My Current Top 100
 

NUMBER ONE

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I've had about two major film watching Renaissances. The First took place in the late 80's through the late 90's. The Second occurred during the mid 2000's through the mid 2010's. Both periods introduced me to motion pictures that would greatly influence my tastes for years to come. It was during the Second Renaissance that I discovered my current favorite film, McCabe & Mrs. Miller. I blind bought DVD at the deeply missed Borders Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had read a few glowing reviews, most notably from Pauline Kale and Roger Ebert, and I enjoyed Westerns, so I decided to give it a shot. But this was no ordinary Western. McCabe & Mrs. Miller had atmosphere and pathos beyond what I had come to expect, I was used to shootouts and that sort of thing. Not this beautifully sad motion picture about a somewhat dense Old West pimp and the worldly-wise prostitute who enters his life. I don't really know if there any true heroes in this film, but I cared about the characters and felt more emotion than with any Western before or since.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

I really need to see that movie again someday. I didn't find it as glowing as others, but for a couple of Altman's, it took two watches, so I believe this is necessary for me.

NUMBER TWO

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This was the film that began the First Renaissance of my film watching (see McCabe & Mrs. Miller entry). Raising Arizona had the distinction of being the most insane film I'd witnessed up to that point. Being a thirteen-year-old movie aficionado, I wasn't quite ready for the madness. Raising Arizona changed me.The eleven minute pre-title sequence alone left me enchanted. The rest simply blew my mind. I quote the movie whenever I need to brighten my mood. No movie is funnier, and none more magical. Nicolas Cage has been a favorite ever since, though the whole cast is wonderful. Pure joy.

I took to McCabe & Mrs Miller right away. The soundtrack, the wintery atmosphere, the cinematography... all of it. I'm not a huge Altman fan, but McCabe & Mrs Miller is just a one of a kind experience for me.

I sensed that as well, but I guess I felt its story was a little slow for me at the time. Then again, I love Satantango and might need to look at it from a different perspective.


Haven't seen Raising Arizona yet.

NUMBER THREE

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Only Raising Arizona brings forth the mirth in greater quantity than Love and Death. A hilarious satire of Russian literature, love, and death, this is a non-stop comedic assault driven by the music of Sergei Prokofiev. Annie Hall never did much for me. I prefer Woody Allen's early goofy comedies, and none are funnier than this 1975 work.

NUMBER FOUR

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I credit Raiders with being my first favorite film. Before that I hadn't really thought about cinema as being a significant part of my existence. I was only seven when I saw it for the first time, but I knew something special had occurred. I'm such a Raiders purist that I don't even acknowledge the other films in the series. Indiana Jones wasn't the hero of the film. Nobody was. Sure, he beat up Nazis. Jones and Belloq, however, were both seeking the Ark for less than noble reasons. And, in the end, Jones learns a big lesson. Raiders said everything that needed to be said. The other films have nothing to add and miss the point of the original.

NUMBER FIVE

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There are three Horror films that I credit with solidifying my love of the genre:An American Werewolf In London, Evil Dead II, and Suspiria. Of those, the last showed me just how aurally and visually stunning such a film could be. True, Suspiria isn't perfect, with the rest of the film not quite living up to the bravura opening. But, overall, Suspiria has more style and flair than most any other Horror film, or any film. It's my favorite nightmare.

NUMBER SIX

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I watched a lot of movies on cable I probably shouldn't have been watching in my early teens. Before Blue Velvet I saw Lynch's The Elephant Man, which didn't much prepare me for Frank Booth. Blue Velvet was an obscene, wild film for a kid to be sitting through. I probably didn't fully grasp what I was seeing at the time, but Blue Velvet had a large influence on forming my cinematic tastes. Like many people, the "In Dreams" scene fascinated me most. I play the song at least weekly. It's easily my favorite movie scene of all time.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

I haven't seen Love and Death yet, even though I adore Woody Allen. Raiders has been in my top 10 for years, and Blue Velvet spent a long time in my top 100. It's my favorite Lynch. Suspiria felt more visual than deep to me, but boy is the filmmaking inspiring, or should I say, suspiring?

Suspiria is frustrating at times. I'll admit that it's not a deep film, but the score and the visuals carry it well enough. I've shown it to numerous people and they found it boring. But it had such an impact on me 25 years ago when I first saw it that it's still a major favorite.

