Best film/movie ever

It has to be Shrek. 

seakayaker posted:

For me, my favorite movie is ......

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Fell in love with it as a kid, and love it with each subsequent viewing......

The director, David Lean, also directed my 2nd favorite movie which is ........

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Quite a few of my favorite movies seem to be from the 50's & 60's which seemed to be larger then life in scale.....

.....and btw I enjoyed 'The Last Samurai' quite a bit.

Which was the second favourite?

Lawrence of Arabia is a phenomenal film.

Great suggestions all - there are several that come up I've just never got around to watching, I think for certain genres you have to be in the mood to watch them.

Very glad to see The Matrix mentioned as I worked on it for 10 months in Sydney 98 , still the best job of my life even though we didn't know of its impending success at the time , we did get a sneaky peek once a month though . Great days ! 

My favourites are Stand by Me , American Werewolf in London and Cinema Paradiso . Coincidentally all featuring great Soundtracks . 

There are all manner of great movies out there.

All manner of films have a claim to be the greatest ever. From Italy, de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Fellini's 8 1/2; classic Hollywood fare such as All About Eve, The Searchers, 20th Century, Sunset Boulevard, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Double Indemnity, Casablanca, North by Northwest and Rear Window; from Armenia, Paradjanov's baffling but beautiful The Colour of Pomegranates; from these isles, that staggering run of 1940s Powell & Pressberger films, especially The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus but most certainly the magisterial A Matter of Life And Death, the greatest triumph of the Englsh imagination in all cinema. From Germany, movies by Lang, Murnau and Pabst; from Scandinavia, Bergman, Christiansen and Sjostrom; and from France, scores of movies by the greats - Resnais, Godard, Ophuls, Truffaut, Carné, Cocteau, Vigo, Clouzot, Gance, Feuillade, Chabrol, Bresson, Clair (France has produced more great films and great film-makers than pretty much any other nation).

There are the first two pictures by Hollywood's greatest maverick, Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, of course, but also The Magnificent Ambersons, which is almost as good. Then there are movies by the new generation of American auteurs that followed him - Penn (Bonnie & Clyde), Malick (Badlands), Coppola (the two Godfathers, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now), Kubrick (Barry Lyndon) and Scorsese (Taxi Driver and King of Comedy).

From Asia, you have Ray's Pather Panchali, Ozu's Tokyo Story, Life of Oharu by Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa's hugely influential Rashomon... plus oddities that don't fit in anywhere, like Salles' Centro do Brasil and Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West. There are vast amounts of pleasure to be had from flicks from all over the world (providing you avoid superheroes, elves, reboots, remakes and sequels/prequels).

But I think the title of best picture ever comes down to one of two choices, one made by the greatest film-maker ever, the other by perhaps the only person who could challenge him for that title: Jean Renoir and Carl Theodor Dreyer, respectively (the films are Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc from 1927 and Renoir's La Regle Du Jeu, from 12 years later).

One film is a silent, made 91 years ago, the other celebrates its 80th birthday next year, so they're not exactly current, and both were reviled flops when they were released (but both are as fresh as anything released today, fresher, probably).

Both films build on the technical breakthroughs of Griffith, Pastrone, Sjostrom, Eisenstein, etc, and take the vocabulary and grammar of cinema further than anyone else.

Dreyer's film - like most of his work, is austere - but marked by a passionate intensity. It's shot almost entirely in close up and is scrubbed white. It is gut-wrenching. Many people regard Maria Falconetti's performance in the title role as the single best bit of acting ever committed to celluloid, and it's difficult to disagree with that sentiment.

Renoir's picture is a satire on class, but a very singular satire. It's both a phrophetic warning of a way of life about to be destroyed (and which does not perhaps deserve to survive) and a poetic conflation of tragedy and farce, marked by its brilliant framing and cutting, innovative use of deep focus (a rechnique that Renoir's greatest admirer, Welles, put to good use in Kane a couple of years later) and one of the finest scripts ever written (by Renoir), acted out by a peerless cast, including (again) Renoir, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Gaston Modot, Mila Parely, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Roland Toutain

 Both movies are on the BFI Player, and as good quality blu-rays, and if you've never seen them, you owe it to yourself to see them at least once.

Best film ever is an impossible choice but as far as Sci-fi is concerned: Alien, and it's sequel Aliens.

Alien 3 need not get a mention.

Although that bald headed Yorkshireman was very scary.

Kevin-W posted:

There are all manner of great movies out there.

