Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Grand Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir)

“Based on the experiences of a flyer he knew during the war, Renoir’s La Grande Illusion is unquestionably one of the masterpieces of the silver screen, a film of incredible humanity set during a period of great inhumanity. In short, it’s probably the greatest anti-war film ever made (for me a flat footed tie in that regard with Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front), a film that cannot help but move people every time they see it."

~ Sam Juliano

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Coming tonight at 9:00 PM: believe it or not, our next inductee will be the first Best Picture Oscar-winner we’ve inducted since our inaugural year. However, it may not be the film you’re guessing…

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Point Blank (1967, John Boorman)

“Start watching Point Blank at any point in the movie and you'll immediately be able to tell that it was made in the latter half of the sixties... at the same time, a good fifty years on, the film feels startlingly modern. The past bleeds into the present, just as sound from one scene will bleed into another. Words are repeated, or sometimes omitted altogether; images are refracted."

~ Hedwig van Driel

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Coming tomorrow at 7:00 PM: A humanist classic from one of cinema’s true masters.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow)

"Films like this ask us to practice our gaze, literally, to get used to looking at the world, aware of every second going by. This is a lot to ask of human beings and so avant-garde cinema scares people. Meaning hides from plain sight, time ticks away, and we're watching something that doesn't resemble other films but instead resembles us. Breathing, blinking, organically functioning, going nowhere in a hurry, and getting there with only the accumulation of time arming us against the inevitable disappointment of returning to reality."

~ Scout Tafoya

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Coming tonight at 9:00 PM: the Muriels HOF honors a badass classic as laser-focused as its hero.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Scorpio Rising (1963, Kenneth Anger)

Note: in a change from previous years, there was a separate category on this year's ballot for short films. This will be the first of several short films we've inducted this year. 

"Anger captures the solitary pleasures of assembling a persona, focusing on the reverie of the ritual. With Scorpio Rising, Anger once again begins by again fetishizing vanity... The camera watches as they assemble their custom bikes, chrome additions glistening in Anger’s loving light."

~ Kevin Cecil

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Coming tomorrow at 7:00 PM: we pay tribute to a true masterpiece of its kind, and a fundamental building block of a broad-based cinematic education.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Freaks (1932, Tod Browning)

“The film implicitly offers the uneasy exploitative thrills of a traveling freak show from its cast of known attractions, to its title and its sensational carnival barker opening moments which literally busts through the screen at you. But once it gets going, its perspective on its performer characters shows that exploitation is certainly not the first thing Browning had in mind. Browning, who ran away to work in the circus at 16, first and foremost sees the ‘freaks’ as people."

~ Patrick J. Miller

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Coming tonight at 9:00 PM: we honor our first short film of the year, a rockin’ tribute to bad boys and their toys.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)

“It’s impossible to imagine today: a studio greenlights a big-budget fantasy adapted from a popular series of books... Multiple directors come and go on the project, and one of the lead actors is replaced after filming has begun after the demands of the production literally make him sick... The production goes over budget and schedule, goes through reshoots and, after test screenings, is substantially recut. When it’s released, it gets generally warm reviews but fails to turn a profit. A couple of decades later, it’s one of the most iconic movies of all time."

~ Andrew Bemis

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Coming tomorrow at 7:00 PM: one of the great outliers of 1930s Hollywood gets the Hall of Fame treatment.

Muriels Hall of Fame, Class of 2018: Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)

Welcome one and all to our annual Muriels Hall of Fame inductions. We started these festivities as a way for our loyal Muriels voters to remain active in the summertime (if they so desired), while honoring the great films of the past. And now, after six years, I think we've amassed a fairly good canon of movies, if I do say so myself!

Anyway, we'll begin in our usual fashion, by inducting the most recent winner of the 50th Anniversary Muriel Award. Check back at 7 PM and 9 PM every night for the next week or so for our latest honorees!

“In the category of ‘super-expensive personal visions that basically ruined a director's career,’ Play Time is hard to beat, leading Tati into debt for the rest of his life. And yet, what a glorious folly, a quiet, delicate symphony about the absurdity of everyday urban life that rewards patient observance and attention to tiny details, from the smirk of a waiter to the buzz of a neon light.”

~ Jeff McMahon

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Coming tonight at 9:00 PM: one of the most beloved movies in Hollywood history finally gets some Muriels Hall of Fame attention.