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Your Top Five Favorite Films


Alex Begin

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Hello,

 

Well I've been stuck in my house with a cold for a few days, so the only thing I am willing to do is watch movies. So I was just wondering what everyones top 5 films were, so I could have some new movie ideas..

 

Here are mine:

American History X

Shawshank Redemption

Philadelphia

Schindler's List

Fight Club

 

Thanks,

Alex

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You're missing the first 90 years of cinema on that list... but limited to just five, that's not so surprising, one tends to pick the movies one grew up with.

 

I try to not take lists too seriously -- whenever I sit down to write one, it runs towards 100 movies. So off the top of my head, not thinking too much about it, my list today might be:

 

2001, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, Seven Samurai, Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- these are the sorts of movies that inspired me growing up, along with "Star Trek" episodes.

 

Expanded to ten movies, I might add: Citizen Kane, Superman: The Movie, Buster Keaton's The General, Singin in the Rain, Star Wars.

 

I was a teenager in the late 1970's when the big sci-fi movies hit the theaters, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, etc. Then I discovered Welles, Kurosawa, Lean, Kubrick -- all the directors who influenced the directors of those big sci-fi movies. Then I discovered the directors who influenced those directors, etc. I believe in going back to the source...

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5 huh. ummmmm OK how's this:

 

Apocalypse Now

Blade Runner

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Maltese Falcon

Young Frankenstein

 

There are some that might have made the list but for certain things the Trilogies, these are films that need to be seen together as trilogies:

 

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

 

Then there's the I woulda picked these instead but it happens to be Friday not Thursday:

 

Laurence of Arabia

Gone With The Wind

Casablanca

The Thing From Another World

The Producers

 

and the what was I thinking, I shoulda gone with these:

 

Shane

La Strata

Alien

The African Queen

The Battleship Potemkin

 

Of course there's always the Are you outta your mind why would you go with those when you coulda gone with these:

 

Robin Hood

Saving Private Ryan

The Man Who Would Be King

The Seventh Seal

Take the Money and Run

 

I could make lists of 5 movies all day long and Still not want to take a single one off the list. How do you pick the "Top" five? I mean what would be the criteria? That's like naming the top five stars in the sky or the top five trees in the forest. Just watch a BUNCH of movies, all different kinds of movies from all different eras, in all different styles from all different countries, the more you watch the more you'll learn and the more you learn, the better film maker you'll be. That's my philosophy anyway or at least one of my top five philosophies. :rolleyes:

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And as a side note. I often hear people criticize "lists" and thought I'd throw out my reasoning behind why I create these lists. First off, it comes from having OCD and constantly wanting to organize or categorize things. My dvd collection is organized better than most things in my apartment. :P

 

But I always felt like these lists represent two things: One - They represent almost a time capsule. "Here's what I liked when I was getting my BFA..." It's fun to look back at them.

 

Two - It's just a catalog of what happens, at this point and time, to be my source for inspiration. These are the films which excite me about filmmaking the most RIGHT NOW! And sometimes that's nice for OTHER people. My friends and family, other collaborators, students, teachers... it's nice to point to a few films at times and say, these are the ones that inspire me to make films.

 

So there's my two cents :)

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My top five list changed just a few minutes ago. Here it is:

 

Grand Illusion

The Thin Red Line

Faces

Ivan's Childhood

Hiroshima mon Amour

 

My favorite films are the ones that moved me, changed my perception of filmmaking, or broadened my understanding of humanity. I could make an extensive list of those films. There's really no top five favorite. It's more a matter of which resonate at a particular moment in time.

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That's a really tough question but I think, in no particular order:

 

"Road to Perdition"

"Star Wars"

"Amelie"

"Young Frankenstein"

"Rear Window" or "North by Northwest" Don't make me choose. :ph34r:

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I love lists and I do lists all the time. Movie-lists change constantly, but all time favourites are hard to share, I do have films on that list, which probably only mean something to people with a similar background. uh, obvious.

