I’d like to begin this story back around 2006. I was a member of a few different film forums and it was with my good friends at the now defunct foreignfilms.com that someone first posted a link to They Shoot Pictures Don’t They and their top 1000. The original thread was “how many films in the top 100 have you seen? I was rather pleased with myself to find that I had seen all the top 100. I then looked further down the list and found I’d seen the top 200. After extending my search a little further I found Mikio Naruse’s Floating Clouds somewhere around 250, and at the time it was the highest movie I had not viewed. Later that year I went through the entire list and wrote down every film I hadn’t seen, which turned out to be quite a bit more than I was expecting. Luckily with Facets and Odd Obsession as my allies, I spent the next year doing some serious damage.
Fast forward to 2012. I was at a rather unimportant party with a group of people I didn’t really know and haven’t hung out with since. At some point a game was started that essentially involved asking each other questions. Someone asked me what I was most proud of accomplishing. Now I didn’t have one of those go to cliche answers to this question, I had no kids, didn’t own a house or my own business, and I damn well wasn’t about to pick my college education as a point of pride. So I said I was most proud of having seen 998 of the 1000 films on They Shoot Pictures Don’t They. At this point I was quite possibly the only person alive who had seen that many, but like that 199/200 score I got on my Buster Keaton paper from Miss Anderson (I will never forget), almost perfection is hard to live with. It’s hard to say exactly why this list was my badge of honor. There are no shortage of greatest film lists that I’ve seen everything from, but to me this was always the most definitive and authoritative.
The two films I hadn’t seen at that point were Jacques Rivette’s Out 1: Spectre and Stan Brakhage’s Art of Vision. Now I had seen the full 12 hour version of Out 1 at the Siskel Center a few years before so I was willing to count that film as a technicality. As for the Brakhage film it was a bit of the reverse. Art of Vision was essentially an extended version of his much better known and way easier to find Dog Star Man. So in a way I had seen the entire list but like many of Barry Bonds’ records this had a big fat asterisk next to it. The same can be said of the previous incarnation of the list I looked at with the god awfully pointless Andy Warhol film Empire. Yeah I’d seen an excerpt of it which is essentially the same static shot over 8 hours so really looking at a still of the film kind of counts and saves you from wasting soooooo much of your life.
Now we arrive at 2018. Every year Bill Georgaris takes it upon himself to update this massive list with whatever new best film lists he comes across and for the record, no my own list isn’t listed as one of the sources. The new lists generally get updated in winter, and this particular year it was updated around the second week in January. I decided to get down to it and see what new arrivals I needed to check out, and double check whatever older films I may have missed. Unlike most years I found some of the new additions were rather easy to find mercifully. Double bonus some of the films that had tormented me in the past like Art of Vision and Empire had dropped off, and that finish line was in my grasp.
So I can say that as of January 27th, 2018 I have officially seen all 1000 of these films. I have finally officially crossed every god damn one of these movies off the list. This process has taken over a decade, and I know very well that when 2019 comes and the list is updated again there will inevitably be a few more for me to check out to stay up to date. However for the next year I can safely boast that list is completely accomplished. So if you’ll indulge me I’d like to take you through the new editions to the list I just watched and the few remaining movies needed for complete supremacy.
One question that I’m sure some of you might be asking is, how the hell can you keep track of all of these? 1000 films is a lot and I’d be hard pressed to give you an accurate plot synopsis of all of them, but there’s another way. I do keep a list of every film I’ve ever seen listed by year. I’ve mentioned this system elsewhere on this blog and I found it’s the best reference to quickly find whether or not I’ve seen a film yet. As one would expect there are inevitably a few that were either never added to the list, or put under the wrong year, and sometimes I do find myself doubting whether I’ve seen something. This brings me to the extra sure part I played in the 2018 edition, watching at least one film I have already seen because I forgot to add it to my list and potentially re-watching another one or two for good measure. There is a decent adage you can use which is if I don’t remember watching it, then maybe I should see it again. So here is the recap of what I’ve seen and possibly re-seen in order to complete the ultimate cinematic mission.
#1000 - Sorcerer (1977) - William Friedkin
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| The seventies when everyone needed a shave, a shower, and a haircut |
New to the list is Friedkin’s poorly titled flop that followed up The Exorcist. Now it’s hard to really bash a film that is at the absolute bottom of the list, but seeing some of the films that just missed the cut I’d say this doesn’t really belong. It is a well made remake of Clouzot’s Wages of Fear, a film deemed by many to be a masterpiece that I just was never wild about. I do love Clouzot’s work, but for some reason Wages of Fear did nothing for me even upon a second viewing. Friedkin’s film therefore seems doubly unnecessary. The performances are good and there are some well executed scenes but ultimately this was just another tick.
#999 - Oasis (2002) - Lee Chang-Dong
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| UGH the movie |
This is one of those films that was actually on a previous version of the list that I simply didn’t see. Perhaps it was the very generic title, and the fact that I was familiar with some of Lee’s work (Secret Sunshine, Poetry) that I think I just assumed I had seen it. After downloading it and getting a few minutes in I quickly realized I very much had not. I don’t know how to put it, but I hated this movie. On paper it seems like an odd plot for a movie, a mentally unstable ex-con falling in love with a girl who has cerebral palsy but that leaves out so much of what is wrong here. Particularly how they meet, and the bizarre and awkward rape that is just hard to look past. Roger Ebert was apparently a huge fan and lord only knows what he found so charming about it. If you plan on crossing all of these off I’d make this one of the last.
