The Lists Project

[zedz]

If separating the two versions in the balloting is too much of a hassle, why is it a given that any vote for Blackmail would automatically go to the sound version? They could just as easily all automatically go the silent version too, couldn't they?

I was assuming that the sound version would be the one most people had seen, but maybe I'm wrong. Because the silent version was only recently discovered (and because the sound version was the first British sound feature) it's the sound version that's featured in virtually all major texts on Hitchcock.

Even among people familiar with both, I was pretty sure the sound version would have its partisans, but if it's just you and me there may not be an issue!

[denti alligator]

This is hard. I've seen both the silent version and the talkie, and I'm more inclined to say they are too similar to make this a big issue. Let's say this: designate in your vote which one you prefer and I'll consider the votes together for the film (whatever version), and if it makes the cut I'll specify the percentage of votes that went for one or the other. I don't think this film should risk not making the final cut just because people have split their votes between the talkie and the silent version.

[zedz]

One month to go, and I must say that this has to date provided a wonderful opportunity to catch up on some of the stuff that's available.

I've splurged on the US discs of Epstein's Fall of the House of Usher and Walsh's Regeneration, and both films exceeded expectations. The Charley Bowers set is simply flabbergasting (though it's missing his most hallucinatory film, There It Is) - what was it with this guy and eggs? I still need to catch up on Evgeni Bauer (if DDD ever send me a playable disc) and about half of the riches of the marvellous Harold Lloyd box, and Fantomas awaits my next spare weekend.

Then there are the films that have richly repaid reviewings. Christensen's first two features and Menilmontant just seem to get better and better with every viewing (and I must have been in really bad moods the last times I saw The Iron Horse and Dreyer's Der Var Engang). And this exercise seems to have definitively calcified my longstanding pro-Keaton / anti-Chaplin bias.

All these riches, however, tend to make what's not available even more annoying. Scandinavian cinema is, no doubt, drastically underrepresented on my list, given the high ranking of the few films I have managed to catch, and A Page of Madness, dancing like a lunatic around my top five, is the only pre-1930 Japanese film I've ever been able to see. I'm also forced to rely on my failing memory for most of the Soviet avant-garde classics on my short list. In the case of some films (e.g. Von morgens bis Mitternacht) my memory is so faint I can't, in good faith, put it on the list at all. (My elders warned me this would happen. . .)

French cinema of the 1920s remains almost as mysterious as the Japanese. How I'd love to see Gremillon's fabled silents, or L'Herbier's, or Delluc's Femme de nulle part. This is one area where experimental cinema seems to be conspicuously better served than narrative features - not even Gance's Napoleon is available.

[HerrSchreck]

I don't want to turn into a windbag on MENILMONTANT or USHER or Bauer... so, moving on: isn't your region (you're either NZ or Australian, no?) the one zone that Napoleon is by rights-glitch allowed to be sold (albeit in the Coppola-scored truncated version)?

[zedz]

Apparently (not that I've ever seen a copy), but I'm vainly holding out for the more recent resoration. My theatrical recollections of the Coppola version are, at least, still reasonably crisp. I invoked Napoleon more as an example of if-they-haven't-released-this-high-profile-film-what-hope-is-there-for-X?

[HerrSchreck]

I hear you and feel the pain (so much German stuff-- Paul Leni & Lupu Pick & Gerhard Lamprecht & Leopold Jessner). Reading this is torture. Just imagine being there.

[HerrSchreck]

That's what I was talking about 4 posts up or so. I read an article where I think Koerber was talking about fabulous discs that have been overlooked, and the r4 or the Coppola NAPOLEON was one (which is a truncated version, incidentally, of the 80's restoration-- not the print in the link in my last post.

[denti alligator]

Thanks for reminding me to remind, zedz!
I had forgotten that April only has 30 days, and was somewhat surprised to find myself in May this morning.

So, yes, get those lists going, folks. I think this one will be nothing less than monumental.

[flyonthewall2983]

No "November Rain"???

There were moments when I actually considered it. I do have very powerful memories of it, I'm not ashamed to admit, but it's far too overwrought to justify serious consideration on my list in the here and now. Unlike Express Yourself (which I can't stop mentioning made my 80s list). Björk figures heavily in my 90s list considerations. Both Bachelorette and All Is Full Of Love are gloriously realized music videos that bring much to the table not contained in the song's themselves. Really I seperate those music videos (music + video, not just the visual aspect) from the songs they promoted.

I ran across this the other night, and just finished it. It's the short story "Without You" by Del James, which the song November Rain, and it's video, was based on. A rather loose interpretation, though. Feel free to read for yourselves.

[stroszeck]

Hmmm, I wonder why Todd Haynes' SAFE is listed so high up for the 90s? It was a decent movie, but not THAT great. Sure seems to have a lot of fans on this board apparently...

