EDIT: Scroll down to reply #177 for the Director's List. Thanks Sponge!

Results will be unveiled tomorrow via live-tweeting: @SightSoundmag

from:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/greatest-films-all-time-2012


The Greatest Films of All Time 2012

Nick James introduces the countdown to our Greatest Films of All Time poll.

To many of you it’s probably a familiar story. Every ten years, from 1952 onwards, Sight & Sound has conducted a worldwide poll of critics in order to decide which films are currently regarded as the greatest ever made. (Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist parable Bicycle Thieves won the first iteration only four years after it was shot. Famously, Citizen Kane has won ever since.)

We’re proud that the longevity of this poll means that it’s widely regarded as the most trusted guide there is to the canon of cinema greats. So for us this year is a very big moment.

About a year ago, the Sight & Sound team met to consider how we could best approach the poll this time. Given the dominance of electronic media, what became immediately apparent was that we would have to abandon the somewhat elitist exclusivity with which contributors to the poll had been chosen in the past and reach out to a much wider international group of commentators than before. We were also keen to include among them many critics who had established their careers online rather than purely in print.

To that end we approached more than 1,000 critics, programmers, academics, distributors, writers and other cinephiles, and received (in time for the deadline) precisely 846 top-ten lists that between them mention a total of 2,045 different films.

As a qualification of what ‘greatest’ means, our invitation letter stated, “We leave that open to your interpretation. You might choose the ten films you feel are most important to film history, or the ten that represent the aesthetic pinnacles of achievement, or indeed the ten films that have had the biggest impact on your own view of cinema.”

Each entry on each list counts as one vote for the film in question, so personal rankings within the top tens don’t matter. And one important rule change compared to 2002 was that The Godfather and The Godfather Part II would no longer be accepted as a single choice, since they were made as two separate films.

What the increase in numbers has – and hasn’t – done is surprising. Certainly, we have achieved a consensus on what represents ‘great cinema’ that now has a greater force of numbers behind it – and have a plausible Sight & Sound ‘Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time’.

Since 1992, we have also conducted a separate directors’ poll, which likewise has been dominated by Citizen Kane. Over 350 directors have contributed. Leaving to one side what’s number one this time, I can say that you’ll find a pronounced difference between the filmmakers’ top tens and those of the critics – not to mention many more fascinating sub-themes…


The great unveiling

1 August: live-tweeting from our evening poll announcement. (Follow us at @SightSoundmag, or use the hashtag #sightsoundpoll.) We’ll subsequently be posting the Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time here online.

3-4 August: our redesigned and expanded September 2012 special poll issue is sent to subscribers, and should be available on newsstands (on Friday 3rd in London, and across the UK by Saturday 4th). The 136-page issue features the critics’ Top 100, a new essay on the top film, short essays on every film in our top 10, an essay on changing critical tastes in our poll, top 10s by decade, nationality and genre, the directors’ Top Ten, the critics’ top directors and directors’ top directors, and individual top-ten entries from 100 critics and 100 directors, from Woody Allen to Edgar Wright.

7 August: the September 2012 issue is available to download as a Digital Edition – as an individual purchase from Apple’s Newsstand, or by subscription from our Subscriptions Bureau.

15 August: the complete critics’ poll of 846 entries is published in interactive form on this website.

22 August: the complete interactive directors’ poll of 358 entries follows.


We’ll also be revealing select facts and figures gleaned from our poll results on an ongoing basis here and on Twitter. (You can also like us on Facebook for more selective postings and information.)

Aguirre, Wrath of God (Herzog)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
Citizen Kane (Welles)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
The General (Keaton)
Raging Bull (Scorsese)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Tokyo Story (Ozu)
The Tree of Life (Malick)
Vertigo (Hitchcock)

His rationale:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/04/the_greatest_films_of_all_time.html

Love Ebert but I can't see how anyone thinks this is Malick's best, let alone a top 10 film of all time.

He basically said he wanted to use one of his picks as a way to plant the seed for a current movie that he felt would be deserving over time. A sort of "conversation starter." He was considering either Tree of Life or Synedoche NY, and ultimately decided on Tree of Life. If I remember correctly, he pretty much acknowledged that it wasn't one of the 10 greatest films ever (and he even mentioned that he didn't even chose it as his #1 film of 2011), but just felt that it was worthy of attention and admiration.

