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SvenErik Olsen Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952) Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962) Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967) The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa, 1960) The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976) Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1970) The Double Life of Veronique (K. Kieslowski, 1991) Top 10 Directors: Akira Kurosawa Luis Bunuel Federico Fellini Orson Welles Ingmar Bergman Howard Hawks Alfred Hitchcock Douglas Sirk Jean-Luc Godard Sam Peckinpah SvenErik Olsen is a writer and musician residing in Minneapolis. tally after this list / March 13, 2009 Steven Reed (revised list) (in no particular order) Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (M. Gondry, 2004) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Modern Times (Charles Chaplin) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) The Godfather I & II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972/74) Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005) Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982) The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Top 10 Directors: Jean-Luc Godard (TIE) Stanley Kubrick (TIE) Charles Chaplin Paul Thomas Anderson Alfred Hitchcock Federico Fellini Gus Van Sant Martin Scorsese Billy Wilder Orson Welles See also Steven's previous list: August 5, 2008 tally after this list / Feb 27, 2009 Richard J. Paulsen Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1947) The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) Top 10 Directors: Orson Welles Akira Kurosawa Alfred Hitchcock Federico Fellini Ingmar Bergman Stanley Kubrick Martin Scorsese Billy Wilder John Ford Francis Ford Coppola Regrettably I've had to leave off such great films as 8 1/2, Raging Bull, The Searchers, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Breathless, Sansho the Bailiff, Sunset Blvd., Rashomon, etc. and such great directors as Godard, Truffaut, Ozu, Tarkovsky, Hawks, Allen, Lynch. Richard J. Paulsen is a 29 year old film enthusiast. tally after this list / February 25, 2009 Blake Buffington The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994) It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993) The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985) Blake Buffington is an 18 year old film enthusiast who aspires to become a novelist. tally after this list / February 11, 2009 Larry Elliot The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) The Singing Detective (Jon Amiel, 1986) Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Larry Elliott is a journalist and film-maker based in Australia. tally after this list / January 14, 2009 Simon Hue (chronological order) The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) Caught (Max Ophuls, 1949) Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964) Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967) Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974) Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005) 15 Runners-Up: Bringing Up Baby, Sansho the Bailiff, Rear Window, Rio Bravo, Kes, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Holy Mountain, A Woman Under the Influence, Heaven's Gate, L'Argent, Vive L'Amour, Satantango, The Wind Will Carry Us, Rosetta, Broken Flowers. Top 10 Directors: (chronological order) John Cassavetes Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Michael Haneke Howard Hawks Alfred Hitchcock Abbas Kiarostami Kenji Mizoguchi Max Ophuls Douglas Sirk Jacques Tati Simon Hue is an 18 year old cinephile from Toronto, Canada and is studying film and English lit in university. tally after this list / January 7, 2009 Louis Goldberg By its nature, a person’s top 10 list will exclude a vast number of great works. For example, I love Orson Welles but you won’t find Citizen Kane or any other Welles film on my list because I prefer the films on my list over the Welles films. Even so, that doesn’t mean I discount the Welles films or don’t love them. But how would you know that based on the list I’ve chosen? Top 10 lists are difficult to create and I’m not sure they do anything significant beyond offer a look into a critic’s personal tastes. My tastes are idiosyncratic and my top 10 list tends to feature the lesser films of major filmmakers rather than the more routinely acclaimed tried & true classics of the basic repertoire. These films are listed in no preferential order. Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965) Loving this film hasn't as much to do with loving sports as it does loving film form. Asked to document the 1964 Summer Olympics, Ichikawa creates an impressionistic version of it that is one of the most amazing film spectacles ever. And this is to be distinguished from the actual Olympic event as spectacle. While there is much to admire in Leni Riefenstahl's film of the 1936 Olympics, and while Riefenstahl also uses the event to play with film form as in her famous diving montage, Ichikawa's use of color, slow-motion, freeze frames, widescreen composition, and aerial shots combined with his choice of subjects makes this the superior film. And because there are so many facets to the film: shots of people eating in the mess hall, reporters typing away, the man from Chad walking around town, kimono-clad attendants standing in the rain, the referees measuring distances, etc., it's almost more than a look at just the Olympics, it presents so much human activity that it's like a documentary of the whole world circa 1964. Two sequences stand out. First, the opening torch relay. It represents the torch of civilization returning to re-admit Japan into the world of nations after WW2. The torch goes past all of the key Japanese icons, the Hiroshima Peace Tower, Mt. Fuji, the Emperor, until it takes its place in the stadium. The second is a very short but brilliant sequence detailing the marksmanship contest. A lot of the athletic events take place in front of the noisy crowd, but silence reigns in this sequence. The firing of a gun is less physical and more mental. Ichikawa uses a rack focus between the gunsight and the shooter's eye. In a brief series of shots he captures the essense of the interiority of this event. Only Angels Have Wings / To Have And Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1939 & 1944) I believe that Hawks is the finest American filmmaker even if his films are not intellectually or philosophically as deep or literary as say films by Kubrick or Woody Allen. And Hawks films aren't emotionally moving in the sense that you might cry during them. They are simply very funny and/or very thrilling. They are clasical Hollywood entertainment at its best: fun, exciting, and moral without being preachy. Hawks is attracted to a certain kind of person, one who is an alpha male and "cool" and can operate well in reality. He likes to put this kind of person together with a similarly-minded female and record the fireworks. These two films are very similar and yet I find it impossible to choose between them, to pick one and leave off the other because each has things in them I love that the other doesn't. I could go through the films in detail but I'm going to stick to essentials. Although entry into the fraternity of flyers in Angels requires that you risk your very neck, they are tough guys, great role models, and you admire them and wish to belong & be like them. The main character in TH&HN is more of a loner, his entourage of quirky associates forming less of an obvious group, but his ability to handle life is just as impressive. Both films are set in "mythical" exotic locales: a fictitious Barranca and a just as fictitious Martinique. However, while in most films you stand apart from the images and just watch, these are two films where their overall environment is rendered so endearingly that you don't just want to watch, you actually want to live in this film, and be these people. A Time To Love And A Time To Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958) The people who like Sirk fall into two camps: they like him because he criticizes bourgeois society or they like to laugh at his soapy, melodramatic style. His best film, however, is an atypical work that deals with WW2. Jean-Pierre Melville called it a masterpiece and there was an attempt to revive it in New York sometime in the 1990s. Nevertheless, it's basically overlooked and forgotten today, perhaps because its two leads, John Gavin and Lisolette Pulver, were never big stars. The US VHS is out of print and it’s only available on DVD (so far) in a few countries like France. The film is based on a 1954 novel by Erich Maria Remarque which the film actually improves upon. Remarque wrote the script’s first draft but Sirk had issues with it and called in another writer. This prompted Remarque to remove his name from the script but between its two authors the film contains some of the finest dialogue I’ve ever encountered in a film. The film also contains an amazing density of characters and incidents. We seem to meet someone new almost every ten seconds and with one brief line these characters are completely realized. One result of this density is that the plot gives way to the moment. After 130 plus minutes of this, you really feel you've been through an epic. The film makes interesting use of symbols such as the blooming tree (love) or the opening and closing of curtains (which separates the characters from their society). The film also has an interesting repeating pattern or formula where a positive incident will be followed by a negative one which is then followed by a positive one. This pattern not only moves the film along but brings up the elements the film wants to contrast: love, war, promise, threat, sensitivity, and brutality. Lastly, there’s just Lisolette Pulver who gives a wonderful performance as this moody yet optimistic woman. Half the joy of watching the film is just watching her. A Day In The Country (Jean Renoir, 1936) Maybe two bittersweet romances on a top 10 list is pushing it, but Renoir's film isn't just boy meets girl, boy loses girl. He's expressing a kind of pattern that almost defines human nature or just nature itself. It's not a mistake that most of the film takes place outdoors. Nature is God and we become our animal selves while in it. Nature decrees, we follow, and the tragic sadness of this edict is imposed on all of