The All-Time List Discussion Thread (Decade Project Vol. 3)

[knives]

I managed 543/585 which seems decent enough. There's only about ten or so that I'm actually interested in watching from that remaining 42 so I'll probably grumble later on about missing them now.

Spoiler

The Money, Heimat, L'humanite, Henry Fool, Underground, Carnal Knowledge, Exotica, Lilja 4-ever, Inland Empire, The Story of Marie and Julien, Tribe, Sherman's March, Possession, The Fire Within, Through the Olive Trees, A City of Sadness, Hole, Head-on, Flowers of Shanghai, Madchen in Uniform, The Red and the White, The Ear, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Taipei Story, My Joy, Days and Nights in the Forest, Yellow Earth, The Crime of M. Lange, Drole de drame, Irreversible, Margaret, Yearning, Liebelei, Hatsukoi, The Last Flight, Au bonheur des dames, The Asthenic Syndrome, Finis terrae, Hear My Cry, Blind Justice, The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna, and Under the Bridges.

My worst as well. This list making process made me hate German cinema:

Spoiler

1. Dorian Gray blah de blah
2. The Man Who Left His Will on Film
3. Opfergang
4. The Vanishing
5. The Lives of Others

[Tommaso]

Oh man, oh man. If the list wasn't so crammed, I'd put half of the films you haven't seen on my list. "Finis terrae", "Mädchen in Uniform", "Liebelei", all masterpieces I couldn't include. Some others you haven't seen are on my list though, like "Through the Olive Trees" and "Nina Petrovna".

I'm surprised about Domino's negative Top Five, because I'd have much rather expected some German films there. So what's wrong about "Holy Motors" or "The Falls"?

[swo17]

The Falls isn't as funny as Vertical Features Remake.

[domino harvey]

The Falls is one unclever idea repeated over and over for 3+ hours. There are few things more trying than being stuck with a film set to a smug and unfunny wavelength you can't stomach. You can CC most of this to Holy Motors too (here at service of free-associative ugliness reclaimed as beauty and style by its defenders-- ugh). However, I found Lovers on the Bridge and Mauvais sang flawed but mostly successful films, so I don't write off Carax in-whole. I certainly have zero interest in ever seeing another Greenaway pic though!

I don't think I hated any of the German films on the list that I saw, or at least not any that I can remember-- I'm not sure why you expected me to feel otherwise?

[John Shade]

I've seen somewhere between 365-380 of these films but typing out my not seen list was exhausting so now my math is failing me. My blind spots are most of the '20s films and back so I did not type them all out here, Asian films from the '40s-'60s, then a spattering of things here and there:

Spoiler

The Bitter Tea of General Yen; Maskerade; Fury; The Only Son; The Awful Truth; Guele d’amour; Humanity and Paper Balloons; Make Way for T; Stage Door; Holiday; the Roaring Twenties;the Story of the Late Chrs;The Shanghai Gest; Le Corbeau; Lumiere d’ete; The Seventh V; Canyon passage; A Diary for T; Ritual in Transfig Time; Unter den; They Made me;Stray Dog; In a Lonely Place;The Band Wagon; Eaux; Ugetsu; All That Heaven Allows; The Girl Can’t Help It; Flowing; A Face in the Crowd; Tokyo Twilight;Man of the West;Some Came Running; The Human Condition; Le Trou; Harakiri; Kwaidan; Woman in the Dunes; Yearning; Daisies; Branded to Kill; Marketa Laz;Point Blank; Death by Hanging; Inferno of First Love; The Color of Pom; The Cow; Diary of a Shinj Thief; Medea; Porcile; Days and Nights in the Forest; Deep End; The Ear; The Man Who Left His Will on Film;Performance;Two-Lane Blacktop;Du cote d’Orouet;The Long Goodbye;The Mother and the; The Stone Wedding; La Guele ouverte; A Woman Under the Influence; Fox and His Friends; Jeanne Dielman; The Passenger; The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; Obsession; 3 Women; The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting; Berlin Alex; The Falls; Blow Out; Modern Romance; Possession; Veronika Voss; A nos amours; Body Double; Dorian Gray as Represented; Heimat; Love Streams; Manoel; Yellow Earth; Come and See; Mishima; Sherman’s March; Taipei Story; The Man Who Planted Trees; Where is the Friend’s Home?; Alice; Dead Ringers; A City of Sadness; Chameleon Street; The Seventh Continent; The Asthenic Syndrome; Close-Up; Paris is Burning; Sink or Swim; To Sleep with Anger; La Belle Noiseuse; A Brighter Summer Day; Hear My Cry; Manufacturing Consent; Farewell My Concubine; The Piano; Short Cuts; Exotica; Through the Olive Trees; The Convent; Safe; Hana-bi; Underground; A Moment of Innocence; Henry Fool; Underground; Flowers of Shanghai; Fucking Amal; The Hole; Nenette et Boni; Beau travail; L’Humanite; Taste of Cherry; The Wind Will Carry Us; Dancer in the Dark; Songs from the Second Floor; Virgin Stripped;Wreckmeister Harmonies; La cienaga; Millenium Mambo; City of God; Irreversible; Lilja 4-ever; Goodbye, Dragon Inn; Birth; Head-On; Histoire de Marie et Julien; Moolaade; The World; L’Annulaire; Syndromes and a Century; 35 Shots of Rum; About Elly; A Seperation;Police, adj.; My Joy; Mysteries of Lisbon; Margaret; Enemy; Under the Skin; We are the Best! (I think it’s on netflix though…); Mommy; The Tribe

