TOP TENS from the recent to the increasingly distant past....

 

A word of explanation-- These were created in accordance with Theo Panayides's History Project (it's a secret!), which stipulates that films be categorized by their release date, as listed in the ever-accurate IMDb.  So my personal, expanded year-by-year lists will differ from these, since the personal lists focus on what I saw in a particular year.  Also, my lists provide a slight difficulty in terms of date consistency, since most avant-garde films or makers do not end up in the IMDb, unless I or one of the other seven devotees submit them. But I've tried to be as consistent as possible. Also, I have begun writing brief comments of films as I add them.  They can be found here. Let's get started, shall we buds.

 

Skip ahead to: 2010s / 2000s / 1990s / 1980s / 1970s / 1960s / 1950s / 1940s / 1930s / 1920s / 1910s

 

.................

 

2022:

1. Instant Life (Anja Dornieden, Juan David González Monroy, and Andrew Kim)

2. Coma (Bertrand Bonello)

3. Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-fai)

4. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)

5. Urban Solutions (Minze Tummescheit, Arne Hector, Luciana Mazeto, and Vinicius Lopes)

6. After Work (Ben Rivers and Céline Condorelli)

7. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)

8. Robe of Gems (Natalia López)

9. NE Corridor (Joshua Gen Solondz)

10. Against Time (Ben Russell)

complete list here

 

2021:

1. Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)

2. Devil's Peak (Simon Liu)

3. The Great Movement (Kiro Russo)

4. Petite Maman (Céline Schiamma)

5. Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman)

6. The Canyon (Zachary Epcar)

7. From Bakersfield to Mojave (James Benning)

8. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)

9. Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)

10. We're All Going to the World's Fair (Jane Schoenbrun)

complete list here

 

2020:

1. Circumstantial Pleasures (Lewis Klahr)

2. Labor of Love (Sylvia Schedelbauer)

3. Figure Minus Fact (Mary Helena Clark)

4. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)

5. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)

6. Nasir (Arun Karthick)

7. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)

8. When We Were Monsters (Steve Reinke and James Richards)

9. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)

10. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)

complete list here

 

TOP TEN OF THE 2010s:

1. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)

2. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, 2012)

3. The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack, 2018)

4. Pelourinho, They Don't Really Care About Us (Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2019)

5. Hard To Be a God (Aleksei German, 2013)

6. River Rites (Ben Russell, 2011)

7. House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello, 2011)

8. Episode of the Sea (Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, and the inhabitants of Urk, 2014)

9. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2014)

10. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2016)

 

2019:

1. Pelourinho, They Don't Really Care About Us (Akosua Adoma Owusu)

2. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)

3. Heimat is a Space In Time (Thomas Heise)

4. Lux Æterna (Gaspar Noé)

5. Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)

6. I Was At Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)

7. A Film in Colour (Bruno Delgado Ramo)

8. Austrian Pavilion (Philipp Fleischmann)

9. The Giverny Document (Single Channel) (Ja'Tovia Gary)

10. Cityscape (Michael Snow)

(in)complete list here

 

2018:

1. The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack)

2. Colophon (for the Arboretum Cycle) (Nathaniel Dorsky)

3. Gens du lac (Jean-Marie Straub)

4. Bisbee '17 (Robert Greene)

5. A Return (James Edmonds)

6. The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard)

7. Transit (Christian Petzold)

8. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)

9. Fainting Spells (Sky Hopinka)

10. Season of the Devil (Lav Diaz)

complete list here

 

2017:

1. Western (Valeska Grisebach)

2. Strangely Ordinary This Devotion (Dani and Sheilah ReStack)

3. Streetscapes [Dialogue] (Heinz Emigholz)

4. On the Beach At Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo)

5. Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder (Fern Silva)

6. Jeannette (Bruno Dumont)

7. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)

8. Dim The Fluorescents (Daniel Warth)

9. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)

10. Colo (Teresa Villaverde)

complete list here

 

2016:

1. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

2. Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa)

3. Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)

4. Lemonade (Beyonce Knowles Carter, et. al.)

5. 025 Sunset Red (Laida Lertxundi)

6. Old Hat (Zach Iannazzi)

7. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)

8. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)

9. If You Can't See My Mirrors, I Can't See You (Alee Peoples)

10. 20th Century Women (Mike Mills)

complete list here

 

2015:

1. A Century of Energy (Manoel de Oliveira)

2. Night Without Distance (Lois Patiño)

3. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson)

4. Engram of Returning (Daïchi Saïto)

5. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

6. Something Between Us (Jodie Mack)

7. Over the Years (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)

8. Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story (Michael Almereyda)

9. The Exquisite Corpus (Peter Tscherkassky)

10. Invention (Mark Lewis)

complete list here

 

2014:

1. Episode of the Sea (Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, and the inhabitants of Urk)

2. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

3. Sound That (Kevin Jerome Everson)

4. From What is Before (Lav Diaz)

5. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yega (Jessica Oreck)

6. Actress (Robert Greene)

7. We Had the Experience, But Missed the Meaning (Laida Lertxundi)

8. Shoot (Gaspar Noé)

9. Eat Your Bones (Jean-Charles Hue)

10. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)

complete list here

 

2013:

1. Hard To Be a God (Aleksei German)

2. Spring (Nathaniel Dorsky)

3. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)

4. The Three Disasters (Jean-Luc Godard)

5. Charlie Victor Romeo (Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels, and Karlyn Michelson)

6. Service of the Goods (Jean-Paul Kelly)

7. The Realist (Scott Stark)

8. The Past (Asghar Farhadi)

9. Main Hall (Philipp Fleischmann)

10. The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-Wai)

bubblin' under

11. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)

complete list here

 

2012:

1. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)

2. anders, Mollusien (Nicolas Rey)

3. The Extravagant Shadows (David Gatten)

4. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

5. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

6. Student (Darezhan Omirbayev)

7. Point de Gaze (Jodie Mack)

8. Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)

9. Museum Hours (Jem Cohen)

10. View From the Acropolis (Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan)

complete list here

 

2011:

1. River Rites (Ben Russell)

2. House of Tolerance [L'Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close)] (Bertrand Bonello)

3. The Return (Nathaniel Dorsky)

4. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

5. Ricky (Janie Geiser)

6. Edwin Parker (Tacita Dean)

7. Elena (Andrei Zvyagintsev)

8. Keyhole (Guy Maddin)

9. Almayer's Folly (Chantal Akerman)

10. American Colour (Joshua Bonnetta)

complete list here

 

2010:

1. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)

2. Film For Invisible Ink Case No. 323: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (David Gatten)

3. Film Socialism (Jean-Luc Godard)

4. The City Below (Christoph Hochhäusler)

5. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

6. [redacted]

7. Erie (Kevin Jerome Everson)

8. Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko)

9. These Hammers Don't Hurt Us (Michael Robinson)

10. O somma luce (Jean-Marie Straub)

complete list here

 

TOP TEN OF THE 2000s:

1. What The Water Said, nos. 4-6 (David Gatten, 2007)

2. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 2000)

3. Song and Solitude (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2006)

4. ( ) (Morgan Fisher, 2003)

5. Disorder (Huang Weikai, 2009)

6. The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003)

7. Lenten Light Conversions (Lynn Marie Kirby, 2004)

8. Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)

9. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel, 2005)

