Oh she'd love to hear that!

Rosemary's Baby is sitting in a netflix envelope on my table right now. Hope I enjoy it!

Algren you are not going to like Barry Lyndon.

By "safe" I meant many of your choices are on the textbook "best of" lists of many famous film critics and prestigious organizations. But that doesn't mean your choices are not good.

no bunuel or renoir on any list so far, or did i miss something?

I am guessing Kubrick, Spielberg, and Tarantino. The latter two have yet to be featured on Binny's list.

Come on, i.hope. A dude who apologizes nearly every time he includes a movie made after 1960 which may include a hint of "sentiment" is not going to reveal himself as a secret Spielberg cultist.

I don't know. He revealed he liked philosophically anti-war movies. Some Spielberg films may fit the bill. Now come to think of it, Terrence Malick could be one of his favorites instead of Spielberg or post-modern Tarantino.

well, okay.

you've hit the three between you two.

Really? I'll go with von Trier, Kubrick, and Tarantino. (I love playing Mastermind.)

It's Bergman, Kubrick, and von Trier.

20. Inland Empire
David Lynch
2006



an utterly nightmarish experience. almost incoherent, but makes just enough sense to be enveloped in the terror. if this could possibly be considered to be a movie about movies, this'd be the best.

19. La strada
Federico Fellini
1954



a simple, beautiful and tragic tale by fellini. this so-called female chaplin is unimaginably better than the original.

18. Såsom i en spegel - Through a Glass Darkly
Ingmar Bergman
1961



a sad and lonely drama about four people on an island. one is schizophrenic. such a tiny film, and yet every character breathes personality and complexion. but as bergman must, it's also a fruitless search for meaning. the truly compassionate final scene concludes with the notion that love and god are one and the same. this is transparently not to be taken as truth, but rather as a desperate and touching attempt at hope, and in finding some reason to live.

17. Metropolis
Fritz Lang
1927



with movies today, it's easy to dismiss the wonder of vfx with a simple 'eh, computers did that'. computers didn't exist then. so exactly how did lang pull of such astonishing visual artistry?

16. Idioterne - The Idiots
Lars von Trier
1998



on freedom and all its varied facets. there's the play between expressing your true self and offensively impersonating others, and also whether explicitly manifested freedom helps or hurts its own intended goal. while von trier is liberal enough to take the most obvious moral positions, the more confrontational and uncomfortable dichotomies are left unanswered. there is so much emotion and complexion flowing through every character. wonderful, bittersweet, often hard to watch - masterful.

I cannot abide The Idiots being declared superior to Breaking the Waves, Dogville, and Melancholia, so those must be in the top 15 now.

i haven't seen your favourite. we'll see about the other two.

Wow, you should seriously see Breaking the Waves if you are such a huge von Trier fan.

If Dogville is there, Mandalay should not be left out.

Lars doesn't know how to direct blacks.

15. Eraserhead
David Lynch
1977



clearly a masterpiece of surrealism. those people who try to pick apart meaning from all the strange symbols clearly miss the point - lynch is an atmospheric director. there's no hidden meaning.

14. Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick
1975



the simple story of the rise and fall of a man, and a beautiful expression of kubrick's cold cynicism.

13. No Country for Old Men
Ethan & Joel Coen
2007



the coen's greatest.

12. Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes - Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Werner Herzog
1972



simultaneously a microcosm of larger social structures and a metaphor for the archetypal human, aguirre is a mythological masterpiece.

11. Dogville
Lars von Trier
2003



one of the most astonishing visual creations ever, dogville explores the vanity of charity. this apparently is supposed to be a sort of allegory for american humanitarian intervention, though having bowie's 'young americans' blared across the end credits was rather uncomfortable. but whether allegorical or more general, clearly a very unique creation.

yes, i saw 'the idiots' and 'the element of crime' about a week ago, so 'breaking the waves', 'manderlay' among others are on the list to watch.

Glad to see Barry Lyndon.

10. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Stanley Kubrick
1964



undeniably the greatest comedy-satire of them all. every line is pitch-perfect. shout-out to the lampooning of the fluoridation whackjobs.

9. The New World
Terrence Malick
2005



the word bittersweet isn't defined until this film is considered. the ending is absolutely shattering - happiness in conformity.

Ha, awesome to see another person include The New World. My favorite by Malick.

8. Dancer in the Dark
Lars von Trier
2000



to me, this film is happiness. which is a bit strange considering how transparently it manipulates you into the most depressing circumstances. but the whole point of the movie, as far as i can see it, is the staggeringly beautiful internal fantasy that has been constructed by selma, and how, despite all the awfulness surrounding her, she can indulge in it whenever she wishes. and von trier doesn't destroy this beautiful thing - he in fact nurtures it and celebrates it, which is evident by the final quote of the film.

They say it's the last song. They don't know us, you see. It's only the last song if we let it be.

7. 乱 - Ran
Akira Kurosawa
1985



nihilism is beauty.