[Matt]

Hmmm, I wonder why Todd Haynes' SAFE is listed so high up for the 90s? It was a decent movie, but not THAT great. Sure seems to have a lot of fans on this board apparently...

Could it be that maybe you're... oh, I don't know... wrong?

[stroszeck]

Well, I'm not simply implying that I have great taste or I'm right or anything, but I mean.....SAFE? Really? Okay, I guess I won't start an argument or anything.

But SAFE?

[backstreetsbackalright]

That opinion certainly isn't unique to this forum. I frequently hear Safe cited as one of the ten best American films of the decade.

[life_boy]

That opinion certainly isn't unique to this forum. I frequently hear Safe cited as one of the ten best American films of the decade.

It even says so on the cover.

[denti alligator]

The Silent Era lists are due three weeks from today. You can begin sending them in to me whenever you like and I'll compile an alphabetical list of them to refresh the memories of those who have yet to vote. As soon as I receive two lists I'll begin posting the films and continue to add to the list until the day before the deadline.

[denti alligator]

Another reminder: the Silent Era lists are due two weeks from yesterday. I've only received one list so far. Let's move on it!

Could you please send them to me at denti_alligatorATyahooDOTcom

pm is fine, too. but I prefer the yahoo mail method. Just put "Silent Era List" in the subject line. Thanks.

[denti alligator]

The Silent Era lists are due ONE WEEK FROM TODAY.
I have only received one list so far (from yoshimori), so get them ready and send them out!

[life_boy]

Is there a specific format in which the films should be listed
for example:
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
or
Sunrise (Murnau)
or
Sunrise
or
anything.

[denti alligator]

Is there a specific format in which the films should be listed
for example:
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
or
Sunrise (Murnau)
or
Sunrise
or
anything.

No. But if the film is in any way obscure, the more info the better. Please try to use a title that can be found at imdb.com. Year and director are not necessary but would be helpful. Thanks.

[scotty]

Director and year in parentheses would be great for the final list, though (following Michael's precedent) so let's save denti the work and include them.

[backstreetsbackalright]

I second that. If nothing else, looking each film up on IMDb is a good way to double-check a film's qualification as part of a particular decade.

[denti alligator]

Director and year in parentheses would be great for the final list, though (following Michael's precedent) so let's save denti the work and include them.

It goes without saying that the final list will include director and year. Whether you provide me with this info is your decision.

[denti alligator]

Films voted for so far:

The Adventures of Prince Achmed
America
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
Arsenal
Ballet mecanique
Battleship Potemkin
Berlin, Symphony of a Great City
Beyond the Rocks
The Big Parade
The Birth of a Nation
Blackmail
The Boat
Broken Blossoms
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Cabiria
The Camerman's Revenge
Chang
Un Chien Andalou
La chute de la maison Usher (Epstein)
The Circus
Cops
La coquille et le clergyman
Corner in Wheat
The Crowd
Dans la nuit
Der var engang
Destiny (aka Der muede Tod)
Diary of a Lost Girl
The Docks of New York
A Dog's Life
Downhill
Easy Street
Entr'acte
L'etoile de mer
Fall of the House of Usher (Watson & Webber)
Fatty and Mabel Adrift
Faust
Felix in Hollywood
Fire on Board
The Floorwalker
Foolish Wives
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The General
The Gold Rush
Grass: a Nation's Battle For Life
The Great Train Robbery
Greed
Gunnar Hede's Saga
H2O
Haxan
Hell's Hinges
Hyas et Stenorhynchus
The Impossible Voyage
An Interesting Story
In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea
Intolerance
The Kid
The Kid Brother
Kino-Eye
Lady Windermere's Fan
The Last Laugh
The Last of the Mohicans
Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney
Little Nemo
The Lodger
Male and Female
Man with a Movie Camera
Manhatta
Master of the House
Metropolis
Michael
Mother
Nanook of the North
Napoleon
Neighbors
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried + Kriemhilds Rache
A Night in the Show
Nosferatu
October
Orphans of the Storm
Our Hospitality
A Page of Madness
Pandora's Box
The Parson's Widow
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Phantom of the Opera
The Playhouse
Præsidenten
Queen Kelly
The Red Man's View
Regen
Safety Last!
The Scarlet Letter
Sherlock Jr.
The Skeleton Dance
Skyscraper Symphony
Song of Home
Spione
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Steamboat Willie
Storm Over Asia
Street Angel
Strike
Sunrise
Symphonie Diagonale
There it Is
The Thief of Bagdad
A Trip in the Country
A Trip to the Moon
Troubles of a Grasswidower
Underworld
The Unknown
Up the Flue
Les Vampires
Way Down East
West of Zanzibar
Where Are My Children?
The Wedding March
The Wind
Within Our Gates
A Woman of Paris
Workers Leaving the Factory

[mikeohhh]

On the eve of the next era for the Lists Project, I thought I'd share a list I made of criterionforum's top 100 directors as compiled from their appearances on the first Lists Project. A #1 movie in any decade is worth 100 points, #2 99, etc. I thought I'd post the list here rather than start a new thread and have it banished to the Lists forum. The first number is the total points and the number of charting films is in parentheses.

