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Seven Samurai is still excellent even if it does drag a little for me in places. So glad to see it place higher this time.

Lovely to see Stalker make it, higher than I would have expected but I'd give it a place on this purely for the "I'm fed up with your nuts and bandages" line alone

Seen: 66/76 (Own: 33/76)
My list:  


Faildictions (Eternal vsn 1.0):
24. Der blaue Engel (1930)
23. Alien (1979)



Yeah, that Lawrence of Arabia match thing is...coincidental and deeply unfortunate. Anyway, thought process:

The drop of a bomb follows
The shot of a gun
The bomb is a reference to Stalker and destroying the Room, obviously, and the bandits having firearms is a big part of Seven Samurai

Like the lighted match mimics
Apart from making the poem work, this is a nod to the famous match scene in Nostalghia, another Tarkovsky.

The rise of the sun
I actually expected this one to really give things away:



As they see people through
Or keep people out
"See people through" = Stalker.

"Keep people out" = Seven Samurai.



These are two films I saw fairly recently for the first time (both in 2019) and liked quite a bit, but that I feel I didn't connect with as much as others. Stalker was my first Tarkovsky and it did stuck with me a bit, so I've been meaning to rewatch it. Seven Samurai, on the other hand, I thought it was pretty cool but like I said, it didn't resonate with me as much as I was expecting or as much as some of the other Kurosawa films I've seen. Will probably rewatch it soon too.
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Watched "Seven Samarai" a few years back and enjoyed it. Never really had an inkling to revisit though. Have not seen " Stalker".
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My Craptastic List:  


58/74 films seen



Yoda, you so crafty.

I am digging deeper into Kurosawa to start my year. That is going to include some rewatches and Seven Samurai was my second one last week. I gave it a 3.5 when I first saw it shortly after coming to mofo. It was one of my first reviews. I went the full 5 this time around. I just love the look of the film and the structure. It's a ton of fun to watch. The old Japanese style of acting has really grown in me the last few years. I found it too theatrical when I first started digging in. I am very pleased to be finding that I am going to end up liking Mifune as much as other film fans. Great movie that absolutely belongs. Would probably be somewhere between 100 and 125 for me if I made a list today..

I was drawn to Tarkovsky my first watch, which was Stalker. It would have been pretty early in my mofo life as well. Pretty sure it was my first HOF. I also came across a still of this film in a 70's thread, which was the very first thread I viewed coming here. That still really drew me in. I had no art house sensibilities when I came here. Tarkovsky is the most perfect introduction to art house cinema for me. He is so subtle and patient. His frames are meticulous but simple. Stalker is set in such a simple setting, so simple that many contend there is nothing special about the zone at all. It's still dreamlike the way it's shot though. and I find it beautiful. I think it represents the spirituality of man, and how that part of our lives is both accessible and inaccessible at the same time. Because we can't explain it, we can't touch it. It just consumes us, and it is up to us in how we engage it.

Amazing film but not the Tarkovsky I chose. I don't think the other one is showing.

Awesome set.
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@Yoda be honest with that one, you tried to completely throw everyone off, no?

Samurai will be the last I haven't seen.

We know my history with Stalker so I'll just leave it at that.

Also, this means another gets thrown off my list of certainties I made awhile ago. I guess it just means no more Pixar coming obviously at this point.



A system of cells interlinked
I own Solaris, but have never seen Stalker. Big blind spot for me.

Seven Samurai is excellent, but did not make my list. I am now realizing my list is ****.
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Yeah, that Lawrence of Arabia match thing is...coincidental and deeply unfortunate. .
Interesting. I thought it was misdirection. that's why I called you crafty. I wasn't positive about Strangelove but I thought Lawrence was a definite.



Interesting. I thought it was misdirection. that's why I called you crafty. I wasn't positive about Strangelove but I thought Lawrence was a definite.
It's such a minefield, these things. At this point the list of possible films is so small I'm constantly writing something and then thinking "nope, too obvious" and having to change it to something more obscure.



