BOT Top 250 Films of All-Time: or How We Learned to Start Shitposting and Love the Countdown!

[The Panda]

Number 73

 

 

"As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct."

 

Synopsis

 

"Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career." - The Criterion Collection

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Hong Kong, 1962. Two neighbours meet and seek solace in each other as they discover their respective spouses are having an affair. They play-act what they will say to their spouses when they confront them with what they know. As they begin to spend more time together, they soon find that they too are falling in love and drifting into an affair. To allay neighbours’ gossip, one moves to work as a reporter in Singapore. Four years later, in Cambodia covering General de Gaulle’s visit, he finds himself unburdening the secret of this affair.

 

The above synopsis of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (IMFL) reveals three sites of intersection. First, there is the theme – the mood of love is rendered through the intersection of the sanctity of marriage and the restraint of the affair. Second, there is the space – the narrative of the story is structured through Hong Kong’s intersection with its region, including Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand (where the film was shot). Third, there is the time – history is replaced by a Jamesonian display of post-modern historicism, where the past surfaces as an intersection through the aesthetics of style.

 

The device of the intersection is a Wong Kar-wai hallmark. He has used two parallel stories since his directorial debut in 1988: triad big brother Ah Wah and his younger buddy-lackey, Fly, in As Tears Go By; teddy boy Yuddy and the cop-sailor in Days of Being Wild; cop 663 and 223’s relationships with their respective lovers in Chungking Express; the hit man and his assistant in Fallen Angels; Evil East and Poison West in Ashes of Time; and Yiu-fai and Baowing in Happy Together. Ackbar Abbas formulates this as ‘metonymic substitution’, a device of doubling where characters are interchangeable in a narrative cycle of repetition."

- Yue, Audrey. "16 In The Mood for Love: Intersections of Hong Kong Modernity." (2008).

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"''In the Mood for Love'' is probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film of the year, dizzy with a nose-against-the-glass romantic spirit that has been missing from the cinema forever, a spirit found in F. Scott Fitzgerald, the best Roxy Music and minor-key romantic movies like the forgettable 1956 ''Miracle in the Rain,'' in which the lovers' suffering is sealed because of the chasteness of the era. Sex scenes couldn't be spelled out, and as in Mr. Wong's film, yearning becomes the epoxy that holds the material together.

 

The pining here is so graceful that you may be transfixed by it. Instead of explicit physical tangles Mr. Wong eroticizes each movement of his camera, something not many others could do because no one can cut within a camera move the way he does. ''Mood'' fits the tradition of audacity at the New York Film Festival, where ''Last Tango in Paris'' once changed movies forever. This film goes so far in the other direction that there's a fetishistic fixation on clothes; the beautiful floral-patterned silk dresses worn by Ms. Cheung have a sexual charge."

- Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

 

From the Public

 

"The scenes where the main song of the film appears and the protagonists come and go in slow motion, are a cinematographic orgasm rarely achieved in the history of the cinema" - hllambis, Letterboxd

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - #95, 2022 – #75

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), S. Leone (1), L. McCarey (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (7), 1990s (5), 1980s (4), 1960s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Japan (3), Italy (2), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (8), Drama (7), Comedy (4), Epic (4), Horror (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Superhero (2), Thriller (2), Tragedy (2), Western (2), Coming of Age (1), Crime (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

 

Hong Kong steak

Makes: Two servings

A recipe from Johnrae Earl’s “Wife’s Night Out” column, published in the Chicago Tribune on Oct. 27, 1977. He credits as its source the Dragon Castle Restaurant in Whiting, Ind. Serve the steak with rice, Earl instructs.

2 1/2 teaspoons oil

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 teaspoons sake or dry sherry wine

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons each: sliced mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots.

2 ounces each: Chinese pea pods, Chinese cabbage (bok choy), sliced

1 strip steak (12 ounces)

Combine in mixing bowl 1/2 teaspoon of the oil, oyster sauce, sake, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Blend well; set aside. Heat remaining oil in wok or large skillet to smoking point. Put all vegetables into wok and cook and stir 2 minutes. Add seasoning mixture and cook and stir until gravy is lightly thickened and clear. Keep warm but do not cook further. Meanwhile, broil steak to medium rare and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Put vegetables on a hot serving platter, top with steak slices and serve immediately.

From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2014/05/27/hong-kong-steak-recipe/

 

 

 

Edited July 25 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 72

 

 

"Arriverderci."

 

Synopsis

 

"In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers." - The Movie Database

 

From the Scholar

 

"Inglourious Basterds, then, is less interested in the ethics
of war, let alone the substance of history, than in the power of
cinema, its ability to lure us into moral quicksand or hold us
in suspense. Interestingly, even as he apes certain aspects of
genre, Tarantino neglects other conventional pleasures. Todd
McCarthy noted in Variety, with that publication’s eye on the
bottom line, that “the preponderance of subtitled dialogue
might put off a certain slice of the prospective domestic audi-
ence.” And, whether intentionally or not, the multilingual,
dialogue-heavy longueurs that precede each chapter’s con-
cluding ecstasy of violence map onto Landa’s taking his time
with his victims, stringing out the small talk, having another
glass of milk, not eating the strudel before the cream arrives
(another—deliberate?—mistake, at least for Viennese culi-
nary purists). Calling the film “unforgivably leisurely, almost
glacial,” Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times also inti-
mated that “that lack of vigor almost seems to be what the
writer-director is after.” Tarantino’s motto here could be:
“Wait for the cream!”

 

When it comes, the story’s climax is as blunt an assertion
of the phantasmagorical power of cinema as the medium has
ever delivered. Shosanna and Zoller kill each other but are
resurrected as filmic images—themselves agents of death—
before flames consume the screen and then the audience.
What remains is a weird form of film as fatal dominatrix, a
close-up of Shosanna projected onto smoke —the giant face
of the chapter’s title—laughing as her viewers burn. It is at
once absurd and overwhelming, hollow and irresistible, like
that other giant face in The Wizard of Oz; like any big-screen
close-up. Perhaps this is why so much time is spent carving
swastikas into foreheads, removing scalps, pumping bullets
into Hiter’s face. In this hypercinematic world, what could be
worse than being rendered unfit for a close-up?
Inglourious Basterds both salutes and problematizes the
power of film, appreciating that bad guys as well as good can
adore and exploit this potency, and recognizing that to be a
spectator is not without moral consequence: only a thought-
less viewer will not see him or herself reflected in shots of
Hitler cackling as he watches Americans being slaughtered in
Nation’s Pride. Yet it also suggests that what one will do and
what one will watch need not coincide. While the Nazi audi-
ence laps up his on-screen slaughter, Zoller excuses himself
from the theater. “I don’t like watching this part,” he says.
Perhaps he felt it was a little late in the day for explosions and
war. Like so many things, it depends on your idea of fun."

- Walters, Ben. "Debating Inglourious Basterds." Film Quarterly 63, no. 2 (2009): 19-22.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Spelling may not be Quentin Tarantino’s forte, but his grasp of language (both verbal and visual) is peerless. Yet though the writer-director was once widely imitated, he has now settled into an idiosyncratic groove that puts off more people than it attracts, and it’s doubtful Inglourious Basterds will redress the imbalance. Detractors and proponents alike will see what they want to see in this two-and-a-half-hour World War II fable, which hits all the beats of a retribution-laden genre piece without ever entirely satiating character or audience bloodlust.

 

Tarantino’s violence, however, has gained resonance and horror. That’s evident from the slow-burn opening sequence, in which Nazi colonel Hans Landa (Waltz) uses snake-oil floridness to make a farmer (Denis Menochet) confess that he’s hiding a Jewish family under his floorboards. Waltz has the showier role, but Tarantino makes sure to juxtapose the SS agent’s verbose charms with close-ups of Menochet’s gradually crumbling features. It’s devastating in ways that only movies allow, and also lays down the tonally twisted groundwork for the film’s apocalyptic finale, which rewrites history with ambiguous aplomb." - Keith Uhlich, Time Out

 

 

From the Public

 

"me in 2009: wow! something we can all agree on is that nazis are bad! what a horrifying period in history! haha brad pitt's really hot in this movie!

 

me in 2017: My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I'm putting together a special team, and I need me eight soldiers. Eight Jewish-American soldiers. Now, y'all might've heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we'll be leaving a little earlier. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nazis. Now, I don't know about y'all, but I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of a fuckin' air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed. That's why any and every son of a bitch we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're gonna die. Now, I'm the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are. And they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German won't not be able to help themselves but to imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us. And when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with. Sound good?"

- allison, Letterboxd

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #58, 2013 - #70, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - #57, 2018 - #74, 2020 - #67, 2022 – Unranked

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), S. Leone (1), L. McCarey (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (8), 1990s (5), 1980s (4), 1960s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Japan (3), Italy (2), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (8), Drama (7), Comedy (4), Epic (4), Horror (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Superhero (2), Thriller (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Western (2), Coming of Age (1), Crime (1), Neorealism (1), Satire (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Colonel Hans Landa's Apple Strudel

 

Ingredients:

1 x 250g Filo pastry pack

100g Unsalted butter (melted)

4 Large Bramley apples (about 800g once peeled and deseeded)

100g Pecan nuts

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg

Three slices of white bread

80g Demerara Sugar

80g Light brown muscavado sugar

100g Sultanas

Pinch of salt

6 tbsp Dark rum

Icing sugar for dusting

 

Methods in the link: https://www.shortlist.com/news/how-to-make-the-apple-strudel-from-inglourious-basterds

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 71

 

 

"Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?"

