how many of the top HUNDRED of They Shoot Pictures, Don't They top 1000 films have you seen?

oh, this page makes for a faster look:

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films.htm

9. Was relieved when I got to the end and there wasn't one or two more, because I really wanted to be honest and vote "I don't like films."

I've seen the first two hundred; still haven't El Verdugo.

I'm lucky to own a second-generation tape copy of Letters From an Unknown Woman.

I don't know what Blade Runner's doing in the top 50.

97. I have never seen the two Buster Keaton ones and Eric Von Stroheim's "Greed".

i saw a nice outdoor screening of letter from an unknown woman at the world film fest a couple years ago. crazy that it's not more available...

I have only seen 34. I have not seen "Citizen Kane". Have tried to watch "The Searchers" at least twice but always turn it off/leave because I hate John Wayne SO MUCH and the film bores me to tears.

in 101-200, I also haven't seen The Mother and the Whore and... The Exorcist! Not really planning on changing that soon.

45 out of 100. Don't really consider myself a "film buff," I just like movies. Highest-ranked film I haven't seen is "Rules of the Game," #3.

i've seen 31 of the top 100. or 31.5 since i've seen enough of intolerance that i pretty much get it.

somewhere in the 80s for me i think... just did a quick scan

Why don't you want to watch The Mother and the Whore, Dr Morbius ?

And I've seen 20 of #101-200.

36

I have never seen 8 1/2

Snowballing, because I watched the first 15 minutes a couple of times and I'm not a huge masochist?

btw, You Can't Take It with You way too high at #992.

20, I theoretically like films but am rubbish at actually ever watching them.

77. 47 out of the top 50. the only one in the top 40 i haven't seen is 8 1/2, which for some reason has always sort of put me off (even though i like fellini). i should watch it tho. really there's nothing i haven't seen that i wouldn't like to, i just haven't gotten around to a lot of things. (biggest single hole for me is tarkovsky.)

oops i lied a little about the top 40, i haven't seen ordet either.

wish you could sort the list by year, it'd be interesting to see how the decades break down.

Same here. I just ordered Mirror.

(xpost)

i've seen 67 of the top 100. kinda wondering why The Transporter isn't on that list though.

i think you mean transporter 3.

ah, right.

I think you mean Kung Fu Hustle.

81 of the top 100. highest placing film i havent seen is the murnau at #12 which is pretty representative of the rest of the stuff i havent watched in fact i dont think ive seen a single one of the pre-wwII american films in the top 100.

LOL:

226. Solaris
227. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

that's about right

(except I'd probably have both in the 500s or 600s)

one of my film history weak spots is, um, the entire silent era. i mean, i'm surprised that i've actually seen a bunch on that list. cuz i can't remember the last time i actually watched a silent film (probably joan of arc). i mean, the years when i would actually rent a silent film are long gone. (TLA video in philly circa 1989-90's)

I think you mean Kung Fu Hustle.

― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, August 28, 2009 11:15 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think you mean shaolin soccer

I was so close to zero, but I have seen 50 minutes of a clockwork orange :(

wish you could sort the list by year, it'd be interesting to see how the decades break down.

― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Friday, August 28, 2009 11:07 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you can! theres a "year" tab at the bottom

Some statistics relating to the December 2008 version of TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films
Directors with the most films
18 films
John Ford
16 films
Fritz Lang
15 films
Luis Buñuel
14 films
Jean-Luc Godard (including "Tout va bien" co-directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin)
Alfred Hitchcock
13 films
Ingmar Bergman
12 films
Federico Fellini
11 films
Howard Hawks (arguably 12 if you include the Christian Nyby credited "The Thing from Another World")
Stanley Kubrick
Akira Kurosawa
Jean Renoir
10 films
Charles Chaplin
Kenji Mizoguchi
9 films
Martin Scorsese
Luchino Visconti
8 films
Woody Allen
Robert Altman
Robert Bresson
John Huston
Roberto Rossellini
Josef von Sternberg
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
7 films
Bernardo Bertolucci
John Cassavetes
Sergei Eisenstein
Buster Keaton (includes 5 films co-directed by Reisner, Bruckman, Crisp, Sedgwick & Blystone)
Krszystof Kieslowski
Ernst Lubitsch
David Lynch
Max Ophüls
Yasujiro Ozu
Sam Peckinpah
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (Powell's total is 9, if you include "Peeping Tom" and "The Thief of Bagdad")
Eric Rohmer
Steven Spielberg
Andrei Tarkovsky
François Truffaut
6 films
Michelangelo Antonioni
Frank Capra
Stanley Donen (including 2 co-directed by Gene Kelly)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Elia Kazan
Abbas Kiarostami
David Lean
Jean-Pierre Melville
F.W. Murnau
Nicholas Ray
Satyajit Ray
Alain Resnais
Douglas Sirk
King Vidor
5 films
Joel & Ethan Coen
Francis Ford Coppola
George Cukor
Carl Dreyer
D.W. Griffith
Werner Herzog
Leo McCarey
Vincente Minnelli
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Roman Polanski
Nicolas Roeg (including "Performance" co-directed by Donald Cammell)
Preston Sturges
Wong Kar-Wai
William Wyler
Some highly-regarded directors without any films in the 1,000
William Wellman
Alekdandr Sokurov
Manoel de Oliveira
Chuck Jones
Budd Boetticher
Jules Dassin
Frederick Wiseman
Abel Ferrara
Peter Watkins
Michael Haneke
Tex Avery
Frank Tashlin
Gus Van Sant
Steven Soderbergh
Aki Kaurismaki
Derek Jarman
Gregory La Cava
Philippe Garrel
Sacha Guitry
Andre de Toth
Allan Dwan
Kinji Fukasaku
Raul Ruiz
Bertrand Tavernier
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Youssef Chahine
Clarence Brown & many more
Decade breakdown
1900s = 1 film
1910s = 6 films
1920s = 56 films
1930s = 95 films
1940s = 114 films
1950s = 159 films
1960s = 181 films
1970s = 156 films
1980s = 123 films
1990s = 95 films
2000s = 14 films
Leading years
1955 = 21 films
1959 = 20 films
1961 = 22 films
1963 = 22 films
1966 = 20 films
1967 = 19 films
1972 = 21 films
1976 = 19 films
Average running time of the 1,000 films
116 minutes
Breakdown of print colour
Black & White = 469 films
Colour films = 512 films
Colour/BW films = 19 films
Leading countries
United States = 466 films
France = 155 films
United Kingdom = 73 films
Italy = 57 films
Germany = 45 films (including West Germany)
Japan = 41 films
Russia/USSR = 31 films
Sweden = 16 films
Spain = 12 films
India = 11 films
Breakdown by continent
North America = 486 films
Europe = 414 films
Asia = 80 films
South America = 9 films
Australasia = 6 films
Africa = 5 films

oh, cool. yeah i guess the decade bell curve is about what you'd expect.

I don't get how Gold Rush shows up so high in these lists. City Lights is so much better.

I've seen 17. I love films, but I don't love 'film'. That list strikes me as boring and canonical, most of those names are staples of Introduction to Film Studies modules I've helped facilitate for the last 7 years. Bores me to tears. Has film (in the minds of the people who made this list) really not improved in the last 50 years? Nothing in the top 10 under 37 years old. Is the film canon as boring as the music canon?

Clearly my cinema education is top-heavy: I've seen 65 of the top 200, but only 218 of the entire 1,000 film list.

Also LOL:

462. Three Colors: Blue
463. Three Colors: Red
736. Three Colors: White

Sorry, Julie Delpy! You're no Juliette Binoche or Irene Jacob, apparently.

13 films
Ingmar Bergman

Sweden = 16 films

some of the picks for this decade are pretty lol tho

one thing that might be pretty interesting is when/how a lot of ppl saw the majority of the top 100 - i watched the bulk of them on dvd btw like 16-21 - and i think most of the things i havent seen now i probably wont.

I've seen the first two hundred

Is that true Soto? If so, I'm impressed.

I've seen #1000! (guess why though)

White is definitely the worst of the three, though. IMO.

Haha, yeah, but is it the Matrix Revolutions of the Three Colors trilogy?

it's more like the godfather part III.

I've seen about 50 (voted for 40-49)

also I've got L'Avventura at home from netflix right now but haven't watched it yet

watch the first half-hour, skip the rest...

(i know i know, whiny existentialist beautiful italians, it was all very modern. i just wanted to slap them.)

37. :( So many films on this list that I've been meaning to get around to for years but haven't yet. But this moning I discovered that my local library has a great foreign cinema collection - Renoir boxset for £1 a week! - so there's still hope.

Nick, of course this list is canonical - it's the canon! That's kind of the point.

whiny existentialist beautiful italians, it was all very modern. i just wanted to slap them.

it's not like they're Ethan Hawke!

"the people who made this list" essentially compiled it from OTHER lists, I think? A descrip of the methodology is on there somewhere. Of course, it's canonical, any wide survey is bound to be. XP

I don't know for sure but I may have unwittingly contributed to this list. Which may be why The Hart of London is at #511.

Sixty five for me, mostly I fail with italian cinema and the silent era.

I know it's the point that it's the canon, I'm just always disappointed when I see any attempt to codify the canon - probably cos the canons in my head are (to me) WAY more interesting.

I've seen 90. These are the ones I haven't seen.

La Strada
Intolerance
Greed
The Conformist
Viridana
To Be or Not to Be
Fanny and Alexander
L'age d'or
Man with a Movie Camera
Sherlock Jr.

now i just find myself scoffing at all the movies that were ranked behind Star Wars at 110.

haven't seen no. 1.

:(

38

wait Scik, it's a boring canon when you have no idea if the 83/100 you haven't seen are boring, or if they're deserving of their established reputation?

64

Have seen 26, have Barry Lyndon sat on my shelf but still haven't watched it.

I was really impressed that made the top 100. easily my fav kubrick.

strangely, i dont have much of an urge to see any of the 10 I haven't seen.

xxxxpost

yeah how on earth could you bitch about the Top 100 if you've only seen 17 of the movies? And how exactly does this list codify the canon (not quite sure what that means but...)? Aren't canons already codified by their very nature?

70

26

I do pretty well on the first 50, w/ 45 (missing ordet, night of the hunter, sunrise, tokyo story, the general)
but only 29 of the next 50 - so...74?

missing lots of silent movies that I have no plans on watching

81, though some of them were so long ago that I couldn't much tell you what they're even about. I should either see those again, or maybe not.

ha these are probably all on my netflix q somewhere, but i keep bumping them down

peoples hate reading intertitles or undercranking

only 43 although i was like 17 of the first 25 and then it all went downhill from there.

I'm guessing Renoir's The River jumped up 300 places in 2 years bcz of DVD.

37. Oddly the biggest gap is in the 75-100 range, there's a bunch of those I haven't seen.

12, Ikiru is my favourite.

it's not like they're Ethan Hawke!

you're supposed to want to slap him, tho. and he's balanced out by delpy.

my problem with avventura is related to my problem with contempt and also with a lot of postwar american fiction -- i think what played as new about the depiction of modern life, relationships, alienation and anomie etc, doesn't feel revelatory any more (assuming it did at the time). in retrospect i think it's sort of cramped and overly self-aware and self-important. (as opposed say to dolce vita, which obviously has plenty of anomie but -- being fellini -- lets some humor and lyricism wander in.)

and i totally allow that linklater's films may not age well either.

In high school, there was a video store across the street, and during the day when mom was at work, I was thumbing through the 1991 edition of Ebert's Movie Home Companion and trying to bone up. I saw some baffling and forgettable things, but the movies I remember from then, I remember very well. I want to go back in time and watch Rear Window for the first time.

lolz highest rated film I haven't seen is Rules of the Game. Don't think I've seen any Renoir apart from Beauty and the Beast (that was him, right? put me to sleep)

Rules of the Game is awesome.

beauty and the beast is cocteau. rules of the game is just as good as it's supposed to be.

i dont find l'avventura played out at all really. if anything it's prophetic. (tho the passenger is my fav antonioni)

the "21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films" list is pretty interesting too.

226. Solaris
227. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

(except I'd probably have both in the 500s or 600s)

Morbz otm

beauty and the beast is cocteau.

ah right. gettin my jeans mixed up. guess I haven't seen any Renoir then

I've seen #1000! (guess why though)

I figured it out in 10 seconds!

http://www.goldensilents.com/stars/unknown.jpg

btw, in 110 years of cinema, being in the 500s or 600s is no dis.

i think i just don't really buy antonioni's shtick. i feel like i'm getting lessons on life, and i keep wanting to say, yeah, but it's not really like that.

but that's ok. nobody has to like all the great filmmakers.

both films have their virtues but are waaaaay overrated

antonioni's a scrub.

ah. yeah i can see that. with something like the passenger, i sort of key into it in a very personal way. it's an emotional film to me! and i think if you are able to detect that strain of feeling in his films they become very powerful. but, yeah, not for everyone.

I used to rep for L'Avventura over the rest of the Come Dressed As the Sick Soul of Europe Party, but L'Eclisse is snazzier and has Alain Delon.

I think 2001 and Barry Lyndon are emotional films.

tipsy, look at most of Antonioni's catalogue as high swank, which he transcended maybe twice.

at least Antonioni's revelations top American Beauty's, eh

I think 2001 and Barry Lyndon are emotional films.

Agreed. I think the Kubrick film most guilty of being cold and unfeeling is The Shining.

i really don't like blow-up. except for the yardbirds.

I'm more apt to accuse him of not understanding "source material" (e.g. A Clockwork Orange), but that's for another day.

Blow-Up is hostility thinly veiled in fashion thinly veiled in a pretty clunky metaphor.

i'd like to see some of his documentary stuff. i've never seen any of it. to be honest, i don't think i've seen anything he did in the 40's or 50's. or 80's or 90's actually!

86 out of 100. somewhere my professors are shaking their heads at me. (still.)

Blow-Up is hostility Vanessa Redgrave's breasts thinly veiled in a pretty clunky metaphor.

well Alfred, Kubrick usually (always?) had no intention of replicating the source material.

i like everything that kubrick ever did.

58

i have still never watched an antonioni film

37, but 25 of the top 50. Tried to count how many I'd seen on the whole list -- it was around 200, but that's probably plus or minus 10 because my eyes were starting to glaze over.

i've also seen #1000! it's great, mostly because you CAN'T HEAR HER TALK ;)

30 or 31. and i don't like films

'chinatown' is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overrated

they rate THE MATRIX but not Jodorowsky???! fuck this list

also, i thought von stroheim's 'greed' was i) more viewed as a curiousity than anything ii) like twelve hours long, not 120 mins?

Weird, Shakey and I are very similar when it comes to this list. Both of us have seen the same number of films, both are missing a lot in the final third (I've seen nothing after #67 and before #87), both haven't seen Rules of the Game.

the original print of greed was about ten hours long, MGM forced him to trim it down to about four, then it got edited down further against EvS' wishes to about two hours

I've never heard of it being 120 minutes. Two and a half hours at the shortest, although I think the version usually screened now is about four?

At any rate, there appear to be at least six hours of the thing that have been (probably mercifully) lost to rumors.

83. I've seen both Mizoguchi films but not It's a Wonderful Life?

yeah it got restored to four a few years back. most of the remaining six hours got thrown out by a studio janitor, or so it goes

I'm kinda curious how many other single digit film-haters there'll be. Is it possible I'll be the only one?

xp Somewhere there's a four hour version of David Lynch's Dune, but that don't mean I want to watch it.

ive seen 30 i think. plus 2 of them are waiting on my dvr (notorious, bicycle thief)

i haven't heard of the rules of the game. i expected to go further than three films before finding one i hadn't heard of /:

in re greed i think - based on the book it comes from — mind-numbing and obliterating repetition might well be the way to go.

also, i am now watching the apartment

ooh Wilder's best!

It's a joke that liberty vallance is that high. Good performances, enjoyable movie and all, but come on. In terms of mise en scene, photography and overall aesthetic it's a mediocrity.

Am I right in reading that gold rush made the top 25ish, but city lights isn't even in the top 100? What a joke.

xp Somewhere there's a four hour version of David Lynch's Dune, but that don't mean I want to watch it.

― or have I become completely absurd? (kenan), Friday, August 28, 2009 5:24 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Dune definitely feels overcut though.

has anyone seen heimat? longest entry here (940 mins!)

would watch 4hr Dune cut

I like the story of how Lynch was primarily interested in the movie because the word "Dune" was so evocative. He hadn't even heard of/read the book.

has anyone seen heimat? longest entry here (940 mins!)

wow longer than Shoah even yikes

51

Dune definitely feels overcut though.

It does, because it's kind of all exposition. But from what I hear, what was cut was just longer, more elaborate exposition. With sweeping pans of desert and voiceover. *shudder*

I saw Rules of the Game once and while I remember there being nothing wrong with it I don't quite get why it's always near the top of these things. Will definitely watch again someday. Grand Illusion had a bigger impact on me.

if it was made in 2009 it would be dismissed as just another slapstick comedy

but that's the way these things work

rules of the game begs repeat viewings i think (if only to get the characters and their relationships straight). it's one of my favorites now but left me a little baffled the first time i watched it

Well, you have to learn the rules!

I've seen 44 (45 if I ever watch Fanny & Alexander, which I bought a couple of weeks ago). Haven't seen Rules of the Game but it's in my Netflix queue.

I used to rep for L'Avventura over the rest of the Come Dressed As the Sick Soul of Europe Party, but L'Eclisse is snazzier and has Alain Delon.

that's an excellent way of describing that contingent. and l'eclisse is the antonioni i haven't seen and need to.

Same here re: l'eclisse

Am I right in reading that gold rush made the top 25ish, but city lights isn't even in the top 100? What a joke.

City Lights is 23, Gold Rush is 27.

(Gold Rush is the only Chaplin I've seen, thanks to an Intro to Film class.)

Dalio is great in 'The Rules of the Game'.

speaking of the sick soul of europe, rules of the game definitely got there firstest with the mostest.

there's a good deal of stuff towards the end of this list i've never heard of. any opinions on djibril diop membety? luis garcia berlanga? mario peixote? klaus lemke?

also female trouble on this list (even at 925) = :D

95, but I'm oldish (and used to work in a video store).

if it was made in 2009 it would be dismissed as just another slapstick comedy

― tony dayo (dyao), Friday, August 28, 2009 1:39 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

but that's the way these things work

― tony dayo (dyao), Friday, August 28, 2009 1:39 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this makes 0 sense

It's a joke that liberty vallance is that high. Good performances, enjoyable movie and all, but come on. In terms of mise en scene, photography and overall aesthetic it's a mediocrity.

Am I right in reading that gold rush made the top 25ish, but city lights isn't even in the top 100? What a joke.

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, August 28, 2009 1:32 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

your jokes are funny, you should be a comedian.

the rules of the game is great. the one i'll never understand being near the top is the searchers. blech.

52

hurt by my disinterest in westerns, comedies, and hitchcock

xp yeah seriously the searchers is awful in a lot of different ways.

22 hurt by being young mostly

your jokes are funny, you should be a comedian.

― Mad Men on the BBS (some dude), Friday, August 28, 2009 5:57 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this joke is terrible though.

(Gold Rush is the only Chaplin I've seen, thanks to an Intro to Film class.)

― jaymc, Friday, August 28, 2009 5:48 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you should check out the big ones like modern times and city lights. Gold Rush is bizarrely overrated.

(Gold Rush is the only Chaplin I've seen, thanks to an Intro to Film class.)

― jaymc, Friday, August 28, 2009 1:48 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Me too! For the same reason!

i've seen most of these because i went methodically though a bunch of "best movies ever" lists when i first started to get interested in film. much easier with movies than with books!

i watched modern times in "sociology of work"

otm re: searchers. Seems like it got all trendy a few years back? It's a depressing bore and a bit of a moral morass besides.

29, mostly within the first 50. Not a film buff by any stretch, but I do enjoy a good fillum.

And 22 from 101-200.

So over a quarter of the top 200, then. Not bad!

I think if there's one consensus on this thread, it's that if you haven't seen Rules of the Game, do so immediately.

To have even one consensus on a movie thread... !

the searchers is some bullshit also seems to be a consensus, one that i agree with as well

30, but I own another 15 or thereabouts, which are waiting for me to finish my MA and get back into film-watching.

Seen just over two thirds of the list. I've never been a film glutton and I never will be.

... especially when it comes to westerns, which make up about half of what I haven't seen in the top 100.

Well, westerns and screwball.

morbs will def disagree about the searchers (i sort of split the diff. can see what others see in it, but i'm not too big on ford)

65 of the 21st Century list (about 1/3). What a strange collection of movies.

yeah I just cannot be made to care about old westerns. anything pre-Leone I pretty much lose interest in

aw and only 73 of 101-200.

i am beginning to worry about a site that classes "almost famous" as a "near-masterpiece" though.

i love old westerns & think u guys are kinda crazy but i did grow up watching them on saturday afternoon tv so i have a bit of a nostalgic attachment

maybe you have to get old. i could watch them all day now that i'm old. i could watch john wayne read the old western phonebook all day now that i'm old. i didn't want to have anything to do with him when i was younger. i just wish the searchers were longer. i want every western to be six hours long.

"almost famous" as "near masterpiece"

whoah wtf I missed that one! Total piece of shit, that film. do not get the praise for it at all.

maybe you have to get old. i could watch them all day now that i'm old.

eh I ain't no whippersnapper... more often than not whenever I catch old Westerns on TV I get distracted by picking out where the movie was shot (ooh look there's Monument Valley AGAIN)

what a bizarre thing to get distracted by

the 21st-century "highly recommended" list looks like the inventory of a poster shop catering to college freshmen.

what a bizarre thing to get distracted by

I dunno I've either been to or lived near a lot of them

anything pre-Leone I pretty much lose interest in

Leone is pretty much his own genre, though.

