Thursday, March 28, 2013

The 2013 Edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I was given a heads up at the 1,001 Movies wiki that the 2013 Edition (aka the tenth anniversary edition) of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book is available for pre-order at Amazon.  As expected it will be a hardcover edition (the paperback edition is also available for pre-order at Amazon UK) that will contain a much larger than usual number of changes, likely because this is the tenth anniversary of the book first being published.

When I looked last week Amazon said it was coming September 3, 2013, but this morning it now says October 1, 2013 (consistent with the last couple of years.)  The hardcover editions come from an American publisher, so I am unsure if Amazon UK will carry it.  On a similar note, the paperback editions are published in London, so Amazon does not carry it in the U.S., but independent sellers on Amazon will likely offer it when the time comes.  I have a link at the bottom of this post to the hardcover edition that is available for pre-order.  (I can't link from here to Amazon UK for the paperback edition.)  FYI – the cover art is not yet available for either.

Here is the best news: it looks like our hopes that the tenth edition will make some overhauls to the list are going to at least partially come true.  Amazon says that this edition will feature FIFTY (50) new films, as well as 200 new pictures, key quotes from movies, more movie posters, and new facts and trivia.

The reason I wrote “at least partially” is because Amazon does not specify the range of new movies.  As I learned from going through each edition to list every single change at the 1,001 Movies wiki, the limiting factor of what films get added and removed every year is how close they are to the end of the book.  This is due to the fact that the earlier you make a change, the more pages that follow it that will be affected.  This means much more work to change the layouts and order of the films in the book to balance everything out.  The earliest change made to this point was for 1988, and that was a simple one-for-one swap where a movie (Drowning By Numbers) was added right into the exact same page and location that was previously occupied by a film (The Accidental Tourist) that was removed.  This trick allowed them to not have to change the subsequent pages for it.

My hope is that this latest edition will actually delve back much further, even to the entirety of the list.  This is buoyed by the additional changes they mention they are making.  200 pictures is a lot, and would seem to imply much more extensive page changes than anything up to this point.

With this information it’s natural to immediately start thinking about what films will be added.  With that in mind I offer my own thoughts.  Steve – I know you have done yearly posts on what changes you would make.  Please feel free to include those links in a comment on this post so that others can see your thoughts.  I know that at least a few things I am going to mention are things that you have also posted on.  For everyone, I welcome your thoughts in the comments on what you believe will change, and what you think of my guesses.

Just for the sake of this exercise I will say that half of the 50 new films will come from the usual dozen or so that get added from the most recent year, combined with the return of some films that were removed from earlier editions (just like the fifth edition did.)  The other half I will say will come from adding films from the parts of the book that have previously never been altered (mostly pre-1995).

Films I am guessing will be added from 2012 (11):

Amour – the Palme d’Or winner is a given
Argo – The Academy Award winner is a given
The Avengers – a bit of a long shot because only one superhero film has ever been added – The Dark Knight – and it was quickly removed.  Batman (1989) remains the only superhero film on the list.  The Avengers’ huge box office might earn it a place, though, like some other book entries.
Beasts of the Southern Wild – not one I would pick, but critics went gaga over it, and it is critics who determine the content of the book.
Django Unchained – the book editors like Tarantino
Holy Motors – a strange and interesting film that is the kind that attracts the book editors
The Intouchables – a much loved film by French movie goers, but one that had some American critics discounting it.
Life of Pi – lots of critics like it
Lincoln – Spielberg has a large presence on the list and this can take the place of War Horse, which inexplicably got added last year.
Searching for Sugar Man – a well-liked documentary, despite the attempt to blur the sequence of events to pump up the importance of the searchers.
Zero Dark Thirty – the controversial aspects make it one the editors might like

Film from 2011 I am guessing will be added (1):

Melancholia – the editors love Lars von Trier and I’m kind of amazed that this didn’t make it onto the list last year.  Since then this film made the critics’ 2012 Sight and Sound poll as one of the best films ever made.