----

still, don't like that film

It would've pissed off more people, and I think ultimately it has even more to say about the human condition than Tree of Life does.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

Posting this just in case no one clicked on the link in the OP.

http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/polls/topten/

the timing of it and the details surrounding it are fascinating. i didn't think it was bad at all, but with all the write ups i've read on it, i still can't see the greatness.

Something different impresses me about it each time.

DEFinitely rewatch it.

and of course
look at these things:
Recent show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNJgTalegs
Recent article - http://www.rapconqueso.com/2012/05/underneath-willie-evans-jr/
New Tough Junkie https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/missing/id594220223

Filmmaking at its most pure and most powerful.
The paradox of a film this old being so modern, the heart wrenching tragic beauty - from the story to the performances to the shots themselves.
And any movie that can single-handedly claim to inspire every Robert Altman movie ever made has gotta be in the top ten.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

and I agree with everything you said:

>Filmmaking at its most pure and most powerful.
>The paradox of a film this old being so modern, the heart
>wrenching tragic beauty - from the story to the performances
>to the shots themselves.
>And any movie that can single-handedly claim to inspire every
>Robert Altman movie ever made has gotta be in the top ten.

Plus, this is a great example of why Criterion is so great - in addition to the film itself (a phenomenal print/transfer), the supplemental material was outstanding, both the stuff on the disc and stuff in the booklet. There was in-depth shot analysis, a break-down of how the original theatrical cut (which bombed hard) was different from the current version (which has existed since the late 50s), an "introduction" by Renior talking about the film, and a few informative essays placing the film in context (the imminent war, Renior's disdain for the bourgeois, etc.)

After one viewing, especially after enriching it with the supplements, I can see pretty easily why it's so highly regarded. Clearly a masterpiece. This might kick off a Renior kick similar to the Welles kick I went on over the winter...

----

Criterion really outdid themselves with this release.
I picked it up on a lark, at a used store for $10.
Best ten I ever spent.
If I remember right, they said it was only missing 2 small scenes from the original. But I haven't watched this in a while so I might have that mistaken.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

>If I remember right, they said it was only missing 2 small
>scenes from the original. But I haven't watched this in a
>while so I might have that mistaken.

The current, "definitive" version is actually 15-20 minutes longer than the original theatrical version. On top of that, the original theatrical version had over 10 minutes shaved off after only being out a week (which got it to the 80+ minute range), because the public/press hated it so much and Renoir was grasping at straws. The "restored" one apparently includes a lot more of Octave, who originally appeared a lot less sympathetic as a character. (Underrated: Solid acting here by Renoir.)

One of the supplements was a side-by-side analysis of the much shorter original ending and the one that currently exists. In the original ending sequence, for some reason they cut the crucial conversation between Octave and the maid that gives him second thoughts about leaving with Christine. In the original, he just hands his coat to the aviator with no explanation, making it seem like he sort of actively (and, possibly, maliciously) contributed to the tragedy. The inclusion of that conversation totally clarifies and changes the understanding of Octave's motives, adding another layer of complexity to the story.

Great shit.

----

>One of the supplements was a side-by-side analysis of the much
>shorter original ending and the one that currently exists. In
>the original ending sequence, for some reason they cut the
>crucial conversation between Octave and the maid that gives
>him second thoughts about leaving with Christine. In the
>original, he just hands his coat to the aviator with no
>explanation, making it seem like he sort of actively (and,
>possibly, maliciously) contributed to the tragedy. The
>inclusion of that conversation totally clarifies and changes
>the understanding of Octave's motives, adding another layer of
>complexity to the story.

That literally changes the landscape of the entire film.
I put that up there as worst cutting of a finished movie, even worse than BLADE RUNNER.
More to the point, it doesn't even make sense in the truncated version ("truncated" the word of the day, by the way). In the truncated version, it happens so quickly, so haphazardly, you're not even given enough time to discern what it means, if anything. It comes off as a horrible "Where's B?" scene (An old film axiom, if you show someone doing something in A, and show someone finishing that something in C, you don't need B. The phrase is attributed to the kind of dunce who sees A and C, but still needs B). It took repeated viewings for me to even pick up on the malicious intent idea, and even then it didn't work for me.

>The current, "definitive" version is actually 15-20 minutes
>longer than the original theatrical version.

That's right, that's what it is, they no longer have a print of the original and this is the "as close as we'll ever get to that" version.

>On top of that, the original theatrical version had over 10 minutes >shaved off after only being out a week (which got it to the 80+ >minute range), because the public/press hated it so much and Renoir
>was grasping at straws.

One of the things I try to remember about critics.

