One of my favorite parts of the film community is the monthly Blind Spots series, which pushes movie lovers out of their comfort zones. We all have films that have sat on our watch list for years, yet they never make it to the top of the pile. This plan forces us to commit to watching 12 of these films and writing about them. Back in 2012, I chose highly regarded classics like Wild Strawberries and Once Upon a Time in the West, and it was a great experience. This year, I tried something different and focused on lesser-known cult films like Morvern Callar and The Fall. It’s time to prepare for 2014, and I’m enlisting your help to choose the new slate. Which movies deserve my attention as soon as possible?
Honestly, this method is hardly a novel one. I’ve
I’ve created a list on Letterboxd that includes 50 possibilities for this series. I’m tasking you with checking it out and then choosing 12 movies from that group that stand out as the most essential. This list includes both prestige films and genre pictures from around the world, so the results should create a diverse group. Once you’ve made your choices, leave a comment on this blog (or on Letterboxd) with your selections. After compiling the choices during the upcoming weeks, I’ll have 12 picks to watch and analyze in 2014. If you aren’t able to pick 12, it’s fine to provide a shorter list. The key factor is getting enough responses to develop a strong list. Whether you’re a regular visitor to this site or have just arrived, your input is pivotal to this project.
Are you ready to guide my 2014 movie watching? Let’s do this!
My Neighbor Totoro
ReplyDeleteSuspiria
Night of the Living Dead
Army of Shadows
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Castle in the Sky
Funny Games
Diabolique
The Dirty Dozen
The Wages of Fear
Yojimbo
Brokeback Mountain
ReplyDeleteMoulin Rouge
Saturday Night Fever
Rosemary's Baby
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Great Dictator
The Deer Hunter
Outlaw Josey Wales
Rambo
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Jailhouse Rock
I've seen exactly 25 of the 50 on that list. For me, my top 12 would be...
ReplyDelete1. Pierrot le Fou
2. Hud
3. My Neighbor Totoro
4. An American In Paris
5. The Crying Game
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. Nights of Cabiria
8. Moulin Rouge!
9. Rosemary’s Baby
10. Les Diaboliques
11. Contempt
12. The King of Comedy
Quite the array!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth...
Diaboliques*
Patton*
Rosemary's Baby
The Great Dictator
The King of Comedy
Safety Last
Yojimbo
Moulin Rouge!
All Quiet on The Western Front
Night of the Living Dead
A Bad Day at Black Rock
Nightmare Before Christmas
(8 both previous Blind Spots of my own)
Battle of Algiers
ReplyDeleteCastle in the Sky
Close-Up
Harlan County USA
The King of Comedy
Moulin Rouge
My Neighbor Totoro
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Stalker
The Thin Man
The Wages of Fear
Z
I have to agree that the Blind Spot series is a great part of the blog community. I started doing it this year and it's been a most rewarding experience!
ReplyDeleteMy choices are:
The Big Red One (definitely watch the reconstruction version)
First Blood
The Great Dictator
Night of the Living Dead
Yojimbo
Johnny Guitar
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Nights of Cabiria
The King of Comedy
Brokeback Mountain
She's Gotta Have It
Safety Last
I am in the unique position of having to watch these with you, so my selections are somewhat selfish.
ReplyDeleteMy Neighbour Totoro (love this)
Moulin Rouge
Jailhouse Rock
Rosmary's Baby
Brokeback Mountain
Nightmare before Christmas
Castle in the Sky
The Crying Game
Harlan County USA
That's not 12, but those are my picks.
You and I are both have similar ideas in our Blind Spots for next year as far as what Miyazaki film to see. I have a list but it's a private one right now as I'm just trying to figure out what to see. I also notice that you also have Playtime which is in my shortlist of possible Blind Spots for next year.
ReplyDeleteOK, let's see...
Stalker
The Battle of Algiers
Yojimbo
Close-Up
Johnny Guitar
& Les Diaboliques
And now for the ones I haven't seen...
Contempt
Man with a Movie Camera
Harlan County USA
Safety Last
Army of Shadows
& the Big Red One (make sure it's the reconstructed version which is the one most Sam Fuller fans prefer).
Thanks to everyone who's replied so far! I'm also getting some great choices on Letterboxd and have started counting the votes. I'll leave this open for a while for other selections before listing the final tally.
