All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Sergent York (1941)
Henry V (1944)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Patton (1970)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Big Red One (1980)
Platoon (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Jarhead (2005)
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
My Own Private Awards Show
Best Picture: A History of Violence
Best Actor: tie—Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale) & Bill Murray – Broken Flowers
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney—Good Night, and Good Luck
Best Supporting Actress: tie—Amy Adams (Junebug) & Maria Bello (A History of Violence)
Best Director: David Cronenberg (A History of Violence)
Best Original Screenplay: Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Josh Olsen (A History of Violence)
Best Foreign Film: 2046
Best Actor: tie—Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale) & Bill Murray – Broken Flowers
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney—Good Night, and Good Luck
Best Supporting Actress: tie—Amy Adams (Junebug) & Maria Bello (A History of Violence)
Best Director: David Cronenberg (A History of Violence)
Best Original Screenplay: Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Josh Olsen (A History of Violence)
Best Foreign Film: 2046
One Man Film Festival: Future Dystopias
Metropolis (1927)
Things to Come (1936)
Alphaville (1965)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Omega Man (1971)
THX 1138 (1971)
Soylent Green (1973)
The Road Warrior (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Terminator (1984)
Robocop (1987)
12 Monkeys (1995)
Gattaca (1995)
Dark City (1998)
Code 46 (2003)
Things to Come (1936)
Alphaville (1965)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Omega Man (1971)
THX 1138 (1971)
Soylent Green (1973)
The Road Warrior (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Terminator (1984)
Robocop (1987)
12 Monkeys (1995)
Gattaca (1995)
Dark City (1998)
Code 46 (2003)
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Introduction: 2006 One Man Film Festival
Now is the winter of movie lovers’ discontent. The studios, still trying to shake off their post-Oscar hangovers, dump last year’s bad decisions—Failure to Launch—into the multiplexes. Meanwhile, erstwhile distributor of indie and foreign films Wellspring Media has been swallowed whole by hype-and-cash-bloated mini-studio The Weinstein Company:
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0609,kaufman,72356,20.html
It’s already too late to catch most of the Oscar-nominated films in theaters (how did I not see Munich?), yet still too early to see them on DVD.
So what’s a movie fan to do? Join me here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be programming a little virtual film festival I’ve dubbed “The 2006 One Man Film Festival,” offering up a list of 10 or so exemplary films from a variety of genres, more of a sampler of the riches of cinema than a series of proverbial top 10 lists.
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0609,kaufman,72356,20.html
It’s already too late to catch most of the Oscar-nominated films in theaters (how did I not see Munich?), yet still too early to see them on DVD.
So what’s a movie fan to do? Join me here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be programming a little virtual film festival I’ve dubbed “The 2006 One Man Film Festival,” offering up a list of 10 or so exemplary films from a variety of genres, more of a sampler of the riches of cinema than a series of proverbial top 10 lists.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
One Man Film Festival: 12 Westerns
One-Man Film Festival: 12 Westerns
1. Stagecoach (1939)
2. Red River (1948)
3. The Naked Spur (1953)
4. The Searchers (1956)
5. Seven Men From Now (1956)
6. Rio Bravo (1959)
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
8. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
9. The Wild Bunch (1969)
10. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
11. Unforgiven (1992)
12. Dead Man (1995)
1. Stagecoach (1939)
2. Red River (1948)
3. The Naked Spur (1953)
4. The Searchers (1956)
5. Seven Men From Now (1956)
6. Rio Bravo (1959)
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
8. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
9. The Wild Bunch (1969)
10. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
11. Unforgiven (1992)
12. Dead Man (1995)
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Review: The Three Burials of Melquides Estrada
Tommy Lee Jones on Westerns:
“The idea of making Westerns means nothing to me. The idea of working at home and dealing with the history and the present time of where I live and where I’m from is the only thing I’m interested in.”
Tommy Lee Jones on the desert:
“It makes people who they are. You have to tell your right name.”
