Shorts List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol 2)

[zedz]

Lotsa others, but these were in my top 10 or so and will likely be orphaned unless someone else decides to love them too. So sad. Tant pis pour moi.

Sad but true, but not in the case of the Maddin or the Conner, where your love has been requited, so to speak.

There will be orphans galore this time around, and I hope all the contributors will wax eloquent about them after the voting's over. Seeing as we're likely not to reach 100 films with multiple votes and won't have the usual 'also rans' list, I'm planning to make a supplementary list of all non-qualifying titles that were top ten choices on individual lists (unless contributors object).

[HerrSchreck]

Alas I'm coming to this late, and wish I knew earlier so I ccould participate, but would like to echo so many of the loves and sentiments here. I wish the set of British Transport Films were coming out a bit earlier as well, since I enjoyed THIS YEAR BRITAIN so much on the BFI's lovely PEOPLE ON SUNDAY release. It's an utterly charming take on the city symphony by rhapsodizing on mans love for his fellow man (proof they're not fully documentary wink wink) and using the cityscape and travel as a backdrop. Utterly charming and completely english.

Echo on TOMATOS, all three avant sets (how surprisingly consistent in his overall oevre was the late entry from Kirsanoff SAISON, thematically and emotionally? Who understood the sadness in joy , and the sweet potential for nostalgia by looking back on melancholy, than Kirsanoff).

[Steven H]

Here's my "defend your darlings" style post for the short films, and I'm going to go through my top ten, then the orphans. Since only nine people particpated anyway, I'd love to see everyone else's favorites. As I was compiling the thing I kept a record of where I saw it, including online video links. (I'm sorry this is so damned long.)

1. Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979) Part 1,
part 2, part 3. Only 34? A crime! I could watch this on repeat for the rest of my life.

2. The House is Black (Farrough Farrokzad, 1961), its available from FACETS with a couple of (in my opinion) irrelevant documentaries. Simple one of the most striking and powerful films ever made. You feel the sand and the sickness crawling all over you, and the stark chiaroscuro leaves enough to the imagination for a permanent mark on the psyche.

3. La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962) Everybody's favorite. After watching this, the Gilliam version is like Bob Hope explaining a golf joke.

4. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1962) Part 1, part 2. My favorite Brakhage, next to Mothlight.

5. The Man Who Planted Trees (Frederick Back, 1987) This is available in a box set from FBC, though I think its also around by itself. Probably the most optimistic film on my list, and extremely rewatchable and inspiring. Back took years to make it, and the detail is extraordinary.

6. Blood of the Beasts (George Franju, 1949) I'm sure someone else will be able to better put how intense this one is.

7. Partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1936) Buy the BFI edition of this, as it has some very nice extra material (its one of the first recommendations I took from DVDBeaver that really got me off on my region-free start.) Lyrical beauty for those who thought the end of Boudu was perfect, and the sexuality of Toni just right.

8. Hedgehog in the Fog (Yuri Norstein, 1975) Watch it. I don't want to be "that guy", but christ, how did this not make the list? This and the rest of Norstein's output is available on the Russian Animation collection that Image put out.

9. The Nose (Alexandre Alexieff, 1963) Part 1, part 2. I'm really glad this one attained such a high position on the collective list. If you haven't seen it, check it out. An unforgettable piece of animation and a far superior pinscreen work to Alexieff's more well known Night on Bald Mountain.

14. La Ricotta -From RoGoPaG (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1963 Google video. I did a double take when I didn't see this on the collected list. Strange, because it seemed like when the Criterion Mamma Roma came out, this extra recieved a stronger response than the feature. Its ridiculous, but lovable.

16. Mindscape (Jacques Drouhin, 1976) Another mind blowing animated film, from the world of pinscreen. You'll be lost in the world the Le Paysagiste.

17. Les Mauvaises frequentations (Jean Eustache, 1963) I suppose this is difficult to find, but its out in Japan, and if you look around the 'net you can find choppy subtitles to go along with it. Eustache at his best.

18. Three Little Bops (Friz Freling, 1957) Always one of my favorite WB animations.

19. The Hand (Jiri Trnka, 1965) Google video. Again, I was surprised not to see this on any lists. Its a mildly silly, well animated short film by Trnka (which looks forward to both Quay and Svankmajer.)

