It seems a fitting way to begin: announcing the 100 films that I hold nearest and dearest, and endeavoring to discuss each one over the life of the blog.
The distinction between "favorite" and "best" is operative here; these films don't necessarily represent pinnacles of cinematic practice, but each does showcase a perspective or aesthetic approach that I deem relevant and engaging. These are the films I return to over time, the ones that took my understanding of the medium in a new direction, made me laugh hardest or struck a chord in some obscure fashion that I hope to decipher over the coming months. These are films worth discussing and keeping alive, rather than mummified prestige pictures.
This is a list that I've updated about once a month for nearly two years. As I'd like to dedicate a thorough analysis and discussion to each film on the list in this blog, I resolve to keep these rankings as they are until I complete this herculean task.
In order to avoid straitjacketing myself over the course of this mission, I will not discuss the films in any sort of order. This way I hope that my approach to each film will develop naturally, not out of a nagging sense of duty to the cause.
1. SATANTANGO - Bela Tarr 1994, Germany/Austria/Hungary
2. VERTIGO - Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 USA
3. RAGING BULL - Martin Scorsese, 1980 USA
4. WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES - Bela Tarr, 2000 Hungary/Germany/France
5. INSTRUCTIONS FOR A LIGHT AND SOUND MACHINE - Peter Tscherkassky, 2005
Austria
6. MAN OF THE WEST - Anthony Mann, 1958 USA
7. TASTE OF CHERRY - Abbas Kiarostami, 1997 Iran
8. KILLER OF SHEEP - Charles Burnett, 1977 USA
9. THE BED YOU SLEEP IN - Jon Jost, 1993 USA
10. LES CARABINIERS - Jean-Luc Godard, 1963 France/Italy/UK
11. EYES WIDE SHUT - Stanley Kubrick, 1999 USA
12. TROPICAL MALADY - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004 Thailand/France/Germany
/Italy
13. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA - Sam Peckinpah, 1974 USA
14. CINEMASCOPE TRILOGY: L'ARRIVEE, OUTER SPACE, DREAM WORK - Peter
Tscherkassky, 1997/98, 1999, 2001 Austria
15. HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED - George Kuchar, 1966 USA
16. AMADEUS - Milos Forman, 1984 USA
17. THE NAKED SPUR - Anthony Mann, 1953 USA
18. JESUS' SON - Alison Maclean, 1999 USA
19. LE TROU - Jacques Becker, 1960 France
20. THE OLD DARK HOUSE - James Whale, 1932 USA
21. TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER - Jean-Luc Godard, 1966 France
22. OUR HOSPITALITY - John G. Blystone & Buster Keaton, 1923 USA
23. PIECE TOUCHEE - Martin Arnold 1989, Austria
24. SHADOW OF A DOUBT - Alfred Hitchcock, 1943 USA
25. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN - Jean-Luc Godard, 1961 Italy/France
26. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW - Peter Bogdanovich, 1971 USA
27. THE AFRICAN QUEEN - John Huston, 1951 USA
28. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE - Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002 USA
29. THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE - Gunther Von Fritsch & Robert Wise, 1944 USA
30. THE WALKING DEAD - Michael Curtiz, 1936 USA
31 . BULLY - Larry Clark, 2001 USA
32 . THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER - Ernst Lubitsch, 1940 USA
33. THE SON - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2002 Belgium
34. STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. - Chas F. Reisner & Buster Keaton, 1928 USA
35. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG - Mervyn LeRoy, 1932 USA
36. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS - Don Siegel, 1956 USA
37. MONSIEUR VERDOUX - Charles Chaplin, 1947 USA
38. THE CAMERAMAN - Edward Sedgwick & Buster Keaton, 1928 USA
39. FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL - Errol Morris, 1997 USA
40. THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER - Werner Herzog, 1975 West Germany
