no, it’s pretty easy. just don’t be so general, ya know. like, here is a list of lists that would be ripe for discussion:
-Top Five Actors Named Robert
-Top Nude Scenes Involving Julianne Moore
-Top Three Twilight Films
-Top Four Movies Paul Rudd Will Be In This Year
see, now that narrows it down a little. makes it slightly easier to come up with concise, unarguable lists.
It can be a very difficult task, which is why I always have a sort of revolving list of favorites. I don’t think I could ever definitively create a top ten list that I would be satisfied with for the rest of my life, because my tastes are always changing. Sure there are films I will always return to time and time again, but I find this to be quite regressive in the long run. Every time I think I’ve hit the wall and said to myself “Well, that’s it. There’s nothing new for me to discover,” I’m proven wrong and new discoveries become favorites. You only live once and there’s so many films to see, so I find it best not to dwell on a handful of films that you consider ‘The best of the best.’
Free association is arguably the greatest process of list-making because it is backed up by the idea that whatever the topic brings up for you on-the-spot does in fact represent your association with that list. So, whereas asking someone “What is your top five favorite movies?” can cause people to panic, I just throw out the first stuff that comes to my head
Performance
Peeping Tom
Tetsuo: the Iron Man
Requiem for a Dream
The Incredibles
And then, if I feel like it, I edit and go over and see if those are representative. But that’s overthinking a rather arbitrary question anyway.
There are some movies I hold aside for such uses because they are movies I’ve watched many times, analyzed closely, and know a lot about so can talk about and defend to length. These include such titles as L’Eclisse, Sherlock Jr., and Sans Soleil. Thus, those titles inordinantly manage to appear on lists of my making. Are they my absolute favorite movies of all time? Arguably, I have found much more enjoyable and even better made movies out there. However, those are the ones that I independently decide to privilege because I feel like it.
—PolarisDiB
Yes, I’m finding it virtually impossible to create a top list, but probably for reasons entirely different from yours. You see, after clicking the “create” button I get this message:
“1 error prohibited this list from being saved
There were problems with the following fields:
I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing wrong and would appreciate help.
I would always start with your movies of the year and get a site that can show you all the movies of that year like http://www.flickchart.com/ or http://rateyourmusic.com/ or http://www.netflix.com/ . Then after that you can go by decade, genre, moments, performances, etc.
If your problem is just a technical one then something maybe wrong with your browser or computer.
I haven’t, but I’ve always been a list maker, going back to childhood, but a list is an everchanging thing, and a document of the moment. Once upon a time Star Wars was my favorite movie, but I got older and my taste changed.
Yeah, I can definitely make specific top lists.
Top Films Directed by Forough Farrokhzad
Top Performances by Nadine Nortier
Top Miike Films featuring Incest, Necrophilia, and Drug Use
Balder Straat, i’m not sure what’s going wrong for you, but usually all you need do is complete the title and add a film as the first on the list, then you can add however many films you want (and whenever)
You can do lists of favourites, whether by year, decade, country, genre, director, star, or else a general reference library type list by subject that interests you, beyond personal favourites (e.g films with trains, not favourite films with trains). You can do fun stuff, leaving a sense of your personality, as well as serious lists, and pictures seem to go down well too, as well as making lists more interesting to create
I’ve given up on classifying. When I make a list, I make one in no particular order. I just won’t use numbers.
PS: If you were talking about making a list on this site, I have no idea.
I’m a diverger. If I made a top 10 list, I would have to leave the #1 and #10 spot open. If someone said that is a top 8 list, I would have to withdraw the list.
Indeed, it is impossible.
edit: there are lists on this site ?!?
I’ve only created one real ranking list, and I disclaim two things:
1. They’re not “top” or “best” films at all, just some of my favorite.
2. That the ranking is largely meaningless.
Also, that list is completely outdated and even more meaningless after seeing some 108 films for the Cup so far (many of which were new to me).
Still, making that list was both frustrating and fun.
Jye, I think of films that I really liked or made the most impact on my life. It’s really easy to like a film here or there. But if you think of a film over time and it stays with you, chances are you’ll be able to list it on your favorites. There are some films that lose their flavor over time and it’s okay to take those off your list.
Thank you for all your responses.
For starters….no, I’m not talking about lists on this site. So your comments are valid.
I agree that a list is an ever changing thing, but I simply struggle to get one going in the first place. If I could do that, changing it, hopefully wouldn’t be as big a deal.
In fact, while writing this I’ve just had an idea.
Thanks, people….you never know, you might get a top list from me sometime soon.
Cheers!
I sit down to write a ‘top 10’ list sometimes.
As I start to write, I figure I’ve seen quite a few more Japanese films, than anything else, so I might as well write a top 10 list for Japan and a top 10 list for ‘not Japan’. Except of course, that’s not very fair, so I write up a ‘top 10’ for all the countries I’ve seen more than ten films from. Of course, that’s also quite a lot.
Then I figure, a top ten of directors might work better. So I draw up a top ten of Japanese directors. Followed by a top ten for each director. Followed by a top ten for all the films I like from directors with less than 10 films.
Then, of course, I need a top 10 of ‘number 11s’ because there’s always a crisis when it comes to choosing number 10.
Repeat for each country I’ve seen more than 10 directors from.
Draw up lists for countries I’ve seen less than 10 directors from
etc
etc…
I tend to end up a list of about 600 movies I like. Then I agonize over some of the choices and realize there’s a lot more films I like that I didn’t list.
Useless, of course, but writing lists is just such fun so I do it anyway.
The funny thing is, I do have one or two that I consider my ‘favorite’ films of all time. But after lots of time passes I watch them again and realize they aren’t really my favorite films any more. People change, films have less impact and films I ignored before become much more interesting.
It is hard to do.
There are so many genres, moods, styles…. often it’s like comparing apples and oranges…
It is easy as long as u dont care about what others think
There will be some movies that you love…. which aren’t considered “important” at all
I care not about important.
I spent months working on a write up for John Derek films (a bit of which I wrote on this site) for a eventual book. He is not considered important but I would chose his films over most. Important should not play into it, important to you only (in my opinion)
Again and again I have the same problem as formulated by Balder Strååt:
after having made my list and clicking the “create” button I get this message:“1 error prohibited this list from being saved
There were problems with the following fields:
This is very frustrating. I’ll have to remove one film from my list, try again, again error, add the removed film, try another film, push create, again error, etc. till I have remove the right movie and he accepts my list. When I edit my list and add the removed film, then there is no problem.
Jye Sherwell
I’ve tried time and time again to create some form of top list and I just can’t seem to do it!
Please vent if you have a similar problem.
Or if you’re able to create a top list, please tell me how you managed to do so.