Underdog victory, i wonder how many people wanted that to happen and so gave the Czechs a slight edge if it was equal? And how many people rewatched Goodfellas? It might be if you havent seen it for a good 5-10 years that the films youve seen recently stick in your mind better. A lot of the time when I watch these universally acclaimed ‘obvious’ films, it reminds me why they are acclaimed in the first place. Otherwise you just start to take them for granted. I wouldnt be surprised if Citizen Kane lost out to an ‘undiscovered gem’ of a film no-one has watched before in a future round.
Not trying to stir up controversy, I enjoyed the Czech films a lot, just something to consider.
Dimitris:
“Czech is no underdog at all,i must say they have equally acclaimed directors and to be honest,it’s amazing that yes,these universally “acclaimed” films have nothing to be ashamed of when they’re against either Touch of Evil or Raging Bull…”
All I meant by ‘underdog’ was that the American films are all much higher profile than the Czech ones. I’m not sure whether you are jokingly twisting my words or misread it, but I was referring to Goodfellas as ‘universally acclaimed’, that is, acclaimed by critics and film fans worldwide, not just those ‘in the know’. Also, you cannot deny that Goodfellas is a much more famous film than Ucho and it would be hard to argue against the opinion that many users of this site shun popular ‘mainstream’ films and think less of any film that has achieved great commercial success. Hopefully that hasnt affected the voting, and I have no reason to believe it has.
However, I would think that rewatching films you have already seen is the only really fair way to judge against a rival film you have ‘discovered’ in the last week. It may be unfeasible to do so, but it would be fairer.
“if we’re talking about Jon’s point,then i assume everyone should vote today for France blindfolded because of the fame of its choices….”
Thats not my point and you know it isnt. I’ll repeat myself for your sake.
Point one: People like to see the underdog win. This is a well known fact.
Point two: Watching a film very recently, you remember how it made you feel. You may still be affected by it. Having watched something 5 years ago, you probably remember the basic plot and know enough how good it is to give it a rating out of 10, but you still can’t fairly compare how it affected you against the more recently watched film.
I am not saying that these two factors definately influenced the vote, just that they are two of many that will come into play if we have to make a somewhat arbitrary decision between two evenly matched films. Anyway, I won’t go on about it any more, as Kenji said, the main thing is watching and enjoying new films and I have enjoyed all 6 of them in these matchups.
I enjoyed ‘The Quiet Earth’, i put it a step above similar films such as ‘The Omega Man’ and ‘I am Legend’. The ending in particular was excellent. But it would have had to be something really spectacular to beat Satantango. Theres no question here for me.
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums1 – Kira’s Reason: A Love Story 0
I didn’t care for Kira’s Reason much. It seemed a little pretentious and forced. Like every scene had to have some over the top ‘intense’ drama. It never felt real for me. It didn’t help that the shaky camera style constantly brings you out of the action and reminds you that you are watching a film. Late Chrysanthemums I liked much more. Not my favourite Mizoguchi, but possibly top 5, it felt a bit melodramatic at times, which is not surprising considering its age, but overall a great film.
All mine are totally obvious until a nice twist at the end
1. AUTEUR – Mirror by Andrei Tarkovsky
2. CLASSIC – Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa
3. CONTEMPORARY – Yi Yi by Edward Yang
4. HOLLYWOOD – Ben Hur by William Wyler
5. CRIME – The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola
6. ACTION – Hard Boiled by John Woo
7. SCI-FI – Planet of the Apes (cos everyone else is gonna chose 2001 anyway)
8. HORROR/THRILLER – Suspiria by Dario Argento
9. MUSICAL – The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming
10. DOCUMENTARY – Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles
11. SHORT – The Scarecrow by Buster Keaton
12. SILENT – Pandora’s Box by GW Pabst
13. NORTH AMERICAN – The Searchers by John Ford
14. EUROPEAN – M by Fritz Lang
15. ASIAN – Woman of the Dunes by Hiroshi Teshigara
16. SOUTH AMERICAN – City of God by Fernando Meirelles
17. AUSTRALIAN – Walkabout by Nicolas Roeg
18. AFRICAN – Only seen Moolaade and Tsotsi so cant vote
19. MELODRAMA/DRAMA – Sansho the Baliff by Kenji Mizoguchi
20. WAR – Come and See by Elem Klimov
21. WESTERN – Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone
22. NOIR – Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder
23. POETIC/SURREAL – Mulholland Dr. by David Lynch
24. MOCKUMENTARY/FARCE/SPOOF – Airplane! by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker
25. ROMANCE – Chungking Express by Wong Kar Wai
26. B-MOVIE – not sure what counts here. Night of the living dead? But Romero is an auteur.. Hercules in New York is pretty hilarious, does that count?
27. ANIMATED – My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki
28. FREE PICK – COMMANDO by Mark L. Lester
I wanted to fit in Jason & the Argonauts or Seventh Voyage of Sinbad somewhere but unfortunately no place for them.
I’ve been unable to find any other Yang films either on DVD or online. I had to get the Criterion of Yi Yi imported because even thats not on DVD in England.
This is interesting. I think if Jake manages to watch “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” in time, his vote will decide the match, unless theres any other late voters…
@Dimitris
Cool, cheers, i must have not noticed before, or they werent added when i checked before. Will def. be checking them out whether Taiwan get through or not.
Looking ahead, anyone think South East Asia could knock out USA in the first round?
USA V SOUTH EAST ASIA
1.The Grapes of Wrath (Ford) v Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2.Lady of Shanghai (Welles) v Himala (Ishmael Bernal)
3.Mean Streets (Scorsese) v Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-Liang)
“A Matter of Life and Death” was actually quite a bit better than i thought it would be; creative, original and fun as well as a good deal of drama and ‘issues’ thrown in there too. But since Pather Panchali is one of my favourite films, possibly top 10, it wasn’t going to go any other way.
On a sidenote, I prefer Pather Panchali to World of Apu just because by that time in the trilogy I could kindof guess where major events were going to go when they started to be set up (I can’t go into further detail without spoilers.) Also, the old aunt in PP is just awesome, right?
If anyone (in England) is interested in Satyajit Ray DVDs, I’ve just ordered Devi (The Goddess) and Teen Kanya (Two Daughters) for only £7 each. Theyre due to come out on Monday. I hadn’t heard anything about them before this so probably others won’t have either. If I get them next week I’ll make a post on the picture quality etc if anyone wants.
Also, some might not know that as well as the Apu Trilogy released by Artificial Eye, they have also released ‘The Satyajit Ray Collection’ Volumes One and Two. The first contains 3 excellent films, Charaluta, Nayak and Mahanagar and the second contains three lesser but still worth watching films: Kapurush, Joi Baba Felunath and Mahapurush.
Sansho the Bailiff (1954) A
Ugetsu (1953) A
Life of Oharu, The (1952) A-
Crucified Woman, The (1954) B+
Gion Festival Music (1953) B+
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums, The (1939) B+
Street of Shame (1956) B+
Lady from Musashino, The (1951) B
Miss Oyu (1951) B
Story from Chikamatsu, A (1954) B
Yokihi (1955) B
Yesterday I watched a couple of Kiarostami’s early shorts which are available on youtube, ‘The Bread and the alley’ and ‘The Breaktime’. I wasn’t sure what to make of them.
I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts on the purpose/meaning of the films?
According to this interview (http://www.synoptique.ca/core/en/articles/kiarostami_interview) they took 40 days (!) to complete one shot on the bread and the alley so obviously it must have been important to Kiarostami. Thanks.
Teen Kanya is quality by the way, moving and funny. The PQ is decent. I’ve seen better but I’ve definitely seen worse. Not every word is subtitled but its good enough. Ray fans should get on it.
World Cup: Voting- USA V Czech Republic (Group 1) over 2 years ago
Goodfellas 1 The Ear 0
Stagecoach 0 Alice 1
The Trial 1 Josef Kilian 0
Got to say, all 3 match-ups were very close though.
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World Cup: Voting- Belgium v South East Asia (Group 1) over 2 years ago
The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short—1 Mysterious Object at Noon—0
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World Cup: Voting- USA V Czech Republic (Group 1) over 2 years ago
Underdog victory, i wonder how many people wanted that to happen and so gave the Czechs a slight edge if it was equal? And how many people rewatched Goodfellas? It might be if you havent seen it for a good 5-10 years that the films youve seen recently stick in your mind better. A lot of the time when I watch these universally acclaimed ‘obvious’ films, it reminds me why they are acclaimed in the first place. Otherwise you just start to take them for granted. I wouldnt be surprised if Citizen Kane lost out to an ‘undiscovered gem’ of a film no-one has watched before in a future round.
Not trying to stir up controversy, I enjoyed the Czech films a lot, just something to consider.
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World Cup: Voting- USA V Czech Republic (Group 1) over 2 years ago
Dimitris:
“Czech is no underdog at all,i must say they have equally acclaimed directors and to be honest,it’s amazing that yes,these universally “acclaimed” films have nothing to be ashamed of when they’re against either Touch of Evil or Raging Bull…”
All I meant by ‘underdog’ was that the American films are all much higher profile than the Czech ones. I’m not sure whether you are jokingly twisting my words or misread it, but I was referring to Goodfellas as ‘universally acclaimed’, that is, acclaimed by critics and film fans worldwide, not just those ‘in the know’. Also, you cannot deny that Goodfellas is a much more famous film than Ucho and it would be hard to argue against the opinion that many users of this site shun popular ‘mainstream’ films and think less of any film that has achieved great commercial success. Hopefully that hasnt affected the voting, and I have no reason to believe it has.
