These are just my 100 Favorite Films of all-time. I made this list the other day and figured I’d post it on here just for the hell of it.
Comments? Was there anything I left off?
BOB’S HUNDRED+ FAVOURITE FILMS – 2009 version – I had this all ready just for this thread!
1. 8 ½ – Fellini
2. 1000 Clowns
3. 2001
4. Accident
5. Adam’s Rib
6. After the Fox
7. Apocalypse Now Redux
8. Arsenic and Old Lace
9. Ashes and Diamonds
10. At the Circus
11. A Beautiful Mind
12. Beauty & the Beast
13. Being There
14. Bell, Book and Candle
15. Big Lebowski
16. Billy Liar
17. Black Narcissus
18. Blowup
19. Bringing Up Baby
20. Casablanca
21. Christmas Story
22. Citizen Kane
23. Clockwise
24. Closely Watched Trains
25. Dead of Night
26. Desert Bloom
27. Desk Set
28. Draughtsman’s Contract
29. Dr. Strangelove
30. Enchanted Cottage
31. Fanny & Alexander
32. Fantasia
33. Five Easy Pieces
34. Forbidden Planet
35. Gone With the Wind
36. The Graduate
37. Grapes of Wrath
38. Harry Potter films
39. The Haunting
40. Heavenly Creatures
41. Hiroshima, Mon Amour
42. Holiday
43. Horsefeathers
44. The Iceman Cometh
45. Idiot’s Delight
46. The Innocents
47. Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion
48. It’s a Wonderful Life
49. Jules and Jim
50. Ladykillers
51. Last Wave
52. Last Year at Marienbad
53. Lawrence of Arabia
54. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
55. Long Day’s Journey into Night
56. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
57. The Loved One
58. Man Who Came to Dinner
59. Man Who Could Work Miracles
60. Marat/Sade
61. Metropolis
62. Midnight Cowboy
63. The Misfits
64. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
65. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
66. Monty Python & the Holy Grail
67. My Dinner with Andre
68. My Fair Lady
69. Night at the Opera
70. Night of the Iguana
71. Nostalghia
72. Odd Man Out
73. The Party
74. The Philadelphia Story
75. Picnic at Hanging Rock – Peter Weir
76. Play It Again, Sam
77. Portrait of Jennie
78. Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
79. Raising Arizona
80. Rear Window
81. Room with a View
82. Rosemary’s Baby
83. Rashomon
84. Ruling Class
85. Sacrifice
85a Secret Life of Walter Mitty
86. The Shining
87. A Shot in the Dark
88. Some Like It Hot
89. Stairway to Heaven (aka A Matter of Life and Death)
90. Stalker
91. A Streetcar Named Desire
92. The Third Man
93. Trip to Bountiful
94. Unbearable Lightness of Being
95. Vertigo
96. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
97. Wild Strawberries
98. Wings of Desire
99. Wizard of Oz
100. World of Henry Orient
Oh sweet! Now people can compare and contrast.
Wow, you really did have that ready quick. I seriously only made this thread, closed a link, opened this one back and your list was there.
No Dreyer?
I’d put Passion of Joan of Arc maybe around 136 (rough guesstimation) and Vampyr around 300.
I’ll probably make 101-200 sometime and put it on here.
I would have to put “High Noon” somewhere on the list.
@ Bob
I’ve never even heard of a lot of the movies on your list. I’ll probably use it as a reference for future viewing.
Jake : I really liked your list too, as it had your personal picks and not just the predictable ‘greatest’ films types. There are many here I could have included too – like Talented mr. Ripley, Werkmeister Harmonies, etc. – on my 100, too. My list of current favourites is about 200 to 250 and ever growing. Keeping it at anything arbitrary is hard, isn’t it? Maybe we shoudl just give up and post them all for our fellow cinephiles to tear apart, eh?
Agreed, good sir.
