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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
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 Posted - 14/11/2013 : 02:10:35
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OK I was gonna give Ghcool's list a few more days to itself but it looks like others are making these lists too  so I'll get on with it. Here's my list. No inclusion rules; any movie I've seen from anywhere, anytime, any genre, ever, is up for grabs. This has nothing to do with most influential or important, this is nothing more or less than movies that made me think on any viewing (first or second or third etc) "Holy crap, this is awesome!". 'Standing the test of time' was not a consideration, a movie only needs to 'wow' me once to have achieved its purpose. Naturally if it wows me repeatedly then it's extremely likely to be on this list.
Like Ghcool I've merged sequels and trilogies into one entry.
Some stats and observations:-
- 1 silent movie
- 1 documentary
- 1 short
- 42 non-English language
- Non-English movies dominate from about 2002 (12 from 16)
- 1982 is the half-way point
- No movies made since 2009 have wowed me (am I becoming harder to please?)
- I've scored 74 movies 10/10 at IMDb, and 179 more 9/10. This list is all the 10s and 26 of the 9s (chosen after some pondering).
Notable directors:-
Alfre Hitchcock - 5
Sergio Leone - 4
Akira Kurosawa - 3
David Lynch - 3
Hayao Miyazaki - 3 (Isao Takahata has 2, so Ghibli has 5% of this list)
Andrei Tarkovsky, Billy Wilder, David Fincher, David Lean, Francis Coppola, Isao Takahata, Ridley Scott, Stanley Kubrik, William Wyler all have two.
Here they are, in chronological order:-
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922)
Rebecca (1940)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Notorious (1946)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Out of the Past (1947)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Third Man (1949)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
High Noon (1952)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
Rififi (1955)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Great Escape (1963)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Solaris (1972)
The Phone Box (1972)
The Godfather (and sequel) (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Papillon (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Stalker (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Alien (and sequel) (1979)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Das Boot (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
Terminator (1984)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Come and See (1985)
Wings of Desire (1987)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Se7en (1995)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
L'appartement (1996)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Fucking Amal (1998)
Festen (1998)
Fight Club (1999)
The Straight Story (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Memento (2000)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Lord of the Rings (trilogy) (2001)
City of God (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
Memories of Murder (2003)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Machuca (2004)
The Incredibles (2004)
Downfall (2004)
The Consequences of Love (2004)
Water (2005)
March of the Penguins (2005)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Bothersome Man (2006)
Couscous (2007)
Let the Right One In (2008)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Have at it, tell me what should or should not be there, but unless I've forgotten something then I'm not likely to change anything. 
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Edited by - Sean on 15/11/2013 21:05:14 |
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GHcool
"Forever a curious character."
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Posted - 14/11/2013 : 18:42:15
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There's a lot here I haven't seen (especially from Kurasawa and Leone) and some I've never heard of. The Phone Box looks interesting. So does Stalker. If I had Netflix, I'd add many of your films to my queue, but sadly, I don't.
Feel free to take these crabby complaints with more than a grain of salt:
Surely you aren't suggesting that Dr. Mabuse is better than Metropolis when it comes to German Expressionism.
I like Bunuel's work, but never understood the enormous appeal of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Maybe you "had to be there." It has some good observations and surrealistic stuff in it, but it isn't very funny. I'd rather watch Monty Python.
I never understood Aguirre either. The story behind the making of the film is much more interesting to me than the film itself.
For me, The Usual Suspects and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are all style and no substance. I suppose the same could be said about Pulp Fiction, except at least the style was groundbreaking, enormously entertaining, shocking, and funny.
I know someone who says that Fight Club holds the answer to every philosophical question the modern world throws at you. I saw it once around the time when it came out and was more impressed with the film technique than whatever it was trying to say, which seemed confused to me. Perhaps I should watch it again.
I never understood Mulholland Dr. either. It had some good parts in it, but there's no "there" there. I felt similarly about "Twin Peaks." |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
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Posted - 14/11/2013 : 22:07:18
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quote:
Originally posted by GHcool
There's a lot here I haven't seen (especially from Kurasawa and Leone) and some I've never heard of. The Phone Box looks interesting. So does Stalker. If I had Netflix, I'd add many of your films to my queue, but sadly, I don't.
The less you know about THE PHONE BOX when you watch it the better. And seek out STALKER, it's unique. It changed the way I think about sci-fi.quote:
Feel free to take these crabby complaints with more than a grain of salt:
Surely you aren't suggesting that Dr. Mabuse is better than Metropolis when it comes to German Expressionism.