Films that used to be in the book that I am guessing will be re-added (10):

Adaptation
Amelie
Boogie Nights
Children of Men
Fahrenheit 9/11
Hero
Lost in Translation
Volver
The Wrestler
Y Tu Mama Tambien

Films that the editors seem to either be fighting over, or that they are having some perverse joke with us on, that I feel will be re-added (3):

Kill Bill Vol. 1 – already added and removed twice
Apocalypto – already added and removed twice
The Passion of the Christ – already added and removed three times

That’s a total of 25.  Now for the 25 older films.  I won’t refer to this as ones I’m guessing they will re-add.  Rather, these are the ones that I’m frankly surprised weren’t already on the list, even adjusting for the fact that this is NOT “1,001 Movies That Are the Best of All Time”, but is “1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”.  The distinction is that there are movies that are important, or broke new ground, even if they aren’t very good overall, so those are the ones in the list.

My suggestions for older films that need to be added/eliminated (25):

General book trend number one – A huge focus on relatively few directors

Critics tend to be “director-groupies” when it comes to picking important movies.  Once they like a director it seems like he or she can do no wrong when it comes to critics.  The result is a heavy weighting towards a handful of them.  Take a look at the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They list sometime to see one even more overbalanced towards a relatively few directors.

I looked through the 2003 edition of the book (the first) and found that fully one sixth of the 1,001 films in the book (167) were made by only 22 directors, each of whom had six or more movies.  More than one ninth of the 1,001 films in the book (113) were made by only 13 directors, each of whom had seven or more movies.  And a full five percent of all the films (49) were made by only four directors, each of whom had ten or more movies.  Those are some ridiculous numbers*.  And the worst thing is that this crowded out some other, very deserving films that happened to not be made by someone famous.

In my opinion, a half dozen films ought to suffice to display a good range of the work any director did.  Hell, in the 2003 book they managed to make do with six for Robert Altman, George Cukor, Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Michael Powell, Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, and Billy freaking Wilder (who had eight Best Director nominations).  Robert Bresson and Francois Truffault, among others, only had five movies listed.  Dropping all the directors with more than six movies in the book down to six frees up 45 slots right there.

General book trend number two – vampires are important

Do we really need seven separate vampire movies in the list, especially when five of them are all based on the same Bram Stoker novel?  Just keep Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula (1931) for their historical significance, Let the Right One In (2008) for a modern take on the vampire story, and jettison the rest.  And if you want to keep more than three vampire movies then add in Near Dark (1987), which is also a different take.

General book trend number three – TV movies and mini-series are allowed…but only if the director is famous

The best examples of this are Riget (aka The Kingdom), a four episode TV mini-series directed by Lars von Trier, and The Decalogue, a ten episode TV mini-series directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.  Other TV mini-series that ended up eventually being shown in theaters (i.e. The Best of Youth) are also in the list.

Please note that I’m not saying these entries are badly made.  I’m simply saying that this is supposed to be the 1,001 MOVIES You Must See Before You Die and that TV mini-series, no matter who directed them, do not belong.  Eliminating these (like the 2012 Sight and Sound poll did) opens up slots for true movies.

Here are some replacements I would like to see (8):

