Name your Top 100 films of all time!

[struth]

Good list. I just realised I forgot my blueray collection which has some good ones in. Not huge amount but...

[Landloper]

It could well be that I am a complete ignoramus, particularly so in the genre of film...

I disagree, Pharos. Here's why:

I am now in my late fifties so some of the 25% of English language films on my list are known to me because of the cultural environment I grew up in. Were I 30 years younger I expect my list would be substantially different.

As to the non-English language films that form the bulk of the list, no one should feel an ignoramus for not recognizing them. Most of them are known locally [i.e. Japanese films are local to Japan] but are pretty obscure elsewhere, unless you are a student of cinema or, like me, someone who sets themselves projects to increase their knowledge/capacity in certain areas. I used to very much dislike Japanese cinema, it seemed cold and distant to me for many years, so I decided to take a more structured approach and sought out Japanese films held in esteem by decent critics and those well-liked by the Japanese themselves. It took me a few years to come around to another perspective on that country's cinema. Now I watch a lot of Japanese stuff.

It is understandable that people should prefer films with dialogue written in their own language. Subtitles are intrusive and do detract from the viewing experience. Those who won't watch a foreign language film have a point when they say they prefer 'to watch films rather than to read them'.

The trouble is that [in my opinion] the larger part of the best cinema is to be found on the other side of the language barrier. I'm content to use subtitles as they allow me access to a great many films I would otherwise be unaware of. Over many years I have become so accustomed to subtitles that they have become normal. Once I am used to a film I sometimes dispense with them altogether.

The advantage of silent films was that there was effectively no language barrier; towards the end of that era directors began to catch on and do away with inter-titles altogether [e.g May's 'Asphalt', Germany 1929]. The introduction of sound compartmentalized cinema. Early audiences in Hollywood were drawn largely from immigrant communities, many of whom couldn't speak much English, and, it has been argued by one scholar [I'm afraid I can't recall his name], that were film to have been invented with sound from the start it might never have caught on the US.

[struth]

A good foreign film and you concentrate a bit harder as to catch the dialogue so I find you follow the film better. Its more tiring tho, especially when you get older.

[Lawrence001]

Lol - okies, but I'll wait until it comes out on Sky or Virgin, and then let you know what I think!

Btw, just as an aside, here is a list of my 100 favourite movies of all time (horror first):

1) The Shining
2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3) The Thing
4) Alien (original) and Aliens
5) The Fog
6) The Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2
7) Psycho
8) Poltergeist
9) The Omen
10) Day of the Dead (1985)
11) The House That Dripped Blood
12) Duel
13) Braindead
14) Halloween
15) The Silence of the Lambs
16) I Spit on Your Grave
17) Jaws
18) The Wicker Man
19) Taxi Driver
20) Scarface
21) Goodfellas
22) The Godfather (Part 1 and 2)
23) Casino
24) A Bronx Tale
25) Carlito's Way
26) Pulp Fiction
26) Reservoir Dogs
27) Donnie Brasco
28) Predator 1 and 2
29) Robocop
30) Terminator 2 (Judgement Day)
31) Star Wars (Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)
32) Logan's Run
33) Westworld
34) The Time Machine
35) Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
36) Sleepwalkers
37) A Clockwork Orange
38) Shallow Grave
39) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
40) Dirty Harry
41) A Fist Full of Dollars
42) The Magnificent Seven
43) Play Misty for Me
44) Escape From Alcatraz
45) Magnum Force
46) Where Eagles Dare
47) The Guns of Navarone
48) Saving Private Ryan
49) A Bridge too Far
50) The Dirty Dozen
51) Kelly's Heroes
52) Tora! Tora! Tora!
53) Cross of Iron
54) Zulu
55) The Great Escape
56) The Deer Hunter
57) Battle of Britain
58) Von Ryan's Express
58) Trainspotting
59) American Psycho
60) Falling Down
61) Payback
62) Delicatessen
63) Amélie
64) Cape Fear
65) Get Shorty
66) The Lobster
67) Grease
68) Rocky I and II
69) Raging Bull
70) Titanic
71) Die Hard
72) True Romance
73) Rear Window
74) Gladiator
75) Jurassic Park
76) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
77) Braveheart
78) Rebel Without a Cause
79) Raiders of the Lost Ark
80) Blade Runner
81) Ransom
82) Porky's
83) Ferris Bueller's Day Off
84) Top Gun
85) The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
86) Misery
87) Cocktail
88) Vacancy
89) The Colour of Money
90) Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
91) Jackie Brown
92) Scent of a Woman
93) Wrong Turn
94) Dog Day Afternoon
95) Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
96) The Langoliers
97) Papillon
98) Alive
99) Deliverance
100) Live and Let Die

How many do you rate?

