MC Yearly Consensus - 1991

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. Prospero's Books (Kiss my ass, Diablo Cody.)
2. Raise the Red Lantern
3. Edward II
4. Europa
5. 35 Up


Very honorable mention: Into the Woods

6. Impromptu
7. The Commitments
8. Barton Fink
9. A Brief History of Time
10. Dead Again

[eternity]

1. Bugsy
2. JFK
3. Cape Fear
4. Barton Fink
5. Naked Lunch

[Derek]

1. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou)
2. Surviving Desire (Hal Hartley)
3. Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
4. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
5. Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
****************************** *
6. Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)
7. JFK (Oliver Stone)
8. Rush (Lili Fini Zanuck)
9. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-Wai)
10. Theory of Achievement (Hal Hartley)

HMs:
Flirting (John Duigan)
Hot Shots! (Jim Abrahams)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron)
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper & Eleanor Coppola)
The Stranger (Satyajit Ray)
Ambition (Hal Hartley)
Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (Jean-Luc Godard)
Slacker (Richard Linklater)

[Watashi]

2. Surviving Desire (Hal Hartley)


Really? I saw this based on your recommendation and I thought it was just okay. It was short and sweet, but instantly forgettable. I wouldn't even think it about placing it this high on a top ten list.

[Watashi]

1. JFK
2. Barton Fink
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. Raise the Red Lantern
5. Hook

[Melville]

1. Raise the Red Lantern
2. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
3. JFK
4. Barton Fink
5. The Silence of the Lambs

HM: Hearts of Darkness, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

[soitgoes...]

1. JFK (Oliver Stone)
2. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou)
3. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
4. La Belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
5. The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
----------------------------------------------------
6. Life, and Nothing More... (Abbas Kiarostami)
7. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg)
8. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar Wai)
9. Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
10. A Scene at the Sea (Takeshi Kitano)

HMs
11. World of Glory (Roy Andersson)
12. Delicatessen (Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
13. Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise)
14. Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton)
15. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)

[The Mike]

1. L.A. Story
2. The Silence of the Lambs
3. The Addams Family
4. Beauty and the Beast
5. The Last Boy Scout

HM: The People Under the Stairs

Need to see Barton Fink!

[EyesWideOpen]

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. A Scene at the Sea
3. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
4. Boyz N the Hood
5. Silence of the Lambs

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. The Rapture
3. Black Robe
4. Raise the Red Lantern
5. Slacker

[Russ]

1. Miss Twin Peaks / Beyond Life and Death
2. The Rapture
3. The Silence of the Lambs
4. Thelma & Louise
5. Black Robe

[Boner M]

10. Theory of Achievement (Hal Hartley)
What did you like about this one? By far and away my least favorite thing he's done.

1. La Belle noiseuse (Rivette)
2. Silence of the Lambs (Demme)
3. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Carax)
4. Van Gogh (Pialat)
5. Barton Fink (Coen)

HM: The Passing, Surviving Desire, JFK, T2

Need to see: Van Gogh, The Fisher King, Drop Dead Fred

[Spinal]

Drop Dead Fred

I once dated a girl who said that this was her favorite movie. It was one of the most astonishing statements I have ever heard in my life.

[Boner M]

I once dated a girl who said that this was her favorite movie. It was one of the most astonishing statements I have ever heard in my life.
I remember loving it back in the day, and I recently heard it mentioned as an underrated gem on a recent House Next Door podcast, as well as saw it on Dan Sallitt (http://www.panix.com/~sallitt/bestfilm90.html)'s favorite films list. Gonna get to it this weekend, prob.

[Raiders]

1. Days of Being Wild (Wong)
2. A Scene at the Sea (Kitano)
3. La belle noiseuse (Rivette)
4. The Rapture (Tolkien)
5. Until the End of the World (Wenders)

-------------------------------------

6. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang)
7. Dead Again (Branagh)
8. Prospero's Books (Greenaway)
9. Beauty and the Beast (Wise, Trousdale)
10. Hot Shots! (Jim Abrahams)
11. The Adjuster (Egoyan)

[Stay Puft]

1. Once Upon a Time in China
2. A Scene at the Sea
3. Life on a String
4. Raise the Red Lantern
5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. Rhapsody in August
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. JFK

[MadMan]

I can't say I'm a huge fan of this year. But there are some good films involved. Maybe I need to see more.