>The "restored" one apparently includes a lot more of Octave, who >originally appeared a lot less sympathetic as a character. (Underrated: Solid acting
>here by Renoir.)

I read that he cut as much of himself out of the original cut of the movie as possible, lest he appear vain. Which is madness when you see just how great of a job he did, on top of his importance to the story. Sheeeeit, I've directed myself before, and if I could get a performance like THAT, in MY film, from ME - cousin, I'd make the whole movie about me!

>Great shit.

The film historian on they got on the DVD is very good. I can't remember his name, but he did an excellent job on the commentaries.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

This should be one of the most important lists of all time: Sight & Sound making a more populist move (theoretically) can only spell a change in the tide.

It seems like they hint that Citizen Kane drops from the top of one of the two lists, so we can take bets on which:
Critics
Directors
both
neither.

My money is on neither or Critics. I think the directors will tow the line but the critics have been angrier of late and more contrary.

and of course
look at these things:
Recent show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNJgTalegs
Recent article - http://www.rapconqueso.com/2012/05/underneath-willie-evans-jr/
New Tough Junkie https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/missing/id594220223

>It seems like they hint that Citizen Kane drops from the top
>of one of the two lists

Did you read the tweet sent out 24 minutes ago that addresses that?

May be just rumor mill...

... but I wouldn't disapprove.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

.

oop!

Get Out the Room
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/get-out-the-room/id525657893

Some of y'all need this in your life: http://www.psychology.com

Raging Bull made the Director's Poll in '02 and '92, but never the critics poll. I can't see anything more recent than that making it. (The only stuff that even stands a really, really slight chance that I can think of is Do the Right Thing, Pulp Fiction, and There Will be Blood, and maybe Fargo or No Country...not so much this year, but down the road.)

All signs point to Vertigo taking the top prize. Thoughts?

----

http://thefilmstage.com/news/vertigo-overtakes-citizen-kane-in-sight-sounds-greatest-films-of-all-time-poll/

The Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)

The Directors’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time

1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) and Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) (tie)
4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
5. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)
6. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
7. The Godfather (Coppola, 1972) and Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) (tie)
9. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)
10. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)

----
NBA MOCK DRAFT #1 - https://thecourierclass.com/whole-shebang/2017/5/18/2017-nba-mock-draft-1-just-lotto-and-lotta-trades

That says Taxi Driver(1980). I think they meant Raging Bull...

----

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time

1. Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 (191 votes)

Hitchcock’s supreme and most mysterious piece (as cinema and as an emblem of the art). Paranoia and obsession have never looked better—Marco Müller

After half a century of monopolising the top spot, Citizen Kane was beginning to look smugly inviolable. Call it Schadenfreude, but let’s rejoice that this now conventional and ritualised symbol of ‘the greatest’ has finally been taken down a peg. The accession of Vertigo is hardly in the nature of a coup d’état. Tying for 11th place in 1972, Hitchcock’s masterpiece steadily inched up the poll over the next three decades, and by 2002 was clearly the heir apparent. Still, even ardent Wellesians should feel gratified at the modest revolution – if only for the proof that film canons (and the versions of history they legitimate) are not completely fossilised.

There may be no larger significance in the bare fact that a couple of films made in California 17 years apart have traded numerical rankings on a whimsically impressionistic list. Yet the human urge to interpret chance phenomena will not be denied, and Vertigo is a crafty, duplicitous machine for spinning meaning…—Peter Matthews’ opening to his new essay on Vertigo in our September issue


2. Citizen Kane

Orson Welles, 1941 (157 votes)

Kane and Vertigo don’t top the chart by divine right. But those two films are just still the best at doing what great cinema ought to do: extending the everyday into the visionary—Nigel Andrews

In the last decade I’ve watched this first feature many times, and each time, it reveals new treasures. Clearly, no single film is the greatest ever made. But if there were one, for me Kane would now be the strongest contender, bar none—Geoff Andrew

All celluloid life is present in Citizen Kane; seeing it for the first or umpteenth time remains a revelation—Trevor Johnston


3. Tokyo Story

Ozu Yasujiro, 1953 (107 votes)

Ozu used to liken himself to a “tofu-maker”, in reference to the way his films – at least the post-war ones – were all variations on a small number of themes. So why is it Tokyo Story that is acclaimed by most as his masterpiece? DVD releases have made available such prewar films as I Was Born, But…, and yet the Ozu vote has not been split, and Tokyo Story has actually climbed two places since 2002. It may simply be that in Tokyo Story this most Japanese tofu-maker refined his art to the point of perfection, and crafted a truly universal film about family, time and loss—James Bell


