[HN Gopher] Akira Kurosawa's List of His 100 Favorite Movies (2015)
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Akira Kurosawa's List of His 100 Favorite Movies (2015)
Author : lermontov
Score : 224 points
Date : 2021-03-23 06:04 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.openculture.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.openculture.com)
| nanis wrote:
| Three movies for freedom lovers:
|
| * Logan's Run ... It really is safe outside
|
| * Demolition Man ... "You see, according to Cocteau's plan I'm
| the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read."
|
| * Gattaca ... "I belonged to a new underclass, no longer
| determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now
| have discrimination down to a science."
| Causality1 wrote:
| _I am also struck by the list's most glaring, and curious,
| omission. There's no Orson Welles_
|
| Why is it that the deeper someone gets into a field/hobby the
| less accepting they are of other people having different tastes?
| You're not beholden to anyone for your preferences. You're
| allowed to like or dislike anything for any reason, even
| something as silly as the way someone pronounces a word or maybe
| the director's face reminds you of your high school bully.
| clwswrds wrote:
| > glaring, and curious
|
| both of these things can be true without being condescending.
| it is kind of interesting that welles didn't make the list
| given his status as a filmmaker, and i don't think the author
| is completely doubting the taste of one of the greats here lol
| scarecrowbob wrote:
| Also, The Third Man is in the list...
| daseiner1 wrote:
| that's directed by Carol Reed, not Orson.
| scarecrowbob wrote:
| I am aware of that... but OW is in it...
| [deleted]
| qntty wrote:
| Seems like this is ordered by year, so the first isn't
| necessarily his most favorite.
| afkqs wrote:
| I wanted to start watching more classic movies recently as I
| realised that beside Chaplin's, I've seen very few movies made
| prior to the 1960s. I've found the main streaming platforms to
| have very little choice when it comes to these. Where would you
| recommend watching these old classic movies listed here?
| conjectures wrote:
| I know BFI does a streaming service, can't vouch for the
| historical distribution but it's certainly this sort of stuff.
| brudgers wrote:
| Movies that are old enough to fall out of copyright are
| sometimes on Youtube. Certainly plenty of Buster Keaton.
| peruvian wrote:
| If in the US, HBO Max and the Criterion Channel will get you
| most of the way there.
|
| HBO Max has a portion of Criterion's canon plus a lot of Turner
| Classic Movies (American movies 1930s-50s).
|
| I'm the reverse of you - 90% of the time I watch films made
| before the 1960s, and these two services have a bunch of what I
| watch. Still gotta torrent or rent from iTunes every now and
| then though.
| nanna wrote:
| Mubi.com frequently shows films from prior to the 1960s.
|
| https://mubi.com/showing
| gh-throw wrote:
| IMO, for whatever reason, the great comedies of the silent era
| are a lot more approachable to a modern viewer than the great
| dramas. Even the lesser comedies are usually quite watchable.
| Of the dramas I'd recommend The Passion of Joan of Arc over
| anything else I've seen, for someone who hasn't watched much
| from that time period. It's both excellent, and easier to watch
| (in one sense, I mean, obviously the subject is pretty rough)
| than most other non-comedy silent films.
| kinghtown wrote:
| you really should check out Kurosawa's own films if you
| haven't. He is easily a top five all time director. his films
| run laps around basically everything else.
| DarkCrusader2 wrote:
| Criterion is the best place to get "important classic and
| contemporary films" if it is available in your region. I am
| also hearing a lot of good things about Mubi these days though
| I have not tried it personally.
|
| I don't have Criterion available in my region nor can I find
| DVD/blurays anywhere so sailing the high seas is the only
| option for me.
| scarecrowbob wrote:
| If you have a local library, often they either have or can
| borrow these kinds of films.
| toooldtomatter wrote:
| I don't know of it's okay to make this suggestion but many of
| these movies are available for download in common places. I
| personally have no qualms downloading movies from the 30s and
| 40s. It gets grayer for me in as the age gets younger.
|
| To give a HN safe-ish link, here's entry #11, The Thin Man
| (1934) on the archive
|
| https://archive.org/details/the-thin-man-william-powell-myrn...
|
| If that's not a good encoding you can easily find other
| sources.
