MC Yearly Consensus - 1934

[Isaac]

I've edited my list to include The Scarlet Empress. What an interesting, strange film.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Closed. Results coming soon.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. L'atalante
2. The Scarlet Empress
3. The Mascot
4. A sotry of Floating Weeds

Let me in! Let me in!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Originally Posted by Kurious Jorge v3.1

1. L'atalante
2. The Scarlet Empress
3. The Mascot
4. A sotry of Floating Weeds

Let me in! Let me in!

You're in. And you actually made quite an impact on the results. Hopefully I can get to this tonight. Work has been tough, but I might have time at home.

[Kurosawa Fan]

We're going with a Top 9 due to lack of involvement for this year.


#9

A Story of Floating Weeds
Yasujiro Ozu


An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunities with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all.

The film includes the first appearance of what became one of the director's trademarks: a title sequence in which the credits appear against a sackcloth backdrop. Not only does this fit the story's pastoral setting, but since the credit sequences of Ozu's previous films had featured cartoony illustrations, the choice of humble sackcloth indicates the emergence of his mature film-making style. It earned Ozu the Kinema Junpô Critics' Prize for Best Japanese Film, his third in as many years.

"The silent feature marked his move from silly comedies to the restrained and earnest dramas that would establish his reputation as a world-class filmmaker. Most interesting about the movie is that the major technical and artistic hallmarks of Ozu's style all appear in embryonic form. With its abundant use of low camera angles, static shots, unflinching close-ups, hyper-deliberate compositions, and violations of the textbook 180° camera plane, as well as its elliptical style of storytelling and focus on an unraveling family, A Story of Floating Weeds became, to a certain extent, the prototype for the remainder of the films in Ozu's career." - Dan Mancini

[Kurosawa Fan]

#8

The Man Who Knew Too Much
Alfred Hitchcock


A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.

Alfred Hitchcock was unaware that Peter Lorre, a Hungarian, had a very limited command of the English language at that time. Lorre learned much of his part phonetically. The title of this film comes from the name of a book written by G.K. Chesterton.

"The original version feels much more of a piece because it is quirky and surreal almost from the start. After a perfunctory prologue in Switzerland … we are plunged into a deliriously quickfire sequence of events, each one more dreamlike than the last." - Jonathon Coe

[Kurosawa Fan]

#7

Twentieth Century
Howard Hawks


Oscar Jaffe is a successful Broadway director; Lily Garland, one of his stars. But when she leaves his direction, his success goes with her. When he recognizes her aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, the train that both of them are riding, he tries to get her back for a new show. But accomplishing that feat isn't as simple as he had thought.

When asked by John Barrymore why he should play the role of Oscar, Howard Hawks replied, "It's the story of the biggest ham on earth and you're the biggest ham I know." Barrymore accepted at once. After filming had ended, John Barrymore gave Carole Lombard an autographed photo inscribed, "To the finest actress I have worked with, bar none."

"The plot's central conceit, that theater is the house of true art and film the way station of the illiterate, might've come off as self-important on stage, and maybe a bit hypocritical given the reliance on sight gags and apropos of nothing references. But Hawks's freewheeling adaptation, with an emphasis on "speedy delivery" line readings, loose, free-wheeling blocking (i.e. the scene in which Lombard kicks at the air in front of Barrymore's impinging embrace) and ripened-on-the-vine overacting, casually reverses and undermines the frumpy thesis by validating the effortlessly supple benefits of the seventh art." - Eric Henderson

[Kurosawa Fan]

#6

The Goddess
Yonggang Wu


The film tells the story of a nameless young woman (played by Ruan Lingyu) living in Shanghai as a prostitute, trying to support herself and her son Shuiping.

The film's title has several layers of meaning. On one level, it is a description of the nameless character played by Ruan Lingyu, who is equated with a protective goddess in the film. On another level, the title refers to her character's occupation, in that the Chinese term "Shennü," while ostensibly meaning "goddess," also was a euphemistic slang for a "prostitute."

"This exercise in social realism can be slow and requires concentration, but 'The Goddess' provides a first-hand look at a remarkable performance by Ruan, the Shanghai actress who was the subject of Stanley Kwan's 1992 biopic 'The Actress' starring Maggie Cheung." - Bob Graham

[Kurosawa Fan]

#5

The Mascot
Wladyslaw Starewicz


A toy stuffed dog has just been sewn together when it hears a young child ask for an orange. The child's mother explains that they have no money, and so she cannot buy any oranges. The dog is then packed up along with a box full of other toys to be sold, but it soon winds up in the street. The dog picks up an orange from a curbside stand, and hopes to take it home to the child. But that night, before the dog can get back to the child's home, it must face a series of strange and frightening adventures.

I can't find any trivia, and I'm tired. So fuck it.

"The story line, which is undeniably cloying, doesn’t feel nearly as maudlin as it might without the counterbalance of the mischievous antics and monstrous puppets. It’s unfortunate that today’s most similar animation fails to completely overcome the same sense of sappiness. I am unsure whether this represents a lack of sophistication in today’s audiences or an increase in the expectations of what an animated film should be, resulting in dulled creativity from filmmakers. In any case, The Mascot is a truly captivating and thoroughly enchanting work and a landmark in animation." - Jeremy Heilman

[Kurosawa Fan]

#4

The Thin Man
W.S. Van Dyke


Comedy-mystery featuring Nick and Nora Charles: a former detective and his rich, playful wife who help a young woman clear her father's name after he's suspecting of murdering her step-mother.

Film was shot only in about two weeks. Was originally said to be a "B" picture. First of six in The Thin Man series. Skippy, who played Asta the dog, bit Myrna Loy during filming.

"Assuming as we must that "The Thin Man" is not about a series of murders and their solution (that entire mechanism would be described by Hitchcock as the MacGuffin), what is it about? It is about personal style. About living life as a kind of artwork." - Roger Ebert

[Kurosawa Fan]

#3

The Scarlett Empress
Josef von Sternberg

Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. The domineering Empress hopes to improve the royal blood line. Sophia doesn't like her husband, but she likes Russia, and is very fond of Russian soldiers. She dutifully produces a son -- of questionable fatherhood, but no one seems to mind that. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

This is one of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. This is Sam Jaffe's film debut.

"The greatest trouble with Scarlet Empress is, at the same time, its greatest weakness. Josef von Sternberg becomes so enamoured of the pomp and flash values that he subjugates everything else to them. That he succeeds as well as he does is a tribute to his artistic genius and his amazingly vital sense of photogenic values." - Variety Staff, 1934

[Melville]

Originally Posted by Kurosawa Fan

The greatest trouble with Scarlet Empress is, at the same time, its greatest weakness.

Awesome.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#2

It Happened One Night
Frank Capra


Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice: either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, Peter gets what (he thinks!) he wants .... a really juicy newspaper story.

This was the first film to win the Oscar "grand slam" (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Screenplay). While shooting the scene where he undresses, Clark Gable had trouble removing his undershirt while keeping his humorous flow going and took too long. As a result the undershirt was abandoned altogether. It then became cool to not wear an undershirt which resulted in a large drop in undershirt sales around the country. Legend has it that in response, some underwear manufacturers tried to sue Columbia.

"Audiences responded at the time (the picture was a huge hit), and today "It Happened One Night" still feels unbeatably fresh and shiveringly touching. It's partly in the way Gable, with his whip-smart devilishness, softens just enough to reach out to meet Colbert, saucily innocent yet nobody's fool, more than halfway. And Colbert, with her wisenheimer smirk and stylishly trim frame, represents cultured coolness that's as far as you can get from coldness: When she thinks Gable has turned against her, the soft tear that glimmers in her eye (without doing anything so gauche as actually rolling down her cheek) is like a miniature novel encompassing a world of restraint, longing and fear of loss." - Stephanie Zacharek

[Kurosawa Fan]

Originally Posted by Melville

Awesome.

I thought that was pretty funny myself.

[Melville]

Originally Posted by Kurosawa Fan

I thought that was pretty funny myself.

Yeah, I almost wish that all the quotes were chosen for their comedic value, but I guess insight is okay too.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#1

L'Atalante
Jean Vigo


When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them, only a cabin boy and the strange old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips off to see the nightlife when they come to Paris. Angered by this, Jean sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to find Juliette.

The original distributors cut the film's running time in an attempt to make it more popular and changed the title to Le Chaland Qui Passe, the name of a song from the time, which was also inserted into the film. The much lauded cinematography was by Boris Kaufman. He would later go on to shoot great Hollywood films such as On the Waterfront. Nevertheless, he described his years working with Vigo as "cinematic paradise."

"Along with the dissolve of sexual signifiers, Vigo also conveys a certain motif that even within the anarchy of life there is a sense of inevitability. At the very moment that Jules visits a fortune-teller in Paris, Jean tells Juliette that he dreamed she would soon leave him. Just as the fortune-teller's prediction that Jules's cards are good (later on he narrowly avoids losing his job, as well as Jean's), the dream foretells of the couple's impending separation. When Juliette finds herself enamored with Paris to the extent that the city is no longer Jean's gift to her, he pulls anchor and leaves her there." - Eric Henderson

[Derek]

Awesome. I was afraid MatchCut was gonna get this one wrong.

Dita Parlo is an absolute force in this film.

[Kurosawa Fan]

The results:

1. L'Atalante - 44.5
2. It Happened One Night - 43.5
3. The Scarlett Empress - 33
4. The Thin Man - 28.5
5. The Mascot - 16
6. The Goddess - 12.5
7. Twentieth Century - 11
8. The Man Who Knew Too Much - 9.5
9. A Story of Floating Weeds - 9

10. It's a Gift - 8
11. The Black Cat - 7

Kurious Jorge single-handedly bumped both It's a Gift and The Black Cat from the list, replaced by A Story of Floating Weeds, as well as giving L'Atalante the top spot by 1 point.

[Yxklyx]

Originally Posted by Kurosawa Fan

#3

The Scarlett Empress
Josef von Sternberg

I have to think it's one of Guy Maddin's favorite films.

[Spinal]

Originally Posted by Kurosawa Fan

I can't find any trivia, and I'm tired. So fuck it.

Yeah, these early 30's films might be rough. You're doing great.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Originally Posted by Kurosawa Fan

Kurious Jorge single-handedly bumped both It's a Gift and The Black Cat from the list, replaced by A Story of Floating Weeds, as well as giving L'Atalante the top spot by 1 point.

Democracy lives.

[origami_mustache]

Nice to see The Goddess on there despite it not being widely seen.

[soitgoes...]

Originally Posted by origami_mustache

Nice to see The Goddess on there despite it not being widely seen.

This was the obscure movie I figured had a shot, if only because of the lack of total ballots.