Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, The Rules of the Game

Top 5 Jean Renoir Films:

1. The River (1951)
2. The Grand Illusion (1937)
3. Elena and Her Men (1956)
4. The Southerner (1945)
5. Woman on the Beach (1947)

Top 5 Jean Renoir Films I Haven't Seen Yet:

1. La chienne (1931)
2. French Cancan (1954)

3. Le crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)

4. La bête humaine (1938)

5. The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)

Top 5 Marcel Dalio Films:

1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

2. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)

3. The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)

4. The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, 1941)

5. Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)

Top 5 French Films of the 1930s:

1. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
2. The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
3. Under the Roofs of Paris (René Clair, 1930)
4. The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936)
5. Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937)

Top 5 Films of 1939:

1. Stagecoach (John Ford)
2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
3. Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming)
4. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
5. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)

Links: Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game, now widely considered one of the greatest films of all-time, did not fare so well on its initial release:

"The film’s initial screenings in Paris in July 1939 are now part of film legend: badly received by both critics and the public, the premiere even saw chairs thrown at the screen and an attempt to set the cinema on fire. Shocked, Renoir cut the film from around 94 to 81 minutes, only to see the film banned by the government censors in October (the ban was rescinded some months later but then reimposed by the Germans during the Occupation). Finally, the negatives were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942."

The above is from thefilmjounal, where Ian Johnston reviews the film and Criterion's DVD release, which is the version we're showing this week.

Also from Criterion is this essay by Alexander Sesonske, who notes that it is indeed:

"a dazzling accomplishment, original in form and style, a comic tragedy, absurd and profound, graced by two of the most brilliant scenes ever created. It is also, in the words of Dudley Andrew, “the most complex social criticism ever enacted on the screen.” A total box office failure in 1939, The Rules of the Game now ranks as one of the greatest masterpieces of world cinema."

See, I wasn't exaggerating.

OK fine if you don't believe me, or Sesonske, who I've never heard of either.  But would you believe Bernardo Bertolucci, world famous director of The Conformist, The Last Emperor and Little Buddha?  Here he is in The Guardian's The Films that Changed My Life series:

"Renoir is like a junction between the France of impressionism (the France of his father, Auguste Renoir) and the France of the 20th century. Sometimes it's as if he were making films about characters from his father's paintings. But what is really extraordinary about Renoir, particularly in La Règle, is that he loves all his characters. He loves the goodies and baddies, the ones who make terrible mistakes. He loves the ones who are on screen for just two minutes. This is something I have always tried to do."

You're My Only Home

“It seems strange to me that video stores don’t have a section for Gatherings at Country Houses, because to me this is one of the best film genres, defined by its setting like the western, or backstage musical, or space opera. Most of my dreams take place in such environments, which probably explains which movies I’ve picked.”—Stephin Merritt

Last month at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Stephin Merritt, the greatest pop songwriter of the last oh, twenty years, curated a six-film series of films set in country houses.  The schedule was thus: Rene Clair's And Then There Were None, Fassbinder's Chinese Roulette, Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, Peter Greenaway's the Draughtman's Contact, Harmony Korine's recent Mister Lonely, and of course, The Rules of the Game.

Why do I bring this up, now especially, a month late and three thousand miles away?  For a few reasons.  One, not only does the series feature this week's Metro Classic but it also offers me a chance to plug Strange Powers, the documentary on Mr. Merritt that will be showing at the Northwest Film Forum starting on December 10th.  Sean saw the film in Vancouver and liked it.  Two, it's nice when my hero's tastes sync up with mine.  I mean, Rules of the Game is pretty much a no-brainer but the reception garnered by Mister Lonely was more decidedly mixed.  I thought it was a gem.  Samantha Morton, Werner Herzog and a bunch of sky-diving nuns would never lead you astray.  Three, it gives me an excuse to post a bunch of Stephin Merritt videos.  Enjoy!

Coming Attractions: The Rules of the Game

Wednesday, December 1st at 7 and 9:15 pm.

Giveaways: A Gosford Park DVD courtesy of Scarecrow video and a Gift Certificate to Cinema Books, respectively.

Tonight!

At 7 and 9:10 pm.

