MC Yearly Consensus - 1930

[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 thread is locked, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before a mod locks the thread.

You may begin now.

IMDB power search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. L'Âge d'or
2. The Blood of a Poet
3. All Quiet on the Western Front

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Westfront 1918
2. Hell's Heroes
3. All Quiet on the Western Front
4. L'Age d'or
5. The Blood of a Poet

[soitgoes...]

1. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)
2. L'Âge d'or (Luis Buñuel)
3. Salt for Svanetia (Mikhail Kalatozov)
4. À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo)
5. Westfront 1918 (Georg Wilhelm Pabst)

[Derek]

1. Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko)
2. L'Âge D'or (Luis Buñuel)
3. A Propos de Nice (Jean Vigo)
4. All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)
5. Morocco (Josef von Sternberg)

Unfortunately booted: Blood of the Poet (Jean Cocteau)

[Yxklyx]

1. All Quiet on the Western Front
2. L' Âge d'or
3. Hell's Angels
4. Prix de beauté
5. The Blue Angel

[Raiders]

1. The Blue Angel
2. L'Âge d'or
3. Earth
4. City Girl
5. Westfront 1918

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Morocco
2. All Quiet on the Western Front
3. The Blue Angel
4. Animal Crackers
5. The Big House

[Russ]

1. L'Âge d'or
2. Animal Crackers
3. Feet First*

* a qualified recommendation at best, due to unfortunate and offensive racism that mars an otherwise bravura finale, ala Safety Last!, which features a "Step 'n' Fetchit" caricature (Willie Best, billed as 'Sleep 'n' Eat) whom Lloyd constantly refers to as 'Charcoal' :rolleyes:

[ledfloyd]

Animal Crackers is the only one i've seen. but it's an easy ***1/2

[monolith94]

1. Hell's Angels
2. Earth
3. Blood of the Poet
4. Morocco
5. Westfront 1918

Honorable mentions: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Blue Angel

Pretty cool year.

[Spinal]

The voters have selected:

monolith/Antoine method (pre-1920, 20-23, 24-25, 26-27, 28-29)

Our next Yearly Consensus thread will be:

1928-1929

[Raiders]

Silly Match Cut.

[MadMan]

The voters have selected:

monolith/Antoine method (pre-1920, 20-23, 24-25, 26-27, 28-29)

Our next Yearly Consensus thread will be:

1928-1929You guys finally decided? Took yah all long enough :P


Silly Match Cut.Tricks are for Raiders?

;)

[Kurosawa Fan]

Fun Facts from 1930


Scotch Tape hits the market. It will later inspire the song "Tape of Love".
Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. His discovery will later be reduced to a dwarf planet, injuring Clyde's reputation and dwarfs around the world.
The Hays Code is instituted, crippling filmmakers for years. Hedy Lamarr fans are distraught.
Hostess Twinkies are invented. Considering they themselves are a joke, I'll stop trying to think up a half-assed witty comment for the back end of this entry.
The first Looney Tune, Sinkin in the Bathtub, is created.
Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupts, killing 1300 people.
Betty Boop premieres in the film Dizzy Dishes. Hedy Lamarr fans are momentarily content.

[Spinal]

The Hays Code is instituted, crippling filmmakers for years. Hedy Lamarr fans are distraught.

:lol:

It is hard to imagine a world without Scotch tape.

[EyesWideOpen]

I have only seen 11 movies from the whole 30's decade.

[Raiders]

Hostess Twinkies are invented. Considering they themselves are a joke, I'll stop trying to think up a half-assed witty comment for the back end of this entry.

I eat these. I can't help myself. I think I was scarred by Die Hard as a child.

[soitgoes...]

* a qualified recommendation at best, due to unfortunate and offensive racism that mars an otherwise bravura finale, ala Safety Last!, which features a "Step 'n' Fetchit" caricature (Willie Best, billed as 'Sleep 'n' Eat) whom Lloyd constantly refers to as 'Charcoal' :rolleyes:

Yeah, early Hollywood racism definitely knocks a few films down a few pegs. Fleming's Red Dust a couple years later is another glaring example.

