Title: Top 100 Films (part 2)
Description: Derek Malcolm
Description: Derek Malcolm
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:33 AM (GMT)
Okay, the next 33 films on Derek Malcolm's Top 100 (Century of Cinema) series. :devil2:
Some great films and (again) loads I haven't even heard of before.
You choose THREE films. :)
Some great films and (again) loads I haven't even heard of before.
You choose THREE films. :)
elvischomsky - June 20, 2008 11:49 AM (GMT)
Apocalypse Now.
I'm bowing out from choosing two more, on account of being an uncultured heathen.
I saw The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser for the first time a few weeks ago.
Quite excited, due to its "classic" status, and as I've been fascinated with the, err, enigma of Kaspar Hauser and his story since I was a kid.
What a crock!
I'm bowing out from choosing two more, on account of being an uncultured heathen.
I saw The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser for the first time a few weeks ago.
Quite excited, due to its "classic" status, and as I've been fascinated with the, err, enigma of Kaspar Hauser and his story since I was a kid.
What a crock!
Mr. Marshall - June 20, 2008 12:03 PM (GMT)
Blue Velvet - and I don't care what anyone says: LET'S FUCK We're taking our neighbour for a joyride....
Double Indemnity - There's a speed limit in this state.
Well how fast was I going?
Over 50.
Why don't you pull me over and give me a ticket?
Vertigo - flickers at the moment when sleep catches you.
Double Indemnity - There's a speed limit in this state.
Well how fast was I going?
Over 50.
Why don't you pull me over and give me a ticket?
Vertigo - flickers at the moment when sleep catches you.
My Balloon - June 20, 2008 12:04 PM (GMT)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (M. Powell, 1943)
These four would be my favourites I love Powell's/The Archers, and I saw The Spirit of the Beehive recently and that is beautiful, as close as you get to poetry as cinema.
The Birth of a Nation is the one with the KKK in isn't it?
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (M. Powell, 1943)
These four would be my favourites I love Powell's/The Archers, and I saw The Spirit of the Beehive recently and that is beautiful, as close as you get to poetry as cinema.
The Birth of a Nation is the one with the KKK in isn't it?
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 12:07 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mr. Marshall @ Jun 20 2008, 12:03 PM) |
| Blue Velvet |
Oh what a surprise! :lol:
Here's what our chum Derek had to say about it:
| QUOTE (Derek Malcolm (The Guardian) @ Thursday February 17, 2000) |
| Those celebrating the success of Sam Mendes's Oscar- nominated American Beauty as a scorching exposure of American suburbia might benefit from taking another look at David Lynch's Blue Velvet, a much more radical fable on the same subject. It is one of the seminal films of the 80s, from which sprang a good many inferior imitations. I wouldn't say the more mainstream Mendes film was seminal. But it would have looked more original had the Lynch film never been made. Lynch is not a director everyone likes, except when it comes to The Straight Story, his latest and most orthodox film, and The Elephant Man, an earlier, comparatively straight narrative. Both these were excellent films, but the power and originality of Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and possibly the first Twin Peaks were what makes his place in cinema history secure. Blue Velvet, like American Beauty and Todd Solontz's Happiness, places sex at the base of domestic trauma. So much so, in fact, that what Lynch delivered to his audiences was considered reprehensible by many. This is because it was taken literally. But as Isabella Rossellini, who plays the masochistic nightclub singer, has said, Lynch's films are not so much psychological studies of character as surreal impressions - "more of a sensation than a story". It is the different levels of Blue Velvet that puzzle people. On the one hand we have an ironic, deadpan portrait of small-town Lumberton that encourages us to think that the film is some sort of satire. On the other, what lies behind this often ludicrous facade also qualifies the film as a horror story. When the college student played by Kyle MacLachlan finds a severed ear in a field and he and his girl (Laura Dern) try to solve the mystery, the film takes an abrupt turn. The trail leads to the nightclub singer in whose flat, hidden in a closet, the student first watches Dennis Hopper submit her to a sadomasochistic ritual and is then horrified when she discovers him after Hopper has left and forces him to undergo similar treatment. This is the disturbing core of the film. And Rossellini's selfless performance, during which she has to submit to a myriad of indignities, is the equal to Lynch's curious imagination. If this caused the outrage at the time, it was the director's capacity to change tack and revert to an irony verging on parody that disturbed audiences further. Was this simply a joke in very bad taste? Actually, it wasn't. It was a recognition that behind even the most banal of circumstances and people lie some pretty peculiar truths. "Are you a detective or a pervert?", asks Dern of her boyfriend at one point. The answer is a bit of both - and maybe, Lynch suggests, that goes for all of us. The film is one of the most uncomfortable I have seen, and it is by no means flawless. For instance, Hopper's character is never fully explained, and there are passages of psychotic excess that don't make much sense. But the power of the whole is undeniable, and distinctively augmented by Angelo Badalamenti's music. Perhaps the best summation of it comes from Lynch himself, quoted in Chris Rodley's book Lynch on Lynch: "Well, film is really voyeurism. You sit there in the safety of the theatre, and seeing is such a powerful thing. And we want to see secret things, we really want to see them. New things. It drives you nuts, you know! And the more new and secret they are, the more you want to see them." |
Vertigo is immense! :beer:
Mr. Marshall - June 20, 2008 12:09 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 21 2008, 12:07 AM) | ||
Oh what a surprise! :lol: |
:rollover:
Well I am remarkably consistent. :lol:
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 12:10 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (My Balloon @ Jun 20 2008, 12:04 PM) |
| The Birth of a Nation is the one with the KKK in isn't it? |
Yes, that's the one. I've never seen it myself, but it's also the film credited with inventing much of the grammar of modern Cinema (cross-cutting, suspense, etc).
This might be a better idea::
| QUOTE (Derek Malcolm (The Guardian) @ Thursday November 25, 1999) |
| According to Kevin Brownlow, D.W.Griffith was " the only director in America creative enough to be called a genius". To Charles Higham he was the founding father of Hollywood who "imported a provincialism, a bourgeois Philistinism from which it has never escaped ". According to James Agee, The Birth of a Nation is "equal to Brady's photographs, Lincoln's speeches, and Whitman's war poems". To John Simon, the film is "morally objectionable, and artistically and intellectually insufficient". This barrage of conflicting views has never prevented Griffith being regarded as a great, ground-breaking director and The Birth of a Nation as a key film in the evolution of the medium.Yet you can't possibly look at it now without understanding the accusations of racism, or the moral embarassment of those critics who used to include it in their lists of the ten best ever made. Griffith's immediate source was The Clansman, a play based by Thomas Dixon Jr on two turn-of-the-century novels that represented the South as some kind of Arcadia from which all the best features of American life had sprung. But this stupendously nostalgic and wish-fulfilling work was whittled down by the director ( who himself came from the South) into an emphasis on the female-oriented values of the family, and to a society where everyone,including black slaves, seem to know their place. It was not for nothing that the central image of Intolerance, his other great masterwork, was a mother rocking her cradle. The Civil War and its aftermath gave Griffith the opportunity to make the South as a whole into an heroic family but it also allowed him to emphasise, through the climactic rescue scene where Southerners and Northerners fight side by side - and the earlier cross-barrier love affairs of the protagonists - that all Americans, were part of the same clan.Unfortunately he also emphasised, in that part of the film that corresponded most closely with Dixon's play, the danger