4. La Règle du jeu

Jean Renoir, 1939 (100 votes)

Only Renoir has managed to express on film the most elevated notion of naturalism, examining this world from a perspective that is dark, cruel but objective, before going on to achieve the serenity of the work of his old age. With him, one has no qualms about using superlatives: La Règle du jeu is quite simply the greatest French film by the greatest of French directors—Olivier Père


5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

FW Murnau, 1927 (93 votes)

When F.W. Murnau left Germany for America in 1926, did cinema foresee what was coming? Did it sense that change was around the corner – that now was the time to fill up on fantasy, delirium and spectacle before talking actors wrenched the artform closer to reality? Many things make this film more than just a morality tale about temptation and lust, a fable about a young husband so crazy with desire for a city girl that he contemplates drowning his wife, an elemental but sweet story of a husband and wife rediscovering their love for each other. Sunrise was an example – perhaps never again repeated on the same scale – of unfettered imagination and the clout of the studio system working together rather than at cross purposes—Isabel Stevens


6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick, 1968 (90 votes)

2001: A Space Odyssey is a stand-along monument, a great visionary leap, unsurpassed in its vision of man and the universe. It was a statement that came at a time which now looks something like the peak of humanity’s technological optimism—Roger Ebert


7. The Searchers

John Ford, 1956 (78 votes)

Do the fluctuations in popularity of John Ford’s intimate revenge epic – no appearance in either critics’ or directors’ top tens in 2002, but fifth in the 1992 critics’ poll – reflect the shifts in popularity of the western? It could be a case of this being a western for people who don’t much care for them, but I suspect it’s more to do with John Ford’s stock having risen higher than ever this past decade and the citing of his influence in the unlikeliest of places in recent cinema—Kieron Corless


8. Man with a Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov, 1939 (68 votes)

Is Dziga Vertov’s cine-city symphony a film whose time has finally come? Ranked only no. 27 in our last critics’ poll, it now displaces Eisenstein’s erstwhile perennial Battleship Potemkin as the Constructivist Soviet silent of choice. Like Eisenstein’s warhorse, it’s an agit-experiment that sees montage as the means to a revolutionary consciousness; but rather than proceeding through fable and illusion, it’s explicitly engaged both with recording the modern urban everyday (which makes it the top documentary in our poll) and with its representation back to its participant-subjects (thus the top meta-movie)—Nick Bradshaw


9. The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Dreyer, 1927 (65 votes)

Joan was and remains an unassailable giant of early cinema, a transcendental film comprising tears, fire and madness that relies on extreme close-ups of the human face. Over the years it has often been a difficult film to see, but even during its lost years Joan has remained embedded in the critical consciousness, thanks to the strength of its early reception, the striking stills that appeared in film books, its presence in Godard’s Vivre sa vie and recently a series of unforgettable live screenings. In 2010 it was designated the most influential film of all time in the Toronto International Film Festival’s ‘Essential 100’ list, where Jonathan Rosenbaum described it as “the pinnacle of silent cinema – and perhaps of the cinema itself”—Jane Giles


10. 8½

Federico Fellini, 1963 (64 votes)

Arguably the film that most accurately captures the agonies of creativity and the circus that surrounds filmmaking, equal parts narcissistic, self-deprecating, bitter, nostalgic, warm, critical and funny. Dreams, nightmares, reality and memories coexist within the same time-frame; the viewer sees Guido’s world not as it is, but more ‘realistically’ as he experiences it, inserting the film in a lineage that stretches from the Surrealists to David Lynch
—Mar Diestro Dópido


11. Battleship Potemkin
Sergei Eisenstein, 1925 (63 votes)

12. L’Atalante
Jean Vigo, 1934 (58 votes)

13. Breathless
Jean-Luc Godard, 1960 (57 votes)

14. Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola, 1979 (53 votes)

15. Late Spring
Ozu Yasujiro, 1949 (50 votes)

16. Au hasard Balthazar
Robert Bresson, 1966 (49 votes)

17= Seven Samurai
Kurosawa Akira, 1954 (48 votes)

17= Persona
Ingmar Bergman, 1966 (48 votes)

19. Mirror
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974 (47 votes)

20. Singin’ in the Rain
Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1951 (46 votes)

21= L’avventura
Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960 (43 votes)

21= Le Mépris
Jean-Luc Godard, 1963 (43 votes)

21= The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972 (43 votes)

24= Ordet
Carl Dreyer, 1955 (42 votes)

24= In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-Wai, 2000 (42 votes)

26= Rashomon
Kurosawa Akira, 1950 (41 votes)

26= Andrei Rublev
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966 (41 votes)

28. Mulholland Dr.
David Lynch, 2001 (40 votes)

29= Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979 (39 votes)

29= Shoah
Claude Lanzmann, 1985 (39 votes)

31= The Godfather Part II
Francis Ford Coppola, 1974 (38 votes)

31= Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese, 1976 (38 votes)

33. Bicycle Thieves
Vittoria De Sica, 1948 (37 votes)

34. The General
Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1926 (35 votes)

35= Metropolis
Fritz Lang, 1927 (34 votes)

35= Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 (34 votes)

35= Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
Chantal Akerman, 1975 (34 votes)

35= Sátántangó
Béla Tarr, 1994 (34 votes)

39= The 400 Blows
François Truffaut, 1959 (33 votes)

39= La dolce vita
Federico Fellini, 1960 (33 votes)

41. Journey to Italy
Roberto Rossellini, 1954 (32 votes)

42= Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray, 1955 (31 votes)

42= Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder, 1959 (31 votes)

42= Gertrud
Carl Dreyer, 1964 (31 votes)

42= Pierrot le fou
Jean-Luc Godard, 1965 (31 votes)

42= Play Time
Jacques Tati, 1967 (31 votes)

42= Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami, 1990 (31 votes)

48= The Battle of Algiers
Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966 (30 votes)

48= Histoire(s) du cinéma
Jean-Luc Godard, 1998 (30 votes)

50= City Lights
Charlie Chaplin, 1931 (29 votes)

50= Ugetsu monogatari
Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953 (29 votes)

50= La Jetée
Chris Marker, 1962 (29 votes)

----
NBA MOCK DRAFT #1 - https://thecourierclass.com/whole-shebang/2017/5/18/2017-nba-mock-draft-1-just-lotto-and-lotta-trades

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

Do they even watch movies?


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

but as long as they gave Ozu his respect I'm happy.

I think Ozu has 4-5 films even better than Tokyo Story, but it's sort of become the rallying film for his fans.

Unfortunate in that it's pretty long and probably not as accessible as some of his other work. So I can see people just getting into art cinema finding it a difficult viewing.

--------

hell-below.com

i've never seen an Ozu film and was planning on starting with Tokyo Story & Late Spring, but would love to hear what else is worthwhile

I'd see, in something close to this order:

Good Morning
Late Spring
Early Summer
Tokyo Twilight
Equinox Flower

--------

hell-below.com

excited to start watching these. luckily, quite a few of them are available on Hulu Plus...

Early Summer and Autumn Afternoon. They're as great and substantial as the more famous Late Spring and Tokyo Story but ES and AA are much funnier.

There are 5+ Ozu that are more than worthwhile but Ozu's humor and lightness is criminally under-mentioned in writings about him which is why I lean heavily towards his dramas that are funny like ES and AA for neophytes. I think they're funnier than his straight up comedies.

In the past, critics were able to combine I & II and vote for the pair as a single entry. This year they could only vote for individual films. Would it have fallen off even without the rule change? It still made the directors poll.

----

Hard to see The Godfathers getting less popular since 2002. The films are, of course, total masterpieces and have only increased in influence on American cinema in the last decade.

Still, it's fair to split them. They are separate films made in separate productions. If Ozu has to compete against himself 40-times over, Coppola should have to as well.

--------

hell-below.com

>Still, it's fair to split them. They are separate films made
>in separate productions. If Ozu has to compete against himself
>40-times over, Coppola should have to as well.

And, yeah, I agree with this as well...

----

Mulholland Drive are on the list *does the wop*

Get Out the Room
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/get-out-the-room/id525657893

Some of y'all need this in your life: http://www.psychology.com

re: the inclusion of Taxi Driver

lol

>re: the inclusion of Taxi Driver
>
>lol

I can't even find an English version of it in HD on the net.

