GoonanismA Sporadic mix of the personal, political and programming

Ok, so I come accross Time magazine’s 100 best films of all time. So I send my favorite film buff, Avi, this list expecting some wanky, “I’m a great film lover so all films are crap except for Reservoir Dogs and some obscure French film that most French people don’t even know about.”

At first came the predictable response: “not a bad list… but i feel it is somewhat Hollywood inspired” (and I was thinking what the fuck are all those foreign films doing on the list!).

But when I got in to work this morning there was an email from my beloved Avi saying: “here is my 100 not all time best films, but quite good movies that are definitely worth seeing because who could possibly say that one lot of 100 films is better than another. You have created a monster, you know that don’t you?!”

He assures me he is unhappy with it and wants to change it and so on but he has kindly agreed to allow me to publish “Avi’s top 100 films of all time (sort of)”

Die Film Liste!

Australia

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
Proof (1991)
Romper Stomper (1992)
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994)
Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
Children of the Revolution (1996)
Shine (1996)
Thank God He Met Lizzy (1997)
The Boys (1998)
Head On (1998)
The Goddess of 1967 (2000)

Austria

Hundstage (2001) (Dog Days)

Michael Haneke
Funny Games (1997)
Pianiste, La (2001) (The Piano Teacher)

Brazil

Central Station (1998)
City of God (2002)

China

Yimou Zhang
Red Sorghum (1987)
Raise the Red Latern (1991)
To Live (1994)
Not One Less (1999)

Hong Kong

Johnny To
PTU (2003)
Fulltime Killer (2001)
The Mission (1999)
Running Out Of Time (1999)

Won Kar Wai
Chungking Express (1994)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Happy Together (1997)
In the Mood for Love (2000)

Taiwan

Yi yi: A One and a Two (2000)

Ang Lee
The Wedding Banquet (1993)
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
The Ice Storm (1997)

Czeck Republic

Kolya (1992)

Denmark

Feston (1998)

Lars Von Trier
Breaking The Waves (1996)
The Idiots (1998)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Dogville (2003)

England

Blow Up (1966)
Withnail & I (1987)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
Beautiful Thing (1996)
Love and Death on Long Island (1997)

Mike Figgis
The Browning Version (1994)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1997)
Timecode (2000)

Peter Greenaway
The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover (1989)
Prospero’s Books (1991)
The Pillow Book (1996)

Mike Leigh
Naked (1993)
Secrets and Lies (1996)
Career Girls (1997)

Michael Winterbottom
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Wonderland (1999)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
In This World (2002)

France

Barbarella (1968)
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) (Lovers on the 9th Bridge)
L’ Appartement (1996) (The Apartment)
Gadjo dilo (1997)
Le Dîner de cons (1998) (The Dinner Game)

Olivier Assayas
Irma Vepp (1996)
Fin août, début septembre (1998) (Late August, Early Spetember)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
Delicatessen (1991)
La Cité des enfants perdus (1995) (The City of Lost Children)
La Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001) (Amelie)

Germany

Zur Sache, Schätzchen (1968) (Go for It, Baby)
Rocker (1972)
Lola Rennt (1998) (Run Lola Run)
Das Experiment (2001) (The Experiment)
Gegen die Wand (2004) (Head On)

Leander Haussman
Sonnenallee (1999)
Herr Lehmann (2003)

Italy

Dario Argento
L’ Ucello dalle piume di cristallo (1970) (Bird with the Glass Feathers)
Profondo Rosso (1975) (Deep Red)

Pier Paolo Pasolini
I Racconti di Canterbury (1970) (The Canterbury Tales)
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975) (Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom)

Iran

A Time for Drunken Horses (2000) (Zeit der Betrunkenen Pferder)

Majid Majidi
Children of Heaven (1997)
Colours of Paradise (1999)

Japan

Hirokazu Koreeda
Afterlife (1998)
Nobody Knows (2004)

Takeshi Kitano
Violent Cop (1989)
Boiling Point (1990)
Sonatine (1993)
Hana-Bi (1997)
Kikujiro (1999)
Brother (2000)
Dolls (2002)

