Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Final Tallies

For you morbidly curious Muriel fans, here are the standings for this year’s Hall of Fame voting:  

2016 Hall of Fame inductees
* - denotes first appearance on ballot  

9 votes
In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray, USA)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick, USA)  

8 votes
Brief Encounter (1946, David Lean, UK)
All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk, USA)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Jacques Demy, France)

7 votes
The General (1927, Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, USA)
The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston, USA)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, USA)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston, USA)
Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard, France)

Other nominated films

6 votes
Freaks (1932, Tod Browning, USA)
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming, USA)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles, USA)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel, USA)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais, France)
*The Haunting (1963, Robert Wise, USA)

5 votes
Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau, Germany/Weimar Republic)
Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang, Germany/Weimar Republic)
Grand Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir, France)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks, USA)
*Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur, USA)
*The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks, USA)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra, USA)
Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock, USA)
The Earrings of Madame De… (1953, Max Ophüls, France)
*Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray, USA)
*Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich, USA)
Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick, USA)
La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini, Italy)

4 votes
*Pandora’s Box (1929, G.W. Pabst, Germany)
*It Happened One Night (1934, Frank Capra, USA)
*The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch, USA)
*Sullivan’s Travels (1942, Preston Sturges, USA)
Children of Paradise (1945, Marcel Carné, France)
Beauty and the Beast (1946, Jean Cocteau, France)
*A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, UK)
Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio de Sica, Italy)
Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
*Ace in the Hole (1951, Billy Wilder, USA)
A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson, France)
*12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet, USA)
Nights of Cabiria (1957, Federico Fellini, Italy)
Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
Imitation of Life (1959, Douglas Sirk, USA)
The Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder, USA)
Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Godard, France)
Woman in the Dunes (1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japan)

3 votes
*Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932, Howard Hawks, USA)
Daisy Kenyon (1947, Otto Preminger, USA)
Late Spring (1949, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
The Steel Helmet (1951, Sam Fuller, USA)
*The Big Heat (1953, Fritz Lang, USA)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, Howard Hawks, USA)
M. Hulot’s Holiday (1953, Jacques Tati, France)
*Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzôt, France)
A Face in the Crowd (1957, Elia Kazan, USA)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais, France)
*The Housemaid (1960, Kim Ki-young, South Korea)
*The House Is Black (1963, Furough Farrokhzad, Iran)
*A Hard Day’s Night! (1964, Richard Lester, UK)
*The War Game (1965, Peter Watkins, USA)

2 votes
*Broken Blossoms (1919, D.W. Griffith, USA)
*Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy, USA)
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937, Leo McCarey, USA)
Bringing Out Baby (1938, Howard Hawks, USA)
*The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944, Preston Sturges, USA)
On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan, USA)
*Eyes Without a Face (1959, Georges Franju, France)
*Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa, Japan)

1 vote
I Was Born, But… (1932, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
*Mother Joan of the Angels (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Poland)

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: The Postgame Show!

Well, that was fun. Plenty of worthy inductees, along with a few surprises (Brief Encounter gets inducted in its first year on the ballot!), and another female director getting in this year. So that’s something, eh?

That said, I was a bit taken aback by the lack of diversity among our inducted films. For the first time, every one of our inductees hailed from the USA or Western Europe. True, Polanski is Polish by birth, but Repulsion was produced in the UK, in English, with a French leading lady. And the Ukraine-born Deren shot Meshes of the Afternoon in California. Hell, we didn’t even pick any Japanese movies.

So, what happened? Part of me wants to chalk this up to being a fluke, and that we’ll be back to choosing some more far-flung titles next year when Andrei Rublev (and also Daisies and Black Girl) become eligible. That said, there’s another part of me that wants to figure out a way to ensure diversity in our selections in the future. But how to do that without making the system too convoluted? I could split up the ballot into different regions- I toyed with separate nominees for the USA, Western Europe, and the rest of the world- but that seems like a huge pain to me. Hell, I even briefly considered narrowing the eligibility window somewhat, since voters may be more familiar with world cinema titles from the 1970s and 1980s. But I know what would happen- we’d pick a bunch of Kubrick and Coppola and Scorsese and Lynch movies, because that’s where our tastes lie.

And I get that. The great majority of Muriels Hall of Fame voters are American, and for most American cinephiles, films from this country play a central role in our cinematic education. So when we’re tasked with selecting classic movies, we think American movies first, followed by the films from the countries that have gotten the most attention in the US – the UK, France, and Japan. And we’ve honored movies from these four nations almost exclusively, with 47 out of our 54 inductees, with little consideration for other cinematic powerhouses like India, Germany, and the Soviet Union.

Is this really a problem? I don’t know. But if it is, how can we solve it? I think the key is that to get more voters from around the world to participate. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be that simple. After all, the Muriels Hall of Fame is still part of the Muriel Awards, and in order to participate in Hall of Fame voting, one must also be a Muriels voter, which requires that voters comply with American (specifically NYC) release schedules. And getting international voters who are willing and able to do this would be tricky. Frankly, I’m surprised and grateful that our handful of non-American voters are so flexible in this regard.

Anyway, as I said before, maybe I’m worrying about nothing. Maybe the situation will sort itself out, and we’ll finally get around to honoring some more diverse classics in the future (can you believe Battleship Potemkin has never even made the final ballot?). Hell, we even nominated movies from Poland, Iran, and South Korea this year, so at least some people are thinking the same way I am. All I know is that I’ll keep on stumping for masterpieces like The House Is Black as long as it’s within my power to do so.

