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Matthew G. Anderson Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) How much does it suck that I'm embarrassed to name this as my favorite film just because it's become such a cliche? I know that much of the public thinks of KANE as a "museum piece" -- something dusty and cold and intellectualized. Something you're "supposed to like". That's a shame, because what continues to endear CITIZEN KANE to me is how damned much fun it is. There's a joy and vitality of creation that comes through so completely that you feel like if you touched the screen you'd get an electric shock. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Always a tough call between this and STRANGELOVE for me... but since seeing the 70mm projection four years ago, 2001 has the crown. A brilliant, medium-expanding experiment of a sci-fi film that towers intellectually, spiritually and visually over almost any film ever made. I first saw this on Public TV in Minnesota when I was about 10 years old and it captivated me for its entire runtime. I had no idea what the hell I was watching... but I couldn't stop. Twenty years later, it still has the same effect. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Every filmmaker has one -- this is the movie that made me want to make movies. Even as I've come to disregard "storytelling" as the be all and end all of cinema, THE GODFATHER never loses its power. So "conventional", so "Hollywood"... but so perfect. If only all conventional, Hollywood films were this good. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Speaking of wanting to make movies... the greatest film about the artistic process and personality ever made. And when you consider how many films are about that subject, this is no small achievement. So playful and yet so melancholy. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll whistle The Barber of Seville for days after. And you could watch it over and over and over and never tire of it. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1985) I don't know that any great American filmmaker was ever so interested in the heart as Woody Allen. Story-shmory, Woody's great films (ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS) are just about the human heart -- why it's a joy, why it's awful, why it's all right to be stuck with one. I don't think he ever made a film with as much depth or insight as HANNAH. In less than two hours time, he creates the kind of experience you're lucky to get out of a great novel you've invested yourself in for days. A unique film masterpiece. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931) Okay, I love Chaplin. Call me a sap, tell me how much better Keaton was... go ahead, I won't argue. I'll just say that every time I see CITY LIGHTS, I laugh out loud for the duration of the film. And about two minutes before it's over, I find myself marvelling that I remember crying the last time I saw it. Not laughing-crying, but crying-crying. It seems unbelievable to me that I would've had such a completely different reaction, because here we are, 2 minutes from the end and I'm not even remotely sad. And a minute and a half later, I'm crying. Every damn time. Bringing up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) The greatest example of my favorite film genre -- the Screwball Comedy. Supposedly Hawks preferred HIS GIRL FRIDAY, feeling he went too far in BABY. I love 'em both, but it's precisely that "too far" quality that makes BABY my baby. Grant and Hepburn going all out with not a care for restraint or dignity and Hawks just barely holding the whole thing together. Laugh out loud funny from beginning to end no matter how many times I see it (even though I think I hold my affection for Susan Vance responsible for every relationship difficulty I've ever had). Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Maybe the perfect synthesis of film entertainment and film art (just visually, you could hang any frame of this movie on your wall). Jimmy Stewart throws his "gosh golly" American boy image right into the jet engine with his portrayal of a fatal, guilty obsession and lets the whole thing go as dark as Hitchcock will take it. And Hitch takes it a good long way. Sexy, scary, mysterious, very darkly funny... Can you imagine a major Hollywood actor and director making something this subversively unredeemed these days? Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) The perfect studio comedy. Funny on about 8 different levels, with writing and direction as flawless as you'll find anywhere, fueled by virtuoso perfomances by Lemmon and Curtis and blessed with the full-blown star power of Monroe. Hollywood has been in business for almost 100 years trying to make films just like this. This is one of the few times they've succeeded. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) The movie that does for westerns what VERTIGO does for thrillers (and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which nearly cracked my list, does for dramas) -- taking the genre elements and icons and pushing them into darker, twisted, truthful places that resonate even as they horrify... or horrify because they resonate. A difficult, challenging film that edges out RIO BRAVO as my favorite western through sheer psychological ambition. (Though it's damned hard to top BRAVO's Ricky Nelson/Dean Martin/Walter Brennan singalong...) LETTING MYSELF OFF THE HOOK: THE TOP TEN OF THE LAST 15 YEARS As true greatness is only recognized over time, here are my favorite films made since 1990. Several of these will work their way into the All-Time List eventually... but for now it's maybe too soon to tell which. (This also grants me leave to throw out another 10 Great Films...) Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000) Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998) Before Sunrise/Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 1995/2004) - A Single Piece With A Necessary Nine Year Break In Between. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998) Top 10 Directors Interestingly, many of these directors don't have a film represented on my Top Ten. I think it's because in a lot of cases I can't cull one film from their bodies of work as my "favorite". Also, my Top Ten list is made up of films which are repeatedly (compulsively?) watchable. While I may not find myself throwing something as challenging as Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS into the DVD player as frequently as I throw in SOME LIKE IT HOT, I would never say the Wilder film is a greater achievement than the Bergman. Stanley Kubrick Alfred Hitchcock Jean-Luc Godard Andrei Tarkovsky Federico Fellini Ingmar Bergman Howard Hawks Orson Welles Woody Allen Lars von Trier And thanks to the DVD revolution, I'm just discovering Robert Bresson, who seems destined to join the list after a bit more exploration. See also Matthew's revised list: Jan 10, 2007 Matthew G. Anderson is a screenwriter and independent filmmaker from Minnesota, now living in Los Angeles. For ten years he taught film and video classes for grade-school children, baffling, delighting and irritating 12 year-olds (in about equal measure) with the likes of CITIZEN KANE, CASABLANCA, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. tally after this list / November 11, 2005 Buford Sharkley The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) 8½ (Frederico Fellini, 1963) The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927) Miller's Crossing (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1990) Mon oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958) And there's a few short films I feel deserve mention: The Scarecrow, (Keaton) The Rabbit of Seville, (Jones) A Corny Concerto (Clampett) Top 10 Directors Stanely Kubrick Joel and Ethan Coen Charlie Chaplin Buster Keaton Jacques Tati Orson Welles Akira Kurosawa Ernst Lubitsch F.W. Murnau Robert Clampett Other directors I wanted to include: Sergio Leone, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, Preston Sturges.... See Mr. Sharkley's Top 100 List Buford Sharkley is a engineering student. Author of nothing. A "Marmaduke" comic fan. Founder of nothing. Obsessed with film lists. Figures himself a decent drawer, with ballpoint pen. That's about it. tally after this list / November 10, 2005 Dan Johnson In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000) Une femme est une femme (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961) Day of the Dead (George Romero, 1985) If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) Seppuku (Kobayashi Masaki, 1962) Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983) Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964) Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944-46) West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961) Runners up: The Killer (John Woo, 1989), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam, 1989), Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947), Humanity and Paper Balloons, (Yamanaka Sadao, 1937), The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965), Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932) Top 10 Directors Suzuki Seijun Jean-Luc Godard Douglas Sirk Alfred Hitchcock Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger David Cronenberg John Carpenter Wong Kar Wai Ernst Lubitsch Sam Peckinpah Runners up: Mario Bava, R. W. Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Nicholas Roeg, Tsai Ming-Liang, Mizoguchi Kenji, Terry Gilliam, Samuel Fuller, Miyazaki Hayao, Roger Corman Dan Johnson is a film studies student at the University of Rochester. He is currently writing his senior thesis on the films of Suzuki Seijun. tally after this list / November 11, 2005 Matthew Maniaci Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959) L' Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001) The Marriage of Maria Braun (R.W. Fassbinder, 1978) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) Top 10 Directors Robert Bresson Ingmar Bergman Michelangelo Antonioni Andrei Tarkovsky Michael Haneke R.W. Fassbinder David Lynch Michael Powell Stanley Kubrick Bela Tarr Matt Maniaci was born in 1979 on Long Island, N.Y. He earned his B.F.A. in Visual Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and a double minor in Art History & Philosophy at SUNY Purchase. He started experimenting in filmmaking with the short film, The Insecurity (1998). Throughout his years at college Maniac continued to explore the potential of the medium of moving image and sound. Many films influenced Maniac’s work, in particular Blue Velvet & Peeping Tom were points of reference for his first feature film Disavowal (2004). Directors like Robert Bresson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, & Béla Tarr have influenced his approach to filmmaking. His education in Art & Philosophy is apparent in all of his work. His appreciation of life and cinema continues to inspire him to grow as a filmmaker. tally after this list / November 10, 2005 Will Wenzel Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969) Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) The Bicycle Thief (Vitorrio De Sica, 1948) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) Top 10 Directors Akira Kurosawa John Ford Elia Kazan Charles Chaplin Andrei Tarkovsky Alfred Hitchcock Orson Welles Jean-Luc Godard John Cassavettes Woody Allen Will Wenzel is a student of fine arts. "I enjoy viewing and discussing film. I feel that the films I have seen have greatly influenced my personal aesthetic, and contributed to my visual library. With out film, the way I view the world and produce art would be much different." tally after this list / November 9, 2005 Lykke Jensen (in no particular order) The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) Das Boot (Wolfgang Peterson, 1981) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, 1988) Burnt by the Sun (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1994) Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943) Top 10 Directors (in no particular order) Martin Scorsese Stanley Kubrick Ingmar Bergman Alfred Hitchcock David Lynch Steven Spielberg Peter Greenaway Mike Leigh Ken Loach Lars von Trier Lykke Jensen is a Danish MSc in Filmstudies at the University of Edinburgh. He has a broad interest in all kinds of film but no cinematic background. He has a MA in Danish Literature and Language and a BA in Psychology and Theology. For the last 5 years he has been working as a upper secondary school teacher in Denmark. tally after this list / November 8, 2005 Flavio Süssekind (in alphabetical order) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970) Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) Greed (Erich Von Stroheim, 1924) The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Top 10 Directors (in alphabetical order) Woody Allen Ingmar Bergman John Ford Jean-Luc Godard Alfred Hitchcock Krzysztof Kieslowski Stanley Kubrick Alain Resnais Andrei Tarkovsky Orson Welles Flavio Süssekind is a law student and cinephile from Rio de Janeiro. His list can also be seen in Senses of Cinema (with one or 2 changes - today's list is never the same of tomorrow or of yesterday, you know what i'm talking about). tally after this list / November 7, 2005 Bill Georgaris (in alphabetical order) All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955) L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1946) Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer, 1987) Le Doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954) Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933) Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel, 1950) To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Top 10 Directors (in alphabetical order) Woody Allen Robert Bresson Luis Bunuel John Ford Alfred Hitchcock Fritz Lang Anthony Mann Nicholas Ray Eric Rohmer Douglas Sirk Can't go without mentioning: Scorsese, Hawks, Cukor, Godard, Malick, Minnelli, Preminger, Renoir, Wilder, Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Huston, King Vidor, The Coens, Truffaut, Curtiz, Fuller, Welles, Aldrich, Mizoguchi, Borzage, Melville, Max Ophuls, Mankiewicz, Siegel, Lubitsch, Leone, Powell/Pressburger, Kieslowski, Fassbinder, Siodmak, Murnau, Chaplin, Keaton, Ozu, Chabrol, von Sternberg, Vigo, Joseph H. Lewis, Brakhage, Davies, Franju, Jacques Becker, Visconti, Kiarostami, Whale, Dieterle, Cassavetes, Endfield, Stahl, Hathaway, Tashlin, Rossellini, Tourneur, Tati, Herzog... Bill Georgaris is a film enthusiast. He 'manages' the website They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?. tally after this list / November 7, 2005 Hans Lucas Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1925) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1969) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) runners-up: Barry Lyndon, 8 1/2, The 400 Blows, The