Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Project)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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colinr0380
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#151 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:54 am

dustybooks wrote:Great work, Domino. I realized shortly after you closed voting that I forgot Y Tu Mama Tambien and Red Balloon, d'oh.
It can't be worse than my watching A Brighter Summers Day multiple times over the last couple of weeks and even posting about it, and then forgetting to put it on my list at all! (I could have at least bumped Cinema Paradiso for it :P )

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#152 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:58 am

MY TOP 10 + ORPHANS

01 Rebel Without a Cause
02 Fucking Åmål
03 Moonrise Kingdom
04 Dick
05 Du Cote d’Oruet
06 Lili
07 Kicking and Screaming
08 Detention
09 La chinoise
10 Matinee

11 Hard Candy
13 Starlet
14 Les Cousins
16 Leon: the Professional
19 Tall Story
20 the Little Mermaid
22 Fun
35 I Remember Mama
39 Barely Lethal
41 Once More, My Darling
44 Susan Slept Here
46 the Fan / Der Fan
49 the Color Wheel

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Feego
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#153 Post by Feego » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:14 pm

Kudos to domino for taking on this endeavor. Reading through the orphans, I don't know how I forgot to vote for Heavenly Creatures! Oh well, next time!

My own top 10 and orphans:

01 Grave of the Fireflies
02 Rebel Without a Cause
03 Forbidden Games
04 Return to Oz
05 A Christmas Story
06 Carrie (1976)
07 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
08 Paper Moon
09 The Bad Seed
10 Hairspray (1988)

16 Barefoot Gen 2
18 Paperhouse
20 A Boy Named Charlie Brown
21 The Last American Virgin
23 First Name: Carmen
27 I Saw What You Did
29 Laputa: Castle in the Sky
30 Somewhere in Dreamland
32 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
33 The Nanny
36 Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural
37 Christmas Comes But Once a Year
39 Wild Reeds
40 Lucas
45 La Bamba
47 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
49 The Witches
50 Alice, Sweet Alice

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colinr0380
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#154 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:21 pm

Thank goodness you voted for Paperhouse though Feego! That's a great choice!

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movielocke
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#155 Post by movielocke » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:33 pm

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to include A Christmas Story, which I'd have placed at 10th in my list.

1 Empire of the Sun
2 Grave of the Fireflies
3 Almost Famous
4 How Green Was My Valley
5 Spirited Away
6 E.T.
7 400 Blows
8 A.I.
9 Stand By Me
10 Whisper of the Heart
11 Inside Out
12 My Neighbor Totoro
13 Kes
14 Fanny and Alexander
15 800 Bullets
16 A nos Amour
17 Boyhood
18 Night of the Hunter
19 Sixth Sense
20 Pather Panchali
21 Breakfast Club
22 Brave
23 City of God
24 Lord of the Flies
25 Moonrise Kingdom
26 Sandlot
27 Devil's Backbone
28 Hugo
29 Harold and Maude
30 Neverending Story
31 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
32 My Life as a Dog
33 Slumdog Millionaire
34 Blue is the Warmest Color
34 Closely Watched Trains
36 I Was Born But
37 Yi yi
38 Turtles can fly
39 American Grafitti
40 Dazed and Confused
41 Oliver Twist (Lean)
42 Kiki's Delivery Service
43 Tin Drum
44 Juno
45 Brick
46 Fast Times at Ridgemont High
47 Black Stallion
48 Los Olvidados
49 Billy Elliot
50 Super 8

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dustybooks
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#156 Post by dustybooks » Tue Jun 21, 2016 1:13 pm

Feego: I came so close to including A Boy Named Charlie Brown on my list that when I saw it on the orphans list I forgot I'd cut it and assumed the source was me!

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#157 Post by knives » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:11 pm

I really should have bumped The White Dove for FLCL. Oh, well one orphan for another. I also bumped Harold and Maude assuming it would have probably gotten the number one spot here without my help. Los Olvidados is another one I wish I had remembered.

