Comments on: Comments on 19032

Post number 19032

shortfuse — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:03:13 -0800

British Film Institute Top Ten Poll for 2002 is out. Compiled every 10 years by the folks who publish the Sight and Sound magazine, it asks 145 critics and 108 directors for their top 10 films ever. Both top 10s are filled with the usual suspects - yes, we all know who always wins. It's more interesting to browse the full list of films voted for. Or read the individual top 10s and occasional comments by directors who voted, such as Michael Mann, Jim Jarmusch, and Roger Corman.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:22:43 -0800

Hmm, John Waters is not surprising, nor is Tim Robbins, say but what's up with that Tarantino? They All Laughed? The name for that around here was They All Left... the theater immediately.

By: Fabulon7

Fabulon7 — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:25:41 -0800

Disappointing not to see Goddard, Truffaut, Altman, Polanski, Lumet, Peckinpah, Jodorowsky, or Tsukamoto Shin'ya on the director's list. Any one of these beats Scorsese, David Lean, or Billy Wilder. (Instead of links to all these folks, peruse at your leisure here.)

By: zoopraxiscope

zoopraxiscope — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:27:58 -0800

the guy who voted for ferris bueller's day off should have his right to be a film critic revoked.

By: panopticon

panopticon — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:37:40 -0800

Quentin Tarantino put "Dazed and Confused" in his top ten? That's a joke right?

By: zoopraxiscope

zoopraxiscope — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:54:04 -0800

they let Quentin Tarantino vote? that's a joke, right?

By: ewkpates

ewkpates — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 07:55:17 -0800

Art and democracy do not mix.

By: mooseindian

mooseindian — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:23:37 -0800

Art and Fascism didn't mix too badly... At least the world's first Film Festival was established (Venice).

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:30:04 -0800

Tarantino put Rolling Thunder in his top 10!!! I wonder if this is a big F**k You to the British Film Institute. Sort of like listing McDonalds in the Michelin Food Guide. However, I found myself much more in tune with the Directors' List over the Critics'. Singing in the Rain?

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:33:51 -0800

I'd like to voice my distatse for Sunrise. Thank you. I'm sure it was something for its day, but now it's a couple hours of ridiculous acting.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:34:33 -0800

"Distatse" being Swahili for "distaste", of course.

By: alidarbac

alidarbac — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:53:33 -0800

Another good site for lists of top tens is at Senses of Cinema. It's a bit more pretentious, but the choices tend to be more idiosyncratic (Someone mentions Pee-Wee's Big Adventure between Wings of Desire and Solaris. Most only sparingly use the usual suspects of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, etc). Also, it might be my own personal preference, but Chinese directors seem to have gotten the shaft on the BFI list. My own favorite director only got scraps of recognition, while nobody even mentions Raise the Red Latern (!) or John Woo (!!).

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:57:41 -0800

2001 is up to #6. My relentless campaigning is paying off.

By: zoopraxiscope

zoopraxiscope — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:00:01 -0800

alidarbac, have you seen the wong kar wai video for the new dj shadow song Six Days? i just noticed that it recently went online. Pretty cool.

By: shortfuse

shortfuse — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:00:52 -0800

SLoG, sadly I don't think Tarantino is taking the piss - his company that re-releases rare / foreign films is named Rolling Thunder. alidarbac, I love WKW as well, and at least 4 out of his 7 films got some votes. I'm also glad to see Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, and Hayao Miyazaki all get votes.

By: picea

picea — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:04:00 -0800

I love to see what my favorite directors' tastes are like. I'll have to check out some of the movies picked by Jarmusch. Cool link, shortfuse. I'm surprised The Third Man didn't make it on either top ten list. Seems like it, along with Citizen Kane and The Seven Samurai, is always bandied about as being one of the best movies ever made. I rented it recently to see what all the fuss was about and it well exceeded my expectations. That one, brief shot of Orson Welles' smirking face coming out of the shadows under the doorway really struck me. And the theme music from it still gets stuck in my head, despite having only seen it the once three months ago.

By: shortfuse

shortfuse — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:04:02 -0800

Also somewhat recently from WKW: commercial for Lacoste

By: thanotopsis

thanotopsis — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:18:44 -0800

Being a populist and a corporate shill myself, I figure I've just got to meet Anurag Mehta. I find it humorous that he threw Casablanca in there, as if to give his list some credibility. Don't get me wrong, I adore every film on this list, and own a number of them in multiple formats (although if Spielberg doesn't release Raiders on DVD sometime soon, I'm going to have to write a nasty letter). It just seems that filling your list with titles like these may be ignoring about 40 years worth of film making that came before them.

By: goethean

goethean — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:21:24 -0800

Howard Hawks isn't even on the long list. Philistines.

By: goethean

goethean — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:22:46 -0800

Ah, shite. The long list is the directors who voted. Disregard...

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:40:40 -0800

Oh, short fuse, I had forgotten that. This reminds me of the contemporary lit discussion yesterday. What constitutes great cinema, and have the standards changed? For example, acting styles have changed greatly over the years. If you watch Rashomon, the acting is hardly natural-- more akin to Noh Drama. A few of my criteria: great cinematography (Days of Heaven), great acting/unforgettable characters (Sophie's Choice), engrossing story (Wages of Fear), innovation (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and social reverberation--aka meme pool (The Godfather.) With all the different elements that directors have to juggle, I think that film making must be one of the hardest crafts to master.

By: small_ruminant

small_ruminant — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 09:45:59 -0800

At least two people recognized the greatness that is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.

By: Darryl

Darryl — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 10:30:21 -0800

It's nice to see that someone was thoughtful (or brave) enough to vote for Deep Throat...it's, uhh, a classic...

By: briank

briank — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 10:40:42 -0800

You can never make everyone happy with these sorts of lists, but at least there are no glaring clunkers on the list. One can easily think of at least 50 other films that all deserve to be there, but they were limited to 10, so someone had to be left off.

By: mrhappy

mrhappy — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 10:45:02 -0800

Would it have killed them to mention that there is such a thing as a screenwriter? That not every single idea in a film comes from the director? Grrr....

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 11:58:14 -0800

Tarantino put Rolling Thunder in his top 10!!! I wonder if this is a big F**k You to the British Film Institute. Tarantino has said before that Rolling Thunder is one of his favorite films. It's why he named the production company after it. I don't think he was trying to give the finger to the British Film Institute.

By: Summer

Summer — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 12:17:53 -0800

So, I had this on preview: Where's The Sound of Music? I don't understand. Then saw it was actually on the list. Along with Guy Ritchie's Snatch. Shows how much I know.

By: runthegamut

runthegamut — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 14:07:49 -0800

Good to see that 2 critics & 5 directors recognized Once Upon a Time in the West for the gem that it is. But how could they forget My Name is Nobody? Viva la spaghetti western!

By: Rebis

Rebis — Fri, 09 Aug 2002 15:01:39 -0800

Personally, I greatly prefer Fred Astaire to Gene Kelley, and my choice for greatest musical would be The Band Wagon, rather than the vastly overrated Singin' in the Rain.