 

Just a few from the list:

 

Az ötödik pecsét (Zoltán Fábri, 1976 - The Fifth Seal)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075467/

Nárcisz és Psyché (Gábor Bódy, 1980 - Psyche)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081254/

La double vie de Véronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)

Trys dienos (Sharunas Bartas, 1991 - Three Days)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103132/

Chung Hing sam lam (Kar Wai Wong, 1994 - Chungking Express)

De vliegende Hollander (Jos Stelling, 1995)

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This is a hard one, but ok here are my 5 top movies of all times....

 

#1 ROMA - Adolfo Aristarain.

 

#2 Belle Epoque - Fernando Trueba

 

#3 Todo Sobre Mi Madre - Pedro Almodovar

 

#4 Abre Los Ojos - Alejandro Almenabar

 

#5 The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola

 

and if I may add another one... Shawshank Redemption :)

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This is a hard one, but ok here are my 5 top movies of all times....

 

#1 ROMA - Adolfo Aristarain.

 

#2 Belle Epoque - Fernando Trueba

 

#3 Todo Sobre Mi Madre - Pedro Almodovar

 

#4 Abre Los Ojos - Alejandro Almenabar

 

#5 The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola

 

and if I may add another one... Shawshank Redemption :)

 

 

man how could I've fogot Amores Perros....sorry that is in my top 7 for sure..

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In no particular order:

 

Galaxy Quest

 

Young Frankenstein

 

The Blues Brothers

 

Casablanca

 

Star Wars

 

Those are five movies that if I run across them on the boob tube, I say to myself "I'll watch for about fifteen minutes" and end up watching the rest of the movie. Sucked in again - and lovin' it.

 

If you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, you've missed a great scifi flick with an absolutely killer cast.

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In no particular order:

 

Galaxy Quest

 

 

If you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, you've missed a great scifi flick with an absolutely killer cast.

 

I always feel so guilty for loving this movie as much as I do. Wonderful story telling!!!!

 

Alan Rickman's performance is, in itself, enough to make the movie great :)

Edited by Nicholas Jenkins
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In no particular order:

 

Galaxy Quest

 

Young Frankenstein

 

The Blues Brothers

 

Casablanca

 

Star Wars

 

Those are five movies that if I run across them on the boob tube, I say to myself "I'll watch for about fifteen minutes" and end up watching the rest of the movie. Sucked in again - and lovin' it.

 

If you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, you've missed a great scifi flick with an absolutely killer cast.

 

"Have you guys ever WATCHED the show!!??" I've seen Galaxy Quest LITERALLY maybe 75 or 80 times, no exaggeration and if I ever get the chance to buy a 35mm print of it, I'll break my wrist writing the check to cover it. I was hoping for a sequel but alas, it just didn't do the box office it deserved to do. I STILL think the concept would make a terrific series though. :wub:

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I always feel so guilty for loving this movie as much as I do. Wonderful story telling!!!!

Don't, no less a film lover than David Mamet rates it as one of the classics. He puts it in the rarified company of films like "The Godfather" and "A Place in the Sun", describing it as a "perfect film".

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In no particular order,

 

Persona, Days of Heaven, Au Hasard Balthazar, Pickpocket, The Godfather Part 1... being limited to five is hard!

 

The next five would be,

 

Chinatown, Raging Bull, Party Girl, The 400 Blows, La Notte.

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'2001'

 

'Ivan the Terrible'/<<Ivan Groznii>> I count both parts as one and lament that part III was never finished.

 

'Black Narcissus'

 

'Il Gattopardo'/'The Leopard'

 

'The Maltese Falcon'

 

I also have a soft spot for 'The Mysterians' and 'Plan Nine from Outer Space'

 

My all time favorite double bill was 'The Loved One' and 'Dr.Strangelove'.

This was the first time I'd seen either & the theater had a bowling alley above it.

Spent the entire day watching them.

"an orbit of eternal grace"

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At least this isn't about "the five best films of all time" - an impossible question to answer. This is a personal choice, what I think today, the first five that come into my head, a bunch of movies that I would grab from the video store to watch tonight. Tomorrow's list would be different.

 

The Third Man

Mulholland Drive

Newsfront (Phillip Noyce's first feature)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir's second feature)

. . . . .

(only one more - god, what to pick . . .)

. . . . .

2001 A Space Odessey. . . NO . . . Vertigo . . . NO . . . Lawrence of Arabia . . YES, that's it.

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