+10
I initially had Army of Shadows on my list, but I think it got bumped at the last minute. Probably because it is a movie I've only seen once, and I only have vague notion of what happens in it, and it seemed silly to include a film that I can't even talk about why I love. It just left a deep impression, much like all of Melville's films, even the one's I don't particularly like (like Red Circle)
I think the movie I bumped it for, is the movie that I chose instead of including the Conformist. I didn't really feel like double dipping on Nazi's. Seemed tacky. So, even though The Conformist didn't make the cut either, I have a special place in my heart for it. It was one of the first films I ever saw which made me realize how not only the subject of a film could be deadly serious, but also its form. Of course, I initially hated it because of that, thought the film class I was taking was going to be a big waste if they actually expected me to think about the movies we were watching, but as the years went on, my mind kept returning to this movie I thought was a complete slog. Now I'm not quite as dumb anymore though, I have myself a copy, and sometimes put it on simply as a film I like to keep me company.
I didn't know dubbed movies counted, so I overlooked Suspiria. This is probably a good thing though, because then my whole list would have been horrid Italian trash. Fulci would have been spitting guts up all over this fancy pants list of yours.
As for Suspiria, what more needs to be said. It's the kind of cinematic perfection that led me to watch it two times in a row the first time I saw it, then immediately the next morning when I woke up. It was like I couldn't believe it could even be real, and that I would catch it not existing if I just kept playing the DVD over and over. It's a watershed movie for me, as a result. Nothing would be the same after I saw it. I recalibrated my entire critical outlook. It's that good. And everyone who disagrees just makes me profoundly sad.
Sonatine is Kitano, and so I know I love Sonatine. The problem is, I can never really tell any of his movies apart, and have just become this amorphous blob of what a man completely committed to his weirdo instincts can create if he doesn't worry if he ends up alienating whose chunks of his audience. I'm pretty sure this isn't the one that beings in a baseball outhouse. And it's thankfully not the one with all the CGI blood. I should probably rewatch it, because I own the majority of them.
I've never seen Raise the Red Lantern. It's one of those movies that has always been on my radar, but the title sounds boring, so I haven't pulled the trigger. Titles are important to me. I'm pretty sure half of my rating gets tied up in such first impressions.
I've seen a bunch of Roberto Rosselini pictures, and have always liked them well enough, but none has ever really made a huge impression beyond Voyage to Italy. I'm certain I've seen Germany Year Zero, but I may as well not have, considering how little I retained.
I like The Vanishing a lot, but not enough to have included it on this list. Much has already been mentioned about the horror of how unassuming the villain is. And that is kind of the key to everything in this film. I've never known what to say beyond that point. But as a tense, unnerving watch, its as visceral as it gets, and that counts for something.