Kieran Frost's "100 Greatest Films"

[Kieran_Frost]

DUMBO (1941)
dir. Ben Sharpsteen
writer. based on the storyline for a novelty toy "Roll-a-Book" by Helen Aberson
Voice Actors: Edward Brophy, Verna Felton, Cliff Edwards and Sterling Holloway

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: young Jumbo Jr is ostracised in the travelling circus he was born into; but with the support of a Timothy Q. Mouse (Brophy), he will rise to something truly spectacular.

THOUGHTS: when I was young I owned 5 Disney films on VHS (Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, the Rescuers, the Sword in the Stone and Dumbo); I would watch them almost on loop during the summers. Yet while I have great affection for them all, I actually have only recently got round to re-watching them with a (hopefully ) wiser eye, and it's been very interesting. I "remember" so much of the film, yet the details, structure and deeper moments had all been forgotten. I'd never truly understood the situation with Dumbo's mother. I'd forgotten how late in the film he learns to fly. I'd never truly realised who the "villains" of the film were. So this was an eye-opener. Like the Red Shoes (1948), there is one segment in the middle that is truly creative and elevated the entire piece... BUT that sadly doesn't make up for the failings elsewhere. The animation is sloppy at points (proportions are off, and short cuts are taken -- the female elephants turn into coloured cubes when the loft door is shut on them and bounces). And then there are the racist undertones. The leader of the crows is Jim Crow (*groan*), and the only people who put up the circus tent are the animals and black men (a rather distasteful metaphor). But the crows, while very stereotypical in ebonics, are actually one of the very few kind characters to Dumbo (which helps to soften the gut-reaction to the racism). Ultimately though, with everything else put aside, it's just not that great a film. It's solid, it's very cute and occasionally heart-warming (Dumbo holding onto Timothy's tale like he would his mother, and his mother imprisoned, cradling him outside the cage both got a lump in my throat). But nothing more. It's a little empty; making very little comment on anything. I did like how we mostly see humans as shadows, behind curtains, that was an interesting choice. But it's not enough to make it a great film. I think nostalgia is why I've given it a higher grade than it possibly deserves.

OVERALL
A solid animated film, but (outside of the elephant dream sequence) lacks the originality and flare of other early Disney films. The somewhat racist undertones of several segments age the film; but (as one of the shortest Disney films at 68 minutes) it's still extremely watchable, if not as polished.
~ rating: 4 out of 5 [grade: B+]

[simbob4000]

Se7en used to not only be in my "Top 100" but my "Top 10". I bumped both out of the overall list. Se7en I adore BUT everything it has to say or do is covered by Stray Dog (1949) (roughly the same film plot, style and concept, just less serial killers) and the Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Stray Dog is about an old cop having to deal with what he perceives as a changing violent world, and is ready to give up on it? It also isn't anything like Silence of the Lambs, other than both dealing with a killer. Seven is like the mainstream version of No Country for Old Men...only it came first. If Seven reminds me of anything, it's of The Hitcher; with it's mysterious killer trying to force someone into murdering him.

[Kieran_Frost]

LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937) [nom.]
#5 in the Brussel's World Fair (first ever international critics film poll)
#35 in Empire magazine's "100 Best Films of World Cinema"
dir. Jean Renoir
writer. Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio and Erich von Stroheim

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: two French aviators in WWI, one aristocracy (Fresnay), the other working class (Gabin); are moved across Germany to various POW camps, every-time plotting their escape.

THOUGHTS: I was really sad I didn't love this more. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful, but after Renoir's la Règle du jeu (1939) being so close to making my "Top 100", I really wanted this to be just that little bit better and make it in. Alas, it was not to be. The first half of the film is wonderful, BUT like with so much of the Shining (1980) almost seeming cliché by modern standard; so here most of the POW plots have been copied and copied so much it's almost generic. Which isn't fair and I acknowledge that; and just because they did it so well everyone else copied them, shouldn't effect the film... but it does. HOW can I get excited about a plot that is basically Stalag 17 (1953) or the Great Escape (1963)? They should be applauded for doing it first, but sadly I didn't see this first, so it's impact is lessened. So it feels run of the mill (even down to the generic "the clown POW", "the Serious POW", "the Rough but Loveable POW" -- and again, even though these archetypes were done first here). Secondly the absolute best parts of the film are any moment when Pierre Fresnay and Erich von Stroheim are on screen together; not only were they the two best actors in the film, but their plot and concept were the most engaging for me.spoilers:

So from the moment of Captain de Boeldieu death, I lost nearly all my interest

end of spoilers So much is worthy of praise: the Germans being characters as complex, flawed and human as the Allies, the overall quality of performances from the ensemble (minus Cartier, the vaudeville performer, he was close to -- but never -- annoying in la Règle du jeu; here he was just annoying), and it had good pacing. It shifted up the story at just the right moment. But I just never felt excited enough, I never felt engrossed enough. It was incredibly well made, well acted, well written... just lacked that special something to make it 'pop'.

