Adolytsi gave me a heads up that the latest edition of the
1,001 Movies book has an entry on the U.S. Amazon site. It will be a hardcover book, so that means it
will be published in the U.S. The
release date is October 1, 2015. I
checked Amazon UK, but there is no entry there yet for the softcover version
which gets published in that country.
Adolytsi observed that this year instead of having a single
image on the cover, they have multiple smaller images of movie posters, all of
which seem to be ones in the list.
Assuming this to be the case, he was able to derive from the cover the
following movies being added:
Birdman
Boyhood
Guardians of the Galaxy
Ida
The Theory of Everything
In addition, the text of the Amazon page also mentions The
Grand Budapest Hotel being in it.
Only one of these is a surprise to me. Birdman and Ida are givens considering they
won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film. Winners of these two categories in past years
have always been added.
Boyhood was also a given just from the way it was made –
filmed for a week or two over a dozen years so that we see the characters
age. The Grand Budapest Hotel was both a
fan favorite and a critical darling, so that doesn’t surprise me. And The Theory of Everything is not
unexpected since the main editors of the books are UK-based and have shown a
bias towards UK-centric stories when it comes to new additions. I might have thought The Imitation Game would
have been selected over this, but maybe both will be chosen.
That brings me to Guardians of the Galaxy. First, let me say that I greatly enjoyed this
movie and consider it second only to the first Avengers movie among all comic
book based films. It was my number one
film of 2014. (You can read my review here.)
Despite this, I am surprised to see it make the newest
edition since the history of the editors picking the new films is to NOT select
any movies from this genre. The only
film like this ever added is The Dark Knight.
And that was added to only a single other comic book entry – the earlier
Batman (1989).
Not even the first Avengers movie made the list, despite the
fact that it became the second or third highest grossing film in movie history
(depending on how you count Titanic, which was re-released just to push it back
ahead of Avengers).
It seemed like if you weren’t a “creature of the night” like
Batman or a vampire then the editors didn’t want you on the list. (There’s an inexplicable preponderance of
vampire films picked for the list – seven of them, five of which are all based
on the same Bram Stoker Dracula novel.)
Based on this history, both Adolytsi and I were pretty sure
that Guardians would not get added. Both
of us even tried to counsel a Letterboxd 1,001 Movies list commenter to not get
his hopes too high because he was sure Guardians would be added because of its
greatness. Assuming the book cover on
Amazon indicates Guardians makes it then this marks a rare departure for the
editors. Now if they would only give a
little more weight to new animated films, too, since they are similarly
underrepresented in each year’s additions.
Surprisingly, I'm in pretty good shape based on the six films you mention here. I've put up reviews for four of them and have had plans to knock out Ida in late June, and have Boyhood on the docket for being nominated.
ReplyDeleteGuardians of the Galaxy is a surprise. Then again, I was equally shocked by the inclusion of Cabin in the Woods. Every now and then, the listmakers offer us a pleasant surprise.
Just based on my own thinking, I think Leviathan is very likely. Selma wouldn't surprise me based on subject matter. Beyond that, I can only hope for the inclusion of Nightcrawler, which I think absolutely deserves to be there.
I was surprised Leviathan didn't win the Oscar, just like The Hunt not winning it last year. I figured The Hunt would make the list, but it didn't so I don't know about Leviathan. I haven't seen it yet. It's in my Netflix queue.
ReplyDeleteYou could be right about Selma. I'd be happy to see Nightcrawler on there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it.
The Palme d'Or winner usually gets added. That was a film named Winter Sleep from Turkey. They often have at least one Asian film, and while this one would technically qualify, I'm thinking an eastern Asian film will make it. Even though they are animated I could see one of the Studio Ghibli films The Wind Rises or The Tale of the Princess Kaguya making it.
The documentary Citizenfour is one I expect to make it. Life Itself, the doc about Roger Ebert might make it just because it's about a fellow critic and his life.
Taking a bit of a flyer, they seem to like both Jim Jarmusch and vampires, so the Jim Jarmusch vampire movie Only Lovers Left Alive is one from left field I'll suggest might make it.
I somehow missed this post the first time around. I'm also surprised about the addition of Guardians of the Galaxy. A movie from this genre that I would add that nobody else seems to mention is Watchmen. We'll also see if any of the documentaries from last year like Citizenfour will make it. Our library will be showing Leviathan and Wild Tales in August. One or both of them could make the cut. Thank you for the update!
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to read about films that need to be watched, writing-help.org/blog/category/shakespeare-free-essays because many of these films show us very important moments and true lives.
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