In its upcoming January/February issue, Film Comment has published its own "definitive" list of the Top 150 films of the decade, culled from a selection of over 200 critics, historians and writers.
For a good source of other "best of decade" lists, refer to the always informative They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? website.
2000s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 2)
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Wittsdream
- Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:00 am
- Location: Chicago
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zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Reminder that you've got one month left to get your lists into shape.
My latest caprice is installing a film I hadn't even considered for my very long shortlist in the number 50 slot: Amir Naderi's Sound Barrier. It's a stark minimalist work with an extremely (even exasperatingly) complicated narrative set-up, bold sound design and an extraordinary central performance by a child, and it's a film I can think of all sorts of reasons for criticizing, but it's one that I haven't been able to forget for the past four or five years. It takes Iranian cinema's key trope of the incredibly resourceful child (which Naderi himself helped establish in films like The Runner and Water, Wind, Dust) and, like Kiarostami's incredible Traveller, implodes it. The central sequence, which goes on and on and on, is one of the most desperate and intense of the decade. Even though I've seen probably hundreds of films that are objectively 'better', it's exactly the sort of personal singularity I tend to like have clinging to the bottom of my list.
My latest caprice is installing a film I hadn't even considered for my very long shortlist in the number 50 slot: Amir Naderi's Sound Barrier. It's a stark minimalist work with an extremely (even exasperatingly) complicated narrative set-up, bold sound design and an extraordinary central performance by a child, and it's a film I can think of all sorts of reasons for criticizing, but it's one that I haven't been able to forget for the past four or five years. It takes Iranian cinema's key trope of the incredibly resourceful child (which Naderi himself helped establish in films like The Runner and Water, Wind, Dust) and, like Kiarostami's incredible Traveller, implodes it. The central sequence, which goes on and on and on, is one of the most desperate and intense of the decade. Even though I've seen probably hundreds of films that are objectively 'better', it's exactly the sort of personal singularity I tend to like have clinging to the bottom of my list.
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reno dakota
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:30 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Some reports on swapsies:
Under the Sand – Mysterious, elegantly constructed and with a knock-out performance from Charlotte Rampling. I had not seen this one since it was first released, so it was nice to revisit it.
The Gleaners and I – A great film from Varda that is as much a portrait of France’s regional diversity at the turn of the century as it is a treatment of gleaner culture. This one may just make my list.
Drama/Mex – I didn’t like this one at all (sorry GringoTex!). These multi-thread, overlapping narratives work for me only if I get emotionally involved in the lives of the characters, or if I find the composite storyline too compelling to deny. In this case, neither of those things happened, and the frenetic visual style and over-use of close-ups and out-of-focus shots eroded every bit of goodwill I had toward the film by the end. I appreciate what Naranjo was trying to do here, but it just did not work for me.
The Baxter – I doubt Showalter intended his viewers to do more cringing than laughing during this film, but that is what happened to me. My biggest problem with all of this is the way Showalter has written the Elliott character—he is far more socially inept and awkward than your typical Baxter, and that exaggeration makes it harder to empathize with him. On the positive side, I enjoyed every one of Michelle Williams’ scenes and was thankful to have her around. She’s the soul of the film, and when it works, she deserves the credit.
Who’s Camus Anyway? – An engaging film. I had a lot of fun with the film-within-a-film structure and the well-placed cinema references, and the way Yanagimachi weaves together his multiple storylines reminded me a bit of Yang. I really enjoyed this one, but I’m not sure that it will make my list.
The Fog of War – Saw this one on its initial release and found it captivating from beginning to end. There are one or two Morris films that I like as much as this one, but none that I like more.
Moolaade – A vibrant, immensely absorbing film that deals sensitively with some rather grim material. This one will certainly make my list.
Time Out – A narrative slow-burn, with a frustratingly unsympathetic central character, but nonetheless a film that grows more fascinating as it moves forward. Watching this one was an unsettling experience, but my appreciation of it grows the more I think about it.
Come Undone – Another revisit for me. I remember liking this one for the intensity of the central relationship, though I was let down a bit by its diffuse narrative, and my view of it now is very much the same. Stronger writing might have shaped this material into a more compelling story, though the central performances are strong enough to carry the film.
