1960s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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TMDaines
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#526 Post by TMDaines » Sun May 19, 2013 11:29 am

swo17 wrote:Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville)
I don't know how much I need to stump for a film that has been released on Blu-ray by Criterion and that everyone has been scrambling to buy for the past couple weeks, but now that all you OOP completists own it, may I suggest that you remove that pricey shrinkwrap and partake of the gloriousness inside. This is perhaps Jean-Paul Belmondo's finest role, as an extremely charismatic priest who is very convincing, and perhaps even right, in his discussions of religion, but this is so entwined with his latent sex appeal that he ends up leaving Emmanuelle Riva's character an emotional wreck by the end of the film. The film is perfectly observed, and filled with wonderful, small moments that fully flesh out its characters.
I've just watched this and really enjoyed it. I'm not one to buy OOP titles on a whim, but I thought this may be one that I'd regret not picking up on Blu-ray in the future, having loved Melville's La Silence de la mer. The two films have a number of similarities in that both are set in occupied France, both use voiceover to help drive the narrative and both are centred around the presence of an individual causing discomfort for others around him. I'll echo swo in commenting on Belmondo's excellence. It's a curious thing that many of the better screen priests that spring to mind were often played by actors cast against type. There's Belmondo here, Fabrizi in Roma, citta' aperta, and I'm sure there's others.

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FerdinandGriffon
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#527 Post by FerdinandGriffon » Mon May 20, 2013 10:40 am

Clift in I Confess springs to mind, as well as Sous le soleil de satan's Depardieu and Pialat (black bears stuffed in cassocks).

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Cold Bishop
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#528 Post by Cold Bishop » Tue May 21, 2013 4:24 am

Since we're using this extra week only to crunch numbers, here's the tally on my begrudging final list:

Japan - 10
Italy - 9
France - 7
Czechoslovakia - 6
USA! USA! USA! - 4
Spain - 4
USSR - 3
Brazil - 2
Poland - 2
UK - 1
Hungary - 1
Hong Kong - 1

Only one director made my list more than once (can you guess who?). It's surprising to realize which directors didn't make my list: No Godard. No Bunuel. No Antonioni. No Bergman. No Hitchcock. No Preminger. No Resnais. No Melville... you get the point. Even with Japan, I got No Kurosawa. No Ozu. No Naruse. No Shinoda. No Masamura. No Teshigahara. No Imamura.

Reading those last few sting, but I've pared my list down as far as it'll go.

Honestly, this was a painful decade to cull. After finishing up my list, I feel like Michael Palin exiting the "operating room" in Brazil, covered in blood and holding my temples. Ye poor spotlight titles! Even when I loved you, you didn't stand a chance...
Last edited by Cold Bishop on Tue May 21, 2013 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Lighthouse
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#529 Post by Lighthouse » Tue May 21, 2013 2:54 pm

Speaking of German films of that decade. The best, and unfortunately the only one on my list, is for me Straub's Die Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach. I love it.

Maybe I should re-watch Nicht versöhnt before Sunday.

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the preacher
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#530 Post by the preacher » Thu May 23, 2013 4:07 am

I just realized that Abel Gance (the wonderful Cyrano and D'Artagnan) is not on my ballot. And I Accuse (in the 30s), Blind Venus (in the 40s) and The Tower of Nesle (in the 50s) were last-minute-discards too. Oh, well.

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swo17
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#531 Post by swo17 » Thu May 23, 2013 11:37 am

Another personal statistic that I wanted to share -- Films making my list that I had not seen prior to the start of the project: 24

Less personally, this is your last reminder that lists (or any revisions to your lists, if you've already submitted one) are due by the end of the day Sunday. More specifically, I will wake up Monday morning (maybe 7-8am MDT) and post results for all lists that I have received by that point.

Like all lists, this one is turning out predictable in some respects and surprising in others. Consider the following impossibly vague hints:

1. The current #5 film only barely placed in the last project, somewhere in the bottom quarter of the top 100.
2. Two films in the prior top 20 are nowhere near the current top 100.
3. Nine films in the current top 50 didn't make the last list.
4. In both the current list and the prior one, two directors have had two films each in the top 10. Only this time it's not the same two directors.

