Weekly Discussion: The 21st Century's 100 Greatest Films [via BBC] • Page 2

The BBC analyzed the data; 2012 and 2013 had the most films on the list. This makes sense; they are far enough away that people can start to reminisce about them (and forget flaws) while not too far away to become something that is completely forgotten. Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Michael Haneke, the Coens, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are tied with three films a piece. 57 films were in English, and the second highest was French with 13 films. Only two Korean films is disappointing, and less than two Romanian films is a tragedy (Weerasethakul is the sole representative of the Thai language and Bela Tarr is 2/3 of Hungarian). The lack of German is surprising, but for a country of its size and wealth it is always so baffling how little they impact world cinema compared to France and even Italy.

Mulholland Drive is shaping up to be the standard film people pick as the best of the 2000's; it has won multiple versions of these polls, with In the Mood for Love and Yi Yi being the other competitors. While Mulholland Drive is obviously great, it does feel like it is a more highly regarded film then it would have been if Lynch was making films more regularly. Inland Empire may even be a better Lynch film from this century, and I would never put it over the extremely intimate depths you see in In the Mood for Love or the very true representation of family and the passage of time in Yi Yi. Of course, The Tree of Life is superior to all of them, but that is still going to take some time for those who panned the film to disappear and a newer generation of critics who were profoundly moved by the film to come around. Malick is still a punching bag to people, and the even more abstract To the Wonder and Knight of Cups fuels a lot of the ambivalence toward Malick as a whole. It is always surprising how many people still dismiss The Tree of Life as it is a very clear narrative with much a more conventional structure and dialogue.

It is disappointing that A Separation has become the highest regarded Iranian film. While it is a great film, it is something that could be filmed in almost any country with minor adjustments to the politics of divorce. By comparison, something like Jafar Panahi's Offside manages to highlight Iranian gender oppression without doing so through gloom and despair.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the biggest cases of a good movie being blown out of proportion because of the time in which it came out. It is not as good as other Kaufman films; Being John Malkovich is more playfully bizarre, Adaptation is a better deconstruction about the processes of the mind, and Synecdoche, New York is one of the masterpieces of the era. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would be criticized today more for the characterization of Winslet as the manic pixie dream girl stereotype.

Son of Saul was one of the most pointless films of last year, which is especially embarrassing when you co-opt the suffering of the Shoah. In a few years more people will see through it. For some reason people have not come to that conclusion with Memento, which is a perfectly okay film that causes drowsiness. If more people watched City of God again, and did not rely on their memory, they would not vote for it the way they do on these polls.

 

I also had a hard time relating to Boyhood, just wasn't my experience and upbringing I guess

 

Eternal Sunshine is one of my favourite films ever so I'm very ok with it being so high. There's still a lot on here I haven't seen though.

Also as much as I loved Boyhood I definitely preferred Before Midnight and liked Before Sunset more than either.

 

So there's only 14 I haven't seen.

Requiem for a Dream
The Gleaners and I
Let The Right One In
The Secret in their Eyes
The Return
Almost Famous
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring
Moolaadé
Moulin Rouge!
Brokeback Mountain
City of God
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Lives of Others
The Act of Killing

Other than Varda, Lee, Sembene, and Oppenheimer, is anything here very essential?

I think it's quite cool to see Toni Erdmann has placed on here already. I think the list is generally solid, but there are a few directors that I am shocked didn't place something on the list.

 

Any list that has Inception higher than Dogville, never mind that it's even on the list, is pretty silly

Seen a little over half of these, a lot of which are truly great. There were atleast ten that I have seen that should be nowhere near that list, but a real gripe I have is that it was largely humourless.

 

No. The ones you have listed are very great ones, though.

 

No Whiplash? Also Action films can be fantastic like Edge of Tomorrow, that movie had everything done right in it. Finding Nemo is the only Pixar movie on there? How is that possible when all the Toy Storys and Incredibles are better. This must have been a hard list to do though so kudos for doing it.

 

WALL-E and Ratatouille are on the list..

 

ah, must have missed those. Either way, no TS or Incredibles is weird.

