David Lynch’s ‘Mullholland Drive’ Named Best Film of the 2000s by WitD Readers by Wide Margin

       Mulholland Drive is big winner for top spot in 2000’s polling

by Sam Juliano

   David Lynch’s surrealist mind bender, Mullholland Drive, captured the top spot in the long-running 2000’s poll conducted by WitD by a comfortable margin, according to Voting Tabulator Extraordinaire Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. from his Fairview home yesterday.  D’Arminio announced that 40 ballots had been received, with a few of those revisions on earlier submissions.  The total represents the most ever received for any of the decade pollings, though this development was largely expected because of the younger age of most of the voters.  The Lynch masterpiece was probably the most cited film by professional critics as well, in assessing the best films of the past ten years.

    Terrence Malick’s ravishing ruminative tone poem The New World was a strong second-place finisher, while the hugely popular oil saga There Will Be Blood, and the Coens’ Oscar winner No Country For Old Men expectedly finished in the top five.  The No. 5 choice, Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood For Love was the highest for any foreign-language film, and the #6, Steven Spilberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, represented a deep passion from WitD voters, who engineered this surprising high placement.

#2  The New World

#3  There Will Be Blood

#4  No Country for Old Men

#5  In the Mood For Love

#6  A.I. Artificial Intelligence

To access the top 25 choices, click on the continue icon:

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Anthony Mann DVD Giveaway: A Correct Guess wins you a free sealed 2 disc copy of ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’

   

     A free sealed 2 disc DVD set of Anthony Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire will be sent postage-free to the person who enters the first  correct answer to this question in the comment thread:

     Which actor played prominent roles in films directed by both Anthony Mann and D.W. Griffith? (and in which films). 

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Winchester ’73 – 1950, Anthony Mann

by Allan Fish

(USA 1950 92m) DVD1/2

One of a thousand

p  Aaron Rosenberg  d  Anthony Mann  w  Robert L.Richards, Borden Chase  story  Stuart N.Lake  ph  William H.Daniels  ed  Edward Curtiss  m  Frank Skinner  md  Joseph Gershenson  art  Bernard Herzbrun, Nathan Juran, Russell A.Gausman, A.Roland Fields  cos  Yvonne Wood

James Stewart (Lin McAdam), Shelley Winters (Lola Manners), Stephen McNally (Dutch Henry Brown), Millard Mitchell (High Spade Frankie Wilson), Charles Drake (Steve Miller), Dan Duryea (Waco Johnnie Dean), John McIntire (Joe Lamont), Will Geer (Wyatt Earp), Jay C.Flippen (Sgt.Wilkes), Rock Hudson (Young Bull), John Alexander (Jack Riker), Steve Brodie (Wesley), James Millican (Wheeler), Tony Curtis (cavalryman),

They say the rifle of the title was the most sought after there was back in the day, “the rifle that won the west” it was called.  And of those rifles, just every so often, one would be made so perfect it would get its own name, the ‘one of a thousand’, and every so often one such rifle would appear for the everyday Joe to feast their eyes.  The president might have one, or Buffalo Bill, or James Stewart.  Stewart wasn’t new to the western when he made Winchester ’73, there had been Destry Rides Again all those years before, but on his return from the war Stewart started less to resemble an idyllic poster boy for the world of Frank Capra and more a grizzled piece of Hollywood granite, not out of place on their own equivalent of Mount Rushmore, carved in the rock above Hollywood by the sign alongside the faces of Bill Hart, Harry Carey, John Wayne and Gary Cooper.  This was the film that set him on that path of great westerns of the fifties, all directed by the long underrated giant who made this, the first.  Anthony Mann had already carved himself out a niche as a master of low budget film noir and his segue into the west was seamless, as smooth as the inside of a Winchester barrel. 

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A visual reinterpretation of ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ by Rainer Maria Rilke

by Jamie Uhler

At first it seemed like just a curious idea I had: offer the Wonders community Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ in a serial form. It seemed like a natural fit, as it is a series of letters between Rilke and a 19 year old admirer, Franz Kappus.  Having us return to them every few days could feel like these are written to us and arriving via mail. Then I relented: it’s not the most usual choice as a serial, I was thinking something like all the Dicken’s books that emerged in this form in the 1800s. And then there is the fact that this is (predominately) a film blog. So I’ve offered a twist: I’ve reinterpreted the book as almost concrete poetry/expressive typography. It exists in public domain, so I had a go at it. I’m using the fantastic translation by Stephen Mitchell (I consider his the best), so I must thank him here– wherever he may be.

This will be presented with my designs (so there will be tricky information included such as page numbers as the intention is for this to be printed), and then the accompanying text formatted in a more conventional reading format. My hope is to expose these letters to others that maybe unaware, or others who have drifted from them for to long. Including my designs is an attempt to guide your eyes as mine have been, and feel what I’ve felt. Articulate in white space and typography (mediums I love), what Rilke has beautifully rendered in word and thought. A film (or any piece of art, but I state ‘film’ as this is this blogs chief concern) can make the seemingly impossible possible: a connection between the viewer and the creator, can a series of blog posts?

When the 10 letters have been presented and this series is complete, I offer an 8 inch by 8 inch printable pdf of my work to anyone who may want it. This way you all can see how these designs really fit into space, as I have cropped them in such a way to view better on screen for these posts. Or, when you need a shot in the arm for whatever reason (and have 2 or 3 hours to spare), you can read it in it’s entirety. I hope you enjoy, and that it offers you something.

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