So, the listing (previously done here) continued, this time my friend thought it best to do movies: one for every year you’ve been alive, as per last time. There was a particular emphasis this round on re-watchability, so instead of simply picking the best of a particular year, we needed to pick the films that we would involuntarily pay attention to if they happened to come on TV one night (as an example).
My picks:
1970 Five Easy Pieces, dir. Bob Rafelson
1971 A Clockwork Orange, dir. Stanley Kubrick
1972 Solaris, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
1973 The Exorcist, dir. William Friedkin
1974 Chinatown, dir. Roman Polanski
1975 tie: Love and Death, dir. Woody Allen
tie: Three Days of the Condor, dir. Sydney Pollack1976 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, dir. John Cassavetes
1977 Annie Hall, dir. Woody Allen
1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, dir. Philip Kaufman
1979 The Ninth Configuration, dir. William Peter Blatty
1980 The Shining, dir. Stanley Kubrick
1981 Cutter’s Way, dir. Ivan Passer
1982 The Thing, dir. John Carpenter
1983 tie: Rock & Rule, dir. Clive Smith
tie: The Fourth Man (De Vierde man), dir. Paul Verhoeven
tie: Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones1984 Paris, Texas, dir. Wim Wenders
1985 Brazil, dir. Terry Gilliam
1986 Aliens, dir. James Cameron
1987 Wings of Desire (Der Himmel uber Berlin), dir. Wim Wenders
1988 The Vanishing (Spoorloos), dir. George Sluizer
1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors, dir. Woody Allen
1990 La Femme Nikita, dir. Luc Besson
1991 Zentropa (Europa – original title), dir. Lars von Trier
1992 Glengarry Glen Ross, dir. James Foley
1993 Naked, dir. Mike Leigh
1994 White, dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski
1995 tie: Underground, dir. Emir Kusturica
tie: 12 Monkeys, dir. Terry Gilliam1996 tie: Ghost in the Shell, dir. Mamoru Oshii
tie: Breaking the Waves, dir. Lars von Trier1997 Perfect Blue, dir. Satoshi Kon, Hisao Shirai
1998 Dark City, dir. Alex Proyas
1999 tie: Top of The Food Chain, dir. John Paizs
tie: The Iron Giant, dir. Brad Bird2000 tie: Maelstrom, dir. Denis Villeneuve
tie: Possible Worlds, dir. Robert Lepage2001 In the Bedroom, dir. Todd Field
2002 Read My Lips (Sur mes levres), dir. Jacques Audiard
2003 Mystic River, dir. Clint Eastwood
2004 2046, dir. Wong Kar-Wai
2005 Grizzly Man, dir. Werner Herzog
2006 Children of Men, dir. Alfonso Cuaron
2007 No Country For Old Men, dir. Joel & Ethan Coen
Now, I took some flack from Simon for picking the likes of Solaris and Paris, Texas. This turned into an interesting discussion about how one person’s “You picked what??” is another person’s “Damn straight – and yes I consider that film extremely watchable.“. Sure, a film like Naked is probably something most people will only wish to watch once…and yet, despite the fact that I love a good suspence/thriller/comedy/sci-fi/anime film, I honestly do like certain films which are slooow and gloomy. I consider them re-watchable even if they aren’t, by nature, exciting.
Brazil has been on twice in the past 2 weeks or so, on one Showtime or something like that…and I’ve only had enough time to watch 1/2 or so each time. I saw that movie when I was 14, maybe 15yrs old and loved it, really need to watch the whole thing again. 1982 would have to be The Wall for me…
Yeah, The Wall…it’s a mess, but a glorious mess. That in itself is a special category.