The 1993 Mini-List

[John Cope]

The Bed You Sleep In

If I really enjoyed this, but didn't care for Jost's early work (e.g. Last Chants for a Slow Dance), what should I seek out next?

I followed it up with Sure Fire because it was locally relevant to me. Didn't entirely pack the same punch but it explored similar themes and I rather liked it as well. Great juxtaposition of Utah-specific scriptural references against roving landscapes to introduce a virginal land all ready for violence

I've been a fan of Jost for many years and his work covers a wide spectrum of styles and forms but I will certainly acknowledge it is not all at the same level of accomplishment. For me The Bed You Sleep In is the peak of that work for many of the reasons you both state so eloquently above. I think in many respects it is the pinnacle of a certain narrative form he had developed in the years leading up to it and, as such, provides a culmination point after which he goes in a much more heavily experimental direction. Having said that, of course, the experimentation was always there in abundance as were the indicators of the influence of other film artists such as Godard (particularly noticeable I think in Frameup). It isn't all always so innovative or inspired, however; I like to joke about how so many of his narrative features fit the same form, usually with the male lead dying semi-tragically at the end. Among his earlier films I would highly recommend his two documentaries, Speaking Directly and Plain Talk and Common Sense (the latter in particular I think is genuinely great); I also really like Bell Diamond, All the Vermeers in New York and, yes, Sure Fire (I have a certain affection for Last Chants but I'm not enthused about it). Of the later work I'd recommend his George W. Bush trilogy of Homecoming, Over Here and Parable (especially Parable) as apt dissections of the era with some real formal inventiveness again. Passages is a beautiful work of sustained artistic abstraction. And They Had It Coming, Tourists and Coming to Terms also have real interest with the latter featuring a performance by James Benning as a typically troubled Jostian patriarch.

[knives]

It’s not a great movie, but Jost is also in the collection on one of the later Godard releases.

[geoffcowgill]

swo, could you please add Kassovitz's Metisse (Cafe au Lait)? Thanks!

[knives]

Just voted for mine. There’s such a massive number of great films that I just put no thought into the order of this. It’s practically 25 number one films.

[swo17]

swo, could you please add Kassovitz's Metisse (Cafe au Lait)? Thanks!

Added

[therewillbeblus]

I haven't seen A Perfect World so never assume something is too obvious to bring up in the thread!

I was sure I had seen this one as a kid, but I'm fairly certain I only caught the ending and then mentally discarded it as I took issue with an aspect of the finale. Well, watching it all the way through, A Perfect World is essentially a perfect movie. I have nothing to add to what Ebert et al. have touched on, but this one got me good - first as an enjoyable but deeper Paper Moon / Bonnie and Clyde affair, and then as a convincing melodrama in its final act. It really spans every pleasure and vice of cinema and engages with them on the most intimate level

[swo17]

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1993

VOTE THROUGH MAY 31

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

Friendly reminder that lists are due tonight!

[swo17]

