1. Mulholland Drive - Lynch
2. Lost Highway - Lynch
3. The Seventh Seal - Bergman
4. Satyricon - Fellini
5. Wild at Heart - Lynch
6. No Country for Old Men - Coen Brothers
7. Blue Velvet - Lynch
8. The Big Lebowski - Coen Brothers
9. Idiocracy - Judge
10. La Strada - Fellini
1. Do The Right Thing
2. M
3. The 400 Blows/Les Quatre Cents Coups
4. The Bicycle Thieves
5. Before Sunrise
6. Midnight Cowboy
7. Goodbye Mr Chips
8. Les Enfants du Paradis
9. In The Mood For Love
10. The Lives of Others
Some are simply the best films ever made but some are just personal (The Lives of Others, In the Mood for Love). Nice thread and good to be reminded of what a wonderful life we can have.
1. The King's Speech
2. 12 Angry Men
3. A Christmas Carol (1951, with Alastair Sim)
4. The Pianist
5. Oliver Twist (1948)
6. The Odd Couple
7. The Shop around the Corner
8. Schindler's List
9. Luther (2003)
10. Gentleman's Agreement
1. Schindler's List
2. 12 Angry Men
3. Blade Runner
4. The Seventh Seal
5. The Elephant Man
6. Alien
7. Solaris (1972)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
9. Stalker (1979)
10. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
M (1931) - Fritz Lang La Règle du jeu (1939) - Jean Renoir Stromboli (1950) - Roberto Rossellini Ugetsu monogatari (1953) - Kenji Mizoguchi Ordet (1955) - Carl Dreyer
Pickpocket (1959) - Robert Bresson Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1964) - Pier Paolo Pasolini L'important c'est d'aimer (1975) - Andrzej Zuławski Nostalghia (1983) - Andrei Tarkovsky La stanza del figlio (2001) - Nanni Moretti
Well, these are my favorites. If you don't like them I have others.
winter light - ingmar bergman
umberto d - vittorio de sica
the night of the hunter - charles laughton
taxi driver - martin scorsese
bring me the head of alfredo garcia - sam peckinpah
killer of sheep - charles burnett
wake in fright - ted kotcheff
alien - ridley scott
lost highway - david lynch
windy day - john and faith hubley (this one is a short animated movie)
1. Children of Paradise (1945) - Marcel Carné
2. The Rules of the Game (1939) - Jean Renoir
3. Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
4. Odd Man Out (1947) - Carol Reed
5. Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa
6. The Exterminating Angel (1962) - Luis Buñuel
7. The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed
8. Notorious (1946) - Alfred Hitchcock
9. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - Sergio Leone
10. The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Michael Mann
Guilty Pleasure: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) - David Lynch
To me nothing even remotely matches Sergio Leone's filming style and atmosphere. There's a kind of magic to these movies that I haven't found elsewhere. I simply love his style. The rest of my list wouldn't be very original, something like:
Blade Runner
Alien
Apocalypse Now
The Shining
Heat
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars original trilogy
The Loved One (1965), The Magic Christian (1969), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Titanic (1997), The Remains of the Day (1993), Skyfall (2012), American Beauty (1999), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Blade Runner (1982).
- The Big Lebowski (Coen Bros)
- Fearless (Weir)
- Casablanca (Curtiz)
- Sunshine (Szabó)
- Children of Men (Cuarón)
- The Mission (Joffé)
- Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
- Vertigo (Hitchcock)
- Unforgiven (Eastwood)
- Young Frankenstein (Brooks)
Some other favorites: House of Games (Mamet); The Deer Hunter (Cimino); Rocky (Avildsen); Jaws (Spielberg); La Dolce Vita (Fellini); To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan); Amores perros (Iñárritu); Ride the High Country (Peckinpah); The Verdict (Lumet); The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler); The Thin Blue Line (Malick); Adaptation (Jonze)
- The Big Lebowski (Coen Bros)
- Fearless (Weir)
- Casablanca (Curtiz)
- Sunshine (Szabó)
- Children of Men (Cuarón)
- The Mission (Joffé)
- Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
- Vertigo (Hitchcock)
- Unforgiven (Eastwood)
- Young Frankenstein (Brooks)
Some other favorites: House of Games (Mamet); The Deer Hunter (Cimino); Rocky (Avildsen); Jaws (Spielberg); La Dolce Vita (Fellini); To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan); Amores perros (Iñárritu); Ride the High Country (Peckinpah); The Verdict (Lumet); The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler); The Thin Blue Line (Malick); Adaptation (Jonze)
A couple years ago, I stumbled across the film one night purely by chance -- and it blew me away. I've since re-watched it a couple times. For me, part of the appeal of the film is its strange and unusual tone, varying wildly from straightforward realism to its funny, mythic take on reality, almost like a fairy tale. The fact that Ralph Fiennes plays so many different roles also factors in to that "oddness." I think it works beautifully and wonderfully -- but I can see how others might be put off by it. I wonder if that un-conventionality had anything to do with its reception (or lack thereof) in America.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Without A Clue
Zulu
Withnail & I
Black Hawk Down
Der Philosoph
Kind Hearts And Coronets
The Drop
Howards End
The Last Picture Show
I was pleased to find Mike Leigh's Naked on somebody's list. As a huge fan of his work, I think this one of his best. It's a wonderful movie, full of surprises.