that black America, migrating en masse from the South, would prove a threat to everything he held dear. Under the circumstances, how can such a film possibly be considered great? There are three good reasons. The first is that the film wasn't just ground-breaking in its technique. It was the way that technique was applied to dramatise the story that was impressive - to take one example, the length of each shot was designed so as to influence our emotional response, with dramatic scenes cut faster. There are many other such totally new concepts for a large-scale feature film. And, astonishingly, Griffith did all this, using one camera and two lenses, in a mere nine weeks. The second reason for its greatness is that the film marked, in America at least, the effective birth of a cinema that wasn't just mere entertainment but a fully-fledged art form that could be appreciated by the masses. The third is that the director's reliance on and support for his actors, and particularly his actresses, which was not so much concerned with making them into luminous stars as real people capable, like the great Lillian Gish, of interpreting their parts with a proper honesty. Unlike the even more epic Intolerance, which is glorious and dull in turn, The Birth of a Nation holds the watcher as in a vice because it shows such ingenuity in integrating a very intimate story within the framework of so large an historical canvass. However much you object to its actual interpretation of history, you have to admit this. You also have to admit that the quasi-Victorian Griffith was in so many respects way ahead of his time even if his philosphy and mind-set could often be said to be behind it. |
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 12:14 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (elvischomsky @ Jun 20 2008, 11:49 AM) |
| What a crock! |
:D
I have the same reaction to Kaspar Hauser, 'Aguirre: Wrath of God' is amazing (I would've voted for that); it has one of the most amazing/beautiful opening-shots. :wub:
I could watch Apocalypse Now again and again, apart from the cow sacrifice scene. :(
elvischomsky - June 20, 2008 12:18 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 21 2008, 12:14 AM) | ||
:D I have the same reaction to Kaspar Hauser, |
I always think Ian Curtis gave my all-time favourite review of a Werner Herzog film...
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 12:21 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (elvischomsky @ Jun 20 2008, 12:18 PM) |
| I always think Ian Curtis gave my all-time favourite review of a Werner Herzog film... |
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Mere Pseud. - June 20, 2008 02:18 PM (GMT)
I prefer this part by far to the first one.
Glad there are at least three choices possible this time:
Apocalypse Now
Raging Bull
Vertigo
This leaves Blue Velvet and Broadway Danny Rose bite the dust among others.
Admittedly I'm fairly ignorant of pre 50s cinema overall. :huh:
Glad there are at least three choices possible this time:
Apocalypse Now
Raging Bull
Vertigo
This leaves Blue Velvet and Broadway Danny Rose bite the dust among others.
Admittedly I'm fairly ignorant of pre 50s cinema overall. :huh:
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 03:10 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mere Pseud. @ Jun 20 2008, 02:18 PM) |
| Admittedly I'm fairly ignorant of pre 50s cinema overall. :huh: |
This is the best bulk of the 100, as you say.
The last 34 films are even more obscure, to me, anyway. :confused:
daddyslittlegrandpa - June 20, 2008 05:04 PM (GMT)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Raging Bull
McCabe And Mrs Miller
Raging Bull
McCabe And Mrs Miller
snoweyuk - June 20, 2008 05:35 PM (GMT)
Kaspar
Apocalypse Now
Blue Velvet
Apocalypse Now
Blue Velvet
Mr. Marshall - June 20, 2008 06:03 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (snoweyuk @ Jun 21 2008, 05:35 AM) |
| Blue Velvet |
Excellent choice, sir.
snoweyuk - June 20, 2008 06:05 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mr. Marshall @ Jun 20 2008, 07:03 PM) | ||
Excellent choice, sir. |
:thumbsup:
Just me and you voting for it so far though
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 06:10 PM (GMT)
I haven't voted yet, but Blue Velvet is my favourite on the list, so that's a given - it's the other two that I'm not sure of yet.
