After reading Ide and Frunk's conversation concerning Empire's "Greatest Movie" poll in the TV/Movie Megathread, I'm curious as how Languish would answer Ide's criteria for "Greatest Movie."
1.) What is your favorite movie?
2.) What do you consider the most important movie?
3.) What do you consider the best made movie ever?
For me:
Favorite: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Most important: Birth of a Nation
Best Made: The Last Laugh
I just gotta be me. ;)
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 09:01:29 AM
For me:
Favorite: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Most important: Birth of a Nation
Best Made: The Last Laugh
I just gotta be me. ;)
Movies have really gone downhill since the calendar turned to 1930 eh Sav? :lol:
1. The Usual Suspects followed by Millers Crossing (Gabriel Byrne used to pick only good movies to be in)
2. Jaws followed by The Jazz Singer (because after them the industry was never the same)
3. Gone with the Wind followed by Titanic (focus on detail in every aspect and at every level in these movies)
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Titanic
3. I don't know how to evaluate that so...E.T.
1. The Usual Suspects.
2. Um...what was the first movie to really use CGI effects? Sometimes I hear the earlier Cameron film, the Abyss, mentioned for that.
3. Citizen Kane. Every scene is like art.
Favorite- Raiders of the Lost Ark
Greatest- The Godfather
Most Important- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Quote from: Grey Fox on May 30, 2014, 09:11:52 AM
1. Shawshank Redemption
Is this you once you left Alberta?
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcappatoons.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F09%2Fshawshank2.jpg&hash=d5e1b3d655decd2efe8f1c2a967247fce95929a7)
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 09:22:31 AM
2. Um...what was the first movie to really use CGI effects? Sometimes I hear the earlier Cameron film, the Abyss, mentioned for that.
Tron, or the Last Starfighter, depending on the view point.
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 09:22:31 AM
2. Um...what was the first movie to really use CGI effects? Sometimes I hear the earlier Cameron film, the Abyss, mentioned for that.
I believe Labyrinth was the first film to use CGI; but it's just the owl at the beginning of the film.
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 09:28:48 AM
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 09:22:31 AM
2. Um...what was the first movie to really use CGI effects? Sometimes I hear the earlier Cameron film, the Abyss, mentioned for that.
I believe Labyrinth was the first film to use CGI; but it's just the owl at the beginning of the film.
Labyrinth was only the first realistic CGI animal. Wikipedia has a full timeline of CGI milestones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_animation_in_film_and_television (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_animation_in_film_and_television)
I guess if we go by that timeline it would probably have to be TRON. The difference in my mind is the CGI was not used as a substitute for real actors and objects like The Phantom Menace and its digital cast.
Favorite: Flash Gordon.
Most Important: Citizen Kane, for the codification of the language of sound cinema, the dominant mode of cinema (runner up: Star Wars, for the first self-sustaining super-franchise--where Jaws died, real IPs live). Otherwise I guess Birth of a Nation. Hard to avoid that one.
Best Made: Probably Russian Ark, but I haven't seen it yet.
Otherwise, it's very hard to choose from the contenders, but using my criterion of "difficulty"--perhaps better understood as "overcoming difficulty"--they are as follows: 2001: A Space Odyssey for its technical accuracy and innovative special effects; Barry Lyndon for its revolutionary space-age cinematography; Oldboy for its long take fight sequence; The Raid for its unparalleled physicality; Rope for its mobile long takes in the primitive conditions of 1948; The Invisible Man for extremely complicated and advanced special effects; The General, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Safety Last!, and Death Proof for their death-defying stunts; Intolerance, the Ken Adam Bond movies, and Titanic for their enormous physical sets built and populated by hundreds at the cost of tens of millions in 2014 dollars.
I'm not stuck on "boy, that seemed hard" as the only definition of "best made," incidentally. It's just that a more artistic, subjective, and qualitative definition--incorporating the "best editing" or "best cinematography" or "best production design" or whatever--would be largely synonymous with my "favorite."
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 09:44:45 AM
I guess if we go by that timeline it would probably have to be TRON. The difference in my mind is the CGI was not used as a substitute for real actors and objects like The Phantom Menace and its digital cast.
It's interesting going back and watching "The Dark Crystal" now. It would be so much easier to CGI everything in now; yet Jim Henson's all puppet world is more believable than that of "The Phantom Menace."
Your "best made" criteria seem to completely ignore script and acting. Film is not merely a series of connected images.