Takashi Miike
Graveyard of Honor (2002)
One Missed Call (2003)
Audition (2001)
Visitor Q (2001)
Dead or Alive (1999)

South Korea

Chan-wook Park
JSA: Joint Security Area (2000)
Old Boy (2003)

New Zealand

Once Were Warriors (1994)

Peter Jackson
Meet The Feebles (1989)
Braindead (1992)
Heavenly Creaters (1994)

Poland

Krzysytof Kieslowski
La Double vie de Véronique (1991) (The Double Life of Veronique)
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) (Three Colours Blue)
Trzy kolory: Biały (1994) (Three Colours White)
Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) (Three Colours Red)

Singapore

Forever Fever (1998)
15 (2003)

Spain

Pedro Almodóvar
Pepi, Luci, Bom y otro chicas del montón (1980) (Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls)
Matador (1986)
Todo sobre mi Madre (1999) (All About My Mother)
Hable con Ella (2002) (Talk to Her)
La Mala Educacion (2004) (Bad Education)

Julio Medem
Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (1998) (Lovers of the Arctic Circle)
Lucia y el Sexo (2001) (Sex and Lucia)

Thailand

Last Life in the Universe (2003)
Ong Bak (2003)

USA

Easy Rider (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Tootsie (1982)
To Be or Not To Be (1983)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
GlengarryGlen Ross (1992)
Bob Roberts (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Fun (1994)
Go Fish (1994)
The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Smoke (1995)
Hustler White (1996)
American Movie: The Making of Northwestern (1999)
Black & White (1999)
Donnie Darko (2001)

Woody Allen
Bananas (1971)
Everything you always wanted to know about sex* *but were afraid to ask (1972)
Love and Death (1975)
Annie Hall (1977)
Manhattan (1979)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Husbands and Wives (1992)

Robert Altman
Nashville (1975) (worse film ever in my opinion – worse than xXx2!)
The Player (1992)
Short Cuts (1993)
Prêt-à-Porter (1994)

Paul Thomas Anderson
Boogie Nights (1997)
Magnolia (1999)

Darren Aronofsky
Pi (1998)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Roger Avary
Killing Zoe (1994)
The Rules Of Attraction (2002)

Robert Benton
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Nobody’s Fool (1994)

Joel Cohen
Raising Arizona (1987)
Millers Crossing (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Fargo (1996)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

David Cronenberg
Naked Lunch (1991)
Crash (1996)
eXistenZ (1999)

Terry Gilliam
Brazil (1985)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Christopher Guest
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Best in Show (2000)
A Mighty Wind (2003)

Hal Hartley
The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
Trust (1990)
Simple Men (1992)
Amateur (1994)
Flirt (1995)
The Book of Life (1998)

Jim Jarmusch
Permanent Vacation (1980)
Stranger Than Paradise (1983)
Down By Law (1986)
Mystery Train (1989)
Night On Earth (1991)
Dead Man (1995)

Spike Jonze
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Adaptation (2002)

Stanley Kubrik
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Niel LaBute
In The Company of Men (1997)
Your Friends & Neighbours (1998)

Spike Lee
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Mo’ Better Blues (1990)
Jungle Fever (1991)
Malcolm X (1992)
25th Hour (2002)

David Lynch
Eraserhead (1977)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)

Mike Nichols
The Graduate (1967)
Catch 22 (1970)
Carnal Knowledge (1971)

Robert Rodriguez
El Mariachi (1992)
Desperado (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

John Sayles
Passion Fish (1992)
Lone Star (1996)
Men With Guns (1997)
Limbo (1999)
Casa de los babys (2003)

Todd Solondz
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1994)
Happiness (1998)

Whit Stillman
Metropolitan (1990)
Barcelona (1994)

Gus Van Sant
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Elephant (2003)

Yugoslavia

Emir Kusturica
Time of the Gypsies (1988)
Underground (1995)
Black Cat, White Cat (1998)