1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
2. JFK
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
4. City Slickers
5. What About Bob?
============================== =
6. The Last Boy Scout
7. The Fisher King
8. Silence of the Lambs
9. Point Break
10. The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

[Yxklyx]

1. Barton Fink (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
2. JFK (Oliver Stone)
3. Days of Being Wild (Kar Wai Wong)
4. Delicatessen (Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
5. Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang)

6. Europa (Lars von Trier)
7. Once Upon a Time in China (Hark Tsui)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
9. De Artificiali Perspectiva (Stephen Quay & Timothy Quay)
10. Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott)

[Yxklyx]

1. Miss Twin Peaks / Beyond Life and Death


Well yeah, this is the best thing to come out this year but I'd rather not put individual episodes on such a list.

[Russ]

1. Miss Twin Peaks / Beyond Life and Death
Well yeah, this is the best thing to come out this year but I'd rather not put individual episodes on such a list.

I feel the same way. The only time I'd make an exception is if (1) it was feature-film length, ie., a TV-Movie, and/or (2) if the director works predominately in feature films. I put it in on a technicality and here's why: ABC Television packaged and premiered the the final two standalone Twin Peaks episodes as an ABC TV Movie, which meets my first criteria, and the episodes were helmed by Tim Hunter (who did the great 1986 film, River's Edge) and Lynch, whose dark and haunting finale ranks up there with his greatest work. Yeah, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch, but it'll be the only vote for it, so it won't matter. But it was great television.

[Melville]

3. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Carax)
I'm not sure how I missed that one. Great movie. I've edited my list accordingly.

[monolith94]

1. Delicatessen
2. Prospero's Books
3. The Fisher King
4. JFK
5. Barton Fink

honorable nods:
Edward II
Naked Lunch
Once Upon a Time in China
Beauty and the Beast


good year.

[Lazlo]

1. JFK
2. The Silence of the Lambs
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
4. Beauty and the Beast
5. 35 Up

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. The Rapture
4. The Silence of the Lambs
5. Barton Fink

[Derek]

What did you like about this one? By far and away my least favorite thing he's done.

Really? I love the raw, rough-edged sincerity of all the early Hartley films. This and Ambition certainly have a bit of pretentiousness to them, but they're also quite funny and Hartley's search for a style of his own is mirrored in his characters struggle to come to terms with their own identities in a cruel, demanding world. Theory with its overlapping dialogue, theatrical performances and fast-paced, elliptical editing manages to capture the anxiety of post-collegiate life in a totally original way. Hartley has an affinity for his characters, but while he's clearly condemning capitalist society for the conformity it demands, he also pokes fun at the grandiosity of his characters preaching as they long for Paris of the 20s or to be a musician and get lots of chicks without knowing how to play an instrument. Plus, the Godard doppelganger was a kick and his feeding lines to certain characters fits perfectly with them being stuffed with knowledge, but with no useful, or rather profitable, place to channel it. They're left working jobs they hate and spouting their philosophical musings to friends who merely pass them on like in a game of Telephone where they eventual lose all meaning or context.

[baby doll]

Best year of the 1990s for movies?

1. Les Amants du Pont Neuf (Leos Carax)
2. La Belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
3. Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks)
4. The Passing (Bill Viola) [video]
5. Life, and Nothing More... (Abbas Kiarostami)
6. La Double vie de Véronique (Krzyzstof Kieslowski)
7. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg)
8. Slacker (Richard Linklater)
9. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai)
10. My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
bubblin' under...
11. Jungle Fever (Spike Lee)
12. Ambition (Hal Hartley)

[Boner M]

4. The Passing (Bill Viola) [video]
That reminds me, I bought this in NYC a few months ago. Didn't know it from this year. Will watch soon.