Rules of the Game, The Searchers, Singin' In the Rain, Sunrise, Tokyo Story, Touch of Evil, The Wizard of Oz Top 10 Directors Orson Welles Stanley Kubrick Jean-Luc Godard Andrei Tarkovsky Carl Theodor Dreyer Jean Renoir Kenji Mizoguchi Max Ophuls Buster Keaton John Ford runners-up: Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Roberto Rosselini, Martin Scorsese, Francois Truffaut See also Han's revised list: Nov. 9, 2006 Hans Lucas is a film student at Savannah College of Art and Design. tally after this list / November 6, 2005 Wirkman Virkkala Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) -- The most impressive product of "Hollywood" in its golden years, a true marvel of collaboration - in a story about refusing to "collaborate" . . . with the enemy. Witty, romantic, exotic. A bit corny? A bit obvious? Well, it's still great. The General (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman, 1927) -- The single greatest film of the silent age, a fine comedy with a droll story set in the South of the Civil War. If the music chosen to accompany the film is any good, you will follow the film's adventure and romance lines, too. Keaton's best film. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) -- The narrative, here, is understated and puzzling to many viewers, and yet this film manages to use moving pictures (with a minimum of words, and these not literary) to great poetic effect. This is not merely the greatest science fiction film, it is the greatest religious film ever made. Impressive and unforgettable use of several musical classics, from composers such as Johann Strauss through Richard Strauss to Gyorgi Ligeti. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978) -- The greatest film with a narrator, a young girl who laconically makes sense of the turmoil around her, set in the wheat fields of Texas,during the Great Depression. Beautifully shot, the story is simple, elemental. Leo Kottke's contribution to the music is just fine; the scene using Camille Saint-Saëns's "The Aquarium," exquisite. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) -- Is this Hitchcock's greatest? How can one decide, with masterpieces as good as "Vertigo," "Stranger on a Train," "Shadow of a Doubt," and "Notorious" - or flawed work as great as "Marnie" and "the Lady Vanishes" and "The Trouble with Harry"? This is the Hitchcock film I've watched the most times. It's worth every viewing. I was tempted to fill the rest of this list with Hitch flicks, but the understood protocols of list-making brought me under control. In Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock found his perfect composer, and Herrmann's title music for "North by Northwest" is unforgettable, driving, brittle, exciting. (Firing Bernard Herrmann, on "Torn Curtain," was Hitchcock's biggest professional mistake, a selling-out that truly damaged his career.) Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985) -- A fascinating tale cribbed from King Lear, and shot through with cinematic poetry, if not the literary kind (Shakespeare does not quite translate directly to film as well as one might hope). The greatest battle footage ever. Heads up: this film has cinema's greatest beheading, too. Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996) -- A dark, violent and sometimes vulgar comedy that ends with a cinematic argument for bourgeois morality. Brilliant. The Coen brothers are surely the most consistently interesting film makers of our time, with a string of impressive (if quirky) comedies and dramas: "Raising Arizona," "Miller's Crossing," "The Man Who Wasn't There," and even "O Brother Where Art Thou?" Still, this is their best film to date. Also: One of Carter Burwell's best scores. Trois couleurs: Rouge (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994) -- My favorite of Kieslowski's famous "colors" trilogy, though "Blue" (with its original and integral use of music) is a close runner-up on my list (somewhere in the teens). Perfect movie. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) -- Based on Aldous Huxley's "The Devil's of Loudon," the tale of politics under Cardinal Richelieu, this is a gaudy horror of a movie, complete with Freudianisms and Russell's extravagant imagination. It is also one of the rare works of cinema wherein one's view of the protagonist changes over the course of the movie. Watchers may wince at wickedness and the torture, but it is all for the greater good: an important and compelling story. A perfect movie to inflict on people who hanker back towards theocratic rule, that is, rule by priests who say they speak for "God." Amazing juxtaposition of musical styles: David Munrow's masterly performances of Renaissance music set against the avant-gardish contributions of Peter Maxwell Davies. Chilling performances by Vanessa Redgrave as the mad, sex-obsessed nun, Christopher Logue as the malign Cardinal Richelieu, and Graham Armitage as a rather flippant and fey Louis XIII. Oliver Reed stars as Urbain Grandier, his best role. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) -- Bumping out works by more reliable directors, like Fellini, Gilliam, Tarantino, and Woody Allen (well, 1970s and '80s Woody) not to over-mention Hitchcock, I place this film here - the most recent - because it is impressive in the extreme. Surely not for every taste, nor, perhaps as I first saw it, as a first-date movie, it has become one of my most-rewatched movies ever. A number of stories intertwine. At first it seems like juxtaposition, with a solid music score helping immensely. But it becomes more than that, and Anderson attempts to make some sort of philosophical point. If you find the point interesting, you will perhaps forgive what most see as "excesses"; if you do not find it interesting, much less believable, then . . . well, too bad. To me, it packs quite a wallop. Pop music is usually over-used in movies (witness the recent "Elizabethtown," by Cameron Crowe). In this film, Aimie Mann's work is spot-on. Composer Jon Brion's additional music adds to the tension in segment after segment. The introduction with its narrated anecdotes about coincidences (all urban legends, I believe) justifies the movie's two astounding events towards the end, the sing-along and the [spoiler deleted by author]. Top 10 Directors Stanley Kubrick Alfred Hitchcock Akira Kurosawa Krzysztof Kieslowski Federico Fellini Woody Allen Buster Keaton Terry Gilliam Joel Coen (though Ethan Coen's co-directing, writing, and production work with Joel show the limits of the auteur theory that might justify any "Best Director" list such as this) Quentin Tarantino Wirkman Virkkala is an editor and writer who has, he claims, spent way too much time watching movies, recently, and not quite enough time reading books. He runs an email discussion group entitled "FilmFlam," on YahooGroups. Mr. Virkkala has written for Reason, American Enterprise, and other magazines tally after this list / November 6, 2005 David Cornelius Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) runners-up, in alphabetical order: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Charade (1963), Die Hard (1988), The Godfather (1972), Miller's Crossing (1990), Playtime (1967), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Rififi (Du rififi chez les hommes) (1955), Sneakers (1992) Top 10 Directors Alfred Hitchcock Billy Wilder Steven Spielberg Martin Scorsese John Carpenter Stanley Kubrick Francis Ford Coppola John Ford David Lean Akira Kurosawa David Cornelius is a writer for eFilmCritic and Hollywood Bitchslap. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. tally after this list / November 4, 2005 Ian Dawe Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Weine, 1920) Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972) Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1921) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Cleo: From 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1961) Top 10 Directors Orson Welles Sergio Leone Stanley Kubrick Andrei Tarkovsky Federico Fellini Werner Herzog Rainer Werner Fassbinder Paul Thomas Anderson Alfred Hitchcock Quentin Tarantino Ian Dawe is a freelance writer and longtime film enthusiast, Ian Dawe is now completing a Master's Degree in Film History. He currently teaches at Selkirk College in Castlegar, British Columbia. tally after this list / November 2, 2005 Daniel Kasman Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949) Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998) Cries & Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985) Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) Runners-up: Trouble in Paradise; Double Indemnity; Blue Velvet; The Passion of Joan of Arc; A Man Escaped; Barry Lyndon; 8 1/2; Dead Man; Touch of Evil; Rules of the Game; Le Samourai; The Long Goodbye. Top 10 Directors Stanley Kubrick Yasujiro Ozu Ingmar Bergman Hou Hsiou-hsien Robert Bresson Alfred Hitchcock Federico Fellini Andrei Tarkovsky Akira Kurosawa Ernst Lubitsch Runners-up: Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger; Billy Wilder; Michelangelo Antonioni; Carl Dreyer; Jean-Luc Godard; Wong Kar-Wai; Kitano Takeshi; David Lynch; Howard Hawks; Naruse Mikio; Fritz Lang. Daniel Kasman is a film student in New York City and author of the review site d+kaz. tally after this list / November 2, 2005 Antero Alli The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975) Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (Werner Herzog, 1974) Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975) The Element of Crime (Lars Von Trier, 1984) The Devils of Loudon (Ken Russell, 1971) Woman of the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964) The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) Cries & Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) Top 10 Directors Peter Brooks Clint Eastwood Andrei Tarkovsky John Cassavettes Neil Jordan Werner Herzog Akira Kurosawa Ingmar