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.
I agree that 1957 is a particularly strong year. It would be fun to see a shoot-out between
Wild Strawberries,
Paths of Glory,
12 Angry Men,
The Seventh Seal,
Throne of Blood,
The Bridge on the River Kwai,
Sweet Smell of Success, and
Nights of Cabiria. The best actor category would be insane. And in a year with Kubrick, Kurosawa, Fellini, Lumet, and two Bergmans, who gets best director? Also, I would finally have an incentive to watch
An Affair to Remember.
So, I'm for 1957 if we're going for a fun Filmspots exercise with movies that we've mostly all seen. For the sake of discovery, I would also be for dipping back into the 30s. Bondo's suggestion of 1930 sits well with me. I know that
All Quiet on the Western Front and
The Blue Angel are favorites, but I haven't seen them. In fact, I don't think I've seen any from that year's
checklist. In
1937, I think I've only seen Snow White.
But I think an appropriate question is what do we want to get out of our Retro Filmspots? Do we want to play with the familiar (while of course rounding out what we haven't seen) or delve together into the unfamiliar?
I think going with the 30s instead of the teens would be rather more accessible for people looking to participate. I'd like Retros to be a smash hit out of the gate so that we can keep them going. We can always go weirder later.