#998 - L’Humanite (1999) - Bruno Dumont
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| This makes as much sense to you as it does to me |
Another film that was on a previous version of this list, albeit towards the very bottom. Bruno Dumont is a filmmaker I was more aware of than familiar with. His films are thoroughly pretentious, alienating, and French in the worst sense of the term. L’Humanite seems like it could be a decent police procedural ala Memories of Murder but is filled with so much head scratching behavior and slow pacing that eventually you just cease to care. It may seem like I’m shitting all over this list but keep in mind these are the bottom films and essentially the dregs of the list. I wouldn’t be surprised if other Dumont films pop up on this list in future editions but for now this seems as good of an introduction as any.
#980 - Scarecrow (1973) - Jerry Schatzberg
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| Seriously so fucking seventies |
Technically the last film I watched to complete this list, Scarecrow was a film I just always thought I had seen. Ever since I first got into film and was watching classics from the glorious American cinema of the 70s, Scarecrow just seemed like a film I had seen. I had watched nearly every other Pacino film from the decade but the more I thought about this particular one the more I didn’t remember it. Checking my master list I didn’t see it included anywhere and this is just one of those ones that slipped through the crack. Scarecrow is so thoroughly 70s it’s almost a cliche. Schatzberg was definitely second tier in terms of filmmakers of the period but this might very well be his best work. Gene Hackman and Al Pacino were at the top of their game in 1973 and make a near perfect pair. Audiences mostly passed on the film as it seemed all too familiar, and watching it now it isn’t hard to see why, but in terms of revisionist cinema it is testament to how rich and fertile American movies were in the seventies.
#979 - O Bandido da Luz Vermelha (1968) - Rogerio Sganzeria
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| Once upon a time men had hair on their chest |
Also known as The Red Light Bandit, this is a curious film from the peak of Cinema Novo. Like many of his contemporaries, Sganzeria is deeply indebted to the French New Wave, almost to the point of plagiarism. The plot which is essentially about a man on a crime spree has lengthy diversions to discuss social and political issues in contemporary Brazil and just sort of wanders at it’s own pace. It’s certainly one of the more unique and interesting films among the new additions, but it’s hard to say it sustains it’s pace throughout. The first thirty minutes or so are spectacular and the last act just sort of meanders until the film ends. Godard’s Breathless had similar pacing issues but was so groundbreaking it got away with it. Worth checking out for sure, and proof that even us know-it-all’s sometimes miss films.
#965 - Pickpocket/Xiao Wu (1997) - Jia Zhangke
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| Another day in China |
Not to be confused with Bresson's far better known film of the same name comes our first entry in the “wait did I see this?” category. I’ve been a fan of Jia’s since I saw The World in the theater back in 2005. I quickly checked out his previous films only to discover his first feature was at the time unavailable in this country. At some point in time I did find a copy of it and don’t know if I ever watched it, so alas I made sure to settle that now. It might lack some of the scope of his later films but it isn’t a bad start at all. Full of long takes, real locations and non-actors it is a worthy successor to Neorealist films of the 40s. Zhangke definitely did better later in his career, but it’s always interesting to see where the great directors start.
#924 - Sholay (1975) - Ramesh Sippy
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| Mustache game on fleek |
Now we’re talking. Perhaps second only to Facets was the Mt. Prospect Public Library. If you know anything about Mt. Prospect, IL (which I’m sure you all do) it’s that that town has a very large Indian population. So I often saw the DVD for Sholay and wondered what the hell it was about. Bollywood cinema is a monumental undertaking. There are thousands of films, and nearly all of them are over 3 hours, so knowing where to start can be a bit overwhelming. I tend to focus on the films that pop on lists, and there have been a few that have been on TSPDT. Sholay was new this year and it instantly became my favorite Bollywood movie. There are some great films in Bengali, notably Ray, Sen, and Ghatak’s work, but the mainstream Hindi movies have often failed to impress. This has at times been called a “Curry Western” and it’s a nice way of saying it’s a Western from India. The plot has some things in common with Once Upon a Time in the West as well as Seven Samurai, but with all the ridiculous and colorful musical numbers you’d expect out of a Bollywood film. This was easily my favorite of the films I watched for the 2018 list, so yeah this one is pretty damn awesome.
*Bonus Film*
#733 - The Ascent (1976) - Larisa Shepitko
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| Bonus |
Chalk this up to faulty record keeping. I saw Larisa Shepitko’s best known motion picture at Facets probably a dozen or more years ago. They were running a Shepitko and Elem Klimov retro, and this was the only film I was able to catch. It eventually got a DVD release courtesy of The Eclipse Series, and it was one of those I knew I saw. Since it was curiously absent on my list of 1976 movies, I seriously started second guessing myself. So just to be 1000% sure (get it?) I gave it another crack. It didn’t take long for the film to start ringing some bells, and it rightfully deserves it’s place not just as one of the greatest films directed by a woman, but one of the highlights of all Soviet cinema. Sometimes it pays to give yourself a little refresher on these films just to make certain.
Conclusion
This has been a long journey. There definitely aren’t many of us out there who have seen everything and I certainly join select and incredibly obsessive company. I am definitely thankful that this list is a little biased towards older films, because I’m sure the more recent offerings would be the place to trip me up. Over the next year I aim to tackle a good amount of the 1001-2000 movies to make sure I don’t get caught off guard too much when 2019 rolls around.
Now this list isn’t necessarily the final word in great film. There are plenty of excellent movies, especially recent releases that won’t be found here. One thing I do love about this list is it isn’t one person’s opinion. It is multiple lists, multiple people voting, with literally thousands of different movie lists combined. I know my own list has a few of those movies that make you shake your head and say “really?”, so a compilation of others helps minimize that. There isn’t a ton of movement in the top 100 this year, so I’d say if you were looking to tackle just that first part of the list, it doesn’t fluctuate too much and is certainly doable.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I might go back to working on Jonathan Rosenbaum’s top 1000 again.
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