Defend Your Darlings, You Sad Pandas! (The Lists Project)

[souvenir]

I was saddened to see Bamboozled, Crimson Gold and Birth didn't make the cut. However, my two most heralded also-rans were Wonder Boys and the Johnny Cash video Hurt.

Wonder Boys is a completely engrossing and enjoyable film I could watch once a month. Michael Douglas delivered a career performance and, for some reason, it got buried as a February release back in 2000 despite being Curtis Hanson's follow-up to the equally brilliant L.A. Confidential. As for Hurt, it may just be the finest, most emotional music video I've ever seen. In the recent Mark Romanek Director's Label dvd, he mentions that he has only directed one video since because he's not sure how to possibly top such an achievement. The few minutes this video lasts manage to contain more feeling and emotion than 99% of the two hour movies that are released. I'm a little surprised that I seemed to be the only one to vote for these two, but that's not going to take away from any of the enjoyment I receive from them.

[scotty]

This list is basically 1/3 American, the opposite ratio from the 90s list. Any theories? It certainly is a richer group of titles. I was surprised that The Hand wasn't ranked higher (I had it at 9, ahead of 2046 (17)) and happy that Tsai and Jia did so well. Here are my darlings:

3. Sex and Lucia (Medem, 2001): More and more, I don't care much about plot, yet here is a melodrama with a pretzel of a plot. What I cherish are the beautiful images and locations, the lovely lullaby music that keeps coming back to me like a dream, and of course the sensuality of the female form. A film that looks like no other (due to early digital shooting and lovely art direction).

8. Destino (Monfery, 2003): I envy those of you who really know your shorts, but this Disney/Dali resurrection on the big screen was a very memorable 6 minutes that I would dearly love to experience again. (I did vote for The Heart of the World at 18.)

15. Good Night, and Good Luck (Clooney, 2005): The historian in me fell for this. There is actually a lot more style here than substance, but I just didn't care.

16. La Cienaga (Martel, 2001): Agreed, Michael. Martel is certainly a force in Latin American cinema. This one is delicious, despite the telegraphed tragedy at the end.

19. Head-On (Akin, 2004): Talk about melodrama. Still, this film was such a visceral viewing experience that I was exhausted at the end. Another example, perhaps, of the theater experience having so much more impact; on DVD I'm sure I would have ranked it lower.

21. Intimacy (Chereau, 2001): A successful exercise in tone that got a lot of press for the sex. Timothy Spall is perfect again.

24. Control Room (Noujaim, 2004): So many documentaries, so little time. This was an assured debut that walked a careful line in its examination of Al Jazeera. In the political climate, it is something of a wonder that it got distributed.

27. Capote (Miller, 2005): What struck me here was the success the film had in depicting aspects of the writing process, even one as idiosyncratic as Capote's. That's rare.

28. Unknown Pleasures (Jia, 2002): Loved The World (11) and I was somewhat surprised that this one didn't make it on the lower rungs. It is almost a prelude to the later feature.

29. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen, 2000): A mess, but a guilty pleasure. The Wizard of Oz/KKK drill did it for me. Almost didn't bother after the Coen overload we witnessed on the 90s list.

32. Coffee and Cigarettes (Jarmusch, 2003): Not JJ's best by a long shot, but the Waits/Iggy and Coogan/Molina encounters are just too much. It was certainly better than Broken Flowers.

33. The Triplets of Belleville (Chomet, 2003): After Sprited Away (2) the most memorable animated feature for me. The wry commentary on American culture was fun. A strange film.

34. Winged Migration (Perrin, 2001): Another strange one, and not really a documentary. It is a stunt movie for sure, but there was something exhilarating about flying over Mont St. Michel with a bunch of birds.

35. Kandahar (Makhmalbaf, 2001): At moments it is artless, especially in the acting, but it has a basic visceral feeling that comes through. Memorable.

37. Swimming Pool (Ozon, 2003): Yeah, I know it isn't his best. I just love Charlotte Rampling's daring in this trashy funfest. Okay, I just love Charlotte Rampling.

38. The Tao of Steve (Goodman, 2000): Remember this one? Loved the fresh setting of lived-in Santa Fe, the "philosophical" conceit about McQueen, and Donal Logue's performance. Whatever happened to this promising female director?

39: The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection (Quay & Quay, 2003): A curious excercise that called Haxan's clinical moments to mind. Maybe it's because I worked at a museum at the time.

