40. Broadway Danny Rose (1984, Woody Allen)



An utterly charming, beguiling film, and proof that Woody can act…

39. Heat (1995, Michael Mann)



One of the criticisms levelled at Heat is that it’s merely a vehicle for Little Shouty Al and Gurning Bob to share the screen. Not so.

I’d love it just the same if, say, Ed Harris and Jeff Bridges played the leads as Mann has crafted a superlative cop/heist movie. The glee in Pacino's eyes during his "great ass!" speech brings a grin to my face. Every. Single. Time.

38. Silent Running (1972, Douglas Trumbull)



For years Trumbull’s ecological Sci-Fi was in my top three. The visual effects still look great and Bruce Dern plays the oddball, Messianic lead like only he can.

Time has not been kind to the trilling, warbling Joan Baez songs though…

37. Wings Of Desire (1987, Wim Wenders)



Angels at our table.

A truly beautiful and moving picture.

36. Fitzcarraldo (1982, Werner Herzog)



Mad Werner and Bonkers Klaus together, again, as nature intended. Only this time, more so.

Herzog’s love for ‘mad prophets’ has never shone through quite like this tale of the Irishman (with suspiciously Teutonic accent) pulling a boat over a mountain.

Werner being Werner, of course, he actually decided to film a boat being pulled over a mountain. Now THAT’S realism…

35. hana-bi (1997, Takeshi Kitano)



Kitano ventures into my top 40 with this haunting, elegiac and existential tale of a former cop’s last road trip with his dying wife.

Memorable.

34. Short Cuts (1993, Robert Altman)



Old Bob’s interweaving of Carver stories leaves the other ensemble films to which it is often compared trailing in it’s wake. The reason for this is a wry humour, some great naturalistic performances and a killer script.

33. Paris, Texas (1984, Wim Wenders)



When we have nothing left in life apart from our regret, where do we turn? Ask ‘Arry…

32. Angel (1982, Neil Jordan)



The story of a saxophone player from South Armagh who blunders in on the Irish Troubles and embarks on a bleak, lyrical journey of revenge. There’s a parochial pathos at work here which might not travel more than 50 miles from the film’s setting. No matter, it’s on my doorstep.

31. Twenty Four Seven (1997, Shane Meadows)



There are characters like Bob Hoskins’ Alan in every working class town in Britain, still struggling to rise above eleven years of Thatcher’s neglect. Meadows depicts Alan as a fundamentally good man, shy and well-intentioned, striving to give hope to the young unemployed lads in his area.

MoFo - Finished yet?

Me - 'Fraid not.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan