ILX Film Club, The (1924-2019)

Here is an idea I hope catches on.
I've made a spreadsheet compiling

* The top 100 from the ILX Morbsies
* Any additional films which had a 1st place vote in said Morbsies
* The top 100 from the Sight & Sound critics' poll
* The top 100 from the Sight & Sound directors' poll

Here is the spreadsheet - please tell me if there is anything wrong and I'll do my best to fix it.

And I'm going to watch all 205 of them, one per week, in chronological order, until I finish at the start of 2027. And you can join me! If you like.

The first on the list is Sherlock Jr., from 1924 - I'll watch it this weekend, then it will be open for discussion from Monday 13th. It will be easy to share links at the start, as we go on will need more help probably. If people want to rate the films as we go, please feel free, don't think I will.

Think this will be useful for me as I have only seen 78 of these before, despite having spent three years at film school, hope it's useful to you too.

I've been privately working on catching up on the missing films from these polls; this could be fun, though, after looking at the spreadsheet, I'd be skipping the movies I haven't seen that only made the list due to someone here listing it at #1 on their ballot.

think there are only something like 15 of those in any case, we'll see how you feel when we get to Holiday On The Buses, but this project is very much a hop on, hop off deal.

Hugh Leonard, reviewing Holiday on the Buses gave the film zero stars out of four. Leonard added "This one should be buried in unhallowed ground".

I'll for sure chime in even if I haven't given the movie a fresh watch. (But I'll try my best to give each film a fresh watch.)

^ditto (except for this part)

I've been slowly watching the ones I haven't seen from the S&S top 100. It's only about 10 (though I might not see Peele's "Get Out" as I don't fancy it and it's obviously going to drop off next time).

Might extend it to the 250.

Another 40 on the rest. Would watch most of it bar Blue by Jarman. Fuck that shit.

Or Annie Hall.

Why Blue? I've always meant to "watch" that as I love a few of his other films.

xp Yeah this same project 20 years ago would have at least four or five Woody Allen films on the list, instead of zero.

I find Jarman's films to be pretty exasperating, and I feel I will hate it even when the subject matter is sad.

xp

i will try to participate, when i can! i find it really difficult to take part in film discussions, for various reasons, but i do enjoy watching them. i'm no kind of old-school buff but, due to the ilx influence (and using morbs' letterboxd list) i've seen a lot of the earlier films here, and within the last several months, to boot. it'll be nice to give them a rewatch so soon after my first encounter with them.

Sherlock Jr. is perfectly 45 minutes long

Or Annie Hall.
― xyzzzz

I'm probably one of the few (only?) people on here who was heartened to see Annie Hall show up. Not defending Woody Allen, just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible, though he does have the cameo in Chinatown).

For some other thread, I know.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

I think we can all agree that the ending to Annie Hall is, in effect, a happy one

"just glad there are some people left who can make that distinction between the person and the film (easier with Rosemary's Baby/Chinatown, I think, just because they're so much better as films; also, Polanski's largely invisible"

I wouldn't watch a Polanski film nowadays either, Clemenza. I have no interest in supporting their work while these people are alive.

I think that this film club needs to do the On The Buses film trilogy to truly capture how it was in Ted Heath's Pre & Post EEC Britain.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 10 February 2023 bookmarkflaglink

We just have to step outside for that, these days..

I’m in

I think we can all agree that the ending to _Annie Hall_ is, in effect, a happy one

Ugh, for some reason, I ventured outside this safe haven and ended up interacting with Jeffrey Wells. Not pleasant.

Yeah I'm in, tho can't promise to keep up every week - one objective I have this year is to watch more films from the rest of the world than US films overall and while these lists are varied and wonderful I fear they'd still land me on the wrong side of that in the end.

Why does ILX hate L'Atalante so much?

Is this true?

Yes, fuck all canal barges.

Alba can you tell which ilxors are hating I'll bully them for you.

