Sight & Sound

[Lemmy Caution]

I was a bit surprised how post-war canonical Roger Corman's list is.
Like a S&S top 10 from 30 years ago.
Nothing from the last 4 decades

Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski
Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
Dr. Strangelove 1963 Stanley Kubrick
The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
La dolce vita 1960 Federico Fellini
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean
Rashomon 1950 Akira Kurosawa
The Seventh Seal 1957 Ingmar Bergman
Die Blechtrommel 1979 Volker Schlöndorff
War and Peace 1966 Sergei Bondarchuk

[Lemmy Caution]

Terence Davies locks in entirely between 1947 - 64.
Wonder if anyone had a narrower range than that.
8 films between 1949-57.

[Toland's Mitchell]

I'm noticing several famous critics and directors whose names are [to me] surprisingly absent. Perhaps someone here knows; How does S&S determine who participates? Are there a lot of critics and directors who were invited to participate, but declined?

Some of these individual ballots are a joy to read through. I enjoyed the input by Aster, Wright, and McKay (even though I'm not the biggest fan of their works). Tsai Ming-Liang also voted for one of his own. There are other examples (some already mentioned here) of participants tailoring their lists in certain ways. E.g. Wes Anderson only having French films, John Carpenter giving Howard Hawks a boost, Shraeder only representing films pre-Godfather, Refn only representing the 40s through the 70s, Alexandra Schneider only representing women-directed films, and James Benning's totally hilarious ballot (thanks for posting that Mongoose . You'd have to go through all 2,000ish lists to see how much agenda-setting there actually was. Still, I'm enjoying browsing through these.

[FrauBlucher]

I can't say I'm surprised. I've seen a few lists with the range of 30s thru 70s from that generation of film maker.


Here is the Wes Anderson list that's been mentioned
Film Year Director
La Grande Illusion 1937 Jean Renoir
QUAI DES ORFÈVRES 1947 Henri-Georges Clouzot
Madame de... 1953 Max Ophuls
Vivre sa vie 1962 Jean-Luc Godard
L' HOMME QUI AIMAIT LES FEMMES 1977 François Truffaut
LOULOU 1980 Maurice Pialat
Vagabond 1985 Agnès Varda
OLIVIER, OLIVIER 1992 Agnieszka Holland
ÇA COMMENCE AUJOURD'HUI 1999 Bertrand Tavernier
ROIS ET REINE 2004 Arnaud Desplechin


PLus Critic and member of this forum... David Hare
Film Year Director
L'Atalante 1934 Jean Vigo
Europa '51 1952 Roberto Rossellini
SAIKAKU ICHIDAI ONNA 1952 Kenji Mizoguchi
Marnie 1964 Alfred Hitchcock
Madame de... 1953 Max Ophuls
Only Angels Have Wings 1939 Howard Hawks
TIH MINH 1918 Louis Feuillade
Trouble in Paradise 1932 Ernst Lubitsch
The Pirate 1948 Vincente Minnelli
CAMPANADAS A MEDIANOCHE 1966 Orson Welles

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Darcy Paquet not having a single Korean film on his list is the biggest surprise I've seen.

[Rayon Vert]

I was a bit surprised how post-war canonical Roger Corman's list is.
Like a S&S top 10 from 30 years ago.
Nothing from the last 4 decades

Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski
Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
Dr. Strangelove 1963 Stanley Kubrick
The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
La dolce vita 1960 Federico Fellini
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean
Rashomon 1950 Akira Kurosawa
The Seventh Seal 1957 Ingmar Bergman
Die Blechtrommel 1979 Volker Schlöndorff
War and Peace 1966 Sergei Bondarchuk

Scorsese is in the same boat, between 1941 and 1968 (and he's got 15 films). (And 13 of them between 1946 and 1963.)

I don't blame them though. I'm some decades younger than these folk and my list would be stuck in those decades too.

[Maltic]

Kim Newman has Let's Scare Jessica to Death as one of the few horror films on his list. I didn't think much of it but it was long time ago. Does anybody here think well of this film and recommends a revisit?

Definitely

The Imprint release is great. Newman did the commentary with filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond (a woman, for a change). There's also an interview with him ported over from the Shout release.


https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... sica-death

[Rayon Vert]

Sold.

[ianthemovie]

Kim Newman has Let's Scare Jessica to Death as one of the few horror films on his list. I didn't think much of it but it was long time ago. Does anybody here think well of this film and recommends a revisit?

I wouldn't put it on an all-time top 10 list, but it's one of my personal favorite horror films, simply on the basis of its masterful use of tone/atmosphere, locations, and music. A great example of what I would call lyrical or poetic horror, coupled with that great rough quality that so many low-budget 70s films have. Kim Newman talks about his love for it at length on one of the special features on the Scream Factory Blu-ray.