101 – 200
101. Apocalypse Now
102. North By Northwest
103. Raiders of the Lost Ark
104. Mulholland Drive
105. The Brood
106. A Christmas Story
107. Jaws
108. The Magnificent Seven
109. The Great Dictator
110. Andrei Rublev
111. Schindler’s List
112. Die Hard
113. Ninotchka
114. The Man Who Knew Too Much (w/ Jimmy Stewart)
115. Tokyo Story
116. Brand Upon the Brain!
117. Memento
118. Contempt
119. M.
120. The Philadelphia Story
121. Inland Empire
122. Castle In the Sky
123. Reservoir Dogs
124. Stranger Than Paradise
125. Aladdin
126. Amarcord
127. Princess Mononoke
128. The Squid and the Whale
129. Nosferatu (Murnau)
130. City of God
131. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
132. Barry Lyndon
133. Finding Nemo
134. Videodrome
135. My Neighbor Totoro
136. The Passion of Joan of Arc
137. Lost In Translation
138. Seven
139. Kill Bill Vol. 1
140. High Noon
141. Aliens
142. Being John Malkovich
143. Do the Right Thing
144. Dazed and Confused
145. Harold and Maude
146. The Piano
147. The Big Lebowski
148. Ikiru
149. Malcolm X
150. Nights of Cabiria
151. Traffic
152. The Sacrifice
153. Waking Life
154. The Lady Vanishes
155. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
156. The Five Obstructions
157. Spartacus
158. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
159. A Streetcar Named Desire
160. Amadeus
161. Spellbound
162. Sullivan’s Travels
163. Bottle Rocket
164. Down By Law
165. Toy Story 2
166. The Burmese Harp
167. Equinox
168. Shoot the Piano Player
169. Scarface (w/ Al Pacino)
170. Juliet of the Spirits
171. Ivan’s Childhood
172. Rebel Without a Cause
173. Wooden Crosses
174. Flowers of St. Francis
175. Dirty Harry
176. Platoon
177. The Breakfast Club
178. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
179. Vanilla Sky
180. Fight Club
181. American Splendor
182. Wall-E
183. Blast of Silence
184. The Birds
185. Three Colors : Blue
186. Paths of Glory
187. The Aviator
188. Planet of the Apes
189. Body Heat
190. Donnie Darko
191. Perfect Blue
192. Alphaville
193. Leaving Las Vegas
194. 24 Hour Party People
195. Rope
196. Manhattan
197. Samurai I : Musashi Miyamoto
198. Sideways
199. Signs
200. Stop Making Sense
Ha! Exactly at 136.
I dunno about myself; While I admire almost all pictures, I have an undeniable respect for almost none of them. Me? I could barely list five, not to say a hundred.
PERFORMANCE
BLUE VELVET
RAGING BULL
THE DEVILS
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE
TAXI DRIVER
VAMPYR
THE BLUE BIRD
MONA LISA
MANHATTAN
ANNIE HALL
SALVADOR
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
ANIMAL HOUSE
LAST TANGO IN PARIS
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS
BARRY LYNDON
P’TANG YANG KIPPERBANG
BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING
WEEKEND
CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH
REPO MAN
DIVA
LA BALANCE
LEAVING LAS VEGAS
THE TENANT
WENT THE DAY WELL?
AFTER HOURS
VIDEODROME
THE RED BALLOON
I’M ALRIGHT JACK
TWO WAY STRETCH
ANIMAL HOUSE
THE GODFATHER II
THE EXORCIST III
DUCK SOUP
ASHES AND DIAMONDS
HAROLD AND MAUDE
LA DOLCE VITA
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
TOKYO STORY
WHERE’S POPPA?
L’AVENTURA
STRAW DOGS
RAN
PINK FLAMINGOES
DO THE RIGHT THING
BEING THERE
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY
THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE
UNFORGIVEN
RASING ARIZONA
THE EVIL DEAD
LOST IN TRANSLATION
VERTIGO
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER
BRAZIL
KING KONG (33’ VERSION)
BREATHLESS (59’ VERSION)
ZODIAC (FINCHER VERSION)
SCARFACE (DE PALMA)
THE DEER HUNTER
BLADE RUNNER
THREE COLOURS: RED
TWELVE ANGRY MEN
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
CLAIRE’S KNEE
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS
SIXTEEN CANDLES
probably not a hundred and there’s loads I’ve missed. Lists….. eh?
OK -this is the granddaddy (or mother of all) lists (subject to expansion but not much contraction), since we have given up keeping it to just a 100, eh Jake? Sorry to duplicate my list above here, but too much effort to pull those out. Read ‘em and weep (if you haven’t seen a lion’s share). I promise this is the LAST big list I will post. Let the blood-letting begin as to what was included or left out – but it is MY list, so there!