1 Deep End (Skolimowski)
2 Clueless
3 Germany Year Zero
4 My Neighbor Totoro
5 Love Exposure
6 Secret Ceremony
7 Nobody Knows
8 A Swedish Love Story
9 Children in the Wind
10 The Tracey Fragments

12 A Time for Drunken Horses
13 Martin (Romero)
15 Being Two Isn't Easy
17 Paranoid Park
20 Crooklyn
21 Anything Can Happen (Lozinski)
25 The Bad News Bears (Ritchie)
28 A Little Romance
29 Mirror (Tarkovsky)
32 Shoeshine
34 The Devil, Probably
38 A Summer Place
40 Children of the Beehive
41 Baby, It's You
42 Hello Hemingway
44 Gidget
45 Good Morning (Ozu)
46 Pariah (Rees)
47 Cry Baby (Waters)
48 Sounder
50 The White Dove (Vlacil)

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thirtyframesasecond
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#158 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:13 pm

colinr0380 wrote:Thank goodness you voted for Paperhouse though Feego! That's a great choice!
Awww crap, I forgot this and it was in my 80s list too. And the 5000 Fingers of Dr T!

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Feego
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#159 Post by Feego » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:14 pm

dustybooks wrote:Feego: I came so close to including A Boy Named Charlie Brown on my list that when I saw it on the orphans list I forgot I'd cut it and assumed the source was me!
Ha! I think it's been pointed out in other list threads before, but the also-rans and orphans are often a more interesting group than the list proper, so I don't feel bad about any of my picks being orphaned.

At the start of this project, I had actually thought of going through a number of Shirley Temple films and writing them up (it's a bit surprising that no films starring Hollywood's most famous child star were even mentioned). I picked up a bunch of her movies shortly after she passed away and may still go through with this. I'm not expecting masterpieces, but it hopefully will make for some interesting viewing.

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#160 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:16 pm

One made the list, Wee Willie Winkie

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Feego
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#161 Post by Feego » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:29 pm

Ah yes, I missed that. That's one I'm looking forward to seeing the most (I've seen her later Ford collaboration , Fort Apache).

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colinr0380
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#162 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:08 pm

I need to do more research on Shirley Temple films, as for now I assume they're all just like the Simpsons parody!

Here's my top 10 and orphans (My list is quite heavy on some of those BFI Flipside releases because I've been going through them at the moment!):

1. The 400 Blows
2. Pather Panchali
3. I Wish (Kiseki)
4. The White Balloon (the Jafar Panahi film)
5. The Curse of the Cat People
6. Kes
7. Billy Liar
8. It’s Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books
9. Masculin Feminin
10. The Pleasure Girls

14. Young Törless
16. Emma (1964)
18. Permissive
21. Hue & Cry
22. Kids
25. The Party's Over
26. The Happiest Days of Your Life
30. Fat Girl
32. A Lover And His Lass
34. Pulse (2001)
35. Scum (TV version)
36. Ken Park
40. Angels With Dirty Faces
41. Pulse (1988)
42. The Lady In White
44. Bugsy Malone
45. Invaders From Mars (1953)
46. The Rules of Attraction
47. The Gate
49. Violence: The Last Resort

This is an interesting German TV movie that tackles a lot of difficult themes.

Two boxing buddies have their close friendship encroached upon by one of the guys getting a new girlfriend, who is Turkish. The other guy, seemingly inspired by his jealousy and perhaps unrequited sexual feelings for his friend(?!?!), ends up being easy prey for the owner of the boxing club, who grooms him in the showers(!?!?!?!) and inducts him into a neo-Nazi-style group of thugs, who in one shocking scene assault the girl on his behalf as the guy and his older mentor look on.

Eventually events build to a confrontation between the minorities and the thugs in which everyone has to show their true colours and choose sides. Though the most powerful aspect about this film for me was that it kind of suggests that racism isn't particularly about having a particular problem with skin colour per se but can be much more complex, with people having their own deeper motivations and frustrations that might be highly personal to themselves for joining hate groups that then boil them down (for the benefit of everyone involved? On both sides?) into 'just' racists all standing for one simple message of hate. It also shows the dangerously seductive pull of a organised group preying on the vulnerable, giving them a purpose and meaning to their life, answers and a feeling of power and potency in the face of being made to feel insignificant, whether that insignificance might have a basis in real events or be purely in their mind) that they otherwise wouldn't have.

50. Urotsukidoi: The Legend of the Overfiend

Its great that on looking through the final list there are lots of other films that could just as easily have been chosen, if I'd remembered!: Bully (though two Larry Clark films were perhaps enough for one list!), A Room For Romeo Brass, A Brighter Summers Day, Elisa, Ponette, The Nasty Girl, L'eau froide, Lord of the Flies, Paperhouse...

