An explanation for procrastination

Some of you may be eagerly awaiting my next top ten, the 1950s. Wondering where your personal favorites will pop up whether or not I'll agree with the general consensus on Vertigo, Tokyo Story, Singin' in the Rain, On the Waterfront, and countless others. Well you'll have to wait, hopefully not for long but well I unleashed a monster and I'm having fun dealing with it.

Before making my list for the 40s I decided to revisit a couple of films. Mostly films that weren't currently going to be on my list (Laura, Late Spring, The Red Shoes) with the intention of seeing whether or not they could elevate themselves. After all these three films in particular I have owned on DVD for several years and had been waiting for an excuse to revisit for quite awhile. Looking at my 20s and 30s list I wish I could have done the same. Little would I know that the newly restored Metropolis would be coming to Chicago this week (I may have delayed this whole top ten project). I wanted an "excuse" to revisit Battleship Potemkin, The General, and maybe even a Von Stroheim film or two. Luckily I may have found an excuse.

I Love a Lot of Lists

My friends are going through a list of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die. I gave it a glance and realized oh no I've only seen about 913 of them (that number's gone up a bit since but whose counting?) My friends however are much further behind me and they might just take their entire lives to see them all. However whenever I stop by their house I can easily bring a film I want an excuse to rewatch and help them cross it off their list. I was disturbed to find that in a list of 1001 films Elia Kazan's East of Eden wasn't one of them. I figured all three James Dean films would be relatively required viewing (Giant the possible exception), but considering I find East of Eden the best of the three it seems an outright crime. It's omission isn't something to get too worked up about but the fact that Mel Gibson has three films as a director makes my head spin. I recently watched Apocalypto and well its a nice little practical joke. A generic chase/action film disguised as well meaning art by using unknown actors and putting it another forgotten language. I can understand the inclusion of Braveheart (it did win a billion Oscars) and even Passion of the Christ (since its notoriety would lend it to the "see it before you die" category), but who could have possibly recommended Apocalypto? Rest easy I rented it from the library so none of my hard earned money was spent on it (unless of course I return it late oh no!) Well it goes into the same debate that always comes up with these giant lists.

Sins of omission are never that great. However the bigger the list the bigger the sin of omission. By limiting my own best of the decade lists to top tens lets me off the hook for the most part. No one raised too many eyebrows when Rules of the Game didn't make my 30s list because after all I did have The Grand Illusion. Likewise The General Line seemed like a welcome alternative to Potemkin rather than outright blasphemy. Murnau was represented by what I hope most people would consider his best film with Sunrise, so no one really bitched about The Last Laugh or Nosferatu (although I'm sure a few people were a little let down it wasn't on there). When you make a top 100 list the crime gets a little bigger however. I might shake my head in disappointment to see Citizen Kane #15 on your all time list, but I'll realize that it's at least on the list. However if it isn't on your entire top 100, then I might question your taste. The more films I watch though the more I realize how small a number 100 is at least when discussing the all time films.

A top 1000 leaves little excuse not to include a "super classic". Jonathan Rosenbaum's list made me scratch my head a number of times but two particular omissions seem almost comical, Casablanca and The Godfather. That's right look at his top 1000, neither film is on it. I can understand someone leaving them out of a top ten, perhaps even a top 100, but I don't think I'll ever live long enough to believe there are 1000 films better than The Godfather or Casablanca. However I do admire certain oddball choices on his list (its mostly odd to be honest), but leaving out those two (amongst others who don't seem as substantial) seems downright self indulgent. However The Wizard of Oz wasn't in my top ten of the 30s, and probably wouldn't be in my top 100, but I'm sure if I was putting together a top 1000 (don't worry I'm not . . . yet) it would at least get a mention.

The 1001 list however earns a certain degree of leeway by being titled "Films to See Before You Die", which has a tendency to stress historical importance over quality. For that reason East of Eden should still be on it, but I'll get over it trust me. Clearly films like Salo, Pink Flamingos, or The Hills Have Eyes won't be ranking too high in critic polls they do fit into a category of "must see" movies simply for their audacity. Even the common folk who don't know that much about film constantly bring up Salo as the penultimate European Cult film and one of the most frequent films I get asked whether I've seen (I have seen it in case you're wondering). Somehow Cannibal Holocaust also gets mentioned a lot but well it seems the Italians had a minor monopoly on disgusting trash for awhile. Waters' film is a must see for any serious cult fan, and if you're disturbed by a 5 second scene at the end featuring dog feces eating keep in mind there is much worse for the 85 minutes or so before that happens. I saw it, enjoyed it, but I'm not too sure I'd rush to see it again but I love that special feeling to pat myself on the back and say "I've seen it", but that goes for any number of films.