Ha ha I was just making a glib comment after seeing the spreadsheet and noticing tha it placed relatively well in the S&S top 100s but nowhere with ILX.

I think that applies even more to Beau Travail but I was looking at the early films.

Gonna watch Beau Travail in a proper theater next week -- my first non-DVD/streaming experience w/it!

While everyone's gearing up, a reasonably engaging quiz:

Try this quiz - https://t.co/yyLpPtjiKP pic.twitter.com/fdHFKTXEpL

— DVDBeaver (@DVDBeaver) February 11, 2023

66/100. I raced through it, probably wouldn't have done much better if I'd taken my time (I either knew it or guessed--though I would have gone back and changed a few guesses based on subsequent answers).

more mainstream:
https://www.cinenerdle2.app/

68/100. Projectionist but no professor. But what's wrong with being a projectionist?

Wtf, I'm boycotting this quiz

Reasoning?

Putting professors above projectionists!

Ah!

96/100 and only because I accidentally put Jacques Rivette when I meant François Truffaut

Check out the big brain on Brad!

77/100 -- a couple of dumb mistakes on movies I've seen, a couple of lucky guesses on movies I haven't seen

71, though at least half were guesses.

(Some of them informed guesses, though.)

76. About five films I did see and couldn't place grr

88. Nailed every one I knew, every guess I guessed wrong

Oh and messed up Spike Lee . Just couldn't place that image in that film somehow

84/100!

I guessed on most of the contemporary Asian stuff, which rarely payed off. And I got the Black female directors all switched around. The only film I've seen that I miscredited was Death of Mr. Lazarescu.

I just exchanged texts with my friend who actually is a projectionist but did not mention this quiz.

I got 89. several of them were guesses based on what I know about the filmmakers’ visual aesthetics or the time periods from the images. I got several directors mixed up - Mizoguchi and Kobayashi, Kazan and Wyler, Etrice and Saura and others. I guessed Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent correctly only because I have recently seen stills from it on twitter, but I haven’t watched it. Also still have yet to watch Djibril Diop Mambéty’s films, a few of which are on Kanopy, or Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman

My projectionist friend told me about this yesterday:
https://framed.wtf

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/The_Night_of_the_Hunter_%281955_poster%29.jpg

The Night of the Hunter, Charles Laughton, 1955

Morbsies #6
Sight & Sound Critics #25
Sight & Sound Directors #41

Haven't seen this in full, but I've used clips in mixes.

classic

This is the only semester in years I haven't shown The Night of the Hunter in class and I miss it already.

Great great movie. (Shout-out James Agee.)

been meaning to watch this for years, will put some time to this weekend

the screenplay is worth reading too. it's in the library of america agee book.

Should note that Laughton, in an appreciative gesture, let Agee claim sole credit, but Laughton rewrote the script from scratch.

Forgot about that

I went into this movie for the first time expecting a classic noir. It is very much not that (I love both).

finally got around to seeing it yesterday
love the use of silhouettes and shadows throughout

What an odd and astonishing film, so much in there. His mix of repulsion and lust towards women. The mother's calm acceptance of her fate. The scene when the boat starts to drift down the river and the girl starts singing. The hypocrisy of the small-town neighbours. The boy's reaction when he sees him being held down and handcuffed as his father was. And just the cinematography in general, such care taken over shots like these.

https://i.imgur.com/ZwCEQRm.png

https://i.imgur.com/nz7CnTo.png

So yes, loved this.

I wanna get EARL GREY knuckle tattoos in honor of this film

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Pather_panchali_poster_in_color_1.jpg

Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray, 1955

Morbsies #130
Sight & Sound Critics #35
Sight & Sound Directors #22

Whole thing is on youtube with English subs in pretty good quality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2B7dpPFuiY

So great

Watching a 4K restoration in 2015 was one of my cinemania highlights.

