At Last a refreshing film list - REBEL CINEMA (1 Viewer)

[Jim_K]

I stumbled upon this list through filmsite.org, a great site for film buffs though they focus primarily on American/English language films.

Taken from Premiere Magazine's Oct '98 issue (yeah it's a little old) it was meant as a response to the AFI's 100 Best Films as none of the films appear on the AFI list. "Rebel Cinema or 100 Movies That Shook the World, celebrating the filmmakers (and their films) who dared to be ridiculous, offensive, or even unpopular, and who still came up with classic films. "

Because of the intent of this list rather then some pompous attempt to list the greatest films (AFI - S&S) it's a refreshing list of 100 films that should be seen. I've seen 75 of these & while not all are my cup of tea, this is one of the most interesting list's I've come across. Maybe if there's enough interest I'll run a Film Challenge with this list.

This list is not ranked but rather in alphabetical order.

100 MOST DARING MOVIES EVER MADE

Airplane! (1980), d. Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

Akira (1989), d. Katsuhiro Otomo

Animal Crackers (1930), d. Victor Heerman

Badlands (1973), d. Terrence Malick

Bananas (1971), d. Woody Allen

Battleship Potemkin (1925), d. Sergei Eisenstein

Belle de Jour (1967), d. Luis Bunuel

The Birds (1963), d. Alfred Hitchcock

Blade Runner, d. Ridley Scott

Blazing Saddles (1974), d. Mel Brooks

Blow-Up (1966), d. Michelangelo Antonioni

Blue Velvet (1986), d. David Lynch

Bob Le Flambeur (1955), d. Jean-Pierre Melville

Brazil (1985), d. Terry Gilliam

Breathless (1959), d. Jean-Luc Godard

Bride of Frankenstein (1935), d. James Whale

Cat People (1942), d. Jacques Tourneur

Un Chien Andalou (1928), d. Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali

The Conformist (1971), d. Bernardo Bertolucci

The Conversation (1974), d. Francis Ford Coppola

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), d. Woody Allen

The Crowd (1928) , d. King Vidor

Dead Ringers (1988), d. David Cronenberg

Detour (1945), d. Edgar G. Ulmer

The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), d. Gerard Damiano

Dirty Harry (1971), d. Don Siegel

Don't Look Back (1967), d. D.A. Pennebaker

Do the Right Thing (1989), d. Spike Lee

Drugstore Cowboy (1989), d. Gus Van Sant

Dumbo (1941), d. Ben Sharpsteen

8 1/2 (1963), d. Federico Fellini

Eyes Without a Face (1959), d. Georges Franju

Faces (1968), d. John Cassavetes

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), d. Russ Meyer

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), d. Amy Heckerling

Flesh (1968), d. Paul Morrissey

The 400 Blows (1959), d. Francois Truffaut

Freaks (1932), d. Tod Browning

The Gang's All Here (1943), d. Busby Berkeley

The Girl Can't Help It (1956), d. Frank Tashlin

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), d. Sergio Leone

Halloween (1978), d. John Carpenter

A Hard Day's Night (1965), d. Richard Lester

The Harder They Come (1973), d. Perry Henzell

The Hustler (1961), d. Robert Rossen

If.... (1968), d. Lindsay Anderson

In the Company of Men (1997), d. Neil LaBute

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), d. Don Siegel

Johnny Guitar (1954), d. Nicholas Ray

Jules et Jim (1961), d. Francois Truffaut

The Killer (1989), d. John Woo

The Killing (1956), d. Stanley Kubrick

Kiss Me Deadly (1955), d. Robert Aldrich

The Last Picture Show (1971), d. Peter Bogdanovich

Last Tango in Paris (1973), d. Bernardo Bertolucci

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), d. John Ford

Man With a Movie Camera (1929), d. Dziga Vertov

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978), d. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Mean Streets (1973), d. Martin Scorsese

Medium Cool (1969), d. Haskell Wexler

Metropolis (1926), d. Fritz Lang

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), d. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones

My Brilliant Career (1979), d. Gillian Armstrong

Nashville (1975), d. Robert Altman

The Night of the Hunter (1955), d. Charles Laughton

Night of the Living Dead (1968), d. George A. Romero

Nosferatu (1922), d. F. W. Murnau

Olympia (1938), d. Leni Riefenstahl

Open City (1946), d. Roberto Rossellini

Pandora's Box (1928), d. G. W. Pabst

Peeping Tom (1960), d. Michael Powell

Persona (1966), d. Ingmar Bergman

The Piano (1993), d. Jane Campion

Pink Flamingos (1972), d. John Waters

Raising Arizona (1987), d. Joel Coen

Rashomon (1950), d. Akira Kurosawa

Repulsion (1965), d. Roman Polanski

Reservoir Dogs (1992), d. Quentin Tarantino

Ride the High Country (1962), d. Sam Peckinpah

The Road Warrior (1981), d. George Miller

The Rules of the Game (1939), d. Jean Renoir

Scarface (1932), d. Howard Hawks

Scarface (1983), d. Brian De Palma

Seconds (1966), d. John Frankenheimer

The Seven Samurai (1954), d. Akira Kurosawa

Shaft (1971), d. Gordon Parks

Sherlock, Jr. (1924), d. Buster Keaton

Shock Corridor (1963), d. Sam Fuller

Stranger Than Paradise (1984), d. Jim Jarmusch

Sullivan's Travels (1941), d. Preston Sturges

Sweet Smell of Success (1957), d. Alexander Mackendrick

Swept Away By An Unusual Destiny In the Blue Sea of August (1975), d. Lina Wertmuller

The Terminator (1984), d. James Cameron

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), d. Tobe Hooper

The Thin Blue Line (1988), d. Errol Morris

Touch Of Evil (1958), d. Orson Welles

Trainspotting (1996), d. Danny Boyle

28-Up (1985), d. Michael Apted

Walkabout (1971), d. Nicolas Roeg

Zero For Conduct (1933), d. Jean Vigo


thoughts?

 

[SteveGon]

Pretty nice list (seen 83 of 'em).

 

[John Kilduff]

Some of these titles would later end up on the specialty lists (Laughs, Thrills, et cetera).

Good picks, though.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Hooray for "Scarface"!

 

[Ernest Rister]

ROFLMAO!

The 100 Most Daring Movies Ever Made - and it lists DUMBO - but not FANTASIA?!? The first stereo/surround film ever made, with Walt Disney animating bare-breasted witches and demons and dinosaurs eating each other, Walt's animators defy creationists and they actually show evolution just a dozen or so years after the Scopes Monkey Trial, Fantasia sports the first pure examples of American abstract animation, Mickey is his own worst enemy, a side-splitting satire of ballet, Walt dares to stake a claim that anmation is an art form and (brain explodes)....DUMBO!?!? Not even Snow White (1st American animated narrative feature), Pinocchio (most acclaimed animated feature), Fantasia (light-years ahead of its time) or Bambi (a film that has played a crucial part in the modern American drive to preserve nature)...but DUMBO?!? Why - "Pink Elephants on Parade"? An elephant drinking champagne?

Bzzzzzt.

Don't need to read the rest of the list. Waste of time.

 

[Walter Kittel]

You have problems with 1% of the list so the entire thing is crap. Um, okay.

No list is ever going to satisfy everyone, but that list does have some pretty solid titles on it. Any list that has such a diverse collection of well known and lesser known gems on it is okay with me. Thanks for posting, Jim.

- Walter.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"You have problems with 1% of the list so the entire thing is crap. Um, okay."

That 1% is enough to dissuade me from reading the other 99%.

 

[george kaplan]

Seen 68

Loved 18

Hated 20

No need to ever see again, but didn't inspire hatred - 30

One I most would like to see that I haven't - The Devil in Miss Jones

 

[Haggai]

Both Snow White (#49) and Fantasia (#58) were on the AFI Top 100 list, although Pinocchio and Bambi weren't. I presume that's also why Reservoir Dogs is on there without Pulp Fiction (#95 on AFI).

 

[David_Blackwell]

I love most of the list, but I think Seconds is overrated an Belle De Jouur just sucks (talk about such a tame and boring movie).

 

[Haggai]

Some great movies on this list, I'm glad to see some props for Drugstore Cowboy, which I adore. I've seen about half the list, and there are a few that I think are overrated, notably The Harder They Come. Magnificent soundtrack, but the movie is underwhelming. I thought City Of God was reminiscent of it in some ways (along with the more obvious Scarface/Goodfellas-type gangster film influences), only billions of times better. One of the best movies I've ever seen, and it would have to be on any self-respecting updated version of this list.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Presumably the same applied when you first picked up a mathematics book - you cited 2% of the list.

It's an interesting list (and I've seen most of the films listed) but having said that, the AFI is very insular in its views, so I've never taken it very seriously. IMHO rather better lists are the once-a-decade BFI and for arthouse movies only, the annual Cannes prize-winners.

 

[Jim_K]

Er... whatever I guess. To each his/her own.

For anyone else who's interested here's the actual write-up from the issue.

Dumbo (1941), d. Ben Sharpsteen
" Because of its high-brow musical premise, Fantasia (1940) is often considered to be the height of Disney animation - and a great date movie for stoners. But Fantasia looks almost elephantine next to this surreal, 64-minute cartoon classic, the coming-of-age saga of a pachyderm with massive ears. And stoners beware: It also features the eerily inebriated "Pink Elephants on Parade." "


For George

The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), d. Gerard Damiano
" The "porno chic" movement that began when Dimiano's Deep Throat was found to be not obscene reached an aesthetic crest with this lavishly produced, woman-centered fantasy of hard-core sex. Georgina Spelvin's Miss Jones introduced many an innocent American to oily massages, snake-swallowing, multiple partners, and bisexuality. "


Actually I originally wanted to post all of the write-ups (It helps put the list in perspective & makes it more chat-worthy) but was unsure if it might be against forum policy to do so. Again the list is from a 6 year old magazine issue but is posted up on another unrelated site.

