The Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)
Watching The Mirror has shown me I was right about two things. That I was right to go with TSPDT instead of Films 101, and that I was right not to buy the Kino DVD.
The Mirror is #77 on TSPDT (Before the update), and #1240 on Films 101. After I watched the film I went to imdb.com to look at the comments people left. Depending on whom you ask, it's either one of the most brilliant films of all time, or vaguely plotted pretentious crap. Visually, it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Its nonlinear storytelling is a little bit confusing. It jumps forward and back through time, presenting some epochs in black and white and others in color. At one point it's focusing on the main character's childhood and mother, and the next it's focusing on his adult life and his wife and son. The wife and mother are played by the same woman. The way the story is presented serves to focus your emotions on the sense of inevitability. Both inevitability in terms of death and old age and in terms of generational destiny. You witness history repeating itself and the guilt the main character feels for the burden he's placed on others. If what I've said so far makes it sound like a horrible movie, don't see it.
Judging by the comments I read at imdb.com, a lot of people who are into highbrow films watch The Mirror the wrong way. If you're used to films by the likes of Antonioni and Godard which beg you to meta-analyze every little detail, you're probably going to overanalyze this one and mine for symbolism and complexities that aren't there. The Mirror is a very simple movie, just not one that makes itself obvious.
Unfortunately due to my lack of knowledge about Russian history, I probably missed out on some of the emotional impact the film had for its original audience. Among the jumps between timelines there are scenes from Russian history that are probably instantly recognizable to people who grew up witnessing it.
Getting back to what I said at the beginning, that I was right not to buy the Kino DVD, the translation was as bad as they say. A lot of the dialog isn't even translated. So although I absolutely intend to buy a physical copy of The Mirror, I won't be doing so until I have a better option.
Rating: *****/5
The next film I will be watching is La Dolce Vita. L'age Dor and Pickpocket are both available in my area on theauteurs.com, so I'll be watching them as soon as I'm sure they're still in the top 100 after the January 2010 TSPDT update.
1 down, 99 to go.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Obstacles to 100
This post details all the films I have not seen or do not own, and the obstacles they present to seeing all 100. (This list is based on the pre-update top 100)
Movies I have but have not seen: (This list is longer than usual because of Christmas)
11 Tokyo Story
16 L'Atalante
26 La Dolce Vita
34 Ordet
41 Andrei Rublev
54 Ugetsu Monogatari
70 Metropolis
Movies I have seen but do not have:
8 Battleship Potemkin
30 The General
45 It's A Wonderful Life
48 Modern Times
62 Wizard Of Oz
67 Nashville
Movies I do not have, and are easily available under $20 in the US:
51 Intolerance
60 Gone With The Wind
71 To Be Or Not To Be
75 Notorious
76 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
79 Bringing Up Baby
83 Stagecoach
85 My Darling Clementine
93 A Clockwork Orange
Movies I do not have, and are easily available $20-$40 in the US: (Mostly Criterion, some collections and imports)
17 The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
27 The Gold Rush
56 Contempt
66 The Leopard
77 Letter From An Unknown Woman**
78 Madame de**
80 Pickpocket
84 Pierrot le fou
86 Voyage In Italy
87 Playtime
88 Sansho The Baliff
89 Last Year At Marienbad
90 L'age dor
95 The Battle Of Algiers
96 Hiroshima mon amour
97 The Man With A Movie Camera
98 Rome, Open City
100 Sherlock, Jr
Movies I do not have, and will have problems finding for a reasonable price:
43 The Magnificent Ambersons
59 Peter Panchali***
64 Greed
69 The Mirror*
*I've heard the cheaply available version of The Mirror has translation issues. I can either pick up that or pray Criterion releases a better version by the end of the year. Maybe I'll give it until late to find a better translation.
**I can probably get both of these in a Max Ophuls collection, maybe cheaper than individually
***Peter Panchali is only available on region 1 DVD as part of a trilogy.
The biggest issue will probably be to pace myself with the criterion stuff. I can probably finance most of it with a combination of my tax refund and ebay sales of the TV DVD sets I watched a lot before I got into movies.
Then, there's the issue of Magnificent Ambersons, and it's lack of a region 1 DVD release.
And a smaller issue is deciding how much I'm willing to pay for stuff I've already seen and didn't necessarily like last time. I'll have to keep an eye out for certain things used and take my opportunities to get them cheap.
Edit: And I just realized 'The Auters' website is streaming a lot of these movies for $5. So this will make things a lot easier on my wallet.
