Sight & Sound Lists Challenge (Official, March 2023)

[blocho]

Sight & Sound Lists Challenge



Welcome to the Sight & Sound Lists Challenge.

Goal
Watch anything included in the Sight & Sound lists. Discuss what you watched.

Rules
- Challenge runs from March 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.
- A feature film (at least 40 minutes) counts as one point.
- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one point.
- Films/episodes must be watched one at a time, at single speed (not sped up), and in their entirety.
- Not a rule but a request: When you post what you have watched, please include your reaction or at least a rating so that other people can learn about movies they might not know about. Also, the challenge is more fun and interesting when discussion is ample.

Eligibility
Only items on the following lists are eligible:
Greatest Films
Greatest Documentaries
75 Hidden Gems
Directors' Top 100
Critics' Top 250

Stats & Formatting
- Title (Year) is the preferred format.
- Don't edit posts to include new movies you've watched. Always make new posts.

Scoreboard

Rank	Participant	Number of Points
1	gunnar	77
2	erde	19
3	flavo5000	15
4	klaus78	11
5	Arkantos	10
6	AB537	7
6	sol	7
8	45MinuteZoom	5
9	beasterne	4
9	airdolll	4
9	vortexsurfer	4
12	ororama	3
12	Tngy	3
12	whizwilly	3
15	maxwelldeux	2

[45MinuteZoom]

Thanks for hosting Blocho! I’m in for a few, interested in the docs right now

[Arkantos]

I think this is the first time I get to be first in with a watch for a challenge! How fun!

Thanks for hosting, blocho!

1. The Colour of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov) #103 on the Greatest Films list

[gunnar]

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1) - A 40 something Belgian widow goes about her daily routine over a three day period. She has dinner with her son, cooks, cleans, runs errands, takes a bath, babysits, has sex with men for money before her son comes home from school, and so on. Based on the length of the film and the description, I went in expecting to be bored with the film and to not really like it. I ended up being pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. I wouldn't rank it among my all time favorites by any means, but it was good.

2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464 - A woman runs over a dog while momentarily distracted by her cell phone while on a deserted road. She is shaken up and doesn't get out to check on it. She continues to be out of sorts for days to come as she convinces herself that she might have actually run over a child instead of a dog. The film seemed a bit lifeless at times and while it isn't bad, it didn't really do much for me.

3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763 - Francois is happily married with a beautiful wife and two young children. They enjoy taking picnics out in the woods. He meets a young single woman and embarks on a relationship with her as well and this only increases his happiness. I've seen this film described as horror wrapped in sunny colors and the description seems to fit. It is very nicely shot.

4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list) - This film features is essentially just 105 minutes of Jason Holiday being interviewed by Shirley Clarke and another person from off camera. Jason is a good storyteller who seems to love the attention. The first half hour was pretty hilarious, but the rest of it was okay, but not as good. I'm not sure if it was because I was tiring a bit of the shtick, but suspect that was only part of it. Still, overall an interesting film.

5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list) - Wanda is a not very bright woman whose husband divorces her and keeps their young children since she was neglectful of them. Wanda readily agrees to the divorce and starts wandering, sleeping with men who buy her drinks and give her a place to sleep. She ends up traveling around with a small time criminal who doesn't treat her very well. The film is kind of a slog to get through with uninteresting characters and situations. I didn't think the acting was that great either. The most interesting part of the film was seeing the cars , buildings, etc. from that time period.

I thought it would be good to start the challenge with the new #1. This is going to be my main challenge this month. I've got around 120 films lined up, though I don't know if I'll be able to get through all of them.

Spoiler

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1)
2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464
3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763
4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list)
5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list)

[45MinuteZoom]

Gunnar, I felt the same about Headless Woman. Maybe a rewatch would help, but I had a hard time with the feeling of the movie.

Portrait of Jason was interesting too, but at a certain point with how drunk Jason ends up getting, it starts to feel almost exploitative.

