dagblog - Comments for "Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be) "

I have to come back to this

Richard Day — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:46:46 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

I have to come back to this essay after I have reviewed it a few more times.

BUT:

Vertigo is a joke to me.

I never really liked Stewart at all (I am a Fonda fan for sure) and his rugs are ridiculous. hahahah

It's a Wonderful Life? Well Salon did just a fine long critique of this film and I am of several minds as they say with regard to this film.

Good communisms present as they say! hahahah

With the rise in tech, Hitchcock is just plain silly to me except:

When you go back to the 30's.

Remarkable films; 39 Steps for instance!

And Kane? Kane rocks today just like it did when it first aired. The camera shots, the development of characters, the actors for chrissakes. Stewart never 'acted'. Stewart never had the humility to act.

Orson Wells? Orson the Prima Donna is one of my favorite characters of all time!

Oh well I am just musing as they say.

But damn! Thanks for the essay!

Like I say I shall return.

I know I have seen Renoir films, they just do not come to mind right now.

To be honest, I have no idea

EmmaZahn — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:23:46 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

To be honest, I have no idea what is the greatest movie of all time and neither do any of the 846 critics, experts, and academics who voted in this year's poll. For all we know, it might be a picture that none of us have ever seen like the director's cut of Greed.

One of my hopes for online distribution of movies and television is the liberation of storytelling from the time limits and commercial hacking of at least the last 50 years. It is disappointing that so few 'content providers' are adapting to their new freedom.

I cannot pretend to recognize many of technical details that the cognescenti of films go on about. What I do notice in movies are good stories, good sets, great characters and a satisfying ending. It does not have to be a happy one but if not, it should either be cathartic or enlightening.

I really dislike movies that leave me feeling mad, bad, sad or just plain empty and that is what a lot of the movies on these critical best lists do. Example: except for the music and sets Last Picture Show was just bleh. And why is Empire of the Sun not even in their register of choices?

Still I have to give them props for recognizing Rio Bravo, my favorite all-time western as their #2.

That's enough of my early morning under-informed ramble. Second cup of coffee is kicking in. Chore time.

Counterpoint: Renoir was

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:15:12 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

Counterpoint: Renoir was French.

Ouch, touche!

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:00:54 +0000

In reply to A Touch of Evil proved that

Ouch, touché!

A Touch of Evil proved that

jollyroger — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:40:42 +0000

In reply to Vertigo the greatest film

A Touch of Evil proved that Welles was the greatest director in history: Heston acts!

Mulholland Drive top 30,

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:15:36 +0000

In reply to Vertigo the greatest film

Mulholland Drive top 30, better than Blue Velvet? Uggh. No "Brazil"? Any Kusturica on the list? I thought Raging Bull much better than Taxi Driver. Give me "Once Upon a Time in America" over Godfather. And we're going to have crap like "Magnificent Ambersons" but no RepoMan or Brazil?

I hate lists like this. I walked out of Polanski's The Pianist stunned, same with Bitter Moon. Lars von Trier's Zentropa/Europa.... Leni Riefenstahl's Olympics was almost as good as Vertov's Man with the Camera, skipping her dreadful politics....

I hate these lists. Vertigo - having a bunch of stiff acting rules, more than say Rear Window? No "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" where Liz and Dick tore up the stage psychically (sp?) for all time? No "Woodstock" or "Stop Making Sense" where the directors redefined music videos? Special award for Yip Harburg, Sam Peckinpah, Jim Thompson? No Stanley Donen for "Charade", Cukor for Philadelphia Story with fast? Too incorrect to choose Mary Poppins for blowing away kids' movie format, or "West Side Story" for updating musicals? Casablanca no longer even makes the list.

I'm not a big fan of movie or

Ramona — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:53:00 +0000

In reply to Vertigo the greatest film

I'm not a big fan of movie or book "greatest lists", but I would have to add "Bridge Over the River Kwai" as one of the greatest war movies.

I would add "Gandhi" and "Passage to India" to my favorites list. And, of course, "Citizen Kane" is a given.

On my quiet movies list, "Tender Mercies" is right up there. So is "The Last Picture Show".

On my foreign films list: "Cinema Paradiso" jumps out. And "La Strada".

Vertigo the greatest film

acanuck — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:36:36 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

Vertigo the greatest film ever? It's not even Hitchcock's best. Your post sent me to read Sight & Sound's list, and I was stunned that this was how this decade's "cineastes" voted. I found myself dissenting: "Rubbish." "Rubbish." "Rubbish."

It's as if they all concluded: "Citizen Kane will win again. No point wasting my vote." But Kane has consistently topped the list for the simple reason it is the best film ever made. Shot in 10 weeks by a novice director who dominated as its star, Kane blew every movie then being made out of the water. The sheer hubris of the jigsaw-puzzle scene, with the ginormous fireplace as background and the intimate family quarrel echoing off distant walls, earns Welles my vote as gutsiest director ever. I'll even forgive the anticlimactic revelation that Rosebud was just the name of his sleigh. (Oops, spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Too late. Sorry.)

Welles's A Touch of Evil, by the way, is his next-best film -- even if the studio butchered it in re-editing. Worth watching for the opening (pre-credit) shot alone.

I don't know about La Regle du jeu, but I see Renoir's La Grande Illusion enters the list quite far down. I'd place it higher, as I would several other war (and anti-war) movies, from All Quiet on the Western Front (not on the list) to Apocalypse Now and the astonishing Dr. Strangelove. Also off Sight & Sound's list of 250 top films: Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Ronald Neame's Tunes of Glory. Two very different films, but both superbly scripted and acted (Kirk Douglas and Alec Guinness). Tunes of Glory is easily in my all-time Top Ten.

Errol Morris's documentary The Thin Blue Line squeaks in, very late in the list. All I can say is, if you haven't seen it, see it. Best documentary ever.

For me, La Regle Du Jeu,

Steven Sikes — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 06:40:05 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

For me, La Regle Du Jeu, Citizen Kane - the greatest films; with the Renoir just slightly better.

I've never seen the movie you

Ramona — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 02:38:00 +0000

In reply to Vertigo is not the greatest film of all time (but La Regle du jeu just might be)

I've never seen the movie you describe here, but IMO, almost any movie would be better than Vertigo. I never understood the appeal. I thought it was boring and when it wasn't boring, it was overwrought. And when it wasn't overwrought, it was boring. Otherwise, it was just a badly acted movie with a silly plot.