 

Synopsis

 

"In this chilling adaptation of the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris, the astonishingly versatile director Jonathan Demme crafted a taut psychological thriller about an American obsession: serial murder. As Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who enlists the help of the infamous Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter to gain insight into the mind of another killer, Jodie Foster subverts classic gender dynamics and gives one of the most memorable performances of her career. As her foil, Anthony Hopkins is the archetypal antihero—cultured, quick-witted, and savagely murderous—delivering a harrowing portrait of humanity gone terribly wrong. A gripping police procedural and a disquieting immersion into a twisted psyche, The Silence of the Lambs swept the Academy Awards® (best picture, director, screenplay, actress, actor) and remains a cultural touchstone." - The Criteriono Collection

 

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From the Scholar

 

"The serial killer genre, the classic horror movie, and films which focus on the relationship between the mentor and his prote´ge´ or the psychiatrist and his patient have all, in the past, played their part in constructing women as passive objects or victims. Women are shown to us as deviant if they reject their ‘natural’ passivity. If women characters have any ambitions other than matrimonial, they become curious specimens caught within the male gaze, be it paternal, clinical, lustful or murderous. If they reject the role of passive object and choose tobecome active and inquisitive, they are punished, often by death. If they become powerful in any way at all, they must be disempowered. For satisfying closure of the drama, these ‘deviant’ women must be ‘cured’: careers are abandoned for marriage, powerful women are weakened or destroyed, and prying female eyes are closed forever. Doane suggests that the habitualised, naturalised differences and roles outlined above canbe deconstructed through contemporary filmmaking.

 

Genre movies must, by definition, draw upon their predecessors, by either continuing or commenting on the generic conventions established in earlier films. In classic horror movies like King Kong (Cooper, 1933) there is a curious afŽ nity between the heroine and the monster until the monster is killed off, leaving the heroine available for the man who loves her. In psychiatrist–patient Žlms such as The Seventh Veil (Bennett, 1945) the doctor sees that his patient’s illness stems from her career coming between her and the man she loves. In earlier films that feature a talented inge´nue, such as The Phantom of the Opera (Julian, 1925), there is typically something demonic about the gifted young woman’s mentor, and this evil insanity is equated with the career ambitions of his prote´ge´; she must be ‘rescued’ from his tuition. In serial killer Žlms such as Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) gender differences and gender roles supposed to be ‘natural’ are foregrounded and reinforced. The Silence of the Lambs is an amalgamation of these four classic genres: the horror movie, the psychiatrist and patient movie, the prote´ge´ and mentor movie and the
serial killer movie."

- Dubois, D. (2001). “Seeing the Female Body Differently”: Gender issues in The Silence of the Lambs. Journal of Gender Studies, 10(3), 297–310.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Before he skins them, the killer sticks a moth down his victim’s throat, symbolic of his own aberrant psycho-sexual condition, the need to turn from a moth to a butterfly. A curdling Psycho-drama in the highest Hitchcock order, The Silence of the Lambs should itself emerge as a butterfly at the box office, likely to flutter off with some very pretty grosses for Orion Pictures.

 

Silence is dead-out spellbinding during the cat-and-mouse exchanges between the wily serial killer and the gutty law enforcement trainee. Under Jonathan Demme’s masterful cinematic surgery, we get into Lecter’s twisted skull and, through this outrageous descent, we come to see this sinister in the everyday. With his camera boring in, tightly affixed on the small area from Hopkins’ eyebrows, to pointy chin, to bulbous ears, Demme’s fix is akin to viewing a closeup of a bug. And Hopkins — with his flat, fluid, serpent-like delivery — casts a spell on us more poisonous than any reptile in the kingdom.

 

Not surprisingly, these scenes overwhelm much of the “Buffalo Bill” plot, which is also somewhat reduced by a facile third act. Nevertheless, screenwriter Ted Tally has unraveled a taut, mesmeric psychological thriller. Like Hitchcock, Demme spruces this marvelously polished production with flakes of bizarre humor, again, upsetting our reality and causing us to look at everyday thing in a far different light."

- Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

From the Public

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #80, 2013 - #69, 2014 - #76, 2016 - #58, 2018 - #26, 2020 - #26, 2022 – #47

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), S. Leone (1), L. McCarey (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (8), 1990s (6), 1980s (4), 1960s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Japan (3), Italy (2), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (8), Drama (7), Horror (5), Comedy (4), Epic (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (3), Thriller (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Crime (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Western (2), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), Satire (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Liver and fava beans, with a nice bottle of Chianti

 

Serves 4

For the livers;

500g fresh lambs liver, sliced into 1cm thick medallions

100g plain flour for dusting

50g butter for frying 

Salt & pepper

For the mash;

400g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

100g butter

100ml full-fat milk

Salt & pepper

For the dressing

2 banana shallots, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, finely sliced

4 ripe plum tomatoes

200g fresh fava beans, removed from pods but shells left on

100ml extra virgin olive oil

30ml balsamic vinegar

A handful of parsley, finely chopped 

Salt & pepper

 

Methods from the source: https://www.anthpower.com/recipes-for-disaster/liver-and-fava-beans

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

196.    A Star is Born (dir. Goerge Cukor, 1954)
197.    Whisper of the Heart (dir. Yoshifumi Kondo, 1995)
198.    Face/Off (dir. John Woo, 1997)
199.    Dunkirk (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2017)
200.    Oldboy (dir. Parkk Chan-wook, 2003)
 

[THUNDER BIRD]

6 hours ago, The Panda said:

Number 75

 

 

"This is a long way from Budapest."

 

Synopsis

 

"Clint Barton opens Avengers: Endgame with a warm scene of family bliss. He's teaching his tween daughter Lila how to hit a bullseye with an arrow, and she's nailing it. Off in the distance, his wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) picnics with their two sons. In the blink of an eye, his daughter vanishes. Barton calls out to his wife, but no one answers. His whole family, the thing that drives Hawkeye to be a protector, has disappeared in The Snap — and he could do nothing to stop it.

 

Barton gets trapped in the "anger" stage of grief, and five years later he is off the grid as the vigilante Ronin, dispatching criminals as judge, jury, and executioner. It's grim work, and it's corroding his soul worse than anything else he's ever done.

 

...

 

When he is finally tracked down by Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, he talks as if he has become one of the bad guys. It's the opposite of her journey from coldblooded assassin to hero and defender of the right.

 

 

...

 

After their knock-down, drag-out on the planet Voromir to determine who would sacrifice themselves so the other could claim the Soul Stone, Clint is plagued with regret. Did he fight hard enough to go over the edge? Was a part of him holding back because he knew he had a family waiting for him if the un-Snapping was successful? Hawkeye wants to use the new tech gauntlet and recovered Infinity Stones to at least try — and The Hulk does, but it doesn't work. The trade is irreversible. Black Widow is gone.

 

In the epic final battle, Hawkeye manages to carry the fate of the world in his hands as he flees with the Infinity Gauntlet, like a football rushing play through the ferocious army of Outriders that Thanos has unleashed on the destroyed Avengers HQ. He succeeds, passing the "ball" off to Black Panther and others, until Tony Stark finally seizes the gems from Thanos' grasp and ends the threat once and for all. He pays the ultimate price for that, just as Natasha Romanoff did.

 

Hawkeye gets a loving reunion with his wife and children. The phone call he gets from Laura after Hulk's unSnappening is a weighty emotional moment as is, but when he can finally see them again, touch them again … it carries the weight of those friends he knows are still gone forever."

- Entertainment Weekly

 

From the Scholar

 

"Superheroes, such as Iron Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Hawkeye, have appeared in numerous films, displaying their range of incredible superpowers and abilities. Therefore, it is unsurprising that many people would not only wish to attain these powers, but also to learn about scientific accessibility to these powers. Popular culture characters such as superheroes can provide a unique platform for the communication of difficult scientific concepts. In the classroom, these characters can be used to communicate learning objectives to students in an interesting, fun, and accessible manner by taking advantage of student familiarity with the characters. Hawkeye, a member of the Avengers, is one such superhero who can be utilized by educators. His powers can be attributed in part to his advanced eyesight, which has physiological aspects in common with many birds of prey. Hence, Hawkeye can instigate discussion on the physiology of the human eye, while also allowing for comparison with other species, such as birds of prey, and reflection on advancements related to genetic engineering and wearable technologies. In addition, in my experience, Hawkeye has proven to be a highly suitable popular culture character for use in scientific communication and outreach."

- Fitzgerald, Barry W. "Using Hawkeye from the Avengers to communicate on the eye." Advances in Physiology Education 42, no. 1 (2018): 90-98.
 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Avengers: Endgame opened with a haunting and emotional scene in which Clint Barton was confronted with the horror of the snap. No Avenger suffered more than Hawkeye from the snap; his wife and children were dusted, in a chilling and effective scene that drove home the human cost of Thanos' genocidal actions. Using this to open the film established a bleak, somber tone and established the scale of the threat facing the universe."

- Thomas Bacon, Screen Rant

 

From the Public

 

"I doubt I'm the first person to say it, but one thing I have personally noticed is that not many talk about Jeremy's performance in Endgame.

