For fun, here is Lena Dunham's Criterion Top Ten, and I will be unveiling my latest newest Top Ten films very soon. (It is considerably different that my list last year.)
Great to see Fish Tank on her list. And, her comments are great.
Mwah, ...
Showing posts with label 2012 Spitler Diskowski Greatest Films Poll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012 Spitler Diskowski Greatest Films Poll. Show all posts
Aug 23, 2012
How does the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Film Poll
Stack up to the 2012 Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll?
Not too bad, actually.
We got five films in their Top 25, and six in their Top 40, to wit: Citizen Kane (2nd); Apocalypse Now (14th); Seven Samurai (17th); Singin' in the Rain (20th); The Godfather, Part 1 (21st); and The Godfather, Pt 2 (31st). (Remember that Sight and Sound changed the rules this time and ruled you could not lump the first two Godfather films as one picture, unlike our poll, and unlike Sight & Sound had done it in 2002.)
The magazine edition is publishing the top 250 films of their 2012 Poll, and the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Poll landed ten films in the top 250. The other four are: Casablanca -- our Poll Winner (84th); Annie Hall (127th); Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope (171st); and All About Eve (235th).
Here are the numbers/stats for the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Films Poll, ranked by the Sight & Sound Poll.
1. Citizen Kane (3rd S/D) (2nd S&S) 157 S&S votes.
2. Apocalypse Now (5th S/D) (14th S&S) 52 S&S votes.
3. Seven Samurai (8th S/D) (17th S&S) 48 S&S votes.
4. Singin' in the Rain (10th S/D) (20th S&S) 46 S&S votes.
5. Godfather, Pt 1 (2nd S/D) (21st S&S) 43 S&S votes.
6. Godfather, Pt 2 (2nd S/D) (31st S&S) 38 S&S votes.
7. Casablanca (1st S/D) (84th S&S) 19 S&S votes.
8. Annie Hall (6th S/D) (127th S&S) 13 S&S votes.
9. Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope (4th S/D) (171st S&S) 10 S&S votes.
10. All About Eve (13th S/D) (235th S&S) 7 S&S votes.
11. To Kill a Mockingbird (11th S/D) (894th S&S) 1 S&S vote.
12. Blazing Saddles (7th S/D) (-- S&S) 0 S&S votes, although one critic voted for Young Frankenstein.
13. All That Jazz (12th S/D) (-- S&S) 0 S&S votes, which I consider criminal. Hopefully All That Jazz did better in the Directors Poll, which I will report on next week.
************
How does my personal poll stack up against Sight & Sound?
It is a mixed bag. I got two of the Top Five, but only three in the Top 100. And I landed eight in the Top 250.
1. Citizen Kane (2nd my poll) (2nd S&S) 157 S&S votes.
2. Sunrise (3rd my poll) (5th S&S) 93 S&S votes.
3. Casablanca (7th my poll) (84th S&S) 19 S&S votes.
4. The Lady Eve (9th my poll) (110th S&S) 15 S&S votes.
5. Trouble in Paradise (1st my poll) (117th S&S) 14 S&S votes.
6. Annie Hall (6th my poll) (127th S&S) 13 S&S votes.
7. Kind Heart and Coronets (11th my poll) (171st S&S) 10 S&S votes.
8. All About Eve (8th my poll) (235th S&S) 7 S&S votes.
9. Double Indemnity (10th my poll) (283rd S&S) 6 S&S votes.
10. Gold Diggers of 1933 (5th my poll) (588th S&S) 2 votes.
11. All That Jazz (4th my poll) (-- S&S) Still no S&S votes.
Films I was happy to see receive at least one vote in the 2012 Sight & Sound Poll? Shaun of the Dead, The Royal Tenenbaums, Dazed and Confused, Withnail & I, Bad Timing, Don't Look Now, Army of Shadows, Lone Star, Stardust Memories, The Man in the White Suit, Carlos, Safe, and somehow two people snuck David Simon's smashing HBO series, The Wire on to their Top Ten list. That is just a very small sample. You could literally spend all day combing through their explore page. I will check on Velvet Goldmine later today and Todd Solondz' films, too.
Meanwhile, here are four S&S critics I would love to have a very long dinner with: Catherine A. Surowiec, Nathalie Morris (I will forgive her Coppola Marie Antoinette selection), Leo Robson, and Philip Berk.
And here is how two of my favorite film critics voted: Manohla Dargis, and Todd McCarthy.
I love you all,
Mwah, ...
Carol Reed's The Third Man, 73rd place in the 2012 Sight & Sound Poll, 22 votes.
Not too bad, actually.
We got five films in their Top 25, and six in their Top 40, to wit: Citizen Kane (2nd); Apocalypse Now (14th); Seven Samurai (17th); Singin' in the Rain (20th); The Godfather, Part 1 (21st); and The Godfather, Pt 2 (31st). (Remember that Sight and Sound changed the rules this time and ruled you could not lump the first two Godfather films as one picture, unlike our poll, and unlike Sight & Sound had done it in 2002.)
The magazine edition is publishing the top 250 films of their 2012 Poll, and the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Poll landed ten films in the top 250. The other four are: Casablanca -- our Poll Winner (84th); Annie Hall (127th); Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope (171st); and All About Eve (235th).
Here are the numbers/stats for the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Films Poll, ranked by the Sight & Sound Poll.
1. Citizen Kane (3rd S/D) (2nd S&S) 157 S&S votes.
2. Apocalypse Now (5th S/D) (14th S&S) 52 S&S votes.
3. Seven Samurai (8th S/D) (17th S&S) 48 S&S votes.
4. Singin' in the Rain (10th S/D) (20th S&S) 46 S&S votes.
5. Godfather, Pt 1 (2nd S/D) (21st S&S) 43 S&S votes.
6. Godfather, Pt 2 (2nd S/D) (31st S&S) 38 S&S votes.
7. Casablanca (1st S/D) (84th S&S) 19 S&S votes.
8. Annie Hall (6th S/D) (127th S&S) 13 S&S votes.
9. Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope (4th S/D) (171st S&S) 10 S&S votes.
10. All About Eve (13th S/D) (235th S&S) 7 S&S votes.
11. To Kill a Mockingbird (11th S/D) (894th S&S) 1 S&S vote.
12. Blazing Saddles (7th S/D) (-- S&S) 0 S&S votes, although one critic voted for Young Frankenstein.
13. All That Jazz (12th S/D) (-- S&S) 0 S&S votes, which I consider criminal. Hopefully All That Jazz did better in the Directors Poll, which I will report on next week.
************
How does my personal poll stack up against Sight & Sound?
It is a mixed bag. I got two of the Top Five, but only three in the Top 100. And I landed eight in the Top 250.
1. Citizen Kane (2nd my poll) (2nd S&S) 157 S&S votes.
2. Sunrise (3rd my poll) (5th S&S) 93 S&S votes.
3. Casablanca (7th my poll) (84th S&S) 19 S&S votes.
4. The Lady Eve (9th my poll) (110th S&S) 15 S&S votes.
5. Trouble in Paradise (1st my poll) (117th S&S) 14 S&S votes.
6. Annie Hall (6th my poll) (127th S&S) 13 S&S votes.
7. Kind Heart and Coronets (11th my poll) (171st S&S) 10 S&S votes.
8. All About Eve (8th my poll) (235th S&S) 7 S&S votes.
9. Double Indemnity (10th my poll) (283rd S&S) 6 S&S votes.
10. Gold Diggers of 1933 (5th my poll) (588th S&S) 2 votes.
11. All That Jazz (4th my poll) (-- S&S) Still no S&S votes.
Films I was happy to see receive at least one vote in the 2012 Sight & Sound Poll? Shaun of the Dead, The Royal Tenenbaums, Dazed and Confused, Withnail & I, Bad Timing, Don't Look Now, Army of Shadows, Lone Star, Stardust Memories, The Man in the White Suit, Carlos, Safe, and somehow two people snuck David Simon's smashing HBO series, The Wire on to their Top Ten list. That is just a very small sample. You could literally spend all day combing through their explore page. I will check on Velvet Goldmine later today and Todd Solondz' films, too.
Meanwhile, here are four S&S critics I would love to have a very long dinner with: Catherine A. Surowiec, Nathalie Morris (I will forgive her Coppola Marie Antoinette selection), Leo Robson, and Philip Berk.
And here is how two of my favorite film critics voted: Manohla Dargis, and Todd McCarthy.
I love you all,
Mwah, ...
Carol Reed's The Third Man, 73rd place in the 2012 Sight & Sound Poll, 22 votes.
Aug 2, 2012
It is out! (UPDATED 8/3/12)
The 2012 Sight and Sound Greatest Films Poll was released yesterday. Here are the Top 50. And, we have a new Number One. Citizen Kane, after winning five straight polls, has finally been topped. By Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Citizen Kane is now considered by the Critics to be the second greatest film of all-time now. I have not really gotten in to the nitty gritty yet, or looked at the Directors' poll. When I have more time to completely devour both polls, I will write a very lengthy, chewy fauxluxe post re these developments.
