Flipside Movie Emporium

[matt header]

We are three years into a new decade of possible masterpieces and failures in the movie industry, which I sometimes think about and become very excited over (perhaps I'm just easily excited...). But then I am reminded that over time the true gems will really shine through (as "Citizen Kane" received the recognition it deserved several decades after its release), and that years from now we will look back at the films of the 2000's and fondly remember those classics that persist over the years.

Maybe it's too soon yet to contemplate the 1990's and the films we saw in those ten years, but as a few great movies for this new millenium have already popped up, I thought it might be fun to remember those from the 1990's that have stuck with us as much as the first time we saw them (whether it be four years ago or thirteen). Here's my brief look back at my favorite films of the 1990's (and seeing as how I'm only ninteen and was six when 1990 rolled around, this is probably not a very complete list):

1. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

2. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

3. Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

4. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)

5. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)

6. Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)

7. Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)

8. The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)

9. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

10. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

These, of course, are just my personal favorites. And yours?

Matt

[beltmann]

In January of 2000, I began composing a ?Best of the Nineties? list, but I abandoned it when I realized that more time was necessary to make such judgments. (It didn?t seem then like a worthwhile game to play, and I still feel the same.) At the time, I came up with titles like Fargo, Heavenly Creatures, Hoop Dreams, Raise the Red Lantern, and Schindler?s List--all fairly conventional stuff. We still need more years for the truly significant ones to sift out.

The case of Citizen Kane is a fine example, although it requires an asterisk?the reason that film received belated acclaim is not because audiences needed to come around, but because audiences needed a chance to first see it. Since Hearst conspired with the studio heads to kill the picture, it took many years for a wide audience to find it. The real lesson of Kane is that there are probably many movies made during the Nineties that most of us have yet to hear about, and time may yet allow them to rise to the surface.

Instead of listing a true best-of, I?m going to offer an Alternative Top Twenty of the Nineties, movies that are, in my opinion, overlooked potential masterpieces of the decade. Alphabetically:

Overlooked Potential Masterpieces of the Nineties

The Butcher Boy (Jordan, 1998)

Clockers (Lee, 1995)

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Chan, 1996)

The Ice Storm (Lee, 1997)

Fiorile (Taviani Brothers, 1993)

The Game (Fincher, 1997)

The Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema (Varda, 1995)

In the Mirror of the Sky (Salces, 1998)

Lone Star (Sayles, 1996)

Lumiere et Compagnie (Moon, 1995)

One Day in September (Macdonald, 1999)

Only Yesterday (Takahata, 1991)

Ponette (Doillon, 1996)

Quiz Show (Redford, 1994)

Show Me Love / F***ing Amal (Moodysson, 1998)

Smoke (Wang, 1995)

To Live (Zhang, 1994)

T.R.A.N.S.I.T. (Kroon, 1997)

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-down Girl (Chen, 1999)

The White Balloon (Panahi, 1995)

Eric

[Monkeypox]

These are SOME of the films that had the largest impact on me, personally.

Usual Suspects

Fight Club

Croupier

Unforgiven

Bringing Out the Dead

Miller's Crossing

Goodfellas

Seven

Edward Scissorhands

Naked Lunch
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Rattlesnake's Texas Cobra, you sonofabitch!

[Robert Paulson]

Rushmore

Fargo

Chong qing sen lin

Fight Club

Lost Highway

Army of Darkness

Unforgiven

Goodfellas

The Last of the Mohicans

Se7en

LA Confidential

The Thin Red Line

Crash

4 Little Girls
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Flipmode Squad

[Danny Baldwin]

Esh, well I was gonna try to ignore this topic, but I'll try to give you guys some of my favorites of the 90's.

1.The Silence of the Lambs

2.Forrest Gump

3. Fargo

4. Goodfellas

5. Schindler's List

6. Titanic

7. Saving Private Ryan

8. The Shawshank Redemption

9. Beauty and the Beast

10. American Beauty

...I know I forgot something, I just know...
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

Not a single foreign movie, Danny? You're breaking my heart!

Eric

[Danny Baldwin]

Well, I only started really getting into movies in late 2001, and since the 90's weren't exactly one of the best decades for film, I haven't really gone back and looked into them. I probably haven't seen over five foreign movies that came out in the 90's (even though I've seen over 50 from the last 3 years, probably). Any recommendations? The only one from the 90's that I can vividly remember is Life Is Beautiful, which is pretty darn overrated, if you ask me.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

Recommendations? For an entire decade of global cinema? My goodness, where to begin? I guess with a few of my personal, most accessible favorites. (Many were listed above, too.) Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg...

