downbeat and anti-climactic are key notes of the true road movie
― The Remoans of the May (Noodle Vague), Friday, 19 May 2017 11:41 (seven years ago) link
think 4 Mad Max films in the top 10 or just 3?
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 May 2017 11:41 (seven years ago) link
Weekend is far and away my favourite Godard of the ones I've seen, btw.
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 11:52 (seven years ago) link
9. L’Avventura69 points/5 votes
http://phildellio.tripod.com/9-lavventura.jpg
There's no film I've tried harder to connect with. Seven or eight times I've gone back to it (unlike, say, 8-1/2, which I realized after a couple of tries was of a temperament far from my own). L’Avventura isn't. But I come up short every time.
(My favourite Godard is one of My Life to Live, Band of Outsiders, or Masculin Féminin. But I realize he had to get all of the Truffaut that flits in and out of those films out of his system before he could make Weekend.)
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 11:58 (seven years ago) link
8. Stroszek72 points/7 votes/two #1s
http://phildellio.tripod.com/8-stroszek.jpg
I wrote about the music in this after re-watching it last week. I find Herzog himself a little cartoonish in his recent documentaries--find it hard to put together his persona there with this film.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:25 (seven years ago) link
(Sorry for rushing this along...I've got to get most of this finished before 9:00.)
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:26 (seven years ago) link
Would have been my no. 1 on a straight ballot, the last act is just unforgettable and it also includes the funniest jump cut in history.
― devvvine, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:33 (seven years ago) link
Trying to think of which jump-cut you mean...That auctioneer's amazing. Was surprised to see Errol Morris's name in the opening credits.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:37 (seven years ago) link
Stroszek is probably my favorite Herzog movie
― circa1916, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:38 (seven years ago) link
xp The cut from Strozsek gazing out at where his house used to be to him and in the car with the old man holding a rifle. Just the most perfectly comic/tragic ending to what came before.
― devvvine, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:42 (seven years ago) link
to him in the car*
The old guy kills me. There was a short film they were playing throughout Toronto's Hot Docs this year that I'm pretty sure was inspired by the old guy's research project on "animal magnetism."
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:47 (seven years ago) link
7. Y Tu Mamá También73 points/8 votes/one #1
http://phildellio.tripod.com/7-tambien.jpg
Haven't seen this. I have it home, so I'll look after that shortly.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:48 (seven years ago) link
...That auctioneer's amazing
you might be interested in this... a number of people appearing in it also show up in stroszek including the auctioneer and the banker dude.
― no lime tangier, Friday, 19 May 2017 12:56 (seven years ago) link
Thanks, that looks great--will download it tonight.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 13:02 (seven years ago) link
6. The Straight Story82 points/8 votes/one #1
http://phildellio.tripod.com/6-straight.jpg
I've got to duck out for a couple of hours. This was my #1. I'm sure there are comparable examples if I gave it some thought, but the most anomalous film I can think of in anyone's filmography.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 13:04 (seven years ago) link
i reeeeeally hated Y Tu Mamá También
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 May 2017 14:38 (seven years ago) link
Me too
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
Fuuuuuuuuck guys. I have this thing, consistently, where I confuse Y Tu Mama Tambien with another film (I believe the film I confuse it with is A Ma Soeur because they're both foreign language titles with family members in them?). I voted for it. I've never seen it. Sorry I completely goddamn fucked up my ballot.
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:12 (seven years ago) link
5. Easy Rider82 points/10 votes
http://phildellio.tripod.com/5-easy.jpg
Sorry--two-hour assembly. Wouldn't worry about it, Emily, it would have been high anyway.
Probably the only film countdown we've had where one film in the Top 10 references another one in the Top 10.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
I like this okay. Some incredible cinematography, love the use of "Wasn't Born to Follow." Some of it, obviously, a little dated. Still haven't seen The Last Movie, although I saw Kit Carson's making-of documentary last year.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
If it had finished first, I might have been tempted to say "We blew it."
4. Walkabout93 points/7 votes
http://phildellio.tripod.com/4-walkabout.jpg
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:35 (seven years ago) link
honestly my favorite scene in Easy Rider is the opening scene w Spector
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:36 (seven years ago) link
so many things I've never even heard of placing
mostly all the ones that start w/ the letter "W" - Wanda, Weekend, Walkabout
Forgot about Spector--great casting.
Have you seen Wild Strawberries or Wizard of Oz, The?
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:41 (seven years ago) link
Yay, Walkabout. I wondered if people were gonna be 'not road movie enough' about that one. Completely excellent in every way.
