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

Been watching more films from the S&S poll. Only about 10-15 left (initially I hadn't seen about 40-50). Hunting them down on YT and other video platforms.

In Vanda’s Room (Costa, 2000) - this was stunning. Costa married something akin to Straub/Huillet with Rossellini to create something that has its own brutality with scenes of people who will never get out of the circle of hell that was made for them.
My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946) - this was on iplayer and its beautiful.
Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988) - the anime counterpart to Cone and See?
Europa '51 (Rossellini, 1952) - Ingrid Bergman as Simone Weil. Real masterpiece and the couple's best film.
Where Is the Friend’s House? (Kiarostami, 1987) - simple, touching, beautiful to look at.

Haven't seen since I was the age of Alfred's students. I didn't respond to it much at the time, so I'm overdue for a rewatch.

Didn't find it on youtube or archive.org so found it on slsk - will watch in next few days. Also haven't seen it since I was a film student a quarter of a century ago.

So, turns out I hadn't seen it before, just a few scenes. As with A Man Escaped, that pure ascetic focus on the process of pickpocketing was wonderful, just completely entrancing. It was let down a bit by the plot, and the dialogue and especially the voice-over, all of which were fine but just not up to the standard of the pickpocketing. I know the largely dialogue-free film of his pickpocketing career only exists in my head, but it's still a favourite.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Northbynorthwest1.jpg

North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock, 1959
Morbsies #26
Sight & Sound Critics #45

Might watch this this afternoon with the kids, think I have seen it maybe five times before.

couldn't count how many times i've seen it. of course it's perfect.

Sometimes my favourite movie.

Watched it with younger son this afternoon - testament to what a film it is that it's from the 50s and more than two hours long, but he did not get bored once. Despite having seen it quite a few times, there was plenty I had forgotten, the Mount Rushmore section at the end was a lot longer than I remembered. Best performance I reckon is Martin Landau, only his second feature and consistently out-creeping James Mason.

Landau and Mason's double act is a delight, the most enjoyable part of the movie even tho it's maybe only 3 or 4 scenes

Funnily enough the last time I ended up watching it - when it comes on the TV I almost inevitably end up drawn in, whatever I had planned - I thought the Rushmore sequence was longer than I remembered too.

Landau playing a gay man without swish is itself a triumph.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Imitation_of_Life_1959_poster.jpg

Imitation of Life, Douglas Sirk, 1959

Morbsies #57
Sight & Sound Critics #75

That's the original poster, it's pretty racist unfortunately.

It's fabulous! Look at the glares Lana Turner's earning.

Oh that's fine, just putting Juanita Moore down in the bottom corner is :/

You might argue that Moore and Turner are equalized by the scorn they earn from loved ones -- like in the film.

I like everything I've seen by Sirk, but I think I was spoiled early on by All That Heaven Allows to the point that everything else he did exists in its shadow. Granted, I haven't seen Imitation of Life in probably 20 years, and I might be more enthusiastic after a fresh viewing.

Oh hey, I love All That Heaven Allows best too, but was previously resigned to it being a Wrong Opinion on my part.

WOTW was my first, Imitation of Life my most often viewed.

WOTW was actually my first as well, in a film class where the room howled at the (famous?) scene with Robert Stack and the kid on the rocking horse.

My Sirk watching has been pretty random: ATHA, All I Desire, and The Tarnished Angels. Quite absurd that I haven't seen any of the other colour films

I saw this at uni and was not really that impressed, we will see if 27 years has changed my mind at all.

Watched some more from S&S poll:

Harlam County USA (Kopple, 1976) - There are a few better docs that show strike/class antagonisms this is depicting, but I hadn't seen this before so all good.

The Intruder (Clarke Denis, 2004) - amazing, really magical or stupid, but I need to see this at a cinema

Tree of Life (Malick, 2011). This is Jurassic Park to me.

The criterion disc has Kopple introduce some (then, maybe 90's/00's?) current miners at an event and unsuprisingly they were now all latino.

Also saw:

Soleil O (Hondo, 1967) - wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Could be that I am watching these at home rather than on a big screen so they end up flat.

His film 'West Indies' is being given a re-release soon.

WEST INDIES: THE FUGITIVE SLAVES OF LIBERTY (1979) • Entering the Criterion Collection in June!

Mauritanian French firebrand Med Hondo puts colonialism itself on trial in this one-of-a-kind musical spectacular—a collective effort of unprecedented scale and ambition that proved… pic.twitter.com/ZjWnjXwSms

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) March 16, 2026

I saw it twice, on the small and big screen, wouldn't say it makes a huge difference (unless you're talking about not being able to scroll your phone).

I saw it on my laptop. Probably a distracted watch..

Same with The Intruder but I could see it was expressing matter in a way that was really engaging me.

All that Heaven Allows was my first Sirk too, and is still my favourite by far. Definitely helped that this was a film screening, of a very decent print, at the old Scala Cinema in London, it's just such a beautiful looking film. Our subsequent knowledge of Rock's sexuality, and the way that gay filmmakers like Fassbinder and Haynes have used Sirk as a reference point, sometimes make his films (visually) feel like a 'mainstream' cinema tribute to Kenneth Anger. Hudson and Wyman wearing matching studded black leather jackets with 'Tele' and 'Vision' spelt out on the back.

