MC Yearly Consensus - 1947

[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 tallying votes.

You may begin now.

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

[Spinal]

This is the first time that I will not be able to participate. I've got Black Narcissus and that's about it.

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. The Lady from Shanghai
2. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
3.
4.
5. Gentleman's Agreement

This is okay, no? I think it's a good film, but I wouldn't be comfortable giving it more than 2.5 points. If not, I'll just abstain this round.

[Spinal]

1. The Lady from Shanghai
2. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
3.
4.
5. Gentleman's Agreement

This is okay, no? I think it's a good film, but I wouldn't be comfortable giving it more than 2.5 points. If not, I'll just abstain this round.

Acceptable.

[Derek]

1. Quai des Orfevres (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
2. Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger)
3. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
4. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
5. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)

HM: Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding)

[Philosophe_rouge]

Two brilliant films at top, the rest of the films I've seen are merely okay/good

1. Odd Man Out (UK, Carol Reed)
2. Black Narcissus
3. L'Ecole des Facteurs
4. Ride the Pink Horse
5. Nightmare Alley

[Spinal]

3. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini)


1948.

[monolith94]

1. The Lady From Shanghai
2. Out Of The Past
3. A Miracle on 34th Street
4. Fireworks
5. Body and Soul

HMs:
Black Narcissus, T-Men

One of the best years for film noir.

[Qrazy]

Man Kazan really pumped 'em out this year (only seen one of the three though).

1. Quai des Orfevres
2. Brighton Rock
3. Out of the Past
4. Black Narcissus
5. Lady from Shanghai

HMs: Boomerang, Brute Force, Monsieur Verdoux

Really want to see T-men.

[Qrazy]

One of the best years for film noir.

Agreed now all of you go watch Brighton Rock.

[Russ]

1. Brute Force
2. Ride the Pink Horse
3. Miracle on 34th Street
4. Lured
5. Fireworks

[monolith94]

Agreed now all of you go watch Brighton Rock.
Sadly, it is not available on netflix. *sigh*

[Qrazy]

Sadly, it is not available on netflix. *sigh*

Karagarga is your friend. Your best friend... and lover.

[origami_mustache]

1. Monsieur Verdoux
2. Fireworks
3. Black Narcissus

[ledfloyd]

waiting until i see lady of shanghai this week.

[Yxklyx]

1. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
2. Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
3. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
4. Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton)
5. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)

6. Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding)
7. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
8. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
9. Born to Kill (Robert Wise)
10. A Double Life (George Cukor)

[soitgoes...]

1. King-Size Canary (Tex Avery)
2. The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu)
3. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
4. Brute Force (Jules Dassin)
5. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
------------------------------------------------------------
6. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
7. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
8. School for Postmen (Jacques Tati)

[Melville]

1. Monsieur Verdoux
2. Black Narcissus
3. Fireworks
4. Out of the Past

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. The Lady From Shanghai
2. Out of the Past
3. Black Narcissus
4. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
5. The Bishop's Wife

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Ride the Pink Horse
2. T-Men
3. Body and Soul
4. Odd Man Out
5. Quai des Orfèvres

6. Black Narcissus
7. The Lady from Shanghai
8. Somewhere in Europe
9. Nightmare in Alley
10. Boomerang!

[Boner M]

1. Daisy Kenyon
2. Out of the Past
3. Odd Man Out
4. School For Postmen
5. The Lady From Shanghai

[MadMan]

If I found Lady From Shanghai to be more than just a decent movie, I'd submit a three movie list. As such, I don't and thus I would only be able to send in two flicks. I'll be using this thread for recommendations of course.

[koji]

1. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
2. Born to Kill (Wise)
3. Quai des Orfevres, (Clouzot
4. The Lady from Shanghai (Welles).
5. Lady in the Lake (Montgomery)
****************************** ***
6. Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding)
7. Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell) 8
8. Brute Force (Dassin)
9. Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway)
10. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)

Born to Kill starts Lawrence Tierney, who we know from Resevoir Dogs and as Elaine's dad in Seinfeld (and there's a tale there). A must see for noir fans, but others may also enjoy.