23. Tomato is Another Day (J.S. Watson & Alec Wilder, 1930) Bizarre short film found on, I think disc one, of the Unseen Cinema set. I already went on about it a few posts up.

24. Tango (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1981) This is available in that Polish Animation set, and its worth picking up the whole thing for. Its an orgasm of spacial abuse.

25. Hagop Hovnatanian (Sergei Paradjanov, 1965) Watch here. This is the PERFECT companion to Sayat Nova in almost every way. I would rank it as one of the director's best films. Hopefully it will be included as an extra down the road.

27. Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski, 1958) My favorite short from Polanski, its available on the Knife in the Water Criterion DVD. Its memorable, funny, and well put together (though maybe a bit "cute" for some.)

28. L'amore -From Love and Anger- (Jean-luc Godard, 1969) Ah, fantastic film-about-film, and the highlight of Love and Anger for me. I'm not the biggest Godard fan in the world, just a passing admirer, but I believe this makes for great company after watching Le mepris.

31. Drumes d'Automne (D. Kirsanoff, 1929) Just like Menilmontant, an early masterpiece of cinema. Thank God for the Kino sets.

32. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (Robert Enrico, 1962) Myspace. Probably the first "short film" I ever saw, and I never forgot it. Enrico also directed one of my favorite 60s films, the light, existentialist adventure Les Aventuriers.

33. Living (Franz Zwartjes, 1971) Just had a chance to see this the other day, and I've watched it maybe half a dozen or more times since, this is a tilted and perverse attempt at distorting and abstracting a small story about a couple who are apparently moving into an apartment together. Of course, its ridiculous to even try and describe it.

34. Rite of Love and Death (Mishima Yukio, 1966) Google video. This proto-silent is a close look into the eyes of Mishima, an amazing artist who only made one film. I'm a little surprised this didn't make it on the list.

35. Rain (Joris Ivens, 1929) Google video. Its odd to me that The Bridge made it on the collective list, but not Rain. I would have thought it more well known and respected, especially with the KINO exposure, but their both great films in any case.

36. Minnie the Moocher (Dave Fleischer, 1932) Watch it. Great surreal early Fleischer. This film, or other Fleischer's like it, had to be a big inspiration for early Japanese animation.

37. Story of the Bass Cello (Jiri Trnka, 1949) Google video. Another fantastic Trnka. I had a really hard time picking between this and The Hand as to which was my favorite. Now I'm forgetting why.

38. The Metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa (Caroline Leaf, 1977) Up there with Welles' the Trial as a great Kafka adaptation. This doesn't have any of Leaf's normal cutesy trappings, and instead the paint swathes match the storytelling style beautifully.

39. Heron and Crane (Yuri Norstein, 1974) Watch it. On second thought, I probably shouldn't have included three Norstein films, but this one is just so subtle and funny, it would be dishonest not to include it.

40. Bronx Morning (Jay Leyda, 1931) One of the great finds on the Unseen Cinema sets. Maybe my favorite "city symphony".

42. Let Forever Be (Gondry, 1999) Watch here. I don't really like the Chemical Brothers, and there's no place in my heart for either Gallagher, but this is one of my favorite music videos, of which I only wanted to pick one (and I like this just a tad bit more than Radiohead's Paranoid Android.)

43. The Life of a Poet (Kawamoto Kihachiro, 1974) You can find this on the Kawamoto Kihachiro collection available in Japan. Very poetic (I'm running out of steam here, there are too many orphans.)

44. Eloge du chiac (Jacques Brialt, 1969) This is my "stand in" for the Brialt short films set, but I love it very much. As it begins you wonder if its a bunch of talking heads, but the way the documentary unfolds it has you questioning language, national identity, racism, class relations, and political boundaries of all kinds in an extremely innocent and underhanded way. Its almost too perfect not to be scripted.

45. Anemic cinema (Marcel Duchamp, 1926) Watch here. This is just flag out brash dadaism, and you just have to take it for what it is. It always brings a smile to my face, and throws you off. Duchamp made some really interesting music as well (and who doesn't like the Nude Descending a Staircase?)

46. F for Fake Trailer (Orson Welles, 1974) A hell of a lot better than Hearts of Age, that's for sure.

48. The Reading Machine (Terayama Shuji, 1977) My favorite Terayama short. It probably bridges the gap between the extremely bizarre and mostly bizarre for him. I have a similar fascination for this as I do Anemic Cinema, and I'm willing to bet neither of them would be that offended by the comparison.

