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Simón Cherpitel
700 Favorite Films
Current top 50+ fave films in bold.
List updated: August 2008.
1928
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
1932
Vampyr
1933
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
1934
The Thin Man
1939
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
La Regle du Jeu
1941
Citizen Kane
How Green Was My Valley
The Maltese Falcon
1942
Casablanca
Cat People
The Magnificent Ambersons
This Gun for Hire
1943
I Walked with a Zombie
Journey Into Fear
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Seventh Victim
Shadow of a Doubt
1944
The Curse of the Cat People
Double Indemnity
Laura
Murder, My Sweet
To Have and Have Not
1945
Spellbound
1946
La Belle et la Bête
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Sleep
Duel in the Sun
It's a Wonderful Life
A Matter of Life & Death
My Darling Clementine
The Spiral Staircase
The Stranger
1947
Black Narcissus
Crossfire
Dark Passage
Odd Man Out
Out of the Past
Pursued
Ride the Pink Horse
1948
Key Largo
The Lady from Shanghai
Letter from an Unknown Woman
The Naked City
Portrait of Jennie
Red River
Rope
3 Godfathers
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1949
Colorado Territory
Riders in the Sky
Stray Dog
The Third Man
1950
The Asphalt Jungle
Broken Arrow
Les Enfants Terribles
The Furies
The Gunfighter
Harvey
In a Lonely Place
Rashomon
Stars in My Crown
Sunset Boulevard
Winchester '73
1951
Ace in the Hole
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Miracolo a Milano
1952
High Noon
Ikiru
The Narrow Margin
Singin' in the Rain
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
1953
Beat the Devil
The Big Heat
Hondo
I Confess
Inferno
It Came from Outer Space
The Naked Spur
Pickup on South Street
Roman Holiday
Shane
War of the Worlds
1954
The Barefoot Contessa
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Garden of Evil
Johnny Guitar
On the Waterfront
The Purple Plain
Rear Window
Sabrina
Silver Lode
Them!
Track of the Cat
Vera Cruz
The Wild One
1955
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Big Combo
Blood Alley
Bob le flambeur
The Desperate Hours
Five Against the House
House of Bamboo
Kiss Me Deadly
The Ladykillers
The Left Hand of God
The Man from Laramie
Man with the Gun
Mr. Arkadin / Confidential Report
The Night of the Hunter
Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog)
Ordet (The Word)
Rebel Without a Cause
Rififi
Run for Cover
This Island Earth
Tarantula
To Catch a Thief
The Trouble with Harry
The Violent Men
Violent Saturday
1956
Attack!
Bandido
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
The Bottom of the Bottle
The Court Jester
The Fastest Gun Alive
Giant
The Harder They Fall
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Killer Is Loose
A Kiss Before Dying
The Last Hunt
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Never Was
Moby Dick
The Mountain
Ransom!
Run for the Sun
The Searchers
The Search for Bridey Murphy
Seven Men from Now
The Ten Commandments
23 Paces to Baker Street
Written on the Wind
The Wrong Man
1957
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Decision at Sundown
Desk Set
The Enemy Below
A Face in the Crowd
Forty Guns
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Island in the Sun
Love in the Afternoon
Men in War
Night of the Demon
Night Passage
No Down Payment
The Pride and the Passion
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Ride Back
The Spirit of St. Louis
The Sun Also Rises
Sweet Smell of Success
The Tall T
The Three Faces of Eve
3:10 to Yuma
Throne of Blood
Time Limit
The Tin Star
12 Angry Men
Wild Strawberries
The Wings of Eagles
Witness for the Prosecution
1958
The Badlanders
The Big Country
Bonjour Tristesse
The Bravados
Buchanan Rides Alone
Elevator to the Gallows
The Fly
The Hidden Fortress
Horror of Dracula
The Hunters
The Left Handed Gun
The Long, Hot Summer
The Magician (Ansiktet)
Man of the West
Party Girl
Run Silent, Run Deep
Saddle the Wind
Terror in a Texas Town
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
The Vikings
1959
Anatomy of a Murder
Ben-Hur
Day of the Outlaw
The Fugitive Kind
The Hanging Tree
Last Train from Gun Hill
Les Liaisons dangereuses