[monolith94]

1. Ride the Pink Horse
2. T-Men
3. Body and Soul
4. Odd Man Out
5. Quai des Orfèvres

6. Black Narcissus
7. The Lady from Shanghai
8. Somewhere in Europe
9. Nightmare in Alley
10. Boomerang!
Hey, another vote for Body and Soul!

Awesome.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Black Narcissus
2. Brute Force
3. Record of a Tenemant Gentleman

[Qrazy]

If I found Lady From Shanghai to be more than just a decent movie, I'd submit a three movie list. As such, I don't and thus I would only be able to send in two flicks. I'll be using this thread for recommendations of course.

Yeah it's really just the last half hour that's a great film, the rest is fairly tedious.

[Grouchy]

1. The Lady from Shangai
2. Kiss of Death
3. Monsieur Verdoux

[Raiders]

1. Out of the Past
2. Pursued
3. Black Narcissus
4. The Lady from Shanghai
5. T-Men

Has nobody else seen the Raoul Walsh film? It is probably my favorite of his.

I do need to see Preminger's Daisy Kenyon.

[Mysterious Dude]

Has nobody else seen the Raoul Walsh film? It is probably my favorite of his.
It's my 16th favorite movie of 1947.

[Eleven]

1. Monsieur Verdoux
2. Black Narcissus
3. Out of the Past
4. Pursued
5. The Lady from Shanghai

HMs: Born to Kill, Fireworks, Desperate, Odd Man Out.

[origami_mustache]

not enough Monsieur Verdoux love

[Boner M]

Added Daisy Kenyon, my new #1. The blogosphere wasn't kidding, this really is a lost gem (or at least it was until recently), with the kind of intangible virtues that resist canonisation.

[Raiders]

Added Daisy Kenyon, my new #1. The blogosphere wasn't kidding, this really is a lost gem (or at least it was until recently), with the kind of intangible virtues that resist canonisation.

That's it. I'm viewing this before the week is out.

[Boner M]

That's it. I'm viewing this before the week is out.
I'd really be interested in hearing your thoughts. It's a fascinating tightrope act between self-conscious artifice and a weird kind of naturalism... the characterisation and performances are as vivid as anything I've seen in a Classic Hollywood melodrama.

[Llopin]

I'll pile this up.

Tomorrow is the last day for voting.

[Llopin]

Had some connection problems. I'll have the results up either today or later tomorrow.

[Grouchy]

For some reason I tabulated the results myself (saw there weren't too many voters overall) and

we got a tie at #1.

[Mysterious Dude]

::cough::

[Spinal]

Thanks. I'll count this one up sometime today if Llopin doesn't get to it.

[Spinal]

#8 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/frbruteforcejulesdassinBruteFo rce-6.jpg

Brute Force

Director: Jules Dassin

Country: USA

At overcrowded Westgate Penitentiary, where violence and fear are the norm, the least contented prisoner is tough, single-minded Joe Collins. After Joe and his cell-mates are put on the dreaded drain pipe detail, they plot an escape scheme that has every chance of turning into a bloodbath.

Oliver Stone cites the film as an influence for his prison break climax in Natural Born Killers. Burt Lancaster had only appeared in one other film prior to this one, 1946's The Killers.

"The title says it all in Jules Dassin's bare-knuckle prison thriller, one of the most brutal films about caged men ever made ... The oppressive atmosphere of the prison, from the cavernous halls echoing with footsteps and clanking bars to the tiny, overcrowded cells to the claustrophobic courtyard hemmed in by guard towers, can be felt in every cramped, confined frame." -- Sean Axmaker

[Spinal]

#8 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/ridethepinkhorse1.jpg

Ride the Pink Horse

Director: Robert Montgomery

Country: USA

In the bordertown of San Pablo, preparing for an annual Mexican fiesta, arrives Gagin: tough, mysterious and laconic. His mission: to find the equally mysterious Frank Hugo, evidently for revenge ... or is it blackmail?