This is all of course still highly subject to change. For instance, the clear favorite from the first 10 lists submitted is now sitting at #10.

bamwc2
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#532 Post by bamwc2 » Thu May 23, 2013 12:24 pm

Interesting statistics, Swo. Now you really have me wondering what's going on.
swo17 wrote:Another personal statistic that I wanted to share -- Films making my list that I had not seen prior to the start of the project: 24
This didn't happen for me. Although I probably watched 25-30 films for the project--some of which were simply superb--not a single new title broke the list that I made prior to the exploration. However, the exact opposite is true for my animation list, which is probably 1/2 new discoveries so far.

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Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#533 Post by Tommaso » Thu May 23, 2013 1:38 pm

I'll try some wild guesses:
swo17 wrote:1. The current #5 film only barely placed in the last project, somewhere in the bottom quarter of the top 100.
Ivan's Childhood or The Innocents.
swo17 wrote:2. Two films in the prior top 20 are nowhere near the current top 100.
2001: A Space Odyssey (pleeease!) and Once Upon a Time in the West.
swo17 wrote:4. In both the current list and the prior one, two directors have had two films each in the top 10. Only this time it's not the same two directors.
So Fellini and Antonioni are gone. Hopefully replaced by Tarkovsky and Franju (though I doubt it's Franju).

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#534 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu May 23, 2013 2:59 pm

Having been in the hospital for a week -- and having gotten back home yesterday -- I have managed to complete and submit a list (even if it seems rather dreadfully arbitrary).

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#535 Post by knives » Thu May 23, 2013 3:08 pm

Fortunately every list is dreadfully arbitrary.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#536 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu May 23, 2013 3:15 pm

knives wrote:Fortunately every list is dreadfully arbitrary.
;~}

Moat recently met film on my list -- Les Tontons flingueurs (presumably The Gangster Uncles)

bamwc2
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#537 Post by bamwc2 » Thu May 23, 2013 3:54 pm

Tommaso wrote:
swo17 wrote:4. In both the current list and the prior one, two directors have had two films each in the top 10. Only this time it's not the same two directors.
So Fellini and Antonioni are gone. Hopefully replaced by Tarkovsky and Franju (though I doubt it's Franju).
Actually, the way that she phrased it, her statement would have been true if either Fellini or Antonioni left the top 10, but the other one stayed. Of course, thanks to the way that a conjunction operates in our language, it would also be true the way that you interpreted it. Personally, this latter option would make me the happiest. While I voted for one film from each of them, both were mid-level entries. Tarkovsky and Godard seem like good candidates to take over this spot, though again, I only voted for one film from each of them.

As for the current number 5, there are a lot of titles in that last quarter grouping from 2007 that have received a renewed interest of late. I'll go with The Red and the White for no other reason than it'd make me the happiest.

Which top 20 films have fallen off of the list? Hmm. For some reason I think that its Psycho (which seems to have been a near miss on a few lists) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

As for the nine new inclusions from the top 50, I'll hazard the following: Z, Medium Cool, The Cremator, Black Girl (another near miss for me, but it certainly has its fans on this board), Play Dirty (same as the previous statement), Boy, Titicut Follies, Marketa Lazarová, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

Who knows, perhaps I'm actually right about at least one of these guesses.

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zedz
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#538 Post by zedz » Thu May 23, 2013 3:58 pm

swo17 wrote:Another personal statistic that I wanted to share -- Films making my list that I had not seen prior to the start of the project: 24
I wasn't really watching films specifically for this project, but films that I saw for the first time since the last 60s list that made my top 50: 12

Films I saw since the last iteration that were on my shortlist for inclusion but I ultimately couldn't find room for: Screen Test: Ann Buchanan, Marketa Lazarova (it says here - must have seen it just afterwards, because it's been out awhile), The Taking of Power of Louis XIV, Lust for Love, The Song of the Grey Pigeon and Barravento. Plus a lot of the experimental films I was highlighting, but the very fact that I was doing fifty of them meant that I was already mentally excluding most of them, so I never bothered to add them to the shortlist of newbies.

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swo17
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#539 Post by swo17 » Thu May 23, 2013 5:46 pm

Another couple of lists in since this morning, and the seemingly unshakable #1 film for the past 12 lists has been dethroned! Also, another director now has two films in the top 10, kicking out one of the directors I'd mentioned earlier.

bamwc2
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#540 Post by bamwc2 » Thu May 23, 2013 8:15 pm

Please pardon my ignorance, but since this is the first of the decade lists that I'm participating in, I'm unsure. How long after the weekend's deadline will the voting commence for the 1970s list? Will it be the next day or will there be a cooling off period?

