Author Topic: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time  (Read 50772 times)

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #270 on: June 07, 2020, 11:57:28 PM »
Quote
Now, this is my kind of Godard fun. Pierrot le Fou is a film that plays with color, sound, and cutting, includes musical numbers and visual and verbal gags, and somehow manages to hit on certain truths about human relations and art within all of the madness.
Pierrot le Fou is the one Godard where I get it. All the experimentation makes for a very fun movie. I will watch it again one day because he doesn't seem to be doing anything different then what I read about his other films and this isn't mentioned as Godard dumbed down for better appeal. When I saw it, I thought perhaps I was finally getting the filmmaker, but everything after has been steps back.


I don't get the acclaim for Gertrud. I simply don't. However, the other two Dreyer films you have coming up are two of his three best. History should swipe out Gertrud for Vampyr.


Billy Wilder is a genius and when I first saw Some Like it Hot I was disappointed because he's made many better films. Over time, I came to appreciate it, and I've seen it 3 times (which is pretty low considering how much I love Wilder and old Hollywood movies.) I always think of Wilder being best with comedy, but except for One Two Three I actually rate his comedies lower than his dramas.

It's hard to blame Monroe for playing into "all the bad blonde bombshell stereotypes". She invented them... with this performance... and they were game-changing at the time.

Dave the Necrobumper

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 12730
  • If I keep digging maybe I will get out of this hol
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #271 on: June 08, 2020, 02:30:23 AM »
I do not agree with you on Some Like It Hot, but what did you think of the last line, which I see as the greatest last lines in movies.

Eric/E.T.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3830
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #272 on: June 08, 2020, 04:05:23 AM »
I don't get the acclaim for Gertrud. I simply don't. However, the other two Dreyer films you have coming up are two of his three best. History should swipe out Gertrud for Vampyr.

Billy Wilder is a genius and when I first saw Some Like it Hot I was disappointed because he's made many better films. Over time, I came to appreciate it, and I've seen it 3 times (which is pretty low considering how much I love Wilder and old Hollywood movies.) I always think of Wilder being best with comedy, but except for One Two Three I actually rate his comedies lower than his dramas.

It's hard to blame Monroe for playing into "all the bad blonde bombshell stereotypes". She invented them... with this performance... and they were game-changing at the time.

Gertrud has probably evoked the least passion in me of any of these films. I clicked a button, I saw, I turned the TV off and did something else.

I was wondering, how many critics needed to vote for Gertrud to make it T-42 on such a list. The answer: 31. You likely know these people better than I do, so maybe you can read more into it. Just clicking on random voters, Renoir and Griffith come up on several of the lists as well.

Switching gears, if Monroe invented the stereotypes with that performance in Some Like It Hot, I would think that'd all the more condemning of her and the film since those are not nice things to be associating with people of a particular hair color. I think she also plays into unpleasant stereotypes about women in general as flighty and in need of a man.

I haven't had luck with Wilder so far.  :-\

I do not agree with you on Some Like It Hot, but what did you think of the last line, which I see as the greatest last lines in movies.

It's better out of context than in context, because in context, I thought the ending was fairly abrupt.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #273 on: June 08, 2020, 08:44:44 AM »
My "review" of Gertrud was simply:

Quote
Exquisitely photographed.  That’s the only nice thing I have to say about this movie.  Ridiculously melodramatic dialogue brought to life by ridiculously bad actors.  What a waste of time.  Rating: 5/10

That was back in 2003. I can recall almost nothing about the movie, but I have had no urge to revisit it and see if I was wrong.

Can't remember the last time I saw SLIH, it's probably been 20 years if not more. I think Wilder had a gift for snappy dialogue, but yeah I can't imagine Curtis & Lemmon pretending to be women is all that funny anymore. Worth noting that it's been steadily dropping on the S&S list (#29 in 1992, #33 in 2002, #42 in 2012).

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #274 on: June 08, 2020, 10:32:19 AM »
Some Like it Hot is one of those films I saw when I was getting into films and I'm honestly not sure how it's more sophisticated than the kind of crass comedies that get slammed today by critics. Lots of sex jokes and the cross-dressing humor hasn't aged well. Is it just because people talk faster or say a lot of innuendos? I didn't find it particularly funny or clever. I'm also not a big Wilder fan so there's that consideration as well.

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #275 on: June 08, 2020, 03:32:54 PM »
I was wondering, how many critics needed to vote for Gertrud to make it T-42 on such a list. The answer: 31. You likely know these people better than I do, so maybe you can read more into it.
I don't know any of the critics. The first two directors have threads here, but I haven't explored their work yet. You can read into that.

Eric/E.T.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3830
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #276 on: June 15, 2020, 02:35:15 PM »
Pather Panchali
SATYAJIT RAY, 1955
5 STARS OUT OF 5

If you’re into Italian-neorealism, social realism, and the like, this is an absolute slamdunk. I knew I’d like it before I saw it, the only question being, How much? Like, the love couldn’t fill the Grand Canyon, which I hear is very big.

