Archives of Others' Lists, Part 3: James

 I have made a lot of lists on this blog, but in the words of Confucius I am not an originator but a transmitter. All my lists are nothing more than a compilation of interesting stuff I've found by perusing other lists on various forums and sites. When lists are of particular value to me, I tend to save them on a document, and I'd like to share them here as an extension of my archive, since the originals of these lists are long, long gone at this point. Most of the originals had great images along with them, but oh well. Sacrifices will have to be made. Unless stated otherwise, the lists are one-film-per-director, as was tradition.

I had these up on ICheckMovies but I kinda hate that site.

The primary place I have lists from is two forums, YMDb and its re-incarnation The Life Cinematic. I browsed from 2008 onward and posted between 2010 and 2013 when the forum finally died.

James was known as the “Americana guy” and his taste was very interesting. I always thought that he was one of the guys I got along best with because he was very open and liked a lot of different kind of films. But the kind of films that got him more excited than any other were strange, forgotten bits of Americana  and other unique old Hollywood films, of which he discovered an incredible wealth. His list is of course full of many great “Golden Age” Hollywood and other old American films. James was anything but a staunch classicist or old fogey. He had a wonderful, loose, edgy sense of humor and amazing use of fluid, funny language.

What I learned most from him was that you can’t appreciate new wave films or out-there films without appreciating the standard style as well. You have to know the rules in order to break them. But even more than that, was that the standard narrative of “there were a bunch of old Hollywood movies that were super conservative and bland and then in Europe a bunch of guys actually managed to get creative control and make REAL cinema!” that gets parroted around by very pretentious and self-important European twats was completely bogus (by the way, James was Canadian so he wasn’t doing this out of any national chauvinism). James was an expert at finding films that were deeply transgressive, unique, and unexpected even within Hollywood conventions. This list is full of them.

What that reveals to me more than anything is that James has an incredible ability to see beyond the boundaries that would keep others away from finding something special. The apparently sanitized, overly-censored, blandness of many old Hollywood productions masks how truly stately, grand, and beautiful a work like Home from the Hill is, or how dark and grim Canyon Passage is, how adventurous and boldly original the filmic work of Jerry Lewis is (something first and foremost recognized by contemporary French film critics and to this day excused as the French just being weird and silly by incredibly stupid Americans). Of course, the list is not only Hollywood films. In fact, seeing films as doggedly anti-mainstream as L’Amour braque and La Vie nouvelle next to all these Hollywood films is somewhat jarring at first. But it reveals a profound ability to see “beyond” the cultural, aesthetic, or creative boundaries that a film comes with and engage with a vision within. This is a list marked by films that are emotionally naked, uncompromising, and strongly humanist.

List 1: James's 51 Favorite Films, Ver. 1

This is the oldest one I have. James always mixed up his lists with a lot one-off, strange, interesting choices. I have a bad habit of only putting favorites on a list if they're by directors I know at least a few other favorites from, so that my favorite films and favorite directors are pretty similar, but James was good at not falling into that trap.

1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

2. Belfast, Maine (Frederick Wiseman, 1999)

3. Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax, 1986)

4. City of Pirates (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)

5. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

6. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)

7. The Bed You Sleep In (Jon Jost, 1993)

8. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)

9. The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)

10. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

11. Three Businessmen (Alex Cox, 1998)

12. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

13. Our Lady of the Turks (Carmelo Bene, 1968)

14. Running in Madness, Dying in Love (Kouji Wakamatsu, 1969)

15. Behindert (Stephen Dwoskin, 1974)

16. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F. Cline, 1941)

17. The Wife (Tom Noonan, 1995)

18. Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader, 1992)

19. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)

20. ...A Valparaíso (Joris Ivens, 1963)

21. Morgiana (Juraj Herz, 1972)

22. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)

23. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, 1987)

24. Dancing in the Rain (Boštjan Hladnik, 1961)

25. Rock-a-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958)

26. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

27. Confessions of an Opium Eater (Albert Zugsmith, 1962)

28. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

29. Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1997)

30. Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948)

31. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

32. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)

33. The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)

34. Lonesome (Pál Fejős, 1928)

35. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)

36. Alice, Sweet Alice (Alfred Sole, 1976)

37. Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette, 1980)

