Sane's Top 100

Thought it was time I make my own Top 100 thread. I love reading other people's and finding movies I haven't seen so hopefully other people can find something on this list they might like.

As I mentioned in my review thread, I've been somewhat re-born this year in terms of movie watching. This list is made up purely from movies I have seen this year (501 so far) and the order is according to the rating I gave them at the time of watching. So, this will be interesting for me as well because I haven't actually sat down and organised the order in advance.

100. What Time is it There (2001) - Tsai Ming Liang (Taiwan)

I've see four Tsai movies and he has a style that I really like. Often scenes are long with almost nothing happening and no dialogue. It gives you time to take in the scene, think about the characters and gain a greater understanding of their lives and how they think. This movie is actually his most "normal" for want of a better word. It does have a reasonable amount of dialogue and is, in some ways, a romantic comedy. Also has some scenes that show Tsai's influences from French cinema.

99. Through the Olive Trees (1994) - Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)

Worth including just for it's final scene - an extended shot with no dialogue that seems to last for about 15 minutes (but I'm sure it's much shorter than that) that actually provides great tension. It's a movie about a romance (kind of) set within the making of a movie. It was my first Kiarostami movie and have watched about six more since.

98. Three Colors: Blue (1994) - Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland)

The first in the well known trilogy. Beautifully shot by Kieslowski and acted by Binoche. Binoche loses her husband and child in a car accident and struggles to cope. The Three Colors trilogy deals with issues in French society but that's all a bit over my head so I just watched them as movies without that level of depth and Blue is still great.

97. Papillon (1973) - Franklin J Schaffner (USA)

Great performances from McQueen and Hoffman in this prison escape movie adapted from the French novel.

96. Moneyball (2011) - Bennett Miller (USA)

I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm a Brad Pitt fan. Not a great actor yet but he does tend to always be in very good movies. There aren't too many superstar actors you can say that about. I'm also a sports fan (although I'm Australian so don't really follow baseball) so this was, for me, a very good film. Apart from it just being interesting from a sports perspective, it had three very good performances from Pitt, Seymour Hoffman and, in particular, Hill. I mentioned this in another thread but Hill could become a very good character actor in the future - like Ned Beatty

I thought Papillon and Moneyball were both excellent films.

Did you see the preceding films, Where is the Friend's Home and Life, nd Nothing More. They're regarded as a loose trilogy by many so I've been holding off on seeing this film until I could get a hold of the others.

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Mubi

Yes, yet another list!

I have Moneyball, but haven't gotten around to watching yet.

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Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood

Really like Moneyball.

I can't get over the fact that you have seen over 500 movies this year.

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Letterboxd

Really like Moneyball.

I can't get over the fact that you have seen over 500 movies this year.

No, unfortunately I didn't realise that at the time. I knew little of Kiarostami and only found out about it, strangely enough, through a Chinese forum my wife visits. Didn't do any research and just watched it. Will probably wait a while and then watch them in the correct order.

Got a lot of time on my hands I quit work and went back to studying this year and have a long commute - about 2 hrs each way - so watch movies on my ipad each day. We also don't really watch TV at home - just movies.

Nice, Ill probably hit about 120 this year and thought I was doing well.

Have been wanting to do one for a while but thought there were too many running. Saw Mr Minio and Teeter G finished their's today so thought "it's now or never"

Blue is fantastic. I'm sure Red will turn up later on your list, but I think Blue is the best.

I've not seen Moneyball, but I would like to. Hated Papillon to the point I'm not even sure if I finished it or not. I probably did, because it was well over 20 years ago and I used to put myself through it back then, but I remember nothing about it.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Spoiler Alert, I did rate Red slightly higher but overall I thought Blue had a better story and was better acted. I just felt Red really came together in the last 5 minutes and it earned extra points for finalising the trilogy.

I actually watched it twice this year and felt a bit like you after the first viewing. I decided to give it another go by breaking it up into two sittings (it's quite hard to watch because it's long and not exactly "entertaining") and I enjoyed it a lot more.

Great list! I love Tsai films I've seen and can't wait to see more.
I was disappointed with two Kiarostami films I've seen so far, but your list makes me wanna give him another chance.
Blue is my least favourite of the trilogy, but still a good film.
Papillon is a good movie, too.

