Quite hard. Has the first film in both polls I've not watched (Chaplin).
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:36 (one year ago) link
I actually have six still unseen here (some really shameful): Joan of Arc, Au hasard Balthazar, The Night of the Hunter, Shoah, Daisies, Portrait of a Lady on Fire
― jmm, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:37 (one year ago) link
oh man you gotta fire up Night of the Hunger right away
― ryan, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:40 (one year ago) link
I tend to confuse the shorter Tarkovsky films.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link
Sorta proud my students dug Au hasard Balthazar last semester (they preferred Pickpocket tho).
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 15:43 (one year ago) link
Night of the Hunger
look who hasn't had breakfast yet
― ryan, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:43 (one year ago) link
I've seen Au hasard Balthazar once, never have felt inclined to watch it again, and still consider it one of the greatest movies I've ever seen.
― ryan, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:44 (one year ago) link
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink
So do I but I might rewatch.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 20 January 2023 15:46 (one year ago) link
Confession: I've only seen it once too lol. That was my Big Reveal last semester. The ending unnerved me too much the first time.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 15:54 (one year ago) link
of the ones I’ve seen, DO THE RIGHT THING
― k3vin k., Friday, 20 January 2023 16:04 (one year ago) link
I was lucky enough to be shown Daisies when I was 17 and it was definitely a key text for my young brain in discovering how experimental cinema could be extremely fun and lively
gonna be hard not to vote for Playtime, one of those filmgoing experiences where i remember just floating out of the theater on a cloud of excitement. "comedy" isnt nearly a big enough word for what it does.
― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Friday, 20 January 2023 16:50 (one year ago) link
Hmm.
― The Gate of Angels Laundromat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 January 2023 16:55 (one year ago) link
It's nice to see Daisies get recognized, it was pretty obscure when I saw it in an Eastern European humanities class in the early 90s.
Godard and Tarkovsky are my two favourite filmmakers, but Mirror never connected other than as a stylistic exercise, and Breathless is good but atypical. I saw M again last year and loved it a lot more than before, but I think I'll end up voting Balthazar.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 20 January 2023 17:06 (one year ago) link
I’ve seen more of these. Probably torn between Playtime and Balthasar.
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 17:20 (one year ago) link
Those two plus Daisies are to me fully realized visions that happen to attack the idea that a movie is a single kind of thing
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 17:29 (one year ago) link
Night of the Hunter
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Friday, 20 January 2023 18:06 (one year ago) link
Taxi Driver — maybe a boring answer but also a top ten movie for me for many reasons.
― omar little, Friday, 20 January 2023 18:24 (one year ago) link
I think Pather Panchali is the one which is closest to my heart.
Mirror is so good I'm afraid to say something cheap about it.
― jmm, Friday, 20 January 2023 18:32 (one year ago) link
do the right thing was my #1 when we did the films poll recently. so that one.
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 20 January 2023 18:33 (one year ago) link
Out of the 5 or 6 of these that I've seen, the only one I've rewatched recently is 8 1/2 (well actually only the last half or so, which I caught randomly on TCM one evening). Based on that, I feel confident that it still holds up. I saw it for the first time on the big screen, at a repertory cinema in SF in the mid-90s.
― o. nate, Friday, 20 January 2023 18:38 (one year ago) link
Voted donkey
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 18:39 (one year ago) link
My top 5, probably:
1. Pather Panchali2. Taxi Driver3. Rear Window4. Night of the Hunter5. I did, I think, really like Late Spring ages ago, but I'm not even sure it was that; it could have been Early Spring or Late Autumn. If not that, Psycho or Joan of Arc or Portrait of a Lady.
Two of these I haven't seen--Mirror and Daisies--and some I'm indifferent to: Some Like It Hot, Breathless, 8-1/2, and--I saw it again recently and was surprised how little I responded to it--City Lights. One of them, Playtime, I truly hated.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 19:04 (one year ago) link
You have to watch Playtime knowing that it's a comedy where every joke falls flat.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 20 January 2023 19:08 (one year ago) link
I just didn't get it at all.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 19:11 (one year ago) link
Just realized the coincidence of Night of the Hunter and Do the Right Thing being in the same group.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 19:12 (one year ago) link
My tops:
L’Atalante Pather Panchali The Passion of Joan of ArcLate Spring Playtime Do the Right Thing Au hasard Balthazar The Night of the Hunter Psycho Rear Window
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:14 (one year ago) link
One of them, Playtime, I truly hated.