All manner of films have a claim to be the greatest ever. From Italy, de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Fellini's 8 1/2; classic Hollywood fare such as All About Eve, The Searchers, 20th Century, Sunset Boulevard, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Double Indemnity, Casablanca, North by Northwest and Rear Window; from Armenia, Paradjanov's baffling but beautiful The Colour of Pomegranates; from these isles, that staggering run of 1940s Powell & Pressberger films, especially The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus but most certainly the magisterial A Matter of Life And Death, the greatest triumph of the Englsh imagination in all cinema. From Germany, movies by Lang, Murnau and Pabst; from Scandinavia, Bergman, Christiansen and Sjostrom; and from France, scores of movies by the greats - Resnais, Godard, Ophuls, Truffaut, Carné, Cocteau, Vigo, Clouzot, Gance, Feuillade, Chabrol, Bresson, Clair (France has produced more great films and great film-makers than pretty much any other nation).

There are the first two pictures by Hollywood's greatest maverick, Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, of course, but also The Magnificent Ambersons, which is almost as good. Then there are movies by the new generation of American auteurs that followed him - Penn (Bonnie & Clyde), Malick (Badlands), Coppola (the two Godfathers, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now), Kubrick (Barry Lyndon) and Scorsese (Taxi Driver and King of Comedy).

From Asia, you have Ray's Pather Panchali, Ozu's Tokyo Story, Life of Oharu by Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa's hugely influential Rashomon... plus oddities that don't fit in anywhere, like Salles' Centro do Brasil and Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West. There are vast amounts of pleasure to be had from flicks from all over the world (providing you avoid superheroes, elves, reboots, remakes and sequels/prequels).

But I think the title of best picture ever comes down to one of two choices, one made by the greatest film-maker ever, the other by perhaps the only person who could challenge him for that title: Jean Renoir and Carl Theodor Dreyer, respectively (the films are Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc from 1927 and Renoir's La Regle Du Jeu, from 12 years later).

One film is a silent, made 91 years ago, the other celebrates its 80th birthday next year, so they're not exactly current, and both were reviled flops when they were released (but both are as fresh as anything released today, fresher, probably).

Both films build on the technical breakthroughs of Griffith, Pastrone, Sjostrom, Eisenstein, etc, and take the vocabulary and grammar of cinema further than anyone else.

Dreyer's film - like most of his work, is austere - but marked by a passionate intensity. It's shot almost entirely in close up and is scrubbed white. It is gut-wrenching. Many people regard Maria Falconetti's performance in the title role as the single best bit of acting ever committed to celluloid, and it's difficult to disagree with that sentiment.

Renoir's picture is a satire on class, but a very singular satire. It's both a phrophetic warning of a way of life about to be destroyed (and which does not perhaps deserve to survive) and a poetic conflation of tragedy and farce, marked by its brilliant framing and cutting, innovative use of deep focus (a rechnique that Renoir's greatest admirer, Welles, put to good use in Kane a couple of years later) and one of the finest scripts ever written (by Renoir), acted out by a peerless cast, including (again) Renoir, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Gaston Modot, Mila Parely, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Roland Toutain

 Both movies are on the BFI Player, and as good quality blu-rays, and if you've never seen them, you owe it to yourself to see them at least once.

Kev, If I may, respectfully,  just add the Werner Herzog and the magnificent Klaus Kinski with their trilogy Aguirre, Wrath of God - Nosteratu and also the mesmerising Fitzcarraldo to your insightful movie knowledge. 

Alley Cat posted:

seakayaker posted:

For me, my favorite movie is ......

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Fell in love with it as a kid, and love it with each subsequent viewing......

The director, David Lean, also directed my 2nd favorite movie which is ........

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Quite a few of my favorite movies seem to be from the 50's & 60's which seemed to be larger then life in scale.....

.....and btw I enjoyed 'The Last Samurai' quite a bit.

Which was the second favourite?

Lawrence of Arabia is a phenomenal film.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai was the 2nd.

David Lean also directed another movie I enjoyed, 'Doctor Shivago' (1967) as well as Lawrence of Arabia (1962) & The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957).

...’On’ the River Kwai.

G

naim_nymph posted:

Best film ever is an impossible choice but as far as Sci-fi is concerned: Alien, and it's sequel Aliens.

 

Alien 3 need not get a mention.

Although that bald headed Yorkshireman was very scary.

I agree the first Alien film should be up there with the best. I remember seeing it at the cinema with my wife. I just assumed from the title it was another science-fiction movie and didn't realise it's true nature so it all came as a complete surprise to us. I loved it, the wife hide behind her hands for most of it. 