54 of the first 100. was on pace to see all this crap at one time, now not so sure. netflix turnaround avg. is up to about 6 months atm

'at one time'! you know what i mean. have we discussed the dude who watched the entire series of friends in one sitting? he still likes it!

they rate THE MATRIX but not Jodorowsky???!

for different druggies. (I've only seen trailers for Jodorowsky, and no thank you)

Greed got restored to four a few years back. most of the remaining six hours got thrown out by a studio janitor, or so it goes

The protagonist is a dentist, so three hours of the first cut was rinsing and spitting. (old joke) The 4-hour (Turner) version that was restored included a LOT of still photos for missing scenes -- doesn't really count.

Well, westerns and screwball.

― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.)

Yeah, aren't they great?

The Searchers might not make my ten best John Fords, but calling it "awful" is silly. I'd think you jaded postmodernists would at least like Hank Worden ("Thaaaank you kindly, Ethan"), later of Twin Peaks.

The two most beautiful valedictory Westerns were made in '62, Liberty Valance and Ride the High Country.

Shakey, that is weird, you can't fully understand Leone without Ford and Johnny Guitar.

these lists usually awaken the anti-intellectual in me. all those French philosophers' movie. (most of which i've seen too)

anyway i saw exactly 70, was doing just fine in the top 50, missed nine there. (i've seen my share of Fords, but i guess the wrong ones!)

first i didn't see was Battleship Potemkin, no intention of watching it. (Would rather watch the next 'miss' on the list, Sunrise)

52, meh, missed out on the French films big time

first i didn't see was Battleship Potemkin, no intention of watching it.

Oh, but I totally agree with that choice. It's really fun to watch. Really!

there's a sailor with an extra nipple in it iirc

anybody who doesnt think they like silent movies should see sunrise, stat

plus seeing Potemkin makes Bananas funnier.

i love old westerns & think u guys are kinda crazy

s1ocki, I knew there was a reason I still like you despite our many vicious catfights.

the searchers is really not dull

i can understand ppl who find it wacky and/or racist tho

xxxo
hehe. (i see it's only 65 minutes though, i actually thought it was at least 2 hours) (this will not make my change my mind)
let me check, what's the first post WW2 movie i didn't watch. ah it's La Dolce Vita, shit i was hoping it would be Ordet.

xxxo err xxxp whatever. xxxx0 looks sort of.. wrong.

the romance in the searchers it is pretty pedestrian and trite, like most westerns of the period.

btw Chaplin's real genius was in his short films, particularly for Mutual Studios.

I've only seen like 30-35, but I'm working on remedying that.

There's very few movies I actively hate, but Almost Famous is one of them. This movie is like a spit on everything I love !!
BTW this TOP 1000 really looks like something Les Cahiers du Cinema might have done in the early 90s. The canon hasn't changed much since, it seems.

The romance in the searchers is weirdly unnecessary and shoehorned in, like most movies of the period of any kind.

(Spartacus comes to mind. I always thought it was hilarious that there's a "Love Theme from Spartacus". Even if it is a great song.)

BTW this TOP 1000 really looks like something Les Cahiers du Cinema might have done in the early 90s. The canon hasn't changed much since, it seems.

this list might be a few years old as well? like from 2000 or something.

the romance in the searchers it is pretty pedestrian and trite, like most westerns of the period.

Well, that's because the people who settled America were such illiterate dumbasses. Grade on curve plz

Guys, studio pictures generally HAD to have a love interest, why do you think there are all those built-in bathroom breaks in every Marx Bros comedy except Duck Soup?

No, this list is revised more or less at year-end every year. xp

ah :)

also these kind of lists definetely hate comedies when they're not silent! (is there any modern, after 1930, comedy in that top 100)

Dr. Strangelove

Some like it hot. Read, plz

Even better: Singin' In the Rain

ive seen 47 of them -- where is stalker???

"Grade on curve plz"

sorry, no. don't need a curve for great films from the 20s and 30s, don't see why I need one for a film from the 50s.

ive seen 47 of them -- where is stalker???

― 69, Friday, August 28, 2009 7:15 PM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think it's in the 100-150 range.

ok i missed Some like it Hot. (i figured Dr. Strangelove would be the sole exception, you know, it's KUBRICK)

i am not counting Singin' in the Rain, even though it's fun.

... but it's a comedy

Totally it is. The whole thing is a pisstake, dance numbers or no.

this well get uninteresting and unimportant (wait it's the internet) but i'd say it's a musical. sure it's a funny musical (not much sad musicals i guess)

But it's a musical with almost no original songs in it -- all of them were taken from other musicals. And the plot is just a goof on making musicals in the first place. You're just wrong -- it's a *genius* comedy.

The Searchers is maybe a case where a movie was academically lauded and analyzed (and it IS a movie you can analyze to death) and maybe that's filtered down to these kinds of lists. you gotta have a western, and a Ford, and it's nice to have John Wayne around somewhere...

key to enjoying the searchers is, i think, noting how totally fucked up it is. (ie, how totally fucked up our founding myths are in the united states). It's like a movie version of Richard Slotkin's "Regeneration Through Violence."

i'll accept comedy musical. (but counting comedies i would forget it, if i was counting fast) (anyway forget it, it is a great movie :) )

Indeed. Sorry I got all uppity. It's one of my, like, top 3.

90% or more of MGM musicals were musical comedies.

if you look at the 900s you can see a lot of films that made it that weren't on in '07 or '06. (eg, Empire of the Sun and The Ladies Man)

With a few exceptions, I think there's less consensus on pure comedy than other genres, ie which films by Chaplin, Keaton, Lubitsch, Sturges, Tashlin etc. (Wilder and Woody seem to have their couple of widely agreed-upon masterpieces, and w/out looking I bet tHe Nutty Professor is way above the rest of Lewis.)

you guys do realize that The Searchers was thought transgressive and unpleasant by many when it was released?

btw, the romantic comedy btwn John Wayne and Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo is maybe my favorite element of that one.

you guys do realize that The Searchers was thought transgressive and unpleasant by many when it was released?

Well, I get the unpleasant part.

i agree that the searchers is an interesting movie that engenders analysis and discussion, but it's not really "good" at all as far as being a cinematic work that i enjoyed watching.

the argument is making me think of the j lethem essay about how he seems to spend his entire life defending the searchers to ppl more than it is the searchers

the apartment was pretty great

so er now i've seen 32 of them. go me.

Long ago a friend's wife saw The Searchers with me, sighing "Ooooh, look at that" at the landscapes. When it was over, she announced "That's the worst thing I've ever seen."

i would recommend von stroheim over murnau for silent n00bs. his cynicism plays better to a contemp audience

i don't really get the 'no intention of watching it' ppl on this thread. c'mon, if you've got time to post to this thread, you've got time to sit through potemkin and rules of the game. you'll thank yourself in the morning.

Long ago a friend's wife saw The Searchers with me, sighing "Ooooh, look at that" at the landscapes. When it was over, she announced "That's the worst thing I've ever seen."

lolz except uh kinda my sentiment exactly - I don't need to watch a film to see landscapes

xp lol um i have no intention of watching lots of things on that list. like probably most of them.

maybe, if you could insert zings into the intertitles
xposts

c'mon, if you've got time to post to this thread, you've got time to sit through potemkin

And as was pointed out earlier, Potemkin is 66 minutes long.

xxpost "lol um" your loss, dude. i can't think of anything in the top 100 that isn't worth watching once, even the ones i don't like.

Pity on anyone who doesn't like The Searchers, come on.

i really have a strong distaste for being told that i "should" watch something or listen to something. the canon is wack basically.

It should trade spots with Unforgiven.

I kinda like when people I respect tell me what I "should" watch, because I know what they really mean is "I think you'd like this," and I enjoy liking things.

Very true. So much better than being told what to not like.

Even when a "canonical" film doesn't appeal to me, it's usually fun to imagine what other people like so much about it, or what was groundbreaking about it, or etc. But I guess that line of thinking isn't fun for everyone.

xxp yes--which is why i'd be likely to watch a movie on a trusted friend's rec but not so much when it comes to some silly ass list.

yes, but we're just using the list as a jumping-off point. cuz it's already there.

Well, people I respect often talk about silly-ass lists.

xp Exactly.

the "canon" you've seen less than a 1/3 of?

maybe it's just me. i tend not to have strong opinions one way or the other on things i'm basically unfamiliar with. except maybe, like, death. and coprophagia.

the "omissions" list has some pretty interesting titles. kazuo hara and "baby doll"!

shouldve just answered "i don't like films" i guess

copollaphagia

maybe it's just me. i tend not to have strong opinions one way or the other on things i'm basically unfamiliar with. except maybe, like, death. and coprophagia.

btw this is why I'm never, ever seeing "Salo"

next we will discuss their "starter list" of 7900 films

haha i was just talking to a friend of mine the other day (over dinner) about salo! (i urged her to not see it)

oh c'mon dan, salo is a blast

Salo is good btw

nothing like hanging out on a movie thread if you don't like movies!

is there a good gardening thread i can go on. i don't have a garden and i hate gardening and i don't know much about gardening, but i feel like i have a lot to add.

i realize that's what i sound like. i think i just hung out with way too many film students in lol college.

how many of the top HUNDRED plants of Gardening Today's top 1000 plants have you cultivated

Gardening is great, but I don't like fusion gardening. Anything post-Mendeleev is for noobs.

614 Dead Poets Society

http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/images/shame.jpg

really you had to go to 614th to find something whineworthy?

surely there can't be anything else as whineworthy as Dead Poets Society?

the Matrix. that is a terrible, terrible movie

Almost Famous ditto

I think the worst thing in the top 100 is probably Terminator tho

(at least, of what I've seen)

stop. terminator good.

529. Barton Fink

there's lots of films i don't like on it but that just stood out as i was browsing the list sorted by year

matrix good too.

you know, i actually didn't hate dead poets society. or wait am i thinking of good will hunting. ah who cares.

I really liked "Dead Poet's Society" but it probably helps that I've only seen it in German.

Barton Fink I have to disagree with as being bad. It has John Mahoney as W.P. Mayhew. 'Nuff said.

I don't see a single Bob Hope vehicle, which is obscene.