1o. The Jesus Trilogy and Coda (Stan Brakhage, 2001)

 

2009:

1. Disorder (Huang Weikai)

2. Phantoms of Nabua (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

3. A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

4. Wednesday Morning Two A.M. (Lewis Klahr)

5. Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daïchi Saïto)

6. Let Each One Go Where He May (Ben Russell)

7. Cinematographie (Philipp Fleischmann)

8. Night Mayor (Guy Maddin)

9. Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin)

10. Coraline (Henry Selick)

complete list here

 

2008:

1. When It Was Blue (Jennifer Reeves)

2. Hunger (Steve McQueen)

3. Origin of the Species (Ben Rivers)

4. Jerichow (Christian Petzold)

5. Speechless (Scott Stark)

6. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

7. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso)

8. Failed States (Henry Hills)

9. 7915 KM (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)

10. 1859 (Fred Worden)

complete list here

 

2007:

1. What the Water Said, nos. 4-6 (David Gatten)

2. Observando El Cielo (Jeanne Liotta)

3. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

4. RR (James Benning)

5. In Memoriam - Mark LaPore (Phil Solomon)

6. Light Is Waiting (Michael Robinson)

7. Public Domain (Jim Jennings)

8. La France (Serge Bozon)

9. Profit motive and the whispering wind (John Gianvito)

10. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

complete list here

 

2006:

1. Song and Solitude (Nathaniel Dorsky)

2. Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)

3. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke)

4. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)

5. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

6. Capitalism: Child Labor (Ken Jacobs)

7. The Free Will (Matthias Glasner)

8. Woman On the Beach (Hong Sangsoo)

9. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)

10. Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad)

bubblin' under

11. Europa 2005, 27 Octobre (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

12. Honor de cavalleria (Albert Serra)

13. Exiled (Johnnie To)

14. The Host (Bong Joon-ho)

15. Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

16. 14th Arrondissement [segment from Paris, je t'aime] (Alexander Payne)

17. Inside Man (Spike Lee)

18. Everyday Bad Dream (Fred Worden)

 

2005:

1. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)

2. Interstellar Lower East Side Ramble (Ken Jacobs) [Magic Lantern performance]

3. Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki)

4. The Sun (Alexander Sokurov)

5. Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)

6. Tale of Cinema (Hong Sangsoo)

7. Nice Biscotts #2 (Luther Price)

8. Low Profile [Falscher Bekenner] (Christoph Hochhäusler)

9. Worldly Desires (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

10. Takeshis' (Takeshi Kitano)

bubblin' under

11. One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later (James Benning)

12. North Southernly (Vincent Grenier)

13. The Proposition (John Hillcoat)

14. I Am A Sex Addict (Caveh Zahedi)

15. 4 (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)

 

2004:

1. Lenten Light Conversions (Lynn Marie Kirby)

2. Close Quarters (Jim Jennings)

3. Wolff von Amerongen: Did He Commit Bankruptcy Offenses? (Gerhard Friedl)

4. Greene Street (Ernie Gehr)

5. The Two Minutes to Zero Trilogy (Lewis Klahr)

6. Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembene)

7. Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs)

8. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)

9. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

10. The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel)

bubblin' under

11. Tabula Rasa (Vincent Grenier)

12. A Hole in My Heart (Lukas Moodysson)

13. Tomorrow We Move (Chantal Akerman)

14. Essex Street Market (Ernie Gehr)

15. She's One of Us (Siegrid Alnoy)

16. Skagafjördur (Peter Hutton)

17. The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chris Marker)

18. Pyramid Lake Piaute Reservation Exposure (Lynn Marie Kirby)

19. Monologue Exterieur (Francien van Everdingen)

20. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (Lu Chuan)

 

2003:

1. ( ) (Morgan Fisher)

2. The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo)

3. Dogville (Lars von Trier)

4. Stan's Window (Stan Brakhage)

5. Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen)

6. Poised for Parabolas (Lynn Marie Kirby)

7. Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)

8. Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (Charles Burnett)

9. Come and Go (João César Monteiro)

10. Raja (Jacques Doillon)

bubblin' under

11. Lucky Jack: Three Attempts to Stop Smoking (Peter Liechti)

12. Zero Day (Ben Coccio)

13. The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin)

14. Passage (Ernie Gehr)

15. The School of Rock (Richard Linklater)

 

2002:

1. Irreversible (Gaspar Noé)

2. The Hedge Theatre (Robert Beavers)

3. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

4. Seasons . . . (Stan Brakhage w/ Phil Solomon)

5. Monday Morning (Otar Iosseliani)

6. The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

7. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph)

8. 8 Women (François Ozon)

9. Virgin of Lust (Arturo Ripstein)

10. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)

bubblin' under

11. In My Skin (Marina de Van)

12. Blue Gate Crossing (Yee Chih-yen)

13. Hero (Zhang Yimou)

14. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook)

 

2001:

1. The Jesus Trilogy and Coda (Stan Brakhage)

2. Harmful Insect (Akihiko Shiota)

3. The Or Cloud (Fred Worden)

4. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)

5. Looking at the Sea (Peter Hutton)

6. Brigham City (Richard Dutcher)

7. Where Has Your Hidden Smile Gone? (Pedro Costa)

8. Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki)

9. I’m Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira)

10. Silence... We’re Rolling (Youssef Chahine)

bubblin' under

11. In Praise of Love (Jean-Luc Godard)

12. Shelter (Roberto Arignello)

13. Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón)

14. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)

15. To the Left of the Father (Luiz Fernando Carvalho)

 

2000:

1. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky)

2. The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin)

3. Miracle on 34th Street (Jim Jennings)

4. Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen)

5. Time and Tide: Study of a River, Part 2 (Peter Hutton)

6. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)

7. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)

8. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)

9. The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (Stan Brakhage)

10. La Captive (Chantal Akerman)

bubblin’ under

11. Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng)

12. Dead or Alive 2: Birds (Takashi Miike)

13. Camera (David Cronenberg)

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1990s

1. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996)

2. Side / Walk / Shuttle (Ernie Gehr, 1992)

3. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998)

4. The River (Tsai Ming-liang, 1997)

5. The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage, 1994)

6. L’humanité (Bruno Dumont, 1999)

7. Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

8. passage à l’acte (Martin Arnold, 1993)

9. Khroustaliov, My Car! (Aleksei German, 1998)

10. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)

 

1999:

1. L’humanité (Bruno Dumont)

2. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)

3. God’s Wedding (João César Monteiro)

4. Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky)

5. The Earthsong of the Cricket (Stan Brakhage)

6. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)

7. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)

8. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)

9. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)

10. El Valley Centro (James Benning)

bubblin' under

11. This Side of Paradise: fragments of an unfinished biography (Jonas Mekas)

12. The Stranger in Apartment 9F (Mike Kuchar)

13. Audition (Takashi Miike)

14. Tuvalu (Veit Helmer)

15. Magenta 1 (Luis Recoder)

16. Rosetta (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)

17. Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)

18. Cremaster 2 (Matthew Barney)

  

1998:

1. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

2. Khroustaliov, My Car! (Aleksei German)

3. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard)

4. NOEMA (Scott Stark)

5. Variations (Nathaniel Dorsky)

6. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang)

7. Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy (Ken Jacobs)

