50. Corn’s-a-Poppin’ (1956) -
Robert Woodburn
Well here's my "what the
hell is this film?" film. For those
of you not priveleged enough to see it in one of the random screenings here in
Chicago then I hope to holy hell it gets released somewhere. Never on VHS, never on DVD, and not even a
version of it floating around on youtube or in torrent form. If any of you have a copy of it please let me
know. I went to see this film after
hearing one of the characters was named Thaddeus Pinwhistle and another Waldo
Crummit. The film was described as a film
version of the show that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were always putting on
to save some barn or something in all those formulaic MGM musicals. What makes this film elevated from just pure
camp is the songs. They're really damn
good and apparently the actor who played Johnny Wilson (Jerry Wallace) wound up
with a pretty respectable singing career in country music. There's also Little Cora Rice who made her
debut here, but according to her imdb page this was her first and last
film. Anyways this is the best thing
Robert Altman ever did, even if he completely disowned it.
49. The Mother and the Whore
(1973) - Jean Eustache
Jean Eustache had one of the
briefest and brightest careers in France's immediate post-new wave. He only made two features, but this was his
one unquestionable masterpiece. Clocking
in well over three hours it essentially tells the tale of a love triangle in
post-May '68 Paris. Long since one of my
favorites it might seem a bit daunting at first considering it's length and the
talk friendly nature of rambling 20-somethings, but it's worth it. If it's any consolation I'm far from the only
person to think this film is brilliant.
Cahiers du Cinema voted it the best film of the seventies, and a recent
Film Comment poll listed it as the best long film ever. So in other words all 220 minutes of this are brilliant, from the compelling to the banal, the dramatic to the trivial it all
paints a great picture.
48. The Dark Knight (2008) -
Christopher Nolan
I'll be perfectly honest when
I say I didn't expect this film to be that great. Fact is even the best of the Batman films
(which is clearly Batman and Robin) weren't exactly masterpieces. Well my expectations got a little higher for
this film and well it's in my top 50 so that goes to show how incredibly it met
and exceeded my expectations. Much of this
is rightly due to Heath Ledger's performance which as we all know won every
award ever. Christopher Nolan who made a
couple of pretty good films but to me this was his first real masterpiece and
it's a damn good thing. He's followed it
up with two damn good movies and I for one can't wait to see what he'll do
post-Batman. The film is a little
bittersweet because I think we all realize there will never be a super hero
movie better than this.
47. Weekend (1967) - Jean-Luc
Godard
The last time I made this
list I was under the impression that Weekend is what every film should be. To me it is the culmination of Godard's best
period, the final evolution where he his his peak. Of course there was only one way to go from
there, but I won't completely dismiss his films of the last four decades. Shot with some extremely long takes which as
you know by now I'm a huge fan of, and some of those trademark on screen
monologues about all that is wrong in the world. It also features the most comically ridiculous
traffic jam in any movie. His famous
quote that every film needs a beginning, middle, and end but not necessarily in
that order certainly applies here. The
film is linear in the loosest definition of the term but things quickly take
their own turn and all semblance of a couple on a weekend getaway immediately
disappears.
46. Rocco and His Brothers
(1960) - Luchino Visconti
Oddly enough this
isn't the first Italian film from 1960 that I shrugged my shoulders at while
wondering what the big deal was after my first viewing. In fact I've thought that about La Dolce Vita
and L'avventura as well. I believed
maybe all of Luchino Visconti's work might be slightly overrated. Then I took another look at this film, a
transitional masterpiece from arguably the most important year in film. Well it didn't take too long to realize I
must have REALLY missed something the first time around because this film is
damn near perfect. Absolutely amazing
start to finish and it's probably the first film I would mention as a cinematic
equivalent to the novel. Although
episodic in structure it tells a deeply personal and incredibly rich story of a
family in transition. As Antonioni and
Fellini turned their attention towards the upper classes (as Visconti would do
later) here he makes his epic on the working class and their struggle to survive and hopefully eventually prosper.
This is also the film that helped make Alain Delon a star, and it also
features Claudia Cardinale in a supporting role. Seriously though this film is amazing, you
just might need to see it twice.