(haterz, don't pretend you're up on '40s and '50s Hope films)

these are the site's "highly recommended" (aka "masterpiece or near-masterpiece") films of the 00s:

HR Dir 2000 --- Almost Famous (Crowe, Cameron; US; 122m ; Col)
HR Dir 2000 --- High Fidelity (Frears, Stephen; US-UK; 113m ; Col)
HR Dir 2000 --- House of Mirth, The (Davies, Terence; UK-US; 140m ; Col)
HR Dir 2000 --- In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai; Hong Kong-France; 97m ; Col)
HR 2000 --- Tears of the Black Tiger/Fa Talai Jone (Sasanatieng, Wisit; Thailand; 110m ; Col)
HR 2001 --- Deep End, The (McGehee, Scott/David Siegel; US; 100m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Ghost World (Zwigoff, Terry; UK-US-Germany; 111m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Heaven (Tykwer, Tom; Germany-US-France; 96m ; Col)
HR 2001 --- In the Bedroom (Field, Todd; US; 130m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2001 --- Man Who Wasn't There, The (Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen; US-UK; 116m ; BW)
HR Dir 2001 --- Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, David; France-US; 146m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Others, The (Amenábar, Alejandro; Spain-US; 100m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Royal Tenenbaums, The (Anderson, Wes; US; 109m ; Col)
HR 2001 --- Shrek (Adamson, Andrew & Vicky Jenson; US; 90m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Storytelling (Solondz, Todd; US; 86m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2002 --- Bowling for Columbine (Moore, Michael; US; 120m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Far from Heaven (Haynes, Todd; US-France; 107m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Man Without a Past, The (Kaurismäki, Aki; Finland-Germany-France; 97m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, Paul Thomas; US; 95m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Sunshine State (Sayles, John; US; 140m ; Col) Amazon
HR 2002 --- To Be and to Have/Etre et avoir (Philibert, Nicolas; France; 104m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- American Splendor (Pulcini, Robert & Shari Springer Berman; US; 101m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Corporation, The (Abbott, Jennifer & Mark Achbar; Canada; 145m ; Col)
HR Dir 2003 --- Elephant (Van Sant, Gus; US; 81m ; Col) Amazon
HR 2003 --- Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen, Thom; US; 169m ; Col)
HR Dir 2003 --- Lost in Translation (Coppola, Sofia; US-Japan; 102m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Triplets of Belleville, The (Chomet, Sylvain; France-Canada-Belgium-UK; 80m ; Col)
HR 2004 --- DiG! (Timoner, Ondi; US; 115m ; Col) Amazon Google
HR Dir 2004 --- Fahrenheit 9/11 (Moore, Michael; US; 122m ; Col) Amazon
HR 2004 --- Keane (Kerrigan, Lodge; US; 100m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2004 --- Moolaadé (Sembene, Ousmane; Senegal-Burkina Faso-Morocco-Tunisia-Cameroon-Switzerland-Germany; 120m ; Col)
HR Dir 2005 --- Bubble (Soderbergh, Steven; US; 73m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2005 --- Hidden/Cache (Haneke, Michael; France-Austria-Germany-Italy; 117m ; Col)
HR Dir 2005 --- History of Violence, A (Cronenberg, David; Germany-US; 95m ; Col)
HR Dir 2005 --- Squid and the Whale, The (Baumbach, Noah; US; 80m ; Col) ]
HR Dir 2007 --- Eastern Promises (Cronenberg, David; UK-Canada-US; 101m ; Col)
HR 2007 --- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu, Cristian; Romania; 113m ; Col)
HR Dir 2007 --- My Winnipeg (Maddin, Guy; Canada; 80m ; Col-BW)
HR Dir 2007 --- No Country for Old Men (Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen; US; 122m ; Col)
HR 2007 --- Persepolis (Paronnaud, Vincent & Marjane Satrapi; France-USA; 96m ; Col-BW)

yeah, hating something you haven't seen is always bad ; )

massive lols at "High Fidelity"

Of the ones I've seen, my fave is a tossup between "No Country for Old Men", "Mulholland Drive" and "Triplets of Belleville".

shit i MIGHT keep from that list. might.

HR Dir 2000 --- In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai; Hong Kong-France; 97m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, David; France-US; 146m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Far from Heaven (Haynes, Todd; US-France; 107m ; Col)
HR Dir 2005 --- Hidden/Cache (Haneke, Michael; France-Austria-Germany-Italy; 117m ; Col)
HR Dir 2005 --- History of Violence, A (Cronenberg, David; Germany-US; 95m ; Col)
HR Dir 2007 --- Eastern Promises (Cronenberg, David; UK-Canada-US; 101m ; Col)
HR Dir 2007 --- No Country for Old Men (Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen; US; 122m ; Col

at least if you turn off history of violence before we get to the william hurt part.

I was kind of amazed that I didn't totally hate Julianne Moore in "Far From Heaven".

though, to be fair, the ones i haven't even seen:

HR Dir 2001 --- Heaven (Tykwer, Tom; Germany-US-France; 96m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Man Without a Past, The (Kaurismäki, Aki; Finland-Germany-France; 97m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Corporation, The (Abbott, Jennifer & Mark Achbar; Canada; 145m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen, Thom; US; 169m ; Col)
HR 2004 --- Keane (Kerrigan, Lodge; US; 100m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2004 --- Moolaadé (Sembene, Ousmane; Senegal-Burkina Faso-Morocco-Tunisia-Cameroon-Switzerland-Germany; 120m ; Col)
HR 2007 --- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu, Cristian; Romania; 113m ; Col)

wtf. some of these films aren't even in english

DIG! is great but is not a masterpiece

is it worth seeing if you hate both of those bands?

HR Dir 2002 --- Man Without a Past, The (Kaurismäki, Aki; Finland-Germany-France; 97m ; Col)

i know i've seen this and i know i liked bit but i can't remember anything about it

goole--yes i hate both of those bands and i loved the movie

my brother in law edited keane! and i still haven't seen it. don't tell him. that's a sucky modern list. the only ones i would recommend to anyone would be american splendor (made me cry) and history of violence. and i would only recommend them to sad misanthropes like myself.

oh and i would recommend eastern promises to the same mythical misanthrope. but i heart cronenberg.

i don't even like sunshine state and i am a renowned sayles "stan" as you americans like to say.

haha eastern promises may be in my decade-ending top ten. oh, viggo's wang.

storytelling was pretty funny though! i chuckled at that one. wouldn't recommend it though.

If you have a low tolerance for watching people act stupid and self-aggrandizingly annoying, then don't see Dig! If that entertains you or you actually like those bands, then watch it.

Mooladé is good.

mulholland dr is worse than anything in the TSP top 100

If you have a low tolerance for watching people act stupid and self-aggrandizingly annoying, then don't see Dig! If that entertains you or you actually like those bands, then watch it.

dude, he posts on ilx. do you really question his position on people acting stupidly/self aggradnizingly annoying is??????

question what it is

his position

yeah i'm a huge fan of that

xp sometimes what people like in one medium doesn't translate to another ...

basically it alternates between drug-feuled delusionality and corporate tool-dom

delusional tools have long been an ilx staple.

wow i would not keep anything from what i've seen of that 00s list.

HR Dir 2000 --- Almost Famous (Crowe, Cameron; US; 122m ; Col)
HR Dir 2000 --- High Fidelity (Frears, Stephen; US-UK; 113m ; Col)
HR Dir 2001 --- Man Who Wasn't There, The (Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen; US-UK; 116m ; BW)
HR 2007 --- Persepolis (Paronnaud, Vincent & Marjane Satrapi; France-USA; 96m ; Col-BW)

These are all awful

I've probably seen about half of the ones listed for this decade -- a lot of them were just OK, and not ones I'd put on a best movies ever list.

These I probably would: Mooladé, 4 months, Cache, History of Violence, Persepolis, Far From Heaven

Oh god, Almost Famous was crappy.

i love that blade runner is ranked second of the four post-1980 films in the overall top 100

'00s Cronenberg is so absurdly overrated

I prefer 80s Cronenberg to 00's Cronenberg, but Ed Harris was really good in A History of Violence and William Hurt's line "How could you fuck that up?" was a favorite.

no sane person prefers 00s cronenberg to 80s cronenberg but i'd be plenty happy with him continuing to produce lean, ultraviolent three-act thrillers than another spider.

'persepolis' is awful?

"'00s Cronenberg is so absurdly overrated"

due to lack of competition.

He is currently set to direct the film version of The Matarese Circle with Tom Cruise.

Cronenberg plans to write and direct a film adaptation of Don Delillo's Cosmopolis.[7]

both of these worry me immensely, though.

xpost How about '00s Spielb- ... um, nevermind,

Spider was kinda disappointing ... felt like a Christopher Nolan movie. I did appreciate it after Existenz, which seemed like a lackluster remake of Videodrome.

Cronenberg's 00s stuff has been enjoyable, but in the 80s he was on some next-level shit. I re-watched Eastern Promises recently and while its a nice little thriller, as with History of Violence there just isn't a lot of depth there. Never saw Spider. I am a big fan of eXistenZ but agree about it essentially being a more light-hearted rehashing of Videodrome.

Yes Persepolis is just shitty filmmaking. One-trick-pony animation style, a narrative that has no dramatic arc and goes nowhere, and a POV that raises more questions by the nature of what it excludes, rather than what it does include

I like almost famous

who wants to throw stuff at me

I also like the matrix btw

like really a film that covers the Iranian Revolution and Khomeini is never mentioned, not once. wtf

x-post

wow shrek?

eastern promisies was the first film by him that felt like it could have been directed by some mid-level hollywood journeyman

What do you consider a dramatic arc, Shakey?

mulholland dr is worse than anything in the TSP top 100

Just about to say that it's maybe the best on that list. Can't get much farther apart than that, I guess.

I also like the matrix btw

Nothing eternally great, but it kicks a fair amount of ass. Belongs on a list, I think.

I turned Persepolis off after ten minutes. Would rather read the comic, thank you.

one thing i'll give the animated persepolis is that it has more charm than the comic simply because the art is more fluid and polished out of necessity.

ha xpost.

There are plenty of films in the top 100 that just seem to be there based on their age ... especially some of the Westerns, and I don't dislike westerns, but I don't think Rio Bravo was that much better a film than the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

then again reading an autobio comic by a second-rate david b. clone seems the definition of pointless to me with, you know, david b. already existing.

What do you consider a dramatic arc, Shakey?

I dunno, some kind of central conflict to center the action around? Some character development? An introduction, a climax, and a denouement? The screenplay is so directionless it just reads like an endless succession of "and then this other thing happened...." Things are alluded to and never clarified, there's a careful elision of all kinds of things (sex, the actual politics underlying the Iranian Revolution, etc.)

I totally allow for the possibility that the comic book is much better.

it's really not.

david b.?

also the animated Persepolis features a pretty hilarious Englishman-speaking-French accent in its story of the Shah's rise

persepolis is kind of the comic i've most felt i OUGHT to read, if only to justify why i already don't like it, in ages. possibly forever

xp Shakey: the dramatic arc is the protagonist's life, and is pretty much a coming of age story

It took a couple hundred posts, but the thread has successfully gotten away from discussing any of the 100 films in question. I knew we could do it.