8. Nô (Robert Lepage)

9. Os Mutantes (Teresa Villaverde)

10. Babe: Pig in the City (George Miller)

bubblin' under

11. Buffalo ‘66 (Vincent Gallo)

12. Silvercup (Jim Jennings)

13. I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noe)

14. Killer (Darezhan Omirbaev)

15. Emily Died (Anne Robertson)

16. Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold)

17. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)

18. The Power of Kangwon Province (Hong Sang-soo)

 

1997:

1. The River (Tsai Ming-liang)

2. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)

3. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

4. Commingled Containers (Stan Brakhage)

5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (Wai Ka-fai)

6. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)

7. Time Flies (Robert Breer)

78. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley)

9. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)

10. Xiao Wu (Jia Zhang Ke)

bubblin' under

11. Four Corners (James Benning)

 

1996:

1. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

2. Talent Show (Laura Parnes)

3. The Funeral (Abel Ferrara)

4. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)

5. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)

6. Crash (David Cronenberg)

7. MURDER and murder (Yvonne Rainer)

8. Drifting Clouds (Aki Kaurismäki)

9. Nightjohn (Charles Burnett)

10. The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin)

bubblin' under

11. God’s Comedy (João César Monteiro)

 

1995:

1. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)

2. Safe (Todd Haynes)

3. Taschenkino (Gustav Deutsch) [interactive installation]

4. Bouquets 1-10 (Rose Lowder)

5. Salaam Cinema (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

6. Clockers (Spike Lee)

7. The Girl's Nervy (Jennifer Reeves)
8. Le Garçu (Maurice Pialat)

9. Maborosi (Koreeda Hirokazu)

10. When It Rains (Charles Burnett)

bubblin' under

11. Se7en (David Fincher)

12. Underground (Emir Kusturica)

13. Deseret (James Benning)

 

1994:

1. The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage)

2. Bitemporal Vision: The Sea (Ken Jacobs)

3. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)

4. Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson)

5. Wild Reeds (Andre Téchiné)

6. Elementary Phrases (Stan Brakhage and Phil Solomon)

7. I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (Caveh Zahedi)

8. The Color of Love (Peggy Ahwesh)

9. Cannot Exist (Stan Brakhage)

10. Satantango (Béla Tarr)

bubblin' under

11. What happened was . . . (Tom Noonan)

12. Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (Aki Kaurismäki)

13. Run (Luther Price)

14. The Kingdom (Morten Arnfred / Lars von Trier)

15. Quiz Show (Robert Redford)

 

1993:

1. passage à l’acte (Martin Arnold)

2. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

3. Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira)

4. Hélas pour moi (Jean-Luc Godard)

5. Blue (Derek Jarman)

6. Calendar (Atom Egoyan)

7. Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (Francois Girard)

8. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis)

9. Suture (Scott McGehee and David Siegel)

10. The Beginning and the End (Arturo Ripstein)

bubblin' under

11. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)

12. Strange Weather (Peggy Ahwesh and Maggie Strosser)

13. Short Cuts (Robert Altman)

14. Green Snake (Tsui Hark)

15. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano)

16. "Man-Size" [video for PJ Harvey] (Maria Mochnacz)

17. King of the Hill (Steven Soderbergh)

 

1992:

1. Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr)

2. Simple Men (Hal Hartley)

3. Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)

4. Short Fuse (Warren Sonbert)

5. Interpolations 1-5 (Stan Brakhage)

6. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)

7. Careful (Guy Maddin)

8. Girls Daydream about Hollywood (Jennifer Reeves)

9. Another Girl, Another Planet (Michael Almereyda)

10. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)

bubblin' under

11. Céline (Jean-Claude Brisseau)

12. The Quince Tree of the Sun (Victor Erice)

13. The Player (Robert Altman)

14. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley)

15. Malcolm X (Spike Lee)

  

1991:

1. Sobriety, Obesity, and Growing Old (William Kentridge)

2. Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Leos Carax)

3. Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (Stan Brakhage)

4. Ambition (Hal Hartley)

5 . Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat)

6. Your Television Traveler (Larry Gottheim)

7. Edward II (Derek Jarman)

8. Once Upon a Time In China (Tsui Hark)

9. The Making of Monsters (John Greyson)

10. A Little Stiff (Caveh Zahedi and Greg Watkins)

bubblin' under

11. Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou)

12. Slacker (Richard Linklater)

  

1990:

1. See You Later / Au Revoir (Michael Snow)

2. King of New York (Abel Ferrara)

3. Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard)

4. Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich)

5. Granny's Is (David Larcher)

6. Trust (Hal Hartley)

7. Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 (Ken Jacobs)

8. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)

9. Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton)

10. The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki)

bubblin' under

11. Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder)

12. To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett)

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1980s

1. The Arabic Numeral Series (Stan Brakhage, 1981)

2. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)

3. Talking Heads (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1980)

4. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)

5. Hotel Cartograph (Scott Stark, 1982)

6. Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher, 1984)
7. Barres (Luc Moullet, 1984)

8. Airplane! (Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker, 1980)

9. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

10. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982)

[bumped: Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1982); The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer, 1985); Signal - Germany on the Air (Ernie Gehr, 1985)]

 

1989:

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)

2. Images of the World and the Inscription of War (Harun Farocki)

3. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)

4. Friendly Witness (Warren Sonbert)

5. Remains To Be Seen (Phil Solomon)

6. Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia (Ulrike Ottinger)

7. Angel’s Gate (Bill Viola)

8. Water and Power (Pat O'Neill)

9. Notes After Long Silence (Saul Levine)

10. Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)

bubblin' under

11. An Enemy of the People (Satyajit Ray)

12. Martina’s Playhouse (Peggy Ahwesh)

13. Marriage of the Blessed (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

14 . Surname Viet Given Name Nam (Trinh T. Minh-ha)

Need to re-see: Major League (David S. Ward); sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderburgh)

 

1988:

1. The Secret Garden (Phil Solomon)

2. High Hopes (Mike Leigh)

3. Midweekend (Caroline Avery)

4. Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway)

5. Damnation (Béla Tarr)

6. Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)

7. Dawn of an Evil Millennium (Damon Packard)

8. L'Oeuvre au noir (André Delvaux)

9. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (Mark Lewis)

10. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris)

bubblin' under

11. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)

 

1987:

1. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes)

2. The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage)

3. Damned If You Don’t (Su Friedrich)

4. Hamlet Goes Business (Aki Kaurismäki)

5. Under Satan's Sun (Maurice Pialat)

6. Yeelen (Soulemane Cissé)

7. Raising Arizona (Joel Coen)

8. Family Viewing (Atom Egoyan)

9. 17 Reasons Why (Nathaniel Dorsky)

10. The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (Hara Kazuo)

bubblin' under

11. The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)

12. Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme)

13. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)

14. Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembene)

15. The Running Man (Paul Michael Glazer)

16. Plain Talk & Common Sense (Jon Jost)

17. Keep Up Your Right (Jean-Luc Godard)

18. Mayhem (Abigail Child)

 

1986:

1. Sherman's March (Ross McElwee)

2. Working Girls (Lizzie Borden)

3. Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax)

4. Under the Cherry Moon (Prince)

5. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)

