The 1991 Mini-List

[swo17]

1991: The Year TMDaines Broke

Ha!

And yes, good luck with everything, TMDaines!

[brundlefly]

Come on! Priorities, people! (Congratulations!)

I need to find better excuses for the months I bail.

[knives]

Congrats man. Movies, as great as they are, just aren’t as fun as the kiddos.

[TMDaines]

Thanks all. I do miss watching films. January and February Letterboxd diary months start off strong, then we nosedive!

[knives]

Submitted a truly tough list to make. Something like ten impossible cuts to make, though my top four were immovable.

[John Cope]

1991 is one of my favorite movie years. So much that's so great.

[swo17]

Some political shorts, for those that miss the politics thread:



Cruel Rhythm (Richard Kerr)
This is on an excellent Black Zero disc. Stately landscapes superimposed with images of an American flag proudly waving could come across as starkly patriotic given the right soundtrack, but instead Kerr laces his film with anxious sound bytes about the leadup to the Gulf War. What did we ever do to Canada to deserve this?

Hear My Cry (Maciej Drygas)
Available on the Nina/PWA set dedicated to the director. Illustrates well how you can put literally 100% of your conviction into a cause and it won't matter in the slightest to many people, because some shiny doodad distracted them when you were making your big statement, or because they would have had to turn their head slightly to see it, or because they found it offputting that you gave 100% of yourself instead of 99%

L'Ayant-droit (Maurice Lemaître)
Available on a Re:voir disc. Fascinating experimental work about censorship of anti-establishment viewpoints. zedz wrote it up well here

[swo17]

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1991

VOTE THROUGH MARCH 31

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

As a reminder, lists are due tonight

[swo17]

The 1991 List

Heil Hitler!



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. Barton Fink (Joel & Ethan Coen) 284/15(8)/1
02. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme) 258/14(6)/1
03. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette) 233/12(7)/2
04. 牯嶺街少年殺人事件 [Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian] [A Brighter Summer Day] (Edward Yang) 217/11(6)/1(x4)
05. 大红灯笼高高挂 [Da hong deng long gao gao gua] [Raise the Red Lantern] (Zhang Yimou) 207/12(7)/2(x3)
06. La Double Vie de Véronique [Podwójne życie Weroniki] [The Double Life of Véronique] (Krzysztof Kieślowski) 206/12(5)/1(x3)
07. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg) 188/11(6)/2
08. JFK (Oliver Stone) 143/8(3)/2(x2)
09. Homicide (David Mamet) 128/8(2)/1
10. Europa (Lars von Trier) 123/9/7
11. The Adjuster (Atom Egoyan) 115/6(3)/2
12. Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch) 107/7(2)/5(x2)
13. Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton) 102/7(2)/1
14. Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks) 99/6(3)/4(x3)
15. Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro [Germany Year 90 Nine Zero] (Jean-Luc Godard) 94/5(3)/2(x3)
16. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron) 93/7(1)/4
17. City of Hope (John Sayles) 92/5(1)/1
18. Prospero's Books (Peter Greenaway) 90/5(2)/1
19. The Fisher King (Terry Gilliam) 88/7/8
20. Härlig är jorden [World of Glory] (Roy Andersson) 87/4(3)/1(x2)
21. Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat) 82/5(2)/5(x2)
22. My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant) 81/7/10
23. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf [The Lovers on the Bridge] (Leos Carax) 79/4(2)/2
24. Trust (Hal Hartley) 77/5(2)/2
25. Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott) 76/7/6
26. Tous les matins du monde [All the Mornings of the World] (Alain Corneau) 68/6(1)/1
27. Tacones lejanos [High Heels] (Pedro Almodóvar) 67/4(3)/4
(tie) おもひでぽろぽろ [Omoide poro poro] [Only Yesterday] (Isao Takahata) 67/5/6
29. Bis ans Ende der Welt [Until the End of the World] (Wim Wenders) 64/7/6
30. Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese) 62/5/6
31. Slacker (Richard Linklater) 61/5(1)/1
32. Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair) 59/3(1)/1
(tie) 阮玲玉 [Yuen ling yuk] [Center Stage] (Stanley Kwan) 59/3(1)/4
34. Shadows and Fog (Woody Allen) 46/4/10
35. 八月の狂詩曲 [Hachigatsu no kyōshikyoku] [Rhapsody in August] (Akira Kurosawa) 45/2(1)/1
(tie) Jungle Fever (Spike Lee) 45/4/8
37. あの夏、いちばん静かな海。 [Ano natsu ichiban shizukana umi] [A Scene at the Sea] (Takeshi Kitano) 44/3/8
(tie) Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise) 44/4/11
39. A Brief History of Time (Errol Morris) 42/4/7
40. The Leader, His Driver, and the Driver's Wife (Nick Broomfield) 40/3/9
41. Merci la vie [Thank You, Life] (Bertrand Blier) 39/3/7
42. Grand Canyon (Lawrence Kasdan) 38/2/7(x2)
(tie) Let Him Have It (Peter Medak) 38/2/7(x2)
(tie) আগন্তুক [Agantuk] [The Stranger] (Satyajit Ray) 38/3(1)/2
(tie) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds) 38/3/8
(tie) Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow) 38/4/10
47. The Prince of Tides (Barbra Streisand) 37/2/6
(tie) The Rapture (Michael Tolkin) 37/3(1)/5
49. Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash) 35/4/10
50. Riff-Raff (Ken Loach) 34/3(1)/5