― clemenza, Friday, January 20, 2023 11:04 AM (eleven minutes ago)
boooooooo
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:16 (one year ago) link
Night of the Hunter is great, cuts to the heart of how fucked up american protestants are
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:17 (one year ago) link
So coincidental that I don't get the significance.
― The Terroir of Tiny Town (WmC), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:19 (one year ago) link
yeah, clem, I'm not seeing the coincidence?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:27 (one year ago) link
Both have four word titles with “the” in them
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:27 (one year ago) link
Bill Nunn recites Mitchum's love/hate speech.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link
finger tattoos
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link
oh right!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:30 (one year ago) link
electorate hasn’t watched do the right thing recently enough, poll results invalid
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 20 January 2023 19:32 (one year ago) link
Night of the Hunter today, on another day it could be Mirror. With Balthazar and Do the Right Thing just behind
― or something, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:01 (one year ago) link
Seen all but Shoah and Some Like It Hot. Not sure I'll ever sit down and watch Shoah right through
― or something, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:03 (one year ago) link
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 bookmarkflaglink
This is one where it really helps for everything to be blown up in the big screen.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:17 (one year ago) link
You get the idea of Shoals after an hour. Or less.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 20:17 (one year ago) link
Shoah. Lol
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 January 2023 20:19 (one year ago) link
I feel like you'd get the idea after reading about it but maybe that's unfair. I mean obviously it's important
― or something, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:23 (one year ago) link
Lots and lots of moments in these films I have vivid memories of and Shoah has as many as any of them.
― ryan, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:24 (one year ago) link
For what it's worth I saw Playtime in a theatre. When you're really disliking a film, that's a minus, not a plus.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:27 (one year ago) link
only one of these featured the music of Public Enemy, so it's pretty easy
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 20 January 2023 20:33 (one year ago) link
xp lol ok. I was thinking the sets look great in the theatre but nevermind.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:39 (one year ago) link
I really don't mean to disparage the film. I think it's meant for a temperament far from my own.
― clemenza, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:41 (one year ago) link
only one of these featured the music of Public Enemy
M was about a public enemy though
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 20 January 2023 20:43 (one year ago) link
I went with Playtime, but M is a close second.
(I've seen all of these but Shoah.)
― Cherish, Friday, 20 January 2023 23:53 (one year ago) link
voted for Taxi Driver, one of my favorite films of all time. It is totally surreal and seems to take place in a dream. the music is ravishing and seems out of time, and the cinematography is lurid and intoxicating
― Dan S, Saturday, 21 January 2023 01:27 (one year ago) link
Late Spring and Mirror would be my other choices. I'm drawn to 8 1/2 because it is my film mentor's favorite film, but I think La Dolce Vita and La Strada are my favorite Fellini films. I like Le Mépris more than À bout de souffle. Some Like It Hot still creeps me out
― Dan S, Saturday, 21 January 2023 01:45 (one year ago) link
Inevitably the roles of women will be filtered through Bergman as he writes the scripts. That's no different to any male director who does the same, like Fassbinder.
But it's not simply a case of more screen time is it? They have personalities and seem fully fleshed dramas, with all their faults. There is nothing comparable going on with Fellini. I can't imagine any actress clashing with Fellini over the psychology of the character on set.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 26 January 2023 11:51 (one year ago) link
What I'm suggesting is that Bergman's worldview is conservative. I mean obviously it is compared to Fassbinder, but in general the women being fully fleshed out characters doesn't clash in any way with the fetischization of certain norms - it actually kinda reinforces them, by acknowledging the conflicts therein and thus making the whole thing more believable.
I agree with you no actress would be in that situation with Fellini. Nor would any male actor, aside from the one playing his stand in.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 26 January 2023 12:00 (one year ago) link
You're both right, I think? While I've dinged Bergman here for titling a film Fanny and Alexander which cedes little space for Fanny, I can't think of a major director from the era, for example, writing speeches for Liv Ullmann's wife in Shame that lash against Max von Sydow's marginalizing of her domestic worries; or in limiting the husband's role in Autumn Sonata to observer, watching Ullmann and Ingrid B.'s drama (if I remember correctly Bergman doesn't even tell the film through the husband's POV).