However, I would think that rewatching films you have already seen is the only really fair way to judge against a rival film you have ‘discovered’ in the last week. It may be unfeasible to do so, but it would be fairer.
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World Cup: Voting- USA V Czech Republic (Group 1) over 2 years ago
If a film becomes stale after re-viewings it deserves to lose, it still makes the match-up fairer.
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World Cup: Voting- USA V Czech Republic (Group 1) over 2 years ago
“if we’re talking about Jon’s point,then i assume everyone should vote today for France blindfolded because of the fame of its choices….”
Thats not my point and you know it isnt. I’ll repeat myself for your sake.
Point one: People like to see the underdog win. This is a well known fact.
Point two: Watching a film very recently, you remember how it made you feel. You may still be affected by it. Having watched something 5 years ago, you probably remember the basic plot and know enough how good it is to give it a rating out of 10, but you still can’t fairly compare how it affected you against the more recently watched film.
I am not saying that these two factors definately influenced the vote, just that they are two of many that will come into play if we have to make a somewhat arbitrary decision between two evenly matched films. Anyway, I won’t go on about it any more, as Kenji said, the main thing is watching and enjoying new films and I have enjoyed all 6 of them in these matchups.
Go to Comment
WORLD CUP: VOTING- HUNGARY V NEW ZEALAND over 2 years ago
I can only vote for one:
Sátántangó 1 – The Quiet Earth 0
I enjoyed ‘The Quiet Earth’, i put it a step above similar films such as ‘The Omega Man’ and ‘I am Legend’. The ending in particular was excellent. But it would have had to be something really spectacular to beat Satantango. Theres no question here for me.
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- FRANCE V SOUTH KOREA (GROUP 2) over 2 years ago
Only one for me again:
Pierrot le Fou 1 – Rikidozan 0
by a mile
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- JAPAN V DENMARK (GROUP 3) over 2 years ago
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums1 – Kira’s Reason: A Love Story 0
I didn’t care for Kira’s Reason much. It seemed a little pretentious and forced. Like every scene had to have some over the top ‘intense’ drama. It never felt real for me. It didn’t help that the shaky camera style constantly brings you out of the action and reminds you that you are watching a film. Late Chrysanthemums I liked much more. Not my favourite Mizoguchi, but possibly top 5, it felt a bit melodramatic at times, which is not surprising considering its age, but overall a great film.
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The Auteurs Canon - A Poll over 2 years ago
“The General by Charlie Chaplin”
sure about that? :P
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The Auteurs Canon - A Poll over 2 years ago
All mine are totally obvious until a nice twist at the end
1. AUTEUR – Mirror by Andrei Tarkovsky
2. CLASSIC – Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa
3. CONTEMPORARY – Yi Yi by Edward Yang
4. HOLLYWOOD – Ben Hur by William Wyler
5. CRIME – The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola
6. ACTION – Hard Boiled by John Woo
7. SCI-FI – Planet of the Apes (cos everyone else is gonna chose 2001 anyway)
8. HORROR/THRILLER – Suspiria by Dario Argento
9. MUSICAL – The Wizard of Oz by Victor Fleming
10. DOCUMENTARY – Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles
11. SHORT – The Scarecrow by Buster Keaton
12. SILENT – Pandora’s Box by GW Pabst
13. NORTH AMERICAN – The Searchers by John Ford
14. EUROPEAN – M by Fritz Lang
15. ASIAN – Woman of the Dunes by Hiroshi Teshigara
16. SOUTH AMERICAN – City of God by Fernando Meirelles
17. AUSTRALIAN – Walkabout by Nicolas Roeg
18. AFRICAN – Only seen Moolaade and Tsotsi so cant vote
19. MELODRAMA/DRAMA – Sansho the Baliff by Kenji Mizoguchi
20. WAR – Come and See by Elem Klimov
21. WESTERN – Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone
22. NOIR – Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder
23. POETIC/SURREAL – Mulholland Dr. by David Lynch
24. MOCKUMENTARY/FARCE/SPOOF – Airplane! by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker
25. ROMANCE – Chungking Express by Wong Kar Wai
26. B-MOVIE – not sure what counts here. Night of the living dead? But Romero is an auteur.. Hercules in New York is pretty hilarious, does that count?
27. ANIMATED – My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki
28. FREE PICK – COMMANDO by Mark L. Lester
I wanted to fit in Jason & the Argonauts or Seventh Voyage of Sinbad somewhere but unfortunately no place for them.
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
Sorry Italian masters…
L’Avventura 0 — A Time to Live and a Time to Die 1
I Vitelloni 0 — A Most Distant Course 1
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
Dan, just wondering, if you make it through the first round have you got other brilliant films in reserve or will you have used them all up?
