#tspdt1000

[odylism]

I’ve been tracking my progress as I watch the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They Top 1000 films in order of release over on Twitter since July of 2021. Since I’m migrating back here it makes sense to get back on my bullshit here. I’m going to try to finish the 1930s movies before the end of the year.

I’ve skipped Duck Soup (1933), Design for Living (1933), It Happened One Night (1934), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The 39 Steps (1939),  and Top Hat (1935) since I’ve seen those fairly recently. 

Land Without Bread (1933)

Another fake documentary. It’s impressive how long it took for non-heavily manipulated documentaries to emerge as a genre. I can’t recommend it because it’s boring and there’s lots of unsimulated violence against animals.

L’Atalante (1934)

Just cats. Cats everywhere .

Man of Aran (1934)

Another fake documentary. This one has some stirring and beautiful imagery of Ireland in service of the “man vs. nature” theme. It’s no more realistic than its forefather Nanook of the North.

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

This movie is very horny. Possibly more horny than any of the other Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations. I guess when Catherine the Great is the subject matter, things tend to trend toward the horny. There’s an abundance of lovely sets and terrible wigs. 

It’s a Gift (1934)

W.C. Fields’ character’s wife is depicted as a shrill harpy. Thing is... she’s right about everything and deserves better. I’m glad that we’ve moved past W.C. Fields as a society.

Triumph of the Will (1935)

[Photo not found]

I’d seen clips of this in school, but I’d never watched the whole thing before. It’s important to include for context and it’s significant influence on later works, but fucking yikes. It reminded me a lot of Sergei Eisenstein’s works.

A Night at the Opera (1935)

‘30s comedy can age surprisingly well, as demonstrated by the Marx Brothers in this film. Sure, the plot is veneer thin, but not everything has to be deep.

The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1935)

I’m mad about the number of Renoir films on this list. The plots sound interesting, then they’re executed in the list interesting way possible.

Modern Times (1936)

I take back what I said about Gold Rush being where to start with Chaplin for the uninitiated. It’d been a really long time, so I’d forgotten just how charming this film is. Still mostly silent, it would be more approachable for someone who isn’t accustomed to intertitles or overly expressive silent acting.

By the Bluest of Seas (1936)

Another film with a veneer thin plot, but this time in the USSR.

Street Angel (1937)

[Photo not found]

This film was interesting in the beginning when it was a weird jukebox musical, but then it slid into a serious plot about keeping one of the characters out of the sex work trade. This is a common plot in a lot of Japanese media from around this time, so I’m not surprised to see it also pop up in a Chinese work. It was a bit of whiplash.

Pépé le Moko (1937)

Pépé is the saddest boy in the Casbah. Come watch him be super sad as a result of his life choices for 90 minutes.

There are some lovely shots of Algiers.

[onethousandmovies]

413. Election, 1999. USA.

D. Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne and his camp seem to have a knack for casting. Sideways, Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt: all of his best films are marked by smart actors giving inimitable portrayals of gut-punchingly fucked-up people. I can't imagine anyone else other than Reese Witherspoon as the psychotically ambitious Tracy Flick. Just great casting all around.

[celluloidfire]

I hit 38% completion yesterday....

I just know that a few years from now I'm going to get 99.8% of the way through the TSPDT 1000 list and then sit there looking at the Oldboy and Funny Games DVD's not knowing what to do.

[onethousandmovies]

412. Sansho the Bailiff, 1954. Japan.

D. Kenji Mizoguchi

Japanese film in the 50's had the market absolutely cornered on brutal and balletic tragedy. The darkest of Shakespeare has nothing on Mizoguchi. Sansho will break you into a million beautiful glittering pieces and then sweep you under it's huge, heavy rug of sadness.

[onethousandmovies]

411. La Ronde, 1950. France.

D. Max Ophuls

French charm on steroids.

That's a good thing.

[onethousandmovies]

409. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, 1966. Italy.

D. Sergio Leone

Shootin' hats offa heads. It's clearly his favorite trick. Cheeky gunslinger.

[onethousandmovies]

408. Zero for Conduct, 1933. France. 

D. Jean Vigo

I like when it's a loud hullabaloo and then it goes suddenly quiet. I like when it's a flurry of movement and then abrupt slow-motion. I like the whimsy, I like the absurdity, I like the bite hiding underneath.

