Just wanted to give a heads-up that THEY SHOOT PICTURES, DON'T THEY? (http://www.theyshootpictures.com) has unveiled its annual update of The 1,000 Greatest Films. It's a bit more up-to-date than usual, owing to the inclusion of a bunch of best-of-the-decade lists.

I've been doing a blog project this year where I watch all the top 100.

Some interesting changes.

Into the top 100:
Jaws, On The Waterfront, Blue Velvet, Duck Soup

Out of the top 100:
The Man With The Movie Camera, L'age Dor, Hiroshima ma amour, Sherlock Jr

I'm divided on these changes. I like seeing Blue Velvet enter the mix but don't really want to watch Jaws or On The Waterfront again. And, I was looking forward to seeing L'age Dor and probably still will, but I'm glad I now do not need to watch a second Buster Keaton film.

A shame to see Star Wars and Annie Hall fall just short of the 100. Two of my all time favorites I'll probably be seeing at some point in the year anyway. Would have been nice also to see Ran into the 100. (Since few people would argue against its top 100 of all time status).

As for the top 1000, films I'm happy to see enter:
#535 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
#739 Pan's Labyrinth
#773 The Lives Of Others
#943 The Two Towers
#976 Kill Bill Vol 1

I suppose Dark Knight getting on was inevitable, but I wish it wasn't the only 2008 film to make it.

Most significant jumps as far as I can tell:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 226 -> 139
Cinema Paradisio 371 -> 238
Satantango 343 -> 245
In The Mood For Love 344 -> 246
Eraserhead 406 -> 318
Flowers Of St Frances 652 -> 370
Mulholland Drive 654 -> 374
The Big Lebowski 777 -> 404
Yi Yi 597 -> 446
Dumbo 706 -> 480
Spirited Away 659 -> 495
Fight Club 739 -> 550
Beau Traveil 789 -> 608
City Of God 778 -> 620
Grey Gardens 883 -> 641
Talk To Her 936 -> 753
Lost In Translation 953 -> 755

A few more very signifant jumps in that they're new entries (top 600ish only):

432. The Red Balloon (Gonna have to look into this one, seems interesting)
460. Cool Hand Luke (was in the list before but re-entered)
491. The Last Detail (same)
525. The Story Of A Cheat
575. Young Frankenstein (I can't stand 90% of Brooks' films, and this is no exception; it's just as if he tried to make it as unfunny as possible)

I've also booked some progression in my going through the top 100, I guess this topic is as good as any to post about it since I don't really have enough thoughts about most films to really warrant any kind of blog. Looking forward to reading yours by the way, BillAdama.

60. Au Hasard Balthazar - I was just wondering one thing throughout the film; why do all the actors keep looking down? Apparently Bresson has this thing for hiring non-actors and making them emote as little as possible. Not sure what good that does to a film where neither people's actions nor the plot makes a whole lot of sense. I didn't even dislike it too much or find it too inaccessible, it's just kinda mediocre. 5.5/10

Next up: Gone With The Wind - Yep, never actually watched this one.

Stephan: I'm already nine movies in. My blog's at jirinpanthosa.blogspot.com.

I couldn't try to watch them in order since I have to space out the criterion buys. And since Magnificent Ambersons isn't available on either VHS or DVD in the US.

If I get desperate enough toward the end maybe I'll look into whether region 2 DVD players can be used with American TVs. (Might be expensive, but tell it to Harold Wexler. )

Ah, you posted jirinpantosa.blogspot.com in some other topic I think, I was wondering why it wasn't working.

Edit: Likin' it. I'll just go and rate along with you since I'm bored at the moment.

The Mirror - I've had it for a long time, but have never felt like watching it.
La Dolce Vita - Infinitely better than 8½. 9/10 (#74 of all-time)
Vertigo - One of my favorites as well. 9.5/10 (#37 of all-time)
2001: A Space Oddysey - "But 'I came first' points only go so far", couldn't agree more. 6/10
Ordet - Another one I completely agree on (the last one, I promise). 5/10
M - Okay, maybe not. 8/10
Andrei Rublev - I appreciate what Tarkovsky is trying to do here, but for me it doesn't quite work, I definitely prefer Stalker. 7.5/10
Lawrence Of Arabia - Marvelous. 9.5/10 (#19 of all-time)
Citizen Kane - I guess I'm one of the lucky few who saw this film without knowing about Rosebud (although I did obviously have very high expectations). I didn't expect a 5/5 from you after that review by the way, it sounded a little more negative. I agree with the rating though, 9.5/10 (#25 of all-time)

If the tone of my Citizen Kane commentary sounded negative, it's only because I was judging it by the standard of being the automatic #1 entry on every poll anyone ever does. I definitely think it's a great movie.

