I’m working from memory, so forgive any technical errors.
This is also purely of the moment, which might be a good thing really.
Film Noir: No matter how many times you have seen Double Indemnity, Kiss Of Death, or Kiss Me Deadly,
I think it would be extremely difficult to fully grasp (or become obsessed with)
noir cinema without having seen Robert Siodmak’s 3 masterpieces:
Criss Cross
The Killers
Phantom Lady
(all late forties)
Westerns:
John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, Wagonmaster, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, in that order,
can make you fall in love with American cinema.
Science Fiction:
The Thing From Another World
Howard Hawks’ editor, Christian Nyby, and to a large extent Hawks himself,
write the book on economical yarn spinning with this brilliant, tight littlle thriller.
Unsurpassed old-school entertainment. Gets too little credit for masterful sound editing, by the way.
Thriller/horror
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)
Clever, sometimes harrowing mystery with, after a second viewing,
all kinds of how-did-I-miss-that clues and metaphorical possibilities.
Let the Right One In (2008) Amazingly low-key, introspective vampire story
that uses 70s European cinema (and Cronenberg’s best) as its reference vocabulary.
Odds and ends:
Breaking the Waves (1996, Lars von Trier) Stunning melodrama
that works best after a viewing of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The Limey (1999, Steven Soderbergh) elegiac, often romantic nod
to L.A. noir that all of a sudden exposes a mean little narrative edge.
The Cranes Are Flying (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov) I Am Cuba is indeed a mindblower,
but I’m starting to see this as a superior work.
Visually daring and lush, unembarrassed about its romanticism.
Stardust Memories (1981) A visual blend of Fellini and Bergman, which sounds like a parlor trick and nothing more,
but actually it’s masterpiece of romantic comedy and narrative invention.
I’m still wondering why Pauline Kael hated it.
Now on DVD, Targets is better suited for devoted fans of psychotronic
cinema. It was, after all, originally a Roger Corman production, with that maverick filmmaker’s guerilla spirit affecting every detail.
There’s a drive-in movie setting, a clean-cut, gun-collecting psychopath in a windbreaker
who drives a 1966 Mustang convertible, and Boris Karloff playing an aging horror movie star.
Laszlo Kovacs uses a wide-angle lens for countless shots of greater L.A., circa 1967.
What more could one ask?
Well, how about a commentary track in which director Bogdanovich reels off
several dozen fascinating anecdotes about the picture business in late ‘60s
Hollywood.
Paper Moon is the best buddy/movie road picture I have ever seen.
I can’t find a flaw.
(“Cain’t haul nuthin’ in it” is my fourteenth favorite line from that movie.)
I like PB’s comments on the Paper Moon DVD track.
He often chimes in with “according to Orson Welles,”
or “John Ford always said,” which instills a sense of regret that today
we have almost no directors who look to Welles, Ford, and Hawks
as the best examples of how to direct pictures.
Troy Meyers:
You have revealed your wisdom, as Chairman Mao used to say.
I completely forgot the “make’m laugh” rule (except for Stardust Memories).
So, I must recommend:
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, which is a bit creaky and wholesome,
but wickedly insightful if you’ve ever built a home.
Young Frankenstein
Life of Brian
Brother Orchid
The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
Flirting With Disaster
I’m Alright Jack
Three O’clock High
Real Life
Portions of any of the Marx Bros films co-written by S. J. Perlman.
I’m interested to see the reaction to this analysis of REAR WINDOW.
It holds that the entire story is actually a dream.
The review is titled Rear View Mirror, link is here:
Bobby Wise writes: “the main fallacy being the notion that the “dream” reading is the only possible reading that makes sense for this film, as if there can be no further critical debate on the subject.”
I think that’s off the mark, because of this paragraph in the article:
“Rear Window has been the subject of reams of analysis by critics and film scholars (who often focus on the film’s subtext of voyeurism), and there are countless theories about why the events Stewart observes might be less than reliable projections of his own worries and preoccupations. Those are valid readings, but after seeing this picture a dozen times, I’m convinced that the story is actually a dream.”
“Those are all valid readings” at least suggests that the writer is not excluding other theories.
William Shirer’s BERLIN DIARY, which is non-fiction, would be amazing if it looked and moved like THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
Walker Percy’s THE MOVIEGOER would be brilliant good fun, if and only if shot in New Orleans.
Sofia Coppola has the right temperament for this. So too Woody Allen.
Someone needs to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP
and bring forward the subtext about gender indentity.
Johnny Depp could play both the male and the female key roles.
Where’s Cronenberg when you need him? Paul Schrader?