Re Alien 3. I quite liked the humour that was introduced in that sequel.  

Jeff Anderson posted:

Gianluigi Mazzorana posted:

Hundreds?

Hi Gian, I don't understand your post, or whether it is a response to mine.

You're right Jeff! I mean.....hundreds as i really could not pick one and leave hundreds behind....simply impossible!

Maybe not the best, but one I have watched countless times and will watch again and again.

Perfect mix of old school and hi tech effects, with Arnie at his best.

TOBYJUG posted:

Maybe not the best, but one I have watched countless times and will watch again and again.

Perfect mix of old school and hi tech effects, with Arnie at his best.

Hmm. Belgium won yesterday. Better than Arnie:

I've been mulling this one over for a few days and have found that boiling it all down to just one "Best/Greatest" film is a lot harder than I thought! 

There are a number of great war films that could qualify; particular favourites being The Train, Paths of Glory, The Longest Day, Apocalypse Now, Killing Fields, Tunes of Glory, and The Hill (PLEASE could we have this re-released on blu-ray - thank you!).

Or how about some of the amazing Ealing Comedies; The Ladykillers perhaps?  Or Kind Heart and Coronets?  Delightful, timeless, and perfect in their way, but "best" or "greatest"?  

But hang on, I've missed some epic westerns - where's The Good the Bad and the Ugly, or Once Upon a Time in the West??

Just a quick look at the 10 films I might grab from the fire, there are a couple of sci-fi/horrors in there - Alien and The Thing.  Some classic British films from Handmade - The Long Good Friday and, so perfect in its way, but oh my, can I really watch hot for the umpteenth hundredth time, Withnail and I.

Hang on, there's no Tarantino in here yet??  In my opinion his slow burn work of genius is his love story - Jackie Brown.  I can take or leave most of his other films but there's just something about this one...

And what of Mr. Bond?  On sheer re-watchability most of these must score very highly, particularly if Roger Moore is in the role.  Speaking of dear departed Rog, How could I forget the Wild Geese??  And you also get the delightful Dicks, Harris and Burton.  Hang on, Burton, hmmm..  I forgot Where Eagles Dare!!!  

And I suppose that Star Wars and Lawrence of Arabia basically have a permanent place in the top 10, whatever.  But to pick just one of these..

No, I know what it is.  Possibly the most "perfect" film.  An odd choice perhaps, but it has just about everything for me, and is a film that I can watch and re-watch again and again; it's Jaws.  A classic example where less really does mean more...

Before the devil knows you are dead( S Lumet)

Allien (R Scott)

The Thing ( J Carpenter)

Drive ( N W Refn)

Apocalypse now  (F F Coppola )

Sur mes lèvres ( Jacques Audiart)

Fargo and The Big Lebowski   Cohen Brothers 

on my short list....what my memory can remember now....

So many to choose from... Depending on my mood, these three seem like a good start:

101 Reykjavik from Baltasar Kormakur, a plot very much from left field and much better than the book,

Fight Club from David Fincher, dark, at times funny, featuring Helena Bonham Carter, what’s not to like,

Sweet November from Pat O’Connor, just sweet 

There are so many great films by great filmmakers (and great actors, fine photographers, etc). I’m glad that Sjostrom gets a mention. I saw Sir Arne’s Treasure a few years ago on the big screen. It has murderous criminals, a curse, a ghost story, a love story, nature out of joint, and final self-sacrifice. Figures on snow and ice can look amazing in black and white photography. 

Best film ever? Perhaps not, but memorable. But then so was Audition. ????

Aguirre, The Wrath of God.

Gregory's Girl

amongst many many others

Richard Dane posted:

Possibly the most "perfect" film.  An odd choice perhaps, but it has just about everything for me, and is a film that I can watch and re-watch again and again; it's Jaws.  A classic example where less really does mean more...

Indeed, "Jaws" was the first movie that truly made me sweat, and I nearly pulled the armrests off my seat at the theater. Highly graphic and realistic to my then age-12 eyes.

As for great films since with an exceptionally intense sweat-factor "Black Hawk Down" tops my list. I first watched it alone at home
on DVD and clearly remember having to to pause it twice in order to grab a drink of water and recoup. A superbly engrossing dramatic depiction of real events.

Again hard to choose with such a diverse genre ... after pondering for a little while my standouts for various reasons...

Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise

Steven Spielberg’s Duel

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

Peter Collinson’s The Italian Job.

Peter Weir’s The Truman Show

Brad Bird’s The Incredibles

John Capenter’s Assault on Precinct 13

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction/Jackie Brown.