[blocho]

Gunnar, I felt the same about Headless Woman. Maybe a rewatch would help, but I had a hard time with the feeling of the movie.

Ditto.

[Arkantos]

2. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel), #464 on the Greatest Films list

S&S

1. The Colour of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov) #103GL
2. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel), #464GL

[airdolll]

Thanks for hosting blocho! I'm planning to participate in all the challenges from this month, but I don't know which one I'll end up prioritizing... So I figured I'd start with the one that qualifies for them all. It seems like I enjoyed it a bit more than the majority also.

1. La mujer sin cabeza | The Headless Woman (2008)

S&S

1. La mujer sin cabeza | The Headless Woman (2008)

[Arkantos]

3. Divine Intervention (2002, Elia Suleiman), #685 on the Greatest Films list

S&S

1. The Colour of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov) #103GL
2. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel) #464GL
3. Divine Intervention (2002, Elia Suleiman) #685GL

[sol]

Thanks for hosting, blocho! This probably won't be my main focus this month, but we'll see...

1. Grace of My Heart (1996) S&S Gems



Best known for memorable supporting turns in films like Ghost World, it is nice to see Illeana Douglas excelling in a lead role in a character-driven piece like this, but her performance and some nifty songs aside, this not an easy film to warm to. The movie is set over a number of years, concluding in the hippie era, and her story gets less interesting with every change of era, eventually ending up as a maudlin A Star is Born variant. Certainly, the changes in the music industry between periods is interesting, but her personal life just begins to feel more and more melodramatic. Very long film too for what it is.

[AB537]

I'm travelling right now so won't be able to dive into this challenge for a few days, but I thought the S&S individual ballots were being unveiled today? I've personally been looking forward to these for a while, anyone know whether this happened or have a link?

[45MinuteZoom]

The ballots were all posted here:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... all-voters

With that formatting, it seems like a monumental task to update the official list...

[gunnar]

6 - Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - #169 - The film is shot fairly well and I liked the theme music and a few of the scenes, but overall I slightly prefer Satantango even though it is nearly three times the length of this film.

Spoiler

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1)
2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464
3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763
4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list)
5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list)

[AB537]

The ballots were all posted here:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... all-voters

With that formatting, it seems like a monumental task to update the official list...

Thanks! Totally agreed the formatting is terrible, but at least they exist.

[blocho]

Which list is being updated? Is it just the greatest films list, not the documentary and hidden gems lists? And if so, is everyone OK with subbing the new list in for the old list for ongoing eligibility for this challenge?

[45MinuteZoom]

It seems like either PA or Fergenaprido plan to get the list updated, but not until the end of the month, which makes sense given how they put those ballots up. I think it’s only the greatest list being updated.

[blocho]

It seems like either PA or Fergenaprido plan to get the list updated, but not until the end of the month, which makes sense given how they put those ballots up. I think it’s only the greatest list being updated.

Thanks for clarifying that. I guess no changes to eligibility until the ICM list is updated.

[gunnar]

If the list gets updated mid-challenge, I'm fine with allowing whatever is on the list at the time a film is watched to be eligible.

[maxwelldeux]

1. My Country, My Country (2006, Laura Poitras) S&S Doc #230

Comments in DbW.

[AB537]

If the list gets updated mid-challenge, I'm fine with allowing whatever is on the list at the time a film is watched to be eligible.

If we can provide a link to a ballot that includes the film, can we start counting films beyond the critics' top 250 or directors' top 100 now? Not sure how far down the list you'd want to cut off though, and I realize the logistics are terrible right now, especially without the ability to search by film or director. Just thinking it would be a shame to restrict (for challenge purposes) exploration of the new list beyond critics' top 250/directors' top 100, since presumably the challenge month was chosen in anticipation of a fuller list being available. Particularly for those of us who have prioritized TSPDT aggregated lists in the past, that may not leave much on the table - I'm already at 236/264 and 98/104, respectively, with availability issues and/or lengthy run times posing major obstacles for many of my unseen films, and I'm sure some others are well ahead of me on these lists.

