Thinking about “listing any top movies I ever watched” gave me a lot of food for thought. There is this dilemma… what does top 10 mean? The movies I believe to be the best ones ever made, or my favourites on the other hand? Because I can appreciate a movie being top by objective qualities, but that does not mean I may like it more than others that especially resonate with me, even if they are considered objectively worse.
So yes, after much thought, here I present you my list of the 10 movies I consider the best of all I have seen, AND my 10 favourite movies.
Top 10: These are 10 of the movies I consider objectively the best that are ever made. My criterion for the choice is the following: Regardless of the time they were made in, they didn’t age. You can watch any of them and they feel as modern as if they were made yesterday (with their own stylistic quirks, of course, but it’s only the visual aspect). Also, their technique, writing, message and acting are impeccable, but that’s for given. However, what makes them my top but not my favourite is that they deliver an unforgettable experience, but have such a wide presence that you would choose for admiring, but not for a close, peer-to-peer contact. Almost like Greek gods on a pedestal.
Citizen Kane: A classic for a reason. It’s timeless, ageless, fresh and modern, with probably the biggest presence here. Orson Welles was ahead of his time. No wonder it always is on any list of the best movies ever made.
Network: Sidney Lumet, the artisan of cinema, conceived a satire on spectacularity, audience, morbidity and inhumane capitalism that is as valid today with internet culture as it was back then with the television culture. It leaves you on the edge of your seat and will never abandon your backbone as a referential movie.
The Wild Bunch: One of the finest examples of modern western by god of violence Sam Peckinpah. All the formulae of the American epic are reinterpreted to form a journey of terribly tender antiheroes with a spectacular grand finale.
Badlands: Terrence Malick’s opera prima shows the essence of a roadtrip while submerging human antics in a beautiful void that encompasses the immutability of nature and its absolute presence.
Long Day’s Journey into the Night: The greatest example of contemporary Chinese cinema. Half conventional, half new wave, it uses bold and daring camera tricks to convey the feelings of its characters and transmit them to the audience in a singular empathetic technique.
Holy Motors: Leos Carax’s masterpiece stays with any expert viewer due to its strange narrative and its episodic nature. What you see doesn’t really matter, the laws of logic don’t apply here. Just sit down and enjoy the ride (literally).
All About Eve: Pinnacle of classic drama movie, the problem of fame, dopplegängers, conformity and fall are addressed in a way that doesn’t get old. Bette Davis was a goddess for a reason.
My Mexican Bretzel: Probably the most strange movie of the list, it offers an unique experience of meta by employing absolute silence and superimposing a novel over old recordings as a strange but wonderful sort of narrative collage. Check more info in the corresponding Corner post.
Metropolis: A tale as old as mankind, human versus society, in a charming old-school futuristic setting based on the early 20th century and its social revolts. Alchemy, politics, economy and deception end delivering a strange message of concord and collaboration.
Dersu Uzala: The other tale as old as mankind, human versus nature, civilization versus wilderness. A cartograph and a hunter tie bonds in Siberia in a charming but cold story of friendship, collaboration and soul connection.
Bonus – Witness for the Prosecution: A classic exercise of suspense, dexterous plot twists and visual hints in a judicial trial setting. The actors are in a state of grace, thanks to the collaboration between Hitchcock and Billy Wilder.
Top 10 Favorites: Contrary to the previous list, these don’t need to be objectively good. However, their qualities are purely subjective: For any reason, they have stayed with me, make me happy, stimulate my particular likings and topics of interest, amaze me with their quirks and, especially, I NEVER GET TIRED OF WATCHING. Like The Simpsons, these movies will be always there for giving me a good time, entertain me, embrace me in my bad days and plant a stupid smile in my face.
Paint your Wagon: This is the movie of my childhood. An atypical musical in a Western setting, between classic and modern cinema, delivering fun, tenderness, laughter, a very liberal morality and tons of unforgettable songs. Have you ever seen Clint Eastwood singing, smiling and NOT shooting? Here you can!