You can end the debate: I have found The Greatest movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226232/
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Quote from: Barrister on May 30, 2014, 10:02:30 AM
You can end the debate: I have found The Greatest movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226232/
Budget: $6,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $115,862 (USA)
That's what you get for not casting Muhammad Ali in a movie called "The Greatest." :mad:
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 30, 2014, 09:59:04 AM
Your "best made" criteria seem to completely ignore script and acting. Film is not merely a series of connected images.
There is not even a remotely objective way to rate acting. Scripts can be evaluated from a logical standpoint, but logic is rarely something that makes a movie bad or good, or even worse or better.
Favorite movie: The Maltese Falcon. Ask on different days, and you'll get different answers.
Most Important: Birth of a Nation. Despite the unfortunate POV.
Best Made: Jurassic Park. More than 20 years later, there are new films that don't do CGI as well, and nothing has really blended practical effects and CGI as well.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 10:43:06 AM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 30, 2014, 09:59:04 AM
Your "best made" criteria seem to completely ignore script and acting. Film is not merely a series of connected images.
There is not even a remotely objective way to rate acting. Scripts can be evaluated from a logical standpoint, but logic is rarely something that makes a movie bad or good, or even worse or better.
An unobjective rating that takes all facets of the film into account is a better gauge of the overall quality than an "objective" rating of the camerawork.
I measure movie quality by how many times I can rewatch it and still enjoy it.
Groundhog Day, Aliens, Caddyshack, A Bridge Too Far, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Godfather I & II, Spinal Tap, Holy Grail, Jungle Book, these are movies I've seen umpteen times and still derive pleasure from.
Don't know how to distinguish between favorites and well made movies.
Most important is not something I concern myself with.
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 09:02:55 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 09:01:29 AM
For me:
Favorite: The Passion of Joan of Arc
Most important: Birth of a Nation
Best Made: The Last Laugh
I just gotta be me. ;)
Movies have really gone downhill since the calendar turned to 1930 eh Sav? :lol:
Hoover gets elected and Bam! everything goes to hell. :( God damn engineers. :mad:
;)
I first saw Passion of Joan of Arc at a live performance with "The Voices of Light" music. The composer, Richard Einhorn, was the conductor and Anonymous 4 were among the singers. While the film is one of the best from my favorite eras of cinema; that performance has made it my favorite film.
DW Griffith had developed a lot of his ideas about cinema in the short films he made prior to "Birth of a Nation;" but it's in "Birth" that he put them all together and with a much larger a scope. That began feature film as we know it. For a comparison see "Cabiria" made a year before in which all the actors run about like someone had just shouted "Fire!" (Admittedly, "Cabiria" is an Italian picture.)
I took "Best made" to mean that all the individual elements of film are put together for best use. In that sense "The Last Laugh" would be my pick. It seems to be told completely naturally and without artifice; yet it's filled with Murnau's expressionist nightmare.
With Ide's definition of "Best made" as most difficult to make I think I'd pick "Fitzcarraldo" which, while making, Werner Herzog actually did have a steam ship transported through the Peruvian rain forest; all while placating Klaus Kinski. Kinski was such a bastard to everyone on that film that the natives offered to kill him for Herzog. "Russian Ark" was trivially easy to make as compared with that. ;)
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 30, 2014, 09:59:04 AM
Your "best made" criteria seem to completely ignore script and acting. Film is not merely a series of connected images.
Film is a story told through the visual and auditory medium. Scripts and acting can help that process, obviously, but even great scripts and acting can still result in crap films.
I'd argue that the score is more important to a film than the dialogue, for instance, though both are subordinate to cinematography.
Favorite movie; Dr. Strangelove. It just works on so many levels, and the anecdotes surrounding its making are the stuff of legend.
Most Important: Citizen Kane. Pretty much a redefinition of the entire concept of the motion picture.
Best Made: That's a hard one. There are so many that combine all of the elements of a great flick, but the one that does it best-best is probably Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is at the same time a brilliant adaptation of one of the most important books ever written, and also probably the hardest movie to watch I've ever encountered, because it is literally so powerful (in the good, cinema sense) that watching it and knowing what is going to happen is almost physically painful. It is the only movie about which I am serious when I recommend it with the warning that one should never watch this and then go to bed.
Quote from: grumbler on May 30, 2014, 01:54:49 PM
Favorite movie; Dr. Strangelove. It just works on so many levels, and the anecdotes surrounding its making are the stuff of legend.
Most Important: Citizen Kane. Pretty much a redefinition of the entire concept of the motion picture.
I agree. My second favourite is "Lawrence of Arabia".