I think of Buñuel, who once balked at being termed a feminist director because of Susana, Viridiana, Diary of a Chambermaid, and Belle de Jour; to a degree he was correct. But in at least a couple of those films he showed curiosity about a woman's role in domestic spaces dominated by men.
(sorry, long post)
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 26 January 2023 12:50 (one year ago) link
Apropos of probably not this conversation, I did enjoy the explicit L'aaventura reference in S2 of The White Lotus.
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Thursday, 26 January 2023 14:00 (one year ago) link
I haven’t seen Juliet of the Spirits or Nights of Cabiria recently. La Strada seems like a transitional film for Fellini, where he is starting to define his style, with Giulietta Masina starring in a signature role, and with a completely savage performance by Anthony Quinn
― Dan S, Friday, 27 January 2023 01:13 (one year ago) link
What I like most about him though is the visual extravagance of mid-period films like La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and to some extent Amarcord. Whatever reservations I have about his world view and his detachment, there is no one else who approximates his visual aesthetic - depicting societal chaos, catholic superstition, wonder, nostalgia, carnality, altruism - all in an elegant and beautiful way in terms of concept, framing, cinematography.
The scores by Nino Rota were great too
playtime
― ciderpress, Friday, 27 January 2023 01:18 (one year ago) link
Man, Night of the Hunter was so good.
What struck me most - and which I wasn't expecting - was just the eerie, hypnotic forward motion of it, the way it moves from tension to dreamy calm, and the recurring image of the stars overhead and the river below. So much of it is carried on the music and Mitchum’s singing, and the music and imagery flow together so perfectly. Absolutely crazy that this is Laughton's only directed film.
― jmm, Friday, 27 January 2023 02:11 (one year ago) link
I will have to watch that film again
― Dan S, Friday, 27 January 2023 02:14 (one year ago) link
I can never remember anything, but I saw a film within the past month that I thought paid explicit homage to Night of the Hunter's river escape.
― clemenza, Friday, 27 January 2023 02:26 (one year ago) link
Night of the Hunter is on my short list of films that actual manage to feel dreamlike, in the unpredictable and sometimes threatening way of real dreams.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 27 January 2023 03:17 (one year ago) link
actual-LY, as Tom Lehrer would say.
It's amazing how it gives us the literal facts of Mitchum's character right away in his very first scene. We know right off the bat that he's a serial killer, that he's hunting a widow... but he achieves so much more depth and menace the more we listen to his voice, and finally becomes a kind of nightmare abstraction as this silhouetted figure on horseback.
― jmm, Friday, 27 January 2023 04:06 (one year ago) link
yeah i might be swayed to night of the hunter tbh
― POLIZISTEN VERSINKEN IM SCHLAMM (forksclovetofu), Friday, 27 January 2023 05:57 (one year ago) link
Watched Daisies and--as I suspected--not really for me. I know it's an angry film, but in execution it's whimsical and slapstick-y; much as with Playtime, when it comes to whimsy, I'm like Lou Grant responding to spunk on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I liked the surf music during the mock fashion show, and it looked like no other film I've ever seen, and that's an achievement.
― clemenza, Sunday, 29 January 2023 06:36 (one year ago) link
Absolutely crazy that this is Laughton's only directed film.
Peter Lorre had a similar post-war fate. He returned to Germany to direct and co-write a great movie called 'Der Verlorene' ('The Lost One') in 1951, but was never asked to direct again.
This was probably because, at a time when West German cinema was churning out soft-focus Heimatfilme for a traumatised audience, 'Der Verlorene' focuses on the remorse of a scientist who had done secret research for the Nazis and murdered his fiancée when he discovers that she had been working with the Allies. The film didn't go down well at all with German cinemagoers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_q3FcVsLr8
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Sunday, 29 January 2023 16:56 (one year ago) link
I hate to say it, but I wouldn't mind seeing this series of polls carry on for the directors' poll results, as well (where La Jetee was in the top 35, its highest ranking ever to my knowledge).
