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THE TOP 5 FILMS ABOUT FILMMAKING:
see how points are awarded
| Rank |
Film |
Points |
L |
#1 |
| #1 |
8½ (1963, Federico Fellini, Italy |
15 |
3 |
3 |
| tie |
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder, USA) |
15 |
4 |
2 |
| #3 |
The Player (1992, Robert Altman, USA) |
11 |
4 |
- |
| #4 |
Boogie Nights (1997, P.T. Anderson, USA) |
9 |
2 |
1 |
| #5 |
Day for Night (1973, Francois Truffaut, France) |
7 |
2 |
- |
L=How many lists each film appears on
#1=How many number one votes each film recieves
Well, our fisrt tie since week #1. Fellini's brilliant 8½ ties last week's Noir winner, Sunset Boulevard, each with 15 points. The Fellini film garnering nothing but first place votes. Not surprisingly, Altman's The Player places third. Surprisingly (at least to me), Boogie Nights comes in fourth, while Truffaut's Day for Night rounds out the Top 5 this week.
Other films to make a strong showing were Woody Allen's Stardust Memories and Spike Jonze's Adaptation. Probably the most surprising turn this week (other than Boogie Nights inexplicably placing fourth) was the complete no show of Singin' in the Rain, a film that sits firmly in the canon of Cinematic History.
Next week we are going to be doing something different. Instead of choosing your top 5 films, you will be asked to pick your top 5 tracking shots (if you don't know what that is, shame on you). Go to the bottom of the page to find out how to enter your picks.
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Individual lists:
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Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile
8½ (Fellini) Working simultaneously on three levels of perception, Fellini created one of the three greatest films ever made. This is the one that most defines Felliniesque, it's reality, it's a dream, it's the universe. And it ultimately works through to Fellini's eternal optimism. I cannot forget "the Divine Claudia."
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder) Resuscitating Gloria Swanson and Eric vonStroheim, Billy Wilder turns this tale of desperate delusions in upon itself making the delusions more real than the world that has passed them by. It is the standard text history of Hollywood's silent era. Take note all you neophytes and poseurs who put this on your Noir list, here is where it really belongs.
Day for Night (Truffaut) There never was nor ever will be another director who had such pure joy and delight in every aspect of film making as Francois Truffaut, and this is his ultimate love letter to the medium. Every time Leaud teamed with Truffaut, it was magic. Truffaut's early death was indeed a tragedy for all film lovers.
The Player (Altman) In this tale of lies, deceit, and hypocrisy (simply put, Hollywood) Robert Altman, America's greatest living director, skewers the studio system, which often tried but never was able to pin him down. Especially delightful in character roles are Whoopi Goldberg, Lyle Lovett, and Julia Roberts.
Stardust Memories (Allen) Playing a director who has lost his muse and is compelled to attend a retrospective of his films, Woody Allen viciously scourges his severest critics in what is his version of 8 1/2. Nobody plays an ice bitch better than Charlotte Rampling.
and, All That Jazz (Fosse), not about film making, but another take on 8 1/2.
Apologia::How I could have omitted Terence Malick's "Days of Heaven " from the
revisionist western list is inexplainable and only excused by creeping senility. I truly ask your forgiveness.
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Todd Shill
Attorney-at-Law Cinephile
Boogie Nights To think that Paul Thomas Anderson actually made us feel/root for porn filmmakers? Amazing movie, one of my favorites of all time.
Living in Oblivion Every independent filmmaker needs to see this film. Great improvisation from Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, and James LeGros.
Man Bites Dog A camera crew follows a serial killer. Probably one of the scariest movies of all time. Highlights our fascination with "reality" filmmaking.
Barton Fink What can I say that hasn't already been said about this film. One of the Coen brothers' finest.
Overnight A primer on what not to do if you make it big in the film world. This film documents the rise and fall of the creator of "Boondock Saints"
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J.E. Snavely
Home Theatrical Cinephile
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini) Not only a film about the industry and filmmaking but a look into the creative genius and the toll it takes on the mind and body. The lines between reality and fantasy blur into a seemingly disjointed narrative. Like a dream it makes perfect sense. Beautiful.
STARDUST MEMORIES (Woody Allen) Woody Allen's 8 1/2. "You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes."
THE PLAYER (Robert Altman) The film for film buffs! I'm still waiting for THE GRADUATE , 25 YEARS LATER.
ED WOOD (Tim Burton) Burton's best most coherent story and Johnny Depp is wonderful as the bungling, passionate, angora-loving, Orson Welles worshipping, artistically-challenged filmmaker Ed Wood.
ADAPTATION (Spike Jonze) A great Charlie Kauffman story about himself as he tries to adapt a book The Orchid Thief into a movie. Chris Cooper steals the show!
