Brandon's Lists


1932:

1. Freaks
2. I Was Born But…..
3. Trouble in Paradise
4. I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
5. Vampyr
6. Scarface
7. Boudu Saved From Drowning
8. The Mummy
9. The Most Dangerous Game
10. Island of Lost Souls

Honorable Mentions: A Farewell to Arms, White Zombie, The Old Dark House, Red Dust, Que Viva Mexico!



1933:

1. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
2. King Kong (Merrian C. Cooper)
3. Man’s Castle (Frank Borzage)
4. The Invisible Man (James Whales)
5. Lady for a Day (Frank Capra)
6. Hallelujah I’m a Bum (Lewis Milestone)
7. She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman)
8. Dinner at Eight (George Cukor)
9. Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon)
10. Zero for Conduct (Jean Vigo)

Honorable Mentions: Wild Boys of the Road, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, The Mystery of the Wax Museum, Design for Living, Testament of Dr. Mabuse.


My Ten Favorite Films of 1934:

1. L’Atlante (Jean Vigo)
2. The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke)
3. It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
4. The Scarlet Empress (Josef Von Sternberg)
5. The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer)
6. Liliom (Fritz Lang)
7. Judge Priest (John Ford)
8. The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch)
9. It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod)
10. Dames (Ray Enright, Arthur Aylesworth)

Honorable Mentions: Our Daily Bread (King Vidor), The Story of the Floating Weeds (Ozu), Man of Aran (Flaherty), The Count of Monte Cristo (Rowland V. Lee), The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock), The Lost Patrol (Ford), Babes in Toyland , Manhattan Melodrama (Van Dyke).


1935

1. The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)
2. Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey)
3. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Top Hat (Mark Sandrich)
5. The Informer (John Ford)
6. Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz)
7. The Devil is a Woman (Josef Von Sternberg)
8. Barbary Coast (Howard Hawks)
9. G-Men (William Keighley)
10. Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor)

Honorable Mentions: Roberta, A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood), Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd), Steamboat Round the Bend (John Ford).


1936

1. Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
2. After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke)
3. My Man Godfrey (Gregory la Cava)
4. Fury (Fritz Lang)
5. Dodsworth (William Wyler)
6. The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry)
7. Libeled Lady (Jack Conway
8. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra)
9. The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford)
10. The Lower Depths (Jean Renoir)

Honorable Mentions: The Crime of Monsieur Lang (Jean Renoir), Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock), Swing Time (George Stevens), Partie de Campagne (Jean Renoir), The Petrified Forest (Archie Mayo), Come and Get It (Howard Hawks and William Wyler), Showboat (Whales), Secret Agent (Hitchcock), The Only Son (Ozu), Camille (Cukor), Dracula’s Daughter (Lambert Hillyer), Osaka Elegy (Mizoguchi), Things to Come (Menzies)


1937

1. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)
2. Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey)
3. Pepe le Moko (Julien Duvivier)
4. The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
5. Stage Door (Gregory La Cava)
6. You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
7. Dead End (William Wyler)
8. Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen)
9. Young and Innocent (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. The Hurricane (John Ford)

Honorable Mentions: Angel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Stella Dallas, Prisoner of Zenda, A Day at the Races, Shall We Dance, Nothing Sacred.


1938

1. Holiday (George Cukor)
2. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz)
3. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Vivacious Lady (George Stevens)
5. Port of Shadows (Marcel Carne)
6. Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz)
7. La Bete Humaine (Jean Renoir)
8. You Can’t Take It With You (Frank Capra)
9. Jezebel (William Wyler)
10. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)

Honorable: Pygmalion (Anthony Asquith), Hotel du Nord (Carne), Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Litvak), The Masseurs and a Woman (Shimizu)


1939

1. Only Angels Have Wings (Hawks)
2. Stagecoach (Ford)
3. Young Mr. Lincoln (Ford)
4. Ninotchka (Lubitsch)
5. The Rules of the Game (Renoir)
6. The Roaring Twenties (Walsh)
7. Destry Rides Again (Marshall)
8. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
9. The Women (Cukor)
10. Gone with the Wind (Fleming)/The Wizard of Oz

Honorable Mentions: Jamaica Inn, Gunga Din, Love Affair, Another Thin Man, Wuthering Heights, Drums Along the Mohawk, Dodge City, Son of Frankenstein.