 

From the loss of his family, losing Natasha but gaining the soul stone, regaining his family and seeing evil Nebula thinking it was good Nebula.

 

Just something to discuss for y'all."

- FrozenChosenGoZen on Reddit

 

"Renner is probably one of her best actors in the MCU, but he was trapped in a limited character. Once the finally realised he needs a role, everyone sees it. Endgame was clearly his best MCU film, but I think he is going to absolutely own his series. The thing about Renner, he’s and incredible dramatic actor, but he is also an action-star, as well as even a bit comedic. These qualities need to be integrated in his role." 

- Teetreavelvet in response to FrozenChosenGoZen on Reddit

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - NA, 2013 - NA, 2014 - NA, 2016 - NA, 2018 - NA, 2020 - #75, 2022 – #67

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), S. Leone (1), L. McCarey (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (6), 1980s (4), 1990s (4), 1960s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2)1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

Japan (3), France (2), Italy (2)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Gladiator (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (8), Drama (6), Epic (4), Horror (4), Musical (4), Comedy (3), Sci-Fi (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Noir (2), Superhero (2), Thriller (2), Tragedy (2), Western (2), Coming of Age (1), Mystery (1), Neorealism (1), Romance (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Hawkeye Casserole

 

Ingredients

4 slices of white bread or french bread
1/2 pound ground breakfast sausage, browned and drained
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
2 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp dry ground mustard
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

 

Instant Pot Instructions:

Spray the Instant Pot with non-stick cooking spray.
Cube the bread and place it in the bottom of the pot.
Layer on top the sausage, cheese, cream cheese, green chiles.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Pour the mixture over the top. 
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning use the slow cook setting on your Instant Pot to cook the casserole for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Check for doneness and serve.

 

 

From: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/hawkeye-casserole/

 

 

Every since cinema started, there has never been a cinematic event like this.

[The Panda]

Number 70

 

 

"Why return to the City of God, where God forgets about you?"

 

Synopsis

 

"City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian epic crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Bráulio Mantovani's script is adapted from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the plot is also loosely based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the film's closure depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you." - Wikipedia

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"In 1965, Glauber Rocha presented his political film manifesto “Eztétyka da fome” (“Aesthetics of Hunger”) in Italy. Linked to the Brazilian film movement known as cinema nôvo, Rocha was part of a generation of filmmakers across Latin America that understood cinema as a central weapon in revolutionary struggle. Key to Rocha’s film theory was the idea of hunger as a complex, contradictory cinematic mode of cultural practice. According to Rocha, films with an aesthetic of hunger “narrated, described, poeticized, discussed, analyzed, and stimulated the themes of hunger: characters eating dirt and roots, characters stealing to eat, characters killing to eat, characters fleeing to eat” (par. 10). But for Rocha, hunger is more than the prelude to starvation, it is a state of craving, of need, of desire. These are the bases for his aesthetics of hunger: “Economic and political conditioning has led us to philosophical weakness and impotence.… It is for this reason that the hunger of Latin America is not simply an alarming symptom: it is the essence of our society” (par. 3). Hunger here is more than a lack; it is actually a form of violent expression and a source of critical power. It is, in fact, the only form of expression, for Rocha, appropriate for political filmmaking in Brazil.

 

Over thirty years later, Brazilian cinema experienced a resurgence, and young directors like Fernando Meirelles produced films that were released alongside those of veterans of cinema nôvo like Carlos Diegues. One of the breakthrough films of this boom was Meirelles and Katia Lund’s Cidade de deus (City of God) (2002), which broke box office records in Brazil for a national film and had a major worldwide distribution. Using an aesthetic that borrows from television, advertising, and music videos, the film presented a graphic look at urban violence and was quickly criticized for its cosmetic, slick view of the tragedies of Brazilian daily life. One of the harshest critiques of the film was leveled by film critic Ivana Bentes who compared City of God to the work of Rocha and suggested that Meirelles and Lund’s film replaced Rocha’s “aesthetics of hunger” with a “cosmetics of hunger” (Bentes par. 1). Meirelles [End Page 95] countered, though, that the film’s success had to be measured not only by the work itself, but also by the debates that it provoked and by the way that it broke down the supposed antagonism of entertainment versus social critique that had governed Latin American approaches to filmmaking: “if you ask some journalistic film critics, they will tell you that it is just a film made to sell popcorn. It’s amazing how dialectics ruins people’s minds. They are unable to conceive of entertainment, emotion, and reflection in the same package. They always think in an exclusive or an antagonistic way: it’s either art or entertainment. It’s sad” (qtd. in Johnson 2005, 13–14). He drew attention to the fact that the film had generated hundreds of articles and debates, a detail that suggested to him that City of God had, indeed, been successful at engaging the Brazilian public to reflect on the social themes central to the film."

- McClennen, Sophia A. "From the aesthetics of hunger to the cosmetics of hunger in Brazilian cinema: Meirelles' City of God." symploke 19, no. 1 (2011): 95-106.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Cidade de Deus is the film’s main character. Living and breathing, watching it grow from a dirt-covered and sun-drenched conclave in the ‘60s to a crowded, stone-carved city in the ‘80s, I could feel the blood dripping as it flowed precipitously down its sad and lonely streets. This is a place where human connection is as fragile as a mosquito’s wing, the threat of violence and death permeating every facet of a resident’s life.

 

Even though City of God uses an episodic narrative to tell its tale it is never less than absorbing. Watching the humanity in the city slowly crumble into nothingness as poverty and degradation slowly take over, I couldn’t shake the growing lump in my stomach as it hardened into a dry, cold clump. This is a film that uses the interlocking stories of various characters to weave a tale of the birth and eventual blasé banality of evil. The horrors of life in Cidade de Deus become more of an everyday affair as people go about their lives trying not to be hit by a random bullet, the combatants firing the guns getting depressingly younger as the generations fly by, pre-teens eventually walking the streets like full-fledged mafia kingpins by the time things come to their heart-stopping conclusion.

 

This is not a film for the faint of heart. While it will undoubtedly be compared to other full-throttle crime tales like Amores Perros and Pulp Fiction, other than the way it uses interlocking separate stories City of God is unlike either. This is a story about the nature and structure of continuous poverty and violence and the effects that combination has upon a society free to govern, protect and rule itself. It is Cidade de Deus’ tale, and Rocket, Lil’ Zé, Benny and the rest are only brief chapters in its narrative. While some of these characters break free, others bury themselves in the never-ending tragic cycle of violence. As for the city itself, it just keeps on dying, the Brazilian government seemingly content to let it keep doing so."

 

 

From the Public

 

"I remember when I first saw this I was simply blown away. Taking us into the crime world of Rio De Janeiro it belongs up there with the great crime films, like the Godfather, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, etc. It's an epic film that spins three decades. It's got great performances from mostly non actors. It's brutal and violent and very harrowing. And the ending of this movie is scarier than anything I've seen in a horror movie. If you haven't seen it please do." - @DAR

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #81, 2013 - #58, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - #97, 2020 - #56, 2022 – #98

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), S. Leone (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (6), 1980s (4), 1960s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Japan (3), Italy (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (7), Epic (5), Horror (5), Comedy (4), Musical (4), Crime (3), Sci-Fi (3), Thriller (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Western (2), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), Satire (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Coxinha (Brazilian Chicken Croquettes, a type of street food)

 

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 4 halves)
4 to 5 cups chicken broth
1 carrot, halved
2 medium onions
2 bay leaves
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 lime, juiced
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons butter
Kosher salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 to 3 cups fine breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying

 

Steps in the source: https://www.thespruceeats.com/coxinha-brazilian-chicken-croquettes-3029668

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 69

 

 

"Instead of talking, he plays. And when he better play, he talks."

 

Synopsis

 

"A widow whose land and life are in danger as the railroad is getting closer and closer to taking them over. A mysterious harmonica player joins forces with a desperado to protect the woman and her land." - Letterboxd

 

From the Scholar

 

"Frayling argues that Leone’s work should be considered in the context of the ‘critical cinema’ produced by filmmakers such as Chabrol, Bertolucci and Pasolini in the late 1960s and early ’70s. (13) Especially in Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone self-consciously evokes the themes, characters and settings of the American Western, divorcing these elements from their ideological and historical base in order to consider aspects of frontier history and mythology that Hollywood studio products had evaded or ignored. Leone’s explicit employment of reflexive genre clichés in Once Upon a Time in the West, and again in his final film, Once Upon a Time in America, would seem to cast him as a trail-blazing post-modernist, but there is an important difference between Leone’s referential system and the ‘blank irony’ that Frederic Jameson identified as being cental to a post-modern aesthetic. (14) Leone has a profound emotional and intellectual investment in the cinematic mythologies he explores, however compromised and clichéd these mythologies may have become. Thus, as his films become increasingly self-conscious about the ‘lost’ classical American filmic tradition they are drawing on, they start to exhibit a meditative, melancholic quality that is completely absent from the energetic exuberance of the dollars trilogy.

 

 

...

