26th Hall of Fame

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The trick is not minding
All the President's Men*(1976, Pakula)
My pick, an intelligent reporting procedural that gets better each time I watch it, lead by some fine acting by Hoffman, Redford, and Robards.
The Passion of Joan of Arc*(1928, Dreyer)
Highly anticipated, as I’ve had me eye on this film for quite some time now. Dreyer’s Vampyr was a marvelous treat, and I have a feeling this may be better.

The Wizard of Oz*(1939, Fleming)

Own this, just watched it last year for the first time and was actually surprised how enjoyable I found it. Good pick, interested to see this again.

Sweet Smell of Success*(1957, Mackendrick)

Another I’ve been meaning to see, just haven’t pulled the trigger yet. *Guess now is as good a time as any. *

And Then There Were None*(2015, Viveiros)
Don’t usually watch mini series, but this should be interesting.

Angel-A*(2005, Besson)
This looks familiar, but I know I haven’t seen it yet. Probably something I looked at watching sometime and then promptly forgot about. That happens a lot.

The Celebration*(1998, Vinterberg)
I was aiming to watch this soon for the 2021 challenge anyways so….yay!

Daisies*(1966, Chytilová}
I’ve watched a handful of Czechoslovakian films, especially those from the Czech New Wave.*
A few early Milos Forman films, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, and Witchhammer. *The latter two are excellent. *I’ve heard of of this as well, so this is a cool nomination. *

Last Year At Marienbad*(1960, Resnais)
Another on my watch list.*

Tower*(2016, Maitland)
This looks familiar somehow. At least the title does. *But t plot doesn’t. Always glad, and Interesting to see a doc nominated.*



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
All the President's Men (1976, Pakula) Nominated By: Wyldesyde19 Got to see this one in one of the Personal Rec HoF so looking forward to a rewatch.

And Then There Were None (2015, Viveiros) Nominated By: Siddon Regardless of the runtime I am truly intrigued to see a fleshed out rendition of this Agatha Christie Mystery.

Angel-A (2005, Besson) Nominated By: edarsenal this is mine and I'll be posting my review for it momentarily and, if anyone needs an English subtitled link, let me know

The Celebration (1998, Vinterberg) Nominated By: SpelingError This is on my watchlist so pretty excited about it.

Daisies (1966, Chytilová} Nominated By: ueno_station54 As Ueno stated, it's just a fun movie and from what I see, it could very well be.

Last Year At Marienbad (1960, Resnais) Nominated By: seanc Have not heard of this one but I do like the look of it

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer) Nominated By: jiraffejustin This'll be a rewatch. Amazing film, emotionally heavy, but amazing.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Mackendrick) Nominated By: Citizen Rules Looking forward to this rewatch

Tower (2016, Maitland) Nominated By: rauldc14 Remember this one from (I think) an animation HoF. Curious to see how a rewatch plays out

The Wizard of Oz (1939, Fleming) Nominated By: Allaby OH F@CK YES! Grew up on this and even enjoyed when they synced it up to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Been a couple of decades since I last saw this and d@mn happy to remedy that.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé




Angel-A (2005)

Luc Besson's clever dialogue and almost whimsical outlook on human nature take precedence with his penchant for stylized violence toned way down. And while, yes, the secondary characters are a bit one-dimensional to the point of caricature, our two central figures and the chemistry between them captures and engages me. For me, here lies the magic that enchants in the performances and interactions between Andre (Jamel Debbouze) and Angel-A (Rie Rasmussen).

All of us, everywhere, at one point or another, and for some, quite a few times is in dire need of an angel.
Andre is of that second group. He is in deep. Too deep to get out and incapable of making any headway. He can only fumble, stumble and lie his way deeper and deeper still.
So, on a whim, he decides on the option left. To jump off a bridge into the Seine River.
Ready to jump, making, as we all would, one final plea to a Higher Power, Andre glances to the side at the next support beam where a tall blonde woman appears to be doing the same. In fact, in she goes.
Shocked, he jumps in after her.

Voila. This six-foot, chain-smoking, abrasive bombshell, dressed as (her words), "A Slut," and this mousy, short, nervous, erratic, inept liar, wannabe con artist, in shabby attire, are now attached at the hip as Angel-A solves his problems with Andre kicking and screaming the entire time.
Meanwhile, falling in love as they argue and fight about what is "inside" Andre and how to bring it out for all to see and realize. Especially Andre.

Why does she do it?
Because Angel-A IS, literally, an angel. Sent down from Above to help. It's her job.