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bottled spider
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#163 Post by bottled spider » Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:37 pm

01 Cria Cuervos (Saura, 1976)
02 Spirit of the Beehive (Erice, 1973)
03 Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)
04 À Nos Amour (Pialat, 1983)
05 Los Olvidados (Bunuel, 1950)
06 Deprisa, Deprisa (Saura, 1981)
07 Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)
08 Aparajito (Ray, 1956)
09 Whisper of the Heart (Kondô, 1995)

11 Susanna (Bunuel, 1951)
12 Drama/Mex (Naranjo, 2006)
13 Romeo and Juliet (Paul Czinner, 1966)
15 The End of August at the Hotel Ozone (Schmidt, 1967)
16 Little Fugitive (Engel/Orkin, 1953)
17 A Midsummer Night's Dream (Peter Hall, 1968)
19 Romeo and Juliet (Zefferelli, 1968)
21 Rhapsody in August (Kurosawa, 1991)
28 Twenty-Four Eyes (Kinoshita, 1954)
29 Two Daughters / "Teen Kanya" (Ray, 1961)
30 Freeze, Die, Come to Life (Vitali Kanevsky, 1990)
31 Private Romeo (Alan Brown, 2011)
32 Dance Party USA (Aaron Katz, 2006)
33 From Up on Poppy Hill (Miyazaki, 2011)
40 Alamar (González-Rubio, 2009)
43 Ponette (Doillon, 1996)
45 The Young One / "La Joven" (Bunuel, 1960)
49 Little Rock (Mike Ott, 2010)
50 Putty Hill (Porterfield, 2010)


Overall a highly rewarding experience, watching 21 films new to me, and revisiting 33. I didn't watch nearly as many recommendations from other participants as I expected to, though -- only Duck Season, Lake Tahoe, "O", and Color Wheel. Thanks for all the work organizing and compiling, Dom.

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#164 Post by swo17 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:49 pm

TOP 10 + ORPHANS

1. Manoël on the Island of Marvels (Raúl Ruiz, 1984)
2. Where Is the Friend's Home? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
3. The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 1956)
4. The Annunciation (András Jeles, 1984)
5. I Was Born, But… (Yasujirō Ozu, 1932)
6. Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
7. La Promesse (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1996)
8. Melody for a Street Organ (Kira Muratova, 2009)
9. The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949)
10. Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950)

11. Illumination (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1973)
13. Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
15. Poil de carotte (Julien Duvivier, 1932)
18. "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (David Bradley, 1940)
23. George Washington (David Gordon Green, 2000)
28. The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2011)
32. Landscape in the Mist (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1988)
33. P'tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, 2014)
36. Bambi (David Hand, 1942)
40. Apaches (John Mackenzie, 1977)
44. Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty, 1948)
47. A Day with the Boys (Clu Gulager, 1969)
48. Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)
50. Alone: Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold, 1998)

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zedz
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#165 Post by zedz » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:08 pm

Here's my list: more orphans than a revival of Oliver!

1. A Brighter Summer Day (Yang, 1991)
2. Alice (Svankmajer, 1988)
3. City of Pirates (Ruiz, 1984) – ORPHAN
4. L’Enfance Nue (Pialat, 1969)
5. My Ain Folk (Douglas, 1973) – ORPHAN
6. Where Is the Friend’s House? (Kiarostami, 1987)
7. Inferno of First Love (Hani, 1968) – ALSO RAN
8. The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955)
9. Family Life (Loach, 1971) – ORPHAN
10. Diamonds of the Night (Nemec, 1964) – ORPHAN
11. L’Eau Froid (Assayas, 1994) – ORPHAN
12. Sink or Swim (Friedrich, 1990)
13. Traveller (Kiarostami, 1974) – ALSO RAN
14. Yi Yi (Yang, 2000)
15. The House Is Black (Farrokhzad, 1963) – ORPHAN
16. The Key (Forouzesh, 1987) – ORPHAN
17. I Was Born, But. . . (Ozu, 1932)
18. Nenette et Boni (Denis, 1996)
19. Mes petites amoureuses (Eustache, 1974) – ORPHAN
20. Four Seasons of Children (Shimizu, 1939)
21. A Swedish Love Story (Andersson, 1970)
22. Curse of the Cat People (Wise, 1944)
23. My Neighbour Totoro (Miyazaki, 1988)
24. El Sur (Erice, 1983) – ORPHAN
25. Melody for a Street Organ (Muratova, 2009)
26. An Independent Life (Kanevsky, 1992) – ORPHAN
27. US Go Home (Denis, 1994) – ORPHAN
28. Meet Me in St Louis (Minnelli, 1944)
29. A Nos Amours (Pialat, 1983)
30. Du cote d’Orouet (Rozier, 1973)
31. L’Age des Possibles (Ferran, 1995) – ORPHAN
32. A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Nobuhiro, 2007) – ORPHAN
33. Window Water Baby Moving (Brakhage, 1962) – ORPHAN
34. Sound Barrier (Naderi, 2005) – ALSO RAN
35. Le Souffle (Odoul, 2001) – ALSO RAN
36. Children’s Party (Joseph Cornell , 1938?) – ORPHAN
37. Lake Tahoe (Eimbcke, 2008) – ALSO RAN
38. The Fallen Idol (Reed, 1948)
39. Pinocchio (Hand, 1940)
40. Boy Meets Girl (Carax, 1984) – ORPHAN
41. Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock, 1943)
42. The Son (The Dardennes, 2002) – ORPHAN
43. Walkabout (Roeg, 1971)
44. Blue Remembered Hills (Gibson, 1979) – ALSO RAN
45. Spirit of the Beehive (Erice, 1973)
46. Nana (Massadian, 2012) – ORPHAN
47. Rentree des Classes (Rozier, 1955) – ORPHAN
48. Summer at Grandpa’s (Hou, 1984) – ORPHAN
49. The Night of Counting the Years (Abdelsalam, 1969) – ORPHAN
50. The Singing Street (Norton Park Group, 1952) – ORPHAN

