I've never (perhaps surprisingly!) made a list of my favourite films before, nor thought I'd be able to. Not being a film scholar, I don't necessarily rewatch and rewatch films, and I thought that I wouldn't be able to differentiate sufficiently between all the films I'd seen just once and enjoyed.
First of all, when it comes to films, I'm thankfully not encumbered by any notion of being to look at things objectively, as I have the misfortune to think I can with pop music and sport.
This list will simply be my favourite films. There are many of what are considered by various sources the greatest films of all time that I haven't seen, and frankly my personal favourites don't usually conform to those high up in high-end film critics' lists anyway.
But, as I said, I still thought it would be impossible to decide on my favourites. I've watched, I think, by most standards, a lot of films - I used to watch a lot on TV (all those bored university evenings ...) and now I think I go to the cinema more than most folk. And I usually enjoy the films I see, probably because I'm, by now, pretty tuned into what I'm going to like at the cinema, and, when at home, I'm too restless and there's too much good sport on TV to leave myself sitting in front of some average film I'm not really enjoying for very long.
So how to decide between so many films I enjoy but often don't revisit?
Still, I thought, this week, with something of an impasse in musical things to write about (which aren't just "what David Bowie album should I listen to now" ... favourite Bowie in film .. Bandslam or Last Temptation of Christ... though i did watch Absolute Beginners before I really knew who he was), I'd give it a go, and it actually came surprisingly easy. As I parsed the various lists of films one might find online to remind myself of everything I'd seen, my agenda was simply whether the title of the film gave me a certain glow or made me remember the thrill of it, or whether I realised I had little personal attachment.
Sometimes, the instinctive responses were surprising. The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, All About Eve, It's a Wonderful Life, The Godfather - highly acclaimed and beloved films which I definitely appreciated and enjoyed, but I just didn't feel a personal attachment too. Also, I was quite sure I was a big Woody Allen fan, but nothing made it in.
It's not even necessarily about films I've seen more often - I've seen the Godfathers a few times each, I think they're great, but, I don't think I've ever, as such, been moved by them.
Being "moved" can mean various things, of course - shocked, horrified, thrilled amongst them. If a film gave me a strong enough response of some sort, made a lasting impression from one or more viewings, it might make the list.
The list, of course, reflects the films I grew up with and corresponding memories. I'm definitely less of an active historian when it comes to film than some other things, but the other side of that is that I simply prefer modern films to older ones quite often. Powell and Pressburger may be Martin Scorsese's favourites, and I bow to him in every way, but, though I watched several of their most acclaimed films, I'd be lying if I said anything but 'A Matter of Life and Death' came near to being a favourite.
I do just prefer the way films have been made over the last 40-50 years, for the most part. I'm never one to believe in a past "golden age" when it comes to anything, be it music, sport, film, society, it's just the human condition to think there was.
I think the fact that I'm a sucker for slightly (but not too) quirky somewhat indieish films with somewhat indieish soundtracks will become fairly obvious. There are even one or two within that subgenre which are a touch drossy, but hey, I've been more honest than I might have been. I didn't have to include 'Definitely Maybe' starring Ryan Reynolds when I have also seen and enjoyed 'Citizen Kane' and 'Vertigo', but it felt like the right thing to do.
Of course, it's perfectly possible, in fact, it's definite, that I've forgotten loads. I haven't been keeping a record of all the films I've ever seen, you'll be shocked to hear (well, I did start doing that a couple of years ago actually) and through I've scanned as many lists of likely suspects as I could in the time allowed, there's no way I won't have forgotten a few films which I loved at the time and would still love now. So be it.
The numbering is arbitrary to an extent - I know 'The Big Lebowski' is my favourite film, beyond that, things are broadly in chunks.
And at the bottom, the natural cut-off was actually about 120 where I stopped thinking "I love that film and it's mine all mine", so it seemed pointless to cut it off too soon.
There's a good chance I'll look at some parts of this list with some bafflement in a few months' time. Still, a list's a list ...
First of all, when it comes to films, I'm thankfully not encumbered by any notion of being to look at things objectively, as I have the misfortune to think I can with pop music and sport.
This list will simply be my favourite films. There are many of what are considered by various sources the greatest films of all time that I haven't seen, and frankly my personal favourites don't usually conform to those high up in high-end film critics' lists anyway.
But, as I said, I still thought it would be impossible to decide on my favourites. I've watched, I think, by most standards, a lot of films - I used to watch a lot on TV (all those bored university evenings ...) and now I think I go to the cinema more than most folk. And I usually enjoy the films I see, probably because I'm, by now, pretty tuned into what I'm going to like at the cinema, and, when at home, I'm too restless and there's too much good sport on TV to leave myself sitting in front of some average film I'm not really enjoying for very long.
So how to decide between so many films I enjoy but often don't revisit?
Still, I thought, this week, with something of an impasse in musical things to write about (which aren't just "what David Bowie album should I listen to now" ... favourite Bowie in film .. Bandslam or Last Temptation of Christ... though i did watch Absolute Beginners before I really knew who he was), I'd give it a go, and it actually came surprisingly easy. As I parsed the various lists of films one might find online to remind myself of everything I'd seen, my agenda was simply whether the title of the film gave me a certain glow or made me remember the thrill of it, or whether I realised I had little personal attachment.
Sometimes, the instinctive responses were surprising. The Apartment, Some Like It Hot, All About Eve, It's a Wonderful Life, The Godfather - highly acclaimed and beloved films which I definitely appreciated and enjoyed, but I just didn't feel a personal attachment too. Also, I was quite sure I was a big Woody Allen fan, but nothing made it in.
It's not even necessarily about films I've seen more often - I've seen the Godfathers a few times each, I think they're great, but, I don't think I've ever, as such, been moved by them.