If someone had said to me that I'd be engrossed in a silent movie for nearly five hours I'd have raised an eyebrow (or two). That's why I bumped it ahead of "M". And METROPOLIS is nipping at their heels in third place.quote:
I like Bunuel's work, but never understood the enormous appeal of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Maybe you "had to be there." It has some good observations and surrealistic stuff in it, but it isn't very funny. I'd rather watch Monty Python.
I never thought of it as a comedy. Some of that mid-20th-century French/Italian material (Truffaut, Renoir, Fellini, Antonioni and of course Bunuel) is of the "you get it or you don't" calibre. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't, and sometimes I 'think' I get what they were aiming at but am not terribly interested. The way society 'thinks' has changed somewhat since that era (or those eras) and it can be hard to understand where people were coming from. As you say, "you had to be there". I certainly never bother trying to defend this stuff.  quote:
I never understood Aguirre either. The story behind the making of the film is much more interesting to me than the film itself.
The story behind it is quite interesting, agreed. I've always been drawn to bleak, nihilistic stuff, and this scratches that itch.quote:
For me, The Usual Suspects and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are all style and no substance. I suppose the same could be said about Pulp Fiction, except at least the style was groundbreaking, enormously entertaining, shocking, and funny.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS is about style, for sure, but it's also an engrossing plot with an excellent acting ensemble. Thoroughly entertaining, that's enough for me. LOCK, STOCK... is style and absolutely hilarious (again, that's enough), although having a thorough appreciation of British humour in your bones may be a pre-requisite here.quote:
I know someone who says that Fight Club holds the answer to every philosophical question the modern world throws at you. I saw it once around the time when it came out and was more impressed with the film technique than whatever it was trying to say, which seemed confused to me. Perhaps I should watch it again.
I believe this will reward a re-watch, even though it's been 'spoilered' the second time around. Part of its triumph was holding the major plot revelation to the end, but of course on the next viewing you're looking for clues...quote:
I never understood Mulholland Dr. either. It had some good parts in it, but there's no "there" there. I felt similarly about "Twin Peaks."
There's really no point in trying to explain Lynch to the unconverted. I watched this for the first time enraptured, but I didn't 'get' all of it, so read a six-page synopsis shortly after finishing. Then the following week I re-watched and 'got' a lot more of it. Trust me, it totally makes sense but requires some hard work. It's very rewarding to those interested. I'm guessing your "good parts" comment suggests you didn't understand it all (and I would not expect many to 'get it' on first viewing).
Thanks for the comments. None of them are 'crabby'.
Next?
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Edited by - Sean on 14/11/2013 22:10:49 |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
NYC, USA
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Posted - 14/11/2013 : 23:15:32
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You are far more cosmopolitan than I. I detect a bit of refusal-to-suffer-fools-at-all in your choices, which constitute a fine syllabus for a world cinema course. I'm more lowbrow than you are: for example, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS wouldn't even have registered to me had it not been the inspiration for the Mutt & Jeff interplay, and in fact the whole bloomin story, in STAR WARS. You have some great films there which didn't hit me -- for example, WINGS OF DESIRE. Maybe I saw it on a bad night! And my only Finch is THE GAME...those others you cite are fun, but they all cheat in their own ways: THE GAME is more out front about it.
If you think MULHOLLAND DR. is challenging, I watched INLAND EMPIRE at its premier screening at the NYFF, sat through the Lynch q&a afterwards, and kept on pondering. I've now seen it twice more -- not enough to make it a fave, but enough to keep it poking at me.
You have reminded me of some great ones and helped fill my Netflix queue with ???s, which is the whole idea, no? |
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GHcool
"Forever a curious character."
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Posted - 14/11/2013 : 23:32:09
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quote:
Originally posted by randa14
You have some great films there which didn't hit me -- for example, WINGS OF DESIRE. Maybe I saw it on a bad night!
I put Wings of Desire on my list first. I own the DVD and have seen it more than once, but I think it benefits from a 2 or 3 night viewing. Watching it all in one sitting is hard and less rewarding, I think. It should give you ideas to think about at night, like reading a chapter in a good book, digesting it, and then opening a new chapter the next night to digest that one. |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
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Posted - 15/11/2013 : 01:05:25
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quote:
Originally posted by randa14
You are far more cosmopolitan than I. I detect a bit of refusal-to-suffer-fools-at-all in your choices, which constitute a fine syllabus for a world cinema course.