I had high expectations for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The film was the result of the combined talents of actor/director Tommy Lee Jones, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores perros, 21 Grams), and two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Chris Menges. The film had done well at last year’s Cannes festival, with Jones’ performance and Arriaga’s screenplay winning awards. So I was expecting good things. I was not disappointed.
The film’s title makes plain the dramatic arc of the movies three-act plot: following his death, the body of a man named Melquidas Estrada receives, under various circumstances, three different burials.
Melquidas Estrada (Julio Cedillo) is a Mexican vaquero hired and befriended by ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Jones) after immigrating illegally. Estrada is accidentally shot and killed by newly-assigned border patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), who then—rather than report the incident as an accidental shooting—hastily buries Estrada’s body in a shallow grave. The grave is soon discovered and the body exhumed, only to be hastily reburied by the local sheriff (Dwight Yoakam) in hopes of avoiding any trouble with Perkins.
When Perkins finally finds out what happened, he abducts Norton at gunpoint and forces him to dig up Estrada’s body. The two men then embark on a journey to Estrada’s remote Mexican village (we learn via flashback that Perkins promised Estrada that if Estrada died in the U.S., Perkins would take him “back home”).
Like Arriaga’s previous screenplays, the film’s first two acts are presented achronologically, shifting to a more conventional chronological narrative for the journey of the final act. Brutal, darkly melancholic, and macabrely funny, Three Burials is immediately reminiscent of Arriaga’s 21 Grams and Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, though ultimately it’s more nuanced than either.
The movie was shot in Queretaro, Mexico, Big Bend National Park, Odessa, Van Horn, and Shafter, Texas, and on Jones’ own West Texas ranch. Jones and Menges handling of the landscapes is particularly impressive, capturing its grandness and sweep and somehow matching it to the grandeur of Jones’ face, and to that of human character in general.
“The idea of making Westerns means nothing to me. The idea of working at home and dealing with the history and the present time of where I live and where I’m from is the only thing I’m interested in.”
Tommy Lee Jones on the desert:
“It makes people who they are. You have to tell your right name.”
I had high expectations for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The film was the result of the combined talents of actor/director Tommy Lee Jones, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores perros, 21 Grams), and two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Chris Menges. The film had done well at last year’s Cannes festival, with Jones’ performance and Arriaga’s screenplay winning awards. So I was expecting good things. I was not disappointed.
The film’s title makes plain the dramatic arc of the movies three-act plot: following his death, the body of a man named Melquidas Estrada receives, under various circumstances, three different burials.
Melquidas Estrada (Julio Cedillo) is a Mexican vaquero hired and befriended by ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Jones) after immigrating illegally. Estrada is accidentally shot and killed by newly-assigned border patrolman Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), who then—rather than report the incident as an accidental shooting—hastily buries Estrada’s body in a shallow grave. The grave is soon discovered and the body exhumed, only to be hastily reburied by the local sheriff (Dwight Yoakam) in hopes of avoiding any trouble with Perkins.
When Perkins finally finds out what happened, he abducts Norton at gunpoint and forces him to dig up Estrada’s body. The two men then embark on a journey to Estrada’s remote Mexican village (we learn via flashback that Perkins promised Estrada that if Estrada died in the U.S., Perkins would take him “back home”).
Like Arriaga’s previous screenplays, the film’s first two acts are presented achronologically, shifting to a more conventional chronological narrative for the journey of the final act. Brutal, darkly melancholic, and macabrely funny, Three Burials is immediately reminiscent of Arriaga’s 21 Grams and Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, though ultimately it’s more nuanced than either.
The movie was shot in Queretaro, Mexico, Big Bend National Park, Odessa, Van Horn, and Shafter, Texas, and on Jones’ own West Texas ranch. Jones and Menges handling of the landscapes is particularly impressive, capturing its grandness and sweep and somehow matching it to the grandeur of Jones’ face, and to that of human character in general.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Nominees: the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards (voted on by members of Film Independent and the Independent Feature Project) are to be presented on March 4th, the day before the Academy Awards. IFC will carry the live broadcast.