50. There Was A Dog (Eduard Nazarov, 1982) Watch here. Rarely is there a moment as funny as a dog, about to sling a rope into a tree to kill himself, only to find someone watching and explain instead that he though "maybe I could catch a bird to eat."

10. Un chien andalau (Luis Bunuel, 1929)
11. Menilmontant (D. Kirsanoff, 1926)
12. What's Opera Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957)
13. A Quiet Week in the House (Jan Svankmajer, 1969)
15. Eaux d'artifice (Kenneth Anger, 1953)
20. The End (Christopher MacLaine, 1953)
21. Les escargot (Rene Laloux, 1965)
22. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963)
26. Begone Dull Care (Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren, 1949)
29. Las Hurdes (Luis Bunuel, 1933)
30. Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, 1982)
41. Motion Painting No. 1 (Fischinger, 1947)
47. Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren/Hamid, 1943)
49. Etoile de la mer (Man Ray, 1928)

[Gropius]

This is my debut as ‘sad panda'. I decided to limit myself to one film per director, something I doubt I would have done for any of the decade-specific lists. Think I'll discuss some of these in thematic groups, others on their own. Most of my favourite shorts fall into the 'documentary' or 'experimental' categories, rather than animation.

1. People on the Road (Kazimierz Karabasz, 1960)
18. Factory (Krzystof Kieślowski, 1970)
39. Happy End (Marcel Å

[zedz]

34. Rite of Love and Death (Mishima Yukio, 1966) Google video. This proto-silent is a close look into the eyes of Mishima, an amazing artist who only made one film. I'm a little surprised this didn't make it on the list.

I'm sorry - it did. I didn't link your vote for this up with the other one for Yukoku, so it actually ends up level with Bambi Vs Godzilla at number 52. I'll amend the list!

[zedz]

Most of these I've commented on way back near the start of the thread, so here's a minimal (for me) documentation of my top 10 and abandoned darlings.

1. Motion Painting No. 1 (Fischinger, 1947) – Thrilled that this got another (last minute substitute) vote.
2. The House Is Black (Farrokhzad, 1963) – You have to see this.
3. Elephant (Clarke, 1989) – Ditto.
4. Menilmontant (Kirsanov, 1926) – And most of you have already seen this, it seems.
5. Free Radicals (Lye, 1958)
6. Come Into My World (Gondry, 2002)
7. The Ossuary (Svankmajer, 1970) – I had three Svankmajers, all in my top twenty, but this one turned out not to be a popular favourite. This film has what's probably my all-time favourite score.
8. Street of Crocodiles (Quay Brothers, 1986)
9. Ritual in Transfigured Time (Deren, 1946) – I find this a much more impressive work than Meshes (my no. 43), but seemed to be alone in that. Deren was relatively neglected otherwise – though there was one bold vote for The Very Eye of Night.
10. Darkness Light Darkness (Svankmajer, 1989)

And then:

13. Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (Bitzer, 1905)

17. Rules of the Road (Friedrich, 1993) – Moving, hilarious, sharp as a tack, and with a superb soundtrack. One of the greatest car films.

18. Mor'Vran (Epstein, 1931)

19. Blinkity Blank (McLaren, 1955) – A shame not to see more McLaren. Both of my picks failed to make the grade.

20. Death and Transfiguration (Davies, 1983) – The extraordinary grim, ultimately transcendent final part of his trilogy. When is this going to get a DVD release?

21. Walking from Munich to Berlin (Oskar Fischinger, 1927) – Like Svankmajer, my multiple picks didn't get many seconders. But then, even I still haven't sprung for the CVM disc.

23. La Corne d'Or (Pialat, 1964) – Maybe my other all-time favourite score. Some of Pialat's Turkish films are mere travelogues, but this is a sublime example of the genre. Also of note is the blindingly homoerotic wrestling film (can't remember its name).

24. Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (Quay Brothers, 1988) – This was my first, mind-boggling encounter with the Brothers. If you've seen it, you can probably appreciate that I couldn't even really describe the experience afterwards.