While I'm stunned by a couple of the films that managed to make the main list (Sink or Swim and Melody for a Street Organ) and completely unsurprised by many of the orphans (could anybody even see L'Age des Possibles or An Independent Life if they wanted to?), there are some orphaned titles on my list (and others') that are real head-scratchers. I figured El Sur and The Son would be guaranteed a place, and I expected that the passionate support for City of Pirates and The House Is Black in other list projects would at least ensure them a second vote.

And I have to say: a films of youth project in which only one person votes for a film from the Bill Douglas Trilogy should be made to stand in the corner until the bell rings.

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swo17
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#166 Post by swo17 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:30 pm

zedz wrote:could anybody even see L'Age des Possibles or An Independent Life if they wanted to?
Yes on the Kanevsky, no on the Ferran.

Note that the Dardennes had four different films show up in the orphans section. And of course, other Erice and Ruiz films made the main list.

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Mr Sheldrake
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#167 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Tue Jun 21, 2016 7:41 pm

1 Love Exposure
2 Pauline At the Beach
3 Alice in the Cities
4 Pride and Prejudice (Wright)
5 A High Wind in Jamaica
6 Margaret
7 Meet Me in St. Louis
8 True Grit (Coens)
9 Deep End
10 Los Olvidados

11 The Sterile Cuckoo
15 Last Summer
17 Heathers
22 What Maisie Knew
23 Endless Love (Zeffirelli)
24 Noriko's Dinner Table
26 Summer of 42
30 Lord Love a Duck
36 Stealing Beauty
37 Little Women (Armstrong)
43 Heavenly Creatures
45 The Blackboard Jungle
48 Donovan's Reef
49 Gregory's Girl

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Rayon Vert
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#168 Post by Rayon Vert » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:39 pm

Top ten and orphans

1. The Exorcist
2. Walkabout
3. Two English Girls
4. Boyfriends and Girlfriends (L’Ami de mon amie)
5. The Shining
6. Hair
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc
8. Born on the Fourth of July
9. Masculin féminin
10. The River

11. A Hard Day’s Night
13. Vivre sa vie
14. An American Werewolf in London
15. The Virgin Spring
16. Age of Consent
17. Platoon
18. A Summer's Tale (Conte d’été)
19. War of the Worlds (2005)
22. Summer Interlude
23. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

25. Poltergeist
29. Shane
30. Jurassic Park
32. Hail Mary
33. Halloween
34. Easy Rider
35. Loves of a Blonde
37. Knife in the Water
39. Bonjour Tristesse
40. Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom
41. The Aviator's Wife (La Femme de l’aviateur)
43. The Snorkel
44. Viridiana
46. I Don't Kiss (J’embrasse pas)
47. They Live by Night
48. Wolf Creek
49. Romeo and Juliet (1936)


Judging by the number of horror films, I've come to the troubling realization that I like to see children/teens/youth in a lot of distress.

Thanks for all the work, domino!