North by Northwest
Odds Against Tomorrow
On the Beach
Les Quatre cents coups
Ride Lonesome
Rio Bravo
Some Like It Hot
Suddenly Last Summer
Warlock
The Wonderful Country
World, Flesh & the Devil
Les Yeux sans visage
The Young Philadelphians
1960
The Apartment
Black Sunday
Á bout de souffle (Breathless)
Comanche Station
La Dolce Vita
Elmer Gantry
House of Usher
Inherit the Wind
The Magnificent Seven
Peeping Tom
Plein soleil (Purple Noon)
Psycho
Sergeant Rutledge
Tirez sur le pianiste
Tunes of Glory
The Unforgiven
Village of the Damned
1961
Blast of Silence
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
The Guns of Navarone
The Hustler
Judgment at Nuremberg
Jules et Jim
The Misfits
The Naked Edge
One-Eyed Jacks
Two Rode Together
Yojimbo
The Young Savages
1962
Cape Fear
Carnival of Souls
Dr. No
Experiment in Terror
Hatari
Lawrence of Arabia
Lolita
Lonely Are the Brave
The Manchurian Candidate
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Ride the High Country
Sanjuro
To Kill a Mockingbird
1963
The Birds
Charade
8 1/2
From Russia with Love
Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)
The Haunting
High & Low (Heaven & Hell)
The List of Adrian Messenger
The Pink Panther
The Ugly American
1964
Blood & Black Lace
Fate Is the Hunter
A Fistful of Dollars
Goldfinger
Gospel According St. Matthew
Kaidan (Kwaidan)
Marnie
Seven Days in May
The Train
1965
Alphaville
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Doctor Zhivago
The Flight of the Phoenix
For a Few Dollars More
Major Dundee
Mirage
Morituri
Pierrot le fou
The Sound of Music
The 10th Victim
Thunderball
1966
The Appaloosa
Blow-Up
The Deadly Affair
Duel at Diablo
Fahrenheit 451
Funeral in Berlin
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Harper
The Naked Prey
The Professionals
The Sword of Doom
Torn Curtain
1967
Belle de jour
Billion Dollar Brain
A Countess from Hong Kong
El Dorado
The Graduate
Hombre
Hour of the Gun
Point Blank
Le Samouraï
You Only Live Twice
1968
Bullitt
Hang 'Em High
Monterey Pop
The Thomas Crown Affair
Wild in the Streets
1969
L'Armé des ombres
Easy Rider
Mackenna's Gold
Medium Cool
Mississippi Mermaid
Once Upon a Time in the West
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Topaz
True Grit
The Wild Bunch
1970
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Le Cercle rouge
1971
Brother John
Diamonds Are Forever
Dirty Harry
Fools' Parade
The French Connection
The Hired Hand
Klute
Lawman
The Omega Man
Play Misty for Me
Red Sun
Straw Dogs
Vanishing Point
1972
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Un Flic
Frenzy
The Getaway
The Godfather
Junior Bonner
Last Tango in Paris
The Night Stalker
Ulzana's Raid
1973
Breezy
Charley Varrick
Don't Look Now
High Plains Drifter
Live & Let Die
The Long Goodbye
The Mackintosh Man
Magnum Force
My Name Is Nobody
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Serpico
Soylent Green
1974
Bring Me Head of Alfredo Garcia
Chinatown
The Man with the Golden Gun
Phase IV
Thriller - en grym film
The Towering Inferno
1975
Bite the Bullet
A Boy and His Dog
Brannigan
The Drowning Pool
Farewell, My Lovely
L'Histoire d'Adele H.
Jaws
The Killer Elite
Nashville
Night Moves
The Return of the Pink Panther
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Three Days of the Condor
The Wind and the Lion
The Yakuza
1976
The Enforcer
Family Plot
Murder by Death
Network
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Shootist
Taxi Driver
1977
Close Encounters of 3rd Kind
Cross of Iron
The Duellists
The Gauntlet
The Last Wave
Opening Night
La Soufrière
The Spy Who Loved Me
Star Wars
1978
Animal House
Days of Heaven
Eyes of Laura Mars
Heaven Can Wait
Superman: the Movie
Watership Down
1979
Alien
All That Jazz
Apocalypse Now
Being There
The Black Stallion
The China Syndrome
Manhattan
Moonraker
Murder by Decree
Nosferatu Phantom Der Nacht
1980
The Big Red One
Bronco Billy
The Fog
Hopscotch
Resurrection
The Stunt Man
Superman II
Somewhere in Time
1981
The Amateur
Chariots of Fire
Diva
Excalibur
For Your Eyes Only
Outland
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Road Warrior
S.O.B.
Wolfen
1982
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Blade Runner
The Border
Conan the Barbarian
E.T.