Vertigo

Friday, August 3rd
ENCORE 5:30am
ENCORE ESPAÑOL 5:30am

Monday, August 13th
ENCORE SUSPENSE 8:00pm

Friday, August 17th
ENCORE SUSPENSE 9:30am
ENCORE SUSPENSE 5:50pm

Tuesday, August 21st
ENCORE SUSPENSE 10:15am
ENCORE SUSPENSE 6:05pm

Sunday, September 2nd
RETROPLEX 4:10am
RETROPLEX 12:30pm
RETROPLEX 8:00pm

Monday, September 10th
RETROPLEX 7:15am
RETROPLEX 11:05pm

Wednesday, September 26th
RETROPLEX 1:45am
RETROPLEX 11:50am
RETROPLEX 8:00pm

There's a Hitchcock Blu-ray box set coming out in September with Vertigo, Rear Window, NxNW, The Birds, and a bunch of other stuff from that era. I think maybe 12 titles in all. (Don't quote me on that.) If that's coming, I'm sure the individual titles will be soon to follow. Also, Strangers on a Train, which isn't part of the box, will be getting a blu release this fall as well.

EDIT:

Link - http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcock-Masterpiece-Collection-Limited/dp/B008DCAG9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1343857184&sr=1-1&keywords=hitchcock+blu+ray

----

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

-Satantango and Histoire du Cinema hit this list, despite being grueling intellectual marathons.

-Chaplin is down to one film in the top 50 and #50 at that.

-Both critics and directors love Apocalypse Now better than either Godfather. Really?

-Gertrud at 42 is remarkably high. I don't know a single Dreyer fan who loves this movie.

-Lynch fans really love Mulholland Drive more than Blue Velvet?

-Seven Samurai makes an unexpected drop. This film hasn't aged a day.

-Where are Raging Bull, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, The Third Man, Fanny and Alexander, and Chinatown?

--------

hell-below.com

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

-------------------------------
If life is stupendous one cannot also demand that it should be easy. - Robert Musil

>-Where are Raging Bull, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove,
>The Third Man, Fanny and Alexander, and Chinatown?


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

Can't wait to see those.

Care to school someone totally in the dark about it?

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

Really a breathtaking demonstration of witty, inventive shot-making more than a film with a larger purpose.

Take a chance on it. If you are remotely interested in the visual side of film you will not be bored. Though I wouldn't put it my top 50, much less top 10.

--------

hell-below.com

and of course
look at these things:
Recent show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNJgTalegs
Recent article - http://www.rapconqueso.com/2012/05/underneath-willie-evans-jr/
New Tough Junkie https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/missing/id594220223

That should tell you my take on that whole debate.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

"They" is hundreds of different critics, none of whom have any stake in Sight and Sound getting press.

I do think some critics bumped Kane lower on their lists simply because it was time for a change. I think it's healthy, particularly for Kane, which has suffered from the ridiculous expectations of being "the greatest movie ever."

Now it can simply be a great movie and people can hopefully enjoy it as the very entertaining film that it is.

--------

hell-below.com

I don't mean to give S&S press, more like "I'm tired of seeing this movie at the top of every list;" or "I know this movie for being the best rather than as a film unto itself" and that's why it gets bumped.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

haven't seen one film on that top 50 list.

************************************************************

I admit, I've only seen 15.

1. Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 (191 votes)

2. Citizen Kane

Orson Welles, 1941 (157 votes)

3. Tokyo Story

Ozu Yasujiro, 1953 (107 votes)

4. La Règle du jeu

Jean Renoir, 1939 (100 votes)

5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

FW Murnau, 1927 (93 votes)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick, 1968 (90 votes)

7. The Searchers

John Ford, 1956 (78 votes)

8. Man with a Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov, 1929 (68 votes)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Dreyer, 1927 (65 votes)

10. 8½

Federico Fellini, 1963 (64 votes)

11. Battleship Potemkin

Sergei Eisenstein, 1925 (63 votes)

12. L’Atalante

Jean Vigo, 1934 (58 votes)

13. Breathless

Jean-Luc Godard, 1960 (57 votes)

14. Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola, 1979 (53 votes)

15. Late Spring

Ozu Yasujiro, 1949 (50 votes)

16. Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson, 1966 (49 votes)

17= Seven Samurai

Kurosawa Akira, 1954 (48 votes)

17= Persona

Ingmar Bergman, 1966 (48 votes)

19. Mirror

Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974 (47 votes)

20. Singin’ in the Rain

Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1951 (46 votes)

21= L’avventura

Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960 (43 votes)

21= Le Mépris

Jean-Luc Godard, 1963 (43 votes)

21= The Godfather

Francis Ford Coppola, 1972 (43 votes)

24= Ordet

Carl Dreyer, 1955 (42 votes)

24= In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar-Wai, 2000 (42 votes)

26= Rashomon

Kurosawa Akira, 1950 (41 votes)