Boy A – I saw this one a while back and liked it quite a bit. The performances from Peter Mullan and Andrew Garfield are wonderful, and the screenplay wisely reveals details slowly so as to build an air of mystery around the film’s core event, without sensationalizing it. The only significant weakness I found was the role of Mullan’s son, who seemed to me little more than a plot requirement, necessary as a foil for the Garfield character. The film would have been stronger had this character been better developed and integrated into the story, but it’s a strong film nonetheless.
More to follow soon . . .
Under the Sand – Mysterious, elegantly constructed and with a knock-out performance from Charlotte Rampling. I had not seen this one since it was first released, so it was nice to revisit it.
The Gleaners and I – A great film from Varda that is as much a portrait of France’s regional diversity at the turn of the century as it is a treatment of gleaner culture. This one may just make my list.
Drama/Mex – I didn’t like this one at all (sorry GringoTex!). These multi-thread, overlapping narratives work for me only if I get emotionally involved in the lives of the characters, or if I find the composite storyline too compelling to deny. In this case, neither of those things happened, and the frenetic visual style and over-use of close-ups and out-of-focus shots eroded every bit of goodwill I had toward the film by the end. I appreciate what Naranjo was trying to do here, but it just did not work for me.
The Baxter – I doubt Showalter intended his viewers to do more cringing than laughing during this film, but that is what happened to me. My biggest problem with all of this is the way Showalter has written the Elliott character—he is far more socially inept and awkward than your typical Baxter, and that exaggeration makes it harder to empathize with him. On the positive side, I enjoyed every one of Michelle Williams’ scenes and was thankful to have her around. She’s the soul of the film, and when it works, she deserves the credit.
Who’s Camus Anyway? – An engaging film. I had a lot of fun with the film-within-a-film structure and the well-placed cinema references, and the way Yanagimachi weaves together his multiple storylines reminded me a bit of Yang. I really enjoyed this one, but I’m not sure that it will make my list.
The Fog of War – Saw this one on its initial release and found it captivating from beginning to end. There are one or two Morris films that I like as much as this one, but none that I like more.
Moolaade – A vibrant, immensely absorbing film that deals sensitively with some rather grim material. This one will certainly make my list.
Time Out – A narrative slow-burn, with a frustratingly unsympathetic central character, but nonetheless a film that grows more fascinating as it moves forward. Watching this one was an unsettling experience, but my appreciation of it grows the more I think about it.
Come Undone – Another revisit for me. I remember liking this one for the intensity of the central relationship, though I was let down a bit by its diffuse narrative, and my view of it now is very much the same. Stronger writing might have shaped this material into a more compelling story, though the central performances are strong enough to carry the film.
Boy A – I saw this one a while back and liked it quite a bit. The performances from Peter Mullan and Andrew Garfield are wonderful, and the screenplay wisely reveals details slowly so as to build an air of mystery around the film’s core event, without sensationalizing it. The only significant weakness I found was the role of Mullan’s son, who seemed to me little more than a plot requirement, necessary as a foil for the Garfield character. The film would have been stronger had this character been better developed and integrated into the story, but it’s a strong film nonetheless.
More to follow soon . . .
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Perkins Cobb
- Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:49 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Folks are posting some good best-of-the-00s lists over at Dave Kehr's blog. I'll have to throw in an early draft of my top picks over there sometime this week.
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khan0890
- Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:57 pm
- Location: Brooklyn, NY
- Contact:
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
im trying to watch all the titles on the Film Comment list that i havent seen (56) in one month (january).... if anybody has any suggestions on how to obtain some of the rarer titles like the lisandro alonso, UNITED RED ARMY or the pedro costa titles let me know...Wittsdream wrote:In its upcoming January/February issue, Film Comment has published its own "definitive" list of the Top 150 films of the decade, culled from a selection of over 200 critics, historians and writers.
For a good source of other "best of decade" lists, refer to the always informative They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? website.
my quest goes on here: http://www.nyccine.com
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antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
More 'best of the decade' top tens from various contributors to DVD Times, including my own:
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/72 ... 2000s.html
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/72 ... 2000s.html
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terabin
- Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:43 pm
- Contact:
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Just saw Assayas' Summer Hours and was very impressed. It will certainly make my list. Although I'm sure there are many parallels to other films that employ a setting of a French house in the country to great effect, I couldn't help but thinking of Tavernier's A Sunday in the Country when watching this film. Both films are dealing with similar familial issues: an aging parent, and different roles and life situations among the children. Both films have a lot of dialogue about art, life, and death, and both films create wonderful moments through the use of the camera in capturing stillness and movement in and around the country house. One thing I appreciated about Summer Hours, however, was how well the film held up after the focus of the film changes to the children after the first act (moving beyond the narrative confines of another day in the country as in Tavernier's film), and then finally on one of the grandchildren in the final scene. Each of the characters are well-drawn and well-acted, and their relationships do not fall prey to cliche in their enactment of roles they occupy in the family.
