The Last Candle

Out of the new American Film Institute’s “100 Years … 100 Movies” list, I’ve seen…33. Load up the Netflix queue, it’s time for catchin’ up!

Actually, considering the volatility of the list — in the span of just a few years, films that are 40+ years old jump up or down several places or disappear from the list entirely — I don�t take it too seriously. Might we attribute the list’s plasticity to a fickle bunch of mustache-tweaking artisans, table-thumping about the juxtaposition of the candlestick next to the water pitcher, barking wine and attributing glory on how the cinematography in that one scene in the bedroom included so few oblique lines? Or a do we have a medium that molds itself through time?

False dichotomy alert, yes. But without without trying to sound (too) petulant, I don’t have much of a mind for most of those movies anyway. I’m going to go with the assumption based on the evidence of this list that the AFI is a bunch of fellows who, after donning caps that tilt lazily on their balding heads and daintily peppering their popcorn with celery seed, watch Star Wars in dubbed Italian to make it seem more distinguished.

The noted films are classics, no doubt about that, but, as is plain to people that have suffered through my grousing about films in general (which typically sounds something like, “Boy, that flick is bad/was bad/looks completely terrible”), my tastes are tempered enough that most of the list’s films don’t tickle my fancy. I may have seen only a third of the 100, but out of the remaining bunch I’d jump to see only five or six others.

I was sent the list on Thursday morning by a co-worker who has the same general taste in films that I do. After my initial perusal of the list I prepared to reply with a complaint about the list’s lack of Kurosawa titles (as well as a note of appreciation for sending me the list in the first place, of course). Thankfully, my morning tea sparked the right neurons in the right places, and I read the list again, noticing during the second reading that it was composed by the American Film Institute, about American films. Ah ha.

But I griped to her about the lack anyway, and she agreed with me. Kurosawa should be everywhere.