Here, though, are some first very quick impressions. I still think Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made. And, there are at least a half-dozen Hitch films I like more than Vertigo, to wit: The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, North by Northwest, etc, ... That is seven right there, and I could keep going, still.
It is so wonderful to see Sunrise climb the charts. It is up to number five now. And, my recommendation for folks out there to give this stunning, magical, FW Murnau silent film a chance, still stands.
And, it is very good to see that La Regle de Jeu is still holding strong in the top five.
The Godfather films dropped out of the Top Ten, which is fine by me. They changed the rules which serious Coppola devotees will surely grumble about. Unlike my poll, and all the recent Sight and Sound polls of the past, this time you could not vote for the first two Godfather films as one entry. Thus, those two films split the vote, obviously, and knocked it out of Top Ten contention.
The most recent film made to garner a vote was Lynch's Mullholland (Ick! I hate that movie.) from 2001. So, no 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days or The Lives of Others or, basically anything from the most recent decade. And, that is fine by me, too.
And, just between you and me, I will take Fosse's All That Jazz over Fellini's 8 1/2 (No. ten in this poll) in a heartbeat.
Here were the final results for my poll
And, here is my number one selection, and a roundup of my personal Top Ten.
Much much much more about all this in the coming days. I love you all,
Ardent
UPDATE (8/3/12): It will be a while before I can really dig in to the polls. BFI, Sight and Sound are not releasing how every critic and every director voted, and the entire lists for both polls, every film that received a vote, etc, ... until Aug 15 for the Critics and the twenty-second for the Directors.
And, the other big story, other than Vertigo topping the Critics poll, is Tokyo Story, which won the Directors Poll and finished third w/ the Critics. There will be a lot of people renting or streaming Tokyo Story now, I am sure.
AH
 |
| Hitch is Number One. |
Here, though, are some first very quick impressions. I still think Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made. And, there are at least a half-dozen Hitch films I like more than Vertigo, to wit: The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, North by Northwest, etc, ... That is seven right there, and I could keep going, still.
It is so wonderful to see Sunrise climb the charts. It is up to number five now. And, my recommendation for folks out there to give this stunning, magical, FW Murnau silent film a chance, still stands.
And, it is very good to see that La Regle de Jeu is still holding strong in the top five.
The Godfather films dropped out of the Top Ten, which is fine by me. They changed the rules which serious Coppola devotees will surely grumble about. Unlike my poll, and all the recent Sight and Sound polls of the past, this time you could not vote for the first two Godfather films as one entry. Thus, those two films split the vote, obviously, and knocked it out of Top Ten contention.
The most recent film made to garner a vote was Lynch's Mullholland (Ick! I hate that movie.) from 2001. So, no 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days or The Lives of Others or, basically anything from the most recent decade. And, that is fine by me, too.
And, just between you and me, I will take Fosse's All That Jazz over Fellini's 8 1/2 (No. ten in this poll) in a heartbeat.
Here were the final results for my poll
And, here is my number one selection, and a roundup of my personal Top Ten.
Much much much more about all this in the coming days. I love you all,
Ardent
UPDATE (8/3/12): It will be a while before I can really dig in to the polls. BFI, Sight and Sound are not releasing how every critic and every director voted, and the entire lists for both polls, every film that received a vote, etc, ... until Aug 15 for the Critics and the twenty-second for the Directors.
And, the other big story, other than Vertigo topping the Critics poll, is Tokyo Story, which won the Directors Poll and finished third w/ the Critics. There will be a lot of people renting or streaming Tokyo Story now, I am sure.
AH
Mar 19, 2012
For fun (It's just fun)
Here are a few of my favorite ballots I received for the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Films Poll:
Marlene R:
(no order)
Au Bout de Souffle
Le Mepris
L'Atalante
Bob le Flambeur
Le Regle de Jeu
La Belle et la Bete
Barry Lyndon
Member of the Wedding
The Deer Hunter
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Samara D:
(no order)
La Belle et la Bete
Now, Voyager
King of Hearts
Fellini's Roma
Rebecca
Imitation of Life (Sirk version)
Two for the Road
Manhattan
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Antonia's Line
and, Allison W:
(no order)
Casablanca
Mean Girls
The Conversation
Dirty Harry
The Sound of Music
The Apartment
All That Jazz
Bringing Up Baby
Rebecca
8 1/2
Fab ballots, ladies. Thank you so much for being a part of my poll!
Mwah, ...
 |
| Samara and her little Angel |
Marlene R:
 |
| Isabelle Corey enjoys some frites in Bob le Flambeur |
(no order)
Au Bout de Souffle
Le Mepris
L'Atalante
Bob le Flambeur
Le Regle de Jeu
La Belle et la Bete
Barry Lyndon
Member of the Wedding
The Deer Hunter
Berlin Alexanderplatz
 |
| Josette Day in Cocteau's magical Masterpiece, La Belle et la Bete |
Samara D:
(no order)
La Belle et la Bete
Now, Voyager
King of Hearts
Fellini's Roma
Rebecca
Imitation of Life (Sirk version)
Two for the Road
Manhattan
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Antonia's Line
and, Allison W:
 |
| Judith Anderson tells Ms Fontaine to stay out of Rebecca's lingerie drawer. |
Casablanca
Mean Girls
The Conversation
Dirty Harry
The Sound of Music
The Apartment
All That Jazz
Bringing Up Baby
Rebecca
8 1/2
Fab ballots, ladies. Thank you so much for being a part of my poll!
Mwah, ...
Mar 14, 2012
Round up the usual suspects.
 |
| Hmmm, Ingrid, ... I lerve you. |
(Yeah, I frickin' buried the lede again.)
Kisses,
I love you all,
Ardent Henry
Mar 2, 2012
Yesterday was
My Mum's birthday. Happy birthday, Mum!
And yesterday was also Renee's Da's birthday. Happy birthday, Bob!
So, in honor of these two wonderful Pisces people I will publish their fabulous ballots for the movie poll here today:
Donna Lewis Spitler's ballot:
1. Darling
2. Double Indemnity
3. Cabaret
4. Annie Hall
5. An Education
6. His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
9. McCabe & Mrs Miller
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
11. The Wizard of Oz
12. Don't Look Now
Rosemary's Baby
Repulsion
15. Gone with the Wind
Bob Diskowski's ballot:
1. Casablanca
2. The Third Man
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Paths of Glory
5. North by Northwest
6. A Man and a Woman
7. Winged Migration
8. Midway
9. Back to the Future
10. Silver Streak
mds
And yesterday was also Renee's Da's birthday. Happy birthday, Bob!
So, in honor of these two wonderful Pisces people I will publish their fabulous ballots for the movie poll here today:
Donna Lewis Spitler's ballot:
1. Darling
2. Double Indemnity
3. Cabaret
4. Annie Hall
5. An Education
6. His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
9. McCabe & Mrs Miller
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
11. The Wizard of Oz
12. Don't Look Now
Rosemary's Baby
Repulsion
15. Gone with the Wind
Bob Diskowski's ballot:
1. Casablanca
2. The Third Man
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Paths of Glory
5. North by Northwest
6. A Man and a Woman
7. Winged Migration
8. Midway
9. Back to the Future
10. Silver Streak
mds
Feb 29, 2012
Final Compiled Poll for the 2012 Michael Spitler/Renee Diskowski Greatest Films Poll
Also, I am going to give you a Top Baker's Dozen, a lucky thirteen, if you will, on this rainy Bay Area Leap Day, 2012. Because "Real life is for March."
To wit,
No. 1: Casablanca (Curtiz)
(11 votes total -- 65 1/2 points)
Casablanca viewed now, rather when it was new, is from a different perspective. The use of black and white rather than color, using a moving line on a map to show travel, and the newsreel type narration are from another era and add a nostalgic element. The title and location give an exotic and foreign feel to the movie.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman give great romantic performances, but it is the supporting actors that add so much flavor of the movie. Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet play types with which they have come to be identified. Claude Rains as Captain Renault, is a cynic and opportunist who will make the best of any situation provides some humor.
Parts of dialog that have become recognizable one-liners include; “I was misinformed” (about the water) “round up the usual suspects”, “I am shocked to find gambling is going on here”, “Play it again Sam” have become famliar. The flashback to an earlier time in Paris was done well and links in the familiar “As Time Goes By” music that really adds to the appeal of the movie. The many little side stories and characters add interesting detail. and many cannot be accused of being too subtle
The movie was released during WWII and the aspect of self-sacrifice for the greater good and war time patriotism are obvious.
But it is the writting and direction that make Casablnca exceptional in my opinion.
This comment about Casablanca was provided from an anonymous contributor.
No. 2: The Godfather, Parts 1 & 2 (Coppola)
(10 votes -- 59 1/2 points)
The cinematography by Gordon Willis was sublime; the violence depicted in a pulpy yet brutal manner; and the films are full of amazing performances; notably Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Caan, and Diane Keaton.
