Thread: Your top 20 favourite movies of all-time

Okay. In no particular order, my top 20 films of all time:
1. The Search (very touching Montgomery Clift film from 1948)
2. Disney's Beauty & the Beast (got me into creating my own fairy tales)
3. Amadeus (I can practically write out the lines of this film. Best movie made EVER.
4. Jean de Florette (and I thought this was gonna be just some French soap opera!)
5. Manon of the Spring (sequel to No. 4. Excellent film).
6. Finding Nemo (absolutely gorgeous film. I can probably also write down every spoken line of dialogue).
7. Jurassic Park (blew me away)
8. Taxi Driver (saw this when it came out. I was 14. Wasn't exactly ready for it. Still with me visually to this day.
9. The Godfather I (nothing needs to be said)
10. The Godfather II (ditto)
11. Sarafina (very touching musical)
12. The Matrix (took me by surprise)
13. Irreversible (It's not a film I recommend because the violence is extremely high, but visually it never leaves you).
14. Pan's Labyrinth (see No. 13)
15. Pulp Fiction (yet another movie I could probably recite line by line without the script in front of me).
16. City of Hope (what a tearjerker, this one!)
17. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (a good George Clooney film? Who knew!)
18. French Connection (Gene Hackman rules!)
19. Star Trek (the reboot, 2009)
20, Man Bites Dog (again, extremely violent and nerve wracking film. No film has ever made me that nervous since Silence of the Lambs).

Why are there no Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp or Leonardo DiCaprio films here? Probably the same reason there are no Julia Roberts or Jennifer Lopez or Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber films here.

tc members have good taste in movies

Keep your heads down a few westerns on the way.
BTW these are in no particular order.

1 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolfe
2 The Presidents Analyst
3 Lawman
4 The Big Country
5 Shutter Island
6 7 Days In May
7 L A Confidential
8 The Outlaw Josey Wales
9 The Thin Red Line
10 The Big Red One
11 Alien
12 Event Horizon
13 The Wind That Shakes the Barley
14 The Quiet Man
15 Singin In The Rain
16 Night Of the Iguana
17 Lord Of the Rings Trilogy (Is that cheating)
18 The Jason Bourne Trilogy (there I go again)
19 The Haunting (Original B/W with Richard Johnson)
20 Dr Strangelove

The above list is of course changeable (except 1 & 2)

Add Aguirre, the Wrath of God to my list.

1. Wild Strawberries (My favorite Bergman film. It has Bergman's old mentor, actor/director Victor Sjöström as the lead, and it's a very warm, very poignant film. It also has some of the most beautiful and enigmatic dream sequences ever put on film - and for my money the most convincing too)
2. Seventh Seal (I first saw this when I was 20 and thought 'what's all the fuss about?'. I saw it for the second time 15 years later and thought 'that's what all the fuss is about')
3. Orphee (Cocteau) (Its visual effects are still mind-blowing after 50 odd years - really unmatched by anything produced by modern special effects, which proves you need an imagination more than you need a budget)
4. Hannah and her Sisters (Woody Allen. Crimes and Misdemeanors is the one everybody takes seriously, but I prefer this - for asking searching questions without losing its considerable warmth, for its love song to New York - Allen's New York, that is, not to be confused with the actual city, for its humor of course, for its tolerant exploration of human foibles, and not least for Max von Sydow's fantastic turn as an irascible painter giving a run down on the failings of our so-called civilization.)
5. Delicatessen (A reviewer in Time Out slated this film because his father was a butcher and had never once cut up a lodger and sold his meat. A dystopian black comedy with a surprising optimism about human beings despite the dark subject matter. And it has Dominique Pinon in it.)
6. The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz (An apocalyptic comedy. Should be seen by many more people. Especially if you've ever lived in London and used the tube to get to work.)
7. 101 Reykjavik (very funny, very modern take on Bergman's existentialist themes)
8. The Man without a Past (Aki Kaurismaki. Only seen this once, but it convinced me that Kaurismaki is a major director. Rather dour understated Finnish comedy with a very distinct style)
9. It Happened One Night. Classic screwball comedy with Clark Gable.
10. Ugetso Monogatari (only seen this once and in a way don't want to see it again in case it's not as good as I remember it)
11. Europa (early Lars von Trier, for its sheer visual power)
12. Festen (the first and best dogme film. Deals with incest and abuse, yet somehow remains a hopeful film. And manages to do so much within the limitations imposed by the dogme manifesto)
13. High Plains Drifter (Directed by Clint Eastwood. An unsung masterpiece.)
14. Diva. (Used to watch this about once a year. Thriller. Love story. Very atmospheric. Great music. And a cat called Ayatollah)


That's fourteen. This is taking me too long. I've tried to pick films that have stayed with me - either I've seen them several times and still got something new from them each time, or they made a very strong impression on me when I saw them and they've stayed in my mind ever since. Or I just like them.

