Wednesday, January 5, 2011

My Favorite 100 Movies

[Updated 1.5.11]
Films in gold won Best Picture Oscars®
(* = recent addition)

The Top 20 (alpha order): 2001, All About Eve, Babe, The Best Years of Our Lives, City of God (Brazil), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), The Conformist (Italy), Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather II, Hannah and Her Sisters, Hero (China), Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (France), Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, My Fair Lady, Once Upon a Time in America, Parenthood, Requiem for a Dream, The Seven Samurai (Japan), The Shawshank Redemption, Wall-E

Top 100 in alphabetical order
  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  2. The 400 Blows * (France, bw)
  3. A Clockwork Orange
  4. A Room With a View
  5. A Wednesday (India) *
  6. After the Wedding (Denmark) *
  7. Aliens
  8. All About Eve (bw)
  9. Amadeus
  10. Annie Hall
  11. Apocalypse Now!
  12. As Good as It Gets
  13. Babel (Mexico)
  14. Babe
  15. Baraka * (Documentary)
  16. Battle of Algiers (France-Algiers, bw)
  17. The Best Years of Our Lives (bw)
  18. Big Fish
  19. Brazil
  20. The Bridge On the River Kwai
  21. Carmen (Spain, flamenco version)
  22. Casablanca (bw)
  23. Central Station * (Brazil)
  24. Chicago
  25. Chungking Express * (China/Hong Kong)
  26. Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
  27. City of God (Brazil)
  28. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  29. Conformist, The (Italy)
  30. Conversation, The
  31. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China)
  32. Dances With Wolves
  33. Dangerous Liaisons
  34. Departures * (Japan)
  35. Devils on the Doorstep * (China)
  36. Diva (France)
  37. Doctor Strangelove (bw)
  38. Double Indemnity (bw)
  39. The Empire Strikes Back
  40. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  41. Field of Dreams
  42. Finding Neverland
  43. Finding Nemo
  44. Fitzcarraldo (Germany)
  45. Gandhi
  46. The Godfather
  47. The Godfather, Part II
  48. Good Bye, Lenin! * (Germany)
  49. Goodfellas
  50. Goodnight Mister Tom
  51. Graduate, The
  52. The Gray Fox
  53. Groundhog Day
  54. Hannah and Her Sisters
  55. Hero (China)
  56. Hoop Dreams (Documentary)
  57. Hope and Glory
  58. House of Games
  59. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (France)
  60. Kolya (Czech Republic)
  61. L'america (Italy)
  62. The Last Emperor
  63. L'avventura (Italy, bw)
  64. Lawrence of Arabia
  65. La Femme Nikita (France)
  66. The Last Emperor
  67. The Last Picture Show (bw)
  68. The Lives of Others (Germany)
  69. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
  70. Manhattan (bw)
  71. The Maltese Falcon (bw)
  72. Memento
  73. Million Dollar Baby
  74. Minority Report
  75. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington *
  76. My Brilliant Career
  77. My Fair Lady
  78. The Namesake *
  79. Network
  80. Night of the Hunter (bw)
  81. Norma Rae
  82. Nowhere in Africa (Germany)
  83. October Sky
  84. On the Waterfront (bw)
  85. Once Upon a Time in America
  86. Open Range
  87. Out of the Past (bw)
  88. Parenthood
  89. The Philadelphia Story (bw)
  90. Platoon
  91. The Player
  92. Rabbit-Proof Fence *
  93. Raging Bull (bw)
  94. Raising Arizona
  95. Requiem for a Dream *
  96. The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2)
  97. Run Lola Run (Germany)
  98. Salaam Bombay! * (India)
  99. Schindler's List (bw)
  100. The Seven Samurai (Japan, bw)
  101. Shakespeare in Love
  102. Shane
  103. The Shawshank Redemption
  104. The Silence of the Lambs
  105. Singin' in the Rain
  106. Sunset Boulevard (bw)
  107. The Sweet Smell of Success (bw)
  108. To Kill a Mockingbird (bw)
  109. To Live (China)
  110. Together (China) *
  111. Traffic
  112. Turtles Can Fly (Iraq-Iran-France) *
  113. The Twilight Samurai (Japan)
  114. Umberto D * (Italy)
  115. V for Vendetta
  116. Walkabout
  117. Wall-E
  118. Whale Rider
  119. Winged Migration (Documentary)
  120. When Harry Met Sally
  121. Zelary (Czech Republic)
Ok, so I can't count - that's why I had them auto-numbered.. call this a "baker's 100", you get ten dozens. 'So many movies, so little time..' (to paraphrase Raising Arizona)

Thirty are foreign language films.. always watch the subtitled and not the 'dubbed into English' versions.. once you know the dialogue (usually once), you can watch them without subtitles and see just the film itself.. A few more titles are films in English from foreign directors, such as Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, Italy), The Last Emperor (Bertolucci, Italy), and The Namesake (Nair, India).

This list is always changing.
Newer: Departures, A Wednesday, After the Wedding, Whale Rider, Central Station, Umberto D, L'avventura, Wall-E, Good Bye Lenin, Baraka, Devils on the Doorstep, The Namesake, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Together, Turtles Can Fly

Just Removed: It's a Wonderful Life, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Citizen Kane, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ugetsu (Japan), Slumdog Millionaire, Duck Soup, Auntie Mame, Patton, Mephisto, A Christmas Story, Sybil, Gangs of New York, Back to the Future

Low on the List (next to go): The Last Picture Show, As Good As It Gets, Devils on the Doorstep, Norma Rae, Manhattan, Goodfellas TV Miniseries (that would be in the top 100): 1. Band of Brothers (10 hrs) 2. Planet Earth (12 hrs) 3. Into the West (12 hrs) 4. Brideshead Revisited (10 hrs) 5. Lonesome Dove (6 hrs) 6. The Prisoner (13 hrs, 17 episodes)

7 comments:

  1. Hey what about Shawshank Redemption?

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  2. Ah just found it in your Oscar snubbed section. Phew!

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  3. Thanks - was an oversight, just added Shawshank to my favorites list!!

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  4. I just watched A Room With a View again last neight and Helena Bonham Carter!I love all the weird roles she played, cool!

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  5. Helena Bonham Carter never fails to thrill me. Some others of hers worth watching:
    - Wings of the Dove (awesome, Oscar nom'd performance; her first nude 'bonk scene', in her words, 'can I say that on TV?')
    - Fight Club (terrific as Norton's girlfriend (overlooked by Oscar, great supporting performance)
    - Conversations With Other Women (bizarre two person 'play' with her and Aaron Eckhart meeting at a wedding reception, may already have a past together)
    - Big Fish (she's disguised as the old crone in the leaning house; her bf Tim Burton's best film, imo)
    - Sweeney Todd (who would have thought she could sing that well?)

    There are more, these are the ones that come to mind the quickest. Along with Room With a View, quite an impressive handful.. every performance worthy of an Oscar nomination..

    ReplyDelete
  6. great post

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    ReplyDelete
  7. Checkout ONE BAD MICE FILM for FREE. This award winning film was made for $50,000 in 21 days. Goto www.spike.com and search for ONE BAD MICE FILM.

    ReplyDelete

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