I can watch both time and time again.
Favourite - A Matter of Life and Death
Best made - Breathless
Most important - I don't know for film in general, but for me it's La Haine. I borrowed it from my French teacher when I was doing my A-Levels and it made me interested in film. It was for me, at that age, amazing and exciting and opened my eyes to what a good film could do.
Quote from: Sheilbh on May 30, 2014, 02:22:42 PM
Favourite - A Matter of Life and Death
Best made - Breathless
Most important - I don't know for film in general, but for me it's La Haine. I borrowed it from my French teacher when I was doing my A-Levels and it made me interested in film. It was for me, at that age, amazing and exciting and opened my eyes to what a good film could do.
Yes, I'd forgotten what an excellent film it is.
Some good recommendations in this thread,though I don't get how Ide can suggest a film he hasn't seen. :hmm: 'Russian Ark' was interesting, but not exactly earth shattering.
Quote from: mongers on May 30, 2014, 02:40:29 PM
Yes, I'd forgotten what an excellent film it is.
It and Casablanca were the first films I thought of when thinking what's my favourite. I'd no idea I was so romantic :o
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
I saw La Haine un-subtitled back in College and the main thing I remember was the scene where that one dude is breakdancing and all this shit happens and at the end of the scene he is just silently head spinning on his mat. I also remember a random old man came out of a stall after taking a shit and told some horrible World War II story about taking a shit and main protagonists were like 'why did that dude just tell us that?'. Oh and the main characters had very coarse language that was hard to follow.
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Oh God I love that movie.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 30, 2014, 11:02:12 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 10:43:06 AM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 30, 2014, 09:59:04 AM
Your "best made" criteria seem to completely ignore script and acting. Film is not merely a series of connected images.
There is not even a remotely objective way to rate acting. Scripts can be evaluated from a logical standpoint, but logic is rarely something that makes a movie bad or good, or even worse or better.
An unobjective rating that takes all facets of the film into account is a better gauge of the overall quality than an "objective" rating of the camerawork.
I agree. The "unobjective" best is also called a "favorite."
What I was trying to get across on the topic of crowdsourced rankings is that, even beyond the biases and different levels of education of the different participants, the different methodologies employed undermine whatever usefulness such a ranking has left.
At least when you have a single person doing it (or a staff at a newspaper or website) you usually have the opportunity to understand their methodologies (as well as their biases and educations). When I read Roger Ebert, for example, I know that he's going to be very well-educated in terms of prestige films (e.g., he was one of like a hundred people on the face of the planet to have seen the full restored cut of Cabiria), biased against violence (e.g., Die Hard, The Raid) and arguably against genre films in general, and uses a methodology that values formal and narrative innovators over perfecters (Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey) though he does have a soft spot for movies that push his buttons just right, i.e., movies that star Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca, Notorious).
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
:bleeding:
Quote from: mongers on May 30, 2014, 02:40:29 PM
Some good recommendations in this thread,though I don't get how Ide can suggest a film he hasn't seen. :hmm: 'Russian Ark' was interesting, but not exactly earth shattering.
I liked the part where the diplomat was asking about current Russian government:
Diplomat: What kind of system is there now? A republic?
Unseen Man: I don't know.Twelve years later not much has changed.
"Russian Ark" was an interesting experiment; but I really don't consider it one of the best made films of all times. The logistics behind putting something like that together must have been incredible; but I didn't care for the point of view shot and there wasn't much of a story.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
Wow. I'll try that diet of yours.
My favorite part of Russian Ark was the scene where Nicholas I was having an audience with the Persian ambassador.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
I once saw an interview with Oliver Stone who was convinced Nixon watching "Patton" caused him to escalate the Vietnam War. :tinfoil: Ollie said that made "Patton" one of the most influential films ever made; almost as influential as "JFK". :tinfoil:
JFK :x
Quote from: Barrister on May 30, 2014, 03:07:13 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
:bleeding:
What? :huh:
M: I didn't suggest Russian Ark--but I know that a 90+ minute single take done without computer stitching is borderline impossible, yet they managed it. Now, how well they managed it and what the ultimate result was is unknown, but if it works at
all it's a pretty monumental achievement. I think I'll watch it tonight if it's still on Netflix Instant.
I've never seen Birth of a Nation either. It's a three hour silent film about racist vigilantes watched exclusively for historical purposes today. I am willing to defer to the mass of critics and smart people who have seen it and said that it's effectively a dictionary for film language--though to argue to what degree it's actually
innovative would take a Sav-level education in early silent cinema that I don't yet have. So I bow to his superior wisdom on that one (though cross-cutting, for example, seems so basic and intuitive that I can hardly imagine it took like a decade of feature films for anyone to come up with it).
