Director != auteur, at least not necessarily. The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Selznick, Val Lewton are all auteurs in one way or another. Also, how is “one or two individuals organize the collaborative efforts of all involved” not auteurism, if the personality(ies) of those individual(s) radiate throughout a career?
It’s a good Cahiers-y list: polemical, Euro-centric, at times baffling. I’ll be glad to see it eventually get thrown into the They Shoot Pictures aggregation.
I’ve got a soft spot for the adventures of Porco Rosso…but Totoro, Whisper, and Spirited Away are right up there too. But all of them are rewatchable, recommendable, astonishing.
I would have normally seen many more movies by this point in the year, but life got in the way, so I’d like to see everyone else’s favorites. Don’t worry about categories, just straight-up perfs.
Ledger in Dark Knight and Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky are the best that I’ve been able to see so far.
Ones I can’t live without: Army of Shadows, Le Samourai, Bob le Flambeur, Le Cercle Rouge, in that order. Although the near-silent opening scenes of Un Flic is possibly my so far favorite stretch of film by him.
Re: Delon and Crenna. In retrospect, they probably should have been switched. But the fluidity of cop and criminal roles in Melville’s films, and the likeability and charisma of both, makes it a tough call. Either way, as long as Deneuve is between them.
It’s tough to go wrong with David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s “Film Art” and “Film History” as general overviews. Bordwell’s “On a History of Film Style” is also good. I guess it depends how classical/contemporary you want or what eras you’re interested in for any more specific recommendations.
I’d watch Richard Jenkins in anything. In “The Visitor” he gave one of the best American performances in the last few years, and he was the closest thing to a heart in “Burn After Reading” (not that it necessarily needed it).
And somebody needs to make a blaxploitation throwback starring Mos Def, Jeffrey Wright, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
His “Camera Buff” is quite underrated, certainly one of the greatest movies about moviemaking from the ground up. Perhaps he should be slightly more considered as one of the foremost directors of women of the 80s and 90s. But Three Colors, Dekalog, and Veronique are well enough regarded, methinks, to make his place in modern world cinema secure.
Along with the aforementioned ’74, the other three best years to me are:
1967 – Playtime, Titicut Follies, Belle de jour, Le Samourai, Point Blank, Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Don’t Look Back, Fireman’s Ball, In Cold Blood…
1956 – The Searchers, Wrong Man, A Man Escaped, Body Snatchers, Street of Shame, Bigger than Life, Written on the Wind, The Killing…
1939 – Rules of the Game, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith, Only Angels, Wizard of Oz, Daybreak, Gone with the Wind, Roaring Twenties…
Yeah, Pauline Kael’s “Raising Kane” has been pretty well debunked since its publication, and it had already reached the top of the Sight & Sound poll about eight or nine years before its publication. I’d say Bazin and other French critics had a lot more to do with its resurgence in the late 40s and 50s.
I can’t help what you do or do not enjoy, but Hunger, A Christmas Tale, Rachel Getting Married, Waltz with Bashir, Man on Wire, Wendy and Lucy, Let the Right One In, Four Nights with Anna, JCVD, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, The Headless Woman, Ashes of Time Redux, to name a few, don’t fit the mid-year blockbuster mold yet were intriguing and/or satisfying from this year.
As with many things cinematic, it took time and the French for we Americans to stop underrating our brilliantly native Hawks. The fact is that so many of the movies cited are in totally different genres yet are tied together by, among other things, his gender dynamics and love of professionalism. Versatility and consistency go a long way. Even if he cannot stand exactly toe to toe with Lubitsch and Sturges in comedy, Ford and Boetticher in Westerns, Siodmak and Mann in noir (all debatable propositions, by the way), he stands just barely behind them in every category, not to mention action (Only Angels Have Wings), gangster (Scarface), musical (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), sci-fi (The Thing…), and epic (Land of the Pharaohs).
Josef K: “i think that a lot of the movies that are going to be suggested are basically the same film, re-hashed with different actors. I can’t really see a huge difference between A Christmas Tale, Rachel Getting Married or Wendy and Lucy. all slow melodramas revolving around someone who is depressed or “misunderstood”.”