An important aspect of the film to me (also present in Tavernier's film) is the aura surrounding the house, and how the house changes over time with it occupied or unoccupied. Indeed, the house, full of life in the beginning, abandoned and gutted in the middle, then returned to vibrancy in a completely different way in the end, gives a centering feel to the events. We feel its absence in the urban scenes in the middle, which is why it felt so right to return to it in the final moments. Although, perhaps it is not just the house that is important, but the whole yard and estate: the arch of trees over the walkway up to the house, the pond down off the hill the house rests on, the lawn on which the summer dinner table is set. Ultimately, there is a sense of timelessness in the estate that transcends the objects and people that fill it, though we note how much a family's memories are concretized in physical place and object. The most poignant scene of the film to me is the scene with the housekeeper moving around the outside of the house and peering in the windows at what was once her home and the place of her vocation. The camera observes her from the inside, and we wonder in our position whether she would wish to come back inside, whether we might open a door for her, and if we did, whether she would be content staying in the yard outside, knowing that the emptiness of the inside of the house would trouble her all the more if she were to breathe the stale air of the house. This reversal, the housekeeper now the voyeur, is incredibly peculiar and powerful, as it makes us think on the above.
How do we interpret the ending? With sadness in that the house will soon be gone? With hope that the granddaughter embraces the importance of her familial memories? And what do we take away from the film as to Assayas' approach to globalization and fragmentation? I haven't seen his other films, but from what I've heard, Assayas often employs these themes in his films.
An important aspect of the film to me (also present in Tavernier's film) is the aura surrounding the house, and how the house changes over time with it occupied or unoccupied. Indeed, the house, full of life in the beginning, abandoned and gutted in the middle, then returned to vibrancy in a completely different way in the end, gives a centering feel to the events. We feel its absence in the urban scenes in the middle, which is why it felt so right to return to it in the final moments. Although, perhaps it is not just the house that is important, but the whole yard and estate: the arch of trees over the walkway up to the house, the pond down off the hill the house rests on, the lawn on which the summer dinner table is set. Ultimately, there is a sense of timelessness in the estate that transcends the objects and people that fill it, though we note how much a family's memories are concretized in physical place and object. The most poignant scene of the film to me is the scene with the housekeeper moving around the outside of the house and peering in the windows at what was once her home and the place of her vocation. The camera observes her from the inside, and we wonder in our position whether she would wish to come back inside, whether we might open a door for her, and if we did, whether she would be content staying in the yard outside, knowing that the emptiness of the inside of the house would trouble her all the more if she were to breathe the stale air of the house. This reversal, the housekeeper now the voyeur, is incredibly peculiar and powerful, as it makes us think on the above.
How do we interpret the ending? With sadness in that the house will soon be gone? With hope that the granddaughter embraces the importance of her familial memories? And what do we take away from the film as to Assayas' approach to globalization and fragmentation? I haven't seen his other films, but from what I've heard, Assayas often employs these themes in his films.
Last edited by terabin on Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:49 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
12:08 East of Bucharest
I'll admit to only seeing this because I won't be seeing Police, Adj. until February. Boy was it stupid of me to hold off for even a second. This is a precisely structured film with the last half feeling like a monologue in one take. At once I was brought into the political climate of 1989 and today. The fact that not much has changed is both scary and funny. Can a whole people claim a part in the actions of just a few like the old man is suggesting or do you have to actively be there like the journalist suggests? That's just one part of the puzzle though. There's a surprisingly human search going on that isn't left behind in the second half when the politics go into play. The Chinese man gets yelled at in an early scene with a reprise at the very end that is would be absolutely terrifying if not for the odd physical behavior of everyone involved.
The camera play was also great with most scenes done in a single Ozu like shot. When the Ozu characteristics are lessened in the second half we get the funny and meta addition of a camera within the fourth wall. I plead with who ever hasn't seen this film yet to do so now.