The 1993 List



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. Trois Couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski) 295/13(11)/1(x3)
02. The Piano (Jane Campion) 193/11(5)/1
03. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese) 161/9(3)/1(x2)
04. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater) 159/11(2)/3
05. Short Cuts (Robert Altman) 151/10(3)/2(x3)
06. The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park) 150/9(2)/1
07. Matinee (Joe Dante) 149/7(5)/1
08. 戲夢人生 [Xi meng ren sheng] [The Puppetmaster] (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 148/8(5)/1(x2)
09. Naked (Mike Leigh) 140/8(3)/2
10. 霸王別姬 [Ba wang bie ji] [Farewell My Concubine] (Chen Kaige) 129/8(1)/5
11. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg) 120/7(3)/1(x2)
12. Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma) 117/7(2)/2
13. Blue (Derek Jarman) 115/7(2)/2
14. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood) 113/6(4)/3
15. The Remains of the Day (James Ivory) 104/7(2)/3
16. Red Rock West (John Dahl) 102/7(2)/3
(tie) Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen) 102/11/6
18. King of the Hill (Steven Soderbergh) 93/7(1)/2
19. The Baby of Mâcon (Peter Greenaway) 91/6(2)/3
20. Hélas pour moi [Oh, Woe is Me] (Jean-Luc Godard) 90/6(1)/3
21. Vale Abraão [Abraham's Valley] (Manoel de Oliveira) 88/4(3)/1
22. Caro diario [Dear Diary] (Nanni Moretti) 87/6(1)/3
23. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis) 82/7(1)/5
24. 喜宴 [Xi yan] [The Wedding Banquet] (Ang Lee) 73/4(1)/1
(tie) Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg) 73/4(1)/3
(tie) Mùi đu đủ xanh [The Scent of Green Papaya] (Trần Anh Hùng) 73/4(1)/5
27. Fearless (Peter Weir) 71/6/6
28. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick) 68/5(1)/2
29. お引越し [Ohikkoshi] [Moving] (Shinji Sōmai) 67/4(2)/1
30. Calendar (Atom Egoyan) 60/5(1)/4
31. ソナチネ [Sonachine] [Sonatine] (Takeshi Kitano) 58/4(1)/1
32. Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman) 57/5/6
33. 蓝风筝 [Lan feng zheng] [The Blue Kite] (Tian Zhuangzhuang) 56/5/8
34. Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl [The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl] (Ray Müller) 55/3(1)/2
(tie) The Music of Chance (Philip Haas) 55/3(1)/4
(tie) Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara) 55/4(1)/2
37. Menace II Society (Albert & Allen Hughes) 51/4(1)/1
38. Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan) 47/4/8
39. The Bed You Sleep In (Jon Jost) 46/2(2)/2
40. Stellar (Stan Brakhage) 45/3(1)/3
(tie) L'Arbre, le Maire et la Médiathèque [The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque] (Éric Rohmer) 45/3/7
42. Time Indefinite (Ross McElwee) 43/3/7
43. Dottie Gets Spanked (Todd Haynes) 42/4/7
44. True Romance (Tony Scott) 41/3(1)/5
45. Smoking/No Smoking (Alain Resnais) 39/2(1)/2
46. The Snapper (Stephen Frears) 38/2(1)/3
(tie) Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld) 38/2(1)/5
(tie) Poetic Justice (John Singleton) 38/2/7(x2)
49. La ardilla roja [The Red Squirrel] (Julio Medem) 36/2/7
50. D'Est [From the East] (Chantal Akerman) 35/2(1)/4
(tie) Household Saints (Nancy Savoca) 35/2(1)/4

ALSO-RANS

Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci) 34/2(1)/4
The Sandlot (David Mickey Evans) 33/2(1)/5
Flesh and Bone (Steve Kloves) 31/2/7
The Cement Garden (Andrew Birkin) 30/3/11
M. Butterfly (David Cronenberg) 28/3/7
Arizona Dream (Emir Kusturica) 27/2/12
Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme) 26/2(1)/5
Raining Stones (Ken Loach) 26/3/6
In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan) 26/2/10

The Vanishing (George Sluizer) 25/2(1)/5
Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi) 25/2/13
Rules of the Road (Su Friedrich) 24/2(1)/5
A Bronx Tale (Robert De Niro) 24/2/9
Last Action Hero (John McTiernan) 24/2/12
Cronos (Guillermo del Toro) 24/3/11
Three Homerics (Stan Brakhage) 23/3/12
青蛇 [Ching se] [Green Snake] (Tsui Hark) 22/3/12
The War Room (D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus) 21/5/12
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Lasse Hallström) 20/2/13
The Fugitive (Andrew Davis) 20/4/15

Loaded Weapon 1 (Gene Quintano) 19/2/12
The Secret Garden (Agnieszka Holland) 19/2/16
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (Michael Ritchie) 17/2/10
In weiter Ferne, so nah! [Faraway, So Close!] (Wim Wenders) 7/2/22

