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Title: The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films by Jay Carr, National Society of Film Critics ISBN: 0-306-81096-4 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Another Great "Great Films" Book
Comment: This is another book of reviews of 100 great films, this time by 44 members of the National Society of Film Critics under the editorship of Jay Carr, film critic of the Boston Globe. The complete title is the rather Victorian sounding "The A List: the National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films." The lengthy title was designed, I am certain, to weed out the people who lack the attention span to enjoy great films.
This list is not identical to Roger Ebert's "The Great Films" (2002). Though Ebert reviews 102 films (he calls the Apu Trilogy one film) and "The A List" reviews 107 (even more groups), they have only 47 films in common, less than half of either list. Is one of them lying? Can a film be "great" but not "esssential" or vice versa? The answer, dear reader, is that a list of the 100 best films is a very elusive beast, impossible to track down with any certainty. There is yet another list of 100 great films (there is no end to such lists), the Cinema Century Top One Hundred list, compiled by the editors of "Time Out" magazine in 1995, based on questionnaires sent to more than 100 directors, actors, critics, etc., and containing 109 films (due again to group ratings and to many ties in the rankings at the bottom end). That list has only 46 and 40 films in common with the other two. Only 26 films are common to all three lists. If we took ten lists, we might find that they have only "Citizen Kane," "Potemkin," and "The 400 Blows" in common. Seekers of the best 100 films be warned: the situation is hopeless,... but not serious. The 162 distinct films in the combined "The Great Movies" and "The A List" are almost all great. (I have more misgivings about some of the films in the Cinema Century Top One Hundred list, which are due, I believe, to the way that list was constructed.)
"The A List" makes a stronger attempt to be representational than does Roger Ebert's "The Great Movies," which leads, I think, to some less than great choices, no doubt the reason for the adjective "essential" rather than "great." I doubt that I will ever be convinced that "Jailhouse Rock" (1957) (the representative Elvis film) or "Enter the Dragon" (1973) (the representative Kung Fu flick) are great. But these are my ONLY quibbles. That still leaves 105 great films (assuming I can trust the editors on a few of these), a real bargain, since the publisher charges for only 100. These 105 are films that everyone should see. (Good luck, however, trying to find "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" (1978) at your local video store.) There are a few more non-Eurocentric films in this book than in "The Great Movies" and a few titles that you may not recognize. The reviews are all excellent. If you have a strong affection for Roger Ebert's reviews, you can find four of them here, identical, it seems, (apart from the position of paragraph breaks) to the corresponding reviews in "The Great Movies." Should you buy both? I think so, and did!
Another great gift book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Discover Great Films
Comment: There can never be a definitive list of the 100 greatest movies ever made that satisfies everyone, but this particular list has a lot going for it. Each film is alloted about three pages of commentary that deals with the origins of the film, why critics love it, why it has endeared itself to the general public, what is so significant about it in the context of film history. All the essays are great fun to read before and after watching a particular film. I have made it an ambition to watch as many of these films as are available on VHS and DVD. (I have so far seen about 60+ movies on the list). The list is commendably broad-based, with a fair number of Asian and European films. Yes, the usual suspects are there (Citizen Kane, Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia), but, if for nothing else, I must thank this book for having introduced me, someone who is not a student of film, to films and film-makers I hadn't even heard of before, but who have since established a place in my heart. It was here that I discovered Carl Dreyers' powerful film The Passion of Joan of Arc, and Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, which is the most sublimely beautiful movie I have ever seen. Surprisingly, the critics have steered clear of being too arcane in their choices; there are nods here to B-movies, Hollywood musicals, Hong Kong martial arts flicks, summer blockbusters, westerns, science fiction. Rather than being a list of the GREATEST (Enter the Dragon! Jailhouse Rock!), this is really a list of the most INFLUENTIAL films across a range of genres. So you will find one or two representatives of German expressionism, Italian neo-realism, French New Wave, Russian montage, film-noir, etc., but you can easily think of many films that, aesthetically, are greater than some of the movies on this list but have not been included because they are not considered as influential. How else can you explain the inclusion of ,say, Close Encounters of the Third Kind but not Apocalypse Now? Perhaps the latter was left out because Coppola already has Godfather on the list. (But Federico Fellini has three of his films included, Spielberg and Kurosawa two each.) I would have liked to see a Jacques Tati film represented, and also one from Indian Bollywood. Overall, if you treat this as a guide that leads you to discover more films that are not on the list, then you will open up before you a wonderful world of films not restricted to just Hollywood.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great
Comment: I love this book. I got it a couple years ago, and it never stays on my shelf. Every few weeks I pull it down to read the essay on a movie I've just seen or to get ideas for another movie to rent. I admire the National Society of Film critics for picking some unusual choices. Some so unusual that it's hard to find the films.
I recommend this book to any film buff, or to anyone that wants to become a film buff. It's a great place to start.
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Title: The Great Movies by ROGER EBERT ISBN: 076791032X Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 05 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made by Vincent Canby, Janet Maslin, Peter M. Nichols ISBN: 0812930010 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The 100 Best Films To Rent You've Never Heard Of : Hidden Treasures, Neglected Classics, and Hits From By-Gone Eras by David N. Meyer ISBN: 0312150423 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: American Film Institute Desk Reference: The Complete Guide to Everything You Need to Know about the Movies by Melinda Corey, George Ochoa, Clint Eastwood, Dorling Kindersley Publishing ISBN: 0789489341 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2004 by Roger Ebert ISBN: 0740738348 Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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