41. Thirteen (Hardwicke, 2003): A nightmare for parents everywhere. Effective performance by Nikki Reed based on her own real-life naughtiness. Hardwicke followed this with Lords of Dogtown; another rising female director.

43. In the Cut (Campion, 2003): Maybe Jane ain't what she used to be. I think people had trouble getting past the Meg Ryan casting. What struck me was the tone of disquiet, conveyed through striking cinematography, that seemed to capture the post-9/11 mood.

44. Syriana (Gaghan, 2005): Probably too recent for me to judge accurately. I like to see an American production with this kind of ambition, though it overreached with the human interest stuff. Films like this need to be made and seen if American film is to have any cultural signifance at all (he says, sentimentally pining for the paranoid 70s). It may be the closest many Americans get to thinking about any of the issues it raises, judging by the New Yorker's circulation figures.

45. Shakespeare Behind Bars (Rogerson, 2005): Not sure this actually got full distribution. Fine documentary about Kentucky prison inmates and their participation in Shakespeare productions. Can literature change lives? How much and in what ways? The answers for this group are fascinating.

46. Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2004): I'm still mulling this film, still troubled by the absence of any backstory indicating just who these murderers are who are facing their last days in power and, for some, last hours alive. Yet it is powerful filmmaking. Any film that makes me this conflicted has a chance for my list.

47. William Eggleston in the Real World (Almereyda, 2005): Strange mixture of verite material on the eccentric master photographer mixed with exhibition style curatorial ruminations on the man's art. Oddly effective.

48. Frida (Taymor, 2002): Vanity project for Salma Hayek is saved by Taymor's striking direction. A very different way of portraying an artist from the above film, to say the least. Veers into guilty pleasure territory.

50. Secret Things (Brisseau, 2002): Speaking of guilty pleasures. . .

On the Wong/Lynch front, I had In the Mood at (1) and Mulholland at (5). Someone will have to sell me on Punch-Drunk Love.

And thanks to Michael for the great job with these lists.

[toiletduck!]

34. Winged Migration (Perrin, 2001): Another strange one, and not really a documentary. It is a stunt movie for sure, but there was something exhilarating about flying over Mont St. Michel with a bunch of birds.

Mmm... I am the farthest thing from a nature person, but you're right -- this is a gorgeous, gorgeous film.

zedz, my request in the lists thread is going nowhere; would you be so kind as to provide one of your fantastic little blurbs for Decasia? I've been curious for a while now, but didn't realize it was that well respected. That goes for anyone else who feels like contributing as well (115 points means at least three of you, step up!)

-Toilet Dcuk

[Andre Jurieu]

Based on the stuff that has been mentioned so far:

Film that I completely forgot about until 2 hours after the deadline that I am now embarrassed to say that I had forgotten about:
Bright Future, (Kurosawa)
- I have absolutely no excuse. This film should have been in my top 20.

Films mentioned that I also voted for:
Gerry (Van Sant)
Capturing the Freedmans (Jarecki)
Friday Night [Vendredi Soir], (Denis)
Wonder Boys, (Hanson)
Good Night, and Good Luck, (Clooney)
The Five Obstructions, (Von trier, Leth)

Films that I considered but didn't make my final list:
Esther Khan
Kings and Queen
Morvern Callar
To Be and To Have
Bright Leaves
Nine Queens
Crimson Gold
The Piano Teacher
Tale of Two Sisters
The Return
Unknown Pleasures
Japon
The Child
Lilya 4-Ever
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Hero
Fat Girl
The White Diamond
Control Room
The Time Of The Wolf
Last Days
O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Films that I'm glad to see on other lists
The Tao of Steve - though I'm not a huge fan of it
Johnny Cash's Hurt (Mark Romanek) - I could have also considered 99 Problems
Man on Fire
The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal
Pootie Tang - wanny tan on MY poopy-face!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Visitor Q
The House of Mirth
The White Stripes' The Hardest Button to Button (Michel Gondry)
Va Savoir
Spartan
Zoolander
The Ring (Gore Verbinski)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico - just because it was a daring #1

If I were in a pissier mood, I'd bash a few of the movies that did make the list. The inclusion of History of Violence, Lost In Translation, Adaptation ... Saraband, and Unbreakable all tickle or disturb me to various extents.