I will let the wonderful critic and author, David Thomson, have the final word: "Compellingly entertaining, The Godfather is still as beautiful as it is mysterious. No other American classic so repays repeated viewings. How odd that American film offered this last song of vindication just as it delivered its most foreboding message: the corruption of the state. For years, Hollywood films were happy and positive; now it had grasped eternal unease. Has the America that followed been fit for movies or songs, or is it just too sunk in its own dismay?"
Mr Thomson's thoughts on The Godfather are from his absolutely crucial and essential book on film, Have You Seen ... ?
No. 3: Citizen Kane (Welles)(8 votes -- 47 1/2 points)
Citizen Kane turned main stream motion pictures into art film. The camera was now as important as the actor in telling the story. When I first saw this film I was stunned at the visual images playing out on the screen , deep focus, tilted angles, really good sound effects, interesting lighting. And as all great art, it is based on a simple concept. As I have gotten older the story resonates even more than when I first saw it in the early 1970’s.
What makes it even more special, as well as exasperating, is that Orson Welles was only 24 years old when he wrote, starred in and directed this movie. It was also his first feature film. If you can only make one good thing in your life you might as well make it the best ever. (But wait he also made the best radio show ever....)
Citizen Kane also stands the test of time, it stands up just as well today as when it was made in 1941. It beats the snot out of almost every movie that is made today.
Thoughts on Citizen Kane contributed by my father, Andy Spitler.
No. 4: Star Wars, Episode Four -- A New Hope
(6 votes -- 43 1/2 points)
Star Wars is the myth for the new era. A myth is a story that may never have happened but is always true.
It is the hero's journey. Myth, as Shelley said about poetry, sensitizes us to the fragility of the soul. Star Wars connects us at this soul level, with a sacred concept, that we are all Jedi Knights in service of the force. We are all called to be a sacred answer to a cosmic need. We all want to be called to a higher purpose and Star Wars is that call. Maybe subconsciously, but we all await the knock on our door from the Jedi. This is the power and the call of Star Wars A New Hope.
Thoughts on Star Wars contributed by Terry Layton.
No. 5: Apocalypse Now (Coppola)(5 votes -- 33 1/2 points)
More than thirty years later, I persist in my belief that Francis Ford Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW is the greatest film our cinema has produced. For me, no other film fuses together such intensity and richness in its terrible and gorgeous imagery, hallucinatory music and sound design, indelible writing (and improvisation), philosophical heft and outrageous humor, great acting, and metaphorical journey of a plot into a massive work of such overwhelming power. I think the criticism that its third act is a murky mess has been disproven by history, as Brando’s scenes are now iconic (“My God, the genius of that. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure.”) and “the horror” of the climax an acknowledged masterpiece of visual and rhythmic virtuosity.
Thoughts on Apocalypse Now contributed by Scott Shattuck.
No. 6: Annie Hall (Allen)(6 votes -- 32 points)
First off, here are my thoughts on Annie Hall. But I would also just like to mention how Allen finally made a great American film that seemed so European (or French, really.) Although he adores Ingmar Bergman, Allen simply does not have that type of sense of humor. And none of his attempts at the Bergman style have been very good.
But with Annie Hall, Allen finally found his voice and started making profoundly funny and profoundly moving films. It is all the more ironic that Allen be best remembered for Annie Hall, as the film was an absolute disaster before cutting, over three hours long, and a complete mess. But somehow Allen, Gordon Willis (there is that name again), Marshall Brickman, and the editing team found the story and the style and recovered an absolute diamond from the mine.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 7: Blazing Saddles (Brooks)(6 votes -- 31 1/2 points)
I love the way Mel Brooks dealt with racism in Blazing Saddles. Whenever I feel like the world has gotten too P.C. for me, I think of the scene where the chain gang is asked to sing an "old negra spiritual worksong" and they break out with Cole Porter's "I Get A Kick Out of You", and have no idea what "De camp town laaaydees??" is.
Thoughts on Blazing Saddles contributed by Michelle Lee Houghton.
No. 8: Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)(5 votes -- 29 points)
This Masterpiece by Kurosawa is an epic story of courage, humility, and nobility. Despite being filled with epic, groundbreaking battle scenes, the film also contains a good deal of humor.
Once again, I will let David Thomson have the last word, "It is a landmark in action films, but in its treatment of heroism, too ... And Seven Samurai comes as that notion was being treated with cynicism. But there is no denying or forgetting the faces of these men. They are the seven samurai, and they have found themselves. They do not need to say so, because we understand it."
Once again, a very serious tip of the hat to the marvelous David Thomson and his splendid book, Have You Seen ... ?
No. 9: Aliens (Cameron)(4 votes -- 27 points)
I first saw this film upon its release with my movie buddy at the time, Kevin Parker. We were very excited to see it, listening to NPR on the way to the theater, a reviewer extolling its virtues.
I like how Cameron completely eschewed the original Alien genre and made an action film instead. I also like how the Marines are all a bunch of sweary loudmouth badasses going in to the battle but are all reduced to sniveling little crybabies by the time they return to HQ.
In my personal opinion, Cameron has never made a film near as good as this one. And I doubt he will ever top it.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 10: Singin' in the Rain (Donen and Kelly)
(5 votes -- 26 1/2 points)Like Gold Diggers of 1933, Singin' in the Rain is one of the very few Musical Comedies that satisfy on every level. The music is fantastic, the songs are good (though Arthur Freed totally ripped off Cole Porter for Make 'Em Laugh), the comedy is absolutely side-splitting (Jean Hagen deserves a Lifetime Oscar for her work in this film alone), the dancing (Gene Kelly did the choreography) is sublime, and there are so many iconic moments in this film that will outlast us all. But what else do you expect from the Freed Unit at MGM?
Nobody, nobody made better musicals than MGM at this time. And no unit at MGM could even touch the Arthur Freed Unit. I strongly encourage you to watch the brill documentary, Musicals Great Musicals: The Freed Unit at MGM whenever you get a chance. The doc is part of the lavish dvd set of Singin' in the Rain.
(And just on a personal note, as a tween in Dallas, Texas in the late seventies/early eighties, seeing Cyd Charisse dance in the final "Gotta dance!" production number was like receiving a punch in the solar plexus. That is the day Michael David Spitler discovered that girls really were different from little boys.)
-- Ardent Henry
No. 11: To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan)
(4 votes -- 24 1/2 points)I was in a theatre production of To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. I was cast as Dill and I made an absolute hash of it, a travesty. I wanted the Mr Gilmer DAs part instead.
I have always loved the fact that the amazing Harper Lee wrote just one novel. Hey, if you are going to write just one book, why not make it one of the greatest novels in American history.
And I have always loved that Horton Foote wrote the screenplay for the film. I also appeared in a Horton Foote play in 1984. I played the lead (a kid again -- I almost always played kids due to my height and my intelligence) and I nailed it, one of my finest performances.
There is something about Texas and the South, that if you have never lived there, frankly, you just will not ever understand.
This is a wonderful adaptation of Ms Lee's masterful novel and I am so honored that it made this list.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 12: All That Jazz (Fosse)
(4 votes -- 23 1/2 points)
Here are my personal thoughts on All That Jazz again. But I will add a few more observations here:
Though depressing, there is so much life in this film that it bears multiple viewings. I can not tell you how many times I have seen this absolute genius motion picture.
Fosse was not only one of the finest choreographers that ever lived but he was a masterful director who time and time again got uncanny, amazing performances from his actors, merely by directing them in a documentary, interviewer's style. He always asked questions to his actors, never gave them direction.
Fosse was one of the all-time legends of cinema and Broadway. He is so sorely missed.
-- Ardent Henry
No. 13: All About Eve (Mankiewicz)(5 votes -- 22 1/2 points)
All About Eve also made my personal ballot and you can read my thoughts here.
As I discussed re Trouble in Paradise, All About Eve is also a movie for smart grown-ups. It is the type of film that Hollywood gave up on ages ago. And we, as cinema goers, are all the worse for it.
And like All That Jazz, All About Eve is the type of film that theatre/showbizzy folk could stand to watch once a month (or more) for the rest of our lives.
-- Ardent Henry
************
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
Until the End of the World; Chinatown; Goodfellas; Rear Window; Manhattan; Bringing Up Baby; Dr Strangelove; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me; 12 Angry Men; North by Northwest; Lord of the Rings; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Blade Runner; The Outsiders; The Empire Strikes Back; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Double Indemnity; Now, Voyager; The Blues Brothers; Pulp Fiction; It's A Wonderful Life; and Lawrence of Arabia.
************
Honestly, I wanted to give you a whole rash of favorite ballots with this post but I am not going to be able to get to that today. (Going to the big Frog's Leap Leap Day Party in Napa very soon. Woo-hoo!)
I will give you my two favorite ballots today, though. They are both from the two most important Libras in my life, my father, Andy, and my wife, Renee. Both of them simply could not list just ten films. My father gave me eighteen, and my wife gave me twenty-one! What is it about Libras? Rules? What rules? We are the true judges, after all!
