PF's favorite movies poll - nominations

[fresh_42]

Do you have a couple of favorites?

I like him as I writer, too: Wasabi, The Transporter, Léon. Especially Wasabi is similar to the Fifth Element, even though a different story and setup, but similar in action and comic style.

 

[DennisN]

Wiki says he was involved with making 89 films. Do you have a couple of favorites?
Aside from "The Fifth Element", as I've watched it about 1000 times. I love that movie.

I liked The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu) and Nikita (La Femme Nikita) very much, but I haven't seen them in a long time. I also like The Fifth Element and Léon. And the corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield in Léon, played by Gary Oldman, is in my opinion one of the best villains of all time (one clip here).

 

[Klystron]

Hi again, I am going through the nominations and making a list of movies with more than one nomination, and it looks like we are going to get a very fine list of movies for the final poll.

I have however found one arbitrary nomination:

@Klystron nominated The Maltese Falcon (1931) (since Klystron specified the year 1931)and @marcusl nominated

without any specification.

So my question to @marcusl is which movie you mean, since there are three movies with this name:(quote from from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon)

I changed my nomination to the 1941 John Huston version; close to the original novel and superb acting. Thanks.

 

[pinball1970]

I officially protest the American hegemony of this list! Luc Besson deserves better!

Greatness is not interested in nationality Fresh only Greatness.
If we did top 20 classical composers the USA probably would not do too well.

Anyway what does 3, 5 mean? It's either 3 votes or 5 am I missing something?
Also does position count for anything? More for @DennisN

 

[fresh_42]

Greatness is not interested in nationality Fresh only Greatness.

Yes, and I was only half way serious. However, the real reason for that bias is another: the knowledge of movies. You cannot nominate what you do not know, and this is not caused by greatness, rather by market presence instead.

 

[DennisN]

Anyway what does 3, 5 mean? It's either 3 votes or 5 am I missing something?

No votes, only nominations.
BillTre, in post #11, grouped two movies and wanted to give them half a point each, so I did that when I counted nominations.

Also does position count for anything? More for @DennisN

No, position (nominations) does not mean anything other than a guideline for me on which movies to include in a final poll. I was just providing some stats for us stat nerds .

I am currently thinking about what to do in a final poll and how many movies to include. Among the 39 movies with more than one nomination we have the following options:

At least 4 nominations: 3 movies
At least 3.5 nominations: 3 + 4 = 7 movies
At least 3 nominations: 3 + 4 + 10 movies = 17 movies
At least 2 nominations: 39 movies

 

[fresh_42]

The longer this thread ran the more movies I remembered which could also be on my list, many from other users' nominations, many somehow in between, e.g. "The African Queen" with Bogey and Hepburn, "The Caine Mutiny", and definitely "We're No Angels" - a little jewel with Bogart, Ustinov and Aldo Ray which we all have forgotten! I think my ultimate list would easily exceed 100 200 - I have forgotten Walter Matthau, some domestic movies, Chabrol, Sidney Poitier, Helen Hunt, Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, and and and ...

Summary: The more you list the better! My selection will definitely be different from my list!

 

[Bystander]

Sidney Poitier, Helen Hunt, Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, and and and ...

Yup.

 

[Klystron]

A criticism on Internet polls -- that people tend to nominate their latest current favorites -- actually provides a useful criteria. With enough responses from around the globe one expects many great movies to be listed that may not have entered an individual's list but certainly demand attention. This works both ways.

For example I neglected to include "Casablanca" but expect many others to list this great flick. While I often ignore the director while enjoying a movie, I found myself listing several movies by director such as Kurosawa and Kubrick. I do not mind the restriction to 20 favorite films as I agree with almost every entry made by other members.

For instance I was enthralled by "Jean de Florette" and sequel "Manon of the Springs" but did not remember to list them. I like all of Gerard Depardieu's work that I have seen including his excellent version of "Cyrano" (1990) equal to Jose Ferrer's award winning performance (1950). I also enjoyed Steve Martin's comedic take on Cyrano in "Roxanne" staring Daryl Hannah in the eponymous role. So many movies to choose from.

 

[fresh_42]

I also enjoyed Steve Martin's comedic take on Cyrano in "Roxanne" staring Daryl Hannah

Roxanne Kowalski: Nobody had a coat?
C.D. Bales: I thought you said you didn't want a coat...
Roxanne Kowalski: Why would I not want a coat?
C.D. Bales: You said you didn't want a coat!
Roxanne Kowalski: I was being ironic.
C.D. Bales: Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here.

I love this scene. There are so many places where they don't get that there.

 

[DaveC426913]

Roxanne was a great movie, to be sure - but top 20?