Seen about 70. Never watched 8 1/2 all the way through so that's the highest ranking. Not sure if I want to bother tabulating the whole 1000.

I'm not saying persepolis was the greatest movie ever, and I too would have liked to see more discussion of Iranian politics at that time.

xp - I think I've seen 46 of the top 100, though it could be more. I did fall asleep during Sansho the Bailiff.

I'm sure if I were to count from the entire 1000, I'd plunch from about two-thirds seen in the top 100 to about one-quarter seen.

thing is, I think overall the second 100 on that list are more interesting movies than the top 100.

I've seen 120 of the first 200. I would guess that ratio will hold for the rest. Not loving John Ford and Carl Dreyer is a big knock if you want to do well at this, isn't it?

Marnie at 337 is pretty weird.

Marnie : Hitchcock :: Barry Lyndon : Kubrick

Small but fiercely devoted auteurist/cult following.

thing is, I think overall the second 100 on that list are more interesting movies than the top 100.

Yeah, that's a list that will see a lot of chart movement, as Casey Kasem would say.

I guess, but it's weird to think that's 337 and Frenzy didn't even make the list. No comparison IMO.

I've seen a little over 1/4 of the 1000 ... that I can remember ... not to be overly chart-nerdy but the fact that Weekend isn't in the top 100 and that Z is in the 900s is pretty wtf to me.

00's Cronenberg >>> 90's Cronenberg (except for Naked Lunch)

Sounds about right. I can't really remember 90s Cronenberg right now though.

Crash is probably the only Cronenberg movie I've seen I even like after Dead Ringers.

That said, A History of Violence and Eastern Promise have enough in common structurally with The Fly and Dead Ringers so that I can't say 80's Cronenberg >> 00's Cronenberg. Every film I've mentioned is superior to Videodrome.

90s Cronenberg:
Naked Lunch
M Butterfly
Crash
Existenz

Naked Lunch was awesome for the Ornette Coleman soundtrack and giant insects alone.

Can't wait to watch Videodrome.

Crash is probably the only Cronenberg movie I don't like after Dead Ringers.

oops I thought eXistenZ was 00s for some reason. yeah the 90s were a bad decade for him.

well Naked Lunch is great, I guess its just Crash and M. Butterfly that sucked

Naked Lunch and Existenz are great. I've never seen M Butterworth and I don't care for Crash at all.

M. Butterfly is his wtf attempt to create a Merchant Ivory film.

Videodrome is great! Probably my favorite of his. PKD sci-fi with a conventional noir structure and Cronenberg's trademark obsessions with sex, violence, and technology. don't listen to Alfred!

Spider/A History of Violence/Eastern Promises > Naked Lunch/Existenz though

Watch Rabid instead.

Seems to me there's another thread for this.

Crash>The Fly>Videodrome>Dead Ringers>Shivers

>The Searchers

okay cuz i'm bored and just kinda waiting to go home at this point i counted up all the movies i've seen on the whole list. 426. not even half! a lot of faves on there. i promise to watch more movies. its just that i have so much t.v. to watch and records to listen to and books to read. you know? good thing i never actually spend time writing or i'd never get anything done!

the imdb quotes page doesn't list my favorite Videodrome quote - the one the guy in the optical store says about what the company does.

wow, I've seen like 80 or so of the whole 1000. i'd also like to point out, just be a total asshole, that i've made hundreds of dollars reviewing films professionally.

I wish more film critics had seen fewer of these movies tbh

32/100. Top unseen: No. 2, Vertigo.

I wish more film critics had seen fewer of these movies tbh

ha!

I wish fewer people had seen Magnolia ... for the sake of humanity. That film was almost as loathsome as Southland Tales. Best character = frogs.

i must be odd, because i kinda love almost all the 90 i've seen in the top 100. there almost all beautiful and moving films, in one way or another. (and of course there's a LOT of beautiful and moving films not on the list. my all time favorite move is way down in the 600s!)

Top ranking movie I haven't seen: Seven Samurai. Kurosawa doesn't do much for me.

Is anyone here's all-time favorite movie in the top 100?

me either re: kurosawa, but Seven Samurai is one of my personal top 10! same goes for Fellini and 8 1/2

also not a Kurosawa fan, but Yojimbo was pretty good.

I don't have a favorite movie, but there are plenty of movies in the top 100 that could conceivably qualify.

in an ideal world, where all films are equally distributed to the widest audience possible - the list will look different:
Pather Panchali, though great, is not Ray greatest film - only his most known. it suffers from amteurish directing style in parts (though of course thats a part of it's charm). the 2nd and third parts of the apu trilogu are much better, and Charulata, is probably his best movies.
i think almost everyone whove seen those movie will agree.
same goes with Ozu.
the old Late Spring vs Tokyo Story:which is his the best? Late Spring might have be at the top ten, but it's possible that some of the voters didnt even see it.

also, it's kinda weird Viridiana was chosen as the highest ranking Bunuel film:it's a masterpiece,yes, but it doesnt carry the usual surrealism signature and Bunuel def. made (even)more complex and profpund films . i thought Discreet Charms,Belle De Jour,or Extarminating angel would get the highest ranking.this time distribution isnt to blame of course.

yeah what Alex said

xp Zeno: agreed on Bunuel.

i've seen most of these because i went methodically though a bunch of "best movies ever" lists when i first started to get interested in film. much easier with movies than with books!

yah me too - and i def had a sense of obligation w/ a lot of these - ugh the dreyer and ophüls - rather than a real interest in the films. i agree w/whoever sd that even the films u may not like in the top 100 are worthwhile but thats a hard thing to evangelize on. and i think the flip to this list being pretty obvious is that it is easier to pick up on things i havent seen that i really doubt id be into - like ive seen the other x godard films and im just not into watching contempt

HR 2001 --- In the Bedroom (Field, Todd; US; 130m ; Col) Amazon

i thought i was the only person with some affection for this movie pretty much everyone i no h8s it - lol @ "masterpiece" tho

though, to be fair, the ones i haven't even seen:

HR Dir 2001 --- Heaven (Tykwer, Tom; Germany-US-France; 96m ; Col)
HR Dir 2002 --- Man Without a Past, The (Kaurismäki, Aki; Finland-Germany-France; 97m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Corporation, The (Abbott, Jennifer & Mark Achbar; Canada; 145m ; Col)
HR 2003 --- Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen, Thom; US; 169m ; Col)
HR 2004 --- Keane (Kerrigan, Lodge; US; 100m ; Col) Amazon
HR Dir 2004 --- Moolaadé (Sembene, Ousmane; Senegal-Burkina Faso-Morocco-Tunisia-Cameroon-Switzerland-Germany; 120m ; Col)
HR 2007 --- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu, Cristian; Romania; 113m ; Col)

la plays itself and 4 months... are both really dope the latter in particular

aki kaurismaki once said cinema died in 1968 " i think it was in october".
a joke? :

1900s = 1 film
1910s = 6 films
1920s = 56 films
1930s = 95 films
1940s = 114 films
1950s = 159 films
1960s = 181 films
1970s = 156 films
1980s = 123 films
1990s = 95 films
2000s = 14 films

aki kaurismaki once said cinema died in 1968 " i think it was in october".

Pretty close.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062480/releaseinfo

Is anyone here's all-time favorite movie in the top 100?

yes, The Third Man

The traffic jam scene in Weekend is probably one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history.

I haven't had a favorite movie for awhile, now, but I'm sure I could find something reasonably close in the top 100.

i bet in another 10 years or so mulholland drive will sneak into the top 100 of lists like these. (blue velvet's on the cusp as it is, but i think MD has critical legs.)

Yeah I don't buy this 00's worst decade for movies ever thing. I'll bet if you did this 1999 there would be a very low # for the 90s as well.

well it obviously depends on what you like about movies ...

i was trying to think of what my FAVORITE movie is in the top 100. but there is lots of great stuff there. and it would probably end up being a sentimental childhood fave like wizard of oz or blade runner.

These 10 from the top 100 are definitely in the running as all-time faves:

The Rules of the Game
The Night of the Hunter
Rear Window
Au hasard Balthazar
Nashville
All About Eve
Playtime
Last Year at Marienbad
L'Âge d'or
Barry Lyndon

is mulholland really going to clinch it over inland empire as everyone's favourite late lynch?

yeah i think mulholland will be the consensus fave. inland empire's a lot more divisive (altho hardcore lynchians and film geeks will rep for it as a matter of pride).

still think Eraserhead and Blue Velvet are his best.

my favorite late lynch is the straight story....but I also hate lynch

yeah i think mulholland will be the consensus fave. inland empire's twin peaks: fire walk with me's a lot more divisive (altho hardcore lynchians and film geeks will rep for it as a matter of pride).

I never cared much for Kurosawa either, which is why I'm grateful to Criterion, etc for releasing those late fifties/early sixties films you didn't hear much about when it was all Rashomon, Ikiru, etc.

still think Eraserhead and Blue Velvet are his best.

― what happened? i am confused. (sarahel), Friday, August 28, 2009 8:21 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

^ same

Yeah, I like samurai Kurosawa but I actually think a lot of the directors that came in his wake (Okamoto, Kobayashi, Hideo Gosha) have made movies that are just as good and less overplayed than Kurosawa's stuff. The whole 60's samurai cinema stuff also has this urgent sense of "man, fuck bushido" that Kurosawa only occasionally tapped into. His noir stuff is pretty peerless though (though I've yet to watch that Nikkatsu noir box, so who knows.)

Inland Empire is so good. That's all I can say about it, really.

Is anyone here's all-time favorite movie in the top 100?

yes, The Third Man

― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.)

Yep.

29

I saw Last Year at the Marienbad recently (like last week) and it was really an experience. Was gonna see L'Avventura tonight, but it turns out Netflix sent me Seinfeld Season One Disc One in the Marienbad folder. Jerks.

Question for all your film buffs (and otherwise opinion holders): Do you think that with these lists like top 100 films or top 100 novels, even if you dislike some of the choices, there's probably value to being intimately familiar with the canon? (As a relationship to the list distinct from, say, a list of top 100 albums of all time, or songs, where it feels like even despite critical consensus, it's often a lot more okay to not be familiar with the majority of them?) And if so, what accounts for critical consensus in film being more -- idk - sensible?

71

xpost Why is it a lot more okay to not be familiar with the majority of entries on an album list?

It seems like it is, but maybe ILM just isn't indicative of most music critics. Or maybe the really vocal posters on ILM aren't indicative of most music critics on ILM. idk. If my assertion is wrong, that's fine.

Or maybe the really vocal posters on ILM aren't indicative of most music critics on ILM

^^^^^

Fair enough.

I think it's absolutely fair to say that trying to create a canon of 100 top films or books that people can, if not agree on, then at least respect on some level and feel like all or most of it is at least worth seeing/reading once, is a lot more possible than to try and do something like that with albums.

