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Great idea for a thread. Not that much into films in general myself, would take me days to put up such a list. You guys already have a number of my favourite there, Starship Troopers, Last Boyscout, Bourne Identity, French Connection, Cape Fear (I also love the remake, original is creepier though), To Live and Die in LA, Infernal Affairs, Carrie, Dracula. Makes me want to watch some, great appetizer.

Working my way back to 1990:

2014 - Venus in Fur (Polanski)
2013 - The Grandmaster (Wong)
2012 - Night Across the Street (Ruiz)
2011 - The Skin I Live In (Almodovar)
2010 - Mysteries of Lisbon (Ruiz)
2009 - Wild Grass (Resnais)
2007 - Secret Sunshine (Lee)
2004 - 2046 (Wong)
2003 - Oldboy (Park)
2002 - Femme Fatale (De Palma)
2001 - Mulholland Drive (Lynch)
2000 - Eureka (Aoyama)

1999 - Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick)
1998 - Ronin (Frankenheimer)
1997 - The Game (Fincher)
1996 - Secrets & Lies (Leigh)
1995 - Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
1994 - Death and the Maiden (Polanski)
1993 - Carlito's Way (De Palma)
1992 - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Lynch)
1991 - Barton Fink (Coen)
1990 - White Hunter, Black Heart (Eastwood)

Harmsway wrote:

Working my way back to 1990:

2014 - Venus in Fur (Polanski)
2013 - The Grandmaster (Wong)
2012 - Night Across the Street (Ruiz)
2011 - The Skin I Live In (Almodovar)
2010 - Mysteries of Lisbon (Ruiz)
2009 - Wild Grass (Resnais)
2007 - Secret Sunshine (Lee)
2004 - 2046 (Wong)
2003 - Oldboy (Park)
2002 - Femme Fatale (De Palma)
2001 - Mulholland Drive (Lynch)
2000 - Eureka (Aoyama)

1999 - Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick)
1998 - Ronin (Frankenheimer)
1997 - The Game (Fincher)
1996 - Secrets & Lies (Leigh)
1995 - Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
1994 - Death and the Maiden (Polanski)
1993 - Carlito's Way (De Palma)
1992 - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Lynch)
1991 - Barton Fink (Coen)
1990 - White Hunter, Black Heart (Eastwood)

Saw VENUS IN FUR the other day. I thought it had its moments but I wouldn't rank it as the best film I've seen this year, or even as Polanski's best of recent times (that would be THE GHOST). I've yet to see THE GRANDMASTER or indeed any of the other films you cite after 2004 and 2046.

I've seen very few of this year's releases and was largely unimpressed by what little I did see. For me, THE RAILWAY MAN was the best new film I saw.

Loomis wrote:

Saw VENUS IN FUR the other day. I thought it had its moments but I wouldn't rank it as the best film I've seen this year, or even as Polanski's best of recent times (that would be THE GHOST).

It's been a *very* weak year. I struggled to come up with a favorite. That said, I prefer VENUS IN FUR to THE GHOST.

I also quite liked INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, LOCKE, UNDER THE SKIN and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. But, yeah, a poor year.

Loomis wrote:

I also quite liked INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, LOCKE, UNDER THE SKIN and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. But, yeah, a poor year.

Over here in the US, two of those were released in prior years (Inside Llewyn Davis and The Wolf of Wall Street).

FWIW, I liked The Wolf of Wall Street a good deal.

This was tough, but here it is:

2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anderson)
2013 Nebraska (Payne) (Nelson)
2012 Skyfall (Mendes) (Logan/Purvis/Wade)
2011 Tinker Tailor Solder Spy (Alfredson) (Straughan)
2010 Mysteries of Lisbon (Ruiz) (Saboga)
2009 I Am Love (Guadagnino) (Alberti/Guadagnino)
2008 In Bruges (McDonagh)
2007 Funny Games (Haneke)
2006 The Black Dahlia (De Palma) (Friedman)
2005 Good Night, and Good Luck (Clooney) (Clooney/Heslov)
2004 The Terminal (Spielberg) (Gervasi)
2003 Bad Santa (Zwigoff) (Ficarra/Requa)
2002 Russian Ark (Sokurov) (Nikiforov/Sokurov))
2001 The Piano Teacher (Haneke)
2000 Dancer in the Dark (von Trier)

