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- Mother! (2017)
- Black Swan (2010)
- The Fountain (2006)
- The Wrestler (2008)
- Noah (2014)
- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- Pi (1998)
- The Whale (2022)
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Some of these films I have seen on old vhs tapes and online. I can’t seem to find and watch The Long Weekend (O’ Despair) anywhere.
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-Introduction-
Last year around this time on my blog, I posted a list of my top 10 favorite films of all-time in response to Sight & Sound magazine’s 10-year annual poll of the greatest films ever made according to the votes of participating critics and filmmakers. Readers can view my list again by clicking here. This year, I wanted to expand it to 100 for those who are interested. Also, my answer is yes to anybody wondering If the number of my favorite films of all-time possibly exceeds that of a zillion. As one can see below, I have decided to start with number 100 and going down from there (i.e. 99, 98 and so forth). Before I go any further, I will not tolerate any insults or negativity towards numbers 1, 8, 18, 24, 25 and 99 on here. So I am politely asking all of you to not bash them. Now, without further ado, here are my top 100 favorite films of all-time. Enjoy 🙂
-My Top 100 Favorite Films of All-Time (#100-01)-
100.) Hatari! (1962) (Dir: Howard Hawks)
99.) Mulholland Drive (2001) (Dir: David Lynch)
98.) The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939) (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi)
97.) A Woman Under the Influence (1974) (Dir: John Cassavetes)
96.) Germany Year Zero (1948) (Dir: Roberto Rossellini)
95.) L’Argent (1983) (Dir: Robert Bresson)
94.) The General (1926) (Dir: Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton)
93.) Some Came Running (1958) (Dir: Vincente Minnelli)
92.) Napoleon (1927) (Dir: Abel Gance)
91.) The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) (Dir: Max Ophuls)
90.) The Lady from Shanghai (1947) (Dir: Orson Welles)
89.) Anatahan (1953) (Dir: Josef von Sternberg)
88.) I Was Born, But… (1932) (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu)
87.) Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) (Dir: Jacques Rivette)
86.) Platform (2000) (Dir: Jia Zhangke)
85.) Johnny Guitar (1954) (Dir: Nicholas Ray)
84.) Barry Lyndon (1975) (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)
83.) Happy Hour (2015) (Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
82.) Lonesome (1928) (Dir: Paul Fejos)
81.) Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) (Dir: Leo McCarey)
80.) The Great Dictator (1940) (Dir: Charlie Chaplin)
79.) F for Fake (1973) (Dir: Orson Welles)
78.) Arsenal (1929) (Dir: Alexander Dovzhenko)
77.) The Crowd (1928) (Dir: King Vidor)
76.) Trouble in Paradise (1932) (Dir: Ernst Lubitsch)
75.) The Night of the Hunter (1955) (Dir: Charles Laughton)
74.) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) (Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
73.) Boyhood (2014) (Dir: Richard Linklater)
72.) Persona (1966) (Dir: Ingmar Bergman)
71.) The Decalogue (1988) (Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski)
(Polish Television)
(Miniseries)
71a. A Short Film About Killing (1988) (Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski)
71b. A Short Film About Love (1988) (Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski)
70.) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
69.) Certified Copy (2010) (Dir: Abbas Kiarostami)
68.) The Scarlet Empress (1934) (Dir: Josef von Sternberg)
67.) Late Spring (1949) (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu)
66.) Leave Her to Heaven (1945) (Dir: John M. Stahl)
65.) Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) (Dir: Albert Lewin)
64.) La Region Centrale (1971) (Dir: Michael Snow)
63.) Dead Man (1995) (Dir: Jim Jarmusch)
62.) Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) (Dir: Robert Bresson)
61.) Out 1 (1971) (Dir: Jacques Rivette)
60.) Modern Times (1936) (Dir: Charlie Chaplin)
59.) Day of Wrath (1943) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
58.) To Sleep with Anger (1990) (Dir: Charles Burnett)
57.) The Irishman (2019) (Dir: Martin Scorsese)
56.) Duck Amuck (1953) (Dir: Charles M. Jones)
(Animation)
(Short)
55.) Viridiana (1961) (Dir: Luis Bunuel)
54.) Wanda (1970) (Dir: Barbara Loden)
53.) Vagabond (1985) (Dir: Agnes Varda)
52.) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) (Dir: Dziga Vertov)