|
| If that's against your policies, many of these are available on
| Amazon
| ghaff wrote:
| When you say "streaming platforms" do you mean subscription
| platforms? While you have a lot of weird exceptions, in general
| a lot of older movies are available for a la carte rental
| streaming. (You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD rental
| service although the back catalog has degraded in recent
| years.)
| jnichols35 wrote:
| If you're in the US, might be worth checking out Kanopy[0]. It
| requires a library card, and a participating library. I haven't
| been able to use it as Brooklyn and NYC don't seem to be
| participating, so it might in fact be terrible.
|
| [0]https://www.kanopy.com/
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| I'm a big fan of Kanopy. It has roughly 1/3 of the Criterion
| Collection, and a good mix of classic + modern (mostly indie)
| movies
| gh-throw wrote:
| It's really good, actually. I don't think they stream 4K but
| for most people that barely matters (screen either too small
| or too far away for it to make a huge difference).
|
| They have a rotating selection of Criterion films. Heavy on
| documentaries (of the plays-the-festival-circuit variety, not
| the narrated-by-David-Attenborough variety) too, if you like
| that sort of thing. Usually several fairly-recent good movies
| as well. It's where I watched Ex Machina, for example. Kids'
| features really lacking, mostly low-quality stuff that would
| have been (maybe was?) bargain-bin straight-to-VHS material
| back in the day. No substitute for PBS or Disney+ for that
| purpose. Material for adults is much stronger.
|
| Views are limited per-month but unless you consistently watch
| more than a movie a week _on that service specifically_ you
| 'll never have a problem with it.
|
| I've got an address that qualifies for two library systems,
| and the one I'd normally use didn't have it, so I had to get
| a card for the one I'd practically never use otherwise to
| gain access to Kanopy.
| brudgers wrote:
| I think Kanopy is pretty good, but it's the only streaming
| service I use regularly...other than YouTube.
|
| Last I checked, Monterey Public Library has Kanopy and anyone
| who lives in California can get a card there.
| Majestic121 wrote:
| I mentioned it in another comment, but LaCinetek is extremely
| good if it's available for you.
|
| The catalog is based on the recommendations of famous
| directors, and you end up with a lot of very high quality
| movies.
| khrbrt wrote:
| I've been surprised how many (copywrited) old movies I can find
| on YouTube. Individuals upload whole movies in lower
| resolutions and YouTube Movies itself has full length films in
| 720p and 1080p, many free with (easily blocked) ads.
|
| You can also find full length public domain movies on
| archive.org.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Definitely check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is on
| YouTube and linked to in the article. Once you go back far
| enough, a lot of great films are in the public domain and you
| can find them on YouTube, Daily Motion, etc. Streaming services
| probably don't find much value in them for that reason.
| exhilaration wrote:
| _Streaming services probably don 't find much value in them
| for that reason._
|
| I wonder why not. Imagine a Netflix marketing campaign
| claiming "we have all the great movies of the early 20th
| century on our streaming platform!" Maybe target senior
| citizens. They could just rip the movies from YouTube since
| they're in the public domain.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Torrents are an option, without guilt when the creators have
| passed on.
| nanis wrote:
| Correct me if I am wrong ... but I am under the impression that
| Kurosawa does not make "movies". He makes "films". The kind that
| makes people mad when you fall asleep a quarter of the way in.
| yesenadam wrote:
| You're wrong.
|
| For me, _Ikiru_ and _Dersu Uzala_ are the best, but the usual
| ones mentioned are great too. Some I didn 't see mentioned on
| this page yet that I also really like: _One Wonderful Sunday_
| (1947), _Red Beard_ (1965), _Dodesukaden_ (Clickety-Clack,
| 1970). First one I saw was _The Hidden Fortress_ (1958), remade
| in the west as _Star Wars_ - and Yoda, it seems to me, is Dersu
| Uzala.
|
| I think his movies seem so good because _everything_ about them
| is good. Screenplay, camera angles, editing, actors,
| music..etc.
| DubiousPusher wrote:
| Interesting list. This author's incredulous introduction is most
| unwelcome. If you want to make a list go for it friend but this
| is someone else's list. If you want a perfectly ordered prestige
| fest there's AFI, IMDB and many other places you can find that.
