Here comes the cinephile debate of the day: After polling 846 film experts, BFI’s Sight & Sound declared Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to be the #1 greatest film of all time, topping Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story, and classics from Renoir, Murnau, Kubrick, and more of your favorite all-timers. It’s a triumph long in coming for the Hitchcock pic, which only first made Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade list in 1982 and has been working its way up the ranks of critical opinion since. Does the 2012 poll finally have it right?
Culled from Top Ten lists from 846 critics, academics, writers, and programmers, Sight & Sound’s GOAT survey is at its widest to date. The full ten:
The Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time
1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
Somewhere out there, Kim Novak is raising her fist in victory while William Friedkin – who told Movieline Citizen Kane set the bar for cinematic greatness so high, trying to match it is what keeps him going – is probably shaking his damn head.
Meanwhile, 358 filmmakers were polled for a separate director’s choice, yielding some interesting differences in opinion:
The Directors’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time
1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) and Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) (tie)
What’s the Film: Citizen Ruth (1996), available on DVD and Hulu
Why it’s an Inessential Essential: The premise — one woman’s attempt to have an abortion turns into a national debate and bidding war — was a bold choice out of the gate for writer-director Alexander Payne. Citizen Ruth is his first feature film, and like his subsequent work, it has a biting wit, absurdities from every corner, and deeply flawed characters.
Ruth (Laura Dern) is a dim-witted screw-up who is pregnant for the fifth time; her four offspring have been placed elsewhere because of her addiction to inhalants. When she is charged with a felony for huffing “patio sealant,” the judge coerces her to terminate the pregnancy. In jail, she meets anti-abortion crusaders who start a tug-of-war with pro-choice rivals over the unborn child, who becomes widely known as Baby Tanya after a clinic doctor manipulates Ruth into imagining keeping it.
Tackling this tricky subject matter, Payne found an unreal story to tell, except that part of it was real. In the DVD commentary, he and co-writer Jim Taylor reveal that the plot was inspired by the true story of a woman who was offered money by anti-abortion and pro-choice camps to honor their respective wishes for her fetus. The parallels to reality don’t stop there. In one of Dern’s best unhinged moments, Ruth screams at two overzealous medical staffers at a clinic, who then pull out all the stops and force her to watch a video of abortion footage. That seems far-fetched, though maybe not in places like Arizona, where a lawmaker recently proposed a bill that would require women to watch an abortion before having one. The state representative, Terri Proud, calls her idea “(The) Reproductive…
Full Story »I met Abel Ferrara in a café on Mulberry Street. In an hour’s time, he didn’t once take his seat. The filmmaker makes a couple of phone calls, goes to the bathroom twice, shows me the new Web series that he’s developing with Vice TV on, and points me to two different articles about his movies. Unkempt and energetic, the Bronx-born director of such New York notorieties as Ms. 45, King of New York, Bad Lieutenant, The Funeral and this week’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth is exactly what you’d imagine he’d be like if he were one of his movie’s characters.
In a way, he is. 4:44 features Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh as a couple spending their last hours together before the world ends. They’re each in their own separate but related worlds: she paints and listens to Buddhist philosophy while he talks to friends via Skype and decides if he should end two years of sobriety by getting high one last time. The loose nature of 4:44’s scenario speaks to the Cassavetes-inspired, improv-oriented nature of Ferrara’s dramas, which are often collaborative processes between actor and filmmaker. This is especially characteristic of Ferrara’s working relationship with Dafoe. “If Willem wasn’t going to play it,” Ferrara told me, “I don’t think I would have wrote the script.”
The film marks Ferrara and Dafoe’s third film together, coming after 1998’s New Rose Hotel and the 2007 ensemble piece Go Go Tales (which itself almost became a series on HBO). But more importantly, 4:44 further refines a working relationship that involves Dafoe co-creating not only his character, but also the scenes that, as Ferrara tells it, the actor is “comfortable with, that he believes in, that he understands.”