I’d like to see three short stories by Shirley Jackson, TRIAL BY COMBAT, THE WITCH, and PILLAR OF SALT,
combined into one picture. They each convey a sense of malevolence and unseen forces at work in the human psyche.
David Lynch might turn them inside out.
It’s astonishing to consider that NYF ran this risky enterprise for almost 44 years.
They were doing something right, because in terms of marketing schemes and profit margins,
the NY library is a tough haul. Nobody gets rich doing world cinema, and a lot of folks get poor.
Nonetheless, over time it became difficult for me to regard their entire inventory as some kind of cultural treasure
with inarguable value. A lot of fans (and NY employees) tended at times to get a wee bit precious about certain pictures,
often because they were simply included in the category of world cinema.
Well, even Iranians and Brazillians are capable of making less-than-stellar films.
Fassbinder actually made some very bad ones. Sometimes a film of Eastern European origin can be plain dull.
But not according to the NY catalog, which I received every year.
On the other hand, what a catalog it was!
And when I was programming various film series, the good folks at New Yorker were consistently the most sympathetic to our non-profit ventures. You wouldn’t believe their laid-back approach to licensing films, granting performance rights, breaks on price, etc.
In fact, at least three important museum series I programmed could not have boasted such quality content without NYF’s kind efforts.
I agree with Bobby Wise that the claim that the film’s structure “demands” a certain analysis is forceful (dogmatic, perhaps).
But I still don’t see that it is exclusionary, as was originally suggested. That was my only point of contention.
Then there’s that thing about how My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) beat the competition.
Just look at who got snubbed those two years and you’ll be walking funny for three days.
Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas? I could go on and on, but the choir has heard my sermon.
Regarding neglect by the Academy, there’s nothing new under the sun, the man once said.
As for who actually takes home the statues, I have a difficult time recalling who won, for what, and when.
Yet I can quote you chapter and verse, so to speak, from the careers of these listed below.
I know I’m not alone in that sentiment.
Claude Rains
James Mason
Madeline Kahn
Peter Sellers
Barbara Stanwyck
Howard Hawks
Cary Grant
Agnes Moorehead
Fritz Lang
Stanley Kubrick
What Christopher Sepesy said about Neame is so right on I don’t even know what to do next.
And by the way, what are the criteria for this poll?
After all, the kind of experience I have watching a Guy Maddin picture is in many, many
respects not comparable to my experience with a picture directed by Scorsese.
The same applies to Woody Allen vs Terrence Malick, or Herzog vs Lynch.
Jason Trochesset: It may simply be the case that Shakespeare did not have access to subtitles. Folks at The Globe would probably require them.
But I take your point in the broader sense. Nonetheless, I prefer that German characters in a WWII drama use the native language.
Something about German has a timbre and cadence that seems well suited to chewing out a Messerschmitt pilot or harranguing troop train conductors. Even at a McDonald’s drive-through, German males ordering fries can lend the impression that they are calling up a Panzer division. On the other hand, on the rare occasions when the wholly desirable Isabelle Huppert speaks English (I Heart HUckabees), I feel like, should we meet someday, I might actually have a chance with her. Tough call on this topic, I guess.
I can’t see American Beauty as a masterpiece, mainly because it is so brazenly derivative of so many earlier films that handled the same themes (often in the same scenarios). I think the same applies to Platoon (1986), although I admire that picture very much.
I think Annie Hall (1977) is the last time, and before that The Godfather.
Prior to that I guess the last Oscar Best Picture masterpiece was The Best Years of Our Lives.
It’s so evenly registered, honest, and unshowy, it’s hard to recall that it was ahead of its time.
Gentleman’s agreement, perhaps. Welles nabbed those two scenes,then several years later Hitchcock borrowed freely from Touch of Evil while making Psycho. Same actress, even.
Jesse Hassinger, I agree about Perfect World. It is an excellent picture that sort of dropped in out of nowhere that year,
and I think it was a superior bit of storytelling. Some amazing shots, and a very smart and fitting soundtrack to boot.
I can’t really articulate why just now, but my instinct is to describe Perfect World as fair minded.
I don’t pretend to know your tastes, but based on some of your astute comments I highly recommend that you make the time to see Wilder’s and Ford’s pictures.
I don’t recall specific shots, beacuse I did not care much for the film, but Kenneth Branaugh’s DEAD AGAIN is like Branaugh doing DePalma doing Hitchcock. In fact, for the most part DEAD AGAIN channeled the mood and spirit of Hitchcock films, as opposed to technical forms.It reminded me, in tone at least, of Fritz Lang’s magnificent MINISTRY OF FEAR (A picture I plan to write about shortly) and some of Henry Hathaway’s work. (I can see the uninitiated mistaking NIAGARA for a Hitchcock picture.)
