your top ten films (?)

Dr.Doom

Umm...
DigitalDjigit said:
Argh, WHY!!! There's only one director whom I know by name who I hate and that is Kevin Smith. His movies are all so freaking whiny and the characters won't shut up. All they do is talk about their shitty relationships. "Clerks" was the only decent one. "Mallrats" may have been ok, I can't remember it too well. "Chasing Amy", "Dogma" are shit. "Vulgar" I couldn't even watch past the first 20 minutes. Bizarelly the local video store had it under comedy. I've never seen anything so disturbing.

Yer i see what you mean but i duno its just sumin about them two films,there kinda funny,the others are way better though
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
dominic said:
sadly, i'm not the least bit versed in Jean Cocteau -- definitely need to have a cocteau dvd marathon at some point!!!
I would thoroughly recommend 'Orphee', although I only watched it once years ago. I think there are two versions, the one I saw has Orpheus as a poet in contemporary (30s? 40s?) France in a real sharp suit. :) The way he first becomes aware of the underworld / afterlife is through his crackly car radio. There's some good backwards shit and maybe some walking through mirrors.

I think this kind of trippy activity is way more exciting / affecting when taken in the context of the aeshetic of such an old movie, rather than in something shinier looking.

I may have already told you all of this in my dream life. ;)

dominic said:
haven't seen any of this stuff -- not even jodorowksy (Sante Sangre, Rainbow Thief) -- or if i have, i didn't realize or appreciate what i was seeing at the time -- so again, looks like a dvd marathon is in order
Well, if you say you like bold direction definitely give a Jodorowsky a go. :D Haha.. I'm laughing, he's such a nut. His modus operandi for cinema was that it should destroy the audience, so that they come away reborn / in need of building up. A sort of unlearning of assumptions, I guess, but the violence of the word "destroy" is appropriate for how this unlearning is effected.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
michael said:
I may have already told you all of this in my dream life. ;)
I should've taken the opportunity last post, when mentioning dream life - Dominic, I really liked Dream Life of Angels too.

The beauty of top 10 lists is discovering new things to check out, eh. If I see 3 or 4 things I like in a list and another 3 or 4 I don't know anything about then I'll at least tell myself I'll check those others out.

The ugliness of lists being one-upping and squabbling over what's "right", I guess... not to mention it encourages a mentality of judgement on proceedings.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
michael said:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I'm sure everyone knows this. My friends tell me Adaptation is much better, but this was more soppy, and, truth be know, I think more than with music I want movies to move me. Endlessly entertaining, IMO.

Your friends (at least the ones who tell you Adaptation is a beter movie than Endless Sunshine) are desperately wrong. Adaptation is utterly annoying and pretentious wank. Endless Sunshine was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Or something.

I was going to give this a go, but I can't honestly say that I've actually got a top ten, even a current one. So I won't. La Haine is probably my favourite movie of all time, but generally there's lots of movies I love, but none at the moment stand out enough to list.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
Rambler said:
At it's core it's a very angry film, and easily the most interesting (and misunderstood) thing he's done.

But it's not very interesting. The core idea is sort of fun, but it doesn't do anything interesting with it. Plus the Jay and Silent Bob are the least appealing thing about Mallrats, Clerks and Chasing Amy.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Melchior said:
Your friends (at least the ones who tell you Adaptation is a beter movie than Endless Sunshine) are desperately wrong. Adaptation is utterly annoying and pretentious wank. Endless Sunshine was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Or something.

Holy strong feelings, Batman! I know who my true friends are, then. ;) (just stirring if a certain someone's out there reading)

Obviously I'm pinning my favourite-award tail on the Endless Sunshine donkey (whoa Nelly), but I thought Adaptation was pretty funny and less pretentious than your average Important Issues movie from the likes of Oliver Stone or Spielberg. What I mean is I don't think Adaptation was promising anything more than what it delivered, whether or not either of us enjoyed either the concept or execution.

My patience with Adaptation died after the script-writing workshop. What happens to the plot & structure struck me as really cynical towards the audience (here, let me give you what you want, suckers), although I admit we were probably just supposed to find it funny. I can't really be more specific without going into spoilers territory.