|
| Personally, I'd have no problem watching Barry Lindon over
| Clockwork any day of the week. And of course there's no Ozu on
| there. The two had a long standing beef. Kurosawa was proud as
| f**. Even if "Floating Weeds" is a work of pure melodramatic
| genius in which every shot is perfect, it's not making a list by
| Kurosawa.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Check the list again:
|
| _27. Banshun [Late Spring] (_ Ozu _, 1949) Japan_
| DubiousPusher wrote:
| No shit! I guess all Ozu was not too bland for Kurosawa's
| taste. Really beautifully shot movie too but I guess all Ozu
| is.
| kinghtown wrote:
| I actually find his colour films to be incredibly charming.
| Really Tokyo Story is the only green tea on rice film of
| his. still excellent but one could be in for bit of a
| surprise if they only watched that by Ozu.
| DubiousPusher wrote:
| Yes, my first Ozu was Floating Weeds and it has remained
| my favorite because of the heartfelt drama and the
| vibrant beauty of the color photography. Not bland at all
| of course.
| kinghtown wrote:
| A great pick BTW by Kurosawa.
| abecedarius wrote:
| _Barry Lyndon_ may be slow-paced, but it 's the Kubrick I'd
| pick too. Just don't come to it as a Hollywood movie.
| ghaff wrote:
| It was an incredible technical accomplishment at the time.
| These days, with digital, low light basically isn't an issue.
| If forced, I'd probably still pick A Clockwork Orange among
| Kubrick's works although perhaps 2001 is more iconic.
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| His "Ran" is one of my favorite movies (top ten)
| bwanab wrote:
| He agrees with me that "Barry Lyndon" is Kubrick's best. I guess
| I feel a little vindicated since I've never found anybody else
| that did agree with that. I love all of Kubrick's films, but in
| some of the best, he just couldn't tell the story it seems. Barry
| Lyndon tells the story in addition to being classic Kubrick.
| [deleted]
| chavignol wrote:
| There are great films in the Criterion Collection but there are
| also quite a lot of average films. I live in France and we have
| access (not at the moment because of covid) to unlimited movie
| pass (the best is UGC illimite if you live in Paris) for as
| little as 22EUR/month. I usually try to go and watch a lot of
| films but when I'm busy and have to select films, checking
| rottentomatoes and going to see films that have >90% score is a
| fast way to filter out the bad films. Recently, I have started
| buying great films so that I can share them with my parents who
| don't live in a big city. Most films I have bought are from the
| Criterion Collection but it's quite expensive to. get (need to
| order from Amazon.com as criterion.com won't ship to Europe) and
| it's a real pain to deal with region restrictions (most films are
| region A but some such as Tampopo are region B so you need either
| two blu-ray players or a region-free one such as the Freebox
| Revolution with the Konami code) Also, some choices made by
| Criterion are really questionable: some films (for example Like
| Someone in Love) have subtitles hardcoded. (maybe it's the case
| for all non English films. I haven't checked with films in
| Spanish but there are hardcoded subtitles in films in Japanese,
| Chinese and Korean) I get it that it's probably cheaper to get
| the rights of a film with hardcoded subtitles but I think people
| who are willing to pay $45 for a film wouldn't mind paying $5
| more and have the ability to remove subtitles.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| I see a Mabuse movie on position three, and for the purposes of
| fun and entertainment, I would like to recommend to watch "Das
| Testament des Dr. Mabuse" instead. Due to the later time of its
| release, it wasn't as influential, but it's a _really_ good movie
| and it works better for watchers (such as myself) used to modern
| stylistic conventions in movies.
| solarhoma wrote:
| It is interesting seeing how many German films made the list
| prior to 1939. Then Germany didn't make the list again until the
| 80's. I didn't realize how good their film scene was pre-war.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| We recently saw the restored Metropolis for the first time, was
| intriguing.
| ArtWomb wrote:
| Kurosawa-san may be too humble to add his own Ikiru (Sheng kiru,
| "To Live") to this list. But it well deserves its place in the
| pantheon. A film to restore your faith in the simple act of
| surviving ;)
| tootie wrote:
| There's a whole bunch of his films I'd put squarely in my all-
| time list. Ikiru, Ran, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, High and Low,
| Dersu Uzala, Rashomon. It's one masterpiece after another. Try
| watching Seven Samurai and Ikiru back to back to really
| appreciate the genius of Takeshi Shimura as an actor.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| _High and Low_ -- as good as Hitchcock. Not what most people
| are expecting with Kurosawa.