If you think the tone of my Citizen Kane commentary was negative, wait till I finish my Metropolis commentary.

Have you noticed the 101-150 block seems to be better than most of 51-100? 101-150 block has Star Wars, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Ran, and Pulp Fiction. Also Stalker, which I haven't seen but is probably the highest non-top 100 film on my list to see. 51-100 has three great Bergman films and a lot of really good ones, but also tons of 'obligatory classics' from early cinema and pretentious New Wave films.

Yeah, I would definitely pick 101-150 over 51-100, although Modern Times, Ikiru, Once Upon A Time In The West and Goodfellas do make for a strong point despite the boring ones they're grouped with.

Also, you dislike Metropolis? It's one of the few (non-Chaplin) silent films that literally had me watching breathless.

L'Age Dor - Haven't seen it yet because I saw Un Chien Andalou and found that to be quite enough surrealism; your review certainly didn't motivate me to search it out either, so I'm kinda glad it's outside the top 100. Instead, I've decided to watch Seppuku tonight—by far the highest rated film on rateyoumusic that I haven't seen yet.

I sent the guy who makes the list a mail suggesting that he make a separate breakdown of the poll, using only lists gathered from 2000 on. This is what he sent me back:

1       Citizen Kane (Welles, Orson; 1941; US)
2       Vertigo (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1958; US)
3       2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, Stanley; 1968; UK)
4       Rules of the Game, The (Renoir, Jean; 1939; France)
5       Godfather, The (Coppola, Francis; 1972; US)
6       8½ (Fellini, Federico; 1963; Italy)
7       Seven Samurai, The (Kurosawa, Akira; 1954; Japan)
8       Tokyo Story (Ozu, Yasujiro; 1953; Japan)
9       Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, David; 1962; UK)
10      Singin' in the Rain (Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly; 1952; US)
11      Sunrise (Murnau, F.W.; 1927; US)
12      Searchers, The (Ford, John; 1956; US)
13      Godfather Part II, The (Coppola, Francis; 1974; US)
14      Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(Kubrick, Stanley; 1964; UK)
15      Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, Vittorio; 1948; Italy)
16      Rashomon (Kurosawa, Akira; 1950; Japan)
17      Raging Bull (Scorsese, Martin; 1980; US)
18      Taxi Driver (Scorsese, Martin; 1976; US)
19      Psycho [1960] (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1960; US)
20      Casablanca (Curtiz, Michael; 1942; US)
21      Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, Sergei; 1925; Russia)
22      Some Like it Hot (Wilder, Billy; 1959; US)
23      Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, Billy; 1950; US)
24      Touch of Evil (Welles, Orson; 1958; US)
25      Dolce vita, La (Fellini, Federico; 1960; Italy)
26      Passion of Joan of Arc, The (Dreyer, Carl; 1928; France)
27      Apocalypse Now (Coppola, Francis; 1979; US)
28      Chinatown (Polanski, Roman; 1974; US)
29      Breathless [1959] (Godard, Jean-Luc; 1959; France)
30      Atalante, L' (Vigo, Jean; 1934; France)
31      General, The [1926] (Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman; 1926; US)
32      Contempt (Godard, Jean-Luc; 1963; France-Italy)
33      Avventura, L' (Antonioni, Michelangelo; 1960; Italy-France)
34      Grande illusion, La (Renoir, Jean; 1937; France)
35      400 Blows, The (Truffaut, François; 1959; France)
36      Au hasard Balthazar (Bresson, Robert; 1966; France)
37      Blade Runner (Scott, Ridley; 1982; US)
38      Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, Sergio; 1968; Italy-US)
39      Persona (Bergman, Ingmar; 1966; Sweden)
40      Rear Window (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1954; US)
41      Jules et Jim (Truffaut, François; 1961; France)
