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Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:38 pm
by colinr0380
Sadly not, it only got on two lists with
Sophie Ivan also picking it. The Sight and Sound 2011 poll did produce a top 11 though. I'll spoiler tag the final list below:
1. The Tree of Life
2. A Separation
3. The Kid with a Bike
4. Melancholia
5. The Artist
=6. The Turin Horse
=6. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
8. We Need To Talk About Kevin
9. Le quattro volte
=10. This Is Not A Film
=10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
EDIT: Though I'm not sure how they arrived at this result since
my tally of the results is giving a different answer!
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:14 pm
by The Fanciful Norwegian
I'll bet White didn't see War Horse in time for the S&S poll -- the first LA/NYC screenings were just held on Thursday, and the early November previews were non-press screenings in places like Bethesda, Maryland and Leawood, Kansas. Tintin has had several NYC screenings this month so White could've seen it in time, depending on the poll's cutoff date.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:42 pm
by hearthesilence
Sight & Sound ballot:
Armond White
New York Post, USA
Incendies
Denis Villeneuve, Canada/France
A moving post-9/11 vision of our utter connectivity that simultaneously recalls Greek tragedy and the epic-intimate miracles of 70s American films.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Rupert Wyatt, USA/Hungary/UK/Australia/Canada
A spirited re-think of the 1968 original captures the vengeful madness of our times – confirmation that movies can be pop and still be art.
Attack the Block
Joe Cornish, UK/France
A ghetto action flick yet amazingly prescient about London’s long hot summer and perfect antidote to what Morrissey called “the Royal Dredding”.
Paul
Greg Mottola, USA/UK/Japan
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg come to America and find more fun and depth than ever before in our pop culture/sci-fi heritage.
Film Socialisme
Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France
Visionary as ever, titled to note the passing of outmoded technology and philosophy.
Reflections:
You’d expect a major publishing boom about a film critic to be a heartening occasion. Think again: this year’s biography of Pauline Kael and a high-toned collection of her writing has, instead, revealed the sorry, fractious state of contemporary film commentary as critics bash her and her legacy. Yes, the Age of Movies has passed, as the title of Godard’s Film Socialisme slyly jests.
Kael’s way of taking movies personally as a part of a humanist tradition is no longer apparent in the current stumbling into nihilism that pervades the festival circuit and passes for contemporary film culture. Movies that sustain humane values are ignored for political fads and negativity. When Cannes crowned Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, it was apparent that aesthetics judgment is over, too. It’s more difficult than ever to defend a personal view of cinema, as Godard surely knows. That’s why Kael’s bio has a Once Upon a Time aspect.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:49 pm
by domino harvey
A ghetto action flick yet amazingly prescient about London’s long hot summer and perfect antidote to what Morrissey called “the Royal Dredding”.
What the fuck does this even mean
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:55 pm
by The Narrator Returns
I'm kind of shocked that I agree with many of Armond's picks.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:58 pm
by swo17
domino harvey wrote:A ghetto action flick yet amazingly prescient about London’s long hot summer and perfect antidote to what Morrissey called “the Royal Dredding”.
What the fuck does this even mean
London's long hot summer = the riots
Royal Dredding = Prince William's wedding
Attack the Block = British movie about kids fighting aliens
i.e. the three times Armond White was reminded of the existence of Britain this year
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:08 am
by MichaelB
Apparently
Attack the Block only just missed a spot on
Sight & Sound's Top Ten - Armond and I were by no means the only people to vote for it.
Which is rather amusing given Nothing's
ranting and raving about the film earlier this year. Now that even his beloved Armond has "jumped on the bandwagon", as he put it, I wonder if he ever got round to seeing it?
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:26 am
by Napoleon
I'm not sure it would be in my ten best films of the year* but Armond's summary of Attack the Block is perfect. Cornish does a good job of getting inside the odd morality of the gang. It wasn't that warm this summer though!
*That is if I'd actually seen ten films released this year
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:03 pm
by tavernier
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:19 pm
by The Narrator Returns
At first I actually agreed with some of his choices. And then I got to Jack and Jill > The Descendants.
This guy really wants attention.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:38 pm
by swo17
Your Highness, The Sitter > Midnight in Paris
I honestly don't see how any human being could think this, even if they hated
Midnight in Paris. (And I consider myself a DGG apologist!)
Also, way to call out Farhadi's "Iranian didacticism."
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:01 pm
by matrixschmatrix
The Narrator Returns wrote:At first I actually agreed with some of his choices. And then I got to Jack and Jill > The Descendants.
This guy really wants attention.
The whole form of that list is really destructive and designed to prevent the possibility of any real discussion about anything. Like... looking at his list, you would think it impossible to enjoy
both War Horse and
Hugo or whatever. And that's ignoring the comparisons that make no sense in the first place (what on earth does
Uncle Boonmee have to do with
Paul?)
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:19 pm
by James Mills
MichaelB wrote:Apparently
Attack the Block only just missed a spot on
Sight & Sound's Top Ten - Armond and I were by no means the only people to vote for it.
Which is rather amusing given Nothing's
ranting and raving about the film earlier this year. Now that even his beloved Armond has "jumped on the bandwagon", as he put it, I wonder if he ever got round to seeing it?
