Top 10

All those top 10s are lost now, and it's unlikely us listaholics will survive without this. As a thread creator, I would like to change this from all-time to anything (genre, director (hi FourDot), decade, etc.)

I'll give it a go, although I'll undoubtedly look back on the list in a few hours and ask myself why I failed to include x, y and z.

8½ (Fellini, 1963)
L'AVVENTURA (Antonioni, 1960)
THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (Sternberg, 1935)
DUCK SOUP (McCarey, 1933)
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (Resnais, 1959)
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong, 2000)
REAR WINDOW (Hitchcock, 1954)
SUNRISE (Murnau, 1927)
VIVA ZAPATA! (Kazan, 1952)
WEEKEND (Godard, 1967)

Favourites :

10. THIS IS ENGLAND (2006, Meadows)

"Listen to me. He's a young lad. He's had a fucking bad week.
So we bring him in with us to show him a bloody good time."

9. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954, Kazan)

"You wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to
him before he does it to you."

8. PSYCHO (1960, Hitchcock)

"I think I must have one of those faces you can't help
believing."

7. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965, Lean)

"Wouldn't it have been lovely if we'd met before?"

6. CHINATOWN (1974, Polanski)

"Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring
L.A. to the water."

5. THE IPCRESS FILE (1965, Furie)

"I was counting on you being an insubordinate bastard,
Palmer."

4. CHILDREN OF MEN (2006, Cuarón)

"A hundred years from now there won't be one
sad fuck to look at any of this. What keeps you going?"

3. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968, Leone)

"People scare better when they're dying."

2. CLOSE ENOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977, Spielberg)

"He says the sun came out last night. He says it
sang to him."

1. BLADE RUNNER (1982, Scott)

"Proud of yourself, little man?"

My favorite movies (at the moment):

1) The Empire Strikes Back
2) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3) Jet Li's Fearless (Director's Cut)
4) Avatar
5) The Lives of Others
6) The Big Lebowski
7) The Social Network
8. The Incredibles
9) Kung Fu Hustle
10) Spirited Away

Well done, G Section. I enjoyed seeing the thumbnails and quotes.

Drax wrote:

My favorite movies (at the moment):

1) The Empire Strikes Back
2) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3) Jet Li's Fearless (Director's Cut)
4) Avatar
5) The Lives of Others
6) The Big Lebowski
7) The Social Network
8. The Incredibles
9) Kung Fu Hustle
10) Spirited Away

GL, I still don't get it. #4 - what the fuck?
Nice job, G, and harry, too. Of course, some films I dislike there, but that's a given

Top ten French films of the last decade:

1. Amélie (Jeunet)
2. The scaphandre et le papillon (Schnabel)
3. Les triplettes de Belleville (Chomet)
4. La vie en rose (Dahan)
5. Gainsbourg (Sfar)
6. OSS 117: Le Caire - Nid d'espions (Hazanavicius)
7. Le concert (Mihaileanu)
8. Le pacte des loups (Gans)
9. The Dreamers (Bertolluci)
10. Un prophète (Audiard)

Honourable mention to Taken.

In no particular order my current list would be:

Seven
The Usual Suspects
Memento
Murder By Decree
Jaws
Psycho
Get Carter
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Seven Samurai
Die Hard

So many others I'd like to fit in here too...

Since we're starting afresh - my first top 10 for these forums:

10. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS Dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1957
9. DOUBLE INDEMNITY Dir. Billy Wilder, 1944
8. VERTIGO Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
7. EAST OF EDEN Dir. Elia Kazan, 1955
6. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES Dir. William Wyler, 1946
5. SHANE Dir. George Stevens, 1953
4. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE Dir. Nicholas Ray, 1955
3. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Dir. John Frankenheimer, 1962
2. ANATOMY OF A MURDER Dir. Otto Preminger, 1959
1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST Dir. Sergio Leone, 1968

Okay, I'll have a shot at this. Order probably variable in places.
One film per director, one film per franchise. Too difficult/boring otherwise.



And I defy anybody to beat my No.1 for elitism. ;)

Non Bond, of course. And aside from a post at KTBEU, I haven't really thought about it much.

1. A Streetcar Named Desire
2. Casablanca
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. The Big Sleep
5. Dial M For Murder
6. Atonement
7. La Vie En Rose
8. Schindler's List
9. The Roaring Twenties
10. The Edge Of Love

I can offer a Top 7...

1.

Once Upon A Time In The West (1968; dir. Sergio Leone)

It's myth on screen. Leone lays out this mythic story of the transformation of the West with characters that are at once larger-than-life archetypes and very real. The film that made me love cinema.

2.

Chinatown (1974; dir. Roman Polanski)

LA near-history paired a mystery that not only fits together like a Swiss watch, but as it unravels it reveals a fascinating view of an America where the good guy doesn't have a chance in hell.

3.

The Last Picture Show (1971; dir. Peter Bogdanovich)

I find pretty much every moment of this film to be amazing. It has a deep, rich power over me.

