BigSoccer Movie Draft 2: This Time, It's Personal, Thread 2

[Demosthenes]

I'll do my ten picks now. Hollywood/American movies only.

http://www.cecilbdemille.com/cheat/cheat_04.jpg
The Cheat - Cecil B. DeMille, 1915

http://www.ricksvideo.com/afi100/box_art/AFI_thumbs/th_happened_one_night.gif
It Happened One Night - Frank Capra, 1934

[Demosthenes]

http://imagesource.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/142771~Sullivan-s-Travels-Posters.jpg
Sullivan's Travels - Preston Sturges, 1941

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/WellesOthello.jpg/300px-WellesOthello.jpg
Othello - Orson Welles, 1952

http://www.filmsite.org/posters/cato.jpg
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Richard Brooks, 1958

[Demosthenes]

http://jarnemec.com/filmy/warhol_andy/andy/warhol12af.gif http://jarnemec.com/filmy/warhol_andy/images_star/padb.jpg
My Hustler - Andy Warhol, 1965

[Demosthenes]

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/cover_art1/mediumcool.jpg
Medium Cool - Haskell Wexler, 1969

http://www.onesheetindex.com/pix/5912_1.jpg
Fritz the Cat - Ralph Bakshi, 1972

[Demosthenes]

http://www.impawards.com/1974/posters/conversation.jpg
The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola, 1974

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/196020~Barton-Fink-Posters.jpg
Barton Fink - The Coens, 1991

[oman]

Wow. You should have just proxied the whole thing.

Props for the creepy Ralph Bakshi pick.

[GringoTex]

People ooh and aah over that three minute unbroken shot in GoodFellas, but tell me again what narrative or thematic purpose that serves?

To show that the criminal's connection to the body of established society is through its bowels.

[Via_Chicago]

To show that the criminal's connection to the body of established society is through its bowels.

As good an explanation as any I suppose.

[Via_Chicago]

Wow. You should have just proxied the whole thing.

Props for the creepy Ralph Bakshi pick.

Really. I'm impressed by the Warhol and the Welles, but the rest leaves me cold. Especially the Capra. Dear God, no director except for Marcel Pagnol annoys me as much as Frank Capra. At least she didn't take Arsenic and Old Lace though, a sure candidate for worst comedy ever made (Cary Grant agrees).

[Ghost]

Man, you were doing so well and then drove into a ditch after Solaris.


Point Blank is arguably the best American film of 1960s, described by David Thomsen as like watching Michelangelo Antonioni as filtered through the mind of Samuel Fuller.

Grizzly Man is the best film I've seen this decade so far.

Badlands is one of the signature films of the Holywood Renaissance.

Rushmore was the hardest choice, but not nearly 1990s indies have been chosen over the two drafts, and compared to my second rank of screwballs - Sullivan's Travels, It Happened One Night, etc. - I preferred it.

Domino is my adventurous pick. Like it or hate. But I'm glad I went outside the box and defended a film that I believe in.

[hangthadj]

Point Blank is arguably the best American film of 1960s, described by David Thomsen as like watching Michelangelo Antonioni as filtered through the mind of Samuel Fuller.

Grizzly Man is the best film I've seen this decade so far.

Badlands is one of the signature films of the Holywood Renaissance.

Rushmore was the hardest choice, but not nearly 1990s indies have been chosen over the two drafts, and compared to my second rank of screwballs - Sullivan's Travels, It Happened One Night, etc. - I preferred it.

Domino is my adventurous pick. Like it or hate. But I'm glad I went outside the box and defended a film that I believe in.

Domino catupulted your draft in my opinion. I can take or leave Grizzly Man, and Herzog as a documentarian really. I can take or leave Rushmore. But, Badlands, Tarkovsky, Domino, you have nothing to defend there homey. Great stuff.

[oman]

Grizzly Man is the best film I've seen this decade so far.


