You Will Know Them By The Company They Keep
I love lists, especially Top 10 Movie Lists. The best ones are those where with a quick glance you can determine whether the compiler of the list is more or less in tune with your own tastes, and then discover what titles they've listed that you either haven't seen or should perhaps have another look at. I don't need you to tell me what a great movie Citizen Kane is: your list is far more valuable to me if there are surprises: masterpieces rubbing elbows with guilty pleasures and, best of all, titles I've never heard of. The Desert Island List of movies the compiler would least like to live without.
A list intended for public consumption is also, inevitably, a kind of art form. Specifically, it's a self portrait. The best are balanced and shaped, contrasting the high tone and low brow so as to offer a complete picture of the lister, a checklist of their fantasy life, and, thereby, their very soul... I would include a winking smiley at the end of that last sentence if I could bring myself to used smilies, but the point is that if you really want to know someone, don't ask them questions, just spend some time looking through their bookshelves (or their past Amazon purchases, like the CIA do). And, if you get the chance, under their mattress. Now, I would never actually look under someone's mattress, but the ideal list, if it is honest, should be about as revealing. Be steadfast; be brave; be revealing, so that your list is worth reading...
Anyway, in 2007 my friend Paul and I compiled our personal Top 10 Film Lists in 10 categories, plus a bonus category for stuff made for TV, for a total of 110 films. As I said in my email to Paul when I sent him my list:
I did it. I cut it down to ten per category, though it hurt me deeply. The surgery was so invasive I'm afraid I may have killed the patient on the table, and you will probably call a technical foul on some titles being included in some categories rather than others, but I think points should be awarded for (cheating) ingenuity in shoehorning them into the wrong list. After all, stretched genres is what I like best in film, so why shouldn't I stretch the genres in my lists? For instance, I've pretty much redefined The Epic, which list I wouldn't be able to find ten films for otherwise. I also caved and created a separate TV list, which contains both films made for television and seasons of tv series. I did it just to get the tv stuff out of the film categories, which opened up much needed space, but removed two of my top favourite films of all time from their rightful places in the genre lists (Edge of Darkness and Hidden City, which should be at the top of the thriller lists, being among my favourite conspiracy films -- which should be its own category, by the way...). Likewise, anything with a G rating I felt free to stick in the Family section. I reserve the right to change the entire list at any time, as things I've forgotten occur to me and (with luck) new favourites appear.
Below are the lists as they stood when I sent them to Paul in 2007. Looking over them now, I see they haven't changed much. The emphasis in this blog being on horror, sci-fi and fantasy films I'll list those first, but the rest are here, too, there being a considerable number of films that could have gone into those categories turning up under others. My shallow knowledge of most genres of cinema will be pretty clear by the end, but the lists should constitute fair warning of the kinds of films I'm in search of, let you know where I'm coming from, and whether or not there's any point in your hanging around.
It's my hope that I'll make some discoveries in the process of researching this blog that will change the following considerably...
TOP 10 HORROR FILMS
Cat People (1942) Jacques Tourneur (A milestone, and an early indication that a few Americans were finally aware of what the Germans already knew: that fantasy film wasn't just for kids, but could in fact be entirely adult)
Nosferatu (1922 & 1979) Friedrich Murnau, Werner Herzog (I know, a movie and its remake cannot occupy a single position in my horror list. Sue me.)
Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento (I think we have to thank wife Daria Nicolodi for balancing Argento's general unpleasantness with a wonderfully grim fairy tale sensibility here, resulting in the best film in his catalogue)
Pulse (aka Kairo, 2001) Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Since remade, disastrously, by an American -- not even the presence of Veronica Mars could save it.)
Malpertuis (1972) Harry Kumel (Based on a work by Jean Ray, the criminally untranslated Belgian genius of weird fiction.)
Daughters of Darkness (1971) Harry Kumel (Sexy vampires done right, by a European, naturally. It beat The Hunger, which I also like, to the classy urban vampire punch by more than a decade)
Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes (1981) Walerian Borowczyk (Transgressive, nightmarish, yet classy. Borowczyk is a fascinating film maker.)
Jacob’s Ladder (1990) Adrian Lyne (The shaky monster head was actually scary the first time it appeared in a film, but it sure is to blame for a lot of crap that followed...)
Legend of Hell House (1973) John Hough (I love the wonderfully oppressive atmosphere and the ghost hunting technology.)
Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott
Alice (1988) Jan Svankmajer. (Simply beautiful. Stop motion, antiques, and the dourest Alice in the scariest, most dreamlike Wonderland you'll ever see.)
Brazil (1985) Terry Gilliam. (If that final pullback from the torture chair had appeared at the conclusion of the final episode of The Prisoner there wouldn't be all that debate about what really happened to Number 6.)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Francois Truffaut. (Another film Prisoner fans should see.)
Videodrome (1982) David Cronenberg. (I love this guy, and once owned a video rental store named after this film. It went out of business inside of a year.)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (Yes, even better than the original, which was also great.)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) Jaromil Jires (Isn't the director's name great?)
Solaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky (Shut up. 2001 is in my Epic list.)
Alphaville (1965) Jean-Luc Godard (Pretentious, cool, perverse, European, and funny.)
ACTION
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Steven Spielberg (If you'd asked me before I started making these lists if there would be any Spielberg movies on them I would have said no. Turns out there are two. This movie is undeniable. It outdoes every one of the cliffhangers that inspired it and becomes best of breed.)
The Deep (1977) Peter Yates
The Professional (1994) Luc Besson
8 Million Ways To Die (1985) Hal Ashby
Crimson Rivers (2000) Matthew Kassovitz
Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg
The Wages of Fear (1953) Henri-Georges Clouzot
8mm (1999) Joel Silver (I like this universally reviled object a great deal despite a deep antipathy toward Nicholas Cage films. For one thing, disturbing as the subject matter is, it couches it in terms of a harrowing detective story, which is a great way to administer a bitter pill. And it's really a horror movie, though in the sense that it lacks any supernatural or fantasy element it sort of falls outside of this blog's purview. People still deny that snuff films exist. I say that if the idea exists and it's physically possible for it to be happening, and particularly if there's money to be made, some prick out there is doing it. And if that very idea doesn't constitute horror, I don't know what does.)
Double Vision (2002) Chen Kuo-Fu (A Buddhist horror film in police procedural clothing, this film contains one of the most effective and memorable action sequences I have ever seen, wherein a raid on a strange religious cult's headquarters goes horribly wrong.)
Amelie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Duck Soup (1933) Leo McCarey
The Unbelievable Truth (1990) Hal Hartley
As Good As It Gets (1997) James L. Brooks
The Big Lebowski (1998) Joel Coen
Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (1979) Terry Jones
Remember The Night (1940) Mitchell Leisen
The Americanization of Emily (1964) Arthur Hiller
Stardust Memories (1980) Woody Allen
Wings of Desire (1987) Wim Wenders (Just a marvelous film. Bruno Ganz makes the greatest angel of all time.)
Until The End Of The World (1991) Wim Wenders (Only sort of sci-fi, but for me it's cinematic Prozac, and you can bet I'll be discussing it when the time comes.)
The Accidental Tourist (1988) Lawrence Kasdan
Network (1976) Sydney Lumet
Red (1994) Krzysztov Kieslowski
Fearless (1993) Peter Weir
Possession (2002 or 1981?) Andrzej Zulawski or Neil LaBute? (There were no dates attached to the titles on the lists in 2007, and looking at this now I have no idea which film I thought I was listing. I suspect I was cheating again and letting it do double duty, because I love them both. The Zulawski film is the other great horror-meditation on divorce, and would be the more anxiety inducing half of a double feature with Cronenberg's The Brood. Zulawski's individualistic brand of film making is frankly exhausting, but well worth getting to know, and despite the inclusion of a truly monstrous monster, his Possession makes more sense on the drama list than the horror.)
8 ½ (1963) Federico Fellini
Flesh and Bone (1993) Steve Kloves
Excalibur (1981) John Boorman (This and Robert Bresson's Lancelot Du Lac are my two favourite Arthurian Legend films. Oh, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail makes three.)
Citizen X (1995) Chris Gerolmo
JFK (1991) Oliver Stone
Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick (Could Hal 9000 be the greatest character in a science fiction film, ever?)
The Rapture (1991) Michael Tolkin (Fundamentalist Christian horror as told by a non-believer? I'm not sure, but I'll find out more about Tolkin when the time comes to talk about this film. There's nothing else quite like it, though the traumatic-for-fundamentalists Thief In The Night films are equally fascinating in their own way. Those, more fun to think about than to actually watch, I hope to discuss at the appropriate juncture.)
Fight Club (1999) David Fincher (Middle class economic endtimes picture.)
