ol' eddy wrecks

Barbara Loden's Wanda has been getting a revival of recognition recently. It's in the category of Cassavetes in terms of tone - though I prefer Cassavetes. Shirley Clarke's The Connection is also an odd, little film, possibly worth checking out (maybe depending on who you are) - though of we're just talking worth checking out, we can also expand to documentaries like her film, A Portrait of Jason (whose point eluded me when I watched, but left me feeling like I missed the transition/cues of what I was supposed to be paying attention to). Elaine May was mentioned earlier - if you want large studio comedy, her and Penny Marshall seem like your best bets for pre-2000. From May, I've seen A New Leaf and Mikey and Nicky. A New Leaf is what you'd expect (enjoyable!). Mikey and Nicky is what you'd expect from an independent film starring Cassavetes and Faulk - but as a dry comedy. In terms of possible Blacksploitation films (the ones actually made by African Americans). I've actually only seen some of the more obscure ones and haven't seen the well known ones. The one I'm really curious about is Superfly. I did see Ganja & Hess. You definitely feel how rushed it was, but the cinematically interesting parts have stuck with me, so I do have the desire to see it again now, which is usually a good quality for film, IMO. If we expanded to world cinema, Varda and Ackerman were the big names out of the French new wave. But if we're expanding to world cinema, that alters the dynamic of people of color since you now include countries where people of color aren't in the minority, so you'll get more choices (Japan becomes an easy country to pluck great movies from. And Satyajit Ray's early career alone from India yields more great movies from a person of color than what's currently on the AFI list (I've seen about 6 of his films and I could see myself arguing 5 of those are better than the majority of what's on the AFI list). Can't say I know much else about Indian cinema otherwise (other than, there's a lot of it).

This is no hard and fast rule, only a guideline/suggestion for consideration. Really the only requirement was to be on the ballot (and even then a person could write in 5 movies). For deciding the ballot they wanted movies that were "considered good," so it's not surprise that winning an award would satisfy that criteria. But they also listed as a bullet point (paraphrasing) "or received critical praise in enough notable media circulation." The people who put together the ballot overlapped pretty heavily with people who felt the Academy's short term opinion (i.e. the Oscar's), matter a lot. So, those heavily influenced what got put on the ballot. I suspect there's something on the ballot that didn't have any notable Oscar nominations.

How many other Charles Burnett films have people seen besides Killer of Sheep? I caught up with To Sleep with Anger last year on criterion. Worth checking out. Probably not something that'd jump to mind for these type of lists, but, these type of lists aren't exhaustive of things worth checking out.

In terms of LGBTQ representation, it'd be hysterically great to see Pink Flamingos on the type of list the AFI produces.

I had taken his meaning that those specific, "no one can question them" papers, to the point that a German occupied French colony could no longer arrest a man they know they wanted and who was parading around under his real name - those papers don't exist. The extent of which, I don't know, does the film explain why the German officer doesn't just arrest Lazlo the second he meets him at Rick's? (I got 40 minutes in last night before something came up). I'm not familiar with how the rule of law was working in such circumstances at that time. I think you hear of the importance of transit papers in that period of time partially when 1. Right before Germany invaded a country and people were trying to get out before they got there or 2. Their dissidence or was more incognito in some way (or they were traveling under a false name). ETA: disclaimer, I'm not a history major, nor is my knowledge of transit papers from a comprehensive, historical source. e.g. news articles such as https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/how-a-disobedient-diplomat-saved-jews-in-ww2/ar-BB15AcV5 And/or maybe re-inforced by contemporary fictionalizations such as the movie, Transit.

I got a copy of Casablanca, but haven't rewatched it yet. Thinking of comparing it to something like In the Mood for Love or Happy Together when I do get to it. Not sure if that thought of comparisons is helpful - admittedly, I don't think I've seen Casablanca in over 20 years, so I might not be remembering a lot of the details.