45. Predator (1987) - John
McTiernan
Oh well allow myself to
indulge in being a man for a bit. This
has been a favorite since forever yet for some idiotic reason I allowed myself
too much time on my pretentious high horse to put it on my previous film lists. Perhaps I thought it was childish or
juvenile, but well the older I get maybe I'm getting nostalgic or maybe I'm
just coming to grips with who I am. I'm
a man who fucking loves Predator, this is the best action movie ever and I will
fight anyone to the death who thinks otherwise, unless they say Die Hard that's
acceptable I guess. Anyways Arnold and
Carl Whethers share the greatest handshake in movie history, then Jesse Ventura
mows down the jungle, Bill Duke (THE Blurple one himself) shaves sweat off his
face, an Indian yells while cutting his chest, and then there's the Predator
himself. Like the first Alien most of
the film goes by before we even get a glimpse of the Predator, but this film
seems like a rescue mission straight out of the second Rambo film before things
start getting weird and totally fucking awesome.
44. Gone with the Wind (1939)
- Victor Flemming, Sam Wood, George Cukor
The epic of all epics that
set and raised the bar for what a true Hollywood blockbuster can be. At nearly four hours it is the fastest moving
film you're likely to see. David
O'Selznick is in some ways the original James Cameron because he couldn't do
anything on a small scale. The cast was
exceptional and is there anyone else who ever lived that could be Rhett Butler
besides Clark Gable? So many sequences
are spectacular and it in many ways follows a similar structure to Griffith's
Birth of a Nation, albeit with far less Klan members. However it's all about Scarlett, or mainly
Vivian Leigh who was the result of a nearly two year talent search to play the
heroine. She was unlike any female lead
before or since. Never was anyone so
determined, so manipulative, so strong, and so complex. A flawed character for sure but she's the
type of role that rarely if ever comes around for an actress. It is also in my opinion the first truly
great looking color film of the 30s, even if the three strip process had been
around for four years prior. What can
you say but Selznick knew how to make an epic?
43. Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (1939) - Frank Capra
In the annals of film history
many, many people have wondered what the greatest year in film is. A whole hell of a lot of them would point to
1939, which featured GWTW, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, and many others, but
none better than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, sorry for my Rules of the Game
fans. Capra made a special kind of
American cheese, or rather Capra-corn, and idealized version of America where
the little guy would always eventually triumph, but I get the feeling like Mr.
Smith was the first of his films that started to take things down a darker
path. For many It's a Wonderful Life
would be the peak, but it's always been Mr. Smith. Jean Arthur is fantastic and Jimmy Stewart
should have won his Oscar here. His wide
eyed idealist Jefferson Smith is a perfect Capra hero. Simply watching him fumble with his hat
around Susan Payne is a thing of brilliance.
It may have seemed like a shocking idea to suggest that even our
Senators could be bought and sold by the wealthy, but it's all the more
convincing today. I just hope we can get
our own Jeff Smith to make things better.
42. Maltese Falcon (1941) -
John Huston
Orson Welles wasn't the only
one making his first and best film in 1941.
John Huston had some success as a screenwriter before Warner Bros. let
him direct his first feature. He chose
to adapt Dashiell Hammett's detective story The Maltese Falcon, which had been
made twice before in the last decade. I
guess third time's the charm because no one ever seems to mention those other
two versions. In the process he helped
make Humphrey Bogart one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars and delivered the
first masterpiece in a style that was soon to be re-christened film noir. It may be plot heavy but it has all the wonderful
trappings of a great noir. There's a
woman who can never be trusted, a group of foreign thugs, constant betrayals
and back-stabbings, and one man who seems to survive by sheer dumb luck or
rather just knows way more than he ever lets on. To this day Bogart is still the original
private eye in most people's minds and the first person they think of in the
movies to fit that role, Sherlock Holmes be damned.
41. The Passion of Joan of
Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Some films take some time to
find their audience, others find their praises sung from the highest rooftops
immediately. Although a complete 35mm
print turned out to be hard to find for years, and many thought lost, critics
all over were hailing Dreyer's film as quite possibly the greatest thing ever
filmed pretty much from the time it premiered.
It was a large gala event when it finally made it's way to America and
it still ranks high in so many critics minds, cracking the most recent edition
of Sight and Sound's top ten poll. For a director that later earned his
reputation for being slow paced and favoring very long takes, this film is a
completely different cinematic language.
It is shot almost entirely in close ups with incredibly short shots,
edited at a blistering pace. Plenty of
filmmakers have tried tackling Joan of Arc and I honestly can't see why. No one will ever, or can ever make a better
film about Saint Joan, it's really not possible.
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