Thomas Gomez was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The antique Tio Vivo Carousel built in 1882 in Taos, New Mexico, was the model for the carousel in the novel Ride The Pink Horse. The same carousel was purchased and shipped from Taos to the set of Universal where it was reconstructed for use in the film.

"Nobody writing for movies likes more than ironic Ben Hecht to muse on the dizzy and eccentric rotations of the merry-go-round of life. And that is what he is doing, in a hard-boiled and often violent way, in the script which he and Charles Lederer wrote for Ride the Pink Horse. That is likewise what Robert Montgomery has intriguingly captured on the screen in this taut and macabre melodrama ..." -- Bosley Crowther (1947)

[Spinal]

#8 (tie)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/daisy.jpg

Daisy Kenyon

Director: Otto Preminger

Country: USA

Commercial artist Daisy Kenyon is involved with married lawyer Dan O'Mara, and hopes someday to marry him, if he ever divorces his wife Lucille. She meets returning veteran Peter, a decent and caring man, whom she does not love, but who offers her love and a more hopeful relationship. She marries him... just as Dan gets a divorce.

Joan Crawford's contract stipulated that the set be kept at temperatures that Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews found too cold, so Crawford bought both of them long underwear. Otto Preminger told an interviewer in the 1970s that he had no memory of this film.

"With surprising candor, Daisy Kenyon deals not only with adultery and the tricky transmutations of desire and devotion, but also with class and the lingering aftershocks of combat ... In a happy accident, the casting of the too-old Crawford works in the film's favor by lending a sense of urgency and pathos to her search for love." -- Nathan Rabin

[Spinal]

#7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Fireworks_screen_02-720116.jpg

Fireworks

Director: Kenneth Anger

Country: USA

A young man goes to a bar where a sailor from his dream displays his muscular upper torso. A gang of sailors, swinging chains, enters menacingly. They surround him and an assault begins.

Kenneth Anger shot the film over the course of one weekend, while his parents were out of town. It is the earliest of his works to survive. Anger was arrested on obscenity charges following the film's release. The case went to the California Supreme Court which declared the film to be art.

"[Fireworks] inaugurates not merely Anger's own private mythology but also the subversive expression of gay sensuality in American film, a torch carried into the early days of the New Queer Cinema. A veritable dictionary of homoerotic iconography ... and a transfixing view of the violence and seditious rapture of being 'different' in the '40s." -- Fernando F. Croce

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/verdoux.jpg

Monsieur Verdoux

Director: Charles Chaplin

Country: USA

A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.

Earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Named Best Film of the Year by the National Board of Review. Chaplin called it "the cleverest and most brilliant film of my career". Based on real-life French murderer Desire Landru, who was guillotined in 1922.

"While the descriptive phrase 'ahead of its time' is all too often dragged out and tacked on to one marginalized film work after another, in the case of Monsieur Verdoux it is perhaps quite appropriate ... The film's quite hilarious sense of humor, one part slapstick, one part steely wit, works in fluid conjunction with Chaplin's bleaker ruminations, and both are still quite contemporary and relevant ..." -- Josh Vasquez

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/odd_man_out.jpg

Odd Man Out

Director: Carol Reed

Country: UK

The leader of a clandestine Irish organization plans a hold-up that will provide his group with the funds needed to continue its activities. Things go sour: he is wounded, cannot make it back to the hideout, and disappears in the back-alleys of Belfast. A large-scale man-hunt is launched.

Earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Editing. James Mason called this his best performance of his career, and his favorite Carol Reed film. The film is referenced several times in the Harold Pinter play, Old Times.