6. Apologies (Ann Charlotte Robertson)

7. Mélo (Alain Resnais)

8. Landscape Suicide (James Benning)

9. Mix-Up or Méli-Mélo (Françoise Romand)

10. The Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman)

bubblin' under

11. The Beekeeper (Theo Angelopoulos)

12. She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee)

13. Matador (Pedro Almodóvar)

14. Caravaggio (Derek Jarman)

15. Back to School (Alan Metter)

 

1985:

1. Signal -- Germany on the Air (Ernie Gehr)

2. Vagabond (Agnes Varda)

3. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)

4. A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)

5. Crime Wave (John Paizs)

6. The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer)

7. Soft and Hard (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville)

8. Money (Henry Hills)

9. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)

10. Naked Spaces: Living is Round (Trinh T. Minh-ha)

bubblin' under

11. Witness (Peter Weir)

12. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)

13. O. C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman)

14. Real Genius (Martha Coolidge)

 

1984:

1. Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher)

2. Barres (Luc Moullet)

3. L'Amour à mort (Alain Resnais)

4. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)

5. The Home and the World (Satyajit Ray)

6. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)

7. A & B in Ontario (Hollis Frampton and Joyce Wieland)

8. Almanac of Fall (Béla Tarr)

9. Top Secret! (Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker)

10. Les Années Declic (Raymond Depardon)

bubblin' under

11. Boy Meets Girl (Leos Carax)

12. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)

 

1983:

1. Seventeen (Jeff Kreines & Joel DeMott)

2. Zelig (Woody Allen)

3. A Woman's Touch (Warren Sonbert)

4. The Crimson Permanent Assurance [fragment of The Meaning of Life] (Terry Gilliam)

5. L'Argent (Robert Bresson)

6. À nos amours. (Maurice Pialat)

7. Reassemblage (Trinh T. Minh-ha)

8. Ulysse (Agnès Varda)

9. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)

10. La Vie est un roman (Alain Resnais)

bubblin' under

11. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)

12. Variety (Bette Gordon)

13. Vacation (Harold Ramis)

14. Crime and Punishment (Aki Kaurismäki)

 

1982:

1. Hotel Cartograph (Scott Stark)

2. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard)

3. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)

4. Him and Me (James Benning)

5. Secondary Currents (Peter Rose)

6. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)

7. Illuminated Texts (R. Bruce Elder)

8. The State of Things (Wim Wenders)

9. The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)

10. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)

bubblin' under

11. So Is This (Michael Snow)

Need to re-see: Toute une nuit (Chantal Akerman)

 

1981:

1. The Arabic Numeral Series (Stan Brakhage)

2. Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette)

3. Too Early, Too Late (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

4. Presents (Michael Snow)

5. Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer)

6. The Second Journey (To Uluru) (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill)

7. America is Waiting (Bruce Conner)

8. Gently Down the Stream (Su Friedrich)

9. Tree of Knowledge (Larry Gottheim)

10. Untitled, Part One (Ernie Gehr)

bubblin' under

11. Prelude (Abigail Child)

12. S.O.B. (Blake Edwards)

13. History of the World, Part One (Mel Brooks)

14. Swiss Army Knife With Rats and Pigeons (Robert Breer)

15. New York Portrait Chapter Two (Peter Hutton)

16. Hell Spit Flexion (Stan Brakhage)

17. Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris)

 

1980:

1. Talking Heads (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

2. Airplane! (Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker)

3. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

4. Mindfall, Parts I & VII (The Birth of Magellan) (Hollis Frampton)

5. Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (Nicolas Roeg)

6. Popeye (Robert Altman)

7. Journeys From Berlin / 1971 (Yvonne Rainer)

8. Simone Barbès or Virtue (Marie-Claude Treilhou)

9. Loulou (Maurice Pialat)

10. Loads (Curt McDowell)

bubblin' under

11. Demon Lover Diary (Joel DeMott)

12. Les Photos d'Alix (Jean Eustache)

13. Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) (Jean-Luc Godard)

14. Caddyshack (Harold Ramis)

15. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)

16. Germany, Pale Mother (Helma Sanders-Brahms)

17. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood)

18. Serial (Bill Persky)

19. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)

20. Charleen (Ross McElwee)

Need to re-see: Mon Oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais)

 

[ed. note: ...and now things really start getting good....]

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1970s

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

2. Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)

3. untitled (1977) (Ernie Gehr, 1977)

4. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton, 1971)

5. Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970)

6. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)

7. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)

8. On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (Owen Land, 1979)

9. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)

10. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

 

1979:

1. On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (Owen Land)

2. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

3. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)

4. Boston Fire (Peter Hutton)

5. North Beach 2 (Henry Hills)

6. The Patriotic Woman (Alexander Kluge)

7. The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

8. Being There (Hal Ashby)

9. "The Andy Kaufman Special" (Andy Kaufman / Mel Sherer / Bob Zmuda) [TV]

10. Ticket of No Return / Portrait of a Woman Drinker (Ulrike Ottinger)

bubblin' under

11. The Jerk (Carl Reiner)

12. Strong Medicine (Richard Foreman)

13. Soft Fiction (Chick Strand)

14. Gloria! (Hollis Frampton)

15. Manhattan (Woody Allen)

Need to re-see: The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Jerry Schatzberg)

 

1978:

1. Germany in Autumn [segment] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

2. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

3. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)

3. North Beach (Henry Hills)

4. Filming Othello (Orson Welles)

5. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)

6. Vertical Features Remake (Peter Greenaway)

7. Thot-Fal'N (Stan Brakhage)

8. Sürü (The Herd) (Zeki Ökten [for Yilmaz Güney])

9. Fingers (James Toback)

10. Mongoloid (Bruce Conner)

bubblin' under

11. LMNO (Robert Breer)

12. Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris)

13. Alexandria . . . Why? (Youssef Chahine)

Need to re-see: Les Rendezvous d'Anna (Chantal Akerman)

 

1977:

1. untitled (1977) (Ernie Gehr)

2. One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning)

3. Stroszek (Werner Herzog)

4. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)

5. The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson)

6. Hospital (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

7. Hitler: A Film From Germany (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg)

8. I, An Actress (George Kuchar)

9. Light Music (Lis Rhodes)

10. Analogies (Peter Rose)

bubblin' under

11. The American Friend (Wim Wenders)

12. Invisible Adversaries (Valie Export)

13. News from home (Chantal Akerman)

14. France / Tour / Détour / Deux / Enfants (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mièville)

15. Providence (Alain Resnais)

16. Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen)

17. 3 Women (Robert Altman)

18. Apaches (John Mackenzie)

19. Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene)

20. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)

21. Pause! (Peter Kubelka)

 

1976:

1. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes)

2. Table (Ernie Gehr)

3. A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat)

4. Epileptic Seizure Comparison (Paul Sharits)

5. Take the 5:10 to Dreamland (Bruce Conner)

6. Ici et Ailleurs (Jean-Luc Godard / Anne-Marie Mièville / Jean-Pierre Gorin)

7. The Space Between the Teeth (Bill Viola)

8. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)

9. Otherwise Unexplained Fires (Hollis Frampton)

10. Kings of the Road / In the Course of Time (Wim Wenders)

bubblin' under

11. 11 x 14 (James Benning)

12. Mouches Volantes (Larry Gottheim)

13. Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) (Michael Snow)

14. Satan's Brew (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

15. Carrie (Brian De Palma)

Need to re-see: Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Lost Lost Lost (Jonas Mekas); The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg); Kristina Talking Pictures (Yvonne Rainer)

