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Author Topic: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection  (Read 35027 times)

pixote

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Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« on: March 13, 2012, 06:25:45 PM »
edit: Here's a link to the year selection ballot. Deadline: Tuesday, March 20.



We need to decide which year we're going to focus on for the inaugural Retro Filmspots. (If you don't know what the Filmspots are, check out this FAQ for the 2011 edition of the awards.)

Originally we thought we might just throw up a series of polls to narrow down the era then the decade then the year, but that started to seem a little arbitrary and impersonal and, well, boring. So here's plan B (which takes it cue from the cases for resurrection thread that we had in the 90s bracket at one point):

We're going to take nominations from everyone for which year we should focus on. Each person will be limited to a single nomination, and nominations should take the form of an argument that you can post in this thread. The hope is that people will make good strong cases for why the rest of us should spend the next three to four months focusing on your year rather than the hundred other options.

A really good resource here, I think, will be the yearly polls that Gjay81 started and I (somewhat) finished:

1919
1920          1930          1940          1950          1960          1970         
192119311941195119611971
192219321942195219621972
192319331943195319631973
192419341944195419641974
192519351945195519651975
192619361946195619661976
192719371947195719671977
192819381948195819681978
192919391949195919691979

It might be cool to glance through some of those polls and count of which years have the most films you yourself want to see and also the most films you want other people to see. You can also take into account the the filmmaking era, the historical impact, the variety of filmmaking on display, the potential impact on our Top 100, and so on. And, as everyone knows, every good argument includes screenshots. (Note: The years before 1919 are still viable options, even though no polls seem to exist for those years individual; the years after 1979 are off-limits, at least for this first Retro Filmspots.)

The goal here is to get this project started with a good conversation. It's possible that we'll quickly reach a consensus on which year we should have a Filmspots for; if not, we'll take all the nominated years and associated arguments and put them to a vote; and, if this whole thing's a bust, well, then we'll just go back to the polling idea.

So, have at it, Filmspotters. What year should we celebrate with our first Retro Filmspots (and why)?

pixote
« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 02:21:26 AM by pixote »
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MartinTeller

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2012, 06:42:32 PM »
I don't feel like making an impassioned argument at the moment, but I'll say 1957 just because it's always stuck with me as a year with a lot of my favorites.

But honestly, I'm okay with any year, although I'm fairly weak on the silent era.

pixote

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2012, 06:43:49 PM »
I'm fairly weak on the silent era.

Would that be an argument for or against?

I have a list of years which aren't represented in my Top 100. I'm tempted to make an argument for one of them, for that very reason.

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Bondo

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2012, 07:31:05 PM »
1963, 1962 and 1959 are the years with the most films in the Criterion Collection. For those with hulu+, that might be an appealing reason for one of those years to be selected.

Junior

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2012, 10:15:51 PM »
I'll be making my case for 1934 tomorrow.
Check out my blog of many topics

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1SO

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2012, 11:46:07 PM »
1969 makes its own case.

Age of Consent
Alice's Restaurant
Army of Shadows
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Burn!
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Cactus Flower
The Damned
Double Suicide
Easy Rider
Fellini Satyricon
The Italian Job
Kes
Medium Cool
Midnight Cowboy
My Night at Maud's
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Putney Swope
The Rain People
Simon of the Desert
The Sorrow and the Pity
The Sterile Cuckoo
Take the Money and Run
That Cold Day in the Park
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
True Grit
The Wild Bunch
Women in Love
Z
and possibly Andrei Rublev and If...

In the poll, the winner is Butch Cassidy and I would bet that's because it's the one most widely seen. There are a lot of great filmmakers with a movie that year. It was a stunning mix of Old Hollywood and new, bold artistic visions. I bet nearly all of you have a couple of titles on the list above you've been meaning to get to.


Here's what you have to say...

I should probably watch Army of Shadows and Z soon.
Damn, I haven't seen ANY of these!  That is lame.
Army of Shadows over Z and The Milky Way. At least until The Cremator gets added. Then I don't know. I'll have to review all these at some point.

smirnoff

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2012, 11:55:56 PM »
1978
A Star is Born (to kick ass)!


A 6 film year for Jackie (about 2 more than average), but more importantly, it's his breakout year. No longer just Bruce Lee's punching bag, this is the year Chan stepped into the spotlight in a big way. Lets all discover what set this legend's 30+ year career in motion!

Let's begin at the beginning. With Jackie.

Jackie Chan.



A few other notable points of interest:


sdedalus

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2012, 12:31:18 AM »
Are we going by imdb years?
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Jared

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2012, 01:44:54 AM »
Personally, I'm inclined to vote for a year that DOESN'T make it's case, for maximum discovery AND because I think it'll be best if the first one we do doesn't have an obvious choice. My vote will be in the hope that we keep the first one to a year not represented in our filmspotting top 100

Will choose a year to nominate soon, based on that

smirnoff

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Re: Retro Filmspots I: Year Selection
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2012, 07:21:33 AM »
For the record I haven't seen any film in my post.

 

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