(My Own Personal) Top 450 Movies Ever
Submitted by pianoshootis on Sun, 06/19/2005 - 10:39
Tags:
- Persona (1965, Ingmar Bergman)
- Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
- Napoleon (1927, Abel Gance)
- Weekend (1967, Jean-Luc Godard)
- World of Apu (1959, Satyajit Ray)
- Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, Jacques Rivette)
- Greed (1924, Erich von Stroheim)
- M (1931, Fritz Lang)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
- Ikiru (1952, Akira Kurosawa)
- Broken Blossoms (1919, DW Griffith)
- Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
- Children of Paradise (1945, Marcel Carne)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale)
- Sunrise (1927, FW Murnau)
- Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
- Les Carabiniers (1963, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)
- Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein)
- Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah)
- Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948, Max Ophuls)
- Un Chien Andalou (1929, Luis Bunuel/Salvador Dali)
- Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
- Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)
- Jules and Jim (1961, Francois Truffaut)
- Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
- Ordet (1955, Carl Dreyer)
- Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli)
- Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick)
- Rebel Without a Cause (1955, Nicholas Ray)
- Aguirre: the Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)
- La Strada (1954, Federico Fellini)
- Aparajito (1957, Satyajit Ray)
- Crowd (1928, King Vidor)
- Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charlie Chaplin)
- Scenes from a Marriage (1972, Ingmar Bergman)
- Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Dreyer)
- Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)
- Clockwork Orange (1971, Stanley Kubrick)
- Mona Lisa (1986, Neil Jordan)--Hoskins gives the best acting performance of the last 50 years.
- Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
- Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922, Fritz Lang)
- Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa)
- Earth (1930, Aleksandr Dovzhenko)--The dance is easily one of the best sequences ever on film. The movie got a little tiresome when propoganda overtook the plot.
- 8 1/2 (1963, Federico Fellini)
- Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)
- Nosferatu (1922, FW Murnau)
- Rio Grande (1950, John Ford)
- Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
- Wrong Man (1956, Alfred Hitchcock)
- L'Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)
- Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933, Fritz Lang)
- Green Ray (1986, Eric Rohmer)
- Hidden Fortress (1959, Akira Kurosawa)
- Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
- Metropolis (1926, Fritz Lang)
- An American in Paris (1951, Vincente Minnelli)
- Night at the Opera (1935, Sam Wood)
- Gang of Four (1988, Jacques Rivette)
- Dreams (1990, Akira Kurosawa)
- Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
- Short Film About Killing (1988, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
- Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Robert Bresson)
- Fantasia (1940, multiple)--A couple weaker segments pushed this further down the list than it might've been.
- Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)--I think this suffered more by the cutting than any other film, including Greed.
- Umberto D (1955, Vittorio de Sica)
- Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
- Paisan (1946, Roberto Rossellini)
- Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Great Dictator (1940, Charlie Chaplin)
- Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
- Sherlock, Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)
- Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
- La Chienne (1931, Jean Renoir)
- Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Viridiana (1961, Luis Bunuel)
- Nanook of the North (1922, Robert Flaherty)
- Blood of a Poet (1930, Jean Cocteau)
- Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen)
- Grey Gardens (1975, Maysles Brothers)
- Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
- Big Parade (1925, King Vidor)
- Henry V (1944, Laurence Olivier)
- Birth of a Nation (1915, DW Griffith)
- Thief of Bagdad (1924, Raoul Walsh)
- Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
- City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
- Color of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov)
- Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
- Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
- 400 Blows (1959, Francois Truffaut)
- Bicycle Thief (1948, Vittorio de Sica)
- Sweet Smell of Success (1958, Alexander Mackendrick)
