MC Yearly Consensus - 1995

[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]

1. Welcome to the Dollhouse
2. Dead Man Walking
3. Whisper of the Heart
4. Se7en
5. Citizen X

6. Strange Days
7. Richard III
8. Beyond Rangoon
9. Carrington
10. Rob Roy

[Grouchy]

1. Underground
2. Heat
3. 12 Monkeys
4. Before Sunrise
5. Day of the Beast

[Russ]

1. Se7en
2. Before Sunrise
3. Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity
4. Whisper of the Heart
5. Welcome to the Dollhouse

[Raiders]

1. Safe (Haynes)
2. Dead Man (Jarmusch)
3. Maborosi (Kore-eda)
4. Whisper of the Heart (Kondo)
5. Underground (Kusturica)

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

6. Fallen Angels (Wong)
7. Before Sunrise (Linklater)
8. The Blade (Tsui)
9. The Addiction (Ferrara)
10. Forgotten Silver (Jackson)

That bottom group is good enough to make the top five from most years. Great year.

[Stay Puft]

1. Maborosi
2. Dead Man
3. Cyclo
4. The Blade
5. Heat

[Pop Trash]

1. The Usual Suspects
2. Safe
3. The Bridges of Madison County
4. Heat
5. Before Sunrise

6. Dead Man
7. Casino
8. Kicking and Screaming
9. Toy Story
10.Clueless

[origami_mustache]

1. Dead Man
2. Fallen Angels
3. La Haine
4. Kids
5. Tokyo Fist

Welcome To the Dollhouse
Se7en
The Basketball Diaries
Casino
Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity

[Yxklyx]

1. Se7en (David Fincher)
2. Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
3. Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz)
4. Pride and Prejudice (Simon Langton)
5. Koza (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

6. Odilon Redon (Guy Maddin)
7. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
8. Premonitions Following An Evil Deed (David Lynch)
9. A Close Shave (Nick Park)
10. Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee)

Lots of excellent short films this year.

[Sycophant]

1. Whisper of the Heart
2. A Goofy Movie
3. Dead Man
4. Love Letter
5. A Chinese Odyssey (Part I if I have to, both parts if I can)

6. Fallen Angels
7. While You Were Sleeping
8. Toy Story
9. Heat
10. Kicking and Screaming

[MadMan]

1. Toy Story
2. The Usual Suspects
3. Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave
4. Die Hard With a Vengeance
5. Apollo 13

PS: I still haven't seen hardly enough from this year. Especially some of the real heavy hitters.

[Derek]

More Underground please. Great year overall - probably my second favorite of the decade behind '99.

1. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
2. Heat (Michael Mann)
3. Cyclo (Anh Hung Tran)
4. Safe (Todd Haynes)
5. Clockers (Spike Lee)
***********************8
6. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
7. Se7en (David Fincher)
8. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)
9. Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz)
10. The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi)

HM's: Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
Toy Story (John Lasseter)
Casino (Martin Scosese)
Nixon (Oliver Stone)
Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
Babe (Chris Noonan)
12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman)
Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave (Nick Park)
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (John McTiernan)

[Silencio]

1. Safe
2. Before Sunrise
3. Whisper of the Heart
4. Se7en
5. Heat

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Twelve Monkeys
2. Se7en
3. Dead Man
4. La Haine
5. Kids

[origami_mustache]

good year with a lot of titles I still want to see:

Underground, Safe, Maborosi, Before Sunrise,
Heat, and Kicking and Screaming.

[ledfloyd]

1. Before Sunrise
2. Dead Man
3. Heat
4. 12 Monkeys
5. Toy Story

[Sycophant]

Man, how have I not seen Maborosi yet?

[Boner M]

1. Whisper of the Heart
2. Heat
3. Le Ceremonie
4. Fallen Angels
5. Seven

RU: Safe, Dead Man, Cyclo, Showgirls

[soitgoes...]