38. Inside/Out (Rob Tregenza, 1997)

39. The Noah (Daniel Bourla, 1975)

40. The Browning Version (Anthony Asquith, 1951)

41. Je t'aime... moi non plus (Serge Gainsbourg, 1976)

42. Simple Men (Hal Hartley, 1992)

43. The Pointsman (Jos Stelling, 1986)

44. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, 1993)

45. This Transient Life (Akio Jissouji, 1970)

46. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

47. Le Monde vivant (Eugène Green, 2003)

48. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)

49. JLG/JLG, autoportrait de décembre (Jean-Luc Godard, 1994)

50. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-leung, 1984)

51. Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948)

List 2: James's 51 Favorite Films, Ver. 2

The top two here are both Frank Borzage films, so I'm guessing they were originally a tie of some sort even though I didn't save the numbers of this list.

1.a The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, 1940)

1.b Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933)

2. Gueule d'amour (Jean Grémillon, 1937)

3. The Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (Alexander Kluge, 1968)

4. Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)

5. Eastern Avenue (Peter Mettler, 1985)

6. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)

7. City of Pirates (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)

8. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

9. The Carrier (Nathan J. White, 1988)

10. Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax, 1986)

11. The Ladies Man (Jerry Lewis, 1961)

12. Three Days (Šarūnas Bartas, 1991)

13. Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby (Matthew Bright, 1999)

14. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)

15. The Bed You Sleep In (Jon Jost, 1993)

16. They Might Be Giants (Anthony Harvey, 1971)

17. Morgiana (Juraj Herz, 1972)

18. Pedicab Driver (Sammo Hung, 1989)

19. Le Monde vivant (Eugène Green, 2003)

20. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)

21. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998)

22. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)

23. God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976)

24. China Girl (Abel Ferrara, 1987)

25. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)

26. Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948)

27. Prénom Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard, 1983)

28. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)

29. Running in Madness, Dying in Love (Kouji Wakamatsu, 1969)

30. How I Got Into College (Savage Steve Holland, 1989)

31. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

32. Belfast, Maine (Frederick Wiseman, 1999)

33. Backlash (John Sturges, 1956)

34. Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)

35. The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)

36. Marie, légende hongroise (Pál Fejős, 1932)

37. A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman, 1979)

38. Quatorze Juillet (René Clair, 1933)

39. Haut, bas, fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995)

40. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)

41. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957)

42. Our Lady of the Turks (Carmelo Bene, 1968)

43. House by the Cemetery (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

44. Day of the Outlaw (André De Toth, 1959)

45. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

46. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood, 1980)

47. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujirou Ozu, 1964)

48. La Bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)

49. Short Night of the Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971)

50. Shadow on the Snow (Attila Janisch, 1992)

51. Le Révélateur (Philippe Garrel, 1968)

List 3: James's 40 Favorite Films

Continual upheaval and change made James's lists always a joy to read. This one has some interesting choices and of course the #1 is as quintessentially Jamesian as a movie could be.

1. The Crazy-Quilt (John Korty, 1966)

2. Gueule d'amour (Jean Grémillon, 1937)

3. Smorgasbord aka Cracking Up (Jerry Lewis, 1983)

4. The Grapes of Death (Jean Rollin, 1978)

5. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992)

6. The Hitcher (Robert Harmon, 1986)

7. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)

8. Ballet mécanique (Fernand Léger, 1924)

9. People of No Importance (Henri Verneuil, 1956)

10. A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman, 1979)

11. Heart, Beating in the Dark (Shunichi Nagasaki, 1982)

12. Perfect Strangers (Larry Cohen, 1984)

13. Period Piece (Giuseppe Andrews, 2006)

14. The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise & Gunther von Fritsch, 1944)

15. Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey, 1927)

16. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)

17. Seventeen (Joel DeMott & Jeff Kreines, 1983)

18. Zig-Zag: Le jeu de l'oie (Une fiction didactique à propos de la cartographie) (Raúl Ruiz, 1980)

19. Eureka (Nicolas Roeg, 1983)

20. The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)

21. Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)

22. Yesterday Girl (Alexander Kluge, 1966)

23. Wandsbek Gartenstück (Heinz Emigholz, 1976)

24. Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)

25. Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette, 1980)

26. The Art of Dying (Wings Hauser, 1991)

27. Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933)