 

Since his death in 1989, Leone’s films have become something of a template for directors wishing to imbue their self-conscious use of genre iconography with a sense of dream-like nostalgia for imaginary lost times. But few filmmakers have matched Leone’s skill at deconstructing Hollywood dreams while at the same time retaining a melancholy longing for their revalidation. Although he remains a controversial figure in critical circles, his stylistic influence is everywhere in ’90s American cinema, from Back to the Future Part III (Robert Zemeckis, 1990) to the work of Quentin Tarantino and his associate Robert Rodriguez. Leone-like imagery and Morricone-sounding scores have formed the basis of countless television commercials – surely the final proof that his stylistic traits are now firmly entrenched in the lexicon of cinematic clichés. His Spanish-flavoured images of the Western frontier, dramatic flourishes and prolonged pauses have become a thoroughly internalised part of the Western genre’s iconography. The Leone style, some forty years after he made his first Western, has become absorbed into the same mythology of twentieth century cinema to which so much of his work was devoted to exploring."

- Dog, Love. "Leone, Sergio." Book Reviews (2024).

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Sergio Leone, famous for his spaghetti westerns shot in Spain, dared to invade John Ford’s own Monument Valley for this 1969 epic. He brought back a masterpiece, a film that expands his baroque, cartoonish style into genuine grandeur, weaving dozens of thematic variations and narrative arabesques around a classical western foundation myth. It’s very much a foreigner’s film, drawing its elements not from historical reality but from the mythic base made universal by the movies. Moments of intense realism flow into passages of operatic extravagance; lowbrow burlesque exists side by side with the expression of the most refined shades of feeling. The film failed commercially and was savagely recut by its distributor, Paramount Pictures; copies from the European version may be as close as we’ll ever get to the original."

- Dave Kehr, The Chicago Reader

 

 

From the Public

 

"For a three hour epic, at no point did this film drag or feel slow. It practically flew by, which is fairly remarkable. The characters, the cinematography, Ennio Morricone's brilliant score, and Leone's impeccable direction all combine to make what feels like the ultimate western film and also something truly awe-inspiring." - @Rorschach

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - #92, 2014 - #97, 2016 - #74, 2018 - #57, 2020 - #51, 2022 – #52

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), C. Nolan (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (6), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 2010s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (7), Epic (6), Horror (5), Comedy (4), Musical (4), Crime (3), Sci-Fi (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Comic Book (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), Satire (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Dad's Spaghetti Western

 

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped 
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon dried basil

¾ teaspoon garlic powder, divided

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

½ (8 ounce) package spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces

1 (15.25 ounce) can kidney beans, drained

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

 

Directions
Crumble beef into a large microwave-safe bowl. Cook for 3 minutes on high; drain fat and stir in onion, chili powder, basil, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, tomatoes and tomato paste. Fill the paste can with water and add. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 10 minutes.

Stir broken spaghetti into meat mixture; re-cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 6 minutes. Stir, re-cover and microwave on high for 3 to 4 minutes, or until spaghetti is tender. Stir in beans, re-cover and let stand 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine cheese, sour cream and remaining 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Microwave on medium-high for 2 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Serve over spaghetti mixture.

 

From: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/26267/dads-spaghetti-western/

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 68

 

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

 

Synopsis

 

"The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Religion    is  an essential     marker    of  culture,    for  its  doctrines reflect    the  systems    of  thought and  values  of  any  given  civilization.  The  Christian  faith  and  culture  of  the  West  were  in  turn  based  upon  the  holy  scriptures  of  the  Jews.  Christian  and  the  Jewish  religions  ergo  view   the  Hebrew    Bible   as  a  holy   text   –  as  absolute     truth.   It  is  still  possible    to recognize the imprint  of  myths  and  narratives  originating  in  the  biblical  text,  as  well  as  other  religious  Christian sources, in many Western cultural productions. The present article considers the presence of biblical narratives and myths in contemporary cultural productions based on an analysis    of  the  science    fiction   film   Interstellar (Christopher Nolan,    US/GB    2014).    Inter-stellar follows the space voyage of a team of experts sent through a wormhole to search for  a  planet    fit  for  human  settlement since   Earth  is  in the  grips   of  ecological catastrophe that   threatens to wipe   out  humanity. A  narrative analysis    of  the  film   reveals    that   it  draws much of its inspiration from Judeo-Christian sources, particularly the narratives of the Old Testament. As  a  work   of  science    fiction,    Interstellar relies   on the  study   of  the  physicist     Kip  Thorne, but,   in addition to its  scientific     subject    matter,    the  film   is  also   replete    with biblical narra-tives   such as  the  apocalypse, Noah’s    ark,   the  tale   of  the  spies,   prophecy    and   the  tasking    of the  “chosen” one   with a  mission,     signs   and   miracles, the  ability    to control    nature    and   to create elements within it, and the idea of punishment in the form of being denied entrance to the promised land."

- Nir, Bina. "Biblical Narratives in INTERSTELLAR (Christopher Nolan, US/GB 2014)." (2020).
 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"So much of Interstellar, baggy and beautiful in ragged measures, comes qualified: Its science-y info-dumps sound so serious one suspects they’re actually very silly; even the most predictable plot turn zings with Nolan’s master hand at tension-building; and if the script is overly enamored with front-porch poeticisms and turgid monologues about love – oh, how the heart aches when a child cries for her father.

 

Interstellar is riddled with ridiculisms; the but how comes … never stop. And yet: Nolan, a notoriously chilly filmmaker who’s never shown much faculty with matters of the heart, is pinning that heart squarely on his sleeve. Boldly swinging for the rafters and face-planting half the time, he’s uncharacteristically willing to embarrass himself here. There’s a lot to admire in that."

- Kimberly Jones, The Austin Chronicle

 

 

From the Public

 

"B+" - @MrPink

 

"Did Nolan really have to show all that pus? The initial splatter was okay, but once they started eating it, that was too much. Especially in IMAX. F" - @Dementeleus

 

"I can't believe Nolan's dick made a cameo in the film. F-" - @Water Bottle

 

"masturbation scene was a bit off-colour.

 

A" - @luna

 

"In space, no one can hear you moan" - @AndyLL

 

"It was OK but I still prefer Cannibal Holocaust." - @Jake Gittes

 

" I also thought that the editing with the hardcore sex scene intercut with a space shuttle launch used as a metaphor was slightly too on the nose, I mean he was just copying Hitchcock. Speaking of Hitchcock, and cock, Nolan's cameo as "Naked space alien #3" was distracting." - @grim22

 

"I was totally into that scene where Woody Harrelson showed up and drove Matthew McConaughey through fields and listened as McConaughey talked about quantum physics, philosophy, and the nature of human existence. Then I realized the theater fucked up and was airing an episode of True Detective." - @4815162342

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - NA, 2013 - NA, 2014 - NA, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - Unranked, 2022 – #84

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (6), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 2010s (3), 1950s (2), 1970s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (7), Epic (6), Horror (5), Comedy (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Crime (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Adventure (2), Animation (2), Comic Book (2), Fantasy (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), Satire (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Boiled Corn on the Cob

 

Ingredients

4 to 8 ears fresh sweet corn, husks and silks removed
Butter or compound butter, for serving
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the corn. Cook, stirring occasionally to make sure the corn is submerged, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the corn is tender and bright yellow. Alternatively, place the corn in a large pot filled with cold water. Bring it to a boil and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the corn is just tender.
Drain and serve warm with butter, salt, and pepper.

 

 

From: https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-long-to-boil-corn-on-the-cob/

 

 

[The Panda]

 

191.    The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson, 2001)
192.    Persona (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
193.    Zodiac (dir. David Fincher, 2007)
194.    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (dir. Milos Forman, 1975)
195.    The Big Short (dir. Adam McKay, 2015)
 

[The Panda]

Number 67

 

 

"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"

 

Synopsis

 

"King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place"."

- The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"My argument, in short, is that the Monty Python troupe is reinscribing the carnivalesque spirit in popular culture with a sophisticated reemphasis of the grotesque, ambivalent, and universal nature of human existence that simultaneously demolishes and acknowledges the alienated "I" of liberal humanist philosophy (and one of its derivative forms, the clown), in both its omnipotent and immersed aspects. The ambivalence comes into play with the grotesque since without some sense of the duplicitous (or metaphoric) nature of the comedy, it would not be funny. The ambivalence also functions at another level, however, drawing on the audience's familiarity with the Arthurian tales by referring to Boorman's 1980 production of Excalibur and perhaps some of the audience's knowledge of the high angst of The Seventh Seal , Ingmar Bergman's 1957 statement "about" the middle ages and post war existentialism. Ambivalence, in other words, by denoting a sense of opposites paradoxically connected, sets the stage for intertextuality: the ambivalence of The Holy Grail locates it between the high mythic (Christian) meaningfulness of Excalibur and the agnostic (unknowing? a-gnosis?) existentialism of The Seventh Seal .

 

The universalism of the Python's reinscription of carnival is also present in The Holy Grail. However, it presents some interesting problems that the original carnival masquers and clowns did not experience. The Python, like their medieval counterparts, at least in Bakhtinian terms, include themselves in their joking. They critique not only their culture, its politics and history, but also their own stance as comic critics. However, they are removed from their audiences in ways their predecessors were not. Part of the universal aspect of carnival comedy is its immediacy for all the participants. As Bakhtin points out, the world was whole, and the joker and his audience together were a part of it. The carnival joker, by critiquing himself as well as the other and by applying ambivalent metaphors to the world, paradoxically pointed to differences and interconnections. Part of Bakhtin's claims about this paradoxical interpretive stance is that both aspects of it were taken as denoting truth, wholeness; in other words, both carried an irreducible share of truth. It was not erased through the mechanisms of the Derridean two-step under the aegis of its "others-frag mentation."