Seeya there!

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, Out of the Past

Top 5 Jacques Tourneur Films:

1. Cat People (1942)
2. Stars in My Crown (1950)
3. I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
4. Nightfall (1957)
5. Berlin Express (1948)



Top 5 Kirk Douglas Films:

1. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
2. A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949)
3. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
4. The Big Sky (Howard Hawks, 1952)
5. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)



Top 5 Robert Mitchum Film I Haven't Seen Yet:

1. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)
2. Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962))
3. Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970)
4. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (John Huston, 1957)
5. The Sundowners (Fred Zinneman, 1960



Top 5 Films Noirs of the 1940s:

1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
2. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
3. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
4. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)
5. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)



Top 5 Films of 1947:

1. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
2. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)
3. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
4. The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
5. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)

Links: Out of the Past

Roger Ebert's Great Movies article on Out of the Past, in which he declares it one of the greatest of all films noirs, notes with relish the film's brilliant dialogue, coiling plotline and Mitchum's magnificent indifference to the world around him, exemplified by this later exchange when Ebert interviewed him and asked him about a particular line in the film:


""I don't, honest to God, know that I've ever actually seen the film."

"You've never seen it?"

"I'm sure I have, but it's been so long that I don't know.""

Back before anyone knew what a film noir was (not that anyone has a firm grasp on the concept now), Bosley Crowther in the New York Times was thoroughly confused by the film's complex plot, but enjoyed himself nonetheless (and understood more of why the film is great than he thought):

"But after this private detective has re-encountered an old girl friend (who originally double-crossed him after luring him to double-cross his boss, whom she had shot) and the two get elaborately criss-crossed in a plot to triple-cross our boy again, the involutions of the story become much too complex for us. The style is still sharp and realistic, the dialogue still crackles with verbal sparks and the action is still crisp and muscular, not to mention slightly wanton in spots. But the pattern and purpose of it is beyond our pedestrian ken. People get killed, the tough guys browbeat, the hero hurries—but we can't tell you why."

Finally, Out of the Past is such an exemplary film noir, that the best podcast on the subject takes its name from the film.  Professors Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards, through 50 episodes beginning in July 2005, examined dozens of films noirs, both classic (The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep) and neo- (The Big Lebowski, Blade Runner).  The episodes are a bit dry and academic (they sometimes seem like they're reading essays as opposed to having a discussion), but if, like me, you find that charming, then this show is essential.  Their full archive is available, and while they've been off the air for the last year (writing a book about noir), there will apparently be new episodes again in 2011.

Coming Attractions: Out of the Past

A music video mixing the film with Phil Collins's classic Love Triangle song "Against All Odds".

The movie plays Wednesday, November 24th at 7 and 9:10 pm.

Tonight!

At 6:50 and 9:15 pm.

Seeya there!

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, The Philadelphia Story

Top 5 James Stewart Movies Not Directed by Capra or Hitchcock:

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
3. The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940)
4. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
5. Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950)

Top 5 Katharine Hepburn Movies:

1. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
2. The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968)
3. The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)
4. Stage Door (Gregory LaCava, 1937)
5. Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935)

Top 5 Cary Grant Movies Not Directed By Hawks or Hitchcock:

1. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
2. Ginga Din (George Stevens, 1939)
3. The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
4. Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944)
5. An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957)

Top 5 George Cukor Movies:

1. It Should Happen To You (1954)
2. A Star is Born (1954)
3. What Price Hollywood? (1932)
4. My Fair Lady (1964)
5. Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Top 5 Films of 1940:

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
2. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
3. Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy)
4. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. Fantasia (Walt Disney)

Links: The Philadelphia Story

The raves for The Philadelphia Story began right away, with Variety writing in 1940:

". . . a picture every suburban mamma and poppa must see--after Junior and little Elsie Dinsmore are tucked away. Producer Joe Mankiewicz has tossed in the works to turn out as sophisticated a picture as Mr. and Mrs. Know-what-it's-all-about are likely to see.

The smarties are going to relish "Philadelphia Story" a lot more than the two-bit trade; they're going to get a boot out of catching on to such subtleties as photog Ruth Hussey's crack to reporter Jimmy Stewart after he's been neatly put in his place by Cary Grant: "Here's a handkerchief. There's spit in your eye and it shows." A number of such are, no doubt, going to pass 'em by.