28. Monkey Business (Howard Hawks, 1952)

29. Alucarda (Juan López Moctezuma, 1977)

30. Geneviève (Michel Brault, 1964)

31. No Greater Glory (Frank Borzage, 1934)

32. Susan Slept Here (Frank Tashlin, 1954)

33. Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976)

34. Quatorze Juillet (René Clair, 1933)

35. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

36. Marie, légende hongroise (Pál Fejős, 1932)

37. Hélas pour moi (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)

38. House by the Cemetery (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

39. I Could Go On Singing (Ronald Neame, 1963)

40. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)

List 4: James's 100 Favorite Films

The biggie. This was for a community top-1000 I think, so it didn't have the full pictures and stuff, but I do still consider it his probably his greatest work.

1. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, 1992)

2. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1946)

3. Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960)

4. Gueule d'amour (Jean Grémillon, 1937)

5. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)

6. The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, 1964)

7. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Nagisa Ooshima, 1969)

8. The Crazy-Quilt (John Korty, 1966)

9. The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)

10. City of Pirates (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)

11. Seventeen (Joel DeMott & Jeff Kreines, 1983)

12. L'Amour braque (Andrzej Żuławski, 1985)

13. Heart, Beating in the Dark (Shunichi Nagasaki, 1982)

14. Monkey Business (Howard Hawks, 1952)

15. Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933)

16. La Vie nouvelle (Philippe Grandrieux, 2002)

17. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000)

18. Prénom Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard, 1983)

19. Who'll Stop the Rain (Karel Reisz, 1978)

20. Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen, 1937)

21. Lazybones (Frank Borzage, 1925)

22. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

23. The Grapes of Death (Jean Rollin, 1978)

24. Haut, bas, fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995)

25. The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh, 1941)

26. Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax, 1986)

27. A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)

28. The Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (Alexander Kluge, 1968)

29. Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (Maurice Pialat, 1972)

30. Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey, 1927)

31. Three Days (Šarūnas Bartas, 1991)

32. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)

33. Crime Wave (John Paizs, 1985)

34. Street Law (Enzo G. Castellari, 1974)

35. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998)

36. Downtime (Greg Hanec, 1985)

37. All the Colors of the Dark (Sergio Martino, 1972)

38. Fast-Walking (James B. Harris, 1982)

39. A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman, 1979)

40. Confessions of an Opium Eater (Albert Zugsmith, 1962)

41. Rock-a-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958)

42. Perfect Strangers (Larry Cohen, 1984)

43. Vivian (Bruce Conner, 1965)

44. The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)

45. Pedicab Driver (Sammo Hung Kam-bo, 1989)

46. Entr’Acte (René Clair, 1924)

47. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

48. Citizen’s Band (Jonathan Demme, 1977)

49. Le temps perdu: Notes d’une fin de vacances (Michel Brault, 1964)

50. The Outcasts of Poker Flat (Joseph M. Newman, 1952)

51. La Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1979)

52. Deseret (James Benning, 1995)

53. The Hitcher (Robert Harmon, 1986)

54. Belfast, Maine (Frederick Wiseman, 1999)

55. Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol, 1965)

56. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)

57. Ghosts Before Breakfast (Hans Richter, 1928)

58. La Bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)

59. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937)

60. Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)

61. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

62. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

63. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)

64. Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller, 1951)

65. The Go-Between (Joseph Losey, 1971)

66. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

67. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujirou Ozu, 1964)

68. Brigitte et Brigitte (Luc Moullet, 1966)

69. The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula, 1974)

70. Our Lady of the Turks (Carmelo Bene, 1968)

71. Street Musique (Ryan Larkin, 1972)

72. The Swimmer (Frank Perry, 1968)

73. Wandsbek Gartenstück (Heinz Emigholz, 1976)

74. Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976)

75. The Scenic Route (Mark Rappaport, 1978)

76. Alucarda (Juan López Moctezuma, 1977)

77. Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)

78. Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)

79. Conquest (Lucio Fulci, 1983)

80. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)

81. Crime Wave (André De Toth, 1953)

82. Bright Angel (Michael Fields, 1990)

83. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, 1990)

84. The Adjuster (Atom Egoyan, 1991)

85. The Days Between (Maria Speth, 2001)

86. Le Monde vivant (Eugène Green, 2003)

87. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)

88. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)

89. Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945)

90. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)

91. People of No Importance (Henri Verneuil, 1956)

92. The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)

93. Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974)

94. Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)

95. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-leung, 1984)

96. The Bed You Sleep In (Jon Jost, 1993)

97. The Wife (Tom Noonan, 1995)

98. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)

99. Another Girl, Another Planet (Michael Almereyda, 1992)

100. Simple Men (Hal Hartley, 1992)

List 5: James's 30 Favorite Film Noirs

Here's a nice specialty list he made if you're going down this rabbit-hole. Man, what a year 1948 was!