... he said after including Rules of Attraction. (I kid, I kid)

As far as State and Main is concerned, is anyone else slightly annoyed by the fact that the resolution of the entire film is based upon a pretty big coincidence, or at least a great deal of luck? I'm not big on dismissing a movie because of plot holes alone (actually, I have more of a problem with the film not being terribly funny either), but the meeting between Hoffman and Pidgeon at the train(?) station that was set up to change Hoffman's mind about leaving town relies heavily upon the notion that (a) Hoffman will choose this form of transportation to leave town (he could have just as easily taken a car) and (b) that Hoffman will meet Pidgeon at the station among the dozens of other people (what if he arrived at a different door or came from the other side where he wouldn't have seen her). Plot details almost never spoil a movie for me, but in the case of a Mamet movie where his films hinge on their plots, and he constantly hangs his hat on how smart his scripts are, this little detail really annoyed me. However, I did really love Alec Baldwin's hilarious performance as Bob Barrenger - "You know Billy, it's our national sport".

[yoshimori]

If I were in a pissier mood, I'd bash a few of the movies that did make the list. The inclusion of History of Violence, Lost In Translation, Adaptation ... Saraband, and Unbreakable all tickle or disturb me to various extents.

... he said after including Rules of Attraction. (I kid, I kid)

I figured I might take some kidding re Rules. It has its flaws, but I like its no-holds-barred approach to filmmaking. Bravura filmmaking from an amateur. Whatever Avary wanted to try, he tried. And much of it - like the suicide scene in the bathtub - was, imo, unforgettable.

I figure you've pooh-pooh-ed it because you've seen it. Like most everyone. Oh well. I'll live in the minority on this one! :)

[Andre Jurieu]

I figure you've pooh-pooh-ed it because you've seen it. Like most everyone.

How else could one pooh-pooh effectively? I rarely pooh-pooh a film I haven't seen.

I figured I might take some kidding re Rules. It has its flaws, but I like its no-holds-barred approach to filmmaking. Bravura filmmaking from an amateur.

I don't know if he's an amateur, but I know I didn't really appreciate the flashy filmmaking without very meaningful points being made. I guess I just thought it to be hollow filmmaking which thought that it was making bold/profound/shocking statements about youth and just wound up making rather shallow points instead. It didn't help that the cast just seemed to be filled with young actors trying to be as provocative as possible with their "gritty", "daring" roles. Maybe I should give it another chance.

Whatever Avary wanted to try, he tried. And much of it - like the suicide scene in the bathtub - was, imo, unforgettable.

Another example of diff'rent strokes, I guess. I really thought that scene was well crafted in technique, but totally false in attempting to create tragedy.

[Arn777]

I didn't enter my list, but 'Rules of attraction' would have been in the top 10. It is the best adaptation of an Ellis book so far (actually I really dislike most books adapatations but this one really works). Yes it is shallow, but only as the book itself is about shallow characters.

[Andre Jurieu]

Yes it is shallow, but only as the book itself is about shallow characters.

But Rules of the Game concerns itself with a great deal of shallow characters, but I wouldn't consider it to be a shallow film. I guess I'm more of an American Psycho kind of guy.

[tryavna]

I figure you've pooh-pooh-ed it because you've seen it. Like most everyone.

How else could one pooh-pooh effectively? I rarely pooh-pooh a film I haven't seen.

I only pooh-pooh the films I eat!

[yoshimori]

I figure you've pooh-pooh-ed it because you've seen it. Like most everyone.

How else could one pooh-pooh effectively? I rarely pooh-pooh a film I haven't seen.

One of my favorite pooh-pooh stories concerns Vladimir Nabokov who, at a faculty dinner party, after holding forth in detail about the horrors of a certain popular film of his day, was called to task by a lowly graduate student who'd liked the film.

Grad student: "Your faulty description of the film, Professor Nabokov, makes me wonder whether you've even seen it."

Nabokov: "Why my dear boy - of course I haven't seen it! Why would I possibly go see a film as bad as the one I've described?!"

[zedz]

zedz, my request in the lists thread is going nowhere; would you be so kind as to provide one of your fantastic little blurbs for Decasia? I've been curious for a while now, but didn't realize it was that well respected. That goes for anyone else who feels like contributing as well (115 points means at least three of you, step up!)