Being "moved" can mean various things, of course - shocked, horrified, thrilled amongst them. If a film gave me a strong enough response of some sort, made a lasting impression from one or more viewings, it might make the list.
The list, of course, reflects the films I grew up with and corresponding memories. I'm definitely less of an active historian when it comes to film than some other things, but the other side of that is that I simply prefer modern films to older ones quite often. Powell and Pressburger may be Martin Scorsese's favourites, and I bow to him in every way, but, though I watched several of their most acclaimed films, I'd be lying if I said anything but 'A Matter of Life and Death' came near to being a favourite.
I do just prefer the way films have been made over the last 40-50 years, for the most part. I'm never one to believe in a past "golden age" when it comes to anything, be it music, sport, film, society, it's just the human condition to think there was.
I think the fact that I'm a sucker for slightly (but not too) quirky somewhat indieish films with somewhat indieish soundtracks will become fairly obvious. There are even one or two within that subgenre which are a touch drossy, but hey, I've been more honest than I might have been. I didn't have to include 'Definitely Maybe' starring Ryan Reynolds when I have also seen and enjoyed 'Citizen Kane' and 'Vertigo', but it felt like the right thing to do.
Of course, it's perfectly possible, in fact, it's definite, that I've forgotten loads. I haven't been keeping a record of all the films I've ever seen, you'll be shocked to hear (well, I did start doing that a couple of years ago actually) and through I've scanned as many lists of likely suspects as I could in the time allowed, there's no way I won't have forgotten a few films which I loved at the time and would still love now. So be it.
The numbering is arbitrary to an extent - I know 'The Big Lebowski' is my favourite film, beyond that, things are broadly in chunks.
And at the bottom, the natural cut-off was actually about 120 where I stopped thinking "I love that film and it's mine all mine", so it seemed pointless to cut it off too soon.
There's a good chance I'll look at some parts of this list with some bafflement in a few months' time. Still, a list's a list ...
1 The
Big Lebowski
2 Mean
Streets
3 Die
Hard
4 Short
Cuts
5 Adventureland
6 Star
Wars
7 Saturday
Night Fever
8 Klute
9 The
Deer Hunter
10 The
Commitments
11 Don't
Look Back (doc)
12 Mary
Poppins
13 The
Maltese Falcon
14 Before
Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight (I'm taking it as one film if that's ok)
15 Grosse
Point Blank
16 The
Graduate
17 Local
Hero
18 Jaws
19 The
Wizard of Oz
20 United
93
21 Memento
22 The
Usual Suspects
23 Rear
Window
24 Role
Models
25 Donnie
Darko
26 Sideways
27 Trading
Places
28 The
Outlaw Josey Wales
29 Bringing
Up Baby
30 Cool
Hand Luke
31 Doctor
Zhivago
32 An
Officer and a Gentleman
33 On
the Waterfront
34 if
...
35 Taxi
Driver
36 The
Grand Budapest Hotel
37 LA
Confidential
38 Dazed
and Confused
39 Dirty
Dancing
40 Trainspotting
41 The Fellowship
of the Ring
42 Rust
and Bone
43 The
Royal Tenenbaums
44 The
Last Waltz
45 Kes
46 Pulp
Fiction
47 The
Social Network
48 Four
Weddings and a Funeral
49 The
Jungle Book
50 The
Wicker Man
51 High
Fidelity
52 Empire
of the Sun
53 Brick
54 Inside
Llewyn Davis
55 Oliver!
56 Dead
Poet's Society
57 Chariots
of Fire
58 Gone
Baby Gone
59 The
Theory of Everything
60 The
Lavender Hill Mob
61 Top
Secret
62 Con
Air
63 One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
64 Shadow
of a Doubt
65 Big
66 Leaving
Las Vegas
67 Austin
Powers: International Man of Mystery
68 Scott
Pilgrim vs the World
69 The White
Ribbon
70 Boyhood
71 The
Sting
72 Badlands
73 The
Terminator
74 Back
to the Future
75 The
Hustler
76 Rio
Bravo
77 Pride
78 Brokeback
Mountain
79 The
Secret in their Eyes
80 Oldboy
81 Definitely,
Maybe
82 Y
Tu Mama Tambien
83 The
Birds
84 The
Railway Children
85 Gattaca
86 Cyrano
de Bergerac
87 Cloverfield
88 Say
Anything
89 Parenthood
90 I've
Loved You So Long
91 The
Truman Show
92 Burn
After Reading
93 Hidden
94 Philomena
95 Two
Days and One Night
96 Midnight
Run
97 Adaptation
98 Jackie
Brown
99 Pan's
Labyrinth
100 Almost
Famous
101 Me
and You and Everyone We Know
102 School
of Rock
103 Raging
Bull
104 The
Remains of the Day
105 No
Way Out
106 Casablanca
107 The
Verdict
108 The
Squid and the Whale
109 Unforgiven
110 The
Prophet
111 Bull
Durham
112 The
Boxer
113 Foxcatcher
114 Boyz
n the Hood
115 The
Ice Storm
116 High
Plains Drifter
117 The
Long Good Friday
118 The
101 Dalmatians
119 Singin'
in the Rain
120 Rebecca
121 Rocky IV
122 A Life Less Ordinary
123 Ghostbusters
oh, yes, and I also loved The Force Awakens, it's the most I've enjoyed the cinema for ages, so let's have that too.
121 Rocky IV
122 A Life Less Ordinary
123 Ghostbusters
oh, yes, and I also loved The Force Awakens, it's the most I've enjoyed the cinema for ages, so let's have that too.
Any chance of an in depth analysis + poem for each one?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go with no, but a nice question might be how many of them have titles taken from poems or other works of literature eg 'If' 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'
ReplyDelete