Stewball wrote:But Rumplesink, it's not the Academy's aversion to foreign films, it's its aversion to foreign language films
Indeed, although they have, on occasion, nominated foreign language films in the Best Picture category. And I picked a few 'foreign' films in the English language as my alternate picks some years, following their somewhat eccentric rules.
Stewball wrote:it's its aversion to foreign language films
Yes, this is true. Nevertheless, I was less than completely surprised that my pick for English-language feature of 2015, Gaspar Noé's Love, failed to receive a nomination.
Maybe because there was more English than French in it--which kept it out of the top ten, but also out of the foreign language category. Maybe the Academy needs to be more transparent--but transparency doesn't appear to be the Left's forte.
Stewball wrote:Perhaps you could refresh my memory.
Sure:
Grand Illusion (French, 1938) Z (French, 1969) The Emigrants (Swedish, 1972) Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1973) Il Postino (Italian/Spanish, 1995) Life Is Beautiful (Italian, 1998) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin Chinese, 2000) Amour (French, 2012)
I don't know how other people go about this, but in my head I differentiate between films that I think are great pieces of artistry and films that I love and find personally enjoyable. i.e. There are films that I think are great, but didn't enjoy much (eg. The Birds), and films that are terrible that I enjoyed immensely and have great personal signifigance for me (e.g. Hackers). Imo, the "Film of the Year" is the one that strikes the best balance between being the overall all-around most well-crafted piece of artistry, the most socially, or politically relevant film, the film with most original and creative ideas in regards to storytelling and film-making, and the piece of entertainment with the broadest appeal possible. What I'm trying to say is, what I think is the best movie of the year, is different from what my favourite movies of each year actually were.
English Language Films of the Year, by year of Oscar eligibility:
1927/28 - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1928/29 - The Wind
1929/30 - All Quiet on the Western Front (Oscar) 1930/31 - City Lights 1931/32 - Frankenstein 1932/33 - Duck Soup 1934 - It Happened One Night (Oscar) 1935 - Bride of Frankenstein 1936 - Modern Times 1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1938 - Bringing Up Baby 1939 - Gone With the Wind (Oscar)
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (nom) 1941 - Citizen Kane (obviously) (nom) 1942 - The Magnificent Ambersons (nom) 1943 - Casablanca (Oscar) 1944 - Double Indemnity (nom) 1945 - Brief Encounter 1946 - It's a Wonderful Life (nom) 1947 - Out of the Past 1948 - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (nom) 1949 - The Third Man
1950 - All About Eve (Oscar) 1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire (nom) 1952 - Singin' In the Rain 1953 - Shane (nom) 1954 - Rear Window 1955 - The Night of the Hunter 1956 - The Searchers 1957 - Sweet Smell of Success 1958 - Vertigo 1959 - Some Like it Hot
1960 - Psycho 1961 - West Side Story (Oscar) 1962 - Lawrence of Arabia (Oscar) 1963 - The Birds 1964 - Dr. Strangelove (nom) 1965 - The Sound of Music (Oscar) 1966 - Blow-Up 1967 - Bonnie and Clyde (nom) 1968 - 2001: A Space Odyssey 1969 - The Wild Bunch
1970 - Five Easy Pieces (nom) 1971 - A Clockwork Orange (nom) 1972 - The Godfather (Oscar) 1973 - The Exorcist (nom) 1974 - The Godfather Part II (Oscar) 1975 - Nashville (nom) 1976 - Taxi Driver (nom) 1977 - Annie Hall (Oscar) 1978 - The Deer Hunter (Oscar) 1979 - Apocalypse Now (nom)
1980 - Raging Bull (nom) 1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark (nom) 1982 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (nom) 1983 - The King of Comedy 1984 - Amadeus (Oscar) 1985 - Back to the Future 1986 - Blue Velvet 1987 - The Dead 1988 - Die Hard 1989 - Do the Right Thing
1990 - GoodFellas (nom) 1991 - The Silence of the Lambs (Oscar) 1992 - Unforgiven (Oscar) 1993 - Schindler's List (Oscar) 1994 - Pulp Fiction (nom) 1995 - Toy Story 1996 - Fargo (nom) 1997 - Boogie Nights 1998 - The Thin Red Line (nom) 1999 - American Beauty (Oscar)
2000 - Gladiator (Oscar) 2001 - Mulholland Dr. 2002 - Far From Heaven 2003 - Lost in Translation (nom) 2004 - Sideways (nom) 2005 - Brokeback Mountain (nom) 2006 - The Departed (Oscar) 2007 - No Country for Old Men (Oscar) 2008 - Wall-E 2009 - The Hurt Locker (Oscar)
2010 - The Social Network (nom) 2011 - The Tree of Life (nom) 2012 - Zero Dark Thirty (nom) 2013 - 12 Years a Slave (Oscar) 2014 - Boyhood (nom) 2015 - Mad Max: Fury Road (nom)
As you can see, I've actually been pretty happy with how the Academy has voted this past decade, but historically, I think, they've done much worse. Especially the 1980s, a decade which was great for action & family films, but weak for the historical dramas that the Academy tends to lean towards.
Last edited by CosmicMonkey on Wed Jun 07, 2017 2:32 pm, edited 4 times in total.
I'm going with Manchester By The Sea as the best by a mile from what I've seen last year. Arrival/Handmaiden were the next best two I thought and then Hell or High Water. I have a handful of well-rated ones to see like Hidden Figures and Nocturnal Animals but I thought Manchester By The Sea was the only really good one.
CosmicMonkey wrote:I don't know how other people go about this, but in my head I differentiate between films that I think are great pieces of artistry and films that I love and find personally enjoyable. i.e. There are films that I think are great, but didn't enjoy much (eg. The Birds), and films that are terrible that I enjoyed immensely and have great personal signifigance for me (e.g. Hackers). Imo, the "Film of the Year" is the one that strikes the best balance between being the overall all-around most well-crafted piece of artistry, the most socially, or politically relevant film, the film with most original and creative ideas in regards to storytelling and film-making, and the piece of entertainment with the broadest appeal possible. What I'm trying to is, what I think is the best movie of the year, is different from what my favourite movies of each year were.
Hmmm I think that's how most people on film websites often rank films but I just go by how much I liked it once I'm done and think back. That's an arbitrary way of doing it but I think the other way is probably as arbitrary (saying film X was a better piece of art than film Y when they're two very different films). So I can always judge how much I enjoyed watching one or its impact on me but I can't judge if one was better artistically than another unless it's really obvious. I think I'd also be forcing myself a bit to rank it based on other peoples perspective if I got into the whole political/socila relevance or broadest appeal aspect. I dunno I just give it some thought and then go on a gut feeling, maybe it's easier for me.
Tbh for selfish reasons, I would love if the ratings were all just how much people enjoyed the film rather than how well-made they thought the film was, that way I'd get more Dial M For Murder and less Vertigo on my PSI's lol.
I liked Manchester By The Sea fine, but it's in the third tier of 2016 films for me. Top tier is Moonlight, The Salesman and The Handmaiden. Second tier is After The Storm and I, Daniel Blake. I don't think that 2016 was a very strong year though.
90sCoffee wrote:Tbh for selfish reasons, I would love if the ratings were all just how much people enjoyed the film rather than how well-made they thought the film was, that way I'd get more Dial M For Murder and less Vertigo on my PSI's lol.
The thing is though, a lot of my enjoyment of a film comes from how well made it is.