Safety Last! (1923) replacing 37. The Kid Brother – how the hell did Harold Lloyd’s most famous and iconic film not make the list in the first place, and how did this much weaker film of his get picked to represent him?
La Bete Humaine (1937) replacing 63. Boudu Saved from Drowning – both are from Jean Renoir.  The former anticipates an entire genre of films that would take over in the 1940s and 1950s, while the latter is mostly an excuse to show off the clowning talents of its lead actor.
The Zapruder Film (1963) replacing 461. Report – Report is simply an exercise in editing, playing the TV footage of the Kennedy assassination over and over again.  Instead of this, the actual, real Zapruder footage should be on the list.  Its impact has been enormous over the last five decades.
Roots (1977) replacing 886. Riget – If TV mini-series are to be allowed, how the hell did the granddaddy of them all, the one that had a massive impact on discussions of race relations, the one that literally changed how people thought about the entire television medium, not make the list?  (I know how – it wasn’t directed by von Trier.)
The Day After (1983) replacing 434. The War Game – Again, if TV movies are being allowed (The War Game is one) then how did The Day After not make the list?  It has the same theme as The War Game – the aftermath of a nuclear war – but it had a much larger impact.  It was shown in one of the two countries that at the time could have precipitated nuclear Armageddon.  It was so important that the other TV channels literally just came out and said that people should watch this movie and not the programming on their own channels.
Field of Dreams (1989) replacing 720. The Natural – both are baseball movies.  The latter doesn’t really bring anything new to the plate (pun intended), while the former had a large impact.  It celebrated all that is good about the sport.  More importantly, perhaps, it’s the movie I most often see mentioned when men admit to what movie made them cry – something many men are loathe to reveal.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) replacing 774. A Chinese Ghost Story – both are action comedies.  Hustle is from director Stephen Chow who I think doesn’t get enough recognition because his films are in the martial arts/action/comedy genres, so he alienates both the people who only want drama or only serious martial arts films.  He places tons of references to older American films in his movies, too.  He’s sort of the Tarantino of Hong Kong.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) replacing 77. Las Hurdes – put in an important documentary that had a wide-ranging effect on the entire global warming debate and take out an obviously fake, badly made “documentary” that just happens to be from a famous director of narrative films.

Here are other entries I feel should be in the book (17):

The Freshman (1925) – Keaton and Chaplin are well-represented, but Harold Lloyd, who was bigger than either in the 1920s only has a single, token entry.  Lloyd’s film The Freshman was so good Keaton later copied it to make his own version called College (1927).
The Sheik (1921) or The Son of the Sheik (1926) – many other famous performers made the book by having a representative movie of theirs picked.  Somehow, the number one star and male sex symbol of the silent era – Rudolph Valentino – was missed.  (Thanks to Steve Honeywell at 1001plus for originally bringing this to my attention.)
La Ronde (1950) or Le Plaisir (1952) – both are good, interesting films from Max Ophuls, who is already well-represented on the list.  Perhaps one of them could replace one of his other films already there.  Both had a level of sexual permissiveness that was unheard of in the U.S. at that time.
Inherit the Wind (1960) – a tour de force of acting from not just one, but two eminent actors – Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.  It also presents intelligent debates of religion, science, and teaching – any one of which is rare for a film.
Vanishing Point (1971) – this film perhaps introduced the concept that an object, in this case a car, could be the star of a film.  The director didn’t like the actor he was forced to cast, so he instead shot the film to de-emphasize the actor and focused on the car.
Deep Throat (1972) – yes, this is an adult film, but it is easily the most famous and had the largest impact of any of them.  It became acceptable to go to an adult movie theater to see this film.  There were literally lines around the block.  It was discussed across all the forms of media.  Purportedly, it is the most profitable film ever made, although there is no way to verify that claim.  Besides, there are other films in the 1,001 Movies book that have explicit penetration in them, so Deep Throat would not be alone.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) – this was a landmark film in the history of race relations in the U.S.  It won every award that could be handed to it, and there was even discussion of whether there was any way that this TV film could somehow be given a special exemption to be eligible for Oscar nominations.
Risky Business (1983) – this is my generation’s The Graduate.  It is the film that made Tom Cruise a star (not Top Gun like some people try to claim).
Heathers (1988) – a dark comedy about murder, teen sex, teen suicide, guns in schools, cutting, bombs in schools, and how picking popular friends is of the utmost importance?  There’s no way this kind of movie could ever be made today; it was controversial even back then.  This makes it perhaps unique and well-worthy of being included.
The Wrong Trousers (1993) – this isn’t the short that introduced Wallace & Gromit to the world (that was A Grand Day Out), but it is the one that is the most fun and that won the most awards.  Its popularity showed that “claymation” was a viable medium for making more than just TV commercials.  This is unlikely to get added, though, because the only animated film ever added to the list – WALL-E – was removed the very next year.
Leon: The Professional (1994) – This film showed that you could make an action movie about a contract killer and give it heart.  It made a star of Jean Reno, launched the career of Natalie Portman, and further cemented in people’s minds the idea that Gary Oldman is the go to guy for weird, edgy characters.
Once Were Warriors (1994) or Whale Rider (2002) – both films show the Maori subculture in New Zealand.  The former is a powerful drama dealing with a modern Maori family at odds with their old culture.  The latter is a moving film about a young girl’s attempts to find her way among her people.  It garnered the 12 year old lead, Keisha Castle-Hughes, a Best Actress nomination – by far the youngest ever until just this year.
La Haine (1995) – this French film from director Mathieu Kassovitz (now better known for his acting – he was the love interest in Amelie) is an angry howl tearing the lid off the state of race relations in modern France.  It made Vincent Cassel a star.  It angered a lot of people and stirred up a lot of debate.
Battle Royale (2000) – another controversial film about teens and violence, in this case from Japan.  For years Hollywood has struggled with trying to remake this and has not succeeded because of the subject matter.
Donnie Darko (2001) – a film that actually got young people interested in the fact that movies could have deeper meanings that you had to give thought to in order to figure out.  Sure, there have always been a small minority of young people that discover this with other films, but this is the movie that brought it to the mainstream.
Brick (2005) – the best noir film made in many years, and the translation to the high school environment was flawlessly executed and unique at the time.  Like all good films do, this inspired other people to explore the same genre and location.
Watchmen (2009) – based on the best graphic novel of all time and the only graphic novel to be named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century.  This film showed that superhero movies were not just for kids.  People think The Dark Knight is “dark”?  It’s a fuzzy little kitten compared to Watchmen with its more realistic depiction of “heroes” and the huge moral and ethical quandaries it places on its characters and the viewer.