"As well as an enthralling drama, Odd Man Out showed that Carol Reed was prepared to push the limits in terms of theme and style, using film language in a confronting, strongly expressive way. The story is not that remarkable. A fugitive is shot and we share his last hours. But Carol Reed turns this into much, much more; a passionate search for the meaning of life and the nature of compassion." -- Peter Thompson

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/1-2.jpg

Quai des Orfèvres

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Country: France

Jenny wants to succeed in the music hall. When her jealous husband (and accompanist) finds out she is making eyes at an old businessman in order to get some engagements, he loses his temper and threatens him with death.

Won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. The title translates literally to "quay of the goldsmiths", but actually refers to a famous police station in Paris at 36 Quai des Orfèvres.

"At once a murder mystery, a comedy of manners, and an unforgettable character piece, Quai Des Orfèvres is the rare genre film that shrugs off the plot as a driving force and instead examines the latter part of 'crimes of passion.' In spite of Clouzot's reputation as a bully and a cynic, the film evolves into a surprisingly humane and moving portrait of friendship and marriage, bursting with revelations about loyalty, trust, fidelity, and the things people do for love." -- Scott Tobias

[dreamdead]

Well, the pic to Clouzot's film now guarantees that I'll be seeing this one.

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/22-YJNGBX5F00.jpg

The Lady from Shanghai

Director: Orson Welles

Country: USA

Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his own murder so he can disappear untailed.

Orson Welles' decision to have Rita Hayworth cut her hair and bleach it caused a storm of controversy, and many in Hollywood believed it contributed to the film's poor box-office returns. When Harry Cohn, Columbia Pictures President, saw the rushes, he detested the picture. He couldn't figure out what it was about and offered $1000 to anyone who could explain it to him. Even Welles himself could not explain the plot to him.

"... Shanghai was taken out of Welles' hands after completion and cut from more than two and a half hours to less than 90 minutes ... In some respects, the loss of control lets Welles off the hook, making it easy to credit him with Shanghai's virtues and forgive him its faults. But its virtues—acidic, politically relevant dialogue and daring camerawork, in particular—are unmistakably his." -- Keith Phipps

[Derek]

Well, the pic to Clouzot's film now guarantees that I'll be seeing this one.

It's my favorite Clouzot FWIW. I'm very surprised and pleased to see it place so high!

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/critMichaelPowellEmericPressbu rgerB.jpg

Black Narcissus

Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Country: UK

Anglican nuns, led by the stern Sister Clodagh, attempt to establish a religious community in the Himalayas, and must battle not only suspicious locals and the elements, but their own demons as well.

Won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Color) and Best Cinematography (Color). Deborah Kerr was named Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle. The much admired Himalayan scenery was all created in the studio. The backdrops were blown-up black and white photographs. The art department then gave them their colors by using pastel chalks on top of them.

"Black Narcissus is a cinematic masterpiece ... at once strikingly beautiful and hauntingly compelling, creating a sensual world almost beyond comprehension and placing a small convent of nuns right in the middle of it. A metaphysical war breaks out between body and soul... and in such a world, how can spirituality possibly win out?" -- Michael Jacobson

[Spinal]

#1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/sjff_01_img0373.jpg

Out of the Past

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Country: USA

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling. En route to the meeting, he tells girlfriend Ann his story.

In 1991, it was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.' It was remade unofficially as CittÃ* violenta (1970) with Charles Bronson and officially as Against All Odds (1984) with Jeff Bridges and Jane Greer as the mother of her original character in Out of the Past.

"Out of the Past is cinematic perfection ... The picture contains everything one might want in an old-time studio film -- plus good taste, complicated emotions and an adult moral sense. The black-and-white cinematography is stunning, even apart from its psychological pertinence. Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, stars who went on to become icons, were rarely as vivid as they are here." -- Mick LaSalle

[Spinal]

1. Out of the Past (38.5)
2. Black Narcissus (37)
3. The Lady from Shanghai (36)
4. Quai des Orfevres (20)
5. Odd Man Out (19)
6. Monsieur Verdoux (18.5)
7. Fireworks (13)
8t. Daisy Kenyon (12)
8t. Ride the Pink Horse (12)
8t. Brute Force (12)

Not quite:
Miracle on 34th Street (10)

[Qrazy]

Well, the pic to Clouzot's film now guarantees that I'll be seeing this one.