27 of them. But of those, I need to re-watch like all of them except Wizard of Oz and Blade Runner. Films that good deserve multiple viewings.

I've seen 27 of the first 100, 89 of the 1000.

Never seen Vertigo

big hoos needs big hitch

he looks up, he looks down ...

vertigo is an incredible movie, but I think it should be seen on as big a screen as possible

46 of the top 100. More than I expected.

This is a better list than AFI, imo.

i love any list that includes dawn of the dead and suspiria. two of my fave films 4ever.

is dawn of the dead the shopping mall one?

No I think that's Clueless.

Why is it a lot more okay to not be familiar with the majority of entries on an album list?

Reasons mentioned above, but the first thing I thought of as a response was that there are just a lot more albums in the world than movies.

yeah, me too, not to blow smoke up your ass or anything ...

I prefer sunshine, anyway.

44

lol I swear I just posted here...where the hell did I just post?

Anyway, I notched 10. Wouldn't mind watching more movies if I could make the time between other stuff I wanna do.

Like posting to ilx how I don't make enough time for films I wanna watch.

i take perverse pride in never seeing anything by fellini, and only one bergman film ("the seventh seal," of course). which hasn't stopped me from enjoying woody allen films (speaking of which, why isn't either "annie hall" or "manhattan" in the top 100?!?)

Japan edged him out, I think.

I've been meaning to see 8 1/2 for the better part of a decade now and I just keep forgetting

I kept meaning to watch Memento but

Noodle, have you seen Memento?

xxp One of my favorite movies that my girlfriend refuses to watch. I have learned to shrug.

Why does she refuse to watch it?

Have I seen what?

Noodle, have you seen any Christopher Nolan movies besides the Batman ones?

I keep meaning to watch Memento but

Why does she refuse to watch it?

I once joyously described the dream sequence with the hot tub and the harem. There's no explaining how great that sequence is without severely risking sounding like a pig. And avoiding sounding like a pig is hardly my strong suit.

there's a dream sequence with a hot tub and a harem in Memento, I must have forgotten that part.

Oh! No. 8 1/2.

She's seen Memento. She's seen as many movies as me, maybe more.

Has she seen Memento?

I think this conversational tack has reached its limit. :)

I saw Polanski's "What?" tonight. What a funny flick!

Has it been mentioned how this list was calculated? It closely resembles, at least at the top, the British Film Institute's best films list, which comes out every 10 years and collates the opinions of critics and film makers. I like the fact that it gives weight to films that have stood the test of time. The only film since 1990 which makes the top 100 is Goodfellas at 99.

I'm seen 63 out of the top 100, and 22 of the top 25.

you ppl really make me wish I loved something besides film. Like people.

My Winnipeg needs to be swapped out for The Saddest Music in the World or The Heart if the World (short).

Is anyone here's all-time favorite movie in the top 100?

Depending what day you catch me, #2, 4, 16, 78, 100.

Probably seen 22 of the top hundred but it could be one less or one more - I think I've seen Goodfellas but not Jules et Jim. I got 16 of the top 50, then almost nothing 'til a late flurry in the 90s. Highest omission is La Regle Du Jeu.

Impressively, all other than those and Godfather II were on the big screen. One of the best, yet least-mentioned, things about having lived in London. It's all about the cinema experience for me, I've always got better things to do at home than watch a film on the telly.

The Heart if the World

This list of 1000 ought to have quite a few more shorts on it.

Yeah, that just confuses people. It's not "real" if it's not a feature.

plus about 40 of mine would be Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and Looney Tunes.

680. Seven Women

I've never seen this (Ford's last), didn't know it had even that many champions.

plus about 40 of mine would be...Looney Tunes

always seriously bugs the shit out of me how these are overlooked in almost every film list ever.

if freeling/clampett/jones/avery was one hydra-headed director, the resulting mutant might top my list of faves.

Morbs, is there a thread where you've discussed some of your favorite Looney Tunes? Curious to hear your take.

Best film of the '50s: Duck Amuck?
Best film of the '60s: To Beep or Not To Beep?

ignoring the stupid conservatism and lack of imagination of this list id just like to ask u really think this is a good way to design something u want people to read and understand

http://i32.tinypic.com/2ez4roi.jpg

wtf

ignoring the stupid conservatism and lack of imagination of this list

Please do go on.

always seriously bugs the shit out of me how these are overlooked in almost every film list ever.

"what's opera, doc?" is my favorite piece of moving image + sound in the whole world

lol at making all the stills b&w - u f'n wish dont u theyshootpictures.com

i've seen about 25 of these and the rest is basically french movies i never intend to watch anyway

ignoring the stupid conservatism and lack of imagination of this list

Please do go on.

― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:36 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

start w/the obvious - the most recent movie in the top 100 was made in 1982

I'd love to know what a "best of the 90s" list would look like now. My favorite list was the one scorsese did on ebert's show.

I've only seen 49 of the top hundred. :(((

Highest unseen, "Tokyo Story"

My favorite list was the one scorsese did on ebert's show.

That was fantastic.

Scorsese: "My number one is The Horse Thief."
Ebert: "Uhh ... my number one is Hoop Dreams."

"start w/the obvious - the most recent movie in the top 100 was made in 1982"

Yeah this is pretty patently moronic.

What was also funny about it is scorsese had like 3-4 movies ebert was lukewarm on at best.

i was wondering if someone would attempt a poptimist-style attitude regarding shorts vs features

So, you'd all be happier if Almost Famous and Persepolis took the slots of Rear Window and The Third Man?

"start w/the obvious - the most recent movie in the top 100 was made in 1982"

Yeah this is pretty patently moronic.

― Alex in SF, Saturday, August 29, 2009 7:14 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

It was Goodfellas from 1990. I don't see what's moronic about waiting to see how history regards a new film before ranking it with the great movies of all time...

the highest ranking film i've never seen is les enfants du paradis. i'm sure it's great and all but somehow i've never found myself in the mood to watch a three-hour french movie about mimes and dancers.

^^^ I think you have to really be into old movies, but if you are, it's very entertaining.

"So, you'd all be happier if Almost Famous and Persepolis took the slots of Rear Window and The Third Man?"

Not particularly. But at the same time this idea that the quality of cinema has gone completely downhill since 1968 is pretty silly.

"I don't see what's moronic about waiting to see how history regards a new film before ranking it with the great movies of all time..."

Who is this history? And why do we care how s/he regards thing again?

kinda whatever to the no new stuff crit. if there was a best pop songs of the 20th century poll, pretty sure overwhelming % would be post WWII stuff because nobody cares about rudy vallee and old timey songs for the most part. i like that the film world is the opposite. also, if you look at the full list, some newer films are climbing pretty fast, should be breaking the top 100 soon. the fact that the list factors in best of lists from decades ago is gonna skew things for a while. take the long view, son.
plus lists are inherently retarded anyway.

At the same time, by the time the new films break into the upper ranks, everyone will have moved on from cinema as a whole.

how so, Eric?

My hunch is that "movies" as we know it won't be "movies" as they exist in the future, et al.

they will be "holo-lazers"

http://gnoted.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/virtual-reality-helmut.jpg

lol
I don't think that interest in cinema as an art form is going to disappear though, at least not in out lifetimes.

There's nothing wrong with diregarding the historical significance of films when making up a list like this. It's a different kind of list is all. It's interesting to see the international poll of critics/filmakers that's released every 10 years by the BFI. Movies like 2001, The Godfather, and Raging Bull have steadily moved up the list, displacing some of the older films. There is nothing much newer than these, however (at least not yet). I think the next poll comes out in 2012.

So, you'd all be happier if Almost Famous and Persepolis took the slots of Rear Window and The Third Man?

No, but I'd be happy to see a movie I really enjoy, like Fat Girl or Raiders of the Lost Ark or Dead Ringers, replacing a movie I think is tedious, like Intolerance ... with all due respect to the DW Griffith stans out there.

I don't like any of the three films that polyphonic enjoys, but wholeheartedly agree that Griffith films in general and Intolerance in particular are pretty tedious.

Sorry replace like with love. I do like Raiders and Dead Ringers, just not enough to consider them among the 100 greatest films. That said I'd rather see any of them (including Fat Girl probably) than watch Intolerance again.

intolerance is a crazy movie, that sort of era and style of filmmaking deserves representation imo

I have no problem with those films being represented, but there is this pretense here that all the greatest filmmakers ever basically worked pre-1960 that I find pretty laughable.

Alex I think most people would agree with that. The problem is, which current/recent films do you put on a par with movies like 8 1/2 and Vertigo? Some movies which are considered great in their time don't hold up too well. If you look at polls or interviews involving some of today's great moviemakers, most of them cite older movies as their favorites or as the movies they think are the greatest. I think that's how a list like this comes about.

music- thousands of years
painting-thousands of years
sculpture-thousands of years
movies-120ish years?

doubt it.

Some movies which are considered great in their time don't hold up too well.

Like The Searchers?

xxp Babe: Pig In The City

I have no problem with those films being represented, but there is this pretense here that all the greatest filmmakers ever basically worked pre-1960 that I find pretty laughable.

― Alex in SF, Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:38 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's especially odd since the 70s were such a great period for movies. The idea that movies started sucking in 1968 is strange; that was the beginning of a 10 year golden age, not the end of it.

I don't know, I saw The Searchers recently. It was impressive. I think it's widely considered the greatest John Ford movie.

I saw The Searchers recently and it almost made me fall asleep.

I don'e mean to be defending these choices, but one-fifth of the top 20 movies on this list are from the 1968-1980 period.

ok ok we get it you guys don't like the searchers

The Searchers is a fine movie . But it's not a patch on McCabe & Mrs Miller or Once Upon A Time In The West or even fucking Blazing Saddles. Nothing Ford or Anthony Mann did or John Wayne was in is. The idea that John Ford is the greatest American director is just whatever to me. Only someone completely wrapped in a gauze-y eyed vision of "oh when cinema was good back then" actually thinks that.

I just wonder how much of this is an attempt to represent significant films in significant genres, rather, it's partly about the genre and its relative worth, as opposed to the actual film.

the idea that nothing john ford did was a patch on blazing saddles is a "whatever" of the very first order.

yeah, i'm not a ford fan at all but that attitude is bizarre. you forgot the "fuk u if u disagree" alex

fuckin' STAGECOACH man... my darlin' clementine... these movies are unfuckwithable.

re: children of paradise - it breezes by for a three-hour movie, i think. the mime/dance thing is one of a lot of things going on in it

you gonna step to howard hawks too? red river? rio bravo? i love leone & altman like all the rest but dude

Rio Bravo was pretty good ... but I don't think it deserved such high placement.

The guy made like 6 million movies so maybe I missed the one that's going to blow my mind, but I've seen most of the ones people say are the best and I can't imagine thinking oh yeah that's going top my ten best list. Comparing his films to Mel Brooks is kind of a canard, I'll admit though.