Renee Diskowski's ballot:
(in no particular order)
Manhattan
An American in Paris
Metropolitan
Cabaret
Citizen Kane
Annie Hall
Bedazzled (the Donen directed Dudley Moore/Peter Cook version)
All About Eve
Bringing Up Baby
Happiness
North by Northwest
Now, Voyager
The Philadelphia Story
Play Misty for Me
Rear Window
Sunset Blvd.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Hanna and Her Sisters
Beauty and the Beast (the Cocteau live-action Masterpiece)
Glengarry Glen Ross
William Andrew Spitler's ballot:
(in no particular order)
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Salesman (Mayles Bros documentary)
Day for Night
Brazil
Matewan
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
The Fly (Cronenberg version)
Double Indemnity
The Philadelphia Story
All That Jazz
The Elephant Man
The Sting
The Maltese Falcon
Chinatown
Glengarry Glen Ross
Bye Bye Brazil
************
And there you have it, folks! Thanks to all of you that participated. Perhaps I will do another one on Leap Day, 2016?
I will publish in the coming days other ballots that I loved or found interesting. I hope all of you have enjoyed this project as much as I enjoyed hosting it.
Thank you all so much! I love you all,
Mwah, ...
mds
************
************
 |
| You have got to be kidding me, Cyd! |
 |
| The exquisite Cyd Charisse (1922-2008) yet another Woman Michael Loves. |
mds
Feb 27, 2012
No. 1: Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch)
Random notes on Trouble in Paradise: (With quotes from the film interspersed, as well.)
"Marriage is a beautiful mistake which two people make together."
... I love how we keep seeing a lovely antique bed throughout the entire picture but that in this very sophisticatedly sexy film we never see anyone actually in this bed. And near the end of the picture, we finally see something on the bed, a stack of money, one-hundred thousand francs ... I love the Trotsky-ite (played by Leonid Kinskey, who also appeared as Sasha, the Russian bartender in Casablanca) scolding Kay Francis for buying such an expensive handbag during the Depression ... The shot of Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins vanishing before our eyes on a love seat is heavenly and I am swept off my feet every time I see it ... And then there is the shot of Kay Francis reclining luxuriously, practically swooning on to her chair at The Major's party. You can tell, you just know that she has just made love with Herbert Marshall ...
"Darling, remember, you are Gaston Monescu. You are a crook. I want you as a crook. I love you as a crook. I worship you as a crook. Steal, swindle, rob. Oh, but don't become one of those useless, good for nothing gigolos."
... Many have tried to make a film as naughty, amoral, and sexy as Trouble in Paradise, but all have failed. The most famous film to try is the execrable, backlash mega-hit, Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall. And Marshall is no Lubitsch. No one is. Or ever will be again ... One of the most sacred Cardinal rules of Hollywood is: Never give your best lines of dialogue to anyone but the Star. Lubitsch totally ignored this rule to brilliant effect, giving his bit players in all his films some of the juiciest and richest comic bits. I think it was all part of his generous, family-style atmosphere on the set. Lubitsch made the set seem like a party, Champagne constantly flowing, everyone in great spirits. And I have never read or heard of any Star bitching about working with Lubitsch as a director ...
"Yes, that's the trouble with mothers. First, you get to like them, and then they die."
... At one of the lowest points of my life whilst living in Oakland I happened to notice in the SFChron that Trouble in Paradise was playing at the Balboa in the City. I did not even have time to take a shower. I took BART to the City, a cab to the Balboa and settled in to my chair just as the film began. It was magnificent and magical to see this glorious, glossy Masterpiece on the big screen with an audience. The packed house applauded when the film was over. The run was extended a couple of weeks and I went back to see it three more times, once with a friend ... And the ending of this film is the greatest ending in cinema history, as far as I am concerned. Every time I watch it at home when it gets to the last scene I crank the volume up and attempt to soak up every last sexy, romantic, funny drop ...
Herbert Marshall: I know all your tricks.
Kay Francis: And you're going to fall for them.
Marshall: So you think you can get me?
Francis: Any minute I want.
Marshall: You're conceited.
Francis: But attractive.
Marshall: Now let me tell you ...
Francis: Shut up -- kiss me! Wasting all this precious time with arguments.
... Ms Francis' widiculous lisp might annoy some but I think it just adds to the charm of her character ... Travis Banton's sleek and stunning gowns for Ms Francis and Ms Hopkins are runway worthy and jaw-droppingly beautiful. Banton was Edith Head's mentor at Paramount ... Francis and Hopkins kept trying to upstage each other in the "I'm going to be a bit of a tyrant scene". Finally, Lubitsch nailed Ms Hopkins' chair to the floor so she could not move it ... Herbert Marshall lost a leg, fighting for Britain in WWI. His entire English and Hollywood career he had a prosthetic leg. Despite this, Marshall, married, had affairs with both Hopkins and Francis while working on the film ... And Lubitsch, himself, was always madly in love with Miriam Hopkins. But nothing romantic ever happened between them ...
Miriam Hopkins: Well, did you ever take a good look at her, um, ...
Marshall: Certainly.
Hopkins: They're alright, aren't they?
Marshall: Beautiful. What of it? Let me tell you something, as far as I'm concerned her whole sex appeal is in that safe.
Hopkins: Look, Gaston, let's open it right now. Let's get away from here. I don't like this place.
Marshall: No, no, sweetheart. There's more sex appeal coming on the first of the month. It's only ten days. Eight-hundred and fifty-thousand francs!
... The whole spanking speech and the "Maybe, Monsieur Leval" and the "Like this, Monsieur Leval?" stuff just cracks me up to no end. It is raunchy yet still urbane. Witty yet still naughty. So brilliant. Only Lubitsch, it seems (and maybe Preston Sturges) could pull stuff like that off ... I do not want to spoil the ending. I am sure many of you have not seen the picture, but it is so fucking adult. I do not mean adult in terms of a sexual nature. I mean adult as in, Trouble in Paradise is a sexy, romantic 1932 comedy meant for smart grown-ups. Kids would love the picture now, too, but Hollywood quit making serious, smart comedies for adults decades ago. And that is a terrible shame ... Trouble in Paradise is available on Criterion dvd (no blu-ray yet, but I am sure that will arrive soon) and is an absolute must own for any and all sophisticated aesthetes out there. It is like having Moet with Brillat-Savarin. Trouble in Paradise almost makes this atheist believe in God. Rent it, own it, whatever, just see it. It will change your life, I swear.
************
So, here, again is my personal Top Ten:
1. Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles)
3. Sunrise (Murnau)
4. All That Jazz (Fosse)
5. Gold Diggers of 1933 (LeRoy)
6. Annie Hall (Allen)
7. Casablanca (Curtiz)
8. All About Eve (Mankiewicz)
9. The Lady Eve (Sturges)
10. Double Indemnity (Wilder)
************
Thanks to all of you that voted. The compiled ballot will be published on Leap Day, February 29, 2012, two days from now.
My goodness, I love you all!
Ciao!
Feb 21, 2012
No. 2: Citizen Kane (Welles)
Remember that this is my personal ballot and not the final compiled ballot that will be published in this space on 2/29/12.
Gosh, where do I begin?
This little blast from the past seems as good a place to start, I suppose. (But also, perhaps after I have read this post, just as good a place as I should have finished. We will see.) And then, I figure, I will attack the subject in multiple sections, each speaking towards a different theme, style, or reason why Citizen Kane is so special.
To wit,
The absolute worst thing Citizen Kane (and Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz) did, and the thing that both of them always regretted the most, was the way they portrayed the delectable, sweet, loyal Marion Davies as a drunken floozy. It was such awful timing, too. Citizen Kane was released just as the American public had finally forgotten about Ms Davies, forgotten how during the silent-era William Randolph Hearst had literally shoved Ms Davies and her career down the public's throat in his newspapers. And how Hearst had blindly sabotaged her career by insisting she only do films that he would approve of, films and characters that were the complete opposite of her charming, naturally mischievous, comic style of performing, or acting.
But if Mankiewicz' famous San Simeon-insider story about the nickname Hearst had for Ms Davies' private parts is true, "rosebud", then that is worser, still. To hang the entire film on such a rude private joke is beyond small or mean.
Mank and Ms Davies were great friends. He was a notorious drunk and bon vivant, someone Davies could sneak off and drink with at the legendary Hollywood San Simeon parties. (Hearst was a teetotaller and hated the idea of Marion drinking.) In order to relieve himself of his awful guilt towards his friend, in an absolute master-stroke of self-destruction, Mank gave a copy of the Citizen Kane script to his friend and Ms Davies' nephew, Charlie Lederer. Welles would only express regret in interviews late in his life re their treatment of Ms Davies. And at one point in his life Welles borrowed a great sum of money from Lederer, which he never returned.
Perhaps I am the only person who thinks like this: If Citizen Kane had strictly, solely laid to bare the life of William Randolph Hearst and had not included Marion Davies in it, then perhaps Hearst might not have reacted as he did, or with such Biblical vengeance. I could be completely wrong.