1. Cyclo (Anh Hung Tran)
2. Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
3. Se7en (David Fincher)
4. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
5. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
-----------------------------------------------------
6. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)
7. Zero Kelvin (Hans Petter Moland)
8. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
9. Wallace and Gromit in a Close Shave (Nick Park)
10 Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (Guy Maddin)

[dreamdead]

1. Whisper of the Heart
2. Cyclo
3. Maborosi
4. Wallace and Gromit in a Close Shave
5. Dead Man

[Watashi]

1. Whisper of the Heart
2. Toy Story
3. Dead Man
4. Se7en
5. A Goofy Movie
------------------
6. Kicking and Screaming
7. The Usual Suspects
8. Before Sunrise
9. Dead Man Walking
10. Mighty Aphrodite

[Boner M]

The complete absence of Le Ceremonie from these lists ('cept mine) reminds me of how underappreciated Chabrol is here.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Dead Man
2. Maborosi
3. La Haine
4. Kicking and Screaming
5. Cyclo

[Ezee E]

1. Casino
2. Seven
3. Leaving Las Vegas
4. Toy Story
5. Clockers


5. Heat
6. Die Hard with a Vengeance
7. Dead Man Walking
8. Clueless
9. 12 Monkeys
10. La Haine


A very diversive, great year.

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Kicking and Screaming
2. Toy Story
3. Babe
4. Sense & Sensibility
5. Before Sunrise

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Se7en
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Whisper of the Heart
4. A Little Princess
5. Toy Story

[Grouchy]

See how everyone in this thread posts "Se7en", with that 7 in the middle?

That shows we're all a bunch of pretentious assholes.

[Spinal]

See how everyone in this thread posts "Se7en", with that 7 in the middle?

That shows we're all a bunch of pretentious assholes.

I was against it for the longest time, but it is actually the official title on IMDb.

So ... *sigh*.

[Ezee E]

I'm so pretentious, that on Match Cut, I go back to calling it "Seven"

[Yum-Yum]

1. Welcome to the Dollhouse
2. Clueless
3. Dead Man
4. La Haine
5. Kids

[Cherish]

1 Fallen Angels
2 Funny Bones
3 Mighty Aphrodite
4 Sense and Sensibility
5 Kicking and Screaming

Clueless
Twelve Monkeys
Toy Story
Whisper of the Heart
Flirt

[bac0n]

1. Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe (Kaneko)
2. The City of Lost Children (Jeunet/Caro)
3. Ghost In The Shell (Oshii)
4. Braveheart (Gibson)
5. Les Misérables (Lelouch)

[transmogrifier]

5. Les Misérables (Lelouch)

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome movie.

[Lazlo]

1. Braveheart
2. Dead Man
3. Kicking and Screaming
4. Apollo 13
5. Se7en

[bac0n]

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome movie.

My sentiments, exactly. It would probably rank higher, but I haven't seen it since I saw it in the theatre.

[transmogrifier]

My sentiments, exactly. It would probably rank higher, but I haven't seen it since I saw it in the theatre.

I saw it twice in the theatre, and then once on DVD, but haven't seen it in about 8 years now. I'm dying to see it again.

[Dead & Messed Up]

1. Seven
2. Before Sunrise
3. Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave
4. Clueless
5. Mortal Kombat

Yep. I went there.

http://totalmortalkombat.alphalink.co m.au/PICS/MK/33.JPG

[balmakboor]

1. Safe
2. Toy Story
3. Babe
4. Casino
5. The Blade

[Melville]

1. Leaving Las Vegas
2. Cyclo
3. Angels and Insects
4. Safe
5. Casino (based on my vague recollection of it)

[monolith94]

1. 12 Monkeys
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Before Sunrise
4. Se7en
5. The City of Lost Children

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Se7en
2. Heat
3. La Ceremonie
4. Whisper of the Heart
5. Dead Man

6. Before Sunrise
7. Toy Story
8. Get Shorty

[Ezee E]

D'oh. I forgot about Leaving Las Vegas. EDITED.

[Spinal]

Let's go one more day on this one. soitgoes, you got it?

[soitgoes...]

Let's go one more day on this one. soitgoes, you got it?
Yessir.

[Qrazy]

1. Underground
2. Se7en
3. La Haine
4. Twelve Monkeys
5. Before Sunrise

6. Whisper of the Heart
7. Maborosi
8. Heat
9. Fallen Angels
10. Sense and Sensibility

Cyclo, Leaving Las Vegas, Ghost in the Shell, Safe, Toy Story, Dead Man, City of Lost Children, Casino, The White Balloon, Apollo 13

[soitgoes...]

This is closed. I'll try and start posting stuff tonight when I get home from work.

