Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: Is Rating Films Actually Worthwhile Communication?

09/01/21 • 82 min

Get out your spreadsheets fellow film nerds, this episode is dedicated to you!

It will for once be decided if the answers are truly written in the stars, or if the good old 10/10 system is more than enough.

In our effort to discover the best rating systems and make sense of some of the universe's greatest questions we will also, of course, insult every fan of Rotten Tomatoes and At the Movies.

IMDb's 10/10 scale vs. Letterboxd's 5/5 scale will be examined, and hell, even good old Criticker will get a mention.

We will also discuss some of the rarer and dear systems, such as the classic Norwegian die role, and ask: just extreme can we be.

Don't be surprised, some of us have used the 100/100 scale, and there are still active promoters of 20/20.

Above all though, we will ask the key question: Are ratings actually a worthwhile form of communication?

Get out your spreadsheets fellow film nerds, this episode is dedicated to you!

It will for once be decided if the answers are truly written in the stars, or if the good old 10/10 system is more than enough.

In our effort to discover the best rating systems and make sense of some of the universe's greatest questions we will also, of course, insult every fan of Rotten Tomatoes and At the Movies.

IMDb's 10/10 scale vs. Letterboxd's 5/5 scale will be examined, and hell, even good old Criticker will get a mention.

We will also discuss some of the rarer and dear systems, such as the classic Norwegian die role, and ask: just extreme can we be.

Don't be surprised, some of us have used the 100/100 scale, and there are still active promoters of 20/20.

Above all though, we will ask the key question: Are ratings actually a worthwhile form of communication?

Previous Episode

Interview with Adam Torel, Head of Third Window Films

In this episode we sit down with independent Japanese cinema producer and distributor Adam Torel, the Head of Third Window Films, to hear about his upcoming films, his work with Shinya Tsukamoto and Sion Sono, and what it takes to get people to watch independent cinema in Japan. The answer to the latter in particular may both shock and entice you.

Next Episode

The Minimalist World of Robert Bresson

How much can you strip away? How far can you go? Robert Bresson did not just create his own cinematic language. He created his own cinematic ideology - striving to tear film away from the theatre, strip away all artifice and create something you could only experience through cinema.

Over his 13 feature films, and one standalone short, his career spanned from 1934 to 1983. In this episode, we will talk you through each and every single one of his films, look at what they minimised, try to understand why and above all try to express just how it makes us feel - and why it works ... or doesn't.

This is the story of how Bresson became Bresson, and how his minimalist world developed, evolved, reached dead ends and rejuvenated itself.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
02:26 - Our first reaction to seeing a Bresson film
03:25 - Bresson, the canon and the French New Wave
07:21 - Things to Know Before Seeing Your First Bresson
10:59 - Short film: Affairs Publique
14:45 - Angels of Sin
18:10 - Les dames du Bois de Boulogne
22:40 - Diary of a Country Priest
29:05 - A Man Escaped
37:04 - Pickpocket
47:46 - The Trial of Jean of Arc
54:24 - Au hasard Baltazar
1:02:32 - Mouchette
1:10:46 - A Gentle Woman
1:21:17 - Four Nights of a Dreamer
1:28:00 - Lancelot du Lac
1:32:38 - The Devil Probably
1:35:55 - L'Argent
1:51:07 - Filmmakers Inspired by Bresson