Your top 5 films?

Post by **npcoombs** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:00 pm

Been thinking about this a lot lately and mine are pretty conventional arthouse:

1) Andrei Rublev
2) Breaking the Waves
3) Damnation
4) Nostalghia
5) Heat

i dunno i think I need to think about this more!!!

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:52 am

Which 'Heat'? Michael Mann? Kazimierz Kutz?

Mine, perhaps, in no particular order (and it changes daily)

Stalker
Shichinin no samurai/Ran/Ikiru (I can't just pick one Kurosawa)
Dekalog
Au hasard Balthazar
Popiol i diament (Ashes and Diamonds)
Harakiri (Seppuku)/Ningen no joken (The Human Condition [trilogy])

edit - for what it's worth, I always doubt the productiveness of these lists, since there are many fantastic films. For my own purposes I can generally classify films as 'worthwhile' or 'not worthwhile.' Making a top 5 list (or 10, 20, 50...) always entails some reductive element. I left out The Silver Globe, Camera Buff, Rashomon, Knife in the Water, Trois couleurs, etc. all of which I consider to be remarkable achievements.

Post by **npcoombs** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:19 am

Evan Kubota wrote:Which 'Heat'? Michael Mann? Kazimierz Kutz?

Mine, perhaps, in no particular order (and it changes daily)

Stalker
Shichinin no samurai/Ran/Ikiru (I can't just pick one Kurosawa)
Dekalog
Au hasard Balthazar
Popiol i diament (Ashes and Diamonds)
Harakiri (Seppuku)/Ningen no joken (The Human Condition [trilogy])

edit - for what it's worth, I always doubt the productiveness of these lists, since there are many fantastic films. For my own purposes I can generally classify films as 'worthwhile' or 'not worthwhile.' Making a top 5 list (or 10, 20, 50...) always entails some reductive element. I left out The Silver Globe, Camera Buff, Rashomon, Knife in the Water, Trois couleurs, etc. all of which I consider to be remarkable achievements.

The Michael Mann one. Lists can be a bit pointless and are very open to debate what 'top 5' even means. Top 5 films you admire, top 5 films you think deserve the greatest recognition, top 5 most enjoyable, top 5 most visceral...?

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:33 pm

Michael Mann! I have to say, I'm somewhat surprised given the very heavy arthouse/European slant on the rest of your list. I surely expected a more obscure 'Heat'. I need to see it, though. Bordwell's book on HK film has a great shot-by-shot breakdown of a pivotal sequence.

I really like 'Last of the Mohicans' also.

Post by **steve hyde** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:53 am

..this is a tough one. I will need to think about it, but if I was to respond with titles that you guys haven't referenced yet, (and some of my favs are on your lists) I would say five more great films that should be seen:

WiseBlood
Aguirre the Wrath of God
Color of Paradise
La Strada
The Elephant Man

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:01 am

Overlooked:

The Human Condition (trilogy)
Samurai Rebellion (Mifune's finest performance?)
Videodrome (ripe for re-evaluation and exegesis, full of possibilities)
The Silver Globe (not available - legally - with subs)
Nobody Knows (well, not overlooked per se, but one of the most affecting films in the past several decades and deserves to be widely seen)
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (indisputably Fukasaku's masterpiece - not Battle Royale. Intense, powerful, and commendably honest)

Visceral/boundary pushing:

Cannibal Holocaust (self-explanatory)
Possession (1981, Zulawski's only English-language film)
L'Humanite
Africa Addio/Addio Zio Tom/Mondo Cane I (remarkable docu-style stuff from Jacopetti and Prosperi, shot on gorgeous 16mm with the most appealing saturation this side of Kodachrome 25)
the Guinea Pig series (tricked Charlie Sheen into contacting the FBI)
Nobi (Fires on the Plain, 1959; annihilated the '50s sensibilities of Bosley Crowther when he wrote an [approaching racist] piece for the Times. Also one of the most important films about Japanese involvement in the war.)

Post by **npcoombs** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:16 pm

Evan Kubota wrote:Michael Mann! I have to say, I'm somewhat surprised given the very heavy arthouse/European slant on the rest of your list. I surely expected a more obscure 'Heat'. I need to see it, though. Bordwell's book on HK film has a great shot-by-shot breakdown of a pivotal sequence.

I really like 'Last of the Mohicans' also.

Im very keen on The Insider too. It is Al Pacino's role in Heat which really breaks it for me, it is a tragic role - in fact both of the key figures in de Niro and Pacino are tragic...

Post by **mattias** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:38 pm

i've tried to compile such lists before but it never worked. my current strategy is to pick five favorite directors, preferably different and "defining", and then one film from each, so here goes:

red
persona
breathless
blade runner
down by law

(subject to change within two and a half minutes)

/matt

Post by **flatwood** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:07 pm

Right off the top of my head, today, right now, I like these five for different reasons but they're on my current most viewed list:

Das Boot
Sahara
Lillies of the Field
Smoke Signals
Rabbit Proof Fence

Post by **mattias** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:25 pm

ah, smoke signals doesn't quite make my top 5 but it's certainly a candidate for the top 10 or so.

/matt

Post by **steve hyde** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:43 pm

..I'm not sure why none of my top five films make it into my top ten list [??]

Wings of Desire
Rushmore
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Dersu Uzala
Ikiru
Fight Club
In The Mood For Love
Red
The Big Lebowski
Solaris

...but then there are documentaries....

Steve

Post by **Actor** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:56 pm

Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean
2001 a Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
Once Upon a Time in the West - Sergio Leone
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock
Blow Up - Michelangelo Antonioni

Post by **mattias** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:46 pm

This time is better than the last time we did this. While i agree with most, rushore, 2001 (i'd pick clockwork though), and fight club are candidates for my list as well, there are some i haven't seen. So i will. Thanks. /matt

Post by **Super8rules** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 5:56 am

KING KONG '33 (got me into this whole Super-8 thing)
STAR WARS for really making me want make movies
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
THE SEARCHERS

others:

CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
All of Kurosawa's movies, especially RAN
ED WOOD

Post by **timdrage** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 12:44 am

I find it almost impossible to list, but here are 5 all time favorites that I can re-watch any time of any day...

Chungking Express
The Wizard of Speed and Time
Labyrinth
Angel's Egg
Tetsuo

I can't really list "best" films i've seen so easily... unless you want a list of all Tarkovsky films I've seen/all Wong Kar Wai films/all Ghibli films etc etc etc.....