I thought that ENIGMA (2001 Michael Apted) a pretty good picture about the code breakers at Bletchley Park during WWII, brilliantly captured the mood and movement of some of Hitchcock’s wonderful espionage pics, most notably FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and SABOTEUR.
Something about THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE reminds me of VERTIGO, but a specific memory doesn’t come to mind just now.
I’m stunned and disappointed that Bruce Conner is not in this collection. I saw a retrospective of his work at the Hirschorn in D.C. years ago (projected via projector!) and I was blown away. Is anyone else a fan?
Lester, I’m glad you appreciate this film along the lines of its theme.
I agree that it’s a well-mounted production, but I disagree with the Academy accolades, mainly because the picture treads familiar terrain.
(Perhaps I differ with some others here to the extent that I am not ANGRY that A B is short in its originality inventory.)
Because this picture and its themes obviously appeal to you so much,
I hope I’m making a useful effort by recommending some films that I think inspired and/or influenced the filmmakers.
I enjoyed these pictures, but like them or not, it’s almost certain you can have some fun linking these older films to your favorite.
It’s something I thoroughly get a kick out of. I hope you do as well.
Save the Tiger (1973, John Avildsen) AB was practically a full-on homage to this picture.
Smile (1975, Michael Ritchie) a minor masterpiece of satire rooted in suburban ennui and middle-class angst. Surely the makers of AB have this picture memorized.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956, Nunnally Johnson) a template for Mad Men, no doubt.
The Swimmer (1968, Frank Perry) pure allegory, but a glimpse of suburban melancholia worth having.
Strangers When We Meet (1960, Richard Quine) underseen, under-recognized bit of SoCal melodrama that looks amazing. Highly recommended.
Divorce American Style (1967, Bud Yorkin) not as funny as it thinks, but intriguing in how a bedroom farce becomes so downbeat. Dick Van Dyke should have had more roles like this.
The Gypsy Moths (1969, John Frankenheimer) Another what’s-it-all-about, middle-class melodrama with a midlife crisis theme, yet an intelligent survey of the theme for its time.
Adam at 6 A.m. (1970, Robert Sheerer) very well done, cruelly neglected picture starring Michael Douglas as a disillusioned English professor attempting to find something “real.” Clever and insightful.
What a brilliant topic. Leah. I’m squirming with envy because I did not think of this first.
I also like your method of examples, so I shall follow suit:
(warning: I’m a paraphraser as well as a quote fiend)
When I encounter a situation in which someone is being stubborn about a mistake or a wrongheaded notion, I say “We’re gonna have to help ol’ Luke get his mind right.” (Cool Hand Luke)
When someone gets his or her comeuppance, I say, “That’s how Luke wants it.” (ditto)
If I am 100 percent certain I have accomplished a task, or I’m positive that something is a done deal, I say, “The cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river” (Sweet Smell of Success)
When someone tells me that they know an individual about whom I know some rather unpleasant facts, I say, “Everybody knows Manny Davis. Except Mrs. Manny Davis.” (ditto)
If I’m asked about who provides my cell or land line service, I say I have a contract with “American Tell & Tell.” (Ditto)
Whenever I’m concerned that an outsider may gain some advantage over our company, I say, “But they’ll see the big board!” (Dr. Strangelove). I also use, “I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed.” for all manner of occassions involving risk.
Lastly, Leah, you will dig this:
When I was interviewed for a promotion, I was asked what my greatest contribution to date was. We have a very hip and loose organization, so I was able to reply, “I saved Latin.”
Everybody got the joke.
I got the promotion.
A little too late-70s, New York-y for my taste. I can’t help seeing right through the film to its origins.
William Friedkin, Don Seigel, and Sam Fuller sat at a roundtable hosted by Carpenter and devised this picture’s tone, pacing, visual aesthetic, and maybe those four cast the thing as well.
But Kurt Russell is a cool guy.
This film was a gigantor rental title in the early video stores, I can tell you for certain.
I was hooked on Assault on Precinct 13 at the time (an HBO perennial), so in many respects I was thinking of Carpenter as a punk band that had learned some new chords, but the new tunes were too slick.
It’s similar in effect (for me) to how Gang of Four inexplicably hit the charts with “Is This Love?”
I also couldn’t help comparing EFNY to the hallucinatory, vulgar, and pretty fabulous The Warriors, which struck me as vastly superior then.
Still does.
All those pyschopaths, your Normans and your Hannibals—they were doing what they had to do.
As for Heath Ledger’s Joker, I don’t fear children. Never have.
But real villains, that would be anyone who abused that poor little elephant in DUMBO.
J’accuse, clowns!