- Koyaanisqatsi (1983, Godfrey Reggio)
- Marnie (1964, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Fanny and Alexander (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
- Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
- Docks of New York (1928, Josef von Sternburg)
- Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
- Le Jour Se Leve (1939, Marcel Carne)
- Forbidden Games (1952, Rene Clement)
- Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)
- King Kong (1933, Cooper/Shoedsack)
- Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
- He Who Gets Slapped (1924, Victor Sjostrom)
- Pornographers (1966, Shohei Imamura)
- Head (1968, Bob Rafelson)
- Elephant (2003, Gus van Sant)
- Le Boucher (1969, Claude Chabrol)
- Merchant of Four Seasons (1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
- Pandora's Box (1929, GW Pabst)
- Ugetsu (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)
- Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)
- Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur)
- Love Me Tonight (1932, Rouben Mamoulian)
- Twilight Samurai (2002, Yoji Yamada)
- Show Boat (1936, James Whale)
- Safety Last! (1923, Newmeyer/Taylor)
- Burden of Dreams (1982, Les Blank)
- Man With a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
- Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray)
- Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
- Gates of Heaven (1978, Errol Morris)
- In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima)
- Sympathy for the Devil (1968, Jean-Luc Godard)
- All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)
- Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999, Errol Morris)
- Queen Christina (1933, Rouben Mamoulian
- Barton Fink (1991, Coen Brothers)
- Mirror (1974, Andrei Tarkovsky)
- Beauty and the Beast (1946, Jean Cocteau)
- Baby Doll (1956, Elia Kazan)
- Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)
- Unknown (1927, Tod Browning)
- Monkey Business (1931, Norman McLeod)
- Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Butcher Boy (1997, Neil Jordan)
- Killing Fields (1984, Roland Joffe)
- Woodstock (1970, Michael Wadleigh)
- Sonatine (1993, Takeshi Kitano)
- Hard-Boiled (1992, John Woo)
- Testament (1983, Lynne Littman)
- Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
- Wind Will Carry Us (1999, Abbas Kiarostami)
- Elephant Man (1980, David Lynch)
- King of Comedy (1983, Martin Scorsese)
- Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Kon Ichikawa)
- Gimme Shelter (1970, Maysles Brothers)
- Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)
- Kid Brother (1927, Ted Wilde)
- La Bete Humaine (1938, Jean Renoir)
- Queen Kelly (1929, Erich von Stroheim)
- Eel (1997, Shohei Imamura)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987, Stanley Kubrick)
- Wages of Fear (1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
- Palm Beach Story (1942, Preston Sturges)
- Cameraman (1928, Edward Sedgwick)
- Ivan the Terrible Part 2 (1958, Sergei Eisenstein)
- Gertrud (1964, Carl Dreyer)
- Godather Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
- Animal Crackers (1930, Victor Heerman)
- Husbands and Wives (1992, Woody Allen)
- Long Good Friday (1980, John Mackenzie)
- Stranger Than Paradise (1984, Jim Jarmusch)
- Star is Born (1954, George Cukor)
- La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
- Blackmail (1929, Alfred Hitchcock)
- General (1927, Buster Keaton)
- Trust (1990, Hal Hartley)
- 12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)
- Blow-up (1966, Michaelangelo Antonioni)
- Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg)
- Triumph of the Will (1934, Leni Riefenstahl)
- 42nd Street (1933, Lloyd Bacon)
- Pierrot le Fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Irma la Douce (1963, Billy Wilder)
- Endless Summer (1966, Bruce Brown)
- Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais)
- Kriemhild's Revenge (1924, Fritz Lang)
- Les Vampires (1915, Louis Feuillade)
- Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)
- Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)
- Dracula (1931, Tod Browning)
- Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell)
- Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Portrait of Jason (1967, Shirley Clarke)
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Jack Arnold)
- Actor's Revenge (1963, Kon Ichikawa)
- Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, William Dieterle)
- Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
- In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray)
- Fox and His Friends (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
- Alexander Nevsky (1938, Sergei Eisenstein)
- Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960, Bert Stein)
- Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956, Hiroshi Inagaki)
- Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928, Buster Keaton)
- All About Eve (1950, Joseph Mankiewicz)
- Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)
- Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (1975, Lina Wertmuller)
- Duel in the Sun (1946, King Vidor)
- American Friend (1977, Wim Wenders)
- It’s a Gift (1934, Norman McLeod)
- 47 Ronin (1941-42, Kenji Mizoguchi)
- Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
- Ossessione (1942, Luchino Visconti)
- Searchers (1956, John Ford)
- Tokyo Drifter (1965, Seijun Suzuki)
- Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, Joseph Mankiewicz)
- Outlaw (1943, Howard Hughes)
- Little Foxes (1941, William Wyler)
- Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, Robert Wiene)
- Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001, Shohei Imamura)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean)
- Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
- Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston)
- Scarlet Empress (1934, Josef von Sternberg)
- Orphans of the Storm (1921, DW Griffith)
- My Man Godfrey (1936, Gregory la Cava)
- Thing (1951, Christian Nyby)
- Terminator (1984, James Cameron)
- Informer (1935, John Ford)
- Lolita (1962, Stanley Kubrick)
- Gate of Hell (1953, Teinosuke Kinugasa)
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
- Red Desert (1964, Michaelangelo Antonioni)
- Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates)
- Glass Key (1942, Stuart Heisler)
- Salesman (1969, Maysles Brothers)
- Red and the White (1967, Miklos Jansco)
- Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky)
- Autumn Afternoon (1962, Yasujiro Ozu)
- Frenzy (1972, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Powers of Ten (1978, Ray and Charles Eames)
- Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, Woody Allen)
- Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927, Walter Ruttman)
- Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese)
- End of Evangelion (1997, Hideaki Anno/Kayuza Tsurumaki)
- Cat's-Paw (1934, Sam Taylor)
- Hail Mary! (1985, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Dodsworth (1936, William Wyler)
- Scarface (1932, Howard Hawks)
- Little Fugitive (1953)
- Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1969, Sergio Leone)
- Life of an American Fireman (1906, Edwin S Porter)
- All That Jazz (1979, Bob Fosse)
- Stray Dog (1949, Akira Kurosawa)
- Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)
- Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren)
- L'Avventura (1960, Michaelangelo Antonioni)
- La Femme Infidele (1969, Claude Chabrol)
- Big Heat (1953, Fritz Lang)
- Shall We Dance (1937, Mark Sandrich)
- Lianna (1983, John Sayles)
- Speedy (1928, Ted Wilde)
- Picnic (1956, Joshua Logan)
- Happiness (1998, Todd Solondz)
- La Captive (2000, Chantal Akerman)
- Vampyr (1931, Carl Dreyer)
- My Life to Live (1962, Jean-Luc Godard)
- Strike (1924, Sergei Eisenstein)
- Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Andrzej Wajda)
- Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler)
- Written on the Wind (1956, Douglas Sirk)
- Gun Crazy (1949, Joseph H Lewis)
- Zazie dans le Metro (1960, Louis Malle)
- Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
- Portrait of Jennie (1948, William Dieterle)
- Murder, My Sweet (1944, Edward Dmytryk)
- Shame (1968, Ingmar Bergman)
- Floating Weeds (1959, Yasujiro Ozu)
- Day of the Locust (1975, John Schlesinger)
- Sanjuro (1962, Akira Kurosawa)
- Badlands (1973, Terrence Malick)
- Wedding March (1927, Erich von Stroheim)
- Freaks (1932, Tod Browning)
- King in New York (1957, Charlie Chaplin)
- Raise the Red Lantern (1991, Zhang Yimou)
- Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie (1972, Luis Bunuel)
- Dersu Uzala (1974, Akira Kurosawa)
- Spartacus (1960, Stanley Kubrick)
- Bigger Than Life (1956, Nicholas Ray)
- Hallelujah (1929, King Vidor)
- O Lucky Man! (1973, Lindsay Anderson)
- Leave Her to Heaven (1945, John Stahl)
- La Ceremonie (1995, Claude Chabrol)
- Paris, Texas (1984, Wim Wenders)
- Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928, Herbert Brenon)
- Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson)
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy)
- Maedchen in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan)
- Anne of Green Gables (1985, Kevin Sullivan)
- Rocco and His Brothers (1960, Luchino Visconti)
- Henry Fool (1997, Hal Hartley)
- Pistol Opera (2001, Seijun Suzuki)
- Tin Drum (1979, Volker Schlondorff)
- Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
- Show Me Love (1999, Lukas Moodysson)
- Los Olvidados (1950, Luis Bunuel)
- Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder)
- Shootist (1976, Don Siegel)