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
definitely need some more HHH in my life :)
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
I’ve been unable to find any other Yang films either on DVD or online. I had to get the Criterion of Yi Yi imported because even thats not on DVD in England.
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
This is interesting. I think if Jake manages to watch “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” in time, his vote will decide the match, unless theres any other late voters…
@Dimitris
Cool, cheers, i must have not noticed before, or they werent added when i checked before. Will def. be checking them out whether Taiwan get through or not.
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
I just counted and got the same. Plus, I think a draw is the only fair result.
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- ITALY V TAIWAN over 2 years ago
Would it still have been a draw if, say, ‘Time to Live and Time to Die’ had won by 2 and ‘Voyage to Italy’ only won by 1?
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World Cup - Group 3 Results over 2 years ago
Are people thinking Italy and Taiwan will be the two qualifiers from this group? Any guesses on who will top the group?
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The Auteurs' World Cup: Comments and reviews over 2 years ago
Looking ahead, anyone think South East Asia could knock out USA in the first round?
USA V SOUTH EAST ASIA
1.The Grapes of Wrath (Ford) v Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2.Lady of Shanghai (Welles) v Himala (Ishmael Bernal)
3.Mean Streets (Scorsese) v Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-Liang)
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WORLD CUP: VOTING- UNITED KINGDOM v INDIA (GROUP 6) over 2 years ago
A Matter of Life and Death 0 – Pather Panchali 1
“A Matter of Life and Death” was actually quite a bit better than i thought it would be; creative, original and fun as well as a good deal of drama and ‘issues’ thrown in there too. But since Pather Panchali is one of my favourite films, possibly top 10, it wasn’t going to go any other way.
On a sidenote, I prefer Pather Panchali to World of Apu just because by that time in the trilogy I could kindof guess where major events were going to go when they started to be set up (I can’t go into further detail without spoilers.) Also, the old aunt in PP is just awesome, right?
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What is in your Netflix "At Home" Queue right now (i.e., what the f are you renting)? over 2 years ago
Tartuffe
The Ballad of Narayama
Le Silence De Lorna
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WORLD CUP: VOTING - RUSSIA V SWEDEN (GROUP 7) over 2 years ago
Stalker 1 – Through a Glass Darkly 0
Seen the other two Russian films but not the Swedish ones, anyone got any links so I can watch one before the deadline? thanks!
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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 2 years ago
What does the internet think of Quentin Tarantino?
http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net/index.php?s=quentin+tarantino&st=google
oh yeah, and
http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net/index.php?s=joseph+stalin&st=google
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Why has it become "fashionable" to hate Tarantino? over 2 years ago
although we’ve proved the website is ridiculous, this might give you a chuckle
http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net/index.php?s=michael+bay&st=all
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Satyajit Ray over 2 years ago
If anyone (in England) is interested in Satyajit Ray DVDs, I’ve just ordered Devi (The Goddess) and Teen Kanya (Two Daughters) for only £7 each. Theyre due to come out on Monday. I hadn’t heard anything about them before this so probably others won’t have either. If I get them next week I’ll make a post on the picture quality etc if anyone wants.
Also, some might not know that as well as the Apu Trilogy released by Artificial Eye, they have also released ‘The Satyajit Ray Collection’ Volumes One and Two. The first contains 3 excellent films, Charaluta, Nayak and Mahanagar and the second contains three lesser but still worth watching films: Kapurush, Joi Baba Felunath and Mahapurush.
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what did you watch today? over 2 years ago
I watched ‘Speed Racer’, ‘20 Million Miles to Earth’ and Satyajit Ray’s ‘Distant Thunder’ :)
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Top 5 (or rating) Mizoguchi over 2 years ago
Sansho the Bailiff (1954) A
Ugetsu (1953) A
Life of Oharu, The (1952) A-
Crucified Woman, The (1954) B+
Gion Festival Music (1953) B+
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums, The (1939) B+
Street of Shame (1956) B+
Lady from Musashino, The (1951) B
Miss Oyu (1951) B
Story from Chikamatsu, A (1954) B
Yokihi (1955) B
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Abbas Kiarostami Shorts over 2 years ago
Yesterday I watched a couple of Kiarostami’s early shorts which are available on youtube, ‘The Bread and the alley’ and ‘The Breaktime’. I wasn’t sure what to make of them.
I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts on the purpose/meaning of the films?
According to this interview (http://www.synoptique.ca/core/en/articles/kiarostami_interview) they took 40 days (!) to complete one shot on the bread and the alley so obviously it must have been important to Kiarostami. Thanks.
Go to Comment
Satyajit Ray over 2 years ago
Teen Kanya is quality by the way, moving and funny. The PQ is decent. I’ve seen better but I’ve definitely seen worse. Not every word is subtitled but its good enough. Ray fans should get on it.
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