ALSO-RANS

Black Robe (Bruce Beresford) 33/3(1)/4
Highway Patrolman (Alex Cox) 32/2/7
Edward II (Derek Jarman) 31/2(1)/4
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro) 31/2(1)/5
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr & George Hickenlooper) 31/2/8
Poison (Todd Haynes) 30/5/14
The Sandman (Paul Berry) 28/3/8
力王 [Lik wong] [Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky] (Lam Ngai Kai) 27/2/10
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr) 26/2(1)/5
Bugsy (Barry Levinson) 25/2/9
Fried Green Tomatoes (Jon Avnet) 25/2/9

Jacquot de Nantes (Agnès Varda) 22/2/10
35 Up (Michael Apted) 20/2/10
陽炎 [Kagerō] [Heat Wave] (Hideo Gosha) 20/2/10
Mediterraneo [Mediterranean] (Gabriele Salvatores) 19/3/11
Madame Bovary (Claude Chabrol) 17/2/10
The Commitments (Alan Parker) 15/2/14
The Addams Family (Barry Sonnenfeld) 14/2/18
A Divina Comédia [The Divine Comedy] (Manoel de Oliveira) 9/2/19
Liquid Dreams (Mark S. Manos) 6/2/21

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

L'Annonce faite à Marie [The Annunciation of Marie] (Alain Cuny) 2
Intimate Stranger (Alan Berliner) 3
2Pac: Brenda's Got a Baby (Albert & Allen Hughes) 25
Truth or Dare (Alek Keshishian) 9
J'embrasse pas [I Don't Kiss] (André Téchiné) 6
My Bloody Valentine: To Here Knows When (Angus Cameron) 15
La Vie des morts [The Life of the Dead] (Arnaud Desplechin) 21
Highway 61 (Bruce McDonald) 19
La mujer de Benjamín [Benjamin's Woman] (Carlos Carrera) 3
Sale comme un ange [Dirty Like an Angel] (Catherine Breillat) 9
Nuit et jour [Night and Day] (Chantal Akerman) 2
邊走邊唱 [Bian zou bian chang] [Life on a String] (Chen Kaige) 10
Prime Suspect (Christopher Menaul) 16
Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin) 19
Cool as Ice (David Kellogg) 19
Pixies: Head On (David Wild) 16
Secret Friends (Dennis Potter) 23
Frankie and Johnny (Garry Marshall) 24
Ashakara (Gérard Louvin) 5
William S. Burroughs: Thanksgiving Prayer (Gus Van Sant) 11
Ambition (Hal Hartley) 24
Theory of Achievement (Hal Hartley) 22
雙旗鎮刀客 [Shuang qi zhen dao ke] [The Swordsman in Double Flag Town] (He Ping) 6
Toto le héros [Toto the Hero] (Jaco Van Dormael) 21
Thank You and Good Night! (Jan Oxenberg) 25
경마장 가는 길 [Gyeongmajang ganeun kil] [The Road to the Racetrack] (Jang Sun-woo) 7
Flirting (John Duigan) 16
Fishing with John (John Lurie) 22
Balloon (Ken Lidster) 18
Whore (Ken Russell) 24
Mr. Bungle: Travolta (Kevin Kerslake) 20
Priča iz Hrvatske [Story from Croatia] (Krsto Papić) 23
Rush (Lili Fini Zanuck) 14
Makiusap Ka sa Diyos [A Plea to God] (Lino Brocka) 14
夢醒血未停 [Mung sing huet mei ting] [Dreaming the Reality] (Lu Chun-ku) 21
The Inland Sea (Lucille Carra) 22
Usłyszcie mój krzyk [Hear My Cry] (Maciej J. Drygas) 10
Novembertage [November Days] (Marcel Ophuls) 12
La casa del sorriso [The House of Smiles] (Marco Ferreri) 25
Rambling Rose (Martha Coolidge) 24
Neha [Tenderness] (Martin Šulík) 8
L'Ayant-droit (Maurice Lemaître) 21
Liebestraum (Mike Figgis) 3
Dogfight (Nancy Savoca) 11
Queen of Diamonds (Nina Menkes) 16
The Doors (Oliver Stone) 6
Dostoevsky's Travels (Paweł Pawlikowski) 12
Closet Land (Radha Bharadwaj) 4
The Doctor (Randa Haines) 8
Cruel Rhythm (Richard Kerr) 9
The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan) 1
Bedhead (Robert Rodriguez) 24
Backdraft (Ron Howard) 17
City Slickers (Ron Underwood) 11
夢二 [Yumeji] (Seijun Suzuki) 10
妖怪ハンター ヒルコ [Yōkai hantā hiruko] [Hiruko the Goblin] (Shinya Tsukamoto) 23
Crack Glass Eulogy (Stan Brakhage) 16
Close My Eyes (Stephen Poliakoff) 6
Kafka (Steven Soderbergh) 24
Το μετέωρο βήμα του πελαργού [To meteoro vima tou pelargou] [The Suspended Step of the Stork] (Theo Angelopoulos) 7
The Last Boy Scout (Tony Scott) 22
黃飛鴻 [Wong fei hung] [Once Upon a Time in China] (Tsui Hark) 5
Amantes [Lovers: A True Story] (Vicente Aranda) 20
A Grande Arte [Exposure] (Walter Salles) 20
Cerro Torre [Schrei aus Stein] [Scream of Stone] (Werner Herzog) 10
Malina (Werner Schroeter) 7
息子 [Musuko] [My Sons] (Yōji Yamada) 22