The Prize: A very funny experience like only the 1960s could deliver. My favourite actor, Paul Newman, teams along with screen bombshell Elke Sommer in a thrilling adventure in order to save the Nobel Prize ceremony candidates to be hijacked. A low-key James Bond movie, but actually funnier.
Seconds: A cult classic of my favourite director, John Frankenheimer. A psychological horror movie where you end appreciating your current life way more than what you may have wished after the credits. It uses imaginative camera resources that produce anxiety, much of the kind that Ingmar Bergman settled and David Lynch would later use. It features a strange to see Rock Hudson in a desperate role.
Demoiselles de Rochefort: Hollywood musical meets French new wave cinema. What could go wrong? Such a lovely experience where everybody is happy, dances through the streets and everything goes well. Its aesthetics have influenced later movies and settings like La La Land.
Back to the Future (the trilogy): Three in a pack because they are indivisible. I think I don’t need to add anything more. Never fails to put me a stupid smile in my face.
The Mummy Returns: I find this movie does not only continue the spirit of beloved adventure blockbuster Indiana Jones, but actually manages to make it *better*. I was doubting to put this one or Hidalgo, given that both are of the same vibes. But the idea I wanted to express is there.
Two for the Road: This is a movie I would love to live in. It just oozes style. A couple does the same roadtrip in different time points of their relationship with little adventures and different outcomes, but it’s always nonchalant, cute, warm and cosy, with all that style the trendy 1960s could offer. Back when romantic comedies where comedies and romance was wholesome.
Eyes Wide Shut: The first time I watched this movie, I caught it in the middle of the screening. I had no idea of what was going on, but I was irresistibly attracted by the baffling mysteries and dreamy sequences that I witnessed. Then, I watched the beginning and I liked it even more. It’s one of that kind of experiences that call you one time after another and you can’t never get enough to. Many times I have said that if I could listen to only one song in my life before dying, it would be Shostakovich’s Waltz number 2, the credits theme in this one.
Yentl: Another musical! How surprising. I love Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin with all my heart. The classic tale of “woman in a disguise infiltrates a men-only world and surpasses them” has never been more charming and tearjerking than here. I also feel a kind of compatibility with traditional Jewish culture.
My Geisha: Another 1960s romantic comedy and another woman in disguise. Charming Shirley MacLaine plays a movie star that decides to learn the Maiko arts in order to secretly help her husband to film a successful version of Madama Butterfly in Japan. Of course, not all Japanese culture shown here is 100% accurate, but this movie is equally funny and exotic, whilst having the 60s tenderness.
Bonus – We’re no Angels: An atypic and exotic Christmas movie featuring movie god Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov as bold but loveable jailbirds incognito in the Caribbean. Check the corresponding Corner post for more info.
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Overlapping three: As a special bonus, I can tell you three movies that fit in BOTH lists. These are three works that I consider Olympic, ageless, classic and fresh whilst maintaining an irresistible attraction that draws me to them again and again. If I ever shot a movie, it would definitely be like one of the following three.
Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut: More than a movie, this is an audiovisual experience. I am thankful to any deity for having been able to watch it in a movie theatre. I was left speechless. I couldn’t take my view away from the screen. The three hours passed so quickly that it felt like an otherworldly experience. It takes inspiration from so many sources. It has so many layers of details and depth to offer. I will never, NEVER forget the first scene with the helicopters hammering my ears while I saw the jungle burning. A total shock, and one of the best movies I have ever seen.
The Manchurian Candidate (the original 1962 version): The best movie that John Frankenheimer has ever done. I literally can’t ask for more. This is the embodiment for a 10/10 to me. Milimetrically tailored, every frame is a fucking painting, the story coherence and the thrill is to be impeccably found in ANY detail of the film. The ending is so well shot that I could reproduce it in a paper if you gave me a pen. No wonder the American New Wave was considered movie artisany.
Night is Short, Walk On Girl: Of course, I couldn’t finish this with any animation. Anime monster Masaaki Yuasa brings us again to his particular Kyoto where magic is found directly under modernity and offers us a story of pure craze, hyperbole, exaggeration, risky visual resources, surreal colours and LOTS OF FUN. If it’s my favourite anime movie, it’s because of this.