[origami_mustache]

1. Days of Being Wild
2. Delicatessen
3. Barton Fink
4. Slacker
5. Naked Lunch


hm: My Own Private Idaho, The Silence of the Lambs

need to see:
La Double vie de Véronique
Life and Nothing More
A Brighter Summer Day
Rhapsody in August

[dreamdead]

1. Edward II
2. Prospero's Books
3. The Rapture
4. A Scene at the Sea
5. Days of Being Wild

HM: The Double Life of Veronique, JFK, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Beauty and the Beast, The Silence of the Lambs

Need to see: A Brighter Summer Day, Les Amants du Pont Neuf, La Belle noiseuse

[Pop Trash]

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. JFK
3. Terminator 2
4. Boyz n the Hood
5. My Girl

6. Point Break
7. Slacker
8. Barton Fink
9. Cape Fear
10. L.A. Story

I could put films/videos that I got into later like Bill Viola's The Passing or Wong's Days of Being Wild but I think I'll stick to childhood nostalgia for this year.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Motorama
2. The Rapture
3. Barton Fink
4. Dogfight
5. The Double Life of Veronique

Honourable Mention: Cool as Ice, yo.

[Grouchy]

1. Barton Fink
2. The Double Life of Veronique
3. Naked Lunch
4. The Silence of the Lambs
5. Once Upon a Time in China

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. The Double Life of Veronique
2. JFK
3. Barton Fink
4. Beauty and the Beast
5. The Silence of the Lambs

[baby doll]

I could put films/videos that I got into later like Bill Viola's The Passing or Wong's Days of Being Wild but I think I'll stick to childhood nostalgia for this year.The way I look at it, I'm constantly changing, so going back and reviewing films I loved as a child but now find less impressive just confirms how much I've grown since the days when I thought Terminator 2 or The Silence of the Lambs or JFK was the height of cinematic art.

[Pop Trash]

The way I look at it, I'm constantly changing, so going back and reviewing films I loved as a child but now find less impressive just confirms how much I've grown since the days when I thought Terminator 2 or The Silence of the Lambs or JFK was the height of cinematic art.
Eh, if I now thought those movies sucked, they wouldn't be on my list. Trust me, there were far worse movies I liked when I was 11 that wouldn't get near my list today.

[Kurosawa Fan]

There's a lot from this year that I haven't got around to yet. That always bugs me when I'm making one of these lists.

1. JFK
2. The Silence of the Lambs
3. Barton Fink
4. Delicatessen
5. T2

[Ezee E]

1. Barton Fink
2. JFK
3. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
4. Silence of the Lambs
5. Naked Lunch

As a kid, I loathed Drop Dead Fred. And I loved everything as a kid.

Woot woot to People Under the Stairs.

[Duncan]

1. Days of Being Wild
2. The Double Life of Veronique
3. De Artificiali Perspectiva
4. Barton Fink
5. The Silence of the Lambs


...I haven't really seen a lot from this year.

[baby doll]

As a kid, I loathed Drop Dead Fred.Repped.

[Torgo]

1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. Prospero's Books
3. Barton Fink
4. Delicatessen
5. JFK

[thefourthwall]

1. Silence of the Lambs
2. Dead Again
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. The Commitments
5. My Girl

[B-side]

1. JFK
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. Naked Lunch
4. Silence Of The Lambs
5. Barton Fink

[Cherish]

1. Prospero’s Books
2. Days of Being Wild
3. Mississippi Masala
4. L.A. Story
5. The Fisher King

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. Les Amants du Pont Neuf (Leos Carax)
3. Double Life of Veronique
4. Naked Lunch
5. Delicatessen

[Boner M]

Days of Being Wild is '90, folks.

[Malickfan]

1. Barton Fink
2. City Of Hope
3. The Double Life of Veronique
4. The Silence Of The Lambs
5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

[soitgoes...]

Days of Being Wild is '90, folks.In all fairness, this has changed since we did the 1990 consensus. No one voted for it during that one. Oh well, I guess it's a film that's going to fall through the cracks.

[Yxklyx]

We're going to have to allow Days of Being Wild for this one because it changed from 1991 to 1990 while we were doing this consensus.

[Spinal]

We're going to have to allow Days of Being Wild for this one because it changed from 1991 to 1990 while we were doing this consensus.

One time exception: Days of Being Wild will be eligible for this thread.

[soitgoes...]