- Ellen Bishop. Film Criticism, Vol. 15, No. 1, Special Issue on Modern British Cinema (Fall, 1990), pp. 49-64 (16 pages)

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"The extraordinary thing about the Monty Python crew’s first proper film (we don’t count 1971’s stilted sketch round-up ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’) isn’t how funny it remains 40 years on – though it is stupidly, ingeniously funny. No, what’s most striking is how unnecessarily gorgeous it is. Wreathed in Scottish mist, shot through with shafts of golden light and drenched in authentic medieval mud, there are moments where it feels like Tarkovsky with drag and farting. At a time when the cutting edge of TV-to-film adaptations was ‘Mutiny on the Buses’, making a film this lovely was a bold move.

 

It may lack the authority-baiting, satire-with-a-purpose edge of ‘Life of Brian’, but ‘Holy Grail’ is the looser, sillier, ultimately funnier film, packed with actual goofy laughs rather than hey-I-get-that cleverness. It’s aged better too, less beholden to outdated notions of race and revolutionary politics and more reliant on slapstick violence, sudden explosions, surrealist wordplay and scatological asides. Some of it does feel a bit creaky: Python’s eternal problem with women is particularly acute here, and the ‘stop that!’ ending feels like a better idea on paper than in practice. But if you’ve not seen it on the big screen, you’d be an empty-headed animal food-trough-wiper not to." - Tome Huddleston, Time Out

 

 

From the Public

 

"My favorite movie. It's absolutely riotous every time." - @Ezen Baklattan

 

"the first shitpost in history" - VitaminC, Letterboxd

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #71, 2013 - #59, 2014 - #75, 2016 - #64, 2018 - #94, 2020 - #70, 2022 – #54

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (6), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 1970s (3), 2010s (3), 1950s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (7), Epic (6), Comedy (5), Horror (5), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Animation (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Noir (2), Romance (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

 

Elderberry Fizz

 

INGREDIENTS
3 tsp Elderberry Syrup
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Agave Syrup
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 oz Gin (optional)
Champagne or Club Soda

INSTRUCTIONS
Mix your first four ingredients-- top off with chilled gin and champagne (if you're a wicked, bad, naughty Zoot) OR club soda (you're such a Galahad, you prude).

 

From (and other Monty Python themed recipes): https://twocrumbsup.co/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail/

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 66

 

 

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

 

Synopsis

 

"An aging silent film queen refuses to accept that her stardom has ended. She hires a young screenwriter to help set up her movie comeback. The screenwriter believes he can manipulate her, but he soon finds out he is wrong. The screenwriters ambivalence about their relationship and her unwillingness to let go leads to a situation of violence, madness, and death." - Google

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"From this viewpoint, however much it may have been
disliked in Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950) was an
insider's film, in Thomson's words, "one of Hollywood's
most confused pieces of self-adulation." Though Louis B.
Mayer cursed Wilder out-"You bastard," he said after an
early screening, "you have disgraced the industry that
made you and fed you"-Sunset Boulevard was the kind
of "quality" production that won Academy Awards, not
plaudits from Cahiers du Cinema. (Actually, thanks in part
to Hollywood's awe of the legitimate theater, the lion's
share of the awards that year went to another treatment of
the aging star, Mankiewicz's All About Eve.) In this light,
the limitations of Sunset Boulevard were confirmed by its
uncertain tone, its apparent grab bag of cinematic sources

and effects. The movie begins in the dark world of the film
noir, with its title printed in block letters along a curbside,
the camera tracking feverishly down a deserted street and a
caravan of police cars and motorcycles pulling up at Norma
Desmond's mansion to investigate a murder-all of which
is accompanied by Franz Waxman's thriller music and,
soon, Joe Gillis's Chandleresque voice-over detailing the
circumstances of his own death"

- Morris Dickstein Grand Street, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Spring, 1988), pp. 176-184 (9 pages)

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Billy Wilder's unforgettably grotesque 1950 melodrama centres on an ageing, forgotten screen queen – played by actual silent-era legend Gloria Swanson – who strives to return to the spotlight. The conception owes something to Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, but the film builds a myth of its own, one that taps into something essential about stardom."

- Jake Wilson, The Age

 

From the Public

 

"Sunset Boulevard is somehow completely different than the cultural artifact I imagined when hearing about it over the years, and yet it's entirely entrancing. All four major characters in it do a spectacular job with their performances, although it would be remiss not to single out Gloria Swanson's absolutely mesmerizing performance as Norma Desmond, which very nearly feels like the creation of a whole new school of acting. The script is tight and always interesting, and it shifts genre with remarkable ease. Sunset Boulevard blew me away, not an easy thing to do with a film as classic as this. Just a fantastic work!" - @Blankments

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - #90, 2014 - #80, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - Unranked, 2022 – #55

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (6), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 2010s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (7), Comedy (6), Epic (6), Horror (5), Black Comedy (1), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Noir (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Animation (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Romance (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

 

The Sunset Boulevard

 

Ingredients
2 oz. Bourbon
4 oz. ginger ale
1 splash(es) cranberry juice
1 dash(es) lime juice
1 maraschino cherry to garnish

 

Instructions
Pour bourbon and ginger ale into cocktail shaker with ice.
Shake well and pour into chilled glass.
Add splash cranberry juice.
Garnish with maraschino cherry.

 

From: https://www.totalwine.com/cocktail-recipes/sunset-boulevard

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 65

 

 

"You've got a friend in me."

 

Synopsis

 

"Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences." - The Disney Store

 

From the Scholar

 

"Death is imagined obsessively in both movies. In Toy Story, Death stalks
in the form of an eight-year-old neighbour named Sid who wears a black
T-shirt with a skull printed on it that disturbingly resembles his own face.
Sid is a toy-sadist. ‘He tortures toys for fun,’ wails the Dinosaur Rex. He
performs hideous ‘medical’ experiments, loves explosives, and has a pathologically violent temper.

Sid’s house is suburban gothic, a dark underworld
of violence in the land of white picket fences. In his demolition area of a
backyard Sid blows up action figures and wreaks havoc, bellowing with
angry laughter. His ferocious pit-bull Skud is his sole companion. Inside
his dark, bolted room, neglected by his parents, he dismembers dolls,
dinosaurs, and erector sets. As the Disney website tells us: ‘Deep within the
inner sanctum of ... Sid’s room, lies a collection of toys that no boy should
have created. Where Andy’s room is a haven for Woody [a vintage cowboy
doll], Buzz [a space-ranger action figure], and all the other toys, Sid’s room
is no-man’s-land – the work of an unwell mind’ (‘... mutant’).
Distinctions between well and unwell, should and shouldn’t,

haven and noman’s land, are, of course, ideological; they reflect a particular set of interests and assumptions.

 

 

The movies do not analyse these assumptions or
offer alternative conceptual forms to those that shape and are shaped by
middle-class American popular culture. Oppositions, such as that between
Andy’s room and Sid’s, define each other. They occur within the same
totalistic bipolar system, and any search for meaning within that system
will be endless and self-enclosed. However, problems are raised or a drama
of self-reflection occurs in the toys when they are displaced between social
and rhetorical opposites. So, movements from Andy’s room to Sid’s ‘noman’s land,’ from the ‘well’ to the ‘unwell’ (and back again) entail an experience of liminality that is crucial to experiences that may be understood as rites of passage. ‘Such rites,’ Victor Turner explains, ‘characteristically begin with ritual metaphors of killing or death marking the separation
of the subject from ordinary secular relationships ... and conclude with a
symbolic rebirth or reincorporation into society as shaped by the law and
moral code’ (273). While it is not unusual for children’s literature to depict
such rites of passage, in these two Pixar-Disney2
 movies the ‘humanity’ of those undergoing the rites is radically compromised by ambiguities of
origins and ends and by the extremity or pervasiveness of the capitalist
ideology that underlies all forms of apparent subjectivity"

- Ackerman, A. (2005). The Spirit of Toys: Resurrection and Redemption in Toy Story and Toy Story 2. University of Toronto Quarterly, 74(4), 895–912. doi:10.3138/utq.74.4.895

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Children must eventually outgrow their toys and it’s this existential fear that informs the John Lasseter animated film, in which a group of toys come alive every time their owner Andy (Donald Reignoux) leaves the room. They worry about Andy growing up — each new Christmas and birthday heralds the potential arrival of brand-new playthings that he’s sure to favour over them — but as the film progresses, also have a lot of maturing of their own to do. Sheriff doll Woody (Tom Hanks) must grapple with his insecurities when Andy is gifted the more high-tech space ranger toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). Meanwhile Buzz, who initially perceives himself as a real space ranger and not a toy, must come to terms with realising he’s not who he thought he was. Even as its characters worry about getting left behind, this landmark Pixar film is a perfectly preserved snapshot of childhood, a time gone by." - Gayle Sequeria, 10 Great Doll Films

 

 

From the Public

 

"This thing really is pretty much perfect. Yes it's a groundbreaking movie, but that script is so damn good, the characters are instantly iconic and fleshed out and the voice acting is on point. It's crazy to think how high a bar Pixar set in just their first feature outing." - @SchumacherFTW

 

(Woody doing his best VD Vance impersonation)

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #34, 2013 - #32, 2014 - #23, 2016 - #37, 2018 - #33, 2020 - #42, 2022 – #57

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), J. Lasseter (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (9), 1990s (7), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 2010s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Pixar (1), Spider-Man (1), Toy Story (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Comedy (7), Drama (7), Epic (6), Horror (5), Black Comedy (1), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Animation (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Noir (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Romance (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Totchos (from Woody's Lunchbox at DisneyWorld)

 

Ingredients

32 ounces frozen tater tots
▢30 ounces canned chili with beans
▢1 1/2 cups Fritos
▢2 cups queso cheese dip
▢1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
▢6 tablespoons sour cream
▢green onions sliced, for garnish

 

Instructions listed at the website: https://favfamilyrecipes.com/totchos-toy-story-land/

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

186.    Fantastic Mr. Fox (dir. Wes Anderson, 2009)
187.    Fiddler on the Roof (dir. Norman Jewison, 1971)
188.    Big Fish (dir. Tim Burton, 2003)
189.    The Matrix Reloaded (dir. Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
190.    Stand By Me (dir. Rob Reiner, 1986)
 

[The Panda]

Number 64

 

 

"Baby, you're gonna miss that plane."