20 lists submitted

[domino harvey]

Thanks swo (and to the left)
Thanks swo (and to the left)
Thanks swo (and to the left)

[knives]

Thanks Swo.

[domino harvey]

One of the least representative reflections of my tastes I've seen in some time-- I think I only voted for four films out of the top 25 (though some of those remaining I did enjoy, just not enough to list)

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks swo!

1. Double Life of Veronique
2. The Lovers on the Bridge
3. The Silence of the Lambs
4. JFK
5. Naked Lunch
6. Homicide
7. A Brighter Summer Day
8. City of Hope
9. Merci la vie
10. Point Break

[andyli]

Thanks swo for the nice work again! Two years in a row a Coens' film tops the chart. People sure love them. And four people (me included) voted for A Brighter Summer Day as number one and it still only ends up at number four...

[thirtyframesasecond]

I keep missing these but my top ten would've been:

Raise the Red Lantern
Center Stage
One False Move
Proof
The Stranger (Ray)
The Lovers on the Bridge
The Double Life of Veronique
Black Robe
Homicide
Poison

[swo17]

You're in luck, at least one of those films is eligible for the 1992 list!

[thirtyframesasecond]

You're in luck, at least one of those films is eligible for the 1992 list!

One False Move? Do we use IMDB as I swore that was a 1991 film.

[swo17]

IMDb, Letterboxd, and other sources are going to disagree about a number of films. I'm assigning films to years in my SNAPSЖOT database, which you can see by either typing in a film in the search bar there or by clicking on the list of eligible titles in the first post of each of these mini-list threads.

For One False Move specifically, that only had an unceremonious film festival screening in 1991 before opening wider in 1992. In a situation like that I will generally assign the film to the later year. Note that both Criterion and Imprint categorize it as a 1992 film as well

[geoffcowgill]

1- Barton Fink
2- Naked Lunch
3- The Silence of the Lambs
4- Raise the Red Lantern
5- The Adjuster
6- Cape Fear
7- A Brighter Summer Day
8- The Fisher King
9- City of Hope
10- The Double Life of Veronique
11- Dogfight
12- Only Yesterday
13- Thelma & Louise
14- La Belle Noisseuse
15- Jungle Fever
16- Until The End of the World
17- Homicide
18- Bugsy
19- Boyz N The Hood
20- Night On Earth
21- Van Gogh
22- Riff Raff
23- The Commitments
24- Beauty and the Beast
25- Madame Bovary

Thanks, swo.

[yoshimori]

20. Härlig är jorden [World of Glory] (Roy Andersson) 87/4(3)/1(x2)

This little film was my - and apparently someone else's - top choice! And three of the four voters had it in their top 5s. Not sure how widely seen this is, but for me it's Andersson's best work, and I'd recommend those who don't know it/him to seek it out. [Sadly, it's not, I understand, in the Curzon box set.]

[swo17]

It was my #2 for the year!

[therewillbeblus]

I should've placed Barton Fink in my top ten

I enjoy many interpretations of the ending, but my favorite is a mood of acceptance in the face of confusion. This feels like the Coens' ethos in many respects - the world is an insane, sad, and painful place, but we have to live in it. Barton holding something unknown, while witnessing something familiar yet inscrutable, is both comforting and dislodging. He's in a state of limbo, no longer having any sense of grounding that previously gave him calm, but was a false security. There's something about embracing one's state of impermanence and the limitations to agency that can also calm, because one doesn't need to cling to fallacious constructs. The final shot is serene, if also unsettling. The Coens understand that it's impossible to have one without the other, to achieve a 'complete' state of catharsis to sustain. The moment allows Barton to slow down, pause and just 'be', even if life will resume and he has no idea what to make of this serene moment.