Birth of a Nation is fascinating. Not only is it a beautifully shot film but it tells the Lost Cause version of reconstruction, which is horrifying to say the least. But, on the other hand, it lets you know what white Americans at the time thought of that era.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 03:18:00 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 30, 2014, 03:07:13 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on May 30, 2014, 02:51:27 PM
Favourite - Its tough to pick. I will go with Dr. Zhivago
Best - Godfather I and II - dont make me pick between them
Most important - Fail Safe.
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
:bleeding:
What? :huh:
I doubt 1 person in 10 could tell you what Soylent Green was about (apart from maybe the line "Soylent Green is made of people!".
On the other hand, the idea of a population boom leading to widespread hunger goes as far back as Malthus himself, and was a very common sci-fi trope in the middle to end of the last century.
And the only reason we're on track to "solve" the problem is the near-simultaneous (and otherwise unrelated) invention of widespread fertilizer use and the oral contraceptive, both of which commenced well before Soylent Green.
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 03:18:00 PM
I've never seen Birth of a Nation either. It's a three hour silent film about racist vigilantes watched exclusively for historical purposes today. I am willing to defer to the mass of critics and smart people who have seen it and said that it's effectively a dictionary for film language--though to argue to what degree it's actually innovative would take a Sav-level education in early silent cinema that I don't yet have. So I bow to his superior wisdom on that one (though cross-cutting, for example, seems so basic and intuitive that I can hardly imagine it took like a decade of feature films for anyone to come up with it).
Griffith had used cross-cutting long before "Birth of a Nation." Many of the techniques he used in "Birth of a Nation" he had developed while making short films. "Birth of a Nation" as a feature (and a blockbuster) brought them to much more widespread attention.
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 03:13:12 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on May 30, 2014, 02:59:10 PM
Actually, this makes me want to change my "most important" answer. In terms of impact on society rather than film, Soylent Green is way, way up there. It's not even that great a movie, but it is pretty much the definitive vision of an overpopulated future and has soaked pretty indelibly into the cultural fabric--and better yet, it's one of the tiny handfull of huge social problems we're actually on track to solve, in small part thanks to the parade of horribles led by Soylent Green.
I once saw an interview with Oliver Stone who was convinced Nixon watching "Patton" caused him to escalate the Vietnam War. :tinfoil: Ollie said that made "Patton" one of the most influential films ever made; almost as influential as "JFK". :tinfoil:
I watched his "Untold history of America", and it was really, really poor. There was nothing "untold" about it, just a whole lot of revisionist nonsense about JFK and Henry Wallace. Made me think he's lost the plot, really. I'd have been offended were I American.
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 03:20:40 PM
Birth of a Nation is fascinating. Not only is it a beautifully shot film but it tells the Lost Cause version of reconstruction, which is horrifying to say the least. But, on the other hand, it lets you know what white Americans at the time thought of that era.
I once saw DJ Spooky perform "Rebirth of a Nation" in which he took "Birth of a Nation" added his techno music to it and put some of the scenes slightly out of order. By doing so he deconstructed the film; (I know this because I stayed for the Q&A part at the end :smarty:.) Even having stayed for Q&A I'm not sure what deconstructing the film accomplished. :unsure:
Even at the time of it's release "Birth of a Nation" received a fair amount of criticism for it's subject matter. This is one reason why Griffith's next film was "Intolerance."
Indeed. I actually do really want to watch Intolerance, for its bodacious production-design-before-there-was-production-design.
I don't know much about film.
Quote from: Razgovory on May 30, 2014, 04:30:37 PM
I don't know much about film.
Who does. Doesn't really stop anyone from having an opinion, really. You know as much as me, at least.
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
Casablanca.
Battle of Algiers or Paths of Glory.
The Prestige. :nerd:
Favorite: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Best: Miller's Crossing
Most Important: 2001
Birth of a Nation didn't really invent anything. Most of the techniques it uses are present in older films, not necessarily made by Griffith. Nation manages to be the first comprehensive application of them, and in such becomes the watermark of the birth of the classic film language. So depending on your POV it's either the most important film in history of just a stepping stone that was bound to happen no matter what.