OVERALL
A wonderful film, but just not in the league of la Règle du jeu (1939). By modern standards the POW aspects are rather run-of-the-mill; but cracking underlying issues of class society, anti-semitism and the futility of war elevated it far above future copycats.
~ rating: 4 out of 5 [grade: A-]



FUN FACT: this is the first foreign language film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars

[simbob4000]

'90s

1. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino - 1994)
2. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - 1998)
3. Baraka (Ron Fricke - 1992)
4. Fudoh: The New Generation (Takashi Miike - 1996)
5. Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi - 1994)
6. SLC Punk! (James Merendino - 1998)
7. Dolores Claiborne (Taylor Hackford - 1995)
8. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater - 1993)
9. Army of Darkness (Sam Raimi - 1992)
10. The Blade (Hark Tsui - 1995)
11. Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven - 1997)
12. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson - 1997)
13. Supercop (Stanley Tong - 1992)
14. Ravenous (Antonia Bird - 1999)
15. Kite (Yasuomi Umetsu - 1998)
16. Killing Zoe (Roger Avary - 1993)
17. The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung - 1993)
18. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Ngai Choi Lam - 1991)
19. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino - 1992)
20. Rushmore (Wes Anderson - 1998)
21. The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - 1994)
22. Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma - 1993)
23. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino - 1997)
24. Once Upon a Time in China (Hark Tsui - 1991)
25. The Insider (Michael Mann - 1999)
26. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood - 1992)
27. Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam - 1995)
28. Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri - 1993)
29. Audition (Takashi Miike - 1999)
30. Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (Shûsuke Kaneko - 1996)
31. Babe (Chris Noonan - 1995)
32. Fight Club (David Fincher - 1999)
33. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai - 1996)
34. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze - 1999)
35. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki - 1997)
36. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis - 1993)
37. Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - 1990)
38. Clerks (Kevin Smith - 1994)
39. Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland - 1990)
40. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano - 1993)
41. Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos - 1993)
42. The City of Lost Children (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet - 1995)
43. Dumb & Dumber (Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly - 1994)
44. Dark City (Alex Proyas - 1998)
45. Fresh (Boaz Yakin - 1994)
46. Midori (Hiroshi Harada - 1992)
47. Fargo (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - 1996)
48. Iron Monkey (Woo-ping Yuen - 1993)
49. Castle Freak (Stuart Gordon - 1995)
50. Crimson Tide (1995 -Tony Scott) and Dreams (Akira Kurosawa - 1990)

[PretenderNX01]

I disagree about Shakespeare (some of the biggest plays on West End and Broadway are Shakespeare).

"Top 5 Shakespeare films"
1. Shakespeare in Love (1998)

The top Shakspeare movie is a fictional love story and not even one of his plays. Imagine if "JRR Tolkien in Love" out performed all of his ring movies.

I think I mainly watched Dumbo for the Pink Elephants sequence. It is interesting how the racial stuff went over my head as a kid, I had a similar situation watching "Peter Pan". One of my friends is Native America and her daughter is like a niece to me and she loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and then her dad is talking about they watched Peter Pan and how racist it was. I had remembered the whole "red man" song but I re-watched it and it's like all the time. Capt Hook is complaining about "those savages" and the kids are singing "following the leader" and then launch into "off to fight the 'injuns'" I'm thinking, jeez. If I can figure out making DVDs I might do a fan-edit for her. I took out like 20 minutes trying it out in Windows Movie Maker.

On the plus side, Alice and Wonderland is still fun as an adult. I've watched that a few times the past year or so. Sometimes it just plays on my computer in the background while I work, LOL

[Kieran_Frost]

The top Shakspeare movie is a fictional love story and not even one of his plays. Imagine if "JRR Tolkien in Love" out performed all of his ring movies.

I'd watch that!!! The reason I love it is how it basically is a Shakespeare play. It has all the elements: play within a play, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, clown roles, self-mocking, dick jokes... Stoppard didn't just incorporate all these elements BUT he both mirrored the creation of Romeo & Juliet (and lots of dialogue from the play is performed, it's not void of Shakespeare scenes); while making his own story. Mirroring Shakespeare "I killed a man" to Romeo's guilt of his best-friend's death (a death he feel he caused), you have the Nurse, Wessex is Paris, and to top it all off her name is Viola and she is in a shipwreck where all souls are lost! COME ON! It's brilliant!

If Tolkein in Love was about how a young JRR Tolkein fell through to a magical world, that both mirrored the story of the Hobbit, while also being it's own plot... I'd adore it just as much.

