Best of the Decade

[DanielBenoit]

Okay, let get some reccomendations and lists going; what do you think are the best five movies of any particular decade?

Here's mine

2000's
1. Werkmeister Harmonies - Bela Tarr
2. City of God - Fernardo Meirelles
3. Chop Shop - Ramin Bahrani
4. Muholland Drive - David Lynch
5. Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermoro del Toro

1990's
1. Pulp Fiction - Quinten Tarantino
2. Satantango - Bela Tarr
3. Fargo - Coen Brothers
4. Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese
5. Schindler's List - Stephen Speilberg

1970's
1. Apocolaypse Now - Francis Ford Coppla
2. Stroszek - Werner Herzog
3. The Godfather Part I and II - Francis Ford Coppla
4. Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
5. Killer of Sheep - Charles Burnett

1960's
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
2. 8 1/2 - Federico Fellini
3. Bonnie and Clyde - Arthur Penn
4. L'Avventura - Michelangelo Antoini
5. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubrick

[NickAdams]

I'm working on my list now and I found it curious that both Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia were released in 1999. It being curious is nothing more than a particular interest in both of the directors and the casting of Tom Cruise (two great performances) and a heavy use of tracking. Magnolia seems as if it could have been made, or released, in 2001 and Eyes Wide Shut recalls 1996, at least for me. I could see Eyes Wide Shut being in theaters with a film like 12 Monkeys. Just a thought.

Okay, let get some reccomendations and lists going; what do you think are the best five movies of any particular decade?

Here's mine

2000's
1. Werkmeister Harmonies - Bela Tarr
2. City of God - Fernardo Meirelles
3. Chop Shop - Ramin Bahrani
4. Muholland Drive - David Lynch
5. Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermoro del Toro

1990's
1. Pulp Fiction - Quinten Tarantino
2. Satantango - Bela Tarr
3. Fargo - Coen Brothers
4. Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese
5. The Thin Red Line - Terrence Malick

1970's
1. Apocolaypse Now - Francis Ford Coppla
2. The Godfather Part I and II - Francis Ford Coppla
3. Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
4. The Mirror - Anrev Tarkovsky
5. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese

1960's
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick
2. 8 1/2 - Federico Fellini
3. Bonnie and Clyde - Arthur Penn
4. L'Avventura - Michelangelo Antoini
5. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubrick

I'll have to check these out.

2000's (in no particular order):

Adaptation - Directed by Spike Jones Written by Charlie Kaufman
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
The Proposition - Directed by John Hillcoat and Written by Nick Cave
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - Directed by Park Chan-wook

[DanielBenoit]

2000's (in no particular order):

Adaptation - Directed by Spike Jones Written by Charlie Kaufman
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
The Proposition - Directed by John Hillcoat and Written by Nick Cave
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - Directed by Park Chan-wook

I love Charlie Kauffman, and yet I still haven't seen Adaption

Songs from the Second Floor looks quite interesting.

I was considering adding Inland Empire, but it just didn't have the emotional intensity that Muholland Drive did for me. Still a brilliant movie though.

Here's my 1950's one:

1. La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini
2. Singing in the Rain - Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
3. Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock
4. Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman
5. Hiroshima Mon Amour - Alain Resnais

1940's
1. Citizen Kane - Orson Welles
1. The Third Man - Carol Reed
3. The Bicycle Theif - Vittorio De Sica
4. Hamlet - Laurence Oliver
5. Casablanca - Michael Curtiz

1980's

1. Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese
2. My Dinner with Andre - Loius Malle
3. Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee
4. Drugstore Cowboy - Gus van Sant
5. Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog

[rimbaud]

Ok, I'm starting with the 90s since I'm a 90s child
so here goes (but I can't really choose just 5 of them, but I'll try to narrow it down)

Pulp Fiction 1994
Fight Club 1999
Reservoir Dogs 1992
Total Eclipse 1995
Scent of a Woman 1992
Casino 1995
Shakespeare in Love 1998
Desperado 1995
Forrest Gump 1994
The Matrix 1999
The Devil's Advocate 1997
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991

I may have missed some

[NickAdams]

2000's (in no particular order):

Adaptation - Directed by Spike Jones Written by Charlie Kaufman
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
The Proposition - Directed by John Hillcoat and Written by Nick Cave
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - Directed by Park Chan-wook

I'm replacing The Proposition with Dogville and Adaptation with The Brown Bunny.

The Brown Bunny - Directed by Vincent Gallo
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
Dogville - Lars von Trier
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - Directed by Park Chan-wook

[DanielBenoit]

The Brown Bunny - Directed by Vincent Gallo

Whenever I think of The Brown Bunny I can't help but think of the war that Ebert and Gallo got into Still a good film though.

[NickAdams]

Whenever I think of The Brown Bunny I can't help but think of the war that Ebert and Gallo got into Still a good film though.

The Brown Bunny is an extraordinary film in that it has two different point of views, one of which can be experienced only once. The first viewing is a first-person (though it seems third-person limited) narrative that, to me, rivals Scorses's Taxi Driver. The scenes seem "indulgent" at times, but the not knowing duplicates the protagonist's denial in the audience. That Brown Bunny can only be viewed once.

The second is a third-person narrative that makes those "indulgent" scenes haunting. Whether it's the race track, highway, or salt plains, those blank moments produce a melancholy.

Ebert said his opinion changed when he saw it a second time, because of the edit, but I wonder if it was because of the emotional context.

I think of the Sixth Sense and other M. Night films and the second viewing is only to confirm that the twist has been hinted at along the way, but Gallo uses context (intentionally or unintentionally) for emotional resonance in a very interesting way.

Goodbye Mr. Vengeance and hello Werckmeister.

2000's:

Werkmeister Harmonies - Directed by Bela Tarr
The Brown Bunny - Directed by Vincent Gallo
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
Dogville - Directed by Lars von Trier

1990's:
Three Colours: Blue - Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Eyes Wide Shut - Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Julien Donkey-Boy - Directed by Harmony Korine
Being John Malkovich - Directed by Spike Jonze
Pulp Fiction - Quinten Tarantino

[DanielBenoit]

Goodbye Mr. Vengeance and hello Werckmeister.

2000's:

Werkmeister Harmonies - Directed by Bela Tarr
The Brown Bunny - Directed by Vincent Gallo
Songs from the Second Floor - Directed by Roy Andersson
Inland Empire - Directed by David Lynch
Dogville - Directed by Lars von Trier

Alas, one down six billion to go. Let's hope the rest of the world is keen of ten minute tracking shots

1990's:
Three Colours: Blue - Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski

Only Blue?

[NickAdams]

Alas, one down six billion to go. Let's hope the rest of the world is keen of ten minute tracking shots

This film is not going to win everybody over. I watched it over a three day period. There is a plot, but it's introduced way into the second act, which I don't mind, but it allows one to take breaks. The last hour I watched strait through, it's impossible to look away. It's funny, because if it was made at a major studio the film would have been turned into a thriller.

Only Blue?

I bought the trilogy three years ago and I've only seen Blue.
If I know a film is going to be emotionally arresting, than I wait for the right mood to watch it.

[DanielBenoit]

It's funny, because if it was made at a major studio the film would have been turned into a thriller.

Exactly! And yet the approach is the exact opposite. Near the end, I felt more lingering dread than what any thriller could provide me. It truly proves the effect of minimalism.

In my opinion, the 70's was the greatest time for film (for American films that is). There were just too many greats. So I'm slightly revising my list to fifteen of the best.

1970's
1.Apocolaypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
2. Stroszeck - Werner Herzog
3. Killer of Sheep - Charles Burrnett
4. The Mirror - Andrev Tarkovsky
5. Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese
6. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick
7. Aguiree, The Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
8. The Godfather Part I and II - Francis Ford Coppola
9. A Women Under the Influence - John Cassavetes
10. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese
11. F for Fake - Orson Welles
12. Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman
13. Eraserhead - David Lynch
14. The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola
15. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick

1930's

1. M. - Fritz Lang
2. It Happened One Night - Frank Capra
3. The Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir
4. L'Atlante - Jean Vigo
5. The 39 Steps - Alfred Hitchcock


1920's and 10's
1. City Lights - Charlie Chaplin
2. The General - Buster Keaton
3. Sunrise - F.W. Muranu
4. Broken Blossoms - D.W. Griffith
5. October - Sergi Eisenstein

[Dinkleberry2010]

1920s and 10s:
1. Birth Of A Nation
2. Intolerance
3. Sunrise
4. City Lights
5. Metropolis

1930s:
1. It Happened One Night
2. Grand Illusion
3. Gone With The Wind
4. The Wizard Of Oz
5. Stagecoach

1940s:
1. Casablanca
2. Citizen Kane
3. How Green Was My Valley
4. The Best Years Of Our Lives
5. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madras

1950s:
1. La Strada
2. Bridge On The River Kwai
3. The African Queen
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. Stalag 17

1960s:
1. Midnight Cowboy
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. In The Heat Of The Night
5. The Graduate

1970s:
1. The Godfather
2. The Godfather II
3. The Deer Hunter
4. Apocalypse Now
5. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1980s:
1. Raging Bull
2. Rain Man
3. The Color Purple
4. A Passage To India
5. Platoon

1990s:
1. Schindler's List
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Forrest Gump
4. The Crying Game
5. Pulp Fiction

[DanielBenoit]

Hey, how about best peformances in cinema? This is my thread so I'll cheat and add that too.

Kay, my list is totally biased, but still my honest opinion:

1. Buster Keaton - The General
2. Charlie Chaplin - City Lights
3. Takashi Shimura - Ikiru
4. Orson Welles - Chimes at Midnight
5. Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
6. Emil Jannings - The Last Laugh
7. Marcello Mastroianni - 8 1/2
8. James Stewart - Vertigo
9. Robert DeNero - Raging Bull
10. James Mason - Lolita
11. Gloria Swanson - Sunset Boulevard
12. Robert Mitchum - The Night of the Hunter
13. Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
14. James Stewart - Harvey
15. Giulietta Masina - Nights of Cabiria
16. Gena Rowlands - A Women Under the Influence
17. Erich von Stroheim - The Grand Illusion
18. Orson Welles - The Third Man
19. Klaus Kinski - Aguirre, The Wrath of God
20. Joseph Cotton - Shadow of a Doubt
21. Ingrid Bergman - Casablanca
22. Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy
23. Robert DeNero - Taxi Driver
24. Lillian Gish - Broken Blossoms
25. Peter Falk - A Women Under the Influence
26. Gunnar Bjornstrand - Winter Light
27. Kathrine Hepburn - Bringing Up Baby
28. Anthony Perkins - Psycho
29. Cary Grant - North by Northwest
30. Liv Ullman - Persona

Note: Non-professional peformances don't count since they are pretty much a different medium than star acting.

[*Classic*Charm*]

My film watching is not anywhere close to as extensive as yours, but my list would definitely include

Anne Baxter in All about Eve

besides a number that are on your list

[Dinkleberry2010]

Best Performances In Cinema:

1. Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms
2. Orson Welles in Citizen Kane
3. Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull
4. Charlie Chaplin in City Lights
5. Buster Keaton in The General
6. Gary Cooper in Sergeant York
7. Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver
8. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard
9. Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird
10. Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove

[Mathor]

My film watching is not anywhere close to as extensive as yours, but my list would definitely include

Anne Baxter in All about Eve

besides a number that are on your list

Don't forget Bette Davis in All About Eve!

. At least as far as the 50s are concerned, I find All About Eve to be my favorite film of the 50's (so I don't need to make a list), and all the actors in it. Also, this year Quentin Tarantino praised Mankiewicz (director of All About Eve) as the greatest film director of this CENTURY. Haha. Nuff said.

Best of 2000's (this is really hard for me to do so don't judge my decisions TOO harshly)
1. Adaptation
2. The Departed
3. Lost In Translation
3. Wall-E
4. City Of God
5. Children Of Men
6. Pride & Prejudice
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
8. The Class
9. The Life Aquatic
10. Amelie
11. The Hurt Locker
12. Rachel Getting Married

I probably left a lot out, but these are the ones that come to mind.