Bergman Lars Von Trier Robert Altman Antero Alli is a Berkeley-based filmmaker whose features include "The Drivetime" (1995), "Tragos" (2000), "Hysteria" (2002), "Under a Shipwrecked Moon" (2003) and "The Greater Circulation" (2005). He is also director of ParaTheatrical ReSearch, a group of physical performers dedicated to reinventing asocial group ritual dynamics. tally after this list / November 2, 2005 Jeff Vorndam Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Raising Arizona (Joel Coen, 1987) M (Fritz Lang, 1931) The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) Top 10 Directors Luis Buñuel Alfred Hitchcock Fritz Lang Kenji Mizoguchi F.W. Murnau Jean Renoir David Lynch Roman Polanski Akira Kurosawa Martin Scorsese Jeff Vorndam is formerly a critic for AboutFilm. His other lists can be found at YMDb (a little shuffling has occurred since then) and Senses of Cinema (even more shuffling, since it's an older list). tally after this list / November 2, 2005 Jesse Walker Both this and the list of directors are alphabetical. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960): A comedy about the corrupting effects of hierarchy, and what it means to actually assert your freedom. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933): A cinema verite documentary filmed at the White House from 2003 to 2005. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962): For some reason, I couldn't leave the theater after I watched this. Glen or Glenda (Ed Wood, 1953): It draws heavily on found footage, espouses radical sexual politics, and refuses to obey any genre constraints. It jumps merrily from B-movie drama to mock educational film to surreal dream imagery. Unlike all those "socially conscious" liberal studio movies of the '50s, it actually challenges the consensus of its day, sometimes with arguments that adopt the era's assumptions and sometimes in ways far removed from the mainstream. And it casts the guy who played Dracula as God. Isn't it time we recognized this picture as a landmark underground film, as daring and unconventional as anything by Brakhage, Deren, or Conner? Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949): Dreams, death, mirrors, mysterious radio transmissions, and the underworld. Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984): "It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes." Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller, 1976): A savage twin to The Apartment. The best film ever made about fascism. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943): Thornton Wilder wrote it, and nothing is quite so odd as watching his sensibility collide with Hitchcock's. The script is an ode to conformity -- and the picture drily undercuts the script at every turn. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958): "A policeman's job is only easy in a police state." The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939): The great American movie. Runners-up: Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951) Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) Rose Hobart (Joseph Cornell, 1936) The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993) Theodora Goes Wild (Richard Boleslawski, 1936) What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957) Top 10 Directors I'm tempted to ditch all the acknowledged greats and make this a list of my favorite semi-overlooked directors: Don Siegel, Chris Marker, Jacques Tourneur, Charley Bowers, Bruce Conner, Agnes Varda, even Larry Cohen and Edgar Ulmer. Instead I'll just settle for squeezing a few of their names into the introduction, like so. Robert Altman Luis Buñuel Howard Hawks Alfred Hitchcock Chuck Jones Akira Kurosawa Sergio Leone Jan Svankmajer Orson Welles Billy Wilder Jesse Walker is managing editor of Reason magazine and author of Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America (NYU Press). He has also co-directed a documentary called Talking Butts and helmed a couple of amateur wedding videos, none of which will ever appear on any sane list of the world's greatest movies. tally after this list / November 2, 2005 Travis Mackenzie Hoover Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988) In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978) Intentions of Murder (Shohei Imamura, 1964) The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924) The Red and the White (Miklós Jancsó, 1967) Tales of Hoffmann (Richard Oswald, 1916) Tout va bien (Jean-Luc Godard, 1972) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Travis Mackenzie Hoover is a freelance film critic who lives in Toronto. tally after this list / October 31, 2005 Gabriel Shanks Auntie Mame (Morton de Costa, 1958) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Lilies (John Greyson, 1996) Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, 1952) Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975) Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) Top 10 Directors Orson Welles