"you forgot the "fuk u if u disagree" alex"

LOL I thought it was implied!

; )

i can't really imagine many post-1980 movies you could build a consensus around. i mean, it's all well and good to say there should be more recent movies, but any particular movie that you could mention is gonna have a lot of disagreement around it. so it's almost practically a moot point.

Sure Howard Hawks is another guy who made fine films which I don't sit around going "yup these are the best films ever."

noted?

Yeah, but remember how these lists get made: if the same movie shows up on lots of ballots, it makes the list; and for a lot of people, the onerous task of choosing one Sturges, Renoir, or Hawks film means you go for easy picks.

I do wish some sharp contrarian would have chosen Land of the Pharaohs as his Hawks movie.

Well I mean what do you want me to say, "Yup s1ock's you're right all these old dudes really were the best and everything's been rapidly going downhill since." Fuck why even go to the movies if that's what you think?

I'm no expert on Hawks and Ford, but along with a few others, aren't they sort of considered the gold standard for Hollywood studio product auteurs in the classic 30s/40s/50s era? what else would you include from that?

all i really can do is shrug at that, cuz that's so clearly not why i think

xp

plus you gotta see Hawks/Ford backwards through the lens created by Godard/Truffaut and the New Wave dudes to appreciate why they are considered so significant now.

borzage is a director that used to get a lot of love and now he only has 2 film in the 900s, don't give up hope, alex!

some would argue Ford created as much cinematic language as Griffith did! (ok i'll stop now)

xp - well, I think they're considered less significant now than they were in the cahiers days.

xxp My fingers are crossed, velko!

Yeah, but remember how these lists get made: if the same movie shows up on lots of ballots, it makes the list; and for a lot of people, the onerous task of choosing one Sturges, Renoir, or Hawks film means you go for easy picks.

which is why it would be more interesting to compile lots of people's top 100 lists than lots of top 10 lists. but i guess not enough people make top 100 lists.

I don't love any of the three films that polyphonic enjoys

Naturally. I'm not sure any of them would be in my top 100 either ... well, Raiders would, but not the other two. But I like all three of them way, way more than Intolerance.

intolerance is a crazy movie, that sort of era and style of filmmaking deserves representation imo

I guess. I just find some of the other silent-era picks on the list to be a lot more fun to watch, and it seems a little disingenuous to reward it so emphatically for its historical importance or for being groundbreaking. Potemkin and M and Joan of Arc all really hold up for me in a way that Intolerance just doesn't. I mean, maybe some folks actually enjoy watching Intolerance due purely for its performances and narrative, but none that I've met.

i dunno. i find it hard to get het up about who's on what website's list or not. most of these dudes and films (except for the 2000s list, which is like 75% garbage imo) are awesome and there's so many movies to watch, really, that im not really gonna get too bothered about ranking them. and i really don't think that the last 30 years of film have been overlooked by anyone but the fustiest of film studies dudes, and so effin' what.

i mean i think the "nothing new is good" attitude and the "nothing old is good" 'tude are both equally dmb

it seems a little disingenuous to reward it so emphatically for its historical importance or for being groundbreaking

How is it disingenuous? It seems like that's the rationale for a lot of the films on the list. Or, do you mean, that picking Intolerance over Birth of a Nation conveniently allows a critic to push the racial issues of the latter a bit to the side?

sorry, meant to say they're both equally dave matthews band.

xp

If you look at the .pdf available from the page there's an explanation about whose vote counts for what: basically it's weighted toward high-profile critics and director, with medium- and low-profile critics/directors begin given less and less weight. There's your before-1960 consensus.

Or, do you mean, that picking Intolerance over Birth of a Nation conveniently allows a critic to push the racial issues of the latter a bit to the side?

this is exactly why Intolerance always shows up and Birth of a Nation doesn't. Birth of a Nation is at least a little entertaining!

How is it disingenuous? It seems like that's the rationale for a lot of the films on the list. Or, do you mean, that picking Intolerance over Birth of a Nation conveniently allows a critic to push the racial issues of the latter a bit to the side?

Is it the best or is it the most important? Which rubric are you using? If historical importance is most important, why are there so few films from the early '10s or etc.? Why is Intolerance so high up on the list but The Great Train Robbery isn't even listed?

But yes, I do think picking Intolerance over BoaN is disingenuous in the race politics sense as well. Birth of a Nation is a better film, I think.

that makes senses, Matos.

I think it's interesting to see, in that context, what are considered the greatest movies of the 1990's: Goodfellas (99), Pulp Fiction (151), Unforgiven (209), Schindler's List (212), The Piano (261), Fargo (288).

what are considered the greatest movies of the 1990's:

It's like they looked at the AFI lists to remember what had been released recently.

The 1990's-part of the list is also skewed toward the earlier part of the decade.

I'm not going to argue this list wasn't compiled with a certain agenda, but at least take into consideration that part of what leads to certain earlier filmmakers being over-represented may have at least something to do with the notion that they, um, helped create the art form.

But if you're really that concerned with the lack of films from the last 25 years on this list, drink this one in instead. There you will invariably find at least eight canonized movies that were released in theaters in the past 12 months.

now that list is ridiculous.

start w/the obvious - the most recent movie in the top 100 was made in 1982

Not a problem. The "test of time" factor at work. As critical consensus gets looser on the '90s and '00s as to what's great -- and less and less frequently are they films from the Hollywood studios -- the critical faves are much more scattered. Dardennes or Wong? Denis or Leigh? Few of them would have a big enough "following," or have made a paradigm-shifting film, to break into a Top 100 like this. Even the Lynch fans on this board seem split fairly evenly on which of his last two films is better.

My favorite list was the one scorsese did on ebert's show.

Don't think I even remember hearing of this!It's really obvious there's been less innovation in the aesthetics of linear narrative film in the last 30 years or so than there was in the previous 70. Shitting on Griffith is like saying Henry Fielding and Dickens may have been important in the evolution of the novel, but what a bunch of fusty tedium it is today! They're no Dennis Lehane.

The Searchers is a fine movie . But it's not a patch on... even fucking Blazing Saddles

Too bad they cut the Wayne/Ward Bond farting scene, and the one where Scar speaks Yiddish, after the first preview. (DNFTT)

Morbs, is there a thread where you've discussed some of your favorite Looney Tunes?

With very few exceptions, I don't know titles. And I haven't watched the LTs in years either. They'd be a lot of the obvious ones: I particularly love the one where Bugs recounts his rise in show business.

I think they're considered less significant now than they were in the cahiers days.

By whom? Entertainment-mag shills for Zodiac and There Will Be Blood? (Both good films that were drowned with rabid hyperbole.) I guess the primacy of the Fun Factor in evaluating art for you guys means Chris Ware and Raymond Pettibon come out ahead of Pollock?

the greatest movies of the 1990's: Goodfellas (99), Pulp Fiction (151), Unforgiven (209), Schindler's List (212), The Piano (261), Fargo (288).

Apparently the rest of the world just stopped making good films, huh? A lot of great stuff came out of Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Iran that decade, but the filmmakers just don't have the widespread "giant" reputation that your Bergmans and Kurosawas of yore did.

I haven't seen it yet (and not in a rush) but I wouldn't put The Searchers under "Some movies which are considered great in their time don't hold up too well" it was a box office hit but didn't get any Oscar noms, it was really the bogdanovichs and such that gave it its reputation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLAxSQU_9ws

(sorry about the bad editing, I was building XPs into that) xxp

I thought The Searchers was a modest success or less?

Can I say, without trying to sound confrontational at all, that I enjoy reading your, Morbius's, posts about things you like (shorts, looney toons, etc) like a million times more than reading your posts about things you dislike?

there's definitely been a lot of innovation in narrative structure and overall structure of film in the last 40 years.

Shitting on Griffith is like saying Henry Fielding and Dickens may have been important in the evolution of the novel, but what a bunch of fusty tedium it is today!

But I love Dickens! And Fielding too, although less so.

90

you can view my progress here:
http://www.listsofbests.com/list/591/compare/duggie2

I thought The Searchers was a modest success or less?

made the box office top 20 for the year according to wikipedia, though probably 11-20 if its listed as such

either way, the point remains that it was not immediately hailed as a classic

"i mean i think the "nothing new is good" attitude and the "nothing old is good" 'tude are both equally dmb"

I don't recall saying this (saying that there are better Westerns than the ones made John Ford isn't exactly the same) but the list is pretty much making the "nothing new is good" argument! I'd like to see a bunch of individual critics list and see if really they had a bunch of post-70s films really really really high, but just a bunch of scattered different ones and that's why all these dusty consensus favs ended up at the top. Somehow I doubt it. I think a lot of these folks really do think the Searchers is one of the seven best movies ever.

"Shitting on Griffith is like saying Henry Fielding and Dickens may have been important in the evolution of the novel, but what a bunch of fusty tedium it is today!"

But Henry Fielding is a bunch of TEDIUM today (Dickens less so)! Less tedious than Dennis Lehane admittedly. Pointing out that some stuff has aged badly isn't saying they weren't important to the evolution fo whatever. I fucking hate "importance" criteria anyway. Things can be historically important in one respect and stultifyingly boring in a million others (see DW Griffith,.)

"there's definitely been a lot of innovation in narrative structure and overall structure of film in the last 40 years."

As though we should all be watching movies for innovations in narrative structure and the overall structure of film anyway. What a weird ass criteria for "greatness".

Why is that weird?

yeah, i mean, they're not the be-all and end-all of film quality, but innovations sure don't hurt

Deep Throat was really influential and groundbreaking.

and that's why people talk about it more than most other porn films from the era

that sentence was in response to Morbs':
It's really obvious there's been less innovation in the aesthetics of linear narrative film in the last 30 years or so than there was in the previous 70.

Sorry I should have included the word just in there.

Should have also responded back to Morbs original statement as well.

and that's why people talk about it more than most other porn films from the era

― da croupier, Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:12 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

always with the caveat that it's awful.

compared to other porn films from the era?

re that Scorsese clip, have I even heard of A Borrowed Life?

Thanks Mordy, but there's so much more overappreciated bad stuff that needs to be taken down (see above).

Guys, put down the popcorn once in a while and be serious. Stylistic innovation and innovative/fresh use of the medium is obviously a big part of a great work, Hell, Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's best IMO largely because how the fractured chronology drives the movie.

by guys do you mean alex in sf or strawmen?

Can be anybody who dismisses history/film grammar and put fun and only fun on the throne.

ok strawmen, then

there's definitely been a lot of innovation in narrative structure and overall structure of film in the last 40 years.

There has been some, sure. The movies I've seen of Apichatpong Weersethakul def qualify.

compared to other porn films from the era?

― da croupier, Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:16 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, actually. Movies like Behind the Green Door or Debbie Does Dallas are a lot more highly regarded in terms of both sex and technical aspects. It's mostly considered a piece of history rather than a "good" porn movie. But I'm sure it'll show up in top 100 lists just for that historical reason.

xxp

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oz/images/vc55.jpg

speaking of great movies...