If you had to choose just one Lynch movie, Marshall, would you have chosen BV? (Bearing in mind this was 2000, so Inland Empire isn't an option :rolleyes: )
If you had to choose just one Lynch movie, Marshall, would you have chosen BV? (Bearing in mind this was 2000, so Inland Empire isn't an option :rolleyes: )
Mr. Marshall - June 20, 2008 06:12 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 21 2008, 06:10 AM) |
| I haven't voted yet, but Blue Velvet is my favourite on the list, so that's a given - it's the other two that I'm not sure of yet. If you had to choose just one Lynch movie, Marshall, would you have chosen BV? (Bearing in mind this was 2000, so Inland Empire isn't an option :rolleyes: ) |
INLAND EMPIRE not an option? :o
I think both Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are superior to Blue Velvet.
Mr. Marshall - June 20, 2008 06:13 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (snoweyuk @ Jun 21 2008, 06:05 AM) | ||||
:thumbsup: Just me and you voting for it so far though |
That's because, as Frank says, we are so fucking suave.
:lol:
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 06:32 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mr. Marshall @ Jun 20 2008, 06:12 PM) |
| I think both Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive are superior to Blue Velvet. |
:o
I've been meaning to re-watch both since I saw Inland Empire.
One day the history of cinema will be seen in two stages: Before and after INLAND EMPIRE! :devil2: :devil2: :devil2:
Dice Man - June 20, 2008 10:18 PM (GMT)
I'm usually not a tactical voter, but Apocalypse Now will score quite well (and rightly so), methinks. Raging Bull, Vertigo and Andrei Rublev for me.
snoweyuk - June 20, 2008 10:21 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mr. Marshall @ Jun 20 2008, 07:13 PM) | ||||||
That's because, as Frank says, we are so fucking suave. :lol: |
"Indeed we are , Indeed we are"
<adjusts dickie bow tie and smirks that slanty smirk that only the suave can do>
:mellow:
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 10:25 PM (GMT)
aargh! I've finally worked out who I want to vote for and the fucker won't let me vote!!! :banghead:
I'll try later,
'A Short Film About Killing'
'Blue Velvet'
'Tokyo Story'
I'll try later,
'A Short Film About Killing'
'Blue Velvet'
'Tokyo Story'
Hipper Still - June 20, 2008 10:42 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 20 2008, 10:25 PM) |
| ...'A Short Film About Killing'... |
I'll go with that one, although I'm yet to finalise a three. Of the others I've seen on this portion of the list there's none that match the Kieslowski piece.
Although...I've never seen The Spirit of the Beehive, but I reckon it looks very good indeed. Is it as good as I reckon it probably is? What do you reckon?
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:00 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Hipper Still @ Jun 20 2008, 10:42 PM) |
| Although...I've never seen The Spirit of the Beehive, but I reckon it looks very good indeed. Is it as good as I reckon it probably is? What do you reckon? |
:lol:
That is so true! Bloody opinions!! :banghead:
I agree about the Kieslowski. One of the most powerful, gut-wrenching films I've ever seen. A great filmmaker.
Hipper Still - June 20, 2008 11:02 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 20 2008, 11:00 PM) | ||
:lol: That is so true! Bloody opinions!! :banghead: I agree about the Kieslowski. One of the most powerful, gut-wrenching films I've ever seen. A great filmmaker. |
Glad you enjoyed that.
What is your view of "Spirit of the Beehive", if you've seen it? There's an account of it on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Beehive.
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:17 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Hipper Still @ Jun 20 2008, 11:02 PM) |
| What is your view of "Spirit of the Beehive", if you've seen it? There's an account of it on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Beehive. |
It's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Really simple (which are usually the most difficult to pull-off) and beautifully told. It's interesting that wiki page mentions the cinematographer's impending blindness, because the photography is one of the main things I remember. The wide open vistas; a bit like Terence Malick's films.
I've been trying to find a decent clip on YouTube, but you don't really get the full-effect with a brief snippet. Anyways, there's loads on there, if you follow the related clips,
Not the most action-packed of clips!
Hipper Still - June 20, 2008 11:18 PM (GMT)
Thank you. I'm enjoying this clip. I like the window. I won't watch any more though, until I've looked in shops for the film tomorrow. Cheers.