Fitzcarraldo
The Man from Snowy River
Missing
My Favorite Year
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Tron
Wrong Is Right
The Year of Living Dangerously
1983
Confidentially Yours
The Hunger
The Keep
Koyaanisqatsi
Never Say Never Again
Octopussy
The Osterman Weekend
Sudden Impact
Uncommon Valor
Videodrome
1984
Amadeus
Ghostbusters
Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan
Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom
Once Upon a Time in America
Sixteen Candles
Starman
The Terminator
Tightrope
1985
Commando
Ladyhawke
Pale Rider
To Live & Die in LA
A View to a Kill
1986
Blue Velvet
Highlander
Last Days of Frank & Jesse James
Manhunter
Round Midnight
Ruthless People
1987
Cobra Verde
Lethal Weapon
The Living Daylights
1988
The Dead Pool
Die Hard
The Naked Gun
Tequila Sunrise
1989
Black Rainbow
Black Rain
Field of Dreams
Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade
January Man
License to Kill
Old Gringo
1990
Arachnophobia
Dances with Wolves
La Femme Nikita
Flatliners
The Freshman
Ghost
Joe Versus the Volcano
Miller's Crossing
The Rookie
Total Recall
The Two Jakes
White Hunter, Black Heart
1991
Cape Fear
JFK
A Kiss Before Dying
L.A. Story
Terminator 2
Thelma & Louise
1992
Braindead (Dead Alive)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Last of the Mohicans
Lessons of Darkness
Unforgiven
1993
Body Shot
Falling Down
Fearless
Groundhog Day
In the Line of Fire
Jurassic Park
Last Action Hero
A Perfect World
Rising Sun
Shadowlands
Tombstone
True Romance
1994
Blown Away
The Crow
Death & the Maiden
Dellamorte Dellamore
Forrest Gump
Frank and Jesse
Immortal Beloved
Lèon the Professional
Natural Born Killers
Pulp Fiction
Timecop
3 colors: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge
True Lies
Wolf
Wyatt Earp
1995
Bullet to Beijing
Dead Man
Decoy
Don Juan DeMarco
Ghost in the Shell (Kôkaku Kidôtai)
Heat
Love Letter
Martin Scorsese: American Movies
The Quick and the Dead
Zero Tolerance
1996
Fargo
Fly Away Home
The Frighteners
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Lone Star
Muholland Falls
My Fellow Americans
When We Were Kings
1997
Absolute Power
Cop Land
Grosse Pointe Blank
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Lost Highway
Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos)
Princess Mononoke
Ulee's Gold
Volcano
1998
Dark City
John Carpenter's Vampires
Ronin
Run, Lola, Run
The Truman Show
Twilight
What Dreams May Come
Wild Things
1999
Angel's Dance
Dogma
Entrapment
Fight Club
The Limey
Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski
The Messenger Joan of Arc
The Mummy
Payback
Purgatory
Ravenous
Sleepy Hollow
Stigmata
A Texas Funeral
The Third Miracle
True Crime
2000
Gladiator
Les Rivières pourpres
Shadow of the Vampire
The 6th Day
South of Heaven, West of Hell
Space Cowboys
2001
Backflash
Invincible
Memento
Mulholland Dr.
The Mummy Returns
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Score
The Waking Life
2002
Blood Work
Far from Heaven
Hero (Ying xiong)
The Kid Stays in the Picture
Pavement
S1m0ne
Searching for Debra Winger
Solaris
Talk to Her (Hable con Ella)
We Were Soldiers
X-Files: Release
2003
& Starring Pancho Villa Himself
Big Fish
The Fog of War
The Hunted
In the Cut
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Lost in Translation
Masked & Anonymous
Mystic River
Northfork
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Open Range
Runaway Jury
Something's Gotta Give
2004
Bad Education
Collateral
Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind
Hellboy
Hotel Rwanda
House of Flying Daggers
The Incredibles
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Million Dollar Baby
Night Watch
Passion of the Christ
Rivières pourpres II
Sky Captain World of Tomorrow
Suspect Zero
Van Helsing
A Very Long Engagement
2005
Batman Begins
Brick
Capote
Crash
Don't Come Knocking
L'Empire des loups
Good Night, & Good Luck
Grizzly Man
A History of Violence
The Island
Kingdom of Heaven
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
The New World
No Way Home: Bob Dylan
The Proposition
3 Burials of Melauiades Estrada
V for Vendetta
2006
Apocalypto
Day Watch
Flags of Our Fathers
The Illusionist
Lady in the Water
Das Leben der Anderen
Letters from Iwo Jima
Lucky Number Sleven
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Ostrov
Rescue Dawn
Seraphim Falls
Southland Tales
Volver
2007
American Gangster
Charlie Wilson's War
Eastern Promises
Flawless
I'm Not There
Inland Empire
In the Valley of Elah
The Invasion
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Pete Seeger: Power of Song
Rendition
Shooter
3:10 to Yuma
2008
The Dark Knight
Jumper
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About My Top 700 Films
Originally I set 500 films as a proper & practical limit for my personal collection, but despite disgarding over 500, it's grown to 700.