In a f@ckin nutshell::
This is a fantastical love story infused with dark, quirky comedic tones, shot in a French-Auteur camera style, à la Luc Besson.
Besson's stylized storytelling sets an excellent pace. Easing occasionally with moments of self-exploration and self-realization. Via, and I need to re-iterate this, their truly excellent chemistry and character nuances. I so do love them.
Much like Besson's dialogue, his usual cinematographer, Thierry Arbogast, is given a day in the sun as the artistic composition visually entices us throughout this film of not only Andre and Angel-A but of Paris herself.

A succulently light heart and mind cleanser for the more serious nominations of these truly excellent General Hall of Fames.
Please use as needed.



Let the night air cool you off
Here are some films I thought about nominating but didn't for various reasons:

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Shoplifters (2018)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Evil Dead Trap (1988)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010)
Clash (2016)
Mirror (1975)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Given Word (1962)
Amarcord (1973)
Downhill Racer (1969)

Those are all the films y'all were spared this time around.





Tower (2016)

Some films are just perfectly made, Tower is as close to cinematic perfection you will ever see, especially made within the last 20 years. This is the third time I've watched this film and it has the same impact on me each time. When art is made and you can revisit it every year or so and it still holds up with an impact than you know it's good.

Tower tells the story of the first mass school shooting by Charles Whitman in 1966. Whitman is never shown, we never hear about his story...the brain tumor the marine service the murder of his wife when she decided to leave him. That's not the story...instead we get the act of a crazied man who climbed a tower and murdered people below.

The film uses actors, documentary footage, rotoscoping and interviews to play the event of the shooting in real(ish) time. It has a powerful message because the vanity of individuals is lost and an honesty from the witnesses resonates with us the viewer. The survivors are aged near the third act and we get to hear from them with a different perspective.

Often times the little things hit you like a ton of bricks...a police officer thinking this black panthers...when it was a marine. Or when a family is told falsely that their son was killed. You get humorous moments Allen Crum a 40 year old manager giving Whitman the Italian digit is a great moment.

The music is extremely well done, we start with pop and then we get a very basic piano score (that's very haunting) and end with classical music. We hear from Walter Kronkite as he lays out prophetic words and spend a good amount of time with the survivors and are left with a sense of guilt from the heroes that feels genuine and profound.



With the 2000s Countdown coming up, I'm surprised that there weren't more movies from the 2000s nominated.
Yeah I was a little disappointed that 00's hasn't gotten a Hall of Fame (along with 80's, 90's, 10's)

This would have been my nomination if my nom wasn't allowed.




Daisies: Someone has a food fetish. At times the editing reminded me of Sesame Street, and in those moments I thought it sure would be nice to be watching Sesame Street. Today is brought to you by the number 0.



Yeah I was a little disappointed that 00's hasn't gotten a Hall of Fame (along with 80's, 90's, 10's)
I mentioned the idea of someone hosting a 2000 HOF, and I still think I there is time for someone to host it if they so choose.
We have 3 months, so someone should host a 2000s HoF. I bet it would be small, so easy to do...and like I said there's 3 months before the countdown deadline. So who wants to host it?



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Daisies: Someone has a food fetish. At times the editing reminded me of Sesame Street, and in those moments I thought it sure would be nice to be watching Sesame Street. Today is brought to you by the number 0.
Ouch



I forgot to set a deadline yesterday, so I'll make it December 1st. That's one film per week (plus an additional two weeks in case anyone falls behind). I updated the second post in this thread with this info. If anyone else joins in or drops out, this deadline might change, but I'll announce it here if that happens.

Also, I rewatched All the President's Men and it held up really well I'll review it either later today or tomorrow.
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Daisies (1966)

Gosh I loved this nom! It made me smile the whole time and that's always a good thing! I loved the creativity of the film, the colors, omg! The creative use of colors and b&w was a visual treat. So too was the set design,I loved the ecliptic decor, so visually rich, especially in the girls room. And that rainbow halo effect on certain images? Very cool.

This film was clearly ahead of it's time as I noticed an editing style that's currently used today in some commercials and movies...In between some scenes there would be a quick inter-cutting of still images, (like piles of leaves, butterflies, etc)...that were shown in fast succession. I've seen that technique used in modern mainstream movies by stylized auteur type directors. In 1966 that was cutting edge.


Oh, forgot to say the actresses were super charming! and so fun and quirky. I think the strawberry blonde was the cutest, she had such impressive eyes. I liked the brunette too. I loved listening to their voices, they kinda cooed like doves...Geez I could keep writing about this movie as there was so much visually going on.

Thanks @ueno_station54 for a really fun and creative nom.


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All the President's Men (1976) -


I'm not the biggest fan of biopics. While they may be elevated by some strong acting or some decent camerawork, they often have little else on their minds other than championing whoever is at the heart of their stories or offering a straightforward retelling of whatever noteworthy thing the subject did. While my impression of them is generally "I'd rather just research the person in the film rather than watch a movie about them", this film is an exception to this criticism as it's as much about the process of how the Watergate scandal was uncovered as it is about the scandal itself. Regardless of where you stand politically, this film is a must-see.

This films wraps you up in its story so well with a series of revelations about various people's involvements to the scandal and significant pieces of information coming to light that it keeps you on board with the investigation from beginning to end, even though the outcome of it is already known. As a cherry to all this, certain characters and events (Deep Throat, most of the witnesses being afraid to speak up, members of the CREEP potentially being in danger) add an extra layer of spice to the film and help to ensure that you won't grow bored while watching it. This film also feels relevant today given the various discussions and trials on impeachments/cover-ups/scandals which have permeated the news in the U.S. in the last few years or so.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman did a good job in this film and played their parts of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two Washington Post reporters with different levels of experience, pretty well. Woodward didn't have as much experience at his job as Bernstein did and often showed a reluctance to push the various witnesses they ran into for interviews when they were reluctant to talk, while Bernstein was more demanding with the people he interviewed and didn't accept no for an answer. As the scandal kept growing more and more widespread throughout their investigation and as the importance of solving it eventually dawned on Woodward though, he eventually assisted Bernstein in these endeavors. While Redford and Hoffman are good though, Jason Robards gives the best performance in the film. Even though I've only seen him in four or five films, he's blown me away in every single one of them, as he did in this film. With maybe the exception of Once Upon a Time in the West, I've only seen him in supporting roles, but he plays his part in this film quite phenomenally and proves magnetic whenever he's onscreen. His character has more experience than both Woodward and Bernstein and has to be really careful that the two of them have enough evidence before publishing it. After all, a slip up could potentially bring a bad name to their paper.

Overall, I liked this film about as much as I did the last time I watched it and I'm glad it was nominated for this thread.

Next Up: And Then There Were None



I had time before work and still had the link for it up but I've now left myself like 10 minutes to write this lol.


The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)

Not gonna lie, didn't quite hold up this time around. By that I mean I'm considering dropping it all the way to #2 on my favourite films list. Could have been that the soundtrack on the video I watched was just a piece of music the uploader enjoyed and put on it and I didn't notice til super far in lol. Though honestly, any vaguely appropriate music is going to work fine because what's on screen really is powerful enough to transcend that. It's been said over and over but Falconetti's performance truly is the most iconic film performance there will ever be. It can't possibly be topped. The way she portrays her trust in God and that blissful state that comes with it is almost eerie with how immediately convincing it is and the conflict between that and her survival instincts and mortal doubts is just a sight to behold. The supporting actors were clearly chosen for their distinctly stern, intimidating faces and you can really feel that energy radiating off all of them. Like most films from the era, its a very flashy, energetic film. Lots of camera movement, dynamic angles, brisk pacing, nothing to dislike at all and my only real nitpicks are that the outdoor set looks pretty terrible in the handful of wides you get to see it in and there's a couple reused shots that seem unnecessary. Yeah, still hits hard after all these years and numerous viewings. Love it.



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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
I don't really have the time to join right now, but I'll keep an eye on the thread. An interesting and diverse selection of films. Festen is great, The Wizard of Oz is great, Sweet Smell of Success too - this would be a hard one to rank. Last Year at Marienbad might prove divisive. Of the three I haven't seen, Angel-A looks most appealing to me (and it's a 2000s film, bonus countdown prep) so I'll definitely try to watch that.



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I don't really have the time to join right now, but I'll keep an eye on the thread. An interesting and diverse selection of films. Festen is great, The Wizard of Oz is great, Sweet Smell of Success too - this would be a hard one to rank. Last Year at Marienbad might prove divisive. Of the three I haven't seen, Angel-A looks most appealing to me (and it's a 2000s film, bonus countdown prep) so I'll definitely try to watch that.
We will miss you, hopefully can join the next one.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
There are some great nominations in this HoF. I've seen six of the nominations, and I'd highly recommend four of them.

All the President's Men (1976)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Tower (2016)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)


I watched two of the foreign movies for the recent Foreign Language countdown, and I think that they will probably do well too.

The Celebration (1998)
Last Year At Marienbad (1960)


I haven't see these four movies.

And Then There Were None (2015) - (I DVRed this when it aired on cable TV recently, (in three parts), but I haven't had time to watch it yet.)
Angel-A (2005)
Daisies (1966)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
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PHOENIX74 has joined us!

His nomination is Not Quite Hollywood (2008).


Also, I'll extend the deadline from December 1st to December 8th.