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara) 11
Indecent Proposal (Adrian Lyne) 9
まあだだよ [Mādadayo] (Akira Kurosawa) 10
Tales of the City (Alastair Reid) 4
Ma saison préférée [My Favorite Season] (André Téchiné) 1
Կյանք [Kyanq] [Life] (Artavazd Peleshian) 13
Mazeppa (Bartabas) 25
Un, deux, trois, soleil [One, Two, Three, Freeze] (Bertrand Blier) 22
Two Small Bodies (Beth B) 3
Tiny Deaths (Bill Viola) 9
烏鼠 [Wu syu] [Run and Kill] (Billy Tang) 24
Maratón [Marathon] (Carlos Saura) 21
Mrs. Doubtfire (Chris Columbus) 16
L'Œil de Vichy [The Eye of Vichy] (Claude Chabrol) 15
Les Innocents: L'Autre Finistère (Costa Kekemenis) 21
Trauma (Dario Argento) 9
سارا [Sara] (Dariush Mehrjui) 23
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (Dave Borthwick) 5
Rudy (David Anspaugh) 20
Kalifornia (Dominic Sena) 16
Grumpy Old Men (Donald Petrie) 24
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Eric Radomski & Bruce W. Timm) 1
Vinterveien [Near Winter] (Erik Skjoldbjærg) 20
An Ambush of Ghosts (Everett Lewis) 2
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (François Girard) 8
Zoo (Frederick Wiseman) 9
Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos) 7
Totally F***ed Up (Gregg Araki) 21
R.E.M.: Everybody Hurts (Jake Scott) 15
Je vous salue, Sarajevo [Hail Sarajevo] (Jean-Luc Godard) 24
Kino Pulveriso (Jeff Keen) 8
射鵰英雄傳之東成西就 [Se diu ying hung chuen ji dung sing sai jau] [The Eagle Shooting Heroes] (Jeffrey Lau) 23
Falling Down (Joel Schumacher) 25
東方三俠 [Dung fong saam hap] [The Heroic Trio] (Johnnie To) 24
Cool Runnings (Jon Turteltaub) 20
U2: Lemon (Kevin Godley) 14
U2: Numb (Kevin Godley) 13
Stella Polaris [Polar Star] (Knut Erik Jensen) 17
Parpaillon [Up and Down] (Luc Moullet) 24
Visita ou Memórias e Confissões [Memories and Confessions] (Manoel de Oliveira) 9
David Bowie: Jump They Say (Mark Romanek) 9
Madonna: Rain (Mark Romanek) 8
Onnen maa [The Land of Happiness] (Markku Pölönen) 19
Non, je ne regrette rien [No Regret] (Marlon Riggs) 21
Aphex Twin: On (Martin Wallace & Jarvis Cocker) 16
Métisse (Mathieu Kassovitz) 21
新流星蝴蝶劍 [San lau sing wu dip gim] [Butterfly and Sword] (Michael Mak) 25
A Far Off Place (Mikael Salomon) 10
অন্তরীণ [Antareen] [The Confined] (Mrinal Sen) 13
Heart of Darkness (Nicolas Roeg) 22
找樂 [Zhao le] [For Fun] (Ning Ying) 20
Heaven & Earth (Oliver Stone) 21
Tango (Patrice Leconte) 23
Kika (Pedro Almodóvar) 13
Schwarzfahrer [Black Rider] (Pepe Danquart) 24
Romeo Is Bleeding (Peter Medak) 15
Kaspar Hauser (Peter Sehr) 1
Sliver (Phillip Noyce) 23
Lake Consequence (Rafael Eisenman) 5
Cliffhanger (Renny Harlin) 14
It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (Richard Wilson, Myron Meisel & Bill Krohn) 8
La scorta [The Escort] (Ricky Tognazzi) 6
Fire in the Sky (Robert Lieberman) 17
And the Band Played On (Roger Spottiswoode) 11
Heart and Souls (Ron Underwood) 16
Gettysburg (Ronald F. Maxwell) 17
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (Sarah Jacobson) 12
Ephemeral Solidity (Stan Brakhage) 10
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods (Stephen & Timothy Quay) 10
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (Steven M. Martin) 15
Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian) 4
CB4 (Tamra Davis) 11
Freaked (Tom Stern & Alex Winter) 6
Fresa y chocolate [Strawberry & Chocolate] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea & Juan Carlos Tabío) 8
Latcho drom [Safe Journey] (Tony Gatlif) 23
Alferd Packer: The Musical [Cannibal! The Musical] (Trey Parker) 14
The Joy Luck Club (Wayne Wang) 22
In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen) 4
太極張三豐 [Tai gik cheung sam fung] [Tai Chi Master] (Yuen Woo-ping) 16
少年黃飛鴻之鐵馬騮 [Siu nin wong fei hung chi tit ma lau] [Iron Monkey] (Yuen Woo-ping) 15