42      Seventh Seal, The (Bergman, Ingmar; 1957; Sweden)
43      City Lights (Chaplin, Charles; 1931; US)
44      Enfants du paradis, Les (Carné, Marcel; 1945; France)
45      Wild Bunch, The (Peckinpah, Sam; 1969; US)
46      Third Man, The (Reed, Carol; 1949; UK)
47      Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1966; Russia)
48      Mirror, The (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1976; Russia)
49      Night of the Hunter, The (Laughton, Charles; 1955; US)
50      M [1931] (Lang, Fritz; 1931; Germany)
51      Apartment, The (Wilder, Billy; 1960; US)
52      Jaws (Spielberg, Steven; 1975; US)
53      It's a Wonderful Life (Capra, Frank; 1946; US)
54      Ordet (Dreyer, Carl; 1955; Denmark)
55      Playtime (Tati, Jacques; 1967; France)
56      Leopard, The (Visconti, Luchino; 1963; Italy)
57      GoodFellas (Scorsese, Martin; 1990; US)
58      Metropolis (Lang, Fritz; 1926; Germany)
59      Rio Bravo (Hawks, Howard; 1959; US)
60      Clockwork Orange, A (Kubrick, Stanley; 1971; UK)
61      Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, Stanley; 1975; UK)
62      Strada, La (Fellini, Federico; 1954; Italy)
63      Magnificent Ambersons, The (Welles, Orson; 1942; US)
64      Ugetsu monogatari (Mizoguchi, Kenji; 1953; Japan)
65      Wizard of Oz, The (Fleming, Victor; 1939; US)
66      Conformist, The (Bertolucci, Bernardo; 1969; Italy-France-Germany)
67      Battle of Algiers, The (Pontecorvo, Gillo; 1965; Algeria-Italy)
68      Wild Strawberries (Bergman, Ingmar; 1957; Sweden)
69      Fanny and Alexander (Bergman, Ingmar; 1982; Sweden)
70      Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, Kenji; 1954; Japan)
71      Pather Panchali (Ray, Satyajit; 1955; India)
72      Nashville (Altman, Robert; 1975; US)
73      North by Northwest (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1959; US)
74      Annie Hall (Allen, Woody; 1977; US)
75      On the Waterfront (Kazan, Elia; 1954; US)
76      Blue Velvet (Lynch, David; 1986; US)
77      Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Herzog, Werner; 1972; Germany)
78      Star Wars (Lucas, George; 1977; US)
79      His Girl Friday (Hawks, Howard; 1940; US)
80      Stalker (Tarkovsky, Andrei; 1979; Russia)
81      Pickpocket (Bresson, Robert; 1959; France)
82      Amarcord (Fellini, Federico; 1973; Italy)
83      Modern Times (Chaplin, Charles; 1936; US)
84      Intolerance (Griffith, D.W.; 1916; US)
85      Gone with the Wind (Fleming, Victor; 1939; US)
86      Madame de... (Ophüls, Max; 1953; France-Italy)
87      Ikiru (Kurosawa, Akira; 1952; Japan)
88      McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Altman, Robert; 1971; US)
89      Gold Rush, The (Chaplin, Charles; 1925; US)
90      Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, Quentin; 1994; US)
91      King Kong [1933] (Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack; 1933; US)
92      Lady Eve, The (Sturges, Preston; 1941; US)
93      Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (Ford, John; 1962; US)
94      Voyage in Italy (Rossellini, Roberto; 1953; Italy)
95      Man with a Movie Camera, The (Vertov, Dziga; 1929; USSR)
96      Double Indemnity (Wilder, Billy; 1944; US)
97      Nosferatu (Murnau, F.W.; 1922; Germany)
98      Notorious (Hitchcock, Alfred; 1946; US)
99      E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg, Steven; 1982; US)
100     Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, Steven; 1977; US)

Here's a list of the ones in the top 100 here that are not in the top 100 in the overall list:

74 Annie Hall
78 Star Wars
79 His Girl Friday
80 Stalker
88 McCabe & Mrs Miller
90 Pulp Fiction
91 King Kong
92 The Lady Eve
95 The Man With a Movie Camera
97 Nosferatu
99 ET
100 Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I'm surprised not to see Ran, Fargo, and Schindler's List here, but happy to see some of my favorites move into the top 100.