Is there a Moderator out there who can give me the say so if this is OK or not? If not I'll just post a link.

 

[Tim_C]

Interesting list (though I've only seen about 20 of the movies on it.) I don't hate the AFI lists like some people do (yes, they mostly ignored any cult or 'lesser known' classics, but a large majority of the films they chose were still among the greatest ever made.) But it's always nice to see some smaller, less hyped lists. (And it's always great to see one of my favorite films of all time, The Crowd, on any list of great movies.)

 

[Mike Broadman]

This thread gave me a lot of stuff to put on my Netflix queue. Thanks!

 

[Zen Butler]

Fun little list. I wouldn't say Scarface '83 belongs there but hopefully some conversation will ensue.

Ones I would second:
Akira
Touch of Evil
Persona
Rashomon


A few I would have liked on the list:

Platoon
Killing Fields
Battle of Algiers
Schindler's List

 

[Arman]

Overall, a thumb-up from me.

for the following (daring masterworks made by the rebels & geniuses of world cinema are bolded):

Airplane! (1980), d. Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Akira (1989), d. Katsuhiro Otomo
Badlands[/color] (1973), d. Terrence Malick
Battleship Potemkin (1925), d. Sergei Eisenstein
Belle de Jour (1967), d. Luis Bunuel
The Birds (1963), d. Alfred Hitchcock
Blow-Up (1966), d. Michelangelo Antonioni
Blue Velvet (1986), d. David Lynch
Bob Le Flambeur (1955), d. Jean-Pierre Melville
Breathless (1959), d. Jean-Luc Godard
Bride of Frankenstein (1935), d. James Whale
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), d. Woody Allen
Do the Right Thing (1989), d. Spike Lee
8 1/2 (1963), d. Federico Fellini
The 400 Blows (1959), d. Francois Truffaut
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), d. Sergio Leone
A Hard Day's Night (1965), d. Richard Lester
The Hustler (1961), d. Robert Rossen
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), d. Don Siegel
Jules et Jim (1961), d. Francois Truffaut
The Killing (1956), d. Stanley Kubrick
The Last Picture Show (1971), d. Peter Bogdanovich
Last Tango in Paris (1973), d. Bernardo Bertolucci
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), d. John Ford
Man With a Movie Camera (1929), d. Dziga Vertov
Mean Streets (1973), d. Martin Scorsese
Metropolis (1926), d. Fritz Lang
Nashville (1975), d. Robert Altman
The Night of the Hunter (1955), d. Charles Laughton
Nosferatu (1922), d. F. W. Murnau
Open City (1946), d. Roberto Rossellini
Persona (1966), d. Ingmar Bergman
Rashomon (1950), d. Akira Kurosawa
Reservoir Dogs (1992), d. Quentin Tarantino
The Rules of the Game (1939), d. Jean Renoir
The Seven Samurai (1954), d. Akira Kurosawa
Stranger Than Paradise (1984), d. Jim Jarmusch
Sullivan's Travels (1941), d. Preston Sturges
Sweet Smell of Success (1957), d. Alexander Mackendrick
The Terminator (1984), d. James Cameron
Touch Of Evil (1958), d. Orson Welles

I'm surprised with the absence of Nanook of the North, Citizen Kane, Pulp Fiction, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Underground, Some Like It Hot, M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Rocco & His Brothers, Easy Rider, Rio Bravo, JFK and a couple or more each from Bunuel, Hitchcock, Godard and Kubrick in this list.

I want to see (including all the films I mentioned above) The Triplets of Belleville, Dogville, Kill Bill Volume I & II, Artificial Intelligence, City of God, Being John Malkovich, Mulholland Dr, Atanarjuat, Elephant, Spirited Away, Eyes Wide Shut, Irreversible (and many more) in the next version of this list.

 

[Haggai]

There's no overlap with the AFI list by design.

 

[Arman]

Duh! I did'nt even read the comments/other opinions (including Jim's explanation) in this thread until your post. So hmmm ... this is is not a definitive daring/rebel cinema list ... I have to take back my overall thumb up seal of approval.

 

[Steve Christou]

I would have picked Life of Brian rather than Monty Python and the Holy Grail, far more daring (was Holy Grail daring?) and at the time was banned in some regions for mocking religionism and religious hypocrisy.

 

[Zen Butler]

Understood, although many from the original AFI are groundbreaking regardless. I mentioned the films only to induce conversation.

Steve, that is a great pick.