“[We have] confidence with each other…
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Tucked away in this report that Orson’s Welles’s Citizen Kane Oscar finally sold this week for $861,542, find this depressing revelation: “Underbidder David Copperfield had been eager to acquire the statuette because Welles apparently was something of a magician himself. Copperfield already owns many props from the movie.” The winner of the auction has not been identified, but whatever. “Underbidder David Copperfield.” Saddest holiday ever. [Deadline]
Comedy troupe Upright Citizen’s Brigade take their sketch and improv hijinks to the feature film format in Freak Dance, a movie that purports to spoof “every dance movie ever made.” Featuring cheesy ’80s fashion and bad ’80s movie attitudes to match, it certainly covers a lot of ground in the dance movie genre. But every dance movie there is? We’ll see about that. Upside: It does have Amy Poehler spitting lines like, ‘That music sounds like murder!’ Check it out after the jump.
The official synopsis:
FREAK DANCE is a dance musical parody in the vein of Electric Boogaloo, Step Up, Dirty Dancing, You Got Served and every other dance movie ever made. The sexy and wealthy Cocolonia must escape her roots and learn to street dance with the help of Funky Bunch, who dreams of being the best dancer ever. They must save the Fantaseez community center from the Building Department and the evil gang banger dancers before it’s too late. Will the duo be able to save their home? Only love can save them now.
Here’s the thing: Freak Dance, co-directed by Matt Besser and Neil Mahoney, seems neither original enough or comprehensive enough in its movie references, and besides, it looks like a mainstream knock-off of the indie flick The F.P. (which had a much more deadpan approach and better faux-period accoutrements) mixed with a touch of Children’s Hospital. I’m not completely sold, and time will tell if Freak Dance is solid enough to make it to audiences; it plays the Austin Film Festival next month and currently has no release date set.
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You have to be a special kind of infuckingsane to make the crazier fanboys at Comic-Con look like they’re on the right side of sane, but Welsh actor and former piece of Sienna Miller Rhys Ifans managed to do just that before a screening for The Amazing Spider-Man. Rhys, who plays The Lizard in that shit, acted like a fourteen karat cunt when a member of his entourage (the word “entourage” has hit hard times when even Rhys has one) didn’t have the right credentials and wasn’t allowed into the screening. Rhys brought the bitch, shoved a woman to get in and declared that the United States of America sucks. Rhys was not only under the influence of stupidity, but he was also under the influence of the sweet nectar.
The Wrap says that Rhys was allowed to take part in the panel, but afterward a security guard did my favorite thing ever. The guard busted a CITIZEN’S ARREST on Rhys’ ass. Sometimes when I’m bonging with friends, the good shit smoke floats into my brain, unlocks my bucket list and makes me want to issue a CITIZEN’S ARREST on one of them for smoking an illegal substance. You know, just so I can say I CITIZEN’S ARRESTED bitch. Better yet, can you CITIZEN’S ARREST yourself? That’s a question for another pass ‘n puff party….
Lt. Andra Brown explained the details of Rhys’ act of
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Whit Stillman called; he wants his title back. Deadline reports that F. Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen) will direct The Last Days of American Crime. The film — which has Sam Worthington attached to star — is an adaptation of a graphic novel about a team of crooks attempting to pull of one last heist before the government eliminates crime with a broadcast signal. Man, the future sounds awesome! [Deadline]
Every time I see someone wearing CROCS (this is an illegal offense) or hear someone blasting a Ke$hit song from their car, I want to throw on a bobby hat and declare a CITIZEN’S ARREST! CITIZEN’S ARREST! So I’m totally jealous of the paparazzo who straight up dropped a citizen’s arrest on Russell Brand’s ass at LAX today. This is according to TMZ who has tape of that mess.
Russell and Katy Perry were going through LAX this afternoon when a pap did something to put fire on his taint. The pap must’ve told Russell that his hair doesn’t look as silky smooth as a unicorn’s mane in person, because he conjured up the glittery powers of Glamberace and went after that fucker. Russell threw fists and whooped that trick! But the pap had the most fun when he got pull a citizen’s arrest Russell.
The cops at LAX eventually took over and officially arrested Russell. They took him into custody and booked him for battery.
Here’s EXCLUSIVE video of Russell’s arrest:
I so have to do that at least once this weekend.
UPDATE: And now with pictures!