I have nearly all my personal faves on DVD, with ones not yet commercially available courtesy of classic movies dvd, & only keep films I enjoy seeing repeatedly. Each viewing, I discover if my enjoyment continues, & if not, I send it to my daughter Aliana, who now has 700 movies in her DVD collection, about 25% duplicating mine.
My fave films are from many genres, often cross-genre, sometimes with multiple dimensions, sometimes just fun. Everything changes. Some of my current top choices (the ones in bold above) will be changed. Great visuals, good directing, strong, quirky, surreal or unusual stories, actors I like (very few today), music that moves me - all combine in varying degrees to make me like a certain movie.
Criticism is always subjective, and my taste is eclectic. I'm not a fan of silent films, but have seen most of the greats at least a couple of times. Only Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc do I enjoy repeatedly, and it's wonderful that a reasonably good print survived. During the 1930s, cinematography is often static, the sound hollow and music scoring mediocre. For me, it was not until the 1940s that films reached a modern technical level, with excellent prints available today. As a photographer, I'm very disposed toward good visual quality.
I have a huge liking for Westerns (18% of my collection), for Bogart, for Clint Eastwood, for Hitchcock, for Truffaut, Sean Connery, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Sam Peckinpah, Werner Herzog, & for films with a spiritual content which my inner self recognises as real, whether obvious (The Gospel According to St. Matthew) or subtle (Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, E.T., Blade Runner).
I have a problem with many comedies: After seeing a couple of times, I know the jokes, and they're no longer funny. Ones with strong characters or stories hold up better, like: Love in the Afternoon, The Apartment, L.A. Story, Groundhog Day & My Favorite Year, even the outrageous There's Something About Mary.
The same with musicals: there are few in my permanent collection. More than having good songs, the story & actors have to be continually engaging or touching. The Court Jester holds up because of Danny Kaye's superb comedy & the fantastic script & jokes. The same is true of Singin' in the Rain & The Rocky Horror Picture Show. All That Jazz takes musicals into a new dimension, which has yet to be equalled by another film, thanks to Bob Fosse, who had the courage to artistically render his own death.
Today I generally watch movies, or rather, half-watch, while working on the computer, like some people listen to music; thus it's difficult to watch subtitled films. A major test of a movie's endurance is its ability to take me away from my work, no matter how many previous viewings.
Very few new films sustain my interest. Too many have meagre stories featuring clever action scenes, with actors of little charisma & stock characters.
Of 2007 films portraying similar situations, Shooter holds my attention more enduringly than multiple Oscar winner The Bourne Ultimatum. Maybe because Mark Walberg is more believable than Matt Damon, and oddly a more interesting actor, & somehow the story of Shooter is more intriguing than The Bourne Ultimatum.
As mentioned, I love westerns. One 'B-western' programmer, Gene Autry's Riders in the Sky is included for purely sentimental reasons: He was my fave cowboy star when I was a lil kid, & the title song by Stan Jones in Vaughn Monroe's version is my earliest remembrance of hearing a pop hit on the radio. 3 critically highly-rated omissions: Stagecoach, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid & McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Why?
Stagecoach: Despite the great intro of John Wayne into superstardom, John Ford's direction & a couple of great action scenes, the story & character interplay become uninteresting after a few viewings. The latest release, supposedly restored by Warners, looks very dated in image quality.
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid: I tremendously respect both Newman & Redford for what they've done in cinema & socially. William Goldman is one of the great screen writers & communicators. Unfortunately, this movie bores me because after the first or 2nd viewing, everything becomes anticipated, & the "how" of getting there is similarly predictable.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller. One of the most beautifully shot westerns ever by Vilmos Zsigmond. Very real dialogue in the Altman style. I love the Leonard Cohen songs. However, the story is simplistic with a downer ending - the makers wanted it to be 'real'. Warren Beatty is a very intelligent person---his face shows this---yet he perpetually plays half-dummies like in this film & in Splendor in the Grass. His visage betrays the premise.
Perhaps Warren Beatty is the most wasted actor in history, who's tragically chosen to miscast himself as a semi-dummy in nearly all his roles. Despite the wonderful presentation of this film, one leaves it with Warren frozen to death in the snow after defeating his opponents, & Julie Christie knocking herself out in an opium den. My fave Beatty film is Heaven Can Wait, & am pleased he got a directing Oscar for Reds.
Simultaneously, I repeatedly enjoy Rudolph Maté's The Violent Men, with Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson & Brian Keith. However, perhaps Maté, generally considered a '2nd string' director, is one of those 'undiscovered' auteurs, as he was Carl Dreyer's cinematographer on La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc & Vampyr. Therein may lie the key to my personal, subjective critical faculty.
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