1. Alfred Hitchcock - 1351 (26)
2. Stanley Kubrick - 813 (10)
3. Ingmar Bergman - 757 (13)
4. Yasujiro Ozu - 747 (14)
5. Fritz Lang - 740 (12)
Howard Hawks - 740 (12)
7. Luis Bunuel - 722 (13)
8. Akira Kurosawa - 694 (12)
9. David Lynch - 685 (9)
10. Jean-Luc Godard - 682 (12)
11. Martin Scorsese - 670 (9)
12. Charles Chaplin - 668 (11)
13. Woody Allen - 668 (10)
14. Robert Bresson - 556 (8)
15. Andrei Tarkovsky - 541 (7)
16. Jean Renoir - 527 (10)
17. Federico Fellini - 515 (9)
18. Kenji Mizoguchi - 513 (10)
19. Sergei Eisenstein - 494 (6)
20. Carl Theodor Dreyer - 491 (7)
21. Orson Welles - 486 (6)
22. Joel Coen - 483 (8)
23. John Ford - 482 (7)
24. David Cronenberg - 472 (7)
25. Robert Altman - 470 (7)
26. Ernst Lubitsch - 461 (10)
27. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger - 432 (6)
28. Buster Keaton - 420 (9)
29. Rainier Werner Fassbinder - 418 (8)
30. Wong Kar Wai - 416 (7)
31. Abbas Kiarostami - 408 (6)
32. F.W. Murnau - 383 (5)
33. Krzysztof Kieslowski - 362 (5)
34. Francis Ford Coppola - 346 (4)
35. Michaelangelo Antonioni - 327 (7)
Josef von Sternberg - 327 (7)
37. Billy Wilder - 324 (4)
38. Luchino Visconti - 313 (7)
39. Steven Spielberg - 308 (7)
40. D.W. Griffith - 304 (5)
41. Werner Herzog - 322 (6)
42. Wes Anderson - 280 (4)
43. Rene Clair - 278 (5)
44. Paul Thomas Anderson - 278 (3)
45. Jacques Tati - 277 (4)
46. Roman Polanski - 265 (5)
47. Terrence Malick - 265 (4)
48. G.W. Pabst - 262 (4)
49. Francois Truffaut - 261 (5)
Preston Sturges - 261 (5)
51. Lars von Trier - 260 (4)
52. Jim Jarmusch - 258 (5)
53. Pedro Almodovar - 257 (4)
54. Quentin Tarantino - 256 (4)
55. Bernardo Bertolucci - 254 (5)
56. Max Ophuls - 241 (4)
57. Sergio Leone - 237 (4)
58. Alain Resnais - 235 (3)
59. Hayao Miyazaki - 229 (4)
60. John Huston - 228 (6)
61. Leo McCarey - 227 (4)
62. Jean Cocteau - 227 (3)
63. Erich von Stroheim - 225 (4)
64. Terry Gilliam - 224 (4)
65. Roberto Rossellini - 214 (5)
66. John Cassavetes - 213 (4)
67. Victor Sjostrom - 197 (4)
68. Henri-Georges Clouzot - 195 (4)
69. Agnes Varda - 193 (3)
70. Jean Vigo - 190 (2)
71. David Lean - 179 (3)
72. Todd Haynes - 177 (3)
73. Steven Soderbergh - 176 (5)
74. Wim Wenders - 175 (2)
75. Tsai Ming-Liang - 174 (2)
76. Vincente Minnelli - 172 (3)
77. Jean-Pierre Melville - 171 (4)
Douglas Sirk - 171 (4)
79. Robert Flaherty - 169 (3)
80. Nicolas Roeg - 162 (3)
81. Eric Rohmer - 161 (5)
82. Ridley Scott - 161 (2)
83. Nicholas Ray - 160 (3)
84. William Wyler - 159 (5)
85. Guy Maddin - 159 (3)
86. James Whale - 157 (3)
87. Chris Marker - 153 (2)
88. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne - 152 (3)
Maurice Tourneur - 152 (3)
90. David Fincher - 152 (2)
91. Clint Eastwood - 149 (3)
92. Jia Zhang-Ke - 149 (2)
93. Frank Capra - 146 (5)
94. Spike Jonze - 142 (2)
95. Richard Linklater - 139 (3)
96. Tim Burton - 136 (3)
97. George Romero - 129 (3)
98. Jacques Demy - 127 (3)
99. Victor Fleming - 127 (2)
Vittorio de Sica - 127 (2)

[denti alligator]

List has been updated.

Please specify which Fall of the House of Usher if/when you vote for it. Epstein or Watson & Webber. I'm listing the Epstein in French and the W&W in English to distinguish for now.

Lists are due THREE DAYS from today. Get 'em in!