[soitgoes...]

#10

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/underground_3-1.jpg

Underground

Director:Emir Kusturica

Country: Yugoslavia/France/Germany/Hungary

The story starts from an underground manufacture of weapons of Belgrade, during the WWII, and evolves into fairly surreal situations. The black marketeer who smuggles the weapons to partisans forgets to mention to the workers that the war is over, and they keep producing. 50 years later, they become suspicious, and break out of their underground "shelter" --- only to convince themselves that the guy was right: the war is still going on.

In 1996, members of the Yugoslavian Board of the Academy of Film Art and Science (AFUN) voted this film the third best Serbian movie made in 1947-1995 period.

"There's no need for a movie adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magical realist tome One Hundred Years of Solitude. It's already been made. Emir Kusturica's tragic-farce Underground may be the most important film of the last 25 years, a sweltering, morally inquisitive work of political narrative fiction that laments our propensity for auto-destruction." - Ed Gonzalez

[soitgoes...]

#9

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/4-1.jpg

Cyclo

Director: Anh Hung Tran

Country: Vietnam/France/Hong Kong

A young man who struggles through life by earning some money with his bicycle-taxi in Saigon (Ho-Chi-Min-City) gets contact to a group of criminals. They introduce him to the mafia-world of drugs and crime.

His Oscar-nominated debut (for Best foreign film) was with the The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) which also won two top prizes at the prestigious Cannes film festival, and his followup Cyclo (1995) featured top Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Chiu Wai, also eventually nabbing a top prize at the Venice International Film Festival. The Vertical Ray of the Sun, released in 2000, was the third film in what many consider now to be his "Vietnam trilogy."

"Part of Cyclo's voluptuous mystery is that it unravels simultaneously like a documentary and an expressionist or surrealist vision. It's impossible to determine where physical reality leaves off and metaphysical unreality begins; with the camera often in continual motion, a scene can begin on one plane of reality and end on another." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

[soitgoes...]

#8

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/_41323063_toy203-1.jpg

Toy Story

Director: John Lasseter

Country: USA

A toy named Woody has it all. He is practically the leader in Andy's toy room, Bo Peep has the hots for him, and most importantly, he is Andy's favorite toy. But when the clocks strike Andy's birthday, a new toy arrives. Buzz Lightyear, a space cadet who thinks he is a space ranger, (not a toy in a room) instantly wins over Andy, thus becoming Andy's new treasure. But when Woody is accused of knocking Buzz out of the window, he must go into the world and find Buzz, with many delays...

Buzz Lightyear's facial features are loosely based on those of the film's director, John Lasseter; most notably his eyebrows, cheekbones and the dimple in his chin. Lasseter demonstrated this by sketching a rough self-portrait of himself on the U.K. breakfast show "The Big Breakfast" (1992) and then adding the spacesuit helmet to transform himself into Buzz.

"Its best pleasures are for the eyes. But what pleasures they are! Watching the film, I felt I was in at the dawn of a new era of movie animation, which draws on the best of cartoons and reality, creating a world somewhere in between, where space not only bends but snaps, crackles and pops." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#7

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

Safe

Director: Todd Haynes

Country: USA

Todd Haynes's eerie medical thriller shows us that our environment has finally turned against us. Carol, a typical upper middle-class housewife, begins to complain of vague symptoms of illness. She "doesn't feel right," has unexplained headaches, congestion, a dry cough, nosebleeds, vomiting, and trouble breathing. Her family doctor treats her concerns dismissively and suggests a psychiatrist. Eventually, an allergist tells her that she has Environmental Illness. Her body is rebelling against the overload that her immune system has to deal with, as she is continually exposed to all of the chemicals that we inhale, ingest, and absorb daily. The pollution in our air, pesticides on our food, and toxins in our water, are collectively overwhelming her defenses. The ubiquitous sprays, creams, and emollients used to beautify have become deadly poisons to her. In essence, she has become allergic to the Twentieth Century. She sees Wrenwood as her only salvation, a New Agey center run (quite profitably) by Peter, a clichéd, easy-talking, demagogic guru. Unsettling and ambiguous, we are never sure about each character's hidden agenda, as they revolve around Carol, a timid, frightened pawn, overwhelmed by her condition

Julianne Moore dropped 10 pounds for her role. In the shot of the White family photos, real pictures of Julianne Moore from childhood and high school were used.

