1. Good Will Hunting
2. Taste of Cherry
3. The Ice Storm
4. The Sweet Hereafter
5. Princess Monoke
6. Jackie Brown
7. Happy, Together
8. Gattaca
9. Lost Highway
10. Boogie Nights
btw I love these polls but I can only vote for 1994-2010 with a top ten so far making my way slowly but surely
Revised list:
1. Hana-Bi (Takeshi Kitano)
Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson)
Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell)
Funny Games (Michael Haneke)
The Game (David Fincher)
Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant)
Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage)
The Ice Storm (Ang Lee)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)
Kundun (Martin Scorsese)
Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Nil By Mouth (Gary Oldman)
Open Your Eyes (Alejandro Amenábar)
Oscar And Lucinda (Gillian Armstrong)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
I am apparently the ONLY person on this site who loves Wag the Dog! Must be the political junkie in me.
Princess Mononoke
Children Of Heaven
The Ice Storm
The Mirror
Gattaca
Boogie Nights and Jackie Brown are two of my all-time favorites… I could take or leave the rest.
Damn was ’97 a good year. I expanded this list to 15 just for some of the ridiculous choices.
1. Hana-bi (Kitano) Just barely edges out Mononoke. A surprisingly layered, beautiful and poignant film cut with vicious violence.
Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki) Miyazaki just captures nature and fantasy so amazingly well. I’m always surprised by how violent and effective the action scenes are in this film.
Chasing Amy (Smith) One of my favourite movies as a teenager before I really watched film. Still holds up.
L.A. Confidential (Hanson) Titanic performed a robbery.
Starship Troopers (Verhoeven) When I learned more about Verhoeven, I realized that he actually was an intelligent film maker who actually meant this amazingly efficient satire. Cult, action fun for the average man, great film making for everyone else.
Boogie Nights (Anderson) PT being PT. The acting is top notch and it’s one of the few porn films you’d ever (proudly) display in your collection.
Happy Together (Kar-wai) My man Tony Leung at the top of his game, as usual. Doyle shooting another incredibly beautiful film.
Men in Black (Sonnenfeld) A great popcorn flick from my youth. Big Willy Style and Tommy Lee with great chemistry.
In the Company of Men (LaBute) Men are sexist pigs, these guys embody the worst of that stereotype.
Grosse Point Blank (Armitage) Surprisingly funny hitman comedy. The shootout between Cusack and Aykroyd is excellent.
Orgazmo (Parker & Stone) I just can’t say no to these guys.
Insomnia (Skjoldbjærg) An interesting reverse noir. Replace shadows and darkness with extreme sunshine and brilliant white fog. Probably would go up the list after a re-watch.
Jackie Brown (Tarantino) Great soundtrack and Forster is excellent, but it’s the second worst Tarantino I’ve seen.
The Fifth Element (Besson) Over the top, ridiculous action film. Oldman being gloriously over the top.
Batman & Robin (Schumacher) Awesome drinking game.
Sorry for eligibility conflicts, I have taken the year of first PUBLIC RELEASE (sneaks, out-of-town tryouts and festival screenings don’t count; Academy Awards-qualifying runs do) except in case of films without commercial release (mainly shorts and documentaries).
Crash – 1996
Henry Fool – 1998
Love and Death on Long Island – 1998
Tren de sombras – 1998
1. As Good As It Gets
2. Good Will Hunting
3. Boogie Nights
4. The Ice Storm
5. Liar Liar
per Movieguide 1’s indications, my list again.
1. Happy Together — K.W. Wong
Le acrobate — S. Soldini
Airbag — J. Bajo Ulloa
El amor perjudica seriamente la salud — M. Gómez Pereira
Buenos Aires viceversa — A. Agresti
Character — M. van Diem
Contact — R. Zemeckis
Donnie Brasco — M. Newell
En la puta calle — Enrique Gabriel
Genealogies of a Crime — R. Ruiz
Jackie Browne — Q. Tarantino
The Island on Bird Street — S. Kragh-Jacobsen
L.A. Confidential — C. Hanson
Ma Vie en Rose — A. Berliner
La Moños — M. Ros
My Best Friend’s Wedding — P.J. Hogan
¿Quién diablos es Juliette? — C. Marcovich
Secretos del corazón — M. Armendáriz
The Sweet Hereafter — A. Egoyan
The Taste of Cherry — A. Kiarostami
1. Live Flesh
Amistad
The Boxer
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Titanic
Jackie Brown
Lolita
Face/Off
Princess Mononoke
Donnie Brasco
Open Your Eyes
Happy Together
Gattaca
Lost Highway
Jackie Brown
Open Your Eyes
The Taste of Cherry
As Good As It Gets
Boogie Nights
The Ice Storm
Live Flesh
The Fifth Element
Sorry beforehand to my previous statement, I was referring to my lack of 1939 knowledge, hehe.
