Directors Top 20 films (1 Viewer)

YMDB was eaten by imdb so I figured HTF ought to have a thread for lists of top 20 films.


1 Empire of the Sun Steven Spielberg


2 Lawrence of Arabia David Lean

3 How Green Was My Valley
John Ford


4 The Apartment Billy Wilder

5 Casablanca Michael Curtiz

6 A Matter of Life and Death
M. Powell and E. Pressburger


7 Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa

8 The Empire Strikes Back Irvin Kershner

9 The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola

10 Almost Famous Cameron Crowe

11 Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont

12 To Kill A Mockingbird Robert Mulligan

13 A.I. Artificial Intelligence Steven Spielberg

14 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence John Ford

15 The Princess Bride Rob Reiner

16 Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki

17 Jaws
Steven Spielberg


18 The Searchers John Ford

19 A Christmas Story Bob Clark

20 In America
Jim Sheridan


















at any given moment these films could sneak in or out: Grand Illusion, Battle Royale, Now Voyager, Jaws, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Tin Drum, ET, Sunrise as they've all been in the top twenty before.

I'll play.

1THE APARTMENT Billy Wilder
2REAR WINDOW Alfred Hitchcock
3THE GODFATHER Francis Ford Coppola
4CASABLANCA Michael Curtiz
5CITIZEN KANE Orson Welles
6STAR WARS George Lucas
7RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK Steven Spielberg
8DR. STRANGELOVE Stanley Kubrick
9NORTH BY NORTHWEST Alfred Hitchcock
10SOME LIKE IT HOT Billy Wilder
11THE GODFATHER, PART 2 Francis Ford Coppola
12CHINATOWN Roman Polanski
13VERTIGO Alfred Hitchcock
142001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Stanley Kubrick
15THE GOLD RUSH Charlie Chaplin
16TOY STORY John Lasseter
17PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILESJohn Hughes
18JAWS Steven Spielberg
19PSYCHO Alfred Hitchcock
20YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN Mel Brooks


I can't seem to get mine to format like Adam's :frowning:

God, this is hard. I can't even narrow my favorites down to a top 100. If I tried to do a top 20, I'd just end up changing it every day. Well, here's what it is today, I guess... (in no particular order)

1. A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavetes)
2. Eraserhead (Lynch)
3. Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman)
4. An Actor's Revenge (Ichikawa)
5. Time of the Gypsies (Kusturica)
6. El Norte (Nava)
7. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
9. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
10. Jules and Jim (Truffaut)
11. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Jackson)
12. Casablanca (Curtiz)
13. The Exterminating Angel (Bunuel)
14. Aguirre, Wrath of God (Herzog)
15. The Hole (Tsai)
16. Love and Death (Allen)
17. Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
18. The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran)
19. Mahanagar (Ray)
20. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)

Limiting myself to one film per director made it a little easier.

Ever changing, but as I sit now:

1. Goodfellas
2. Return of the King EE
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. The Godfather
5. Casablanca
6. Crimes and Misdemeanors
7. Full Metal Jacket
8. Patton
9. Fellowship of the Ring EE
10. Vertigo
11. It's a Wonderful Life
12. Citizen Kane
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai
14. Singin' in the Rain
15. Sunset Boulevard
16. American Beauty
17. Pulp Fiction
18. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
19. Rear Window
20. Night at the Museum (all right, not really, but I did enjoy this one a bunch and thought the critics were all wet).

I just copied it out of the excel sheet I used to arrange it.

Yeah, what Martin said...Only a point in time rough guesstimate.


1 12 Angry Men Sidney Lumet 2 Network Sidney Lumet 3 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Michel Gondry 4 Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson 5 Goodfellas Martin Scorsese 6 Raising Arizona Joel Coen 7 Almost Famous Cameron Crowe 8 To Kill A Mockingbird Robert Mulligan 9 The Third Man Carol Reed 10 The Night Of The Hunter Charles Laughton 11 Out Of The Past Jacques Tourneur 12 Raiders Of The Lost Ark Steven Spielberg 13 The Sting George Roy Hill 14 Playtime Jacques Tati 15 Amelie Jean-Pierre Jeunet 16 The Royal Tenenbaums Wes Anderson 17 Lady Vengeance Chan-wook Park 18 Touch Of Evil Orson Welles 19 Man With A Movie Camera Dziga Vertov 20 8 1/2 Federico Fellini

I usually don't do these lists, but since I did it for YMDB I guess I'll try to get the list back together for this. Might take a while for me to get it narrowed down, so it's a work in progress.

1. Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)
3. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
4. The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan)
5. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
6. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
7. Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison)
8. Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
9. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
11. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
12. Dark City (Alex Proyas)
13. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
14...

Sure, why not, I do every other list. I'll number them but I don't know about order...

1. The Lord of the Rings (it's sort of all one movie, but if I had to pick one it would be Fellowship EE) (Jackson)


2. The Big Lebowski (Coen Bros)


3. The Empire Strikes Back (Kasdan)


4. The Godfather: Part II (Coppola)


5. Kicking and Screaming (Baumbach)


6. Star Wars (Lucas)


7. Sideways (Payne)


8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)


9. Adaptation (Jonze)


10. Braveheart (Gibson)


11. Oldboy (Chan-wook)


12. Mean Streets (Scorsese)


13. The Third Man (Reed)


14. Harakiri (Seppuku) (Kobayashi)


15. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick)


16. North by Northwest (Hitchcock)


17. Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley)


18. The Usual Suspects (Singer)


19. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone)


20. Three Kings (Russell)

(...or maybe The Godfather...or Rushmore...or Full Metal Jacket...or Annie Hall...or Reservoir Dogs...etc etc)

Mine changes a little everytime I do one. Like Martin I limit myself to 1 per director. Maybe it isn't a true top 20 list that way, but I like seeing more variety.