As for Love and Death, it's funnier than his other pre-Annie Hall films. And funnier than Annie Hall as well. It's just really funny.

NUMBER SEVEN

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I didn't care for Taxi Driver the first time I saw it on cable back in the 80's. I might've been fourteen at the time. Maybe I found it too bleak. It took until my adulthood for me to truly appreciate it. I also started to relate to Travis Bickle in some uncomfortable ways. While Bickle is generally held up as someone not to emulate, there was something about him that drew me in. There's a scene where Bickle says "I got some bad ideas in my head" and that resonated with me. Who doesn't? Of course, I never murdered a couple pimps in order to save an underage prostitute, but there's still time...

Re: My Current Top 100
 

Mc. Cabe & Mrs. Miller is a masterpiece for sure, and definitely one of my favourite Westerns too.
I haven’t seen Raising Arizona, but sounds like I’m going to have to!
Love and Death is one of Woody Allen’s best for sure, a fine choice.
Can’t say I’m the biggest Indianna Jones fan. Spielberg’s directing doesn’t do anything for me. But there is still the nostalgia, and no denying it was an iconic character for Ford. The trillogy impacted me a lot when I was younger.
Suspiria I respect more than I actually like, because I appreciate the fact that horror movies didn’t really have death scenes like that before. It shocked the world when it released. Seeing it at that time must have really been something. But personally for Argento the only one of his films that I engaged with was Deep Red.
Blue Velvet is a great Lynch film. I do like Eraserhead more though.

Taxi Driver was a movie I first encountered here actually, back when I first joined. People talked about it in such high regards, and I wasn’t prepared for it. Hands down the best performance I’ve seen from De Niro and Scorsese both individually. It was so raw, gritty, and potent with its acting, dialogue, subject matter, and plot, delivering an extremely realistic and insightful film. This movie broke serious ground for me, because growing up I wasn’t exposed to this sort of thing.

You’ve got an interesting list going so far.

Raising Arizona probably isn't for everyone. It's manic and nutty from start to finish. I know people who worship the film and others who can't stand it. One's sense of humor has a lot to do with your reaction to it, I figure.

I should stress that I'm NOT an Indiana Jones fan. I'm a Raiders of the Lost Ark fan. I rarely watch the other films because I consider them unnecessary and irrelevant to the original.

I didn't care for Deep Red. A lot of people prefer it to Suspiria, but I don't see the appeal. There are a few other Argento films I enjoy, like Phenomena and Dracula, but Suspiria is by far my favorite.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

I adore Raising Arizona. But in a way where I fully acknowledge it'll be divisive and half the people who see it won't really click with it at all. But I click with it, and if you click with it, it's an absolute joy.

NUMBER EIGHT

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I was fifteen when I came across this epic on a Sunday afternoon while flipping through the stations. I knew nothing about it, but for the next three hours I was enthralled. Up to that point, the only Westerns I'd seen were Young Guns, Rustlers' Rhapsody and a few episodes of the Lone Ranger. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was grittier and more violent than any of those. And it was funny. The film single-handedly ignited my love for the genre, and introduced me to whole new breed of filmmaking. I was never the same.

The acting is one of the main factors if not the main factor. Suspiria and Inferno have very wooden acting. It's been a long time since I saw Deep Red, so I'm going off my old impression. No idea how I'd feel about it after a rewatch. But I think in terms of the story, plot, and dialogue it was the only one that didn't feel like it had any filler content. I was actually very surprised to find out it was made by Argento. I felt gripped the entire time, but with Suspiria and Inferno I felt bored. When a horror film prioritises death scenes over its story it becomes gratuitous. Deep Red is the only one of his films that gave me the impression that the story, plot, and mystery of the murder actually mattered. And, Deep Red wasn't cheesy at all, whereas most of the Italian horror Argento inspired is very cheesy.

HA! The reasons you don't like Suspiria are pretty much the reasons I do. Lots of murders and cheesiness. But I do agree that some of Suspiria feels like filler, since there are parts that do drag a bit. The razor wire scene is an example. I know people who prefer the Suspiria remake because there's more to it. But I love the original for the score and visuals above all else. So we're coming from two different directions.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

That was once my top western, but now it's Once Upon a Time in the West. Either way, Leone reigns supreme.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is in my Top 20.... This is one of a few movies that are a must re-watch.