It seems that this list like with the 1964 and 1939 one is going to be a predictable one in terms of top 10 material. Besides, i was never too warm with Boogie Nights and Ice Storm as “masterpieces” like others proclaim them to be (although they’re good films on their own) . Oh well, I’ll pick some new favorite choices too then as I did in 1964:
Top 15 (two films number 1 again to promote them)
1. 12 Storeys (Eric Khoo) / Mother of the Dunes (Abdoulaye Ascofaré)
Children of Heaven (Majid Majidi)
The Crazy Stranger aka Gadjo Dilo (Tony Gatlif)
Desert Sky (Nikos Kornilios)
Funny Games (Michael Haneke)
Gasman (Lynne Ramsay)
Happy Together (Kar-wai Wong)
The House (Sharunas Bartas)
Insomnia (Erik Skjoldbjærg)
The Kingdom II (Lars von Trier & Morten Arnfred)
The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov)
Princess Mononoke (Princess Mononoke)
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
Need to watch:
4 Little Girls (Spike Lee)
Brother (Aleksey Balabanov)
Buud Yam (Gaston Kaboré)
The Castle (http://mubi.com/cast_members/772
Character (Mike van Diem)
Cremaster 5 (Matthew Barney)
The Desert Ark (Mohamed Chouikh)
Destiny (Youssef Chahine)
Europa 54° 54’ – 25° 19’ (Deimantas Narkevicius)
Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
The Forbidden Woman (Philippe Harel)
Happy Birthday! (João Pedro Rodrigues)
Innocence (Zeki Demirkubuz)
Journey on the Hour Hand (Ömer Kavur)
The Life of Jesus (Bruno Dumont)
Labyrinth of Dreams (Sogo Ishii)
Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman)
Orbis Pictus (Martin Sulík)
The River (Ming-liang Tsai)
The Roe’s Room (Lech Majewski)
The Saltmen of Tibet (Ulrike Koch)
Timeless Bottomless Bad Movie (Sun-woo Jang)
Train of Shadows (José Luis Guerín)
The Well (Samantha Lang)
1997 was indeed a great year for film. Probably second best of the 90s.
I have no idea what film to pick #1 (it could be any of the top eight or so) so I’ll pick the one that impacted me the most when I saw it in theaters.
The Life of Jesus – Bruno Dumont
Funny Games – Haneke
Mother and Son – Sokhurov
Hana-Bi – Kitano
The Sweet Hereafter – Egoyan
Boogie Nights – PTA
Deconstructing Harry
Taste of Cherry – Kiarostami
Pizza Birra Faso – Caetano and Stagnaro
Jackie Brown – QT
Love and Death on Long Island – Richard Kwietniowski
Happy Together – Wong Kar Wai
Brother – Aleksei Balabanov
The River (Ming-liang Tsai)
Seventh Heaven – Jacquot
Nil by Mouth – Gary Oldman
The Blackout – Abel Ferrara
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control – Errol Morris
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs – Guy Maddin
Gummo – Harmony Korine
Junk Mail – Pal Sletaune
Wintersleepers – Tom Tykwer
LA Confidential – Hanson
The Ice Storm – Ang Lee
Addicted to Love – Griffin Dunne
Donnie Brasco – Mike Newell
A Life Less Ordinary – Danny Boyle
In the Company of Men – Labute
Abre Los Ojos – Amenabar
The Butcher Boy – Neil Jordan
Gattaca – Andrew Niccol
Oops, I seem to have listed 30.
Wow, Ari, how could I forget to add to my watchlist Junk Mail? Thanks for reminding, I deliberately focused on certain films here much like the 1964 list since I have too many omissions, sigh…
Wintersleepers and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs are some of the ones you listed too.