1. Ikiru Kurosawa
2. Taxi Driver Scorsese
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick
4. It's A Wonderful Life Capra
5. Tokyo Story Ozu
6. The Seventh Seal Bergman
7. The Maltese Falcon Huston
8. In A Year With 13 Moons Fassbinder
9. Sullivan's Travels Sturges
10. Ugestu Mizoguchi
11. Singin' in the Rain Donan/Kelly
12. Tabu Murnau
13. Love in the Afternoon Rohmer
14. Ordet Dreyer
15. Aguirre, The Wrath of God Herzog
16. A Woman Under the Influence Cassavetes
17. Psycho Hitchcock
18. A.I. Artificial Intelligence Spielberg
19. That Obscure Ob-ject of Desire Bunuel
20. M Lang

Interesting thread.

Brook I see you've included a few English-language titles in your top 20.

Mark great list except no.20 which doesn't fit in well with the others. I saw Night at the Museum and by the time we got home I had almost completely erased it from memory, to be fair my memory isn't what it used to be, I can't remember what I ate an hour ago.

1. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
2. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
4. Double Indemnity (1944)
5. Citizen Kane (1941)
6. Dances with Wolves (1990)
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
8. The Razor’s Edge (1946)
9. Caddyshack (1980)
10. Apocalypse Now (1979)
11. The Seven Samurai (1954)
12. Star Wars (1977)
13. The Godfather (1972)
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
15. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
16. Watership Down (1978)
17. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
18. The Godfather Part II (1974)
19. Tron (1982)
20. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

My full top 100: http://www.streetersedge.com/?p=19

updated my top twenty with Now, Voyager, pushing out Battle Royale.

My top 20 list which is ever changing.

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
2. The Abyss
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Now, Voyager
5. Braveheart
6. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
7. Love Actually
8. Bringing up Baby
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
10. Dear Frankie
11. Raiders of the Lost Ark
12. The Empire Strikes Back
13. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
14. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
15. The Joy Luck Club
16. The Road Warrior
17. Shop Around the Corner
18. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
19. Pride and Prejudice
20. The Green Mile

I'm doing these in alphabetical order, because even trying to put them in numerical is impossible.

BTW, I have only 1 requirement. It has to have been at least 4 years since the first time I saw the film.

EDIT: I had forgotten that after much thought, I had decided to include The Claim in my list, but I can't come up with a title to remove. So, my Top 20 now officially includes 21 titles.

American History X
Tony Kaye
Brazil Terry Gilliam
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott
Cinema Paradiso
The Claim
Guiseppe Tornatore
Michael Winterbottom
The Deer Hunter
Michael Cimino
Doctor Zhivago
David Lean
Fiddler on the Roof
Norman Jewison
Gone with the Wind
Victor Fleming
In the Bedroom
Todd Field
Leaving Las Vegas
Mike Figgis
The Man in the Moon
Robert Mulligan
Miller's Crossing
Coen Brothers
Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone
Once Upon a Time in the West
Sergio Leone
Ordinary People
Robert Redford
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Persona Ingmar Bergman
The Rapture
Michael Tolkin
To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Mulligan
Wild Strawberries
Ingmar Bergman

This was one of the hardest things that I've done in a long time. I had to limit myself to one per director or I would have about 7 Wilder films.

The ApartmentBilly Wilder
Rear WindowAlfred Hitchcock
The Wizard of OzVictor Fleming
Once Upon a Time in the WestSergio Leone
The Big LebowskiJoel Coen
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindMichel Gondry
Night of the HunterCharles Laughton
Touch of EvilOrson Welles
The Shop Around the CornerErnst Lubitsch
You Can't Take It With YouFrank Capra
Ball of FireHoward Hawks
Young FrankensteinMel Brooks
Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56Don Siegel
The Day the Earth Stood StillRobert Wise
The Shawshank RedemptionFrank Darabont
Short CutsRobert Altman
MagnoliaP.T. Anderson
American BeautySam Mendes
12 Angry MenSidney Lumet
The SearchersJohn Ford

I've only just seen this...I think I'll have a go at it:


1.BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1935)
2.THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Luis Bunuel, 1972)
3.NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
4.HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Howard Hawks, 1940)
5.CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles, 1941)
6.M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
7.THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949)
8.DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder, 1944)
9.THE RULES OF THE GAME (Jean Renoir, 1939)
10. THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
11. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
12.TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Ernst Lubitch, 1942)
13.DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
14.NOSFERATU (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
15.SHERLOCK JR. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
16.NIGHT OF THE DEMON (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
17.EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Georges Franju, 1959)
18.A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson, 1956)
19.SANSHO THE BAILIFF (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
20.THE SCARLET EMPRESS (Josef Von Sternberg, 1934)


So, keeping it to just one title per director, it works out to 5 horror movies, 8 foreign films and 3 silents - horror being my favorite genre and the others, two types of movies I'm very partial to.

I'll have a go, but the problem is always that "best" and "favorite*" don't always necessarily go hand in hand, and these types of lists are often fairly predictable as a result of sticking with "the best". I'll also be repeating a couple of directors, unless this is a strict requirement not to.

In no order:

Ben-Hur (1959)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Sting (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Jaws (1975)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Kill Bill (complete) (2003)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
American Graffiti (1973)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
*Westworld (1973)
*The Omega Man (1971)
Deliverance (1972)