26. Study No 7 (Hungarian Dance) (Fischinger, 1931)

27. Never Weaken (Newmeyer, 1921) – Silent comedy got surprising short shrift in the voting. I feel slightly guilty for bumping my Keatons off the bottom of my list, but my two top choices (The Playhouse, Cops) didn't attract any other votes anyway.

29. Hello Skinny (Whifler, 1979) – One of the creepiest music videos ever conceived, taking the eerieness of the Residents' track and squaring it at least. Hellooooo, Dolly.

30. Ali Click (Lefdup / Flash / Eno, 1992)

31. Pas de Deux (McLaren, 1968)

32. El Cabina (Mercero, 1972)

35. Melody (Averty, 1971) – Is this the first long-form music video? If this were an original score, it would, of course top those unofficial charts I've alluded to.

36. Last Words (Herzog, 1968) – No Herzog whatsoever is surely some ghastly oversight. Nobody else mentioned him at all.

44. La Soufriere (Herzog, 1977)

45. Screen Play (Purves, 1992) – Striking animation that starts off very poised and ‘classically Japanese' (and breathtakingly gorgeous), then turns into POV splatter. The bloody heart of Yoshida and Oshima beats beneath the clay.

49. Devotions (Broughton, 1983)

[Awesome Welles]

This is my first time voting and defending some films, of which I would only like to raise two choices (which only received one vote!).

The Birth of the Robot (Len Lye, 1936) This beautiful film preceded a screening of Things To Come and was a pleasure to watch in all it's great design and choreography, it greatly reminded me of Metropolis and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Quite different to Lye's other advertisement based short work (of which I believe some can be seen on youtube but I have not seen or checked) the film, as far as I can remember is narrative based but is mostly about the sumptuous design. For a short film it displayed a wonderful representation of the genre. I was not very impressed with Things to Come (with the exception of its wonderful production design) but left the cinema thinking of the wonderful short film I had seen.

The second film is the (Oscar nominated) De Duva: The Dove a Bergman spoof by George Coe and Anthony Lover. Spoof is the kind of word that will really put people off but this film is made with a real tenderness sensitive to Bergman's style and whilst it is mocking you can see that the makers of the film do really love Bergman (in my opinion) what really works well are the translation gags, the film is spoken in English made to sound like Swedish so listen out for things like H-20-o-ska (Subtitle = water) great fun!

[Steven H]

And thanks to all the others for their recs - Steven H makes me feel guilty for never having seen 'Tale of Tales' (I've seen 'Heron and Crane' though, and found it a bit twee).

I suppose 'twee' is somewhat appropriate, though I always just sort of thought of Belle and Sebastian when I heard that term. Its definitely "lighter" than Hedgehog and Tale of Tales, so I would give those a chance (especially if you enjoy good animation, such as Labyrinth, which I did enjoy.)

The world of Short Film is so immense that I knew I was going to start slapping myself for forgetting to include favorites that I hadn't seen in a while. Night Mail probably wouuld have been in the teens if I had remembered it.

7. The Ossuary (Svankmajer, 1970) – I had three Svankmajers, all in my top twenty, but this one turned out not to be a popular favourite. This film has what's probably my all-time favourite score.

I had a tough time picking Svankmajer films, and ended up going with a calculated choice (Dimensions of Dialogue) hoping that it would get a high place. I loved The Ossuary, though. That BFI set is a godsend. I think I've seen everything on it at least twice already, and some more (Natural History seems to be one I keep going back to, maybe more than the rest.) I've never been a big Poe fan, but both Svankmajer adaptations on this are fantastic.

Thanks for the recommendation on Hello Skinny. What a great find (I found it here.)

[colinr0380]

I shouldn't complain, since I didn't vote, but how could "A Grand Day Out" make it so high and "A Close Shave" not make the list? I've only seen the former once, but I thought it was a bore. The latter, on the other hand, is nearly as masterful as "The Wrong Trousers." Also, where's "Rehearsal for Extinct Anatomies"? Have people simply not seen it? I mean, how could "Streets of Crocodiles" make top 10 but no sign of this greater film?