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 January 2023 19:13 (one year ago) link
I thought we might poll the films on the directors' list that didn't make it to the critics'.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 29 January 2023 19:25 (one year ago) link
Do you know if the 101+ results might be out by then?
― jmm, Sunday, 29 January 2023 19:27 (one year ago) link
They've got two more days to make good on releasing the ballots in January. My hunch is maybe by the end of February tho.
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 January 2023 19:51 (one year ago) link
wonder what's keeping them
― or something, Sunday, 29 January 2023 20:29 (one year ago) link
They're watching Jeanne Dielman.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 January 2023 20:30 (one year ago) link
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Sunday, January 29, 2023
I thought I read that they were going to release the top 250 this Tuesday
― Dan S, Sunday, 29 January 2023 20:42 (one year ago) link
Ah, indeed:
Get ready for round two: the top 250 of the #SightAndSoundPoll will be revealed on Tuesday 🍿 pic.twitter.com/w2wK0QKle0— Sight and Sound magazine (@SightSoundmag) January 27, 2023
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 January 2023 20:46 (one year ago) link
I would be happy if we continue to poll the films in groups of 20 for both the critics and directors
― Dan S, Sunday, 29 January 2023 20:47 (one year ago) link
I'm reading Robin Wood's book on the Apu Trilogy right now, and it's wonderful. I keep wanting to post quotes here.
― jmm, Sunday, 29 January 2023 21:46 (one year ago) link
I feel like before I watch The World of Apu I should rewatch the first two again
― Dan S, Monday, 30 January 2023 01:55 (one year ago) link
I definitely would. I'd rewatch the first as a standalone, but I think the other two are best seen in sequence.
― clemenza, Monday, 30 January 2023 03:23 (one year ago) link
Re-watched Balthazar last night. Hits differently when you get to know an animal.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 30 January 2023 09:49 (one year ago) link
Besides all that whenever I watch Bresson it's such a reset. The acting, mannerisms, Balthazar is so obliquely told.
Boccaccio was a reference point for the multiple changes of fortune.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 30 January 2023 09:52 (one year ago) link
Anyway this is mad hard. I have just reasoned out Tarkovsky and Late Spring but I cannot decide between this pair.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934)
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 30 January 2023 09:57 (one year ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 2 February 2023 00:01 (one year ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 3 February 2023 00:01 (one year ago) link
good winner, Balthazar deserved more votes probably
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 3 February 2023 00:07 (one year ago) link
Love the spread of votes (went for L'Atalante in the end). Shoah not getting any votes is interesting.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 February 2023 08:45 (one year ago) link
I'd vote for any Lanzmann because some of his interviews are like the most heightened drama I've ever seen. The Rabbi who had Eichmann threatening to murder him if he didn't do ridiculous amounts of scholarly research within the hour (so he could pass himself off as a Jewish emigration expert). Dude that planted an axe into a Nazi deathcamp commander's head. It's god's work that he captured this stuff while the people were still alive.
― calzino, Friday, 3 February 2023 09:02 (one year ago) link
Shoah perhaps needs some updating for contemporary audiences, you could insert pop songs and a narrator saying "but this was an illusion".
Snark aside tho a nine hour documentary about one of the most horrific events in human history is a tough sell, and even if you've gotten around to watching it (my DVD box has been staring at me unwatched for years) you're prob unlikely to think of it as a "favourite", it feels v apples and oranges to compare it to anything else on this list.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 3 February 2023 10:22 (one year ago) link
BBC2 screened it over two Sunday evenings. I definitely watched the first part, but now come to think of it I don't think I watched the 2nd.
I guess few would think as a favourite. Guessing you didn't vote in the poll, Calzino?
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 February 2023 10:26 (one year ago) link
ILX Shoah watchalong club when
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 3 February 2023 10:30 (one year ago) link
Christmas?
― POLIZISTEN VERSINKEN IM SCHLAMM (forksclovetofu), Friday, 3 February 2023 11:19 (one year ago) link
xxp
no didn't vote! for anyone put off by the sheer length of Shoah there is Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. and The Last of the Unjust which are both essential and unforgettable.
― calzino, Friday, 3 February 2023 11:48 (one year ago) link
well, I'm glad my lurker vote for playtime made the difference
― silverfish, Friday, 3 February 2023 13:49 (one year ago) link