So, there's a Western Noir selection on Criterion right now, and most of those were the 50's, I think. I suspect the studio complaining about it not being John Wayne-sy might be one of those, opinions of studio execs on what they think is the safest mode for a western (to generate a box office). For the buddy trope, I guess I don't really know either the buddy genre or the western genre that well (particularly from before this era), but I thought the whole sidekick trope was basically a buddy. In terms of paling around, I thought that was stuff like playing the guitar and singing a song. But, that's more me thinking of tropes that I don't know if I've ever really seen in a movie (mostly because I'm not that interested in those movies, I think). ETA: googling buddy Western, I did get results from before Butch Cassidy, but, one of them was A Few Dollars More. I mean, they worked together, but I don't recall LVC and Clint Eastwood really being buddies, so I don't know about those results.

Probably. Though Leonard Cohen's The Stranger did work a lot more seamlessly when it was used in a Western.

I didn't rewatch for this episode, but my memory of the posse chasing them was basically, they were portrayed as mythically competent to the point of being inhuman. Following myths around usually undermine the vibe of the silent adversary. At least, I think John Carpenter commented on the silent nature of Yule Brenner's character when he came up with Michael Myers for Halloween.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-17/far-right-boogaloo-boys-linked-to-killing-of-california-lawmen-other-violence https://www.adl.org/blog/the-boogaloo-extremists-new-slang-term-for-a-coming-civil-war /Disclaimer - linking without reading. Pretty sure they contain what I've heard.

The word itself isn't inherently bad, but the white supremist group who killed some cops during the BLM protests as part of a plan to start a race war - that operation (or, I think it's supposed to be their code-word for their long standing, overall goal) got named after that sequel (at least AFAIK). Bonkers, right? Anyhow, I was just guessing it's probably a little too soon to be casually doing reference jokes to it right now. A less extreme form of Archer had its spy agency named ISIS.

On the subject Spielberg's and lists, I'd be fine without any Spielberg, though I don't think that'd be too big of a shock. The burn about Spielberg not knowing how to write real people and how they'd respond, but rather characters from a 50's serial and how they'd act seems like it got more accurate with each passing movie - though ironically(?) I think Jaws is the movie of his I've seen that is free from it most (though I'd need to revisit Close Encounters of the Third Kind). I will say I still think Jaws is at least a good movie and one I'd gladly rewatch - as opposed to any other one on the list (so, let's just say, I'm a "no" on Jurassic Park). I'm not surprised there was at one point a scene referencing watching Moby Dick - when revisiting Jaws in October, I remembered thinking the whole shooting the shark with barrels with the idea of trailing it/tiring it out, only to have the target grock the boat is it's enemy, and thus attacks it - pretty sure that's in Moby Dick. But it's been close to a decade since I've read it, so maybe I'm misremembering it. Quint's clearly going Ahab at the end, obsessed with the shark, dooming them all. If you keep in mind Hooper was originally slated to die, I think, then you'd also have had the lone survivor of a sunken boat, paddling back to shore on a peace of the sunken boat (well, I think it was a coffin in MD, I guess it wasn't perfect).

I guess they'll want to rename that boogaloo part now, with the white supremist trying to start a race war and such.

I happened across this movie one night on a streaming service about two years ago (so, definitely not when I was in Marienbad), and roughly when I started listening to this podcast. Knowing it would eventually be on watched for the podcast, I turned it on. I remember enjoying it. But outside of her jumping out of the boat in the beginning and the scene of the male protagonist turning down the money, I don't remember much. Something that crossed my mind when watching Shane. Some of these movies are better when not considered on a list of "100 greatest movies," but more of "here's a list of movies that we think are worth watching" or maybe someone's personal "here's my list of 100 favorite movies," (though that's not what this is). Granted, saying that is like saying, "sometimes it's better to not really think about the source material" for adaptation - good idea, but impossible to do. Granted, based on my experience with this list (or even the older romantic comedies on the BFI list - I'm thinking L'Atlantale), I think I'm just not into romantic comedies overall.