8 1/2
400 Blows
1000 Clowns
2001
Accident
Adam’s Rib
After the Fox
African Queen
After Hours
Age of Innocence
Aguirre: Wrath of God
Alfie (original)
All about Eve
All Quiet on the Western Front
Alphaville
Amadeus
Apocalypse Now Redux
Archangel
Arsenic and Old Lace
Ashes and Diamonds
At the Circus
L’Avventura
Babette’s Feast
Battleship Potemkin
A Beautiful Mind
Beauty & the Beast
Being John Malkovich
Being There
Bell, Book and Candle
Big Lebowski
Billy Liar
Black Narcissus
Blowup
Bonny & Clyde
Breaking the Waves
Brief Encounter
Bringing Up Baby
Burnt by the Sun
Carnival of Souls
Casablanca
Chariots of Fire
Children of Paradise
Christmas Story
Citizen Kane
Clockwise
Closely Watched Trains
Colour of Pomegranates
Come and See
The Conversation
Cranes are Flying
Daisies
Dead Again
Dead of Night
Dekalog – Kieslowski
Delicatessen
Desert Bloom
Desk Set
Don’t Look Now
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Spencer Tracy version)
Dr. Strangelove
Draughtsman’s Contract
L’Eclisse
Educating Rita
Elvira Madigan
Empire of the Sun
Enchanted Cottage
The Entertainer
Fanny & Alexander
Fantasia
A Fish Called Wanda
Five Easy Pieces
Forbidden Planet
Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Georgy Girl
Getting of Wisdom
Gone With the Wind
The Graduate
Grand Illusion
Grapes of Wrath
Hamlet (both Olivier & Branagh versions)
Harold & Maude
Harry Potter films
The Haunting
Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Heavenly Creatures
Henry V (Branagh version)
High Noon
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Holiday
Horse Feathers
I Never Sang for My Father
The Iceman Cometh
Idiot’s Delight
Ikiru
Images
I’m All Right Jack
In a Lonely Place
The Innocents
It’s a Wonderful Life
Invaders from Mars – 1950s version
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – 1950s version
Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion
It Happened One Night
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jane Eyre (O. Welles version)
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring
Jules and Jim
Kind Hearts & Coronets
King of Hearts
The Knack
Kwaidan
La Dolce Vita
Ladykillers
Last Picture Show
Last Tango in Paris
Last Wave
Last Year at Marienbad
Lawrence of Arabia
Legend of Suram Fortress
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Long Day’s Journey into Night (K. Hepburn/R. Richardson version)
Look Back in Anger
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Loved One
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Maltese Falcon
Man Who Came to Dinner
Man Who Could Work Miracles
Marat/Sade
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven aka)
Meet John Doe
Memento
Metropolis
Midnight Cowboy
Mirror
The Misfits
Mishima
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
Modern Times
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Mulholland Drive
My Dinner with Andre
My Fair Lady
My Brilliant Career
My Left Foot
My Life as a Dog
My Man Godfrey
Nasty Girl
National Velvet
Never on Sunday
Night at the Opera
Night of the Iguana
Nostalghia
Notorious
Now, Voyager
Odd Man Out
Only Two Can Play
Ordet
Orpheus
The Party
Passage to India
Passion of Joan of Arc
Persona
The Philadelphia Story
The Pianist
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picture of Dorian Gray
Play It Again, Sam
The Pointsman
Portrait of Jennie
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Prospero’s Books
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raging Bull
Raising Arizona
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rebecca (Hitchcock version)
Rebel without a Cause
The Red Shoes
Red Sorghum
Richard III (Ian McKellen version)
Room with a View
Rose Marie
Rosemary’s Baby
Ruling Class
Sacrifice
Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
Schindler’s List
Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Seventh Seal
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shine
The Shining
A Shot in the Dark
Snow White
Some Like it Hot
The Southerner
Spellbound
Stalker
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sullivan’s Travels
Sundays and Cybele
Sunset Boulevard
Talented Mr. Ripley
Taxi Driver
The Thin Man & After the Thin Man
Third Man
Three Colours: Red, White and Blue
Titanic (yes, film snobs – I liked it – Kate Winslet/DeCaprio – what’s not to like?)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Trial
Trip to Bountiful
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Two Women
Umberto D.