I'll admit to only seeing this because I won't be seeing Police, Adj. until February. Boy was it stupid of me to hold off for even a second. This is a precisely structured film with the last half feeling like a monologue in one take. At once I was brought into the political climate of 1989 and today. The fact that not much has changed is both scary and funny. Can a whole people claim a part in the actions of just a few like the old man is suggesting or do you have to actively be there like the journalist suggests? That's just one part of the puzzle though. There's a surprisingly human search going on that isn't left behind in the second half when the politics go into play. The Chinese man gets yelled at in an early scene with a reprise at the very end that is would be absolutely terrifying if not for the odd physical behavior of everyone involved.
The camera play was also great with most scenes done in a single Ozu like shot. When the Ozu characteristics are lessened in the second half we get the funny and meta addition of a camera within the fourth wall. I plead with who ever hasn't seen this film yet to do so now.
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antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Sight and Sound's Films of the Decade.
Battle in Heaven (Reygadas/05)
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Audiard/05)
The Bourne Ultimatum (Greengrass/07)
Colossal Youth (Costa/06)
The Death of Mr Lazarescu (Puiu/05)
Eloge de l'amour (Godard/01)
The Five Obstructions (Leth & von Trier/03)
The Gleaners & I (Varda/00)
Hidden (Haneke/04)
INLAND EMPIRE (Lynch/06)
In the Mood for Love (Wong/00)
Memories of Murder (Bong/03)
La Nina Santa (Martel/04)
A One and a Two... (Yang/00)
Platform (Jia/00)
Russian Ark (Sokurov/02)
The Son (Dardenne & Dardenne/02)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki/01)
Talk to Her (Almodovar/02)
10 (Kiarostami/02)
There Will Be Blood (Anderson/07)
35 Shots of Rum (Denis/08)
Touching the Void (Macdonald/03)
Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul/04)
United Red Army (Wakamatsu/08)
Uzak (Ceylan/03)
Waiting for Happiness (Sissako/02)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr & Hranitzky/00)
Workingman's Death (Glawogger/05)
The attendant article, by Nick James, explains the choices. Particularly interesting to see Talk to Her get a mention, both here and in other decade 'best of' lists. I seem to remember less fanfare around this one at the time of its release compared to Almodovar's other films of the decade. Yet it's slowly growing in stature over the years. Indeed, my own initial reaction was lukewarm, though subsequent re-viewings have heated that up considerably. I'll be particularly interested to see where it ranks in this forum's '2000s List' or whether Almodovar split-voting will hamper its chances.
Adaptation. (Jonze/2002)Not a 'top 30', but the films that in our opinion best represent the decade's most distinctive oeuvres and movements.
Battle in Heaven (Reygadas/05)
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Audiard/05)
The Bourne Ultimatum (Greengrass/07)
Colossal Youth (Costa/06)
The Death of Mr Lazarescu (Puiu/05)
Eloge de l'amour (Godard/01)
The Five Obstructions (Leth & von Trier/03)
The Gleaners & I (Varda/00)
Hidden (Haneke/04)
INLAND EMPIRE (Lynch/06)
In the Mood for Love (Wong/00)
Memories of Murder (Bong/03)
La Nina Santa (Martel/04)
A One and a Two... (Yang/00)
Platform (Jia/00)
Russian Ark (Sokurov/02)
The Son (Dardenne & Dardenne/02)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki/01)
Talk to Her (Almodovar/02)
10 (Kiarostami/02)
There Will Be Blood (Anderson/07)
35 Shots of Rum (Denis/08)
Touching the Void (Macdonald/03)
Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul/04)
United Red Army (Wakamatsu/08)
Uzak (Ceylan/03)
Waiting for Happiness (Sissako/02)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr & Hranitzky/00)
Workingman's Death (Glawogger/05)
The attendant article, by Nick James, explains the choices. Particularly interesting to see Talk to Her get a mention, both here and in other decade 'best of' lists. I seem to remember less fanfare around this one at the time of its release compared to Almodovar's other films of the decade. Yet it's slowly growing in stature over the years. Indeed, my own initial reaction was lukewarm, though subsequent re-viewings have heated that up considerably. I'll be particularly interested to see where it ranks in this forum's '2000s List' or whether Almodovar split-voting will hamper its chances.
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Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:20 pm
- Location: New England
- Contact:
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
A pretty flimsy representation of Asian cinema, I must say.antnield wrote:Sight and Sound's Films of the Decade.
