Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 89

rich_d · 04-11-2005, 04:01 PM

Well, late to the game. I'll try it and see how I do. I'm planning to concentrate on the films that made the top 100. I really don't care much about seeing some film because two people I don't know might like it or are trying to make some personal statement.

It would be nice if the first post was updated so as to remove the redundant films and perhaps a few more words about how it was prepared.

I think the top 20 is a fine list ... below that it starts getting really shaky. Many of my top 20 films were not made or funded by Hollywood. So I don't have any problem with the list reflecting a worldly view. In fact I like it. I do have a problem when a truly top title seems to be set aside for some 'homer' votes.

My total = 116. If I can't remember a film well enough to discuss it - I didn't count it. Many Chaplin films and others fall into that category.

Adam_S · 04-11-2005, 04:55 PM

Welcome rich. The first post used to be sorted by rank, and list directors and dvd availability. Alas, it was done in a spreadsheet/html format that required a lot of characters. Last year the HTF server crashed and when it came back up apparently there was a new character limit on messages, while I've never seen a post with actual words go over that limit, posts like the first one on this thread that used up thousands of characters for ahref= blah blah blah just for simple formatting quickly ran over and there was no way to keep the complete list, just a partial. I ran into the same trouble with a list I was keeping in the AFI thread about my progress for all those lists, but that was just because of all the links it included to my comments on the films as I saw them.

Adam

Lew Crippen · 04-11-2005, 05:49 PM

Welcome Rich. Basically the list is a subset of the last S&S poll, films that were only mentioned by one director or critc not being included. This poll has been taken every ten years since 1952. You can find details of the S&S polls here.

rich_d · 04-13-2005, 07:00 PM

Thanks for the welcome.

For those that don't turn up their noses to recording, TCM's Saturday/Early Sunday lineup of Renoir films followed by a Hitch short ain't bad. (All times E.S.T).

8:00 pm
Grand Illusion, The (1937)

French POWs fight to escape their German captors during World War I. Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Jean Gabin. Director: Jean Renoir. BW-113m

10:00 pm
This Land Is Mine (1943)

A soft-spoken school teacher tries to prove he's not a Nazi collaborator. Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders. Director: Jean Renoir. BW-103m

12:00 am
Woman On The Beach, The (1947)

A coast guardsman begins to think his mistress's blind husband can really see. Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford. Director: Jean Renoir. BW-71m

1:15 am
River, The (1951)

Members of an English settlement cope with the exotic lure of life in India. Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields. Director: Jean Renoir. C-99m

3:00 am
Rules of the Game (1939)

A famed flier pursues a married woman during a weekend at her husband's country estate. Nora Gregor, Jean Renoir, Marcel Dalio. Director: Jean Renoir. BW-106m

5:00 am
Bon Voyage (1944)

A downed British flyer is used by Nazi agents in World War II France. John Blythe, The Moliere Players. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. BW-26m

I have the Criterion versions of Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game but don't have the others on video.

Seth Paxton · 04-14-2005, 11:15 AM

Yes Rich, you have two friends in this quest - TIVO and Netflix.

Add a third - the local library for some harder to finds on VHS awaiting a DVD release.

Amazingly when we did the original AFI revote we had to pass around a VHS copy of Sunrise from the old library version, well before the great DVD release came about. I just went to Netflix to update my queue and found that there is probably less than 100 films not available from them on DVD now.

Take this challenge as a general survey of world films, various techniques, various famous directors, time periods, silents, shorts, epics, H'wood and anti-H'wood. In that way it's a fantastic, albeit difficult, viewing plan.

Brook K · 04-14-2005, 12:34 PM

I was close to the point of being stuck but Criterion is releasing several more S&S films over the next few months like F For Fake (which Netflix still doesn't list, I'm getting worried they won't carry it for some reason), The Phantom Of Liberty, and Au Hasard Balthazar along with New Yorker about to release Pickpocket.