us. The End of Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1960) Ozu, for all his formalism and simplicity, may be the maker of the world’s finest films. Someone once described the Japanese tea ceremony as “a respite from the hectic world.” Ozu’s films are like that. They are like a tea break from the fast pace we normally live at. Classical Hollywood cinema, which is meant to offer an escape from the world, does so today by overwhelming us with speed. In contrast, Ozu provides us escape through a slow and restful pace. Quentin Tarantino described Rio Bravo as “a hang-out movie,” a film where you “hang out” with, get to know, and simply spend time in the company of its characters. Ozu films are almost nothing but hang-out movies. Each one is just another chance to relax and hang out with the same actors watching them eat, talk, work, and respond to events. At one time, the Japanese regarded Ozu as their best director. I asked some modern Japanese what they thought of Ozu and their reply was ironic. The consensus was: “We don’t like or understand Ozu. If anyone Japanese watches Ozu today, it’s simply to try and understand why Westerners like him.” Throughout the 50s and early 60s, Ozu was pointing out the very factors that would change Japanese society towards this result, a society which can no longer fathom him or its own traditions. Today, most critics consider Tokyo Story Ozu's masterpiece, but Ozu once said that he considered Tokyo Story too melodramatic. For Ozu, plot and story are contrivances, the less or none the better. Not that Ozu is into realism. Nothing could be more formal or controlled than the Ozu universe. The reason Ozu eschews plot is because it sets up an anticipation for what will happen next and Ozu wants you firmly rooted in the present moment. This links Ozu’s cinema to the philosophy of Zen and Tao. Ozu's films are less about narrative than they are about moment to moment changes that take place as time passes. Their most distinctive characteristic, a low-angle viewpoint combined with a static, non-moving camera is the viewpoint of a Buddhist sitting in meditation (though another brilliant description of Ozu's low-angle viewpoint is "the view of a child looking in on the adult world"). Meditation creates a state of distance, detachment, observation, and contemplation. It may be Ozu’s greatest achievement that he developed a style using film form which allows viewers to look at things through this meditative viewpoint. It’s a unique approach opposite from classical Hollywood cinema which aims at engagement and identification. There are a few films which seem to exist for a single idea, sequence, or even a single shot. The End of Summer is one of these. It contains which might be the greatest single shot in movies but one only understood within the context of the entire film. That context is the contrast between two Japans, the “old Japan” represented by the family patriarch and the “new Japan” represented to us in English on a neon sign in the film’s first few moments or by characters such as the man who pursues a relationship with Setsuko Hara. What distinguishes these two Japans is Zen. Some Japanese are still Zen masters and some are not. Those who are not they are frightened and out-of-touch with themselves. The entire film is simply a contrast between those in and out of Zen. In an early scene a man is filled with fear and ulterior motives. One look at him and Setsuko Hara’s Zen master character rejects him. In another scene, the family patriarch ambushes the worker sent to spy on him and flusters the man up so much that the guy pays for the patriarch’s noodles. "The fool," sums up the patriarch. Part of what makes a man a Zen master is self-containment. The patriarch's daughter-in-law is upset the old man is seeing a mistress as it offends her morals. Later, when she realizes the old man is dying and having some last enjoyment, she apologizes for her earlier behavior. He answers: "I've been rejected so many times, it makes no difference." He simply wasn't bothered or intimidated by what she thought or did. My first viewings of The End of Summer were 16 and 35mm prints from New Yorker Films with English subtitles written by Donald Ritchie. The film is now available on DVD from Eclipse with a newer translation not by Ritchie. The new translation may come closer to what is actually being said but which loses some of the implied meaning of the dialogue that Ritchie’s translation catches. In the new translation the above line is simply stated: “Eh, forget it.” In the Ritchie version, there is a line, “It’s hard to fight big capital.” The line implies that, not only is it difficult for the film’s small microbrewer to compete with larger firms, but that most individuals succumb to and internalize the cultural effects of capitalism. Once again, this wider implication is lost in the Eclipse translation. In his book on Ozu, David Bordwell discusses those shots in Ozu where the characters appear to be looking into the camera. Because the actor’s eyes don’t look directly into the camera but just slightly off, Bordwell assumes they don’t break the fourth wall. Actually, they do. Ozu's films acknowledge that an audience is watching, that they are films. And their