 

2 of the 3 Toy Story movies are from the 90s

 

TS 2 is in the 90s....god I'm old.

 

Biggest snubs:
1. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
2. Sideways (Alexander Payne)
3. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
4. Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard)
5. Birdman (Alejandro Inarritu)
6. Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper)
7. Irreversible (Gaspar Noe)
8. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
9. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
10. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
10b. Milk (Gus Van Sant)


Worst picks:
1. Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese)
2. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
3. Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino)
4. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
5. The Social Network (Fincher)
6. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
7. Moulin Rouge (Bas Luhrmann)
8. Zodiac (Fincher)

 

In no way are 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8 bad picks.

 

I think Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise are the only two Anderson films that should qualify, as I think they are his best by a fair margin. His range isn't nearly good enough to have him three, let alone four, times on the list, in my opinion. Also, I really didn't like Darjeeling Unlimited.

I hope you're being serious.

The Wolf of Wall Street, like The Departed (which thank goodness wasn't ranked-- probably the most redeeming thing about the list) just wasn't good. Scorsese has been resting on his laurels for a long time now.

Inglourious Basterds also just isn't a great work of art. It's fun and it has a lot of big name actors, but for Tarantino to make up for (again) the utter lack of sentiment or humanity (instead of relying purely on style, boldness, and fuck-yeah-America), he has to really shine as a director ala Reservoir Dogs.

The Social Network is good, but I think it's inferior to Gone Girl in terms of Fincher films. While Fincher's style, tone, and rhythm complimented the plot in GG so well, it just (to me) made TSN seem superficially melodramatic by comparison. At no point in The Social Network did I feel invested in the characters to the point of reconciling the tension of the film. With that said, it's definitely the best of the films you picked out of my "worst picks". I just think Gone Girl is better and criminally underappreciated.

EDIT: And, to address Zodiac, I haven't seen it in many, many years. But, as a Gyllenhaal fan, I just remember being disappointed. I'll tentatively concede your criticism until I get the chance to watch it again as a not-teenager.

 

gone girl? whoa dude

 

Black Swan is probably the most vivid (even if sometimes excessive) display of directorial talent that I've ever witnessed. But I understand that it's not for everyone. I think that The Wrestler is by far the worst snub, but I also think Black Swan is a faaar more refined work than Requiem--what pushes Requiem above it in these types of considerations, to me at least, is Ellen Burstyn giving the greatest and most devastating performance I've ever seen in film. Ellen Burstyn's monologue below was such a tragic, human, relate-able, and out-of-typecast performance that spoke to viewers on so many levels, within the film, within their own battle with mortality, within their own relationship with--and recognition of the mortality of--their parents, and, lastly, the harmonization of the part with Burstyn, a once beautiful young A-list star resigning to old age (similar to the dynamic with Rourke in The Wrestler). Just beautiful.

The Artist, similarly, isn't for everybody, but I very much enjoyed it and think it deserves it's spot for cultural relevance and ingenuity.

I have no concessions on Birdman.

 

Explain yourself for not liking Spring Breakers

 

and why is black swan the most vivid display of directorial talent for you?

 

I didn't dislike it.

The only films I actively dislike on that list are the first two: Wolf of Wall Street and Zero Dark Thirty, both of which I believe are mediocre but pass themselves off as exceptional on the exploit of shitty consumer traits (misogyny and capitalist greed/gluttony for the first, patriotism for the second).

But, yeah, it wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I just believe the ten films i mentioned are solidly better.

I'm not sure how you want me to answer that. I think it's pretty self-evident if you've seen it.

 

Irreversible is the only snub I agree with and Spring Breakers deserved to be there a fuck of a lot more than Birdman, Gone Girl or Sideways lol

 

I cannot remember a second of The Artist. It is a shame because the director made two very good James Bond-style comedies that no one has really seen.

 

It's self evident that it's the most vivid display of directorial talent? ever?

 

I've never seen so many mid 2000s mediocre or worse american oscar dramas listed next to eachother

 

How was The Wolf of Wall Street misogynistic?