I should be getting a chance to watch Shane this weekend, so I can't weigh-in too much on it specifically, but I guess I'll continue to beat the drum that Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller is the movie I consider to be the best anti-western I've seen. On the topic of how anti-western Shane is and how much of it is based on how tried and true the formula was, IDK. Maybe. But The Oxbow Incident came out a decade before (though I don't know how well known that one is). On the other hand, I'm sure there are morally complex superhero movies that have been made, people did seem to lose it for Logan and (having not seen it), the director did say he was basically trying to remake Shane as a superhero movie. That might be our best reference point for evaluating how Shane was perceived. There's also the other possibility is there's anti-westerns for people who aren't particularly big on the genre and then there's anti-westerns for those who like the general formula of westerns - in the sense the latter is still mostly an entry in the formulaic genre, but introduces some type of complexity (e.g. questioning the impact or basic premises of the genre at points) elevating it (having not seen Logan or Black Panther, it is the thing I wonder about them and their reception). Just a thought that crossed my mind during this discussion. I think I brought up similar points when they did The Searchers as well. I did finally catch up with A Place in the Sun a few months ago though, and it is indeed great.

I don't have Netflix. So I probably won't be seeing this until the end of the year when I will temporarily resubscribe to Netflix and catch up on the Netflix productions I've missed and want to see.

I'm not a big fan of Swing Time but the general blandness argument felt like it could probably be applied to a fair number of other films on the list. Admittedly since I skipped The Sound of Music and haven't seen Yankee Doodle Dandy in about 25 years I can't say for sure I would apply to them, but I suspect I would. I also was not charmed by The Philadelphia Story (which is what came to mind when thinking of movies in the same general segment I'd probably lump Swing Time with*) - though I remember quite enjoying Bringing up Baby. Outside of @sycasey 2.0's bottom 10, I was wondering if the consistent presence of Swing Time and the absence of what I suspect I'd consider probably equal or lower tiered movies was purely due to a grotesque scene. (However it is one that isn't tied into the DNA of the film the way it is (supposed to be) with Gone with the Wind (which I admittedly didn't have time for, so I can't confirm).) *: I also just caught up with His Girl Friday recently, and didn't click with it. So maybe 50s screwball romantic comedies are a real crapshoot for me. Though, I don't know if I know of any that have had big payoffs. And my memory is lumping Swing Time in with those romantic qualities in terms of content.

Is everyone putting Swing Time in their bottom 10s because of the extended black face scene or did they just dislike the movie that much?

Top 10 (my easy/easier picks) 2001: ASO Citizen Kane Apocalypse Now Dr Strangelove Taxi Driver Raging Bull Some subset of 4 from the following five would round it out Sunset Blvd All About Eve Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe Nashville One of the Godfathers (I didn't get a chance to revisit, so I don't have a strong opinion on 1 vs 2). Bottom 10: I missed a bunch of the movies from the recent episodes, which happened to be a lot of blind spots. And then there were the ones I consciously chose to skip because I had strong reasons to believe I wouldn't like them (and I heard nothing said that made me think I would like them - e.g. Saving Private Ryan, Titanic... I don't have an explanation as to why I watched Sophie's Choice other than trying to have an open-ish mind. But I usually devote thought to ranking movies I dislike. I'm content with just saying, "I dislike that movie." Or "disappointed by," which is even worse.

Maybe it's because I haven't seen this movie since I was 20, maybe younger, (an age when everyone your age is played by someone in their 30s or 40s), so I don't remember the age aspect of it very well. Though watching Mean Streets about a year ago, De Niro to some extent, never really looked young, even when he presumably was. I do wonder how much my pack of interest in the crime films come from not really growing up around the mob, like Scorsese did (something Amy alluded to, but seemed to proclaim more universally). If I get the time to revisit this one (I was more interested in revisiting the Godfather), I'll be curious to see if it aged better for me. Though I wasn't that big on The Irishman (or, a few years ago trying to watch The Sopranos, I went through one season and didn't have that strong of an interest). Not to say someone who didn't grow up in areas affected by the mob couldn't find this stuff interesting, just, I wonder how much not growing up with it plays into the people who aren't interested as much in it (which is to say, if I were to bump a Scorsese off the list, it'd be this one at the moment).

