100 films pour une Vidéothèque Idéale

In 1993, as part of the centennial celebration of cinema, Cahiers du Cinema (greatest film magazine ever) had their critics come up with a list of 100 films that would make up the perfect video collection. Not necessarily the greatest films, but 100 that best represent what "cinema" is. Filmbrain's Gallic friend/antagonist Nicolas found the list on the UNESCO site (of all places), and it's a fascinating document.

First off, a little breakdown -- 38 American films, 35 French, 7 Italian, 3 German, 3 British, 3 Japanese, 2 Chinese, 2 Russian, 2 Swedish, and 1 each from Spain, India, Denmark and Canada. Slightly heavy Franco-American skew, no? Of the 3 films from the UK, two are by American Stanley Kubrick, thus leaving Stephen Frears as the true sole representative. (Similarly, the three Hitchcock films are listed as American -- including 1932's Number Seventeen -- was Hitchcock making films that early in the states?)

The first thing one notices about the list are the absent directors. There's no Bresson, no Ozu, no Scorsese. Even Cahiers du Cinema fave Nicholas Ray is missing. Yet James Cameron is on the list with The Abyss. Go figure. (Cameron is mis-credited on the list as the director of Angel of Vengeance, which must be Ms. 45 by Abel Ferrara). Citizen Kane is there (to be expected) but so is Mr. Arkadin. Avant-garde cinema has scant representation, but there is a porn film included -- 1991's Rêves de Cuir (Dreams of Leather), described by some as the greatest porn film ever made. (Filmbrain hasn't seen it -- please comment here if you have!)

Some of the titles were pleasant surprises -- The Blues Brothers, A King in New York (Chaplin), Blood Simple, Once Upon a Time in America, The State of Things (Wenders) and a selection of Tex Avery cartoons.

Then there are the ones that Filmbrain is having a hard time rationalizing -- the aforementioned Cameron film, Blake Edwards' Switch (yikes!), and Joe Dante's Inner Space. Whereas having an Ed Wood film on the list is understandable, do My Beautiful Launderette, 36 Fillette and the Paul Newman helmed Rachel, Rachel truly deserve to be included?

The complete list can be found HERE, and Amazon France sells the special issue of Cahiers du Cinema that was devoted to the subject.

Have a look and feel free to comment here. Filmbrain is curious to hear what others think.

Comments

[girish]

FilmBrain--You have dredged up a fascinating piece of archaeology here.
The absence of Bresson (to my mind) can only mean one thing--that only films available on *video* in France at the time were eligible for inclusion on the list? I do know that for years, very few Bressons were available on video in France. Even Bresson DVDs have been slow in coming (in fact, the US might have more Bresson available on DVD/video now than France ever did. Ironic). Is this possible?
A few observations:
It's great to see all that Resnais in there, like "L'Amour A Mort", "Muriel", "Melo". Love his stuff.
Hitchcock clearly did not make "Number Seventen" in the US; his first US film was "Rebecca" in '40.
Other super-cool but unusual choices--Renoir's "French Can-Can", S. Ray's "Teen Kanya", Becker's "Grisbi", Clouzot's "La Verite", and Cronenberg's "Videodrome".
And then there are directors represented by films that may be good but are arguably not their best--LYNCH: "Wild At Heart" and not "Blue Velvet" or "Eraserhead"? LANG: "Tiger of Eschnapur" and not "The Big Heat" or "Die Nibelungen" or "You Only Live Once"? HITCH: "Number 17" & "Torn Curtain" and not "Vertigo", "Psycho", "Rear Window" or "Shadow Of A Doubt"? Seems positively perverse!
Interesting list. Will chime in again later!

[The Narwhal]

Is this perhaps supposed to bear representatives from all sectors of cinema? : animation, porn, exploitation, horror, films directed by actors, flops, drama, etc. ? This might explain the inclusion of It's A Wonderful Life or The Abyss. If so, I am extremely impressed, especially if each title was painstakingly chosen to represent some area of the film world. If that's not the case I'm a little less interested or impressed, but there are still a lot of titles listed I'd like to check out.

[FIlmbrain]

Perhaps Girish is correct in that the films had to be on video to be eligible. I'll have to see if I can hunt down the criteria for eligibility.

Perverse is an excellent choice of words -- and I would love to read the justification for Torn Curtain (one of Hitch's weaker films, IMO.)

I'll probably order the C du C issue and work through it (slowly!). I'll pass on what I learn.

[James Russell]

There's a review of the Reves de cuir DVD here, of which this is an extract:

Initial Reaction: If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that it was an Andrew Blake feature.
Who Should Watch It: Anybody who loves the natural form of a woman, fans of Andrew Blake’s style or Zara Whites, and anybody interested in B&D but is a little afraid of it
Who Should Avoid It: Extreme bondage fans and people who want straight hardcore fucking without any eroticism
Themes: Straight, lesbian, fetishwear, B&D, group, anal, spanking, inter-racial, masturbation, DP, and oral
Raincoat Factor: High

So I suppose if you like that sort of thing... although personally as far as Europorn goes I'd rather get my hands on (as it were) Lasse Braun's Sensations.

[agent 99]

i am a little, or maybe a lot disappointed in the list.

i suppose we know the reason for the abyss -- jacqueline bisset; but if my beautiful laundrette doesn't rate, why my fair lady? it's a great musical, but there are better ones. if solely for audrey hepburn, charade beats it up and down the block (henry mancini? cary grant? a french-to-english simultaneous translator at unesco/euresco? in paris? the alps? murder? the nazis?)

[Paul Doherty]

Filmbrain: The list is like bad book ends. "Abyss" and by far Lynch's worst film "Wild at Heart". Like AFI's 100 list it is interesting that all tittles have been released on video.

I would have picked Kubricks Dr Strangelove over the Shining and included Tarkovsky's "Stalker" or "Andre Rublev".

I will look for a few of these films.

Paul

[cjk]

An extremely odd list - even for the French.

No Keaton. No Sirk. NO JERRY LEWIS !!!

[FIlmbrain]

LOL CJK!

It's interesting to see the various reactions to the list. Unlike their year-end best-of lists, this one is more than a bit odd. Everybody seems to be able to find major fault with at least one title.

[FIlmbrain]

James -- thanks for the review of Reves de cuir. Raincoat factor -- love it.

And agent 99 -- I think you are confusing The Abyss with The Deep (an equally bad film). (Unless of course Bisset is in The Abyss -- I've forgotten just about everything from that film.)

[George]

"Number Seventeen" was Hitchcock's last film for British International Pictures, conceived, shot, and edited in London. Lists this longare almost always slapdash and full of silly errors like this, but then even ten-best lists are pointless. What does it prove if A says "Mr. Arkadin" was a great film and B says it wasn't? Only, as far as I can tell, that A and B have too much free time.

[FIlmbrain]

I don't know if I would say pointless. Purely subjective, yes, but they are often a great source of finding out about films you may have missed or overlooked.