Sinister Cinema: Top 25

Yesterday I hit another meeting of the Second Sunday Fanzine Fans of Yesteryear, where Bruce Townley happened to mention his ten favorite movies.

To paraphrase myself, I said something like, Man, that’s not enough, and told them about the time in the late 70s/early 80s when John Law and I sat around and easily tallied up our 100 Fave Films.

Bruce is into movies (you can find many movie moments in his zine Oblong, a file of which is available free online), and he just sent me a list where he has expanded on ten, but weeded that potential 100 down to 25. If you’re also a cineaste, you’ll enjoy browsing through, I’m sure.

Any fan’s list will be — ought to be — different. I’m more of a Wild Bunch/Enter the Dragon/Saragossa Manuscript/North by Northwest/Big Trouble in Little China/My Dinner with Andre/Arsenic and Old Lace/Seven Samurai/Mr. Vampire type myself. Several off Bruce’s selection would make my Top 100, of course.

Offhand, I think the most recent film to shoot its way into my faves would be John Wick. 

But now Bruce Townley, saying, “For your consideration here’s my, more or less, Top 25 films”:

THE 400 BLOWS

BEDAZZLED [1967]

THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI

CHINATOWN

CITIZEN KANE

DINER

DR. STRANGELOVE

ERASERHEAD

FORBIDDEN PLANET

THE GENERAL [1927]

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

HE WALKED BY NIGHT

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (a tossup with SWORDSMAN II)

LA STRADA

M [1931]

THE MALTESE FALCON [1941]

A MAN ESCAPED

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

SPIRITED AWAY

SUNSET BLVD. (tossup with SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS)

THIN BLUE LINE

THE THIRD MAN

YOJIMBO

Bruce even put them in alphabetical order. Damn. . . .

This entry was posted in Film and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.