My Criterion Top 10: Anna/Defiant Success

I’ve been running contributions from some of my favorite film critics, writers, and theorists from around the internet for the past few weeks. Each writer is listing their top 10 from the Criterion Collection. This is the second to last entry in the series, and it’s a special one. That’s because Anna, today’s writer, was inspired by some of the other lists and offered hers. And this list is a gem. Anna has been running her blog, Defiant Success, since August 2009. In that time, she has compiled quite an impressive list of films reviewed. Anna may be found on Twitter @MovieNut14.

My Criterion Top 10

One of the many features that makes the Criterion Collection amazing is their recurring Top 10 series. They ask various pop culture personalities (mostly film) to supply a list of their 10 favorite Criterion films. It’s a great way to learn about important and/or unique cinema. Most importantly, I love that it’s a synaptic slice of the writer’s movie psychosis. Criterion offers such a wide variety of genres, themes, and directors that choosing 10 specific films says something about your personality. In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be presenting The Criterion Top 10 Series, a series of articles from many of my very favorite film writers, critics, and theorists on the internet and in my circle of friends. Strap yourself in because the next several days are going to feature some incredible writing about some equally incredible films. To kick it all off, here is my own Criterion Top 10.

The 50 Greatest French Films of All-Time

It’s time yet again for my favorite feature at TDYLF- my annual list of the 50 greatest French films of all-time. One aspect I’m starting to really enjoy about this list is how organic it is. Each year, movies rise and fall thanks to re-watches, exposure to new films, and new insights. Keeping and maintaining this list throughout the year also serves an important function for me. It motivates me to continue learning, and grow as a French film enthusiast. A few notes before we get started:

• I am not an authority on this. I’m just a Francophile with a Blu-ray player, Netflix and Facets subscriptions, and a love of movies.
• As much as I try, I am not a completist. There are a lot of films I simply haven’t seen. I’ve done my best to make it as comprehensive as I could but there’s always room to see more. There are still some relatively glaring omissions. Please feel free to recommend others, as I am always on the lookout to improve this list. It’s a labor of love for me.
• There is obviously a lot of personal preference involved. However, I’ve given a lot of weight to objective aspects like a film’s influence, importance, creativity, and how much they embody the spirit of French cinema and history.
• To qualify, the film has to be a French language film. There are non-French directors on this list but every movie is a French language film.

With that out of the way, I present to you  the 50 greatest French films of all-time:

Depressing Movies Made Festive with Santa Hats

I’m just about to shut everything down until Christmas, and maybe a day or two afterwards. My next entry will likely be no earlier than Monday, and maybe as late as Wednesday of next week. This is my last chance to wish everyone happy holidays. What better way to do it than by twisting depressing movies and movie scenes into something more festive? What’s more festive than a Santa hat? Happy holidays, everyone.

Iron Director: Louis, Luis (Malle v. Buñuel)

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It’s time for the third entry in the Iron Director series. In the first edition, the theme was “Directors I became obsessed with in 2010”- Francois Truffaut and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with Truffaut emerging victorious. In the second edition, I pitted two people that I consider to be the two greatest living American directors, Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers. Scorsese just barely earned the win. For this entry, we’ll be taking a look at two guys with the same name, albeit different spellings- Louis Malle and Luis Buñuel. To set the mood, I highly recommend watching this clip of The Kingsmen singing Louie, Louie. These two have always been linked in my head for a handful of reasons. I have an ongoing internal conversation about which of the two is my 2nd favorite director of all-time. I’ve mentioned both of them as my 2nd favorite on multiple occasions. Depending on the week, you’re liable to get a different answer. I’m a great admirer of both of their filmographies. Both have worked, and excelled, in several countries. There aren’t a lot of similarities on the surface, but going a little deeper shows that they’re not wildly different. Let’s dig in:

Vis-à-Visceral: The Most Uncomfortable Acts to Witness in Film

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Odds are pretty good that it’s happened to all of us. You’re watching a film, you might have even heard that there’s something “trying” in it, or “challenging”, or whatever other ominous adjective someone used to describe what you’re going to watch. And then it happens- the “it”, the scene that makes you cover your eyes. It’s the scene that makes your stomach turn. And what is “it”? Probably one of these horribly uncomfortable acts:

Incest
“It”- incest- has been happening in pop culture ever since Oedipus did the worm with his mom in the 5th century B.C. I guess you could say it’s nothing new. It still pops up in films from time to time. Sometimes, but not always, you can see guideposts all the way and you spend the entire film hoping beyond hope that the filmmaker won’t actually follow through with it. Other times, it’s a horrible twist that you didn’t see coming.
Examples: Oldboy (2003); Chinatown (1974); Murmur of the Heart (1971); The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Malle, Adjusted

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When you see lists of great directors, Louis Malle is often buried towards the bottom or excluded altogether. It flummoxes me every time I see it. It’s not that he’s viewed with any type of ill will. Most critics speak highly of his work. I can’t specify exactly what it is that keeps him from higher praise, but I’m a firm believer that he deserves higher standing. He’s one of my five favorite directors. Here are some aspects of Malle’s work that makes him stand out for me.

My Criterion Top Ten

The Criterion Collection has a very enjoyable series called Top 10s where they invite filmmakers, film critics and theorists, and just good ol’ fashioned celebrities to list their Top 10 from the Criterion Collection. It’s a really unique series because you get great insights into what has influenced these people. For instance, Steve Buscemi lists John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence at #10, and states:

I have been under the influence of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands and their extended family in film ever since I saw a retrospective of Cassavetes’s movies at MoMA soon after he died.

Is it any surprise at all that Steve Buscemi, a stalwart of 90’s indie cinema, would hold such reverence for John Cassavetes, the Godfather of independent cinema? Guy Maddin lists Clement’s Forbidden Games at #1 and Häxan at #10. If you’re familiar at all with Maddin’s films- silent film homages which generally place a magnifying glass on childhood trauma- you realize the imprint that these films had on him. Admittedly, I’ve only seen approximately half of the Criterion Collection, around 250 films or so in their catalogue. Here’s my stab at the Criterion Top 10.

100 Things I Love About the Movies

I passed a milestone recently here at TDYLF. Thanks to the help of the editors over at IMDB, I passed the 100,000 Hits milestone on Sunday (with a whopping 80,000+ of those hits coming just since September 30th). To celebrate, I’m beginning a brand new series called “100 Things I Love About the Movies”. To be sure, there a LOT more than 100 things that I love about the movies. As such, this has the potential to become a series- 100 Things I Love About Horror Movies, 100 Things I Love About Foreign Movies, and on and on. I present to you the first edition of “100 Things I Love About the Movies”.

A List Par Excellence: The Top 50 French Films of All-Time

EDITOR’S NOTE: I made this list in 2010. I updated the list in 2011. The updated list is more complete and puts far less emphasis on personal preference. The new and improved version can be found here.

On the cusp of Bastille Day, and with such a rich history of French cinema, I felt that it was only fitting to create a list of the 50 best French films. Initially, I’d planned on simply listing them in no particular order. However, mon ami, I eventually determined that it wouldn’t be fair to not put forth the extra effort. They’re now listed at least in order of personal preference, with some weight given to overall quality. In other words, there are likely more influential films or higher quality films further down the list. But their higher quality doesn’t overcome my overall enjoyment of the other films higher up on the list.