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#169 Post by sinemadelisikiz » Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:02 am

Top Ten Plus Orphans
1. The Myth of the American Sleepover

Any film in my top ten could probably have filled this spot and I would have been satisfied, but I decided to go for something personal. To me, this film evokes what being a teenager really feels like. Watching this brings back those long wandering summer nights of my own youth, where everything is communicated through small gestures that take all the courage you have to accomplish. Highly recommended for any who haven't seen it.
2. Where is the Friend's Home?
3. Rebel Without a Cause
4. We Are the Best!
5. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
6. Du Cote d'Oroeut
7. Detention
8. Daisies
9. Rosetta
10. Innocence
-ALSO ORPHAN (!?!)

15. People on Sunday
22. Whiplash
26. The Mirror (Panahi)
30. Mauvais Sang
36. Where the Boys Are
37. The Blue Bird
40. The Pact With the Devil (Zachar)
46. Better Off Dead
50. Freeway


This project was a lot of fun. There are a lot of other orphans that I completely spaced on (sorry!), but I don't know where I would have found the room! Best discovery for me during this project was probably Lukas Moodysson, who I had never seen a film from before but ended loving so much I listed three. We Are the Best! is likely to get even better for me on subsequent viewings (and the first was an absolute joy)

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#170 Post by Paul Petit » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:09 am

Having not actively participated after registering quite a while ago, I was pretty sure to end up with a lot of orphans when I actually decided to compile a list last weekend. Alas, right I was, as I ended up with approximately 40 of them. Obviously I followed a somewhat different sensibility choosing my pets focussing more on subcultures, movement-related stuff and so on. Here's my Top 20.

Pressure (Horace Ove, UK 1977) Orphan
Celia (Ann Turner, Australia 1988) Orphan
Babylon (Franco Rosso, UK 1980) Orphan
Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union 1962)
Momma Don't Allow (Reisz/Richardson, UK 1956) Orphan
Kuhle Wampe, oder: Wem gehoert die Welt (Slatan Dudow/Bert Brecht, GER 1932) Orphan
Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, UK 1991) Orphan
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, India 1955)
The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, Jamaica/UK 1972) Orphan
Allein machen sie dich ein (Susanne Beyerler et. al., GER 1974) Orphan

Zueri braennt (Videoladen Zuerich, Switzerland 1981) Orphan
Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke, China 2002) Also-Ran
Geschwister – Kardesler (Thomas Arslan, GER 1997) Orphan
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah, UK 1986) Orphan
Tirador (Brillante Mendoza, Philippines 2008) Orphan
Wendy & Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, USA 2008) Orphan
When I Am Dead and Gone (Zivojin Pavlovic, Yugoslavia 1967) Orphan
Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, UK 1988)
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, Romania 2007) Orphan
Le thé au harem d'Archimède (Mehdi Charef, France 1985) Orphan

Though I can see that there's some reason for complaining about the meagre vote for Bill Douglas' early films, the biggest surprise in my eyes has been that all four US film productions I voted for became orphans - and amongst them's Ahearn's Wild Style!

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Feego
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#171 Post by Feego » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:24 am

It just dawned on me this morning that I forgot to vote for The Miracle Worker. Patty Duke truly gives one of the all-time great child performances, and Arthur Penn wisely resists making Helen Keller a helpless, needy victim of circumstance. Instead, she's a fiercely determined fighter with an almost animal instinct -- to me, even more interesting than Truffaut's Wild Child since Keller was brought up in upper class comfort. Her "savage" nature stems entirely from a lack of human communication that, in its own way, isolates her from society.

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#172 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:40 am

Completely forgot about that one too, I would've tried to make it fit my list but so many great films were left behind that I gave up trying to save every starfish. Had the same response to seeing Rumble Fish get Orphaned-- great film, great vote, but no room on my list even with the reminder

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#173 Post by bottled spider » Wed Jun 22, 2016 11:19 am

Rayon Vert wrote:49. Romeo and Juliet (1936)[/b]
Who's this one by? I don't much like the play, but voted for three different versions of it myself. Private Romeo was one of the most pleasing discoveries from this project.

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#174 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jun 22, 2016 11:32 am

It's the Cukor one with middle aged Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard as the leads

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#175 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:16 pm

Recent viewings:

Candy (Christian Marquand 1968) I’m assuming screenwriter Buck Henry had blackmail material on most of the A Listers who show up in this absurd but unfunny sex comedy based on a one joke premise (take the absurd logic of pornographic literature and remove or elide most of the sex). The film looks expensive, and the set design is often impressive, but it is all at the service of so much nothing.