| dlbucci wrote:
| To quote Francis Ford Coppola, "Most directors have one
| masterpiece by which they are known. Kurosawa has at least
| eight or nine."
| autarch wrote:
| Anyone setting out to watch this should be warned that they
| will cry like a little baby. At least I did.
| nanna wrote:
| I completely agree! Ikiru had a huge effect on me, and I've
| never been able to forget Takashi Shimura's facial expressions
| from it.
| hkmurakami wrote:
| A bit OT, but this reminded me of the story behind the "catch
| copy" by Shigesato Itoi [1] for Mononoke Hime, [Sheng kiro]
|
| https://ghibli.jpn.org/report/mononoke-9/
|
| (Used prominently in their marketing material including
| posters)
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigesato_Itoi
| Majestic121 wrote:
| An interesting website based on this concept is
| https://www.lacinetek.com/ : it's a website gathering
| recommendations from famous directors (including Kurosawa), and
| offering to rent the movies for streaming.
|
| It includes mainly classic and high quality movies, and while
| it's a bit pricey compared to Netflix, I've yet to be
| disappointed by a selection. Picking a movie from there is the
| equivalent of eating in a nice restaurant : probably not
| something you'd do everyday, but definitely worth it once in a
| while.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| When you look at the selection criteria, it's hard to accept this
| as Kurosawa's _favorite_ movies.
|
| Based on the handful of films I've seen on this list, though,
| this is probably a list of films you should go out of your way to
| see if you're into film for something more than just for
| entertainment. Some are just flat out entertaining for anyone
| though, with the drama of _Witness_ , the comedy of _The Thin
| Man_ or the wonder of _My Neighbor Totoro_. Some show off the
| technical prowess of the director, like _Barry Lindon_. Some have
| stood the test of time as a work of art like _The Cabinet of Dr.
| Caligari_. Of course, I guess the point is that great movies hit
| many of these categories.
| paganel wrote:
| I also highly recommend _The Thin Man_ , we've (me and my SO)
| just seen it last week and it was a breath of fresh air among
| all the gloomy news surrounding us.
| ghaff wrote:
| Some of the sequels aren't bad either although the original
| is definitely the best. William Powell and Myrna Loy can lift
| up a lot of material even if it's just so-so.
| inasio wrote:
| Agreed! The books with the thin man(by Dashiell Hammett) are
| also very good.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _Waiter, will you serve the nuts... I mean, will you serve
| the guests the nuts?_
|
| Is one of my favorite lines :)
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Agree. From the older films listed, _Stella Dallas_ is sweet,
| _The Bicycle Thieves_ is engaging, _La Strada_ will make you
| fall in love with Fellini 's wife....
| myrandomcomment wrote:
| I have only seen 12 of the movies on the list. I have 88 new
| movies to watch.
|
| Kurosawa did the best Macbeth. If you have not seen it, I highly
| recommend it.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_Blood
| js2 wrote:
| I've imported the list to Letterboxd:
|
| https://letterboxd.com/js2/list/akira-kurosawas-100-favorite...
|
| One curiosity: Aoi sanmyaku (Qing iShan Mo ) is apparently "The
| Blue Mountains", but OC translated it as "The Green Mountains."
|
| (Also, it's two parts, so I added both to the Letterboxd list,
| similar to Ivan the Terrible, which is why there's 102 entries.)
| scienceman wrote:
| Fun fact: Qing i (ah-oi) means both green and blue in Japanese.
| There is a more specific word for green Lu (midori) but Qing i
| is still commonly used to mean green. For instance, "green
| light" (as in a stop light) is Qing Xin Hao (ah-oh shingou)
| where Xin Hao means signal.
| lovemenot wrote:
| This (lack of) B-G distinction also occurs in many languages
| other than Japanese.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distincti.
| ..
| azernik wrote:
| "Green" is a reasonable translation - the same word is used for
| the "green" of plants or traffic lights. When referring to a
| mountain it is very likely to be referring to its greenery.
|
| The boundaries between named colors have historically varied
| wildly between languages.