1999 The Ninth Gate (Polanski) (Brownjohn/Polanski/Urbizu)
1998 The Celebration (Vinterberg) (Vinterberg/Rukov)
1997 Lolita (Lyne) (Schiff)
1996 Breaking The Waves (von Trier) (Asmussen)
1995 12 Monkeys (Gilliam) (D. Peoples/J. Peoples)
1994 Ed Wood (Burton) (Alexander/Karaszewski)
1993 Manhattan Murder Mystery (Allen) (Allen/Brickman)
1992 Fire Walk With Me (Lynch) (Engels/Frost/Lynch)
1991 The Double Life of Veronique (Kieslowski/Piesiewicz)
1990 Wild at Heart (Lynch)

1989 sex, lies and videotape (Soderbergh)
1988 A Short Film About Love (Kieslowski) (Kieslowski/Piesiewicz)
1987 RoboCop (Verhoeven) (Neumeier/Miner)
1986 Manhunter (Mann)
1985 Come and See (Klimov) (Adamovich/Klimov)
1984 Ghostbusters (Reitman) (Aykroyd/Ramis)
1983 Tenebre (Argento)
1982 My Favorite Year (Benjamin) (Palumbo/Steinberg)
1981 Blow Out (De Palma)
1980 Escape from Alcatraz (Siegel) (Tuggel)

1979 Stalker (Tarkovsky) (A. Strugatskiy/B. Strugatskiy)
1978 The Deer Hunter (Camino) (Washburn)
1977 Opening Night (Cassavetes)
1976 Obsession (De Palma) (Schrader)
1975 Jaws (Spielberg) (Benchley/Gottlieb)
1974 The Conversation (Coppola)
1973 The Long Goodbye (Altman) (Brackett)
1972 Fat City (Huston) (Gardner)
1971 The French Connection (Friedkin) (Tidyman)
1970 Gimme Shelter (Maysles/Zwerin)

1969 Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger) (Salt)
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) (Clarke)
1967 The Fearless Vampire Killers (Polanski) (Brach/Polanski)
1966 The Shooting (Hellman) (Eastman)
1965 The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (Ritt) (Dehn/Trosper)
1964 The Train (Frankenheimer) (Coen/Davis/etc.)
1963 The Great Escape (Sturges) (Burnett/Clavell/Newman)
1962 Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) (Bolt/Wilson)
1961 Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais) (Robbe-Grillet)
1960 Peeping Tom (Powell) (Marks)

1959 The 400 Blows (Truffaut)
1958 Vertigo (Hitchcock) (Taylor)
1957 A Face in the Crowd (Kazan) (Schulberg)
1956 A Man Escaped (Bresson)
1955 The Ladykillers (Mackendrick) (Rose)
1954 Rear Window (Hitchcock) (Hayes)
1953 The Wages of Fear (Clouzot)
1952 The Narrow Margin (Fleischer) (Felton)
1951 Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock) (Chandler)
1950 In a Lonely Place (Ray) (Solt)

1949 The Third Man (Reed) (Greene)
1948 The Red Shoes (Powell) (Pressburger)
1947 Out of the Past (Torneur) (Mainwaring)
1946 Notorious (Hitchcock) (Hecht)
1945 Brief Encounter (Lean) (Coward)
1944 The Uninvited (Allen) (Brackett)
1943 Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock) (Wilder)
1942 In Which We Serve (Lean) (Coward)
1941 Citizen Kane (Welles) (Mankiewicz/Welles)
1940 Night Train to Munich (Reed) (Gilliat/Launder)

1939 The Spy in Black (Powell) (Pressburger)
1938 The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock) (Gilliat/Launder)
1937 The Grand Illusion (Renoir)
1936 My Man Godfrey (La Cava) (Hatch/Ryskind)
1935 The 39 Steps (Hitchcock) (Bennet/Hay)
1934 The Thin Man (Van Dyke) (Hackett/Goodrich)
1933 Ladies They Talk About (Bretherton/Keighley) (Holmes/McGrath/Sutherland)
1932 Freaks (Browning)
1931 The Smiling Lieutenant (Lubitsch) (Raphaelson/Vajda)
1930 The Divorcee (Leonard) (Grinde/Meehan/Sears)

1929 Pandora's Box (Pabst) (Vajda)
1928 West of Zanzibar (Browning) (Clawson)
1927 London After Midnight (Browning) (Young)
1926 The Lodger (Hitchcock) (Stannard)
1925 Potemkin (Eisenstein) (Eisenstein, etc.)
1924 Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton) (Bruckman/Havez/Mitchell)
1923 Safety Last! (Newmeyer/Taylor) (Roach/Taylor/Whelan)
1922 Nanook of the North (Flaherty)
1921 Destiny (Lang) (Lang/von Harbou)
1920 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene) (Janowitz/Mayer)

