Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

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DougReese
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Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by DougReese »

Hey, a few things to understand when I put together this list.

1) I do not rank films. To me its just a stupid thing to do, because it becomes a number contest where it seems like number 250 is no better than number 1, when in actuality they are both masterful for their own reasons. Basically, they are all number 1 to me. So, instead of ranking, I have listed them in chronological order in groups that separate the film by decade.

2) I have included short films. I feel the lengths of films should not be declined from being listed on an all-time favorite film list, as they are films in their own right.

3) There are some personal picks here, so some will possibly baffle you. But understand, I am willing to discuss any of these films and my reasons for finding them great, or whatever. Just discussing these 250 is what I love to do best! :D

Now, on with the list!

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1910s
Vampires, Les (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919)

1920s
Kid, The (Charles Chaplin, 1921)
Haxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)
Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1926)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Unknown, The (Tod Browning, 1927)
Fall of the House of Usher, The (Jean Epstein, 1928)
General, The (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1928)
Passion of Joan of Arc, The (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
Man with the Movie Camera, The (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
Skeleton Dance, The (Walt Disney, 1929)
Un Chien andalou (Luis Bunuel, 1929)

1930s
Blood of a Poet, The (Jean Cocteau, 1930)
Bimbo's Initiation (Dave Fleischer, 1931)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
Betty Boop, M.D. (Dave Fleischer, 1932)
Music Box, The (James Parrott, 1932)
Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
Awful Truth, The (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Clock Cleaners (Ben Sharpsteen, 1937)
Wizard of Oz, The (Victor Fleming, 1939)

1940s
Fantasia (Ben Sharpsteen, 1940)
Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen, 1940)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
Dead of Night (Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer, 1945)
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
Big Sleep, The (Howard Hawks, 1946)
It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
Red Shoes, The (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Third Man, The (Carol Reed, 1949)

1950s
Outrage (Ida Lupino, 1950)
Enfants terribles, Les (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
Feed the Kitty (Chuck Jones, 1952)
Forbidden Games (Rene Clement, 1952)
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)
Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
Tell-Tale Heart, The (Ted Parmelee, 1953)
Earrings of Madame de..., The (Max Ophüls, 1954)
Death of a Cyclist (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1955)
East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955)
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955)
Night of the Hunter, The (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Rebel without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
Baby Doll (Elia Kazan, 1956)
Searchers, The (John Ford, 1956)
Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
400 Blows, The (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959)

1960s
Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
Misfits, The (John Huston, 1961)
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)
Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961)
L'eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Fire Within, The (Louis Malle, 1963)
Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski, 1963)
Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Bryan Forbes, 1964)
Fists in the Pocket (Marco Bellocchio, 1965)
Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman, 1965)
Patch of Blue, A (Guy Green, 1965)
Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Graduate, The (Mike Nichols, 1967)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston, 1967)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)
Flesh (Paul Morrissey, 1968)
Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)
If... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
Last Summer (Frank Perry, 1969)
Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969)

1970s
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Clockwork Orange, A (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
Murmur of the Heart (Louis Malle, 1971)
Panic in Needle Park, The (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971)
Return of Count Yorga, The (Bob Kelljan, 1971)
Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
W.R. - Mysteries of the Organism (Dustin Makavejey, 1971)
Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, 1972)
Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
Godfather, The (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Solyaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973)
Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1973)
Spirit of the Beehive, The (Victor Erice, 1973)
F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1974)
Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, 1974)
Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman, 1974)
Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev, 1974)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
Grey Gardens (Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Muffie Meyer, 1975)
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The (John Cassavetes, 1976)
Shootist, The (Don Siegel, 1976)
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
Tenant, The (Roman Polanski, 1976)
Through the Looking Glass (Jonas Middleton, 1976)
3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)
Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
Equus (Sidney Lumet, 1977)
Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
Iphigenia (Mihalis Kakogiannis, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The (John Lounsbery and Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977)
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel, 1977)
Deer Hunter, The (Michael Cimino, 1978)
Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Wise Blood (John Huston, 1979)

1980s
Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg, 1980)
Shining, The (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
American Pop (Ralph Bakshi, 1981)
Evil Dead, The (Sam Raimi, 1982)
Pink Floyd – The Wall (Alan Parker, 1982)
Plague Dogs, The (Martin Rosen, 1982)
Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982)
White Dog (Samuel Fuller, 1982)
A nos amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983)
Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984)
This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
Breakfast Club, The (John Hughes, 1985)
Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
Mala Noche (Gus Van Sant, 1985)
Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)
Hitcher, The (Robert Harmon, 1986)
River's Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986)
Another Woman (Woody Allen, 1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)
Last Temptation of Christ, The (Martin Scorsese, 1988)
Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988)
Short Film About Killing, A (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988)
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1988)
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)
Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe, 1989)