41. ON DANGEROUS GROUND - Nicholas Ray, 1951 USA
42. WAXWORKS - Paul Leni, 1924 Germany
43. JULIEN DONKEY-BOY - Harmony Korine, 1999 USA
44. L'ATALANTE - Jean Vigo, 1934 France
45. DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE
BOMB - Stanley Kubrick, 1964 USA
46. THE RULES OF THE GAME - Jean Renoir, 1939 France
47. JURASSIC PARK - Steven Spielberg, 1993 USA
48. NAKED LUNCH - David Cronenberg, 1991 Canada/UK
49. THE CELEBRATION - Thomas Vinterberg, 1998 Denmark
50. MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000 Thailand
51. TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI -Jacques Becker, 1954 France
52. NIGHTMARE ALLEY - Edmund Goulding, 1947 USA
53. THE RED AND THE WHITE - Miklos Jancso, 1967 Hungary/USSR
54. THE PASSENGER - Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975 Italy/Spain
55. THE SET-UP - Robert Wise, 1949 USA
56. ARMY OF SHADOWS - Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969 France
57. THE SACRIFICE - Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986 Sweden
58. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE - John Cassavetes, 1976 USA
59. SWEET MOVIE - Dusan Makaveyev, 1974 Canada/France/W. Germany
60. THE SECOND CIRCLE - Aleksandr Sokurov, 1990 USSR
61. THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT - Wojciech J. Has, 1965 Poland
62. CRUMB - Terry Zwigoff, 1994 USA
63. MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT - Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1968 Cuba
64. FLAMINGO ROAD - Michael Curtiz 1949, USA
65. ALONE. LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY - Martin Arnold, 1998 Austria
66. HAXAN - Benjamin Christensen, 1922 Sweden
67. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE - John Huston, 1948 USA
68. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES - Stan Brakhage, 1971 USA
69. THE BODY SNATCHER - Robert Wise, 1945 USA
70. THE CENTURY OF THE SELF - Adam Curtis, 2003 UK
71. SUNRISE - F.W. Murnau, 1927 USA
72. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA - Dziga Vertov, 1929 USSR
73. RASHOMON - Akira Kurosawa, 1951 Japan
74. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA - Sam Wood, 1935 USA
75. PALINDROMES - Todd Solondz, 2004 USA
76. AN UNSEEN ENEMY - D.W. Griffith, 1912 USA
77. BATMAN RETURNS - Tim Burton, 1992 USA
78. GILDA - Charles Vidor, 1946 USA
79. ANNABELLE SERPENTINE DANCE - William Heise, 1895 USA
80. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR - Robert Bresson, 1966 France
81. FLOATING WEEDS - Yasujiro Ozu, 1959 Japan
82. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - Wong Kar-Wai, 2000 Hong Kong
83. COSMIC RAY - Bruce Connor, 1962 USA
83. WINTER LIGHT - Ingmar Bergman, 1962 Sweden
85. THE PIT, THE PENDULUM AND HOPE - Jan Svankmajer, 1983 Czechoslovakia
86. THE WEEPING MEADOW - Theodoros Angelopoulos, 2004 Greece/France
87. GUMMO - Harmony Korine, 1997 USA
88. DAY OF WRATH - Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943 Denmark
89. BRINGING OUT THE DEAD - Martin Scorsese, 1999 USA
90. THE WURDULAK - Mario Bava, 1963 Italy/France/USA
91. KING KONG - Peter Jackson, 2005 USA
92. PASSAGE A L'ACTE - Martin Arnold, 1993 Austria
93. L'ENFANT - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2005 Belgium/France
94. MY BROTHER'S WEDDING - Charles Burnett, 1983 USA
95. HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR - Alain Resnais, 1959 France/Japan
96. REPORT - Bruce Conner, 1967 USA
97. THE WIRE: SEASON 4 - Various, 2006 USA
98. A ROUGH SKETCH FOR A PRPOPOSED FILM DEALING WITH THE POWERS OF TEN
AND THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE - Charles and Ray Eames, 1968
USA
99. LE CORBEAU - Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943 France
100. HE GOT GAME - Spike Lee, 1998 USA
101. NAKED CITY: PRIME OF LIFE - Walter Grauman, 1963 USA
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