Also Easy Rider deserves to be so high even if it is dated and a clichéd film to like etc, because part of the reason it is those things is that it is one of the Platonic ideals of the whole road movie concept.
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
Fun fact - three fifths of my top five began with W. And yes, it was those three.
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:43 (seven years ago) link
Also the Milky Way, which has one of its words beginning with W.
well yeah
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
respect
http://torrentking.eu/covers/movies/79/69/0027969.jpg
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 May 2017 15:49 (seven years ago) link
3. Bonnie and Clyde98 points/9 votes/one #1
http://phildellio.tripod.com/3-bonnie.jpg
Just kidding, Οὖτις.
Again wavering on this as a road film--not sure if being chased is qualitatively a different kind of film--but I voted for it. (Surprised that neither They Live by Night nor Thieves Like Us got a vote.) Alice's Restaurant sounds more roady, but I haven't seen it.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:09 (seven years ago) link
Alice's Restaurant is another one where I don't think they actually leave town...?
Bonnie & Clyde has them going cross-country picking up/meeting people and robbing banks and getting into trouble, I think it definitely qualifies. Great screen cap too btw
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:13 (seven years ago) link
I was really disappointed in Thieves Like Us when I finally got around to it.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:14 (seven years ago) link
Bonnie & Clyde is definitely a road movie!
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:16 (seven years ago) link
I don't know--I kept running into references to Alice's Restaurant as a road film. (From Ebert's original review: "Alice's Restaurant is at its best when Arlo is on the road, going to college, hitchhiking, playing his guitar, getting drafted, taking his Army physical, going to see his friends Ray and Alice and things like that.")
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
Thieves Like Us is not high on my Altman list either. Kael's review is great, makes me wish I loved it.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
Huh granted I haven't seen it in 20 years but I don't remember a lot of being on the road (I do remember the draft/army physical stuff and him playing his guitar duh. also something about everybody living in a church and a junkie that dies)
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
2. Stalker105 points/4 votes/two #1s
http://phildellio.tripod.com/2-stalker.jpg
My other L'Avventura. I've tried, and I will try again. Obvious still, I know, but the one moment I unequivocally love. All the online stills are as dingy as the film...which I realize is intentional. Wins the enthusiasm vote going away.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:26 (seven years ago) link
No film conveys cockeyed, unbridled enthusiasm like Stalker.
― clemenza, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:27 (seven years ago) link
Not entirely sure it's a road movie because so much of the journey is restrictive but voted for it anyway. Is definitely a masterpiece though.
― devvvine, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:29 (seven years ago) link
Kael's review is great, makes me wish I loved it.
That's how I feel about Bonnie & Clyde.
― jmm, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:32 (seven years ago) link
gtfo w Stalker
― Οὖτις, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
so Badlands, huh?
― circa1916, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
seeing Stalker on the big screen for the first time next week :D
bit of a stretch to call it a road movie though, yeah.
also i don't think Bonnie & Clyde is that great, but it's been years.
― circa1916, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:36 (seven years ago) link
YTMT was my #1. Had Lost in America really high up too, so yay for those. Curious what the YTMT haters hate about it so much. The ending?
More on the arbitrary nature of what counts: I like Bonnie and Clyde, Stroszek and Walkabout about equally as movies, but only the former counted as a road movie for me.
I remember liking Easy Rider well enough when I finally saw it years ago, but its another one that needs a rewatch.
― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko), Friday, 19 May 2017 16:38 (seven years ago) link
This list has given me a bunch of movies to check out. I didn't vote, but suspect I would have put It Happened One Night at the top.
― jmm, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
Shit missed the countdown! There wasn't a link in the voting thread so I completely forgot about it. Would have voted Stalker high up but it didn't feel like a road film. Glad Badlands will take it. Sightseers was my number one. It's the only Wheatley I like and I love it completely. Need to see Lost In America and Goin' Down the Road.
― gospodin simmel, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
Stalker was my number one and I gave it the maximum points I could. It might not have much in the way of cars, but to me it is definitely a road movie. My criteria for "what is a road movie" went something like:
* Is a journey the main narrative device in the film? Is the end point of that journey either unknown, futile, or non-existent?* Is the landscape and its changing/unchanging nature a main feature of the film? Is it vast?* Do the characters have existential crises? Are they unsure or afraid of being-in-the-world?* Does the exterior echo/reflect/distort the interior? (aka the pathetic fallacy clause.) Does the movement through geographic location have an analogue in the instability of the self?
Things that don't meet all of those criteria may still be a road movie, but those things were the most important elements for me.
― emil.y, Friday, 19 May 2017 16:45 (seven years ago) link