So, the new 1001 book is out, and thanks to Joachim over at Listology, here's the new additions:
Senna (2010)
Le Havre (2011)
Shame (2011)
The Tree Of Life (2011)
The Kid With A Bike (2011)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Drive (2011)
War Horse (2011)
A Separation (2011)
Bridesmaids (2011)
The Descendants (2011)
Hugo (2011)
The Artist (2011)
Le Havre (2011)
Shame (2011)
The Tree Of Life (2011)
The Kid With A Bike (2011)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Drive (2011)
War Horse (2011)
A Separation (2011)
Bridesmaids (2011)
The Descendants (2011)
Hugo (2011)
The Artist (2011)
Now of these, I've seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, Bridesmaids, The Descendants and The Artist. TTSS was an obvious choice (it's on the cover) and whilst being technically a great film in terms of cast, direction, etc., it's a bit dull really. The Descendants and The Artist I've got no problem with, and War Horse is an odd choice as there's nothing overly impressive about it, but it's a good film nonetheless, but I thought Bridesmaids was terrible. I won't be watching Bridesmaids or The Descendants for reviewing purposes again, but my reviews of The Artist and War Horse could certainly be expanded upon, so I'll gladly revisit them.
I really want to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Drive and Hugo, so now I've got a bit more motivation to go out and see them, Shame looks interesting and A Separation is supposed to be good (but I'm guessing thoroughly depressing, yay). I've not heard much about Le Havre or A Kid With A Bike, so I'll go forth with an open mind towards them. I never really cared about Senna, not being a big car fan, but I hear it's good even for motor-phobes like me, and The Tree of Life is no huge surprise, just an annoying fact.
Is anything missing? Well, yes. I'd hoped for The Skin I Live In to be present, as I really wanted to see that too, Midnight in Paris was certainly good enough, and goddammit what about The Muppets!?!? Thankfully though, Melancholia has been neglected, so I don't have to sit through that again.
I've seen 11 of the 14. I've not seen Senna (although it's been in my Netflix Instant queue for months), Le Havre, and I've never even heard of The Kid with a Bike.
ReplyDeleteWar Horse is the biggest surprise to me. While I also didn't like Bridemaids it doesn't surprise me it's on there. The Tree of Life, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Shame didn't work for me, but a lot of people liked them.
The remake of TGWTDT isn't as good as the original, but it's directed by a famous director and if the critics who select the movies in the 1001 Movies books have shown us anything, it's that they are big director groupies.
The Descendants is a decent movie, but I probably wouldn't have felt it was good enough to add. It's probably one of those movies that will appear for one year then drop off.
Drive is a good movie, although not the be-all and end-all that some people claim.
I completely agree with A Separation, Hugo, and The Artist making it.
The Kid with a Bike isn't available in the U.S. Not sure about the U.K. I've found what might be a valid version and I'm testing it now. If it works I'll add it to the wiki. I also figured out why it got added. It's directed by the Dardennes, who did Rosetta, which is in the book.
DeleteAt Steve's blog a link was posted to another blog that had a PDF of the current list. It said there were 15 additions, but I only saw the 14 we know about. I went through it and found the following 14 removals.
ReplyDeleteThe Pianist (2002)
Distant (Uzak) (2002)
The Best of Youth (2003)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Paradise Now (2005)
Apocalypto (2006)
Borat (2006)
Once (2006)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
The Hangover (2009)
In the Loop (2009)
Fish Tank (2009)
Monsters (2010)
Four Lions (2010)
The Mel Gibson movies are not a joke. They have been added and removed several times each. I think two sets of critics are used on alternating years and they are fighting over these movies being in or out of this list.
Well thank the heavens The Hangover and Borat have gone. No real surprises there to be honest, but I'd quite like to see someone make a bold move and take off a film released before the 21st century.
DeleteI competely agree on Borat. I laughed at The Hangover quite a bit, though.
DeleteI've updated my tracking sheet, but I can't upload it to my Lists from Chip site because Microsoft is giving me a hard time about the account where I place the files. If/when I get it straightened out I will update the sheet online. In the meantime, I emailed it to a few folks I know, including Steve, Siobhan, Adolytsi, and Squish, because I had email addresses for them. I didn't have one for you. I can email you a copy, if you don't mind listing your email address.
My address is jaycluitt@hotmail.com , thanks. I posted the list on Steve and Siobhan's sites too.
DeleteI didn't mind the Hangover the first time I saw it, but I've found that repeat viewings are not kind to it.
Sent. I had email addresses for those two, so I got them on the one I sent out earlier.
DeleteCheers Chip.
DeleteThanks Jay and Chip. While I am hopelessly out of step on these new(er) movies it is curious to see who gets in and, especially, who gets out.
ReplyDeleteMy personal opinion is that once a film is in it is in for good. They ought to append the new movies, not replace older movies. Well, I am sure that discussion as been on since second edition and I am sure that 1001 movies has better ring to it that 1103 movies to see before you die... yet I find the later part of the book irrelevant in its current form. I also notice that basically every blogger uses the entire list as their guide.
Anyway, I can only say that Hugo and The Artist deserve their spots and that I have not seen the others yet. As to who leaves the list? I do not really care. They never left my list.
Well said. I completely understand why they have to keep removing films - as you say, 1001 has a certain ring to it, but it does attempt to lessen the value of the films that have been removed from the List (regardless of whether they deserve it or not). When I started, I only used the List from my edition (the Avatar one), but as soon as I found Chip's and Squish's lists I added all the ones I was missing.
DeleteI agree that 1001 has a better ring to it for marketing purposes. Another practical purpose is all the extra pages (and therefore cost for paper, ink, etc.) it would take for the additional movies every year.
DeleteI agree that the end of the list is almost irrelevant with how many of the movies they have removed. Of course, you could argue that many of them should never have been added in the first place, but they've still removed more than they should, while leaving some really old stinkers still in the book. This is also because it would be a lot more work to revisit 1001 movies, rather than less than 100. Changing only those movies at the end also means much less work in slotting in the new entries in the book on the last 50 pages or so.
2002 was the ending year in the first edition. Know how many movies from that year are left? Two. And that's only because they were re-added in 2008 after having been removed before. There are 3 movies left from 2001, 3 from 2003, 2 from 2004, and 2 from 2005. Know how many are left from 2000? Ten. There are 11 left from 1999, and 9 left from 1998. (And most years going back have similar numbers.)
They couldn't have removed films like Buffalo 66 (1998), Beau Travail (1999), Three Kings (1999), and The Gleaners & I (2000) to leave on films like Amelie (2001), Adaptation (2002), Hero (2002), and Live and Become (2005)? Are any of those first four really more important films than the second four?
What about The Big Lebowski? That should still be there just for the cultural impact. And I completely agree with Amelie and Adaptation, I was shocked and appalled to find they'd been removed.
Delete