Nominees:
Best Feature:
I’m always interested to the see the results of the Indys. I can’t comment on many of these films as they have not yet received a nationwide release here in the U.S. But we will talk about them as they are released.
Nominees:
Best Feature:
- Brokeback Mountain
- Capote
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- The Squid and the Whale
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
- Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
- Dina Korzun, Forty Shades of Blue
- Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale (image placeholder)
- S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blues
- Cyndi Williams, Room
- Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
- Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
- Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
- David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Amy Adams, Junebug
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
- Allison Janney, Our Very Own
- Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
- Robin Wright Penn, Nine Lives
- Firdous Bamji, The War Within
- Matt Dillon, Crash
- Jesse Eisenberg, The Squid and the Whale (image placeholder)
- Barry Pepper, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (image placeholder)
- Jeffrey Wright, Broken Flowers
- Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
- George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck (image placeholder)
- Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin
- Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
- Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
- The War Within
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
- The Squid and the Whale
- Capote
- Nine Lives
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Keane
- Capote
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
- Last Days
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania)
- Duck Season (Mexico)
- Head-On (Germany/Turkey)
- Paradise Now (Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France)
- Tony Takitani (Japan)
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
- Grizzly Man
- La Sierra
- Romantico
- Sir! No Sir!
- Crash
- Lackawanna Blues
- Me and You and Everyone We Know
- Thumbsucker
- Transamerica
- Fixing Frank
- Me and You and Everyone We Know
- Junebug
- The Beautiful Country
- Transamerica
- Brick
- Conventioneers
- Jellysmoke
- The Puffy Chair
- Room
- Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana (Cavite)
- Robinson Devor (Police Beat)
- Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair)
- Rachel Boynton ( Our Brand Is Crisis)
- Garrett Scott & Ian Olds (Occupation: Dreamland)
- Mark Becker (Romantico)
- Thomas Allen Harris (Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela)
- Caroline Baron (Capote, Monsoon Wedding)
- Ram Bergman (Brick, Conversations with Other Women)
- Mike S. Ryan (Junebug, Palindromes)
I’m always interested to the see the results of the Indys. I can’t comment on many of these films as they have not yet received a nationwide release here in the U.S. But we will talk about them as they are released.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Alternate 100"
The list that follows is Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Alternate 100”: a list the critic offered in 1998 as an alternative to the “100 Greatest American Movies” list published by the American Film Institute. Rosenbaum writes:
“if I were drawing up my own list of the 100 greatest American movies, roughly a quarter of the AFI's list would be on it. But it seems more useful to offer an alternative list of 100 features rather than an unwieldy composite of the 25 or so AFI titles I can live with and 75 others . . . . Above all, my impulse is to defend the breadth, richness, and intelligence of the American cinema against its self-appointed custodians, who seem to want to lock us into an eternity of Oscar nights. And the most salient fact about my list is that it's far from exhaustive”
(note: Rosenbaum’s original list appeared with the titles in alphabetical order; here I have taken the liberty of rearranging the list into chronological order with the notion that one might approach this list as a sort of viewer’s guide to an alternate history of American cinema.)
Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossom (1919)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Greed (1925)
The General (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
Lonesome (1929)
Thunderbolt (1929)
Laughter (1930)
Freaks (1932)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Scarface (1932)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)
Man's Castle (1933)
The Black Cat(1934)
Judge Priest (1934)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
The Great Garrick (1937)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Christmas in July (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
Cat People (1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
This Land is Mine (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Scarlett Street (1945)
Gilda (1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Force of Evil (1948)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me! (1950)
Stars in My Crown (1950)
Panic in the Streets (1950)
Hole/The Big Carnival (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
The Big Sky (1952)
My Son John (1952)
Park Row (1952)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
Track of the Cat (1954)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Phenix Story (1955)
Bigger Than Life (1956)
The Killing (1956)
While the City Sleeps (1956)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
The Wrong Man (1957)
The Tarnished Angels (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Shadows (1960)
The Hustler (1961)
The Ladies' Man (1961)
Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Vinyl (1965)
Point Blank (1967)
The Shooting (1967)
Tom, Tom , the Piper's Son (1969)
Scenes from Under Childhood (1970)
Woodstock (1970)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Wanda (1971)
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971)
Avanti! (1972)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Eaweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974)
11 x 14 (1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Mikey & Nicky (1976)
Last Chants of a Slow Dance (1977)
Eraserhead (1978)
Killer of Sheep (1978)
The Scenic Route (1978)
Real Life (1979)
Love Streams (1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Housekeeping (1987)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
To Sleep With Anger (1990)
That's Entertainment! III(1994)
Dead Man (1995)
“if I were drawing up my own list of the 100 greatest American movies, roughly a quarter of the AFI's list would be on it. But it seems more useful to offer an alternative list of 100 features rather than an unwieldy composite of the 25 or so AFI titles I can live with and 75 others . . . . Above all, my impulse is to defend the breadth, richness, and intelligence of the American cinema against its self-appointed custodians, who seem to want to lock us into an eternity of Oscar nights. And the most salient fact about my list is that it's far from exhaustive”
(note: Rosenbaum’s original list appeared with the titles in alphabetical order; here I have taken the liberty of rearranging the list into chronological order with the notion that one might approach this list as a sort of viewer’s guide to an alternate history of American cinema.)
Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossom (1919)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Greed (1925)
The General (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
Lonesome (1929)
Thunderbolt (1929)
Laughter (1930)
Freaks (1932)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Scarface (1932)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)
Man's Castle (1933)
The Black Cat(1934)
Judge Priest (1934)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
The Great Garrick (1937)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Christmas in July (1940)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
Cat People (1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
This Land is Mine (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Scarlett Street (1945)
Gilda (1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Force of Evil (1948)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me! (1950)
Stars in My Crown (1950)
Panic in the Streets (1950)
Hole/The Big Carnival (1951)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
The Big Sky (1952)
My Son John (1952)
Park Row (1952)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
Track of the Cat (1954)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Phenix Story (1955)
Bigger Than Life (1956)
The Killing (1956)
While the City Sleeps (1956)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
The Wrong Man (1957)
The Tarnished Angels (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Shadows (1960)
The Hustler (1961)
The Ladies' Man (1961)
Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Vinyl (1965)
Point Blank (1967)
The Shooting (1967)
Tom, Tom , the Piper's Son (1969)
Scenes from Under Childhood (1970)
Woodstock (1970)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Wanda (1971)
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971)
Avanti! (1972)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Eaweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974)
11 x 14 (1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Mikey & Nicky (1976)
Last Chants of a Slow Dance (1977)
Eraserhead (1978)
Killer of Sheep (1978)
The Scenic Route (1978)
Real Life (1979)
Love Streams (1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Housekeeping (1987)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
To Sleep With Anger (1990)
That's Entertainment! III(1994)
Dead Man (1995)
Sunday, October 09, 2005
AFI's 100 Greatest American Movies
100 YEARS...100 MOVIES
(America's Greatest Movies by AFI)
1. Citizen Kane (1941) - RKO
2. Casablanca (1942) - Warner Bros.
3. The Godfather (1972) - Paramount
4. Gone With The Wind (1939) - MGM
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Columbia
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - MGM
7. The Graduate (1967) - Embassy
8. On The Waterfront (1954) - Columbia
9. Schindler's List (1993) - Amblin Entertainment/Universal
10. Singin' In The Rain (1952) - MGM
11. It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - RKO
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Paramount
13. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) - Columbia
14. Some Like It Hot (1959) - Ashton/Mirisch
15. Star Wars (1977) - 20th Century Fox
16. All About Eve (1950) - 20th Century Fox
17. The African Queen (1951) - United Artists
18. Psycho (1960) - Paramount
19. Chinatown (1974) - Paramount
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - United Artists
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 20th Century Fox
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - MGM
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Warner Bros.