[Eleven]

1. The Blue Angel
2. Blood of a Poet
3. All Quiet on the Western Front
4. Earth
5. Animal Crackers

[Raiders]

Nobody else has seen Murnau's film? It isn't readily available, but if you have the chance, definitely do so. As always with Murnau, it is well worth it.

[Llopin]

Notable Paintings From 1930

http://www.angelarthouse.com/upload/artists/b/beckmann,_max/beckmann29.jpg
Max Beckmann - Self-Portrait with Saxophone

http://www.marxist.com/images/hopper/early_sunday_morning.jpg
Edward Hopper - Early Sunday Morning

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/sheeler/images/commercial/fullscreen_fig_06.jpg
Charles Sheeler - American Landscape

http://emptyeasel.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/compositionwithyellowpatchbypi etmondrian.jpg
Piet Mondrian - Composition with Yellow

http://images.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/8/0/Paul-Klee-Fruechte-auf-rot--1930-80975.jpg
Paul Klee - Früchte auf rot

http://images.google.com/url?q=http://www.durante-vita.net/images/blog_dv/2006_11/american_gothic_grant_wood.jpg&usg=AFQjCNGyyC8gyD6BF8fY3W8p-a-dDGPokw
Grant Wood - American Gothic

[Qrazy]

Fun Facts from 1930

[LIST]
Scotch Tape hits the market. It will later inspire the song "Tape of Love".


The sticky stuff.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Sports Facts from 1930


The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 2 to capture their fifth World Series title. For those wondering, even way back in 1930 the Cubs were losers.
The Packers beat the Giants in the NFL Championship. Pat Sumeral called the game, and was still screwing up players names.
The Montreal Canadians won the Stanley Cup in 1930. I didn't look that up, I'm just assuming they won, considering they won every year from 1900 to 1965. Though there was only something like 3 other teams to compete with, so I'm not sure how impressed we should be by their dominance.
The NBA didn't exist in 1930. Even so, big games were still decided at the foul line.
Bill Tildon won Wimbledon. I know. I'm reaching here. I'll move on.
The first night game in organized baseball history took place in Independence, Kansas. Independence lost to Muskogee 13-3. Apparently they were rivals. Way to show up Independence.
The First World Cup took place in Uruguay. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the final. I can only assume the refs fixed the game.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. PEOPLE ON SUNDAY!!! (R. Siodmak/E. Ulmer)
2. Earth (Dovshenko)
3. The Blue Angel (Von Sternberg)
4. L'Age D'or (Bunuel)
5. The Blood of a Poet (Cocteau)

[monolith94]

The scene where the guy dances in the street in Earth is one of my all time favorite cinema moments.

[koji]

1. Another Fine Mess (James Parrott)
2. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)
3. Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)
4. Morocco (von Sternberg)
5. All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)

[soitgoes...]

1. PEOPLE ON SUNDAY!!! (R. Siodmak/E. Ulmer)
I watched this yesterday. Didn't quite make my top 5, but its still a highly recommendable film. Of course with the talent behind it, how could it not be? I found it more interesting from a historical view point rather than a cinematic one. A sort of last look at a Berlin that would be lost a few years later.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

I watched this yesterday. Didn't quite make my top 5, but its still a highly recommendable film. Of course with the talent behind it, how could it not be? I found it more interesting from a historical view point rather than a cinematic one. A sort of last look at a Berlin that would be lost a few years later.

I may have liked a bit more, I consider it one of the 50 greatest films.
Which version/edition did you watch, out of curiousity? The BFI DVD has a magnificent score by some lady that perfectly complements the film and made it a wonder to watch.

Seriously it's like this film was made by the Phi Slamma Jamma of German/Hollywood Imports.

Directed by: Robert Siodmak & Edgar Ulmer
Scenario: Curt Siodmak and Billy Wilder
Also: Fred Zinneman ("High Noon" fame et al.)

+ a Criterion is waiting in the wings for this film (possibly this year). Hopefully it carries the same score as the BFI.

[soitgoes...]

That'd be the one I saw as well.

[origami_mustache]

1. All Quiet on the Western Front
2. Animal Crackers
3. Earth

[Velocipedist]

1. Le Sang d'un poète (Jean Cocteau)
2. Zemlya (Aleksandr Dovzhenko)
3. City Girl (F.W. Murnau)
4. L'Âge d'Or (Luis Buñuel)
5. À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo)

Honorable mentions:

6. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)
7. Sous les toits de Paris (René Clair)
8. Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)

Superb year.