"Helped by composer Ed Tomney's ominous score, he (Haynes) has created not a simple cautionary tale about the air we breathe but a withering portrait of American society, an attack on the sterility and toxicity of modern life and the profound sense of malaise that can foster. Subtlety is the rarest quality in today's filmmakers, and Safe demonstrates why it is valuable as well as scarce." - Kenneth Turan

[soitgoes...]

#5 (tie)

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/12-monkeys-6-1.jpg

Twelve Monkeys

Director: Terry Gilliam

Country: USA

An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (James Cole) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who he's told was spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys") and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert.

Although this was inspired by Chris Marker's classic short, La Jetée (1962), director Terry Gilliam had not seen it when this was made. Toward the end of the film Cole and Railly are watching Vertigo (1958). The scene that is shown heavily influenced the film La Jetée (1962) which inspired Twelve Monkeys. There is also a version of that same scene shown in La Jetée.

"In any case, 12 Monkeys is fierce and disturbing, with a plot that skillfully resists following any familiar course. The film's hero fears that he's half-crazy, and for two hours Mr. Gilliam artfully keeps his audience feeling the same way." - Janet Maslin

[soitgoes...]

#5 (tie)

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

Heat

Director: Michael Mann

Country: USA

In Los Angeles, a gang of armed thieves is hitting serious targets - major banks, vaults, and armored cars. These thieves are led by arch-criminal Neal MacAuley. One of their operations, an armored-car robbery, goes bad and the armored-car guards are murdered by the gunmen - putting LAPD homicide detective Vince Hanna on the trail of the thieves. Hanna knows it will take a lot to bring these dangerous, armed thieves down, and it will end in a horrifying gun battle when the thieves try to rob a major federal bank...

The meeting between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino over coffee was shot at Kate Mantilini on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The L.A. mainstay is a noted top spot for a stylish late supper. The restaurant now has "heat" spelled in neon above the door and a large poster of the actors in the now famous scene. Diners may request the very table featured in the scene, table #71, which wait staff are familiar with as "The Table", and are happy to seat De Niro Pacino fans at their famous meeting place.

"It's not just an action picture. Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when necessary. They're not trapped with cliches. Of the many imprisonments possible in our world, one of the worst must be to be inarticulate - to be unable to tell another person what you really feel. These characters can do that. Not that it saves them." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

Lukewarm so far. Haven't seen #9 and #10.

[soitgoes...]

#4

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/beforesunrise3-1.jpg

Before Sunrise

Director: Richard Linklater

Country: USA/Austria/Switzerland

Before Sunrise is a passionate and intelligent romance between a young American (Jesse) and a French student (Celine). A chance encounter on the train incites intrigue, and Jesse provocatively suggests that Celine postpones her return to France and embarks instead on a spontaneous expedition to Vienna. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds.

When Jesse quotes W.H. Auden's poem, "As I Walked out One Evening", he skips over one stanza about time watching from the shadows, and coughing when you would kiss.

"The film... gambles big, pursuing an emotion that is powerful yet elusive. It eases viewers into a unique participation, in which they see the characters both as fictional entities and as abstractions, virtual stand-ins for themselves. The film succeeds by fulfilling the audience's one demand: that it be honest every second." - Mick LaSalle

[soitgoes...]

#3

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/mimi-335m-1.jpg

Whisper of the Heart

Director: Yoshifumi Kondo

Country: Japan

Shizuku lives a simple life, dominated by her love for stories and writing. One day she notices that all the library books she has have been previously checked out by the same person: 'Seiji Amasawa'. Curious as to who he is, Shizuku meets a boy her age whom she finds infuriating, but discovers to her shock that he is her 'Prince of Books'. As she grows closer to him, she realises that he merely read all those books to bring himself closer to her. The boy Seiji aspires to be a violin maker in Italy, and it is his dreams that make Shizuku realise that she has no clear path for her life. Knowing that her strength lies in writing, she tests her talents by writing a story about Baron, a cat statuette belonging to Seiji's grandfather.