And while I continue to be impossible to please in some regards, I have nothing but respect and admiration for everyone who has volunteered to participate in this little project again this year. Thank you to our 2016 Muriels Hall of Fame voters:

Jason Alley
Danny Baldwin
Kent M. Beeson
Josh Bell
Andrew Bemis
Scott W. Black
Danny Bowes
Paul Clark
Dennis Cozzalio
Ari Dassa
Philip Dyess-Nugent
Jim Emerson
James Frazier
Luke Gorham
Jaime Grijalba
Glenn Heath Jr.
Sam Juliano
Adam Lemke
Benjamin Lim
Craig D. Lindsey
Sam C. Mac
Willow Maclay
Jeff McMahon
Jason Overbeck
Cole Roulain
Jason Shawhan
Alice Stoehr
Hedwig van Driel
Scott von Doviak
Bryce Wilson
George Wu

See you this winter!

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: The Umbrellas of Chebourg (1964, Jacques Demy)

“It’s set in France, during wartime, as young men are drafted to fight in Algeria—and yet, everyone sings, and for a long time they sing with a doggedly upbeat optimism. This intensifies the film’s sense of tragedy, as the best laid plans are dashed by unforeseen interference—like a rained-out wedding date. But there’s a deeper meaning still to Demy’s romantic vision, and it has to do with the nature of beauty itself." ~ Sam C. Mac

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston)

"As much as I love tough-but-lovable Bogart, his commitment to Dobbs' total misanthropy - and how chillingly easy he fits into the role without ‘transforming’ himself - is mesmerizing, and the obvious enjoyment he and Huston took in going there is incredibly entertaining even as the movie grows increasingly bleak." ~ Andrew Bemis

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick)

“When I first watched Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success a few years ago, I remember being struck by just how cruel it is (or, more specifically, many of its characters). It reminded me strongly of Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men, which I saw much earlier and was no doubt influenced by the earlier film. Both center on two men, one a coolly intelligent, emotionless sociopath and the other a spineless weasel who functions as his sidekick/patsy, and we observe, helpless, as they scheme to ruin the life of a woman. Mackendrick’s film may include fewer four-letter-words, but the dialogue cuts every bit as deep." ~ Jason Alley

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid)

"What Deren does with Meshes of the Afternoon is to perceive the violence both self-inflicted and otherwise in one woman's life through ground-breaking filmmaking techniques and attention to objects. Meshes uses a dream sequence of repetition and complex layering to introduce the possibilities of one woman and the difficulties of trying to break through a mirror, or in this case a house." ~ Willow Maclay

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)

“Calling The Maltese Falcon a perfect movie is something of a double-edged sword, if one means to split hairs. Its leanness, precision, ceaseless forward motion, and quotability leave little room for the kind of artistic and dramatic risks that characterize swing-for-the-fences auteurist masterpieces, to say nothing of dramatic depth. On the other hand, perfect." ~ Danny Bowes

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

“It really does seem like one of those instances of catching lightning in the world's most sad and turbulent bottle. It's a film that crawls all over me every time I watch it. It preys on the inherent voyeurism of my love of cinema. It impresses me with its honesty.” ~ Cole Roulain

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: The General (1927, Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman)

“The General is not beloved because of its politics, message, or heaven forefend its modernism, the most dubious of its merits. It's beloved because ninety years after its release, it stands as a model of creativity, narrative efficiency and spectacle. It's beloved because of the sophistication of its filmmaking... It's beloved because in our CGI world the staging of its stunts is even more breathtaking. It's beloved because its extraordinary discipline makes it may be the greatest game of 'Cause and Effect' ever filmed. And yes, it's beloved because it is funny." ~ Bryce Wilson

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)

“David Lean, who’d later enjoy great renown for his epics, builds this story out of tiny pieces: sips of brandy, cups of tea, a crossword puzzle, a sewing basket. All these things that would never merit remembering if your heart wasn’t breaking at the time. Lean’s storytelling is stingy with neither its attention nor its sympathy. Moral judgment is absent from the film. In its place is a gentle curiosity, open to all of the positive and negative consequences that infidelity might yield." ~ Alice Stoehr

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard)

“I don’t think cinema would be the same without Godard, and Godard would’ve definitely been a different kind of artist without Breathless. There’s the sensation that everything is lying down, as if the director and everyone else when the cameras weren’t rolling, they just were rolling over beds, not because of how lazy they were, but due to the sensation of effortless relaxation that turns the images into the most daring pictures conceived until that point in French cinema." ~ Jaime Grijalba

Click here for the full review.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)

“There is so much to adore about All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk’s 1955 tale of a love affair between a socialite (Jane Wyman) and younger gardener (Rock Hudson). The acting is top-notch... The crazy-artificial sets, particularly Cary’s house, are outstanding... And, Jesus, the colors!... But for me, it’s Sirk’s use of space that defines ATHA and marks it as one the greatest films ever made." ~ Kent M. Beeson

Click here for the full essay.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski)

“How can you reconcile the man who depicts a woman driven insane by preying men with such empathy and the man who himself preyed on a young girl? Because Repulsion is extremely empathetic toward Carol, and lets us understand just how oppressive the male gaze can feel. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Deneuve in the lead: she's brittle and wide-eyed, but also impassive when you expect it least. In many ways Carol is the monster of this movie. However, Deneuve never lets her become just that: the multiple murders she commits are not rational, but they are in some twisted way justified. ~ Hedwig van Driel

Click here for the full essay.