It took a minute to click for me, but in this story of the boy Apu, from birth through early childhood, you are bearing witness to two things: a family on the fringes of survival and a free-spirited angel in his sister Durga, or, if you may, a light that burns brights and burns out way too fast. Pather Panchali eschews some of the miserabilia in a way the more recent Florida Project manages it, by showing you the humanity and human resilience that exists in any community regardless of socioeconomic status. Of course, both due to ethics and, I think to an extent, aesthetics, it’s most pleasing to see people who are really struggling also find pleasure in life. For the vast majority of us fortunate enough to be in better economic circumstances - realistically, everyone who’s likely to see this movie - it is a reminder and an invitation to live. However, cruel truths will rear their heads and can crush your soul with them. By the end, Pather Panchali is for sure a tragedy.

Subratra Mitra’s cinematography is wondrous and probably sets a standard for capturing such a small, traditional settlement, as well as poverty, in the complete manner that he does. I plan on finishing the Apu trilogy, and if they are shot anything like Pather Panchali, I’ll be onboard even if the story doesn’t live up to this first installment. The shots in the orchard are particularly striking, with the camera putting enough bramble between it and the subjects to show the wildness of it, only to then explain that the fruit is forbidden Apu’s family since they sold off the orchard. Thus it is tantalizing, and when Apu’s family members walk through the orchard, it’s a symbol of their want and poverty. When we’re in the family’s home or just sitting outside it, the small estate, so to speak, fills the camera to the point you feel trapped, oppressed. The film has some beautiful wide shots of the common trails the people walk and the countryside, but the family’s place is distinct in how you feel when you are there, especially as it crumbles around you. Always there is the mother, Sarbojaya, she hardly gets to leave, and when she does it’s generally to ask for assistance. The camera sticks with her enough throughout to let you feel her anxiety as she does her duty for her children and husband, who leaves for months at a time, quite dutifully and, ultimately, lovingly. Karuna Bannerjee as Sarbojaya embodies the stress of keeping the family together, the home her ball and chain, and puts in a tremendous shift.

I was listening to the new Armand Hammer LP, a very of-the-BLM-moment album that still transcends the moment and puts it in a broader context, and on it they sample a woman making a strong statement on survival that came to mind watching Pather Panchali. It criticized society’s belittlement of the act of survival, claiming that it is no small thing to survive, but a coordinated effort that some have the luxury of taking for granted. It turned survival into a continuous accomplishment; you don’t get food, shelter, water, clothing, and (I like to include) love just by sitting around. It drew a distinction between surviving and existing, and pretty rightfully claiming that no one desires just to “exist,” but survival goes way beyond. I have always distinguished surviving and really living, but how many of us live without boundaries or barriers, without financial, health, or other concerns holding us back from the great everything? Surviving is nothing to scoff at. In this context, the failure of the Ray family to fully survive is a brutal, brutal thing. That they are getting away with Apu before everything collapses is something. Perhaps they can save their line, for whatever that is worth, and maybe it’s worth a lot. There are still two deaths here that will leave emotional scars on the viewer, as survival is paramount, thereby death is a true blow.

It bears mentioning the job Uma Dasgupta and this group of actors does. Specific to Dasgupta, she only has Pather Panchali to her name, and somehow, as Durga, she is the essence that delights and haunts the film. A lot of times, that is a credit to the director, and I’m sure Ray worked hard with her, but also credit Mitra for framing her in all the right ways, be it in a crumbling arch, in the rain, or walking through the orchard. But also, and perhaps above all, credit her for having a continuous energy and stage presence that clearly enchants and enriches Apu, thereby us.

There were a few hang-ups I had to get beyond, the biggest being the way Durga dies. I felt at first that it was perpetuating the old, outmoded theory that you can catch a cold or other illness from being out in the cold. That might still be true, though I’ve concocted another theory that, considering the state the family was in at her death, she was malnourished, thereby more susceptible to hypothermia as the body struggles to maintain proper homeostasis while exposed to the elements and not having sufficient nourishment and body mass. Not that I think this film, which remember is 65 years old, is outright flouting science, but it is a work in the line of Italian Neorealism, and to me that means everything is realistic. It still might work.

An elemental and lyrical piece of cinema. Like Bicycle Thieves before it, Pather Panchali exposes reality on its own terms and refuses to pull punches or give quarter. It centers on the humanity of its characters and heightens our sense of humanity, if we will only bear witness.

-----------

After changing my approach to the forum slowdown several times, I'm just going to brave it. I'm finishing Satantango, and I think maybe that's given me a new perspective on time. What's 28 seconds, anyway?
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

Eric/E.T.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3830
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #277 on: June 15, 2020, 02:40:08 PM »
Journey to Italy
ROBERTO ROSSELLINI, 1954
3.5 STARS OUT OF 5


Journey to Italy is both a chronicle of a marriage breaking down and a meditation on impermanence with an eye on a clock that goes back and forth instead of round and round. It has a Shakespearean quality to it in that it has its star-driven love story to occupy the commoner and the inquiry into the fabric of human civilization and existence, which all time annihilates, for perhaps the more high-minded. Of course, one can have both sensibilities and enjoy the full package. I thought I was at least partially doomed when there was a special credit for the person who takes care of Ingrid Bergman’s wardrobe, bracing myself for an exercise in frou frou. However.