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Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:09 pm
- Location: United States
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
I'd love to hear their explanation as to how The Bourne Ultimatum ended up on that list. If it was about picking an action film, I'd have thought Exiled would have been a far more exciting and stylish choice. 
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antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
From the article:
Despite our professed dislike of Michael Bay-style editing, there is one exception. [...] The incessant image bombardment here presents an abstract rush of adrenal stimuli that suits a narrative predicated on a trained semi-automaton remembering he's human in a world dominated by surveillance. It was the film that had the best feel for the experience of living solipsistically in the globalised city under post 9/11 rules.
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Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:09 pm
- Location: United States
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Hm. At least they didn't pick the second film with it's so-jerky-it-makes-your-head-hurt camerawork.
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colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
From the explanatory notes to the article it looks like they chose representatives of cinema trends rather than 'best films' overall, so Russian Ark, 10 and Inland Empire are 'digital cinema' used to various ends; "Memories of Murder stands for Korea's magnificently diverse cinema just as to represent the blossoming of Romanian cinema The Death of Mr Lazarescu is preferred to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, California Dreamin' or 12:08 East of Bucharest because it was the film that set the style"; Spirited Away stands for all animation; and so on.Michael Kerpan wrote:A pretty flimsy representation of Asian cinema, I must say.antnield wrote:Sight and Sound's Films of the Decade.
The problem is that some films better represent whole swathes of cinema than others and leads to the more obvious films gaining their place on the list - Hidden is kind of the obvious Haneke film to place here whereas I would argue that Code Unknown is the 'most ambitious', The Piano Teacher is the more 'officially' successful due to its adaptation status, and Time of the Wolf is the off beat and cult choice that could have been made in different lists.
A couple of actively contrarian choices irk me just as much however! I would perhaps take issue with Eloge d'Amour being described as "what may be Godard's last great film" as I feel Notre Musique is at least as fine an achievement and a good companion piece to the earlier film. Inland Empire being chosen over Mulholland Drive might also be a controversial move regardless of whether Mulholland Drive was signifying the ending of a classical kind of filmmaking by Lynch and Inland Empire was his move into a 'digital future'.
Though I do like the at first sight perverse but on closer examination perfect choice of The Five Obstructions to represent Lars von Trier - I'm sure MichaelB would be happy too, as I remember him talking of it being one of the director's best films in his opinion a while ago.
That film captures all of the playfulness, wilful contrariness and facade of cruelty that runs through all the other films by von Trier and brings up issues of how much a director is really the best person to know or understand about the implications of the film that they have made when circumstance or production restrictions all modify and add different things to their initial concept of the project (the Indian remake especially at first sight seems horrifically exploitative but on reflection becomes worth more than a hundred Slumdog Millionaires as present but easily ignorable implications become bluntly unavoidable, no matter how much transparent plastic sheeting you put up). The contrasts between Cuba, India and France creates an interestingly global film interpreting the same material through different contexts. The contrasts between various formal restrictions of the film itself through frame counting, international travel or creating an animation (eventually using the team who created the rotoscoped Linklater films) seems to work as a comment on the whole medium of film conventions too. How does the presentation and setting of the exact same basic material along with all the 'incidental' elements that go into making a film (like actors, extras, available resources), change the meaning and the message (and 'truth' and 'morality') of a film completely for its audience?
Plus it is a great comment on reality television as von Trier plays the perfect Apprentice-styled bastardly judgemental figure sending Leth out to perform impossible tasks and then on each of his triumphant returns telling him he has completely failed and must redo the film again completely differently! After much huffing and puffing Leth acquiesces to the demands each time, as most decent people do when pushed around by others (Leth is the Bjork or Emily Watson of the film). Which leads to the glorious, and one of the most self-revelatory (or is it?), endings of any film in von Trier's career (even though it is not technically his!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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fiddlesticks
- Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:19 am
- Location: Borderlands
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:25 pm
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Well, the deadline fast approaches. For the record, I've now managed to see at least one of everyone's swapsies (except for Blessing Bell, which I haven't been able to get my hands on), and found a lot to like in most of them. The great discoveries for me this time around have been Ce jour-là and Devils on the Doorstep, both of which I believe I've addressed earlier in this thread. Anyone who hasn't yet is strongly urged to check these out. Also, if it helps anyone find it, Ce jour-là was released in R1 as That Day, and is readily available from Netflix.