It's Katharine Hepburn's picture just as it was her show, but with as fetching a lineup of thesp talent as is to be found, she's got to fight every clever line of dialog all of the way to hold her lead. . . .

For Miss Hepburn this is something of a screen comeback. Whether it means she has reestablished herself in pictures is something that can't be said from this viewing for she doesn't play in "The Philadelphia Story"; she is "The Philadelphia Story." The perfect conception of all flighty but characterful Main Line socialite gals rolled into one, the story without her is almost inconceivable. Just the right amount of beauty, just the right amount of disarray in wearing clothes, just the right amount of culture in her voice - it's no one but Hepburn."

One month later, Bosley Crowther agreed in the New York Times:

"All those folks who wrote Santa Claus asking him to send them a sleek new custom-built comedy with fast lines and the very finest in Hollywood fittings got their wish just one day late with the opening of "The Philadelphia Story" yesterday at the Music Hall. For this present, which really comes via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, has just about everything that a blue-chip comedy should have—a witty, romantic script derived by Donald Ogden Stewart out of Philip Barry's successful play; the flavor of high-society elegance, in which the patrons invariably luxuriate, and a splendid cast of performers headed by Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant. If it doesn't play out this year and well along into next they should turn the Music Hall into a shooting gallery."

Reelclassics has a nice article by Ian Irvine from the Sunday telegraph in 1995 on the occasion of the death of the society lady who inspired Hepburn's character in The Philadelphia Story.  It covers the background of the film, focussing especially on the unique world that was Philadelphia Main Line society, Hepburn's comeback and its further life as a Grace Kelly/Frank Sintra/Bing Crosby musical by Cole Porter.

""Everybody had so much money - there were so few taxes. People gave grand dinner parties and dances: women wore wonderful dresses and men came in fine evening clothes," she remembered. "It's a way of life that's completely gone now. It was really an imitation of Edwardian days in England. It was all quite artificial.

"When Phil told me he had written this new play, and that Katharine Hepburn would play me, I thought it was great fun, but I really didn't pay that much attention. I don't really think Tracy Lord was like me, except that she was very energetic and motivated." Barry took his idea for a comedy, based on the glamorous figure of Hope Scott, to Katharine Hepburn - who had made a great success of the society girl with brains and beauty in the film version of his play Holiday. His proposal came at just the right moment for Hepburn: her career as an actress both on Broadway and in Hollywood was at a turning point. Her films, including some which we now consider among her finest, Bringing Up Baby and Holiday, were not commercial successes, and the studios considered Hepburn too independent and unconventional.

Shortly after Bringing Up Baby's release, Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theatre Owners of America, published as an advertisement a list of stars who were "box-office poison"; Hepburn's name was at the top. She was in good company, with Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, but the publicity damaged Hepburn in the eyes of both studios and public, and after being offered a very B-movie project, she bought her way out of her contract with RKO, vowing to return only on her own terms."

Pimpin'

Coming Attractions: The Philadelphia Story

Wednesday, November 17 at 6:50 and 9:15 pm.

Seeya there!

Tonight!

At 6:45 and 9:15 PM.

Seeya there!

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, El Dorado

Top 5 Howard Hawks Films I Haven't Seen Yet:

1. A Girl in Every Port (1928)
2. Red Line 7000 (1965)
3. I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
4. Barbary Coast (1935)
5. Tiger Shark (1932)

Top 5 John Wayne Films That Are Not Westerns:

1. The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
2. They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945)
3. Donovan's Reef (John Ford, 1963)
4. Hatari! (Howard Hawks, 1962)
5. Flying Leathernecks (Nicholas Ray, 1951)

Top 5 Robert Mitchum Films:

1. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
2. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
4. Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1952)
5. The Story of GI Joe (William Wellman, 1945)

Top 5 James Caan Films:

1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
2. Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996)
3. A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough, 1977)
4. Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)
5. Misery (Rob Reiner (1990)

Top 5 Films of 1966:

1. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
2. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
3. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
4. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
5. 7 Women (John Ford)

Links: El Dorado

Back on its premiere in 1967, a young critic named Roger Ebert raved about El Dorado:

"For people who like well-made, entertaining movies with suspense, violence, horses, colorful characters, lots of shooting and a few pretty girls, El Dorado is about the most entertaining Western to turn up this year."