The first Japanese film in Dolby Digital. The first and only movie directed by Yoshifumi Kondo. This marked the first use by Studio Ghibli of digital composition, meaning that elements of a scene were composed using a computer. In this case, it's the flying scene with Baron within Shizuku's story. The scene contains a lot of elements moving independently, including the small "planets" and Shizuku's characters. Although all these elements were animated by tradition means, they were combined using computer technology.

"Compare the picture with Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday for an example of how Whisper of the Heart goes wrong when it most resembles the popular western conception of anime--and of how it goes so right in illustrating the intricacies of the relationship between Shizuku and her working-class older sister Shiho (Yorie Yamashita). A mixed bag, then, Whisper of the Heart is another nice coming-of-age story for a young girl by an important artist (Miyazaki) whose great warmth seems to flow from a desire to mentor, whether the subject be his daughter or the promising young artists he hopes to mold into successors." - Walter Chaw

[soitgoes...]

#2

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

Dead Man

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Country: USA/Germany/Japan

William Blake has just lost his parents. Nothing left to lose he makes his way from Cleveland to Machin, a small town far in the west where the railroad ends. In his pockets are just some dollars and a letter promising a job as an accountant. When William arrives in Machin he must realize that he is one month too late. Dickinsons steel-works already have a new accountant. There really could be no other man more wrong in place in the wild west than William. What to do? Surprisingly William seems to make his career as a real westerner. As he shoots a man in self-defense, he needs to flee into the wilderness: westward.

Nobody tells William Blake, "Drag your wagon and plow over the bones of the dead." This is a lyric from Tom Waits song "How's It Gonna End," who stars in several of Jim Jarmusch's films.

"Like most great westerns, Dead Man holds the American West and its (white) inhabitants up to close scrutiny, and in this sense its radicalism surpasses virtually every earlier example. While didacticism is not Jarmusch's goal, there is something instructive about Dead Man's critique. The film's power is impossible to extrapolate from its commentary on history and society." - Zach Campbell

[soitgoes...]

#1

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/seven1-1.jpg

Se7en

Director: David Fincher

Country: USA

A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Somerset and Mills -- one sin at a time.

All of John Doe's books were real books, written for the film. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000. According to Somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books. David Cronenberg was offered a chance to direct this but he turned it down.

"Seven is well-made in its details, and uncompromising in the way it presents the disturbing details of the crimes. It is certainly not for the young or the sensitive. Good as it is, it misses greatness by not quite finding the right way to end. All of the pieces are in place, all of the characters are in position, and then - I think the way the story ends is too easy. Satisfying, perhaps. But not worthy of what has gone before.' - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

Totals:
1. Se7en - 57.5
2. Dead Man - 45.0
3. Whisper of the Heart - 41.5
4. Before Sunrise - 33.5
T5. Heat - 27.5
T5. Twelve Monkeys - 27.5
7. Safe - 25.0
8. Toy Story - 24.5
9. Cyclo - 22.5
10. Underground - 20.5

So very close...
La Haine - 16.5
Welcome to the Dollhouse - 16.0
Maborosi - 16.0

[soitgoes...]

Lukewarm so far. Haven't seen #9 and #10.
Pretty decent year. I've seen all 10 films, and I'm extremely happy Cyclo made it. You should check it out.

[Spinal]

Pretty decent year. I've seen all 10 films, and I'm extremely happy Cyclo made it. You should check it out.

Love #1 and #3. Not a big fan of #4-8. Look forward to seeing the other three.

[Ezee E]

Seven at #1 is pretty freakin' cool.

[origami_mustache]

Wow, only 2 of my top ten made the list.

[Raiders]

Well, I'm glad Haynes' and Kusturica's films at least made the list, and Jarmusch at #2 and Kondo at #3 is indeed awesome.

[Grouchy]

Wow, so many great '95 movies.

No room for Casino.

[Sycophant]

For some reason, I'd taken it as a given that Whisper of the Heart would top our list. Its #3 ranking is still pretty cool, though.

[Raiders]

For some reason, I'd taken it as a given that Whisper of the Heart would top our list. Its #3 ranking is still pretty cool, though.

Really? I was actually surprised it cracked the top five. I wasn't sure how many people had actually seen it.

[Ezee E]

For some reason, I'd taken it as a given that Whisper of the Heart would top our list. Its #3 ranking is still pretty cool, though.
I thought so too. As I was scanning through, it seemed to be included in a good amount.