************
One of the best arguments for why I could be wrong in the paragraph above is that Hearst and Welles had already come in to conflict before Citizen Kane was made. One of the greatest triumphs of Welles' career and of that of the American Theatre was Welles' production of Macbeth in Harlem in 1936. The production was part of the Federal Theatre Project, which was part of FDR's Works Project Administration (WPA), which was a massive economic stimulus project. (Gosh, where have we heard about projects like these recently?) Of course, some one like Hearst was opposed to the WPA and the Federal Theatre Project, and FDR and the twenty-year old director, Welles, and the fact that the cast was entirely African-American amateurs. Welles and FDR were routinely savaged in Hearst newspapers as traitors and Communists. (Gosh, who likes to bandy that word about these days -- though, now they prefer the, to them, tamer friendlier word, Socialist?)
Welles and Hearst were headed for an absolute comet-like collision course no matter what. It was inevitable.
Look, I am sure that even back in Roman times there were reactionary right-wing assholes that controlled a portion or all of the media of its' times. Before Hearst it was someone else in this country and today it is Rupert Murdoch. But go back to that link above, Jimmy Breslin's quote. Hearst set out to destroy Citizen Kane before it was released, offered $800,000 to the (Jewish) major studio heads to purchase the negative and have it destroyed. Hearst threatened to expose the studio heads as Jewish, Commie-symp Libertines if he did not get his way. And as for Welles, well, "You always suggest sodomy. Always."
Even William Alland, the reporter in Citizen Kane and the fantastic voice-over for the famous News on the March sequence, was called before the FBI to discuss if Welles and he were lovers. And if they were Communists.
That is why I forgive them, reluctantly, for their treatment of Ms Davies (sometimes great art has to be small and mean) and absolutely why I have no compunction for the way the film and Welles and Mank exposed Hearst and his media empire for the wretched reactionary creeps that they were.
What is the quote from Greil Marcus' superb book, Lipstick Traces? He is quoting Eisenhower, "Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."
************
But when the heck is Michael David Spitler gonna talk about the film, the movie, Citizen Kane?
Well, right now, as a matter of fact.
One of the only directors that I consider even in the same league as Welles (for completely different reasons, mind you), Ernst Lubitsch, was famous for his method of beginning his films. He would always work with his scriptwriter and demand that it had to be fresh, new, and different. That the first few minutes of his films had to be special.
For Citizen Kane, Welles and his crack DP (one of the greatest ever), Gregg Toland, that is how they attacked not just the beginning of the picture, but every single shot.
Every single shot in Citizen Kane is fresh and different. Every single shot adds depth to the story or the characters. Every single shot has the power to move or astonish or infuriate the viewer. And Welles and Toland used every trick in their respective bags. Toland finally got to perfect the deep focus that Jean Renoir had come to love, directing La Règle du jeu. Toland and Welles dug out the studio floors to create the dramatic low-angle shots that Hitchcock would exploit again and again. Welles brought every theatre trick he could, including insane false perspective sets, featuring giant fireplaces or over-sized window frames that reinforced story or character. Welles included cut-outs of people at the political rally (reinforcing the inherent fascistic nature of all politics or political movements). Welles (and his production design team) told the whole story of the life and death of a marriage through simple editing and by enlarging the dinner table in increments, scene by scene.
What an amazing joy that must have been to arrive on the set each day. All the geniuses were finally allowed to do whatever they pleased, try anything they had always secretly wanted to try, but were never allowed to before.
Just the News on the March sequence is decades ahead of its' time, blending stock footage, real footage, double and triple exposures, etc, ...
The camera went anywhere and everywhere. Audiences had not seen anything like this since Murnau's Sunrise, fourteen years earlier, and pretty much forgotten by 1941, Citizen Kane's release.
But it is not just the technical side that makes Citizen Kane so special. It is also its thrilling larger than life acting and characters. The fact that the finest acting performance comes from Agnes Moorehead and she is in only one scene. The amazing Bernard Herrmann score which magically and surreptitiously obeys no rules for scene changes, yet, numerous times comments wittily on the action at hand. The elegant way that the script and the performers and the production so slyly satirise American Pop Culture and the media. And on, and on, and on, ...
************
Honestly, Citizen Kane is the greatest motion picture in history. But for idiosyncratic, special romantic, personal reasons, here it will have to reside as No. 2.
Believe me, Citizen Kane (like the Beatles) is not over-rated as many would suggest. It is still under-rated. It is an absolute diamond mine of riches, seemingly infinite, with still, yet more treasures to unearth the more we explore.
************
Favorite two moments from Citizen Kane:
1. The ferry girl speech because I have had the exact same experience. I was on a flight home from Germany in 1994. The flight was delayed due to mechanical problems. They ushered us back to the terminal and plied us with free cocktails and crappy German snacks. It was there I spied one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life, waiting with me. I never spoke to her. I doubt we could have, anyway. I remember her beautiful auburn hair and her Romanian passport. At the oddest of times, every now and then, I remember the way she stood, clutching that passport. I am quite sure she never thinks of me, at all, ever.
2. The whole "in sixty years I'll have to close this newspaper" sequence.
All my love,
Ardent Henry
Gosh, where do I begin?
To wit,
The absolute worst thing Citizen Kane (and Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz) did, and the thing that both of them always regretted the most, was the way they portrayed the delectable, sweet, loyal Marion Davies as a drunken floozy. It was such awful timing, too. Citizen Kane was released just as the American public had finally forgotten about Ms Davies, forgotten how during the silent-era William Randolph Hearst had literally shoved Ms Davies and her career down the public's throat in his newspapers. And how Hearst had blindly sabotaged her career by insisting she only do films that he would approve of, films and characters that were the complete opposite of her charming, naturally mischievous, comic style of performing, or acting.
But if Mankiewicz' famous San Simeon-insider story about the nickname Hearst had for Ms Davies' private parts is true, "rosebud", then that is worser, still. To hang the entire film on such a rude private joke is beyond small or mean.
Mank and Ms Davies were great friends. He was a notorious drunk and bon vivant, someone Davies could sneak off and drink with at the legendary Hollywood San Simeon parties. (Hearst was a teetotaller and hated the idea of Marion drinking.) In order to relieve himself of his awful guilt towards his friend, in an absolute master-stroke of self-destruction, Mank gave a copy of the Citizen Kane script to his friend and Ms Davies' nephew, Charlie Lederer. Welles would only express regret in interviews late in his life re their treatment of Ms Davies. And at one point in his life Welles borrowed a great sum of money from Lederer, which he never returned.
Perhaps I am the only person who thinks like this: If Citizen Kane had strictly, solely laid to bare the life of William Randolph Hearst and had not included Marion Davies in it, then perhaps Hearst might not have reacted as he did, or with such Biblical vengeance. I could be completely wrong.
************
 |
| Welles said there were so many curtain calls that eventually they just raised the curtain and let the audience congratulate the cast and crew on stage. |
Welles and Hearst were headed for an absolute comet-like collision course no matter what. It was inevitable.
Look, I am sure that even back in Roman times there were reactionary right-wing assholes that controlled a portion or all of the media of its' times. Before Hearst it was someone else in this country and today it is Rupert Murdoch. But go back to that link above, Jimmy Breslin's quote. Hearst set out to destroy Citizen Kane before it was released, offered $800,000 to the (Jewish) major studio heads to purchase the negative and have it destroyed. Hearst threatened to expose the studio heads as Jewish, Commie-symp Libertines if he did not get his way. And as for Welles, well, "You always suggest sodomy. Always."
Even William Alland, the reporter in Citizen Kane and the fantastic voice-over for the famous News on the March sequence, was called before the FBI to discuss if Welles and he were lovers. And if they were Communists.
That is why I forgive them, reluctantly, for their treatment of Ms Davies (sometimes great art has to be small and mean) and absolutely why I have no compunction for the way the film and Welles and Mank exposed Hearst and his media empire for the wretched reactionary creeps that they were.
What is the quote from Greil Marcus' superb book, Lipstick Traces? He is quoting Eisenhower, "Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."
************
But when the heck is Michael David Spitler gonna talk about the film, the movie, Citizen Kane?
Well, right now, as a matter of fact.
One of the only directors that I consider even in the same league as Welles (for completely different reasons, mind you), Ernst Lubitsch, was famous for his method of beginning his films. He would always work with his scriptwriter and demand that it had to be fresh, new, and different. That the first few minutes of his films had to be special.
For Citizen Kane, Welles and his crack DP (one of the greatest ever), Gregg Toland, that is how they attacked not just the beginning of the picture, but every single shot.
Every single shot in Citizen Kane is fresh and different. Every single shot adds depth to the story or the characters. Every single shot has the power to move or astonish or infuriate the viewer. And Welles and Toland used every trick in their respective bags. Toland finally got to perfect the deep focus that Jean Renoir had come to love, directing La Règle du jeu. Toland and Welles dug out the studio floors to create the dramatic low-angle shots that Hitchcock would exploit again and again. Welles brought every theatre trick he could, including insane false perspective sets, featuring giant fireplaces or over-sized window frames that reinforced story or character. Welles included cut-outs of people at the political rally (reinforcing the inherent fascistic nature of all politics or political movements). Welles (and his production design team) told the whole story of the life and death of a marriage through simple editing and by enlarging the dinner table in increments, scene by scene.