I'm surprised Paul Thomas Anderson didn't submit a ballot for this. Was he seriously not invited? Considering the vast range of contributors to this poll I find that extremely hard to believe.

[therewillbeblus]

Glenn Kenny didn’t submit one either. He sticks out the most as a ghost from the 2012 poll who is still actively watching and reviewing movies

[ryannichols7]

Glenn Kenny didn’t submit one either. He sticks out the most as a ghost from the 2012 poll who is still actively watching and reviewing movies

partner in crime Nick Pinkerton also!

[Mark L.]

Glenn Kenny didn’t submit one either. He sticks out the most as a ghost from the 2012 poll who is still actively watching and reviewing movies

partner in crime Nick Pinkerton also!

Not sure about Nick, but Glenn wasn’t invited (mentioned in the third paragraph).

[spectre]

Pinkerton being overlooked is a crime (unless he was approached and decided not to submit of course). Could have single-handedly gotten Eustache into the top 100!

[diamonds]

(unless he was approached and decided not to submit of course)

Spoiler

[ntnon]

James Benning’s list made me laugh out loud

At least he attempted to qualify the logic....

[ryannichols7]

Glenn Kenny didn’t submit one either. He sticks out the most as a ghost from the 2012 poll who is still actively watching and reviewing movies

partner in crime Nick Pinkerton also!

Not sure about Nick, but Glenn wasn’t invited (mentioned in the third paragraph).

insane, but thank you for this, not sure how I missed it. as with everything Kenny writes (even when I disagree with him), totally indispensable. especially love his praise for Sansho, a film I feel similarly about!

[ntnon]

Full list of everyone who voted and the films that they chose.

Jeanine Basinger's list is blank...

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I don't especially care for Kenny as a writer but I'm astonished that he hadn't gotten a ballot when so many people, including myself (?), did get one!

[bdsweeney]

Annoyed that I don't have any figures/evidence to provide, but I recall either Nick James or Mike Williams saying that the politely decline/no response rate to submission invites was rather higher than you'd expect. Now that I think about it, I think it was mentioned during a podcast.

Anyway, it's quite possible that many of the big names missing were invited but didn't respond.

[spectre]

I don't especially care for Kenny as a writer but I'm astonished that he hadn't gotten a ballot when so many people, including myself (?), did get one!

Same! I was stunned that anyone thought to ask me, tbh.

Kenny's not the only one, either. Though it's nice to see that Guy Maddin's public plea for a ballot worked out for him.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... guy-maddin

[Lemmy Caution]

Half of J Hoberman's list I haven't seen. A full 5 of his Top 10. Yikes.
He sure put me in my place ....

Au hasard Balthazar
The Blood of Jesus 1941 Spencer Williams
Flaming Creatures 1963 Jack Smith
In the Street 1944-46 Helen Levitt (w James Agee and Janet Loeb)
Man with a Movie Camera
News from Home 1976 Chantal Akerman
Pather Panchali
Rose Hobart 1936 Joseph Cornell
La Règle du jeu
Shoah

[Maltic]

Criterionforum letterboxd thread favourite Sally Jane Black is also there with a ballot

BARA NO SORETSU 1970 Toshio Matsumoto
BloodSisters 1995 Michelle Handelman
I Am Cuba 1964 Mikhail Kalatozov
The Body Beautiful 1990 Ngozi Onwurah
Drunktown's Finest 2014 Sydney Freeland
Daughter Rite 1978 Michelle Citron
Nitrate Kisses 1992 Barbara Hammer
Sambizanga 1972 Sarah Maldoror
The Company of Strangers 1990 Cynthia Scott
The Watermelon Woman 1997 Cheryl Dunye

As is LB co-founder Matthew Buchanan

Alien 1979 Ridley Scott
All the President's Men 1976 Alan J. Pakula
Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007 Andrew Dominik
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 Michel Gondry
The Favourite 2018 Yorgos Lanthimos
The Godfather 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
The Last Picture Show 1971 Peter Bogdanovich
Mulholland Dr. 2001 David Lynch
No Country for Old Men 2007 Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

[Lemmy Caution]

I've only looked at about a dozen lists, and Varda's Vagabond was on 3 v. 1 for Cleo Surprising.

[ryannichols7]

I've only looked at about a dozen lists, and Varda's Vagabond was on 3 v. 1 for Cleo Surprising.

I pointed out to my girlfriend that Vagabond seems to be on far more lists. something isn't adding up...

As is LB co-founder Matthew Buchanan

I try and not get mad about these (and I've said this multiple times in this thread), but I can't stand seeing 10 English movies on any given list, no offense to anyone on here who may have this be the case

[Maltic]

I guess he's atypical in that he probably isn't a cinephile per se, but rather a tech dude who likes films and had a good idea.

His taste is fairly standard yeah... New Hollywood tentpoles + some 2007 New Hollywood Revival