I think Martin Ritt is in my Fave Directors profile (too lazy to check), but in any case The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is one of the few films I reviewed in my profile.
I invariably recommend this picture to folks who ask for movie suggestions. Feed back is always positive, often glowing.
I agree that Oskar Werner is exceptional in his role, but Burton owns every scene he’s in.
As for the picture’s themes, I can’t agree with this comment:
“leaves one wondering if there really was any difference between life in the “East” and life in the “West.”
I think we might wonder instead if there was a difference, in the espionage realm, between the West’s moral calculations and the East’s.
But LIFE? Well for openers, anyone departing the West simply departed, while those departing East Germany took a bullet in the back.
It has dawned on me, after perusing these responses (and then looking again at the list of quotes I first posted)
that I frequently use in everyday conversation more than three dozen lines from various motion pictures.
Lately “A definite type of situation” (Broadway Danny Rose) and “Sedagive?!” (Young Frankenstein) have been prominently featured.
In my darkest moods I draw from a film I don’t really care for (Brimstone and Treacle) “Drop a bomb; drop a bomb.”
It also dawned on me that I use these quotes in all settings, not merely among like-minded cinema fans.
I truly don’t care if anyone gets the reference. It’s all part of my personality now.
Is that cause for concern or celebration?
About your comment, "unless we take up the banner of Godard and go out and make better movies than those we’re criticizing, what right do we have to say any films aren’t quite up to snuff, least of all those of established masters? On what BASIS are we making these judgments?
I’ve encountered similar suggestions when I have criticized a recording artist.
The argument goes this way: "You can’t do it. You haven’t done it.
Therefore you have no standing to judge the results of any artist’s efforts.
Well, because I’m not a chef, there are certain dishes I cannot and have not prepared.
But when a poorly prepared item arrives at my table, I send it back. So there’s that.
Yet beyond observing mistakes, when I say that one film succeeds or another doesn’t,
I’m using as a basis (since you ask specifically what that is) the obvious technical proficiency of the DP,
the inventiveness of the screenwriter, and the choices of the editor from
some OTHER motion picture that I found to be a rewarding experience. Nothing to do with my own skills.
I’m not a fan of rankings, mainly because it is so difficult to find ( or agree upon) uniform criteria.
(By the way, there is a certain poetry to the fact that the company in reference here calls itself Criterion.)
When I submitted my list of ten to Adam, it was actually a very quickly compiled
list of pictures I will watch whenever they are playing, no matter where,
irrespective of what I am doing at the moment. Every time.
Without getting into semantic distinctions that would border on an epistemological treatise,
I will just say that my list of fave directors (in the profile page) consists of SOME filmmakers
who have made more good pictures than other filmmakers on the same list, but its not even POSSIBLE to rank them.
The Other (1972, Robert Mulligan)
Spider (2002, David Cronenberg)
Donnie Darko (2001,
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)
Man Facing Southeast (1986, Eliseo Subiela)
Your site conveys unassuming enthusiasm. I can imagine young cinema enthusiasts making discoveries from your site, which I hope is a compliment.
Justin: Hour of the Wolf and Repulsion are essential additions. Good call.
I can’t believe I forgot to add Strangers on a Train.
By the way, Csteve, as I mention on my review section, Fight Club borrows/steals its plot hook from Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About Me? So if Fight Club is about madness, then the Dustin Hoffman film goes on the list.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND ME SOMETHING!!!! over 3 years ago
I’m working from memory, so forgive any technical errors.
This is also purely of the moment, which might be a good thing really.
Film Noir: No matter how many times you have seen Double Indemnity, Kiss Of Death, or Kiss Me Deadly,
I think it would be extremely difficult to fully grasp (or become obsessed with)
noir cinema without having seen Robert Siodmak’s 3 masterpieces:
Criss Cross
The Killers
Phantom Lady
(all late forties)
Westerns:
John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, Wagonmaster, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, in that order,
can make you fall in love with American cinema.
Science Fiction:
The Thing From Another World
Howard Hawks’ editor, Christian Nyby, and to a large extent Hawks himself,
write the book on economical yarn spinning with this brilliant, tight littlle thriller.
Unsurpassed old-school entertainment. Gets too little credit for masterful sound editing, by the way.
Thriller/horror
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)
Clever, sometimes harrowing mystery with, after a second viewing,
all kinds of how-did-I-miss-that clues and metaphorical possibilities.
Let the Right One In (2008) Amazingly low-key, introspective vampire story
that uses 70s European cinema (and Cronenberg’s best) as its reference vocabulary.