Movies I have but have not seen: (This list is longer than usual because of Christmas)
11 Tokyo Story
16 L'Atalante
26 La Dolce Vita
34 Ordet
41 Andrei Rublev
54 Ugetsu Monogatari
70 Metropolis
Movies I have seen but do not have:
8 Battleship Potemkin
30 The General
45 It's A Wonderful Life
48 Modern Times
62 Wizard Of Oz
67 Nashville
Movies I do not have, and are easily available under $20 in the US:
51 Intolerance
60 Gone With The Wind
71 To Be Or Not To Be
75 Notorious
76 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
79 Bringing Up Baby
83 Stagecoach
85 My Darling Clementine
93 A Clockwork Orange
Movies I do not have, and are easily available $20-$40 in the US: (Mostly Criterion, some collections and imports)
17 The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
27 The Gold Rush
56 Contempt
66 The Leopard
77 Letter From An Unknown Woman**
78 Madame de**
80 Pickpocket
84 Pierrot le fou
86 Voyage In Italy
87 Playtime
88 Sansho The Baliff
89 Last Year At Marienbad
90 L'age dor
95 The Battle Of Algiers
96 Hiroshima mon amour
97 The Man With A Movie Camera
98 Rome, Open City
100 Sherlock, Jr
Movies I do not have, and will have problems finding for a reasonable price:
43 The Magnificent Ambersons
59 Peter Panchali***
64 Greed
69 The Mirror*
*I've heard the cheaply available version of The Mirror has translation issues. I can either pick up that or pray Criterion releases a better version by the end of the year. Maybe I'll give it until late to find a better translation.
**I can probably get both of these in a Max Ophuls collection, maybe cheaper than individually
***Peter Panchali is only available on region 1 DVD as part of a trilogy.
The biggest issue will probably be to pace myself with the criterion stuff. I can probably finance most of it with a combination of my tax refund and ebay sales of the TV DVD sets I watched a lot before I got into movies.
Then, there's the issue of Magnificent Ambersons, and it's lack of a region 1 DVD release.
And a smaller issue is deciding how much I'm willing to pay for stuff I've already seen and didn't necessarily like last time. I'll have to keep an eye out for certain things used and take my opportunities to get them cheap.
Edit: And I just realized 'The Auters' website is streaming a lot of these movies for $5. So this will make things a lot easier on my wallet.
Hello!
I started this blog because in 2010 I'll be trying to view all of the top 100 films of all time, according to the website 'They Shoot Pictures, Don't They'. Why am I doing this? Because up until a forum poll last August I had barely seen any great movies, but it sparked an exploration of classic cinema that's even changed the way I view film. Probably fifteen of my favorite twenty movies I've seen for the first time over the past five months. And I want to keep going. This blog is for anybody else who thinks they might want to explore classic cinema and wants ideas.
The list is available here: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_top100films.htm
In choosing which site to use for the list it came down between TSPDT and Films101. Here's my view of the virtues and vices of both:
TSPDT
-Too biased against more recent films
-Puts influentialness over entertainment value
-Some of them are harder to find in the US
Films101
-Puts production value over quality of script
-Too biased for American films
The choice of TSPDT came down to this: I've seen a lot more American films than foreign films, and I've seen a lot more newer films than older films, so the source that has more older foreign films has more stuff that's new to me.
I'm going to give detailed comments about how I feel about the film, then a rating. Ratings should be read like this:
5 stars: This movie is in my personal top 50.
4 1/2 stars: This movie is in my personal top 100.
4 stars: This is a very good movie and I'd like to watch it again sometime.
3-3 1/2 stars: This is a good movie but I don't feel the particular need to see it again.
2-2 1/2 stars: The movie is okay, I guess.
1-1 1/2 stars: This is a horrible movie.
The top 100 I use will be based on the January 2010 update. But no, I don't have to wait for that update to begin, because I doubt anything currently over 60 or so has any chance of falling off.
The list is available here: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_top100films.htm
In choosing which site to use for the list it came down between TSPDT and Films101. Here's my view of the virtues and vices of both:
TSPDT
-Too biased against more recent films
-Puts influentialness over entertainment value
-Some of them are harder to find in the US
Films101
-Puts production value over quality of script
-Too biased for American films
The choice of TSPDT came down to this: I've seen a lot more American films than foreign films, and I've seen a lot more newer films than older films, so the source that has more older foreign films has more stuff that's new to me.
I'm going to give detailed comments about how I feel about the film, then a rating. Ratings should be read like this:
5 stars: This movie is in my personal top 50.
4 1/2 stars: This movie is in my personal top 100.
4 stars: This is a very good movie and I'd like to watch it again sometime.
3-3 1/2 stars: This is a good movie but I don't feel the particular need to see it again.
2-2 1/2 stars: The movie is okay, I guess.
1-1 1/2 stars: This is a horrible movie.
The top 100 I use will be based on the January 2010 update. But no, I don't have to wait for that update to begin, because I doubt anything currently over 60 or so has any chance of falling off.
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