 

Synopsis

 

"In the breathtaking follow-up to Before Sunrise, Celine tracks down Jesse, now an author, at the tail end of his book tour in Paris, with only a few hours left before he is to board a flight back home to the States. Meeting almost a decade after their short-lived romance in Vienna, the pair find their chemistry rekindled by increasingly candid exchanges about professional setbacks, marital disappointments, and the compromises of adulthood. Impelled by an urgent sense of the transience of human connection, Before Sunset remains Richard Linklater’s most seductive experiment with time’s inexorable passage and the way love can seem to stop it in its tracks." - The Criterion Collection

 

From the Scholar

 

"What seperates the “Before” series from other fiction film series is the
unique relationship between the films in the series to one another, as well as the
way this unique relationship manifests in the treatment of time in the individual
films. This unique relationship is the result of what I will call Linklater’s strategy
of duration. Duration is defined as “Lasting, continuance in time; the
continuance or length of time; the time during which a thing, action, or state,

continues.”3 Duration is synonymous with passing time. To pass time, be it in the
development of the series over time, or for the characters in the narrative of the
series, is to be in duration, in time. While most films shorten and compress the
actual time of a story’s duration, Linklater strives to recreate the sense of time
actually passing through his strategy. Two key components to this strategy give it
this effect: correspondence and regularity. Together these components operate
on the level of narrative and in the structure of the series to embed the series in
time for the spectator, to grant the series a particular underlying theme and trope
of duration and passing time. The relationship between the films expresses this
state and theme of passing time, and time passing.

 

 

...

 

While Before Sunset’s short runtime, and heavy use of long takes, a tool
that Linklater uses throughout the series to produce a similar effect, is often
claimed as “real time,” that film does not go out of its way to emphasize direct
correspondence between the events in the narrative and the run time of the film,
nor any other film in the series. As many have pointed out, one of Linklater’s
consistent stylistic traits to his films is the association of his narratives to the
events of a single day, rather than a slavish attachment to “real time.”12 The
events that occur in Before Sunrise and Before Midnight all take place over ten
hours in the film, but the runtime of these films do not extend beyond the
industry standard of about ninety to one-hundred-and-twenty minutes. Unlike

“real time” films, the films in the “Before” series feature a loose correspondence
between the events of the narrative and the runtime of the film.

But, Linklater’s strategy of duration does grant the “Before” series a “real
time” aspect as a function of it being a series. This is to say, Linklater’s strategy of
duration creates a particular relationship between the films in the series. Where
“real time” filmmaking and films emphasize the passage of time for the spectator
as a function of the runtime of the film, Linklater’s series emphasizes the passage
of time between the films in the series through correspondence and regularity.
The “real time” is between the films in the series. Jesse and Celine are aware of
and reflect on the nine years that pass between films because their passage of
time corresponds to this time. That nine years between the films is “real” for
them because nine years did, in fact, pass between the release of the films. The
total twenty years which the release of the series has spanned is also twenty years
of narrative development, and choices, for them as well. Linklater has not made a
single film that presents time passing during its runtime, but rather has
embedded a series of three films within this real passing time."

- Sanders, Matthew Alan. "Richard Linklater's" Before" Series: Time, Duration, and Memory." PhD diss., Carleton University, 2016.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

 

From the Critic

 

"You can make a strong argument that Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise doesn’t require a sequel. A nimble 1995 romance starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as unacquainted travelers who spend a heady day and night in Vienna together before separating—with the beguiling possibility of a future rendezvous—during the film’s tantalizing conclusion, it was a sweet, euphoric gem that convincingly conveyed the transcendent power of conversation. Linklater, however, respectfully disagreed, and, as it turns out, wisely so. Before Sunset reunites Hawke’s Jesse, now a novelist who’s married with a young son, and Delpy’s Celine, an environmental activist mired in a passionless relationship, in Paris, where Jesse is finishing up a promotional tour of his new book This Time. The novel is a barely fictional account of his 24-hour reverie with Celine nine years earlier, and when Celine attends his appearance at a quaint Parisian bookstore shortly before he’s to catch a flight home, the two rekindle their relationship with an hour-long stroll around the silent, thinly populated city streets.

 

As with Linklater’s original, the beauty and grace of Before Sunset is its unparalleled ability to capture the idiosyncratic rhythm and cadence of everyday dialogue—the fitful starts, stops and interruptions of excited, nervous conversation, and the way in which two people engaged in discussion can get caught up in the intoxicating flow of ideas and emotions. Linklater’s unassuming camera predominately situates itself either directly in front of, or behind, the ambulatory couple, and this fluctuation between showing and hiding the characters’ faces—also found in scenes such as a third act car ride that begins with a shot of the driving automobile’s exterior while the duo’s voices can be heard chatting—conveys the primacy of the spoken word. Linklater’s ear is attuned to the commonplace sounds of life, so that when there’s a momentary respite from Jesse and Celine’s banter, the natural creaks of steps on a rickety old staircase or the monotonous splashes of water against a tourist boat’s hull help the director express the alluring vibrancy of the natural world surrounding these former lovers. And like two actors slipping comfortably into the roles of their lives—in part because they seem to be playing minor variations on their real-world selves—Hawke and Delpy bring a natural, optimistic slacker humanism (him) and a neurotic, wishful pessimism (her) to their restless strangers in the sunset."

- Nick Schlager, Slant

 

 

From the Public

 

"All three entries in the trilogy are great, but if pressed to pick a favorite, this one would be it. There's not a moment in the entire running time that doesn't feel genuine, and it does an excellent job of capturing how time, distance, and other relationships change the dynamic between people who were once close with each other. Even though I'm much closer in age to where the characters were in the first film, this is the one that I presently relate to most closely." - @Webslinger

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - #100, 2022 – #79

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), J. Lasseter (1), S. Lee (1), R. Linklater (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (10), 1990s (7), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 2010s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Before (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Pixar (1), Spider-Man (1), Toy Story (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (9), Drama (8), Comedy (7), Epic (6), Horror (5), Black Comedy (1), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Animation (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Noir (3), Romance (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), War (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

 

Parisian Jambon Beurre

 

Ingredients

2 ficelle French (aka sweet) baguette cut into 12-inch lengths (or use mini baguettes)
2 tablespoons High-quality European butter salted to your liking, at room temperature
4 ounces Jambon de Paris or other high-quality ham, sliced paper thin

 

Make The Jambon Beurre Sandwich: Slice each ficelle in half lengthwise so you have an open sandwich. Spread a ridiculous amount of the room temperature butter on the baguette then layer each with a few slices of paper-thin ham. Close and eat way too many. 

 

From: https://saltandwind.com/classic-jambon-beurre-sandwich-recipe/

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 63

 

 

"It was in the silence that I heard Your voice."

 

Synopsis

 

"Silence is a 2016 epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds and Liam Neeson. The plot follows two 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel from Portugal to Edo period Japan via Macau to locate their missing mentor and spread Catholic Christianity. The story is set in a time when it was common for the faith's Japanese adherents to hide from the persecution that resulted from the suppression of Christianity in Japan after the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–1638) against the Tokugawa shogunate. These are now called the Kakure Kirishitan, or "hidden Christians". ... A long-time passion project for Scorsese, which he had developed for over 25 years, the film premiered in Rome on November 29, 2016, and was released in the United States on December 23, 2016. It received critical acclaim, with both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute selecting Silence as one of their top ten films of the year. It also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. However, the film was a box office bomb, grossing just $22 million against its $50 million budget. Silence is the third of Scorsese's films about religious figures struggling with challenges of faith, following The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997)." - Wikipedia

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"In his later years, Endō lamented that the title of his book caused people to misunderstand him. The true focus of Endō’s message was on what happens to those who do not have the strength to become martyrs. Silence does not really mean the voice of God that Rodrigo was unable to hear – even though this is how it is presented in the movie. Rather, Silence refers to the silent voices of people with insufficient strength – common believers who are rarely mentioned in either Japanese or European sources. This meaning is conveyed in Rodrigo and Kichijirō’s dialogues48. In a way, Endō wanted to overcome a history of Christianity in Japan focused solely on the heroism of martyrs. No character of the book is completely right or wrong: rather, like several voices in his head, they represent his internal conflict49. This does not mean that they necessarily reflect historically attested opinions – even in the case of historical figures – nor do they necessarily reflect Endō’s own views. In fact, Inoue’s voice in the book represents Japanese intellectuals in the 60s, while Ferreira embodies the Western, Catholic side. In the film, Rodrigo and Garrpe are deeply moved when they see local Christians who kept their faith in secret, despite all the risk. While this was initially true when the Hidden Christians (Kakure Kirishitan) were rediscovered in the nineteenth century, in fact their unusual set of beliefs was quickly deemed as incorrect. They were thus encouraged to re-baptize and join the true faith.  