I think I mainly watched Dumbo for the Pink Elephants sequence. It is interesting how the racial stuff went over my head as a kid, I had a similar situation watching "Peter Pan". One of my friends is Native America and her daughter is like a niece to me and she loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and then her dad is talking about they watched Peter Pan and how racist it was. I had remembered the whole "red man" song but I re-watched it and it's like all the time. Capt Hook is complaining about "those savages" and the kids are singing "following the leader" and then launch into "off to fight the 'injuns'" I'm thinking, jeez. If I can figure out making DVDs I might do a fan-edit for her. I took out like 20 minutes trying it out in Windows Movie Maker.

Pinocchio (1940) has a pretty distasteful depiction too (the gypsy puppet master is almost copy-and-pasted from the Nazi propaganda of "the evil Jew").

Suddenly the Family Guy episode makes soooooooooooooooo much sense!

On the plus side, Alice and Wonderland is still fun as an adult. I've watched that a few times the past year or so. Sometimes it just plays on my computer in the background while I work, LOL

I seem to remember someone saying there was a racist characture in Fantasia (1940), but it's been so long since I've seen it. Sleeping Beauty (1959) is wonderful, free of all that (yes Briar Rose is a weak female character, but the fairies and Maleficient more than make up for it in terms of strong women).

[Kieran_Frost]

HAMLET (1948) [OSCAR]
dir. Baron Laurence Olivier [nom.]
writer. if you don't know this, frankly I despair for you
Starring: Baron Laurence Olivier [OSCAR], Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Jean Simmons [nom.], Stanley Holloway and Peter Cushing

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: Really? REALLY?

THOUGHTS: full disclaimer: I don't much care for the play. Yes it has wonderful parts, but GOD it's long and slow. And sadly this film didn't shift it up enough. It was still too long, and at times the pacing was sloooooooooooooow. Worst of all one things sticks in my mind more than anything else: codpieces. YES, I know the costumes were precise the period, but some of them were just ridiculously distracting. Horatio looked like he had a public cover over his crotch. It just didn't work. I was nervous about Olivier, I've heard his Shakespeare is a little too hammy; but actually I thought he was perfect. I still prefer him in Sleuth (1972), but his screen work here is excellent (it puts a lot of the "stage-y-er" actors in sharp contrast). But ultimately I just don't much care for the play. I've seen so many productions of Hamlet, and while this is very faithful, it's also too safe for someone like me. That is not to say it lacked some wonderful moments. Ophelia's death, narrated by Gertrude; the soliloquies in voice-over with occasional spatters of dialogue worked wonderful, the silent performance of the 'play-within-a-play' and the final duel was beautifully choreographed. I also adored the choice that Gertrude drinks the wine to save Hamlet, thus redeeming herself at the very end. AWESOME choice! That said, the film just didn't excite me enough; and at times Olivier was obvious far too old to play the "young" prince (he had 20+ years on his "mother", Eileen Herlie). Oh well...

OVERALL
An excellently faithful adaptation of Shakespeare's "greatest" play, with a flawless performance from the most acclaimed stage actor of all time. Some times engrossing, other times slow. Pity I just don't much care for the play it's faithfully adapted from...
~ rating: 3 out of 5 [grade: B]



FUN FACTS:

• this is the first British film to win Best Picture at the Oscars
• Laurence Olivier was the only person to ever direct himself into an acting Oscar, until Robert Benigni achieved the same result in Life is Beautiful (1997)

[simbob4000]

The top Shakspeare movie is a fictional love story and not even one of his plays. Imagine if "JRR Tolkien in Love" out performed all of his ring movies.

I think I mainly watched Dumbo for the Pink Elephants sequence. It is interesting how the racial stuff went over my head as a kid, I had a similar situation watching "Peter Pan". One of my friends is Native America and her daughter is like a niece to me and she loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and then her dad is talking about they watched Peter Pan and how racist it was. I had remembered the whole "red man" song but I re-watched it and it's like all the time. Capt Hook is complaining about "those savages" and the kids are singing "following the leader" and then launch into "off to fight the 'injuns'" I'm thinking, jeez. If I can figure out making DVDs I might do a fan-edit for her. I took out like 20 minutes trying it out in Windows Movie Maker.

On the plus side, Alice and Wonderland is still fun as an adult. I've watched that a few times the past year or so. Sometimes it just plays on my computer in the background while I work, LOL

Tolkien in Love is just about trees.

[Kieran_Frost]

MARTY (1955) [OSCAR]
dir. Delbert Mann [OSCAR]
writer. adapted from the teleplay of the same name [OSCAR]
Starring: Ernest Borgnine [OSCAR], Betsy Blaire [nom.], Esther Minciotti and Joe Mantell [nom.]

ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: Italian American butcher Marty Piletti (Borgnine) lives with his mother (Minciotti) and spends his weekends alone, or out hopelessly looking for "Ms. Right" to no avail.

THOUGHTS: the story is very simple, but with a good twist to the tale. The "ugly duckling" (and let's be fair, NONE OF THEM are actually ugly) isn't anything ground-breaking BUT I loved seeing everyone who constantly 'wished he'd find a girl' suddenly taking offensive and being unsupportive once he did. It really does comment on the duplicity of people. They are (ultimately) selfish things, who put their own happiness (i.e. having Marty around, with no life of his own) over his, despite what they tell him. Both Borgnine and Blaire had excellent chemistry, and I liked the subplot with the over-bearing Italian mother. The ending... well it wasn't so much an ending as it just ended. There was no real conclusion to the storyline with his mother, or to buying the butcher shop (he did get to tell of his "best friend", which was good). I just... much like the Hurt Locker (2009) or Argo (2012), if I didn't know this film won Best Picture it would have never occurred to me. It's safe, it's nice; but nothing about it is ground-breaking or daring or bold or even risqué. It's just "gentle" and well made. And Best Picture (to me) should be more than just well made niceties.

OVERALL
A sweet film, delivering solid work on all fronts. But under the surface there is just nothing there, despite the excellent calibre of work by everyone involved. A nice, harmless film.
~ rating: 3 out of 5 [grade: B]

[PretenderNX01]

If Tolkein in Love was about how a young JRR Tolkein fell through to a magical world, that both mirrored the story of the Hobbit, while also being it's own plot... I'd adore it just as much.

Somebody did do that with "George Lucas in Love", I haven't seen it but I guess it featured stuff like his backwards talking professor.

I seem to remember someone saying there was a racist characture in Fantasia (1940), but it's been so long since I've seen it. Sleeping Beauty (1959) is wonderful, free of all that (yes Briar Rose is a weak female character, but the fairies and Maleficient more than make up for it in terms of strong women).

Briar Rose isn't much weaker than the others of her era. I didn't remember all of Fantsia, TV Tropes had listed "but not too black" with a medium toned woman centaur who is half-zebra fanning Bachus.

A little more googling and I found that they cut the scene of a black girl who is half-donkey shining the hooves of a blonde centaur woman. She got cut in 1969.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Sunflower
If you look at how she was depicted, you can see why they are embarrassed.

[Kieran_Frost]

Somebody did do that with "George Lucas in Love", I haven't seen it but I guess it featured stuff like his backwards talking professor.

Did he end up falling in love with himself

Briar Rose isn't much weaker than the others of her era.

Agreed, but it still doesn't make it okay. It's a shame that we had tons of strong, independent women as the villains decades before we got our princesses up to that standard. Who of the fairies did you prefer, by the way? Mistress Flora (red), Fauna (green) or Mistress Merryweather (blue)? I was team Flora, all the way. MAKE IT PINK!!!

I didn't remember all of Fantsia, TV Tropes had listed "but not too black" with a medium toned woman centaur who is half-zebra fanning Bachus.

A little more googling and I found that they cut the scene of a black girl who is half-donkey shining the hooves of a blonde centaur woman. She got cut in 1969.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Sunflower

If you look at how she was depicted, you can see why they are embarrassed.

Oh my god!!!! WOW!!! There are... just no words...

[PretenderNX01]

Who of the fairies did you prefer, by the way? Mistress Flora (red), Fauna (green) or Mistress Merryweather (blue)? I was team Flora, all the way. MAKE IT PINK!!!

You and I are so opposites. I was always team Merryweather and wanted it blue.

Oh my god!!!! WOW!!! There are... just no words...

Yeah, sadly a standard joke at the time. The "Santa's Workshop" short has a doll that looks like that (but also gets cut out of the TV version so I didn't find out about it until later on)

And no, George Lucas didn't fall for himself it was a girl who...

[Starleafgirl]

Oh dear me, no! It simply must be green!



(I couldn't find one with the dress... lol.)

Seriously, though, Mistress Fauna ftw:

[simbob4000]

Disney really should have done another 70mm cartoon. Sleeping Beauty just looks so damn good because of it, picture wise it's the best looking cartoon they've every gone, and likely will ever do. Just a bit surprised they didn't do something like that when we were knee deep in the Disney Renaissance.

[Kieran_Frost]

You and I are so opposites. I was always team Merryweather and wanted it blue.

Ohhhhh, you b*tch!!!!

Oh dear me, no! It simply must be green!
(I couldn't find one with the dress... lol.)

Seriously, though, Mistress Fauna ftw:

I do think Fauna gets the best jokes.

FAUNA: Two tisps.... tisps, tisps, tisps.
MERRYWEATHER: Two TEAS SPOONS!!!
FAUNA: Oh, two teaspoons, hahaha, of course.