I've fallen behind in these covid times (and unfortunately on the slew of movies I mostly haven't seen - I've been relatively busy). I still need to rewatch Goodfellas, and being someone who remembers being mostly "meh" on it (and I think I'm more meh on mob movies), I found Amy's two big complaints to be exasperating in such a way, I just assumed she mostly argued a much higher level thesis on The Canon episode and this was her wrestling with details of why this movie doesn't work for her - which seem like mostly nitpicks. Though, I am also confused by the idea that someone who went into details of how food was prepared in prison would be considered someone who wouldn't cook seems weird to me.

Eddie Slovik. Not saying he wasn't guilty, just that he didn't deserve anything close to his sentence.

Which Nosferatu? If you're going for the plague scenes, I think the Herzog/'79 one is more... striking. Though Murnau would be keeping in line with Sunrise a few a weeks ago. Criterion had a 70s sci-fi collection that went away back in February, but No Blade of Grass would fits in a weird way (especially if you factor in the economic apocalypse that seems to be happening). Warning - it's 70's apocalypse sci-fi... there's sexual violence towards women in it. More recently, It Comes at Night. And, um, Cabin Fever, if that's your this. if you get to the "I guess" phase. Though I guess you could get the remake with Mnuchin's wife and there therefore somehow make it topical. Cronenberg's Rabid (though I prefer his other stuff from this era more). I don't remember The Andromeda Strain beyond I think I channel flipped to the end/end credits about 30 years ago - and that it exists. It seems like there should be some good Black Death (besides Nosferatu) or TB movies (though the latter always seems to be the backdrop of someone who's dying. Often in westerns). ETA: There was also a small movie from the 00's that wasn't a virus, but played off of our fears of a dirty bomb at that time, and it revolved around people having to stay inside their houses so they wouldn't become... toxic. If I could remember the name of it... But it would feel appropriate for the current self-isolation situation going on. 2nd ETA - quick googling makes me think it's "Right at Your Door".

So, in the not-so-passive aggressive comparison between the BFI critics poll and the AFI poll, Sunrise has been in the too 10 films for the past 20 years ( number 5 and the previously, number 7). I found a link of a fuller list of the 1992 that indicated it was number 11 that year (though the annotation on the wiki page contradicts that). Make of that what you will. (The BFI Director's Poll however, places it at 22, which is... lower, but not as substantially lower as the AFI). I still need to rewatch (this weekend, I'll probably stick with the non-Czech version on the blu-ray), but on first watch, I wasn't as taken by this as I was Man with a Movie* Camera or The Passion of Joan of Arc (though closer to the latter). Mentally, I always got stuck on the plot point that it's basically, "how do you say you're sorry (for planning to murder you)?" *: Man With a Movie Camera tried to have no intertitles and was consciously trying to push the visual artform. I'll probably appreciate the camera work more this time after having watched some of the documentary series, The History of Film: An Odyssey (I think I may have mentioned it on these forums before). It actually covers the shortcomings of movies with the introduction of sound (some of it alluded to in the podcast). In addition to getting stuck in sound boxes, they had issues syncing the sounds, (anyone whose had to fiddle with the av sync on their receiver will appreciate what a difference 30 Ms makes). Which meant they had to film their close ups and crowd shots at the same time. Which could result in what would be considered flawed compositions so the cameras wouldn't catch each other (the point of the episode was, film was no longer a visual medium, but had become an auditory medium). Which gets driven home better of you see the scenes (I think the series is still on Hulu). Of the silent era they covered that I haven't seen that I'm most curious in are the King Vidor (e.g. The Crowd - which has an office shot that would show up again in The Apartment) and von Stroheim (he later acted as the butler in Sunset Blvd) movies (e.g. Greed). Mainly because they were described as trying to present "a more real" world rather than the fantasy world of Hollywood.

That's how I mostly remember it as well (from just a few years ago). Skimming most of the synopsis, it's still, "yeah, I mostly remember that part." I think the part that is crazy is when you say/transcribe (or even just watch it for the first time) what they need to reconcile over. Which I think is kind of misleading - unless I'm just not remembering something else about this movie (which some of the other responses makes me wonder if I am).