51.) Sansho the Bailiff (1954) (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi)
50.) Nashville (1975) (Dir: Robert Altman)
49.) Brief Encounter (1945) (Dir: David Lean)
48.) Track of the Cat (1954) (Dir: William A. Wellman)
47.) Daughters of the Dust (1991) (Dir: Julie Dash)
46.) The Docks of New York (1928) (Dir: Josef von Sternberg)
45.) Ivan (1932) (Dir: Alexander Dovzhenko)
44.) Spring in a Small Town (1948) (Dir: Fei Mu)
43.) L’Eclisse (1962) (Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni)
42.) A Brighter Summer Day (1991) (Dir: Edward Yang)
41.) Holy Motors (2012) (Dir: Leos Carax)
40.) Scarface (1932) (Dir: Howard Hawks)
39.) When It Rains (1995) (Dir: Charles Burnett)
(Short)
38.) Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) (Dir: Raul Ruiz)
37.) The Naked Spur (1953) (Dir: Anthony Mann)
36.) The Red Shoes (1948) (Dir: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
35.) Tokyo Story (1953) (Dir: Yasujiro Ozu)
34.) Last Year at Marienbad (1961) (Dir: Alain Resnais)
33.) Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Dir: Chantal Akerman)
32.) Intolerance (1916) (Dir: D.W. Griffith)
31.) Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II (1944/1958) (Dir: Sergei Eisenstein)
30.) Monsieur Verdoux (1947) (Dir: Charlie Chaplin)
29.) Foolish Wives (1922) (Dir: Erich von Stroheim)
28.) M (1931) (Dir: Fritz Lang)
27.) Ordet (1955) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
26.) Les Vampires (1915-16) (Dir: Louis Feuillade)
(Serial)
25.) Marnie (1964) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
24.) Inland Empire (2006) (Dir: David Lynch)
23.) Goodbye to Language (2014) (Dir: Jean-Luc Godard)
22.) Love Streams (1984) (Dir: John Cassavetes)
21.) The World (2004) (Dir: Jia Zhangke)
20.) The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) (Dir: Abbas Kiarostami)
19.) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
18.) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) (Dir: Howard Hawks)
17.) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) (Dir: William Wyler)
16.) Love Me Tonight (1932) (Dir: Rouben Mamoulian)
15.) Gertrud (1964) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
14.) Sunrise (1927) (Dir: F.W. Murnau)
13.) The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) (Dir: Jacques Demy)
12.) Tih Minh (1918) (Dir: Louis Feuillade)
(Serial)
11.) Playtime (1967) (Dir: Jacques Tati)
10.) Satantango (1994) (Dir: Bela Tarr)
09.) Three Times (2005) (Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien)
08.) Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) (Dir: David Lynch)
(Cable/Television)
07.) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) (Dir: Orson Welles)
06.) Spione (1928) (Dir: Fritz Lang)
05.) Histoire(s) du Cinema (1988-1998) (Dir: Jean-Luc Godard)
04.) City Lights (1931) (Dir: Charlie Chaplin)
03.) Journey to Italy (1954) (Dir: Roberto Rossellini)
02.) Greed (1924) (Dir: Erich von Stroheim)
01.) Vertigo (1958) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
Before I conclude this blog entry, I have one question to ask my dear readers below:
What are your top 100 favorite films of all-time? Please note that If this is too hard to answer, I will happily excuse you all from answering the question 🙂
This blog entry is dedicated to what I consider to be an official version of my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Aside from some different choices, this year, I also decided to cite reasons for each ranking. I know I have said it before (click here and here), but it bears repeating – all lists (including my own) are subjective. Nevertheless, please be kind to number 7 on this list because that one means a lot to me 🙂 Anyway, Happy Halloween to all of my dear readers 🙂 Now, without further ado, I present to you all:
-My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
10.) Vampyr (1932)
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany/France
Color: Black and White
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s only true horror film was implicitly unfairly viewed by critics as one of his lesser works during it’s initial theatrical release in 1932. Fast-forwarding 91 years later in 2023, many critics now consider Vampyr to be (in the words of former Village Voice critic J. Hoberman) Dreyer’s most radical film. Given everything that came before and after in Dreyer’s oeuvre, Hoberman’s view can not be stated any better. Intentionally emphasizing atmosphere and imagery over plot, as a foreign horror film, Vampyr may be the closest one that purely resembles a nightmare.