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Vertigo
A Walk in the Sun
Werckmeister Harmonies
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wild Strawberries
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Oz
Woman in the Dunes
World of Henry Orient
Wuthering Heights (Olivier version)
Young Frankenstein
Z (Costa-Gavras)
Zentropa
Zorba the Greek
You know, this is beginning to resemble a thread I recently started on what should be included in a ‘film canon’, as there are certain films we all seen to love and share. But it is all personal isn’t it, because we also have films that we wouldn’t put on our lists, because we don’t like them as much as others (not talking about those we haven’t seen yet). I, for a good example, do not have Godfather on my list and have left out some biggies like Annie Hall or Manhattan in favour of an Allen small film like Play it Again, Sam (not even directed by him). I must admit to have put the odd film on there that I have yet to see, but have only seen in bits, like Passion of Joan, because I would feel really dumb (on this site) leaving it out. Otherwise, it is an honest list. If we could get a sampling of lists, we could see what keeps showing up on everyone’s list and get a true 100, right? I know we are re-inventing the wheel, as these types of lists are all over the site, but what better way to start the new year? I wonder what films we will add if we did this next year?
I am only including films which I have seen on this list. Next year I’m sure it will change. However, there a many films on this list which will always be included.
Top 100
1. Seven Samurai
2. Ugetsu
3. Raging Bull
4. Sansho the Bailiff
5. Rules of the Game
6. Bicycle Thieves
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc
8. The Battleship Potemkin
9. The Seventh Seal
10. La Strada
11. Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein
12. To Kill a Mocking Bird
13. Citizen Kane
14. 8 1/2
15. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
16. Army of Shadows
17. La Jetee
18. Woman in the Dunes
19. Days of Heaven
20. The Hidden Fortress
21. The Third Man
22. Killer of Sheep
23. No Country for Old Men
24. Stagecoach
25. Rashomon
26. Before the Rain
27. M
28. Snow White
29. The Leopard
30. Pandora’s Box
31. Schindler’s List
32. Ran
33. King Kong (1933)
34. Spirit of the Beehive
35. The Adventures of Robin Hood
36. Dr. Strangelove
37. The Burmese Harp
38. Planet of the Apes (Charlton Heston)
39. Stranger than Paradise
40. The Battle of Algiers
41. Ikiru
42. Star Wars (first film)
42. Pan’s Labyrinth
43. Wages of Fear
44. The Sting
45. The Fugitive (Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones)
46. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955)
47. Eraserhead
48. Fargo
49. Lord of the Rings (Fellowship, Two Towers and Return of the King)
50. Henry V (Laurence Olivier)
51. La Bete Humaine
52. Maltese Falcon
53. Wings of Desire
54. Paris, Texas
55. Notorious
56. Harlan County, U.S.A.
57. A Hard Day’s Night
58. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
59. Alien
60. Yi Yi
61. Don’t Look Back
62. Young Mr. Lincoln
63. Halloween
64. The Vanishing
65. 400 Blows
66. Brazil
67. The Gods Must Be Crazy
68. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
69. Naked
70. Toy Story
71. The Last Waltz
72. Cool Hand Luke
73. A Clockwork Orange
74. Grapes of Wrath
75. Dracula (Bela Lugosi)
76. In Cold Blood
77. Alphaville
78. City of God
79. Network
80. Rocky (first film)
81. Koyaanisqatsi
82. The Fog of War
83. Last Stand of the 300 (History Channel documentary)
84. Slacker
85. Hiroshima Mon Amour
86. 2001 A Space Odyssey
87. House of Games
88. Dog Day Afternoon
89. All the President’s Men
90. Million Dollar Baby
91. Se7en
92. Enter the Dragon
93. Onibaba
94. Rififi
95. Ivan’s Childhood
96. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
97. A Shot in the Dark
98. Robocop
99. The 39 Steps
100. Mon Oncle
It’s pretty impossible to come up with a top 100 anything, even by yourself.
No order and about 30 not 100:
2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
A Clockwork Orange
Annie Hall
The Apartment
Apocalypse Now
Barry Lyndon
Citizen Kane
Dr. Strangelove
Eyes Wide Shut
Fargo
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
GoodFellas
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Mean Streets
Midnight Cowboy
On the Waterfront
Persona
Psycho
Raging Bull
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rope
The Searchers
Seven Samurai
The Seventh Seal
Some Like It Hot
Sunset Blvd.
Taxi Driver
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
Self Indulgence in No order. This is all I got so far.
