A month or three ago the BFI’s Sight and Sound magazine asked me to contribute my top ten films of all time for their 2012 critics poll. Now the BFI has published the results of their poll listing both the top 250 films and the choices of each individual critic! You can find that here. I was pleased to see that my tastes fell completely out of line with dominant critical opinion. As far as I can make out nine of the ten films I picked were unique to me. And my bottom and final choice Videodrome appears to have been nominated by only one other of the 846 critics who contributed top ten lists. When it comes to film – or anything else for that matter, but particularly music and literature – it seems my tastes are completely at variance with dominant critical opinion. That’s just one of many reasons why you know you can trust this blog to tell it how it is! And just in case you can’t be bothered to click through to the BFI site, here’s my top ten film list!
- Beyond, The (1981 Lucio Fulci).
- Django Kill! (1967 Giulio Questi).
- Dolemite (1975 D’Urville Martin).
- Liquid Sky (1982 Slava Tsukerman).
- Masque of Red Death (1964 Roger Corman).
- One-Armed Boxer II (1976 Jimmy Wang Yu).
- Scorpion Thunderbolt (1988 Godfrey Ho).
- Succubus (1967 Jess Franco).
- Thundercrack (1975 Curt McDowell).
- Videodrome (1983 David Cronenberg).
And while you’re at it don’t forget to check – www.stewarthomesociety.org – you know it makes (no) sense!
Comments
Comment by Aaron Goldberg on 2012-08-19 00:00:51 +0000
you picked Liquid Sky over Brain Damage!!??!!!!! LOL!
Comment by crow on 2012-08-19 00:27:36 +0000
there are some new ones on me here, but good to see a few of my faves here 5 and 9 …
with love from the dolomites!
crow
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-19 09:16:21 +0000
I have seen very few of these films-I will have to check them out.
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-19 09:21:15 +0000
Bed pans are depressing things-nearly as depressing as the fact that the religious wing of the establishment are preventing that guy who can only communicate by blinking from taking his own life with what help he needs. Could Mr Trippy please comment on assisted suicide in his own inimitable stye.
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-19 09:42:44 +0000
style even.
Comment by mistertrippy on 2012-08-19 12:18:39 +0000
Hard to be humorous about assisted suicide – but the fact that this society won’t let those who want to end their lives (with an obvious need for this to be balanced with the protection of others who might have relatives or physicians who might try to push them into it) is killing me!
@ Crow – yeah we got a lot of similar tastes in films and music… but some differences too. Of course if I’d done this on a different day then this list would have been different, but these are among my all time movie favourites! But favourites obviously vary with mood!
Comment by David Austin on 2012-08-19 12:59:33 +0000
@ Aaron Goldberg – LIQUID SKY is leagues better than BRAIN DAMAGE, Goldie.
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-19 13:47:57 +0000
Yes maybe that was a stretch too far but it
is a topic ‘du jour’. I think it is killing me too.
What awaits us I wonder when these Lords keep
acting like abject wallies and won’t do the sensible
thing as this will allegedly usher in mass extermination
of disabled people? All I know is that getting old and ill
is scary. The last taboo?
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-19 13:49:09 +0000
And very sorry for the dodgy spacing I sent this in from my phone…
Comment by mistertrippy on 2012-08-19 22:42:21 +0000
Sounds like you’d write a good blog on this one Lucy!
@ David Austin – you took the words right out of my mouth – although Brain Damage is good, and actually I think I need a top ten thousand not a top ten! But actually Frankenhooker is my favourite Frank Henenlotter movie – but I like most of what he did until his comeback, shame about Bad Biology it really sucks!
Comment by David Austin on 2012-08-20 00:23:16 +0000
Word. There’s a few scenes in BRAIN DAMAGE that are incredible – the cold turkey scene is almost heartbreaking in its’ poignancy and the moment where Brian warns his brother and girlfriend to get away is just as saddening…but LIQUID SKY is a really amazing indictment of NYC hipster values that still holds strong to this day. It’s a big influence on me.
Comment by mistertrippy on 2012-08-20 01:52:09 +0000
The first time I saw Liquid Sky – on a double bill at London’s Scala – I couldn’t decide if it was good or bad, so I had to go see it again. Second viewing I knew it was great and then just kept on going to see it!
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-20 06:41:13 +0000
Hmmmm that is an interesting thought. I have a blog or two but no one much reads them which I don’t mind as I don’t know if I have the stomach for people who disagree with me. When I was at school the English teachers used to go into paroxysms about my writing so I am okay there. How do you cope with your audience I wonder?
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-20 06:44:10 +0000
I guess you love us all-every chus one!
Comment by mistertrippy on 2012-08-20 14:05:33 +0000
The audience for anything is always split – and more people are likely to dislike rather than like something. Big pop stars may have lots of fans but there will always be way more people who hate what they do. So you just have to learn to live with that – but for most of us on a smaller scale than say The Beatles. When I was at school I always tried to work out ways of doing exercises that subverted them – so the English teacher often picked mine to read out as examples coz they’d get laughs from everyone… Most of the kids wouldn’t have done the English exercises like me but mostly they appreciated the ways I’d dream up to be a bit outrageous….
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-20 14:06:42 +0000
I can imagine. It must have been a hoot!
Comment by David Austin on 2012-08-20 15:30:55 +0000
Mister Trippy I envy you. I saw LIQUID SKY on video about a decade before I moved to New York. When I got here, I didn’t expect every little detail to be spot-on (the endless begging, the open drug use, the cod bisexuality, the unlistenable music, the fake art etc.) and yes…everything in that movie should be taken as gospel.
Comment by Michael Roth on 2012-08-20 21:53:03 +0000
David, that’s really funny. Yeah, when I saw Liquid Sky the first time, it was a real trip. Stewart, I’m surprised Liquid Sky received only one vote – yours!
Comment by Lucy Johnson on 2012-08-20 22:01:36 +0000
I gotta look at this ‘Liquid Sky’.
Comment by Krzysztof Honowski on 2012-08-20 23:07:15 +0000
Great list, but as for Fulci, I would say The Black Cat is by far his trashiest horror.
Comment by mistertrippy on 2012-08-21 00:53:30 +0000
Well having just one Fulci was hard but for me definitely The Beyond over Black Cat… but then it was tempting to go for New York Ripper for trashiness and then there is Don’t Torture A Duckling… and it might have even been Cat In The Brain… he made so many great movies!
@ Lucy Johnson – Liquid Sky is a classic!
Comment by Alan Hoffman on 2012-08-21 21:35:43 +0000
Nice to see Succubus on here. I probably would have chosen Eugenie, but it’s a bold choice (as are the rest of your picks).
I remember when BFI did its “best outlaw directors” list, I asked Tim Lucas how the hell Argento wound up on it and Franco did not. He told me that he tried to get Franco on, but he was allowed to write only about Zulawski (another great director). Franco directed a bunch of dreck in those 200+ films, but there are also many gems, Succubus among them.
Comment by Ian on 2012-08-21 23:37:47 +0000
you and Mark Kermode had the best lists. Zizek’s one is quite funny because it’s so shitty.