-Toilet Dcuk

OK, Mr Dcuk,

I actually didn't vote for Decasia (Outerborough was my Morrison pick), but it's a terrific film. I prefer the elaborate taxonomies of Gustav Deutsch, but Decasia is a triumph of pure spectacle. Here's a second-hand blurb for a second-hand film:

Once I got settled into its freeform rhythm I just soaked up the bizarre spectacle of decay: funfair rocketships emerge from a seething chaos; a boxer battles an alien mass that threatens to engulf him; solarized beauties display their unhealthy Hiroshima glow. One wonder follows another - Morrison has a great eye for photogenic damage - and sometimes it's the anonymous footage itself which is intriguing (as when children on a tram turn to meet our gaze). The soundtrack (alarming industrial crescendos) matches the footage perfectly without overpowering the images.

Some of those precious images:
- a butterfly whose spectacular pattern is matched by the no less spectacular pattern of cracks and mould on the emulsion;
- a prolonged shot of tiny planes and parachutists in a big bland sky, cracked with age - all the action being in the texture of the image;
- human figures with the distorted, attenuated ectoplasmic character of Steadman's Paranoids, thanks to shifting emulsion;
- a Catholic school in which the film damage happens to resemble the stroboscopic passage of stop-motion days and nights, while the girls move about in placid slow-motion

[Gregory]

I enjoyed Decasia but I think there is certainly recent experimental work that I like equally or prefer. Decasia has enjoyed a relative superstar status among experimental film because it was presented at Sundance, aired on the Sundance channel, and has received much other distribution.
It's interesting to compare it to the work of Craig Baldwin (who released the DVD) who also uses found footage but does a lot more work with it building it into a coherent whole. With Decasia, Morrison presented the fragments as he found them except at a slower projection speed. Judging from his statements, the way the images themselves were edited and presented was not a foremost concern except insofar as they made a good accompaniment to the live performance of the music. The 35mm version that has been seen by most people was edited later to accompany a live recording of the music. For this reason, it can be thought of as a kind of music video. Morrison stated the idea behind his conception of the project (below). These are fascinating and important ideas, I think, but whether they can sustain one through Decasia's 70-min. runtime depends mostly on how interesting on their surface one finds the images Morrison found as well as the orchestral music to which he set them (by Michael Gordon of Bang on a Can).

The idea behind the imagery of Decasia is one I have dealt with in virtually all of my work to date. It deals with taking the two formal elements of film - the image and the material it is printed on - and assigning to them our own dualism of mind and body. The images can be thought of as desires or memories: actions that take place in the mind. The acetate and emulsion of the filmstock can be thought of as the body. It enables these visions to be seen, but only for a limited time. "Decasia" can roughly be described as a portrait of humanity using decay, our battle with time, as its common language.

[scotty]

I guess I'll get this round started. I wish I had ranked some of these higher just to see if they could get on the board. The Pudovkin was in my top ten.

Storm Over Asia (Pudovkin, 1928). I had this very high and wonder whether anyone else voted for it. For some reason Pudovkin moves me quite a bit more than does Eisenstein and this one blew me away--a decent story with interesting point of view. The film takes an Asian Russian perspective to do its propaganda. A remarkable and unforgettable montage finale.

Beyond the Rocks (Wood, 1922). It may be that few have seen this once lost film starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, a terrific pairing. The erotically charged dream sequences are worth the whole thing.

Troubles of a Grasswidower (Linder, 1912). Max Linder doesn't usually get the attention of the later comic masters, but this one is every bit the precursor for the Keaton approach to film comedy. It had me laughing.

Fatty and Mabel Adrift (Arbuckle, 1915). Too bad that so much of Arbuckle's work is so hard to see or is lost. This short may not be his best, but it is very entertaining and I wanted him to be represented on my list.

The Playhouse (Keaton & Cline, 1921). Keaton really goes over the top here--a terrific multifaceted performance. I'm surprised this didn't make the larger list.

Within Our Gates (Micheaux, 1920). Oscar Micheaux's work, done on nonexistent budgets far from Hollywood, gave black theater audiences a cinema of their own. Within Our Gates is an effective social history riposte to Griffith. Despite the technical lapses, it has real power and doesn't skimp on showing a range of behaviors and strategies within the black community during what historians often refer to as the "nadir" for race relations in America.

The Boat (Keaton, 1921). Too much Keaton, perhaps, but I just love this one. So economical and so right.

Symphonie Diagonale (Eggerling, 1924). The abstract German shorts of the 1920s (Ruttmann's Opus 1 is another) deserve some kind of representation on the list, I think. I enjoyed this one the most.

