Stereoactive Movie Club

The Stereoactive Movie Club is discussing some of the greatest movies ever made. Who says? Sight and Sound magazine says. Every ten years, since 1952, Sight and Sound has surveyed critics and directors to determine which films, according to those surveyed, might be considered the best. The five film-loving friends take turns picking movies that have appeared on the list and then dig into them with an eye on their cultural impact, how they stand up today, and just whether they’re actually as good as all those critics and directors say they are.

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It’s Jeremiah’s Round 6 Pick: Beau Travail, the 1999 film directed by Clair Denis.

Beau Travail, which is something of a loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, was commissioned by a European culture channel Arte as a film about foreignness. It updates the classic novella to feature French Legionnaires stationed in the East African nation of Djibouti, which at the time of the film’s production had only recently, relatively speaking, ceased to be ruled by France after nearly a century of occupation. The film received good reviews when it was released in the United States, even topping the Village Voice’s critics poll in 2000. It was also recognized at several film festivals and by critics associations.

As for our purposes, Beau Travail made its first appearance in the top 10 of Sight and Sound’s “greatest films” polling in 2022 when it was ranked #7 by critics; it was also tied at #14 on the directors poll. Among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists that year were Steve McQueen, Kirsten Johnson, Atom Egoyan, and Barry Jenkins.

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It’s Alicia’s Round 6 Pick: Wild Strawberries, the 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Wild Strawberries was Ingmar Bergman’s 18th feature film in eleven years. It was written while he was in a hospital for stress and gastric issues, then quickly produced as his personal life was in disarray.

Critics in Sweden pretty much loved the film, while its reception in the United States was more mixed. But its influence has been strong over the years and directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky have listed it among their favorite films. 

The film was honored at various international film festivals and awards ceremonies, including the Oscars, where, after opening in the US in 1959, it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay… though Bergman refused the nomination in a letter where he called the Oscars a “humiliating institution” for the art of motion pictures. The Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic comedy Pillow Talk is what eventually won Best Original Screenplay that year, while the big overall winner of the year was Ben-Hur. But to give a sense of what was popular in the United States when Wild Strawberries was released in Sweden a couple of years earlier… The Bridge on the River Kwai was the big Oscar winner for films released in 1957 – and it was also the top-grossing film of the year in North America.

As for our purposes, Wild Strawberries appeared in the top 10 of Sight and Sound’s “greatest films” polling once – when it was ranked #10 in 1972. In the 2022 polling, it was ties at #108 by critics and tied at #72 by directors – and among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists that year was Michael Moore.

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It’s Stephen’s Round 6 Pick: Modern Times, the 1936 film starring, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin.

Modern Times marked at least the 60th appearance of Charlie Chaplin in a film as the Little Tramp – and depending on whether you think the barber character in The Great Dictator is also the Tramp, Modern Times may be the last time Chaplin played the character. And while his previous film, 1931’s City Lights, featured synchronized music and sound effects, Modern Times was the first time Chaplin employed synchronized dialogue, though obviously minimal. At first, Modern Times was conceived of as a potentially full-on talkie, but eventually Chaplin decided that his famous character worked better in the silent format, so the film mainly adheres to that style, other than the final moments of the film, with the previously mentioned sung gibberish

Reviews at the time were positive and the film was a financial success despite its anomalous nature 9 years after the debut of The Jazz Singer – which is a testament to the long popularity of Chaplin and his character up to that point. In 1998 it was ranked #81 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list – and it rose a few spots to #78 when they redid the list in 2007. It also ranked #33 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list in 2000.

As for our purposes, Modern Times has never been in the top 10 of Sight and Sound’s polling of critics, but it was ranked #6 in the very first polling of directors in 1992. In the 2022 polling, it was tied at #78 in the critics polling and tied at #72 by directors – and among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists in 2022 was documentarian Frederick Wiseman.

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It’s Mia’s Round 6 Pick: Battleship Potemkin, the 1925 film directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

Divided into 5 acts, Battleship Potemkin, in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of what is known as the First Russian Revolution of 1905, tells the story of a mutiny aboard the titular Russian naval vessel

In the film’s telling, the crew’s refusal to eat borscht made from maggot-infested meat is the first domino in a series of events that leads to a sort of mini-revolution in the port city of Odessa.

And in the reality of the time when the film was made and released, it effectively helps to connect the still very new USSR to the historical struggles of its citizens under the previous Tsarist regime by portraying the institutional power of those sailors as aligned with the people at a time when the Soviet regime had much to gain from its people believing in such an alignment.

While the film was produced intentionally as propaganda, Eisenstein also used it as a vehicle to further his own experimentation with the concept of “montage.” 

Of course, while he may have had his own personal, artistic motivations for this exploration, it’s also undeniable that his work was itself influenced by and part of the Soviet effort to use the medium of film for its own purposes.

The film was considered shocking at the time for its use of graphic violence, much of which has been referenced in other films over the years – especially the Odessa Steps sequence.

But even criticism of the film seems to acknowledge the power of its craft.

As for our purposes, Battleship Potemkin was in the top 10 of Sight and Sound’s critics survey every decade, from the first poll in 1952 up until 2002. In 2012, it ranked at #11 making it a runner up, and in the 2022 poll, it was tied at #54. It’s never been in the top 10 of the directors survey and in the 2022 poll it was tied at #93. 

