Anyone who wants to see Tie Xi Qu, send me a PM.
Also, it is available on DVD.
I’ve seen 10/20. Of those 10, 5 are awesome. The other 5 can kiss my ass.
In case anyone missed this yesterday in the voting thread, here’s Jirin’s post of the top 20 from the earlier (Feb. 2011) RUS’ Sight & Sound Mubi poll:
1: (27 Votes)
2001: A Space Odyssey
2: (19 votes)
8 1/2
Persona
4: (17 Votes)
Vertigo
5: (16 Votes)
Mirror
Seven Samurai
7: (15 Votes)
Apocalypse Now
Citizen Kane
In the Mood For Love
Sunrise
11: (13 Votes)
The 400 Blows
The Rules of the Game
Stalker
14: (12 Votes)
The Passion of Joan of Arc
15: (10 Votes)
Mulholland Dr.
The Thin Red Line
17: (9 Votes)
Andrei Rublev
Pulp Fiction
Sansho the Bailiff
20: (8 Votes)
Chungking Express
Days of Heaven
The Decalogue
La Dolce Vita
Paris, Texas
Pierrot le fou
Playtime
Ran
Ugetsu
(postion 20 had several ties)
Quite a different list we have this time, eh? Sansho the only film to make both lists. My, how Mubi’s tastes have changed! Food for thought…
RUS’ list was a simple tally the top 20s, and it’s actually not terribly different from the initial top 20 that came out of this game. The voting changed everything. The list we have now is fascinating because it represents the political dynamics at play here on Mubi. It really has nothing to do with cinema.
The other 5 can kiss my ass.
Always so delicate and hesitant in your expression of your opinion, eh, Nathan? lol
Hey, I didn’t name names.
Nekromantik would have reflected actual mubi taste better
there is a contingent on here that likes Blood Feast and Troma and fun at the cinema
“The list we have now is fascinating because it represents the political dynamics at play here on Mubi. It really has nothing to do with cinema.”
Yes, it’s always politics. Things that “win”, whether it’s political candidates, Oscar winners, or critics polls rarely have anything to do with “quality”. Unless of course people actually believe Dubya was the best person to be president or The King’s Speech was the best film from last year.
That isn’t to say these aren’t fun endeavors. Hell, I have an Oscar party every year. It’s just important to put it all in perspective and not pat ourselves on the back too much.
Or for that matter, on the behind.
It has shit to do with politics. Remember Nathan, you’re the one that wasn’t going to let a little parlor game run your film viewing. Your idea about what the list represents says more about your want of expanding your knowledge about film than the list itself. Go watch Zodiac! Jeez.
To those who want to see the full nine-hours of Lav Diaz’ Death in the Land of Encantos with English subtitles, please send me a PM :)
Meanwhile, here’s a review of Robert Koehler at CINEMASCOPE
And also a bouquet of beautiful links from UNSPOKEN CINEMA WEBSITE by HarryTuttle on all of LAV DIAZ extra-long films
Here’s where you’re wrong, fredo, and i recognize that this may sound schmaltzy, but this wasn’t a contest to see who could win. This isn’t a competition like the DCs. In this ‘game’, everybody wins who discovers a new film and broadens their horizons.
It does say something about who we are here. And no it’s not a consensus but it was never trying to be. I’m extremely pleased that our list is so different from all those other lists (or so different from how it started out in the beginning—that was depressing).
How much you want to bet Notebook and perhaps some other sites pick this list up and discuss it? In that sense, it’s worth our time to care about this little ‘game’. It was also a lot of fun, which is at least as important.
“I am curious about these four films:Third Part of the Night , We Won’t Grow Old Together, Death in the Land of Encantos, The Executioner All these are new to me, and I expect to other Mubis.”
For what it’s worth, the Phillipino contingent didn’t disappear like Noel Vera after Three Godless Years, it just declined to a few remaining active members, like Adrian Mendizabal who I want to put out personal thanks for turning that whole initiative around and spreading some knowledge on the board about Phillipino cinema to those who were genuinely curious. Like I said when that whole Three Godless Years thing started, I’m glad it made the list something more.
I see Death in the Land of Encantos to be a pretty perfect Mubi-compromise, being that Lav Diaz gets a lot of kudos here (in addition to being involved in the Subvex Super 8 Exquisite Corpse feature, if he hasn’t dropped out of it…) and is talked about quite a bit. So really does represent Mubi forum activity.
“How much you want to bet Notebook and perhaps some other sites pick this list up and discuss it? In that sense, it’s worth our time to care about this little ‘game’. It was also a lot of fun, which is at least as important.”
9 Facebook “likes” and 3 “tweets” in less than 24 hours, there’s an offhand chance somebody other than a Mubite might care.
Here’s an off-hand thought. Over 200 people at one point or another were involved in this thing. Strictly speaking if every one of them has a Twitter or a Facebook (I know the Phillipino contingent does because that’s where they heard the call to arms) and shares or tweets it, yes, it could actually gain attention. Whether that attention is wanted or not is a different issue.
One thing I wanted to do on Facebook was recreate the list as one of those “Have you seen these? Check them off!” polls, but I was only able to submit eight titles. I’ll investigate into that tonight when I get back from work.
—PolarisDiB
>>This isn’t a competition like the DCs. In this ‘game’, everybody wins who discovers a new film and broadens their horizons.<<
Wait. Don’t we say the same thing about the Director’s Cup being a great opportunity for discovery? Its both noble and slightly dishonest (MUBI culture, I mean) that all such contests, which begin advertised as comparing the intrinsic qualities of films end up about our perceptions of how a film is viewed by the film community. I’m not saying that people don’t love the films they’ve supporting, only that, when a significant portion of voters target films because they are on the TSPDT list (just one example), that politics is very much on display. None of this makes the game any less fun and I personally look forward to catching up on the high scoring films I’ve missed.
Somebody should start a game like this for the best actors/actresses of all time.
Just want to say thanks Polaris, this was at the least a nice parlor game and at the best, I think, a pretty revealing look at what people are watching in 2012. Time to crack open some beers and watch some movies, at the very least.
Josh – I’ll never convince you that the self-congratulations you espouse is of a similar mentality to the Academy’s pomp and circumstance over their flavor of the year, regardless of the similar argument that they make that the seal of “Best Picture” enticing more people to see a film that might not otherwise see (to several people on this site, it doesn’t really matter what I say or what my position is, in their eyes they will always disagree with me so the last thing I’m trying to do is convince anyone of anything).
Sure, this list might garner some attention, whether in the form of Facebook “likes” (the techno equivalent of the Nobel?) or Notebook articles. And that’s great. Attention is always great (as soft as Ignatiy was as a critic, at least people watched the show and thought “What the hell is Mubi.com?”). But what does that have to do with anything? Was the goal to garner attention for Mubi? Was the goal to prop up undiscovered gems? For some, clearly that was why they participated. For me, it was not. I never read the intention that Polaris had laid out as such.
Part of the reason I come to this site is to discover new films but it’s hardly the only reason. And I may be in the minority but it isn’t what I took this game to be. In my opinion, there are much more substantial and thoughtful ways of discovering films than simply making a list and yelling at people over it. Those thoughtful ways can be found elsewhere on this forum, such as the various in-depth threads that Jazz creates. But for those who do choose this game as a way of discovery, fine. That’s cool. Whatever gets you in the theater seat, so to speak. But not all of us approached this game this way. And for me, just as it’s important not to put too much focus on quality in the fact that Slumdog Millionaire got the blessings of the Academy, it’s important not to delude ourselves into believing the Mubi touch is any less golden.
And Fredo is dead. He swims with the fishes. :)
For anyone who’s interested, I created a tournament bracket of the top 32 films from this game just to see how this game would play out in a different format:
http://netbrawl.com/bracket.php?bracketid=789
Maybe it won’t be so vicious this way or it could be even moreso.
Not less golden. Different, and in a sea of homogeneous lists, this is important.
@Tommy – I think you might be confusing my game tactics with my actual viewing habits. Do you honestly think that I’m disinterested in expanding my film knowledge?
I don’t know. Possibly. You attitude doesn’t really prove otherwise.
@Santino
It’s usually an intersection of quality and politics, and this is no different. These films that won are films that a lot of people here consider among the greatest of all time — and the ones the fewest people had an axe to grind against.
Not many people thought George W Bush was the best choice for president, but the republican leaders thought he was the best button man to do whatever they wanted.
Thanks to those who have pm’d links to the films I requested – much appreciated. I don’t want to get into the politics of all this, but I DO come here for the discoveries – however they are made. I have made discoveries through threads, lists, polls, and the World Cup/Directors’ Cup games. Anything that leads us to films we might not otherwise know about is all good – imo.
When Brad S. says: when a significant portion of voters target films because they are on the TSPDT list (just one example), that politics is very much on display.
Guilty as charged! But I still couldn’t kill that damn Sansho :)
Hey, I, for one, wanted a different list to look at than my own stale list, which is very much like the other the auteurs/Mubi polls – with a few personal add-ons. I enjoy variety and the thrill of discovering something new. But I leave it to others to discuss the pros and cons of this event. I’ve now got some new films to watch (thanks again), so am a happy clam.
Well, I watched The Sound of the Mountain and La Cienaga because they made appearances in this game. Again, I think you are confusing my game tactics with my actual viewing habits, which display a healthy interest in cinematic exploration.
Well there you go…
Nathan sees way more movies than he should. I think he’s borderline obsessed with expanding his film knowledge. I agree though, his game tactics were completely wrong and bad. But his sincerity in seeing films should not be questioned. He may not see as many new films as I do, but he certainly sees more older films than most people.
…his game tactics were completely wrong and bad.
They were “wrong” and “bad” in that they did not accomplish my intended goal. Well, except that A Man Escaped, a film I had selected very early on as one of my pets, made it to the final 20.
And with that, I’m off to watch Phil Karlson’s Scandal Sheet. I like Karlson, but I’m watching it mainly because Samuel Fuller wrote the screenplay and I’m reading Fuller’s autobiography during my downtime at work.
^see.
ob-sessed.
They were “wrong” and “bad” in that they did not accomplish my intended goal.
hehe
Oxymoron
Now found The Executioner, too. Still looking for We Won’t Grow Old Together and Death in the Land of Encantos. Just saw the trailer only for the Diaz. Does an English language subtitled version of this film exist?