1940

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch)
2. His Girl Friday (Hawks)
3. Rebecca (Hitchcock)
4. The Great Dictator (Chaplin)
5. The Mortal Storm (Borzage)
6. Pinocchio (lots of people)
7. Foreign Correspondent (Hitchcock)
8. Christmas in July (Sturges)
9. My Favorite Wife (Kanin)
10. Night Train to Munich (Reed)

Honorable Mentions: The Philadelphia Story (Cukor), They Drive By Night (Walsh), The Westerner (Wyler), The Mask of Zorro, Fantasia, Grapes of Wrath (Ford), Virginia City (Curtiz), Go West, One Night in the Tropics, The Sea Hawk.


1941

1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
2. Ball of Fire (Hawks)
3. High Sierra (Walsh)
4. Buck Privates (Lubin)
5. Sullivan's Travels (Sturges)
6. The Maltese Falcon (Huston)
7. Man Hunt (Lang)
8. The Lady Eve (Sturges)
9. I Wake Up Screaming (H. Bruce Humberstone)
10. Dumbo (Lots of people)

Honorable Mentions: The Wolf Man (Waggner) Shadow of the Thin Man (Van Dyke), How Green Was My Valley (Ford), Suspicion (Hitchcock), That Uncertain Feeling (Lubitsch), Sergeant York (Hawks), Keep em Flying, The Strawberry Blonde.


1942

1. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch)
2. Rio Rita (Simon)
3. The Devil's Envoys (Carne)
4. The Cat People (Tourneur)
5. Casablanca (Curtiz)
6. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
7. The Palm Beach Story (Sturges)
8. Moontide (Mayo)
9. Who Done It? (Kenton)
10. Saboteur (Hitchcock)


Honorable Mentions: Pardon My Sarong, Bambi, The Road to Morocco, The Jungle Book, The Talk of the Town


1943

1. Heaven Can Wait (Lubitsch)
2. Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock)
3. Hangmen Also Die (Lang)
4. The Oxbow Incident (Wellman)
5. The Leopard Man (Tourneur)
6. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell and Pressburger)
7. I Walked With a Zombie (Robson)
8. Sahara (Korda)
9. The Seventh Victim (Robson)
10. The Day of Wrath (Dreyer)

Honorable Mentions High: Cabin in the Sky (Minnelli), Hit the Ice (Lamont), Ossessione (Visconti).

Honorable Middle: Le Corbeau, Five Graves to Cairo, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Der Fuehrer’s Face, The Outlaw


1944

1. Meet Me In St. Louis (Minnelli)
2. The Children Are Watching Us (de Sica)
3. To Have And Have Not (Hawks)
4. The Curse of the Cat People (Wise)
5. Double Indemnity (Wilder)
6. Laura (Hitchcock)
7. The Woman in the Window (Lang)
8. Phantom Lady (Siodmak)
9. Hail the Conquering Hero (Sturges)
10. The Princess and the Pirate (Butler)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Arsenic and Old Lace, Lifeboat, Ivan the Terrible, Going My Way, Dark Waters, Gaslight, Tall in the Saddle, The Thin Man Goes Home,

Honorable Mentions Lower: The Fighting Seabees, In Society, Tall in the Saddle, Murder My Sweet, The Thin Man Goes Home,


1945

1. Children of Paradise (Carne)
2. Mildred Pierce (Curtiz)
3. Scarlet Street (Lang)
4. The Southerner (Renoir)
5. Leave Her To Heaven (Stahl)
6. I Know Where I'm Going (Pressburger and Powell)
7. Rome: Open City (Rossellini)
8. And Then There Were None (Clair)
9. Les dames du Bois Boulogne (Bresson)
10. Brief Encounter (Lean)



Honorable Mentions High Tier: Brewster's Millions (Dwann), The Fallen Idol (Reed), The Body Snatcher (Wise), They Were Expendable, The Naughty Nineties, Detour, Isle of the Dead.

Honorable Mentions Middle: The Bells of Saint Mary, Blithe Spirit, The House of Dracula, House of Fear, The Woman in Green, The Lost Weekend.


1946

1. It's a Wonderful Life (Capra)
2. Notorious (Hitchcock)
3. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur)
4. My Darling Clementine (John Ford)
5. The Big Sleep (Hawks)
6. The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler)/ A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger)
7. The Spiral Staircase (Siodmak)
8. Shoeshine (De Sicca)
9. Great Expectations (Lean)
10. Duel in the Sun (Vidor)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Bedlam (Robson), Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau), The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Stranger (Welles), The Kid From Brooklyn (McLeod), The Killers, Diary of a Chambermaid.