Little Nemo (McCay and Blackton, 1911). Has to be the first great animated short, unless I've really missed something. Feel free to clue me in.

Arrival of a Train & Workers Leaving the Factory (Lumiere, 1897). I thought that the actualities should be represented, and that Lumiere was the most important. Here I probably went with the historical importance factor rather than my favorite, which is probably Snowball Fight. I didn't rank them high enough to really compete anyway. But no Lumiere on the list at all?

In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea (unknown, 1925). This was one of many pleasures in the Unseen Cinema compilation. The tryptich of images maintained in this short is really remarkable, and the cinematography more than makes up for the rather florid text. I was glad to see Steiner's H20 make the top 50--a worthy representative from the Unseen box.

[denti alligator]

Storm Over Asia (Pudovkin, 1928). I had this very high and wonder whether anyone else voted for it. For some reason Pudovkin moves me quite a bit more than does Eisenstein and this one blew me away--a decent story with interesting point of view. The film takes an Asian Russian perspective to do its propaganda. A remarkable and unforgettable montage finale.

The Playhouse (Keaton & Cline, 1921). Keaton really goes over the top here--a terrific multifaceted performance. I'm surprised this didn't make the larger list.

The Playhouse ranked 104.

No one else voted for Storm over Asia.

[toiletduck!]

Alright, time for me to reap the rewards of your months of hard work. I've already taken copius notes from the list, now I wanna know who's number one got shafted.

Step right up and defend that darling, you sad panda, you!

-Toilet Dcuk

[Brian Oblivious]

Wasn't me, but I'll try to do a proper post in this thread before I head for the beach tomorrow. If not, it'll be next week.

I second denti's excellent collection and tabulation skills. I wouldn't mind seeing the list of films with two votes or more that didn't make the final cut, if it's easy enough to post it.

[denti alligator]

I wouldn't mind seeing the list of films with two votes or more that didn't make the final cut, if it's easy enough to post it.

Here you go:

102. Way Down East (Griffith, 1920) 37
103. Mystery of the Leaping Fish (Cabanne / Emerson, 1916) 30
(tie) The Playhouse (Keaton & Cline, 1921) 30
105. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Reiniger, 1926) 28
106. The Doll (Lubitsch, 1919) 27
(tie) Go West (Keaton, 1925) 27
108. Kino-Eye (Vertov, 1924) 26
(tie) Seventh Heaven (Borzage, 1927) 26
110. Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Lumiere, 1895) 25
111. Girl Shy (Newmeyer & Taylor, 1924) 23
112. Chang (Cooper & Shoedsack, 1927) 21
113. The Man Who Laughs (Leni, 1928) 17
114. West of Zanzibar (Browning, 1929) 11
115. The Black Pirate (Parker, 1926) 10
(tie) Felix in Hollywood (Messmer, 1923) 10
117. Neighbors (Keaton, 1920) 9
118. Workers Leaving the Factory (Lumiere, 1895) 5

[Brian Oblivious]

ARGH! I just defended my darlings but my hard work disappeared as I was trying to post it. Sorry, no time for a defense until next week, but here's my list of orphans:

9. Up the Flue (Lyons & Moran, 1919)
13. Song of Home (Mizoguchi, 1925)
14. Fire on Board (Sjostrom, 1923)
18. Hell's Hinges (Hart, 1916)
19. Male and Female (De Mille, 1919)
25. Hyas et Stenorhynchus (Painlevé, 1929)
27. Grass: a Nation's Battle For Life (Cooper & Schoedsack, 1925)
29. Dans La Nuit (Vanel, 1929)
30. Skyscraper Symphony (Florey, 1929)
31. Downhill (Hitchcock, 1927)
33. the Adventures of Prince Achmed (Reiniger, 1926)*
34. Kino-Eye (Vertov, 1924)*
35. Chang (Cooper & Shoedsack, 1927)*
40. an Interesting Story (Williamson, 1905)
43. Felix in Hollywood (Messmer, 1923)*
44. Gunnar Hede's Saga (Stiller, 1923)
45. Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Lumiere & Lumiere, 1895)*
47. the Skeleton Dance (Iwerks, 1929)
49. Where Are My Children? (Weber, 1916)
50. West of Zanzibar (Browning, 1929)*

*=not a true orphan as somebody else voted for it even if it didn't cross the top-100 barrier

[HerrSchreck]

I'm going to talk in factual terms just this once, as much as I rant like a loon against it. And probably sound like some sort of Bein' A Rampant Moron Y'all (gather the caps) type dude.. but here goes:

Murnau is now and pretty much always has been my favorite director. But he never made a film like THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. Nobody has. It is quite simply, factually as math, the greatest film ever made. I may tie it emotionally with MENILMONTANT but Passion is Fat Man to Kirsanoff's Little Boy.

