Film Comment conducted this poll a few years ago. A list of the best films of the 90s not to have received a theatrical release in the U.S. Many of these are now available on video/DVD. http://www.filmlinc.com/archive/fcm/7-8-97/poll.htm Why a poll? Is this just another excuse for a bunch of film festival circuit elitists and arthouse ivory tower cinesnobs to indulge in the oneupmanship of esoteric taste and soapbox on behalf of ever more obscure pet auteurs? Well, imagine it's thirty years ago and none of the films of Godard, Antonioni, Ray, and Ozu are in distribution. Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Wong Kar-wai are the filmmakers of our time as surely as those filmmakers were in theirs, but there are no contemporary equivalents for Truffaut, Fellini, Bergman, or Kurosawa --filmmakers whose dependable popularity made audiences receptive to more challenging, difficult work by less accessible filmmakers. 1. NOUVELLE VAGUE Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France 90 439 points 2. LES AMANTS DU PONT NEUF Leos Carax, France 91 433 3. AND LIFE GOES ON Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 92 425 4. COLD WATER Olivier Assayas, France 94 386 5. DRIFTING CLOUDS Aki Kaurismaki, Finland 96 385 6. BEYOND THE CLOUDS Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France/Germany 95 341 7. CLOSE-UP Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 90 337 8. THE PUPPET MASTER Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan 93 327 9. QUINCE TREE SUN/DREAM OF LIGHT Victor Erice, Spain, 92 322 10. THE VALLEY OF ABRAHAM Manuel de Oliveira, Portugal 93 306 11. GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan/Taiwan 96 255 12. BULLET IN THE HEAD John Woo, Hong Kong 90 253 13. THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK Theo Angelopoulos, Greece 91 236 14. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY Edward Yang, Taiwan 91 226 15. ASHES OF TIME Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong 94 204 16. A SUMMER'S TALE Eric Rohmer, France 96 196 17. DAYS OF BEING WILD Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong 91 187 18. VOICES OF THE MOON Federico Fellini, Italy 90 184 19. ACTRESS Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong 91 175 20. MADADAYO Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 93 174 21. LE GARÇU Maurice Pialat, France 95 171 22. FALLEN ANGELS Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong 96 167 23. PETITS ARRANGEMENTS AVEC LES MORTS Pascale Ferran, France 94 153 24. SMOKING/NO SMOKING Alain Resnais, France 94 146 25. A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran 96 145 SALAAM CINEMA Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran 95 145 27. D'EST Chantal Akerman, France/Belgium/Portugal 93 141 28. LISBON STORY Wim Wenders, Germany 94 138 29. WHISPERING PAGES Alexandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany 135 30. THE TROUBLES WE'VE SEEN Marcel Ophuls, France 94 133 31. BOILING POINT Takeshi Kitano, Japan 90 129 32. GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan 95 126 ON THE BEAT Ning Ying, China 95 126 34. THE WOMAN OF THE PORT Arturo Ripstein, Mexico 91 125 35. JEANNE LA PUCELLE Jacques Rivette, France 94 122 36. A NEW LIFE Olivier Assayas, France 93 115 37. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL AT THE END OF THE 1960s Chantal Akerman, France 94 109 38. REBELS OF THE NEON GOD Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan 93 105 39. FRESH BAIT Bertrand Tavernier, France 94 104 I DON'T KISS André Téchiné, France 92 104 41. AUTUMN MOON Clara Law, Hong Kong/Japan 92 97 DARK SIDE OF THE HEART Eliseo Subiela, Argentina 92 97 43. PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAMES Srdjan Dragojevic, Serbia 96 93 44. MAHJONG Edward Yang, Taiwan 96 90 45. GOD'S COMEDY Joao César Monteiro, Portugal 95 88 46. DEATH OF A NEOPOLITAN MATHEMATICIAN Mario Martone, Italy 92 85 47. THE BRANCHES OF THE TREE Satyajit Ray, India 90 83 NO, OR THE VAIN GLORY OF COMMAND Manuel de Oliveira, Portugal 90 83 49. A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION Edward Yang, Taiwan 95 80 50. QUEEN OF THE NIGHT Arturo Ripstein, Mexico 94 79
You see the third film in this poll? It's the second installment of a trilogy. Miramax bought the THIRD installment, knowing damn well nobody in the U.S. had seen the first two. Now why would they do that?
I guess my actual question was "how much of this can we blame on Miramax?" I mean, I'm willing to blame them for me having to shovel snow or mow the lawn. Of course, I could also read the article and see what it has to say.