The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

[therewillbeblus]

I gather these are some of yours, though I’m not even going to try to top the above

Spoiler

the Best Years of Our Lives: Best pic winner, war film, Best Actor winner
Hail the Conquering Hero: War film
Rebecca: Best pic winner
To Be or Not to Be: War film, Carole Lombard
... and maybe Notorious as debated noir/auteur second appearance/war film

I screwed up, only one best pic for me - so everything you guessed except for

Spoiler

Rebecca and Notorious

is correct (though both are sitting just outside, as I'm assuming is the same for you on the former)

[domino harvey]

Though it's hard to believe you would leave off

Spoiler

Rebecca, Hail the Conquering Hero or The Best Years of Our Lives!

As if the top ten accuracy wasn’t eerie enough, I just checked my list and these are three of the next four films on my list, occupying spots 11-14! I guess it’s gratifying to know someone is paying attention to all the free wisdom I let fly here

[therewillbeblus]

You've been pretty outspoken about all of them, but part of my disbelief came from my own apathetic feelings on a few of the films that took their spots!

[domino harvey]

Tired: Blah blah Sirk whatever
Wired: Vigil in the Night

[therewillbeblus]

Vigil in the Night very well could have made my list had I given it a revisit for this project, but I remember being quite shaken by it on a first watch years ago.

Spoiler

Sergeant York

on the other hand, is a head-scratcher

[domino harvey]

Wow, really? I don't think it's all that contentious a choice unless you're our dearly departed German member lubtisch. Oddly enough, though I never would have expected it, the only time I taught the film, it ended up being one of the most popular and well-received films I ever screened for my high school students. Many of my students told me it was one of the best films they'd ever seen and were quite shocked at how much they enjoyed it (it was screened as part of my WWII class [for the WWI portion], so not just my usual film students were present). I really didn't grasp how powerful and effective the film is a propaganda til I saw firsthand its impact on teenagers-- I buy absolutely that teens in the 40s walked out of the theatre and immediately signed up to serve from the rep in the lobby

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah I can totally see that, and a lot of the film worked for me when I saw it some five years ago, but I can think of four Hawks I'd put ahead of it (and did) this decade and personally can't see it getting close to beating some of those others into a top 10 list. I'll be revisiting the film for the Hawks list project next summer, so for all I know I'll eat these words then.

This is also a rare situation where we only have one overlapping title, though a handful of your inclusions are in my 11-20 and could have been bumped up depending on my mood tomorrow.

[Satori]

Hawks is my favorite Hollywood director, but I'm not really a fan of Sergeant York, either. It's not because of the propaganda aspect (I love Air Force); there is just something about it that turns me off.

But my favorite World War-related Hawks is I Was a Male War Bride, so what the hell do I know?

[swo17]

7 lists in so far and...not too many surprises, but here are some clues (therewillbeblus is not allowed to guess ):

1. Two directors have three films in the top 10
2. The current #13 film did not make the prior top 100
3. The current #37 film did not receive a single vote during the last 1940s project

[knives]

But my favorite World War-related Hawks is I Was a Male War Bride, so what the hell do I know?

This is my favorite Hawks of all time so your caveat seems more sane. I think it's great as a comedy and great as a look at what has changed because of the war. I really hope others have taken the time to at least see it.

[domino harvey]

It’s a fun movie and worth seeing, but nowhere near my list

[domino harvey]

This is also a rare situation where we only have one overlapping title, though a handful of your inclusions are in my 11-20 and could have been bumped up depending on my mood tomorrow.

I’m thrown by you having horror movies in your top ten, which I can only assume means some of those Val Lewton flicks? And I gather you have a P+P in there due to your foreign LANGUAGE foreign film clue. As for that foreign film, maybe Symphonie pastorale? But I think you value Italian Neorealism way more than I do (though I’m an outlier), so perhaps one of those?

[therewillbeblus]

I’m thrown by you having horror movies in your top ten, which I can only assume means some of those Val Lewton flicks? And I gather you have a P+P in there due to your foreign LANGUAGE foreign film clue. As for that foreign film, maybe Symphonie pastorale? But I think you value Italian Neorealism way more than I do (though I’m an outlier), so perhaps one of those?