ReplyDeleteMy choices are a mix of what I have seen and what I am interesting in hearing more about:
ReplyDeleteShe's Gotta Have it
Brokeback Mountain
Faces
Yojimbo
Playtime
Night of Cabiria
My Neighbour Totoro
Moulin Rouge
Contempt
Bad Day at Black Rock
Pierrot le Fou
Harlan County U.S.A
I'm limiting myself only to films that I've seen. Here's my 12:
ReplyDeleteThe Thin Man
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Les Diaboliques
Z
The Man with the Movie Camera
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Safety Last
Night of the Living Dead
Rosemary's Baby
Wages of Fear
Brokeback Mountain
The Crying Game
Lots of good ones I didn't include, though.
I've seen 47 of the 50. With only a few exceptions I consider all of them worth watching. I have narrowed it down to 12, though.
ReplyDeleteMust See:
All Quiet on the Western Front
Les Diaboliques
My Neighbor Totoro
Safety Last!
The Wages of Fear
Other fine films:
The Battle of Algiers
Close-Up - my favorite Kiarostami film
The Crying Game - but only if you've somehow managed to avoid knowing the twist
My Man Godfrey
Nights of Cabiria - my favorite Fellini film
Patton
The Thin Man
As with Steve Honeywell, I've only picked from the one's that I've seen (which is less than half). Here's my choices:
ReplyDeleteMy Neighbour Totoro
Moulin Rouge!
The Deer Hunter
Yojimbo
Night of the Living Dead
Rosemary's Baby
Brokeback Mountain
The King of Comedy
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Great Dictator
The Dirty Dozen
First Blood
And if I can throw a negative vote against a film, I'd say don't watch Man with a Movie Camera, I really hated it.
Oh, and you've inspired me to do something similar myself for next year too, so thanks for that.
Glad to help! Of course, I took this from Ryan at the Matinee, so he's really the source of this approach.
Delete*cough*which I did before him in the 60/60 Project but who's counting?*cough*
DeleteNice. I feel like your approach with months for each person was even more intense and well beyond what I'm doing. Also, it was awesome.
DeleteWell, that was the 50/50. The 60/60 the year before that (well, technically, started at the end of 2011) was similar to this where a bunch of people offered suggestions on must-see films, which I tried to divide up by genre.
Delete*End of 2010 (sorry to spam your comments... had to correct myself).
DeleteTo make this comment otherwise worth something, when will you announce your list?
Gotta disagree with your distaste for MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA. Its only a short, experimental film - but considering the time it was released, in many ways it is the groundwork for music videos today. My analysis is here: http://screeninsight.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/man-with-movie-camera-dziga-vertov-1929.html
DeleteDammit Chip, you beat me by two...I've seen 45. There's some great stuff here for sure. Instead of trying to whittle it down to the most essential, I'll list my 12 favourite:
ReplyDeleteMy Neighbour Totoro
Battle Of Algiers
Suspiria
Johnny Guitar
Kiss Me Deadly
Army Of Shadows
Man With A Movie Camera
Diaboliques
Dirty Dozen
Z
Nights Of Cabiria
Playtime (do this for sure!)
Damn, I want to pick another ten!
I haven't seen The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jailhouse Rock, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.
DeleteYou?
My Neighbor Totoro
ReplyDeleteYojimbo
Night of the Living Dead
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Great Dictator
Castle in the Sky
Funny Games
Moulin Rouge
Wages of Fear
The Crying Game
Les Diabolique
Rambo: First Blood
Lot of good stuff on here, but picking 12 was actually pretty easy for me. I consider these must see films that I also count as personal favorites...well, except for one:
ReplyDeleteMy Neighbor Totoro
Stalker
The Battle of Algiers
Suspiria
All Quiet on the Western Front
Close-Up
Army of Shadows
The Man with a Movie Camera
Nights of Cabiria
Funny Games
Triumph of the Will (It's one you need to see just for your film education. The blind spot series is a great motivation to see this film.)
Playtime
You've got a lot of awesome in front of you. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on whatever films end up making the series next year.
Glad to hear it! I'm hoping to check out some of the others during the year in marathons. From the votes and comments, it sounds like it's hard to go wrong.