 

While he was not actually a hidden Christian, Endō was very concerned with this topic and he did extensive research about it. It echoed his own resentment against a certain moral superiority claimed by the West, even inside Christianity. This had a deep impact on Silence. According to Endō, the fact that Christianity was not fit to grow in Japan, as said by Inoue, is not to be taken per se50. Endō is criticizing the tendency to define the identity of Christianity as something fundamentally linked to the Western world. Such purity of faith would not admit adjustments to local cultures; it also leads to a negation of what actually did grow in the swamp : the faith of the local believers. As he says in his “Chinmoku no koe”, Endō clearly linked this to the treatment of the Hidden Christians in his times51. This also explains his focus on the humble and the weak and not on the heroes who epitomized Catholic values. In the book, being unable to accomplish martyrdom does not mean a lack or an absence of faith nor does it suggest a lack of value.

 

 

 In fact, the deepest layer of his book, and also in part of the film, can be seen as a negation of the idea of the universality of Church values beyond local contexts52. In that sense, Endō’s message can be seen as very anti-colonial. His perspective was influenced by his own experience in France, in the 1950s, which made him question his own position, as a Japanese forcefully converted by his mother to Christianity53. Scorsese’s vision does share many common traits with Endō’s. His focus on the figure of the doubter, the Judas, here Kichijirō, and on the fate of the local Christians shows that he at least partly understood what Endō meant by the idea of “silent voices.” He is also clearly critical of the act of martyrdom, which is described as extremely selfish and unproductive. In following the author’s orientation, Scorsese’s movie is at odds not only with the typical Hollywood trope of the hero saving the world but also with American culture’s excessive focus on success and strength54."

- Rappo, Hitomi Omata. "Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese: On the crossroads of history and fiction." Histoire@ Politique, May 23 (2017).

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Judas, as an essential figure in this process, came into focus for Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), where he was the Zealot who would lead Christ back to his mission, but he was present too as the undermining buddy who was also a responsibility in Mean Streets (1973). Silence is Scorsese’s most expansive historical canvas, but in the tightness with which it plots these torturing relationships that might lead to enlightenment it is his most hermetic, secretively enclosed.

 

The tightness is even emphasised by the fact that Rodrigues is caught in two relationships – a kind of double doubling – which drive home the same lesson. There is the miserable, scrabbling figure of Kichijiro (Kubozuka Yosuke), given to Rodrigues and Garrpe as a guide on their secretive entry into Japan (Jesuits have been forbidden from the country since 1633). Kichijiro, who is an apostate Christian, becomes Rodrigues’s permanent hanger-on, forever begging to be forgiven for some new lapse or weakness. By the end, Rodrigues can express gratitude rather than contempt that Kichijiro has been one route that has kept him true to his vocation for forgiveness.

 

And then there is Rodrigues’s kinship with Father Ferreira, whom he eventually meets and who confesses that he did apostatise in order to save Japanese Christians from the punishment of ‘the pit’: being trussed in a body sack and suspended in a hole in the ground, with blood slowly dripping from an incision in the neck. Rodrigues will also eventually be faced with this test – either to hold true to his faith by refusing to perform the ritual of stepping on the fumie (Christian images imprinted on a copper plate) or apostatise to save those in the pit. His humanity compels him to do the latter, but he is left asking himself, as Endo’s novel puts it, “if all this talk about love is not, after all, just an excuse to justify my own weakness… I wonder if there is any difference between Kichijiro and myself.”"

- Richard Combs, Sight & Sound

 

 

From the Public

 

"the rarest of films a legitimate epic dealing with complex themes and shit. in fact it's probably one of the most ideologically dense and complex movies i've ever seen. it's gonna give film academics decades worth of material. i think it's one of those "you get out of it what you put in" kinda deals. militant atheists and christians will have very different reactions to the ending. definitely feels like scorsese has put out the definitive representation of his struggles with faith that comes across in many of his films. can see why it took him 30 years to figure this shit out and even now there's no easy conclusion. 

 

not for everyone though, it's a difficult watch for sure and not one that gives immediate gratification. been thinking about it for a day and that doesn't feel near long enough. right now not the most celebrated film of 2016... but give it a decade. we'll see then." - @CoolioD1

 

"Scorsese’s Silence is a reflection of this state; the wailing, crumbling emptiness felt when no answer is given. While Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel worked within the confines of communication and focused on the inherent tensions of language, Martin Scorsese creates a personal interpretation of its exploration of faith through sensual images, ambient sounds, and torturous displays of reverence in the face of persecution. It is a culmination of an entire filmography encased in fire, bloodshed, and lost, scorned souls in search of purity, but formally distanced as if Scorsese is saying a final goodbye to the themes which purge him. Each element – cinematography, costuming, locations, sound design – is a reflection of an artistic worldview surrounded by sin, and not only that, but a wash in cleansing seas of spiritual serenity. In the silence of prayer, there is no immediate answer, but Scorsese structures his usage of voiceover and the eventual voice of a Christ figure among the empty pockets of chirping birds and crickets, crowing roosters, screams of the anguished. The absence of sound is its own beauty and despair, but it only makes the arrival of loud, punctured horrors and a textured, omnipresent voice that much more enveloping, collapsing various perspectives of differing actions/beliefs into a sensory piece of singular proportions."

- SilentDawn, Letterboxd

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - Unranked, 2022 – #62

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), S. Leone (2),3D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), J. Lasseter (1), S. Lee (1), R. Linklater (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (10), 1990s (7), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 2010s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Alien (1), Avatar (1), Before (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Pixar (1), Spider-Man (1), Toy Story (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (10), Drama (9), Epic (7), Comedy (7), Horror (5), Black Comedy (1), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Animation (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Noir (3), Romance (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), Religious (1), War (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Milk and Honey Communion Bread

 

INGREDIENTS
10 oz whole milk 284 grams or 1 14 cups
1 oz unsalted butter 28-29 grams or 2 Tablespoons
1 teaspoon yeast, active dry or instant 5 grams
16 oz bread flour 454 grams or about 3 1/2-4 cups
2 oz honey 57 grams or 3 Tablespoons
1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt 7 grams

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the milk until it's steaming and beginning to bubble around the edges. Remove from the heat, and whisk in the butter and honey until the butter has all melted and the milk is warm and not hot.
Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer, and whisk in the salt.
Pour in all the flour followed by the yeast.
Fit the mixer with the dough hook and bring the dough together on low speed.
Increase the speed to medium and knead for 8-10 minutes (you can also do this by hand. It will take about 10-15 minutes.) When ready, the dough will be very supple and extensible and not at all sticky. This is a fairly firm dough. No dough should stick in the bottom or sides of the bowl after kneading.
Gather the dough into a nice round and put back in the mixer bowl. Brush on olive oil to thinly cover the exposed dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about two hours.
Press the gases out of the dough. For one 9"x5" loaf of bread, press the dough into a rectangle and then roll it up and fit it into the pan. To make a round loaf, shape into a round, making sure to create some tension on the outside of the dough ball by rolling it between your palms on a clean countertop.
Cover and let rise until almost doubled again, about an hour. If baking a round, slice an X into the top with a sharp knife.
Bake at 350F for about 30-35 minutes, until deeply golden brown and the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200F. If making loaf bread, brush the crust with a little melted butter as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Let cool on racks completely before slicing.

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 62

 

 

"Nah, Buzz."

 

Synopsis

 

"The toys are back in town and ready to play once again This comedy-adventure picks up as Andy heads off to Cowboy Camp, leaving his toys to their own devices. Things shift into high gear when obsessive toy collector Al McWhiggin (Wayne Knight), owner of Al's Toy Barn, kidnaps Woody (Tom Hanks). At Al's apartment, Woody discovers that he's a highly valued collectible from a 1950s TV show called "Woody's Roundup" and meets other prized toys from that show: Jessie the cowgirl (Joan Cusack), Bullseye the horse and Stinky Pete the Prospector (Kelsey Grammer). Back at the scene of the crime, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the gang from Andy's room — Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) — spring into action to rescue their pal from winding up as a museum piece. The toys get into one predicament after another in their daring race to get Woody home before Andy returns."

