Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Top Ranked Film of Each Year


if Critics gave Best Picture.. and not Hollywood

I'll have to admit that I prefer most of the top ranked films, and some of the Oscar® winners, but overall the test of time has seemingly allowed the cream to rise to the top, especially in the early years with classics such as Sunrise, Man With the Movie Camera, M, Trouble in Paradise, and King Kong.

..[ Year ].. Film (rank in the top 1000) - Director
- [1919] - Broken Blossoms #147 - Griffith, D.W.
- [1921] - Kid, The #228 - Chaplin, Charles
- [1922] - Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens #48 - Murnau, F.W.
- [1923] - Our Hospitality #568 - Keaton, Buster/John Blystone
- [1924] - Greed #79 - von Stroheim, Erich
- [1925] - Gold Rush, The #39 - Chaplin, Charles
- [1926] - Faust #585 - Murnau, F.W.
- [1927] - Metropolis #23 - Lang, Fritz

- [1928] - Sunrise #38 - Murnau, F.W.
Best Picture: Wings

- [ 1929 ] - Man With a Movie Camera, The #78 - Vertov, Dziga
(photo rt)
Best Picture: Broadway Melody

- [ 1930 ] - All Quiet on the Western Front #164 - Milestone, Lewis
Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front

- [ 1931 ] - M #11 - Lang, Fritz
Best Picture: Cimarron

- [ 1932 ] - Trouble in Paradise #234 - Lubitsch, Ernst
Best Picture: Grand Hotel

- [ 1933 ] - King Kong #40 - Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack
Best Picture: Cavalcade

- [ 1934 ] - L'Atalante #49 - Vigo, Jean
Best Picture: It Happened One Night

- [ 1935 ] - Bride of Frankenstein #140 - Whale, James
Best Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty

- [ 1936 ] - Modern Times #36 - Chaplin, Charles
Best Picture: The Great Ziegfeld

- [ 1937 ] - Grande Illusion, La #198 - Renoir, Jean
Best Picture: The Life of Emile Zola

- [ 1938 ] - Bringing Up Baby #118 - Hawks, Howard
Best Picture: You Can't Take It With You

- [ 1939 ] - Wizard of Oz, The #18 - Fleming, Victor
Best Picture: Gone With the Wind

- [ 1940 ] - Grapes of Wrath, The #95 - Ford, John
Best Picture: Rebecca

- [ 1941 ] - Citizen Kane #5 - Welles, Orson
Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley

- [ 1942 ] - Casablanca #47 - Curtiz, Michael
Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver

- [ 1943 ] - Shadow of a Doubt #104 - Hitchcock, Alfred
Best Picture: Casablanca (released in 42, Oscar awarded for 43)

- [ 1944 ] - Double Indemnity #56 - Wilder, Billy
Best Picture: Going My Way

- [ 1945 ] - Brief Encounter #127 - Lean, David
Best Picture: The Lost Weekend

- [ 1946 ] - It's a Wonderful Life #10 - Capra, Frank
Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives

- [ 1947 ] - Out of the Past #236 - Tourneur, Jacques
Best Picture: Gentlemen's Agreement

- [ 1948 ] - Third Man, The #15 - Reed, Carol
Best Picture: Hamlet

- [ 1949 ] - Bicycle Thief, The #16 - De Sica, Vittorio
Best Picture: All the King's Men

- [ 1950 ] - Sunset Boulevard #14 - Wilder, Billy
Best Picture: All About Eve

- [ 1951 ] - Strangers on a Train #121 - Hitchcock, Alfred
Best Picture: An American in Paris

- [ 1952 ] - Singin' in the Rain #26 - Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly
Best Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth

- [ 1953 ] - Tokyo Story #57 - Ozu, Yasujiro
Best Picture: From Here to Eternity

- [ 1954 ] - Seven Samurai, The #7 - Kurosawa, Akira
Best Picture: On the Waterfront

- [ 1955 ] - Pather Panchali / Apu Trilogy I #32 - Ray, Satyajit
Best Picture: Marty


- [ 1956 ] - Seventh Seal, The #29 - Bergman, Ingmar

Best Picture: Around the World in 80 Days

- [ 1957 ] - Paths of Glory #83 - Kubrick, Stanley

Best Picture: Bridge on the River Kwai, The


- [ 1958 ] - Vertigo #6 - Hitchcock, Alfred
Best Picture: Gigi

- [ 1959 ] - North by Northwest #19 - Hitchcock, Alfred
Best Picture: Ben-Hur

- [ 1960 ] -Psycho #8 - Hitchcock, Alfred
Best Picture: The Apartment

- [ 1961 ] -Jules et Jim #59 - Truffaut, François
Best Picture: West Side Story

- [ 1962 ] -Manchurian Candidate, The #43 - Frankenheimer, John
Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia

- [ 1963 ] -8½ #37 - Fellini, Federico
Best Picture: Tom Jones

- [ 1964 ] -Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb #17 - Kubrick, Stanley
Best Picture: My Fair Lady

- [ 1965 ] -Pierrot le fou #129 - Godard, Jean-Luc
Best Picture: Sound of Music, The

- [ 1966 ] -Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The #73 - Leone, Sergio
Best Picture: A Man for All Seasons

- [ 1967 ] -Bonnie and Clyde #105 - Penn, Arthur
Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night

- [ 1968 ] -2001: A Space Odyssey #2 - Kubrick, Stanley
(photo top)
Best Picture: Oliver!

- [ 1969 ] -Wild Bunch, The #87 - Peckinpah, Sam
Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy

- [ 1970 ] -Conformist, The #76 - Bertolucci, Bernardo
Best Picture: Patton

- [ 1971 ] -Clockwork Orange, A #69 - Kubrick, Stanley
Best Picture: French Connection, The

- [ 1972 ] -Godfather, The #1 - Coppola, Francis
Best Picture: Godfather, The

- [ 1973 ] -Mean Streets #142 - Scorsese, Martin
Best Picture: Sting, The

- [ 1974 ] -Chinatown #3 - Polanski, Roman
Best Picture: Godfather: Part II, The

- [ 1975 ] -One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #54 - Forman, Milos
Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

- [ 1976 ] -Taxi Driver #12 - Scorsese, Martin
Best Picture: Rocky

- [ 1977 ] -Annie Hall #77 - Allen, Woody
Best Picture: Annie Hall

- [ 1978 ] -Star Wars #4 - Lucas, George
Best Picture: Deer Hunter, The

- [ 1979 ] -Apocalypse Now #25 - Coppola, Francis
Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer

- [ 1980 ] -Raging Bull #24 - Scorsese, Martin
Best Picture: Ordinary People

- [ 1981 ] -Raiders of the Lost Ark #34 - Spielberg, Steven
Best Picture: Chariots of Fire

- [ 1982 ] -Blade Runner #13 - Scott, Ridley
Best Picture: Gandhi

- [ 1983 ] -Argent, L' #437 - Bresson, Robert
Best Picture: Terms of Endearment

- [ 1984 ] -Amadeus #63 - Forman, Milos
Best Picture: Amadeus

- [ 1985 ] -Ran #86 - Kurosawa, Akira
Best Picture: Out of Africa

- [ 1986 ] -Aliens #159 - Cameron, James
Best Picture: Platoon

- [ 1987 ] -Full Metal Jacket #206 - Kubrick, Stanley
Best Picture: The Last Emperor

- [ 1988 ] -Cinema Paradiso #158 - Tornatore, Giuseppe
Best Picture: Rain Man

- [ 1989 ] -Do The Right Thing #112 - Lee, Spike
Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy

- [ 1990 ] -Goodfellas #31 - Scorsese, Martin
Best Picture: Dances With Wolves

- [ 1991 ] -Silence of the Lambs, The #90 - Demme, Jonathan
Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs

- [ 1992 ] -Unforgiven #91 - Eastwood, Clint
Best Picture: Unforgiven

- [ 1993 ] -Schindler's List #27 - Spielberg, Steven
Best Picture: Schindler's List

- [ 1994 ] -Shawshank Redemption, The #155 - Darabont, Frank
Best Picture: Forrest Gump

- [ 1995 ] -Pulp Fiction #20 - Tarantino, Quentin
Best Picture: Braveheart

- [ 1996 ] -Fargo #61 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Picture: English Patient, The

- [ 1997 ] -L.A. Confidential #45 - Hanson, Curtis
Best Picture: Titanic

- [ 1998 ] -Saving Private Ryan #116 - Spielberg, Steven
Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love

- [ 1999 ] -American Beauty #139 - Mendes, Sam
Best Picture: American Beauty

- [ 2000 ] -Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon #152 - Lee, Ang
Best Picture: Gladiator

- [ 2001 ] -Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The #84 - Jackson, Peter
Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind

- [ 2002 ] -Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The #144 - Jackson, Peter
Best Picture: Chicago

- [ 2003 ] -Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The #97 - Jackson, Peter
Best Picture: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The

- [ 2004 ] -Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind #225 - Gondry, Michael
Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby

- [ 2005 ] -Brokeback Mountain #451 - Lee, Ang
Best Picture: Crash

- [ 2006 ] -Pan's Labyrinth #154 - del Toro, Guillermo
Best Picture: The Departed

- [ 2007 ] -No Country for Old Men #165 - Coen Ethan and Joel
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

- [ 2008 ] -WALL-E #181 - Stanton, Andrew
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire


The observant will note only 12 matches above:
All Quiet on the Western Front, Casablanca (*listed in 2 separate years), The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, Annie Hall, Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, American Beauty, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, No Country for Old Men




Max von Sydow plays chess with Death in Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal (1956)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Top Ranked Films by Year: the 2000s

The top-ranked films of the 2000's
(with 2009 to add)
© 2009, William L. Sinclair
[Photo rt from the Oscar®-winning German film, The Lives of Others]

This continues our series of top-ranked films by year, based on the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net that we compiled.
Total Ranked Films in the 2000's: 129, with one year to go (with 23 ranked 900 or lower, some will undoubtably drop out of the rankings)

- [ 2000 ] -
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon #152 - Lee, Ang (photo rt)
2. Yi yi #221 - Yang, Edward
3. Memento #355 - Nolan, Christopher
4. Gladiator #388 - Scott, Ridley
5. Requiem for a Dream #459 - Aronofsky, Darren
6. Amores perros #488 - Inarritu, Alejandro Gonzalez
7. Snatch #606 - Ritchie, Guy
8. Werckmeister Harmonies #613 - Tarr, Bela & Hranitzky, Agnes
9. Almost Famous #676 - Crowe, Cameron
10. Chicken Run #784 - Park, Nick & Lord, Peter
11. Traffic #802 - Soderbergh, Steve
12. Under the Sand #919 - Ozon, Francois
13. Before Night Falls #954 - Schnabel, Julian
14. You Can Count On Me #960 - Lonergan, Kenneth
15. Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, The #977 - Butler, George
Best Picture: Gladiator

- [ 2001 ] -
1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The #84 - Jackson, Peter
2. Donnie Darko #226 - Kelly, Richard
3. Spirited Away #255 - Miyazaki, Hayao
4. In the Mood for Love #268 - Wong Kar-Wai
5. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le #431 - Jeunet, Jean-Pierre
6. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (anime) #450 - Miyazaki, Hayao
7. Y Tu Mamá También #467 - Cuarón, Alfonso
8. Mulholland Dr. #475 - Lynch, David
9. Fast Runner, The #619 - Kunuk, Zacharias
10. Gosford Park #683 - Altman, Robert
11. Ghost World #754 - Zwigoff, Terry
12. Time Out #771 - Cantet, Laurent
13. I'm Going Home #888 - de Oliveira, Manoel
14. In the Bedroom #892 - Field, Todd
15. Children Underground #968 - Belzberg, Edet
Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind

- [ 2002 ] -
1. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The #144 - Jackson, Peter
2. City of God #191 - Meirelles, Fernando (photo rt)
3. Pianist, The #199 - Polanski, Roman
4. Talk to Her #499 - Almodóvar, Pedro
5. Bloody Sunday #658 - Greengrass, Paul
6. Marooned in Iraq #852 - Ghobadi, Bahman
7. To Be and to Have #877 - Philibert, Nicolas
8. Ten #895 - Kiarostami, Abbas
9. Russian Ark #905 - Sokurov, Aleksandr
10. Son, The (Le Fils) #932 - Dardenne, Jean-Pierre & Luc
11. Sweet Sixteen #935 - Loach, Ken
12. About Schmidt #1009 - Payne, Alexander
Best Picture: Chicago

- [ 2003 ] -
1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The #97 - Jackson, Peter
2. Finding Nemo #294 - Stanton, Andrew & Unkrich, Lee
3. Oldboy #371 - Park Chan-Wook
4. Lost in Translation #389 - Coppola, Sofia
5. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 #579 - Tarantino, Quentin
6. Mystic River #612 - Eastwood, Clint
7. Triplets of Belleville, The #625 - Chomet, Sylvain
8. American Splendor #680 - Berman, Shari, and Pulcini, Robert
9. Capturing the Friedmans #690 - Jarecki, Andrew
10. Best of Youth, The #700 - Giordana, Marco Tullio
11. Big Fish #773 - Burton, Tim
12. Fog of War, The #812 - Morris, Errol
13. Tarnation #839 - Caouette, Jonathan
14. Los Angeles Plays Itself #983 - Andersen, Thom
15. Festival Express #994 - Smeaton & Cvitanovich
16. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring #998 - Ki-duk Kim
Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

- [ 2004 ] -
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind #225 - Gondry, Michael (photo rt)
2. Million Dollar Baby #261 - Eastwood, Clint
3. Incredibles, The #296 - Bird, Brad
4. Sideways #353 - Payne, Alexander
5. Downfall #482 - Hirschbiegel, Oliver
6. Hotel Rwanda #514 - George, Terry
7. Moolaadé #616 - Sembene, Ousmane
8. Before Sunset #668 - Linklater, Richard
9. House of Flying Daggers #710 - Yimou Zhang
10. Crash #751 - Haggis, Paul
11. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 #765 - Tarantino, Quentin
12. Nobody Knows #795 - Koreeda, Hirokazu
13. Maria Full of Grace #824 - Marston, Joshua
14. Turtles Can Fly #989 - Ghobadi, Bahman
Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby

- [ 2005 ] -
1. Brokeback Mountain #451 - Lee, Ang
2. Sin City #502 - Rodgriguez, Robert
3. Batman Begins #517 - Nolan, Christopher
4. V for Vendetta #643 - McTeigue, James
5. Capote #761 - Miller, Bennett
6. L'Enfant (The Child) #798 - Dardenne, Jean-Pierre & Luc
7. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit #819 - Park, Nick & Box, Steve
8. Fateless #828 - Koltai, Lajos
9. Murderball #842 - Rubin, Henry Alex & Shapiro, Dana Adam
10. Grizzly Man #844 - Herzog, Werner
11. Street Fight #1007 - Curry, Marshall
Best Picture: Crash

- [ 2006 ] -
1. Pan's Labyrinth #154 - del Toro, Guillermo
2. Lives of Others, The #162 - von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel (photo top)
(AA and BAFTA for foreign language film)
3. Letters from Iwo Jima #335 - Eastwood, Clint
4. Children of Men #455 - Merielles, Ferdinand
5. Queen, The #479 - Frears, Stephen
6. Prestige, The #484 - Nolan, Christopher
7. United 93 #686 - Greengrass, Paul
8. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan #713 - Charles, Larry
9. Once #745 - Carney, John
10. Away from Her #775 - Polley, Sarah
11. Little Miss Sunshine #786 - Dayton, Jonathan & Faris, Valerie
12. Deliver Us from Evil #909 - Berg, Amy
13. This Is England #928 - Meadows, Shane
14. Offside #980 - Panahi, Jafar
15. Half Nelson #1003 - Fleck, Ryan
Best Picture: The Departed

- [ 2007 ] -
1. No Country for Old Men #165 - Coen Ethan and Joel
2. There Will Be Blood #180 - Anderson, Paul Thomas
3. Ratatouille #239 - Bird, Brad & Pinkava, Jan
4. Departed, The #288 - Scorsese, Martin
5. Bourne Ultimatum, The #363 - Greengrass, Paul
6. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days #425 - Mungiu, Cristian
7. Into the Wild #588 - Penn, Sean
8. Persepolis #694 - Paronnaud, Vincent & Satrapi, Marjane
9. No End in Sight #731 - Ferguson, Charles
10. Flight of the Red Balloon, The #950 - Hsiao-hsien Hou
11. Edge of Heaven, The #971 - Akin, Fatih
12. Savages, The #975 - Jenkins, Tamara
13. Knocked Up #987 - Apatow, Judd
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

- [ 2008 ] -
1. WALL-E #181 - Stanton, Andrew
2. Slumdog Millionaire #232 - Boyle, Danny
3. Dark Knight, The #391 - Nolan, Christopher
4. Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The #439 - Schnabel, Julian
5. Gran Torino #472 - Eastwood, Clint
6. Wrestler, The #507 - Aronofsky, Darren
7. Class, The #597 - Cantet, Laurent
8. Waltz with Bashir #634 - Folman, Ari
9. Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The #667 - Fincher, David
10. Let the Right One In #679 - Alfredson, Tomas
11. In Bruges #708 - McDonagh, Martin
12. Man on Wire #712 - Marsh, James
13. Goodbye Solo #716 - Bahrani, Ramin
14. Hurt Locker, The #724 - Bigelow, Kathryn
15. Changeling #739 - Eastwood, Clint
16. Tulpan #759 - Dvortsevoy, Sergei
17. Gomorra #809 - Garrone, Matteo
18. Seraphine #900 - Provost, Martin
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Top Ranked for the Decade (with 2009 remaining to add)
1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The #84 - Jackson, Peter
2. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The #97 - Jackson, Peter
3. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The #144 - Jackson, Peter
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon #152 - Lee, Ang
5. Pan's Labyrinth #154 - del Toro, Guillermo
6. Lives of Others, The #162 - von Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel
7. No Country for Old Men #165 - Coen Ethan and Joel
8. There Will Be Blood #180 - Anderson, Paul Thomas
9. WALL-E #181 - Stanton, Andrew
10. City of God #191 - Meirelles, Fernando
11. Pianist, The #199 - Polanski, Roman

Unranked best pictures: A Beautiful Mind, Chicago

My Favorites
1-Hero (China), 2-City of God (Brazil), 3-The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, 4-WALL-E, 5-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China), 6-Open Range, 7-Memento, 8-Requiem for a Dream (photo btm), 9-Traffic, 10-The Lives of Others (Germany), 11-Chicago, 12-Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, 13-Slumdog Millionaire, 14-Million Dollar Baby, 15-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 16-V for Vendetta, 17-In Bruges, 18-The Departed, 19-Nowhere in Africa (Germany), 20-Big Fish, 21-No Country for Old Men, 22-Finding Nemo, 23-A Wednesday (India), 24-Mystic River, 25-The Prestige and A Beautiful Mind (someone has to mention that, an unranked best picture winner. I also find it ludicrous that Yimou's Hero is unranked, top-grossing Chinese film in history, deservedly; in fact 2 of our 3 banner photos are from that, the bamboo one is House of Flying Daggers)


Jennifer Connelly and Jered Leto, in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Friday, July 17, 2009

Failed Westerns


This was a humor topic at Twitter, and these are the best ones - the idea is fictitious titles that didn't make it.. not real failed ones (some are posting Cat Ballou and Paint Your Wagon!) ..a more accurate title for this subject might have been "Rejected Titles"

These were the best ones to me, out of literally thousands:

Tracy Ullman's "Seven Brides for Every Brother", a polygamist musical (from her TV show, hilarious; it starred Paulie from the Sopranos, or Tracy playing Tony Sirico!)
Remember the A La Mode (this was mine)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Film Festival
Gunfight at the Golden Corral
Dances with a Fistful of Dollars
Bring Me the Head of Linguine Alfredo
Oklahomophobia
Pushing and Shoving at the O.K. Corral
A Fistful of Dy-no-mite (a comedy)
How the West was Fun
McCain and Mrs. Miller (photo top?)
McCabe and Dennis Miller
McCabe and Phyllis Diller
1901: A Stagecoach Odyssey
The Decidedly Average Six
My Relatively Sufficient Clementine
The Man Who Accidently Jostled Liberty Valance
Half-Past High Noon
She Wore a Yellow Cardigan
The Yodeling Contest at the O.K. Corral
The Good, the Bad, and Those Only a Mother Could Love
The Good, the Decent, and the Mildly Attractive
How the West Got Its Groove Back
The In-Law Josie Wales
Dances With the Stars
Taco Bravo
Little House in Foreclosure
Turban Cowboy ("not a western but you gotta love it anyway")
Butch Casually and Some Dunce Kid (from Mad Magazine)
Fistfight at the OK Bar and Grill
3:10 to Yuma With a Layover in Flagstaff
$3.10 to Yuma
3:10 to Yomama
Plain High Drifter (Mad mag?)
The Treasure of the Sierra Leone (The Treasure of Sergio Leone, maybe better?)
The Sons of Katie Couric
She Wore a Pabst Blue Ribbon
Tint Your Wagon (also Pimp My Wagon)
The Loan Arranger

Thursday, July 16, 2009

2009 Emmy Nominations Released

Today, the 2009 Emmy nominations were released. You can download the complete list from the official site here:
2009 Emmy Nominations

Note: the terrific HBO series The Alzheimer's Project garnered some nominations, with The Memory Loss Tapes up for "Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Programming" - kudos to the whole crew this valuable special series.

"As always, no wagering!" - José

ps - for the origin of the Emmy name and design of the trophy, the best design of any award given imo (it combines art and science), see the official TV Academy story here

Monday, July 13, 2009

Top Ranked Films by Year: the 90s


The top-ranked films of the 90's
© 2009, William L. Sinclair

This continues our series of top-ranked films by year, based on the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net that we compiled.
Total Ranked Films in the 90's: 110

- [ 1990 ] -
1. Goodfellas #31 - Scorsese, Martin (photo rt)
2. Close-Up #189 - Kiarostami, Abbas
3. Reversal of Fortune #587 - Schroeder, Barbet
4. Angel at My Table, An #738 - Campion, Jane
5. Edward Scissorhands #843 - Burton, Tim
6. Grifters, The #922 - Frears, Stephen
7. Ju Dou #963 - Zhang Yimou
8. Miller's Crossing #999 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Picture: Dances With Wolves

- [ 1991 ] -
1. Silence of the Lambs, The #90 - Demme, Jonathan (photo rt)
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day #194 - Cameron, James
3. Reservoir Dogs #200 - Tarantino, Quentin
4. Thelma & Louise #207 - Scott, Ridley
5. Raise the Red Lantern #299 - Zhang Yimou
6. Double Life of Veronique, The #412 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
7. JFK #689 - Stone, Oliver
8. And Life Goes On #699 - Kiarostami, Abbas
9. Brighter Summer Day, A #722 - Yang, Edward
10. Barton Fink #735 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen
11. Van Gogh #769 - Pialat, Maurice
12. La Belle Noiseuse #783 - Rivette, Jacques
13. Amants du Pont-Neuf, Les #856 - Carax, Lèos
14. Europa #937 - von Trier, Lars
15. Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film #947 - Workman, Chuck
Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs

- [ 1992 ] -
1. Unforgiven #91 - Eastwood, Clint (photo rt)
2. Player, The #334 - Altman, Robert
3. Crying Game, The #408 - Jordan, Neil
4. Howards End #816 - Ivory, James
5. Orlando #915 - Potter, Sally
6. Coeur en hiver, Un #1002 - Sautet, Claude
Best Picture: Unforgiven

- [ 1993 ] -
1. Schindler's List #27 - Spielberg, Steven (photo top)
2. Piano, The #81 - Campion, Jane
3. Groundhog Day #182 - Ramis, Harold
4. Farewell, My Concubine #452 - Chen Kaige
5. Age of Innocence, The #632 - Scorsese, Martin
6. Three Colours: Blue #655 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
7. Puppetmaster, The #821 - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
8. Short Cuts #846 - Altman, Robert
9. Naked #876 - Leigh, Mike
10. Fugitive, The #942 - Davis, Andrew
11. Dazed and Confused #988 - Linklater, Richard
Best Picture: Schindler's List

- [ 1994 ] -
1. Shawshank Redemption, The #155 - Darabont, Frank (photo rt)
2. Forrest Gump #205 - Zemeckis, Robert
3. Léon (The Professional) #416 - Besson, Luc
4. Chungking Express #533 - Wong Kar-Wai
5. Sátántangó #547 - Tarr, Béla
6. Crumb #610 - Zwigoff, Terry
7. Lion King, The #631 - Allers, Roger & Minkoff, Robert
8. Three Colours: Red #657 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
9. Ed Wood #723 - Burton, Tim
10. Through the Olive Trees #740 - Kiarostami, Abbas
11. Little Women #801 - Armstrong, Gillian
12. Quiz Show #814 - Redford, Robert
13. Three Colours: White #965 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
Best Picture: Forrest Gump

- [ 1995 ] -
1. Pulp Fiction #20 - Tarantino, Quentin (photo rt)
2. Toy Story #82 - Lasseter, John
3. Casino #115 - Scorsese, Martin
4. Usual Suspects, The #169 - Singer, Bryan
5. Heat #227 - Mann, Michael
6. Trainspotting #354 - Boyle, Danny
7. Se7en #414 - Fincher, David
8. Braveheart #508 - Gibson, Mel
9. Dead Man #637 - Jarmusch, Jim
10. Twelve Monkeys #670 - Gilliam, Terry
11. Underground #758 - Kusturica, Emir
12. To Die For #858 - Van Sant, Gus
13. Safe #889 - Haynes, Todd
Best Picture: Braveheart

- [ 1996 ] -
1. Fargo #61 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen (photo rt)
2. Secrets & Lies #377 - Leigh, Mike
3. Breaking the Waves #445 - von Trier, Lars
4. English Patient, The #501 - Minghella, Anthony
5. Shine #574 - Hicks, Scott
6. Moment of Innocence, A #607 - Makhmalbaf, Mohsen
7. Crash #993 - Cronenberg, David
Best Picture: English Patient, The

- [ 1997 ] -
1. L.A. Confidential #45 - Hanson, Curtis (photo rt)
2. Sweet Hereafter, The #315 - Egoyan, Atom
3. Boogie Nights #344 - Anderson, Paul Thomas
4. Life is Beautiful #493 - Begnini, Roberto
5. Taste of Cherry, A #506 - Kiarostami, Abbas
6. Mononoke-hime (anime) #555 - Miyazaki, Hayao
7. 4 Little Girls #706 - Lee, Spike
8. Good Will Hunting #794 - Van Sant, Gus
9. Hana-Bi #823 - Kitano, Takeshi
10. Titanic #878 - Cameron, James
11. Histoire(s) du cinéma #938 - Godard, Jean-Luc
Best Picture: Titanic

- [ 1998 ] -
1. Saving Private Ryan #116 - Spielberg, Steven (photo rt)
2. Big Lebowski, The #378 - Coen, Ethan and Joel
3. Beau Travail #395 - Denis, Claire
4. American History X #423 - Kaye, Tony
5. Rushmore #539 - Anderson, Wes
6. Shakespeare in Love #563 - Madden, John
7. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels #672 - Ritchie, Guy
8. Truman Show, The #688 - Weir, Peter
9. Thin Red Line, The #780 - Malick, Terrence
10. 42 Up #865 - Apted, Michael
11. Happiness #869 - Solondz, Todd
12. Flowers of Shanghai #902 - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love

- [ 1999 ] -
1. American Beauty #139 - Mendes, Sam
2. Matrix, The #224 - Wachowski, Andy & Larry Wachowski (photo rt)
3. Fight Club #271 - Fincher, David
4. All About My Mother #284 - Almodóvar, Pedro
5. Being John Malkovich #402 - Jonze, Spike
6. Wind Will Carry Us, The #511 - Kiarostami, Abbas
7. Green Mile, The #529 - Darabont, Frank
8. Magnolia #576 - Anderson, Paul Thomas
9. Sixth Sense, The #577 - Shyamalan, M. Knight
10. My Voyage to Italy #652 - Scorsese, Martin
11. Topsy-Turvy #662 - Leigh, Mike
12. Straight Story, The #746 - Lynch, David
13. Toy Story 2 #792 - Lasseter, John & Brannon, Ash
14. Boys Don't Cry #881 - Pierce, Kimberly
Best Picture: American Beauty

Top Ranked for the Decade
1. Pulp Fiction #20 - Tarantino, Quentin
2. Schindler's List #27 - Spielberg, Steven
3. Goodfellas #31 - Scorsese, Martin
4. L.A. Confidential #45 - Hanson, Curtis
5. Fargo #61 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen
6. Piano, The #81 - Campion, Jane
7. Toy Story #82 - Lasseter, John
8. Silence of the Lambs, The #90 - Demme, Jonathan
9. Unforgiven #91 - Eastwood, Clint
10. Casino #115 - Scorsese, Martin
11. Saving Private Ryan #116 - Spielberg, Steven
12. American Beauty #139 - Mendes, Sam
13. Shawshank Redemption, The #155 - Darabont, Frank
14. Usual Suspects, The #169 - Singer, Bryan
15. Groundhog Day #182 - Ramis, Harold

Unranked Best Pictures: Dances With Wolves (are you kidding, with Titanic getting ranked, albeit 878th)

My Favorites
1- Shawshank Redemption, 2-Shakespeare in Love, 3-Silence of the Lambs, 4-Schindler’s List, 5-Groundhog Day, 6-The Player, 7-Dances With Wolves, 8-Goodfellas, 9-Chungking Express, 10-The Grifters, 11-Fargo, 12-American History X, 13-Terminator 2, 14-Pulp Fiction, 15-L.A. Confidential, 16-JFK, 17-The Sweet Hereafter, 18-Toy Story, 19-Saving Private Ryan, 20-The Matrix, 21-Being John Malkovich, 22-Usual Suspects, 23-Unforgiven, 24-Fight Club, 25-12 Monkeys

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Top Ranked Films by Year: the 80s


The top-ranked films of the 80's
© 2009, William L. Sinclair

This continues our series of top-ranked films by year, based on the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net that we compiled.
Total Ranked Films in the 80's: 109

- [ 1980 ] -
1. Raging Bull #24 - Scorsese, Martin (photo rt)
2. Shining, The #109 - Kubrick, Stanley
3. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back #126 - Lucas, George
4. Elephant Man, The #193 - Lynch, David
5. Berlin Alexanderplatz #196 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
6. Atlantic City #489 - Malle, Louis
7. Superman II #556 - Lester, Richard
8. Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) #717 - Godard, Jean-Luc
9. Kagemusha #756 - Kurosawa, Akira
10. Heaven's Gate #815 - Cimino, Michael
11. Mon oncle d'Amérique #818 - Resnais, Alain
12. Bad Timing #885 - Roeg, Nicolas
Best Picture: Ordinary People

- [ 1981 ] -
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark #34 - Spielberg, Steven
2. Das Bööt #243 - Peterson, Wolfgang
3. Reds #424 - Beatty, Warren (Directing Oscar, photo rt)
4. Mad Max 2 #590 - Miller, George
5. Blow Out #646 - De Palma, Brian
6. Woman Next Door, The #913 - Truffaut, François
7. Gregory's Girl #914 - Forsyth, Bill
8. Chariots of Fire #933 - Hudson, Hugh
9. Mephisto #1005 - Szabó, István
Best Picture: Chariots of Fire

- [ 1982 ] -
1. Blade Runner #13 - Scott, Ridley (photo top)
2. Fanny and Alexander #195 - Bergman, Ingmar
3. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial #204 - Spielberg, Steven
4. Scarface #210 - De Palma, Brian
5. Tootsie #212 - Pollack, Sydney
6. Gandhi #282 - Attenborough, Richard
7. Diner #342 - Levinson, Barry
8. King of Comedy, The #368 - Scorsese, Martin
9. Fitzcarraldo #565 - Herzog, Werner
10. Thing, The #639 - Carpenter, John
11. Passion #704 - Godard, Jean-Luc
12. Night of the Shooting Stars, The #806 - Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
13. Verdict, The #853 - Lumet, Sidney
Best Picture: Gandhi

- [ 1983 ] -
1. Argent, L' #437 - Bresson, Robert
2. Sans soleil #462 - Marker, Chris
3. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi #531 - Marquand, Richard
4. Local Hero #535 - Forsyth, Bill
5. Right Stuff, The #550 - Kaufman, Philip
6. Nostalghia #623 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
7. Videodrome #705 - Cronenberg, David
8. Zelig #864 - Allen, Woody
9. Sugar Cane Alley (Rue case negres) #899 - Palcy, Euzhan
Best Picture: Terms of Endearment

- [ 1984 ] -
1. Amadeus #63 - Forman, Milos
2. Once Upon a Time in America #161 - Leone, Sergio (photo rt)
3. Terminator, The #186 - Cameron, James
4. Paris, Texas #383 - Wenders, Wim
5. This is Spinal Tap #469 - Reiner, Rob
6. Love Streams #617 - Cassavetes, John
7. Stranger Than Paradise #627 - Jarmusch, Jim
8. Stop Making Sense #734 - Demme, Jonathan
9. Heimat (Homeland) #827 - Reitz, Edgar
10. Yellow Earth #859 - Chen Kaige
Best Picture: Amadeus

- [ 1985 ] -
1. Ran #86 - Kurosawa, Akira
2. Shoah #119 - Lanzmann, Claude
3. Back to the Future #175 - Zemeckis, Robert
4. Brazil #188 - Gilliam, Terry (photo rt)
5. Time to Live and the Time to Die, The #500 - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
6. Come and See #558 - Klimov, Elem
7. My Life as a Dog #620 - Hallström, Lasse
8. After Hours #641 - Scorsese, Martin
9. Vagabond (Santoit ni loi) #896 - Varda, Agnès
10. Witness #912 - Weir, Peter
11. Purple Rose of Cairo, The #969 - Allen, Woody
Best Picture: Out of Africa

- [ 1986 ] -
1. Aliens #159 - Cameron, James (photo rt)
2. Blue Velvet #229 - Lynch, David
3. Hannah and Her Sisters #252 - Allen, Woody
4. Platoon #390 - Stone, Oliver
5. Sacrifice, The #586 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
6. Stand by Me #621 - Reiner, Rob
7. Ferris Bueller's Day Off #766 - Hughes, John
8. Down by Law #936 - Jarmusch, Jim
Best Picture: Platoon

- [ 1987 ] -
1. Full Metal Jacket #206 - Kubrick, Stanley
2. Wings of Desire #245 - Wenders, Wim
3. Princess Bride, The #372 - Reiner, Rob
4. Dead, The #457 - Huston, John
5. Evil Dead II #640 - Raimi, Sam
6. Where is the Friend's Home? #702 - Kiarostami, Abbas
7. Raising Arizona #817 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen
8. Law of Desire #893 - Almodóvar, Pedro
9. Red Sorghum #926 - Zhang Yimou
10. Yeelen #949 - Cissé, Souleymane
Best Picture: The Last Emperor

- [ 1988 ] -
1. Cinema Paradiso #158 - Tornatore, Giuseppe
2. Dekalog #235 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
3. Die Hard #241 - McTiernan, John
4. Landscape in the Mist #317 - Angelopoulos, Theo
5. Hotaru no Hakaa (Grave of the Fireflies, anime) #320 - Takahata, Isao
6. Dead Ringers #350 - Cronenberg, David
7. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown #460 - Almodóvar, Pedro
8. My Neighbour Totoro #591 - Miyazaki, Hayao
9. Distant Voices, Still Lives #648 - Davies, Terence
10. Hôtel Terminus #760 - Ophüls, Marcel
11. Time of the Gypsies #770 - Kusturica, Emir
12. Dangerous Liaisons #805 - Frears, Stephen
13. Midnight Run #831 - Brest, Martin
14. Short Film About Killing, A #849 - Kieslowski, Krszystof
15. Last Temptation of Christ, The #917 - Scorsese, Martin
16. Fish Called Wanda, A #978 - Crichton, Charles
17. Thin Blue Line, The #985 - Morris, Errol
Best Picture: Rain Man

- [ 1989 ] -
1. Do The Right Thing #112 - Lee, Spike
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors #365 - Allen, Woody
3. City of Sadness, A #509 - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade #519 - Spielberg, Steven
5. When Harry Met Sally #653 - Reiner, Rob (photo rt)
6. sex, lies, and videotape #665 - Soderberg, Steve
7. Killer, The #709 - Woo, John
8. Glory #789 - Zwick, Edward
9. Dead Poets Society #830 - Weir, Peter
10. Say Anything… #870 - Crowe, Cameron
Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
[Note: Where the heck is Drugstore Cowboy?]

Top Ranked of the Decade
(These are the fewest top 100 films for any decade)
1. Blade Runner #13 - Scott, Ridley
2. Raging Bull #24 - Scorsese, Martin
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark #34 - Spielberg, Steven
4. Amadeus #63 - Forman, Milos
5. Ran #86 - Kurosawa, Akira
6. Shining, The #109 - Kubrick, Stanley
7. Do The Right Thing #112 - Lee, Spike
8. Shoah #119 - Lanzmann, Claude
9. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back #126 - Lucas, George
10. Cinema Paradiso #158 - Tornatore, Giuseppe
11. Aliens #159 - Cameron, James
12. Once Upon a Time in America #161 - Leone, Sergio
Unranked Best Pictures: Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy (wow – easily the most yet)

My Favorites
1-Cinema Paradiso, 2-Hannah and Her Sisters, 3-Once Upon a Time in America, 4-Parenthood, 5-Dangerous Liaisons, 6-Aliens, 7-Field of Dreams, 8-Raging Bull, 9-When Harry Met Sally, 10-Drugstore Cowboy, 11-Gandhi, 12-The Empire Strikes Back, 13-Raiders of the Lost Ark, 14-E.T., 15-Mad Max 2 (Road Warrior), 16-Amadeus, 17-Blade Runner, 18-Fitzcarraldo, 19-Atlantic City, 20-Mephisto, 21-The Right Stuff, 22-The Last Emperor, 23-Reds, 24-Das Bööt, 25-Back to the Future

To me, this was a pretty good decade, with lots of classics, especially in science fiction (and I think Blade Runner is way overrated, good but not top 25 all-time – it’s a slow detective story, not much SF in it, I have it ranked 6th among the decades SF; P.K. Dick's novel is much better). Not sure why there are so few rated highly. Why does no one rank Drugstore Cowboy, Field of Dreams and Parenthood? (which was inspired by Hannah and Her Sisters) I have not yet seen the director's cut of The Last Emperor, running four hours.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Top Ranked Films by Year: the 70s


The top-ranked films of the 70's
© 2009, William L. Sinclair

This continues our series of top-ranked films by year, based on the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net that we compiled.
Total Ranked Films in the 70's: 139

- [ 1970 ] -
1. Conformist, The #76 - Bertolucci, Bernardo (photo rt)
2. Performance #201 - Roeg, Nicolas/Donald Cammell
3. Patton #202 - Shaffner, Frank
4. Five Easy Pieces #306 - Rafelson, Bob
5. Tristana #311 - Buñuel, Luis
6. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls #316 - Meyer, Russ
7. M*A*S*H #381 - Altman, Robert
8. Le Boucher #611 - Chabrol, Claude
9. Claire's Knee #644 - Rohmer, Eric
10. Wild Child, The #671 - Truffaut, François
11. Hart of London, The #711 - Chambers, Jack
12. Spider's Stratagem, The #730 - Bertolucci, Bernardo
13. Husbands #906 - Cassavetes, John
14. Red Circle, The #961 - Melville, Jean-Pierre
15. Gimme Shelter #1008 - Maysles, Albert/David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin
Best Picture: Patton

- [ 1971 ] -
1. Clockwork Orange, A #69 - Kubrick, Stanley
2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller #274 - Altman, Robert
3. Last Picture Show, The #279 - Bogdanovich, Peter
4. Harold and Maude #347 - Ashby, Hal
5. Death in Venice #428 - Visconti, Luchino
6. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul #429 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
7. French Connection, The #438 - Friedkin, William
8. Dirty Harry #546 - Siegel, Don
9. Two-Lane Blacktop #629 - Hellman, Monte
10. Walkabout #673 - Roeg, Nicolas
11. Devils, The (of Loudun) #684 - Russell, Ken
12. Région centrale, La #726 - Snow, Michael
13. Get Carter #779 - Hodges, Mike
14. Two English Girls #855 - Truffaut, François
15. Straw Dogs #911 - Peckinpah, Sam
16. Murmur of the Heart #945 - Malle, Louis
Best Picture: French Connection, The

- [ 1972 ] -
1. Godfather, The #1 - Coppola, Francis
2. Aguirre: The Wrath of God #72 - Herzog, Werner (photo rt)
3. Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The #88 - Buñuel, Luis
4. Solaris #263 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
5. Cabaret #277 - Fosse, Bob
6. Cries and Whispers #304 - Bergman, Ingmar
7. Deliverance #310 - Boorman, John
8. Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The #523 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
9. Sleuth #647 - Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
10. Ludwig #750 - Visconti, Luchino
11. Fat City #822 - Huston, John
12. Fellini's Roma #866 - Fellini, Federico
13. Pakeezah #890 - Amrohi, Kamal
Best Picture: Godfather, The

- [ 1973 ] -
1. Mean Streets #142 - Scorsese, Martin
2. Exorcist, The #143 - Friedkin, William
3. Spirit of the Beehive, The #257 - Erice, Victor
4. Badlands #267 - Malick, Terrence
5. Amarcord #270 - Fellini, Federico
6. Day for Night #287 - Truffaut, François
7. Don't Look Now #302 - Roeg, Nicolas
8. Last Tango in Paris #333 - Bertolucci, Bernardo
9. American Graffiti #351 - Lucas, George
10. Sting, The #367 - Hill, George Roy
11. Mother and the Whore, The #419 - Eustache, Jean
12. F for Fake #524 - Welles, Orson
13. Long Goodbye, The #544 - Altman, Robert
14. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid #693 - Peckinpah, Sam
15. Scenes from a Marriage #966 - Bergman, Ingmar
16. O Lucky Man! #981 - Anderson, Lindsay
Best Picture: Sting, The

- [ 1974 ] -
1. Chinatown #3 - Polanski, Roman
2. Godfather: Part II, The #9 - Coppola, Francis (photo top)
3. Conversation, The #120 - Coppola, Francis (photo rt)
4. Celine and Julie Go Boating #141 - Rivette, Jacques
5. Woman Under the Influence, A #176 - Cassavetes, John
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The #246 - Hooper, Tobe
7. Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The #572 - Herzog, Werner
8. Alice in the Cities #580 - Wenders, Wim
9. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia #581 - Peckinpah, Sam
10. Lancelot du Lac #630 - Bresson, Robert
11. Phantom of Liberty, The #840 - Buñuel, Luis
12. Arabian Nights #868 - Pasolini, Pier Paolo
13. Lacombe, Lucien #886 - Malle, Louis
14. Out 1: Spectre #982 - Rivette, Jacques
Best Picture: Godfather: Part II, The

- [ 1975 ] -
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #54 - Forman, Milos (photo rt)
2. Jaws #66 - Spielberg, Steven
3. Barry Lyndon #101 - Kubrick, Stanley
4. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles #146 - Akerman, Chantal
5. Dog Day Afternoon #174 - Lumet, Sidney
6. Nashville #192 - Altman, Robert
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail #222 - Gilliam, Terry/Terry Jones
8. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom #238 - Pasolini, Pier Paolo
9. Travelling Players, The #413 - Angelopoulos, Theo
10. Passenger, The #470 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
11. India Song #642 - Duras, Marguerite
12. Dersu Uzala #645 - Kurosawa, Akira
13. Fox and His Friends #707 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
14. Picnic at Hanging Rock #732 - Weir, Peter
15. Xala #762 - Sembene, Ousmane
16. Overlord #763 - Cooper, Stuart
17. Man Who Would Be King, The #799 - Huston, John
Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

- [ 1976 ] -
1. Taxi Driver #12 - Scorsese, Martin (photo rt)
2. Network #157 - Lumet, Sidney
3. Rocky #223 - Avildsen, John G.
4. Mirror, The #373 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
5. All the President's Men #427 - Pakula, Alan J.
6. In the Realm of the Senses #477 - Oshima, Nagisa
7. 1900 #487 - Bertolucci, Bernardo
8. Kings of the Road #490 - Wenders, Wim
9. Carrie #521 - De Palma, Brian
10. Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The #567 - Cassavetes, John
11. Fellini's Casanova #636 - Fellini, Federico
12. Man Who Fell to Earth, The #678 - Roeg, Nicolas
13. Outlaw Josey Wales, The #837 - Eastwood, Clint
14. Assault on Precinct 13 #952 - Carpenter, John
15. Tenant, The #1001 - Polanski, Roman
Best Picture: Rocky

- [ 1977 ] -
1. Annie Hall #77 - Allen, Woody (photo rt)
2. Killer of Sheep #173 - Burnett, Charles
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind #266 - Spielberg, Steven
4. Suspiria #346 - Argento, Dario
5. That Obscure Object of Desire #495 - Buñuel, Luis
6. Providence #548 - Resnais, Alain
7. Eraserhead #601 - Lynch, David
8. Ceddo #838 - Sembene, Ousmane
9. Hitler: A Film from Germany #862 - Syberberg, Hans-Jürgen
10. Black Sunday #955 - Bava, Mario
11. Saturday Night Fever #962 - Badham, John
12. New York, New York #972 - Scorsese, Martin
13. Opening Night #997 - Cassavetes, John
Best Picture: Annie Hall

- [ 1978 ] -
1. Star Wars #4 - Lucas, George
2. Deer Hunter, The #110 - Cimino, Michael (photo rt)
3. Days of Heaven #260 - Malick, Terrence
4. Halloween #318 - Carpenter, John
5. Tree of Wooden Clogs, The #398 - Olmi, Ermanno
6. In a Year with 13 Moons #538 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
7. Dawn of the Dead #554 - Romero, George A.
8. Superman: The Movie #749 - Donner, Richard
Best Picture: Deer Hunter, The

- [ 1979 ] -
1. Apocalypse Now #25 - Coppola, Francis
2. Alien #98 - Scott, Ridley
3. Manhattan #131 - Allen, Woody (photo rt)
4. Stalker #401 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
5. Marriage of Maria Braun, The #421 - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
6. All That Jazz #480 - Fosse, Bob
7. Life of Brian #598 - Gilliam, Terry/Terry Jones
8. Monty Python's Life of Brian #677 - Jones, Terry
9. Being There #772 - Ashby, Hal
10. Tin Drum, The #857 - Schlöndorff, Volker
11. Kramer vs. Kramer #1000 - Benton, Robert
12. Quadrophenia #1010 - Roddam, Franc
Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer

Top Ranked of the Decade
1. Godfather, The #1 - Coppola, Francis
2. Chinatown #3 - Polanski, Roman
3. Star Wars #4 - Lucas, George
4. Godfather: Part II, The #9 - Coppola, Francis
5. Taxi Driver #12 - Scorsese, Martin
6. Apocalypse Now #25 - Coppola, Francis
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #54 - Forman, Milos
8. Jaws #66 - Spielberg, Steven
9. Clockwork Orange, A #69 - Kubrick, Stanley
10. Aguirre: The Wrath of God #72 - Herzog, Werner
11. Conformist, The #76 - Bertolucci, Bernardo
12. Annie Hall #77 - Allen, Woody
13. Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The #88 - Buñuel, Luis
14. Alien #98 - Scott, Ridley


Unranked best pictures: Kramer vs. Kramer (good, I wouldn't rank it either, even sewer rats will drown themselves to save their young; nothing special about parenting in the animal world, it's yer duty! If you can't be a good parent, you're lower than vermin!)

My favorites:
1-The Godfather II, 2-Apocalypse Now, 3-The Conformist, 4-The Conversation, 5-A Clockwork Orange, 6-The Godfather, 7-Taxi Driver, 8-Network, 9-The Deer Hunter, 10-Annie Hall, 11-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 12-McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 13-Manhattan, 14-Aguirre, the Wrath of God

[Note: I wasn't impressed with the 1st Star Wars, much preferring The Empire Strikes Back; also liked Godfather II much more than I, it added Robert De Niro and Lee Strasburg, the chronological shifts with the early period in Italian - I'm always mesmerized by this and have seen it maybe 10 times vs. 3 for the first]


Top Ranked Films by Year: the 60s


The top-ranked films of the 60's
© 2009, William L. Sinclair

This continues our series of top-ranked films by year, based on the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net that we compiled. This decade has the most ranked films so far, passing the 50's by about 20 films.
Total Ranked Films in the 60's: 155



- [ 1960 ] -
1. Psycho #8 - Hitchcock, Alfred (photo rt)
2. Apartment, The #65 - Wilder, Billy
3. Dolce vita, La #99 - Fellini, Federico
4. Spartacus #177 - Kubrick, Stanley
5. L'Avventura #187 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
6. Peeping Tom #361 - Powell, Michael
7. Shoot the Piano Player #386 - Truffaut, François
8. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning #483 - Reisz, Karel
9. Cloud-Capped Star, The #594 - Ghatak, Ritwik
10. Magnificent Seven, The #881 - Sturges, John
11. Trou, Le #942 - Becker, Jacques
Best Picture: The Apartment

- [ 1961 ] -
1. Jules et Jim #59 - Truffaut, François
2. Hustler, The #153 - Rossen, Robert
3. Yojimbo #171 - Kurosawa, Akira
4. La Jetee #184 - Marker, Chris
5. Viridiana #211 - Buñuel, Luis
6. Last Year at Marienbad #215 - Resnais, Alain
7. West Side Story #251 - Wise, Robert/Jerome Robbins
8. Notte, La #357 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
9. Lola #387 - Demy, Jacques
10. Salvatore Giuliano #494 - Rosi, Francesco
11. Accattone #551 - Pasolini, Pier Paolo
12. Judgment at Nuremberg #583 - Kramer, Stanley
13. Breakfast at Tiffany's #595 - Edwards, Blake
14. Splendor in the Grass #736 - Kazan, Elia
15. Misfits, The #737 - Huston, John
16. Innocents, The #743 - Clayton, Jack
17. Femme est une femme, Une #952 - Godard, Jean-Luc
18. Through a Glass Darkly #1005 - Bergman, Ingmar
Best Picture: West Side Story

- [ 1962 ] -
1. Manchurian Candidate, The #43 - Frankenheimer, John
2. Lawrence of Arabia #50 - Lean, David (photo rt)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird #96 - Mulligan, Robert
4. Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The #135 - Ford, John
5. L'Eclisse #301 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
6. Exterminating Angel, The #397 - Buñuel, Luis
7. My Life to Live #505 - Godard, Jean-Luc
8. Autumn Afternoon, An #592 - Ozu, Yasujiro
9. Lolita #651 - Kubrick, Stanley
10. Winter Light #674 - Bergman, Ingmar
11. Ivan's Childhood #744 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
12. Ride the High Country #780 - Peckinpah, Sam
13. Cleo from 5 to 7 #819 - Varda, Agnès
14. Hatari! #860 - Hawks, Howard
15. 47 Ronin, The #872 - Mizoguchi, Kenji
Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia

- [ 1963 ] -
1. 8½ #37 - Fellini, Federico
2. Contempt #74 - Godard, Jean-Luc
3. Leopard, The #265 - Visconti, Luchino
4. Great Escape, The #295 - Sturges, John
5. Birds, The #349 - Hitchcock, Alfred
6. Vivre sa vie #396 - Godard, Jean-Luc
7. Verdugo, El #496 - Berlanga, Luis García
8. High and Low #516 - Kurosawa, Akira
9. Servant, The #560 - Losey, Joseph
10. Tom Jones #584 - Richardson, Tony
11. An Actor's Revenge #600 - Ichikawa, Kon
12. Muriel ou Le Temps d'un Retour #622 - Resnais, Alain
13. Silence, The #650 - Bergman, Ingmar
14. Barren Lives #753 - Dos Santos, Nelson Pereira
15. Actor's Revenge, An #874 - Ichikawa, Kon
16. America, America #886 - Kazan, Elia
17. Flaming Creatures #985 - Smith, Jack
Best Picture: Tom Jones

- [ 1964 ] -
1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb #17 - Kubrick, Stanley
2. Gospel According to St. Matthew, The #103 - Pasolini, Pier Paolo (photo rt)
3. Rocco and His Brothers #237 - Visconti, Luchino
4. Gertrud #272 - Dreyer, Carl
5. Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The #285 - Demy, Jacques
6. Hard Day's Night, A #328 - Lester, Richard
7. Band of Outsiders #369 - Godard, Jean-Luc
8. Red Desert #380 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
9. My Fair Lady #435 - Cukor, George
10. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors #510 - Parajanov, Sergei
11. Black God, White Devil #528 - Rocha, Glauber
12. Charulata #530 - Ray, Satyajit
13. Marnie #541 - Hitchcock, Alfred
14. Scorpio Rising #566 - Anger, Kenneth
15. I Am Cuba #638 - Kalatozishvili, Mikheil
16. Woman in the Dunes #862 - Teshigahara, Hiroshi
17. Goldfinger #909 - Hamilton, Guy
Best Picture: My Fair Lady

- [ 1965 ] -
1. Pierrot le fou #129 - Godard, Jean-Luc
2. Repulsion #307 - Polanski, Roman
3. Sound of Music, The #362 - Wise, Robert
4. Doctor Zhivago #394 - Lean, David
5. For a Few Dollars More #540 - Leone, Sergio
6. Loves of a Blonde #553 - Forman, Milos
7. Alphaville #727 - Godard, Jean-Luc
8. Juliet of the Spirits #784 - Fellini, Federico
9. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! #853 - Meyer, Russ
10. Not Reconciled #902 - Straub, Jean-Marie
11. Art of Vision, The #923 - Brakhage, Stan
12. Red Beard #926 - Kurosawa, Akira
13. Of a Thousand Delights #939 - Visconti, Luchino
Best Picture: Sound of Music, The

- [ 1966 ] -
1. Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The #73 - Leone, Sergio
2. Au Hasard Balthazar #93 - Bresson, Robert
3. Battle of Algiers, The #132 - Pontecorvo, Gillo (photo rt)
4. Persona #185 - Bergman, Ingmar
5. Two or Three Things I Know About Her #214 - Godard, Jean-Luc
6. Masculine-Feminine #219 - Godard, Jean-Luc
7. Blow-Up #242 - Antonioni, Michelangelo
8. Rise to Power of Louis XIV, The #275 - Rossellini, Roberto
9. Andrei Rublev #278 - Tarkovsky, Andrei
10. Chimes at Midnight #399 - Welles, Orson
11. Closely Watched Trains #422 - Menzel, Jirí
12. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? #442 - Nichols, Mike
13. Mouchette #491 - Bresson, Robert
14. Hold Me While I'm Naked #557 - Kuchar, George
15. Man for All Seasons, A #714 - Zinnemann, Fred
16. Daisies #757 - Chytilová, Vera
17. Round-Up, The (Szegénylegények) #893 - Jancsó, Miklós
18. Seven Women #900 - Ford, John
19. El Dorado #969 - Hawks, Howard
Best Picture: A Man for All Seasons

[Note: This is the most ranked films for any year]

- [ 1967 ] -
1. Bonnie and Clyde #105 - Penn, Arthur
2. Graduate, The #107 - Nichols, Mike (photo rt)
3. Playtime #209 - Tati, Jacques
4. Belle de jour #213 - Buñuel, Luis
5. Wavelength #259 - Snow, Michael
6. Week-End #273 - Godard, Jean-Luc
7. In the Heat of the Night #321 - Jewison, Norman
8. Cool Hand Luke #392 - Rosenberg, Stuart
9. Samouraï, Le #468 - Melville, Jean-Pierre
10. Point Blank #471 - Boorman, John
11. Don't Look Back #545 - Pennebaker, D.A.
12. Chelsea Girls #564 - Warhol, Andy
13. Young Girls of Rochefort, The #614 - Demy, Jacques
14. Terra em Transe #618 - Rocha, Glauber
15. Firemen's Ball, The #809 - Forman, Milos
16. Branded to Kill #938 - Suzuki, Seijun
17. Collectionneuse, La #990 - Rohmer, Eric
Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night

- [ 1968 ] -
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey #2 - Kubrick, Stanley (photo top)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West #70 - Leone, Sergio
3. Rosemary's Baby #172 - Polanski, Roman
4. Night of the Living Dead #327 - Romero, George A.
5. Producers, The #400 - Brooks, Mel
6. Faces #417 - Cassavetes, John
7. If… #534 - Anderson, Lindsay
8. Memories of Underdevelopment #573 - Alea, Tomás Gutiérrez
9. Colour of Pomegranate, The #578 - Parajanov, Sergei
10. Teorema #659 - Pasolini, Pier Paolo
11. Hour of the Furnaces, The #721 - Getino, Octavio & Fernando E. Solanas
12. Party, The #725 - Edwards, Blake
13. Salesman #789 - Maysles, Albert/David Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin
14. Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, The #847 - Straub, Jean-Marie
15. Shame (Skammen) #917 - Bergman, Ingmar
Best Picture: Oliver!

- [ 1969 ] -
1. Wild Bunch, The #87 - Peckinpah, Sam
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid #149 - Hill, George Roy
3. Easy Rider #190 - Hopper, Dennis
4. Midnight Cowboy #290 - Schlesinger, John
5. Army of Shadows #292 - Melville, Jean-Pierre
6. My Night at Maud's #497 - Rohmer, Eric
7. Kes #526 - Loach, Ken
8. Fellini Satyricon #570 - Fellini, Federico
9. Touch of Zen, A #661 - Hu, King
10. Antonio das Mortes #669 - Rocha, Glauber
11. Damned, The #728 - Visconti, Luchino
12. Tom, Tom the Piper's Son #835 - Jacobs, Ken
13. Z #907 - Costa-Gavras, Constantin
Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy

Top Films of the Decade
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey #2 - Kubrick, Stanley
2. Psycho #8 - Hitchcock, Alfred
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb #17 - Kubrick, Stanley (photo rt)
4. 8½ #37 - Fellini, Federico
5. Manchurian Candidate, The #43 - Frankenheimer, John
6. Lawrence of Arabia #50 - Lean, David
7. Jules et Jim #59 - Truffaut, François
8. Apartment, The #65 - Wilder, Billy
9. Once Upon a Time in the West #70 - Leone, Sergio
10. Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The #73 - Leone, Sergio
11. Contempt #74 - Godard, Jean-Luc
12. Wild Bunch, The #87 - Peckinpah, Sam
13. Au Hasard Balthazar #93 - Bresson, Robert
14. To Kill a Mockingbird #96 - Mulligan, Robert
15. Dolce vita, La #99 - Fellini, Federico


My favorites of the 60s:
1-2001: A Space Odyssey, 2-Lawrence of Arabia, 3-Dr. Strangelove, 4-My Fair Lady, 5-L'avventura, 6-Battle of Algiers, 7-To Kill a Mockingbird, 8-The Graduate, 9-Gospel According to St. Matthew, 10-Midnight Cowboy, 11-A Hard Day's Night, 12-West Side Story, 13-Doctor Zhivago, 14-Morgan, 15-Spartacus, 16-Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 17-The Hustler, 18-La Dolce Vita, 19-The Servant, 20-8½

The only unranked best picture of the decade is Oliver!