A new Team Top Ten over at the Film Experience: the 12 (there was a big ol' tie) best winners of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
It's the kind of list that you basically can't get wrong: I have, at the time of this writing, seen 57 of the 74 films that have taken the award since it adopted its modern shape (but not its modern name) in 1949, and a significant majority of them are in the great-to-extraordinary range. So my top 10 is not at all definitive; more that, at the time I had to submit something, it's what I felt comfortable with (actually, it's more like a rock solid top 6 followed by the four films that I'd have felt most sick about abandoning). But even with 10 extra runners-up, I'm still ignoring tremendously worthy victors.
My ballot:
1. The Third Man (1949) [on the TFE list]
2. Viridiana (1961)
3. Paris, Texas (1984) [on the TFE list]
4. The Piano (1993) [on the TFE list]
5. The Tree of Life (2011)
6. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) [on the TFE list]
7. Taste of Cherry (1997) [on the TFE list]
8. Barton Fink (1991)
9. The Conversation (1974) [on the TFE list]
10. Secrets & Lies (1996)
And my ten honorable mentions, chronologically:
The Wages of Fear (1953)
The Cranes Are Flying (1958) [on the TFE list]
La dolce vita (1960) [on the TFE list]
The Leopard (1963) [on the TFE list]
Blowup (1967)
Chronicle of the Years of Fire (1975)
Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Eternity and a Day (1998)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
10 May 2014
7 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
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There aren't too many "best of" lists Pulp Fiction is eligible for that it can miss without it looking like a massive oversight.
ReplyDeleteThis... This is one of those lists.
Yeah, I was about to complain about the lack of "The Wages of Fear" on ANY Best Of list when its eligible, but I'm ok with this.
ReplyDelete(But seriously, the Wages of Fear is fuckin' awesome.)
I mean, hell, I'd be tempted to say the exact same thing about All That Jazz, and that didn't even make my top 20.
ReplyDeleteSo, uhh, what exactly was going on in 1946? ELEVEN winners.
ReplyDeleteNo Taxi Driver or Apocalypse Now?
ReplyDeleteStill, their omission speaks more to the immense quality of the other winners. Now a super interesting list would be best Special Jury Prize winners (not quite first place, but second or third isn't appropriate)
Oh Secrets and Lies - I do love that film. That's the movie that introduced me to the world of Mike Leigh. It's so quintessentially British, doing what we do best - nice, simple pared down character study of class and repressed emotions with an amazing ensemble. How awesome are Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn? Career best work from them.
ReplyDeleteEven if it's at #10 I'm glad to see SECRETS AND LIES here. My own top 10 would be even less definitive than yours because I've seen less but it was the easy #1 on my list and one of the Palme D'Or winners that often seem forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI still remember the first time watching it and just being so moved/overwhelmed at the end. It's not the type of movie you think of in that regard, but for all its simplicity it packs a punch.