 

1975:

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)

2. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)

3. Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

4. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni)

5. Associations (John Smith)

6. White Heart (Daniel Barnett)

7. Welfare (Frederick Wiseman)

8. Moses and Aron (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

9. Wide Angle Saxon (Owen Land)

10. Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)

bubblin' under

11. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

12."No Sir, Orison!" (Owen Land)

13. Rancho Deluxe (Frank Perry)

14. Numéro Deux (Jean-Luc Godard)

15. 31/75: Asyl (Kurt Kren)

16. F For Fake (Orson Welles)

17. The Seasons (Arthur Peleshian)

18. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman)

19. Xala (Ousmane Sembene)

Need to re-see: Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

 

1974:

[ed. note: Ranking these films seems particularly silly and a tad arbitrary, but I did my best; damn, what a year]

1. Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

2. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

3. Fuji (Robert Breer)

4. Lancelot du lac (Robert Bresson)

5. Film About a Woman Who . . . (Yvonne Rainer)

6. Mes Petites Amoureuses (Jean Eustache)

7. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)

8. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)

9. California Split (Robert Altman)

10. Boomerang (Richard Serra with Nancy Holt)

bubblin' under

11. Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

12. Eureka (Ernie Gehr)

13. Rameau's Nephew (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (Michael Snow)

14. The Haunted Mouth (American Dental Association, dir. uncredited)

15. Reason, Debate, and a Tale (Ritwik Ghatak)

16. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)

17. The Text of Light (Stan Brakhage) [note: I have only seen this on a shitty pirated VHS copy]

18. Splitting (Gordon Matta-Clark)

19. Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)

20. Shift (Ernie Gehr)

21. A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley California (Owen Land)

Need to re-see: Straits of Magellan: Drafts & Fragments (Hollis Frampton); A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)

 

1973:

1. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)

2. Duvidha (Mani Kaul)

3. The Mother and The Whore (Jean Eustache)

4. Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (René Viénet)

5. Horizons (Larry Gottheim)

6. Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto)

7. Touki-Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty)

8. Less (Hollis Frampton)

9. Marilyn Times Five (Bruce Conner)

10. The Amusement Park (George A. Romero)

bubblin' under

11. American Graffiti (George Lucas)

12. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)

13. Thank You Jesus For The Eternal Present (Owen Land)

Need to re-see: O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson)

 

1972:

1. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

2. The Wold Shadow (Stan Brakhage)

3. Play It As It Lays (Frank Perry)

4. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)

5. Tout va Bien (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin)

6. Letter to Jane (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin)

7. The Riddle of Lumen (Stan Brakhage)

8. We Won't Grow Old Together (Maurice Pialat)

9. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (Jonas Mekas)

10. Images (Robert Altman)

bubblin' under

11. Threshold (Malcolm Le Grice)

12. Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage)

13. What's Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich)

14. Near the Big Chakra (Anne Severson)

15. Gulls and Buoys (Robert Breer)

16. History Lessons (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

17. Dyn Amo (Stephen Dwoskin)

18. The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Need to re-see: Cabaret (Bob Fosse); The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel); Hotel Monterey (Chantal Akerman); Sexual Meditation: Hotel (Stan Brakhage)

 

1971:

[ed. note: Could this be the single greatest year in avant-garde film history? Just a thought . . .]

1. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton)

2. La Région Centrale (Michael Snow)

3. (nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton)

4. Bleu Shut (Robert Nelson)

5. Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman)

6. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)

7. S:TREAM:S:S:ECTION:S:ECTION:S:S:ECTIONED (Paul Sharits)

8. The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage)

9. Klute (Alan J. Pakula)

10. Factory (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

bubblin' under

11. Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson)

12. Pixilation (Lillian Schwartz)

13. Barn Rushes (Larry Gottheim)

14. Valentin de las Sierras (Bruce Baillie)

15. What's Wrong With This Picture? (Owen Land)

16. Holding (Coni Beeson)

17. Punishment Park (Peter Watkins)

18. Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Need to re-see: July '71 in San Francisco . . . (Peter Hutton); Turning Torso Drawdown (Robert Huot); WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)

 

1970:

1. Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni)

2. Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr)

3. The Hart of London (Jack Chambers)

4. Zorns Lemma (Hollis Frampton)

5. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer)

6. Field (Ernie Gehr)

7. Case For the Rookie Hangman (Pavel Juracek)

8. Pagan Rhapsody (George Kuchar)

9. Remedial Reading Comprehension (Owen Land)

10. British Sounds (Groupe Dziga-Vertov)

bubblin' under

11. Quick Billy (Bruce Baillie)

12. THX-1138 (George Lucas)

13. Abraham Zapruder's 8mm amateur film of the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy

14. The Story of a Man Who Left His Will on Film (Nagisa Oshima)

15. Multiple Sidosis (Sid Laverents)

16. Claire's Knee (Éric Rohmer)

17. ...ere erera baleibu izik subra aruren... (J. A. Sistiaga)

18. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)

19. Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

20. Brewster McCloud (Robert Altman) [note: I despised this film until about the fifth viewing]

21. Straight and Narrow (Tony and Beverly Conrad)

22. Circus Girls (Walter Gutman)

Need to re-see: Le Cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville); Goin' Down the Road (Donald Shebib); Hope (Umut) (Yilmaz Güney); Trash (Paul Morrissey)

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1960s

1. Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)

2. Gertrud (Carl-Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

4. Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka, 1966)

5. Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

6. Not Reconciled, or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1965)

7. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963)

8. Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)

9. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

10. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)

 

1969:

1. T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Paul Sharits)

2. Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

3. Still (Ernie Gehr)

4. Le Gai Savoir (Jean-Luc Godard)

5. Our Lady of the Sphere (Larry Jordan)

6. Tom, Tom the Piper's Son (Ken Jacobs)

7. <--> (Michael Snow)

8. My Night at Maud's (Éric Rohmer)

9. Fuses (Carolee Schneemann)

10. Spot the Microdot (Malcolm Le Grice)

bubblin' under

11. Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler)

12. My Name Is Oona (Gunvor Nelson)

13. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)

14. Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto)

15. Reason Over Passion (Joyce Wieland)

16. We (Arthur Peleshian)

17. Palindrome (Hollis Frampton)

18. Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

19. Permian Strata (Bruce Conner)

20. Blues (Larry Gottheim)

Need to re-see: Love Is Colder Than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Sayat Nova (Sergei Paradjanov); Une femme douce (Robert Bresson)

 

1968:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

2. Death By Hanging (Nagisa Oshima)

3. Je t'aime, Je t'aime (Alain Resnais)

4. Maxwell's Demon (Hollis Frampton)

5. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)

6. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves)

7. Actua I (Philippe Garrel)

8. New Left Note (Saul Levine)

9. Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)

10. Rohfilm (Wilhelm and Birgit Hein)

bubblin' under

11. Flesh (Paul Morrissey)

12. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)

13. The Swimmer (Frank Perry)

14. Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland)

Need to re-see: Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter (Owen Land); 69 (Robert Breer); Third Eye Butterfly (Storm De Hirsch); Winter Wind (Miklos Jansco)

 

1967:

[ed. note: This is my favorite movie year ever. EVER. The first five are among my twenty favorite films of all time.]

1. Wavelength (Michael Snow)

2. Report (Bruce Conner)

3. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)

4. Playtime (Jacques Tati)

5. Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman)

6. The Maltese Cross Movement (Keewatin Dewdney)

7. Mouchette (Robert Bresson)

8. Two in the Shadow (Mikio Naruse)

9. The Red and the White (Miklós Jancsó)

10. Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke)

bubblin' under

11. The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

12. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)

13. Sunset (Andy Warhol)

Need to re-see: Color Me Shameless (George Kuchar); Morning (Ernie Gehr); Wait (Ernie Gehr); 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard)

 

1966:

1. Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka)

2. Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson)

3. Seconds (John Frankenheimer)

4. The War Game (Peter Watkins)

5. All My Life (Bruce Baillie)

6. Daisies (Vera Chytilova)

7. Castro Street (Bruce Baillie)

8. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène)

9. Hold Me While I'm Naked (George Kuchar)

10. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone)

bubblin' under

11. The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura)

12. The Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol)

13. 7 Women (John Ford)

14. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)

15. Barrier (Jerzy Skolimowski)

16. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)

17. The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

18. Breakway (Bruce Conner)

19. The Velvet Underground and Nico (Andy Warhol)

20. Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc. (Owen Land)

21. Outer and Inner Space (Andy Warhol)

 

1965:

1. Not Reconciled, or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)

2. Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol)

3.Now! (Santiago Alvarez)

4. The Coward (Satyajit Ray)

5. Inside Daisy Clover (Robert Mulligan)

6. Time Piece (Jim Henson)

7. Vinyl (Andy Warhol)

8. The Flicker (Tony Conrad)

9. Screen Test: Bob Dylan (Andy Warhol)

10. Quixote (Bruce Baillie)

bubblin' under

11. Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)

Need to re-see: Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard); Corruption of the Damned (George Kuchar); Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)

 

1964:

1. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

2. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage)

3. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)

4. Window (Ken Jacobs)

5. Charulata (Satyajit Ray)

6. Couch (Andy Warhol)

7. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)

8. Brookfield Recreation Center (Bruce Baillie)

9. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)

10. Fist Fight (Robert Breer)

bubblin' under

11. Yearning (Mikio Naruse)

12. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)

Need to re-see: I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov); Mass for the Dakota Sioux (Bruce Baillie); Strait-Jacket (William Castle)

 

1963:

1. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)

2. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger)

3. Dry Summer (Metin Erksan)

4. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)

5. The Big City (Satyajit Ray)

6. Muriel (Alain Resnais)

7. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)

8. Twice a Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos)

9. The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad)

10. The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)

bubblin' under

11. A Town Called Tempest (George Kuchar)

12. Christmas On Earth (Barbara Rubin)

13. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)

14. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)

Need to re-see: An Actor's Revenge (Kon Ichikawa); Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard)

 

1962:

1. My Life To Live (Jean-Luc Godard)

2. The World's Greatest Sinner (Timothy Carey)

3. La Jetée (Chris Marker)

4. The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)

5. Cosmic Ray (Bruce Conner)

6. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)

7. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich)

8. Freud (John Huston)

9. The Trial (Orson Welles)

10. Here I Am (Bruce Baillie)

bubblin' under

11. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)

12. Heaven and Earth Magic (Harry Smith)

13. Cleo From 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)

Need to re-see: Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky); Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

 

1961:

1. Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett)

2. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)

3. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni)

4. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (Marie Menken)

5. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)

6. E Flat (Ritwik Ghatak)

7. Pigs and Battleships (Shohei Imamura)

8. Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi)

9. Lola (Jacques Demy)

10. Blazes (Robert Breer)

bubblin' under

11. Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin)

 

1960:

1. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak)

2. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)

3. 3/60: Trees in Autumn (Kurt Kren)

4. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

5. Little Stabs at Happiness (Ken Jacobs)

6. A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer)

7. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)

8. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse)

9. Cimarron (Anthony Mann)

10. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut)

bubblin' under

11. The Lady Pickpocket aka The Woman Who Touched the Legs (Yazuso Masumura)

12. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman).

Need to re-see: The Apartment (Billy Wilder); Night and Fog in Japan (Nagisa Oshima)

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1950s:

1. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

2. A Simple Story (Marcel Hanoun, 1959)

3. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1959)

4. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

5. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)

6. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

7. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)

8. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)

9. Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1956)

10. Venom and Eternity (Isidore Isou, 1951)

[bumped: Singin' In The Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952)]

 

1959:

1. A Simple Story (Marcel Hanoun)

2. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)

3. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)

4. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)

5. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)

6. Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage)

7. Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher)

8. Eyewash (Robert Breer) [both versions]

9. Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

10. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)

bubblin' under

11. Odd Obsession (Kon Ichikawa)

12. Sirius Remembered (Stan Brakhage)

13. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)

14. Pull My Daisy (Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie)

 

1958:

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

2. The Music Room (Satyajit Ray)

3. Letter From Siberia (Chris Marker)

4. Le chant du Styrène (Alain Resnais)

5. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

6. Party Girl (Nicholas Ray)

7. A Movie (Bruce Conner)

8. Schwechater (Peter Kubelka)

9. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)

10. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger)

bubblin' under

11. Free Radicals (Len Lye)

12. The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)

13. What Is a Man? (Sara Kathryn Arledge)

Need to re-see: The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk)

 

1957:

1. Decision At Sundown (Budd Boetticher)

2. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)

3. What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones)

4. N.Y., N.Y. (Francis Thompson)

5. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)

6. Rhythm (Len Lye)

7. Forty Guns (Sam Fuller)

8. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman); The Wide Blue Road (Gillo Pontecorvo)

 

1956

1. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)

2. Night and Fog (Alain Resnais)

3. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)

4. The Searchers (John Ford)

5. Written On The Wind (Douglas Sirk)

6. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)

7. Early Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)

8. Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville)

9. The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin)

10. Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minelli)

bubblin' under

11. Recreation (Robert Breer)

12. Hot Blood (Nicholas Ray)

13. Flesh of Morning (Stan Brakhage)

14. Nihonbashi (Kon Ichikawa)

15. Mood Contrasts (Mary Ellen Bute)

need to re-see: Finger of Guilt (Joseph Losey)

 

1955:

1. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

2. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)

3. The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage and Jospeh Cornell)

4. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)

5. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)

6. Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles)

7. The Man With the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger)

8. Marty (Delbert Mann)

9. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)

10. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)

bubblin' under

11. The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann)

12. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls)

13. East of Eden (Elia Kazan)

14. Blinkity Blank (Norman McLaren)

Need to re-see: In Between (Stan Brakhage); The Indian Fighter (Andre de Toth); Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick); Lady and the Tramp (Geronimi / Jackson / Luske); Mosaik im Vertrauen (Peter Kubelka)

 

1954:

1. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)

2. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)

3. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger)

4. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)

5. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)

6. Sound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse)

7. Voyage In Italy (Roberto Rossellini)

8. On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan)

9. The Way to Shadow Garden (Stan Brakhage)

10. Grisbi (Jacques Becker)

Need to re-see: Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)

 

1953:

1. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)

2. The End (Christopher Maclaine)

3. Duck Amuck (Charles M. Jones)

4. Eaux D'Artifice (Kenneth Anger)

5. Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati)

6. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls)

7. Glen or Glenda (Edward D. Wood, Jr.)

8. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)

9. Older Brother, Younger Sister (Mikio Naruse)

10. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)

bubblin' under

11. The Long, Long Trailer (Vincente Minelli)

12. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)

13. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (Roy Rowland)

Need to re-see: House of Wax (Andre de Toth); Mr. Pu (Kon Ichikawa)

 

1952:

1. Singin' In The Rain (Gene Kelly / Stanley Donen)

2. Umberto D. (Vittorio de Sica)

3. Clash By Night (Fritz Lang)

4. The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Yasujiro Ozu)

5. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray)

6. Neighbours (Norman McLaren)

7. Color Cry (Len Lye)

8. Scandal Sheet (Phil Karlson)

9. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)

10. Monkey Business (Howard Hawks)

bubblin' under

11. Le Plaisir (Max Ophüls)

12. The Quiet Man (John Ford)

 

1951:

1. Venom and Eternity (Isidore Isou)

2. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)

3. The Tales of Hoffmann (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

4. Othello (Orson Welles)

5. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)

6. Day of the Fight (Stanley Kubrick)

7. The River (Jean Renoir)

8. An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli)

9. -

10. -

Need to-resee: Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)

 

1950:

1. It's Hummer Time (Robert McKimson)

2. Rabbit's Moon (Kenneth Anger)

3. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)

4. La Ronde (Max Ophüls)

5. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)

6. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

7. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder)

8. Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren)

9. Un chant d'amour (Jean Genet)

10. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)

bubblin' under

11. Arrière Saison (Dimitry Kirsanov)

Need to re-see: Harvey (Henry Koster)

 

TOP TEN OF THE 1940s:

1. Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949)

2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

3. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, 1944)

4. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)

5. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

6. Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty, 1948)

7. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)

8. Listen To Britain (Humphrey Jennings, 1942)

9. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947)

10. Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, 1941)

[bumped: Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948); Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)]

 

1949:

1. Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger)

2. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford)

3. Caught (Max Ophüls)

4. Jour de fête (Jacques Tati)

5. The Lead Shoes (Sidney Peterson)

6. The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls)

7. The Fountainhead (King Vidor)

8. The Third Man (Carol Reed)

9. Border Incident (Anthony Mann)

10. A Woman's Secret (Nicholas Ray)

bubblin' under

11. Pacific 231 (Jean Mitry)

12. Mr. Frenhofer and the Minotaur (Sidney Peterson)

 

1948:

1. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

2. Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)

3. Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls)

4. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica)

5. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)

6. The Cat That Hated People (Tex Avery)

7. Fort Apache (John Ford)

8. The Petrified Dog (Sidney Peterson)

9. In the Street (Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb and James Agee)

10. The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed)

bubblin' under

11. The Boy With Green Hair (Jospeh Losey)

Need to re-see: The Treasure of Sierra Madre (John Huston); Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (H.C. Potter)

 

1947:

1. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)

2. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)

3. Fireworks (Kenneth Anger)

4. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles)

5. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)

6. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

7. T-Men (Anthony Mann)

8. Fiddle-De-Dee (Norman McLaren)

9. Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

10. Motion Painting No. 1 (Oskar Fischinger)

 

1946:

1. The Murderers Are Among Us (Wolfgang Staudte)

2. The Potted Psalm (James Broughton and Sidney Peterson)

3. Utamaro and His Five Women (Kenji Mizoguchi)

4. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)

5. The Stranger (Orson Welles)

6. My Darling Clementine (John Ford)

7. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

8. Gilda (Charles Vidor)

9. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett)

10. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)

bubblin' under

11. Ritual in Transfigured Time (Maya Deren)

Need to re-see: Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock); The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)

 

1945:

1. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)

2. Rome Open City (Roberto Rossellini)

3. Detour (Edgar J. Ulmer)

4. Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock)

5. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang)

6. The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder)

7. I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

8. Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 (Sergei Eisenstein)

9. Visual Variations of Noguchi (Marie Menken)

10. Jealousy (Gustav Machaty)

Need to re-see: Kolberg (Veit Harlan); They Were Expendable (John Ford); Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

 

1944:

1. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)

2. At Land (Maya Deren)

3. Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock)

4. A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

5. Laura (Otto Preminger)

6. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)

7. Cobra Woman (Robert Siodmak)

8. The Private Life of a Cat (Alexander Hammid)

9. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli)

10. -

Need to re-see: Hail The Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges); None Shall Escape (Andre de Toth)

 

1943:

1. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid)

2. Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

3. Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings)

4. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

5. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)

6. Geography of the Body (Willard Maas)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur); Hangmen Also Die! (Fritz Lang)

 

1942:

1. Listen To Britain (Humphrey Jennings)

2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)

3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)

4. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)

5. Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh)

6. Hen Hop (Normal McLaren)

7. Bambi (David Hand, et al.)

8. By Night With Torch and Spear (Joseph Cornell)

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

 

1941:

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

2. Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter)

3. The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg)

4. Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges)

5. Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks)

6. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)

7. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)

8. Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall)

9. Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen)

10. -

Need to re-see: Sergeant York (Howard Hawks); Meet John Doe (Frank Capra)

 

1940:

1. Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (Barney Elliott)

2. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)

3. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)

4. London Can Take It! (Humphrey Jennings)

5. From Mayerling to Sarajevo (Max Ophüls)

6. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)

7. They Drive By Night (Raoul Walsh)

8. [tie] Dots (Norman McLaren)

9. [tie] Loops (Norman McLaren)

10. Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen)

bubblin' under

11. Power and the Land (Joris Ivens)

Need to re-see: The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin)

 

TOP TEN FILMS OF THE 1930s

1. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)

2. Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930)

3. I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932)

4. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

5. L'Âge d'Or (Luis Buñuel, 1930)

6. The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)

7. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)

8. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)

9. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

10. Stella Dallas (King Vidor, 1937)

 

1939:

1. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)

2. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)

3. Stagecoach (John Ford)

4. The Story of Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi)

5. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)

6. The City (Willard Van Dyke and Ralph Steiner)

7. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming)

8. Le Jour se Leve (Marcel Carné)

9. Scherzo (Norman McLaren)

10. -

 

1938:

1. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)

2. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)

3. Jezebel (William Wyler)

4. You Can't Take It With You (Frank Capra)

5. Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein)

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)

 

1937:

1. Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey)

2. Stella Dallas (King Vidor)

3. What Did the Lady Forget? (Yasujiro Ozu)

4. Lady Killer (Jean Grémillon)

5. Stage Door (Gregory LaCava)

5. Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier)

7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (David Hand, et.al.)

