Lists, lists, lists (sigh)--Hamlet, 2011

Jean-Luc Godard

Lists use to be all the rage--remember The Book of Lists? They still hold a fascination and are inevitable at year's (season, sessions, etc) end. I pay attention to those lists made by people (or institutions) that I respect. Sometimes I'm looking for confirmation that in some way our tastes match-up (after all, if Einstein liked it, too, then we must share other qualities!) And this reason, ah vanity, is most often why I look to see what my beloved artists like. While that might get me on the date, so to speak, it's what surprising on the lists that intrigues and brings me back to these inevitable "to do" lists of what I need to see.

And, most fascinating of all lists, are old lists. They are snapshots of what mattered in the zeitgeist and to the artist. For example, my friend Alain Hertay re-posted this fascinating compilation of Jean-Luc Godard's list for the Cahier du Cinema.  it is a decade of decadence from on the masters of cinema.  Godard was one of the core members of the French New Wave--the director of Breathless and Alphaville (the two films that seem to penetrate all levels of film awareness).

The list is linked to this blog and reproduced below.  What else was I to do but immediately scan to 1958--and Vertigo did not make his list.  Yet, Hitchcock had been a shoe-in during earlier years (Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man--1956, and 1957).

By 1963, Godard had clearly reassessed his position on the film, listing Vertigo as number three on his list of the top ten English language films thus far.  His position was indeed avant garde.  Most of the world did not catch up with him until the film's first major re-issue after Hitchcock's death in 1984.  Vertigo is often in the top five, and even listed as number one with Sight and Sound.  

But what does making any list mean?  Nothing, except for whatever street cred the list maker has.  I'd say that even today, Godard is one of the coolest cats on the masters of cinema street, so his lists matter, maybe even more, today.

I've omitted the best reasons for list decadence--the conversation, argument, scholastic tussle that they spark.  And these film fisticuffs bring us back to films we may have overlooked (or looked at way too much).  For example on the ten best American sound films, I've never seen Preminger's Angel Face, Ray's Bigger than life and von Sternberg's Dishonoured.  These errors of omission on my part will be corrected soon.  Why?  Because I think his 1963 assessment stands as right on the money in 2011.  So if these films are anywhere near the overall gravitas of  their list companions, then I have missed out.






Jean-Luc Godard (from Godard on Godard [via sonicyouth.com]

Top Ten Lists
(from Cahiers du Cinema via Godard on Godard)

1956
01. Mr Arkadin (Orson Welles)
02. Elena et les hommes (Jean Renoir)
03. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock)
04. Bus Stop (Joshua Logan)
05. Slightly Scarlet (Allan Dwan)
06. The Saga of Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg)
07. Un Condamne a mort s'est echappe (Robert Bresson)
08. Fear (Roberto Rossellini)
09. Bhowani Junction (George Cukor)
10. My Sister Eileen (Richard Quine)

1957
01. Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray)
02. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
03. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin)
04. Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin)
05. Les Trois font la paire (Sacha Guitry)
06. A King in New York (Charlie Chaplin)
07. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang)
08. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Bunuel)
09. Sawdust and Tinsel (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Saint Joan (Otto Preminger)

1958
01. The Quiet American (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
02. Journey into Autumn (Ingmar Bergman)
03. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger)
04. Montparnasse 19 (Jacques Becker)
05. Une Vie (Alexandre Astruc)
06. Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
07. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
08. L'Eau vive (Francois Villiers)
09. White Nights (Luchino Visconti)
10. Le Temps des oeufs durs (Norbert Carbonnaux)

1959
01. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
02. Deux Hommes dans Manhattan (Jean-Pierre Melville)
03. Les Rendez-vous du diable (Haroun Tazieff)
04. Moi, un Noir (Jean Rouch)
05. La Tete contre les murs (Georges Franju)
06. Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Jean Renoir)
07. Hiroshima, mon amour (Alain Resnais)
08. Les Quatres cent coups (Francois Truffaut)
09. Les Cousins (Claude Chabrol)
10. Du cote de la Cote (Agnes Varda)



1960
01. Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol)
02. The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray)
03. Give a Girl a Break (Stanley Donen)
04. Sansho Dayu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
05. Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
06. Nazarin (Luis Bunuel)
07. Poem of the Sea (Alexander Dovzhenko)
08. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
09. Le Testament d'Orphee (Jean Cocteau)
10. Tirez sur le pianiste (Francois Truffaut)



1961
01. Two Rode Together (John Ford)
02. La Pyramide humaine (Jean Rouch)
03. Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (Jean Renoir)
04. Les Godelureaux (Claude Chabrol)
05. Paris Nous Appartient (Jacques Rivette)
06. Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti)
07. Exodus (Otto Preminger)
08. Lola (Jacques Demy)
09. Era Notte a Roma (Roberto Rossellini)
10. The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse (Fritz Lang)



1962
01. Hatari! (Howard Hawks)
02. Vanina Vanini (Roberto Rossellini)
03. Through a Glass, Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
04. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut)
05. Le Signe du Lion (Eric Rohmer)
06. Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
07. The Flaming Years (Alexander Dovzhenko)
08. Sweet Bird of Youth (Richard Brooks)
09. Une Grosse Tete (Claude de Givray)
10. Ride the High Country [G.B. Guns in the Afternoon] (Sam Peckinpah)


1963
01. Proces de Jeanne d'Arc (Robert Bresson)
02. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
03. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
04. The Chapman Report (George Cukor)
05. Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier)
06. Donovan's Reef (John Ford)
07. Muriel (Alain Resnais)
08. The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
09. Irma la Douce (Billy Wilder)
10. Two Weeks in Another Town (Vincente Minnelli)


1964
01. I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi)
02. Gertrud (Carl Dreyer)
03. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
04. Man's Favourite Sport? (Howard Hawks)
05. The Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
06. A Distant Trumpet (Raoul Walsh)
07. Love with the Proper Stranger (Robert Mulligan)
08. Cheyenne Autumn (John Ford)
09. La Ragazza di Bube (Luigi Comencini)
10. L'Amour a la chaine (Claude de Givray)


1965
01. The Enchanted Desna (Alexander Dovzhenko)
02. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
03. Journal d'une femme en blanc (Claude Autant-Lara)
04. Young Cassidy (Ford-Cardiff)
05. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
06. Gun Hawk (Edward Ludwig)
07. Vidas Secas (Nelson Pereira dos Santos)
08. Yoyo (Pierre Etaix)
09. Lilith (Robert Rossen)
10. The Unworthy Old Peter and Pavla (Forman-Allio)

Ten Best American Sound Films 

(December 1963-January 1964 issue)
01. Scarface (Howard Hawks) 
02. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin) 
03. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock) 
04. The Searchers (John Ford) 
05. Singin' in the Rain (Kelly-Donen) 
06. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)
07. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray) 08. Angel Face (Otto Preminger) 
09. To Be or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
10. Dishonoured (Josef von Sternberg)