1. Pedro Almodovar: Talk to Her
2. Jean-Luc Godard: Made in U.S.A.
3. Luis Bunuel: Belle de Jour
4. Ingmar Bergman: Persona
5. Chris Columbus: Rent
6. The Wachowskis: The Matrix
7. Christopher Nolan: Inception
8. David Lynch: Mulholland Drive
9. Woody Allen: Midnight in Paris
10.Francois Truffaut: Jules and Jim
Most of the soundtracks for these ten movies aren't that amazing, but the movies themselves are great! My top ten soundtracks would be a completely different list.
Top ten - can't be done. Just looking at others' lists - some great choices - I'd probably have picked 20 from there.
The Maltese Falcon
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Fargo
No Country for Old Men
Alien
Psycho
Zulu
Ice Cold in Alex
Oliver Twist
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Fellowship of the Ring
Blade Runner
The Thing
It's A Wonderful Life
Casablanca
Remains of the Day
Okay, ten only for the sake of discipline. These are all films that affected me viscerally at the time, have been seen several times and have become permanent fixtures in my memory. Bits and pieces of each come up almost daily and all are replayed several times every year. Some of them, like Children of Paradise, I regard as old friends I revisit as often as possible. There are at least an equal number, maybe more, sharing cerebral space with them.
Rashomon
Citizen Kane
Children of Paradise
The 400 Blows
Potemkin
The Bicycle Thieves
The Lovers of Teruel
La Strada
The Apu Trilogy
The Godfather, parts 1 and 2 (feh! on Part 3)
There are many from other postings on this thread that would make my list, but really, choosing ten is hard enough as it is.
Husbands and Wives
Aliens
It's a Wonderful Life
Shawshank Redemption
Fargo
The Godfather
No Country for Old Men
Mighty Aphrodite
12 Angry Men
Howards End
Jace: I totally understand your wife's reaction, though I can't say I share it because, as much as I despise Goeth (and he truly disgusts me; I don't find him "hot" at all), Ralph Fiennes and his brother Joseph are two of my favorite British actors, along with Colin Firth, Liam Neeson and some others. A wonderful movie starring Joseph Fiennes is Luther, which is on my favorite films list. The musical score is phenomenal.
I'm with you! I think Fiennes is a phenomenal actor.
BTW, I would add Clive Owen to your list of outstanding contemporary British actors. His role in Children of Men is amazing. It's a performance always slays me, and I've seen the film many times. I also thought Owen was astounding in Closer, one Mike Nichols' last films.
Not in any particular order..
Polyester
Ruggles of Red Gap
Sling Blade
Midnight Cowboy
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Taxi Driver
Young Frankenstein
The Pawn Broker
Winged Migration
Ingmar Bergman's Magic Flute
Not in any particular order..
Polyester
Ruggles of Red Gap
Sling Blade
Midnight Cowboy
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Taxi Driver
Young Frankenstein
The Pawn Broker
Winged Migration Ingmar Bergman's Magic Flute
I loved it, totally charming and am glad others have discovered it, as well. If you haven't seen it yet, go do! It sounds great in its original Swedish .
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Mystic River
3. Amadeus
4. Forest Gump
5. The Naked Gun
6. South Park: The Movie
7. Godfather 1&2
8. Braveheart
9. Midnight Run
10. Star Wars
Very honorable mentions:
- Airplane
- True Romance
- Pulp Fiction
- King's Speach
- Predator
- The Sting
- The Power Of One
- Fight Club
- Inglorious B@$t@rd$
- Groundhog Day
- Blues Brothers
- Reservoir Dogs
- The Usual Suspects
- Big Fish
- Men In Black (one of the most "clever" movies ever)
Dr Johnson's mention of Zulu conjures up the whole genre of Thin Red Line films where The White Man in either the heyday or the twilight of colonialism is pitted against the Dervishes, the Boxers or whomever. We list Khartoum, 55 Days at Peking, Four Feathers along with Zulu. I seem to remember also one about the failed British invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1800s; don't recall the name. Stiff upper lip at all times!
Dr Johnson's mention of Zulu conjures up the whole genre of Thin Red Line films where The White Man in either the heyday or the twilight of colonialism is pitted against the Dervishes, the Boxers or whomever. We list Khartoum, 55 Days at Peking, Four Feathers along with Zulu. I seem to remember also one about the failed British invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1800s; don't recall the name. Stiff upper lip at all times!
Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not it. At least I don't think so. I remember the British army depicted laden with chests of drawers and tea sets and paraphernalia of all sorts totally useless in such terrain and conditions, laboring up over mountain passes, etc. Maybe I'm actually recalling a vivid written account of the fiasco and not a film at all. As I recall, only one British soldier survived the catastrophe and returned to tell the tale.
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