Loulou
Fantastic Planet
The Passion of Joan of Arc
L’enfant
La Strada
Within Our Gates
Elephant (both versions)
Bully
Scenes From a Marriage
Born On the Fourth of July
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Naked
A Woman Under the Influence
A Tale of Floating Weeds
Short Cuts
Forbidden Games
Jaws
Gate of Flesh
Topsy Turvy
The Untouchables
Stolen Kisses
King of Kings
The Mission
Shadows
Where is the Friend’s House
Phantom India
Meantime
Bowling for Columbine
Vagabond
Husbands
L’argent
Edvard Munch
Diabolique
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Tales of Hoffman
in no particular order
1. Dead Man
2. Eraserhead
3. Coffy
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Frankenstein(1931)
6. Bottle Rocket
7. Carnival of Souls
8. Dawn of the Dead(1979)
9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974)
10. Edward Scissorhands
11. The Fly(1958)
12. The Third Man
13. Jackie Brown
14. Dracula(1931)
15. E.T.
16. The Royal Tenanbaums
17. Peeping Tom
18. Enter the Dragon
19. Ed Wood
20. Down By Law
21. Pink Flamingos
22. The Godfather
23. The Godfather Part II
24. The Empire Strikes Back
25. Dog Day Afternoon
26. Taxi Driver
27. 2001 A Space Odyssey
28. Jaws
29. The Bride of Frankenstein
30. The Wolf Man
31. Kill Bill Vol 1
32. Kill Bill Vol 2
33. Sisters
34. Psycho
35. The Nightmare Before Christmas
36. Female Trouble
37. Pecker
38. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
39. Young Frankenstein
40. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
41. The Filth and the Fury
42. Wild at Heart
43. The Virgin Suicides
44. A Clockwork Orange
45. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
46. Boogie Nights
47. The Warriors
48. Switchblade Sisters
49. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
50. Foxy Brown
51. Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill
52. Rumble Fish
53. Lost Highway
54. The Creature from the Black Lagoon
55. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
56. King Kong(1933)
57. Blade Runner
58. The Blob(1958)
59. Night of the Hunter
60. Charade
61. The Shining(1980)
62. The French Connection
63. Mean Streets
64. Rear Window
65. Gojira
66. Eyes Without a Face
67. Se7en
68. Bonnie and Clyde
69. Zombie
70. Suspiria
71. Black Sunday(1960)
72. Rushmore
73. Blue Velvet
74. A Nightmare on Elm St.
75. Death Race 2000
76. Rock ‘N’ Roll High School
77. Spider Baby
78. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
79. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
80. Serpico
81. Mars Attacks!
82. Casablanca
83. The Dark Knight
84. Eyes Wide Shut
85. This Island Earth
86. The Day the Earth Stood Still(1951)
87. Forbidden Planet
88. Cars
89. A Fistful of Dollars
90. For a Few Dollars More
91. Plan 9 From Outer Space
92. Tarantula
93. Gummo
94. A Christmas Story
95. The Masque of the Red Death
96. The Wizard of Oz
97. The Road Warrior
98. Raiders of the Lost Ark
99. White Zombie
100. Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein
So far, I’ve only seen “M” on two of these lists above, and in one of them it landed between 100 and 200. Here’s my top 100:
1. “M”
Anyone else can fill in the other 99 blank spaces.
This is tough…
you gotta be kidding me…I can never come up with one.
I was going to post a separate thread to this same effect….. guess I’m glad I don’t have to…. if they are ranked, I think you can learn a lot more about someone based on their 97th favorite film than their 2nd or, even 1st. Those are the ones outside the canon that just stick with you.
I’ve kept a list as a hobby for a few years, updating when I feel strongly that something should be included, something moved down, something deleted. This is the most recent.