1990

Cyrano de Bergerac (Rappeneau, France)

1991

Europa, Europa (Holland, Germany)

Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang, China)

Only Yesterday (Takahata, Japan)

My Mother's Castle / My Father's Glory (Robert, France)

1992

The Actress (Yuen Ling-Yuk) (Kwan, Hong Kong)

The Story of Qiu Ju (Zhang, China)

The Best Intentions (August, Sweden)

1993

Three Colors Trilogy (Kieslowski, France/Poland)

Like Water For Chocolate (Arau, Mexico)

Fiorile (Tavianis, Italy)

The Bride With White Hair (Yu, Hong Kong)

The Blue Kite (Tian, China)

1994

Chungking Express (Wong, Hong Kong)

To Live (Zhang, China)

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (Muller, Germany)

1995

Shanghai Triad (Zhang, China)

One Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema (Varda, France)

The White Balloon (Panahi, Iran)

Lumiere et Compagnie (Moon, France)

1996

Ponette (Doillon, France)

Les Voleurs (Techine, France)

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Chan, Hong Kong)

La Promesse (Dardennes, Belgium)

The King of Masks (Wu, China)

1997

The Children of Heaven (Majidi, Iran)

Hana-Bi (Fireworks) (Kitano, Japan)

1998

Show Me Love (Moodysson, Sweden)

Run Lola Run (Tykwer, Germany)

Rosetta (Dardennes, Belgium)

1999

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-down Girl (Chen, China)

All About My Mother (Almodovar, Spain)

Gohatto (Oshima, Japan)

I Stand Alone (Noe, France)

There are so many others, including a multitude that are adored by many critics but not by me. It's a bottomless treasure chest, Danny!

Eric

[Danny Baldwin]

I have seen All About My Mother, which is number 100 on my top 100 list (it ranks just below the rest on my 90's list). I will look into all the films you listed, thanks. At the top of my netfix que, though, is Caroline Link's Beyond Silence. Nowhere in Africa was stupendous, I can hardly wait for this one.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

I guess since I wasn't alive in what I consider my favorite decades, it's hard to compare the ninties to them. The only movies that will be remembered, decades later, are mostly the great ones. But, since I was there to witness the trash in the 90s, they come across as less memorable.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

I'd like to add another title to my list of Overlooked Potential Masterpieces of the Nineties:

Funny Games (Haneke, 1997)

Has anyone else seen it? Thoughts?

Eric

[JoeE]

That's wierd that you brought up Funny Games. I have been thinking about it a lot lately after seeing Irreversable and was going to bring it up in this forum somewhere. It's another one of those fairly recent films that brings "remorseless people behaving badly" to a whole new level. (Remember when Abel Ferrara was hardcore?)

(PARTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW):

I didn't like it as much as The Piano Teacher but thought it was very good.

Haneke's ability to built anxiety was fantastic, particularly his having something significant happening off camera while focusing elsewhere. The soundtrack and your imagination paint terrible pictures. The scene where one of the villians "rewinds" the movie to prevent the wife from getting the rifle was bizzare and original. It was the bleakest and most pessimistic film I'd seen up to that point, for sure. In one way it's a bold and artistically brave film but one has to ask if there is any real value in simulating the most awful things that can happen to people on film. Just like Irreversable, I think it's hard to fully justify it's creation.

[beltmann]

I'm glad you mentioned how some of the most significant events occur off-screen, and I think it provides a key to why Funny Games is justifiable. I was struck by how nearly all of the violence happens out of sight--but all of the consequences of said violence are intensely, visibly dwelled upon. The 10-minute "mourning" scene is amazing not just for its emotional accuracy, but also as a statement about how the aftermath of violence is often ignored in movies. (Also consider how we are given a 30-minute stretch where the parents must simply deal with the practical matters of survival, after the men have gone.) We are deprived of "relishing" the violence, but forced to confront its effects. To me, the clear subject of Funny Games is our relationship to screen violence, and Haneke implicates the audience in the brutalization of the characters--he reminds us that danger lies in our willingness to "enjoy" fictional blood for its own sake. Certainly a movie about violence is less reprehensible than something like, say, Bad Boys II, which revels in violence as a joyous act?

All five major characters are well-drawn and well-acted. I also admire the suspense--nearly Hitchcockian, I think--and the dialogue, which is always credible, original, and often blackly funny. Perhaps a masterpiece.

Eric

[The Third M?n]

Here's my list:



Dances with Wolves

Goodfellas

The Silence of the Lambs

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Batman Returns

Jurassic Park

Trois Couleurs: Bleu

The Fugitive

Forrest Gump

The Shawshank Redemption

Pulp Fiction

True Lies

The Lion King

Apollo 13

Braveheart

Se7en

Babe

Toy Story

Fargo

Life is Beautiful

Titanic

The Truman Show

The Thin Red Line

Saving Private Ryan

The Matrix

The Sixth Sense

Fight Club

The Straight Story

The Ninth Gate

Tarzan

Sleepy Hollow