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zedz
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#541 Post by zedz » Thu May 23, 2013 8:28 pm

The 70s project discussion usually kicks in immediately, and a (distant) date will be set for the submission of lists then, so 'voting' won't really commence for at least six months. Having collated the vote last time around, I have to say that submissions which are too early are actually a bit of a nuisance - since I didn't want to even think about more collation hot on the heels of finishing such a task - and you feel like they shortchange the whole discussion / discovery process, which is the heart and soul of the project.*

Of course, swo is completely at liberty to announce the due date for the 70s list for the following weekend. Which I admit is a scenario that would be fun to watch unfold.

* There was only one time that I recall this really being an issue, when a newcomer submitted their 00s (I think) list, a day or two after the 90s list closed, with an apology that they didn't really like most of the films they'd ranked in the 40s, but they hadn't seen 50 films from the decade that they thought deserved to be on the list. I rejected their list at that time and suggested they used the ample time available to follow up on recommendations and resubmit a list (even if it was the same one) closer to the deadline. As far as I can recall, they didn't.
Last edited by zedz on Thu May 23, 2013 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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swo17
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#542 Post by swo17 » Thu May 23, 2013 8:32 pm

I'll start up the '70s list on Monday or Tuesday, with a deadline set close to the end of the year. Typically, all but the last month or so of any given project is dedicated solely to viewing and discussion. People then start submitting their lists more or less during the last month of the project.

bamwc2
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:54 am

Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#543 Post by bamwc2 » Thu May 23, 2013 8:35 pm

Thanks. I phrased that inartfully. Instead of voting, I just wanted to know about discussions. I used some Amazon gift money to purchase some 70s discs in preparation for it. It's such an exciting decade that I can't wait to start.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#544 Post by Cold Bishop » Thu May 23, 2013 10:34 pm

Don't worry, you'll have enough time to watch all 12 Carry On... films, as mandated by long-established forum rules.

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Black Hat
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#545 Post by Black Hat » Fri May 24, 2013 1:45 am

First time I've participated, as I began I was like 'Am I even going to be able to come up with fifty?'. Then as I started thinking about it and compiling my list it was pretty awesome to realize how many amazing films I've seen, how many I've yet to see. Also funny how right after you submit you realize a couple of films you forgot!

France 18
USA 11
Italy 7
USSR 4
Japan 3
Czech 2
Sweden 2
Denmark 1
Greece 1
Mexico 1

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swo17
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#546 Post by swo17 » Fri May 24, 2013 11:19 am

swo17 wrote:Two films in the prior top 20 are nowhere near the current top 100.
So of course, one of these films has appeared on every list submitted since I said this, and is presently hanging on for dear life right at the edge of the top 100.

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TMDaines
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#547 Post by TMDaines » Fri May 24, 2013 12:23 pm

lubitsch wrote:
Tommaso wrote:
lubitsch wrote:Harumph. Did you see at least Kirmes by Wolfgang Staudte?
If you had given us some recommendation for it, I might have...
Guilty. I thought film and director had enough of a reputation. It's really and not only IMHO one of the four, five best films ever made in this country.
If any German speakers want a wildcard to watch before the deadline, then this is the one. A greatly, underappreciated gem. Great story, believable characters and some lovely pieces of camera work.

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swo17
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#548 Post by swo17 » Fri May 24, 2013 12:30 pm

There aren't any English fansubs available though, are there?

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TMDaines
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#549 Post by TMDaines » Fri May 24, 2013 1:01 pm

Unfortunately not. There's not as many people working with German films, as with Italian and French cinema - although Tommaso here cranks them out at a decent rate! Part of the problem is that relatively few German DVD releases have HoH subtitles, so people have to work from scratch and that is infinitely more time consuming and also more difficult, if you're not a native speaker. There's also more Italians than Germans doing timed transcriptions too, which helps in the case of TV rips. If I'm going to do fansubs then there's a stack of Italian films that have Italian subtitles that can be translated. For German films, there's virtually nothing. I might give this a stab in the future myself, but have had no time in the last twelve months to do subtitles.

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Tommaso
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Re: 1960s List Discussion and Suggestions

#550 Post by Tommaso » Fri May 24, 2013 1:26 pm

In this case you don't have to worry about HoH versions anyhow; it seems the darn thing isn't even out on dvd.

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