Best year based on best 3 films of the year

Good luck beating 1949

Late Spring (Yasujirō Ozu)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa)

1954

Rear Window
Sansho the Bailiff
On the Waterfront

What a shout!!!!!

That is my own alternative year, although personally I use Journey to Italy instead of Sancho.

Yeah, 1954 - the quality at the top... My favorite movie overall and Kazan's best (Waterfront), my favorite Kurosawa (7 Samurai), Mizoguchi (Sansho), Naruse (Sound of the Mountain), my second favorite Hitchcock (Rear Window), my third favorite Fellini (La Strada) - plus the debut of Godzilla and my favorite director, Bunuel, released a winner in Wuthering Heights.

Only 3, though? I could stay in Japan with Sansho, Samurai and Mountain and that's a knock-out right there.

But I'd have to include my all-time favorite, so...

1. On The Waterfront
2. Sansho the Bailiff
3. The Seven Samurai

but man, it hurts to leave off the ones from Hitch, Naruse, and Fellini.

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The late 20s were loaded at the top.

1927 - Metropolis, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Napoleon

1928 - The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Wind, and the Last Command (or The Crowd, Steamboat Bill jr. The Circus)

1927 is another of my top years, with those films and also The Lodger, pick any 3.

1959 would be my pick: Ben-Hur, North By Northwest, and Pickpocket

Anatomy of a Murder another contender for that year.

Among movie addicts (perhaps not so much critics), 1939 is often called "Hollywood's Golden Year." So I suppose we should mention it, though of course "Hollywood" isn't necessarily a gold standard of quality. To be slightly more expansive than "Hollywood" we'd have:

Rules of the Game (an acknowledged classic)
Gone with the Wind (not my favorite, but loved by many)
The Wizard of Oz (well, of course, given my profile)

A solid year at least for entertaining movies and a few with some substance:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Women
Stagecoach
Ninotchka
Goodbye Mr. Chips
Wuthering Heights
Of Mice and Men
Dark Victory
Love Affair
Destry Rides Again
Only Angels Have Wings

You'd expect a Hitchcock in there, but sandwiched between The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Rebecca (1940) alas there is Jamaica Inn (1939).

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Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

1997 was the first one that jumped out at me

Cure
Gummo
Nowhere

1979
stalker
all that jazz
apocalypse now

2001
fellowship of the ring
mulholland drive
a.i. artificial intelligence

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criticker

OK!

1963
Fellini 8 1/2
Bergman Winter Light
Charade (Not as big as the first two)

Nice - I used to consider '63 a little thin, but when I dug deeper, I found a lot of goodies - better year than I thought in my younger days.

Looking at my lists, I have
1. 8½
2. Le Mépris (Contempt - Godard)
3. Mahanagar (The Big City - Satyajit Ray)

Rounding out my top 5, The Birds, and Muriel, or the Time of Return

1957

paths of glory
12 angry men
witness for the prosecution
a face in the crowd
sweet smell of success
the bridge over the river kwai
3:10 to yuma
gunfight in the ok corral
night of the demon

1999 was a good year for hits. My favorites:

The Sixth Sense
Run Lola Run
Boys Don't Cry

But you could pick any of these:

Fight Club
American Beauty
The Green Mile
The Matrix
Election
Audition
The Virgin Suicides
Being John Malkovich
Eyes Wide Shut
Toy Story 2
All About My Mother
Magnolia
Office Space
Girl, Interrupted
October Sky
The Blair Witch Project

Oh heck, one more: 1994

As I was considering these, it felt like it was a year for breakthroughs. So pardon the highly subjective annotations, which are probably colored by the fact I've actually seen all of these except for two (noted)

Pulp Fiction (John Travolta resurrected; Tarantino cements his auteur status)
The Shawshank Redemption (tops many lists for "best ever")
Eat Drink Man Woman (a particular favorite of mine; early Ang Lee)

Also, in no particular order:

Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski's conclusion to Three Colors series; 100% on the Tomatometer)
The Madness of King George
Once Were Warriors (not seen yet)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Hugh Grant breakthrough as heartthrob)
Little Women
Ed Wood (overdue credit for Martin Landau)
Clerks (Kevin Smith's debut hit)
Hoop Dreams (some consider it the best doc ever)
Heavenly Creatures (first major role for Kate Winslet; breakthrough for Peter Jackson)
Speed (Sandra Bullock's first hit and major starring role)
Bullets Over Broadway
The Secret of Roan Inish
Muriel's Wedding (Toni Colette breakthrough; Rachel Griffiths debut)
Forrest Gump
The Professional (Natalie Portman's debut)
Il Postino (The Postman; not seen yet)
Double Happiness (Sandra Oh debut)
Death and the Maiden
Crumb
Quiz Show
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Thanks ... this has been fun. I imagine you only wanted three, but it's like choosing your favorite three kids in most cases for me.

1959 is a good contender with these:
Human Condition I, II
Some Like It Hot
North by Northwest

I know I kind of cheated by including the first two Human Condition films. It's just that you can't have the first Human Condition without the second, and vice versa. The reason I couldn't include the third one is it came out in 1961.

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