One time exception: Days of Being Wild will be eligible for this thread.
The voice of Zeus has spoken!

[ledfloyd]

1. The Double Life of Veronique
2. JFK
3. Barton Fink
4. Delicatessen

[soitgoes...]

This thing ends soon. You have been warned.

[soitgoes...]

Closed. Tallying and such will commence shortly.

[soitgoes...]

#10

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/rapture1.jpg

The Rapture

Director: Michael Tolkin

Country: USA

This is the story of a young woman (who lives in Los Angeles) with a very boring job. At night however, she and a male partner cruise the bars as swingers. After a time, she begins to believe that a conspiracy exists and decides that she must become a born-again Christian. The movie presents an interesting view of how even the most unlikely person might become born-again.

"There have been dozens of movies that dealt in one way or another with the afterlife, with death and heaven and hell. But not until Michael Tolkin's The Rapture has there been a movie to seriously consider what the end of the world might be like, if the biblical prophecies turn out to be literally true. Here is one of the most radical, infuriating, engrossing, challenging movies I've ever seen. There are people who love it and many who hate it, but few who can remain on the sidelines." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#9

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/delicatessen_cochon-1.jpg

Delicatessen

Directors: Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Country: France

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet got the idea for the movie in 1988 while vacationing in America. He said after staying in America's hotels he felt the food was so bad that "it tasted like real humans". Then came the idea. Jean-Pierre Jeunet got the idea for a cannibal butcher when living in an apartment above a butcher's shop. Each morning at 7am he would hear the metallic clash of knives and a voice shout, "Chop chop!" His girlfriend said he was carving up the neighbors, and it would be their turn next week.

"Beautifully textured, cleverly scripted and eerily shot (often with a wideangle lens making characters look even weirder), Delicatessan (sic) is a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro." - Variety

[soitgoes...]

#8

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/days_of_being_wild_02.jpg

Days of Being Wild

Director: Wong Kar Wai

Country: Hong Kong

Set in 1960, the film centres on the young, boyishly handsome Yuddy, who learns from the drunken ex-prostitute who raised him that she is not his real mother. Hoping to hold onto him, she refuses to divulge the name of his real birth mother. The revelation shakes Yuddy to his very core, unleashing a cascade of conflicting emotions.

No. 3 in the Hong Kong Film Awards' List of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures. The film was supposed to be the first part of a project. But due to its relatively poor performance at the box office when it was first released, the producers decided not to finish the second part. The nameless character that appears in the last scene played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai is supposedly the main character in the second part.

"In truth, what makes Mr. Wong one of the most exciting filmmakers in cinema and makes his work more than just the sum of its cinematography and production design is that he's one of the few artists working outside the avant-garde who has been able to liberate his films from the straitjacket of conventional narrative. Beginning with Days of Being Wild Mr. Wong started creating some of the most beautiful films ever made and some of the most free." - Manohla Dargis

[soitgoes...]

#7

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/veronique.jpg

The Double Life of Veronique

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Country: France/Poland/Norway

The film follows the lives of a young woman first in Poland, Weronika, and then a young woman in France, Véronique, both played by Irène Jacob. Though unrelated, the two appear identical, share many personality traits, and seem to be aware of each other on some level, as if they are doppelgängers; but except for a brief glimpse through a bus window in Kraków, they never meet. After Weronika sacrifices everything in the pursuit of a singing career, Véronique abandons her own similar goal because of poor health and attempts to find an independent course for her life, while becoming involved with a manipulative man who is fascinated by clues to her double nature. The man is a puppeteer and maker of marionettes, helping raise the questions that are central to the film: is there such a thing as free will, or is it up to a creator of some kind, or is it just a matter of chance that one acts and thinks as one does?

Kieslowski originally wanted Andie MacDowell to play Veronique.

"As you watch the golden flutter of light that darts around Véronique’s room, you might reasonably wonder if Kieślowski was schooled in metempsychosis, or spiritual transmigration, but you could also ask whether, as a boy, he had listened to tales of Tinkerbell. The film is filled to dazzling with the vitreous and the translucent; the flaw running down the window of a Polish train seems, in some mystifying way, as momentous as a rift in space-time. We see through a glass darkly, and often confusingly, but at least we see." - Anthony Lane

[soitgoes...]