Since I could not find a youtube video link to an official theatrical trailer, click here to view a 90th anniversary trailer
Click here to view a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary of it as one of BFI Player picks
Click here to watch the film on youtube
9.) The Shining (1980)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States/United Kingdom
Color: Color
Author Stephen King may have been greatly disappointed over director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his 1977 bestselling novel, but this has not prevented The Shining from eventually becoming (and deservedly so) a quintessential example of cinematic horror. Along with other Kubrick films, The Shining has only improved with time. Not unlike Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, The Shining remains the only horror film within Kubrick’s oeuvre. Similar to the former, The Shining resembles the work of an idiosyncratic filmmaker. On the one hand, we get now iconic scares ranging from the blood gushing elevator to images of hacked up twins to the image of it’s lead actor Jack Nicholson exclaiming (through ad-libbing) Here’s Johnny!. As in all (or most) of Kubrick’s films since 1957’s Paths of Glory, The Shining has been open to all sorts of interpretations and neither one would be wrong.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
8.) Nosferatu (1922)
Dir: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany
Color: Black and White
German director F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized silent adaptation of author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula also happens to be my personal favorite version of the source material. Whereas other versions romanticized the aforementioned title character, Nosferatu depicts the vampire (named Count Orlok in this film) as a truly hideous monster in every single way imaginable. All of his mannerisms are expressed perfectly by it’s lead actor Max Schreck. As a masterpiece of both German Expressionism and cinematic horror, Nosferatu is driven less by scares and more by it’s eerie atmosphere.
Since I can’t find an official theatrical trailer for it, click here to view this youtube video link of it’s 100 Anniversary trailer
Click here to watch the film on youtube
7.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Dir: David Lynch
Country: United States/France
Color: Color
Critically savaged upon it’s initial theatrical release back in 1992, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has since been reassessed as not only a misunderstood masterpiece, but also as one of director David Lynch’s major masterworks. As for myself, I will go one step further by citing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as the number one greatest American horror film of the 1990’s. A prequel to both the original series (1990-91) and 2017’s The Return, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me centers on the sad last days of Laura Palmer – acted with gusto by the immensely beautiful and talented Sheryl Lee. Aided by composer Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting music score, the result is every bit as surreal and nightmarish as it is ultimately tragic. British film critic/novelist Kim Newman once stated that the film’s many moments of horror demonstrate just how tidy, conventional and domesticated the generic horror movie of the 1980’s and 1990’s has become. I could not have stated it any better.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to listen to the soundtrack
Click here to watch author Scott Ryan’s introduction to the film at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre from last year
Click here, here, here, here and here to watch a Q&A with actress Sheryl Lee and actor Dana Ashbrook from a 2021 showing of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre
6.) Let the Right One In (2008)
Dir: Tomas Alfredson
Country: Sweden
Color: Color
Even If he is destined to never make another great film, Swedish director Tomas Alfredson can at least be proud of this one. With all due respect to Nosferatu and Vampyr, Let the Right One In stands as my number one favorite horror film ever made to center on a vampire. Let the Right One In breaks with convention by exploring it’s surface themes relating to boy/girl bonding, revenge and social rejection with truly insightful results. If there is another horror film out there that has already achieved this, I have yet to see it.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
5.) The Babadook (2014)
Dir: Jennifer Kent
Country: Australia
Color: Color
Regardless of whether The Babadook continues to stand for myself as the number one greatest horror film of the 21st century is another question. The one thing I can guarantee is that The Babadook will always remain my personal favorite one of the 2010’s. On a whole, the title monster serves as a metaphor for both parenting and grief. The result is all the scarier once you realize how close it hits to home.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
4.) Dead of Night (1945)
Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Black and White
Noted for being Ealing Studios only foray into the genre (at least based on my knowledge), Dead of Night also served (debatably barring 1924’s Waxworks) as the granddaddy of all horror anthology films. While all subsequent portmanteau horror films can be described as perfect to an extent, for me, Dead of Night is the only one where that aforementioned word can be applied without reservation. Sandwiched between it’s prologue and epilogue are five stories that form a cohesive whole. Though I love them all for different reasons, my personal favorite segment would have to be director Alberto Cavalcanti’s The Ventriloquist Dummy. If that one is not the creepiest of the bunch, then it certainly comes close.