characters don’t even have to look into the camera to break the wall. The patriarch is sitting on the floor turned to the side from the camera while his mistress's daughter is moving back and forth in the background. Although he says to himself, "restless girl,” that's meant to break the fourth wall and be from him to us. In this way, Ozu’s Zen masters point out significant lessons about the world. The main lesson of The End of Summer is the acceptance of things including death. The patriarch is dying, that's just the way it is. As Ozu characters commonly say, "It can't be helped." The Mistress's daughter asks which of two men might be her Dad and is asked back why it should matter since it doesn't alter the fact she's alive now. The couple goes to the bike races, they hold their bets, the race is done, the bets don't pay, they tear up the receipts, and the torn paper blows on the wind. Once again, the characters accept their losses and the way of things. All of this leads up to the final shots including that single “great” one. That shot is of 7 or 8 black-clad mourners walking away from us across a bridge as a shallow creek or river flows beneath. The shot’s lesson is that while each individual dies, the river of life or existence continues on. Even so, the film’s emphasis is on death. The shot of 7 or 8 mourners walking away is soon followed by a shot of 7 or 8 gravestones. The implication here is that not only will all the mourners someday die, but the actors playing them will die, and every member of the audience too, which means you and me. Somehow, this reminder that nothing lasts is key to a life of Zen and the cinema of Ozu. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) Just because Robin Wood & Bernardo Bertolucci will tell you this is a top 10 film doesn't mean that it's easy to articulate why. Looked at as objectively as is possible, Marnie is a mess, flawed beyond belief. I have watched this film with audiences who laugh at nearly every line thinking the whole thing is just preposterous. So how is it the film can make a top 10 list when most people look at it as the point where Hitchcock lost what powers he had? In one word: emotionalism. There are many perfect or near perfect films that people praise which you can admire but which leave you cold. Marnie, at least for me as a subjective experience, is nothing but hot. I've seen the film many times. I know what's coming. There are no surprises. And yet, if put in front of it for 10 minutes, I'm sucked in and played like an organ. I cry. I gasp. It's uncanny. It shouldn't happen to me but it does without fail. Of course, you have to watch it alone or in a small group and if it doesn't work for someone their laughter will destroy what magic the film is capable of. Someone described watching Marnie as like going through therapy and since it deals with a woman's psychological problems, it is very intense. Marnie has OCD, anxiety attacks which compel her. The device of redding out the screen is brilliant--an internal state of anxiety expressed externally in visual filmic terms. Marnie refuses to exchange. She won't put out for cash but steals the money from men instead. She's fascinating because she's so troubled and so different. I think I root for her and have more sympathy for her and want her to succeed more than any character in movies. She wants to be left alone and you can't help but intervene because you want to nurture and cure her. Hitchcock presents part of that intervention as sexual. It doesn't help Marnie any to rape her. It's wrong. But. You see, there's a but there. Love breeds desire and so she has to be brought into a world of sexuality even if its by force. Rape isn't something you would personally do, but Hitchcock goes beyond what you would personally do to fulfill the forbidden desire he has set up. Then the Herrmann score paints the relationship between Mark and Marnie as romantic, so there's no room to interpret it differently. Love and rape align. You can root for the girl, be puzzled by her, fascinated, try to understand her and help her, what have you, but if you are honest, all of this means you will want to have her as well. And while all these sexual aspects are part of the film, if that's all the film were about, it couldn't make a top 10 list. Marnie is a film about repair, about curing neurosis through connection, confession, and insight. Maybe that works on paper better than the film does in reality, but despite how odd a route it seems to take at times, because it reaches a cure and an epiphany, it's the most hope-filled film ever made. Rebel Without A Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) I almost want to say that the content of this film doesn't matter, that it's the style and form which make it special, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. Even so, let's talk first about style. Not only is Rebel scored with contemporary music, it IS contemporary music: aggressive, dissonant, conflicted, raging & powerful. I showed it to someone who said, it looks like they watched West Side Story, but Rebel came first and is superior, it's just presented as if it were a ballet or musical. The film is all physical movement and energy with its characters running