And folks…seriously…how can you love L.A. Confidential so much? It’s technically the “best” of Curtis Hanson, but still!!!!
LA Confidential is a film that is so unabashedly classicist and nostalgic for its particular time and place that it’s really quite seductive. Great filmmaking, no, probably not, but it’s hard not to like it, no? But I thought Wonder Boys is considered Hanson’s best film (although considering how far he’s dropped off in recent years there’s not too much competition).
It makes me happy that my most hated film of 1997 is not appearing too much – Life is Beautiful. Although competing with Good Will Hunting and Titanic, there were many personally irksome films that year.
Ari, I think that LA CONFIDENTIAL is still considered Hanson’s best film, for some reason. I find it as overrated as WONDER BOYS is underrated.
Checking out the lists above, there aren’t many films I give a damn about (Die BOOGIE NIGHTS, DIE!!), but I’ll go ahead and list:
THE SWEET HEREAFTER
THE ICE STORM
as the best of that year, along with the good bits of LOST HIGHWAY and CRASH.
“Checking out the lists above, there aren’t many films I give a damn about”
Man, Roscoe…you need to catch up on your 1997 watchlist if you think Ice Storm tops Pickpocket from Jia or The Mirror by Panahi ;)
And Crash is 1996!!!!! We’ve agreed on that already.
1. FUNNY GAMES
CHILDREN OF HEAVEN
BOOGIE NIGHTS
JACKIE BROWN
Wonderboys. I have fond memories, but I do also for LA Confidential (and I like 8-Mile, for the record ;)
Whatever, Dimitris. Can’t see everything. Glad you dug PICKPOCKET and MIRROR. Hadn’t heard of either of them.
I don’t see any particular agreement about CRASH being 1996. It was released in the US in 1997, so that’s when I saw it. But if you insist, I’ll remove the good parts of CRASH from my list. Or I would if I could edit the posting, so it will just have to stand as is.
Crash is officially 1996, I personally don’t give a rat’s ass about specific U.S. releases, it’s all about international basis! That’s one of the primary classification systems of any form of art, by their original years!
Sure you can’t see everything but don’t say stuff like “i wouldn’t give any damn about” without having seen at least half of the films on my list for example.
1. princess mononoke 2. l.a. confidential 3. good will hunting 4. cop land 5. wag the dog 6. grosse pointe blank 7. chasing amy 8. midnight in the garden of good and evil 9. boogie nights 10. all over me 11. lost highway 12. selena (shut up) 13. u turn 14. the ice storm 15. men in black 16. private parts (yes, i actually thought this was funny) 17. the matchmaker 18. the rainmaker 19. a life less ordinary 20. the fifth element (and this is actually last in line)
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, obviously, but am I the only one who thinks Chasing Amy is shite?
Lighten up, Dimitris. Who died and left you the arbiter of what may and may not be posted around here?
No one gets his tone. He IS lightened up.
House, I’d forgotten all about CHASING AMY. Easy to do, of course.
Dimitris’ tone is easily gotten.
“Who died and left you the arbiter of what may and may not be posted around here?”
I am not insulting your “supposed” personal life Roscoe, so please…stick to film arguments and STAY IGNORANT.
@house: yes. haha.
chasing amy has way huge flaws but the 18 year old me really liked it, a lot and the 31 year old me still has fond memories of the movie.
“bitch pressin’ charges?”
Sonja—I get that. I harbor love for film I saw at a young age that are indefensibly bad—Flash Gordon, anyone—and yet I’ll still defend them till the cows come home.
The Africa Film Project
1.Pickpocket – Zhia Zhangke
Gummo – Harmony Korine
I Went Down – Paddy Breathnach
Ice Storm – Ange Lee
In the Company of Men – Neil Labute
Kasaba – Nuri Ceylan
Life of Jesus – Bruno Dumont
Live Flesh – Pedro Almodovar
Lost Highway – David Lynch
Mother and Son – Alexander Sokurov
Nil By Mouth – Gary Oldman
the River – Tsai Ming Liang
Robinson In Space – Patrick Keiller
Sick the Life and Death of Bob Flanagan – Kirby Dick
Taste of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami
Under the Skin – Carine Adler