[Llopin]

1. I Flunked But... (Ozu)
2. Brats (Parrott)
3. À propos de Nice (Vigo)
4. L'âge d'or (Buñuel)
5. Another Fine Mess (Parrott)

[Melville]

I've only seen three movies from this year. Maybe I'll pick up Animal Crackers on Friday, if the votes haven't been tallied by then.

[Derek]

3. À propos de Nice (Vigo)

Ah, yes! Thanks for the reminder.

I edited my original post to include it.

[Yxklyx]

Ah, yes! Thanks for the reminder.

I edited my original post to include it.

Is this on a short film collection somewhere?

[soitgoes...]

Is this on a short film collection somewhere?

I saw it on the UK Vigo set.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Famous People Born in 1930:

Tippi Hedren
Buzz Aldrin
Gene Hackman
Robert Wagner
Joanne Woodward
Tom Wolfe
Stephen Sondheim
Steve McQueen
Sandra Day O'Connor
Anton LaVey
Herbie Mann
Pat Summerall
Clint Eastwood
Gena Rowlands
Ross Perot
George Steinbrenner
Sonny Rollins
Neil Armstrong
Don Ho
Sean Connery
Ray Charles
Shel Silverstein
Richard Harris
Big Bopper
Clifford Brown
J.G. Ballard

[Kurosawa Fan]

I was planning on doing a top 10 radio hits, but unfortunately Casey Kasem wasn't born until 1932.

[Derek]

I saw it on the UK Vigo set.

Ditto.

[Boner M]

I'd love to support Zero For Conduct, but I've only seen one other film this year (AQOTWF).

Maybe I'll check out Blue Angel this weekend.

[Derek]

I'd love to support Zero For Conduct, but I've only seen one other film this year (AQOTWF).

That's okay. Why don't you support it in 1933 since that was when it was made? ;)

[Boner M]

That's okay. Why don't you support it in 1933 since that was when it was made? ;)
Hmm. I'm a stupidhead.

[Yxklyx]

Peter Ibbetson (Hathaway, 1935) 83

Any thoughts? Doesn't feel like a Hollywood movie does it? I pretty much can't stand Cooper but he was fine in this. The most memorable scenes for me are when they're in the restaurant (the camera does a lot of odd stuff here I recall) and when it goes all wacko with dreamscapes and expressionist lighting. Odd name for the movie too.

[Boner M]

Any thoughts? Doesn't feel like a Hollywood movie does it? I pretty much can't stand Cooper but he was fine in this. The most memorable scenes for me are when they're in the restaurant (the camera does a lot of odd stuff here I recall) and when it goes all wacko with dreamscapes and expressionist lighting. Odd name for the movie too.
The sound on the print I saw was atrocious, so I'll probably give it another view on the DVD I own. But yeah, it's really quite unlike anything Hollywood film from that era that I've seen; definitely one of the best films on the subject of transcendental love. Can't remember much about the camerawork in the restaurant scene, but the dream communication scenes are wonderful. Cooper's pretty bad in the early scenes, though he's effective in the final section when he doesn't have to talk much. The child actors at the beginning were abysmal too, though Hathaway's elegant direction of that segment easily compensates. Still, I felt like I'd emerged from a dream when I walked out of the cinema. Easy to see why the surrealists embraced it so much.

[Grouchy]

1. Animal Crackers
2. The Golden Age (La Edad de Oro)

That's all I got, so I'll have to watch something soon I guess. By the way, I'm reading Buñuel's autobiography (My Last Sigh), and I recommend it to absolutely everyone. Hilarious, intelligent, and moving stuff.