Holy ********. I think hang's "Birth is one of the best movies of the last five years" just got jetisoned into space.

[Demosthenes]

Really. I'm impressed by the Warhol and the Welles, but the rest leaves me cold. Especially the Capra. Dear God, no director except for Marcel Pagnol annoys me as much as Frank Capra. At least she didn't take Arsenic and Old Lace though, a sure candidate for worst comedy ever made (Cary Grant agrees).

I guess Clark Gable with no undershirt is understandably less exciting to you than to me.

Generally, I think that Capra is often misunderstood and underrated by people who ingore the darker, more subversive aspects of his work. At the same time, It Happened One Night is pretty different from his other works anyway.

Here's the thing. You and a few other people participating in this draft seem perpetually stuck in this limiting, retrograde auterism that compelled you to scrape the bottom of the barrel of your favorite directors' oeuvres, rather than use some imagination. I selected my films based on how entertaining and important the films are, not how much I like or dislike the directors.

In addition to being one of the first and most influential early romantic/screwball comedies, It Happened One Night is one of the few of that genre which is actually genuinely funny and romantic.

[Via_Chicago]

I guess Clark Gable with no undershirt is understandably less exciting to you than to me.

Not true. I don't mind It Happened One Night, but I do mind Capra. And Clark Gable is a sexy, sexy man.

Generally, I think that Capra is often misunderstood and underrated by people who ingore the darker, more subversive aspects of his work. At the same time, It Happened One Night is pretty different from his other works anyway.

Bitter Tea of General Yen is quite good, and It's a Wonderful Life is a masterpiece. That said, Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the worst comedies ever made (that has any kind of critical reputation), and American Madness and Mr. Deeds Go To Town are similarly terribly boring.

Here's the thing. You and a few other people participating in this draft seem perpetually stuck in this limiting, retrograde auterism that compelled you to scrape the bottom of the barrel of your favorite directors' oeuvres, rather than use some imagination. I selected my films based on how entertaining and important the films are, not how much I like or dislike the directors.

"I selected my films based on how entertaining and important the films are, not how much I like or dislike the directors." Likewise, but I obviously wouldn't select films from directors I didn't like, would I?

In addition to being one of the first and most influential early romantic/screwball comedies, It Happened One Night is one of the few of that genre which is actually genuinely funny and romantic.

Actually, there were plenty of screwball/romantic comedies in the pre-code era, and many (like Trouble in Paradise) are much, much better than the Capra (which, as I mentioned above, I have nothing against and quite enjoy for what it is).

[Demosthenes]

Likewise, but I obviously wouldn't select films from directors I didn't like, would I?

Why not? That makes no sense to me. This wasn't the directors draft.

[Via_Chicago]

Why not? That makes no sense to me. This wasn't the directors draft.

Because if I don't like the director, chances are I don't like his (her) films? That's a pretty rare occurence though. It's not like everything Hawks made turned to gold (geez, Land of the Pharoes anyone?), and the same holds true for most directors.

[GringoTex]

Here's the thing. You and a few other people participating in this draft seem perpetually stuck in this limiting, retrograde auterism that compelled you to scrape the bottom of the barrel of your favorite directors' oeuvres, rather than use some imagination. I selected my films based on how entertaining and important the films are, not how much I like or dislike the directors.


And yet seven of your ten picks are by time-stamped auteurs. I didn't see much bottom barrel scraping going on, except with Kurosawa.

[bojendyk]

No one took Scorsese's best film:

I guess everyone hasn't voted yet, I'll hold off.

For me, his best is King of Comedy.

[MeridianFC]

Just curious how many folks have given Netflix/Amazon/DVDPlanet/Blockbuster a workout in the past week?

I echo the Clark Gable = One Sexy Dude.

Capra is not evil.

"Fritz the Cat" is interesting for all the things that have nothing to do with the film which is well dated.

[oman]

For me, his best is King of Comedy.

No problem with that. Unbelievably great movie.