That said I'm amazed Vertov's film ranked so high-- it was the biggest surprise of the list for me. Nobody ever mentions the film around here, at least that I've seen. I think it's an excellent, excellent film, but an amazed so many people think it's that great. And so far ahead of BERLIN which isn't loaded with editing fireworks yet works on an emotional & purely pictorial level, to me, that is more satisfying-- or maybe I should say revisitation-prompting. I know Vertov's film has more film school cache at it is a technical tour de force. I duunnno... That said, I love & own them both, and have for years.

I'm one of the loons who put MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH on there. To those who haven't seen it, and may harbor any doubts about the rampant coolness of Doug Fairbanks Sr (after seeing HOLLYWOOD EXTRA & knowing how much he championed that film projecting it at Hollywood parties.. with his fame at the time it would literally be like Tom Hanks.. no even bigger than Hanks, there may not be a modern day equivelant to Fairbanks.. but like someone like that projecting a film which shat all over the system which birthed his glory & riches, very cool dude), but for those who harbor any vaguery about where Dougs heart lay, make it your mission to see this film. It is the most bizarre & hilarious film you'll ever see, filled with drug references. Doug plays a bizarre character who is constantly taking shots of coke & morphine & drinking paregoric (opium), is constantly useless & unable to speak, but comes to life for a few seconds after a shot. Hes got a pair of bizarro coveralls lined with loaded hypos which he's constantly taking jolts from. Then he does this hilarious bouncing dance-wobble all over the place complete withjunky tics & paranoid twitches, etc. The whole thing is pure hallucination. From 1916! He is called upon to solve a crime, which winds up being linked with-- you guessed it-- narcotics. Freakalicious shit.

[zedz]

These defenses seem to get more longwinded with every list. Apologies in advance.

Well, my ‘holy trinity' – in a similar sense to Denti's, in that they were always the top three, and number four lagged way behind, were The General, Joan and A Page of Madness. The poor showing of number three can surely only be due to the absence of opportunities to see it.

After that, it gets more idiosyncratic. About a third of my choices failed to make the top 100. In general, I seem to have a lot more short films than other people, and a lot of those are the ones that didn't make it.


4. Walking from Munich to Berlin (Fischinger, 1927)

The genius Fischinger was only just getting underway in the 20s, and he was all over the place, pioneering sound films, creating machines for self-generating abstract animation, and producing phantasmagoric silhouette animation. This film, quite unlike anything else in his oeuvre, just blows my head off. In the course of a few minutes, Oskar records his entire journey on foot between the two cities in aggressively pixillated fashion (mostly single frames, but occasionally slowing down to allow a tantalising glimpse of the buried narrative). It's a one of a kind movie, at once a travel / landscape film, a documentary, a narrative film and an abstract animation.

8. Love and Journalism (Stiller, 1916)

Stiller and the great Scandinavians predictably underperformed on the list, presumably on the grounds of availability. I'm pleased that Erotikon turned up (it was number 21 for me), but I think I love this film even more. It's as sophisticated and fluid, and as amazingly modern, but it was made even earlier, and is thus that much more impressive. It's very hard to compare films across the years in this period. Things were moving so fast that there can be a bigger difference in syntax and technique between a film made in 1915 and one made in 1920 than there is between one made in 1940 and today. . .

9. Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (Bitzer, 1905)

. . . And thus this wonder is, almost accidentally, the earliest film on my list. It's pretty unfair to compare a film made with the expressive resources of 1905 with one made 20, or even 10 years later. This short documentary, however, is an unconscious structuralist masterpiece avant la lettre. It's nominally about a subway ride, but seen from the 21st century it becomes a semi-abstract meditation on the physicality and physics of cinema: the play of light and dark, the shape and size of the frame (which continually changes as its edges are engulfed in darkness and the frames within the frame speed towards you to fill the vacuum), the illusion of depth, and, not last and not least, the means of production. The moment when the mysterious source of light is fully revealed (and the tiny human figures charged with it scurry into the shadows) is magical. I recently had the privilege of seeing an archival print of this on the big screen: an almost overwhelming experience.