Can't wait to see more entries here!

I believe that past 6 months I've seen about 350 films. Past a year I've seen about 600.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

+1 for Blue. I also prefer Red but Blue is my second favourite of the trilogy. I haven't seen any of the other ones but i'll probably get around to them at some point.

95. Lust, Caution (2007) - Ang Lee (Taiwan)

Ang Lee can probably be described as a "world" director because he is Taiwanese but really learnt to make movies in the US. This is one of his movies set in mainland China and Hong Kong. Highly controversial in China due to it being sexually explicit. It's set during China's occupation by Japan around WWII. It's about university students planning to murder a Chinese government official who is a puppet for the Japanese. Despite the controversy it is actually just a really good war/spy movie. Stars one of my favourite actors, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who will probably show up in this list more than any other actor.

94. Lady Vengeance (2005) - Park Chan Wook (Korea)

The third in Park's vengeance trilogy and IMO the second best. At times both over the top, like it's two predecessors, and extremely violent and hard to watch. I'm not sure if many will agree with me but I actually think the 2000s is the best decade for movies. For me this is the decade that Asian film making rose up to the level of the US and Europe thanks in part to the number of extremely high quality movies coming out of Korea. That's not to downplay the quality that has come out of Japan for the last 60 years but now China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea are at or near that level.

93. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) - Quentin Tarantino (USA)

My favourite American director of the past 20 years and I honestly believe his catalogue already rivals many of the great American directors - maybe not in terms of depth yet but definitely quality. Good story, very well written, perfectly acted, very well directed, just a really good movie. One of the things Tarantino does well is put together a flawless cast - in this, everyone is perfect for their role. Before seeing it I wasn't sure about Lucy Liu but she was a real highlight.

92. The Isle (2000) - Kim Ki Duk (Korea)

Kim Ki Duk is a real enigma. Some of his movies are fascinating but completely miss the mark in some areas - they leave me really unsure after they are finished if they were actually good. But they always make me think. He also gets criticised for being too violent and misogynistic but he is responsible for one of the most beautiful love stories I have seen on screen (that will come later ). The Isle is one of his earlier films - it is beautiful at times and then shocking at others. By this stage of his career he wasn't able to get everything together to make a truly great movie but you can see he was on his way. Like many of his films, the lead character doesn't actually speak for the entire movie. Like I said, an enigma.

91. Inglourious Basterds (2009) - Quentin Tarantino (USA)

More Tarantino, more Brad Pitt When I first saw this I thought it was Tarantino's weakest but after watching it again this year I gained new appreciation. I'm sure my comments will get boring with Tarantino films - very well written, great casting, very well directed, well acted, etc. He just knows how to make very good movies. Worth mentioning Pitt and Waltz. Whilst Pitt's performance wasn't perfect he showed that he has some really good comic timing, and Waltz was, as he seems to always be, brilliant.

The only ones I've seen so far are Moneyball, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds. Both Tarantino's are awesome and Moneyball is pretty good

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I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages

Blue, Moneyball, Lady Vegenance, Kill Bill Volume 1, and Inglorious Bastards, are all films I like. 5/5 on ones I've seen, nice

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First movie of his I saw was Good Bye Dragon Inn which, for someone who hadn't watched too many "arty" movies, was a bizarre experience. Literally nothing happens ... for the entire movie. Just long shots, sometimes with people, sometimes without. It just had some brief moments, some quite funny, that made it worthwhile. At the end I though "well, that was weird, but I think I liked it". So he's partly responsible for opening my mind up to the fact that movies can be all different things - they don't have to follow any sort of set structure. It also made me realise that movies can let you think about what is happening on screen - they don't have to spell everything out. So now I'm generally happy to watch any sort of movie - style doesn't matter as long as it's an experience

I have Lust, Caution and I like Ang Lee, but I've still not seen it.

I should watch Kill Bill again, but I much preferred vol 2 (or the second half) to the first. I remember The Isle when it came out, but I didn't get around to seeing it. I thin it has a few fans on the site, though.

IB usually pops up on these lists and, as always, I've don't understand why. I'd think of it as the Tarantino film for people who don't like Tarantino, but his fans seem to like it, at least, as much as everyone else, so...

Looking forward to seeing the rest.