A few days ago, my mother found this list of films on hard copy that I thought long lost. You can find it here, and for convenience, I will type it up too:
- Wilder – Some like it hot (USA, 1959)
- Wilder – Avanti! (USA, 1972)
- Wilder – Irma la Douce (USA, 1963)
- Lubitsch – Ninotchka (USA, 1939)
- Lubitsch – To be or not to be (USA, 1942)
- Hawks – Bringing up Baby (Leoparden küsst man nicht)
- Jarmusch – Night on Earth (USA, 1991)
- Jarmusch – Mystery Train (USA, 1989)
- Resnais – On connaît la chanson
- Chatiliez – Tanguy
- Itami – Tampopo
- Crichton – A Fish Called Wanda
- Monty Python – The Meaning of Life
- Resnais – Providence
- Rivette – Va Savoir
- Truffaut – La Peau Douce (The Soft Skin)
- Godard – Le Mépris (Contempt)
- Chaplin – A King of New York
- Altman – A Wedding
- Altman – Short Cuts
- Ozu – Floating Weeds (Ukigusa/Abschied in der Dämmerung)
- Saks – Cactus Flower
- Welles – Citizen Kane
- Fellini – Roma
- Visconti – The Leopard
- Bertolucci – Last Tango in Paris
First of all, to my own surprise, I have only watched a part of these, now that 3 years have passed since I got the list. The ones I did not watch yet (but definitely plan to watch) are in bold, when I have time, I will also link to the reviews of the ones I have watched.
Back then, I didn’t know one single title of these films; today, I have quite a lot to say about these films. The first and most obvious is that my own list of ~30 must-see-titles are nearly entirely different from his, although I think that the majority of his choices are really good films and a large part of them classics. The only thing we both fully agree on is our fanboyism for Jim Wal-Jarmusch and “To be or not to be”. Besides that, I noticed how prefer “Jules et Jim” over “La Peau Douce” and “The Dreamers” over “Last Tango in Paris”, also “Life of Brian” over “The Meaning of Life”, “Gosford Park” over “Short Cuts” and “Coffee & Cigarettes” over “Mystery Train” (but those are nearly equally good). I also think that Wilder did many more better films than “Irma la Douce” and I doubt that “Roma” really is Fellini’s best film – ultimately, I agree with his directors, but I guess I just like different films. (It’s just like how he preferred the music video of Adema’s “The way you like it” over “Giving in” and Deftones’ “Bored” over “Around the fur” years ago.)
Then, statistically, I think he relies a lot on his favourite directors and I suppose these just are pretty much the only directors he has really got to know. Now, I have some directors I like too, but ultimately, I treat directors like music interprets – I have some favourites but I rarely worship them so much that I consume everything they did. There are quite a lot of directors I had to look up for my list, because I simply didn’t know them. But their respective films were simply breathtaking for me. I really am not interested in Richard Kelly’s other films, but Donnie Darko set a milestone for me.
Finally, this would be my 30 films:
* Fincher – Fight Club (USA, 1999)
* Park – JSA/Joint Security Area (South Korea, 2000)
* von Trier – Dogville (Denmark, 2003)
* Kelly – Donnie Darko (USA, 2001)
* Kitano – Dolls (Japan, 2002)
* Jarmusch – Night on Earth (USA, 1991)
* Jarmusch – Coffee & Cigarettes (USA, 2003)
* Lubitsch – To be or not to be (USA, 1942)
* Wilder – Some like it hot (USA, 1959)
* Wilder – Avanti! (USA, 1972)
* Lee – 25th Hour (USA, 2002)
* Zhang – Huo Zhe/To Live (China, 1994)
* Tanovi? – No Man’s Land (Bosnia, 2001)
* Henckel von Donnersmarck – Das Leben der Anderen/The Life of Others (Germany 2006)
* Ashby – Harold and Maude (USA, 1971)
* Truffaut – Jules et Jim (France, 1962)
* Lang – M (Germany, 1931)
* Johnson – Brick (USA, 2005)
* Itami – Tampopo (Japan, 1985)
* Almodóvar – La mala educación/Bad education (Spain, 2004)
* Allen – Match Point (USA, 2005)
* Allen – Manhattan (USA, 1979)
* Lau/Mak – Infernal Affairs (Hongkong, 2002)
* Nolan – Memento (USA, 2000)
* Park – Welcome to Dongmakgol (South Korea, 2005)
* Antal – Kontroll (Hungary, 2003)
* Kie?lowski – The Decalogue (Poland, 1988-9)
* Linklater – Before Sunrise (USA, 1995)
* Chatiliez – Tanguy (France, 2001)
* Young – Wait until Dark (USA, 1967)
I’m pretty sure this list is not definite and could change very soon, but ultimately these are the films that made me go Oh. My. God. in my life – except for Kontroll and Decalogue which are simply in this list because I find them indescribably intriguing and interesting. Also, I admit that “La mala educación” mainly is in that list because I really wanted an Almodóvar in my list and… I can’t resist to Gael García Bernal XD So yeah, it ended up being my favourite Almodóvar before “All about my mother” and “Volver” because they are all so difficult to compare and “La mala educación” wins by the little bit that is its eroticism.
Statistics: Country
USA: 14
South Korea: 2
China/Hongkong: 2
Germany: 2
France: 2
Japan: 2
Denmark: 1
Bosnia: 1
Spain: 1
Hungary: 1
Poland: 1
Statistics: Year
1930-1939: 1
1940-1949: 1
1950-1959: 1
1960-1969: 2
1970-1979: 2
1980-1989: 2
1990-1999: 4
2000-today: 16
It seems that I missed something, but the general idea is very clear – ultimately, I still prefer american films from the current decade. ;) (6 of those 30 are american + >2000) The same mainstream-y taste is actually also reflected in my choice of music.
To be continued.
How interesting! How did you go about compiling that first list, I’d like to know…especially since you weren’t really familiar with many of the titles back then?
I can wholeheartedly recommend Ninotchka and Bringing up Baby, they’re hilarious and all kinds of wonderful :)
Providence is definitely intriguing, kinda trippy, but well worth seeing for the brilliance of Resnais’ treatment alone.
I have an irrational love for costume/period films, haha, so I must say that I was so, so impressed by The Leopard, even though I stopped about midway through the first time I tried watching it – it’s very long and there’s a LOT of expository stuff at the beginning and up to the 2nd third, from which it gets better and better. After that, it becomes beautifully focused on the ageing protagonist, and the hour-long ball sequence at the end is just mesmerizing. It’s probably as gorgeously bittersweet a look at social shifts displacing aristocracy as The Magnificent Ambersons (which you also have on your watch-list, if I’m not mistaken? ^^)
Oh, how silly – I thought I made it clear, but the first list was given to me by a friend (my infamous very first boyfriend I dated when I was 15) who has been a film fan since he was small. Thanks for commenting on those films – I actually totally expected you would be recommending them too, heh.
We used to talk about costume films, and I must say that I still don’t understand it, but I will be giving “The Leopard” another try. After all, I used to love Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” so lots of exposition theoretically should not stop me ;)
I’m mostly interested in “The Magnificient Ambersons” because you talked to me about it, and because I am kind of interested in what Welles did besides “Citizen Kane”. After all, I hear that he wasn’t all that successful, but from what I know about myself, I find it entirely possible that I might find another one of his films better than “Citizen Kane”.