Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#45)

It's the Sunday Showdown: continuing my comparison of the American Film Institute's and Internet Movie Database's Top 100 films. 

#45: AFI's Shane vs. IMDb's Amelie

Alan Ladd as Shane

I had never seen the 1953 Western Shane.  I liked it a great deal, despite not being a huge fan of the genre as a whole. It’s an intelligent Western  -- no singing cowboys, no silliness. Shane is archetypal: severe in fights, gentle with women and children, loyal to friends, unforgiving of himself and his past.  The setting is Wyoming and its scenic beauty is glorious to behold. A great Western.

But it’s up against the French foreign film Amelie. I have difficulty coming up with enough adjectives to describe Amelie: sweet, blissful, romantic, charming, silly, rich, imaginative, sensuous, playful.  I guess if I had to choose just one, it would be: adorable.

The joy of  watching Audrey Tautou

I believe if this movie had come out a year earlier than it did, it would’ve been a runaway hit in American theaters as well as world-wide. Unfortunately, it released in November 2001, a mere two months after 9/11.

There wasn’t much room in anyone’s vocabulary, cinematic or otherwise, for words like playful, charming and adorable.

But coming back to it again, I loved it. I love the

One of the sweetest, most romantic scenes of any films

romance of it. I love just about every expression on Audrey Tautou’s quirky little face. I love the playfulness of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s direction. I love how the whole film is a delightful little scavenger hunt.

Amelie makes me smile. (A blessed reprieve from most of films on this list.)

So for this week, my vote goes to IMDb’s Amelie. The first vote in a long time for IMDb.

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDb’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
	34	25
#11	City Lights (1931)	LoTR: Return of the King (2003)
#19	On the Waterfront (1954)	LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
#31	The Maltese Falcon (1941)	LoTR: The Two Towers(2002)
#45	Shane (1953)	Amelie (2001)
#46	It Happened One Night (1934)	Alien (1979)
#47	A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)	Wall E (2008)
#48	Rear Window (1954)	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
#49	Intolerance (1916)	The Shining (1980)
#50	LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	Spirited Away (2001)
#51	West Side Story (1961)	Paths of Glory (1957)
#52	Taxi Driver (1976)	A Clockwork Orange (1971)
#53	The Deer Hunter (1978)	Double Indemnity (1944)
#54	M*A*S*H* (1970)	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
#55	North by Northwest (1959)	The Pianist (2002)
#56	Jaws (1975)	The Lives of Others (2006)
#57	Rocky (1976)	The Departed (2006)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#59	Nashville (1975)	City Lights (1931)
#60	Duck Soup (1933)	Aliens (1986)
#61	Sullivan's Travels (1941)	Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
#62	American Graffiti (1973)	Requiem for a Dream (2000)
#63	Cabaret (1972)	Das Boot (1981)
#64	Network (1976)	The Third Man (1949)
#65	The African Queen (1951)	L.A. Confidential (1997)
#66	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	Reservoir Dogs (1992)
#67	Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)	Chinatown (1974)
#68	Unforgiven (1992)	The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
#69	Tootsie (1982)	Modern Times (1936)
#70	A Clockwork Orange (1971)	Life is Beautiful (1997)
#71	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	Monty Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
#72	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	Back to the Future (1985)
#73	Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969)	The Prestige (2006)
#74	Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
#75	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	Raging Bull (1980)
#76	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77	All the President’s Men  (1976)	Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78	Modern Times (1936)	Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79	The Wild Bunch (1969)	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80	The Apartment (1960)	Rashomon (1950)
#81	Spartacus (1960)	All About Eve (1950)
#82	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)	Amadeus (1984)
#83	Titanic (1997)	Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84	Easy Rider (1969)	The Green Mile (1999)
#85	A Night at the Opera (1935)	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86	Platoon (1986)	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Goodfellas (1990)	Up (2009)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

 Next week is The Philadelphia Story vs. Vertigo. It's not the only time in the countdown that Jimmy Stewart will be up against himself. But it's going to be tough.