Year By Year: Favourites

By: trolley freak

A list of my personal favourite films for each year from 1921 onwards, likely to change the more films I see…

The Apartment (1960). My favourite film of the Swinging Sixties…

1921 The Kid (Dir: Charlie Chaplin) Runner-Up: Never Weaken (Dir: Fred C. Newmeyer)
1922 Cops (Dir: Buster Keaton/Edward F. Cline) Runner-Up: Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Dir: Fritz Lang)
1923 Safety Last! (Dir: Fred C. Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
1924 The Thief Of Bagdad (Dir: Raoul Walsh)

The Kid (1921). This superior comedy drama is Chaplin’s first feature length film…

1925 The Freshman (Dir: Fred C. Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
1926 The General (Dir: Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
1927 Sunrise (Dir: F.W. Murnau) Runner-Up: Metropolis (Dir: Fritz Lang)
1928 The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (Dir: Carl Theodore Dreyer) Runner-Up: Spies (Dir: Fritz Lang)
1929 Blackmail (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)

The Freshman (1925). Starring my favourite silent comedian, the great Harold Lloyd…

1930 All Quiet On The Western Front (Dir: Lewis Milestone) Runner-Up: Under The Roofs Of Paris (Dir: Rene Clair)
1931 M (Dir: Fritz Lang) Runners-Up: A Nous La Liberte (Dir: Rene Clair), Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (Dir: Rouben Mamoulian)
1932 The Most Dangerous Game (Dir: Irving Pichel/Ernest B. Schoedsack) Runner-Up: The Music Box (Dir: James Parrott)
1933 King Kong (Dir: Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack) Runner-Up: The Invisible Man (Dir: James Whale)
1934 It Happened One Night (Dir: Frank Capra) Runners-Up: The Thin Man (Dir: W.S. Van Dyke), It’s A Gift (Dir: Norman Z. McLeod)

King Kong (1933). The definitive monster movie…

1935 The 39 Steps (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runner-Up: An Inn In Tokyo (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu)
1936 A Day In The Country (Dir: Jean Renoir) Runners-Up: The Only Son (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu), The Crime Of Monsieur Lange (Dir: Jean Renoir)
1937 The Prisoner Of Zenda (Dir: John Cromwell) Runners-Up: Humanity And Paper Balloons (Dir: Sadao Yamanaka), Make Way For Tomorrow (Dir: Leo McCarey)
1938 Bringing Up Baby (Dir: Howard Hawks) Runner-Up: The Adventures Of Robin Hood (Dir: Michael Curtiz/William Keighley)
1939 Only Angels Have Wings (Dir: Howard Hawks) Runners-Up: The Wizard Of Oz (Dir: Victor Fleming), The Rules Of The Game (Dir: Jean Renoir)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939). My favourite film of the 1930’s…

1940 Rebecca (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runners-Up: His Girl Friday (Dir: Howard Hawks), The Bank Dick (Dir: Edward F. Cline)
1941 The Maltese Falcon (Dir: John Huston) Runners-Up: Citizen Kane (Dir: Orson Welles), Ball Of Fire (Dir: Howard Hawks)
1942 Casablanca (Dir: Michael Curtiz) Runners-Up: To Be Or Not To Be (Dir: Ernst Lubitsch), The Magnificent Ambersons (Dir: Orson Welles)
1943 Shadow Of A Doubt (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runners-Up: Day Of Wrath (Dir: Carl Theodore Dreyer), Le Corbeau (Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot)
1944 Double Indemnity (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runners-Up: To Have And Have Not (Dir: Howard Hawks), Laura (Dir: Otto Preminger)

The Maltese Falcon (1941). A quite brilliant directorial debut…

1945 Les Dames Du Bois Du Boulogne (Dir: Robert Bresson) Runners-Up: Scarlet Street (Dir: Fritz Lang), Brief Encounter (Dir: David Lean)
1946 It’s A Wonderful Life (Dir: Frank Capra) Runners-Up: The Big Sleep (Dir: Howard Hawks), The Best Years Of Our Lives (Dir: William Wyler)
1947 Odd Man Out (Dir: Carol Reed) Runners-Up: The Lady From Shanghai (Dir: Orson Welles), Out Of The Past (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
1948 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (Dir: John Huston) Runners-Up: The Fallen Idol (Dir: Carol Reed), Key Largo (Dir: John Huston)
1949 The Third Man (Dir: Carol Reed) Runners-Up: Late Spring (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu), Stray Dog (Dir: Akira Kurosawa)