- Le Samourai (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
- Oldboy (2003, Chan-wook Park)
- Show People (1928, King Vidor)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
- Olympia (1938, Leni Riefenstahl)
- Grass (1925, multiple)
- Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
- Cranes Are Flying (1957, Mikheil Kalatozishvili)
- Manhattan (1979, Woody Allen)
- Blue Velvet (1986, David Lynch)
- Maborosi (1995, Hirokazu Koreeda)
- Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Michael Curtiz)
- Last of the Mohicans (1920, Clarence Brown/Maurice Tourneur)
- Abraham's Valley (1993, Manoel de Olivera)
- Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, Woody Allen)
- Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
- Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)
- Fury (1936, Fritz Lang)
- Front Page (1931, Lewis Milestone)
- La Belle Noiseuse (1991, Jacques Rivette)
- Blood of Jesus (1941, Spencer Williams)
- Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
- Kingdom (1994, Lars von Trier)
- Detour (1945, Edgar G Ulmer)
- Green Wall (1969, Armando Robles Godoy)
- Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
- Pink Flamingos (1972, John Waters)
- Killer (1989, John Woo)
- Haunting (1963, Robert Wise)
- Four Days in Naples (1962, Nanni Loy)
- Lola Montes (1955, Max Ophuls)
- Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati)
- Man of Aran (1934, Robert Flaherty)
- Haxan (1922, Benjamin Christensen)
- Catch-22 (1970, Mike Nichols)
- Far from the Madding Crowd (1967, John Schlesinger)
- Hana-bi (1997, Takeshi Kitano)
- Throne of Blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
- Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell)
- Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
- Sisters (1972, Brian DePalma)
- Dr. Akagi (1998, Shohei Imamura)
- Moulin Rouge (1952, John Huston)
- Alphaville (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
- L'Eclisse (1962, Michaelangelo Antonioni)
- Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989, Peter Greenaway)
- 3 Women (1977, Robert Altman)
- Conformist (1970, Bernardo Bertolucci)
- Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
- 39 Steps (1935, Alfred Hitchcock)
- My Name is Ivan (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky)
- Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
- Targets (1968, Peter Bogdanovich)
- Day at the Races (1937, Sam Wood)
- Daisies (1966, Vera Chytilova)
- Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick)
- Cabaret (1972, Bob Fosse)
- Sun's Burial (1960, Nagisa Oshima)
- Clock (1945, Vincente Minnelli)
- Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960, Fritz Lang)
- Porco Rosso (1992, Hayao Miyazaki)
- Forbidden Planet (1956, Fred Wilcox)
- Othello (1951, Orson Welles)
- Tabu (1931, FW Murnau)
- Marty (1953, Delbert Mann)
- Holiday (1938, George Cukor)
- Mystery of Picasso (1956, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
- Morocco (1930, Josef von Sternburg)
- Storm Over Asia (1928, Vsevolod Pudovkin)
- Scarlet Street (1945, Fritz Lang)
- Girl Shy (1924, Fred Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
- Splendor in the Grass (1961, Elia Kazan)
- Kill! (1968, Kihachi Okamoto)
- Song of Bernadette (1943, Henry King)
- Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance (1962, John Ford)
- Diary of a Lost Girl (1929, GW Pabst)
- Imitation of Life (1959, Douglas Sirk)
- Capturing the Friedmans (2003, Andrew Jarecki)
- Camera Buff (1979, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
- Thin Blue Line (1988, Errol Morris)
- Man of the West (1958, Anthony Mann)
- Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)
- Elephant (1989, Alan Clarke)
- Blume in Love (1973, Paul Mazursky)
- Pepe le Moko (1937, Julien Duvivier)
- Three Strangers (1946, Jean Negulesco)
- Crash (1996, David Cronenberg)
- That Obscure Object of Desire (1977, Luis Bunuel)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, Steven Spielberg)
- Court Jester (1956, Melvin Frank)
- Cyclo (1995, Anh Hung Tran)
- North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)
- Room With a View (1986, James Ivory)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
- Chan is Missing (1981, Wayne Wang)
- Movie Crazy (1932, Clyde Bruckman)
- Alice Adams (1935, George Stevens)
- Dumbo (1941, Ben Sharpsteen)
- Mummy (1932, Carl Freund)
- Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1952, Jacques Tati)
- Rapture (1991, Michael Tolkin)
- White (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
- Wind (1928, Victor Sjostrom)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1931, Lewis Milestone)
- Night of the Shooting Stars (1982, Taviani Brothers)
- Merry Widow (1925, Erich von Stroheim)
- There It Is (1928, Charles Bowers)
- Cheat (1915, Cecil B. Demille)