20 lists submitted

[domino harvey]

This was such a great year for movies, though I didn’t realize that until compiling my list!

[knives]

It really is incredible and puts me back into excitement for the rest of the decade. There’s a large and varied top line set of titles and a lot of good obscure gems.

[Toland's Mitchell]

I don't like this trend of big ticket Hollywood movies winning every year so far, maybe we can see Blue or Red break that trend soon?

I think Blue has a strong chance of topping 1993.

Well, that was an understatement. #1 by over 100 points. Is that the largest margin of victory we've ever had?

Alas, I woke up today and realized it was June and I missed submitting a list by the deadline. I just PM'd swo a tear-drenched apology, and what my 1993 list would have been:

1. Dazed and Confused
2. Jurassic Park
3. Three Colors: Blue
4. The Fugitive
5. Short Cuts
6. Naked
7. The Sandlot
8. The Piano
9. Groundhog Day
10. Schindler's List
11. Six Degrees of Separation
12. Mrs. Doubtfire
13. In the Name of the Father

With 20 other lists, mine would have made only minor changes. A couple also-rans might have cracked the top 50, while some titles near the top would have shuffled a few spots. And Three Colors: Blue would have had an even larger margin of victory. A great film, indeed. We'll see if Red can top the more competitive 1994 list. I have my doubts, with Pulp Fiction and Chungking Express as my predix for the top two spots.

I am a little surprised Jurassic Park missed the Top 10. I grew up with that movie. It was my first scary movie, if that makes sense. And it was my first CGI movie. It blew me away. Little did I know as a kid how novel CGI was at the time, and what ground-breaking film it was in that realm. Nevertheless, I watched Jurassic Park countless times; I had toys and shirts, My dad took me to the theaters for the sequels; And I read the books (which are better) when I got to my teenage years. I was born at the right time to get swept up in the Jurassic series. Granted not everyone on CF had the same experience, though I figured it had a lot of appeal across the board. Perhaps not. Or perhaps it isn't as strong as I remember.

[swo17]

Here are alternative results reflecting TM's list:

01. Trois Couleurs: Bleu [Three Colors: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieślowski) 318/14(12)/1(x3)
02. The Piano (Jane Campion) 210/12(5)/1
03. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater) 184/12(3)/1
04. Short Cuts (Robert Altman) 171/11(4)/2(x2)
05. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese) 161/9(3)/1(x2)
06. Naked (Mike Leigh) 160/9(3)/2
07. The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park) 150/9(2)/1
08. Matinee (Joe Dante) 149/7(5)/1
09. 戲夢人生 [Xi meng ren sheng] [The Puppetmaster] (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 148/8(5)/1(x2)
10. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg) 144/8(4)/1(x2)
11. 霸王別姬 [Ba wang bie ji] [Farewell My Concubine] (Chen Kaige) 129/8(1)/5
12. Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma) 117/7(2)/2
13. Blue (Derek Jarman) 115/7(2)/2
14. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood) 113/6(4)/3
15. The Remains of the Day (James Ivory) 104/7(2)/3
16. Red Rock West (John Dahl) 102/7(2)/3
(tie) Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen) 102/11/6
18. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis) 99/8(1)/5
19. King of the Hill (Steven Soderbergh) 93/7(1)/2
20. The Baby of Mâcon (Peter Greenaway) 90/6(2)/4
(tie) Hélas pour moi [Oh, Woe is Me] (Jean-Luc Godard) 90/6(1)/3
22. Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg) 89/5(1)/3
23. Vale Abraão [Abraham's Valley] (Manoel de Oliveira) 88/4(3)/1
24. Caro diario [Dear Diary] (Nanni Moretti) 87/6(1)/3
25. 喜宴 [Xi yan] [The Wedding Banquet] (Ang Lee) 73/4(1)/1
(tie) Mùi đu đủ xanh [The Scent of Green Papaya] (Trần Anh Hùng) 73/4(1)/5
27. Fearless (Peter Weir) 71/6/6
28. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick) 68/5(1)/2
29. お引越し [Ohikkoshi] [Moving] (Shinji Sōmai) 67/4(2)/1
30. Calendar (Atom Egoyan) 60/5(1)/4
31. ソナチネ [Sonachine] [Sonatine] (Takeshi Kitano) 58/4(1)/1
32. Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman) 56/5/7
(tie) 蓝风筝 [Lan feng zheng] [The Blue Kite] (Tian Zhuangzhuang) 56/5/8
34. Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl [The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl] (Ray Müller) 55/3(1)/2
(tie) The Music of Chance (Philip Haas) 55/3(1)/4
(tie) Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara) 55/4(1)/2
37. The Sandlot (David Mickey Evans) 52/3(1)/5
38. Menace II Society (Albert & Allen Hughes) 51/4(1)/1
39. Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan) 47/4/8
40. The Bed You Sleep In (Jon Jost) 46/2(2)/2
41. Stellar (Stan Brakhage) 45/3(1)/3
(tie) L'Arbre, le Maire et la Médiathèque [The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque] (Éric Rohmer) 45/3/7
43. Time Indefinite (Ross McElwee) 43/3/7
44. Dottie Gets Spanked (Todd Haynes) 42/4/7
(tie) The Fugitive (Andrew Davis) 42/5(1)/4
46. True Romance (Tony Scott) 41/3(1)/5
47. Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi) 40/3/11
48. Smoking/No Smoking (Alain Resnais) 39/2(1)/2
(tie) In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan) 39/3/10
50. The Snapper (Stephen Frears) 38/2(1)/3
(tie) Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld) 38/2(1)/5
(tie) Poetic Justice (John Singleton) 38/2/7(x2)

ALSO-RANS

La ardilla roja [The Red Squirrel] (Julio Medem) 36/2/7
D'Est [From the East] (Chantal Akerman) 35/2(1)/4
Household Saints (Nancy Savoca) 35/2(1)/4
Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci) 33/2(1)/5
Flesh and Bone (Steve Kloves) 31/2/7
The Cement Garden (Andrew Birkin) 30/3/11
M. Butterfly (David Cronenberg) 27/3/8
Arizona Dream (Emir Kusturica) 27/2/12

Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme) 26/2(1)/5
Raining Stones (Ken Loach) 26/3/6
The Vanishing (George Sluizer) 25/2(1)/5
Rules of the Road (Su Friedrich) 24/2(1)/5
A Bronx Tale (Robert De Niro) 24/2/9
Last Action Hero (John McTiernan) 24/2/12
Mrs. Doubtfire (Chris Columbus) 24/2/12
Cronos (Guillermo del Toro) 24/3/11
Three Homerics (Stan Brakhage) 23/3/12
青蛇 [Ching se] [Green Snake] (Tsui Hark) 22/3/12

The War Room (D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus) 21/5/12
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Lasse Hallström) 20/2/13
Loaded Weapon 1 (Gene Quintano) 19/2/12
The Secret Garden (Agnieszka Holland) 19/2/16
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (Michael Ritchie) 17/2/10
In weiter Ferne, so nah! [Faraway, So Close!] (Wim Wenders) 7/2/22

