I will do the same as muppetman and only mention some of my favourites that I haven’t already seen listed:
Tampopo Big Night Chef (for the music, not for the predictable story line) American Graffiti Blues Brothers 2000 (again for the music, the storyline is utter cack)
Here is every film I've given 10/10 to on some nerdy rating site I post to. Hopefully contains a few that some of you may wish to check out
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) - needs no introduction or explanation
The Exterminating Angel (Bunuel, 1962) - the greatest of all disaster movies, in which the disaster is SOCIETY
The Black Tower (Smith, 1987) - some British guy records footage of a fucking building near his house for about 50p and somehow turns it into a 23-minute psych-horror masterpiece
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!) (Melendez, 1980) - we were all children once. and sometimes when we return to our childhood culture we are equally rewarded in adulthood
Celine And Julie Go Boating (Rivette, 1974) - four hours of joyous French surreal escapism that'll bend your mind seventy-four ways
That Obscure Object Of Desire (Bunuel, 1977) - probably my favourite film? Sentimental favourite at least. A perfect, poetic demonstration of how life plays with us however it wishes
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoise (Bunuel, 1972) - ok I like Bunuel, yes yes. this is a film about being hungry and wanting ham
A Field In England (Wheatley, 2013) - the Civil War becomes the backdrop to a magickal evocation of England and its qualities
Winter Sleep (Ceylan, 2012) - four hours of a Turkish family having passive-aggressive arguments. if that doesn't sell you on it I don't know what will
Liquid Sky (Tsukerman, 1983) - basically a queerpunk sci-fi music video (but the best one ever) with some GREAT monologues that destroyed every career it touched
Arabian Nights (Gomes, 2015) - my favourite film of this decade, it's basically three films that work together as one 9-hour project. it's surreal storytelling, heartbreaking documentary, sometimes both - but it's always compelling and frequently hilarious. all of life in here
Penda's Fen (Clarke, 1974) - more of that sweet queerpunk revelation and catharsis, except this time it's a pastoral Play For Today exposition of...well, England and its qualities. featuring Edward Elgar!
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) - because sometimes I like films you also like
The Rules Of The Game (Renoir, 1939) - nobody's made a better film about class. somehow completely, passionately sympathetic to all of its characters and yet utterly, unremittingly brutal in its demonstration of where we all went wrong
Toni Erdmann (Ade, 2016) - I hear you wanted a German comedy! That will make you laugh! And cry! A lot! A bit sad I couldn't fit more female directors on this list but Ade has emerged as one of our age's masters
Watership Down (Rosen, 1978) - yeah that thing about returning to our childhood culture? Sometimes when you do that, it comes for your throat. Rosen one of the great accidental directors in cinema history
Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979) - probably the best film I've seen? Grapples with the dilemmas and challenges of the technological age over four hours of widescreen visual poetry, before drawing the most startling of conclusions...
Hard To Be A God (German, 2013) - another Russian epic about the human condition. But this time, it's played for laughs. Mucky, disgusting, barbaric laughs. For three hours. Laughing at what we are
You’re not the only one who likes a bit of Buñuel.
Great performance by Gary Oldman.and the other bloke, can never remember his name, along with little Lolita, Natalie Portman making her screen debut, I think?
Two amazing foreign films that I don’t think are on this list yet:
Life is Beautiful - just brilliant from Roberto Benigni. Funny and delightful, yet heartbreaking. Old Boy - (The Korean version, not the watered down tripe with a Josh Brolin) disturbing, dark, ridiculous, shocking, funny, original. Awesome.
That was amusing. Particularly enjoyed the silliness between Matthews and Morgan. Also liked how Fraser was so suspicious and was convinced Pearce was on a wind up.
Looks like there are some good relationships there.