And here’s where you lose me. If you can’t tell any real differences between them, it makes me think you’re judging them sight unseen, correct me if I’m wrong.
So besides having different plots, characters, casts, crews, and settings, they’re basically the same? Wow, now I regret seeing all three of them when I could have saved some money.
The good – Jenkins, Downey, Shannon, Hathaway, and Tomei. Even though Man on Wire will probably get Best Doc, it’s nice to see Herzog get nominated. In Bruges for Best Screenplay. Even though she didn’t get the double nods the studio was hoping for, Winslet fulfilled her Extras joke.
The bad – Pictures/Director matching up = dullsville. No Sally Hawkins or Rosemarie DeWitt. Fincher getting shafted for his truly interesting picture last year and getting rewarded now for a higher profile literary adaptation with bigger-name stars. Only 3 Song noms? Did everyone leave The Wrestler before the end credits?
Best title over 3 years ago
“Safety Last!” kinda sums it all up. With “Dr. Strangelove, etc.” a close second.
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GREAT SITE, BUT AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO'S NOT A BIG FAN OF AUTEUR THEORY over 3 years ago
Director != auteur, at least not necessarily. The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Selznick, Val Lewton are all auteurs in one way or another. Also, how is “one or two individuals organize the collaborative efforts of all involved” not auteurism, if the personality(ies) of those individual(s) radiate throughout a career?
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Cashiers du Cinema's 100 Greatest Film List over 3 years ago
It’s a good Cahiers-y list: polemical, Euro-centric, at times baffling. I’ll be glad to see it eventually get thrown into the They Shoot Pictures aggregation.
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Favorite Studio Ghibli Film over 3 years ago
I’ve got a soft spot for the adventures of Porco Rosso…but Totoro, Whisper, and Spirited Away are right up there too. But all of them are rewatchable, recommendable, astonishing.
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BEST PERFORMANCES OF '08 over 3 years ago
I would have normally seen many more movies by this point in the year, but life got in the way, so I’d like to see everyone else’s favorites. Don’t worry about categories, just straight-up perfs.
Ledger in Dark Knight and Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky are the best that I’ve been able to see so far.
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What's your favorite Jean-Pierre Melville film? over 3 years ago
Ones I can’t live without: Army of Shadows, Le Samourai, Bob le Flambeur, Le Cercle Rouge, in that order. Although the near-silent opening scenes of Un Flic is possibly my so far favorite stretch of film by him.
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What's your favorite Jean-Pierre Melville film? over 3 years ago
Re: Delon and Crenna. In retrospect, they probably should have been switched. But the fluidity of cop and criminal roles in Melville’s films, and the likeability and charisma of both, makes it a tough call. Either way, as long as Deneuve is between them.
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Books on Film History over 3 years ago
It’s tough to go wrong with David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s “Film Art” and “Film History” as general overviews. Bordwell’s “On a History of Film Style” is also good. I guess it depends how classical/contemporary you want or what eras you’re interested in for any more specific recommendations.
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Books on Film History over 3 years ago
What Bobby said. :-)
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Underrated / overrated over 3 years ago
Underrated:
Primer
The Mist
Ishtar
George Romero
The 80s as a decade for film
Animation as cinema
Overrated:
Fernando Meirelles
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu
Many Oscar Best Pictures
“Mumblecore”
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THE BEST ACTORS WORKING TODAY? over 3 years ago
I’d watch Richard Jenkins in anything. In “The Visitor” he gave one of the best American performances in the last few years, and he was the closest thing to a heart in “Burn After Reading” (not that it necessarily needed it).
And somebody needs to make a blaxploitation throwback starring Mos Def, Jeffrey Wright, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
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THE BEST ACTORS WORKING TODAY? over 3 years ago
Oh and to continue my blaxploitation train of thought, Don Cheadle would be their Bosley and it would be called “Charlie’s Brothers.”
On the female side, I agree with many of the powerhouses brought up, especially Blanchett, and I’d add Maria Bello and Naomi Watts.