- Louisiana Story (1948, Robert Flaherty)
- In the Land of the Headhunters (1914, Edward Curtis)
- Swing Time (1936, George Stevens)
- Deliverance (1972, John Boorman)
- They Live By Night (1949, Nicholas Ray)
- River (1997, Ming-liang Tsai)
- Eve (1962, Joseph Losey)
- Angel Heart (1987, Alan Parker)
- Stroszek (1977, Werner Herzog)
- Breaking the Waves (1996, Lars von Trier)
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964, Sergei Paradjanov)
- Salo (1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
- Salome (1923, Charles Bryant)
- Crumb (1994, Terry Zwigoff)
- Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)--I would've had this higher if not for the underdeveloped Bacon subplot
- Destry Rides Again (1939, George Marshall)
- Play It Again, Sam (1972, Herbert Ross)
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949, John Ford)
- Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata)
- Richard III (1955, Laurence Olivier)
- Accidental Tourist (1988, Lawrence Kasdan)--and I normally hate Kasdan
- Blood and Sand (1922, Fred Niblo)
- Star is Born (1937, William Wellman)
- 28 Up (1985, Michael Apted)
- Baraka (1992, Ron Fricke)
- Up to His Ears (1965, Philip de Broca)
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975, Peter Weir)
- Northwest Passage (1940, King Vidor)
- Our Hospitality (1923, Buster Keaton)
- Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)
- Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, Sam Peckinpah)
- Double Suicide (1969, Masahiro Shinoda)
- Milky Way (1936, Leo McCarey)
YES! Thanks for this list.
I'm so happy to see Mulholland Drive way, way, up there! But, re: Weekend - what's the big deal? I watched it quite recently and it just seemed like an overindulgent self-parody from Godard that instead of saying anything new just said his own cliches louder. And I didn't happen to enjoy it, either, which surely influences my "objective" opinion of its artistic value. Thoughts?
Also: what prompted you to include Koyaanisqatsi over Man with a Movie Camera?
re: Weekend--It could be something queer about me, but I love everything Godard does, even the later stuff that nobody likes. I didn't follow the politics of Weekend, I just thought every excess of it was hilarious and a lot of fun to watch: the traffic jam, the incessant drum beat, the slow 360 pan, all the nonsensical violence.
re: Man with a Movie Camera--Koyaanisqatsi seemed more coherent. Whereas Man with a Movie Camera felt like a collection of clever tricks, Koyaanisqatsi held together as a continuous flow.
Ah, so Weekend could be described as your funniest comedy, where as mine is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I need to rewatch both, but I agree about Man With a Movie Camera and Koyaanisqatsi. Glass' fantastic score also helps to coagulate the latter. For me, the date of release for each film makes me wonder how to rank them. Any film from the 20s will seem naive aside an equally impressive work that benefits from 60 additional years of cinematic development, and certainly Koyaanisqatsi owes its existence to Man With a Movie Camera.
Monty Python might be described as my funniest tv show, especially that episode with the parody of Weekend.
eXtremely impressive list. Wonderful, fantastic.
Even though Persona is somehow the only Bergman (I have seen to date) which I did not really like.
Someone, possibly John Ivan Simon, wrote a scene-by-scene analysis of Persona that really heightened by appreciation. Of course, I loved the movie to begin with and if you didn't I don't imagine any analysis would change your mind.
I simply must read that analysis. Where might I find it? Please try! :-)
I'm still dying to read that piece, or any scene-by-scene analysis of Persona, but could you perhaps clue me in to some of your favorite insights from it?
Sorry, I didn't see your post before. I ordered the John Ivan Simon book I mentioned even though I'm not 100% sure it's the one I read before. When it gets here I'll transcribe it. I'm loathe to explain it in my own words because whenever I analyze something it sounds precious to me.
Which book? Ingmar Bergman Directs? If so, I've got in on order from my library system.
Yes, that one. If it's the one I'm thinking of it should have an essay on Sawdust and Tinsel and a few others.
I'm reading his analysis of Persona in Ingmar Bergman Directs right now. I'm getting the same feeling I had when I was beginning to understand the genius of Mulholland Drive. I've suspected for a little while that Persona is the greatest film of all time, though I didn't know enough to back it up. I'm glad someone like John Ivan Simon has done the research, thought, and countless rewatches necessary to support the argument. The essay makes me curious to see Simon's personal "best films of all time" list.