It's about America. And it's on YouTube for Free.


https://youtu.be/kGhRGjwxb_c

I see this with criticisms of Suspira a lot. It's just visuals, it's not deep. But what's deep? Complaining about it's lack of depth seems only to undermine the complicated emotional responses a film like Suspira taps into. The movie is always pulling us in with its visual beauty, while at the same time pushing us away with masterfully constructed set pieces designed to frighten, repulse and confuse. The movie goes deep. It's effect is beyond language, so who cares if it doesn't have something specifically thoughtful to say about, what, Indo-China relations? If only more filmmakers could be half as inspired, we would have a lot more movies to get excited about. Suspira gets us to talk about the mystery and the beauty and the poetry of pure filmmaking. **** deep.

McCabe is one of the great mysterious and impenetrable Altman movies that, like Three Women, he probably never bettered.


Except he did. With Nashville. That's how good that guy was.

Deep Red and McCabe and Mrs Miller are two films From the respective directors that I like but don’t rate as highly as others. Argento had better films ( I have The Bird With The Crystal Plumage waiting to be watched on shudder , and I’ve yet to see Opera or Four Flies on Grey Velvet, ugh), as did Altman (I haven’t seen Nashville or The Player yet, double ugh).
I actually like Tenebrae, Cat O’Nine Tails and Inferno a bit more than Deep Red among his Giallo. And no, Suspiria, which I consider perhaps his best film, isn’t Giallo.

Well, the problem with calling a movie deep for its visuals and score alone is that the visuals and music of a movie are surface level details. What's beneath that? What's the message? What deeper meaning do the visuals and music serve? For a movie to be "deep" it must have a profound message, and teach you a lot about life, because that is the bar that people like Tarkovsky set. What was Susperia's message? As far as I can tell, it didn't have one. But for all the praise that Susperia's visuals get, the cinematography was actually quite poor, with a lot of boring shots, awkwardly framed shots, and awkward camera placements.




I don't get the position that Susperia isn't Giallo, like why not? It checks every box.


-Italian Produced
-Murder Mystery Horror
-Mysterious killer revealed in the final act


Is it not erotic enough? I wonder why people think it isn't, as every time I hear someone assert that they never explain anything or give any kind of reason. Like, I just googled it and there's an article saying it's not that doesn't give a single word as to why. But yeah, just google Giallo and Susperia appears everywhere, it's like the poster child for Giallo.

imo suspiria probably drops half a star without the razor wire scene. one of the most deeply unpleasant things i've ever seen in a film.

The best and most important part about the razor wire scene is, why is there a room full of razor wire? The fact that the movie sees absolutely no reason to explain this, and is not remotely bothered by the fact that it clearly can't be explained, is why we are in a special place with this movie (or really the best of any of Argento's or Fulci's films)

Having a message doesn't make a film deep. A school pamphlet about the dangers of crossing a road without looking both ways first has a message but wouldn't be considered deep.



And just because people by default call images 'surface level' doesn't mean they can't have depth. Suspiria has ideas about filmmaking, about the subconscious, about how images and music can combined to engage and disorient. It is full of provocations about what is real and what isn't. It reinvents the basic idea of how a horror film operates. These things have depth because they can be talked about at length and with deep analysis that could fill books.



Basically the whole idea that 'style over substance' means a film is nothing but an empty vehicle for surface pleasures and thrills is total nonsense that I reject completely out of hand.




Dude, don't even. How these shots are framed and composed, how the camera moves, where the camera is placed are exactly where many of the films ideas can be found. Maybe if they listened to you when they made it and didn't put the camera in all those 'awkward' places, then maybe the movie might not have anything to offer beyond its violence. And there isn't a single boring shot in the entire film. If one is worried about forward momentum regarding the story, that admittedly frequently stalls, and as a vehicle for storytelling Suspiria could probably pretty fairly be described as a failure. And so maybe that is what you mean by boring, because the story sometimes is. But....**** stories? Suspiria is better than that.



That's not every box. Also giallo's generally don't deal with the supernatural. And who cares what googling gets you. That just means a lot of other people misidentify the film (personally, I don't care if it's considered giallo or not, and I hate stuffing things into genres and subgenres....but by most standard definitions Suspiria really isn't one)

So what's the standard it doesn't meet? What are some boxes it doesn't check?

Giallo is generally a crime film, which Suspiria is not. They are often police procedurals, which this also is not.


Giallo is also not a supernatural genre, or arguably even horror, which Suspiria definitely is.