The Last Wave (1977) Peter Weir (The Australian aboriginal endtimes picture, the only thing remotely like it is the Islamic endtimes picture Born Of Fire, which I've been trying to see again since I stumbled on it many moons ago on rental tape, and will, inconceivably, soon have the opportunity to view on DVD from Mondo Macabro!)
Weekend (1967) Jean-Luc Godard (Surrealist French intellectual endtimes picture. Wonderful final title cards: End Of Film: End Of Cinema)
My Name Is Nobody (1974) Tonino Valerii
The Good The Bad and The Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone
Seven Men From Now (1956) Budd Boetticher
El Topo (1971) Alejandro Jodorowsky
Duck You Sucker (1972) Sergio Leone
The Price of Power (1969) Tonino Valerii
For A Few Dollars More (1965) Sergio Leone
My Darling Clementine (1946) John Ford
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) Sergio Leone
The Maltese Falcon (1941) John Huston
The Big Sleep (1946) Howard Hawks
The Long Goodbye (1973) Robert Altman
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Robert Aldrich
The Drowning Pool (1975) Stuart Rosenberg
Angel Heart (1987) Alan Parker
Rising Sun (1993) Philip Kaufman
True Confessions (1981) Ulu Grosbard
Chinatown (1974) Roman Polanski
The Conversation (1974) Francis Ford Coppola
The Boys From Brazil (1978) Franklin J. Schaffner (Essentially a mad scientist movie with Mengele instead of Boris Karloff and my hero Simon Wiesenthal discovering that neo-nazis have cloned Hitler. How can an idea this bad, or at least badly out of date, make such a brilliantly entertaining film? Unfortunately also the film that gave us Steve Gutenberg.)
Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock
The Lost Son (1999) Chris Menges
Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997) Bille August
Seven (1995) David Fincher
Silence of the Lambs (1991) Jonathan Demme
The Parallax View (1974) Alan Pakula
Gorky Park (1983) Michael Apted
Child Of Glass (1978) John Erman
Loch Ness (1995) John Henderson
The Man In The Iron Mask (1976) Mike Newell
The Wind In The Willows (1983) Mark Hall
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Hayao Miyazaki
Time Bandits (1981) Terry Gilliam
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) Gordon Hessler
The Lady Vanishes (1938) Alfred Hitchcock
Riddle of the Sands (1979) Tony Maylam
Hidden City (1988) Stephen Poliakoff (Not a fantasy film, but feels like a trip through the looking glass, dealing as it does with the world of government secrets. The hidden city of the title is the city within the city of London inhabited by the intelligence community, secret societies, and stockpiles of classified information that are necessarily open secrets on account of being so vast that periodic culls are regularly made simply to make room for the latest crop of secrets. Starring Charles Dance and Cassie Stuart, the film has only ever been available on Sony VHS in a small way, and hasn't really been seen since it ran as part of Film 4's series of made-for-tv-broadcast-but-with-short-theatrical-run features in the 80's. I mention it here because it's an absolute treasure, needs to be released on DVD, and is exactly the kind of hidden gem I am in search of on this blog.)
Whistle And I’ll Come To You (1968) The best adaptation of an M.R. James ghost story on film is also a strange piece of auterism by director Jonathan Miller, who did an even odder version of Alice In Wonderland.
The Intercessor (1983, an episode of Shades of Darkness, and absolutely the finest ghost story I have ever seen on film. I saw this as a kid, didn't get the name, but never forgot it, and searched for it for decades afterward. Happily, the entire series is now available in a single box-set, and The Intercessor alone is worth the price of admission.)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
Game Set and Match (1988) Miniseries based on the series of novels by Len Deighton, who inexplicably took a disliking to this remarkable program, presumably on account of the brilliant Ian Holm not looking even a little bit like the Viking his character is desribed as in the books, and has since successfully blocked its DVD release.
The X-Files: Requiem (2000, Season 7 Episode 22: The true, pitch perfect finale of the series before the insulting and unwatchable, two-seasons-too-late actual conclusion)
The Prisoner (1967) Television series starring Patrick McGoohan.
Cracker (1993) Television series starring Robbie Coltrane.
Millennium Season 2 (1997) Wong and Morgan's criminally maligned (mostly by the show's creator, who proceeded to ruin the third season and then opted to replace it with the execrable Harsh Realm) and brilliant second season of Chris Carter's unfortunately-cancelled-before-the-big-day television series.
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