[blocho]

I now regret volunteering to host this challenge. I had no idea the lists were not stable. Nor did I anticipate that updating the lists would be some extended process. For now, eligibility will still be based on the five lists in the OP. I'm gonna punt any further eligibility decisions until a definitive updated list emerges.

[Lakigigar]

I now regret volunteering to host this challenge. I had no idea the lists were not stable. Nor did I anticipate that updating the lists would be some extended process. For now, eligibility will still be based on the five lists in the OP. I'm gonna punt any further eligibility decisions until a definitive updated list emerges.

The challenge was held in march because it was assumed they would have been made available sooner (and given users the time to update these lists sooner), so it was expected by march 2023 the lists would have been already updated, and probably is also a reason of why people voted for this challenge to be held (because it would held just after the lists would've been updated).

However these films were only made available two days ago, later than expected when dates were determined for holding this challenge, see tweet in spoiler for reference

Spoiler

In the schedule thread i saw these two posts and i'll add them for reference, but otherwise there was no discussion around delaying or not.

S&S announced the full ballots for the 2022 poll won’t be out until March 2. Should we move the S&S challenge to a later month to accommodate? We thought the lists would be updated by then but evidently that’s not the case.

I think that we should just leave it as is. If a film loses its S&S status during the challenge, it should still count as long as it was watched before the update.

IMO you're the organizer, you set up the rules and i think these are fine, and people just have to follow them. Also, before the lists will be updated on the forum, there will still be quite a lot of work necessary, so it might take a while before they're updated, maybe not even this month (in which case nothing would change). And in case something would change i guess both S&S 2012 (former official) and the new official list could count and prefer the consistency & no confusion. Or you can choose to just count the five lists that count right now through the entire challenge. And at the end, that would be your decision and other people would have to respect that.

EDIT:

I made this request/post in the S&S update discussion thread

Also, there is currently an Sight & Sound challenge in the challenge boards, and to avoid confusion, in case the official list would be updated this month (during which the challenge will be ongoing), that i think that it would perhaps be a good idea to make a duplicate unofficial list of the current 2012 version official list so that the host of that challenge blocho can access that list (to avoid confusion or ineligibility/eligibility questions about that challenge).

[AB537]

I now regret volunteering to host this challenge. I had no idea the lists were not stable. Nor did I anticipate that updating the lists would be some extended process. For now, eligibility will still be based on the five lists in the OP. I'm gonna punt any further eligibility decisions until a definitive updated list emerges.

Fair enough, and apologies if my questions have caused you any unnecessary stress.

1. Je tu il elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974) 6.5/10 ... 2022 Critics List #225 (tie)

[gunnar]

7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.

8 - Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - #38 on the Doc list - The film takes place on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic. There is a lot of shaky cam and no real dialogue other than a bit of background noise. One person described it as a Brakhage film with added fish. That seems like an apt description.

Spoiler

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1)
2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464
3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763
4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list)
5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list)
6 - Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - #169

[erde]

Thanks to blocho for hosting!

1. The Watermelon Woman (1996) - #151 on the Critics' top 250 list - An interesting indie romantic comedy from the 90's. I enjoyed the experience.

[AB537]

7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.

Curious whether you've seen any other Straub/Huillet and if so what you thought? I watched a bunch of their stuff a few years ago when MUBI - in Canada, anyway - ran a retrospective of their work. For me, this and Not Reconciled (1965) were okay and after that, with the possible exception of Moses and Aaron (1975) it was all downhill from there, with lengthy tedious (pretentious?) narrations and not much else going on.

[gunnar]

7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.

Curious whether you've seen any other Straub/Huillet and if so what you thought? I watched a bunch of their stuff a few years ago when MUBI - in Canada, anyway - ran a retrospective of their work. For me, this and Not Reconciled (1965) were okay and after that, with the possible exception of Moses and Aaron (1975) it was all downhill from there, with lengthy tedious (pretentious?) narrations and not much else going on.

