grown-up and has the best production values.

I usually don’t let the weather get to me, but the cold drizzle this evening and stepping over or walking through the resultant puddles was totally a bummer.

The Godfather is on tonight on film 4 uk (II tomorrow, III on friday, repeated next week). making it about a dozen of the S&S top 100 that've been on free-to-air tv since mid-december.

(and Parasite is on again next week)