Variety is the spice of life. A lot of my foreign choices are in other "Top Movies" lists scattered around the web (and quite a number are in the IMDb Top 250 - probably my favourite top-movies list on the web, there's no pretension in it at all).
I wouldn't exactly say that I'm becoming 'anti-Hollywood' but in the last decade (as I mentioned in my OP) I'm finding greatness has been coming from elsewhere. This may be due to an increased focus on where the money comes from (remakes, sequels and franchise reboots) at the expense of originality and something that's going to punch me in the face with its brilliance.
quote:
I'm more lowbrow than you are: for example, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS wouldn't even have registered to me had it not been the inspiration for the Mutt & Jeff interplay, and in fact the whole bloomin story, in STAR WARS.
I'm surprised that THE HIDDEN FORTRESS passed over you like that. Each to their own I guess. That's not the only Kurosawa to be heavily ripped off borrowed from (note SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO). Mind you Kurosawa happily used Shakespeare... I rate Kurosawa on par with Hitchcock in terms of quality-product; i.e., quality AND quantity, although I give Kurosawa the edge for variety.
Here're the Kurosawas I've seen, with my scores (first three made the cut):-
10 Seven Samurai (1954)
10 The Hidden Fortress (1958)
9 Dersu Uzala (1975)
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9 Throne of Blood (1957)
9 Stray Dog (1949)
9 Ran (1985)
9 Yojimbo (1961)
9 Ikiru (1952)
8 The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
8 Sanjuro (1962)
8 Kagemusha (1980)
8 Dreams (1990)
8 Rash�mon (1950)
8 The Quiet Duel (1949)
7 High and Low (1963)
7 Red Beard (1965)
7 The Idiot (1951)
7 Scandal (1950)
7 Drunken Angel (1948)
7 Judo Saga (1943)
6 The Lower Depths (1957)
6 I Live in Fear (1955)
4 Madadayo (1993)
quote:
If you think MULHOLLAND DR. is challenging, I watched INLAND EMPIRE at its premier screening at the NYFF, sat through the Lynch q&a afterwards, and kept on pondering. I've now seen it twice more -- not enough to make it a fave, but enough to keep it poking at me.
Yep, INLAND EMPIRE may be permanently incomprehensible. I'm not even sure I'd 'get' any more of it on a rewatch. I think he out-Lynched himself.quote:
You have reminded me of some great ones and helped fill my Netflix queue with ???s, which is the whole idea, no?
Yep. That's what I'm using them for. 
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Edited by - Sean on 15/11/2013 01:07:57 |
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randall
"I like to watch."
NYC, USA
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Posted - 16/11/2013 : 12:28:28
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As I said before, the best part about these lists is that we can fill in some personal blanks. Here are the films on your list that I either haven't seen or forgotten -- a fifth of them!
Rififi (1955)
The Phone Box (1972)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
Stalker (1979)
Come and See (1985)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
Ulysses� Gaze (1995)
L�appartement (1996)
Fucking Amal (1998)
Festen (1998)
Memories of Murder (2003)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Machuca (2004)
Downfall (2004)
The Consequences of Love (2004)
Water (2005)
The Bothersome Man (2006)
Couscous (2007)
And here are the ones to which I think you were too kind:
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Papillon (1973)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
The Straight Story (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
That last one, I believe, was vastly overrated the moment it was released: it managed to hit some sort of emotional sweet spot in the zeitgeist. But to each his own, indeed. I have plenty of catching up to do! |
Edited by - randall on 16/11/2013 12:34:55 |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
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Posted - 16/11/2013 : 22:43:57
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Wow, some awesome material there you haven't seen! You lucky thing... I'll add a few comments in blue.
quote:
Originally posted by randa14
As I said before, the best part about these lists is that we can fill in some personal blanks. Here are the films on your list that I either haven't seen or forgotten -- a fifth of them!
Rififi (1955) - I love noir, and this is one of the best (it just happens to be French).
The Phone Box (1972) - the less you know about this the better. It would probably help to see it the way I did: on TV without having a clue what I was watching. It's 30 minutes.
Dersu Uzala (1975) - a biographical drama set in the Russian far eastern wilderness 100 years ago. Don't expect too much to happen too quickly and it would help to have a preference for wild places over cities (like I do). It correctly got an Oscar.
Stalker (1979) - Sci-Fi without FX. It changed the way I think about the genre. Probably even better than Solyaris.
