Just saw Time Magazines list of All-Time top 100 movies. Think the critics at Time have seriously lost it. I mean, who in their right mind would pick The Purple Rose of Cairo as the one Woody Allen film that made it to the list? Or pick Notorious as one of Hitchcock's two best films? Or Smiles of a Summer Night as one of Bergman's?
And don't even get me started on the sheer idiocy of including Jackie Chan films but leaving out A bout de souffle. And have these people ever heard of Italian cinema?
I know it's easy to carp about lists in general - there's always going to be tons of good stuff that gets left off. But at least most lists give you the satisfaction of knowing that everything that's one there is good stuff. I'm not sure I can say that for this list.
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8 comments:
Long time reader, first time posting. I actually think that Purple Rose is one of Allen's finest films (perhaps the only films I'd put ahead of it would be Manhattan and Crimes & Misdemeanors). But that list has many important omissions, notably not a single Tarkovsky pick :(. Good to see Guru Dutt represented though. Cheers.
Hi there chanced upon your blog yesterday and the adjective "impressed" is an understatement...:) Or for that matter even the word "prolific" to describe your blogging...anyway keep the posts coming in...you just got a fan...
Haven't looked at the list yet but I'm surprised you have reservations about Notorious being included.
Also (returning to that old subject of being more interested in an artiste's less acclaimed works): given that all lists are meaningless anyway, I'd personally find a list that includes Purple Rose... (instead of Manhattan) or Smiles of a ... (instead of Seventh Seal or Cries and Whispers) more interesting and provocative than one that harps on about the same 20-30 "great films" we've always been hearing about in film schools and Sight and Sound polls.
Incidentally I think Slate Magazine had a similar list recently that made a deliberate attempt to be unconventional - to NOT include a director's most obviously acclaimed movies. While that sort of endeavour is pretentious in itself, it's also great fun.
I haven't seen the list. I think most lists are biased and meaningless.
Ventilatorblues: Purple Rose? Really? You mean you'd pick it over Annie Hall and Hannah & her sisters and Love & Death and Zelig and Manhattan Murder Mystery and Mighty Aphrodite and Play it again, Sam and Midsummer Night's Sex comedy and (even) Shadows & Fog? I wouldn't. I thought Purple Rose was a fairly sappy and hopelessly meandering film - it would have made a great ten minute short feature (the basic concept was really interesting) but it just went on and on and on.
Agree with you about Tarkovsky bit though. Overall think the list does very little justice to European cinema, beyond the obligatory nods to Truffaut and Bergman.
Girish: Thanks - both for the comment and for the post on your blog. I must start spending more time reading this Falstaff guy!
Jabberwock: It's not that I don't like Notorious, it's just that I wouldn't pick it as one of Hitchcock's two best films. In fact, it probably wouldn't make my top 5 Hitchcock films list (though admittedly that's because I really love Hitchcock in his early British days). It's hard for me to see Notorious on a list that leaves out the Birds or Rear Window. I suppose I should be grateful that they didn't put Marnie on the list.
And, oh, I totally agree that a list that explicitly tries to explore less acclaimed works would be really interesting - but this list isn't trying to do that. So I would love to see, for instance a list that tried to do the second-best 100 films of the century (Nos. 101 - 200) - it's the mix of the usual classics and some off-beat movies that gets to me. So I don't think, for instance, that Notorious is half as good a movie as Psycho, so that seeing them together feels wrong.
mrudula: Biased, absolutely. Meaningless, not necessarily. There's nothing more interesting than a coherently prejudiced point of view.
Play It Again Sam was based on a play scripted by Allen, but directed by Herbert Ross (of The Goodbye Girl fame). Wonderful film.
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