Frederico Fellini Alfred Hitchcock George Cukor Pedro Almodovar Kim Ki-Duk Francis Ford Coppola Bernardo Bertolucci Stanley Kubrick Wong Kar-Wai Gabriel Shanks is a film critic for MixedReviews and the blog Modern Fabulousity. A founding member of the film association Cinemarati, he is also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. He lives in New York City. tally after this list / October 28, 2005 Michael Dalton Night Of The Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) -- Laughton's one and only directorial effort left its mark on the face of cinema and the shudders from this exceptional thriller, with a narrative following that of a child's nightmare, can still be felt today. Robert Mitchum sings, Lilian Gish prays and the kids keep running. Lyrical, creepy and even camp, this is cinematic poetry. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) -- I don't know how he did it but this is perfect. Not one frame is wasted, every word of dialogue stings and Jack Nicholson gives his best performance ever. In a way, it bookends director John Huston's The Maltese Falcon; he's in here too as the most diabolical man alive. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) -- Beyond a performance, Liza Minnelli's Sally Bowles is a force of nature that still enchants more than 30 years later. The same can be said for Joel Grey's demonic emcee and between them, along with Bob Fosse's flawless direction, they make Cabaret what it is. A true masterpiece. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) -- A 3 hour odyssey that examines the lives of a group of inter-connected people who are, well, living their lives. Try and remain unmoved when they all sing that song. Directed with verve, edited with love and acted with passion, Anderson never takes the easy way out. Nothing's resolved and that's just as it should be. Sorry, Wrong Number (Anatole Litvak, 1948) -- I've seen a lot of film noir in my time but this is the one I always return to. Plenty of sinister activity, it rains a lot and there in the middle is Barbra Stanwyck, hysterical and acting up a storm. Few films build to a climax this shocking and back then, it must have really been something else. I'd love to see this in a cinema. Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) -- Melodrama, love, depression, greed, money and a bonafide bitch. They say it fuelled supersoaps Dallas and Dynasty and it did but I prefer the original, especially when it's performed like this and directed by Douglas Sirk. Picnic At Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) -- Hypnotic and sensual, here is a horror story with no blood and no monsters(well, maybe Rachel Roberts), just beauty. Three schoolgirls fall under the spell of "a geological marvel" and obsession and madness follow. Erotic and timeless. Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997) -- For my money, this is the most realistic examination of a relationship in turmoil yet seen on the screen. At times violent and other times happy, it might be unnerving but it's painfully honest and like most relationships, colourful. Tony Leung is outstanding in a beautiful, subtle performance that speaks volumes. Husbands & Wives (Woody Allen, 1992) -- Thoughtful, heartfelt and with a perfect aim, Allen reveals the sordid, painful and very funny truth behind what a relationship means. Bergman's Scenes From A Marriage is undoubtedly the inspiration but here Allen, in no uncertain terms, makes the terrain his own. Judy Davis is brilliant and director Sydney Pollack knocks it out of the park as her philandering husband. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) -- A killer screenplay with two leading ladies to match. Bette Davis burns up the screen as Margo Channing but for my money, Anne Baxter steals the movie...along with everything else. Flawlessly directed, it just doesn't get any better than this. Runners-up: Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980) Interiors (Woody Allen, 1978) In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 1967) Zentropa (Lars von Trier, 1991) The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1991) Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Jacques Tati, 1953) Top 10 Directors Alfred Hitchcock Woody Allen Ingmar Bergman Robert Bresson Billy Wilder Joseph L. Mankiewicz Akira Kurosawa John Huston Wong Kar-Wai Roman Polanski Michael Dalton is a film critic for Theblurb.com.au. A film buff since the age of 12, putting together a list of 10 all-time favourites is a lot harder than it looks. tally after this list / October 26, 2005 Dennis Schwartz (in no particular order) Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995) Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Dybbuk (Michal Waszynski, 1937) Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1925) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1957) La Passion de Jeanne d'arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) Top 10 Directors (in no particular order) Yasujiro Ozu Robert Bresson Carl Theodor Dreyer Orson Welles Stanley Kubrick Douglas Sirk Andrei Tarkovsky Michelangelo Antonioni Abbas Kiarostami Jim Jarmusch Dennis Schwartz is editor of the Vermont based film magazine Ozus's World Movie Reviews. He has been a prolific online movie reviewer since 1998, also contributing to publications all over the globe and maintaining an active website--where it's not uncommon for him to review 365 films a year. In his other life he was a poet, teacher, restaurant owner, wanderer and follower of Tibetan Buddhism (where he studied with Lama Govinda and lived in Kasa Devi, India).The first film he saw as a child, Bob Hope's Paleface, left a hunger for films that has not been sated with all the passing years. The critic who influenced him the most was Walter Benjamin, not a film critic but one of the truly great literary critics of the 20th century. The lesson to be learned from him and other serious critics is that all true art is subversive and unsettling. tally after this list / October 24, 2005 Chris Fujiwara (in no particular order) The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956) La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) Viaggio in Italia (Roberto Rossellini, 1953) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang, 1956) Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) To Be Or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette, 1972) Man’s Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks, 1964) Top 10 Directors (in no particular order) John Ford Yasujiro Ozu Aleksandr Dovzhenko Kenji Mizoguchi Jean Renoir Roberto Rossellini Carl Theodor Dreyer Fritz Lang F.W. Murnau Jean-Luc Godard Chris Fujiwara is a freelance writer. He maintains a collection of his online writing at www.insanemute.com tally after this list / October 23, 2005 Acquarello Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952) Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966) Voyage to Cythera (Theo Angelopoulos, 1984) Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964) News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977) Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955) Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972) Top 10 Directors Kenji Mizoguchi Yasujiro Ozu Satyajit Ray Carl Theodor Dreyer Robert Bresson Alain Resnais Andrei Tarkovsky Chris Marker Chantal Akerman Theo Angelopoulos Acquarello is the author of Strictly Film School. tally after this list / October 22, 2005 Nick Davis The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993) Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophuls, 1953) Diary of A Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951) La Passion de Jeanne d'arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976) Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan & Gene Kelly, 1952) vMeshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943) Top 10 Directors Ingmar Bergman Robert Bresson Andrei Tarkovsky Charlie Chaplin Max Ophuls Orson Welles Alfred Hitchcock Josef von Sternberg F.W. Murnau Jane Campion Nick Davis is the writer of the reviews at Nick's Flick Picks and its spinoff blog. He is currently a professor of Film and American Literature at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, having taught previously at Cornell University and Wells College. tally after this list / October 22, 2005 Jasper Sharp Basically I chose films that I return to again and again and still get that kick out of, rather than titles which I believe (or know) to me “historically important” ones. I guess writing about Japanese film has always been a symptom of me looking outside the margins of the established canon. The biggest challenge was of course keeping it to only 10. (The choice of directors was even more difficult!) Top 10 Films (in chronological order) Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, 1947) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) Scum (Alan Clarke, 1979) Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980) This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984) The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986) Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993) The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, 1995) Shall We Dance? (Masayuki Suo, 1996) Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, 2004) Top 10 Directors (in no particular order) F.W. Murnau Dario Argento Seijun Suzuki Shohei Imamura Stan Brakhage Michael Powell Mamoru Oshii Alan Clarke Nick Broomfield Ernst Lubitsch Jasper Sharp is the co-editor of the website MidnightEye.com, and is the co-author, with Tom Mes, of the Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film. His writings on Japanese cinema have appeared in a number of publications. Mr. Sharp lives and works in Bath, England. tally after this list / October 21, 2005 SEE MORE TOP 10 LISTS

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