 

[pinball1970]

The longer this thread ran the more movies I remembered which could also be on my list, many from other users' nominations, many somehow in between, e.g. "The African Queen" with Bogey and Hepburn, "The Caine Mutiny", and definitely "We're No Angels" - a little jewel with Bogart, Ustinov and Aldo Ray which we all have forgotten! I think my ultimate list would easily exceed 100 200 - I have forgotten Walter Matthau, some domestic movies, Chabrol, Sidney Poitier, Helen Hunt, Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, and and and ...

Summary: The more you list the better! My selection will definitely be different from my list!

Sidney Poitier! Deadly Pursuit with Tom Berringer.

 

[Klystron]

Roxanne was a great movie, to be sure - but top 20?

No, not top 20, agreed. Guess I was exhausting the idea of theme in favorite movies.

History and learning history never ceases. I was amazed to learn years ago that Cyrano de Bergerac was not only a real person, a renowned swordsman, but one of the first science fiction writers and an advocate for war veterans in his time. In a way Rostand created a 17th C. version of a modern superhero. With rapier in hand, Cyrano could easily dispatch enemies but chooses to defeat them instead with wit, eloquence and ideas.

"Hey! Is that your nose or has the moon risen early?"

 

[BillTre]

Something I liked about Roxanne was when the Chief (Steve Martin) went on his self nose-insult rant in the bar, which was in reality insulting to some guy for his poor quality nose insult.

 

[pinball1970]

Yup.

Which Thing is that Thing?
There were at least three.
I like the second one.

John Carpenter for me.

Oh damn. John Carpenter...

So... Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and the Thing.

All three could be in there and there is always Casablanca...and Marathon man.

We need a follow up, by category this time? Or decade? Man this is harder than Christoffel notation.

 

[fresh_42]

Man this is harder than Christoffel notation.

... next time we should hand a spreadsheet around ... Title / Year / Genre / Director / Main Actor ...
or has someone a URL, a database and an Apache running? Are there services which offer temporary addresses?

 

[pinball1970]

... next time we should hand a spreadsheet around ... Title / Year / Genre / Director / Main Actor ...
or has someone a URL, a database and an Apache running? Are there services which offer temporary addresses?

Yes, this is as important as music. It's who we are.

 

[DennisN]

Hi all, I just want to say that I got stuck with thinking about how to do the final poll .
I didn't expect to get stuck at this when I started this thread, but after have read input from you others here in the thread, it became less clear to me how to do a good final poll. These things were among the things that got me stuck:

* How many movies to include
* And if I do a standard forum poll, is it really good to force users to choose one movie on a list?
That would be a difficult choice, I think.
* Some movies have not be seen by others. For instance, there are multiple nominated movies that I have not seen. To remove some of the polling consequences of this fact, a larger rather than a smaller list ought to be better.

Anyway, if anyone have any thoughts about this, I'd be happy to hear it. In any case, I have to think about this for a while before I do the final poll .

 

[fresh_42]

How about all and multiple choices?

 

[DennisN]

How about all and multiple choices?

Thanks, good idea! I wasn't sure if the poll system allowed for multiple choices, but I've checked it now and it does.

And with "all" do you mean every nominated movie or the 39 that got more than one nomination?

 

[fresh_42]

How many are all? I would aim at something between 50 and 75. It won't be enough by any selection. E.g. I have forgotten "Dinner for One!" which has become cult in many European countries and should have been on my list. But any movie which isn't a Hollywood production has lost anyway, which excludes a lot of fantastic French movies, or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman. As I mentioned earlier, if I had a public URL, I would set up a small database and a small program and let people vote each film with points from 1 to 5 or so.

 

[pinball1970]

Thanks, good idea! I wasn't sure if the poll system allowed for multiple choices, but I've checked it now and it does.

And with "all" do you mean every nominated movie or the 39 that got more than one nomination?

You are really letting a mathematician get hold of this?
When the results come out you can start a new thread, 'Film poll results, the statistical analysis and what that could mean.'

 

[Klystron]

How many are all? I would aim at something between 50 and 75. It won't be enough by any selection. E.g. I have forgotten "Dinner for One!" which has become cult in many European countries and should have been on my list. But any movie which isn't a Hollywood production has lost anyway, which excludes a lot of fantastic French movies, or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman. As I mentioned earlier, if I had a public URL, I would set up a small database and a small program and let people vote each film with points from 1 to 5 or so.