1990s
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1990)
Santa sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1990)
Sandman, The (Paul Berry, 1991)
Silence of the Lambs, The (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
Crying Game, The (Neil Jordan, 1992)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)
Nightmare Before Christmas, The (Henry Selick, 1993)
Piano, The (Jane Campion, 1993)
Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, 1993)
Felidae (Michael Schaack, 1994)
Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)
City of Lost Children, The (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995)
Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1995)
Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1995)
KIDS (Larry Clark, 1995)
Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis, 1995)
Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)
Toy Story (John Lassetter, 1995)
Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996)
Bound (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1996)
Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996)
Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz, 1996)
Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997)
Ice Storm, The (Ang Lee, 1997)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
Sweet Hereafter, The (Atom Egoyan, 1997)
Beloved (Jonathan Demme, 1998)
Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo, 1998)
Lawn Dogs (John Duigan, 1998)
Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh, 1998)
American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
Dogma (Kevin Smith, 1999)
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony Korine, 1999)
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Talented Mr. Ripley, The (Anthony Minghella, 1999)

2000s
Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
Virgin Suicides, The (Sofia Coppola, 2000)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Others, The (Alejandro Amenabar, 2001)
Royal Tenenbaums, The (Wes Anderson, 2001)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2001)
25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)
Adaptation. (Spike Jonze, 2002)
Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002)
Frailty (Bill Paxton, 2002)
Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)
Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)
Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar, 2002)
Gus Van Sant's Death Trilogy (Gus Van Sant, 2003-05)
Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
May (Lucky McKee, 2003)
Return, The (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2003)
Triplets of Belleville, The (Sylvain Chomet, 2003)
Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004)
Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2004)
Mean Creek (Jacob Aaron Estes, 2004)
Twentynine Palms (Bruno Dumont, 2004)
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
Devil's Rejects, The (Rob Zombie, 2005)
New World, The (Terrence Malick, 2005)
Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean, 2005)
Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, 2006)
Little Children (Todd Field, 2006)
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, 2007)
Bug (William Friedkin, 2007)
Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2007)
Funny Games U.S. (Michael Haneke, 2008)
Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
Wrestler, The (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

Bonus
Six Feet Under (Alan Ball, 2001-05)

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Beautiful list, si? :D

tef
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by tef »

So why Six Feet Under?

DougReese
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by DougReese »

It's easily my favorite TV series, and one of the few works from any medium (film, TV, music, stage etc.) to really impact me and actually make a change in the way I see my life. It sounds corny, but the series helped me with a very depressing time in my teenage years, and has really helped me re-examine my feelings on death (ones that used to branch from fear). Simply put, it struck me very, very personally and still strikes the same emotional chords upon rewatching (especially the series finale). :)

Stewball
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by Stewball »

2000's--No Gladiator, O Brother Where Art Thou, Undisputed. Sorry, pretension alert.

DougReese
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by DougReese »

Because I don't have those three films that you consider favorites on my favorites list makes me possibly pretentious? :shock:

Anyway - I love "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", just like I love the Coens. It's not one of my all-time favorites - I prefer "Fargo", "No Country for Old Men", "Barton Fink", and "The Big Lebowski" much more.

"Undisputed" was one meh movie. I respect if you loved it, but I personally found it predictable and pretty average.

And "Gladiator" is one of the very few films I really didn't appreciate as much as many others. I found Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix to be excellent, and technically the film is well done - but there are many things that really bothered me about the film - from its padded length to its almost hollow character archs. I don't find it terrible by any means, but I'm personally not a fan.

Sorry we disagree about 2/3 of those films, and I'm sorry that excluding them from my list makes me seem "pretentious"... :roll:

MmzHrrdb
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by MmzHrrdb »

Why does this warrant its own thread? If I cared about your top 250, I'd click on your profile.

But LOL at the suggestion that fucking Gladiator belongs anywhere near a top 250 list. It might make the top 250 Ridley Scott movies.

Quicky
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by Quicky »

Haha, Gladiator easily makes my top 25 of all time. Sorry FitFortDanga :P.

I agree though that if you start your own thread with your top 250, then at least tell us something that we couldn't have viewed on your profile? What are the trends in your top 250 and why? How is your top 250 different from other people's top 250 and why?

Stewball
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by Stewball »

DougReese wrote:Because I don't have those three films that you consider favorites on my favorites list makes me possibly pretentious? :shock:


If you'd stopped there I might have bought it. But then you proceeded to justify your claims based on something other than just your subjective evaluations.

Then FitFortDanga chose to follow you up with his own, completely erroneous, "objective" prattle. 8-)

Pickpocket
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by Pickpocket »

Finally, I've been waiting for this thread my whole life.

tef
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Re: Doug Reese's 250 Favorite Films!

Post by tef »

Pickpocket wrote:Finally, I've been waiting for this thread my whole life.


What Rushmore needs is an aquarium.

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