Not twenty, but some movies I loved ;-)

The Fearless Vampire Killers
Dr. Zhivago
Dr. Strangelove
Barry Lyndon
Koyaanisqatsi
Amadeus
The Shining
Twelve Monkeys
The Others
Dangerous Liaisons
The City of Lost Children
The Tree of Life
Melancholia
Elena

Only 20? That's really difficult. I'm afraid I'm going to have to naughty and include trilogies as a single choice.

My choices at present, in no order include
1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Dracula (Lugosi)
3. The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
4. Robocop 1
5. Starship Troopers
6. Terminator 1 & 2
7. Star Trek WofK
8. Start Trek First Contact
9. The Addams Family/Addams Family Values
10. Wall-e
11. Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2
12. Ip Man 1 & 2
13. Run Lola Run
14. Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
15. Austin Powers Trilogy
16. Batman - The Dark Knight
17. Star Wars 3-6
18. Unthinkable
19. The Matrix Trilogy
20. Hellboy 1-2

Some of these may change depending on mood, though certain films won't. I know I have missed a few films and I still haven't seen many of the films I have picked up as yet but for the moment I am satisfied with my list.

In no real order:

A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Du Levande (Roy Andersson, 2007)
Arrebato (Iván Zulueta, 1980)
La Chute de la Maison Usher (Jean Epstein, 1928)
Mind Game (Masaaki Yuasa, 2004)
Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Grass Labyrinth (Shuji Terayama, 1983)
Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, 1982)
The Eve of Ivan Kupalo (Yuri Ilyenko, 1968)
As I Was Moving Ahead Occaisionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (Jonas Mekas, 2000)
Bleak Moments (Mike Leigh, 1971)
The Colour of the Pomegranate (Sergei Parajanov, 1968)
A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
Sånger Från Andra Våningen (Roy Andersson, 2000)
Der Siebent Kontinent (Michael Haneke, 1989)
The Scenic Route (Mark Rappaport, 1978)

Avatar
The Avengers
Lord of the Rings (Whole Trilogy)
District 9
Inception
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Hunger Games
War Horse
Children of Men
Black Swan
Jurassic Park
True Grit (2010)
The Dark Knight
Up
The Fighter
And many more

La Strada (Fellini)
La Notte (Antonioni)
L'Eclisse (Antonioni)
Le Mépris (Godard)
Lola (Demy)
Sunrise (Murnau)
Funny Games (Haneke)
Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi)
Ikiru (Kurosawa)
In the mood for love & 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)
La grande guerra (Monicelli)
The Apartment (Wilder)
Persona (Bergman)
Lost in Translation (S. Coppola)
Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (Wertmuller)
Les Quatre Cent Coups (Truffaut)
L'amour l'après midi (Rohmer)
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)
Days of Wine and Roses (Edwards)
La regle du jeu (Renoir)

Originally Posted by AClockworkOrange

My choices at present, in no order include
1. A Clockwork Orange

Uh huh....

1. The Bridge over the river Kwai
2. LOTR Fellowship of the Ring
3. LOTR Two Towers
4. LOTR Return of the king
5. Shenandoah
6. The man who shot Liberty Valens
7. Ben Hur
8. The Matrix
9. Star Wars 4
10. Star Wars 5
11. Ice Age
12. Morcambe and Wise: The intelligence men
13. Indiana Jones 1
14. Indiana Jones 3
15. Once Upon a time in the West
16. Star Wars 3
17. Terminator 2

I reserve two for the upcoming Hobbit films, unless they are awful in which case I think I will give up on films forever...

EDIT: make that three

Originally Posted by Alexander

Allowing for the presence of a little adventure, horror and fantasy, it's basically a humanist's list.

[...]

Ice Cold in Alex

Two questions. A 'humanist's list? And whilst I love some of the others in your list, this is an oddity, isn't it? It's on mine too, btw...I wonder if there's something in the name, since 'Alexander' is my alter ego!

Originally Posted by Ramako

I reserve two for the upcoming Hobbit films, unless they are awful in which case I think I will give up on films forever...

You''ll have to wait longer to decide - there's going to be THREE Hobbit films!

Originally Posted by MacLeod

You''ll have to wait longer to decide - there's going to be THREE Hobbit films!

Um, what???

I thought I'd have heard about that, although I have been avoiding reading what I can for fear of spoilers...

EDIT: So you're right, a quick wiki check revealing all as usual. They should just film the whole Silmarillion and be done with it.

Though it must be said, my confidence levels are not high about the way they are doing this.