DeleteA few of these are blond spots for me to, but I guess when I look at the most essential ones that I've seen, I'd go with:
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Algiers
The Deer Hunter
Yojimbo
Brokeback Mountain
Pierrot Le Fou
The Thin Man
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Faces
Saturday Night Fever
Z
Harlan County, U.S.A.
Playtime
Great idea! I have considered crowd-sourcing my next project, but I'm not sure very many will be interested in picking 50, heh. Anyway, here are my choices from your list:
ReplyDeleteMy Neighbor Totoro
The Battle of Algiers
The Wages of Fear
The Deer Hunter
Yojimbo
Night of the Living Dead
Rosemary's Baby
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Saturday Night Fever
And then three I haven't seen but would like to read about:
The Great Dictator
Rambo: First Blood
Les Diaboliques
Thanks again to everyone who voted! I'm going to keep this open for another week and then announce the winners in early December. It's extremely close, so a few more entries could change a lot of them!
ReplyDeleteHey Dan. Great idea, I might have to "borrow" this and do it myself!
ReplyDeleteOff the bat, I cannot recommend The Outlaw Josey Wales enough. It's my favorite western of all time and it's one that I used to watch constantly with my father. Over the years we've bonded over that film and we quote it to each other constantly. It's loaded with great lines like "sing out, slap iron to it" and "I ain't your paw, now shut up!" It's a classic that NEEDS to be seen.
My second big recommendation is Pierrot Le Fou. It's the film that introduced me to Goddard and the 60s French New Wave of cinema. It's my favorite film of Goddard's and probably my favorite french foreign film ever. It's a film that once I'm done watching it, I have no problem hitting play and watching it again and again.
My third big big recommendation is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that's coming from a guy who runs and hides from horror! I'm really in love with this movie to an almost disturbing point. I recently got the blu-ray for my birthday and let's just say, she's been getting plenty of use.
Just had to get that out of the way before I recommend the other nine. Listed below are the 12 I think you should watch, in no particular order except for the three I mentioned above.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pierrot Le Fou
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Yojimbo (FUN FACT: This film was the "inspiration" for A Fistful Of Dollars) (Also, if you haven't already, you should check out Sanjuro, another Kurosawa film that features a similar main character)
Suspiria (Lindsay got me to watch this film and it's a delight)
The Deer Hunter
The King of Comedy
The Dirty Dozen
Rambo: First Blood
Moulin Rouge
Triumph of the Will (I watched and review this film as part of my Versus the Scarecrow series, and it's a short and interesting document if you're into WW2 History films. Lot of music and parades. Like, a LOT)
Solid list, I look forward to seeing what you watch!
-Nick
Nick, thanks for the detailed comment and the votes. Sadly, there hasn't been much love for the Outlaw Josey Wales in the choices. It probably won't make the 12 picks, but I'm hoping to check out a lot more of these in some marathons during the year.
DeleteDeer Hunter
ReplyDeleteNight of the Living Dead
Saturday Night Fever
Funny Games
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Crimes and Misdemenours
Rosemary's Baby
Stalker
Rosemary's Baby
Moulin Rouge
Suspiria
Man with a Movie Camera
(Had trouble towards the end because I have so many of them to watch myself!)
First things first, I need to see Close-Up as much as you. We will rectify this together!
ReplyDeleteAfter that...I would personally say The Thin Man is essential. And after that....
Outlaw Josey Wales
Jailhouse Rock
The Deer Hunter
Yojimbo
My Man Godfrey
The Crying Game
The Big Red One
Kiss Me Deadly
Faces
Saturday Night Fever
Great idea (even if you did admittedly find it somewhere else). I'm doing something similar at GuysFilmQuest, but I made all my own selections. I like the way you set it up better, though. Perhaps I'll do it that way for 2015!
ReplyDeleteHere are my picks from your LetterboxD listing:
My Neighbor Totoro*
Outlaw Josey Wales
Moulin Rouge
Patton
Yojimbo
Night Of The Living Dead*
Rosemary's Baby
Contempt
The Thin Man
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Crying Game*
Rambo: First Blood
Thanks for the picks! I did end up setting up the final selections based on the votes earlier this week. A bunch of your choices made the list. Totoro, Moulin Rouge, Yojimbo, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre all made the cut.
Delete