In 2010 we added Livejournal’s 100 Best Russian Movies. At the time we thought it was a poll. Recently, it came to our attention that it is mostly a personal list - only 29 of the 100 films were voted on, and the other films were either selected by the blog author or suggested by readers (without a vote).
Click here for details about how the Livejournal list was made
kermit73 posted a list of 80 films, which he created himself.
Many people suggested changes to the list (which films to add or remove). Based on these suggestions, kermit73 made some changes. kermit73 decided on his own which changes to make.
a. 49/80 films were kept on the list, without a vote.
b. 14/80 films were removed, without a vote.
c. 17/80 films were voted on (7/17 made the final top 100).
d. 22 suggested films were added to the list, without a vote.
kermit73 posted 7 polls, where people voted for their favorites in different categories. The 7 polls included 65 films in total (17 from the original list + 48 from suggestions).
a. 29/65 films got enough votes and made the final list (7 from the original list + 22 from suggestions).
In summary, the final top 100 includes 49 films the original list (not voted on), 7 films from the original list (voted on), 22 films from suggestions (not voted on), and 22 films from suggestions (voted on).
One of our rules is that a personal list cannot be official, so we are considering replacing the Livejournal list with Empire Russia’s 100 Best Russian Films: Readers’ Choice, voted by readers of the Russian edition of Empire (a film magazine). As it was voted by the public, it provides a different perspective than the Russian Guild list, which was voted by critics.
But first we want to ask, how do you feel about this replacement?
Are there other Russian lists that we should consider?
Please explain your choice, because the decision will be based not only on votes, but also the discussion.
I like the Empire List, since it provides a public perspective (as you guys have acknowledged) and because it was compiled at a later date and therefore has more recent films - and hence more breadth - than the Livejournal list.
Yes, I would be fine with Empire replacing Livejournal. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to vote on the matter. It’s always nice when we are consulted as active users of the site (it was disappointing not having a say when the IndieWire female directors list was replaced).
I voted for replacement in general. I don’t mind if it’s the Empire list or another one, as long as it’s a decent list that the mods think fits all criteria like representativeness etc.
Oh, and please don’t adopt lists with films that have only one or two votes.
I don’t think any of the Russian lists we’ve encountered so far are polls with one- or two-vote films. Empire doesn’t indicate how many votes each film received, but it’s clear from the intro blurb that there were many votes.
The other lists all appear to be curated ones from various publications. If anyone has other Russian lists that we may have missed, please do share
That doesn’t mean we don’t like your reply Tina!
Yes, a few well known films are not on Empire, or on Livejournal, or on the list you link to (if only because the total amount of movies on it is smaller), this is always a problem, even the best list is often not perfect.
This is why we try to be a bit stingent when it comes to how the list was made / the source, which is what mjf314 is hinting at. We do appreaciate people trying to bring something new to the table (and/or have a stern look at what we bring to the table), so, thanks
(I do however agree with mjf that this list will not be a better option in this case)
To clarify my earlier post: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a TSPDT-style list, but I don’t think there’s much benefit in adopting a TSPDT-style list for each country, because you could simply go to TSPDT’s website and sort by country.
Thanks for mentioning this and welcome to the forum! Sure hope you’ll share other good ideas in the future.
I see two other mods have mentioned their thoughts on the list you linked. I know we talked about a number of Russian lists and can’t remember if this was mentioned. If, for some reason, we’re still looking for a Russian list, we’ll consider it though, as explained, it’s not really what we look for in a “country list”.
