Team Experience: Sight & Sound Poll

There's a lot to parse within the BFI's Sight & Sound poll, a once a decade event in which the [air quotes] greatest films of all time [/end air quotes] are named. Given that the results are a product of accumulation of individual opinions, I enlisted Team Film Experience for a variety of voices to respond to it and you can see their quotes below. The list is a critic friendly and far more international affair than other famous mainstream rankings like AFI's Top 100. How did they determine the rank? According to Nick James 1000 critics, academics, writers, cinephiles, and directors were polled as to what ten films they considered The Greatest Ever, whether great meant "historical significance", "artistry" or something more personal to them. 846 top-ten lists were received which means we would like to volunteer to replace any of the 164 invitees who couldn't be bothered next time!

Every entry on a top ten list received one vote so rank didn't matter, nor should it, given that once you're in the upper echelons of achievement it's like splitting hairs. Or, since we're talking about Vertigo, judging who has the best bunhead.

As you've already heard, Alfred Hitchcock's discomfiting chilly double-identity thriller VERTIGO (1958) tossed the discomfitting chilly and ever triumphant CITIZEN KANE (1941) from its bell tower. Is it lonely at the top? Sure thing. [The list and what Team Experience had to say after the jump]

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Curio: Seeing Silhouettes

Alexa here. Although they were an 18th Century craze,  silhouettes are a familiar sight in our collective film memory (James Bond openers, Elliott and E.T., even Mystery Science Theater 3000).  Cut paper silhouettes that harken back to the history of the medium are making a crafty comeback, so it seems silhouette designs are popping up everywhere from posters to porcelain. Here are some particularly nice backlit movie icons that follow the trend.

Jack and Rose, Jack and Sally, Hiccup and Toothless, handcut by Isabel Talsma.

A little Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Luc Godard and All About Eve after the jump...

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Tues Top Ten: Tennis in the Movies

The world's number one ranked male tennis player turns a quarter century today so in honor of Novak Djokovic why not celebrate with a list of best tennis moments in the movies?

Because... uh...

Are there any? When I first thought of doing this list I was like YES -- little known fact: I played tennis daily one summer in high school and still love the game  -- only to hit a brick wall rather than a low net. You may have heard this complaint before from tennis fans but given the abundance of sports movies of every other stripe it's almost like Hollywood hates the game. Those private tennis courts on celebrity acreage are all going to waste.

I've come up with ten things anyway.

BEST TENNIS SOMETHING OR OTHER IN THE MOVIES

You should know upfront that I've never seen the Chad Lowe boy-in-drag masterpiece Nobody's Perfect (1989) -- no decade ever loved cross-dressing comedies like the 80s -- so I shan't include it. 

10 Wimbledon (2004)
Nobody likes this movie but given the abrupt sharp decline in romantic comedy quality over the past ten years, I bet it'd look pretty good if it came out now. At the very least both Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst looked fresh and healthy and sun-kissed as the professional athletes in love.

09 The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
We'll be sure to celebrate this movie's 25th anniversary next month but for now, remember that tennis match? Temperatures are flaring as the three best friends Jane (Susan Sarandon) Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Alex (Cher) all compete for Devil Jack Nicholson's attention. In a game of doubles things get vindicative and then supernatural.

 

Funny girls and dangerous men after the jump...

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Tall Tales. Short Links

Village Voice the five most dream-like sequences from the John Travolta sex-assault allegations. (Hint: The comment section is hi-lar-ious. I especially love the pizza delivery analogy)
YouTube has one of those Taiwanese "news" animations about it.
When Obama Endorsed Marriage Equality... (gif parties ahead -- love the '95 Clueless shout-out)
La Daily Musto Tippi Hedren (of The Birds fame) claims that Alfred Hitchcock put the kabosh on her Best Actress Oscar nomination for their follow up Marnie . Um, Tippi... how would he do that exactly? Ol' Hitch didn't even have enough pull with AMPAS to win one for himself!

Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock, and Alfred Hitchcock

Look! It's Anthony Hopkins and Toby Jones as the great Alfred Hitchcock and the great Alfred Hitchcock in the upcoming movies Alfred Hitchcock and The Making of Psycho (2013) about, you guessed it, the making of Psycho, and The Girl (2012... post production but I'm guessing also 2013) about the making of The Birds. We keep forgetting that the second one exists (Cinema Blend recently reminded us while talking to Tippi Hedren at the Tribeca Film Festival) which is the second time that's happened to a Toby Jones biopic. First Capote, now Hitch? Poor guy.

All of which begs for us to make it a trinity...

 Who else should play Hitchcock and which movie other than Psycho & The Birds deserves this "making of" dramatization. For some reason I'm tempted to say Frenzy (1972) to get a late career trying to keep up with the times mixed reception drama but I could go for Torn Curtain (1966) just to see who they'd cast as Julie Andrews and Paul Newman. Or maybe my ol' favorite Rope (1948) for the one shot technical challenge and lots of queerness courtesy of Farley Granger. 

You?