The Chorus Canon • Page 11

For a bored, lockdown project, I made myself a list of my favourite 150 films at this moment in time.

It's purely subjective, not suggesting that these films are better than 2001 or The Godfather , just a fixed list of what I like most at this point in time. A personal canon if you like.

No documentaries or shorts included, only features.

Top 150 Feature Length films.

Was fun to make, as I couldn't go over 150 films, so took a bit of swapping towards the end, but no intention of ranking it any further than that.

 

Going Pierrot le Fou tonight. This will make my Godard list:
This
Breathless
Band of Outsiders
Weekend

 

One of the great movie endings ever.


Just for shits my ranking:

Contempt
Vivre Sa Vie
Breathless
Pierrot Le Fou
Alphaville
Two or Three Things I Know About Her
Week End

 

I think Band is my favorite, but I’ve only seen each once. Breathless was the first and blew me away, but I feel like I liked Band the most

 

Masculin Feminin is the only one I have left on that 1,001 Movies list, but I want to see Band of Outsiders just as much

 

Masculin Feminin was my favorite Godard film for a long time, but Week End has a lot of striking images that I think of quite a bit.

 

I think the Godard I’ve seen is Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Made in USA, & 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her? Dunno if I’m forgetting any. I own the latter two on Criterion.

 

I generally find myself leaning towards JLG's post 60s work the past few years but the strength of his inital '60-'67 run cannot be understated. I've seen some 50+ Godard films so I'm not going to list them all but this is my top 10 features at this particular moment.

Vivre sa vie
Contempt
King Lear
Tout va bien
Notre musique
Hail Mary
The Married Woman
Histoire(s) du cinema
Breathless
Wind from the East

If I included shorts, I probably would have swapped Je vous salue, Sarajevo in there. This list would probably look different every time I make it. I'm also a massive fan of La chinoise, Goodbye to Language, and Ici et ailleurs.

 

50+ Godard is serious commitment. Bravo.

 

In the stuff I've seen since I last edited my canon I think I'd include

Ashes and Diamonds dir. Andrzej Wajda (1958)
Black Panthers dir. Agnes Varda (1968)
Wanda dir. Barbara Loden (1970)
Mauvais Sang dir. Leos Carax (1986)

Borderline:
Test Pattern dir. Shatara Michelle Ford (2020) (gonna let it sit with me more, though I think it's fantastic)
Tokyo Drifter dir. Seijun Suzuki (might go on a Seijun Suzuki run and get to know his style, which I think rules so far)
Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris dir. Terence Dixon (1971) (the filmmakers are such drips I don't want to give them too much credit but it's such a powerful document of James Baldwin, who largely takes ownership of the platform from the filmmakers, that I might end up including it)
Red Post on Escher Street dir. Sion Sono (wow!)
Can't Hardly Wait dir. Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont (given that they made Josie and the Pussycats I shouldn't have been so surprised how warm and kind of smart this was)

A couple I saw that I got a lot out of but am not really considering for inclusion, I just think they're neat: Minari, again letting it sit with me awhile, just saw it last night. Also Career Girls, understated Mike Leigh that doesn't stand with his masterpieces but his smallest, least talked about works are as strong as many current filmmaker's bests. I also rewatched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and it hits such a sweet spot for me that I might end up including it someday.

 

I thought that said Tokyo drift and said hell yeah.

 

My friend wrote on the documentaries of Anand Patwardhan, progressive Indian filmmaker. A lot of his stuff is now available on OVIDtv, excited to delve in

The Films of Anand Patwardhan

 

How to Think About Classic Hollywood’s “Problematic” Movies

 

Younger audiences definitely notice that lack of significant non-white characters whenever you show them something from more than a few years ago.

 

I am watching Smithereens

 

Huh, Susan Seidelman gree up in the neighborhood next to where I live

 

Smithereens gave me huge Safdie vibes when I saw it, was surprised they’ve never mentioned it as an influence that I’ve seen

 

I LOVE Desperately Seeking Susan. I think it's seriously underrated.

 

I need to watch that next

 

Cop Land was fucking wild. That ending is straight Taxi Driver shit. I really enjoyed that

 

It's easy to forget that Stallone can actually act when he's in the right movie.

 

Cop Land has been on my list for awhile.

 

great de niro

 

Last day to watch a perfect short film free on Vimeo!

 

Watching Close Up for the first time