[Kurosawa Fan]

You have through the weekend to see films and amend your lists. I'll be locking things down Sunday evening or Monday morning, depending on my schedule.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Tabulating now. Voting is officially closed.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#10
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5931/hellsangelsvo2.jpg
HELL'S ANGELS
(Howard Hughes)

Two brothers attending Oxford enlist with the RAF when World War I breaks out. Roy and Monte Rutledge have very different personalities. Monte is a freewheeling womanizer, even with his brother's girlfriend Helen. He also proves to have a yellow streak when it comes to his Night Patrol duties. Roy is made of strong moral fiber and attempts to keep his brother in line. Both volunteer for an extremely risky two man bombing mission for different reasons. Monte wants to lose his cowardly reputation and Roy seeks to protect his brother. Their assignment to knock out a strategic German munitions facility is a booming success, but with a squadron of fighters bearing down on them afterwards, escape seems unlikely.

This film cost $3.8 million, so expensive that it made no profit on its first release. All color prints of the movie were thought to be lost until a print was found in John Wayne's personal vault in 1989, ten years after the actor's death, by his son Michael Wayne. That explains why the younger Wayne's name appears on the credits of the restored version. It is possible that Wayne received the print from Hughes. The actor starred in Jet Pilot (1957) for Howard Hughes in 1949, but the film was not released until 1957 because Hughes continued to have the flying sequences re-shot, a situation not unlike Hell's Angels. Stunt pilots refused to perform an aerial sequence that director Howard Hughes wanted. Hughes, a noted aviator himself, did his own flying. He got the shot, but he also crashed the plane.

"Despite being mauled by critics for its ludicrous story, Hell's Angels has undeniable grandeur in its aerial sequences - at a high price in human lives, for three stunt pilots died staging the dogfights." - Channel4.com

[Kurosawa Fan]

#8 (Tie)
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6462/westfront1918sj3.jpg
Westfront 1918
Georg Wilhelm Pabst

A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.

"The always protean Pabst made a brilliant adjustment to sound. Despite the crudeness of the available technology, Westfront 1918 is at least as audio-innovative as Fritz Lang's M in its brilliantly extended, existential battle sequences, thudding sense of the material world, and close-to-overlapping dialogue." - J. Hoberman, Village Voice

[Kurosawa Fan]

#8 (Tie)
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4826/aproposdenicefk3.jpg
A propos de Nice
Jean Vigo

What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.

Director Jean Vigo, the doomed poet of French cinema, began his career as a camera assistant with the Franco Film studio in Nice. While in Nice, he shot the first of four films in his brief but astonishing career: this inventive, humorous and iconoclastic short about the city at carnival time.

"As a documentary, it is highly critical of its subject. Vigo's fascination with the indolent characters that line the Promenade Des Anglais is morbid and grotesque. Long, languid shots of these inert upper-class types, often snoozing, are intercut with images of a very different side of Nice, one of bustle, activity but also extreme poverty. The promenaders are perused by a probing, disrespectful, and at times deliciously impertinent camera - it tries to look up their skirts, or to capture them unawares. Meanwhile, boys in the ghettos are filmed face-on; they look the viewer in the eye. The carnivalesque backdrop, a rapidly-cut frenzy of images of dancing girls and outlandish costumes, increases the sense that these excesses are at odds with the city's reality." - Channel4.com

[Kurosawa Fan]

#7
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/9007/moroccojd3.jpg
Morocco
Josef von Sternberg

The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown catches her inimitably seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while being pursued by others. But Tom must leave on a perilous mission: is it too late for them?

The infamous scene where Marlene Dietrich kisses another woman - which was added to the script at Dietrich's suggestion - was saved from being cut by the censors by Dietrich herself: she came up with the idea of taking a flower from the woman before kissing her and then giving the flower to Gary Cooper, explaining that if the censors cut the kiss the appearance of the flower would make no sense.

"In Morocco, Dietrich is frightening to watch because she seems capable of anything: she's a staggering mixture of animal-like Berlin instinct and sentimental old German vulnerability. Von Sternberg selects what he needs and has her play daringly against the words she speaks—he gave her detailed line readings and physical business, and she followed his instructions to the letter." - Dan Callahan, Slant Magazine

[Velocipedist]

Does Match-Cut like Morocco more than The Blue Angel? We'll soon find out. :|

[Kurosawa Fan]

#6
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1218/thebloodofapoetbe1.jpg
The Blood of a Poet
Jean Cocteau

Told in four episodes, an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.

Because of the October 1930 scandal around Luis Buñuel's Âge d'or, L'
(1930) - another film financed by Le Vicomte de Noailles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the Paris premiere of this film was delayed until January 1932.