Those are my thoughts on what the fifty new films might consist of.  What are your thoughts on these choices, and what would you pick instead?


* List of directors with six or more movies in the 2003 edition, in descending order: Alfred Hitchcock (18), Howard Hawks (11), Ingmar Bergman (10), Stanley Kubrick (10), Luis Bunuel (9), John Ford (9), John Huston (9), Martin Scorcese (9), Steven Spielberg (9), Jean-Luc Godard (8), Woody Allen (7), Federico Fellini (7), William Wyler (7), Robert Altman (6), Michelangelo Antonioni (6), George Cukor (6), Akira Kurosawa (6), David Lean (6), Michael Powell (6), Jean Renoir (6), Orson Welles (6), Billy Wilder (6)

     Hardcover

20 comments:

  1. Interesting news, Chip! Sounds like major renovations to the list!

    For me, personally, given that it's been 10 years since the first edition, I'd love to see them expand the list by 10% - 1111 Movies You Must See Before You Die. (doesn't quite have that same sort of Nice Round Number appeal, though... still, the rate at which new quality films are being produced is so fast that keeping the list at 1001 is eventually going to cause even deeper cuts.)

    I definitely agree with a lot of what you wrote - we've tread this path before, but do we really need 18 Hitchcock movies? Is Frenzy really a MUST SEE? And I agree with the re-inclusion of a number of those movies you mentioned that have since been taken out but deserve to being put back in.

    I haven't given TOO much thought to what films deserve to be on the list but currently aren't, but I've always been surprised that Safety Last! isn't in the book. And I didn't even REALIZE Field of Dreams wasn't in the book! That doesn't seem right. Although I haven't seen it, The Great Dictator gets a ton of mention in terms of later Chaplin.

    And yeah, if we're talking mini-series, why isn't Roots there?

    Donnie Darko should be in there too.

    Again, thanks for the info! Intriguing ideas...