Honorable Middle Tier: A Night In Casablanca,The Time of Their Lives.



1947

1. Black Narcisussus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
2. Qua des Orfevres (Clouzot)
3. Pursued (Walsh)
4. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (McLeod)
5. Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin)
6. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles)
7. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
8. Nightmare Alley (Goulding)
9. Kiss of Death (Hathaway)
10. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: The Red House, Desperate, Out of the Past, Unconquered, The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, Miracle on 34th Street, Song of the Thin Man, Boomerang.


1948

1. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
2. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton)
4. Moonrise (Frank Borzage)
5. Red River (Hawks)
6. Letter From an Unknown Woman (Ophuls)
7. Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges)
8. Key Largo (Huston)
9. Portrait of Jennie (Dietrele)
10.Force of Evil (Polonsky)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: The Red Shoes (Powell and Pressburger), Oliver Twist (Lean),The Paleface (McLeod), Fort Apache (Ford), Bicycle Thieves, Louisiana Story, Drunken Angel (Kurosawa)


Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Macbeth, Mexican Hayride, The Noose Hangs High, The Three Musketeers


1949

1. White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
2. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)
3. The Third Man (Carol Reed)
4. Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh)
5. They Live By Night (Ray)
6. Adam's Rib (George Cukor)
7. The Quiet Duel (Akira Kurosawa)
8. The Set Up (Wise)
9. A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewcz)
10. She Wore and Yellow Ribbon (Ford)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Stray Dog (Kurosawa), Whirlpool (Preminger), I Shot Jesse James (Fuller), The Inspector General, Caught, Criss Cross.

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Africa Screams, Battleground, Caught, On the Town


1950

1. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
2. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
3. All About Eve (Mankiewicz)
4. Wagon Master (John Ford)
5. Winchester 73 (Anthony Mann)
6. The Flame and the Arrow (Jacques Tourneur)
7. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis)
8. Harvey (Henry Koster)
9. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves)
10. The Furies (Anthony Mann)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Rio Grande (John Ford), When Willie Comes Marching Home (John Ford), Night and the City (Dassin),The Flowers of Saint Francis (Rossellini), The Asphalt Jungle (Huston), Devil’s Doorway (Mann), House by the River (Lang), Panic in the Street (Kazan), Rashamon (Kurosawa), La Ronde (Ophuls), Side Street (Mann), Union Station.


1951


1. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
2. The House on Telegraph Hill (Robert Wise)
3. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
4. The African Queen (John Huston)
5. The Steel Helmet (Sam Fuller)
6. The Thing From Another World (Hawks/Nyby)
7. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (Charles Lamont)
8. The River (Jean Renoir)
9. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan), An American in Paris (Vincent Millenni), A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis, The Prowler

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Alice in Wonderland, Lambert the Sheepish Lion, The Red Badge of Courage


1952

1. Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica)
2. The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincent Minnelli)
3. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang)
4. The Big Sky (Howard Hawks)
5. Singin in the Rain (Stanley Donen)
6. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann)
7. Limelight (Charlie Chaplin)
8. The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer)
9. Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
10. The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Robinson Crusoe (Luis Bunuel), Monkey Business (Hawks), Clash By Night (Lang), The Quiet Man (Ford), The Lusty Men (Ray), Pat and Mike (Cukor), Angel Face (Preminger), Kansas City Confidential (Karlson), Jack and the Beanstalk, The Crimson Pirate, Carson City (De Toth), Ikiru (Kurosawa), Othello (Welles), Son of Paleface (Tashlin), Forbidden Games (Clement).


1953

1. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophuls)
3. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
4. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
5. The Wages of Fear (Henri Georges Clouzot)
6. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
7. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)
8. Pickup on South Street (Sam Fuller)
9. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
10. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: It Came From Outer Space (Jack Arnold), The Blue Gardenia (Lang), Peter Pan (Lots of People), The Wild One (Benedek), From Here to Eternity, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Mogambo (Ford), The Hitchhiker (Lupino).