These are films that I mostly fast-forwarded or just don't remember well at all (not to imply badness):

Spoiler

Intolerance; Napoleon; Meet Me in St. Louis; Ivan the Terrible; Children of Paradise; Red River; L'avventurra; Red Desert; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Man Who Fell to Earth; The Right Stuff; Videodrome; Unforgiven; Satantango; Jesse James long title; The Turin Horse; The Master

Films I dislike the most:

Spoiler

1. Whiplash 2. The Graduate 3. Fight Club 4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 5. Blue is the Warmest Color

[bdsweeney]

I don't show that you voted for Twentieth Century. Or is that what you mean?

Yep!

[Tommaso]

I don't think I hated any of the German films on the list that I saw, or at least not any that I can remember-- I'm not sure why you expected me to feel otherwise?

You're right, and please accept my apologies. I guess it's just because you seem to be in favour of so many - mostly American - films of recent years that didn't click at all with me (or which I didn't even had any interest to watch) that I assumed our tastes were totally incompatible. Good if I'm wrong, and in any case, sorry.

[domino harvey]

No worries!

[zedz]

My two additions were added to the end, as it didn’t feel right to me to readjust. Neither were ever part of my official potential Top 50, but when I spotted them in the list of finalists I had no earthly idea why I hadn’t listed them in the first place, so they were easy and welcome additions.

I ended up seeing 526/585. As promised, here are my unseen titles. These are a mix of A: Want to see but were so long it was hard to set time aside, B: Mildly interested and will get to eventually, and C: Not interested at all but acquired them early on in the process and am now stuck with ‘em

It's incredibly reckless predicting what you might and might not like, since our tastes are generally the Bizarro World versions of one another's, but bearing that in mind, I think you might get something out of the following:

Spoiler

Manoel on the Island of Marvels - something of a cousin to City of Pirates, which I believed you liked.
Les Vampires - This film is refracted in certain strands of the Nouvelle Vague, so you might find it interesting in that regard.
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors - Who knows? Hong's about as close as modern cinema gets to Rohmer. It's witty and structurally creative.

I'm really surprised you haven't seen

Spoiler

Dancer in the Dark

, but you'd probably like it as little as I do.

And for shits and giggles, I'd love to see your reaction to:

Spoiler

Dorian Gray as Represented in the Popular Press, L’Humanite, Inland Empire, The Seventh Continent, The Turin Horse, Underground

Though I don't doubt you'd loathe them. I loathe some of them myself!

[movielocke]

I've seen 356 of them, I doubt any one wants me to post a list of 229 I've not seen.

I had Tokyo Twilight on my revised list I sent in last night, as #50, so I think it did get a vote.

I think I must have missed I was Born But both times I went through the master list, because I'd have slotted it onto my list if I'd known it was there. I feel a bit bad that Harakiri and a nos amours are orphans, as they were bubble films for me.

[swo17]

I did not receive a revised list from you.

[zedz]

I made almost no effort to watch unseen films for this project (two exceptions: Criterion's Story of the Late Chrysanthemums fell into my lap and I actually sought out L'Annulaire), since I'd already seen most of them.

The eighteen that remain unseen by me are:

Spoiler

Modern Romance, Whiplash, The Cow, The Lives of Others, Irreversible, The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrowna, Frankenstein (1910), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Au Bonheur des dames, Madchen in Uniform, Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht, We Are the Best!, Drole de drame, Chameleon Street, Maskerade, The Last Flight, The Good Fairy, Mommy

There are only a couple of those that I'm actively avoiding (I've seen enough of Noe's shit to step aside from any more, and life's too short for more Xavier Dolan movies). Most of the others are just films I don't feel any urgency about catching up with but which I will no doubt catch up with eventually.

[Rayon Vert]

Kind Hearts and Coronets was my single orphan, ranked no. 10. I'm kinda surprised it didn't get another vote. On the other hand, I would have thought my orphan would have been one of the few 30s films I included - glad to see at least another person voted for it.

Overall I was surprised at how many British films ended up in my list, and how high they ranked.

[domino harvey]

Re: zedz' suggestions

Spoiler

Les Vampires is definitely a perfect example of a movie (series of movies?) I want to see but which overwhelms me in length. I even upgraded my Artificial Eye set and still haven't gotten to it, though I believe I saw a couple parts a while ago, which doesn't matter since I'd need to restart from the beginning. The circulating VHS rip of Manoel is among the worst I've ever seen and I "shelved" it for a later date, partially in hopes a better version will arise in the meantime

I am very likely to see Inland Empire and Underground sooner than later. I'm still resentful about the time I wasted in Nymphomaniac, so I may still need a couple years before I'm ready to delve back into unseen Von Trier territory.

