Friday, November 04, 2005

Top 10



Friday shall from this point forward be "list day" (catchy, no?). Each week, I'll post a list on a new subject, and give my choices. Please feel free to contribute yours - my hope is that this might spark a lively discussion. Let's start with the obvious - all-time top 10:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg)
3. American Beauty (Mendes)
4. The Shining (Kubrick)
5. Kill Bill vol. 2 (Tarantino)
6. Nashville (Altman)
7. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
8. Raging Bull (Scorsese)
9. Blue Velvet (Lynch)
10. El Topo (Jodorowsky)

No honorable mentions, lumping-together of sequels or trilogies, or any other kind of cheating. This is supposed to be painful. I look forward to seeing your choices.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Annie Hall

2. Eyes Wise Shut

3. Punch Drunk Love

4. Harold and Maude

5. Kill Bill Vol. 1+2

6. American Beauty

7. Amadeus

8. Rosemary's Baby

9. Vanilla Sky

10. Alien

I know where Andrew is going to argue with me. I can take him...

Andrew Bemis said...

Cheater.

Solid list, though. Kill Bill is an arguable exception, but it's one I decided against. Interesting to see that Eyes Wide Shut has climbed very far up your list.

Anonymous said...

The following are not necessarily in order of preference or greatness; they are simply my top 10.


1. Belle de Jour
2. Repulsion (It cannot be cliche, it existed before the cliche!)
3. Mulholland Drive
4. American Beauty
5. Vanilla Sky
6. Notorious
7. Missippi Mermaid (in dedication to Renior)
8. Casablanca
9. Malena
10. Grand Hotel



- Katharine K.

Max said...

1. ALIENS
2. Blade Runner
3. Brazil
4. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
5. All Quiet on the Western Front
6. Yojimbo
7. Stop Making Sense
8. SW: The Empire Strikes Back
9. Ghostbusters
10. Oldboy

Anonymous said...

Same as others, a top ten, but not in a ranking manner. Apologies to those who know far more about film than I do.

-Vanilla Sky
-The Shining
-Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade*
-Magnolia
-Rashomon
-Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to -Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
-Citizen Kane
-American Beauty
-Psycho
-The Great Escape

*While there are other anime movies I enjoy more, they don't stand on as strong on their own. Jin-Roh you don't need to know anything before going into it.

Andrew Bemis said...

Katharine - I agree on Repulsion, one of Polanski's best films and a very influential one. We have to get Jess to see Belle du Jour, I think she would love it; you actually put me to shame, as I haven't seen a few on your list, so I'll report back when I have.

Max - Solid. The top three could make up some kind of holy trilogy of futuristic filmmaking. Oldboy is on my Netflix queue, I'll let you know what I think when I see it.

Doug - Still have to see Jin-Roh. Most of the rest would make my top 100. Rashomon is indeed great; I just had to watch it again for a class, and every time it reveals so many new wrinkles that it's like a completely new film experience.

Thanks for chiming in, folks.

Anonymous said...

hey andrew, its greg. i cruised over here from max's blog. i almost never leave comments on these things but how could i refuse. ps all the reviews for the next zine are in, close to 80! i'll be printing it up as soon as i can get to the copy store.

1.Vertigo
2.Dawn of the Dead
3.They Live!
4.Aguirre, the Wrath of God
5.Style Wars
6.Apocalypse Now Redux
7.Videodrome
8.Battle of Algiers
9.The Vanishing
10.Drugstore Cowboy

Andrew Bemis said...

Hi, Greg. Excellent list - love for Vertigo is always a good thing, and They Live is a great, underrated choice. I'll have to check out Style Wars. I look forward to the next Samurai Dreams, the first gave me plenty of titles to keep an eye out for (and after James' four-star review, I may have to give Shocker another try).