26= Andrei Rublev

Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966 (41 votes)

28. Mulholland Dr.

David Lynch, 2001 (40 votes)

29= Stalker

Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979 (39 votes)

29= Shoah

Claude Lanzmann, 1985 (39 votes)

31= The Godfather Part II

Francis Ford Coppola, 1974 (38 votes)

31= Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese, 1976 (38 votes)

33. Bicycle Thieves

Vittoria De Sica, 1948 (37 votes)

34. The General

Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1926 (35 votes)

35= Metropolis

Fritz Lang, 1927 (34 votes)

35= Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 (34 votes)

35= Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles

Chantal Akerman, 1975 (34 votes)

35= Sátántangó

Béla Tarr, 1994 (34 votes)

39= The 400 Blows

François Truffaut, 1959 (33 votes)

39= La dolce vita

Federico Fellini, 1960 (33 votes)

41. Journey to Italy

Roberto Rossellini, 1954 (32 votes)

42= Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray, 1955 (31 votes)

42= Some Like It Hot

Billy Wilder, 1959 (31 votes)

42= Gertrud

Carl Dreyer, 1964 (31 votes)

42= Pierrot le fou

Jean-Luc Godard, 1965 (31 votes)

42= Play Time

Jacques Tati, 1967 (31 votes)

42= Close-Up

Abbas Kiarostami, 1990 (31 votes)

48= The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966 (30 votes)

48= Histoire(s) du cinéma

Jean-Luc Godard, 1998 (30 votes)

50= City Lights

Charlie Chaplin, 1931 (29 votes)

50= Ugetsu monogatari

Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953 (29 votes)

50= La Jetée

Chris Marker, 1962 (29 votes)

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

I've only seen 13 (and only 5 of the top 10). I'm pretty sure I can at least double that number in the next couple of weeks - Hulu+ has a number of the titles and I actually have a few sitting on my shelf that I haven't got around to watching yet (Metropolis, The General, Seven Samurai, a few more...) Kind of embarrassed by the low number, especially since I haven't even seen a number of the American ones (Mulholland, Singing in the Rain, Some Like it Hot).

----

>1. Vertigo
>2. Citizen Kane
>3. Tokyo Story
>4. La Règle du jeu
>5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
>6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
>7. The Searchers
>9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
>10. 8½
>13. Breathless
>14. Apocalypse Now
>15. Late Spring
>17= Seven Samurai
>17= Persona
>19. Mirror
>21= L’avventura
>21= Le Mépris
>21= The Godfather
>24= In the Mood for Love
>26= Rashomon
>26= Andrei Rublev
>28. Mulholland Dr.
>29= Stalker
>31= The Godfather Part II
>31= Taxi Driver
>33. Bicycle Thieves
>35= Metropolis
>35= Psycho
>35= Sátántangó
>39= The 400 Blows
>39= La dolce vita
>42= Play Time
>42= Close-Up
>48= The Battle of Algiers
>50= Ugetsu monogatari

Never even read a great deal other than just knowing what they are about the following: curious as to your take.

>>5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
>>15. Late Spring
>>19. Mirror
>>21= L’avventura
>>21= Le Mépris
>>26= Andrei Rublev
>>29= Stalker
>>35= Sátántangó
>>50= Ugetsu monogatari

As a bonus, could you rank those 35? Or at least divide em into categories-- must see, great, good, ehh, shitty?

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

>>>5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Not one of my favorite silent films. I don't remember many details, wasn't blown away. I could prob name 3-5 silent films to see first.

>>>15. Late Spring

My favorite film of all time, literally. Makes me cry like a little bitch every time. See it yesterday.

>>>19. Mirror

Didn't understand a single second of this...way over my head. Some memorable images, but one of my least favorite Tarkovsky's.

>>>21= L’avventura

Hated it...very pretentious imo

>>>21= Le Mépris

Hardly remember it...no effect on me

>>>26= Andrei Rublev

Another one of my least favorite Tarkovskys. It's long and slow, and you really feel it. Some people say it has one of the best ending sequences in the history of film, but....meh. I dunno. I didn't really get into it.

>>>29= Stalker

Maybe my favorite Tarkovsky. One of the best sci-fi movies ever...BEAUTIFUL to look at. Could still be a challenging view though if you're not familiar with Tarkovsky...it's 2 hrs and 40 mins, but I didn't mind the length in this case as opposed to Rublev.