Given me a chance to review this excellent thread. Almost all my Top 10 are covered, great to see call outs for The Station Agent and Sleepy Hollow as well as the more obvious classics. But 2 missing from this list:
True Romance... the late, great James Gandolfini, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, Christian Slater, Saul Rubinek, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rapaport all excellent in Tarantino-penned dialogue which is pretty much solid quotable. But they're all blown out of the water by Dennis Hopper and Chris Walken's 'Sicilians' scene... a tour de force of character acting by both.
And Labyrinth... a fox riding a dog? Bowie? Talking worm? My first teenage crush (Jennifer Connelly, not the worm).
Goodfellas The Harder They Come Field of Dreams Nil By Mouth Le Haine
Haven’t seen “The Harder They Come” UEA but there was a 1950s film which stays with me called “The Harder They Fall”. It was a boxing movie about a fighter fed a succession of fixed fights leading him to believe he was better than he actually was. His management brought in Jersey Joe Walcott (a boxer of some repute in real life) to bring him down to earth. It was Humphrey Bogart’s final film and earned several Oscar nominations.
The only movie I’ve ever been to where the audience applauded at the end was Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I went straight out and bought the cd I seem to remember.
Comments
There are so many of my favourite films already mentioned, so I will add some
that I haven’t seen listed.
Glengarry Glen Ross
(Although Lemmon was brilliant in Some Like It Hot, I think this
is his best performance, and he gives the rest of the cast an acting lesson)
The Apartment
(I do like Jack Lemmon)
Midnight Express
(John Hurt is amazing)
Jaws
(A great cast, and the scene where they discuss their scars, is
one of the most watchable in all the films I have seen)
Breaker Morant
(Edward Woodward is superb in this)
Braveheart
(If it’s on I will watch it)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
(I think I might be able to quote the whole script)
Wayne’s World
(It’s just take your brain out funny)
Scum
(Kept me on the straight and narrow)
Terms of Endearment
(A great cast but Shirley MacLaine steals the show)
Broadcast News
(Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks bounce off each other)
A Chorus of Disapproval
(I could watch again and again)
The Revenant
(At last, Leo gets his Oscar)
There are lots more, and as lifers add their favourites, I am sure I will
be thinking how did I miss that one.
Tampopo
Big Night
Chef (for the music, not for the predictable story line)
American Graffiti
Blues Brothers 2000 (again for the music, the storyline is utter cack)
If....
The Edukators
Pulp Fiction
A Scanner Darkly
Run Lola Run
I knew there would be more.😁
How could I forget these.
Better Off Dead
(Another take your brain out funny film)
The Sure Thing
(Better Off Dead on the road)
Little Miss Sunshine
(Just for Alan Arkin, even though the rest of
the cast are excellent)
I am going to try and stop now, but there are more.
Fight Club
The Usual Suspects
American History X
SNATCH
Goodfellas
Shining
American Beauty
Leon
Great performance by Gary Oldman.and the other bloke, can never remember his name, along with little Lolita, Natalie Portman making her screen debut, I think?
Life is Beautiful - just brilliant from Roberto Benigni. Funny and delightful, yet heartbreaking.
Old Boy - (The Korean version, not the watered down tripe with a Josh Brolin) disturbing, dark, ridiculous, shocking, funny, original. Awesome.
Corridor Cam | What's your favourite film?
Particularly enjoyed the silliness between Matthews and Morgan. Also liked how Fraser was so suspicious and was convinced Pearce was on a wind up.
Looks like there are some good relationships there.
True Romance... the late, great James Gandolfini, Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, Christian Slater, Saul Rubinek, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rapaport all excellent in Tarantino-penned dialogue which is pretty much solid quotable. But they're all blown out of the water by Dennis Hopper and Chris Walken's 'Sicilians' scene... a tour de force of character acting by both.
And Labyrinth... a fox riding a dog? Bowie? Talking worm? My first teenage crush (Jennifer Connelly, not the worm).
Gladiator
LOTR
An obscure one that I don’t know of anyone that has seen; A Time to Kill.
Certainly in my top 5 most enjoyed.
The Harder They Come
Field of Dreams
Nil By Mouth
Le Haine