Irreversible
because it shows what film is as a voyeuristic experience and account. And with doing that we, as voyeurs, are responsible for what we see.
oh yeah, and Ed Wood pops in my head too
Man, that’s a tough one, there’s plenty of them, and I suppose that with perfect, you mean perfect, so I’m going to put myself in the risk of being heavily criticized, but I think Casino is one, because it takes the Goodfellas formula, (which, by the way is another perfect film, so basically I’m speaking for both films) and takes it beyond, I mean, it’s more stylized and the script seems to take on more themes, like consumerism and corporations ripping traditions apart. On the other hand there’s Raging Bull, which has some beautiful imagery, and the script, as Roger Ebert put it is kind of the Italian-American version of Othello, and to me, it’s the deepest exploration Scorsese has done on himself and his people. Anyway, by now, everyone must know I’m a Scorsese fanboy, so I think I’ll have to add Amelie by Jean Pierre Jeunet, Kubrick’s 2001, Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, and, of course, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. I could go on for hours and even days if I explained why each film is perfect, so, as I said before, there’s plenty.
My textbook answer:
If there is such thing as a perfect film, then it is a mediocre one. Only something completely muddled and mundane can achieve perfection with it. Greatness is achieved through cinematic risk and honesty, and that will ultimately hardly ever be perfect.
My cinema loving answer:
I’d have to agree with THE APARTMENT.
“The Man Who Wasn’t There” by the Cohen Brothers
Children of Paradise
Wayne’s World
Kids
La Haine
True Romance
Rules of The Game
400 Blows
All Perfect in their own little way, like Zen and the Art they each have different qualities that fit the ever changing perception of perfection
M and Goodfellas
Amadeus, Psycho, and The Vanishing
“Magnolia” P.T.A.
:)
Eternal Sunshine has beautiful moments
Red Beard
Fitzcaraldo
Short Cuts
Andrei Rublev
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
Ikiru, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, (Akira Kurosawa)
M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
Raging Bull, Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd, A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)
…and some Hitchcock…
Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca, Rope, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train
… and some Kubrick…
2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, The Killing , Barry Lyndon
…and some Chaplin…
City Lights, The Great Dictator, Modern Times , The Gold Rush, The Kid, Shoulder Arms
… and if I were totally honest…
Star Wars (4), Forbidden Planet, There Will be Blood, This is Spinal Tap, The Life Aquatic, The Princess Bride (sigh)
Mulholland drive, lost highway, eraserhead
y tu mama tambien
the lives of others
persona, seventh seal
Citizen Kane
All The Real Girls – (David Gordon Green)
its quite an honest movie. its pace flows like a river; siren at times, rapid and rough at others, nearly freezes, but in the end a calms once again.
I never tire of Besson’s “The Professional.” I always find myself believing that this may be the time that Leon gets away …
“Brief Encounter”.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Surprisingly, even though it isn’t even on my list of my very favorite films, ‘Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior’ was the first movie that I thought of. No joke. It’s just visceral, and if the final chase scene doesn’t get your heart pumping, you probably don’t have a pulse to begin with.
David Fincher’s “Fight Club”
Everything & everyone at there career best.
Seven Samurai is the first that comes to mind, I’d go so far as to say it’s possibly the greatest piece of narrative fiction ever produced.
Other perfect films would include Woman in the Dunes, Eyes Wide Shut, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Branded To Kill, The Shining, Evil Dead II, Harakiri, Un Chien Andalou.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, City of God, and Come and See all stand out in my mind.
Mulholland Drive
Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind
Annie Hall
Vertigo
Sansho the Bailif
anything by Bresson
Scenes from a Marriage
8 1/2
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
All that Heaven Allows
Murmur of the Heart
Rules of the Game
I’m about to turn 23 years old tomorrow. I’ve been a movie fan since I was a child, I’ve been a movie lover since I was thirteen, I’ve seen a couple thousand movies in my day and try not to use the word “perfect” too lightly. Like “brilliant” or “genius,” I think it gets used to the point of devaluing it. So I’ve thought long and hard about this question, and when I say this particular movie is “perfect,” I really mean it in the literal definition of that word.
Of every movie I’ve ever seen, the only movie I’d call “perfect” would be Godfrey Reggio’s KOYAANISQATSI.
Though THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is a close, close second :)
The Godfather, Part II
Nashville
8 1/2
Raging Bull
Le Feu Follet
The Rules of the Game
Being There
A few come to mind, but the first one is La Dolce Vita, which unfortunately isn’t a Criterion film, but here are some more that are in the collection:
Au Hasard Balthazar
Tokyo Story
Wings of Desire
Le Feu Follet
I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a 100-percent-perfect film, but here are the ones that I think come close:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – I’ve seen this film at least 20 times and it still draws an emotional response every time I watch it.
The Royal Tenenbaums & Rushmore – Wes Anderson has the extraordinary gift of being able to craft films that are both dramatic and comedic, and he perfectly creates some of the most endearing and quirky characters.
The Philadelphia Story – The combination of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart is in itself impressive, but the incredibly witty dialogue is the major selling point for me.
The Third Man was the very first film that came to mind.
Although I won’t pretend that The Man With Two Brains is the apex of cinema, I think it is a perfect model of its kind and, in terms of pure rewatchability, it is close to perfect in my eyes. Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick is another one that I hold up as an example of seamless genre filmmaking.
Shawshank Redemption is so simply directed, and so elegantly acted. It’s just a beautiful film.
Rear Window. The perfect suspense film.
E.H.L.
days of Heaven-Terence Malick’s landscape cinematography is so memorable and stunning yet the setting taking place in a desperate time makes this the perfect film!