"Divided into four parts with titles like "The Wounded Hand, or the Scars of a Poet" and "Do Walls Have Ears?", Cocteau attempts what few would dare: the visualization of an interior space, namely, the poet’s mind. Thus bizarre imagery abounds, from the artist (Enrique Rivero standing in for Cocteau) passing through a mirror, to a talking mouth that appears on his hand, to a wealthy couple inexplicably playing cards on a snowy street while a dead boy lies at their feet." - Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal

[Kurosawa Fan]

#5
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7452/animalcrackersoy2.jpg
Animal Crackers
Victor Heerman

Captain Spaulding, the noted explorer, returns from Africa and attends a gala party held by Mrs. Rittenhouse. A painting displayed at that party is stolen, and the Marx Brothers help recover it.

Several of Groucho Marx' lines were cut on demand of the Hays office, including "I think I'll try to make her". The movie's line "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." was voted as the #53 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100). One of the few Marx Brothers movies in which the fact that Chico is not truly Italian is referenced. When Chico is questioning Avis the fish-man (alias Roscoe W. Chandler) about his new identity, Chandler suddenly replies "Say, how did you get to be Italian?". During a rehearsal a test was made for a color movie process called Multicolor (a predecessor of Cinecolor) and the result was the only known footage of the Marx Brothers in color! The clip is silent and lasts only 15 seconds.

"Animal Crackers is a truer beginning for the Marx Brothers' cinematic canon than The Cocoanuts, thematically speaking, but technically it still feels mired in the look and pacing of the stage. It wouldn't be until their next film, Monkey Business, that the Marx shtick at last found its home as an animal of the screen instead of an orphan of the stage." - Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

[Kurosawa Fan]

#4
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1074/earthrk1.jpg
Earth (Zemlya)
Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Dovzhenko's "film poem" style brings to life the collective experience of life for the Ukranian proles, examining natural cycles through his epic montage. He explores life, death, violence, sex, and other issues as they relate to the collective farms. An idealistic vision of the possibilities of Communism made just before Stalinism set in and the Kulack class was liquidated, "Earth" was viewed negatively by many Soviets because of its exploration of death and other dark issues that come with revolution.

This film was voted one of the ten greatest films of all time by a group of 117 film historians at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. Soviet censors made Aleksandr Dovzhenko eliminate a number of scenes from the film, including a shot of peasants urinating in a tractor radiator and a scene where a dead man's fiancée mourns him in the nude.

"Unlike Eisenstein's equally subversive Strike, Earth never really explodes but nonetheless threatens to do so for 60-plus maddening minutes; for that, it's all the more impressive than anything Eisenstein ever made." - Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

[Spinal]

Because of the October 1930 scandal around Luis Buñuel's Âge d'or, L'
(1930) - another film financed by Le Vicomte de Noailles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the Paris premiere of this film was delayed until January 1932.

Ha! That's a great piece of trivia.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#3
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2081/blueangeldw4.jpg
The Blue Angel
Josef von Sternberg

Immanuel Rath, an old bachelor, is a professor at the town's university. When he discovers that some of his pupils often go into a speakeasy, The Blue Angel, to visit a dancer, Lola Lola, he comes there to confront them. But he is attracted to Lola. The next night he comes again--and does not sleep at home. This causes trouble at work and his life takes a downward spiral.

Marlene Dietrich (Lola Lola) was, contrary to common belief, not the "star" of the film. She was not even a known actress. She was one of several students at an acting academy who were auditioned by director Josef von Sternberg for the role. Each of the girls was told to bring with them "a naughty song" which they would perform. Dietrich was so nervous and so sure that she would not get the role that she showed up without a song. Many actresses from the stage and screen were considered for the role of Lola Lola. Early contenders were Gloria Swanson, Phyllis Haver, Louise Brooks, Brigitte Helm, Lya De Putti, Leni Riefenstahl, Lotte Lenya, and many young German starlets.