2014 - Edge of Tomorrow (just about beats out "The Homesman", though both are ultimately imperfect features)
2013 - Snowpiercer
2012 - Compliance
2011 - Young Adult
2010 - The American
2009 - The Red Riding trilogy
2008 - Appaloosa
2007 - The Lookout
2006 - The Prestige
2005 - The Proposition (honorary mentions for "The Descent" "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" and "The Ice Harvest")
2004 - Der Untergang
2003 - Bad Santa
2002 - The Bourne Identity
2001 - Le Pacte des Loups
2000 - Memento


1999 - Go! (this was not a great year, exemplified by the fact that I seriously considered “Galaxy Quest”)
1998 - Ronin
1997 - Starship Troopers
1996 - Fargo
1995 - Heat
1994 - Léon
1993 - Tombstone
1992 - Basic Instinct (honorable mentions for “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Sneakers”)
1991 - JFK - This might honestly be the hardest year so far. I admire JFK more than I truly enjoy it. Other than that, the only features I would deem worthy of a mere mention are "The Rocketeer" (an homage to adventure serials that embraced its campy goofiness), "The Last Boyscout" (this tend to be the first movie Shane Black haters point to when they claim he is a misogynist) and perhaps "Little Man Tate" (one of the few times in Foster's career that she revealed something of herself in a project).
1990 - Goodfellas

1989 – The Abyss (for its ambition and because I needed a pick here and there was nothing I truly liked)
1988 – Spoorloos
1987 – Full Metal Jacket (honorable mention for “Robocop”)
1986 – Manhunter (honorable mentions: “Aliens”, “The Fly”, “Blue Velvet”)
1985 – To live and die in L.A.
1984 – The Terminator (honorable mention for “Blood Simple”)
1983 - Scarface
1982 – Blade Runner (honorable mention for “The Thing”)
1981 – Das Boot (honorable mentions for “Blow Out”, “An American Werewolf in London”)
1980 – The Big Red One (honorable mentions for "The Shining" and "Raging Bull")

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Δ

Largo's Shark wrote:

I definitely prefer the 2011 list.

Can't win them all.

x

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I definitely prefer the 2011 list.

Can't win them all.

What on earth do you see in RONIN? That's about as insane as me choosing BABE: PIG IN THE CITY.

Will try to compile my 70s list tonight. Should take me quite a bit longer than any decade so far.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I definitely prefer the 2011 list.

Can't win them all.

What on earth do you see in RONIN? That's about as insane as me choosing BABE: PIG IN THE CITY.

It's Frankenheimer's late period masterpiece (though his greatest is THE TRAIN). Superb action filmmaking.

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I definitely prefer the 2011 list.

Can't win them all.

What on earth do you see in RONIN? That's about as insane as me choosing BABE: PIG IN THE CITY.

It's Frankenheimer's late period masterpiece (though his greatest is THE TRAIN). Superb action filmmaking.

The car chase is something else, but I remembered the film being strangely dull. Cardboard characters (Jonathon Pryce is truly wasted, as is Michel Lonsdale), a grating score, and a underwhelming climax. By the time the end credits rolled I was shocked that John Frankeheimer was behind it.

I revisited it a year ago and was blown away. Taut, precision filmmaking that never releases its grip.

Two more decades:

1989 - Casualties of War (De Palma)
1988 - Dead Ringers (Cronenberg)
1987 - Radio Days (Allen)
1986 - The Fly (Cronenberg)
1985 - Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Schrader)
1984 - Once Upon a Time in America (Leone)
1983 - Three Crowns of the Sailor (Ruiz)
1982 - The Thing (Carpenter)
1981 - Blow Out (De Palma)
1980 - Bad Timing (Roeg)

1979 - Tess (Polanski)
1978 - Days of Heaven (Malick)
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg)
1976 - Carrie (De Palma)
1975 - The Day of the Locust (Schlesinger)
1974 - Young Frankenstein (Brooks)
1973 - The Long Goodbye (Altman)
1972 - The Godfather (Coppola)
1971 - Duck, You Sucker (Leone)
1970 - The Conformist (Bertolucci)

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Largo's Shark wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I definitely prefer the 2011 list.

Can't win them all.