Also even stylistically, Suspiria exists in an almost surreal, allegorical, fairy tale world. Giallo's exists in an identifiably real, usually present day world.


Even by loose definitions, Suspiria is not giallo. It just happens to have murder set pieces similar to them, and is directed by a man who began his career in that specific genre.

I just googled suspiria and Giallo and saw several articles saying it isn’t Giallo. Heck, Argento himself doesn’t consider it Giallo. It isn’t even considered the poster child for it. That would be Deep Red
Giallo are murder mystery/thrillers with human protagonists while Suspiria is very much a supernatural horror film.

Well, Giallo is murder mystery in all it's subgenres. Even though they aren't typically supernatural, they're not excluded for being supernatural. Susperia is murder mystery, so... I haven't heard anything yet that excludes it, just that some people don't consider it.


It makes no difference to me, but I try not to base my opinions on hearsay.

I don't mind the razor wire scene itself, so much as how long it seems to take getting there. They seem to chase the girl forever. I just chalk the razor wire as a WTF? moment and leave it at that.

I get that my reasons for liking these sort of things wouldn't be for everyone, but I love scenes, especially in horror movies, that warp your perception of time. And having a chase scene go on for too long is one way to do that.



Hell, Texas Chainsaw Massacre rode that particular trick to infamy. And in the meantime, forged a weirdly beautiful tone poem for that special feeling of being chased to the end of time by cannibal hillbilly monsters. The best kind of tone poem, if you ask me.

The final chase scene in the original film is one of my favorite scenes of all time. You can practically feel the air from the chainsaw blade whizzing behind you. Chain Saw is in my Top 100.

Chainsaw would be in my top 5

It's a nice choice.

Also nice.

I utterly disagree with this statement.

Cheers.

Both Crumbs and I gave reasons for why it isn’t considered Giallo, which supports the argument against it more so than simply “people don’t consider it”. And it definitely doesn’t qualify as hearsay, either, considering our reasoning.
Anyways, it hardly matters, as you say, as it doesn’t help to get too bogged down with genre trappings no matter how much I disagree. Suspiria is still a work of art.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

Ya, I couldn't care less if people call Suspiria a giallo. I think I probably do sometimes too. But there are fairly clear reasons why it shouldn't be considered one, if you care at all what the purists say. Which you shouldn't.

Right, as much as I don’t consider it Giallo, I’m not going to come after someone with a pitch fork and torch. I’ll give my reasoning and move on.

Now excuse me, I have about a dozen Tavernier films I need to binge the next two weeks before they leave criterion.

NUMBER NINE

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The legendary twist ending is what most people talk about when it comes to Soylent Green. What makes the movie memorable for me is the friendship between Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson's characters. There's a scene between the two before the big reveal that brings a tear to my eye every time. That's what makes Soylent Green more resonant than most other Science Fiction/Dystopian films, and other films in general.

Do you mind restating those reasons? It's easy to just make an assertion. If you stated any reasons I have no idea what they were, but I would genuinely like to know. I don't care if it is or isn't, I just want to know what's correct.

Not one of my favourites but I enjoy seeing these somewhat unexpected choices in someone's Best Of list. Can't wait to see the rest of it.

NUMBER TEN

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CQ involves Jeremy Davies as a film editor in 1969 Paris. The director walks off the film he's working on in protest, leaving it up to Davies to finish the project. There's also the film within the film, Dragonfly, about a secret agent taking on a rebel group headquartered on the Moon. It's a fun ride that always leaves me in a good mood. But it also has a melancholy quality that touches my soul.

NUMBER ELEVEN

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The greatest of all Wes Anderson movies. That doesn't mean as much as it used to since I'm not as enamoured with his work as I once was, but it's still a film that touches my heart and imagination. There are so many little details that make Life Aquatic special that I'm still finding them years after my first viewing. A beautiful, mirth-inducing motion picture.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

^That's funny. I've seen every Wes movie and love the guy but I'd rank Life Aquatic as last on my list. Just not quite as funny, the main character is more mean that enjoyable, and the weird CGI fish threw me off.

I loved McCabe and Mrs Miller too

Love this movie but I am surprised to see it this high on your list.

Re: My Current Top 100
 

Interesting to think that Soylent Green happened three years ago.
The film poster is a bit misleading (it was the reason for me to watch it) as it suggests that Soylent Green is made of people.