Sane's Top 133 Favourite Films

101. Magnolia (1999) - Paul Thomas Anderson

American Drama
I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of PTA - I've had mixed feelings about his films with three that I've seen being great. The other three weren't nearly as impressive. Magnolia, however, certainly is a great film. I have always loved this style of film with multiple stories running side by side and occasionally intersecting. Obviously Altman has done it with great success and a more recent film like Babel was also one I really enjoyed but I think this may be the best use of that "style" of film that I've seen. One thing that PTA is great at is bringing out great performances - anyone who can get a performance out of Adam Sandler like PTA did in Punch Drunk Love deserves respect and I think he gets the best performance I've seen from Tom Cruise here. I've said it before but Cruise would be a great actor if he focussed on character driven roles - as a hero he is almost always terrible. Anyway, looking forward to seeing more from PTA even though I'm one of those who didn't like his most recent effort.

Totoro is great. I liked Magnolia and I think Nebraska will grow on me to like even more.

seems i'm not the only one

i loved totoro and magnolia great movies , i also liked nebraska but not as much as everybody did..

100. Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) - Max Ophuls

American Romance
Ophuls has quickly become a favourite of mine and thus far this is the best of his films that I've seen. As far as I can tell he only made about four movies in Hollywood and this is one of them - the other five I've seen were either French or German productions. Perhaps the main reason I love his films is that he seemed to be a perfectionist - everything that he could control seemed to be perfect - the sets, the costumes, hair, make-up ... pretty much everything. He is also a director who made films with every shot being beautiful but there was also a strong focus on his characters and their stories. This film covers a period of many years and Joan Fontaine's character's infatuation with a pianist that she first meets as a teenager. The movie is essentially narrated by a letter written by Fontaine's character and this works really well to bring the whole story together and also make us really empathise with her. This is a wonderful film and one I think I will like even more in the future and it's my nomination in the current HoF - both because it is a great film and because Ophuls is a director that I think people need to see more of.

I thought Magnolia was decent on my first viewing, then loved it on my second viewing. Which are PTA's that you don't care for?

I also really like The Sweet Hereafter and Red Desert.

I didn't care for Totoro as I don't like most fantasy.

I want to see Talk to Her, Santa Sangre, and Nebraska.

I enjoyed Nebraska quite a bit.

I didn't care at all for Totoro (I found the kids annoying and creatures a little creepy) and haven't really liked any of Miyazaki's work so far.

Haven't seen Magnolia, but thusfar the only PTA film I've truly enjoyed was Inherent Vice so I'm not exactly in a rush to see it.

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Letter From an Unknown Woman is the movie that I'm looking forward to the most in the 7th HoF.

Didn't enjoy Inherent Vice although I didn't hate it because I though that Joaquín Phoenix was great. Just disliked much of the dialogue and really had no idea what was going on for 90% of it.

Hard Eight was decent but didn't do a lot for me.

I'm probably being a bit unfair on The Master because I did like it but feel it is a real step below Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love & There Will Be Blood.

He's a very popular director and deservedly so but I feel like I want a bit more consistency before I elevate him to one of my favourites. One more "great" film would do that.

Letter from an Unknown Woman is prime stuff, I highly recommend Tag Gallagher's video essay on it if you can find a copy, it's probably his best work, stylistically (speaking both of Ophuls and Gallagher here).

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Mubi

Hope you enjoy it. I'll post in the HoF thread later but I watched your nomination yesterday and was caught a bit by surprise because I loved it

I only saw You Can't Take It With You (1938) a few weeks ago, and it was my first time seeing it. I loved it so much that I chose it as my nomination in the 7th HoF.

I'm glad you loved it too.

34 movies in and no Ozu - I believe I have shown great restraint ... or "had"

99. Late Autumn (1960) - Yasujiro Ozu

Japanese Drama
This is a film that makes me extremely happy and extremely sad. Anytime I see an Ozu film with Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara I am pretty much in heaven and this one is a little but more special because Hara started off in her Ozu films as a daughter but now she is playing a mother. It is also one of the few Ozu films in colour and shows how perfectly he was able to transition from black & white. That's where the sadness comes from because three years after this film Ozu was dead and Hara would never act again. We missed out on the final quarter of Ozu's career - we never got to the "winter" films - and we missed out on potentially 50 years (she is still alive) of great Hara performances. Anyway, enough of that. This is one of many great Ozu films and once again shows the amazing amount of insight Ozu had - in terms of people, families and his society.

You haven't seen Boogie Nights?

I'll be watching Late Autumn within the next couple weeks-looking forward to it!

That's a good point actually - I have seen Boogie Nights and liked it a lot but it was years ago. When I refer to films I've seen I'm usually only talking about the last three years or so - in my head that's when I actually started watching them seriously and I don't really trust my memory for anything prior. I do have a copy of Boogie Nights so I might watch it today - that will probably move PTA up to being a favourite

Have only seen Late Spring from Ozu and it wasn't my cup of tea.

I really like that picture on the Late Autumn dvd and fully intended to watch it before the 60s list but just didn't have the time. It's still on my watchlist, though.

The only Ozu I've seen in a theater, what an experience! The colors subtly texture, guide, mislead, and enliven every shot. Every shot is a game, or rather a dance, of colors interacting with one another. It's one of my favorite Ozu films. Hara retired from acting the same year that Ozu died, and she lived in the town where she made many films with Ozu. There has been speculation about Hara having romantic involvement with Ozu because of this. I obviously can't speculate on whether this is true with so little information, but I'm more likely to believe that Hara saw his death as the end of her screen persona, as nobody captured her with such clarity and grace as Ozu did.

I'm not big on movie "gossip" but I am fascinated by the story of Ozu & Hara. Their stories almost elevate their movies - the way Ozu seemed to understand people so well when he was never married, lived with his mum his whole life and was a bit of a drunk apparently and how his death for whatever reason seemed to cause Hara to retire and live as a recluse for 52 years. I'd like someone to make a movie about that ...

It's pretty funny that Ozu was probably the biggest drunk of any of the great directors. It feels very ironic considering how restrained his films are, though he's one of very few directors (Hong Sang-Soo comes to mind) to thoroughly incorporate alcohol into his mise-en-scene.