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    1. I've wondered if they would ever expand past 1,001, but my guess is they won't. That's because there's a whole set of books put out by the same overarching company on the 1,001 [fill in the blank] You Should See Before You Die. Off the top of my head there are ones for books, music albums, comics, natural wonders, golf courses, and paintings.

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    2. I saw one for Gardens at my local library a few weeks ago and laughed.

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  2. Adaptation and Boogie Nights MUST be re-added. It would be a crime against the movie gods to not add those back.

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    1. I have to admit I've been surprised by some of the ones they've removed, but when I realized that the most recent ones were being picked more for their location in the book than their relative merit as a movie, those actions made a little more sense.

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  3. To me, as I have mentioned before, a new edition is only interesting for what it adds, not what it takes out. The List is the entire list of any movie included at anytime. Therefore I will not go into a dicussion of which movie should replace which one, only mention that I miss quite a few films on the The List.
    Those may to some extent refelct my own taste in films, but a rough breakdown would be:

    Office Space - Gets better everytime
    Broken Flowers - The best I have seen from Jim Jarmusch
    Exotica - Entirely as good as The Sweet Hereafter
    Cast Away - A favorite Tom Hank Movie
    Ghost World - Deep and funny. Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi

    Otherwise I tend to agree on the listed movies above

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    1. I had been brainstorming movies to add as I've gone along. I had intended to do a post when I completed the list, but this announcement of the larger than usual changes in the 2013 edition seemed to be a good place to use those notes. I mention this because I had originally been looking at it from the perspective of the book editor, hence which films I would replace. For the most part I was trying to find related films that the new ones would be similar to, but better.

      Office Space was actually on my short list of films I'd add. If I had not artificially limited myself to 25 older films I would have mentioned it. Ghost World is another I had jotted down to maybe mention. I liked Broken Flowers, but I don't know if I'd put it in the book. Exotica never did much for me. I didn't dislike it, but I thought it was just okay. Cast Away was ruined for me because the trailer showed us he gets home safely so I was expecting to see a movie about a man trying to re-adjust to his old life and relationships. Instead the entire movie is about him trying to get off the island - something we already know he does.

      Thanks for the suggestions.

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  4. We actually agree on a lot of these suggested changes. I'd love (love!) to see a Wallace and Gromit short on the list, and The Wrong Trousers is easily the best of them. Barring that, I'd accept Chicken Run.

    I really like The War Game, though, and I'm in favor of it staying. Same for The Kid Brother. It's not as great as Safety Last!, but I think it's worth keeping. I'm absolutely all for dumping the bland The Natural in favor of the far superior Field of Dreams, though.

    As you mentioned, I do a short list of 10 past films that should make it on every year. Actually, I did 25 the first year and 10 every other.

    http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-missing.html
    http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas-to-hollywood.html
    http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2011/12/nod-to-1.html
    http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2012/12/things-santa-should-bring.html

    Without comment (use the links for that), these are the films I'm suggesting adding (in alphabetical order):
    12 Monkeys; 28 Days Later; 1984; Animal House; Blood Simple; Bullitt; Caddyshack; The Caine Mutiny; Chicken Run; The Devil's Backbone; Ed Wood; El Mariachi; Evil Dead II; A Few Good Men; The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (silent version); Friday the 13th (original); The Fugitive; The Great Dictator; The Grifters; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Hairspray (the original); Harry Potter et al.; In Bruges; The Incredibles; Inherit the Wind; Iron Man; Jason and the Argonauts; Kung Fu Hustle; Leon the Professional; The Man with the Golden Arm; The Marathon Man; Misery; Mister Roberts; The Nightmare Before Christmas; Office Space; The Prisoner (I mean, if we're gonna include television series...); Quadrophenia; The Road Warrior; Roxanne; Safety Last!; Scanners; Shaun of the Dead; The Skin I Live In; Stalag 17; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Stop Making Sense; Talk Radio; They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; Thriller; Tron; True Stories; Wait Until Dark; The Warriors; ANY William Castle film (House on Haunted Hill, preferably); The Wrong Trousers

    At the moment, I have a short list of 14 for this December.