1. SATANTANGO
2. VERTIGO
3. RAGING BULL
4. WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
5. INSTRUCTIONS FOR A LIGHT AND SOUND MACHINE
6. MAN OF THE WEST
7. TASTE OF CHERRY
8. KILLER OF SHEEP
9. THE BED YOU SLEEP IN
10. LES CARABINIERS
11. EYES WIDE SHUT
12. TROPICAL MALADY
13. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
14. CINEMASCOPE TRILOGY: L’ARRIVEE, OUTER SPACE, DREAM WORK
15. HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED
16. AMADEUS
17. THE NAKED SPUR
18. JESUS’ SON
19. LE TROU
20. THE OLD DARK HOUSE
21. TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER
22. OUR HOSPITALITY
23. PIECE TOUCHEE
24. SHADOW OF A DOUBT
25. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
26. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
27. THE AFRICAN QUEEN
28. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
29. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
30. THE WALKING DEAD
31. BULLY
32. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
33. THE SON
34. STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.
35. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
36. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (Don Siegel)
37. MONSIEUR VERDOUX
38. THE CAMERAMAN
39. FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL
40. THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER
41. ON DANGEROUS GROUND
42. WAXWORKS
43. JULIEN DONKEY-BOY
44. L’ATALANTE
45. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
46. THE RULES OF THE GAME
47. JURASSIC PARK
48. NAKED LUNCH
49. THE CELEBRATION
50. MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON
51. TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
52. NIGHTMARE ALLEY
53. THE RED AND THE WHITE
54. THE PASSENGER
55. THE SET-UP
56. ARMY OF SHADOWS
57. THE SACRIFICE
58. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE
59. SWEET MOVIE
60. THE SECOND CIRCLE
61. THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT
62. CRUMB
63. MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
64. FLAMINGO ROAD
65. ALONE. LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY
66. HAXAN
67. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
68. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES
69. THE BODY SNATCHER
70. THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
71. SUNRISE
72. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
73. RASHOMON
74. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
75. PALINDROMES
76. AN UNSEEN ENEMY
77. BATMAN RETURNS
78. GILDA
79. ANNABELLE SERPENTINE DANCE
80. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR
81. FLOATING WEEDS
82. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
83. COSMIC RAY
84. WINTER LIGHT
85. THE PIT, THE PENDULUM AND HOPE
86. THE WEEPING MEADOW
87. GUMMO
88. DAY OF WRATH
89. BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
90. THE WURDULAK
91. KING KONG (Peter Jackson)
92. PASSAGE A L’ACTE
93. L’ENFANT
94. MY BROTHER’S WEDDING
95. KING LEAR (Kozintsev)
96. REPORT
97. THE WIRE: SEASON 4
98. A ROUGH SKETCH FOR A PRPOPOSED FILM DEALING WITH THE POWERS OF TEN AND THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THINGS
IN THE UNIVERSE
99. LE CORBEAU
100. HE GOT GAME
and one extra:
101. NAKED CITY: PRIME OF LIFE (single episode of 50’s television show)
Les Carabiniers is great, I love that film.
Nice! I love seeing stuff like He Got Game, The Warriors, Batman Returns (are you sure you mean the penguins-with-missiles-on-their-backs one?), The Fly and The Fugitive on these lists. Those movies deserve to be recognized because of their undeserved neglect from film critics in all their snobby lists! Well, other than Batman Returns of course – that can’t even crack the top 100 batman movie list!
I’d have to say the winner is the Scarier Frankenstein (is that a reference to the monster or the Death Race 2000 guy?) because he has Seven Samurai at #1 just like I would.
Bob – How dare you ignore Seven Samurai and still include Titanic in that top 5000 list of yours? Pure evil.
Jake – Your list is pretty good when you include the second 100. My list would be about 50 titles from each of your lists.
All the lists are significantly better than the IMDB top 100, so don’t be offended that I’m making fun of your choices, that’s the whole point of posting them after all. I’ve also made a few choice picks out of these for future viewing, so thanks to all!
Wow. How excessive and self-indulgent, I can’t resist. I took the easy way out and listed them alphabetically, though. Too much for my mind right now, lol.
1- The Addiction
2- Amarcord
3- Amor Bandido
4- Alphaville
5- Angel Face
6- Angst Essen Seele Auf
7- L’Atalante
8- Au Hasard Balthasar
9- Beau Travail
10- Berlin Alexanderplatz
11- Beware of a Holy Whore
12- The Birds
13- The Blood of a Poet
14- Blue Velvet
15- The Boys in the Band
16- Breathless
17- The Brood
18- Les Carabiniers
19- The Chelsea Girls
20- Contempt
21- Cruel Story of Youth
22- Despair
23- The Devil, Probably
24- Dishonored
25- La Dolce Vita
26- Do the Right Thing
27- Elephant
28- The Exterminating Angel
29- Fallen Angels
30- Fat Girl
31- Female Trouble
32- Fists in the Pocket
33- Flamingo Road
34- The Funeral
35- Gates of Heaven
36- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
37- Gerry
38- Gertrud
39- Get on the Bus
40- Gods of the Plague
41- Greed
42- In a Lonely Place
43- In a Year with Thirteen Moons
44- Inland Empire
45- In the Realm of the Senses
46- La Jetee
47- Johnny Guitar
48- Jules and Jim
49- Killer of Sheep
50- The Lady from Shanghai
51- L.I.E.
