I won't get drawn on the Avatar debate – I enjoyed the film reasonably enough, but it always ends up bringing out the worst of this forum
Let it go, we all like different things (that said, feel free to attack any of my choices!).
I'm going to give my list and some explanations. As someone earlier in this thread said, it's all about context. Sometimes I love a film because it's a great film; sometimes I love a film because it means something specific to me; and sometimes I love a film because I just had a great time watching it.
10) The Shining
I saw
The Shining, for the first time, when I was about 7 or 8. My mum inexplicably showed it to me and my sister (and, the next week, my Dad showed us
A Clockwork Orange in what I now suspect was some weird bet). Didn't find it scary at the time and I still don't, but it's a film that I could watch over and over again, and it's definitely a benchmark against which all my appreciation of cinema is set. I love the atmosphere, I love the performances, I love the fact that horror is at its most horrifying when it's not about jump scares but about that creeping, insidious dread. I didn't feel the dread as a kid, but I think it sowed a seed that's only grown in me through the years.
9) Brief Encounter
Saddest film ever. I'm a massive crier in films and that's pretty much the best feeling for me, even though I know that it's an easily manipulated emotion.
Brief Encounter is the most exquisite film about restrain and impulse, but, worst of all, it's a film that knows that the great tragedy of human existence is life itself. I love Noel Coward's writing and David Lean's direction, whilst showier in
Lawrence of Arabia, is never finer than here. It's a film which, for me to even think about provokes a sense of despair.
Bicentennial Man
My memories of this film have been stirred a lot by the death of Robin Williams, but this was the ONLY film I wanted to watch as a kid (and what a strange choice). I remember we'd go to the video store at the weekends and I'd always pick out
Bicentennial Man (I don't know why we never seemed to just buy a copy) and, of all the films in the world, this is probably the one I've seen the most times. It's really sad and unsettling and based on an Asimov novella which is probably why it speaks so much about frustration and limitation, but also, obviously, hope, cos it's a family flick!
7) The Social Network
I think it's sometimes hard to judge how 'good' a film is until its got a decade under its belt. That said, I think The Social Network will stand up as *the* film of its generation. It's also part of a body of work, David Fincher's, which I admire as much, if not more, than any filmmaker currently at work today. So whilst
The Social Network is my favourite of his movies, it gets bolstered in my mind by my love for
Zodiac and
Seven as well.
6) Casablanca
Best script ever, fact. If I ever needed a fire lit under my ass,
Casablanca did that to me. To write something so iconic, where every light is weighted with metrical precision...well, that'd be swell.
5) Secrets and Lies
Again, this is a film which I saw for a very specific reason and at a very specific point in my life and maybe I look at it more fondly for that. That said, it's an exquisitely beautifully written and directed film and such a benchmark for British cinema. It has, in my opinion, some of the finest performances in modern cinema and cannot be overrated.
4) Caché
One of the first films I remember being absolutely shocked by. It's a film that's deeply upsetting, troubling and concedes nothing with its outlook of the world. It's definitely my favourite Haneke film, as I've been largely unmoved by his other works. I sometimes wonder whether I just saw the film at the right time or whether it's actually a great movie, but it's undoubtedly one of the films that has been instrumental to me.
3) Scream
I love the entire
Scream franchise, but if I had to choose just one, I think I'd go with the original. It's formula has been reworked so many times that it's hard to see how clever it is, but it succeeds on three awesome levels: First, it's funny. Second, it's kind of scary in a fun slasher way. Third, it's an original and unique piece of filmmaking in a genre that veers towards the generic (if that isn't tautological).
2) Badlands
For quite a verbose writer, this is one of the first films that blew me away by its dialogue simplicity. It's a film which is as much about landscape as it is about people (or the interaction between the two), and it takes pre-conceived notions about crime drama and the Starkweather history, and turns them into something lyrical and outside of language. It's something that runs through Malick's works – that pursuit of the intangible experiences that occur between interactions, and when I first saw
Badlands, I was really excited by that.
1) Annie Hall
This is the film that has informed me the most as a cinema watcher and a filmmaker. It's a comedy that isn't burdened by its own frivolity; a rom-com which is innovative, passionate and unique. It's an auteurs film and an audience-goers film. And, in terms of narrative storytelling, is one of the most fascinating ways of telling the classic boy-meets-girl story around. It's a film I revisit every few months because I still find it fresh and funny and it's like pulling on warm pyjamas.