I apologised to zedz when I submitted my list for a number of very obvious omissions but I'd better repeat it here and apologise to Michael B for not having watched the Quay Brothers or Svankmayer sets yet. I decided to leave them aside for my list so I wouldn't have to rush through watching them to meet a deadline. I tried to make up by including a number of Greenaway shorts - the ones that didn't make it were Water Wrackets and Dear Phone

On the other point I agree about A Grand Day Out not being quite as good as the second two Wallace and Gromit shorts, but it was still an excellent piece of work. I placed The Wrong Trousers first on my list, A Close Shave fifth and A Grand Day Out sixth. I definitely agree with denti alligator about the pacing of Close Shave and Wrong Trousers - one of the things that has been a little disappointing about the feature length Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run films is that they seem to slow a bit too much in in the middle. It doesn't mean I think the features don't work, but that they don't feel so perfectly paced, and perhaps show how suited they were to a half hour length.

I tried to choose a number of different types of films, but kept finding myself drawn to animations with Rabbit Seasoning, Rabbit Of Seville, What's Opera Doc?, Cat Feud and Duck Dodgers. I also loved Bob's Birthday, which won an Oscar and led to the half hour series Bob and Margaret. (The creators are now producing the spinoff from Wallace and Gromit, the 5 minute Shaun The Sheep shorts)

I also voted for The Red Balloon and another animation that gave a balloon emotions called simply Balloon from 1991. That film had an interesting combination of 2D and 3D with an evil stick figure stealing balloons and eating them in order to fill himself out! There are a couple of balloon torture sequences but it has a beautifully animated final sequence once the little girl has saved the red balloon, hugs it to her and they skip off happily!

I tried to add some Laurel & Hardy into the list with The Music Box. On the subject of music I added the All Is Full Of Love, Lucas With The Lid Off and La Tour De Pise videos to my list. The Chris Cunningham video for the sheer beauty of its images, the Lucas video for the complexity of what seems to be a single take and Tour De Pise for the 'sign language'!

A few shorts that have appeared on Criterion discs made it onto my list - the three Lynne Ramsay films, Peel, Eye Myth, When Angels Fall, Daybreak Express, Camera, Paris Qui Dort and a number of the Eric Rohmer films from the Six Moral Tales set including Bakery Girl of Monceau.

The other films I voted for that didn't make it to the final list were two Williams Burroughs films: Towers Open Fire and The Cut-Ups, and Nacho Cerda's Genesis - it doesn't have the notoriety of the necrophiliac Aftermath yet deserves far more recognition. While it is not a sequel to Aftermath it shares the same set up: while Aftermath dealt with a mortician violating the body of a woman who has died in a car crash, Genesis takes as its subject a sculptor who has lost his girl in a similar crash and is obsessed by 'remaking' her. While Aftermath was concerned with the viscera of the body it feels like Genesis deals with the soul, the inviolate life force, and so makes an excellent companion - deepening what just seemed like an exercise in gore in the earlier film and building to a beautiful, heart-rending ending in its own right.

There were also a couple of interesting British films that Channel 4 showed in its 'Shooting Gallery' short film strand: Skin Deep from 2001 which was a very powerful film about racism, identity and gang culture; and a darkly funny horror tale set in a multi-story car park called Left Hand Drive from 1993, where a nasty guy runs somebody over at the top of the car park, drives off following the exit signs and eventually finds he has been led into Hell! (Another darkly comic film I didn't mention on my list but deserves to be seen is Elevated from the director of Cube, Vincenzo Natali).

And I've just realised I forgot to mention 12.01 with Kurtwood Smith, the best of the 'repeating a day over and over' films.

The other two short films that didn't make the list were Blue by Don McKellar, which features David Cronenberg as a pornography obsessive; and To Have And To Hold, which is a German short featuring Susanne Lothar (the mother from Funny Games) whose character is involved in a car crash in the middle of nowhere, wakes up with her wrist in the death grip of the driver and has to find a way out of her predicament. It makes a nice companion to Funny Games, especially if you've ever wanted Susanne Lothar's character in Haneke's film to be less passive! She proves to be very resourceful in this little short! It is also probably the nearest a film could get to an adaptation of Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game!

Sorry for the lack of avant-garde shorts in my list - hopefully once I get through Michael's BFI discs, the British Transport Films DVDs and the Treasures From American Film Archive sets I should have even more titles for another try!