Do so, it's sweet.

[koji]

For others who like to read contemporaneous historical comments, here's Bosley Crowther's (NYT) review of Out of the Past:

There have been double- and triple-crosses in many of these tough detective films, and in one or two Humphrey Bogart specials they have run even higher than that. But the sum of deceitful complications that occur in "Out of the Past" must be reckoned by logarithmic tables, so numerous and involved do they become. The consequence is that the action of this new film, which came to the Palace yesterday, is likely to leave the napping or unmathematical customer far behind.

Frankly, that's where it left us. We were with it, up to a point, and enjoying the rough-stuff and the romance with considerable delight and concern. For this story of an ex-private detective who is shanghaied from a quiet, prosaic life to get involved with his old criminal associates is intensely fascinating for a time. And it is made even more galvanic by a smooth realistic style, by fast dialogue and genuine settings in California and Mexican locales.

But after this private detective has re-encountered an old girl friend (who originally double-crossed him after luring him to double-cross his boss, whom she had shot) and the two get elaborately criss-crossed in a plot to triple-cross our boy again, the involutions of the story become much too complex for us. The style is still sharp and realistic, the dialogue still crackles with verbal sparks and the action is still crisp and muscular, not to mention slightly wanton in spots. But the pattern and purpose of it is beyond our pedestrian ken. People get killed, the tough guys browbeat, the hero hurries—but we can't tell you why.

However, as we say, it's very snappy and quite intriguingly played by a cast that has been well and smartly directed by Jacques Tourneur. Robert Mitchum is magnificently cheekly and self-assured as the tangled "private eye," consuming an astronomical number of cigarettes in displaying his nonchalance. And Jane Greer is very sleek as his Delilah, Kirk Douglas is crisp as a big crook and Richard Webb, Virginia Huston, Rhonda Fleming and Dickie Moore are picturesque in other roles. If only we had some way of knowing what's going on in the last half of this film, we might get more pleasure from it. As it is, the challenge is worth a try.
He's right that it's hard to get everything on the first time viewing, but it enhances subsequent viewings. (I would assume that the Bogart reference is the Big Sleep.)

[Qrazy]

I don't understand why so many reviewers like to write about their ADD and how as a result they didn't understand the film... I've actually read a number of reviews where the reviewer goes on and on about their lack of understanding. If you can't pay attention to the plot then write about/critique what you were paying attention to.

[koji]

I don't understand why so many reviewers like to write about their ADD and how as a result they didn't understand the film... I've actually read a number of reviews where the reviewer goes on and on about their lack of understanding. If you can't pay attention to the plot then write about/critique what you were paying attention to.
I won't tend to defend Bosley Crowther, but he was the NYT reviewer, which, even more so than today, was a position that had wide influence. I don't think that not getting all the twists and turns in Out of the Past in a first viewing shows ADD. I won't put it into a review today, but it was from 1947. (I love that film; I was one of two who had it as number one on their lists.)

[Qrazy]

I won't tend to defend Bosley Crowther, but he was the NYT reviewer, which, even more so than today, was a position that had wide influence. I don't think that not getting all the twists and turns in Out of the Past in a first viewing shows ADD. I won't put it into a review today, but it was from 1947. (I love that film; I was one of two who had it as number one on their lists.)

This is just another example in a long list of reviews I've read where the reviewer does that. All I'm saying is it's a complete waste of space. Write about something of value not your lack of understanding... write about whatever it is that you did understand... if the plot is complex than say it's complex don't say well gee shucks I was lost. Just look at how much space in the review is dedicated to his 'lostness'.