about in constant motion. Now, content. On the surface, it's about teen deliquency, but again, it's more primal than that, it's about outsiders who all have family issues so that it's more like a Modern Art version of a Greek Drama. One of the characters is named Plato and although Jim tries his best, he winds up rolling in agony on the ground, unable to stop the tragedy that comes to Plato. By today's standards, these kids are just too polite to be real hoods, but the issues the film deals with are still universal and a propos. Jim tries to call Judy and her dad answers the phone and gets rid of him. Judy overhears this and says to herself, "He didn't have to do that." That's the whole conflict of being an emerging adult in a parent's household in a nutshell. And two seconds later, Judy leaves the house through a window. If the parents (and by extention society) can't operate with decency, then all of the kids have to discover morality on their own. And Rebel knows that's no easy task. The kids find a refuge where they can explore freedom and emotion on their own: "I love somebody. All my life I wanted someone to love me and now I love somebody." Ray's ending isn't entirely apocalyptic, because even though things are stacked against you, there isn't yet the complete destruction of the world as pictured in the planetarium. But it's there in the background of things, we live with it, it's coming, but not quite today. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, 1948) Most of the Powell & Pressburger films are tremendous and critics all seem to find a favorite and promote it. The Red Shoes had an early reputation but today people often eschew it for others like IKWIG, Blimp, Stairway to Heaven, Narcissus, even A Canterbury Tale, Tales of Hoffmann, and The Small Back Room. I'm glad we have all of these films but still have to put The Red Shoes on my list of top 10. Again we have a film whose form seems to predominate over its content, a film that is all color and music and movement. The form is dazzling but the film has content as well. True ballet fans consider it a completely ridiculous depiction of the art, but it isn't really about the ballet, they could all be circus performers and you could still have the same story. What matters more is the creation of such a unique character such as the haughty Lermontov or the issue of the love triangle over Vicki or the work and passion required to create. What fascinates me are the details, the comings and goings. It's not by accident that there are trains in this film. The film begins, the students arrive, 45 minutes passes in a title card, we meet Kraster but we also meet his girlfriend and a pal and a stuck-up couple who act annoyed. By the next scene all of these people are gone from the film for good but Kraster. Prof. Palmer comes in and disappears two scenes later as does Vicki's relative. Some people are central to scenes like the Russian ballerina, but then they too disappear, and just when you think they are gone for good, scenes later they are brought back again. The camera pans past a large outdoor dinner party at dusk. There are long tables and people are seated at them. Then there is a pretty blonde girl who is standing up. Who is she? We'll never know because, while we see her for a second, the camera keeps moving past her. In a way, this is a film not just about the passage of time but about aging through time reflected primarily through the forming & losing of relationships. Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) Gee, another widescreen, color film with a musical feel to it. Although it has a ton to say about our culture, politics, and relationships, I just like the way it looks and moves forward episode after episode. Some of those episodes are quirky slapstick, others improvised, still others are deeply beautiful or personal. It's absurd and then poignant and then absurd again. Even so, I'm engrossed. I suppose it's message is that people lie and betray and can't love and get along but I don't care about that as much. I just want to see Anna Karina on a balcony in the middle of a long unbroken shot overlooking Paris with her hair awry, a rifle in her hand, a strange expression on her face while a voice-over expresses her deep, free soul: "C'est moi, Marianne." Top 10 Directors: Orson Welles Jean-Luc Godard Francois Truffaut Michael Powell Jean Renoir Howard Hawks Yasujiro Ozu Ernst Lubitsch Akira Kurosawa Alfred Hitchcock Louis Goldberg teaches Technology Studies at Eastern Michigan University. tally after this list / November 27, 2008 Patrick Stoakes I Know Where I'm Going (Powell/Pressburger, 1945) Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004) Three Colours Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927) After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998) My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) Love and Other Catastrophes (Emma-Kate Croghan, 1996) Les Amants du Pont Neuf (Leos Carax, 1991) Patrick Stoakes is the Director of Equality Network (Scottish LGBT Right Charity). tally after this list / November 13, 2008 J.R. Hudson Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Top 10 Directors: Martin Scorsese Stanley Kubrick Alfred Hitchcock Steven