@Yoda be honest with that one, you tried to completely throw everyone off, no?
I promise I didn't! Did not remember the match thing at all, and was surprised people latched on to "bomb" so immediately and literally. But, the later we get, the broader the language gets, and the more films fit within it, I suppose. Only way to keep things interesting. I'm not even sure anything like this will be possible for the Top 10! Might be all trivia or something.



Was Stalker used as a template for a fairly recent TV series? Can't recall the series' name, but Stalker's premise sounds familiar.
Well, it bears a passing resemblance to Cheronobyl in a way. And the whole "reality is weird here" is the premise behind Annihilation, which we recorded a podcast about. And, as I listen to it again right now, @bluedeed makes exactly the same comparison, to Stalker.



There's no Kurosawa on my list, which I admit seems kind of ridiculous, because there's at least three of his that could have easily made it (this one, Ikiru, Rashomon). Maybe if I made my list on a different day. Anyway, Seven Samurai needs no defending from me.

Stalker was the Tarkovsky on my list, at #17, so I'm happy to see it turn up. It was not easy picking between this and Andrei Rublev. Interestingly, these are two of the few films on my list that I've only seen once, and perhaps it's no coincidence that I saw both in a theater. Distractions are hard on Tarkovsky's movies, so I find watching them at home much more difficult. Stalker's slow burn is hypnotic, but phones going off or traffic outside the window tend to break the spell, so even though I own both of these on DVD, I've yet to watch them again. Maybe when I finally get that basement home theater...



I always thought of Stalker as Andrei Tarkovsky's version of The Wizard of Oz. Not just because both films start off in black-and-white and goes to colour, but because of the central themes and journeys of the characters too.

Both are heading on journeys where they learn more about themselves and the humanistic values that they share, they're looking for something beyond that, a higher purpose to answer their wishes and fulfil their desires. I won't go too much more into it because I'm guessing a lot of people won't have seen Stalker.

I think it's an absolutely brilliant film, like the rest of Tarkovsky's works. I didn't include it on my list but easily could have. I included one of his but I don't think it will make it now either.

Seven Samurai is another masterpiece and possibly the greatest action film of all time. I love films like this where we have the setup, the planning, a team coming together to solve a problem. It paves the way for many Westerns that would follow. The way that Kurosawa shoots his films creating striking images in the frame, edits them together to create such exciting stories, it's just wonderful. You have to admire the sheer scale of some of his films too and the practical work involved, astonishing. Probably my join-favourite Kurosawa film with High and Low. Didn't make my list but easily could have.

76/76 seen.
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Maybe one of those "super blurry still" things.

I better start thinking more seriously about what to do, if anything, though.
Yes, or a cropped version of a still, like this



Hint: it's not Seven Samurai



Welcome to the human race...
Up until this point, I counted exactly three of my picks making the list - Persona at #45, The Terminator at #56, and Akira all the way down at #88. Now I finally get an update where both films were on my list. Can only guess how many more will show up (I'm going to get ten more out of twenty). Yay?

Seven Samurai was my #19. It became my catch-all pick for the old-school epic (and narrowly beat out Lawrence of Arabia for the honour) - to put it simply, it's one of those films where I couldn't imagine drafting an all-timer list without it even if I can still count the number of times I've seen it on one hand. Leaving aside decades of influence in terms of technique, narrative, and performance, it's still more fun than you could ever expect.

Stalker was my #14. There's no shortage of sci-fi on my list - without spoiling too much, I count exactly eleven titles that qualify as such - but I'm sure if I had to narrow it down to a singular representative pick for the genre then Stalker is definitely a major contender. A tense and somewhat overwhelming experience at first, it is a film that continues to reward even as its many spatial mysteries and dialogues between its archetypal trio may never reach any straightforward (or even oblique) conclusions. This list could do with a few more films like it, but I'm glad to see it represented so highly.
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