While I agree with much of what he writes about Persona, especially preceding the scene-by-scene analysis, I think it's impossible that Bergman intentionally injected as much into Persona as Simon has extracted. I just can't see how a mortal being of finite mind could willfully construct such an artistically, psychologically, and narratively dense piece with every detail, nuance, reference, and relationship planned. It remains the genius of Bergman to create such a compact masterpiece of several levels that is still open enough to be interpreted in ways Bergman never imagined.
I'll definitely have to re-do my audio commentary track on the film some day.
Persona is, unfortunately, such a complicated, subtle, and difficult work that I can't truly "love" it. I can only be awed by its genius, and I need to read essays to know its genius. But Mulholland Drive was fully enjoyable even before I understood what was going on, even if it's slightly less awe-inspiring than Persona (partly because it apes Persona itself).
I think Ingmar Bergman outwardly said he didn't intend a lot of the things Simon inferred. Bergman simply said something true and Simon described why it was true. I've read that Wilhelm Jensen was annoyed at his book "Gradiva" being psychoanalyzed. Later, Freud said, "We think that our author needed to know nothing of such rules and intentions, so that he may disavow them in good faith, and that we have surely found nothing in his romance which was not contained in it. We are probably drawing from the same source, working over the same material, each of us with a different method, and agreement in results seems to vouch for the fact that both have worked correctly."
Personally, I can enjoy Persona, Mulholland Drive, and most of Godard's work without having to understand it at all, whereas I have to look at some other works (like 8 1/2) critically to get anything out of them. Maybe it depends on how like-minded you are to the artist himself?
Interesting. I find it odd that you could appreciate Persona and Mulholland Drive without comprehending them, but 8½ requires study. Why some and not others? I would think that being like-minded to the artist helps you understand their work better rather than helping you appreciate it without understanding it. Who knows.
Technically pianoshootis said he could enjoy those movies without understanding them, and I definitely think one can enjoy the poetic, enigmatic collage of images and words without fully understanding what they're all about. I think I feel the same way about Persona, but I'd have to watch it again.
For me, the best example of a film I can enjoy without understanding is Un Chien Andalou.
Napoleon: I remember thinking after the first twenty minutes that it might turn out to be the greatest silent film of all time - an experimental, expressionistic, big-budget epic. There were several sequences later in the film that impressed me - the "storm at sea" and "primitive widescreen" parts come to mind, but so much of the second act was boring, repetetive scenes of people arguing in large chambers. I didn't care for that.
Yeah, I can understand that. I think it's standard in storytelling; start with action to get the audience hooked and let the plot carry it through.
It's surprising to see Tarkovsky ranked so low. How is The Mirror not one of the greatest achievements of modern cinema?
You're right, it should be higher and I might do some reordering soon. I just didn't connect to "Mirror" as strongly as, for instance, "Sacrifice", and didn't rank that in the top 250.
Great list! I notice you list Tati's Playtime but not his M.Hulot's Holiday . Have you seen it?
I have. I thought it was just a good, simple comedy. Playtime felt more profound and had the most incredible sets I've ever seen.
I think the two films make a deliberately contrasting pair. The charm of Hulot trying to fit in at an old-world holiday resort is contrasted with the much darker humor of Hulot trying to do business in an ultra-modern cityscape. For me, both are equally unforgetable.
Wow, great additions.
Yet, I noticed that Raging Bull somehow doesn't figure on the list. Why is that?
Hmm, I don't know exactly. In compiling the list it never jumped out at me. If I was to judge by acting, writing, directing, editing, and cinematography it should be up there in the top 100. Somehow it never held much, to quote Paul Schrader, "personal significance" for me.
Finally added Raging Bull
Uff. At last.
Thanks! (Update will follow in the days to come.)
One thing: The Haunting appears twice here.
Damnit, you're right. I think I moved it and forgot to delete it from the original place. Thanks.
So, which movie did you eventually add instead?
I put Throne of Blood at #348, making 11 Kurosawas total. Too many, do you think?
Can there ever be too many Kurosawas on a list?