1. The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946)

2. Deep Valley (Jean Negulesco, 1947)

3. Tomorrow Is Another Day (Felix E. Feist, 1951)

4. Raw Deal (Anthony Mann, 1948)

5. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)

6. The Prowler (Joseph Losey, 1951)

7. Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948)

8. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

9. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)

10. Too Late for Tears (Byron Haskin, 1949)

11. Crime Wave (André De Toth, 1953)

12. Cry of the City (Robert Siodmak, 1948)

13. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)

14. The Scar (Steve Sekely, 1948)

15. Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann, 1948)

16. The Window (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949)

17. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

18. They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)

19. Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950)

20. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)

21. The Bribe (Robert Z. Leonard, 1949)

22. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

23. Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger, 1950)

24. The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)

25. When Strangers Marry (William Castle, 1944)

26. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)

27. The Big Clock (John Farrow, 1948)

28. The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer, 1952)

29. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953)

30. 99 River Street (Phil Karlson, 1953)

List 6: James's 50 Favorite Directors

James, as you can tell by these lists, wasn't really a guy who thought of his favorite films in terms of his favorite directors. He made this for a site project, IIRC. But there are some obvious common choices.

1. Jacques Tourneur

2. Howard Hawks

3. Chantal Akerman

4. Jean-Luc Godard

5. Frank Borzage

6. William A. Wellman

7. Jonathan Demme

8. Mitchell Leisen

9. Jerry Lewis

10. Robert Bresson

11. Michael Almereyda

12. Stan Brakhage

13. Leo McCarey

14. Edgar G. Ulmer

15. Tsai Ming-liang

16. Andzrej Żuławski

17. Raúl Ruiz

18. Anthony Mann

19. Nicholas Ray

20. Abel Ferrara

21. Albert Brooks

22. Frank Tashlin

23. Vincente Minnelli

24. Michel Brault

25. John Ford

26. Robert Altman

27. Frederick Wiseman

28. Jon Jost

29. Carl Theodor Dreyer

30. Joseph Losey

31. Alain Resnais

32. Jean Renoir

33. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

34. Samuel Fuller

35. Preston Sturges

36. Elaine May

37. Nagisa Ooshima

38. Larry Cohen

39. Hal Hartley

40. Raoul Walsh

41. Jean Grémillon

42. Jacques Rivette

43. James Benning

44. Jonas Mekas

45. Maurice Pialat

46. Philippe Garrel

47. Luc Moullet

48. Max Ophüls

49. Bruce Conner

50. Philippe Grandrieux

List 7: James's 20 Favorite Albums

We don't have a ton in common music-wise, but there is good stuff here.

1. Dancer With Bruised Knees (1977) by Kate & Anna McGarrigle

2. Dongs of Sevotion (2000) by Smog

3. Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) by Harry Nilsson

4. Untune the Sky (1991) by The Moles

5. 3rd (1978) by Big Star

6. Dig Me Out (1997) by Sleater-Kinney

7. Marshall Crenshaw (1982) by Marshall Crenshaw

8. Tunnel of Love (1987) by Bruce Springsteen

9. Our Mother the Mountain (1969) by Townes Van Zandt

10. Love and Other Crimes (1968) by Lee Hazlewood

11. Promises & Ties (1982) by Expressos

12. Moss Elixir (1996) by Robyn Hitchcock

13. Viva Hate (1988) by Morrissey

14. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) by Devo

15. Sadstyle (2001) by S

16. Grievous Angel (1974) by Gram Parsons

17. Let It Be (1984) by The Replacements

18. …At the Moment of Our Most Needing (2009) by Rock Plaza Central

19. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) by Pavement

20. Just an Old Fashioned Love Song (1971) by Paul Williams