I watched Night Of The Hunter for the first time and I was spellbound. The soundtrack with Laughton doing some superhuman narration is well worth listening to

It was probably only AI cliptext in my FB feed, but I just read some interesting and funny stuff from Jim Jarmusch about working with Mitchum.

I watched Pather Panchali a about a year back and I was confused about the first half hour, which doesn't seem connected to the rest of the movie. My guess was that Ray shot that part as a short and later turned it into the start of the feature, but I couldn't find much information about it. anyone know?

Finished Pather Panchali today, struck by how much it reminded me of Italian and French cinema, just a beautiful piece of work, especially the cinematography. Love these films which seem to meander along yet convey great personal drama at the same time.

The other 2 in the trilogy are great too

^this

Yeah I will check them out for sure.

First though, let's start off 2025 with

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Night_and_Fog.jpg

Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard), Alain Resnais, 1955 (or maybe 1956)

Morbsies #250

A half-hour documentary about the Holocaust isn't usually how I like to start the year, I have to say. This is here because it was someone's #1 choice in the Morbsies.

Having trouble finding this one online with English subtitles - but if you speak French or Spanish then this link is for you - https://archive.org/details/vimeo-123483626

Well fucking hell. I knew that a Holocaust documentary was going to be hard-going, but still. Fucking hell.

I saw Night and Fog at least a couple of times decades ago, and I found the distanced approach (and brevity) alleviated some of the tendency it could have had to be overwhelming - while never feeling like it was pulling back on the facts or softening the material.

I found the distancing made it all the more galling somehow. A brilliant piece of work but not watching that again.

Here's one I absolutely love but haven't watched for a quarter of a century

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/A-man-escaped.jpg

A Man Escaped, Robert Bresson, 1956

Morbsies #118
Sight & Sound Critics #95
Sight & Sound Directors #41

Perfection. No BS. Nothing there that doesn't need to be. Even my Dad thought it was brilliant when we watched it a year before he died and he wasn't one for subtitled films.

He loved Le Trou as well.

There aren't very many subtitles needed, to be fair.

My 13yo is watching Prison Break right now (?!) and I was reminded instantly of both those movies - will try and wedge at least one into the rotation (it helps that he speaks French)

Watched this a week ago and haven't updated sorry. It was as great as ever, there was a lot more talking than I remembered. The actual escape scene at the end was unsurpassable, would love a whole film of just that sort of thing.

Anyway, better press on

https://i.imgur.com/4720Izk.png

The Searchers, John Ford, 1956

Morbsies #211
Sight & Sound Critics #15
Sight & Sound Directors #72

ooh my favorite contested classic!

beautiful film. shame that it's racist, the ending only makes half sense, and the "ethan is secretly attracted to his brother's wife" idea is nonsense.

I don't think you can separate the racism, and the movie does indict Edwards.

Didn't like it. Felt like I was watching Triumph of The Will. Sure there's some nice cinematography, but to what end? If it wasn't 2025 I might have given it a chance, but it is 2025, and fuck all these people.

I dunno man, I think the extent to which it is a critique of racism is overblown a fair bit by its partisans, but Triumph Of The Will...that's p hyperbolic imo.

Hyperbolic maybe, that's just how it felt.

Have you watched Triumph of the Will? I have not cuz yikes

I have seen it, yes, it was on sale at a DVD stall in China for equivalent of 20p. Aside from the epic opening it was dull, lots of speeches and marching and nothing much else. Don't still have it of course, think I binned it.

I guess my take on it has been documented several times on ILX: I basically think it's on a level with Heart Of Darkness in being skeptical of white notions of superiority but that the "deep down we're all savages" attitude doesn't do much to humanise non white characters, also the comedy bits are terrible. Others see more in it tho.

I feel no duty to give it a fair hearing, there are other films to watch.

Fair enough!

For example

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Seventhsealposter.jpg

The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman, 1957

Morbsies #192
Sight & Sound critics #136
Sight & Sound directors #75

My second fave film ever!