Among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists in 2022 are Michael Mann and Sally Potter.

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Mentioned in the episode:

IN THE MOOD FOR EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE

https://youtu.be/ekNG7cW-xXE

In our next batch of movies, we'll be traveling from the Soviet Union to Florida with stops in Sweden, Hollywood, and Djibouti along the way...

So, listen up as we reveal our picks for what we’ll be watching in Round 6 of the podcast! 

Also, we introduce a special guest who’ll be joining us for all of Round 6!

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It’s Jeremiah’s Round 5 Bonus Pick: Boyhood, the 2014 film directed by Richard Linklater.

Boyhood tells the story of a young boy, his slightly older sister, their divorced parents, and the people who come in and out of their lives over the course of 12 years, from the time the boy is 6 until he’s 18. Step-parents come and go, or even stay. Many moves are made. And we see the ways in which the parents’ decisions and actions affect their kids until they begin to have more agency and independence.

The story is told a year at a time, and, of course, the special thing about it is that it was also filmed a year at a time, so we see every main or recurring character actually age as the film progresses. The effect of the year-by-year production schedule is that each section of the film is something of a time capsule of both the era when it was shot and the time in each cast members’ life, thus lending an air of docu-realism that could never be achieved if it had been filmed more traditionally as something of a period piece. Linklater, cast, and crew would shoot for a few weeks each year, with the script being written as they went to take into account where the actors were in their lives and, to some extent, what was going on in the world and culture from year to year.

The film was budgeted at $200,000 per year of shooting – or $2.4 million total – and ended up earning $57.3 million making it a box office success, especially when considering that it was never in more than 775 theaters in the US. Critical reception was also strong, with many naming it the best, or among the best, films of its year. 

Sight And Sound magazine, for the record, polled 112 international contributors and colleagues to decide their top 20 films of 2014 and ranked Boyhood #1. 

The film also won the top prize of the year from a number of other critics groups and other organizations. And Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, received much praise for their portrayals of the estranged parents in the film. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, but only Patricia Arquette won, for Best Supporting Actress. It’s other nominations were for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

As for our purposes on this podcast, Jeremiah chose this movie as one that he thought deserved to be in the conversation of the Best Films for the 2022 Sight And Sound Poll. It was chosen back before the 2022 poll was out and, as it turns out, it did not make the list. That said, of the ballots that have been made public, director George Miller noticeably had it in his top 10.

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It’s Alicia’s 5th pick: Apocalypse Now, the 1979 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Coppola’s fellow New Hollywood/Movie Brat filmmaker, John Milius first conceived of adapting ‘Heart of Darkness’ as a Vietnam War movie sometime in the late ‘60s. The original plan was for Milius to write, Coppola to produce, and for George Lucas to direct. Eventually, as Lucas became busy with other projects, Coppola became the project’s director and co-writer.

The film’s shooting schedule in the Philippines was originally set for 5 months, but ended up taking more like 14 months. A lot of the reasons why are pretty well documented in the 1991 documentary spearheaded and co-directed by Eleanor Coppola, Francis’ wife – it’s called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse and is totally worth checking out.

Reviews at the time were mixed, with some crowning it a high achievement from the start while others praised the impressive craft of the filmmaking, but found the storytelling wanting. Despite its mixed critical reception, it made good money at the box office and ended up winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It also won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound, and was nominated for another 6: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Robert Duvall; Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Art Direction; Best Film Editing.

The big winner at the Oscars that year, though, was Kramer vs. Kramer.

As for our purposes, Apocalypse Now has only been in the top 10 of one of Sight And Sound’s polls once, when the directors list had it at number 6 in 2012. In the new 2022 polling, it was ranked #19 by critics and #18 by directors.

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It’s Lora’s 5th pick: Raging Bull, the 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese.

The film is a character study of boxer Jake LaMotta, who himself is presented as questionable in character but pure in talent. It is considered one of the best films of its decade and quickly became legendary for DeNiro’s feat of gaining weight for the later scenes. It also basically introduced Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty to the world in star-making turns and was, in more ways than one, something of a saving grace for Scorsese.

As for our purposes, Raging Bill has never been in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics survey, but was ranked #3 by directors in 1992 and then #6 in 2002.

In the 2022 polling, it was ranked #129 by critics and #22 by directors – and among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists were Bong Joon-ho, Brett Morgan, Abel Ferrara, Oliver Stone, Richard Ayoade, Kenneth Branagh, Ari Aster, Michael Mann, and James Gray.

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It’s Stephen’s 5th pick: Pierrot le Fou, the 1965 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard himself said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France."

And with its fourth wall breaks, often jarring editing style, and tendency to internally jump among mass culture and/or pop art references in both extremely metatextual and self-referential ways, the film is at once recognizable as a Godard film, a French New Wave film, and in a broader way, a certain type of arthouse film that is at once exciting for many and probably challenging if not off-putting for many more.

As for our purposes, the movie has never actually appeared in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics or directors surveys, but it was tied as a runner up with Hiroshima mon Amour and The Gold Rush on the 1972 list. 

In the 2012 polling, it was tied at #42 by critics and #91 by directors. And since we recorded this back in October, it tied for #85 on the 2022 critics list and was not included on the directors top 100 list.

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