[GringoTex]

My darlings:

Every Day Except Christmas Lindsay Anderson
Pull My Daisy Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie
Desistfilm Stan Brakhage
Oh Dem Watermelons Robert Nelson
8.5 x 11 James Benning
Thursday's Children Lindsay Anderson
To Parsifal Bruce Baille
Hannah and the Dog Ghost Ken Harrison
A Hell of a Note Eagle Pennell
Speed of Light Brian Hansen
America is Waiting Briuce Connor
Mayhem Abigail Child
Anger Maxi Cohen
Fireworks Kenneth Anger
Mother's Day James Broughton
The Lead Shoes Sidney Peterson
Bridges-Go-Around Shirley Clarke
Eye Wash Robert Breer
The Savage Eye Joseph Strick
Little Stabs at Happiness Ken Jacobs
Go Go Go Marie Menken
BreathDeath Stan Vanderbeek
Hamfat Asar Larry Jordan
Wait Ernie Gehr
Off/On Scott Bartlett
Eclipse of the Sun Virgin George Kuchar
Bleau Shut Robert Nelson
Nostaligia Hollis Frampton
Crocus Suzan Pitt
Selective Service System Warren Haack
Snakes and Ladders Raul Ruiz
Breakfast Bruce Connor
Wedlock House: An Intercourse Stan Brakhage

Really shocked at the exclusion of Frank, Gehr, Breer, Jacobs, Broughton, Petersen, and Clarke, and wouyld urge everyone to catch some of their stuff.

[Gropius]

Really shocked at the exclusion of Frank, Gehr, Breer, Jacobs, Broughton, Petersen, and Clarke, and wouyld urge everyone to catch some of their stuff.

Many of those would have been on my list if they got more outings on this side of the Atlantic, but the problem with experimental film is that there are few prints outside the countries of origin, and even fewer venues bothering to screen them (coupled with the fact that most of the artists are opposed to/resentful about releasing affordable video versions). I really am envious of the people in New York with access to the Anthology Archives.

I did, however, manage to fit in two roughly equivalent names from the British structural film movement: Peter Gidal (ironically, an American expat) and Malcolm LeGrice. Gidal's 'Clouds' (1969) is a brilliant 10-minute handheld shot of a grey sky, with hardly any visible content except passing planes.

I hear Ernie Gehr worked/works in the same vein of materialist austerity. I've long wanted to see his films, since I'm sure they would shoot up my list: thankfully I've just learned that they will be showing some at the Tate Modern gallery in London this November, which will be a real 'once in a blue moon' event.

Another American one I forgot to mention from my list was Morgan Fisher's 'Standard Gauge' (1984), a laconic commentary on various fragments of film (presented statically, like slides) that he had collected as an editor in Hollywood. And then there's the Maysles' 'Meet Marlon Brando' (1965), which is almost an 'experimental film' in its exposition of the falsity of promotional interviewing. Brando is fully aware of the ironic metafictional dimension, like some character in a Jacobean play. Better than 'The Godfather' or 'Apocalypse Now', from a certain angle.

[jonp72]

7. Statues Also Die aka Statues Meurent Aussi (Alain Resnais/Chris Marker) This is a great cinematic essay by Resnais that I ranked two points higher than Night and Fog. The main topic of the essay is how our access to "primitive" African art is inextricably to how Western colonialism has destroyed indigenous African civilization. It is a cinematic analogue to a long literary tradition of French essayists who have the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of their era.

10. Colloque de Chiens aka Dogs' Dialogue (Raul Ruiz) Ruiz uses still photos and voiceover to create a bizarre parodic pastiche of B movie melodramas that encompasses orphans, prostitution, transsexuality, and crimes of passion. I found this with English voiceover on a VHS copy of Ruiz's The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting, although versions with French voiceover have occasionally surfaced on the web.

11. Les Maitres Fous aka The Mad Masters (Jean Rouch) I saw this on YouTube under the title, The Mad Masters.

15. Charleston aka Sur un Air de Charleston (Jean Renoir) A black astronaut from the future discovers white "primitives" dancing the Charleston in this delightful Renoir short. An amazingly ahead-of-its-time short that examines how different races exoticize each other in a sci-fi context.

16. Rainbow Dance (Len Lye) Psychedelia avant la lettre in this 1930s polychromatic tribute to the optical printer.

19. Fuses (Carolee Schneemann) The perfect short to pair with Brakhage's Window Water Baby Moving. Brakhage freaked out Maya Deren by making a lyrical, tender film that allowed men to see motherhood up close, to see its majesty but without closing it off to them as some esoteric "mystery" of womanhood. Similarly, Schneeman showed that it is possible for women artists to create explicit depictions of sexuality typically associated with "male" pornography, but to make it feel lyrical, life-enhancing, and intimate, instead of clinical and objectifying.