24. Raging Bull (1980) - United Artists
25. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Universal
26. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
27. Bonnie And Clyde (1967) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
28. Apocalypse Now (1979) - Zoetrope Studios
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Columbia
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - Warner Bros.
31. Annie Hall (1977) - United Artists
32. The Godfather, Part II (1974) - Paramount
33. High Noon (1952) - United Artists
34. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) - Universal
35. It Happened One Night (1934) - Columbia
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) - United Artists
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Goldwyn, RKO
38. Double Indemnity (1944) - Paramount
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) - MGM
40. North By Northwest (1959) - MGM
41. West Side Story (1961) - United Artists
42. Rear Window (1954) - Paramount
43. King Kong (1933) - RKO
44. The Birth Of A Nation (1915) - Epoch Producing Co.
45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - Warner Bros.
46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Warner Bros.
47. Taxi Driver (1976) - Columbia
48. Jaws (1975) - Universal
49. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) - RKO/Walt Disney
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - 20th Century Fox
51. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - MGM
52. From Here to Eternity (1953) - Columbia
53. Amadeus (1984) - Orion
54. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) - Universal
55. The Sound of Music (1965) - 20th Century Fox
56. M*A*S*H (1970) - Aspen/20th Century Fox
57. The Third Man (1949) - Korda/Selznick Releasing Org.
58. Fantasia (1940) - Walt Disney-RKO
59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) - Warner Bros.
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Paramount
61. Vertigo (1958) - Paramount
62. Tootsie (1982) - Columbia
63. Stagecoach (1939) - Walter Wanger/United Artists
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Columbia
65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - Orion
66. Network (1976) - MGM/United Artists
67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - United Artists
68. An American In Paris (1951) - MGM
69. Shane (1953) - Paramount
70. The French Connection (1971) - 20th Century-Fox
71. Forrest Gump (1994) - Paramount
72. Ben-Hur (1959) - MGM
73. Wuthering Heights (1939) - United Artists
74. The Gold Rush (1925) - United Artists
75. Dances With Wolves (1990) - Orion
76. City Lights (1931) - Chaplin/United Artists
77. American Graffiti (1973) - Universal
78. Rocky (1976) - United Artists
79. The Deer Hunter (1978) - Warner Bros.
80. The Wild Bunch (1969) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
81. Modern Times (1936) - United Artists
82. Giant (1956) - Warner Bros.
83. Platoon (1986) - Orion
84. Fargo (1996) - Gramercy Pictures/Polygram Filmed Entertainment/Working Title
85. Duck Soup (1933) - Paramount
86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - MGM
87. Frankenstein (1931) - Universal
88. Easy Rider (1969) - Columbia
89. Patton (1970) - 20th Century-Fox
90. The Jazz Singer (1927) - Warner Bros.
91. My Fair Lady (1964) - Warner Bros.
92. A Place in the Sun (1951) - Paramount
93. The Apartment (1960) - United Artists
94. GoodFellas (1990) - Warner Bros.
95. Pulp Fiction (1994) - A Band Apart/Jersey Films/Miramax Films
96. The Searchers (1956) - Warner Bros.
97. Bringing Up Baby (1938) - RKO
98. Unforgiven (1992) - Malpaso Productions/Warner Bros.
99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967) - Columbia
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Warner Bros.
Clearly, this list is the Hollywood majors’ attempt to create a canon of American film from their home video catalogs. There are a lot of great films on this list (and also a lot of overrated ones) . . . there are also a lot of great films that aren’t on the list.