Ebert also threw in a nice dig at Pauline Kael, not yet the critic for the New Yorker, but well on her way to being every auteurist's favorite villain:

"Pauline Kael, the New Republic's film critic, claims El Dorado has the second worst lighting she's seen in a movie. That's not bad lighting, that's good old Howard Hawks with all of his shadows and kerosene lamps and murky atmosphere and dark alleys (remember The Big Sleep?). Miss Kael needs her glasses scrubbed."

And speaking of auteurists, Michael Grost devotes his website to cataloguing in exacting detail the recurring subjects, images, characters and visual styles of various directors' films in an effort to generate evidence for the uniqueness of each filmmaker.  With a director like Hawks, who's recurring plots, characters and dialogue style are easily noticed, but who's visual stylization is less obvious, this can be an invaluable resource.

"The ride through the desert features three long take lateral tracks. These are the biggest and longest camera movements in El Dorado. They recall a bit the lateral camera movements in other Hawks, which show "characters walking through architecture". Only here, the characters are riding horses, and more importantly, what is being revealed in the background is not an architectural set, but an outdoors ecosystem. Just as Hawks always shows his sets in beautiful clear detail in his typical camera movements, here in in El Dorado we see every detail of the plants."

The thing everyone knows about El Dorado, though, is that it's a remake of Rio Bravo (which is of course why it fits in this series).  At Only the Cinema, Ed Howard traces the complex relationship of this film to its original, along with Hawks's third version of the same basic story, Rio Lobo.

"Ultimately, what's great about El Dorado is how Hawks and his cast take what should have been an utter throwaway project, a shameless retread of a relatively recent film, and turn it into something special of its own. It's a roughshod film, casually skipping over long periods of time with inexplicable edits . . . . Somehow, though, these elliptical narrative shenanigans only add to the film's indelible charm. This is especially apparent in the ending. . . redacted for spoilerism . . . it's absurd, strangely touching, and funny all at once, just like the film as a whole."

Coming Attractions: El Dorado

Wednesday, November 10th at 6:45 and 9:15 PM.

See you there!

Tonight!

At 7 & 9:15 pm.  Seeya there!

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, The Thing

Top 5 John Carpenter Films:

1. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
2. Halloween (1978)
3. Escape From New York (1981)
4. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
5. Starman (1984)



Top 5 Kurt Russell Films:

1. Escape From New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
2. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino, 2007)
3. Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986)
4. Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001)
5. Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993)



Top 5 Wilford Brimley Films:

1. The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984)
2. True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969)
3. The China Syndrome (James Bridges, 1979)
4. Cocoon (Ron Howard, 1985)
5. Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins (Guy Hamilton, 1985)



Top 5 Keith David Films:

1. Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)
2. There's Something About Mary (The Farrelly Bros, 1998)
3. The Quick & The Dead (Sam Raimi, 1995)
4. Armageddon (Michael Bay, 1998)
5. Road House (Rowdy Herrington, 1989)



Top 5 Films of 1982:

1. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog)
2. The Atomic Cafe (Jayne Loader, Kevin and Pierce Rafferty)
3. White Dog (Samuel Fuller)
4. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)

Links: The Thing

The Thing is inarguably one of the best films ever to be set on the continent of Antarctica and appropriately enough, at bigdeadplace.com we find a page indexing reviews of The Thing by people who actually live in Antarctica and people who wish they lived in Antarctica.  If you ever wondered how accurate a portrayal on Antarctic life the film is, this is the place you need to go.

Also from that page, you'll find the rules for both The Thing Board Game and The Thing Card Game.  Which I imagine one would have lots of time to play while in Antarctica.

For an even more fun way to pass the time until Wednesday night's show,  check out the Sounds page at John Carpenter's official website.  It's packed with short sound clips from his films, including this one of Wilford Brimley describing either the Thing itself, or a tasty meal.