The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948). So many masterpieces were made in the 1940’s. This might be the best of the lot…

1950 Rashomon (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runners-Up: Sunset Blvd. (Dir: Billy Wilder), In A Lonely Place (Dir: Nicholas Ray)
1951 The African Queen (Dir: John Huston) Runners-Up: Ace In The Hole (Dir: Billy Wilder), Strangers On A Train (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
1952 Ikiru (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runners-Up: The Life Of Oharu (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi), Casque d’Or (Dir: Jacques Becker)
1953 Tokyo Story (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu) Runners-Up: Ugetsu (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi), The Wages Of Fear (Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot)
1954 Rear Window (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runners-Up: Sansho The Bailiff (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi), Seven Samurai (Dir: Akira Kurosawa)

Rear Window (1954). Possibly my favourite of this decade…

1955 The Night Of The Hunter (Dir: Charles Laughton) Runners-Up: Floating Clouds (Dir: Mikio Naruse), Rififi (Dir: Jules Dassin)
1956 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (Dir: Don Siegel) Runners-Up: Street Of Shame (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi), A Man Escaped (Dir: Robert Bresson)
1957 12 Angry Men (Dir: Sidney Lumet) Runners-Up: Throne Of Blood (Dir: Akira Kurosawa), Sweet Smell Of Success (Dir: Alexander Mackendrick)
1958 Touch Of Evil (Dir: Orson Welles) Runners-Up: Vertigo (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock), A Time To Love And A Time To Die (Dir: Douglas Sirk)
1959 Some Like It Hot (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runners-Up: North By Northwest (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock), Imitation Of Life (Douglas Sirk)

The Night Of The Hunter (1955). One directorial credit; one masterpiece. Not a bad strike rate…

1960 The Apartment (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runners-Up: Le Trou (Dir: Jacques Becker), Psycho (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
1961 Yojimbo (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runners-Up: The End Of Summer (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu), El Cid (Dir: Anthony Mann)
1962 Harakiri (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi) Runners-Up: An Autumn Afternoon (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu), Cape Fear (Dir: J. Lee Thompson)
1963 High And Low (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runners-Up: The Great Escape (Dir: John Sturges), Alone On The Pacific (Dir: Kon Ichikawa)
1964 That Man From Rio (Dir: Philippe de Broca) Runners-Up: Onibaba (Dir: Kaneto Shindo), Woman In The Dunes (Dir: Hiroshi Teshigahara)

Yojimbo (1961). One of so many brilliant Kurosawa films…

1965 Red Beard (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: Kwaidan (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi)
1966 Red Angel (Dir: Yasuzo Masumura) Runners-Up: Irezumi (Yasuzo Masumura), Au Hasard Balthazar (Dir: Robert Bresson)
1967 Samurai Rebellion (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi) Runners-Up: In Cold Blood (Dir: Richard Brooks), Bonnie And Clyde (Dir: Arthur Penn)
1968 Planet Of The Apes (Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner) Runners-Up: Once Upon A Time In The West (Dir: Sergio Leone), Petulia (Dir: Richard Lester)
1969 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Dir: Peter Hunt) Runners-Up: Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (Dir: George Roy Hill), Army Of Shadows (Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville)

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). The only great Bond film and my favourite film from the year I was born…

1970 The Honeymoon Killers (Dir: Leonard Kastle) Runners-Up: Dodes’ka-den (Dir: Akira Kurosawa), A Swedish Love Story (Dir: Roy Andersson)
1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Dir: Robert Altman) Runners-Up: The Merchant Of Four Seasons (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Straw Dogs (Dir: Sam Peckinpah)
1972 The Godfather (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola) Runners-Up: Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (Dir: Werner Herzog), The Bitter Tears Of Petra von Kant (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
1973 Don’t Look Now (Dir: Nicolas Roeg) Runners-Up: The Wicker Man (Dir: Robin Hardy), Day For Night (Dir: Francois Truffaut)
1974 Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder) Runners-Up: Martha (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Alice In The Cities (Dir: Wim Wenders)

Don’t Look Now (1973). Possibly the best film of the 1970’s…

1975 Jaws (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runners-Up: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Dir: Milos Forman), Fox And His Friends (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
1976 Taxi Driver (Dir: Martin Scorsese) Runners-Up: All The President’s Men (Dir: Alan J. Pakula), The Man Who Fell To Earth (Dir: Nicolas Roeg)
1977 Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runners-Up: Stroszek (Dir: Werner Herzog), Demon Seed (Dir: Donald Cammell)
1978 Halloween (Dir: John Carpenter) Runners-Up: Days Of Heaven (Dir: Terence Malick), Superman (Dir: Richard Donner)
1979 Alien (Dir: Ridley Scott) Runner-Up: ‘10’ (Dir: Blake Edwards)