What an amazing joy that must have been to arrive on the set each day. All the geniuses were finally allowed to do whatever they pleased, try anything they had always secretly wanted to try, but were never allowed to before.
Just the News on the March sequence is decades ahead of its' time, blending stock footage, real footage, double and triple exposures, etc, ...
The camera went anywhere and everywhere. Audiences had not seen anything like this since Murnau's Sunrise, fourteen years earlier, and pretty much forgotten by 1941, Citizen Kane's release.
But it is not just the technical side that makes Citizen Kane so special. It is also its thrilling larger than life acting and characters. The fact that the finest acting performance comes from Agnes Moorehead and she is in only one scene. The amazing Bernard Herrmann score which magically and surreptitiously obeys no rules for scene changes, yet, numerous times comments wittily on the action at hand. The elegant way that the script and the performers and the production so slyly satirise American Pop Culture and the media. And on, and on, and on, ...
************
Honestly, Citizen Kane is the greatest motion picture in history. But for idiosyncratic, special romantic, personal reasons, here it will have to reside as No. 2.
Believe me, Citizen Kane (like the Beatles) is not over-rated as many would suggest. It is still under-rated. It is an absolute diamond mine of riches, seemingly infinite, with still, yet more treasures to unearth the more we explore.
************
Favorite two moments from Citizen Kane:
1. The ferry girl speech because I have had the exact same experience. I was on a flight home from Germany in 1994. The flight was delayed due to mechanical problems. They ushered us back to the terminal and plied us with free cocktails and crappy German snacks. It was there I spied one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life, waiting with me. I never spoke to her. I doubt we could have, anyway. I remember her beautiful auburn hair and her Romanian passport. At the oddest of times, every now and then, I remember the way she stood, clutching that passport. I am quite sure she never thinks of me, at all, ever.
2. The whole "in sixty years I'll have to close this newspaper" sequence.
All my love,
Ardent Henry
Feb 8, 2012
Just Plain Honorable Mention, Period
This is my personal Honorable Mention list, and is not part of the final compiled Top Ten that will be published in this space on 2/29/12.
(In no particular order:)
1. This is Spinal Tap
2. In the Loop
3. Withnail and I
(Those first three are my Holy Trinity of Cult Films, I mos def know every single word backwards and forwards from those three amazing films.)
4. Slacker (depends on how you feel but I am either great fun to watch Slacker w/ or a terrible bore. I know every frickin' single person in it. Still the greatest representation of Austin ever.)
5. Dazed and Confused (maybe the finest French New Wave film ever made in the US. It is not just a genre picture.)
6. Me & Orson Welles (not really a cult film, I suppose, but I wanted to get some more Richard Linklater in here.)
7. School of Rock
8. An Education (not really a cult film, again, but part of my Nick Hornby selections.)
9. Fever Pitch (UK edition! About Arsenal! Not the one w/ Drew frickin Barrymore in it.)
10. High Fidelity
11. Dirty Pretty Things (you see, now I have slipped in to Stephen Frears' category.)
12. Dangerous Liaisons (I think this would be a great rep house cult movie. It is prob just me, though.)
12 1/2. The Snapper
13. Sexy Beast (this received a vote in someone's Top Ten! Matthew L's.)
14. Bottle Rocket
15. Rushmore (also made Matthew L's Top Ten!)
16. The Life Aquatic
17. The Royal Tennenbaums
18. The Big Lebowski
19. Serial Mom
20. Polyester
21. Female Trouble
22. A Hard Day's Night
23. Yellow Submarine
24. Shaun of the Dead
25. Hot Fuzz (also made Matthew L's Top Ten!)
26. Spaced (the two season fourteen episode English teevee show that Wright and Pegg did before Shaun of the Dead.)
27. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
28. Welcome to the Dollhouse
29. Storytelling
30. Happiness
31. Life During Wartime
32. Palindromes
33. Poison
34. Safe
35. Velvet Goldmine
36. Evil Dead 2
37. The Shining
38. Don't Look Now
39. Bad Timing
40. The Man who Fell to Earth
41. The 39 Steps
42. The Lady Vanishes
43. Young and Innocent (yeah, so I am being a little 'loose' w/ this cult definition! So sue me.)
44. Rebecca
45. Notorious
46. Strangers on a Train
47. North by Northwest
48. The Man who Knew too Much (the orig UK edition w/ Nova Pilbeam in it -- what a name, hunh?)
49. Rear Window
50. Under Capricorn
51. Rope
52. The Commitments
53. Angel Heart
54. Lolita (the Kubrick version, thank you very much!)
55. Dr Strangelove
56. 2001
57. The Maltese Falcon
58. The Big Sleep
59. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
60. The Third Man
61. The Magnificent Ambersons
62. The Lady from Shanghai
63. Passport to Pimlico
64. It Always Rains on Sunday
65. Pink String and Sealing Wax (they better mention Googie Withers in the Memoriam Tribute at the Oscars.)
66. Dead of Night
67. Whisky Galore!
68. Day For Night
69. Claire's Knee
70. Pauline at the Beach
71. Les Bonnes Femmes
72. Repulsion
73. Chinatown
And I am going to stop there. But I will be probably keep adding to this list, so if you are interested, just check back every now and then.
Mwah, ...
UPDATE! (2/9/12):
74. Darling
75. Cold Comfort Farm
76. Two for the Road
77. Bedazzled (orig Cook/Moore version w/ Eleanor Bron.)
78. Singing in the Rain
79. An American in Paris
80. Footlight Parade
81. Night Nurse
82. Baby Face
83. The Blue Angel
84. Bringing Up Baby
85. Shanghai Express
86. Twentieth Century
87. Shop Around the Corner
88. Design for Living
89. Ninotchka
90. To Be or Not to Be
91. The Merry Widow
92. The Thin Man
93. My Man Godfrey
94. Make Way for Tomorrow
95. Some Like it Hot
AH
(more soon, ... )
UPDATED! (2/11/12):
96. Tabloid
97. Man on Wire
98. Inside Job
99. The Thin Blue Line
100. The Most Dangerous Man in America
101. Roger and Me
102. Bowling for Columbine
103. Fahrenheit 9/11
104. Casino Jack
105. Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
106. The Fog of War
107. Standard Operating Procedure
108. Manufacturing Consent
109. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
110. The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
111. We Were Here
111 1/2. The Corporation
112. The Deal
113. The Queen
114. The Damned United
115. Longford
116. The Special Relationship
117. The Wire (tv series)
118. Treme (tv series)
119. Generation Kill (tv miniseries)
119 1/2. Mildred Pierce (tv miniseries)
120. Lone Star
121. Matewan
122. City of Hope
123. Return of the Secaucus Seven
124. Brother from Another Planet
125. Sunshine State
126. Passion Fish
127. Swimming to Cambodia
128. Monster in a Box
129. Terrors of Pleasure
130. Stop Making Sense
131. Silence of the Lambs
132. Something Wild
133. Mildred Pierce (Curtiz/Crawford film)
134. Eight Men Out
135. Bull Durham
136. Damn Yankees
137. Moneyball
UPDATE! (2/15/12) :
138. The Art of the Steal
139. Theremin
140. Helvetica
141. Sideways
142. Election (It has been all downhill for Reese Witherspoon since Election)
143. Junebug
144. Little Miss Sunshine
145. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
146. Loves of a Blonde
147. California Dreamin'
148. Tales of the Golden Age
(In no particular order:)
1. This is Spinal Tap
2. In the Loop
3. Withnail and I
4. Slacker (depends on how you feel but I am either great fun to watch Slacker w/ or a terrible bore. I know every frickin' single person in it. Still the greatest representation of Austin ever.)