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara) 11
Indecent Proposal (Adrian Lyne) 9
まあだだよ [Mādadayo] (Akira Kurosawa) 10
Tales of the City (Alastair Reid) 4
Ma saison préférée [My Favorite Season] (André Téchiné) 1
Կյանք [Kyanq] [Life] (Artavazd Peleshian) 13
Mazeppa (Bartabas) 25
Un, deux, trois, soleil [One, Two, Three, Freeze] (Bertrand Blier) 22
Two Small Bodies (Beth B) 3
Tiny Deaths (Bill Viola) 9
烏鼠 [Wu syu] [Run and Kill] (Billy Tang) 24
Maratón [Marathon] (Carlos Saura) 21
L'Œil de Vichy [The Eye of Vichy] (Claude Chabrol) 15
Les Innocents: L'Autre Finistère (Costa Kekemenis) 21
Trauma (Dario Argento) 10
سارا [Sara] (Dariush Mehrjui) 23
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (Dave Borthwick) 6
Rudy (David Anspaugh) 20
Kalifornia (Dominic Sena) 16
Grumpy Old Men (Donald Petrie) 24
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Eric Radomski & Bruce W. Timm) 1
Vinterveien [Near Winter] (Erik Skjoldbjærg) 20
An Ambush of Ghosts (Everett Lewis) 2
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (François Girard) 8
Zoo (Frederick Wiseman) 9
Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos) 7
Totally F***ed Up (Gregg Araki) 21
R.E.M.: Everybody Hurts (Jake Scott) 15
Je vous salue, Sarajevo [Hail Sarajevo] (Jean-Luc Godard) 24
Kino Pulveriso (Jeff Keen) 8
射鵰英雄傳之東成西就 [Se diu ying hung chuen ji dung sing sai jau] [The Eagle Shooting Heroes] (Jeffrey Lau) 23
Falling Down (Joel Schumacher) 25
東方三俠 [Dung fong saam hap] [The Heroic Trio] (Johnnie To) 24
Cool Runnings (Jon Turteltaub) 20
U2: Lemon (Kevin Godley) 14
U2: Numb (Kevin Godley) 13
Stella Polaris [Polar Star] (Knut Erik Jensen) 17
Trois Couleurs: Blanc [Trzy kolory. Biały] [Three Colors: White] (Krzysztof Kieślowski) 2
Parpaillon [Up and Down] (Luc Moullet) 24
Visita ou Memórias e Confissões [Memories and Confessions] (Manoel de Oliveira) 9
David Bowie: Jump They Say (Mark Romanek) 9
Madonna: Rain (Mark Romanek) 8
Onnen maa [The Land of Happiness] (Markku Pölönen) 19
Non, je ne regrette rien [No Regret] (Marlon Riggs) 21
Aphex Twin: On (Martin Wallace & Jarvis Cocker) 16
Métisse (Mathieu Kassovitz) 21
新流星蝴蝶劍 [San lau sing wu dip gim] [Butterfly and Sword] (Michael Mak) 25
A Far Off Place (Mikael Salomon) 10
অন্তরীণ [Antareen] [The Confined] (Mrinal Sen) 13
Heart of Darkness (Nicolas Roeg) 22
找樂 [Zhao le] [For Fun] (Ning Ying) 20
Heaven & Earth (Oliver Stone) 21
Tango (Patrice Leconte) 23
Kika (Pedro Almodóvar) 13
Schwarzfahrer [Black Rider] (Pepe Danquart) 24
Romeo Is Bleeding (Peter Medak) 15
Kaspar Hauser (Peter Sehr) 1
Sliver (Phillip Noyce) 23
Lake Consequence (Rafael Eisenman) 5
Cliffhanger (Renny Harlin) 14
It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (Richard Wilson, Myron Meisel & Bill Krohn) 8
La scorta [The Escort] (Ricky Tognazzi) 6
Fire in the Sky (Robert Lieberman) 17
And the Band Played On (Roger Spottiswoode) 11
Heart and Souls (Ron Underwood) 16
Gettysburg (Ronald F. Maxwell) 17
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (Sarah Jacobson) 12
Ephemeral Solidity (Stan Brakhage) 10
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods (Stephen & Timothy Quay) 10
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (Steven M. Martin) 15
Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian) 4
CB4 (Tamra Davis) 11
Freaked (Tom Stern & Alex Winter) 6
Fresa y chocolate [Strawberry & Chocolate] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea & Juan Carlos Tabío) 8
Latcho drom [Safe Journey] (Tony Gatlif) 23
Alferd Packer: The Musical [Cannibal! The Musical] (Trey Parker) 14
The Joy Luck Club (Wayne Wang) 22
In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen) 4
太極張三豐 [Tai gik cheung sam fung] [Tai Chi Master] (Yuen Woo-ping) 16
少年黃飛鴻之鐵馬騮 [Siu nin wong fei hung chi tit ma lau] [Iron Monkey] (Yuen Woo-ping) 15

