I was tempted by my Da's ballot, which simply included eighteen unranked greatest films, to do something of the same sort. But that is insane. I set the rules, dang it, and I must abide by them, regardless.
(Hey, Andy, I just gave three points each to every film you provided, and an extra point to the one on top, making the fifty-five points available to every ballot. And what a great ballot! I did not know you liked Matewan so much, and my love for Salesman is prob v different from your love for it. Plus, it is always great to see votes for Bye Bye Brazil and Brazil.)
The top five of my personal ballot have been set in stone for the past few years. The toughest part for me were the last five.
Over the dozen or so months that I have been considering doing this poll, those last five have been changing constantly, at times, daily.
The most heart-breaking decision I had to make, in the end, was to leave Kind Hearts and Coronets out of my Top Ten.
I really should not get too in depth to it, but Kind Hearts is not just a cute, Sir Alec Guinness, Ealing comedy. It is a serious, erotic British Masterpiece disguised as the type of entertainment that dozens of writers and studio heads would drool o'er. The type that they eventually did drool over, and the type that won them box office rentals and, finally, cult success. Yet, the film is much better than that, deeper, more rewarding. Folks have tried, I tells ya, but they have still nowt made a better black comedy, period.
Finally,
No. 10, Double Indemnity (Wilder)
Top Ten moments/things/feelings re Double Indemnity
1. Stanwyck's (Missy's) performance in the driver's seat as her husband is being murdered.
2. Missy's performance when the car just will not start.
3. Missy's gorgeous legs, showing off that anklet, as they come down the stairs.
4. The brill casting of Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff. (It was eventually my Mum, Donna who made me see the light here. Mom was right -- what else is new?)
5. The sublime yet seedy dark photography, including metal shavings playing dust in the first Neff/Dietrichson scene
6. The fact that, ultimately, Double Indemnity is not a love story between Neff and Dietrichson but one between Neff and Barton Keyes!
7. The spot-on, low rent, filthy production design by Hans Drier, espec the supermarket sets. Drier came over from Germany w/ Lubitsch and did all his films, incl Trouble in Paradise.
8. Everyone is terrible. Everyone is awful in this film. Even Lola is a liar. And the most likeable guy in the film is someone who hires a P.I. to check up on his prospective fiancee at the very last minute.
9. The sublime speeding ticket dialogue.
10. That a Jerry Springer episode could be brought to life so artfully and entertainingly. And yet predict fifty years later the type of television entertainment that some would foolishly call art, or a pastime of ours.
But that was Billy Wilder. No one at that time was more clued in to the trashy, cynical ugly art that we call Reality Television today.
Wilder was a protege of the master stylist Lubitsch. Where Lubitsch saw glitter, Wilder saw grime and dirt.
Wilder had many great films after Double Indemnity. But this was his best, and I suspect he knew it. He had to, it was the most "out on the limb" thing he did. Though he always tried to top it, he never did.
-AH
No comments:
Post a Comment