5. Dazed and Confused (maybe the finest French New Wave film ever made in the US. It is not just a genre picture.)
6. Me & Orson Welles (not really a cult film, I suppose, but I wanted to get some more Richard Linklater in here.)
7. School of Rock
8. An Education (not really a cult film, again, but part of my Nick Hornby selections.)
9. Fever Pitch (UK edition! About Arsenal! Not the one w/ Drew frickin Barrymore in it.)
10. High Fidelity
11. Dirty Pretty Things (you see, now I have slipped in to Stephen Frears' category.)
12. Dangerous Liaisons (I think this would be a great rep house cult movie. It is prob just me, though.)
12 1/2. The Snapper
13. Sexy Beast (this received a vote in someone's Top Ten! Matthew L's.)
14. Bottle Rocket
15. Rushmore (also made Matthew L's Top Ten!)
16. The Life Aquatic
17. The Royal Tennenbaums
18. The Big Lebowski
19. Serial Mom
20. Polyester
21. Female Trouble
22. A Hard Day's Night
23. Yellow Submarine
24. Shaun of the Dead
25. Hot Fuzz (also made Matthew L's Top Ten!)
26. Spaced (the two season fourteen episode English teevee show that Wright and Pegg did before Shaun of the Dead.)
27. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
28. Welcome to the Dollhouse
29. Storytelling
30. Happiness
31. Life During Wartime
32. Palindromes
33. Poison
34. Safe
35. Velvet Goldmine
36. Evil Dead 2
37. The Shining
38. Don't Look Now
39. Bad Timing
40. The Man who Fell to Earth
41. The 39 Steps
42. The Lady Vanishes
43. Young and Innocent (yeah, so I am being a little 'loose' w/ this cult definition! So sue me.)
44. Rebecca
45. Notorious
46. Strangers on a Train
47. North by Northwest
48. The Man who Knew too Much (the orig UK edition w/ Nova Pilbeam in it -- what a name, hunh?)
49. Rear Window
50. Under Capricorn
51. Rope
52. The Commitments
53. Angel Heart
54. Lolita (the Kubrick version, thank you very much!)
55. Dr Strangelove
56. 2001
57. The Maltese Falcon
58. The Big Sleep
59. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
60. The Third Man
61. The Magnificent Ambersons
62. The Lady from Shanghai
63. Passport to Pimlico
64. It Always Rains on Sunday
65. Pink String and Sealing Wax (they better mention Googie Withers in the Memoriam Tribute at the Oscars.)
66. Dead of Night
67. Whisky Galore!
68. Day For Night
69. Claire's Knee
70. Pauline at the Beach
71. Les Bonnes Femmes
72. Repulsion
73. Chinatown
And I am going to stop there. But I will be probably keep adding to this list, so if you are interested, just check back every now and then.
Mwah, ...
UPDATE! (2/9/12):
74. Darling
75. Cold Comfort Farm
76. Two for the Road
77. Bedazzled (orig Cook/Moore version w/ Eleanor Bron.)
78. Singing in the Rain
79. An American in Paris
80. Footlight Parade
81. Night Nurse
82. Baby Face
83. The Blue Angel
84. Bringing Up Baby
85. Shanghai Express
86. Twentieth Century
87. Shop Around the Corner
88. Design for Living
89. Ninotchka
90. To Be or Not to Be
91. The Merry Widow
92. The Thin Man
93. My Man Godfrey
94. Make Way for Tomorrow
95. Some Like it Hot
AH
(more soon, ... )
UPDATED! (2/11/12):
96. Tabloid
97. Man on Wire
98. Inside Job
99. The Thin Blue Line
100. The Most Dangerous Man in America
101. Roger and Me
102. Bowling for Columbine
103. Fahrenheit 9/11
104. Casino Jack
105. Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
106. The Fog of War
107. Standard Operating Procedure
108. Manufacturing Consent
109. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
110. The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
111. We Were Here
111 1/2. The Corporation
112. The Deal
113. The Queen
114. The Damned United
115. Longford
116. The Special Relationship
117. The Wire (tv series)
118. Treme (tv series)
119. Generation Kill (tv miniseries)
119 1/2. Mildred Pierce (tv miniseries)
120. Lone Star
121. Matewan
122. City of Hope
123. Return of the Secaucus Seven
124. Brother from Another Planet
125. Sunshine State
126. Passion Fish
127. Swimming to Cambodia
128. Monster in a Box
129. Terrors of Pleasure
130. Stop Making Sense
131. Silence of the Lambs
132. Something Wild
133. Mildred Pierce (Curtiz/Crawford film)
134. Eight Men Out
135. Bull Durham
136. Damn Yankees
137. Moneyball
UPDATE! (2/15/12) :
138. The Art of the Steal
139. Theremin
140. Helvetica
141. Sideways
142. Election (It has been all downhill for Reese Witherspoon since Election)
143. Junebug
144. Little Miss Sunshine
145. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
146. Loves of a Blonde
147. California Dreamin'
148. Tales of the Golden Age
Feb 6, 2012
No. 3: Sunrise (Murnau)
Remember that this is my personal ballot and not the final compiled ballot that will be published in this space on 2/29/12.
Well, I had to include at least one artsy-fartsy pick, right? And I do not know if I can get more esoteric than Sunrise, a silent film made in 1927, directed by F.W. Murnau.
Sunrise absolutely deserves its place here. It is a breathtaking, complete marvel of a film that was decades ahead of its time. And seeing Sunrise has become a magical treat for me that makes me feel a child again every time I watch it. I am completely under the spell of this film, helpless as it plays.
It is not the melodramatic story that transports me. It is the intoxicating reverie of the country and the city that Murnau and his smashing team created on the back lots of Hollywood. Charles Rosher and Karl Struss shot the film (and won Oscars for their work), while Rochus Gliese handled the superb art direction, and Frank Williams assisted with special effects. Sunrise is a phenomenal technical achievement that would not be matched until Welles got his own paintbox fourteen years later for Citizen Kane.
In fact, Sunrise was the Terminator or Avatar of its time. It was so groundbreaking and astonishing to the Academy that they awarded Sunrise a special Oscar for being the most unique and artistic production that year, an award that has never been given to any other film in all the history of the Oscars.
Murnau was a German director who had already made a significant name for himself at Ufa, making other masterpieces such as: Nosferatu, Faust, and the most highly regarded, The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann). Murnau had been a trailblazer his entire career and could work in any genre. His films could be expressionistic in style, realistic, supernatural, surrealistic, or often times a blend of all or some of these styles in a single film. He would do anything and everything to create the film's milieu, including forced perspective, models, cut-outs, midgets, mattes, opticals, what have you. But his biggest breakthrough was the way he moved the camera. In the The Last Laugh Murnau made the camera a subjective observer in the film, an actor. And the camera now went everywhere: through walls and glass, up and down, so free and expressive. Murnau's imagination seemed to know no bounds. And he changed the American cinema because of it, perhaps more than any other filmmaker ever.
William Fox hired Murnau to make a 'prestige' film, like The Last Laugh had been, in Hollywood, one that would win a lot of trophies. Fox gave Murnau and his team carte blanche to make the picture. And two big-time movie stars were in it, Janet Gaynor (she also won an Oscar for her performance in Sunrise and two other films) and George O'Brien.
Sunrise was a flop, of course, like so many masterpieces. The critics loved it to pieces and sang its praises but audiences were not impressed.
Despite the critical approbation and the Oscars for Sunrise, Fox eventually lost patience with Murnau and eventually forced him out. One of Murnau's Fox films, Four Devils, has been lost forever. We only have still photographs of the film.
Just as Murnau was to announce signing a new deal with Paramount he was killed in an car accident. He was forty-three. The most famous and poignant 'story' related to his death is that Murnau, who was gay, never picked his chauffeurs for their driving abilities. He always picked them for their looks.
Top 3 sequences, moments in Sunrise:
1. The long tracking shot with George O'Brien going to meet Margaret Livingstone.
2. The train ride in to the City, an absolute heart-rending, tearful journey about forgiveness and true unconditional love.
3. The sequence right after Janet Gaynor and O'Brien walk out of the church, in to the street, and then a magical, bucolic, idyllic meadow, so in love again.
The clips below are not very good quality. I encourage you to watch them but mostly to get a taste of what Sunrise is. There is a fantastic Blu-ray edition of Sunrise that contains maybe the greatest and most illuminating commentary I have heard for a film. It is also available on regular dvd. For the folks that are willing to make this dreamlike journey, from the country, to the City, and back again, I most heartily recommend you purchasing Sunrise.
All my love, my angels,
Ardent
Well, I had to include at least one artsy-fartsy pick, right? And I do not know if I can get more esoteric than Sunrise, a silent film made in 1927, directed by F.W. Murnau.
It is not the melodramatic story that transports me. It is the intoxicating reverie of the country and the city that Murnau and his smashing team created on the back lots of Hollywood. Charles Rosher and Karl Struss shot the film (and won Oscars for their work), while Rochus Gliese handled the superb art direction, and Frank Williams assisted with special effects. Sunrise is a phenomenal technical achievement that would not be matched until Welles got his own paintbox fourteen years later for Citizen Kane.
In fact, Sunrise was the Terminator or Avatar of its time. It was so groundbreaking and astonishing to the Academy that they awarded Sunrise a special Oscar for being the most unique and artistic production that year, an award that has never been given to any other film in all the history of the Oscars.
Murnau was a German director who had already made a significant name for himself at Ufa, making other masterpieces such as: Nosferatu, Faust, and the most highly regarded, The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann). Murnau had been a trailblazer his entire career and could work in any genre. His films could be expressionistic in style, realistic, supernatural, surrealistic, or often times a blend of all or some of these styles in a single film. He would do anything and everything to create the film's milieu, including forced perspective, models, cut-outs, midgets, mattes, opticals, what have you. But his biggest breakthrough was the way he moved the camera. In the The Last Laugh Murnau made the camera a subjective observer in the film, an actor. And the camera now went everywhere: through walls and glass, up and down, so free and expressive. Murnau's imagination seemed to know no bounds. And he changed the American cinema because of it, perhaps more than any other filmmaker ever.
