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Post by davey on Dec 2, 2022 9:22:59 GMT
There's obviously been a push to include more women filmmakers in the voting, whether this was conscious or not doesn't matter. I think it's fair enough and partly explains the new number one and high places for Beau Travail, Daisies, Wanda and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (all either new entries or big jumps in the ranking). I don't see any tokenism (an accusation you sometimes hear) BUT having Cleo so high (number 14!) doesn't make a lot of sense to me - it's a sweet film but a long way from great. I just think they wanted to credit Agnes Varda and it's arguably her most well-known feature. The problem with the push for diversity in these sorts of polls is that women and people of color largely didn’t get to make films too often for decades - and seldom with a lot of artistic freedom when they did. So it’s not like there’s a giant hidden cache of great films by them that nobody’s seen. For the most part, whatever great films they might have contributed never got made. All the more reason to celebrate the triumphs, I suppose. But it will probably take another hundred years before a large enough body of work exists across the identity spectrum to make this kind of concerted effort feel organic. I guess I appreciate the intent more than the outcome.
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Post by oh oooh on Dec 2, 2022 9:29:06 GMT
Yeah, this is as far as it can go, I suppose. They've dug deeper than in past years and the gold they've unearthed is represented. I think maybe there's been a bit too much of a swing, and that might be 'rectified' in time. I dunno. I can't say it concerns me too much, it's just a list (although one with quite a bit of weight in film buffs' eyes).
There was some talk that very 'male' films like The Searchers and The Godfather would suffer because of this change in the culture, but that hasn't really happened.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Dec 2, 2022 15:08:45 GMT
I've never heard of the number one! I guess it must have undergone some massive critical re-evaluation over the last ten years. I guess it shows how out of touch I am that this passed me by. It does seem a bit ridiculous to have a number one that never even appeared on previous lists, although I quite like the 'canon' being shaken up a bit. These things shouldn't be set in stone.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Dec 2, 2022 15:11:50 GMT
Actually it was at 35 in the last one, but still not that high.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Dec 2, 2022 15:18:46 GMT
Now I'll have to watch Tokyo Story, 8 1/2 and MStart with M.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Dec 2, 2022 15:25:25 GMT
I find it weird that Vertigo would be so highly rated. I generally love Hitch, but it's a struggle to sit through. The pacing is terrible, James Stewart gives probably his worst performance, really stilted and awkward; you have no reason to care for him given his weird stalkerish behaviour. The plot is irredeemably silly, and the only character who feels like a fully realised human, Midge, seemingly has little purpose and disappears aimlessly from the movie. It's been a huge critical fave for about 40 years so not so strange (although critics largely disliked it on release). I love it personally, it would still be my number one. Give it a rewatch -forget about how "realistic" or otherwise the plot is - that's not the point, instead watch it as a delirious, dreamlike journey into obsession. As for Midge - that's life I'm afraid. We've all surely experienced the person who could have been the ideal partner, but we just couldn't see it at the time. Instead we were taken in by some delusion.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Dec 2, 2022 16:52:04 GMT
That’s the thing, there is something universal about Scotty. It’s love as illusion. Everyone falls for that.
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Dec 2, 2022 17:15:06 GMT
I love "Vertigo" but agree with most of what is said about it. As much as I love it I never expected to see it at the top of that list. I think Hitchcock put a lot more of himself into that film than he thought he did. For all the dated over ripeness in music and design matters his obsessiveness dominates Stewart's every twitch. There's a character in a John Waters movie who stomps people's feet until he is "rehabilitated" and then he paints pictures of people's feet. I think Hitchcock did something like that and I do think this is what many critics respond to. I'll bet Tippi Hedren would have a hard time watching "Vertigo".
I'm glad to see it replaced by a film I've never seen! looking forward to it.
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Post by oh oooh on Dec 2, 2022 17:25:43 GMT
and you should all watch Satantango now
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Dec 2, 2022 18:55:18 GMT
I love "Vertigo" but agree with most of what is said about it. As much as I love it I never expected to see it at the top of that list. I think Hitchcock put a lot more of himself into that film than he thought he did. For all the dated over ripeness in music and design matters his obsessiveness dominates Stewart's every twitch.
The music and art design are two of the best things about it!
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Dec 2, 2022 19:19:31 GMT
oh yeah! but play the soundtrack and somebody is going to give you a dirty look.
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Post by oh oooh on Dec 2, 2022 19:25:34 GMT
someone on Fb:
seeing films like Raging Bull, The Godfather Pt II, Chinatown, The Seventh Seal, Lawrence of Arabia, The Grand Illusion, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, Wild Strawberries, Children of Paradise, Pickpocket, and other masterpieces dropped to make way for films like Get Out, Moonlight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (all the way up at #30. no less), raises my eyebrow in a way that can't be rationalized with "get with the times", especially since the aforementioned are simply timeless.
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Post by davey on Dec 2, 2022 19:27:50 GMT
Vertigo is kind of a ghost story, except that it doesn’t have any actual ghosts. It’s about the difference between logic and explanation vs. all of the shit that causes obsession, dread and other human reveries.
The plot is pretty much beside the point. Stewart’s Scotty thinks everything somehow has to make sense. But HE doesn’t make sense. What he wants and is compelled by is irrational.
It’s a genius film, using color, music and mood to evoke the whole roiling sea of passion and confusion just beneath the protagonist’s attempt to reduce everything to a simple understandable explanation.
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Dec 2, 2022 19:34:16 GMT
someone on Fb: seeing films like Raging Bull, The Godfather Pt II, Chinatown, The Seventh Seal, Lawrence of Arabia, The Grand Illusion, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, Wild Strawberries, Children of Paradise, Pickpocket, and other masterpieces dropped to make way for films like Get Out, Moonlight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (all the way up at #30. no less), raises my eyebrow in a way that can't be rationalized with "get with the times", especially since the aforementioned are simply timeless.this is fair but I wouldn't have it any other way. lots of publications have come on gone but Sight & Sound is still there - still plugging away, still looking at the films of the past through the lens of the present.
those who are dissatisfied now will shape what comes later. same as it ever was. I love it!
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Post by davey on Dec 2, 2022 19:37:22 GMT
It isn’t our world anymore. To the extent that it ever was.
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