Alexander Mackendrick’s The Lady Killers      (Indeed Richard)

Every time I go to post on this thread, someone else mentions more great movies to consider. Anything by Quentin Tarantino, or one of the best Francis Ford Cuppolas? Nope, has to be this magical masterpiece by the incomparable Hayao Miyazaki, a work of great imagination and beauty - 

tonym posted:

Every time I go to post on this thread, someone else mentions more great movies to consider. Anything by Quentin Tarantino, or one of the best Francis Ford Cuppolas? Nope, has to be this magical masterpiece by the incomparable Hayao Miyazaki, a work of great imagination and beauty - 

 

 

i mentionned copolla, Simon Tarantino.   For Copolla, my preferred are Apocalypse now and the Godfather 1 to 3.   Tarantino : kill bill vol 2.    On the japan side: Takishi Mike

King Pin obviously.

Kevin-W posted:

There are all manner of great movies out there.

All manner of films have a claim to be the greatest ever. From Italy, de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Fellini's 8 1/2; classic Hollywood fare such as All About Eve, The Searchers, 20th Century, Sunset Boulevard, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Double Indemnity, Casablanca, North by Northwest and Rear Window; from Armenia, Paradjanov's baffling but beautiful The Colour of Pomegranates; from these isles, that staggering run of 1940s Powell & Pressberger films, especially The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus but most certainly the magisterial A Matter of Life And Death, the greatest triumph of the Englsh imagination in all cinema. From Germany, movies by Lang, Murnau and Pabst; from Scandinavia, Bergman, Christiansen and Sjostrom; and from France, scores of movies by the greats - Resnais, Godard, Ophuls, Truffaut, Carné, Cocteau, Vigo, Clouzot, Gance, Feuillade, Chabrol, Bresson, Clair (France has produced more great films and great film-makers than pretty much any other nation).

There are the first two pictures by Hollywood's greatest maverick, Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, of course, but also The Magnificent Ambersons, which is almost as good. Then there are movies by the new generation of American auteurs that followed him - Penn (Bonnie & Clyde), Malick (Badlands), Coppola (the two Godfathers, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now), Kubrick (Barry Lyndon) and Scorsese (Taxi Driver and King of Comedy).

From Asia, you have Ray's Pather Panchali, Ozu's Tokyo Story, Life of Oharu by Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa's hugely influential Rashomon... plus oddities that don't fit in anywhere, like Salles' Centro do Brasil and Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West. There are vast amounts of pleasure to be had from flicks from all over the world (providing you avoid superheroes, elves, reboots, remakes and sequels/prequels).

But I think the title of best picture ever comes down to one of two choices, one made by the greatest film-maker ever, the other by perhaps the only person who could challenge him for that title: Jean Renoir and Carl Theodor Dreyer, respectively (the films are Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc from 1927 and Renoir's La Regle Du Jeu, from 12 years later).

One film is a silent, made 91 years ago, the other celebrates its 80th birthday next year, so they're not exactly current, and both were reviled flops when they were released (but both are as fresh as anything released today, fresher, probably).

Both films build on the technical breakthroughs of Griffith, Pastrone, Sjostrom, Eisenstein, etc, and take the vocabulary and grammar of cinema further than anyone else.

Dreyer's film - like most of his work, is austere - but marked by a passionate intensity. It's shot almost entirely in close up and is scrubbed white. It is gut-wrenching. Many people regard Maria Falconetti's performance in the title role as the single best bit of acting ever committed to celluloid, and it's difficult to disagree with that sentiment.

Renoir's picture is a satire on class, but a very singular satire. It's both a phrophetic warning of a way of life about to be destroyed (and which does not perhaps deserve to survive) and a poetic conflation of tragedy and farce, marked by its brilliant framing and cutting, innovative use of deep focus (a rechnique that Renoir's greatest admirer, Welles, put to good use in Kane a couple of years later) and one of the finest scripts ever written (by Renoir), acted out by a peerless cast, including (again) Renoir, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Gaston Modot, Mila Parely, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Roland Toutain

 Both movies are on the BFI Player, and as good quality blu-rays, and if you've never seen them, you owe it to yourself to see them at least once.

I totally agree with just about everything you said.

I do feel that if I had to put my money down I would list my top 10 as

Citizen Kane

The Rules of the Game

Singin in the Rain

Vertigo

Passion of Joan of Arc

Godfather

8 1/2

In the Mood for Love

Rashomon

Umberto D

I have the Dreyer collection....Passion of Joan of Arc, Gertrud, Ordet, Day of Wrath.  All great