The only other one that I've seen is A Visit to the Louvre, which I did not really like all that much, other than the art itself. I have Not Reconciled lined up to watch this month, but their work doesn't sound very interesting to me.

[AB537]

7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.

Curious whether you've seen any other Straub/Huillet and if so what you thought? I watched a bunch of their stuff a few years ago when MUBI - in Canada, anyway - ran a retrospective of their work. For me, this and Not Reconciled (1965) were okay and after that, with the possible exception of Moses and Aaron (1975) it was all downhill from there, with lengthy tedious (pretentious?) narrations and not much else going on.

The only other one that I've seen is A Visit to the Louvre, which I did not really like all that much, other than the art itself. I have Not Reconciled lined up to watch this month, but their work doesn't sound very interesting to me.

My sense is they have an enthusiastic following among a certain group of critics, which means they do fairly well in Sight & Sound, which leads to a surge on TSPDT, but then they drop on TSPDT throughout the rest of the ten year cycle because you don't really see them pop up on too many other polls. Still, even if there's stuff that pops up on Sight & Sound that really isn't for me, I'm glad the poll generally draws attention to stuff I haven't prioritized or even wasn't aware of before.

[Arkantos]

4. Beau travail (1999, Claire Denis), #78 on the Greatest Films list

S&S

1. The Colour of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov) #103GL
2. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel) #464GL
3. Divine Intervention (2002, Elia Suleiman) #685GL
4. Beau travail (1999, Claire Denis), #78GL

[vortexsurfer]

1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) - 10/10 (rewatch)

[gunnar]

9 - Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - #644 - This is a frustrating film that jumps between time periods and parts of a family's history without much in the way of clues or explanation. There were a number of things that I liked and I think that I would have enjoyed the film a lot if it had been made in a more traditional manner rather than the stripped down version that Straub and Huillet went with, but then it wouldn't have been in their style I suppose.

10 - The Color of Pomegranates (1969) - 6.5/10 - #103 - The film covers the life of an 18th Century Armenian poet/musician using many creative scenes without much real dialogue, though there are occasional excerpts from his poetry and some singing. While the cinematography is interesting, it also can seem a bit repetitive at times and the style gets a bit tiresome over the course of the film.

11 - Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - #561 - In the 1700s, a young boy is sent by his dying mother to the village of Moonfleet and the care of her former lover. The former lover happens to be a man who keeps a respectable facade, but is aligned with smugglers and pirates. I thought it was a decent adventure film and I enjoyed it, though was surprised to see that Fritz Lang directed it.

12 - The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966) - 6/10 - #307 - Cardinal Mazarin is dying and Louis XIV asserts his power. The costumes and sets all look nice. The film seems to make a serious attempt at accuracy, but the result is a pretty boring film. The actor chosen for Louis XIV was not a professional and was very dull (which apparently is what the director wanted).

Spoiler

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1)
2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464
3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763
4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list)
5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list)
6 - Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - #169
7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582
8 - Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - #38 on the Doc list

[AB537]

2. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976) 3/10 ... 2022 Critics List #52 (tie) and 2022 Directors List #72 (tie) ... this film is clearly set for a huge jump from #816 on the TSPDT list, curious to see where it lands ... also this is a great example of films whose appeal I just don't really get

[maxwelldeux]

The Anti-Helen Keller Challenge

1. My Country, My Country (2006, Laura Poitras) S&S Doc #230

2. News from Home (1977) S&S Doc #72
More comments in the DbW challenge, but I tend to agree with AB537.

[ororama]

1. Reassemblage: From the Firelight to the Screen (1983) * 40 min. S & S Documentaries #257
Film, mostly of women and children, from villages in Senegal populated by different ethnic groups, accompanied by text by Trinh T. Minh-ha reflecting on subjectivity versus objectivity, assumptions regarding the symbolic meanings about other cultures' everyday activities and ethnographers' concepts of otherness.