| fireattack wrote:
| When paired with mountain, I'd say blue is more accurate.
| Qing Shan is a fixed term (not quite "idiom" but you get the
| idea) originated from Chinese.
| jancsika wrote:
| Godfather II over Godfather?!?
|
| Godfather II over Godfather?!?
|
| Still, it looks like a worthwhile list to plunder.
|
| I plundered a lot of the movie names dropped by Jerry Harvey in
| "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession." Imagine having such an eye
| for movies that you could watch "Heaven's Gate"-- considered the
| flop of flops at the time-- and surmise that it's probably a
| great movie that got cut poorly.
|
| Even more impressive-- imagine having such credibility that you
| could convince an audience who yawned through 2.5 hours of "the
| most boring movie ever" to wade through 3 hours and 40 minutes of
| a longer cut of the _same movie_. He basically invented the
| "director's cut."
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| I had a film class in college, and the instructor used
| Godfather 2 as a film better than the original.
|
| At the time, I agreed, but not anymore.
|
| Both are terrific.
|
| I wonder if I will ever see another great film again though,
| and it's not because I'm aging.
| ghaff wrote:
| Godfather 2 > Godfather seems to be a pretty popular opinion
| although it's been so long since I watched either that I don't
| have a real opinion at this point.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| They were supposed to be in chronological order. Still doesn't
| explain how II could be before I however.
| hardwaregeek wrote:
| Favorite movie lists are somewhat BS. At least for me, my
| favorite movies evolve constantly. It depends on what I've seen
| recently, what's been on the forefront of my mind, my mood, etc.
| Not to mention there's movies that I find fascinating that I may
| not love. Or movies that had a profound effect on me that I'm not
| jumping to rewatch. Someone like Kurosawa has likely seen
| thousands of movies. This is likely a small snapshot into a
| larger universe of his personal cinema.
|
| Instead of lists, I love the Criterion setup of interviewing the
| person and having them talk about each film and how it impacted
| their lives. It's far more interesting to hear why Barry Jenkins
| loved La Cienaga than to see it on his list at #10.
| kmnc wrote:
| Film has such a huge library of "great movies", I have over 700
| films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty decent spread of
| years/countries and I would say I still know basically nothing
| about film. I can fire up Criterion Channel or MUBI and watch
| brilliant movies no one ever talks about. It is a real shame
| Criterion Channel isn't more popular...if you like movies you are
| doing a disservice to yourself not picking it up. If only Netflix
| embraced the library style dream instead of shilling their own
| over produced crap.
|
| Great to see Fitzcaraldo on here, a film that usually gets talked
| a lot about, or you see a lot of "Watch the documentary, it is
| better", but rarely gets the praise it deserves as film itself.
| Knowing nothing about this film, and watching it for the fist
| time was an amazing and unforgettable experience.
|
| Also great to see Last Year at Marienbad on here, for which
| Robbe-Grillet wrote the entire thing but rarely gets credited. If
| you like Last Year check out some of Robbe-Grillet's other
| films...not for everyone, but among my most favorite. His "The
| Erotic Dream Machine: Interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet" offers
| some of the greatest insights about film and film as art.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| Just a few days ago I watched Sci-fi classic "Solaris" by
| Andrei Tarkovsky and I had no expectations or knowledge about
| the movie or Director before watching it and it blew my mind. I
| then looked into other movies directed by Tarkovsky such as
| "Stalker" and "Andrei Rublev" which nobody in my age group
| knows or talk about but these are great movies. I am looking
| forward to finding such hidden gems and watching these films.
| cosmodisk wrote:
| While different genre, still recommend watching 'Viy':
| https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062453
| SarikayaKomzin wrote:
| Solaris is a beautiful book. It's a short read, too. I highly
| recommend it.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| This was a case where I thought the movie (Tarkovsky's
| Solaris) was much better than the book.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| I would definitely put Andrei Tarkovsky in the same
| league of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Watching
| movies such as Solaris, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space
| Odyssey, Blue Velvet etc. feel like watching a beautiful
| and masterpiece art.