#5 (tie)

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/Disney-Beauty-and-the-Beast-1818-1.jpg

Beauty and the Beast

Directors: Gary Trousdale/Kirk Wise

Country: USA

A tale as old as time... Belle is a girl who is dissatisfied with life in a small provincial French town, constantly trying to fend off the misplaced "affections" of conceited Gaston. The Beast is a prince who was placed under a spell because he could not love. A wrong turn taken by Maurice, Belle's father, causes the two to meet.

"Be Our Guest" was originally animated with Maurice (not Belle) as the guest, but they decided not to waste such a wonderful song on a secondary character. Art director Brian McEntee color keyed Belle so that she is the only person in her town who wears blue. This is symbolic of how different she is from everyone else around. Later, she encounters the Beast, another misfit, also wearing blue.

"This is a giant step forward for Disney's animation unit -- and a quantum leap past its blandly diverting work in "The Little Mermaid." For the first time in a Disney cartoon, you don't feel as if you've slipped into a time warp. The sense of humor, even the obligatory moral subtext, seems fresh. There's even a kind of impudence in the comedy; you don't feel clobbered with wholesomeness. And yet nothing is lost in bringing a contemporary spirit to this familiar tale of love triumphing over physical imperfection. The storytelling is brisk and engaging, the animation imaginative and deeply textured, the music and the production numbers sublime. Let's not mince words -- it's great." - Hal Hinson

[soitgoes...]

#5 (tie)

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/protectedimagephp-1.jpg

Raise the Red Lantern

Director: Zhang Yimou

Country: China/Hong Kong/Taiwan

China in the 1920's. After her father's death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry Chen Zuoqian, the lord of a powerful family. Fifty year old Chen has already three wives, each of them living in separate houses within the great castle. The competition between the wives is tough, as their master's attention carries power, status and privilege. Each night Chen must decide with which wife to spend the night and a red lantern is lit in front of the house of his choice. And each wife schemes and plots to make sure it's hers. However, things get out of hand...

"The Master's" face is never seen. It is either obscured behind thin curtains or out of shot. Banned in China for a short time in the early 1990s.

"Yimou uses the bold, bright colors of "Ju Dou" again this time; his film was shot in the classic three-strip Technicolor process, now abandoned by Hollywood, which allows a richness of reds and yellows no longer possible in American films. There is a sense in which "Raise the Red Lantern" exists solely for the eyes. Entirely apart from the plot, there is the sensuous pleasure of the architecture, the fabrics, the color contrasts, the faces of the actresses. But beneath the beauty is the cruel reality of this life, just as beneath the comfort of the rich man's house is the sin of slavery." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#4

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/terminator2-1.jpg

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Director: James Cameron

Country: USA

Nearly 10 years have passed since Sarah Connor was targeted for termination by a cyborg from the future. Now her son, John, the future leader of the resistance, is the target for a newer, more deadly terminator. Once again, the resistance has managed to send a protector back to attempt to save John and his mother Sarah.

Out of all the time-traveling terminators in the series, the T-1000 is the only one that doesn't have any first-person "terminator vision" moments. A female passer-by actually wandered onto the biker bar set thinking it was real, despite walking past all the location trucks, cameras and lights. Seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in the bar dressed only in boxer shorts, she wondered aloud what was going on, only for Schwarzenegger to reply that it was male stripper night.

"The stunning special effects show something that's rare these days -- technical stunts that evoke a true sense of wonder; it's real jaw-to-the-floor stuff... In staging the movie's gigantic set pieces, [Cameron] has an eye for both grandeur and beauty." - Hal Hinson

[soitgoes...]

#3

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/4-2.jpg

JFK

Director: Oliver Stone

Country: USA

Details the actions of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who takes it upon himself to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Garrison is extremely suspicious of the official story presented by the FBI, and what he already knows and what he subsequently learns lead him to suspect that there is more to the story than the public is being told.

In Bull Durham (1988), Kevin Costner's character stated "... I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone...�. Director Oliver Stone's first two choices to play Jim Garrison were Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson.