But I'm sure it'll show up in top 100 lists just for that historical reason.

woah are their top 100 porn movies of all time lists? ile should be polling THOSE rather than the same old shit

Can be anybody who dismisses history/film grammar and put fun and only fun on the throne.

― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:20 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if by "fun" you mean artistic power, yes.

Potemkin isn't "fun," but it's a very powerful movie. Way more powerful than some of the other movies in the top 100. The fact that it advanced the language of film editing is a nice thing to think about, but it has nothing to do with what an amazing movie it is.

Guys, I thought we'd all agreed that if we want to get a porn movie into the Sight & Sound top 10, Radley Metzger's our man.

woah are their top 100 porn movies of all time lists? ile should be polling THOSE rather than the same old shit

― da croupier, Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:26 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol. will it be a "how many have you seen" poll?

porn has different goals than non-porn. No can do. (and I've seen a couple Metzgers)

you're making a pretty big, and probably unwarranted distinction between form and function if you dont think innovation and being a powerful film aren't related.

horror films have different goals than non-horror films.

Potemkin isn't "fun," but it's a very powerful movie. Way more powerful than some of the other movies in the top 100. The fact that it advanced the language of film editing is a nice thing to think about, but it has nothing to do with what an amazing movie it is.

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, August 29, 2009 6:27 PM (4 minutes ago)

you don't think the way it's edited contributes to its "amazing"ness?

xp what ryan said

ok here's the problem with this binary shit about technological advancement vs. "artistic power"/"fun." We're mostly talking about movies that POPULARIZED innovations, and they wouldn't be popular if they weren't effective with crowds. pulp fiction didn't actually invent the way it fractures the plot chronologically, which is why morbz had to throw in "fresh" as a descriptor alongside "innovative." these films may not literally be the FIRST to ever do something, just the first to make people stand up and say "holy shit what was that"?

also an xp what ryan said

Potemkin isn't "fun," but it's a very powerful movie. Way more powerful than some of the other movies in the top 100. The fact that it advanced the language of film editing is a nice thing to think about, but it has nothing to do with what an amazing movie it is.

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, August 29, 2009 6:27 PM (4 minutes ago)

you don't think the way it's edited contributes to its "amazing"ness?

xp what ryan said

― tay zondven (k3vin k.), Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:32 PM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

of course it does. All films that are edited wonderfully deserve credit, though, not just the ones that did it earliest.

I don't get how Gold Rush shows up so high in these lists. City Lights is so much better.

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 28 August 2009 15:33 (Yesterday)

I completely agree with this!

"Rules of the Game", at nr3, is the highest placed one I haven't seen.

55/100. The film I like the best from the list is either "Double Indemnity" or "sunrise", or maybe "North by Northwest" the least would be "Psycho" or "Taxi Driver".

NSFW!

http://www.adultdvdemart.com/-/avn_101_greatest_adult_videos.html

Swap out "gay porn" for "movies more recent than 1982" and I'm starting to get the way some of you guys feel.

movie on that top 100 i most feel like being challopsy about (there are others that bored me more, but this was the one i saw most recently): Breathless. I dunno if Godard invented sexy disaffected youth or whatever, but I wasn't francophile enough to go nuts over these.

I don't have any problem with anyone getting antsy over The Searchers' inclusion on any list, as its hasty denouement, bad makeup, and terrible comedy puts it league before Fort, Apache or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

*leagues BELOW

i can't get antsy about any of these films inclusion on the list, though, cuz they've all been in a kazillion lists just like it

xp croupier: The fact that Breathless places in the top 100 and Weekend is way below it, definitely gives me a sense of the sensibility of the list, and that while it's somewhat about significance, innovation, influence, it's still fairly conservative about what makes a "great film."

Mild annoyances from the list; I saw neither "42nd Street" or "Way Down East" in the top 300, and I like both of those films better than many listed. "Ninotchka" is far, far better than #282 or wherever they placed it.

but as others said above, that's what consensus does. Breathless: Citizen Kane :: Weekend : Welles' Othello or Chimes at Midnight

Individual lists are more interesting but also more time-consuming

xp

If we're complaining why Hou Hsiao-Hsien or Clair Denis aren't in the top 100 or whatever, blame DVD's, the collapse of the "monoculture," and the absence of a public profile for a film nerd like Bogdanovich.

or maybe we could just blame the fact that these movies aren't old enough to have stuffy obvious choices like pulp fiction and fargo one day will be (with our children screaming about jackie brown and the big lebowski)

also: lots of directors become Serious Artists in the minds of people who care when these directors are treated as Serious Artists (e.g. Truffaut on Hitchcock, Kael on Altman and Bertolucci).

why did To Be or Not to Be go from #150 to #71 in two years? I like it a lot, esp as Jack Benny's most significant film appearance, but it being the top Lubitsch is puzzling.

wasn't it only recently released on DVD? (I owned a shitty tape for years)

I didn't think that was the case but it'd be the obvious explanation

Wasn't Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Flowers of Shanghai" voted the best film of the 90's by village voice critics/indiewire (along with Safe)? It seems logical that his movies will eventually make their way up lists like this

the searchers is at least 30 percent clunky but its faults are kind of endearing to me, like ford just couldn't resist putting his Great Epic on hold to take up valuable screen time with pointless comic relief. i think seeing it on the big screen helps -- it's bound to seem a little puny if you're just watching it in your living room.

I saw Pickpocket because of this thread! I'm glad I did.

"pointless" comic relief is designed to RELIEVE, whether you laugh or not is a separate issue.

the snap backs to standard hollywood formula in something like the searchers does sort of point out how the relentlessness of something like Vertigo (released same year, right?) is such a miracle.

I've seen 74 of the 100, but have plans to knock out The General and Man With a Movie Camera on the big screen with Alloy Orchestra in a few weeks and actually have an unwatched VHS of Letter From an Unknown Woman laying around here somewhere.

Highest ranked films I haven't seen are #12 Sunrise (which I really want to see but haven't gotten around to) and #13 Lawrence of Arabia, which I've been avoiding for years.

I rewatched To Be or Not to be recently, and it's terrific, but I think The Shop Around the Corner is the best Lubitsch, and would probably take Trouble in Paradise next.

the dardenne brothers arent on the list.
go figure.

I think when they fully add the '00s that will change.

still,Rosetta and/or la Promesse are better than (at least) When Harry Met Sally..

i like the list though some of the ranking per director are kinda odd.(von trier,bunuel,paradjamov,ray..)

"#13 Lawrence of Arabia, which I've been avoiding for years"

This is much much better than it should be (given the sheer ridiculousness of some of the casting--including the lead.) I was surprised how well it still held up to my childhood memories on re-viewing five or so years ago.

I've seen it more times than anything else in the top 100 (Blade Runner and Dr. Strangelove are probably tied for 2nd) and could probably watch it once a month without getting tired of it.

Potemkin isn't "fun," but it's a very powerful movie. Way more powerful than some of the other movies in the top 100. The fact that it advanced the language of film editing is a nice thing to think about, but it has nothing to do with what an amazing movie it is.

― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, August 30, 2009 6:27 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

apropos of nothing, but when I first skimmed over this I thought Matt was talking about Pokemon and I lol'd

Why isn't Claire Danes's knee in the top 100?

lawrence of arabia luv otm. was my favorite movie as a kid.

to be or not be is one my favourite movies of all time.

FYI guys

By whom? Entertainment-mag shills for Zodiac and There Will Be Blood? (Both good films that were drowned with rabid hyperbole.)

gotta take issue with the idea that zodiac was drowned in rabid hyperbole. it was critically well-received but didn't get much love after its release. and ZERO oscar noms.

Zodiac did get a lot of love from the critics, though. It's interesting that some of the things that really made that movie - it's density and obsessiveness - felt so leaden in Benjamin Button

I guess the primacy of the Fun Factor in evaluating art for you guys means Chris Ware and Raymond Pettibon come out ahead of Pollock?

???? Chris Ware is probably one of the most difficult, unfun and depressing artists I can think of. He's pretty, sure.

apologies for restating something that was already disccused, but i was thinking about it yesterday.. this list is fine, all classics, sure, it is however, just a little too slow. i mean if Goodfellas from 1990 is the most recent one in the top 100 we're talking about a film that's almost twenty years old. Twenty! i got this Black Book of movies edited by Chris Fujiwara with lots of famous contributors and the nineties-section is huge, so surely a couple more nineties movies in the top 100 shouldn't be impossible.

"Best of all time" lists are best viewed as history books imo. Twenty years ain't really that long, considering.

I mean maybe it's my own noobishness here but it's pretty clear to me what are the most well regarded movies of the past twenty or so years, because most of them are still a lot more omnipresent in the pop-cultural landscape than the great majority of the films listed there.

yes, and the question remains WHICH. If these calibrations were made mostly from all-time TOP TEN lists -- well, I have a hard time saying I'd put anything that recent in mine. And then it might be something like Makhmalbaf's A Moment of Innocence, which simply wouldn't have broad support. (412th here is something of a surprise) xxp

Five African films in the top thousand strikes me as a lot more obscene than this post-1990 drought. But most Westerners haven't seen one African film.

i got this Black Book of movies edited by Chris Fujiwara

This book is pretty fantastic, even if (iirc) it ends with Little Miss Sunshine.

has little miss sunshine been american beautied out of collective critical memory yet?

Not as long as movies like (500) Days of Summer keep alluding to it.

does it explicitly allude to it or just follow along in its stiff whimsical footsteps?

film dudes, which of these should I go see:

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/filmprog/english/2009jlg/2009jlg_schedule.html

definitely going to Breathless, Week End, gonna skip Contempt, but what else?

don't skip contempt

yeah I was just thinking I'd like to see Bardot's ass up there on the big screen again...might leave after that

i haven't seen all of them, but band of outsiders for sure.

Went to Netflix last night and am kinda inspired by how many from this list are on the "watch instantly" list. I think I may watch "Grand Illusion" today.

whoa that's a lot of JLG

ones I've seen and liked -- Breathless, Contempt, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville ...

pretty much all the karina ones, but especially a woman is a woman and my life to live.

90--everything down to Greed at #64, then I missed a bunch more in the last third: Mirror, To Be or Not to Be, Ikiru, My Darling Clementine, Voyage in Italy, Playtime, L'Age D'Or, Aguirre, The Man with the Movie Camera, and Rome, Open City (all of which I'll see eventually, except probably Playtime). I'm stretching it by saying I've "seen" Intolerance, which I semi-slept through in film class 25 years ago. It's more like I've, um, sensed its presence.

anyone looked at the mammoth 7900-film .xls from which the 1000-entry list was pared down? there's about 2000 titles post-1990 (the only two 2008 entries: of time and the city and...speed racer?)

So glad Sherlock Jr. is on there. I only saw 7 of these.