52- Lost Highway
53- Magnolia
54- Marnie
55- The Marriage of Maria Braun
56- Martha
57- Monkey Business
58- Morocco
59- Mr. Arkadin
60- Muriel
61- My Life to Live
62- La Notte
63- The Naked Kiss
64- Only Angels Have Wings
65- Pandora’s Box
66- The Passion of Joan of Arc
67- Persona
68- Pickup on South Street
69- Pierrot le Fou
70- Psycho
71- Rabbit’s Moon
72- Rashomon
73- Rocco and his Brothers
74- The Rules of the Game
75- Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
76- Satantango
77- Scorpio Rising
78- Senso
79- The Servant
80- Shock Corridor
81- Solaris
82- Sunrise
83- Sunset Boulevard
84- Sweet Bird of Youth
85- Tabu
86- Tarnished Angels
87- Taxi Driver
88- There Will Be Blood
89- They Live by Night
90- The Third Generation
91- This Is Not a Test
92- Time of the Wolf
93- Trash
94- Two Small Bodies
95- Les Vampires
96- Veronika Voss
97- Vertigo
98- Videodrome
99- Weekend
100- Werckmeister Harmonies
101- The Weird World of L.S.D.
102- Wild Strawberries
103- The Wounds
104- The Wrong Man
105- Zero for Conduct
Justin….. good to see Flamingo Road getting the love. I read once it was Fassbinder’s favorite film of all time, and it definitely is not hard to see why. I’m ashamed to admit my unfamiliarity with a lot of the Fassbinder on yr list….. I know the man through reference materials, and I know some of the films (the most obscure I’ve seen is Love is Colder than Death, which I actually liked more than Ali) but haven’t dug deep enough.
Elephant is a movie that I am forced to defend so often….. I can’t understand it, there seems so little to dislike about it. I really liked The Wounds as well….. that’s a film and filmmaker that aren’t widely circulated and/or discussed.
I feel that I must come to the defense of Batman Returns. I think that it is on a very very short list of movies that really understand the appeal of comic books. The movie has fun, is campy and action packed. It’s morbid, self-obsessed, surreal and absurd. It’s the perfect amalgamation of the tones and themes of the great superhero comics. Instead of literalizing the hell out of inherently goofy and fantastical material (unlike the joyless and brainless Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Spiderman)….. it’s the only comic book movie that I feel takes place in the comic book universe. Too many of the superhero movies make the mistake of situating their stories in “the real world,” which, to my way of thinking, only makes them pathetic and awkward. Embrace the comic book sensibility, the juxtapositions of insanity and social commentary! The colors! The unrealistic outfits! The faux-existentialism! Simplistic depictions of sex and romance! But the film does all of these things without stooping to the idiotic and offensive depths of Sin City (the movie and the books….. both annoying and misanthropic tripe, the former moreso than the latter). It’s by far the pulpiest superhero flick, and therefore the best. The only other comic book movie that I think can seriously compare is X-Men 2…. but that’s a distant distant second. Superman and Superman II have the joviality, but not the brains.
There’s an exchange between Batman and the Penguin toward the middle of the movie where the Penguin says to Batman “you don’t think you’ll really win, do you?” Which is the perfect line to sum up the difference between comic books and movies based on comic books. The books will lay it out like that, the logic of heroes winning and villains losing…. whereas the movies prefer the pomposity of assuming their own importance in a gritty “real world.” Also, fittingly, the Penguin finishes this exchange by turning his umbrella into a miniature helicopter and fleeing the scene.
Fans of graphic novels are so happy now that superhero movies are being taken seriously….. but I think that the cost to the original material is too great…. a nasty piece of nihilistic garbage like The Dark Knight does not, to me, anyway, represent the best of what comic books have to offer. The same mainstream that champions The Dark Knight and Iron Man will continue to dog a character like Ant-Man, until they make a grandiose, self-righteous screen adaptation that betrays the spirit of the books. I’ll hold my breath on the Watchmen movie.
Vlad: I think it’s great the Gummo and A Christmas Story are side by side on your list…. I think ranking them makes it more fun, strange bedfellows result. Dead Man is definitely a fantastic #1 pick. and Jackie Brown being so high up makes me so happy! What a great fucking movie. I’d write Tarantino off entirely if not for that movie…. I don’t know how such a sensitive, deep film came out of the same guy that filmed Uma Thurman torturing people with a sword for four hours.
Sorry for being long-winded…… but Batman Returns is a masterpiece.
when did theauteurs.com start redirecting to imdb?