(America's Greatest Movies by AFI)
1. Citizen Kane (1941) - RKO
2. Casablanca (1942) - Warner Bros.
3. The Godfather (1972) - Paramount
4. Gone With The Wind (1939) - MGM
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Columbia
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - MGM
7. The Graduate (1967) - Embassy
8. On The Waterfront (1954) - Columbia
9. Schindler's List (1993) - Amblin Entertainment/Universal
10. Singin' In The Rain (1952) - MGM
11. It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - RKO
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Paramount
13. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) - Columbia
14. Some Like It Hot (1959) - Ashton/Mirisch
15. Star Wars (1977) - 20th Century Fox
16. All About Eve (1950) - 20th Century Fox
17. The African Queen (1951) - United Artists
18. Psycho (1960) - Paramount
19. Chinatown (1974) - Paramount
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - United Artists
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 20th Century Fox
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - MGM
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Warner Bros.
24. Raging Bull (1980) - United Artists
25. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Universal
26. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
27. Bonnie And Clyde (1967) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
28. Apocalypse Now (1979) - Zoetrope Studios
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - Columbia
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - Warner Bros.
31. Annie Hall (1977) - United Artists
32. The Godfather, Part II (1974) - Paramount
33. High Noon (1952) - United Artists
34. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) - Universal
35. It Happened One Night (1934) - Columbia
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) - United Artists
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Goldwyn, RKO
38. Double Indemnity (1944) - Paramount
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) - MGM
40. North By Northwest (1959) - MGM
41. West Side Story (1961) - United Artists
42. Rear Window (1954) - Paramount
43. King Kong (1933) - RKO
44. The Birth Of A Nation (1915) - Epoch Producing Co.
45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - Warner Bros.
46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Warner Bros.
47. Taxi Driver (1976) - Columbia
48. Jaws (1975) - Universal
49. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) - RKO/Walt Disney
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - 20th Century Fox
51. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - MGM
52. From Here to Eternity (1953) - Columbia
53. Amadeus (1984) - Orion
54. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) - Universal
55. The Sound of Music (1965) - 20th Century Fox
56. M*A*S*H (1970) - Aspen/20th Century Fox
57. The Third Man (1949) - Korda/Selznick Releasing Org.
58. Fantasia (1940) - Walt Disney-RKO
59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) - Warner Bros.
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Paramount
61. Vertigo (1958) - Paramount
62. Tootsie (1982) - Columbia
63. Stagecoach (1939) - Walter Wanger/United Artists
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Columbia
65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - Orion
66. Network (1976) - MGM/United Artists
67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - United Artists
68. An American In Paris (1951) - MGM
69. Shane (1953) - Paramount
70. The French Connection (1971) - 20th Century-Fox
71. Forrest Gump (1994) - Paramount
72. Ben-Hur (1959) - MGM
73. Wuthering Heights (1939) - United Artists
74. The Gold Rush (1925) - United Artists
75. Dances With Wolves (1990) - Orion
76. City Lights (1931) - Chaplin/United Artists
77. American Graffiti (1973) - Universal
78. Rocky (1976) - United Artists
79. The Deer Hunter (1978) - Warner Bros.
80. The Wild Bunch (1969) - Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
81. Modern Times (1936) - United Artists
82. Giant (1956) - Warner Bros.
83. Platoon (1986) - Orion
84. Fargo (1996) - Gramercy Pictures/Polygram Filmed Entertainment/Working Title
85. Duck Soup (1933) - Paramount
86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - MGM
87. Frankenstein (1931) - Universal
88. Easy Rider (1969) - Columbia
89. Patton (1970) - 20th Century-Fox
90. The Jazz Singer (1927) - Warner Bros.
91. My Fair Lady (1964) - Warner Bros.
92. A Place in the Sun (1951) - Paramount
93. The Apartment (1960) - United Artists
94. GoodFellas (1990) - Warner Bros.
95. Pulp Fiction (1994) - A Band Apart/Jersey Films/Miramax Films
96. The Searchers (1956) - Warner Bros.
97. Bringing Up Baby (1938) - RKO
98. Unforgiven (1992) - Malpaso Productions/Warner Bros.
99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967) - Columbia
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Warner Bros.