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    1. There are a lot of good choices there. I haven't seen every single one, but I've seen almost all of them. If I had not artifically limited myself to 25 picks I would definitely have named some of them.

      Thanks for sharing your links.

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  5. Chip - thanks for the link on the wikia page. Do I get to give myself a pat on the back for being the tip mentioned in the first sentance of this post? :)

    Great article! I thought I was the only guy who speculated about these type of things to this degree!

    I am a big Lloyd fan, and Safety Last not being on this list just seems like a huge oversight that was never corrected because of the editing that would have needed to take place, as you point out above. Would love to see The Freshman included as well.

    Random thoughts - always thought Animal House should be included, and I would love to see more Pixar. Not ashamed to say that Field of Dreams is in my personal top 10, and it should be in the book. The lack of comic book films has always annoyed me. How in the world did The Big Lebowski get removed - I'll guess that would be a lock for re-entry.

    Any thoughts on this - Do you think there is any possibility of combining more films to free up more spots (i.e. The Apu Trilogy, or The Godfather ) like in the Halliwell book. This could mean that some of the new 50 are films we are not even considering right now.

    Thanks for all your hard work!! - DC


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    1. You're welcome. (If you're feeling particularly thankful: buying the book from Amazon by using the link below garners me 4% of the sale when it's shipped and it doesn't cost you anything extra, other than the split second it takes you to click on the link. Even if you don't buy the book, but buy something else instead after following the link to Amazon I still get 4% of it; 6% if enough people make purchases in the same month.)

      Yes, it was your tip that made me decide to use my notes I was saving for a post after I completed all the films for a post on the 2013 edition instead. Thanks again.

      I've seen several lists combine movies together as a cheat to allow them to exceed the number they are limited to. When they do I break them down into their component movies for the tracking sheets I build (you can see an example in the Time Magazine Top 100 Films list I have in my Publications post at Lists from Chip - they actually named 106 films).

      In regards to The Lord of the Rings I can sort of accept that one since they aren't actually a trilogy; they truly are one single, continuous story broken into three parts, just like the books were.

      Off the top of my head the 1,001 book editors already combined together Dr. Mabuse the Gambler Parts 1 and 2, Olympia Parts 1 and 2, and Ivan the Terrible parts 1 and 2, when all were separate films. I don't agree with any of those joint entries.

      I definitely wouldn't agree with various trilogies like the ones you mentioned being combined. although I have seen that done to them elsewhere. Since the book editors don't consult me, though, I'll have to accept whatever they do. :-)

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  6. They might consider their other sub-version of the books released:
    101 ACTION Movies You Must See Before You Die
    -Iron Man and Taken are included in the list

    101 CULT Movies You Must See Before You Die
    -Donnie Darko, Battle Royale, Brick and Le Haine are included in the list

    101 GANGSTER Movies You Must See Before You Die
    -Eastern Promises is included

    101 HORROR Movies You Mus See Before You Die
    -Saw and 28 Days Later are included

    101 SCIFI Movies You Must See Before You Die
    -Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Primer and I Robot are included

    101 WAR Movies You Must See Before You Die
    -Wings (the first movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture) is included

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    1. Yes, I've sometimes wondered if those books are the movies that almost made it into the 1,001 book. I'm now wondering if some of them will be included among the 50 new films.

      Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Great post and great answers – it will be very interesting to see the »truth« in october!

    I agree with some, but of course not all, of your omissions and additions. Here's my opinions about your other suggestions:

    • Limiting the number of movies per director – yes!
    • Combining movies to make place for more entries – yes!
    • Throwing out tv productions – no!
    • Expanding the list – yes!
    • More comedy/animation/superhero/whatever movies – yes!

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    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm sure whatever they do it will cause us more discussion afterwards. We've got 3.5 months more to go.