What on earth do you see in RONIN? That's about as insane as me choosing BABE: PIG IN THE CITY.

I like the ensemble. It's also the final film in which De Niro gives the impression he even remotely cares about his craft.
The screenplay is imperfect but the whole concept of "honor amongst spooks" at its core was effective enough.

Erica Ambler wrote:

This list is a lot more mainstream/anglosphere than your previous lists, Harms.

It depends on the decade.

My 2000-2014 selections skew foreign and arthouse-y because there hasn't been a while lot of truly great cinema coming from the mainstream West during that time. In that regard, the 70s and 80s were different.

Also, I'm not particularly well-versed in the world cinema of the 70s and 80s, though I'm working to change that.

2014 - Edge of Tomorrow (just about beats out "The Homesman", though both are ultimately imperfect features)
2013 - Snowpiercer
2012 - Compliance
2011 - Young Adult
2010 - The American
2009 - The Red Riding trilogy
2008 - Appaloosa
2007 - The Lookout
2006 - The Prestige
2005 - The Proposition (honorary mentions for "The Descent" "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" and "The Ice Harvest")
2004 - Der Untergang
2003 - Bad Santa
2002 - The Bourne Identity
2001 - Le Pacte des Loups
2000 - Memento

1999 - Go! (this was not a great year, exemplified by the fact that I seriously considered “Galaxy Quest”)
1998 - Ronin
1997 - Starship Troopers
1996 - Fargo
1995 - Heat
1994 - Léon
1993 - Tombstone
1992 - Basic Instinct (honorable mentions for “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Sneakers”)
1991 - JFK - This might honestly be the hardest year so far. I admire JFK more than I truly enjoy it. Other than that, the only features I would deem worthy of a mere mention are "The Rocketeer" (an homage to adventure serials that embraced its campy goofiness), "The Last Boyscout" (this tend to be the first movie Shane Black haters point to when they claim he is a misogynist) and perhaps "Little Man Tate" (one of the few times in Foster's career that she revealed something of herself in a project).
1990 - Goodfellas

1989 – The Abyss (for its ambition and because I needed a pick here and there was nothing I truly liked)
1988 – Spoorloos
1987 – Full Metal Jacket (honorable mention for “Robocop”)
1986 – Manhunter (honorable mentions: “Aliens”, “The Fly”, “Blue Velvet”)
1985 – To live and die in L.A.
1984 – The Terminator (honorable mention for “Blood Simple”)
1983 - Scarface
1982 – Blade Runner (honorable mention for “The Thing”)
1981 – Das Boot (honorable mentions for “Blow Out”, “An American Werewolf in London”)
1980 – The Big Red One (honorable mentions for "The Shining" and "Raging Bull")

1979 – Alien (honorable mention for “Apocalypse now”
1978 – Days of Heaven
1977 – The Cross of Iron (honorable mentions for “Suspiria”, “Eraserhead”)
1976 – Taxi Driver (honorable mentions for “Carrie” and “The Outlaw Josey Wales”)
1975 – Three Days of the Condor (honorable mentions “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Jaws”)
1974 – Chinatown (honorable mentions for “The Conversation”, The Godfather II)
1973 – The Exorcist (honorable mention for “Badlands”)
1972 – Deliverance (honorable mentions for “Solaris”, “Prime Cut”)
1971 – The French Connection (honorable mention for “Soleil Rouge”)
1970 – Five Easy Pieces (honorable mention for “Kelly’s Heroes”)

1969 – The Wild Bunch
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey (honorable mention for “Once upon a Time in the West”)
1967 – Le Samouraï (honorable mention for “Point Blank”)
1966 – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1965 – Repulsion
1964 – Dr. Strangelove (honorable mentions for “The Killers”, “Bande à part”)
1963 – The Birds (honorable mentions for “From Russia with Love”, “The Haunting”)
1962 – Lawrence of Arabia (honorable mentions for “Cape Fear”, “Lolita”, “The man who shot Libery Valance”)
1961 - Yojimbo
1960 – Peeping Tom

Erica Ambler wrote:

I might replace Black Narcissus with Out of the Past on my own list.

That was a tough choice. BLACK NARCISSUS is outstanding and worth loving for Cardiff's cinematography alone.

Nice picks, Oppers, especially FIVE EASY PIECES (1970) and REPULSION (1965).

x

Erica Ambler wrote:

Yeah, but fancying Redford is no excuse for choosing Three Days of the Condor.

I suspected you might have something to say about that.

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