It's so safe here inside the spoiler box

[domino harvey]

zedz, what did you think of L'Annulaire?

[Ribs]

One of my all-time favorite films was on the Master list and I somehow missed it, so I'm glad I have the opportunity to correct that here and give it its rightful top-five placement.

I had three orphans:
La roue (dunno why this one isn't so popular - is it just a case of "Napoleon is better, so that's where I represent Gance?" I watched both fairly recently and whilst they're of course both amazing it's La roue that I'm left thinking is the better of the two)
Ikiru
Safety Last!

[swo17]

Re: zedz' suggestions

Spoiler

The circulating VHS rip of Manoel is among the worst I've ever seen and I "shelved" it for a later date, partially in hopes a better version will arise in the meantime

A better version did arise last year. You have until Wednesday to see it.

[movielocke]

I did not receive a revised list from you.

took me a bit to figure out why, but it looks like I screwed up the reply when drafting it and it never went out.

shit, now I have to figure out new replacements

[Shrew]

Looks like a lot of people haven't seen Drole de Drame. I was partially responsible for getting it on this list, but in rewatching it, I didn't find it quite as hilarious as I did back in the 1930s. Still plenty of fun to be had, especially if you're a fan of murder mysteries (or have a spouse who is). Also, everyone should make an effort to check out Chameleon Street--in fact, I'm a bit surprised Zedz hasn't seen it (though availability is a problem).

Actually, I don't know if we need to do the Orphan list project I suggested earlier, but I do think it'd be worthwhile to make a Least-Seen List out of all the unwatched piles (or at least those people are willing to submit). The goal here isn't to shame, but to draw attention to the most overlooked titles. It wouldn't need to be its own mini-project, just a voluntary follow-up project with no set timeline, like the ongoing Oscar Lists. Just to perhaps keep this thread alive by providing some clearer direction in the afterlife.

I'd be willing to compile it if people are interested. I'd probably cut-off the list at 100 or so.

[knives]

Also, everyone should make an effort to check out Chameleon Street--in fact, I'm a bit surprised Zedz hasn't seen it (though availability is a problem).

I was thinking this same thing. Honestly if it were more seen I think it would be the common ground for a lot of people. I mean how many movies feature an extensive Cocteau tribute and have also been sampled by Black Star?

[domino harvey]

I don't see any reason why folks couldn't use this thread to discuss any eligible titles, Orphans included, post-list. We don't generally have folks using the Decade threads like that, but this being a finite source falls more into the purview of the Genre Lists as it is

[zedz]

zedz, what did you think of L'Annulaire?

I liked it well enough, but didn't love it. When it was first mentioned here, and discussion was cushioned in spoilers, I thought it might have been a really horrible Euro 'thriller' I'd seen around that time in which a lonely woman's domineering new partner basically forces her into anorexia. I couldn't remember the title of it, but it soon became apparent this was a different film, so it went on my look-out list. There are plenty of slightly surreal, slightly erotic mystery films by young European directors, but this steered a solid course to the side of interesting, so I'll keep an eye out for her other work.

I've done a bit of research on my ghastly anorexia-porn film, and it turned out to be First Love, the film Matteo Garrone made before Gommorah, so watch out for that one!

Oh, and I agree about avoiding some films because the materials just aren't good enough and might spoil my first encounter with a film.

[zedz]

Looks like a lot of people haven't seen Drole de Drame. I was partially responsible for getting it on this list, but in rewatching it, I didn't find it quite as hilarious as I did back in the 1930s. Still plenty of fun to be had, especially if you're a fan of murder mysteries (or have a spouse who is). Also, everyone should make an effort to check out Chameleon Street--in fact, I'm a bit surprised Zedz hasn't seen it (though availability is a problem).

Those are both among the films that I keep expecting one of the key labels to rescue, so I've been lazy. Madchen in Uniform might be the ultimate example of that. Wasn't it rumoured for Criterion or MoC at some point?

[denti alligator]

Madchen in Uniform might be the ultimate example of that. Wasn't it rumoured for Criterion or MoC at some point?

God, that would be wonderful!

[knives]

Looks like a lot of people haven't seen Drole de Drame. I was partially responsible for getting it on this list, but in rewatching it, I didn't find it quite as hilarious as I did back in the 1930s. Still plenty of fun to be had, especially if you're a fan of murder mysteries (or have a spouse who is). Also, everyone should make an effort to check out Chameleon Street--in fact, I'm a bit surprised Zedz hasn't seen it (though availability is a problem).

Those are both among the films that I keep expecting one of the key labels to rescue, so I've been lazy. Madchen in Uniform might be the ultimate example of that. Wasn't it rumoured for Criterion or MoC at some point?

Technically Chameleon Street is out on a good DVD by HVE if it is not fetching for outrageous prices.