Come and See (1985) - Best war movie ever made (and TimeOut agrees with me). If you expect your war movies to be 'heroic drama set during wartime' (like virtually every Hollywood war movie I can think of) then this won't scratch your itch. This is about the absolute fucking savagery that was the Eastern Front, in a region where 14 million murders occurred over a 12 year period (yep, I said murders; this figure does not include soldiers killed in battle or civilians killed as 'acceptable' collateral damage, I'm talking here about 14 million crimes). This is the only kind of war movie I want to see about the Eastern Front. Actually when I watched this and thought of the likes of Saving Private Ryan - a movie I actually regard as pretty good - I started laughing (and it wasn't a 'good' laugh). This movie does what few war movies dare do (aren't most war movies about something good happening during wartime?), it's prepared to leave you despondent about our species and leave you wondering how perilously close the detachment that we need to survive in the face of the savagery of others might actually be.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) - One of the best four Ghiblis. Kids and adults love this one, it's just soooooo charming. And I've just noticed that TimeOut rate this as their No. 1 animated movie of all time.
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) - Another Ghibli. Saddest movie ever made by anyone, anywhere, ever. I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it now. 
Raise the Red Lantern (1991) - 20 years later I still recall the 'look' of this. I could almost describe some scenes. Not to mention it's Li-Gong's breakout role.
Burnt by the Sun (1994) - Drama with a Bergman-ish vibe to it as Stalin begins purging the nation of its finest people. Oscar again.
Ulysses� Gaze (1995) - confession: the score is a major reason for loving this (I'd had the CD for years before I saw the movie) and when I finally saw it... I was not disappointed. With a different score it could be a different beast (it sounds like this and this looks: bleak, melancholic and ethereal).
L�appartement (1996) - One of my rare repeat-watch movies (seen it four times). Love the cast, and perfect, subtle, convoluted plot.
Fucking Amal (1998) - Best teen movie ever, it's 'feel good' without being tacky. It's as feel-good as Moodysson's better-known tale about child prostitution (Lilya 4 Ever) is feel-bad.
Festen (1998) - The finest dogme movie, at the very least you should see it for academic reasons but it's waaaaaaaayyy better than that. It illustrates just how good a movie can be with a good script, direction and cast and no gimmickry.
Memories of Murder (2003) - thread about it here.
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - an antidote for Western "stuff jumping out at ya" horror. Subtle, tense and brooding, and looks beautiful.
Machuca (2004) - thread here.
Downfall (2004) - Surprised that anyone missed this one. BTW Bruno Ganz IS Hitler.
The Consequences of Love (2004) - Mafia tale from a different angle.
Water (2005) - I still recall the sound of multiple people sobbing in the cinema at the end of this one.
The Bothersome Man (2006) - Dystopia that totally gets under your skin. I think that may be because it's not too different to life as we know it now. My original thread about it.
Couscous (2007) - What's so good about it? Probably as the actors are all French North Africans it's refreshingly different. Some of the supporting actors/actresses in here are brilliant. And it's about food.
quote:
Originally posted by randa14
And here are the ones to which I think you were too kind:
The Hidden Fortress (1958) - OK, so I reeeaallly like Kurosawa
Vertigo (1958) - Did you know that Sight & Sound rate this the best movie ever? I disagree, but it's pretty damn good.
For a Few Dollars More (1965) - I like this as much as "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" and almost as much as "Once Upon a Time in the West". Can't get enough of it. I look forward to forgetting as much of it as possible so I can watch it again.
Papillon (1973) - It blew me away at the time (probably mid-teens) and I remember so much of it. I don't intend to see it again to be disappointed. It's possible some of my positive memory of this comes from the book.
Twelve Monkeys (1995) - yeah, nothing original, guilty pleasure I guess. You've got "The Game", I've got this one. 
The Straight Story (1999) - it's perfect
American Beauty (1999) - yeah, each to their own. It gets brownie points for going where few non-Europeans dared.
quote:
That last one, I believe, was vastly overrated the moment it was released: it managed to hit some sort of emotional sweet spot in the zeitgeist. But to each his own, indeed. I have plenty of catching up to do!
tl;dr Watch them all! |
Edited by - Sean on 18/11/2013 02:24:06 |
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randall
"I like to watch."
NYC, USA
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Posted - 17/11/2013 : 00:56:20
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Of course I know about the most recent SIGHT & SOUND poll. Stupid gits. [It's still the best English-language film mag, though.]
You know what? I have seen DOWNFALL. But thanx for the others! |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
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Posted - 20/11/2014 : 23:58:09
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| So did anyone fill in their gaps (or at least some of them)? |
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Sean's 100 Favourite Films