Clearly, this list is the Hollywood majors’ attempt to create a canon of American film from their home video catalogs. There are a lot of great films on this list (and also a lot of overrated ones) . . . there are also a lot of great films that aren’t on the list.
The Guardian lists the 40 greatest living directors
Guardian—The World’s 40 Best Directors
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/page/0,11456,1082823,00.html
1. David Lynch
2. Martin Scorsese
3. Joel and Ethan Coen
4. Steven Soderbergh
5. Terrence Malick
6. Abbas Kiarostami
7. Errol Morris
8. Hayao Miyazaki
9. David Cronenberg
10. Terence Davies
11. Lukas Moodysson
12. Lynne Ramsay
13. Bela Tarr
14. Wong Kar-wai
15. Pedro Almodovar
16. Todd Haynes
17. Quentin Tarantino
18. Tsai Ming-Liang
19. Aki Kaurismaki
20. Michael Winterbottom
21. Paul Thomas Anderson
22. Michael Haneke
23. Walter Salles
24. Alexander Payne
25. Spike Jonze
26. Aleksandr Sokurov
27. Ang Lee
28. Michael Moore
29. Wes Anderson
30. Takeshi Kitano
31. Richard Linklater
32. Gaspar Noé
33. Pavel Pawlikowski
34. David O Russell
35. Larry and Andy Wachowski
36. Samira Makhmalbaf
37. Lars von Trier
38. Takashi Miike
39. David Fincher
40. Gus Van Sant
My thoughts? Let’s start from the bottom.
If I am compiling my own list, Van Sant is a little higher than #40 based in part on the strength of his latest, the Kurt Cobain-inspired Last Days, which is in many ways a continuation of many of the cinematic concerns of his two previous films, Elephant and Gerry.
David Fincher hasn’t directed a film since 2002’s Panic Room, and he’s on this list, I assume, based largely on two films: Seven and Fight Club. Those are good films, and certainly provocative films, but are they “great?” In my opinion, no.
Lars von Trier is an interesting filmmaker, and an excellent polemicist, yet his movies are so mannered, and to me, too mired in formal concerns to really be totally engaging (Breaking the Waves is perhaps the exception).
Takashi Miike’s output is so prolific and erratic that it’s difficult to assess.
Larry and Andy Wachowski are on this list for one reason only: The Matrix. Can one film make you one of the world’s best director? No.
Paul Thomas Anderson is another interesting case with out a great deal of supporting evidence for inclusion on this list, just an interesting debut—Hard Eight—followed by three impressive films—Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love. That’s basically matches the output (in terms of number of films) of Terrence Malick, who clearly does belong on this list. Also see Quentin Tarantino.
I’m not sure that you can rank non-fiction filmmakers (Michael Moore and Erroll Morris) on the same list with fiction filmmakers. What are the criteria for comparison?
(to be continued)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/page/0,11456,1082823,00.html
1. David Lynch
2. Martin Scorsese
3. Joel and Ethan Coen
4. Steven Soderbergh
5. Terrence Malick
6. Abbas Kiarostami
7. Errol Morris
8. Hayao Miyazaki
9. David Cronenberg
10. Terence Davies
11. Lukas Moodysson
12. Lynne Ramsay
13. Bela Tarr
14. Wong Kar-wai
15. Pedro Almodovar
16. Todd Haynes
17. Quentin Tarantino
18. Tsai Ming-Liang
19. Aki Kaurismaki
20. Michael Winterbottom
21. Paul Thomas Anderson
22. Michael Haneke
23. Walter Salles
24. Alexander Payne
25. Spike Jonze
26. Aleksandr Sokurov
27. Ang Lee
28. Michael Moore
29. Wes Anderson
30. Takeshi Kitano
31. Richard Linklater
32. Gaspar Noé
33. Pavel Pawlikowski
34. David O Russell
35. Larry and Andy Wachowski
36. Samira Makhmalbaf
37. Lars von Trier
38. Takashi Miike
39. David Fincher
40. Gus Van Sant
My thoughts? Let’s start from the bottom.