10. Never Weaken (Newmeyer, 1921)

For my money, Lloyd's best film, including what may be the most jaw-dropping stuntwork ever captured on film. The final act plays out like a diagram of danger: it begins with Harold blindfolded, sitting on a chair perched on the end of a girder swaying skyscraper-high above the street. He does not know he is sitting on the end of the girder. After that it gets pretty hairy. The rest of the film is very good, too, and very dark, with a central section of suicide gags.

13. Tusalava (Lye, 1929)

Is it only me who finds a lot of the canonical avant-garde shorts (e.g. Ray, Duchamp, Leger) way over-rated? I think the most exciting ‘fine art' filmmaking of the era was done by actual filmmakers (such as Fischinger and Len Lye), not slumming artists. Lye's first film is simply incredible: mesmerising pulsating primitivist / cubist animation of some otherworldly parasitic ritual. Maybe the most musical silent film ever made.

14. Lonesome (Fejos, 1928)

How Sunrise finished first and this finished nowhere I'll never know. Fejos' film is one of the greatest American movies of the 20s, a glorious city symphony made at the cusp of the sound era (there's one talking scene in the middle), bursting with visual innovation.

16. Blind Justice (Christensen, 1916)

Another mystery ommission, considering The Mysterious X's respectable showing (it was number 31 on my list). The advance in Christensen's style between the two films is dazzling, a great yardstick for the advances of cinema itself at the time. The earlier film is remarkable for its extraordinarily complex mise en scene, Christensen compensating for the absence of some means (sophisticated montage, camera movement) by creating dense tableaux with action taking place on multiple planes. He even goes so far as to hang big mirrors on the rear walls at times to show us what's going on in areas not in our direct line of sight. Blind Justice is less stylistically singular, perhaps, but it has one of the most hair-raising shots in all silent cinema (hell, let's say in all cinema and call it quits) when the camera leaves the room in which a terrified woman is holding the door shut on a (supposed) crazed killer, pulling back through the window as the killer looms into the foreground then breaks in. Christensen is exquisite and touching in the leading role, with a refreshing lack of sentiment: one of my favourite silent film performances.

18. South (Hurley, 1919)

OK, the natural history epilogue is a bit out of whack, but this film contains some of the most amazing news footage ever shot (and some of the 20th century's greatest photographs). The film tells a phenomenal story, and its making is a phenomenal story in its own right. The fact that it's a superb, edge-of-your-seat filmgoing experience in the bargain seals the deal. Did nobody else think to include it?

30. The Chechahcos (Moomaw, 1924)

This recent discovery (thanks to the wonderful Film Archives set) outranks all of the Griffith melodramas it emulated, in my opinion. The set pieces (that crumbling glacier!) are just as great, but the filmmakers, maybe because of their inexperience, ably dodge several clichés of the form (e.g. no central straight romance). What lifts this efficient potboiler into my list, though, is the central relationship. It seems to me that this can be effortlessly read as a gay relationship. The bearish guy explicitly has no interest in women (as an intertitle informs us), and the clean-cut hero never shows any inclination for hetero romance (he doesn't, for example, fall for the mother of his adopted child and form a family unit, as I expected to happen). What's probably even more radical is that this isn't just a wholly positive portrayal of a gay relationship, but a wholly positive portrayal of a family with gay parents: they're an idealised family unit. I hope this reading isn't just down to my, or the filmmakers', naivete.

33. The Sinking of the Lusitania (McCay, 1918)

An animation masterpiece. Pioneering masters in fledgling media are rare enough, but I don't know of any other artist who was a pioneering master in two separate and distinct fledgling media simultaneously.

34. Mystery of the Leaping Fish (Cabanne / Emerson, 1916)

This Douglas Fairbanks mind-fuck has to be seen to be believed. It's the best example I know of how quickly mores can change (well, along with The Crystals' ‘He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)'). Fairbanks stars as cocaine-fueled detective Coke Ennyday, and he spends most of the film getting extravagantly wasted on any and all illicit substances available to him (while in the process of busting a smuggling ring). There's an early scene in which his alarming, leather-clad valet (who looks a bit like he strayed off the set of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, by way of Transylvania) reveals the giant hypodermics strapped to his body and lovingly shoots up his master. It's a hard act to follow.

37. The Cat and the Canary (Leni, 1927)

A barrel of fun, and one of the most successful transpositions of German Expressionism to Hollywood.