[koji]

This is just another example in a long list of reviews I've read where the reviewer does that. All I'm saying is it's a complete waste of space. Write about something of value not your lack of understanding... write about whatever it is that you did understand... if the plot is complex than say it's complex don't say well gee shucks I was lost. Just look at how much space in the review is dedicated to his 'lostness'.I agree that he should have written less on his confusion about the plot. I posted this for mostly for historical interests. Crowther did seem to like it. He did realize that "the dialogue still crackles with verbal sparks " and "it's very snappy and quite intriguingly played by a cast that has been well and smartly directed by Jacques Tourneur."

[Qrazy]

I agree that he should have written less on his confusion about the plot. I posted this for mostly for historical interests. Crowther did seem to like it. He did realize that "the dialogue still crackles with verbal sparks " and "it's very snappy and quite intriguingly played by a cast that has been well and smartly directed by Jacques Tourneur."

Yeah true, please don't take my comments as in anyway reflecting negatively on your posting of the review. I like old reviews that one just reminded me of a pet peeve I have about film reviews in general.

[SirNewt]

1. Black Narcissus
2. Brute Force
3. Record of a Tenemant Gentleman

I need to see all of these. How did you find the Ozu film?

[SirNewt]

Yeah true, please don't take my comments as in anyway reflecting negatively on your posting of the review. I like old reviews that one just reminded me of a pet peeve I have about film reviews in general.

Convolution can be a genuine problem with a story of any kind. Why should a reviewer not point that out?

[Qrazy]

Convolution can be a genuine problem with a story of any kind. Why should a reviewer not point that out?

Because there's a difference between saying in a sentence or two things get a little convoluted or saying as your major critique that in the end the film doesn't make sense (because you paid attention and the plot twists don't add up) and what he and others have done which is to spend the majority of the review waxing poetic about his own lack of understanding of the work.

He's a freaking critic and this isn't like late period Godard here.

[Sven]

Hmmm... I don't recall any difficulty with Out of the Past...

[soitgoes...]

I need to see all of these. How did you find the Ozu film?
Its on KG. Or you can buy the Panorama DVD from Yesasia or similar online retailer.

[SirNewt]

He's a freaking critic and this isn't like late period Godard here.

When you say it like that, it kind of puts the whole thing in perspective.

[Qrazy]

When you say it like that, it kind of puts the whole thing in perspective.

Your right critics should spend all their time going on about what they did not understand in any given film. Yes, it shall be known as New I Don't Understand What I'm Watching Wave Criticism.

[monolith94]

Out of the Past holds a special place in my heart, as an ex-girlfriend of mine has a face that kind of reminds me of Jane Greer.

[Mysterious Dude]

My review of Out of the Past would be entirely about what I don't remember about it.

[Grouchy]

I actually respect it when reviewers talk in the first person. He's not saying the film was impossible to follow properly, for example, he's just saying he was lost by it. And that's completely honest and valuable.

[koji]

I actually respect it when reviewers talk in the first person. He's not saying the film was impossible to follow properly, for example, he's just saying he was lost by it. And that's completely honest and valuable.I think you hit on an historical aspect in terms of reviews. Bosley Crowther often wrote his reviews in the first person and was willing to admit that he did not get all the double- triple crosses. But, at that time, not many others saw the films and even fewer had any ability to share their views. I think its hard to write something like that today when others are also reviewing at the same time.

[Mysterious Dude]

I don't find an objective analysis of a film's qualities to be as interesting as a personal reaction.

[Derek]

I don't find an objective analysis of a film's qualities to be as interesting as a personal reaction.

I think the best reviews have some of both.

*sits on fence*

[Qrazy]

I actually respect it when reviewers talk in the first person. He's not saying the film was impossible to follow properly, for example, he's just saying he was lost by it. And that's completely honest and valuable.

It's honest but I fail to see how it's valuable to spend an entire review talking about that when you could talk about the elements you did understand and thought worked and didn't work.

[SirNewt]

Your right critics should spend all their time going on about what they did not understand in any given film. Yes, it shall be known as New I Don't Understand What I'm Watching Wave Criticism.

I was being sincere.

[Qrazy]

I was being sincere.

I guess we're certainly in a pickle.