The same question is also open to everyone else!

Marco.

Ok, but it's your top 100 films of all time, not the top 100 ones you've enjoyed most recently

Marco.

Yes but if you've seen any really good films in the last 20 years they'll bump off some of the ones on your old list, so it will change.

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Tim]

Yes but if you've seen any really good films in the last 20 years they'll bump off some of the ones on your old list, so it will change.

Mine would change every-time I sat down to think about a top 100! I don't think it's achievable for me

[fatmarley]

My 11 year old sons favourite movie is Back to the future. It's funny but that movie definitely had the biggest impact on me when I was a kid. I can vividly remember coming out of the cinema feeling like i'd just been on the most amazing adventure.

I watched Pulp fiction a number of times, so that's another of note.
The Matrix
Terminator 1 & 2
Star Wars
Evil dead 1 & 2 (I was very excited when Evil dead 2 came into our local video shop)
The Thing
Deadpool
The Blade movies
Rocky movies
Jaws
Jurassic park
A.I Artificial intelligence
Poltergeist
The Goonies
Gremlins
E.T.
The Princess Bride
No Country For Old Men
Shaun Of The Dead
Return of the living dead
Zombieland
Scary movie movies
An American werewolf in London
Beetlejuice
Tremors
Fright night
The lost boys
Ghostbusters
The good the bad and the ugly
Alien
Cockneys vs zombies (probably more to do with watching my son laughing at the zombie vs 'old guy on zimmer frame' chase scene)
I am legend
Dawn of the dead
Braindead
Men in black
i Robot
Hancock
Independance day
Die hard
Attack the block
The fifth element
The karate kid
Top gun
A nightmare on elm street
Weird science
Robocop
Highlander
Beverly hills cop
Trading places
Wargames
Escape from new york
They live
Lethal weapon
Big trouble in little china
National lampoon christmas vacation
Dirty rotten scoundrels
Death wish

How many is that?

[struth]

indeed, all 3 BTTF films are good, although the first is iconic and still a fav, although I didnt include it in mine

[Joe]

I can probably do 20 or so off the top of me head (in no particular order):

The Big Lebowski
Withnail and I
Bringing Up Baby
Rear Window
Vertigo
My Dinner with Andre
Wayne's World
Naked (calm down, it's a Mike Leigh film about a mouth Mancunian)
Blow-Up
Mean Streets
The Conversation
Annie Hall
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Don't Look Now
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Out of the Past (US Title: Build My Gallows High)
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
Bullitt
Donnie Darko

[Barry]

It is understandable that people should prefer films with dialogue written in their own language. Subtitles are intrusive and do detract from the viewing experience. Those who won't watch a foreign language film have a point when they say they prefer 'to watch films rather than to read them'.

The trouble is that [in my opinion] the larger part of the best cinema is to be found on the other side of the language barrier. I'm content to use subtitles as they allow me access to a great many films I would otherwise be unaware of. Over many years I have become so accustomed to subtitles that they have become normal. Once I am used to a film I sometimes dispense with them altogether.

I don't find it at all difficult to read subtitles and watch the film at the same time. I much prefer subtitles to dubbed dialogue - dubbing never matches the lip motion (how could it?), it looks odd and hence is distracting; anyway I much prefer to hear the sound of the native spoken word.

[IslandPink]

Can't do 100 quickly, but here's a stab at a few -
Top 5 - (probably )
2001
Tokyo Story
Chinatown
Pat Barrett and Billy the Kid
The man who fell to Earth

Next 25 -
The Conversation ( Coppola )
Blue Velvet
Citizen Kane
The Killing of a Chinese bookie ( Cassevetes )
Two-lane blacktop
Annie Hall
Stardust memories
Godfather part 2
Don't look now
Walkabout
The long goodbye
Badlands
Paris, Texas
Casablanca
Prospero's books ( Greenaway )
Apocalypse now
Time Bandits
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Three colours blue
Eraserhead
Deliverance
Wild Strawberries
Pather Panchali
Rear window