This was a lot better than I remembered, the cheesiness I took away as 19-year-old was more like an artefact of what it is - a 1950s melodrama, when I was used to watching 60s cinema. Now I've immersed myself a lot more in 50s cinema I can see how Sirk gently subverts the form to make something new. I had thought of it as a soap opera, but soap operas are only bad because they're quickly & shoddily produced, and this was the opposite. The Annie/Sarah-Jane storyline was much more engaging than the Lora/Susie one, of course, but both had some great scenes/performances. I'm not sure about the morality of the film, what it's saying about women's place at home or whether cabaret & burlesque is immoral in essence, but it was kept just opaque enough for me to give the benefit of the doubt.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Quatre_coups2.jpg

The 400 Blows, François Truffaut, 1959

Morbsies #56
Sight & Sound Critics #50
Sight & Sound Directors #34

Classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxNHPHpcj4

I used to assign it in my film class till I got sick of it.

I can't imagine getting sick of it. That said, these days I might prefer Stolen Kisses.

One way in which I was a classic '70s kid raised by counterculture parents is that my dad took me to see a screening of The 400 Blows at an art museum when I was ... I don't know, 12? His rationale was "You'll like it, it's about a boy your age." I think I liked it OK? Really don't remember, although I definitely liked it more when I watched it again maybe 10 years later. (My parents also took me and my sister to a screening of Dr. Strangelove when we were like 8 and 10, and that one did not really work for us. Although I thought it was funny when Bat Guano shot the Coke machine.)

I can't imagine getting sick of it. That said, these days I might prefer Stolen Kisses.

― cryptosicko, Monday, March 23, 2026

I needed a break. Each section did consistently gasp when the camera did a 360 in the police dept and we see the cage in which they house Antoine.

The professor in the film class for which I was a TA showed this film in a pan-and-scan version (1995-6, so probably on videodisc). I was shocked but it provided a good excuse to talk to the students about Scope and aspect ratios.

My favourite Truffaut is probably Two English Girls, I'm a little surprised that Jules and Jim isn't on this list though. Any reason why it might be out of favour?

My parents also took me and my sister to a screening of Dr. Strangelove when we were like 8 and 10

My dad took me to 2001 at about this age, fair play as I took him to Koyaanisqatsi a few years on.

...and later the first film I saw with my long-term girlfriend-to-be was Powaqaatsi, feel free to let me arrange your movie nights with loved ones

I re-watched 400 in the past year. It's good and all but I wish it made me feel more of the emotions others report. (Jules & Jim makes me, um, feel things more reliably. And, yeah, that does feel like an increasingly uncool preference. Maybe music videos mimicking J&J has made it (more) twee by association lol)

Kind of agree with that, its a 4/5 for me. Good not great. Shoot the Piano Player is my favourite Truffaut, probably because it's adapted from a David Goodis novel.

When I think about 400 Blows I often imagine that I must be overrating it due to having seen it at just the right time/place, but nope, rewatching confirmed that it's a definite 5/5 for me as always. What I love most about it is that we never have any explanation from Doinel, just the world as he sees it, the limitless exploration of the city and later of course the vastness of the sea. Exposition or a voiceover would ruin it. The parents even join him in it briefly in that trip after he starts the fire. All of the adults are morally ambiguous, the film takes no position on them. I guess this is just how I felt as a child and that's why it all feels so spot on to me.

Some favourite bits:
* The audience of kids at the punch & judy show, Truffaut is just so great at sitting back and observing people
* Doinel in the police van watching the lights of the city and going into a kind of meditative state, then starting to cry
* The "inspiration" striking him, and the great idea is just to plagiarise Balzac, but also to build a shrine to him so it doesn't feel wrong.
* The interview with the prison psychiatrist at the end, I read that this is actually footage from his audition

Yes to all those points. It's remarkable to me how Child Léaud and Adult Léaud come across as such different people.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Some_Like_It_Hot_%281959_poster%29.png

Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder, 1959

Morbsies #360
Sight & Sound Critics #38
Sight & Sound Directors #62

Another one I have seen many times and am very happy to see again.

My question for everyone - does Osgood know from the start?

I mean, he obviously does, and That Is The Joke, however I am surprised that lots of people seem to think it's idk that he's ditsy and odd or something?

Well yeah a Hollywood film from 1959 needs to have plausible deniability, so the alibi would be "this guy really wants to get with what he thinks is a sexy lady, he is so excited that even when the lady reveals herself to be a man he still wants it, even though obviously not really, he's just confused".

That's lame and not what Wilder means but he had to give ppl the out of interpreting it that way imo.

Watched this already, v much like a comfortable old slipper to put on. As great as it is it never really gets out of the light comedy mode (though the gangster killings are fairly brutal) - not to do it down at all, while it all looks very easy it does also tread a very delicate line, and the Monroe/Curtis scenes were a nightmare to film, so two hours of light fun is actually quite a success. I am surprised about how little queer discourse I saw out there about it, guess it isn't really that deep and is mostly played for laughs, but there's still a lot of scope there for commentary.

I always think about the hapless garage attendant who's killed thanks to Lemmon and Curtis.

This is a five star Wilder classic in the same league with Sunset Blvd and The Apartment. The scenes with Monroe and Curtis on the boat are very hot.