Spielberg Brian De Palma Quentin Tarantino Terrence Malick Orson Welles Francis Ford Coppola John Carpenter J.R. Hudson resides in San Diego, CA and is the creator and main contributor for www.cineobscure.com. He spends his sparest of free time studying and pursuing Filmmaking. tally after this list / October 20, 2008 Max Vaughn A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975) Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968) Touch Of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) The Night Of The Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Citizen Kane/Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1941/42) The Killers (Robert Siodmark, 1946) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2008) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) Manhatten (Woody Allen, 1979) Paths Of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) Blood Simple (Coen Bros, 1984) Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993) Max Vaughn is a 17 year old cinema lover who aspires to be a writer and director. tally after this list / September 11, 2008 Peter Rinaldi (revised list) This list celebrates non-perfection as supreme art. Each one of these films have traits that are rare in cinema, and also difficulties and/or mutilations, flaws and neglect which they have transcended into their own brand of perfection. To celebrate only "perfect" films is to ignore the true magic that is inherent in cinema and which separates it from all other art forms (alphabetical order) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969) Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, 1955) Love Steams (John Cassavetes, 1984) The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) My Friend Ivan Lapshin (Aleksei German, 1984) Ordet (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955) Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954) Top 5 Directors: John Cassavetes Andrei Tarkovsky Jean-Luc Godard Orson Welles Roberto Rossellini See also Peter's previous list: November 28, 2005 Peter Rinaldi is a filmmaker. He is a contributor to The Boutros Boutros Follies and Bright Lights Film Journal. He lives in New York. tally after this list / September 9, 2008 Gabriel Bly A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) The King of Comedy ((Martin Scorsese, 1982) Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards, 1962) Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973) Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003) Plus these extras in no order: Taxi Driver, The Seventh Seal, Dog Day Afternoon, Raging Bull, Seven Samurai, The Last Detail, Citizen Kane, A Clockwork Orange, Chinatown, The Conversation, East of Eden, Deer Hunter, The Apartment, 8½, The Graduate, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Reservoir Dogs, American Beauty, Kill Bill, It's a Wonderful Life, Casablanca, Yojimbo, The Passenger, I'm Not There, Little Miss Sunshine, Apocalypse Now, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Where the Buffalo Roam, The Royal Tenebaums, True Stories, Broken Flowers, Life Aquatic, Eternal Sunshine, Ran, Capote, Donnie Darko, Ed Wood, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Let America Laugh, Sicko, Splendor in the Grass, The Big Lebowski. Top 10 Directors: Michelangelo Antonioni Martin Scorsese Elia Kazan Alfred Hitchcock Ingmar Bergman Quentin Tarantino Orson Welles Francis Ford Coppola Akira Kurosawa Tim Burton tally after this list / Sept 3, 2008 Steven Reed Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (M. Gondry, 2004) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) Top 10 Directors: Jean-Luc Godard Stanley Kubrick Charles Chaplin Paul Thomas Anderson Billy Wilder Alfred Hitchcock Federico Fellini Martin Scorsese David Lean Alfonso Cuaron tally after this list / Aug 5, 2008 Nathan Deen The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-03) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931) Top 5 Directors: Stanley Kubrick Alfred Hitchcock Steven Spielberg Martin Scorsese David Lean tally after this list / July 13, 2008 Tom Lay The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) A Matter of Life and Death (Powell/Pressburger, 1946) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960) Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974) Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958) Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972) The Third Man (Carol Reed 1949) Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000) With apologies to Week End, His Girl Friday, Singin' in the Rain, Army of Shadows, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Dazed and Confused and documentaries and silent films in general. tally after this list / July 5, 2008 Jesse Richards (revised list) The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovky, 1975) In my view, this is the greatest film of all time. Here, Tarkovsky comes the closest to best utilizing film as it’s own distinct medium, and doesn’t fall into the trap of using structures made for theatre or writing and trying to apply them to film. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934) Jean Vigo gives Tarkovsky a run for his money. Zero For Conduct (Jean Vigo, 1933) Obviously I love Jean Vigo. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969) Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974) Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu, 1957) A Nos Amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983) Top 10 Directors: Andrei Tarkovky Jean Vigo Kenji Mizoguchi Yasujiro Ozu Jean Rollin Michelangelo Antonioni Maurice Pialat Wong Kar-wai Robert Bresson Amos Poe See also Jesse's previous list: October 24, 2006 Jesse Richards is an outlaw filmmaker, photographer and painter. He has work in a new book of pinhole photographs called "Dark Chamber" which will also include work by Billy Childish, Wolf Howard and others. Available from Urban Fox Press. tally after this list / June 22, 2008 Caleb Synan Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Top 10 Directors: Alfred Hitchcock Orson Welles Akira Kurosawa Stanley Kubrick Martin Scorsese Federico Fellini Ingmar Bergman Francis Ford Coppola Billy Wilder John Ford Caleb Synan is a sixteen year old film buff who hopes one day to be a director. tally after this list / June 12, 2008 Adam Trovillion Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987) Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951) My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1992) Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) Top 10 Directors: Alfred Hitchcock John Huston Akira Kurosawa Samuel Fuller Howard Hawks Paul Thomas Anderson Fritz Lang David Cronenberg Stanley Kubrick Martin Scorsese tally after this list / June 2, 2008 T.J. Krell Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007) Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino, 2007) Sin City (Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller w/ Quentin Tarantino, 2005) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) Runners-Up: Persepolis (Satrapi & Paronnaud), Cloverfield (Reeves), JFK (Stone), Separate Lies (Fellowes), The Departed (Scorsese), Domino (Tony Scott), Zodiac (Fincher), Natural Born Killers (Stone), The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Russell), The Spiderwick Chronicles (Mark Waters), Donnie Darko (Kelly), Waking Life (Linklater), Son of Rambow (Jennings) and Gattaca (Niccol). Top 10 Directors: Paul Thomas Anderson Andrew Dominik Oliver Stone Joel & Ethan Coen Richard Kelly Stanley Kubrick David Lynch David Fincher Martin Scorsese Robert Rodriguez tally after this list / May 20, 2008 Tristan Johnson Aguirre: the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989) Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993) Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001) All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979) Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) Last Year at Marienbad (Alan Resnais, 1961) Honourable Mentions: Chinatown (Polanski), Brazil (Gilliam), Playtime (Tati), Nashville (Altman), Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini), The Spirit of the Beehive (Erice), The English Patient (Minghella), Cries and Whispers (Bergman), La Jetée (Marker) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir). Top 10 Directors: Werner Herzog Hayao Miyazaki Luis Buñuel David Lynch Michael Powell (and Emeric Pressburger) Federico Fellini Robert Altman Roman Polanski Andrei Tarkovsky Ingmar Bergman Honourable Mentions: Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Greenaway and Joseph Von Sternberg. Tristan Johnson is entering his senior year at Michigan State University with a major in film studies. tally after this list / May 18, 2008 Matthew Griffiths La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) L' Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963) Hangover Square (John Brahm, 1945) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle, 1958) The Swimmer (Frank Perry & Sydney Pollack, 1968) Sporloos (The Vanishing) (George Sluizer, 1988) Matthew Griffiths is 18 years of age and loves film, art and music. tally after this list / May 16, 2008 Craig Adelberg Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974) Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly) Foul Play (Colin Higgins, 1978) Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) Top 10 Directors: Alfred Hitchcock Martin Scorsese Stanley Kubrick Steven Spielberg Mel Brooks Paul Thomas Anderson Billy Wilder Coen Brothers Sidney Lumet Frank Capra Craig Adelberg has created many compilation videos on Cinema. His video of the 150 Greatest Films can be viewed here. tally after this list / May 14, 2008 Josh Dean (revised list) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994) Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) See also Josh's previous list: November 25, 2005 Josh Dean is a film enthusiast from Peoria, Illinois. tally after this list / April 21, 2008 Josh Tschantret Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986) Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002) Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957) Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) See also Josh's previous list: December 2, 2007 Josh Tschantret is a filmaker and film historian. tally after this list / April 13, 2008 MORE TOP 10 LISTS

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