William Fox hired Murnau to make a 'prestige' film, like The Last Laugh had been, in Hollywood, one that would win a lot of trophies. Fox gave Murnau and his team carte blanche to make the picture. And two big-time movie stars were in it, Janet Gaynor (she also won an Oscar for her performance in Sunrise and two other films) and George O'Brien.
Sunrise was a flop, of course, like so many masterpieces. The critics loved it to pieces and sang its praises but audiences were not impressed.
Despite the critical approbation and the Oscars for Sunrise, Fox eventually lost patience with Murnau and eventually forced him out. One of Murnau's Fox films, Four Devils, has been lost forever. We only have still photographs of the film.
Just as Murnau was to announce signing a new deal with Paramount he was killed in an car accident. He was forty-three. The most famous and poignant 'story' related to his death is that Murnau, who was gay, never picked his chauffeurs for their driving abilities. He always picked them for their looks.
Top 3 sequences, moments in Sunrise:
1. The long tracking shot with George O'Brien going to meet Margaret Livingstone.
2. The train ride in to the City, an absolute heart-rending, tearful journey about forgiveness and true unconditional love.
3. The sequence right after Janet Gaynor and O'Brien walk out of the church, in to the street, and then a magical, bucolic, idyllic meadow, so in love again.
The clips below are not very good quality. I encourage you to watch them but mostly to get a taste of what Sunrise is. There is a fantastic Blu-ray edition of Sunrise that contains maybe the greatest and most illuminating commentary I have heard for a film. It is also available on regular dvd. For the folks that are willing to make this dreamlike journey, from the country, to the City, and back again, I most heartily recommend you purchasing Sunrise.
All my love, my angels,
Ardent
Feb 5, 2012
Thank you so much everyone
Who participated in the 2012 Movie Poll. There are still a few ballots out there that I am patiently (and kindly) waiting on. (You know who you are!)
In the meantime, I have a v important job for some of you. For each one of the Top Ten films I am enlisting one person who voted for that film to write a short, one or two sentence paragraph about why and/or what you love about the film, which will be published on my blog on 2/29/12.
I will be contacting you through email, facebook, or in person, telling you which film I would like you to write your paragraph about. Please do not share with anyone what film you are delegated.
The deadline for this is February 20, 2012. That gives you two weeks.
Thanks again, everybody. This has been a complete joy to do. Maybe I will do it again in 2022!
Here is a fun video to tide you over:
Mwah, ...
AH
In the meantime, I have a v important job for some of you. For each one of the Top Ten films I am enlisting one person who voted for that film to write a short, one or two sentence paragraph about why and/or what you love about the film, which will be published on my blog on 2/29/12.
I will be contacting you through email, facebook, or in person, telling you which film I would like you to write your paragraph about. Please do not share with anyone what film you are delegated.
The deadline for this is February 20, 2012. That gives you two weeks.
Thanks again, everybody. This has been a complete joy to do. Maybe I will do it again in 2022!
Here is a fun video to tide you over:
Mwah, ...
AH
Jan 30, 2012
No. 4: All That Jazz (Fosse)
Remember that this is my personal ballot and not the final compiled ballot that will be posted in this space on 2/29/12.
I knew that my ballot would have to contain either Cabaret or All That Jazz. And in some sense you can consider Cabaret to be section B of this ballot choice. In order to make the decision I naturally watched both films again recently. (Not back to back! That might be too intense a double feature.) And in the end, I am going with All That Jazz. Despite Joel Grey's stunning, Oscar-winning performance; the absolutely ravishing Marisa Berenson; Bob Fosse's typically sexy perfect choreography and his stellar direction (Fosse beat Coppola for Best Director at the Oscars that year!) and editing genius; and the legendary Kander and Ebb songs; there are still very shaky moments with some of the acting performances and the script in Cabaret. It is a tough call, though. (The story goes that Stanley Kubrick saw an advance screening of Cabaret in London and was heard to mutter on his way out the cinema, "I have just seen the perfect film.")
I have a deeply intimate and passionate relationship with both of these motion pictures. One of my earliest childhood memories is waking up in a theater, next to my Mum, after the credits had rolled on Cabaret and the house lights had come back on. I was probably around four years old. And I loved the Cabaret movie soundtrack. I would play it over and over again. My favorite songs were Two Ladies, Willkommen, and The Money Song. And there has never been a time in my life where I have re-watched Cabaret and not thought it absolute genius.
I saw All That Jazz upon its release in a theater, as well. With my parents. And even for a ten-year old All That Jazz fit so snugly in to my wheelhouse that its stock has not dropped even a mite in all these years. Let us face it, I was on track at that age to be a great theatre actor. I was even acting in a Broadway-styled musical at the Dallas Theater Center at the time. (The musical was called The Illusion, and was a World Premiere. It was a flop. The review headline for the Dallas Times-Herald 11/30/79: "Few wonders are worked in Theater Center's 'Illusion'". The Dallas Morning News was kinder: "'Illusion' shows a bit of magic". I did receive my first 'notice' ever in the Times-Herald review, though, " ... an adoring Newsboy, Michael Tankersley.") And considering that nearly all child actors have to dance and sing as well as act (I was a decent to good singer --still am! -- but never got very good at dancing despite lots of lessons and classes) All That Jazz seemed to me a spot-on reflection of what my life already was like. And what my adult life would be like, too.
And, Wow, what a life! Full of rejection, politics, back-stabbing peers, infidelity, partying, promiscuity, chain-smoking, lots of casual sex, recreational drugs, applause, awards, heart disease, fame, first growth bordeaux, champagne, intense massively rewarding friendships, vile hateful directors and producers, heartbreak, flops, failure, fan mail, wretched notices, media scorn, a fickle public, the complete loss of personal privacy, First Class, Michelin-starred restaurants, my personal table at Elaine's or The Russian Tea Room, loneliness, a "star on my door", etc, ... Yeah, give me that! Give me all of that and more, please!
Look, theatre and show business folks see this movie completely differently than other folks do. (Yet, the film is so rich and moving and amazing that you can still be touched without a theatre background.) If you have seen the film, you know the scene where Roy Scheider humiliates the dancer, Victoria, making her do the dance routine repeatedly, embarrassing her in front of her cast mates? I was not even out of Junior High yet, and could already identify with what that kind of experience was like. (My director was not a dick, like Fosse, but, once, I simply could not get a line right from a scene of a television program I was working on and I had a complete meltdown and stormed off the set. My wonderful director talked to me as I sobbed in the bathroom. I returned, nailed it in one take, and the cast and crew burst in to applause.)
The immensely moving ballet rehearsal scene between Scheider and Erzsebet Foldi (her performance has been criminally under-rated all these years)? I know what that is like. The perhaps even more touching "Movie Premiere Dance Present" sequence with Ms Foldi and the beautiful Ann Reinking? Been there, done that. The brilliant Cattle Call scenes? I've lived that numerous times.
Even though "An Actor's Life for Me" was ultimately not in the cards (I was not nearly dedicated enough in school or in my life) all that theatre and show biz are absolute part and parcel of my essential self. They can not be separated. That theatre life influences, on some level, no matter how minute sometimes, every single thing I do.
There is a game Renee, who has seen much more of the world than I have, likes to play with me sometimes. Whenever a place, spot, famous work of art or architecture shows up on our teevee screen or at the movies, Renee nudges me and says, "I've been there," knowing full well that I have not. Well, my answer to that is All That Jazz. Scene by scene I can go through All That Jazz and proclaim, "I've been there." And there are a lot more people who have seen the Statue of David than can lay claim to what I have done here. That is very special.
Still, even if you watch the film without any background or interest in the theatre, like I said, it still works. Those who panned it and still pan it speak of its self-indulgence; Fosse putting his fucked-up, womanizing, pill-popping, workaholic life on screen for all too see, yet, still somehow portraying himself as a lovable person. I have no problem with that. He is lovable. And that is not something that is exclusive to show biz lifestyles. We are so many of us deeply flawed, insensitive, wretched human beings, who are yet also capable of expressing and sharing love, and are worthy of receiving love. I do not see that as a fault of the film. I see it as exquisitely tapping in to one of the most important themes of our wonderful human experience. (And for what it is worth, All That Jazz is a much much much better film than Fellini's 8 1/2 -- which All That Jazz was loosely based on.)
Top 4 quotes, moments from All That Jazz:
1. "You're lying to me." "Yes."
2. "Fuck him! He never picks me." "Honey, I did fuck him and he never picks me, either!"
3. Cattle Call scene. Like the late Roy Scheider said in his commentary for the previous dvd edition of All That Jazz, "Bob Fosse put the entire Broadway Musical, A Chorus Line, in to this one sequence."
4. The "Movie Premiere Present" dance sequence.
Like Gold Diggers before it, I can not pick just one clip. There will be a few. Enjoy!
Mwah, ...
AH
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