My list:
Favorite: Fellini's 8 1/2
Most Important: Workers leaving the Lumière factory
Best Made: hard to appraise this, but I hold Godfather I/II as the films that have the best combination of excellency in all fields of cinema (acting, script, directing, cinematography, soundtrack, etc...), while making a film that's thoughtful yet popular with the public.
Quote from: Norgy on May 30, 2014, 04:36:16 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on May 30, 2014, 04:30:37 PM
I don't know much about film.
Who does. Doesn't really stop anyone from having an opinion, really. You know as much as me, at least.
Doesn't Tim and Ide?
Favorite: Alien
Best: Schindler's List
Most Important: Bowling for Columbine
Quote from: 11B4V on May 30, 2014, 08:40:20 PM
Favorite: Alien
Great choice. i saw that on opening day, not really having any idea what to expect. It was one of the scariest experiences i've ever had in the movies, and I really liked the acting. each death was a gutpunch, even though, after a while, you knew it was coming.
The movie may be a candidate in "most influential" as well. You started seeing "truck driver" spaceship crews after that, whereas before they were all shiny types.
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 09:00:11 AM
After reading Ide and Frunk's conversation concerning Empire's "Greatest Movie" poll in the TV/Movie Megathread, I'm curious as how Languish would answer Ide's criteria for "Greatest Movie."
1.) What is your favorite movie?
2.) What do you consider the most important movie?
3.) What do you consider the best made movie ever?
1. Favourite : Robocop
2. Most important movie : Ex aequo The Kid, Citizen Kane, and Star Wars. These are movies that end an era and start a new one.
3. Best made : Barry Lyndon
Fav: Really hard to say. There are a bunch of films I can't seem to be tired of, for one reason or another: Groundhog Day; North by Northwest; Rear Window; One, two, Three, The Prize ...
Most important: Don't think I know enough to say this.
Best made: Something by Kubrick, perhaps. I still get shivers down my spine when I watch that shuttle docking to the Blue Danube.
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 03:14:55 PM
JFK :x
Best conspiracy theory movie ever? Except for Siege, for him it's Capricorn One.
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on May 31, 2014, 12:14:28 PM
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2014, 03:14:55 PM
JFK :x
Best conspiracy theory movie ever? Except for Siege, for him it's Capricorn One.
I agree. I love how he uses montage and different kinds of footage to create the world of the conspiracy. It's a really well done film, one of Stone's best IMHO.
Favorite: Probably Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or Night of the Hunter
Best: This depends on the metric. I'd probably go with The Bicycle Thief, Taxi Driver or Vertigo. Maybe The Apartment.
Stylistic importance: Maybe Potemkin.
Favorite: Atlantic Rim
Best: Valhalla Rising
Most important: An Inconvenient Truth
Quote from: The Brain on May 31, 2014, 01:17:55 PM
Favorite: Atlantic Rim
Does that one have giant monsters having sex? :hmm:
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 31, 2014, 01:52:26 PM
Quote from: The Brain on May 31, 2014, 01:17:55 PM
Favorite: Atlantic Rim
Does that one have giant monsters having sex? :hmm:
What makes you feel this way? :hmm:
So not the porno version of Pacific Rim then?
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on May 31, 2014, 03:27:50 PM
So not the porno version of Pacific Rim then?
No.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2740710/
You down with OPP?
Yes. Yes I am.
Looking at Ide's criteria of difficulty I think I'd have to throw in Who Framed Roger Rabbit as being top of the list. It manage to rope together IP from three different companies not known for willingness to share (Warner Bros, Disney, Amblin). It required a massive animation effort (48 minutes of hand drawn animation melded into a 104 minute movie, 82,000 cells) to create. It also included a bravura performance from an actor (Bob Hoskins) who had no experience with acting in such an effects heavy environment. Reportedly he was able to repeat the exact same physical positioning take after take, which was needed for the animation being used.
Quote from: Savonarola on May 30, 2014, 03:07:37 PM
Quote from: mongers on May 30, 2014, 02:40:29 PM
Some good recommendations in this thread,though I don't get how Ide can suggest a film he hasn't seen. :hmm: 'Russian Ark' was interesting, but not exactly earth shattering.
I liked the part where the diplomat was asking about current Russian government:
Diplomat: What kind of system is there now? A republic?
Unseen Man: I don't know.
Twelve years later not much has changed.
"Russian Ark" was an interesting experiment; but I really don't consider it one of the best made films of all times. The logistics behind putting something like that together must have been incredible; but I didn't care for the point of view shot and there wasn't much of a story.
I liked it a lot, rewatched it several times. But you're right that it doesn't really qualify for any of the categories.