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Carter Liotta
Eye Doctoring Cinephile
This week, a top Three list... I unfortunately haven't seen a lot of movies about Hollywood - and most that I have seen, I haven't liked (i.e. Bowfinger, Get Shorty, State and Main). "The Player" is in my Netflix queue as are "Stardust Memories" and "Cinema Paradiso". Ask me again next year!
Sunset Boulevard Is Gloria Swanson amazing, with
her grand, silent-era gesturing, or what? This was, of course, a popular film last week in talking about films about LA... but I feel it's better
representative of this week's topic... and here I'll give it the credit it certainly deserves.
Silent Movie Who can pass up Mel Brooks'
brilliant send-up of not just the silent era, but moviemaking in general? Bernadette Peters with title cards that say "Ba-ba-loo!" Ars est pecunia.
Chaplin Richard Attenborough! Robert Downey, Jr!
John Barry! What more does a great film need?
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Alan Hochberg
Medical Researching Cinephile
1. Sunset Boulevard (1950) "I AM big. It's the PICTURES that got small."
2. The Player (1992)
3. The Front (1976) This one's off the beaten path, into a little bit of Hollywood history, nicely portrayed. Woody Allen gets the focus off himself for once, and lets the story tell itself.
4. Mifune (1999) This one is indirectly about filmmaking and full of filmic references, but about as far from Hollywood as you can get. It's the Danish "dogma" film
5. Mulholland Drive (2001)
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Alexandra Hartman
Poeticizing Cinephile
Adaptation Oh, jeez, this is a great movie. It's one of my favorites. Like you care. But it's about making another movie. It's about the creative process. It's about writing - "To begin... To begin... How to start? I'm hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. So I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana nut. That's a good muffin." And it has a fantastic script. "The killer's a literature professor. He cuts off little chunks from his victims' bodies until they die. He calls himself "the deconstructionist"." It also has twists. It has Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep. It has self-loathing as entertainment - "I'm pathetic, I'm a loser. I have failed, I am panicked. I've sold out, I am worthless, I... What the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? Fuck. It is my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here.". Plus it seriously fucks with your head. I don't know what else you can ask for in a movie.
Boogie Nights What a cast! John C. Reilly, William Macy and Julianne Moore. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Phew. Given the subject matter - the porn industry - you'd think it would be funny, or okay, I would, but Boogie Nights is as dark and complicated as Magnolia was.
Sex Is Comedy The difficulties of shooting a sex scene between two people who hate each other. I love the way Catherine Breillat poses her characters during sex. They're delicate, languid, lovely. God. And I was fascinated by the fake penis. I never thought of the need for one before seeing this movie, although, yeah, now that I think of it, of course you'd need something like that to kind of prop things up during slow moments, but I still can't figure out how it was attached to the actor. Okay, you're right. I've thought about it a lot since seeing the movie. But how? Maybe Velcro? Wires? God, stuff like that just drives me crazy.
Lost In La Mancha Why making films is maybe not so much fun. A documentary about Terry Gilliam trying to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Watching absolutely everything go wrong for him is excruciatingly painful to watch.
Living in Oblivion Steve Buscemi’s a fantastic actor (and strangely hot, but I can't figure out why), and he’s great in this intimate portrait of filmmaking. All I can say is directing films doesn't look like much fun to me.
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Kevyn Knox
Self-Absorbed Cinephile
8½ (1963, Federico Fellini, Italy): Easily one of the greatest films EVER made (period). The muse has run away and the loosed (not lucid) mind wanders out for a surreal stroll.
Day for Night (1973, Francois Truffaut, France): Truffaut packs so much love for Cinema in these two hours - it is truly a film lover's film.
Sunset Boulevard (1950, Billy Wilder, USA): Some say this didn't belong in the Noir category last week, but belongs here instead. To that I say bullshit - why can it not be multi-genrational (is that even a word?).
The Player (1992, Robert Altman, USA): Another love story to Cinema, but this time in a much more jaded manner.
Stardust Memories (1980, Woody Allen, USA): Woody's attempt at Fellini AND one of his best films overall.
Special Mention:
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) - This is much more than just a film about filmmaking, so it stays in the outer limits, where I'm sure Mr. Lynch would enjoy himself.
Second Tier (in no particular order):
Le Mepris (Godard), Sex is Comedy (Breillat), Sullivan's Travels (Sturges), Irma Vep (Assayas), Ed Wood (Burton) and Singin' in the Rain (Kelly & Donan).
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*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created
The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 TRACKING SHOTS
e-mail me at
kevynknox@thecinematheque.com
with your picks for week #5,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, July 24th.
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