With July 4 just around the corner, Hollywood is now on vacation. That’s why the news has been so slow today and will be even slower tomorrow.
With that said, Michael Mann has just joined Letterboxd. His follower count should be exploding at any given moment. Quite amusing how the only account he’s so far following is Michael Mann Facts.
To celebrate the occasion, Mann has decided to list his “14 favorite films,” and they are …
“Battleship Potemkin” (Eisenstein)
“Dr. Strangelove” (Kubrick)
“Biutiful” (Inarritu)
“Raging Bull” (Scorsese)
“Incendies” (Villeneuve)
“Pale Flower” (Shinoda)
“L’Atalante” (Vigo)
“The Asphalt Jungle” (Huston)
“Poor Things” (Lanthimos)
“Apocalypse Now” (Coppola)
“The Sweet Smell of Success” (Mackendrick)
“The Hurt Locker” (Bigelow)
“Out of the Past” (Tourneur)
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (del Toro)
Back in 2012, Mann famously listed “Avatar” in his Sight and Sound top 10 ballot. It’s not on this updated list. In a 2023 interview, coincidentally enough, with Letterboxd, Mann stated that “Avatar” was “one of the best films ever made”. Also missing from his original list here are Welles’ “Citizen Kane” and Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc”
He’s replaced those titles with three modern-day films: Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker.”
If you’re looking for more top 10s from noted filmmakers, check out this compilation of over 100 filmmakers’ Sight and Sound ballots. Mann isn’t the only director with unusual selections. It’s a lot of fun going through some of these.
Kenneth Branagh’s list has “Cloud Atlas,” “Monster” and “Lady Bird.” Justin Kurzel’s top 10 list includes “Step Brothers.” If Terrence Malick had submitted a list, there’s a decent chance “Zoolander” might have been one of his 10 choices.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.