Patrick, thanks. Flamingo Road is a great Curtiz melodrama-noir, I much prefer it to his Mildred Pierce actually. Crawford is like a gritty angel in that one, with an unconscious and earthy tic of pulling a hair from the tip of her tongue when she’s anxious. Watch her closely. And Sidney Greenstreet with his pitchers of milk. It actually came in 4th on Fassbinder’s favorites list; his all time favorite was Visconti’s The Damned.
Love is Colder than Death is great, it’s very stylized. I’m in awe of that close-up of Ulli Lommel, nearly five mninutes long, looking like an angel with a weird aura around his head. The whole film falls in love with him just as Fassbinder’s character does. That kind of head-on, flattening perspective is one he uses in so many early films, making people look almost pinned down like bugs, just trapped and almost one-dimensional.
Elephant is a deeply subversive film. I’m not surprised a lot of people rankle at it. There are no clear cut good guys and bad guys. And in a school shooting massacre, the conventional (i.e., hypocritical) way of portraying it is: shooters evil, rest of the school good. From the very opening shot, of Tim Bottoms driving drunk and shearing off people’s side mirrors, Van Sant is saying, This is a fucked up community. And that feeling just grows and grows throughout the film. The other students are no more normal, and no less driven by private demons, than the two shooters. Kids wander alone down cavernous hallways, blurring into light and shade. The huge sprawling campus is an alienated space, and no one is actually doing schoolwork! That’s the film’s biggest affront.
The entrance of Benny, the tall black kid in the yellow shirt, parallels the entrance of Scatman Crothers deep in The Shining. We have a moment of thinking that this Benny will save the day somehow, but just like Crothers, Benny is killed very quickly and easily by the boys. Most shocking is when Alex shoots his best friend, and nothing is made of this moment from a psychological stand point — has the guy become just another target? Does he feel something more when he kills his friend? These disturbing questions are never answered. It’s like watching a video game with real characters and real consequences. In this sense, the film it reminds me of is also Cronenberg’s eXistenZ.
Jake Howell
1. Casablanca
2. The Shining
3. 8 1/2
4. Grand Illusion
5. Solaris
6. In the Mood For Love
7. The Thin Red Line
8. Picnic At Hanging Rock
9. Fargo
10. Boogie Nights
11. 2001 : A Space Odyssey
12. Barton Fink
13. Oldboy
14. Pulp Fiction
15. Werckmeister Harmonies
16. The Gold Rush
17. Goodfellas
18. The Seventh Seal
19. Chinatown
20. The Vanishing
21. La Dolce Vita
22. The Third Man
23. House of Games
24. No Country For Old Men
25. Magnolia
26. The Ruling Class
27. The Godfather
28. Toy Story
29. Dr. Strangelove
30. Army of Shadows
31. Diabolique
32. Russian Ark
33. Straw Dogs
34. Dead Ringers
35. Suspiria
36. The Godfather Part II
37. Rear Window
38. Robinson Crusoe On Mars
39. The Exorcist
40. Kagemusha
41. Pan’s Labyrinth
42. Don’t Look Now
43. Psycho
44. La Strada
45. Modern Times
46. Seven Samurai
47. The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King
48. Intolerance
49. A Clockwork Orange
50. Inferno
51. I’m Not There
52. Rosemary’s Baby
53. Annie Hall
54. The Night of the Hunter
55. Raging Bull
56. Sunset Boulevard
57. Closely Watched Trains
58. The Piano Teacher
59. L’ Avventura
60. Bicycle Thieves
61. Rashomon
62. American Beauty
63. Adaptation
64. Alien
65. Glengarry Glen Ross
66. Hard Boiled
67. The Lady Vanishes
68. Spirited Away
69. The Devil and Daniel Webster
70. Citizen Kane
71. The Lion King
72. King Kong
73. The Silence of the Lambs
74. Rebecca
75. Sanjuro
76. Fiend Without a Face
77. Stranger Than Paradise
78. The Hidden Fortress
79. The Birth of a Nation
80. Hamlet
81. Ripley’s Game
82. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
83. Naked Lunch
84. The Blob
85. Onibaba
86. Bowling For Columbine
87. Rushmore
88. Babel
89. My Darling Clementine
90. Once
91. Harvey
92. Children of Men
93. Dead Poets Society
94. Yojimbo
95. It’s a Wonderful Life
96. Airplane!
97. Singin’ In the Rain
98. Driving Ms. Daisy
99. Once Upon a Time In the West
100. The Talented Mr. Ripley