| jvican wrote:
| Andrei Arsenevich Tarkovsky is definitely greater than
| Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch in my book. He's a genius
| and I highly recommend reading "Sculping in Time", a book
| he wrote to explain his approach to film making.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Agree. I think the ordering is Tarkovsky > Kubrick >
| Lynch. All great directors, though.
| neartheplain wrote:
| Stalker is fantastic, as is "Roadside Picnic," the novel on
| which the film is based. Both inspired the acclaimed computer
| game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
| hardwaregeek wrote:
| I adore Last Year at Marienbad. Although I agree with Sofia
| Coppola that it's inevitably a movie where I doze off a little.
| That's alright since the entire film is like a weird dream.
| It's refreshing having a film that resists interpretation so
| intensely. It's utterly surreal, beautiful and tragic, yet
| without having a singular "correct" reading. Rashomon and Last
| Year at Marienbad would be an excellent double billing.
|
| Hiroshima Mon Amour is another fantastic film. In both films
| Resnais is so brilliant in his editing, in its non-linearity,
| in its emotional effect. Frankly he might be one of my favorite
| directors of the Left Bank/New Wave generation.
| somedude895 wrote:
| I didn't know about Criterion Channel. Shame it's US only. I'd
| love to have that.
| gregsadetsky wrote:
| Good news, it isn't US only (anymore)! Criterion used to be
| available through Hulu (US only), then it was available
| through another streaming service whose name escapes me, but
| they (Criterion) finally started running their own VOD
| Netflix-like service:
|
| https://www.criterionchannel.com/
|
| I have it setup on my Apple TV in Canada and it works great.
| Highly recommended!
|
| EDIT: Just checked [0], it's actually USA + Canada only for
| now... Sorry about that.
|
| [0] https://www.criterion.com/faq/channel
| maleno wrote:
| You can just use a VPN to sign up. Works perfectly (with no
| VPN) after that.
| cambalache wrote:
| Or you can just stream the movies with less friction more
| options and a wider catalogue. People thought netflix would
| en being the spotify of movies. They were wrong, so now
| watch a robust pirate scene to re-flourish.
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| When Criterion licenses films from the copyright holders,
| they are only allowed to distribute those films in North
| America. Meanwhile, in Europe for example, some other company
| gets the right. That is why Criterion's DVDs and Blu-rays
| have always been Region 1, and Criterion's own store will
| (last time I checked) not ship abroad.
| beardyw wrote:
| In the UK Curzon have a similar but smaller catelogue.
| lprd wrote:
| I've seen letterboxd mentioned a couple times in this thread. I
| use trakt.tv (which has nice Plex integration), are they both
| sort of the same thing?
| gh-throw wrote:
| > Film has such a huge library of "great movies", I have over
| 700 films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty decent spread of
| years/countries and I would say I still know basically nothing
| about film.
|
| Film is so full of great stuff that there exists a reasonably-
| curated meta best-of-list of 1,000 great ones... with an
| overflow list of the _next_ 1,000 that 's _also_ almost all
| excellent, _and_ those still aren 't a comprehensive list of
| all the films worth watching.
|
| https://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm
|
| (Possibly NSFW because of screen-caps from movies)
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yea, I started with the "AFI Top 100 Films" and went through
| all of those (spoiler, you've likely already seen many of
| them if you are even slightly into movies). Definitely
| focuses on American films (surprise!).
|
| After that I have begun the "1001 Films To See Before You
| Die." I suspect I'll be finishing that up in about 3 years
| (need to hang on that much longer!). Most if not all of the
| AFI Top 100 Films are in the 1001. Also, again, some of the
| 901 remaining films you may also have seen already. But the
| 1001 have a lot more French New Wave, Italian Neorealist, and
| generally a more cosmopolitan mix. To be sure though the list
| skews Western.
|
| I'm happy to have another list of films. The set of
| Kurosawa's favorite films, of course, intersects with the
| above two lists but appears to add, unsurprisingly, a lot
| more Japanese films.
|
| Somehow I had to smile just imagining Kurosawa watching "One
| Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest". Does that film even make sense
| for someone growing up within Japanese culture?
| sriram_sun wrote:
| > Does that film even make sense for someone growing up
| within Japanese culture?
|
| Oh yeah! F*ck yeah! This movie was remade into a 1986
| Malayalam movie by a really good actor/director pair and
| I'll bet almost everyone who watched it came away shaken.
