My friend NJ emailed me this a while ago. Now that I've subscribed to one of those online movie mailer folks, this list will come in handy. Some of these I've seen, most of them I haven't. Feel free to suggest your favorites.
"I finally compiled a list of my favorite films as I once promised some of my students. Most of you will not ever see any of these but here it is...
The following list is of my 13 all-time favorite films:
Of course since I'm dyslexic I claim the right to go to 31. There is no particular order. Some of them are foreign language films with subtitles.
01. Jump Tomorrow - a beautiful love story
02. Fear of a Black Hat - perhaps the funniest film I have ever seen
03. Favela Rising (portuguese) - documentary about Brazilian youth making their own future out of favelas (brazilian for slums)
Good to watch with Chronically Unfeasible (portuguese) - interesting discussion by a curmudgeon about state control of people and population
and City of the gods (portuguese)
04. Men with Guns (spanish) - Touches me on 2 levels; the worry about a teacher's legacy and what it's like to be in between powerful forces - When elephants fight, the grass suffers. 4 Days in September (portuguese) - is a good companion flick
05. Benny and June - cute love story. and watch almost any other film with johnny depp
06. The Girl in the Cafe - splendid film that makes us question our place in the world and our responsibility to others, leading up to an interesting question at the end
07. Amazing Grace and Chuck - a kid brings world leaders to their knees
08. Reconstruction - trippy film (danish) where a guy cheats on his lady and everyone starts to forget him
09. The Eel (japanese) - a little weird but quite fascinating
10. Mabarosi (japanese) - the most visually beautifully film i have ever seen and by the same director; 'Afterlife' - about... just that - and a great way of looking at the afterlife
11. Rabbit Proof Fence - i saw this with my daughter and always remind her of it when she complains about a little physical exertion
12. Once Upon a Time Cinema (persian - my favorite film right now). Check out anything by this guy and his family; in fact, any iranian films made in the last decade is probably excellent - just like any music from cuba has been excellent - just my opinion
13. Life and Debt- shown at the first (and so far only) semi-annual i.s.t.u.f.f. (island school the underground film festival) in spring 05. along with the following films: American History X, Hotel Rwanda,another Hotel Rwanda site, and of course What the Bleep Do We Know? - a good companion film to the last would be "Guns Germs and Steel"
14. quilombo (portuguese) - cool film about resistance
15. lumumba (french) - example of cia intervention and course
Errol Morris' "fog of war" is a good one to watch with this
16. The Agronomist
- another example of u.s. govt. power-tripping in world 3
17. Underground (bosnian)- crazy yugoslav film about war that will make you laugh
18. The gods Must be Crazy
19. Battle for Algiers (french and arabic) - about algeri freedom fighter and will help you understand how terrorist groups work - of course, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter (a statement many have made including ronald reagan in reference to mujjahadeen in afghanistan that included bin laden)
tricky how our words come back to haunt us sometimes
20. Raising Arizona - adoption by another name would not smell as foul and much of the coen brothers product (although a southern friend hated "oh brother where art thou" and 2 friends from minnesota bad-mouthed "fargo")
21. Alberto Express (italian)
22. Slam and "Before Night Falls" (spanish and english) which is about a cuban poet and "Piñero" (spanish) a pueto rican poet
23. Y Tu Mama Tambien (spanish)
I would also recommend along with it other mexican films "Like Water
for Chocolate" (spanish)and "Amores Perros" (spanish)
24. the qatsi trilogy
Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi and you can find a bunch of other films worth watching in that vein(like "Baraka")
25. The Circle (persian) - is another amazing film out of Iran and this director has another awesome film called "Crimson Gold" (persian) which i intend to see a.s.a.p...
another fascinating film out of iran is "Divorce: Iranian Style" (persian)
okay, i'll try and streamline...
anything by Mel Brooks, especially Blazing Saddles, History of the World Part One (there is no part 2), Spaceballs, 2000 year old man and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (the star has a british accent {non sequitter}, not like that one with Kevin Costner - whose films,incidentally, i hate Kevin Cotsner films, and avoid films with Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas, Merrill Streep)
anything by the Monty Python crew, such as Holy Grail and Life of Brian as well as Terry Gilliam films like Brazil and 12 Monkeys - and now for somthing completely different;
anything by Jim Jarmusch, especially Ghost Dog, Dead Man, Mystery Train...
anything by ousmane sembene
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgadjigo/sembene3.html
http://www.newsreel.org/articles/OusmaneSembene.htm
anyting by satyajit ray
http://www.satyajitray.org/films/filmo_directed.htm
http://satyajitray.ucsc.edu/filmography.html
anything by akira kurosawa, especially Ikiru and Ran
http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~adk/kurosawa/filmo/AKfilmo.html
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kurosawa.html
anything by Spike Lee
especially Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Bamboozled
and She's Gotta Have It
anything by Woody Allen
especially Everything you Wanted to Know about
Sex but were too Afraid to Ask
anything by Orson Welles,Pedro Almodovar, Alfred Hitchcock, and Errol Morris
As you may have noticed, I like foreign films - for those of you wary of reading while you watch a film, you could get the dubbed versions of some although I think they lack something. I really like Iranian films - anything Iranian is good by me - like cuba makes the best music, Iran makes the best films. That's my opinion right now. I like Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian, Indian and Chinese films (beware of the recent Hong Kong stuff - from the last decade and half, if excessive violence bothers you). Italian film is also excellent - yes anything by Fellini is good. In addition, you should watch as many French films as possible - they have a cinema as old as the American and have an equally robust range of films. Start with anything by Troufout. To make a list may take a whole other 31. A good place to find alternative films is http://olivefilms.com/
And i recommend you all go track down "Loose Change 911" unless you are squeamish about conspiracy theories - especially those surrounding 9/11
So let me stop here - I could go on forever. I have seen some bad films but since I've seen a lot of films in my day, it's no surprise I have such a long list of favorites...
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