ET v. Sight and Sound's 100 Greatest Films of All Time
This is the finale of the most significant four months in my cinema-viewing life, where I watched all 101 films on the most recent rendition of the Sight & Sound 100 Greatest Films of All Time critics' list. I have read reasonable opinions across the internet that the list could do with some freshening, diversification, maybe send some of these films to The Pantheon, as Filmspotting viewers would understand. While I've expressed some of my own ideas to update the list a bit, I'm now starting to become of the mind that perhaps film needs some new institutions, as opposed to the older, stodgier BFI and AFI, to make up for what we currently lack, which is a more progressive canon that views cinema through the lens of a new day in our world, and turns a leaf on some of the more outmoded (not necessarily older) works. That's not to say, replace the BFI or AFI, but to have other institutions that gain enough notice to put out a canonical list that can stand up to these older institutions. I sort of stepped on the hornet's nest is bringing about the word "cancel" or "canceled", but a canon that represents a new world more accepting of a wider breadth of cinematic representation does not mean we are stomping out certain works we find to be disagreeable, only pulling those more offensive and hurtful representations from their places on high, while, more importantly, casting a wider net as to what the greatest films of all time actually might be, and recognizing other films in a way that has been long overdue.
Yet, I also propose a new list separate from the vary famous Sight & Sound decennial list because I, in great part, like this list as it is, and only find a few films on it truly troubling. There are certainly a lot of films from white men from the continents of North America and Europe, with substantive yet few contributions from women, nonbinary people, or people of color. Even with the lack of diversity in the filmmakers, the films represented here are still of the most detailed, obsessive, innovative, and passionate works you will see. They are emblematic of the largest film movements in history, from early silent films, to Hollywood's golden age, the French New Wave, and smaller movements around the world, all the way to a few 21st Century gems making it on here. We're dealing with the transcendental, modernist, post-modernist, epics, and experimental and avant garde narratives and documentaries; IN SHORT: PEOPLE WHO REALLY TRIED TO DO SOMETHING AND KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK. The BFI should make reforms, but I'd hate that to mean the films on the list wouldn't anymore be the most ambitious and accomplished films ever. With change comes the natural worry that something will be watered down. The truth of what I'm proposing is a better Sight & Sound List with all its foreign and arthouse films alongside the best of the British and American cinema to battle fossilization and diversify without throwing out so many decades of history as THE canon a lot of people can rally around (and also bitch about).
So, new institutions, while the BFI and AFI diversify while still standing up for the most interesting, ambitious, and artful works of cinema throughout the world and years.
If the list helped me further define my tastes and what I search for, I would say I generally look for ambition and scope in the work. That can mean different things for different directors, the budgets they have, and what they seek to create. I want shots that are full of meaning, I want films to try new techniques that play with the viewer's mind while they're in the cinematic dream state, I want interesting characters that matter, but yes, I value ambition and scope big time. I also want the films I watch to be thoughtful and socially-conscious, works of humanism and empathy. And sometimes, the most ambitious filmmaker just points their camera at the most important story in front of them, ala Italian Neo-realism or social realism, and just starts working (after, ya know, action research, preparation, etc., stuff like that).
Ultimately, I love the list, believe the list remains relevant, can't wait 'til the 2022 rendition, even if I think new contenders need to emerge to challenge the Sight & Sound poll and emphasize where we are going as a culturally pluralistic and accepting society. That also can mean shining a light on some dark truths from the past. I'm going to pursue a lot of films from directors on this list, and use it as a springboard into decades and decades more film-viewing.
By the numbers, I saw 101 Films45 were given 4-5 stars (GREAT / LOVE IT)28 were given 3-3.5 stars (GOOD / LIKE IT)17 were given 2-2.5 stars (MIXED / IT'S OK)11 were given 1-1.5 stars, (BAD / DON'T LIKE IT)It's hard to hate on any experience where you see 45 great movies, even on a list that's supposed to be ALL great movies. That's 11 great movies a month plus whatever I had been watching.
That's 73 positive experiences v. 28 mixed-to-negative experiences.
That's a hell of an experience.
ET'S FAVORITE PERFORMERS IN THE MARATHON
I continue to evolve and change when it comes to how I think about actors (male, female, nonbinary) and what they have to do to make a film successful. I tend toward the more natural, less theatrical way of acting, but then immediately concede that it's primarily on a film-to-film basis. I really don't have much room for traditional Hollywood stars and celebrities these days, though. All that said, here are my favorite performers from the films in the Sight & Sound 100 list. I didn't make any limits to have a certain number of entries, these are simply the ones that will continue to live in my imagination well after the dust has settled on this marathon.
From top-to-bottom, left-to-right, some photos combine multiple performers:
Actor / Part(s) / Film(s)Marcello Mastroianni / Guido Anselmi / 8 ½
Douglas Rain / HAL 9000 (voice) / 2001: A Space Odyssey
Anatolyi Solonitsyn / Andrey Rublev / Andrei Rublev
Anne Wiazemsky / Marie / Au hasard Balthazar
Ryan O’Neal / Redmond Barry or Barry Lyndon / Barry Lyndon
Denis Lavant / Galoup / Beau Travail
Charles Chaplin / The Tramp / City Lights and Modern Times
Brigitte Bardot / Camille Javal / Contempt
Allan Edwall / Oscar Ekdahl / Fanny & Alexander
Ewa Froling / Emilie Ekdahl / Fanny & Alexander
Pernilla Allwin / Fanny Ekdahl / Fanny & Alexander
Bertil Guve / Alexander Ekdahl / Fanny & Alexander
Delphine Seyrig / Jeanne Dielman / Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
Ingrid Bergman / Katherine Joyce / Journey to Italy
Michel Simon / Le pere Jules (old Jules) / L’Atalante
Roger Livesey / Clive Candy / The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Anton Wallbrook / Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff / The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Francois Leterrier / Fontaine / A Man Escaped
Lillian Gish / Rachel Cooper / The Night of the Hunter
Uma Dasgupta / Durga / Pather Panchali
Jacques Tati / Monsieur Hulot / Play Time
Bibi Andersson / Alma / Persona
Liv Ullman / Elisabet Vogler / Persona
Anna Karina / Marianne Renoir / Pierrot le fou
Toshiro Mifune / Tajomaru / Rashomon and Kikuchiyo / Seven Samurai
Mihaly Vig / Irimias / Satantango
Debbie Reynolds / Kathy Selden / Singin’ in the Rain
Ana Torrent / Ana / Spirit of the Beehive
Isabel Telleria / Isabel / Spirit of the Beehive
James Stewart / John “Scottie” Ferguson / Vertigo
Kim Novak / Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster / Vertigo
Jonathan Chang / Yang Yang / Yi Yi
Wu Nien-jen / NJ / Yi Yi