|
| Institutionalizing someone who is not crazy is something
| every culture can identify with. You can also pretty easily
| draw parallels in any culture to even the supporting cast
| (Nurse Ratched). Probably because of the stigma associated
| with mental illness and how institutions across the world
| took advantage of it.
|
| Even now when I think about the (original) movie ending..
| tears. I grew up in India. I don't know what I don't know,
| but after having lived in the US for over 20 years, I don't
| think folks missed much in translation. There might be a
| subtext there with a Native American winning some semblance
| of a freedom that most other cultures miss.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| In the book McMurphy is trying to get admitted into the
| mental ward to get out of prison -- it wasn't really a
| case of the state institutionalizing him against his
| will.
|
| I guess I was thinking more that he is the protagonist
| for challenging the establishment, breaking the rules,
| questioning authority. That seems like something someone
| in Japanese society would not enthusiastically cheer on.
| ghaff wrote:
| As I recall the AFI list is a good "mid-brow" list which
| probably describes me pretty well. I like these films more
| than most of the blockbusters but I also tend to clock out
| a lot of the time when you get into real art house fare.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, I suppose if you sprinkle in 5% art-house fare then
| I am okay. There are occasional surprises in the new
| wave, avant garde, independent films.
|
| "1001 Films" does pull in a bit of the high-brow flicks.
| The harder to watch stuff from the "AFI Top 100" are some
| of the very early silent films (or over the top
| propaganda films like "Yankee Doodle Dandy").
| ghaff wrote:
| I've seen the vast bulk of the films. Intolerance you
| definitely need to watch as a period piece. It's a pretty
| good example although something like Safety Last or The
| General would be easier to watch examples.Don't really
| disagree on "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Isn't a lot on the
| list I seriously disagree with although there are period
| favorites I'd probably skip and different films I'd
| include.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| > I have over 700 films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty
| decent spread of years/countries and I would say I still know
| basically nothing about film.
|
| It depends on what it means to "know film". It's a deep rabbit
| hole, but if you're logging the films you appreciate in some
| way and now you're up to 700, I would say you "know" a lot more
| than most.
|
| Here's a gem for you... "Spring Night Summer Night". It's
| available free streaming on byNWR.com. Completely forgotten
| film that was meticulously restored by Nicholas Winding Refn.
| (review https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-
| town/movies/spring...).
| DarkCrusader2 wrote:
| Strongly agree here. Letterboxd is the best thing that has
| happened to me in recent past. It introduced me to almost
| endless list of absolutely fantastic movies I didn't knew
| existed especially non-english movies no one talks about. And I
| just logged my 700th movie yesterday.
| graeme wrote:
| How do you use it for film discovery? I had a look and that
| use case wasn't clear. I really want to find a good film
| discovery service though, so I'd love to know how to use it
| for that.
|
| (When I looked it mainly seemed to be about rating movies I'd
| seen and making notes on them)
| boraoztunc wrote:
| There are people with different tastes, and great lists you
| can discover, also they are sending newsletter called
| "Letterboxd Rushes for you" a weekly Letterboxd digest
| which mostly evolves with your activities on the website,
| and includes such as "new reviews by your friends",
| "popular films with your friends" etc. I like making
| archives, offline dvds, brochures, posters, and logging
| movies feels like a digital part of it, and Letterboxd kind
| of fits perfectly, similar to here actually; people,
| conversations and content has quality.
| DarkCrusader2 wrote:
| Lists work really well for me. Some popular lists like
| this[1] is a great place to start. Also on each film's page
| at the bottom, you can find lists it is on. So if you like
| a movie particularly well, you can find similar one in
| those lists. Most of the lists are not generic
| genre/actor/director based so I find really good stuff
| there.
|
| [1] https://letterboxd.com/dave/list/official-
| top-250-narrative-...
| yesenadam wrote:
| I do the same thing on IMDb.
| eddof13 wrote:
| I was approaching 3000 films on criticker back in college when
| I realized, that I would never be able to begin to approach
| watching all of the films that I wanted to. Sort of like, the
| more you know the more you know you don't know. I ended up
| deleting all of my tracking of films, books (well now I'm
| tracking my books again for insurance purposes) etc and no
| longer worry about seeing all the important films.
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