Though I can’t find a trailer for it online, the film is probably available on DVD/Blu-Ray
Click here to view a 2014 retrospective documentary on it entitled Remembering Dead of Night
3.) Diabolique (1955)
Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Country: France
Color: Black and White
Though Alfred Hitchcock is often credited for initially redefining Cold War era cinematic horror with Psycho, the aforementioned genre was actually first redefined five years earlier in 1955 by French director Henri-Georges Clouzot with Diabolique. As the film’s plot unfolds, Clouzot wastes no time in elevating the tension to completely unbearable heights and effortlessly keeps it going throughout. Culminating in one of the most shocking twist endings ever conceived, Diabolique is a horror thriller that will ultimately make one’s heart stop.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to view Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to the film
2.) Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Dir: Georges Franju
Country: France/Italy
Color: Black and White
Gruesome on the surface, but lyrical in the center, Eyes Without a Face is often implicitly cited (and rightfully so) as what a horror film would look like helmed by poet Jean Cocteau. In contrast to the morbid, yet tragic story is the strangely beautiful atmosphere, which (subtly or otherwise) resembles that of a fairy tale.
Click here to view what may or may not be the film’s French trailer
Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary of it as one of his BFI Player picks
Click here to view Kermode’s Kermode Uncut commentary on it
Click here to view Mark Kermode’s Cult Film Corner commentary on it
1.) Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Country: United Kingdom/Italy
Color: Color
Now often hailed as one of (If not) the most influential horror films ever made, Don’t Look Now also happens to be my number one favorite horror film of all-time. Reportedly cited by Nicolas Roeg (the British director himself) as his exercise in film grammar, as a horror thriller, Don’t Look Now stands out as quite possibly the most beautiful marriage between form and content. Accompanied by composer Pino Donaggio’s emotionally powerful music score, Roeg’s trademark unconventional editing style and it’s fittingly bleak, yet strangely lovely atmosphere, Don’t Look Now explores a tragedy’s impact on a married couple through the power of visual storytelling. Along with it’s explicit controversial sex scene, Don’t Look Now is noted for featuring (like Diabolique before it) the scariest ending ever conceived in the history of cinematic horror.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to view the film’s 2019 4K Restoration trailer
Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s 2008 Culture Show interview with director Nicolas Roeg
Click here to view Kermode’s review of the 2019 4K Restoration of the film
Click here to view Irish documentarian Mark Cousins 2001 Scene By Scene interview with actor Donald Sutherland on the film
Click here to view Mark Cousins Moviedrome intro to the film
Click here to view Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier commentary on the film
Click here to listen to the soundtrack
Let me conclude this blog entry with a two questions for my dear readers below
What are your top 10 favorite horror films of all-time?
What video links in my blog entry interested you the most?
Most of the Michelangelo Antonioni films listed here are ones I saw on a home video format (Blu-Ray and DVD in this case. Nevertheless, some of these I watched online.
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All of the Kenneth Anger films listed here are ones that I watched online. Even with the fairly large number of Anger shorts listed, there are still a fair amount that I have not seen yet.
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