26. Jammin' the Blues (Gjon Mili) The best cinematic representation of jazz in a short film. Full stop.

29. Science Friction (Stan Van der Beek) I wish more of Van der Beek's films would get legit DVD releases, although a VHS tape of his work from the Center for Visual Music is available. He had a pop-art style similar to Bruce Conner, but he used cut-outs and collages from magazine and newspapers instead of found footage. Terry Gilliam has claimed Van der Beek as a major influence on him.

30. Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex Avery) If I had to describe to somebody what a Tex Avery film is, this is the example I would give them. It has it all--the jokes, the sensuality, the chases, the surrealism, the breaking of the fourth wall etc. etc.

31. The Private Life of a Cat (Alexander Hammid) Maya Deren's husband depicts a male and female cat, the birth of a litter of kittens, and the tenderness exchanged between mates, but without Disneyfying the natural world.

32. Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones) Cartoon surrealism for the masses

34. Two Solutions for One Problem (Abbas Kiarostami) Jonathan Rosenbaum called it a "Laurel and Hardy short as directed by Robert Bresson." I might call it an "Abbott and Costello bit as directed by Alain Resnais." Either way, it's a great summation of how the littlest things can turn two boys into friends or into enemies.

38. A Day with the Boys (Clu Gulager) Sun-dappled California meets suburban Lord of the Flies

39. C'était un Rendez-vous aka Rendezvous (Claude Lelouch) Cinema as pure motion. It's a you-are-there view of a car speeding through the avenues of Paris. What more could you want? Think Eric Rohmer meets the original version of Gone in 60 Seconds.

40. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (Michel Gondry) A White Stripes music video uses back projection to chronicle the destruction and dissolution of a male/female relationship in three minutes of less.

45. RocketKitKongoKit (Craig Baldwin) Baldwin takes ethnographic films of Africa and puts them in a Bruce Conner-style collage to score points in a critique against American foreign policy, an excellent precursor to Tribulation 99.

48. Your Face (Bill Plympton) A ballad accompanied by a face that morphs more than anything you'll see in a Tex Avery or Jan Svankmajer short. Romantic, funny, and surreal all at the same time.

49. Yantra (James Whitney) Zedz turned me on to this one. Early 1950s electronic music accompanies "visual music" created by letting little pinholes of light dance on some 5x8 index cards. More psychedelia avant la lettre in the style of Len Lye's Rainbow Dance.

[sevenarts]

10. Colloque de Chiens aka Dogs' Dialogue (Raul Ruiz) Ruiz uses still photos and voiceover to create a bizarre parodic pastiche of B movie melodramas that encompasses orphans, prostitution, transsexuality, and crimes of passion. I found this with English voiceover on a VHS copy of Ruiz's The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting, although versions with French voiceover have occasionally surfaced on the web.

This is a wonderful film, and readily available in the original French, with English subtitles, on the French edition of Ruiz's Three Lives and Only One Death, itself a wonderful and more recent film. The short is probably included because of the way it plays with questions of identify and imagination, thereby prefiguring the later feature.

[ogygia avenue]

Oughties: "Ryan" (Landreth, CDN, 2004)

[tojoed]

I know I'm late coming to this, but could I put in a word for Jack Clayton's "The Bespoke Overcoat", which is on the BFI disc as an extra to "The Innocents". In my opinion, it is the best adaptation of a Gogol story.

[Hopscotch]

Did this list disappear?

[domino harvey]

It's OOP

[zedz]

In olden times, the Discussion threads really were just for discussion, so the results of this mini-project were posted in the unwieldy 'Lists Project' thread. It makes sense to include them here, so here they are:

The Shorts List

Thanks to those who participated (nine in total). 340 films were nominated, and we ended up with 67 titles all together.