4.

On The Waterfront (1954; dir. Elia Kazan)

A powerful story of one man's redemption, and a pure "Actor's Studio" kind of film. It feels so real and alive.

5.

Rio Bravo (1959; dir. Howard Hawks)

I love the simplicity of Hawks. I love these characters, and their story. Tarantino called this the ultimate "hang out" movie, because you feel like you're hanging out with these characters. RIO BRAVO may have been influenced by TV Westerns of the time, but no TV Western was ever this good. That I've seen. I love seeing men doing tough jobs well and not crying about it. Great fun.

6.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962; dir. John Frankenheimer)

I just love it. Shot beautifully I must say. I mean the film, not half the characters.

7.

Psycho (1960; dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Trash as art.

Since I feel like putting a bit more effort into my all-time top 10 than I can devote at the moment, and since Auric wanted something different, I'll go with the super-caveated...

Top 10 Talkies in Foreign Gobbledygook:

1. Lesbian Infants of Paradise (Carné)
2. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
3. A Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami)
4. Sanjuro (Kurosawa)
5. Umberto D. (De Sica)
6. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog)
7. The Wages of Fear (Clouzot)
8. Rosetta (Dardenne/Dardenne)
9. Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein/Vasilyev)
10. Hana-Bi (Kitano)

Sorta nipping at the heels there would be The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, Ordet, La Diabloiques, La Strada, Kagemusha, 10, Chunking Express, The Rules of the Game, Come and See... that kind of rubbish.

Anyway, that's my "No, I have not seen many foreign films - go fuck yourself" list.

no DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY? For shame. ;)

Off the top of my head - something Auric will also undoubtedly enjoy...

Top 10 John Wayne Films
10. 3 GODFATHERS Dir. John Ford, 1948
9. THEY WERE EXPENDABLE Dir. John Ford, 1945
8. WITHOUT RESERVATIONS Dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 1946
7. IN HARM'S WAY Dir. Otto Preminger, 1965
6. THE LONG VOYAGE HOME Dir. John Ford, 1940
5. THE SHOOTIST Dir. Don Siegel, 1976
4. RIO BRAVO Dir. Howard Hawks, 1959
3. TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1953
2. STAGECOACH Dir. John Ford, 1939
1. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE Dir. John Ford, 1962

And before the complaints/recommendations come in - yes, I have seen THE SEARCHERS, but it was years ago, and I barely remember a thing from it. So its kind of a patient observer until I can give it a rewatch. And as for TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY.... its just a nice film. :)

And yes, I do expect THE CONQUEROR to be number 1 post-watching it. I think its a reasonable expectation.

Maybe something like...

Vertigo (Hitchcock)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Obsession (De Palma)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
Repulsion (Polanski)
Breathless (Godard)
Touch of Evil (Welles)
Eraserhead (Lynch)
Suspiria (Argento)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese)

Mr. Brown wrote:

Maybe something like...

Vertigo (Hitchcock)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Obsession (De Palma)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)
Repulsion (Polanski)
Breathless (Godard)
Touch of Evil (Welles)
Eraserhead (Lynch)
Suspiria (Argento)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese)

Didn't know you had seen Suspiria, Doc. Sounds like you enjoyed it.

Yeah, it's tough choosing between that and "Tenebre". This is hard to pass up, along with that soundtrack.

Klown wrote:

Drax wrote:

My favorite movies (at the moment):

1) The Empire Strikes Back
2) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3) Jet Li's Fearless (Director's Cut)
4) Avatar
5) The Lives of Others
6) The Big Lebowski
7) The Social Network
8. The Incredibles
9) Kung Fu Hustle
10) Spirited Away

GL, I still don't get it. #4 - what the fuck?

*ahem* Well, the short version is that it's a great movie. The slightly longer version is that I enjoyed the story, characters, politics, moral stance, and all that. Most of all though I appreciated the film's spiritual consciousness and reverence. Something which that it had, to a greater and more genuine degree, than any other I can think of.

Mr. Brown wrote:

This is hard to pass up, along with that soundtrack.

One of the all time great camera manoeuvres. Those who watch films purely for narrative would no doubt condemn it as pointless. It literally goes round the houses. :)

I watch films for character, message, and humanity.

Dario Argento's films are impressive technically, but suffer from their crudity. They also have none of the above three.

Sharky wrote:

I watch films for character, message, and humanity.

How'd you wind up in a Bond forum then?

Drax wrote:

Sharky wrote:

I watch films for character, message, and humanity.

How'd you wind up in a Bond forum then?

I left out tits.

I watch for Vulcans.

Sharky wrote:

I watch films for character, message, and humanity.

Dario Argento's films are impressive technically, but suffer from their crudity. They also have none of the above three.

Did you enjoy Once Upon a Time in the West?

It's quite ironic that I started the top 100 movie list thread on the old place yet I now find myself incapable of doing a top ten list... :oops: