Top 100

2004-08-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

My top 100 is awfully mercurial. Mainly due to my equally mercurial opinions. I'm now waiting for concussion #8 (i think), and it seems that the previous 7 have done nothing to help my memory. What does this mean? Often I forget my opinion of a film. I remember the basic liked it/didn't like it stuff, but as to whether it is #47 or #53 on my top 100, well...that changes more often than I care to admit. So here it is: my top 100 of right now. Come back often, because I guarantee you it'll change in a couple weeks.

Updated 031005. Had to change everything again. Sorry.

Revision Log

111205 - added Le Samouria (#94), bumped Goodfellas.
060205 - added Two-Lane Blacktop (#93), bumped The Killer.
052105 - am I losing all cred by instilling three films in my canon in one week? God, I hope not. That said, The Life Aquatic (#56) simply glows on second viewing. Space limited, I'll just say that not only is it a fascinating study on aging, i.e. living in a time where your best years are long gone, but it is also a great film about making films - the pressures, the good times, the irritating assholes, etc. Oh yeah, gone is Rebel Without a Cause.
052005 - and in one of those rare occurences, back-to-back films make the pantheon. F for Fake (#55) knocks out George Lucas' near perfect portrait of Nor-Cal high school life in the 60's, American Graffiti.
051905 - added Exotica (#65), bumped Amelie.
031705 - added L'Eclisse (#44), bumped The Limey. Added Taxi Driver (#89), bumped Through a Glass Darkly.

1. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)
2. Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
3. Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
4. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
5. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
6. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen Bros., 2001)
7. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
8. Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997)
9. The Godfather Pts. I & II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972/74)
10. Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/04)
11. Star Wars Trilogy (George Lucas, 1977-83)
12. Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi, 1961)
13. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
14. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
15. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
16. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965)
17. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
18. The General (Buster Keaton, 1927)
19. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2004)
20. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
21. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
22. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
23. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
24. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
25. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)
26. Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)
27. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)
28. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
29. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
30. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
31. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
32. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
33. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
34. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
35. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
36. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
37. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
38. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
39. Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, 2000)
40. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
41. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, 2000)
42. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
43. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones, 1975)
44. L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
45. Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)
46. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
47. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1947)
48. Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
49. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1962)
50. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
51. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)
52. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
53. Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
54. Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950)
55. F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1974)
56. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
57. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)
58. Rounders (John Dahl, 1998)
59. Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)
60. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)
61. Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
62. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
63. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
64. Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)
65. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
66. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
67. Exotica (Atom Egoyan, 1995)
68. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)
69. Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996)
70. Dr. Stangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
71. The Matrix (Wachowski Bros., 1999)
72. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
73. Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
74. Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)
75. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
76. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
77. Gerry (Gus Van Sant, 2002)
78. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943)
79. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
80. Secret Honor (Robert Altman, 1984)
81. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998)
82. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
83. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963)
84. Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)
85. The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)
86. Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
87. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
88. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
89. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962)
90. Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999)
91. Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949)
92. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
93. Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
94. Le Samouria (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
95. George Washington (David Gordon Green, 2000)
96. Solaris (Steven Soderbergh, 2002)
97. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)
98. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
99. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
100. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)