Odds and ends:
Breaking the Waves (1996, Lars von Trier) Stunning melodrama
that works best after a viewing of Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The Limey (1999, Steven Soderbergh) elegiac, often romantic nod
to L.A. noir that all of a sudden exposes a mean little narrative edge.
The Cranes Are Flying (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov) I Am Cuba is indeed a mindblower,
but I’m starting to see this as a superior work.
Visually daring and lush, unembarrassed about its romanticism.
Stardust Memories (1981) A visual blend of Fellini and Bergman, which sounds like a parlor trick and nothing more,
but actually it’s masterpiece of romantic comedy and narrative invention.
I’m still wondering why Pauline Kael hated it.
Go to Comment
Bogdanovich over 3 years ago
Now on DVD, Targets is better suited for devoted fans of psychotronic
cinema. It was, after all, originally a Roger Corman production, with that maverick filmmaker’s guerilla spirit affecting every detail.
There’s a drive-in movie setting, a clean-cut, gun-collecting psychopath in a windbreaker
who drives a 1966 Mustang convertible, and Boris Karloff playing an aging horror movie star.
Laszlo Kovacs uses a wide-angle lens for countless shots of greater L.A., circa 1967.
What more could one ask?
Well, how about a commentary track in which director Bogdanovich reels off
several dozen fascinating anecdotes about the picture business in late ‘60s
Hollywood.
Paper Moon is the best buddy/movie road picture I have ever seen.
I can’t find a flaw.
(“Cain’t haul nuthin’ in it” is my fourteenth favorite line from that movie.)
I like PB’s comments on the Paper Moon DVD track.
He often chimes in with “according to Orson Welles,”
or “John Ford always said,” which instills a sense of regret that today
we have almost no directors who look to Welles, Ford, and Hawks
as the best examples of how to direct pictures.
Go to Comment
HIGHLY RECOMMEND ME SOMETHING!!!! over 3 years ago
Troy Meyers:
You have revealed your wisdom, as Chairman Mao used to say.
I completely forgot the “make’m laugh” rule (except for Stardust Memories).
So, I must recommend:
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, which is a bit creaky and wholesome,
but wickedly insightful if you’ve ever built a home.
Young Frankenstein
Life of Brian
Brother Orchid
The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer
Flirting With Disaster
I’m Alright Jack
Three O’clock High
Real Life
Portions of any of the Marx Bros films co-written by S. J. Perlman.
Go to Comment
Rear Window is a dream narrative over 3 years ago
I’m interested to see the reaction to this analysis of REAR WINDOW.
It holds that the entire story is actually a dream.
The review is titled Rear View Mirror, link is here:
http://www.bwcitypaper.com/Articles-i-2007-08-09-199715.112112-Rear_View_Mirror.html
Go to Comment
The Auteurs "Sight & Sound" Poll over 3 years ago
List submitted, because I figured you would need a correct list by now.
I kid my new friends here.
Go to Comment
Rear Window is a dream narrative over 3 years ago
Bobby Wise writes: “the main fallacy being the notion that the “dream” reading is the only possible reading that makes sense for this film, as if there can be no further critical debate on the subject.”
I think that’s off the mark, because of this paragraph in the article:
“Rear Window has been the subject of reams of analysis by critics and film scholars (who often focus on the film’s subtext of voyeurism), and there are countless theories about why the events Stewart observes might be less than reliable projections of his own worries and preoccupations. Those are valid readings, but after seeing this picture a dozen times, I’m convinced that the story is actually a dream.”
“Those are all valid readings” at least suggests that the writer is not excluding other theories.
Go to Comment
The Best books that haven't been made into films over 3 years ago
William Shirer’s BERLIN DIARY, which is non-fiction, would be amazing if it looked and moved like THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
Walker Percy’s THE MOVIEGOER would be brilliant good fun, if and only if shot in New Orleans.
Sofia Coppola has the right temperament for this. So too Woody Allen.
Someone needs to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP
and bring forward the subtext about gender indentity.
Johnny Depp could play both the male and the female key roles.
Where’s Cronenberg when you need him? Paul Schrader?
I’d like to see three short stories by Shirley Jackson, TRIAL BY COMBAT, THE WITCH, and PILLAR OF SALT,
combined into one picture. They each convey a sense of malevolence and unseen forces at work in the human psyche.
David Lynch might turn them inside out.
Go to Comment
New Yorker Films shuts down over 3 years ago
It’s astonishing to consider that NYF ran this risky enterprise for almost 44 years.
They were doing something right, because in terms of marketing schemes and profit margins,
the NY library is a tough haul. Nobody gets rich doing world cinema, and a lot of folks get poor.
Nonetheless, over time it became difficult for me to regard their entire inventory as some kind of cultural treasure
with inarguable value. A lot of fans (and NY employees) tended at times to get a wee bit precious about certain pictures,
often because they were simply included in the category of world cinema.
Well, even Iranians and Brazillians are capable of making less-than-stellar films.
Fassbinder actually made some very bad ones. Sometimes a film of Eastern European origin can be plain dull.
But not according to the NY catalog, which I received every year.
On the other hand, what a catalog it was!
And when I was programming various film series, the good folks at New Yorker were consistently the most sympathetic to our non-profit ventures. You wouldn’t believe their laid-back approach to licensing films, granting performance rights, breaks on price, etc.
In fact, at least three important museum series I programmed could not have boasted such quality content without NYF’s kind efforts.
Go to Comment
Rear Window is a dream narrative over 3 years ago
I agree with Bobby Wise that the claim that the film’s structure “demands” a certain analysis is forceful (dogmatic, perhaps).
But I still don’t see that it is exclusionary, as was originally suggested. That was my only point of contention.
Go to Comment
Oscar snubs that piss you off... over 3 years ago
Then there’s that thing about how My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) beat the competition.
Just look at who got snubbed those two years and you’ll be walking funny for three days.
Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas? I could go on and on, but the choir has heard my sermon.
Regarding neglect by the Academy, there’s nothing new under the sun, the man once said.
As for who actually takes home the statues, I have a difficult time recalling who won, for what, and when.
Yet I can quote you chapter and verse, so to speak, from the careers of these listed below.
I know I’m not alone in that sentiment.
Claude Rains
James Mason
Madeline Kahn
Peter Sellers
Barbara Stanwyck
Howard Hawks
Cary Grant
Agnes Moorehead
Fritz Lang
Stanley Kubrick
Go to Comment
who is the greatest living filmmaker? over 3 years ago
What Christopher Sepesy said about Neame is so right on I don’t even know what to do next.
And by the way, what are the criteria for this poll?
After all, the kind of experience I have watching a Guy Maddin picture is in many, many
respects not comparable to my experience with a picture directed by Scorsese.
The same applies to Woody Allen vs Terrence Malick, or Herzog vs Lynch.
Go to Comment
films which shouldn't have english dialogue over 3 years ago
Jason Trochesset: It may simply be the case that Shakespeare did not have access to subtitles. Folks at The Globe would probably require them.
But I take your point in the broader sense. Nonetheless, I prefer that German characters in a WWII drama use the native language.
Something about German has a timbre and cadence that seems well suited to chewing out a Messerschmitt pilot or harranguing troop train conductors. Even at a McDonald’s drive-through, German males ordering fries can lend the impression that they are calling up a Panzer division. On the other hand, on the rare occasions when the wholly desirable Isabelle Huppert speaks English (I Heart HUckabees), I feel like, should we meet someday, I might actually have a chance with her. Tough call on this topic, I guess.
Go to Comment
Who is the worst critic in the business right now? over 3 years ago
Any critic who ever—ever—referred to any picture as “a triumph.”
Go to Comment
Last Time Best Picture Oscar Winner was a Masterpiece? over 3 years ago
I can’t see American Beauty as a masterpiece, mainly because it is so brazenly derivative of so many earlier films that handled the same themes (often in the same scenarios). I think the same applies to Platoon (1986), although I admire that picture very much.
I think Annie Hall (1977) is the last time, and before that The Godfather.
Prior to that I guess the last Oscar Best Picture masterpiece was The Best Years of Our Lives.
It’s so evenly registered, honest, and unshowy, it’s hard to recall that it was ahead of its time.
Go to Comment
Rebecca the Source For Citizen Kane? over 3 years ago
Gentleman’s agreement, perhaps. Welles nabbed those two scenes,then several years later Hitchcock borrowed freely from Touch of Evil while making Psycho. Same actress, even.
Go to Comment
Rebecca the Source For Citizen Kane? over 3 years ago
Double
Go to Comment
Last Time Best Picture Oscar Winner was a Masterpiece? over 3 years ago
Jesse Hassinger, I agree about Perfect World. It is an excellent picture that sort of dropped in out of nowhere that year,
and I think it was a superior bit of storytelling. Some amazing shots, and a very smart and fitting soundtrack to boot.
I can’t really articulate why just now, but my instinct is to describe Perfect World as fair minded.
I don’t pretend to know your tastes, but based on some of your astute comments I highly recommend that you make the time to see Wilder’s and Ford’s pictures.
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Hitchcock's Influence over 3 years ago
I don’t recall specific shots, beacuse I did not care much for the film, but Kenneth Branaugh’s DEAD AGAIN is like Branaugh doing DePalma doing Hitchcock. In fact, for the most part DEAD AGAIN channeled the mood and spirit of Hitchcock films, as opposed to technical forms.It reminded me, in tone at least, of Fritz Lang’s magnificent MINISTRY OF FEAR (A picture I plan to write about shortly) and some of Henry Hathaway’s work. (I can see the uninitiated mistaking NIAGARA for a Hitchcock picture.)
I thought that ENIGMA (2001 Michael Apted) a pretty good picture about the code breakers at Bletchley Park during WWII, brilliantly captured the mood and movement of some of Hitchcock’s wonderful espionage pics, most notably FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and SABOTEUR.
Something about THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE reminds me of VERTIGO, but a specific memory doesn’t come to mind just now.
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Collection of Avant Garde films over 3 years ago
Article in NYT:
An new collection available, article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/movies/homevideo/01kehr.html?_r=2
I’m stunned and disappointed that Bruce Conner is not in this collection. I saw a retrospective of his work at the Hirschorn in D.C. years ago (projected via projector!) and I was blown away. Is anyone else a fan?
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American Beauty over 3 years ago
Lester, I’m glad you appreciate this film along the lines of its theme.
I agree that it’s a well-mounted production, but I disagree with the Academy accolades, mainly because the picture treads familiar terrain.
(Perhaps I differ with some others here to the extent that I am not ANGRY that A B is short in its originality inventory.)
Because this picture and its themes obviously appeal to you so much,
I hope I’m making a useful effort by recommending some films that I think inspired and/or influenced the filmmakers.
I enjoyed these pictures, but like them or not, it’s almost certain you can have some fun linking these older films to your favorite.
It’s something I thoroughly get a kick out of. I hope you do as well.
Save the Tiger (1973, John Avildsen) AB was practically a full-on homage to this picture.
Smile (1975, Michael Ritchie) a minor masterpiece of satire rooted in suburban ennui and middle-class angst. Surely the makers of AB have this picture memorized.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956, Nunnally Johnson) a template for Mad Men, no doubt.
The Swimmer (1968, Frank Perry) pure allegory, but a glimpse of suburban melancholia worth having.
Strangers When We Meet (1960, Richard Quine) underseen, under-recognized bit of SoCal melodrama that looks amazing. Highly recommended.
Divorce American Style (1967, Bud Yorkin) not as funny as it thinks, but intriguing in how a bedroom farce becomes so downbeat. Dick Van Dyke should have had more roles like this.
The Gypsy Moths (1969, John Frankenheimer) Another what’s-it-all-about, middle-class melodrama with a midlife crisis theme, yet an intelligent survey of the theme for its time.
Adam at 6 A.m. (1970, Robert Sheerer) very well done, cruelly neglected picture starring Michael Douglas as a disillusioned English professor attempting to find something “real.” Clever and insightful.
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Films you quote like it's your job over 3 years ago
What a brilliant topic. Leah. I’m squirming with envy because I did not think of this first.
I also like your method of examples, so I shall follow suit:
(warning: I’m a paraphraser as well as a quote fiend)
When I encounter a situation in which someone is being stubborn about a mistake or a wrongheaded notion, I say “We’re gonna have to help ol’ Luke get his mind right.” (Cool Hand Luke)
When someone gets his or her comeuppance, I say, “That’s how Luke wants it.” (ditto)
If I am 100 percent certain I have accomplished a task, or I’m positive that something is a done deal, I say, “The cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river” (Sweet Smell of Success)
When someone tells me that they know an individual about whom I know some rather unpleasant facts, I say, “Everybody knows Manny Davis. Except Mrs. Manny Davis.” (ditto)
If I’m asked about who provides my cell or land line service, I say I have a contract with “American Tell & Tell.” (Ditto)
Whenever I’m concerned that an outsider may gain some advantage over our company, I say, “But they’ll see the big board!” (Dr. Strangelove). I also use, “I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed.” for all manner of occassions involving risk.
Lastly, Leah, you will dig this:
When I was interviewed for a promotion, I was asked what my greatest contribution to date was. We have a very hip and loose organization, so I was able to reply, “I saved Latin.”
Everybody got the joke.
I got the promotion.
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HOW DO YOU FILE YOUR COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
How do I file? Are you kidding? The IRS knows nothing about my collection.
Those people don’t even like movies.
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Escape from New York over 3 years ago
A little too late-70s, New York-y for my taste. I can’t help seeing right through the film to its origins.
William Friedkin, Don Seigel, and Sam Fuller sat at a roundtable hosted by Carpenter and devised this picture’s tone, pacing, visual aesthetic, and maybe those four cast the thing as well.
But Kurt Russell is a cool guy.
This film was a gigantor rental title in the early video stores, I can tell you for certain.
I was hooked on Assault on Precinct 13 at the time (an HBO perennial), so in many respects I was thinking of Carpenter as a punk band that had learned some new chords, but the new tunes were too slick.
It’s similar in effect (for me) to how Gang of Four inexplicably hit the charts with “Is This Love?”
I also couldn’t help comparing EFNY to the hallucinatory, vulgar, and pretty fabulous The Warriors, which struck me as vastly superior then.
Still does.
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Most Versatile Director over 3 years ago
Howard Hawks, then Billy Wilder, then John Huston.
Scorsese is no slouch, nor is Phillip Kaufman.
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Greatest movie villain. over 3 years ago
All those pyschopaths, your Normans and your Hannibals—they were doing what they had to do.
As for Heath Ledger’s Joker, I don’t fear children. Never have.
But real villains, that would be anyone who abused that poor little elephant in DUMBO.
J’accuse, clowns!
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold over 3 years ago
I think Martin Ritt is in my Fave Directors profile (too lazy to check), but in any case The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is one of the few films I reviewed in my profile.
I invariably recommend this picture to folks who ask for movie suggestions. Feed back is always positive, often glowing.
I agree that Oskar Werner is exceptional in his role, but Burton owns every scene he’s in.
As for the picture’s themes, I can’t agree with this comment:
“leaves one wondering if there really was any difference between life in the “East” and life in the “West.”
I think we might wonder instead if there was a difference, in the espionage realm, between the West’s moral calculations and the East’s.
But LIFE? Well for openers, anyone departing the West simply departed, while those departing East Germany took a bullet in the back.
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Films you quote like it's your job over 3 years ago
It has dawned on me, after perusing these responses (and then looking again at the list of quotes I first posted)
that I frequently use in everyday conversation more than three dozen lines from various motion pictures.
Lately “A definite type of situation” (Broadway Danny Rose) and “Sedagive?!” (Young Frankenstein) have been prominently featured.
In my darkest moods I draw from a film I don’t really care for (Brimstone and Treacle) “Drop a bomb; drop a bomb.”
It also dawned on me that I use these quotes in all settings, not merely among like-minded cinema fans.
I truly don’t care if anyone gets the reference. It’s all part of my personality now.
Is that cause for concern or celebration?
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run with this a bit more... about 3 years ago
My first thoughts:
About your comment, "unless we take up the banner of Godard and go out and make better movies than those we’re criticizing, what right do we have to say any films aren’t quite up to snuff, least of all those of established masters? On what BASIS are we making these judgments?
I’ve encountered similar suggestions when I have criticized a recording artist.
The argument goes this way: "You can’t do it. You haven’t done it.
Therefore you have no standing to judge the results of any artist’s efforts.
Well, because I’m not a chef, there are certain dishes I cannot and have not prepared.
But when a poorly prepared item arrives at my table, I send it back. So there’s that.
Yet beyond observing mistakes, when I say that one film succeeds or another doesn’t,
I’m using as a basis (since you ask specifically what that is) the obvious technical proficiency of the DP,
the inventiveness of the screenwriter, and the choices of the editor from
some OTHER motion picture that I found to be a rewarding experience. Nothing to do with my own skills.
I’m not a fan of rankings, mainly because it is so difficult to find ( or agree upon) uniform criteria.
(By the way, there is a certain poetry to the fact that the company in reference here calls itself Criterion.)
When I submitted my list of ten to Adam, it was actually a very quickly compiled
list of pictures I will watch whenever they are playing, no matter where,
irrespective of what I am doing at the moment. Every time.
Without getting into semantic distinctions that would border on an epistemological treatise,
I will just say that my list of fave directors (in the profile page) consists of SOME filmmakers
who have made more good pictures than other filmmakers on the same list, but its not even POSSIBLE to rank them.
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10 Mind-Blowing Movies about Madness (and 11 runners-up) about 3 years ago
I would add:
The Other (1972, Robert Mulligan)
Spider (2002, David Cronenberg)
Donnie Darko (2001,
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)
Man Facing Southeast (1986, Eliseo Subiela)
Your site conveys unassuming enthusiasm. I can imagine young cinema enthusiasts making discoveries from your site, which I hope is a compliment.
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10 Mind-Blowing Movies about Madness (and 11 runners-up) about 3 years ago
Justin: Hour of the Wolf and Repulsion are essential additions. Good call.
I can’t believe I forgot to add Strangers on a Train.
By the way, Csteve, as I mention on my review section, Fight Club borrows/steals its plot hook from Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying All Those Terrible Things About Me? So if Fight Club is about madness, then the Dustin Hoffman film goes on the list.
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