You’re better at these puzzles than you thought! Everything you said is correct except I don’t value Italian Neorealism so much (another outlier we apparently share...) and while I may have had one of Rossellini’s war films somewhere towards the back of my list, Italian cinema in general sadly alludes me (with notable exceptions in La Dolce Vita and The Flowers of St. Francis, two all-time favorites, the former claiming the rare status of permanent residency in my top ten, despite a general apathy towards Fellini).

7 lists in so far and...not too many surprises, but here are some clues (therewillbeblus is not allowed to guess ):

1. Two directors have three films in the top 10
2. The current #13 film did not make the prior top 100
3. The current #37 film did not receive a single vote during the last 1940s project

I can’t resist..

Spoiler

1. Powell and Pressburger
2. On the Town
3. Apartment for Peggy

[swo17]

At least two of those guesses are wrong

[domino harvey]

I didn’t even vote for your number three guess and I’m its most vocal champion, but based on you placement I’d wager number three may actually be

Spoiler

Symphonie pastorale

[knives]

Hopefully that doesn't mean I'll be orphaned for it. Just for the sake of playing the top ten game: Only two titles that aren't English language and only a single pair of films share director duties. A pair of directors have their lone features for the decade here. No stars are pulling double duty, but seven of films have an actress above the title. There's also one animated film.

[therewillbeblus]

Hopefully that doesn't mean I'll be orphaned for it.

Rest assured, you won’t.

As for your clues, I’m pretty in the dark here, but I’m going to guess

Spoiler

that your animated film is Fantasia, and one of the foreign language films is a Rossellini, maybe Germany, Year Zero? Also, since you praised Mank at the start of the project I’m guessing he’s your director with two, and that one is Dragonwyck

[knives]

Yes, shockingly no, and no. Rossellini doesn't actually come in until the 30s and not even that one. I actually find this his weakest decade with the fascist films only being okay and Rome, Open City to have too many unhewn parts.

[therewillbeblus]

Same, to all of that.

[domino harvey]

If I were to submit a Top 100, I might have La terre trema thrown in near the end, but that's about as far as the genre goes for me. Not this decade, but Bellissima goes on the short list of movies you could not pay me to watch again. WHAT is it WITH Italian COMEDIES and YELLING every fucking LINE at EACH OTHER?!?!

[knives]

I think that's just how Italians talk.

[domino harvey]

Antonioni was filming in Greece the whole time, wasn't he

[therewillbeblus]

Paisan works well for me because of the breakup of narrative into tight pieces of fable, plus I’m fascinated by the difficulties and power of social contact and the focus on communication here bypasses a lot of the problems I may have had otherwise. I agree with knives though, there’s some solid 50s Rossellini, with one absolute masterpiece.

[knives]

Nah, he was just directing them to reduce by the same degree the French did for Bresson.

[knives]

Paisan works well for me because of the breakup of narrative into tight pieces of fable, plus I’m fascinated by the difficulties and power of social contact and the focus on communication here bypasses a lot of the problems I may have had otherwise. I agree with knives though, there’s some solid 50s Rossellini, with one absolute masterpiece.

Paisan is actually my one. Part of it is that along with Shoeshine I think it's the only successful application of neo-realism (and Rossellini's only entry that fits with the post-hoced parameters) so it seems more representative of the era then the elliptical Germany Year Zero. More directly though I think it's really the first film by Rossellini where he found a voice outside of politics. His initial films were of course built to support Il Duce and Open City is in a lot of ways preparation for plausible deniability however daring the making was. Paisan could be divorced of that context finally and allowed Rossellini to discover his most important tool: the past. Even into the history films Rossellini was developing a way to deal with his life through the past. That's why Year Zero's mourning is something already gone.

Paisan also has threads that weren't breached later which makes it stand out as unique in his filmography. Year Zero, which I bring up again and again because it is arguably his best made film of the decade, plays junior to Voyage in Italy as a way of expressing distress over his son's death. Even in distant relatives like Where is the Freedom and Escape by Night, which admittedly are not as good, Paisan as way of dealing simply with the war as small episodes holding no fatalistic sway on the future is a unique concept.

Since I might as well as mention his other major film of the decade, L'amore is really excellent especially in its first section Magnani is no Bergman and the film suffers in relation to those films. I think next decade there's a real chance of Rossellini taking six spots for me so that will be fun to chat over. I think I've said it before, but Italy has for me the greatest national cinema with even the bad films usually being interesting and the culture breeding a connection to me that's hard to explain since my family seems to have skipped it on their adventures.