Strangely, the outfits never seemed so swanky, and indeed it’s the Bergman half of the marriage that takes you through the sights of our future’s past while her husband Alex takes off for a side adventure on the Isle of Capri, stating that museums “bore” him. Bergman as Katherine Joyce looks into the blank gazes of Roman emperors and observes various busts, including one that the guide says looks a little more aged or older, compelling Katherine - and likely many of us - to examine mortality and a funny sense of posterity. Even more elemental and indifferent to humanity are the Phlegraean Fields, where she witnesses tricks of ionization that make the whole structure around them smoke up. Neat tricks and beautiful scenery, but what are we to the Fields, but ephemeral beings? That point is even more driven home by the Fontanelle Cemetery, and then excavation site Katherine and Alex take in after they’re already decided on their divorce.

The sight of seeing a man and woman excavated together may be well what drive Katherine and Alex back together by film’s end; it’s the idea of being with someone at the end of your timeline. This is never spoken, but by simply looking at the order of observations and listening the words that pass between Katherine and Alex, which are never pleasant or nourishing until the end, tell you everything. Is it that time makes cowards of us and ultimately drives us into the arms of another? There are still elements of the love story I didn’t care for, and some time that feels wasted watching Katherine and Alex at a party or lounging around and picking at each other. Still, the bigger ideas this film gets at, as well as as the lack of melodramatics compared to what Rossellini could have milked from this film, elevated it beyond being one in a history of films on the dissolution of human bonds and unions. Instead, he showed us the dissolution of human civilization and existence, and asked us to redefine love and companionship in the face of oblivion.

----------

PS: I know that people like to do the Vertigo tour of San Francisco, and see all the famous places from the set. However, the Journey to Italy tour in and around Naples looks even more enticing to me. Ancient sculptures, age old burial sites, ruins, and a super volcano? Count me in!

PPS: I'm starting to get out of order with my viewing now because La Dolce Vita hasn't come in the mail yet.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2020, 12:48:53 AM by etdoesgood »
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

MartinTeller

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17864
  • martinteller.wordpress.com
    • my movie blog
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #278 on: June 15, 2020, 03:25:05 PM »
Welcome to the wonderful world of Satyajit Ray. Depending what day you ask me, my favorite director is either Ray or Bergman (the two largest posters in my home office are for The Apu Trilogy and Fanny & Alexander). I do not think you will be disappointed with the rest of the trilogy, though the third has some problems IMO.

We're overdue for another Criterion release of a Ray film, but in the meantime I recommend everything they've put out so far, especially The Big City and Charulata. My complete rankings:

1. Mahanagar (The Big City)
2. Charulata (The Lonely Wife)
3. Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)
4. Pratidwandi (The Adversary)
5. Devi (The Goddess)
6. Jana Aranya (The Middleman)
7. Jalsaghar (The Music Room)
8. Aparajito (The Unvanquished)

9. Seemabaddha (Company Limited)
10. Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress)
11. Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World)
12. Sadgati (Deliverance)
13. Kapurush (The Coward)
14. Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)
15. Days and Nights in the Forest
16. Two
17. Nayak (The Hero)
18. Agantuk (The Stranger)
19. Pikoor Diary
20. Ashani Sanket

21. The Inner Eye
22. Teen Kanya
23. Kanchenjungha
24. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne 
25. Abhijaan
26. Parash Pathar
27. Joi Baba Felunath
28. Sikkim
29. Sukumar Ray
30. Rabindranath Tagore
31. An Enemy of the People

32. The Chess Players
33. Heerak Rajar Deshe
34. Bala
35. Mahapurush
36. Shakha Proshakha

37. Chiriyakhana

Eric/E.T.

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3830
Re: ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
« Reply #279 on: June 16, 2020, 03:23:39 AM »
MT - Thanks for all that! I'm destined for, at minimum, a Ray mini-marathon (5, give or take) once I've finished with these 101 films. I've got a spreadsheet going of what to tackle next, so your input is much appreciated.

Considering that Criterion sale in July and the bit of stimulus I put to the side for a little well-meaning, dare we say artful spending, might be a good time to stimulate our economy one last time this summer and go for the Apu trilogy and the Fanny & Alexander box set. (As I build my own personal pantheon, I can't see a way both Pather Panchali and Fanny & Alexander don't make the next rendition of my personal Top 100. With Spirit of the Beehive and the two Yangs, they are right there for Best in Show for this marathon thus far.)

I can't wait to talk a little Satantango with you and the community. After I write-up The 400 Blows, I'll drop that review, which is already locked and loaded (because I just love gun metaphors  ::) ).
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

 

love