Comments
Please wait...
Comments are closed.
Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.
More In Film/TV
Popular Articles
is a proud member of the
media network
media network
All contents © Index Newspapers LLC
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Fargo is a great film, but the comic editing in Raising Arizona might provide more lessons to film students. I'd imagine Kung Fu Hustle is similarly on the list for it's amazing editing.
There may also be an aspect of industry expectation in the list as well. Films that people will guffaw if you say you've never seen it in a meeting.
And the plot says so much about the modern human condition. How innocent people can be pulled into a kind of planetary system of bad intent. If you haven't seen it, do.
It is also the only great Nicolas Cage film.
This scene is a great example- You can see the water in the street behind them, meaning it is pretty warm, at least in the high 20's. Locals would be in shirt sleeves in weather like this. One of the few real 'errors' in the film, to my mind.
A bad filmmaker creating a list of other bad filmmakers.
Now that's a story!
Do The Right Thing
Malcolm X
No it's not.
Raising Arizona was the beginning of Hollywood movies that consisted of something thrilling happening, and then characters tilting their heads back and screaming and the camera zooming in on their mouths. It lead all the way to the peak of Home Alone and the trope continues to this day. Somehow it's all supposed to count as comedy (in the place of jokes, visual gags, slapstick and so on).
That trope ranks right up there with a goofy superhero leading everyone in singing a 1960s pop classic like Wild Thing or Put the Lime in the Coconut. That's been going on for decades!
I'm with you 100% on Fargo, though. And my favorite line is in that scene you posted:
"Well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him, then."
Captures the essence of Minnesota as completely as the entire run of The Prairie Home Companion Show.
All in all, a pretty good list. I've viewed about 85-90% of the list including most of Lee's work. Couple of quibbles. I believe the best Coen Bros. film to be their first, "Blood Simple" and while Welles' "Touch of Evil" is good, it is impossible to beat his masterworks "The Magnificent Ambersons" & "Citizen Kane". Also, I believe Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" to be the best film about combat ever made. It should be included. Finally, John Ford's "The Searchers" and virtually anything by Carl Theo. Dreyer is a glaring omission.
I am glad he included "Rossellini's "Open City", a heartbreaking masterpiece. Part of it was photographed when Rome was actually occupied. I do wish he included "Ain't Nothing but a Man" by Buddy Roemer, a terrific film as well.
But clearly some pretentious "I AM AN AUTEUR, DAMMIT!" choices that don't really deserve to be on the list.
Like "Mean Streets?" C'mon. "Good Fellas" is an infinitely superior Scorsese film. But of course it's a "popular" film.
And "Badlands?" rather than "Thin Red Line." Really?
And "Last Tango." That's just such an obvious and hacky inclusion. "Last Tango" is a vain unintentionally comic sexist mess. Brando's "Stick your fingers in my ass and call me a pig!" line just makes me laugh.
That any of Bergman's films are missing is a genuine grave omission. "Wild Strawberries" is magnificent. I also think "The Scarlet Letter" by Victor Sjostrom (1926) should be included. A jewel.
I'm curious why he chose Yojimbo over Seven Samurai. Love that he included Kung Fu Hustle. The more time that passes, the more I appreciate it as a masterpiece. Also nice to see Night of the Hunter recognized, I absolutely love that movie.
@28 totally agree with the Bergman comment. Also, an essential films list without Russians? And no Cassavetes? To each their own, I suppose the least can only be so long.
Also agree with Charles about Fargo.
I have some current favorite films that today I'd put on that list today, but hard to say if I'll think so in a decade.
There should be some Mike Leigh on there too, dammit.
If this is a student syllabus, fine -- you can teach using anything for material. But it's
Those were good films, but not great.
@14- Spike Lee has made some great movies. Even though you're scared of black you should like 25th Hour or Summer of Sam.
@33 - Good call on Tati. Playtime is probably the most "important," but Mon Oncle is my personal favorite, and it seems to me that Les Vacances de M. Hulot is likely to be the most universally accessible. I think Trafic is wildly underrated, but is probably too obscure to qualify, and Jour de Fete was before Tati had truly developed his unique voice as a filmmaker.
@38 Great points. Yojimbo and Rashomon are maybe both more sophisticated films than Seven Samurai as well, but it's just so goddamn classic—probably a hard point to argue in an academic setting.
He had the era covered already, but I'd definitely have some Godard on there—probably Masculine Feminine, based completely on personal taste and not on any notion of importance; that, or the first 60 minutes of Weekend, but we can't go cutting things up like that, or I'd have chunks of Koreeda Hirokazu films cut together into one heartbreaking film to rule them all.
Of course, I also quite love Hidden Fortress. One could argue the hierarchy of Kurosawa's output all day.
My Godard entry would be Band a Part. Too many reasons to get into, here, but I can say it's a mix of personal and formal reasons; I also think it's second only to Breathless in terms of accessibility (not a common trait among Godard films; much as I love Alphaville and Weekend, neither is even marginally friendly to the "art-film" averse . . . and I have a lot of those in my social circle).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qmK1T-GC…
However, Billy Wilder is at his (writing) best in 'One, Two, Three', and 'Ghost Dog' is also an infinitely better movie than 'Strangers in Paradise', but whatever.