Hell, I think it's still my favorite film of the year (albeit I haven't
really liked anything yet). Rampart is its only competition for me thus far.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:31 pm
by Mr Sausage
swo17 wrote:Also, way to call out Farhadi's "Iranian didacticism."
Just before he calls out Weerasethakul's "Asian obscurantism."
Armond White: catching didactic Iranians and inscrutable Asians since 2011.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:56 pm
by joshua
I'm having a hard time thinking of a definition of nihilism that would even relate to Cronenberg's body of work, much less one that would provide him with crutch-like excuses to favor. And one-gunmanship? Sheesh, does this guy walk around with the first printing of Roget's Thesaurus or what?
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:43 am
by Perkins Cobb
You have to give the guy points for longevity. Hoberman's out at the Voice and White is still comparing apples and oranges at ... wait, who the fuck does he write for now?
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:47 am
by Professor Wagstaff
Is he still head of the NYFCC or did the organization wise up after last year's fiasco?
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:51 am
by tavernier
That's a rotating position, each year there's a new chairman...it was John Anderson this year.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:20 am
by rs98762001
The Narrator Returns wrote:At first I actually agreed with some of his choices.
You must be joking. I'd have thought the fact that two of his first three picks are - shocker - Spielberg movies, and particularly mediocre ones at that, quickly tells you all you need to know.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 2:08 am
by hollyharry
"College dropout Woody Allen..."
Hilarious. Nobody tell Armond that Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton and Hemingway didn't even go to college.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:05 am
by stroszeck
Once again he sure loves him some Spielberg...but honestly, being a contrarion is his whole schtick and without that he would be just another guy bitching about movies on the internet and handing out "stars".
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:15 am
by MichaelB
hollyharry wrote:"College dropout Woody Allen..."
Hilarious. Nobody tell Armond that Fitzgerald dropped out of Princeton and Hemingway didn't even go to college.
Spielberg was also a college dropout: he finally got his degree in 2002, 35 years later. (B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production, for the record).
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 11:11 am
by Volta
Now, I've been familiar with Armond for a while now.... but this may well be the shittiest "list" I've ever seen! (I was not expecting a
Melancholia bash AND a
Tree Of Life bash in the SAME article!!) Honestly, I don't think Armond's a troll - he's just someone with an incredibly shitty taste in cinema. He's no different from any other detractors of
Melancholia or
Tree Of Life - Those people just aren't meant to be watching movie. I value human life, and all.... but I wouldn't be against ridding the world of people like Armond. I know I'm not saying anything that any of you don't already know, but I just have to vent. (Rex Reed should be publicly castrated [drawn and quartered??] to set an example. 8-[) It's funny that nothing Armond's done has pissed me off more than this, but......!!! (I can't even conclude with anything reasonable, so I'll just end with that transcription of a frustrated guttural sound.)
By the way, I offer the possibility not to like either of those movies; but if there's one thing you can't call von Trier and Malick, it's "pretentious" or "disingenuous."
EDIT:
Mr Sausage wrote:swo17 wrote:Also, way to call out Farhadi's "Iranian didacticism."
Just before he calls out Weerasethakul's "Asian obscurantism."
Armond White: catching didactic Iranians and inscrutable Asians since 2011.
This cheered me up so much! Really got a laugh out of me!! \:D/.... But I'm still for setting an example....

Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:55 pm
by Duncan Hopper
Volta wrote:Now, I've been familiar with Armond for a while now.... but this may well be the shittiest "list" I've ever seen! (I was not expecting a Melancholia bash AND a Tree Of Life bash in the SAME article!!) Honestly, I don't think Armond's a troll - he's just someone with an incredibly shitty taste in cinema. He's no different from any other detractors of Melancholia or Tree Of Life - Those people just aren't meant to be watching movie. I value human life, and all.... but I wouldn't be against ridding the world of people like Armond. I know I'm not saying anything that any of you don't already know, but I just have to vent. (Rex Reed should be publicly castrated [drawn and quartered??] to set an example. 8-[) It's funny that nothing Armond's done has pissed me off more than this, but......!!! (I can't even conclude with anything reasonable, so I'll just end with that transcription of a frustrated guttural sound.)
By the way, I offer the possibility not to like either of those movies; but if there's one thing you can't call von Trier and Malick, it's "pretentious" or "disingenuous."
I prefer White's post to this one.
Re: The Armond White Thread
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:02 pm
by MichaelB
Duncan Hopper wrote:I prefer White's post to this one.
Yes, I have to agree - it's one thing being provocative (and I'm not at all sure that I wouldn't agree with one or two of his choices: I haven't seen
The Artist yet, but people who
really love silent cinema seem to find it insufferable), and quite another to talk about killing and/or castrating people merely for having the temerity to hold different opinions.
I know it was a "joke", but I spend a lot of time studying 20th century central/eastern European history, so you'll forgive me for not splitting my sides at the notion - in fact, only yesterday I was leafing through some early 1950s editions of the English-language
The Czechoslovak Film in the BFI library, and stumbled across a fawning obituary of Stalin (who was also on the cover!).
In any case, why is it surprising that there would be a
Melancholia/Tree of Life bashing "in the same article", since the article in question is about 2011 releases
in toto?