Jaws (1975). ’We’re gonna need a bigger boat…’. The greatest summer blockbuster of them all…

1980 The Elephant Man (Dir: David Lynch) Runners-Up: Bad Timing (Dir: Nicolas Roeg), Kagemusha (Dir: Akira Kurosawa)
1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runners-Up: Gregory’s Girl (Dir: Bill Forsyth), Southern Comfort (Dir: Walter Hill)
1982 Blade Runner (Dir: Ridley Scott) Runner-Up: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
1983 Local Hero (Dir: Bill Forsyth) Runner-Up: Heat And Dust (Dir: James Ivory)
1984 This Is Spinal Tap (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runners-Up: Paris, Texas (Dir: Wim Wenders), Crimes Of Passion (Dir: Ken Russell)

The Elephant Man (1980). John Hurt is brilliant in Lynch’s best film…

1985 Ran (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runners-Up: Back To The Future (Dir: Robert Zemeckis), Insignificance (Dir: Nicolas Roeg)
1986 Stand By Me (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runners-Up: Jean De Florette/Manon Of The Spring (Dir: Claude Berri)
1987 Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Dir: John Hughes) Runners-Up: The Princess Bride (Dir: Rob Reiner), No Way Out (Dir: Roger Donaldson)
1988 Frantic (Dir: Roman Polanski) Runner-Up: A Short Film About Love (Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski)
1989 Crimes And Misdemeanors (Dir: Woody Allen) Runners-Up: Do The Right Thing (Dir: Spike Lee), The War Of The Roses (Dir: Danny DeVito)

Ran (1985). The final masterpiece from a remarkable career…

1990 Misery (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runner-Up: Goodfellas (Dir: Martin Scorsese)
1991 JFK (Dir: Oliver Stone) Runner-Up: The Silence Of The Lambs (Dir: Jonathan Demme)
1992 Reservoir Dogs (Dir: Quentin Tarantino) Runner-Up: The Crying Game (Dir: Neil Jordan)
1993 Groundhog Day (Dir: Harold Ramis) Runner-Up: Schindler’s List (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
1994 Pulp Fiction (Dir: Quentin Tarantino) Runner-Up: Chungking Express (Dir: Wong Kar-Wai)

JFK (1991). Stone’s best film by a country mile…

1995 Toy Story (Dir: John Lasseter) Runner-Up: Se7en (Dir: David Fincher)
1996 Trainspotting (Dir: Danny Boyle) Runner-Up: Fargo (Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen)
1997 Fireworks (Dir: Takeshi Kitano) Runner-Up: The Ice Storm (Dir: Ang Lee)
1998 The Truman Show (Dir: Peter Weir) Runner-Up: A Simple Plan (Dir: Sam Raimi)
1999 American Beauty (Dir: Sam Mendes) Runner-Up: Eyes Wide Shut (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)

Toy Story (1995). A film for children of all ages…

2000 Thirteen Days (Dir: Roger Donaldson) Runner-Up: Cast Away (Dir: Robert Zemeckis)
2001 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runner-Up: The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Dir: Peter Jackson)
2002 The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (Dir: Peter Jackson) Runner-Up: Far From Heaven (Dir: Todd Haynes)
2003 Touching The Void (Dir: Kevin Macdonald) Runner-Up: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Dir: Quentin Tarantino)
2004 2046 (Dir: Wong Kar-wai) Runner-Up: Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Dir: Quentin Tarantino)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Kubrick’s idea, seen to completion by Spielberg. Good job done…

2005 Brokeback Mountain (Dir: Ang Lee) Runner-Up: Hidden (Dir: Michael Haneke)
2006 The Lives Of Others (Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) Runner-Up: Apocalypto (Dir: Mel Gibson)
2007 Lust, Caution (Dir: Ang Lee) Runner-Up: No Country For Old Men (Dir: Joel and Ethan Coen)
2008 In Bruges (Dir: Martin McDonagh) Runner-Up: Revolutionary Road (Dir: Sam Mendes)
2009 The Road (Dir: John Hillcoat) Runner-Up: Up (Dir: Pete Docter)