>>>35= Sátántangó

Speaking of long, challenging viewings...lol. This one is 6+ hours of long takes in grubby Bela Tarr black & white. It's a good film, but not sure if it's worth the investment. Check out Werckmeister Harmonies first...that one is in my top 10 all time.

>>>50= Ugetsu monogatari

Definitely one of my favorite Japanese films. Haunting and somber are good adjectives for it. One of the most beautiful black & whites you'll ever see.

>
>>>>5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
>
>Not one of my favorite silent films. I don't remember many
>details, wasn't blown away. I could prob name 3-5 silent
>films to see first.

It's a beautiful film. Clunky in some places but so heartfelt and poetic. Kind of like an unsophisticated pop song that hits you in the gut.


>>>>15. Late Spring
>
>My favorite film of all time, literally. Makes me cry like a
>little bitch every time. See it yesterday.

Perfection.


>>>>19. Mirror
>
>Didn't understand a single second of this...way over my head.
>Some memorable images, but one of my least favorite
>Tarkovsky's.

I love this movie. It's a deeply personal cinematic essay. There is plenty non-Russians don't get, and plenty that people who are not Tarkovsky don't get (it's that personal). But it's totally transfixing.



>>>>21= L’avventura
>
>Hated it...very pretentious imo

Don't think it's pretentious. The detached 60s style it kicked off has definitely dated. But deep down this is a film about two deeply lonely people.



>>>>21= Le Mépris
>
>Hardly remember it...no effect on me

Godard basically saying "fuck you" to everything: the industry, the audience, his wife, the universe. Very entertaining work by a brilliant guy coming unhinged.


>>>>26= Andrei Rublev
>
>Another one of my least favorite Tarkovskys. It's long and
>slow, and you really feel it. Some people say it has one of
>the best ending sequences in the history of film, but....meh.
>I dunno. I didn't really get into it.

It's hard to find a better film about the artistic process. A lot of set pieces but they build to something really special. The bell-making sequence IS indeed one of the greatest ever.



>>>>29= Stalker
>
>Maybe my favorite Tarkovsky. One of the best sci-fi movies
>ever...BEAUTIFUL to look at. Could still be a challenging
>view though if you're not familiar with Tarkovsky...it's 2 hrs
>and 40 mins, but I didn't mind the length in this case as
>opposed to Rublev.

It's deeply intelligent, deeply poetic sci fi. With even (some very brief) action in there.



>>>>35= Sátántangó
>
>Speaking of long, challenging viewings...lol. This one is 6+
>hours of long takes in grubby Bela Tarr black & white. It's a
>good film, but not sure if it's worth the investment. Check
>out Werckmeister Harmonies first...that one is in my top 10
>all time.

Tarr is brilliant but this movie does not sustain itself. Some great stuff, but 6 hours is just asking the audience to stop caring.



>>>>50= Ugetsu monogatari
>
>Definitely one of my favorite Japanese films. Haunting and
>somber are good adjectives for it. One of the most beautiful
>black & whites you'll ever see.

You pretty much nailed it.

--------

hell-below.com

>>>>>26= Andrei Rublev

>It's hard to find a better film about the artistic process.

Off the top, some other notable ones: Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins), The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien), and The Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice).

None of them have anything close to the power of the eyes sequence, the raid sequence, and the bell-making sequence in Andrei Rublev, though. Rublev has a larger scope and is the most ambitious.

Perhaps I should have phrased it: "Hard to find a better film about the artist's relationship with the times in which he/she lives."

--------

hell-below.com

>>>>21= L’avventura
>
>Hated it...very pretentious imo

If there ever were a movie more hated upon initial viewing, it's L'AVVENTURA. I'm talking infuriated, pull a DO THE RIGHT THING and throw a trash can through a window angry.
But that following viewing is a goldmine.
I've seen L'AVVENTURA about a half dozen times, and it's impressive.
FORMIDABLE is the word I think best describes L'AVVENTURA.
It doesn't cater to the audience. In style, story, character. But if you meet the film on its terms, you really get to see just how impressive it is.

>>>>50= Ugetsu monogatari
>
>Definitely one of my favorite Japanese films. Haunting and
>somber are good adjectives for it. One of the most beautiful
>black & whites you'll ever see.

100% agree. Watch it on a big screen if you can, just to get sucked into it.



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

I'll say that while it took me a few views to get past the first 15-30 minutes, once I was in it only got better.

and of course
look at these things:
Recent show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNJgTalegs
Recent article - http://www.rapconqueso.com/2012/05/underneath-willie-evans-jr/
New Tough Junkie https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/missing/id594220223