Other swapsies that still have a fighting chance of making my list, depending on my mood the day I submit it, include: Who's Camus Anyway?, The Baxter (though I already liked this before starting the list project), Linda Linda Linda, and Rumba.
Also, it wasn't a swapsie, but Green's Le pont des Arts is a hell of a film, and one I discovered as a direct result of this project.
I'd said before that anyone who couldn't find my swapsie You, the Living could choose from a long list of other options I posted on the first page of this thread. However, I think at this point, I'm going to throw all of my alternate swapsie weight behind Richard Linklater's Waking Life, a lock for my #2 film of the decade, and a true marvel of a film--visually mesmerising, philosophically profound, and yet, endlessly playful and quotable.
Now if you'll all excuse me I have like 100 more movies I still need to watch by the end of the month...
Other swapsies that still have a fighting chance of making my list, depending on my mood the day I submit it, include: Who's Camus Anyway?, The Baxter (though I already liked this before starting the list project), Linda Linda Linda, and Rumba.
Also, it wasn't a swapsie, but Green's Le pont des Arts is a hell of a film, and one I discovered as a direct result of this project.
I'd said before that anyone who couldn't find my swapsie You, the Living could choose from a long list of other options I posted on the first page of this thread. However, I think at this point, I'm going to throw all of my alternate swapsie weight behind Richard Linklater's Waking Life, a lock for my #2 film of the decade, and a true marvel of a film--visually mesmerising, philosophically profound, and yet, endlessly playful and quotable.
Now if you'll all excuse me I have like 100 more movies I still need to watch by the end of the month...
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Mr Sheldrake
- Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:09 am
- Location: Jersey burbs exit 4
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
You, the Living was released today R1, and it is also available on Netflix streaming. Well worth catching up with.swo17 wrote:I'd said before that anyone who couldn't find my swapsie You, the Living ..
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:25 pm
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
How in the hell was I not informed of this earlier? Anyway, thanks for the info, Sheldrake!
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zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Great to hear. This film might just have a fighting chance of making the final list now, as I think this makes three strong supporters. As far as I know it's only available on a French DVD, but that disc is English friendly.swo17 wrote:Also, it wasn't a swapsie, but Green's Le pont des Arts is a hell of a film, and one I discovered as a direct result of this project.
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swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:25 pm
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Yeah, that was a pricey one to import from France too, but it was well worth it. I'm just curious--how many strong supporters did a film generally have to have to place in the '90s list? I may or may not be preparing a pie chart about it.
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zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
For the 90s list, which was by far the biggest vote received to date, the threshold for inclusion was 197 points, so a film could have been in the top three on four separate lists and still not made it into the final 100. For the previous lists - from memory - the threshold was more like 120 to 150 points, so strong showings on three lists usually put you in the ballpark.
I have no idea what the voting will be like this time, but my guess is scattershot and profligate. I wouldn't be surprised to find votes spread thinner than ever this time, and if consensus is scarcer, that threshold will be lower. That said, my expectations about how any particular list is going to go are usually shattered as soon as I start actually counting the votes.
I have no idea what the voting will be like this time, but my guess is scattershot and profligate. I wouldn't be surprised to find votes spread thinner than ever this time, and if consensus is scarcer, that threshold will be lower. That said, my expectations about how any particular list is going to go are usually shattered as soon as I start actually counting the votes.
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zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Well, so far so good. I've tallied up the first three lists received and it's looking completely unlike any previous vote, with 146 films nominated and only four multiple vote-getters (even though there was a reasonable overlap in the countries and directors that most interested these three contributors).zedz wrote:I have no idea what the voting will be like this time, but my guess is scattershot and profligate. I wouldn't be surprised to find votes spread thinner than ever this time, and if consensus is scarcer, that threshold will be lower.
So the "top four" / "only four" is ridiculously random: one blindingly obvious choice; one likely suspect; one wild card cult object that's our current (meaningless) number one; and a fourth that's such a left-field choice I doubt even the two people who voted for it could guess what it is. All English language.
EDIT: If you want a clue, three of the four have a 'suppressed memory' theme. I have no idea how to link in the fourth. . .
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puxzkkx
- Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:33 am
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Hmm... Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mulholland Dr., Memento and... ???
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zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
Yes, yes, no and ??? indeed. Neither of those was number one, by the way.
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Phil
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:51 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions
I'm guessing either Spider or A History of Violence is one of the other two there.