I've now been through the whole list (and will post some statistics later) but there are a few question marks. Things would be much simpler if Thomas Edison laid down in law right from the start that every film could have only one title and every title could only belong to one film. Then you wouldn't have so many remakes — surely a good thing — and you'd also clear up a lot of confusion.
Imagine if a beautiful woman comes up to you in a bar and says "Hey baby, do you want to come back to my place to watch Crash on DVD?" Quite the dilemma, I'm confident you're all thinking. If she means the Paul Haggis film you'll surely regret saying yes as you sit there watching two hours of overwrought Oscar-grubbing. But if she means the Cronenberg film and you say no you'll miss out on a hell of a night. So you tiresomely ask her and she discards you and moves on to the next sap. Damn you Haggis! Why on earth would you title your film the same as a (better) film just 8 years older?
It's even worse when films have different titles in different countries. Which version the voters in this poll intended isn't always at all clear.
Take China Gate. There's a 1957 American war film of that title. It looks ok but hardly seems a must-see, so maybe they mean the 1998 Bollywood film instead? That gets a decent enough write-up too but I'd be surprised if anyone voted it best of the century. I can't believe either film is the one intended, but I can't find any other references out there. A puzzler.
Family Feud is equally puzzling. As Chris pointed out in the comments, this is the American version of rubbish gameshow Family Fortunes ("and our survey said..."). Surely they can't mean that, though, and this is really some sort of documentary or experimental work? Not that I can find anywhere.
Iliad has a number of possibilities. In the end I've gone for Manfred Noa's 1924 Helen of Troy which seems the most plausible but I could easily be wrong.
Imitation of Life could really be either version. Each seems equally likely to me. The same goes for The Ten Commandments but with that I'm guessing the 1956 version, mostly because that's the one I've seen.
L'Argent could be the fairly well-known 1983 Bresson film or the less well-known but apparently equally revered 1928 film.
Is Parade really just the 1974 Jacques Tati film about the circus? There seem a lot of films with this title, but that's the best of an unlikely bunch.
Song Cycle I have absolutely no clue about. There's the well-regarded Van Dyke Parks album with this title, but that won't be it. Nor will it be the 1928 film A Cycle of Songs which has received no votes on IMDB at all.
Any ideas?
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I actually had some similar points of confusion when looking through the list. I'm fairly sure Family Feud is the gameshow, although when Richard Dawson had time to present it between overs of gentle off-spin for Yorks and England I'm not clear (your one name policy could be usefully applied to people as well as motion pictures). I guess the Porky in Wackyland example shows entries don't have to be conventional features.
ReplyDeleteFor Iliad, I also reckoned on Noa's film and I'm with you on Imitation of Life and the Ten Commandments, too - i.e. it could be either. De Mille directed both versions of the latter, though, didn't he? Of course, with remakes, maybe you have to see both versions in order to judge them properly.
I would have thought L'argent is the Bresson pic - he's a fairly popular choice (6 films in the list) and Parade must be the Tati (otherwise he'd be a major absentee from the selection).
As for China Gate, I'd say that's the Sam Fuller one. According to Wiki, it was banned in France because of its portrayal of French action in Indochina, which I guess gives it a certain notoriety and mystique, and thus gains it a vote in this survey.
None of this clears up which version of King Kong they're talking about, mind you. Surely the Jeff Bridges one is everybody's favourite?