As you may have surmised I'm a bit of a list junkie. My entire cinematic odyssey is owed to lists. It started with the AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies list made in 1998 and went off from there. Entertainment Weekly made their own top 100 about a year later which in part was a rebuttal to the problems of the populist AFI list but also served to be my first introduction to foreign language films. This is where I first heard of Seven Samurai, The Bicycle Thief, 8 1/2, and a whole lot of other films that may now seem second nature to a cinephile. After all every classic we hear about over and over again has an origin. There's always a first time we see it listed, and for me EW's list did a great deal to introduce me to some of world cinema's finest directors. I eventually crossed off all 100 films on each list (took about 6 months for the AFI list, about 6 years for the EW list) and along the way tackled many, many other minor and major lists. Very rarely do I come across a top 100 or top 1000 that I've seen every film from. There's always a couple surprises and a few films that I've been avoiding for awhile that pop up. Fine I always say, gets me a chance to cross off a few films I know damn well I probably should have watched 5-10 years ago.

One friend, who shall remain nameless and since he reads this blog he'll know exactly who I'm talking about has one question anytime a top 1000 list captures my eye: "Any Naruse or Pialat?" We all have different criteria for what makes a list credible. Perhaps my own definition is which "usual suspect" is excluded. My criteria isn't too great considering that when a particular classic that I find a little overrated is left off I usually applaud the list but if one of my favorites is left off I want to condemn (Rosenbaum's list an example of both). Naruse and Pialat are a good indicator. However I wonder if I made my own monumental list how well represented they'd be. I've seen about 7 films from Mikio Naruse and I'm not sure I have a clear cut favorite, perhaps Floating Clouds but in addition to needing to see more of his work I could also use a few repeat screenings of everything I've already seen. Maurice Pialat is a little more difficult, more of his work is coming out (including Naked Childhood on Criterion so check your calendar), but as of now I've only seen about 5 of his films. Loulou and A Nos Amours are both masterpieces in my opinion, but well those fall into the popular picks that anyone would make if in fact they'd have a Pialat film. So who knows how credible my own top 1000 would be, one of many reasons I'm not making that list anytime soon.

Research, Research, and More Research

Here I am rambling again, the point was research. I did virtually none for my first two top tens (the truth revealed at last!), instead relying on memory and a lifetime of movie watching. After a little for the 40s I did and am continuing to do a ton for the 50s. At first it was going to be a few masterpieces that would probably make my list but needed a fresh viewing (since in some cases I hadn't watched them in 9 or more years). So I watched Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal again, then Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, and then things started to get silly. I went to my basement to raid my collection, started making a mental note of what to look for when I went to the library, started browsing a list of favorites for nearly every film I felt wasn't fresh enough in my head, and well here we are. It's been long enough since my last list to provide a rather well informed top ten of the decade but there are some things I need to get to first. For starters I need to finish re-watching the Apu Trilogy (World of Apu is all that remains), I want to see the Criterion transfers of Andrzej Wajda's WWII trilogy (A Generation, Kanal, and Ashes and Diamonds), Billy Wilder's Witness For the Prosecution, Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy, Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu, and well too many others to list.

So here I am back at the start. Research begets more research. Similar to how a list of movies to watch seems to grow as it shrinks, the more we watch the more we realize we need to see. Research in film is very true to this. Revisiting one Kurosawa film made me want to rewatch Rashomon and Ikiru. Seeing one Kazan film made me want to watch On the Waterfront again. The Seventh Seal made me feel like I needed another look at Wild Strawberries. Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole made me think of Sunset Boulevard and Witness for the Prosecution. Jacques Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday made me think of Mon Oncle. Well there are countless other instances and that's why I essentially am no closer to finish this upcoming decade than I was a month ago.

Hell this whole by decade project was a way to procrastinate and by some research time before making my best of the 2000s list and I'm sure you're still waiting for my top ten of 2009. That list can and will be done probably soon I think I'm about caught up on 2009's best offerings. Despite having seen more films from the last decade than virtually any other I still think I need to do more work (the more you see the more you realize you need to see). My 50s list is making me wish I had made a concession to make a separate foreign language top ten. Hell in the case of the 50s I could probably make a top ten of just Japanese films and draw few complaints. Unfortunately one of my favorite films of the 50s is virtually impossible to rewatch, Robert Woodburn's Corn's-a-Poppin' and I would forever be grateful if you found a copy. So who knows how this thing will turn out.

I'd like to set a rule that I have to see every film from my top ten at least two times, hence I would avoid the over enthusiastic first response, and secondly it gives me an excuse to revisit my favorites. Looking ahead to the 60s the research for that will be even more exhaustive, but in a fun way. In other words keep checking in, I will be posting, and I will be updating my top tens but if you're wondering why the hell I'm taking so long I hope this blog entry will help explain it. Ironically I know as soon as I post my next list that I agonize over for so long someone's going to jump up and say "No ______ man this list sucks!"

Thank you and good night