272 L'Eclisse

The third part of Antonioni's trilogy about finding love in the modern world stars Monica Vitti as a woman ending one relationship and seeking true love; and Alain Delon as a stock broker who will pursue her.

This is the first Antonioni film that I truly connected with. The film begins at the end of an all-night argument. Vitti and her lover have talked though everything there is to say, their relationship is over. By establishing us directly within Vitti's world, rather than his usual practice of approaching characters from an exterior point of view, we establish an instant rapport with the character and interest in her plight. She is allowed to emote and appear truly human rather than the damaged, almost empty shells of The Red Desert and La Notte or the consumptive, single-minded pursuit of L'Avventura. The camera may reveal an empty, heartless world, but the principle characters are never overwhelmed by it.

The eclipse of the title is one of the human heart. Through the metaphor of the busy stock market, we see people who are too caught up in the pursuit of success and wealth to have time for simpler concepts like love. Even Vitti's own mother in the film is a day trader, too busy counting her lira and kvetching about vast commercial conspiracies to have time to be of comfort to her daughter. Delon is caught between two worlds, career and desire. He can offer himself to Vitti for a wonderful day but both know where his heart truly lies.

If Antonioni's modernist cinematic inventions are now as of their time as the politics of Godard's Tout Va Bien! (another film about trying to find one's place in the chaos of modern life), it is the humanism and emotional depth of Monica Vitti's performance that L'Eclisse can be remembered and celebrated for. A-

Michelangelo Antonioni Films

1. L'Eclisse - A-
2. Il Grido - B
3. La Notte - B
4. The Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) - B-
5. L'Avventura - C

Dome Vongvises · 04-14-2005, 03:02 PM

Has anybody left Netflix and returned to it? They're offering me a better deal to come back.....sort of.

It used to be 20+ but they're giving me 17+ now. I just recently purchased Kagemusha, and I'm getting ready to order Rashomon online.

Oh yeah, put me back on the S&S list.

Seth Paxton · 04-15-2005, 05:30 AM

Quote:

The eclipse of the title is one of the human heart.

So its a total eclipse of the heart?

Is the story that once upon a time she was falling in love, but now she's only falling apart?

Going through my list for Netflix I noticed that I had overlooked adding Sugar Cane Alley which I saw for class quite awhile back, more than a year ago as I recall.

Good film, but definitely one on the "culturally relevant" side of things. It's film that critics and theorists use to discuss colonialism as depicted in film and in that regard its a major go-to film which gives in strong merit. But in terms of artistic power I don't think it carries a lot (see To Sleep with Anger as well).

Decent film, well worth viewing, just don't see this as a legit top 10 earth shaker, but we know how that road goes for most of the list.

214 seen, 4 more in the house ready to go

PS - I also added some sidebars thanks to my Netflixing S&S films. I found other films by the artists or similar matches that caught my interest. For example, I'm finally going to see what Criterion saw in Blood for Dracula which is on its way to me right now.

Lew Crippen · 04-15-2005, 11:14 AM

Great review Brook, even though I disagree about L'Avventura.

Brook K · 04-15-2005, 11:30 AM

TURN AROUND BRIGHT EYES (in my shriekiest falsetto)

Thanks Seth, I'm now completely embarrassed. I should probably revise the review anyway to include some comments about the photography. I just couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound repetitious.

I definitely should watch L'Avventura again one of these days. It was probably a mistake that it was the first Antonioni film I saw.

Is Sugar Cane Alley on the list? Was it one of those late additions? It isn't on the printed list I have, or in my notes for stuff we added later like Love Me Tonight. (which I keep waiting for TCM to put in their rotation again, but they haven't shown it in months).

Blood For Dracula is fantastic fun. I'm just highly amused by the concept that Dracula is forced to leave Transylvania because of a lack of virgins in the area

Plus Udo Kier gives a hilarious performance as the Count. Watch for Warhol/Morrissey star Joe Dallesandro and if you are as intrigued as I was, check out Flesh, Trash, and Heat.