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  8. Skyfall is mentioned as a new addition (along with Life of Pi - kinda obvious considering it's on the cover :-)) on amazon UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001-Movies-You-Must-Before/dp/1844037347

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    1. Thank you for the link and the heads up on the addition of Skyfall. I'm not surprised that this latest Bond movie made it into this edition.

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  9. Hi Chip, Awsome job on 1001 Movies. Saw your other site as well. Keep it up . However I'm still looking for 25 movies from the list. Any ideas on how to get them would be greatly appriciated They are:

    Babes in Arms Busby Berkeley 1939

    The Hole ( Anata to watashi no aikotoba: Sayônara, konnichiwa) Kon Ichikawa 1959

    The Exiles Kent MacKenzie 1961

    Passenger (Pasazerka) Andrzej Munk, Witold Lesiewicz 1963

    The Cool World Shirley Clarke 1963

    Masculine-Feminine Jean-Luc Godard 1966

    The Fireman's Ball (Horí, má panenko) Milos Forman 1967

    Two or Three Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle) Jean-Luc Godard 1967

    High School Frederick Wiseman 1969

    Lucia (Lucía) Humberto Solás 1969

    Wanda Barbara Loden 1971

    Sleeping Dogs Roger Donaldson 1977

    My Brilliant Career Gillian Armstrong 1979

    Real Life Albert Brooks 1979

    Three Brothers (Tre fratelli) Francesco Rosi 1981

    Too Early, Too Late (Trop tôt/Trop tard) Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub 1981

    Sherman's March Ross McElwee 1986

    Tongues Untied Marlon Riggs 1991

    The Puppetmaster (Xi meng ren sheng) Hsiao-Hsien Hou 1993

    Three Lives and Only One Death (Trois vies et une seule mort) Raoul Ruiz 1996

    Taboo (Gohatto) Nagisa Ôshima 1999

    Time Regained (Le temps retrouvé, d'après) Raoul Ruiz 1999

    Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets (Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue) Nabil Ayouch 2000

    Kippur Amos Gitai 2000

    Signs & Wonders Jonathan Nossiter 2000

    Regards from the Netherlands ! , Bert

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    1. You mentioned you had seen my other site. I'm not sure if you meant Lists from Chip or the 1,001 Movies wiki. The wiki has a page titled The Compendium that helps people locate the hard to find movies. The link to it is on the upper right of this site.

      The criteria is whether the entry is available from Netflix or not. For those that are not we try to list alternate sources for them. Unfortunately for you, I don't know what kind of options, if any, Netflix offers in The Netherlands. I know it is in some European countries.

      What this means is that some of the movies you listed are not on The Compendium because they are available from Netflix here in the U.S., which is another way to say "Region 1 DVD" or "Streaming". They may or may not have come out on DVD in other regions.

      Of the ones you named, you will be able to get help on these at the 1001 Movies wiki:

      415. Passenger
      425. The Cool World
      504. High School
      520. Lucia
      707. Too Early Too Late
      892. The Puppetmaster
      946. Three Lives and Only One Death
      1016. Signs and Wonders

      It takes time to confirm sources are still working, or to create new links, so maybe ask for them a couple at a time on the wiki, starting with the ones you most want to see.

      I will look around for sources on the others you mentioned when I get a chance. Do you have an email address to contact you at if I find something?

      I assume you've already tried Youtube. If you haven't, then you can sometimes find films there. The Compendium page also offers tips on where to look for movies.

      Note: I just found The Fireman's Ball on Youtube. It has no subtitles, but you can save it off to your computer then download subtitles from sites mentioned at The Compendium. English subtitles are usually the easiest to find, but Dutch is sometimes also available.

      Note 2: the second film you listed is not correct. The entry titled "The Hole" in English (#370 on the list) is the 1960 French film Le Trou, not the Japanese film you mentioned. Hopefully this will allow you to find it.

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  10. Chip. Thanks for the quick and extensive reply on my quest reply. As requested you can reach me at verkoping @ google email. Replace google email to you know what to get the right address. That way I have your email address so I can and will respond using email. Hope to here from you soon . Regards Bert

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