1. La Jetee (Marker) 326
2. Un chien andalou (Bunuel / Dali) 223
3. Menilmontant (Kirsanov) 204
4. Night and Fog (Resnais) 196
5. Blood of the Beasts (Franju) 178
6. Street of Crocodiles (The Quay Brothers) 167
7. Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren / Hammid) 147
8= Land Without Bread (Bunuel) 129
8= The Wrong Trousers (Park) 129
10. Window Water Baby Moving (Brakhage) 125
11. Eaux d'Artifice (Anger) 117
12. Darkness Light Darkness (Svankmajer) 114
13. Mothlight (Brakhage) 105
14. The House Is Black (Farrokhzad) 98
15. Ballet mechanique (Leger) 97
16. Elephant (Clarke) 96
17. What's Opera, Doc? (Jones) 93
18= A Day in the Country (Renoir) 92
18= A Grand Day Out (Park) 92
18= Les Mistons (Truffaut) 92
21. The Immigrant (Chaplin)
22. Come into My World (Gondry)
23. Report (Conner)
24. Listen to Britain (Jennings)
25. The Nose (Alexieff)
26. The End (Maclaine)
27. Scorpio Rising (Anger)
28= Free Radicals (Lye)
28= The Heart of the World (Maddin)
30. Les Escargots (Laloux)
31. A Quiet Week in the House (Svankmajer)
32. The Cameraman's Revenge (Starewicz)
33. Un chant d'Amour (Genet)
34. Tale of Tales (Norstein)
35= The Red Balloon (Lamorisse)
35= One Week (Keaton)
37= The Mascot (Starewicz)
37= Arnulf Rainer (Kubelka)
39= La Tempestaire (Epstein)
39= The Bridge (Ivens)
39= Motion Painting No 1 (Fischinger)
42. Breakaway (Conner)
43. Powers of Ten (Eames)
44. Dimensions of Dialogue (Svankmajer)
45. Alone: Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Arnold)
46. A Movie (Conner)
47. The Grandmother (Lynch)
48. Begone Dull Care (McLaren)
49. The Big Shave (Scorsese)
50. Les Astronautes (Borowczyk)
51. H Is for House (Greenaway)
52= Bambi Meets Godzilla (Newland)
52= Yukoku (Mishima)
54= Black Ice (Brakhage)
54= Mongoloid (Conner)
56. Sugar Water (Gondry)
57. Fireworks (Anger)
58= Film (Schneider)
58= T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Sharits)
60. The Alphabet (Lynch)
61. L'Etoile de la mer (Ray)
62. Neighbors (McLaren)
63= The Great Train Robbery (Porter)
63= Nocturne (Von Trier)
65. Nostalgia (Frampton)
66. The Secret of Wendell Samson (Kuchar)
67. Dottie Gets Spanked (Haynes)

The French developed their stranglehold on the top five early on (and both of the top two appeared on all but one list), but the rest was reasonably volatile, with Meshes and Window Water mounting a last minute dash to reach the top ten. Our last title, Dottie, scored a mighty four points. Special mention should go to The House is Black and Elephant (my own number 2 and 3 respectively), which got into the top twenty on the strength of only two, madly passionate, votes.

I suggest that particpants defend their darlings for this list in the "Shorts List and Discussion" thread rather than the regular "Darling Defending" thread, since there's already a good discussion going on there.

For a start, the following films all made individual top tens but failed to win a second vote:

Desperate Orphans

Birth of the Robot (Lye)
Le Chant du styrene (Resnais)
A Close Shave (Park)
Colloque des chiens (Ruiz)
Critical Mass (Frampton)
De l'origine du XXIieme siecle (Godard)
Desistfilm (Brakhage)
Les Dites cariatides (Varda)
Dove (Coe / Lover)
Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century (Jones)
Entr'acte (Clair)
Every Day Except Christmas (Anderson)
The Flat (Svankmajer)
GI Joe remixes (Fensler)
Hedgehog in the Fog (Norstein)
Intervals (Greenaway)
Labyrinth (Lenica)
The Man Who Planted Trees (Back)
The Music Box (Parrott)
O Dreamland (Anderson)
Opus 40 (Corbijn)
The Ossuary (Svankmajer)
Passage Through: A Ritual (Brakhage)
People on the Road (Karabasz)
Police Attack (Lynch)
Pull My Daisy (Frank / Leslie)
Rabbit Seasoning (Jones)
Ritual in Transfigured Time (Deren)
Scotch Hop (Maclaine)
The Stars Are Beautiful (Brakhage)
Statues Also Die (Resnais / Marker)
Trouble in the Image (O'Neill)
Wild Night in El Reno (Kuchar)

I think that's all of them.