Perhaps not a top 20 fave because it is so sad but I liked both novel (translated) and movie of "Smilla's Sense of Snow". I meant to nominate Bergman's "Seventh Seal" as my first choice. Accidentally edited it out. Old Max remains one of my favorite actors, always so cool and droll, while "Seventh Seal" is another great movie about returning war veterans. The cynical Jon may be the best "sidekick" supporting character in cinema.

Speaking of dinner, "My Dinner with Andre" remains a favorite, particularly when action movies feel tedious.

Favorite actors must include Michael Caine of "Alfie" and "Ipcress File"; the inspiration, along with Sean Connery's James Bond, for Mike Myer's "Austin Powers" hilarious satires.

I like the idea of voting for listed movies. As Mark mentioned early in the thread, our choices tend to follow age groups but also culture and languages. Perhaps we should vote in a poll such as the weekly photo contest uses?

 

[DennisN]

or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman

Perhaps not a top 20 fave because it is so sad but I liked both novel (translated) and movie of "Smilla's Sense of Snow". I meant to nominate Bergman's "Seventh Seal" as my first choice

As a Scandinavian I am sad to say I have not seen any of those movies you mention. I don't watch much Swedish/Scandinavian movies in general.

My favorite Swedish movie is The Simple-Minded Murderer.
I didn't find a trailer, but here's a clip from the movie:


I also like Fanny and Alexander (Bergman).

 

[fresh_42]

Smilla's sense of snow is neither funny nor action like. I don't remember the details, only that I have been impressed. I'm waiting for a repetition. Joulutarina is a finnish christmas movie. I admit I'm a fan of christmas movies. They are nice, mild antidepressants. A good method to lighten dark winter days.

 

[DennisN]

How many are all?

There were 222 nominated movies totally, of which 39 movies got more than one nomination.

I would aim at something between 50 and 75.

...so maybe we should go for the 39 with more than one nomination...

 

[DennisN]

Ok fellows, I have thought this through now.

I plan to start the poll tomorrow with these rules:

1. The poll will have 39 movies to choose from.
   These are the movies that got more than one nomination; one was added to the previous 38, The Maltese Falcon, since @Klystron changed his nomination.
2. The poll will ask members for their ten (10) favorite movies among these 39.
   I think this restriction will make the whole poll better, since for instance it will force members who nominated 20 movies to narrow their choices down to 10 while also considering all the other nominated movies.
3. Members will be allowed to change their votes.
   I think this is a good idea, since it may be a bit challenging for some to decide on ten movies.
4. The poll will be open for two weeks in order to get a good number of PF'ers to participate in the vote.

I warmly thank everyone who has nominated movies and participated in this thread, and I thank you for a good discussion and good input (@fresh_42, @marcusl, @Bystander, @collinsmark, @DaveC426913, @PeroK, @Klystron, @BillTre, @Buzz Bloom, @OmCheeto, @pinball1970, @epenguin, @kuruman).

As I've said before the poll will reflect the favorite (most liked) movies of voters (at least currently i.e. at the time of the vote), and I personally don't take this very seriously, I do it most for fun. An added benefit is that I and maybe others have now heard of a bunch of movies that we have not seen which may be worth seeing .

If there are no major objections to the poll rules, I start the poll tomorrow. Cheers!

Edit: While going through the nominations for the poll tomorrow I noticed that I had counted wrong. There are totally 39 movies with more than one nomination, not 40.

Edit 2: And I noticed now there were originally 221 nominated movies in total, not 222. I will post all of them in a list after the final poll as a reference and as a list of suggested movies to watch.

 

[DennisN]

Hi again all!
Regretfully I won't start the poll today, since I found out that the forum poll system can only handle max 20 options in a poll . And we need 39.

This means I have to think of an alternative way like splitting the poll into two polls or something... (which isn't as easy as it seems if you think about it ).

I have to think about it for a while. This sure is harder than Christoffel notation!

 

[PeroK]

Smilla's sense of snow is neither funny nor action like. I don't remember the details, only that I have been impressed. I'm waiting for a repetition. Joulutarina is a finnish christmas movie. I admit I'm a fan of christmas movies. They are nice, mild antidepressants. A good method to lighten dark winter days.

Miss Smilla was a mathematician, I remember. I've read the book, but never seen the film.

A review of the book said "like Moby Dick without the metaphysical claptrap". I remember thinking it had just as much metaphysical claptrap as Moby Dick. I enjoyed it nevertheless.

 

[DennisN]

This means I have to think of an alternative way like splitting the poll into two polls or something... (which isn't as easy as it seems if you think about it ).

Finally it seems we can have our long awaited poll(s)...
I've managed to split the 39 movies into two categories:

• Drama, Thriller, Action (20 movies), and
• Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy and Western (19 movies)

So I will soon start the two polls...