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1936:

1. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)

2. Night Mail (John Grierson)

3. Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi)

4. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir)

5. Reefer Madness (Louis J. Gasnier)

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1935:

1. The Devil is a Woman (Josef von Sternberg)

2. Wife! Be Like a Rose! (Mikio Naruse)

3. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)

4. Gold Diggers of 1935 (Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley)

5. Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl)

6. A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)

 

1934:

1. The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg)

2. The Story of Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu)

3. The Goddess (Wu Yonggang)

4. It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)

5. It's a Gift (Norman McLeod)

6. The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich)

7. Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1933:

1. Las Hurdes (Land Without Bread) (Luis Buñuel)

2. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang)

3. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)

4. Baby Face (Alfred E. Green)

5. Circles (Oskar Fischinger)

6. Lot in Sodom (James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber)

7. King Kong (Meriam C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack)

8. Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian)

9. Ecstasy (Gustav Machaty)

10. Zero For Conduct (Jean Vigo)

 

1932:

1. I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu)

2. Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg)

3. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

4. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra)

5. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch)

6. Freaks (Tod Browning)

7. Kuhle Wampe (Slatan Dudow)

8. Blonde Venus (Josef von Sternberg)

9. Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding)

10. -

 

1931:

1. M (Fritz Lang)

2. Flunky, Work Hard (Mikio Naruse)

3. City Lights (Charles Chaplin)

4. Mädchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan)

5. Frankenstein (James Whale)

6. Study No. 7 (Oskar Fischinger)

7. Kameradschaft (G.W. Pabst)

8. Tokyo Chorus (Yasujiro Ozu)

9. -

10. -

 

1930:

1. Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko)

2. L'Âge d'Or (Luis Buñuel)

3. The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau)

4. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg)

5. Morocco (Josef von Sternberg)

6. Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

TOP TEN FILMS OF THE 1920s

1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)

2. The Man With the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

4. Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, 1924)

5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)

6. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

7. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)

8. The Symbol of the Unconquered (Oscar Micheaux, 1920)

9. October (Sergei Eisenstein, 1928)

10. Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, 1929)

 

1929:

1. The Man With the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)

2. Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst)

3. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí)

4. Drifters (John Grierson)

5. The General Line (Sergei Eisenstein)

6. Regen (Joris Ivens)

7. Berth Marks (Lewis R. Foster)

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1928:

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

2. October (Sergei Eisenstein)

3. The Crowd (King Vidor)

4. Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney)

5. The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac)

6. Speedy (Ted Wilde)

7. The Wind (Victor Sjostrom)

8. The Starfish (Man Ray)

9. Ghosts Before Breakfast (Hans Richter)

10. The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton)

bubblin' under

11. The Fall of the House of Usher (James Sibley Watson)

 

1927:

1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau)

2. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)

3. Scar of Shame (Oscar Micheaux)

4. The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland)

5. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Walter Ruttmann)

6. The End of St. Petersburg (Vsevolod Pudovkin)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1926:

1. A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa)

2. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)

3. Emak-Bakia (Man Ray)

4. -

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

Need to re-see: The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton)

 

1925:

1. Strike (Sergei Eisenstein)

2. Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)

3. Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)

4. The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst)

5. Paris Qui Dort (René Clair)

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1924:

1. Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy)

2. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)

3. Kino Eye (Dziga Vertov)

4. The Iron Horse (John Ford)

5. The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau)

6. Die Nibelungen I & II (Fritz Lang)

7. Symphonie Diagonale (Viking Eggeling)

8. Entr'acte (René Clair)

9. -

10. -

 

1923:

1. La Retour á la Raison (Man Ray)

2. Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor)

3. -

4. -

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1922:

1. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)

2. Häxan (Benjamin Christensen)

3. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty)

4. Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Fritz Lang)

5. Cops (Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton)

6. The Smiling Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1921:

1. The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöstrom)

2. -

3. -

4. -

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1920:

1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)

2. The Symbol of the Unconquered (Oscar Micheaux)

3. Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux)

4. The Parson's Widow (Carl Theodor Dreyer)

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

TOP FILMS OF THE 1910's

[Note: since I have not seen very many films from this era, I have opted to only make this combined list.]

1. Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)

2. The Mysterious X (Benjamin Christensen, 1914)

3. Ingeborg Holm (Victor Sjöstrom, 1913)

4. Slippery Jim (Ferdinand Zecca, 1910)

5. The Tramp (Charles Chaplin, 1915)

6. Assunta Spina (Gustavo Serena, 1915)

7. The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)

8. The Lonedale Operator (D.W. Griffith, 1911)

9. The Sinking of the Lusitania (Windsor McKay, 1918)

10. Tillie's Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett, 1914)

11.The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen (Georges Méliès, 1911)

12. Different From the Others (Richard Oswald, 1919)

13. The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)

14. The Golem (Paul Wegener, 1915)

15. The Musketeers of Pig Alley (D.W. Griffith, 1912)

16. Patchwork Girl of Oz (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914)

 

1909:

1. A Corner in Wheat (D.W. Griffith)

2. The Lonely Villa (D.W. Griffith)

3. The Doctor's Secret (Georges Méliès)

4. Princess Nicotine or the Smoke Fairy (J. Stuart Blackton)

5. Those Awful Hats (D.W. Griffith)

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1908:

1. Long Distance Wireless Photography (Georges Méliès)

2. Fantasmagorie (Émile Cohl)

3. -

4. -

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1907:

1. The Enchanted Sedan Chair (George Méliès)

2. The Good Glue Sticks (George Méliès)

3. The Golden Beetle (Segundo de Chomon)

4. -

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1906:

1. A Trip Down Market Street (The Miles Brothers)

2. Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Edwin S. Porter)

3. The Hilarious Poster (Georges Méliès)

4. Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp (Ferdinand Zecca)

5. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (J. Stuart Blackton)

6. Three American Beauties (Edwin S. Porter)

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1905:

1. The Living Playing Cards (Georges Méliès)

2. The Black Imp (Georges Méliès)

3. The Kleptomaniac (Edwin S. Porter)

4. The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (Edwin S. Porter)

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1904:

1. The Marvelous Living Fan (Georges Méliès)

2. Tchin-Chao the Chinese Conjuror (Georges Méliès)

3. The Impossible Voyage (Georges Méliès)

4. The Cook in Trouble (Georges Méliès)

5. Blackpool Victoria Pier (Mitchell and Kenyon)

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1903:

1. Electrocuting an Elephant (Thomas A. Edison Company)

2. Le Mélomane (Georges Méliès)

3. The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter)

4. The Infernal Cauldron (Georges Méliès)

5. The Georgetown Loop (unknown)

6. Extraordinary Cab Accident (Robert W. Paul)

7. The Gay Shoe Clerk (Edwin S. Porter)

8. Life of an American Fireman (Edwin S. Porter)

9. The Magic Lantern (Georges Méliès)

10. Panorama of Beach and Cliff House (American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.)

 

1902:

1. A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès)

2. Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (Edwin S. Porter)

3. Jack and the Beanstalk (Edwin S. Porter)

4. Electric Tram Rides from Forster Square, Bradford (Mitchell and Kenyon)

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1901:

1. What Happened on Twenty-Third Street (Edwin S. Porter)

2. The Man With the Rubber Head (Georges Méliès)

3. The Big Swallow (James Williamson)

4. Peeping Tom (Ferdinand Zecca)

5. -

6. -

7. -

8. -

9. -

10. -

 

1900:

1. How It Feels to Be Run Over (Cecil Hepworth)

2. One Man Band (Georges Méliès)

3. Danse Serpentine (In a Lion's Cage) (Alice Guy)

4. Explosion of a Motorcar (Cecil Hepworth)

5. The Enchanted Drawing (J. Stuart Blackton)

6. Grandma's Reading Glasses (George Albert Smith)

7. As Seen Through a Telescope (George Albert Smith)

8. -

9. -

10. -