Halliwell's best movies 1-100

Raoul Duke

Cut and pasted from today's Sunday Times. There's a new book coming out with their (well one guy's) top 1,000. This is the top 100.


1. Tokyo Story
Japan, 1953, Yasujiro Ozu



An understated, beautifully composed classic of domestic disillusionment from the most classical and contemplative of directors. In his formal concentration on everyday family life, Ozu discovers universal truths about the human condition. Here, an elderly couple face the painful fact that they are a burden to their children and grandchildren. But the most devastating comment comes at the end of the film, from their daughter: “Isn’t life disappointing.” But at least Ozu never disappoints.

2. La Règle du Jeu
France, 1939, Jean Renoir

It took more than 20 years for Renoir’s film to be recognised as his masterpiece. It was originally banned as demoralising, but remains triumphantly, morally bracing and richly comic. The subject matter of a thousand boulevard comedies — a shooting party at a country mansion, where everyone is preoccupied with love affairs — becomes a devastating portrait of the society of his time; snobbish, racist and mendacious, whose obsessive frivolity leads to death and destruction.

3. Lawrence of Arabia
GB, 1962, David Lean

The real hero is the director David Lean, in overcoming immense difficulties to create an overwhelming epic. O’Toole, a great actor at his charismatic best, achieves both Lawrence’s bravado and his disenchantment.

4. The Godfather Trilogy
US, 1972, 1974, 1990, Francis Ford Coppola

It is the first two parts of the trilogy that make it a classic. Nevertheless all three have all the fascination of a snake pit: a warm-hearted family saga except that the members are murderers.

5. The Seven Samurai
Japan, 1954, Akira Kurosawa

The greatest of all samurai films is a superbly strange medieval adventure. The film later served as the basis for the western The Magnificent Seven but they pale in comparison with this vivid and violent drama.

6. Citizen Kane
US, 1941, Orson Welles

Although the movie’s technical innovations might now seem run-of-the-mill, Orson Welles identified and exposed a type of megalomaniacal media mogul who is still with us today. Every line is utterly absorbing.

7. Raging Bull
US, 1980, Martin Scorsese

Robert De Niro’s dazzling performance in the title role encompasses both La Motta as a savage fighter and his later incarnation as an overweight would-be comedian. Scorsese brought to the film what he called a “kamikaze” approach, in which he put everything he knew and felt.

8. Vertigo
US, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock used a combination of a forward zoom and a reverse tracking shot to create a feeling of vertigo in this double identity thriller: as unsettling as the phobia it dealt with. Hitchcock’s study of an obssessive and haunted love is the darkest of his films, and the best.

9. Some Like It Hot
US, 1959, Billy Wilder

A milestone of film comedy that keeps its central situation alive with fresh invention. Marilyn Monroe was worth all the trouble, and Curtis and Lemmon are a brilliantly contrasting pair. “Nobody’s perfect” is the last line, hilarious in its context but, on this occasion, cast, script and director all were.

10. 8½
Italy, 1963, Federico Fellini

A coruscating, melancholy, self-reflecting spectacle of a man beginning to be at his wits’ end. Marcello Mastroianni, who used many of Fellini’s characteristic gestures and tone of voice, saw his role as a “symbol of a generation that had nothing more to give”.

11. Doctor Strangelove
GB, 1963, Kubrick




12. Singin’ in the Rain
US, 1952, Kelly

13. Taxi Driver
US, 1976, Scorsese

14. The Searchers
US, 1956, Ford

15. The Seventh Seal
Sweden, 1957, Bergman

16. Sweet Smell of Success
US, 1957, Mackendrick

17. Sunset Boulevard
US, 1950, Wilder

18. The Third Man
GB, 1949, Reed

19. The Apu Trilogy
India, 1955, 1956, 1959, Ray

20. Les Enfants du Paradis
France, 1945, Carné

21. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
France/Spain/Italy, 1972, Buñuel

22. Andrei Rublev
USSR, 1966, Tarkovsky

23. The Passion of Joan of Arc
France, 1928, Dreyer

24. Viridiana
Spain/Mexico, 1961, Buñuel

25. Toy Story
US, 1995, Lasseter

26. Rashomon
Japan, 1951, Kurosawa

27. Wild Strawberries
Sweden, 1957, Bergman

28. To Be or Not to Be
US, 1942, Lubitsch

29. Sunrise
US, 1927, Murnau

30. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
US/New Zealand, 2001-3, Jackson

31. 2001: A Space Odyssey
GB, 1968, Kubrick

32. The Battle of Algiers
Algeria/Italy, 1965, Pontecorvo

33. Alexander Nevsky
USSR, 1938, Eisenstein

34. Belle de Jour
France/Italy, 1967, Buñuel

35. Casablanca
US, 1942, Curtiz

36. GoodFellas
US, 1990, Scorsese

37. Tristana
Spain/Italy/France, 1970, Buñuel

38. The Magnificent Ambersons
US, 1942, Welles

39. Breaking the Waves
Denmark/Sweden/ France/Netherlands, 1996, Von Trier

40. Sullivan’s Travels
US, 1941, Sturges

41. Frankenstein
US, 1931, Whale

42. The Battleship Potemkin
USSR, 1925, Eisenstein

43. Double Indemnity
US, 1944, Wilder

44. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
US, 1975, Forman

45. Weekend
France/Italy, 1968, Godard

46. Jules et Jim
France, 1962, Truffaut

47. À Bout de Souffle
France, 1960, Godard

48. Bonnie and Clyde
US, 1967, Arthur Penn

49. Wings of Desire
France/West Germany, 1987, Wenders

50. Fitzcarraldo
West Germany, 1982, Herzog

51. If . . .
GB, 1968, Anderson

52. The Wild Bunch
US, 1969, Peckinpah

53. The Red Shoes
GB, 1948, Powell, Pressburger

54. Annie Hall
US, 1977, Allen

55. Tom Jones
GB, 1963, Richardson

56. On the Waterfront
US, 1954, Kazan



57. West Side Story
US, 1961, Wise

58. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
GB, 1960, Reisz

59. The Grapes of Wrath
US, 1940, Ford

60. Great Expectations
GB, 1946, Lean

61. The Leopard
US/Italy, 1963, Visconti

62. Schindler’s List
US, 1993, Spielberg

63. Ashes and Diamonds
Poland, 1958, Wajda

64. A Nous la Liberté
France, 1931, Clair

65. Antoine Doinel Tetralogy
France/Italy, 1959-79, Truffaut

66. Mr Smith Goes to Washington
US, 1939, Capra

67. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
France, 1953, Tati

68. Laurel and Hardy Shorts
US, 1928-38, Parrott/Horne/Kennedy/Marshall/French/Blystone

69. Chinatown
US, 1974, Polanski

70. Star Wars Trilogy
US, 1977/80/83, Lucas/Kershner/Marquand

71. Gosford Park
US/GB, 2001, Altman

72. Rear Window
US, 1954, Hitchcock

73. Aguirre, Wrath of God
West Germany, 1972, Herzog

74. A Short Film About Killing
Poland, 1988, Kieslowski

75. M*A*S*H
US, 1970, Altman

76. Viskningar och Rop
Sweden, 1972, Bergman

77. All the President’s Men
US, 1976, Pakula

78. Cabiria
Italy/France, 1957, Fellini

79. King Kong
US, 1933, Cooper

80. Gone with the Wind
US, 1939, Fleming, Cukor, Wood

81. All Quiet on the Western Front
US, 1930, Milestone

82. Fanny and Alexander
Sweden/France/West Germany, 1982, Bergman

83. North by Northwest
US, 1959, Hitchcock

84. The Band Wagon
US, 1953, Minnelli

85. Yojimbo
Japan, 1961, Kurosawa

86. Brief Encounter
GB, 1945, Lean

87. Deliverance
US, 1972, Boorman

88. Fargo
US, 1996, Coen

89. Cabaret
US, 1972, Fosse

90. Once Upon a Time in America
US, 1984, Leone

91. Days of Heaven
US, 1978, Malick

92. The Adventures of Robin Hood
US, 1938, Keighley/Curtiz

93. High Noon
US, 1952, Zinnemann

94. His Girl Friday
US 1940, Hawks

95. Manhattan
US, 1979 Allen

96. Duck Soup
US, 1933, McCarey

97. Henry V
GB, 1944, Olivier

98. This is Spinal Tap
US, 1984, Reiner

99. Bad Day at Black Rock
US, 1955, Sturges

100. The Graduate
US, 1967, Nichols

Raoul Duke

I'm now off to watch Tokyo Story. I've had it for way too long without watching it. I think I'll watch Grapes of Wrath after that. That's one of the good things about these kinds of lists, they make you watch different kinds of films.

sleepwalker

lawrence of arabia at number 3 and west side story at 57 ? jesus christ although the inclusion of bad day at black rock makes up for it possibly the most underrated film of all time


seems like a good list though cheers for posting it up, im big into lists like this cuts out alot of work when looking for good films