- Disney+

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"The final interaction theme was defined as any time a male and female character acted
together in ways that would maintain heteronormativity in the world of the films.
Heteronormativity in this study refers to the idea that “heterosexuality is always
assumed, expected, ordinary, and privileged” (K. Martin & Kazyak, 2009, p. 316). Often
these heteronormative interactions could be characterized as conflicting with previous
character development in the films. At the end of each film in the trilogy, male
characters would form couples with female characters, even if female characters had
shown little to no prior interest in a romantic relationship with them. This idea is
consistent with gaze theory, which suggests that female characters eventually become
possessions of male characters, regardless of whatever romantic intentions they had at
the beginning of the film (Mulvey, 1989). The end of Toy Story, where Woody coupled off
with Bo, and Mr. Potato Head learned he too would soon have a romantic partner
(Mrs. Potato Head) exemplified this theme. At the conclusion of Toy Story 2, Mr. and
Mrs. Potato Head are reunited, Woody had his arm around Bo Peep, and Jessie had her
arm around Buzz; Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head had also chosen to adopt a group of toys.
Additionally, there was a lot of talk about the group of toys being a family and at the
end of the third film, Woody makes a decision that the group would move to a new
owner rather than waiting for Andy. Woody made this decision without consulting any
of the other toys as might be expected of a father in a patriarchal family. Finally, in the
ultimate scene of Toy Story 3, Ken was shown to be in charge of the group of toys at
Sunnyside Daycare Center. One of these characters is “Big Baby”, a doll that didn’t talk
and didn’t appear to be able to take care of himself. When Ken was shown taking a rest,
Barbie was the only one who looked after/took care of Big Baby. Finally, the film ended
with Jessie and Buzz dancing together and becoming a couple after much hinting
throughout the trilogy"

- Luisi, T. (2018). Toys will be toys: gendered interaction frames in the Toy Story trilogy. Journal of Children and Media, 1–16.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"As if John Lasseter's computer-animated "Toy Story" wasn't brilliant enough. You remember that wonderful movie of 1995. And you surely remember the gang of yore-Woody the cowboy, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex, Hamm and the rest of Andy's toys. These were good people-good plastic people.

 

Well here it is, mirabile dictu: a sequel that eclipses the original. The toys are back with even more hilarious vengeance. The story's twice as inventive as its predecessor. And the vocal talents of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and others bring even fuller soul to the proceedings than before."

- Desson Howe, The Washington Post

 

From the Public

 

"Fuck you, Pixar." - @Avatree

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #73, 2013 - #71, 2014 - #30, 2016 - #42, 2018 - #47, 2020 - #57, 2022 – Unranked

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), R. Linklater (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (10), 1990s (8), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 2010s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1)

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Pixar (2), Toy Story (2)Alien (1), Avatar (1), Before (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Historical Fiction (10), Drama (9), Comedy (8), Epic (7), Horror (5), Animation (4), Black Comedy (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Crime (3), Fantasy (3), Noir (3), Romance (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Religious (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), War (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Magical Grilled Cheese (from DisneyWorld's Toy Story Land)

 

INGREDIENTS

For the Cream Cheese Spread:
1/2 cup Cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded Double Gloucester or sharp cheddar cheese
2 tbsp Heavy cream
1/4 tsp Coarse salt

For the Garlic Spread:
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp minced Garlic
1/2 tsp Coarse salt

For the Grilled Four-Cheese Sandwich:
8 slices Artisan bread
8 slices Medium cheddar cheese
8 slices Provolone cheese

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Cream Cheese Spread
Put all the cream cheese spread ingredients into a food processor.
Pulse until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Garlic Spread
In a bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, minced garlic, and salt.

Sandwich Assembly and Cooking
Lay out all 8 slices of bread.
On 4 of the bread slices, place 2 slices of cheddar cheese each.
On the other 4 slices, place 2 slices of provolone cheese each.
Divide the cream cheese spread into 4 portions. Spread each portion onto the slices with provolone cheese.
Place the cheddar-topped bread slices on top of the provolone slices, so the cream cheese spread is in the middle.
Spread the garlic spread on the outside of each sandwich.
Heat a heavy-duty skillet over medium heat.
Place a sandwich in the skillet and cook for 2 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
Repeat with the remaining sandwiches.

 

from: https://www.thefreshmancook.com/disney-grilled-cheese-sandwich

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by The Panda

[baumer]

I don't know if I'm ready to angry cry or just cry because I'm sad. Stand by me did not make the list and that is a travesty.

[The Panda]

Number 61

 

 

"Attaboy, Clarence."

 

Synopsis

 

"It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift" self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.[4] The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody.[4] Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.

 

Although it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, It's a Wonderful Life initially received mixed reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, about twice the production cost, a figure it did not come close to achieving on its initial release. Because of the film's disappointing sales, Capra was seen by some studios as having lost his ability to produce popular, financially successful films.[5] Its copyright expired in 1974 following a lack of renewal and it entered the public domain, allowing it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees, at which point it became a Christmas classic."

- Wikipedia

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"One of the distinctive achievements of Frank Capra's motion pictures is their extraordinary ability to renew the guiding feelings of our childhood and our past. His films have a redemptive quality about them. Their vision of life is so firmly rooted in good spirit and so innocently appealing that we inevitably leave them with a certain sense of sadness and loss, as if our hardness has led to the destruction of their imaginative world. Perhaps that is why the majority of his films deal with the reclamation of cynics, people who, like the heroines of Mr. Deeds Goes To Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, come to realize that "it's a curse to go through life all wised up." Capra's movies have the magic to make one think that all of society has the potential to regain an innocence of intention and belief. Capra's heroes are at the center of his privileged world view, and they comprise a special breed - innocents thrown into a world of experience who manage to come out on top. Their passionate idealism, innate responsibility and backwoods charm gives them a character which is distinctly American. Their roots stretch back to the yeoman farmer, the Jacksonian pioneer and Abraham Lincoln. 

 

It's A llionclerful Life was designed as an explicit celebration of the Capra hero and the inspiration of his leadership. Capra and his screenwriters, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, concentrate almost exclusively on the hero's actions and beliefs. George Bailey is barely off the screen for a moment; his presence dominates the story to an unprecedented degree. The film centers on his problems, rather than those of society and the nation. Instead of confronting the attacks of a central villain, the Capra hero is now combating opposing instincts within himself. This new emphasis is made clear from the opening moments when the prospect of George Bailey's suicide arouses concern not only in Bedford Falls but up in the heavens as well. The Almighty is deeply troubled by the hero's decision, and for the next hour and a half He offers an omniscient narration of George's life to his apprentice angel Clarence. The flashback sequences reveal a protagonist supposedly working against himself and his best interests. George is deeply furstrated by his inability to accept the simple comforts of rural life. His desires to travel and seek adventure are consistently thwarted by the endless sacrifices he must make for everyone else. After decades of community service, he feels little sense of satisfaction; his decision to throw himself into an icy river on Christmas Eve is prompted by the stranglehold of his obligations. Only by the sudden intervention of Clarence, who shows him a fantasy portrait of how horrible things would have been for others had he never been born, is George able to return to his lot and rejoice in his blessings."

- Rose, Brian. "It’s A Wonderful Life: The Last Stand of the Capra Hero." Journal of Popular Film 6, no. 2 (1977): 156-166.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"While it may not be the first Christmas movie (that honour goes to 1898’s Santa Claus, a British short that was itself a technical landmark) It’s a Wonderful Life is the closest thing to a postwar American Dickens. Though Capra never quite returned to the golden days of the 1930s, this is considered by many to be one of the finest films ever made. Having personally taken the film for granted for decades, seeing it on the big screen made for a transformative experience. I saw Stewart’s hysteria, Reed’s joy and worry, the irritation of being a parent, but also the sensuality of wholesome smalltown America.

 

Gloria Grahame co-stars as the sassy Violet, wearing a floaty summer dress she claims is old and that she wears only, “when I don’t care how I look”. An interchange follows, concluded by Bert who says, “I’ve got to go home and see what the wife is doing.” There’s sex and death here, elation and depression, hope and despair. Potter may win in the end but, realistically, the characters live with that because they must. It’s their only choice. As for the film’s accolades, it was nominated for six Oscars and beaten by the wartime heroism of The Best Years of Our Lives in all categories but one: technical achievement for fake snow."

- KAREN KRIZANOVICH, Little White Lies

 

From the Public

 

"the ending was so ridiculous that my cold, unrepentant soul could only view it as utmost irony." - @luna

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #82, 2013 - #56, 2014 - #53, 2016 - #70, 2018 - #82, 2020 - #71, 2022 – #44

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Coen (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), R. Linklater (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), R. Scott (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), S. Spielberg (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

2000s (10), 1990s (8), 1960s (4), 1980s (4), 2010s (4), 1950s (3), 1970s (3), 1940s (2), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), United Kingdom (1)

 

Franchise Count

WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Pixar (2), Toy Story (2)Alien (1), Avatar (1), Before (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Spider-Man (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (10), Historical Fiction (10), Comedy (8), Epic (7), Horror (5), Animation (4), Black Comedy (4), Fantasy (4), Musical (4), Sci-Fi (4), Adventure (3), Crime (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Romance (3), Thriller (3), Western (3), Action (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Mystery (2), Satire (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), Alternative History (1), Christmas/Holiday (1), Coming of Age (1), Neorealism (1), War (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Holiday Roast Turkey from the Official Bailey Family Cookbook

 

 

From: https://silverscreenings.org/2021/11/03/the-culinary-side-of-its-a-wonderful-life/

 

 

[Ethan Hunt]

14 minutes ago, baumer said:

I don't know if I'm ready to angry cry or just cry because I'm sad. Stand by me did not make the list and that is a travesty.

I mean I love Stand By Me too but it's never made the list B

[The Panda]

 

181.    RoboCop (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
182.    Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee, 2005)
183.    City Lights (dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
184.    Halloween (dir. John Carpenter, 1978)
185.    Arsenic and the Old Lace (dir. Frank Capra, 1944)