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kenji endorses
Looks like, from your earlier recommendation, i should include the silent film Sparrows. Oh and Flowers of Shanghai (1998) by Hou now seems strikingly absent, even though it's not my favourite by him.
Still, i can safely say with no bias whatsoever and setting false modesty aside, my list is the best of its type- better than Rosenbaum, Scaruffi, New York Times, They Shoot Pictures, and my own 1000 favourites!
Oooh, very close to the magic 500 mark!
I wish i was better with computers, cos i don't know how to present my list as tidily as this.
Don't waste your life in dark rooms to see all the films, unless you're set on being a film critic or like Dracula can't survive in the sunlight, or heaven forbid you want to end up like me, with the ghoulish pallid appearance of Max Schreck in Nosferatu. Instead, make merry in the sun, entwine with fair maidens in green meadows, row down river in Summer, stroll beneath the moon reciting poetry to your loved one. Climb eevry mountain, ford every stream...
(But everyone should at least see Sansho the Bailiff at some point in life- hopefully the right point.)
This is one genre Britain has done well in (and some of the best US horror films have been by British directors too). Not sure why that should be. Lots of ghosts, ghouls and creepy goings on in the UK no doubt.
A fantastic list! yeah the 2 by Kubrick, and Don Quixote would have been must-sees for sure. And Dreyer's Jesus (didn't know about this). I do think Pasolini's Gospel according to St Matthew is comfortably the best one about Jesus. It restores the original message that many of the organised Christian religions seem to have conveniently discarded/ turned upside down even. There's a reasonable amount of Que Viva Mexico, and impressive it is too! Very striking compositions.
I've just seen a Dreyer film starring Christensen- Mikael/Michael. He plays an effete (gay?) wealthy painter who takes in a younger guy who'd modelled for him but who in turn falls for a countess (played by Rules of the Game's Nora Gregor). Shades of Oscar Wilde. Fine staging as usual but the story itself and characterisations struck me as faintly ludicrous. Not up to Dreyer's later standards anyway, but Rosenbaum picked it in his 1000.
1/4 of the films you've seen are from the silent era, before 1930. I don't think i've come across anyone with such a high percentage before. What got you so interested in the silents? These days, so many popular lists give the impression cinema started with Star Wars or even Pulp Fiction! It's really refreshing to come across someone with such a different set of values.
I'll have to catch up on the early Griffith shorts.
And you give better answers
How about A.I, Mars Attacks, Twelve Monkeys, The Matrix, and Stalker.
A strong selection. But how about The Wicker Man, Don't Look Now, The Devil Rides Out, Witchfinder General, Carnival of Souls, An American Werewolf in London, Sleepy Hollow, Ring. And perhaps Night of the Hunter might be classed as horror?
Oh and i like Suspiria too (for what it's worth)
Shame about Fanny and Alexander, one of his very best. Reminds me of seeing Wild Strawberries aged 13. That's not the right age for Bergman! The most boring thing i'd ever seen, and may still have affected me when i saw it again years later.
Try: Night of the Shooting Stars (year?), The Draughtsman's Contract, Veronika Voss, Yol, Sophie's Choice, Tootsie, Deadly Run.
Well you make me fancy seeing Sunset Boulevard and In a Lonely Place again soon.
Next stops?: Los Olvidados, La Ronde, Les Enfants Terribles, Gone to Earth, Born Yesterday
Do see more Mizoguchi, Rohmer, Ophuls and Wenders. I know some of their stuff isn't on dvd. You're very lucky to have some treats in store (many of my favourites anyway): Sunrise, Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Celine and Julie go Boating, The Green Ray, The Double Life of Veronique, Kings of the Road, The Colour of Pomegranates, Maborosi, Shin Heike Monogatari.....
Do see 3 of my favourite films- Mirror, Alice in the Cities, Celine and Julie go Boating.
One of the weakest years in cinema history (certainly since the early silent years)! Day of Wrath (Dreyer) my top choice, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp very good too. Shadow of a Doubt superior Hitch. Meshes of the Afternoon a surreal avant-garde film by Maya Deren (a bit overrated i think).
I liked La Dolce Vita but you need to be in the mood for a wallow.
I'm not so keen on Breathless as several by Godard either, even though it's his most famous.
Try: The Human Condition trilogy (Kobayashi- superb epic anti-war film), Cloud-Capped Star (Ghatak- hated by some at our film society), L'Avventura (if you thought La Dolce Vita was slow...!), Shoot the Pianist (Truffaut), Le Trou (Becker- an involving prison escape film), Black Sunday (Bava- sensuous horror), Wild River (Kazan- his most underrated?)