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:21 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Hipper Still @ Jun 20 2008, 11:18 PM) |
| Thank you. I'm enjoying this clip. I like the window. I won't watch any more though, until I've looked in shops for the film tomorrow. Cheers. |
I hope you like it. I hate recommending stuff to people, as they usually hold it against me... :(
Hipper Still - June 20, 2008 11:26 PM (GMT)
I'm a Christian, so be warned: if I don't like it then I'll have no choice but to hunt you down and ruthlessly forgive you.
It's only £5.99 on play.com, so if I don;t see it tomorrow then I'll probably order it from there.
It's only £5.99 on play.com, so if I don;t see it tomorrow then I'll probably order it from there.
GraemeLovesPinkLady - June 20, 2008 11:30 PM (GMT)
Fantasia is hit and miss, but when it is good it is really good.
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:33 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Hipper Still @ Jun 20 2008, 11:26 PM) |
| I'm a Christian, so be warned: if I don't like it then I'll have no choice but to hunt you down and ruthlessly forgive you. |
:lol:
Well, the most hatred I've received is from recommending Robert Bresson to people. And I mean *hatred* :o
For anyone who might be interested, this is ace-uh!
'Diary Of A Country Priest'
* runs for cover *
Hipper Still - June 20, 2008 11:35 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Buy Kurious! @ Jun 20 2008, 11:33 PM) | ||
:lol: Well, the most hatred I've received is from recommending Robert Bresson to people. And I mean *hatred* :o For anyone who might be interested, this is ace-uh! 'Diary Of A Country Priest' * runs for cover * |
That one is very good. And it's another novel I never got around to reading.
Buy Kurious! - June 20, 2008 11:37 PM (GMT)
No, me neither! I'd like to though.
I'm glad you like it.
He's a bit austere for most.
I'm glad you like it.
He's a bit austere for most.
Divvey - June 21, 2008 12:39 AM (GMT)
Just watched Tokyo Sory this week.. loved it.
But NO CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG???
I hope section 3 finally rewards this masterpiece of storytelling.
But NO CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG???
I hope section 3 finally rewards this masterpiece of storytelling.
Dave The Fall Fan - June 21, 2008 06:35 AM (GMT)
I managed to pick 3 that I've seen and liked.
Exopsychicton - June 23, 2008 12:25 AM (GMT)
A very tough call between Third Man, Blue Velvet, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
requiredfield - June 23, 2008 02:29 AM (GMT)
Andrei Rublev
Les Enfants du Paradis
Tokyo Story
Les Enfants du Paradis
Tokyo Story
Fritter - June 23, 2008 10:57 AM (GMT)
Nanook Of The North
Blue Velvet
Apocalypse Now - despite wanting to vote for a more 'right-on' option, I have enjoyed watching this a lot of times over the years. The documentary is better though, I reckon.
I'm quite surprised Burden Of Dreams is there - I thought it went off a bit about half way through, but maybe I should re-watch it. As a portrait of Kinski and Herzog I thought 'My Best Fiend' had much better material.
Blue Velvet
Apocalypse Now - despite wanting to vote for a more 'right-on' option, I have enjoyed watching this a lot of times over the years. The documentary is better though, I reckon.
I'm quite surprised Burden Of Dreams is there - I thought it went off a bit about half way through, but maybe I should re-watch it. As a portrait of Kinski and Herzog I thought 'My Best Fiend' had much better material.
Mr. Marshall - June 23, 2008 01:11 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (snoweyuk @ Jun 21 2008, 10:21 AM) | ||||||||
"Indeed we are , Indeed we are" <adjusts dickie bow tie and smirks that slanty smirk that only the suave can do> :mellow: |
Jesus, snoweyuk, you're so fucking suave. Hey Raymond, where's the beer?
Do you want me to pour it Frank?
No I want you to fuck it. Just pour the fucking beer Raymond.
:o