21 lists submitted

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks swo! Bummer the Blier was orphaned

1. Matinee
2. Abraham’s Valley/Vale Abraão
3. Three Colors: Blue
4. Jurassic Park
5. The Puppetmaster
6. A Perfect World
7. Dazed and Confused
8. Red Rock West
9. The Red Squirrel
10. Hélas pour moi

[domino harvey]

That’s one that veers a little too far into his more questionable predilections for my tastes, but I don’t hate it. Was amused to learn HVe put it out though— pretty dicey stuff!

[swo17]

#1 by over 100 points. Is that the largest margin of victory we've ever had?

Dr. Strangelove won 1964 by 120 points and Do the Right Thing won 1989 by 115

[yoshimori]

Is it possible my favorite 1993 film, Sonatine, will top the forum's list? I'm probably way off.

Always good to hedge your bets.

[domino harvey]

Kinda surprised Kika was orphaned. I know the Criterion of today is never, ever releasing it so it's only going to get less and less visible but it's classic Almodovar, and the fact that the most contentious scene in this film (and his entire oeuvre) actually works is a testament to his brilliance. It's in the UK Blu-ray box, for those looking for a copy

Swo, I seem to recall you enjoyed Mein Kampf, have you seen the Chabrol Vichy doc, which he clearly is emulating (and I only watched the German film because Chabrol listed it as one of the best films of the year it was released)

[swo17]

Yes, and it's all either quite vital or redundant depending on how cynical you've become. Doesn't much feel like A Chabrol Film, of course, but good on him for feeling motivated to make it

[Lowry_Sam]

Kinda surprised Kika was orphaned. I know the Criterion of today is never, ever releasing it so it's only going to get less and less visible but it's classic Almodovar, and the fact that the most contentious scene in this film (and his entire oeuvre) actually works is a testament to his brilliance. It's in the UK Blu-ray box, for those looking for a copy

For wahtever reason it was the one from the set I never watched, so this project got me to finally see it. I found it to be the weakest of his pre-2000 films. I did find the first 1/3 or so to be very good, but I found myself getting more annoyed with the writing. The characters just weren't very credible for me by the end and it felt more like novelty for novelty's sake. I could see it being included in a comprehensive set, like all his films from the 20th century (rights issues aside).

For me the biggest surprise is how far down Schindler's List is (and below Baby Of Macon no less!) and how high Matinee & Dazed & Confused were. I finally watched my blu-ray for Matinee with an eye for whether I should upgrade it to UHD. While I found it enjoyable, I really don't think I will ever feel compelled to rewatch it. Dazed and Confused I just found to be dull and uninspired and had me reassessing John Hughes' output.

[andyli]

I didn't vote for Schindler's List. The reasoning is that some participating members will probably vote for it anyway so why waste a precious spot, which could be used to sneak in something fewer people would champion, like, guess what, Matinee. It's really just a game. My Matinee's List got absolutely no life-saving purposes.