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Is Krzysztof Kieslowski Underrated? over 3 years ago
His “Camera Buff” is quite underrated, certainly one of the greatest movies about moviemaking from the ground up. Perhaps he should be slightly more considered as one of the foremost directors of women of the 80s and 90s. But Three Colors, Dekalog, and Veronique are well enough regarded, methinks, to make his place in modern world cinema secure.
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2005. Better than 2007? over 3 years ago
Along with the aforementioned ’74, the other three best years to me are:
1967 – Playtime, Titicut Follies, Belle de jour, Le Samourai, Point Blank, Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Don’t Look Back, Fireman’s Ball, In Cold Blood…
1956 – The Searchers, Wrong Man, A Man Escaped, Body Snatchers, Street of Shame, Bigger than Life, Written on the Wind, The Killing…
1939 – Rules of the Game, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith, Only Angels, Wizard of Oz, Daybreak, Gone with the Wind, Roaring Twenties…
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What great films do you violently hate for no other reason than because you're a total idiot? over 3 years ago
Yeah, Pauline Kael’s “Raising Kane” has been pretty well debunked since its publication, and it had already reached the top of the Sight & Sound poll about eight or nine years before its publication. I’d say Bazin and other French critics had a lot more to do with its resurgence in the late 40s and 50s.
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What great films do you violently hate for no other reason than because you're a total idiot? over 3 years ago
Bob, you’d probably appreciate Stephen Metcalf’s article “The Worst Best Movie”: http://www.slate.com/id/2145142/
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2008 - A Horrendous year for film? over 3 years ago
I can’t help what you do or do not enjoy, but Hunger, A Christmas Tale, Rachel Getting Married, Waltz with Bashir, Man on Wire, Wendy and Lucy, Let the Right One In, Four Nights with Anna, JCVD, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, The Headless Woman, Ashes of Time Redux, to name a few, don’t fit the mid-year blockbuster mold yet were intriguing and/or satisfying from this year.
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Who else thinks that Howard Hawks is vastly overrated? over 3 years ago
As with many things cinematic, it took time and the French for we Americans to stop underrating our brilliantly native Hawks. The fact is that so many of the movies cited are in totally different genres yet are tied together by, among other things, his gender dynamics and love of professionalism. Versatility and consistency go a long way. Even if he cannot stand exactly toe to toe with Lubitsch and Sturges in comedy, Ford and Boetticher in Westerns, Siodmak and Mann in noir (all debatable propositions, by the way), he stands just barely behind them in every category, not to mention action (Only Angels Have Wings), gangster (Scarface), musical (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), sci-fi (The Thing…), and epic (Land of the Pharaohs).
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2008 - A Horrendous year for film? over 3 years ago
Josef K: “i think that a lot of the movies that are going to be suggested are basically the same film, re-hashed with different actors. I can’t really see a huge difference between A Christmas Tale, Rachel Getting Married or Wendy and Lucy. all slow melodramas revolving around someone who is depressed or “misunderstood”.”
And here’s where you lose me. If you can’t tell any real differences between them, it makes me think you’re judging them sight unseen, correct me if I’m wrong.
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2008 - A Horrendous year for film? over 3 years ago
So besides having different plots, characters, casts, crews, and settings, they’re basically the same? Wow, now I regret seeing all three of them when I could have saved some money.
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Are posts on overrated films and directors also overrated? over 3 years ago
Pretentious, yes. Overrated, no.
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Oscar Nominations - 2009 over 3 years ago
The good – Jenkins, Downey, Shannon, Hathaway, and Tomei. Even though Man on Wire will probably get Best Doc, it’s nice to see Herzog get nominated. In Bruges for Best Screenplay. Even though she didn’t get the double nods the studio was hoping for, Winslet fulfilled her Extras joke.
The bad – Pictures/Director matching up = dullsville. No Sally Hawkins or Rosemarie DeWitt. Fincher getting shafted for his truly interesting picture last year and getting rewarded now for a higher profile literary adaptation with bigger-name stars. Only 3 Song noms? Did everyone leave The Wrestler before the end credits?
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Oscars for Auteurs? over 3 years ago
Carr: “Mr. Daldry has made three movies and has three best-director nominations.”
Although it’s fun to argue about, if the Academy Awards actually meant anything, I’d be sad about this.
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