Having got that Michel Gondry Director Series DVD I think I'm much more of a fan of Gondry than I am of Kaufman. I like his style, I share his preoccupations with dreams and memory, I like his dumb humour.
 
O

Omaar

Guest
ok, you guys have sucked me in with all your crazy talk about charlie kaufman movies and la haine being the best movies about.

Actually I think I've tried to pick a list based on the effect these films have had on me rather than perhaps those that in retrospect seem more brilliant (hmm maybe a bit of both now that I think about it)

1. Mouchette (There are better Bresson films around but that was the first one I saw and the ending is utterly brilliantly mundanely tragic) I remeber Au Hasard Balthazarbeing pretty good too

2. The Third Man (i'm a bit wary of including it my own personal list cos it's aways in the sight and sound critics top 10 lists but nevermind)

3. Pierrot le Fou

4. L'atalante

5. Zu Warriors of Magic Mountain - the first Wuxia film I ever saw and it just blew my mind in terms of what film could do

6. The Idiots - The premise is awful and great, the sense of a group of people struggling to to do something politicaly and culturally challenging pointless and offensive and beautiful and it all imploding. plus the incredibly fine line there between humour and despair and tragedy.

7. Solaris - despite sending me to sleep the first few times I saw it (in a good way) the first time I saw it in the cinema (the only tarkovsky I've ever seen in the cinema) it was absoultely stunning.

8. Vertigo

9. L'Humanite - for the scene when the detective plays his casio home keyboard.

10. Dog Day Afternoon

oh . .11. Persona - Bergman -

oh I didn't manage to get Videodrome or Don't Look Now in there ....
 
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O

Omaar

Guest
Actually, I'm not happy having left la maman et la putain off my top 10.

honourable mention for grave of the fireflies too. and maybe the elephant man or mulholland drive too.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
My problem is that i'm a big sci-fi nerd, and my top ten would have to include starship troopers and you'd all laugh at me. So I just won't bother.

A big part of the La Haine attraction is the anti-cop thing. For me at least, maybe not for Michael.
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
Well, I virtually never post, but I couldn't resist:

- The entire Lone Wolf And Cub series (with the exception of the final film - boo!)
- Day Of The Dead
- Suspiria
- Fellini's Casanova (one of the most ridiculous movies ever made)
- The Mission
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
- Dellamorte, Dellamorte (Cemetary Man)
- Withnail And I
- Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein
- Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (monkeys, Kinski, insane shots, throbbing Popol Vuh...everything about this movie is absolutely ace. I always feel very disoriented when it ends.)
- Ichi The Killer
- The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover ("...it's a delicacy.")

That pops it up to 12, but I choked ;) Those are just off the top of my head...I'm sure I'll remember 5,000 other films I should have included immediately on pressing post.
 

chimpybits

Active member
In no particular order:

L'Atalante - Jean Vigo
Close-up - Abbas Kiarostami
Viaggio in Italia - Roberto Rossellini
Flowers of St Francis - Roberto Rossellini
The Crowd - King Vidor
Le Mepris - Godard
Ali Fear Eats the Soul - Fassbinder
Ordet - Dreyer
Fat City - John Huston
Saturday Night Fever
Showgirls - Paul Verhoeven

I feel this is too slanted to older films and the auteurs and I prolly shouldn't really have 2 by the same director, but this is a quickie.

And just so I don't have to be rigorous:
Honourable mentions: Out of the Blue, Blow Out, Breaking the Waves, King of Comedy, Fox and His Friends, Numero Deux, The Gospel According to St Matthew, A Man Escaped, The Last Laugh
Recent(er) great films: Time Out, Piano Teacher, Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song, Who the Hell Is Bobby Roos?, Paradox Lake Demonlover, Lilya 4-Ever
 
O

Omaar

Guest
chimpybits said:
Recent(er) great films: Time Out, Piano Teacher, Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song, Who the Hell Is Bobby Roos?, Paradox Lake Demonlover, Lilya 4-Ever

Demonlover was great, one of the most exciting things I've seen in awhile. Other films seen recently that really interested me:

29 Palms, Old Boy

Paradox lake sounds fascinating.
 

mind_philip

saw the light
1. The Wicker Man
2. Don't Look Now
3. The Ninth Configuration
4. The People Under the Stairs
5. Night of the Hunter
6. The Company of Wolves
7. The City of Lost Children
8. The Virgin Suicides
9. Rushmore
10. The School Walk-Through in Donnie Darko

All in no particular order of course... (apart from #1)
 

seelafa

Member
1. Shining (Kubrick)

2. Kids (clark)

3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78’)

4. Daisies (chytilova)

5. Tenant (Polanski)

6. The Brood/Dead Ringer (Cronenberg)

7. Two-lane highway

8. Hills Have Eyes (77’)

9. 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Rowland)

10. Diabolique (clouzot)

Nearly Made It:
Mummy (Fisher)
Of Unknown Origin (cosmatos)
Others (Amenabar)
Return of the Living Dead (O’Bannon)
Romper Stomper (wright)
Thing (carpenter)
Peeping Tom (powell)
Bad Lieutenant (ferrara)
Fat City (Huston)
Gummo (korine)
Honeymoon Killers (kastle)
Eraser head (Lynch)
Umberto D (de Sica)
Le Cercle Rouge (Melville)
Long Goodbye (Altman)
 

swears

preppy-kei
Sorry bit O/T, but why has the user "Omaar" got small non-link text as his username?

Stoopid, I know, but it's bugging me.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
1) tarkovsky: mirror
2) diary of a country priest
3) stroszeck
4) after hours
5) treasure of sierra madre
6) the conversation
7) 2001: A Space Odyssey
8) 2042
9) blue Velvet
10) weekend


these are the first 10 movies that came to mind
 
Sorry bit O/T, but why has the user "Omaar" got small non-link text as his username?

Stoopid, I know, but it's bugging me.


I think its because he's no longer a member maybe?? bugged me for a second too

I did two years of heavy Comp Lit in college with endless film classes and wrote more than a dozen papers on Lang, Murnau, Godard, Melville, Fassbinder etc...yet whenever someone asks me my favorite films I always blank out...

off the top of my head(in no particular order)

Apocalypse Now(Coppola)

Perfectly captures the intensely hallucinatory state of total war.

Mulholland Drive(Lynch)

I was only 15 when i first saw this, needless to say it completely blew apart what i thought movies were capable of.

Le Samourai/Le Cercle Rouge/Army of Shadows(Melville)

The first two here are not just two of the best crime film ever made but they are absurdly cool. Army of Shadows I saw when it finally got released in the states in 06/07 and its a pretty incredible work of art.

La Jetee(Marker)

I think this might actually be my favorite film ever...but of course there's what, two shots that aren't still photos? And its quite short...but really I think this is one of the most affecting experiences you can have with the medium. Such a great ending as well.

Brazil(Gilliam)

I've had kind of a love/hate relationship with this film mainly because of all the different versions, but I may have watched this movie more than any other.

Blade Runner(Scott)

I don't think I would've included this here but The Final Cut was pretty much flawless for me.

M(Lang)

This movie plays like one enormously haunting preminition of what was to befall Germany in the years to come. One of the more haunting movies there is.

Royal Tenenbaums(Anderson)

No matter what your feelings on Anderson its hard to deny this movie's greatness. It really gets better every single time I watch it, not a single second gets old.

Lola(Fassbinder)


Most people's least favorite of the BRD Trilogy but for some reason I love it. The bubblegum pop colors, some incredible acting/dialog, and easily Fassbinder's most "fun" movie. Of course I haven't seen Berlin Alexanderplatz yet and with what everyone says about it that probably would replace this here.
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
not sure if i've my top ten feels 100% right, but here's my attempt at summing up my favourite films.



drunken naster
sonatine
el topo
evil dead
mullholand drive
romper stomper
boiling point
gummo
spinal tap
empire strikes back
warriors
 
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run_time

Well-known member
Bit of a moving target but here is a stab at it

Fargo
The Lives of Others
Battle of Algiers
Akira
Chinatown
Uzak
Red Road
Naked
Delicatessen
Grizzly Man
 
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