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Glenn Miller Story, House of Wax, I Confess, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Scared Stiff, War of the Worlds


1954

1. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
3. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
4. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
5. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
6. Living it Up (Norman Taurog)
7. M is for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. Track of the Cat (William Wellman)
9. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen)
10. Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Human Desire (Fritz Lang), River of No Return (Preminger), Crime Wave (De Toth), Knock on Wood (Melvin Frank), Them! (Gordon Douglas), White Christmas (Curtiz), La Strada (Fellini), Riding Shotgun (Andre de Toth), Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold), Godzilla, The Naked Jungle, Magnificent Obsession
Barefoot Contessa, Brigadoon, Sabrina (Wilder), Silver Lode (Dwann).


1955

1. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
2. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
3. Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)
4. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
5. All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
6. The Far Country (Mann)
7. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
8. East of Eden (Kazan)
9. Les Diaboliques (Clouzot)
10. Lola Montes (Max Ophuls)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: Smiles of a Summer Night (Igmar Bergman), Bob le Fambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville), The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann), Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (Lamont), Night and Fog (Resnais), To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock), Summertime, Lady and the Tramp, The Trouble with Harry (Alfred Hitchcock).

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Blackboard Jungle, Guys and Dolls, The LadyKillers, Marty, Picnic.


1956

1. The Searchers (John Ford)
2. Seven Men From Now (Budd Boetticher)
3. Bigger than Life (Nicholas Ray)
4. Attack! (Robert Aldrich)
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
7. The Last Wagon (Daves)
8. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
9. Jubal (Daves)
10. The Court Jester (Melvin Frank)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: The Killing (Kubrick), Streets of Shame (Mizoguchi), The Killers (Tarkovsky), Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk), The Wrong Man (Hitchcock).

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Forbidden Planet, Giant, Rodan, The Red Balloon, Somebody Up There Likes Me.


1957

1. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
2. The Seventh Seal (Bergman)
3. The Bridge Over the River Kwai (David Lean)
4. Nights of Cabiria (Fellini)
5. The Tall T (Boetticher)
6. Curse of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur)
7. A King in New York (Chaplin)
8. Gunfight at the OK Corral (Sturges)
9. The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
10. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)


Honorable Mentions High Tier: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (Tashlin), The Abominable Snowman (Val Guest), Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray) Forty Guns (Sam Fuller), Run of the Arrow (Sam Fuller), The Wings of Eagles (John Ford), An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey), 3:10 to Yuma (Davies), A Face in the Crowd (Kazan), Men in War (Mann), Throne of Blood (Kurosawa), 12 Angry Men (Lumet), The Incredible Shrinking Man (Arnold), Old Yeller, The Delicate Delinquent.


1958

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Some Came Running (Vincent Minnelli)
4. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
5. Mon Uncle (Jacques Tati)
6. Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
7. The Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher)
8. Party Girl (Nicholas Ray)
9. Buchanan Rides Alone (Budd Boetticher)
10. The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: The Fly (Kurt Neumann), Bonjour Tristesse, The Blob

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: The Big Country, Indiscreet, The Old Man and the Sea
Honorable Mentions Lower Tier: The Vikings



1959

1. Rio Bravo (Hawks)
2. Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
3. North By Northwest (Hitchcock)
4. Day of the Outlaw (Andre de Toth)
5. Shadows (Cassavetes)
6. The 400 Blows (Truffaut)
7. Eyes Without a Face (Franju)
8. Some Like it Hot (Wilder)
9. Sleeping Beauty (lots of people)
10. Ride Lonesome (Boetticher)


Honorable Mentions High Tier: Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk), The Horse Soldiers (John Ford), The Mummy (Terrence Fischer), Pickpocket (Robert Bresson), Al Capone, Ben Hur.

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Breathless, The FBI Story, House on Haunted Hill


1960

1. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut)
2. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. The Virgin Spring (Igmar Bergman)
4. The Young One (Luis Bunuel)
5. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
6. The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges)
7. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
8. Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford)
9. Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol)
10. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa)


Honorable Mentions High Tier: Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher)North to Alaska (Henry Hathaway), Black Sunday (Mario Bava), Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick)

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Two Women (Vittoria De Sicca), The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis), Swiss Family Robinson (Ken Annakin), When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse)


1961

1. Viridiana (Bunuel)
2. The Hustler (Rossen)
3. Yojimbo (Kurosawa)
4. Blast of Silence (Baron)
5. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Edwards)
6. A Woman is a Woman (Godard)
7. One, Two, Three (Wilder)
8. Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman)
9. The Comancheros (Curtiz)
10. The Innocents (Clayton)

Honorable Mentions High Tier: End of the Summer (Ozu), Leone Morin Priest (Melville), The Ladies Man (Lewis), Two Rode Together (Ford)
The Pit and the Pendulum (Corman)

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: King of Kings (Nicholas Ray), The Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman), West Side Story (Robert Wise), The Last Sunset (Robert Aldrich), 101 Dalmatians (a bunch of People), Lola (Jacques Demy), By Love Possessed (John Sturges).


1962

1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
2. The Elusive Corporal (Jean Renoir)
3. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
4. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
5. Ivan’s Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky)
6. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut)
7. Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger)
8. Lonely Are the Brave (David Francis)
9. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu)
10. Hatari! (Howard Hawks)

Honorable Mentions Higher Tier: Cleo from 9 to 5 (Agnes Varde), Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa), Le Doulos (Jean Pierre Melville), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan), The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson), The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel), Lolita (Stanley Kubrick), The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer), It's Only Money (Frank Tashlin)

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Knife in the Water, Confessions of an Opium Eater, King Kong vs Godzilla

Honorable Mentions Lower Tier: The Longest Day, Sergeants 3.


My "subject to change" list of top ten films of 1963:

1. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
2. The Great Escape (Steve McQueen)
3. Charade (Stanley Donen)
4. Irma la Douce (Billy Wilder)
5. A Child is Waiting (John Cassavetes)
6. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
7. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
9. Lilies of the Field (Ralph Nelson)
10. Suzanne’s Career (Eric Rohmer)

Honorable Mentions Higher Tier: Vidas Secas (Nelson Pereira dos Santos), The Servant (Joseph Losey), Donovan’s Reef (John Ford)
Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman), Who’s Minding the Store (Frank Tashlin), 8 ½ (Fellini)

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Four for Texas, The Haunting, Jason and the Argonauts, The Sword in the Stone, Shock Corridor, Hud.

Honorable Mentions Lower Tier: Contempt, The Bakery Girl of Monceau, The Nutty Professor, The Whip and the Body.


Top Ten Films of 1964:

1. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Soy Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)
3. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
4. Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone)
5. Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
6. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
7. Kiss Me Stupid (Billy Wilder)
8. Band of Outsiders (Jean Luc Godard)
9. Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda)
10. The Naked Kiss (Sam Fuller)

Honorable Mentions Top Tier: Marnie (Hitchcock), Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo), The Soft Skin (Francois Truffaut), Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer), Cheyenne Autumn (Ford).

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Robin and the Seven Hoods (Gordon Douglas), Man’s Favorite Sport (Hawks), Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson), Masque of Red Death (Corman) The Last Man on Earth (Ragona), Blood and Black Lace
Bava).

Honorable Mentions Lower Tier: Zulu (Endfield), Diary of a Chambermaid (Bunuel), My Fair Lady (Cukor).


1965:

1. Pierrot le Fou (Jean Luc Godard)
2. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov)
3. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
4. Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman)
5. Le Bonheur (Agnes Varda)
6. Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah)
7. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
8. Simon of the Desert (Luis Bunuel)
9. Von Ryan’s Express (Mark Robson)
10. Sword of the Beast (Hideo Gosha)


Honorable Mentions High Tier: Bunny Lake is Missing (Preminger), Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (Meyer), Flight of the Phoenix (Aldrich), Planet of the Vampires (Bava), Dr. Zhivago (Lean), In Harm’s Way (Preminger), The Sons of Katie Elder (Hathaway), The Sound of Music (Wise), Cat Ballou (Silverstein).

Honorable Mentions Middle Tier: Battle of the Bulge, Alphaville, Shenandoah, A Patch of Blue, The Collector,

Mentions: The Greatest Story Ever Told.


1966:

1. Au Hasard Balthazar
2. Andrei Rublev
3. The Good the Bad and the Ugly
4. Blowup
5. The Battle of Algiers
6. 7 Women
7. Persona
8. Fahrenheit 451
9. Black Girl
10. Sword of Doom

Honorable Mentions Near Great: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Naked Prey.

Honorable Mentions Good: Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Masculin Feminin, Kill Baby Kill, Made in the USA.


My Favorites from 1967:

1. Samurai Rebellion
2. El Dorado
3. The Red and the White
4. Le Samourai
5. Branded to Kill
6. La Collectioneusse
7. Mouchette
8. Bonnie and Clyde
9. Playtime
10. Scattered Clouds

Honorable Mentions Great: Belle de Jour, The Dirty Dozen, Cool Hand Luke, Love Affair or Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator, The Jungle Book, Point Blank, Wait Until Dark, The Shooting.

Honorable Mentions Very Good: Barefoot in the Park, Who’s That Knocking at my Door, A Colt is My Passport.

Honorable Mentions Good: The Fearless Vampire Killers, Hombre, In Cold Blood, To Sir With Love.



1. Catch Me If You Can (Spielberg)
2. 25th Hour (Lee)
3. Far From Heaven (Haynes)
4. Punch Drunk Love (Thomas Anderson)
5. Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
6. Femme Fatale (De Palma)
7. Minority Report (Spielberg)
8. Gangs of New York (Scorsese)
9. Talk To Her (Almodovar)
10. Trouble Every Day (Denis)

Honorable Mentions: Y Tu Mama Tambien, Adaptation, Solaris, Resident Evil, Blade II, Panic Room, Insomnia, Signs, The Bourne Identity, The Ring, The Two Towers, All or Nothing, The Kid Stays in the Picture, The Pianist, Welcome to Collinwood, Late Marriage, Spider, The Count of Monte Cristo.


Top Ten of 2003:

1. The Son (the Dardennes)
2. 28 Days Later (Boyle)
3. Balseros (Carles Bosch and Josep Maria Domenech)
4. Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin)
5. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
6. Big Fish (Tim Burton)
7. Master and Commander (Peter Weir)
8. Cabin Fever (Eli Roth)
9. Elephant (Van Sant)
10. Raising Victor Vargas (Peter Sollett)


Honorable Mentions: Kill Bill Vol. 1, Finding Nemo, Elephant, Mystic River, The Fog of War, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Whale Rider, School of Rock, In America, Raising Victor Vargas, The Company, Dirty Pretty Things, The Brown Bunny, The Five Obstructions, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Open Range, The Station Agent.


1. The New World (Terrence Malick)
2. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
3. Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin)
4. The Best of Youth (Marco Tullio Giordana)
5. Mysterious Skin (Greg Araki)
6. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
7. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
8. Good Night and Good Luck (George Clooney)
9. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
10. Memories of a Murder (Joon-ho Bong

Honorable Mentions (in order of how much I like): Nobody Knows, Corpse Bride, Cache, Brokeback Mountain, Junebug, Red Eye, The Corporation, 2046, Wolf Creek, Syrianna, War of the Worlds, The Ice Harvest, Broken Flowers, Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit, King Kong.


2006
1. The Proposition
2. Miami Vice
3. Casino Royale
4. Old Joy
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
6. The Departed
7. A Prairie Home Companion
8. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
9. Volver
10. Marie Antoinette

Honorable Mentionst: Neil Young: Heart of Gold, Inland Empire, Children of Men, Marie Antoinette, Inside Man, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Descent, Half Nelson, Three Times, L’Enfant, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Borat, The Fountain.


2007
1. No Country for Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Zodiac
4. Eastern Promises
5. Ratatouille
6. Offside
7. Death Proof
8. Superbad
9. Lake of Fire
10. The Host

Honorable Mentions Great: Hot Fuzz, 4 Months, Three Weeks, Two Days, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Sweeney Todd, Away From Her, King of Kong, No End in Sight, The Darjeeling Limited, Once, Knocked Up, 28 Weeks Later, Rescue Dawn, Persepolis, Bug, The Orphanage, This is England.


2008
1. A Christmas Tale
2. Wall-E
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Still Life
5. Burn After Reading
6. Let the Right One In
7. Shotgun Stories
8. Happy Go Lucky
9. The Strangers
10. Up the Yangtze

Honorable Mentions: Encounters at the End of the World, Che, In Bruges, Reprise, Wendy and Lucy, Pineapple Express, The Strangers, Gran Torino, Hellboy 2, Cadillac Records, Shine a Light, Flight of the Red Balloon, Be Kind Rewind, Death Race, Role Models, Rachel Getting Married, Boarding Gate.


2009
1. Inglorious Basterds
2. 35 Shots of Rum
3. Summer Hours
4. A Serious Man
5. Antichrist
6. Up
7. Moon
8. Revanche
9. Public Enemies
10. The Limits of Control

Honorable Mentions: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Bronson, 24 City, Munyurangabo, Coraline, The Hurt Locker, Drag Me To Hell, Next Day Air, A Perfect Getaway, A Christmas Carol, Two Lovers, House of the Devil, Sin Nombre, Halloween II, The Headless Woman, Treeless Mountain, Adventureland, Sugar, The White Ribbon, Splice, Still Walking, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
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