Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Secret is Out!


Since the project has now officially been announced, I can finally reveal that my recent top 100 list was more than just a reaction to the AFI's latest broadcast. It was also my contribution to a poll being conducted by Cinema Fusion on the "Online Film Community's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time." Over 50 participants submitted their top 100 picks and any given movie had to be included on three different lists in order to make it to the next round. I was just e-mailed the final nominees (502 total) and was pleased to discover that 90 of the 100 titles I mentioned were included. Along with a number of truly great films, there were also a few odd choices on there and, as Ed Copeland points out, a preponderance of "newer" movies. I'll admit it's always seemed to me that as a movie-watching culture we tend to have a rather short term collective memory. I mean, apparently three people thought that Anchorman was one the finest films they'd ever seen but Harold Lloyd's Safety Last or Francois Truffaut's Day For Night were not. Oh well.

Anyway, the deadline for the poll is July 15th and shortly thereafter the final 100 should be unveiled. I am very curious to see what it turns out to be and awfully excited that I got to play a part in it.

12 comments:

J.D. said...

WHAT?!?! Why didn't anyone tell me?! [crys]

Damian Arlyn said...

Oops. I thought you knew, J.D. I figured that was why you chose to make your own top 100. Sorry. :(

PIPER said...

Crap,

I thought by posting my 100, I was submitting it. I never e-mailed it the way I was supposed to.

And I was really hoping Army Of Darkness would crack the 100.

I'm excited to see what comes it all.

Adam Ross said...

Admit it Damian, you were one of the three who nominated "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" and "The Prestige."

Ted Pigeon said...

Slamming Anchorman? How dare you! Ron Burgundy is very memorable, indeed. And Paul Rudd is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. Who can deliver lines like this with such perfection

"It's called the Sex Panther, by Odon. It's illegal in nine countries. Yup; it's made with bits of real panther, that way you know it's good... 60 percent of the time it works... every time."

J.D. said...

I just did it because everyone else was. There's no way to go into it now, is there?

Ted Pigeon said...

I just did. Just drop a comment over at cinema fusion and Jonathan will likely email you about it. You have to pick from the selected nominees and submit your 100 by Sunday, but I think you can enter.

Damian Arlyn said...

Piper:

Army of Darkness was one of the 502 finaly nominees. You should still be able to participate still, so it does have a chance.

Adam:

I have never even seen Behind the Mask (though I want to), so I couldn't have nominated it, but if I had nominated The Prestige... I'd be very proud of the fact! :)

Ted:

Just to be clear, I am NOT necessarily slamming Anchorman. In fact, I liked Anchorman. I thought it was really rather funny. Much better than Will Ferrell's usual fare (though not quite as good as Elf IMO). I was just lamenting the fact that a few of my top 100 films (Day for Night, Safety Last and Night at the Opera) didn't even make it to the next round--which means no more than two people nominated them--and yet Anchorman must've been on at least three lists because it did make the cut. Just seems like a slight lack of perspective to me. That's all.

Ted Pigeon said...

Of course. I was just having some fun. It is curious, but then again we cannot forget that the film blogging community is quite different than most journalistic and academic ciricles, which can be an advantage or perhaps more so a disadvantage. As Ron Burgundy would say, "it's science."

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it hurt a little that twenty or so of my favorite films weren't included, but Anchorman was. I shuddered a bit while I was organizing the nominees.

Damian Arlyn said...

Well, that's why it's called a community list and not a personal list. I'm fairly confident that Anchorman won't make the final 100. If it does I'll certainly be surprised but I won't "disown" the list or regret my participation or anything like that. As I said, I'm just glad to have been asked and to get the chance to play a small part in its creation.

Anonymous said...

"Anchorman" ??? What a piece of ****