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (Stephen Herek 1991) An immortal title and a silly but good-natured movie that’s aged fairly well from my scant memories. Christina Applegate plays the eldest teenage sister of a gaggle of spoiled, shitty kids who becomes a corporate breadwinner in the wake of the titular babysitter’s untimely exit. There’s some A+ wish fulfillment in Applegate landing a cushy job in fashion design, but I thought the film did a good job of showing she had no idea what she was doing and mainly skated along due to her boss liking her (a not inaccurate portrayal of many adult jobs!). Her siblings are also commendably portrayed as selfish little deviants who take a realistically long time to change their bad habits. For a film as doofy as this, it’s surprising how many accurate insights into the reality of youth it manages to tap into.

Krippendorf’s Tribe (Todd Holland 1998) A movie so bad, so misguided, so unacceptable by any charitable perspective that it’s mere existence is mind-boggling. An exhaustively unlikable Richard Dreyfuss is the titular Krippendorf, a recently widowed anthropology professor who makes up a New Guinean tribe in order to justify squandering a large grant. The fraud snowballs and before long Dreyfuss and his young kids are dressing up in brown cake frosting and filming “hilarious” ooga-booga-y documents of tribal customs like an exaggerated circumcision ritual or a menstruation hut wherein a teenage girl gets doused in pig urine fresh from the source. So, yes, the film is screamingly racist, and what’s worse, it’s not even funny enough to make the viewer forget or forgive it.

But beyond the obvious and obnoxious anti-PC nature of the narrative, which admittedly could almost surely never have worked (No one ever watched Nothing Sacred and wished the first five minutes were expanded into a whole movie), there’s a really gross attitude on display in how Jenna Elfman’s chipper new professor is treated by both Dreyfuss and the film. Two unbelievably bad scenes: In the first, Dreyfuss gets Elfman drunk (and possibly drugs her), talks her into donning tribal makeup, and secretly films himself having sex with her and then broadcasts it on national television as a tribal mating ritual. In the second, Elfman gets her “revenge” by confronting Dreyfuss, who is dressed in tribal disguise, on live TV, and acting as his “interpreter.” The two exchange bon mots of made up language like “Downa the hatcha” for when Elfman feeds an unwilling Dreyfuss a live grub, or “You bitch” (which isn’t even given an elongated ending in delivery, though it means something nice about America). During this confrontation, Dreyfuss reaches over and grabs onto Elfman’s breast and squeezes hard, holding onto her chest as she grimaces and yelps out in pain. This is, I assume, supposed to be funny and balanced by her response of assaulting him in the groin in response, but it’s too astonishingly awful to register as anything other than one more layer of Bad Idea on this shitty (urinal) cake of a movie.

Part of me wants to recommend Krippendorf’s Tribe for being so much worse than you could even imagine, as a new barometer by which bad ideas are measured against. The other part of me thinks, nah, just take my word for it. Your call, Criterion Forum Dot Org.

the Last American Virgin (Boaz Davidson 1982) I’ve seen a lot of commentators who don’t normally go in for teenage sex comedies praise this one for its alleged virtues, but I truly do not understand why. This is a vile and stunningly unfunny movie, with no interesting or appealing characters, especially not our “Nice Guy” white knight lead who is shocked that the object of his affection might not return his super-creepy gaze and interest. The movie is never slimier than during the last act
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when the filmmakers decide that the best time to shoehorn in another leering nude scene is during an abortion.
Return to Peyton Place (Jose Ferrer 1961) Most sequels are unnecessary by design, but this one is really something. One of the central characters from the first film has written their own version of the book version of Peyton Place and the evil ol’ fuddy-duddies in the town won’t stand for it! The stink of this one must have been apparent to all involved in the first film, as the entire cast has been replaced with new actors. For at least a third of the film I thought Tuesday Weld was playing Terry Moore’s role, not Hope Davis’, since she’s sporting her brunette (!) ‘do. The only bright spot here is Mary Astor, who is given such a ridiculously evil role (at one point she’s accused of wanting to fuck her son) that it’s at least colorful, which is more than can be said for most of the trappings that surround her here. Sloppy and inconsequential.

Summer Lovers (Randal Kleiser 1982) A film that will always be tied to my memory of Gene Siskel recommending it on the basis of it turning him on (his words!). The plot, if you can call it that, is the kind of thing basic cable shows like Compromising Situations would exploit over and over— two young pretty people on vacation meet a third pretty person, become involved, and get naked a lot. Dramatic tension and narrative interest are next to nothing, and there’s only so long I can make myself care about seeing someone else’s Greek beachfront vacation before counting down the clock. Like actual pornography, watching softcore like this is tedious in the extreme when not used for masturbatory purposes.

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