"Dietrich in any event never seemed to embody romance; the sexual identity she offered, in film after film, was that of a predator, disillusioned by men, satisfying her physical needs but indifferent to their providers. She seems to have all of the equipment of a woman except for the instruction manual, and it's interesting that Dietrich is a favorite role for female impersonators, in movies like "The Damned," and in life; if you are a man who wants to play a woman, Dietrich meets you halfway." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

[Kurosawa Fan]

#2
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5329/allquietghostsrw3.jpg
All Quiet on the Western Front
Lewis Milestone

This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered.

To ensure authenticity, director Lewis Milestone instructed the studio to try to find out if there were any German Army veterans living in the Los Angeles area, so he could have them authenticate German uniforms, equipment, etc. So many of them were found that Milestone cast a lot of them as German officers in the film, and had them drill the extras playing German troops. (The scene where they are laying communication wire in the forward trenches was led by a former German soldier whose job during the war was to do exactly that.) In the first classroom scene, two phrases are written on the blackboard: 1. in Greek, correctly written, the beginning of the Odyssey - Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polytropon hos mala polla (the sentence breaks off, against grammar and sense); 2. Ovid, Remedia amoris, line 91 - Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur (Resist the first elements [of passion]; it's too late when you resort to medicine). A third phrase appears at the end of the scene: Quidquid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem (Whatever you do, do it wisely and keep in mind your purpose), an anonymous traditional maxim with biblical echoes. During the film's German release, the Nazis (not yet in power) interrupted screenings by shouting martial slogans and releasing rats into the theaters.

"Mr. Milestone left out nothing. Three or four deaths in sight of the audience; two hospital scenes; suggested amputations of legs so suggestively forced you can almost see them cut off; deaths by that war butchery on the field and a death by stabbing in the trenches, including the ghastly sight of a pair of bare hands only, for but a flash, hanging onto a barbwire fence.... Every male in the world, from 14 years, up, should see this picture. Women will go in the main, although all may not, through the gruesomeness. Women like to cry and there's plenty of cries in this, besides the thrills and also the knowledge of war that has and will be." - Variety Staff, published May 7, 1930

[Kurosawa Fan]

#1
http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orjs3.jpghttp://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5343/lagedoreg9.jpg
L'Age d'or
Luis Bunuel


An exercise in the surreal, this film is about a man and a woman who are passionately in love with one another, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, the Church and bourgeois society.

This film was granted a screening permit after being presented to the Board of Censors as the dream of a madman. Opening at Studio 28 in Paris in October 1930, word spread about the film's bizarre content. On the evening of 3 December 1930, the fascist League of Patriots and other groups began (halfway through the film) to throw purple ink at the screen, then rushed out into the lobby of the theater, slashing paintings by Yves Tanguy, Salvador DalÃ*, Joan Miró, and Man Ray. The producers of the film, Le Vicomte de Noailles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, soon withdrew the film from circulation. The (legal) US premiere of subtitled prints of this film took place 1-15 November 1979 at the Roxie Cinema, San Francisco. This film opens with a documentary on scorpions. This was an actual film made in 1912 which Luis Bunuel added commentary.

"L'Age d'Or is structured as a vicious string of gags. According to Buñuel, Dali "wrote that his intentions 'in writing the screenplay' were to expose the shameful mechanisms of contemporary society. For me, it was a film about passion, l'amour fou, the irresistible force that thrusts two people together, and about the impossibility of their ever becoming one." L'Age d'Or is a little bit of both." - Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

[Kurosawa Fan]

Final Scores:

1. L'Age d'or - 38
2. All Quiet on the Western Front - 30
3. The Blue Angel - 28.5
4. Earth - 27
5. Animal Crackers - 22
6. The Blood of a Poet - 21.5
7. Morocco - 13.5
8. A propos de Nice - 12.5
8. Westfront 1918 - 12.5
10. Hell's Angels - 8.5
------------------------

11. Another Fine Mess - 7.5
12. City Girl - 6.5


The rest of the films only received one vote

[Sycophant]

Wow. My first 0% year. I should watch my copy of Animal Crackers.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Wow. My first 0% year. I should watch my copy of Animal Crackers.

I haven't seen a single film from 1930. Tis a shame.

[Velocipedist]

6 out of 10. And, that, considering I've only posted 8.

[monolith94]

I'm ever so glad that Hell's Angels made it - so good!

[Grouchy]

Damn, I didn't remember The Blue Angel. My votes would've been good, then.