All in all, it was a delight, and I liked it.

[onethousandmovies]

407. Nostalghia, 1983. Italy.

D. Andrei Tarkovsky

This is my third Tarkovsky, and if I can sense any trend it is this: it is like being suspended in an alternate universe. Suspended, and spellbound. It's a marvelous feeling.

[onethousandmovies]

405. Alice in the Cities, 1974. West Germany.

D. Wim Wenders

Lovely photography (that grain!), a dream-like pace, and dialogue that occasionally slips into the existential in a completely unpretentious way make this a really enjoyable, almost charming film to watch. And sometimes when people say "charming" they really mean "it was fun and it didn't make me think too hard" but that is not the case here. This feels light as air, but it is filled to the brim with meaning and substance. I loved it.

[onethousandmovies]

404. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, 1966. France.

D. Jean-Luc Godard

Okay, but why are we whispering?

[onethousandmovies]

Apologies for my Absence.

It's that time of year again, when TSPDT throws a big giant kink in my project by shaking everything up on me. Time to get it sorted out again!

With the February 2014 update, we

LOST:

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 

Broadway Danny Rose 

The Childhood of Maxim Gorky 

Forbidden Planet 

The 47 Ronin 

Gandhi 

The Intruder 

Les Maitres Fous 

One, Two, Three 

Plein Soleil  

The Red and The White 

The Shanghai Gesture 

3 Women

Variety 

GAINED:

Titanic

Arrivee d'un Train a L' Ciotat

Alice

Crash *(returning to list, previously blogged)

The Last of the Mohicans

Gregory's Girl *(returning to list, previously blogged)

The Verdict *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Haxan

The Man in the White Suit *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Female Trouble *(returning to list, previously blogged)

Winchester '73 *(returning to list, previously blogged)

So there we have it.  If I am not mistaken, (and I very likely am), this puts us to push through 2014 from #401. Still 40% completion. Nice and tidy. We will get started again very soon - It's spring break and I am screening like crazy!

[onethousandmovies]

400. Floating Weeds, 1959. Japan.

D. Yasujirō Ozu

I have never seen such astonishing mise en scene. It is an ode to geometry. It is an ode to the color red. 

A tremendously beautiful film, exuding grace and harmony and balance in that way that only Ozu can seem to do. The composition is stunning, the performances are powerful, the story simple but moving.

It's Ozu. So naturally, it's lovely all over.

[onethousandmovies]

397. Melancholia, 2011. Denmark.

D. Lars von Trier

A polarizing film, it seems. I liked it. Like a daydream, mesmerizing in a detached sort of way. And Dunst's portrayal of clinical depression is dead on for this atmosphere.

[onethousandmovies]

[CORRECTION]

372. Madchen In Uniform, 1931. Germany.

D. Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich

Welp. I watched the wrong one last time. I watched the remake. It happens.

This one is more heartbreaking than the later one. But only slightly. It's just so earnest! Beautiful.

[onethousandmovies]

390. Oldboy, 2003. South Korea.

D. Park Chan-wook

I did it. I finally made myself watch Oldboy. I say "made myself" because I've been terrified of it. I had heard how violent it was and that is usually enough to put me off a film for a couple of years. I'm such a baby. But I needed to watch this: I had also heard that it was too brilliant to miss. Also- it is on the TSPDT list and I couldn't avoid it forever.

It was worth it. I'm glad I waited until I was ready. And thankfully, it didn't let me down. It is worth every bit of the praise it receives. As violent as it is, nothing compares to the tragedy this film puts you through. It's wonderfully balanced, and completely heartbreaking. The revenge comes from all angles, and it is relentless, and though the measures are absolutely extreme, every action feels somehow necessary to the film. No moment is wasted. That's a rare quality in a film.

It hurts. But it's a beautiful hurt.

[onethousandmovies]

387. Hoop Dreams, 1994. USA.

D. Steve James

No manufactured happy endings in documentary filmmaking: that's what makes this film so satisfying. It's dedicated, and lasting, and true. Good and bad, this is/was life for these kids/adolescents/young adults. It's tough and real, and sometimes, really awesome.