39. The Playhouse (Keaton, 1921)

I'm with whoever was bewildered by the omission of this film. One of Keaton's greatest formal experiments, and one of the great special effects achievements of the silent era.

42. The High Sign (Cline / Keaton, 1921)

More great Keaton experimentation. This one is here for the brilliant cutaway-house climax.

43. Aelita (Protazanov, 1924)

And this one is here for its art direction, which is, in my opinion, even more impressive than Metropolis (which borrows heavily from it). Unlike Lang's leaden parable, though, it moves at a much better clip.

48. Ghosts Before Breakfast (Richter, 1928)

Probably my favourite of the canonical avant-garde films.

50. The Shakedown (Wyler, 1929)

The film that once and for all demolishes the old saw about Wyler's silent output. This is a terrific film.


My short list (films that I expected deserved a place in my top 50) ultimately ran to 75. Here are the other orphans:

Asphalt (May, 1929) – surprised the MoC release didn't help its chances
Waxworks (Birinsky / Leni, 1924) – here mainly on the strength of the last story, surely one of the high-water marks of silent cinema
Sir Arne's Treasure (Stiller, 1919) – oh, the guilt. Given the voting system and my knowledge of HerrSchreck's passion for it, this masterpiece would have made the list if I'd allowed it into the 40s on mine. Sorry!
One Week (Cline / Keaton, 1920)
The Seashell and the Clergyman (Dulac, 1928) – I thought this would be a shoo-in.
Der Var Engang (Dreyer, 1922) – It's drastically incomplete, but what survives is superb.
Gertie the Dinosaur (McCay, 1914) – A milestone in character animation.
The Holy Mountain (Fanck, 1926) – absolutely ludicrous, but some fantastic landscapes
The Abyss (Gad, 1910) – Because Asta Nielsen needs to be on the list.
The Town Rat and the Country Rat (Starewicz, 1927)

[denti alligator]

Thank you zedz for your comments! The length is just fine.
Can you tell us if and where these films can be found on DVD or home video.

14. Lonesome (Fejos, 1928)

How Sunrise finished first and this finished nowhere I'll never know.

Because it seems to be hard to come by, I'd guess. I got it from interlibrary loan over a year ago, but it was a very poor video that made it difficult to fully appreciate the film, though I certainly liked it.

The same goes for Page of Madness, which I've only been able to see in the most horribly, egregiously bad video that makes viewing nearly impossible (the first time I gave up out of frustration). When will we see a decent DVD of this?

The Holy Mountain (Fanck, 1926) – absolutely ludicrous, but some fantastic landscapes

Damn! I completely forgot about this one. Well, I guess it's good I didn't waste a vote on it since no one else voted for it. It would have made my top 25 to be sure. C'mon, that dance-by-the-ocean prologue is jaw-dropping!

[Lemmy Caution]

The Adventures of Prince Achmed didn't make the list?

[denti alligator]

The Adventures of Prince Achmed didn't make the list?

As you can see from my post above, it ranked 105.

[scotty]

Of all the key directors of the period, it seems to me that Pudovkin is really MIA here. I can deal with Storm Over Asia not making it, but for Mother to rank at 83, I have to wonder. I found that his films pay greater attention to characterization than Eisenstein's (not a knock on Sergei) and his visual flourishes seem to be just as engaging. Eisenstein is the trailblazer historically, as Pudovkin himself acknowledged, but there is great power in Pudovkin's work that surely ranks him higher than, say, 45th out of the directors represented on the list. Any thoughts on Pudovkin and his place on this list? Did I really fail to see Storm Over Asia's faults? Or has no one seen it? It is on an Image R1 dvd.

[denti alligator]

Of all the key directors of the period, it seems to me that Pudovkin is really MIA here. I can deal with Storm Over Asia not making it, but for Mother to rank at 83, I have to wonder. I found that his films pay greater attention to characterization than Eisenstein's (not a knock on Sergei) and his visual flourishes seem to be just as engaging. Eisenstein is the trailblazer historically, as Pudovkin himself acknowledged, but there is great power in Pudovkin's work that surely ranks him higher than, say, 45th out of the directors represented on the list. Any thoughts on Pudovkin and his place on this list? Did I really fail to see Storm Over Asia's faults? Or has no one seen it? It is on an Image R1 dvd.

It and End of St Petersburg are high on my must-see list.