*First time viewing

[gunnar]

13 - Black God, White Devil (1964) - 6.5/10 - #273 - A ranch hand kills his boss and is forced to turn outlaw when the boss tries to cheat him. The church hires a bounty hunter to track down and kill the leaders of the outlaws. I liked the cinematography and use of music. The story was a bit more of a mixed bag for me with some parts that I liked and others which were not as interesting. Not being that familiar with Brazil from that era probably plays a role in that.

14 - Antonio das Mortes (1969) - 5/10 - #746 - The sequel to Black God, White Devil has the bounty hunter from the previous film turn revolutionary. This film is in color which is an interesting change, but the story is much more of a mess. The use of music was still good.

15 - Bigger Than Life (1956) - 7.5/10 - #677 - A teacher is diagnosed with a rare disease that will prove fatal if not treated. The only treatment available is cortisone, but he becomes addicted and misuses the drug, leading to personality changes and psychosis.

16 - The River (1951) - 8.5/10 - #125 - A British family living on an estate next to the Bengal River has four girls and a boy. One of their neighbors has a teenage daughter about the same age as the two oldest girls and they are all friends. The neighbor's American cousin comes to stay with him. He lost a leg during the war and all three of the girls take an interest in him. The use of color during the film is very nice and I also enjoyed the narration which took the form of one of the girls as an adult looking back on that time of her life. We get to see their daily lives and occasional rivalries. I liked the film quite a bit.

Spoiler

1 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) - 8/10 - #51 (soon to be #1)
2 - The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - #464
3 - Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - #763
4 - Portrait of Jason (1967) - 7.5/10 - #597 (and #59 on the Doc list)
5 - Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - #261 (and #73 on the 75 HG list)
6 - Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - #169
7 - The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - #582
8 - Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - #38 on the Doc list
9 - Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - #644
10 - The Color of Pomegranates (1969) - 6.5/10 - #103
11 - Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - #561
12 - The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966) - 6/10 - #307

[sol]

Scoreboard

Rank	Participant	Number of Points
1	gunnar	12
2	Arkantos	4
2	AB537	2
2	maxwelldeux	2
2	airdolll	1
2	ororama	1
2	erde	1
2	vortexsurfer	1

Hey blocho, just a quick tip that you seem to have missed my first post in the challenge. Not a big deal at the moment because I've only seen one film so far (though that would tie me for second place with your current numbering). I will aim to watch a second eligible movie tonight, but I'm having a hard time to work out where to focus with all of the main list kafuffle, so I'll probably just focus on 75Gems and the Doc list for the moment.

[blocho]

Yup, I messed that up. The rankings too. Should all be fixed now.

[sol]

Not to worry, blocho and here's that second viewing that I mentioned planning above:

Spoiler

1. Grace of My Heart (1996) S&S Gems

2. Leo the Last (1970) S&S Gems



A middle aged bachelor passes the time by spying on his neighbours, eventually feeling compelled to intervene and help out in this John Boorman film. The movie feels a lot like Rear Window at first with Marcello Mastroianni using a telescope to look from window to window at his neighbours, with some anxiety attached as he more than once rushes out to offer help, only to get nervous and retreat back inside. It is perhaps inevitable that the second half of the movie gets less interesting as he finally works up the courage to actively intervene, but all of the anxiety, nervousness and so on really clicked for me.

[airdolll]

2. West Indies (1979)

Probably the one I've been most excited for since the top 250 was revealed. It's a pity that Med Hondo didn't get this type of wider recognition until just now, but it's still something that makes me incredibly happy.

S&S

1. La mujer sin cabeza | The Headless Woman (2008)
2. West Indies (1979)

[vortexsurfer]

2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) - 10/10 (rewatch)

Spoiler

1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) - 10/10 (rewatch)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) - 10/10 (rewatch)