"Only the most attentive viewer will be able to keep all of the story straight. As history the film is bogus; as entertainment, it is intermittently riveting, thanks to generally excellent performances and Stone's visceral directorial energy, although interest flags during Costner's long courtroom summation." - Torene Svitil

[soitgoes...]

#2

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/barton_fink-1.gif

Barton Fink

Director: Joel Coen

Country: USA

In 1941, New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle, Barton develops severe writer's block. His neighbor, jovial insurance salesman Charlie Meadows, tries to help, but Barton continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him even further from his task.

The wallpaper in Barton's room only peels when John Goodman's character is in or has just left Barton's room. The first film to win all three major awards (Palme D'or, Best Director, and Best Actor) at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, it was unanimously chosen for the Palme D'or.

"After three movies in which they seemed to be finding their bearings ("Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona" and "Miller's Crossing"), the Coens have at last produced an unqualified winner. Here is a fine dark comedy of flamboyant style and immense though seemingly effortless technique." - Vincent Canby

[soitgoes...]

#1

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/silence12.jpg

The Silence of the Lambs

Director: Jonathan Demme

Country: USA

Young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer. Clarice must first try and gain Lecter's confidence before he is to give away any information.

The pattern on the butterfly's back in the movie posters is not the natural pattern of the Death's-Head Hawk Moth. It is, in fact, Salvador DalÃ*'s "In Voluptas Mors", a picture of seven naked women made to look like a human skull. Anthony Hopkins described his voice for Hannibal Lecter as, "a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn."

"This is the kind of character creepiness that Jonathan Demme's gripping cat-and-mouse thriller indulges in. A smart, restrained entertainment, it doesn't splash around in blood and hysteria. It doesn't have to. The menace exists in small places, in Hopkins's eyes, or in the threat posed by "Buffalo Bill," a serial killer so named for his signature carving up of victims." - Desson Howe

[soitgoes...]

1. The Silence of the Lambs - 75.5
2. Barton Fink - 67.5
3. JFK - 65
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day - 30
T5. Raise the Red Lantern - 29.5
T5. Beauty and the Beast - 29.5
7. The Double Life of Veronique - 26
8. Days of Being Wild - 25
9. Delicatessen - 24
10. The Rapture - 23

Close: Prospero's Books - 22 and La Belle noiseuse - 20.5

[Ezee E]

The wallpaper observation is interesting. Not sure what to make of that though.

[The Mike]

Despite being one of Arnold's biggest fans, I'm sad to see T2 so high.

[soitgoes...]

Despite being one of Arnold's biggest fans, I'm sad to see T2 so high.
Yeah, I enjoy it, but I don't like it being number 4 on this year's list.

[Malickfan]

It wasn't exactly a superb year. T2 benefits from that.

[Sven]

The wallpaper observation is interesting. Not sure what to make of that though.

Goodman's character is fire, Barton is water. The peeling (through the pipes in the walls, emphasized in the focus on the bathroom sink) is caused by condensation. That's my theory.

[Ezee E]

Goodman's character is fire, Barton is water. The peeling (through the pipes in the walls, emphasized in the focus on the bathroom sink) is caused by condensation. That's my theory.
Scientific. Boring.

[Sven]

Scientific. Boring.

I don't know... I think it's pretty funny. It's a twisted joke.

[Ezee E]

Scientific. Boring.
I got sigged.

[Grouchy]

Goodman's character is fire, Barton is water. The peeling (through the pipes in the walls, emphasized in the focus on the bathroom sink) is caused by condensation. That's my theory.
That and, if you believe Goodman's character is the Devil or an agent of Hell, unholy fire. He always seems to be feeling very hot.

The whole script is built on jokes, so nothing can be too far-fetched in a reading of it.

[dreamdead]

Kieslowski originally wanted Andie MacDowell to play Veronique.


Ew. Ew. *shudders* Ew.

I am actually rather surprised that TSotL is still considered the MC consensus best of the year. Not that it isn't deserving; rather, that so many of these years have yielded revisionary opinions and this one didn't change becomes interesting.

And I'm a little saddened that Jarman likely won't place on any of these threads. :sad: Edward II rocks, people.