If I am compiling my own list, Van Sant is a little higher than #40 based in part on the strength of his latest, the Kurt Cobain-inspired Last Days, which is in many ways a continuation of many of the cinematic concerns of his two previous films, Elephant and Gerry.
David Fincher hasn’t directed a film since 2002’s Panic Room, and he’s on this list, I assume, based largely on two films: Seven and Fight Club. Those are good films, and certainly provocative films, but are they “great?” In my opinion, no.
Lars von Trier is an interesting filmmaker, and an excellent polemicist, yet his movies are so mannered, and to me, too mired in formal concerns to really be totally engaging (Breaking the Waves is perhaps the exception).
Takashi Miike’s output is so prolific and erratic that it’s difficult to assess.
Larry and Andy Wachowski are on this list for one reason only: The Matrix. Can one film make you one of the world’s best director? No.
Paul Thomas Anderson is another interesting case with out a great deal of supporting evidence for inclusion on this list, just an interesting debut—Hard Eight—followed by three impressive films—Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love. That’s basically matches the output (in terms of number of films) of Terrence Malick, who clearly does belong on this list. Also see Quentin Tarantino.
I’m not sure that you can rank non-fiction filmmakers (Michael Moore and Erroll Morris) on the same list with fiction filmmakers. What are the criteria for comparison?
(to be continued)
Saturday, October 08, 2005
The Chicago Film Festival
October 6th-20th :
http://www.chicagofilmfestival.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CIFFSite.woa/wa/pages/Home
I wish was able to attend. Of particular interest, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s THE BOYS OF BARAKA, Michael Haneke’s CACHÉ, Stanley Kwan’s EVERLASTING REGRET, Takeshi Miike’s THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, Manoel de Oliveira’s MAGIC MIRROR, and Noah Baumbach’s THE SQUID AND THE WHALE.
http://www.chicagofilmfestival.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CIFFSite.woa/wa/pages/Home
I wish was able to attend. Of particular interest, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s THE BOYS OF BARAKA, Michael Haneke’s CACHÉ, Stanley Kwan’s EVERLASTING REGRET, Takeshi Miike’s THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, Manoel de Oliveira’s MAGIC MIRROR, and Noah Baumbach’s THE SQUID AND THE WHALE.
The 2004 Movies I Saw
The 2004 Movies I Saw, From Best to Worst
Before Sunset
Million Dollar Baby
I Heart Huckabees
Garden State
The Saddest Music in the World
Notre musique
Vera Drake
The Aviator
Undertow
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring
Vozvrashchenie
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Coffee and Cigarettes
The Time of the Wolf
Sideways
Young Adam
House of Flying Daggers
A Very Long Engagement
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Collateral
Ju-on: The Grudge
Kill Bill Vol 2
Hero
Dogville
Enduring Love
Closer
Spartan
Facing Windows
Maria Full of Grace
Twilight Samurai
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
The Dreamers
Primer
The Incredibles
The Machinist
Vanity Fair
The Sea Inside
Kinsey
The Merchant of Venice
The Woodsman
Fahrenheit 9/11
Bad Education
Spanglish
Spider-Man 2
When Will I Be Loved
Code 46
The Terminal
Open Water
Ray
Wicker Park
Mean Girls
Saved
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
Criminal
The Butterfly Effect
The Manchurian Candidate
Sean of the Dead
Man on Fire
P.S.
The Village
The Forgotten
I, Robot
The Day After Tomorrow
Ladder 49
Around the Bend
50 First Dates
Anchorman
Meet the Fockers
Saw
Darkness
Stepford Wives
Passion of the Christ
The Exorcist: The Beginning
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