Yesterday I randomly stumbled upon Sion Sono‘s choices and am astonished at them. I have not seen a single one of those films, and many of those titles were unknown to me beforehand. That’s what I call a great list!
If they wanted to ask me, I would want to choose something which I think is an underrated and objectively great movie, but not in my favorites list since that one is so obviously colored by my own feelings (mostly nostalgia). In no particular order, this is probably what I would go for:
1. Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989)
2. Warai no Daigaku (Mamoru Hoshi, 2004)
3. Miller’s Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1990)
4. The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
5. Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)
6. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)
7. Otoshiana (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1962)
8. Ma nuit chez Maud (Eric Rohmer, 1969)
9. Make way for tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
10. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1982)
I guess I couldn’t help myself to include “University of Laughs” after all… but apart from that, these are all films I hold in high esteem. What would you have chosen?
it’s actually really interesting to make a list, not of “favorites” but of ones you personally deem unique and…like, great and exemplary xD
i think i would go with something like this (unranked, of course. it’s hard enough to choose these individually xD):
Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
Route One USA (Robert Kramer)
La femme de l’aviateur (Eric Rohmer)
Utopia (Sohrab Shahid-Saless)
Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim)
Lola Montès (Max Ophüls)
Life, and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami)
Anatahan (Josef von Sternberg)
Yeah, my list is also numbered, not ranked. You can’t rank such things XD
“Utopia” is such a great choice! I should have expected it… I am sad I only saw 3 movies in your list, and it’s amusing that Rohmer is the only director we have in common on this list, ahaha.