TOP TENS
A word of explanation-- These were created in accordance with Theo Panayides's History Project (it's a secret!), which stipulates that films be categorized by their release date, as listed in the ever-accurate IMDb. So my personal, expanded year-by-year lists will differ from these, since the personal lists focus on what I saw in a particular year. Also, my lists provide a slight difficulty in terms of date consistency, since most avant-garde films or makers do not end up in the IMDb, unless I or one of the other seven devotees submit them. But I've tried to be as consistent as possible. Also, I have begun writing brief comments of films as I add them. They can be found here. Let's get started, shall we buds.
2010: still in progress / TK
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9.
10.
2009:
1. Phantoms of Nabua (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2. A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Wednesday Morning Two A.M. (Lewis Klahr)
4. Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daïchi Saïto)
5. Let Each One Go Where He May (Ben Russell)
6. Cinematographie (Philipp Fleischmann)
7. Night Mayor (Guy Maddin)
8. Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin)
9. Coraline (Henry Selick)
10. Dialogues (Owen Land)
complete list here
2008:
1. When It Was Blue (Jennifer Reeves)
2. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
3. Origin of the Species (Ben Rivers)
4. Jerichow (Christian Petzold)
5. Speechless (Scott Stark)
6. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
7. Liverpool (Lisando Alonso)
8. Failed States (Henry Hills)
9. 7915 KM (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
10. 1859 (Fred Worden)
complete list here
2007:
1. What the Water Said, nos. 4-6 (David Gatten)
2. Observando El Cielo (Jeanne Liotta)
3. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. RR (James Benning)
5. In Memoriam - Mark LaPore (Phil Solomon)
6. Light Is Waiting (Michael Robinson)
7. Public Domain (Jim Jennings)
8. La France (Serge Bozon)
9. Profit motive and the whispering wind (John Gianvito)
10. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
complete list here
2006:
1. Song and Solitude (Nathaniel Dorsky)
2. Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
3. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke)
4. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)
5. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
6. Capitalism: Child Labor (Ken Jacobs)
7. The Free Will (Matthias Glasner)
8. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
9. Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad)
10. Europa 2005, 27 Octobre (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)
bubblin' under
11. Honor de cavalleria (Albert Serra)
12. Exiled (Johnnie To)
13. The Host (Bong Joon-ho)
14. Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
15. 14th Arrondissement [segment from Paris, je t'aime] (Alexander Payne)
16. Inside Man (Spike Lee)
17. Everyday Bad Dream (Fred Worden)
2005:
1. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel)
2. Interstellar Lower East Side Ramble (Ken Jacobs) [Magic Lantern performance]
3. Princess Raccoon (Seijun Suzuki)
4. The Sun (Alexander Sokurov)
5. Land of the Dead (George A. Romero)
6. Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-soo)
7. Low Profile [Falscher Bekenner] (Christoph Hochhäusler)
8. Worldly Desires (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. Takeshis' (Takeshi Kitano)
10. North Southernly (Vincent Grenier)
bubblin' under
11. The Proposition (John Hillcoat)
12. I Am A Sex Addict (Caveh Zahedi)
13. 4 (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
2004:
1. Lenten Light Conversions (Lynn Marie Kirby)
2. Close Quarters (Jim Jennings)
3. Greene Street (Ernie Gehr)
4. The Two Minutes to Zero Trilogy (Lewis Klahr)
5. Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembene)
6. Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs)
7. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)
8. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. The Holy Girl (Lucrecia Martel)
10. Tabula Rasa (Vincent Grenier)
bubblin' under
11. A Hole in My Heart (Lukas Moodysson)
12. Tomorrow We Move (Chantal Akerman)
13. Essex Street Market (Ernie Gehr)
14. She's One of Us (Siegrid Alnoy)
15. Skagafjördur (Peter Hutton)
16. The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chris Marker)
17. Pyramid Lake Piaute Reservation Exposure (Lynn Marie Kirby)
18. Monologue Exterieur (Francien van Everdingen)
19. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (Lu Chuan)
2003:
1. ( ) (Morgan Fisher)
2. The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo)
3. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
4. Stan's Window (Stan Brakhage)
5. Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen)
6. Poised for Parabolas (Lynn Marie Kirby)
7. Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)
8. Come and Go (João César Monteiro)
9. Raja (Jacques Doillon)
10. Zero Day (Ben Coccio)
bubblin' under
11. The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin)
12. Passage (Ernie Gehr)
13. The School of Rock (Richard Linklater)
2002:
1. Irreversible (Gaspar Noé)
2. The Hedge Theatre (Robert Beavers)
3. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Seasons . . . (Stan Brakhage w/ Phil Solomon)
5. Monday Morning (Otar Iosseliani)
6. The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
7. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph)
8. 8 Women (François Ozon)
9. Virgin of Lust (Arturo Ripstein)
10. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)
bubblin' under
11. In My Skin (Marina de Van)
12. Blue Gate Crossing (Yee Chih-yen)
13. Hero (Zhang Yimou)
14. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook)
2001:
1. The Jesus Trilogy and Coda (Stan Brakhage)
2. Harmful Insect
(Akihiko Shiota)
3. The Or Cloud
(Fred Worden)
4. Trouble Every Day
(Claire Denis)
5. Looking at the Sea (Peter Hutton)
6. Brigham City (Richard Dutcher)
7. Where Has Your Hidden Smile Gone? (Pedro Costa)
8. Pistol Opera
(Seijun Suzuki)
9. I’m Going Home
(Manoel de Oliveira)
10. Silence... We’re
Rolling (Youssef Chahine)
11. In Praise of Love
(Jean-Luc Godard)
12. Y tu mamá también
(Alfonso Cuarón)
13. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
1. Werckmeister
Harmonies (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky)
2. The Heart of the
World (Guy Maddin)
3. Miracle on 34th
Street (Jim Jennings)
4. Devils on the
Doorstep (Jiang Wen)
5. Time and Tide:
Study of a River, Part 2 (Peter Hutton)
6. In the Mood for
Love (Wong Kar-wai)
7. Yi Yi (Edward
Yang)
8. The House of
Mirth (Terence Davies)
9. The God of Day
Had Gone Down Upon Him (Stan Brakhage)
10. El Valley Centro
(James Benning)
bubblin’ under
11. La Captive
(Chantal Akerman)
12. Tears of the
Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng)
13. Dead or Alive 2:
Birds (Takashi Miike)
3. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998)
4. The River (Tsai Ming-liang, 1997)
5. The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage, 1994)
6. L’humanité (Bruno Dumont, 1999)
7. Bitemporal Vision: The Sea (Ken Jacobs, 1994)
8. Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
9. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1998)
10. passage à l’acte (Martin Arnold, 1993)
1999:
2. Beau Travail
(Claire Denis)
4. Outer Space
(Peter Tscherkassky)
5. The Earthsong of
the Cricket (Stan Brakhage)
6. Magnolia (Paul
Thomas Anderson)
7. Being John
Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
9. This Side of
Paradise: fragments of an unfinished biography (Jonas Mekas)
10. The Stranger in Apartment 9F (Mike Kuchar)
11. Audition
(Takashi Miike)
13. Magenta 1 (Luis
Recoder)
14. Rosetta (Luc and
Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
15. Sicilia! (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
16. Cremaster 2 (Matthew Barney)
1998:
1. Flowers of
Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. NOEMA (Scott
Stark)
4. Variations
(Nathaniel Dorsky)
5. The Hole (Tsai
Ming-liang)
6. Ontic Antics
Starring Laurel and Hardy (Ken Jacobs)
8. Os Mutantes
(Teresa Villaverde)
9. Babe: Pig in the
City (George Miller)
10. Buffalo ‘66
(Vincent Gallo)
15. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
16. The Power of
Kangwon Province (Hong Sang-soo)
1997:
1. The River (Tsai
Ming-liang)
2. Fast, Cheap and
Out of Control (Errol Morris)
3. Cure (Kiyoshi
Kurosawa)
4. Hana-Bi (Takeshi
Kitano)
5. Time Flies
(Robert Breer)
6. Henry Fool (Hal
Hartley)
7. Taste of Cherry
(Abbas Kiarostami)
9. “Smack My Bitch
Up” [video for Prodigy] (Jonas Ackerlund)
10. Alone. Life
Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold)
11. Four Corners
(James Benning)
1996:
1. A Moment of
Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
2. Talent Show
(Laura Parnes)
4. The Funeral (Abel
Ferrara)
5. Breaking the
Waves (Lars von Trier)
6. Irma Vep (Olivier
Assayas)
7. Crash (David
Cronenberg)
8. MURDER and murder
(Yvonne Rainer)
9. Drifting Clouds
(Aki Kaurismäki)
10. The Long Kiss
Goodnight (Renny Harlin)
11. God’s Comedy
(João César Monteiro)
1995
1. Dead Man (Jim
Jarmusch)
2. Safe (Todd
Haynes)
3. Taschenkino
(Gustav Deutsch) [interactive installation]
4. Bouquets 1-10
(Rose Lowder)
5. Salaam Cinema
(Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
6. Clockers (Spike
Lee)
8. Se7en (David
Fincher)
8. Underground (Emir
Kusturica)
10. Maborosi
(Hirokazu Kore-eda)
bubblin' under
11. Deseret (James
Benning)
1994
1. The Mammals of Victoria (Stan Brakhage)
2. Bitemporal
Vision: The Sea (Ken Jacobs)
3. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
4. Heavenly
Creatures (Peter Jackson)
6. I Don’t Hate Las
Vegas Anymore (Caveh Zahedi)
7. The Color of Love
(Peggy Ahwesh)
8. Cannot Exist
(Stan Brakhage)
9. Satantango (Béla
Tarr)
10. What happened was . . . (Tom Noonan)
bubblin' under
11. Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (Aki Kaurismäki)
12. Run (Luther Price)
13. The Kingdom
(Morten Arnfred / Lars von Trier)
1993:
1. passage à l’acte
(Martin Arnold)
2. Hélas pour moi (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Blue (Derek
Jarman)
4. Calendar (Atom
Egoyan)
5. Thirty-Two Short
Films About Glenn Gould (Francois Girard)
6. Groundhog Day
(Harold Ramis)
7. Suture (Scott McGehee and David Siegel)
8. The Beginning and
the End (Arturo Ripstein)
9. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)
10. Strange Weather
(Peggy Ahwesh and Maggie Strosser) [video]
11. Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
12. Green Snake (Tsui Hark)
13. Sonatine (Takeshi
Kitano)
15. King of the Hill
(Steven Soderbergh)
1992:
1. Simple Men (Hal
Hartley)
2. Tribulation 99:
Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)
3. Interpolations 1-5 (Stan Brakhage)
4. Lessons of
Darkness (Werner Herzog)
5. Careful (Guy
Maddin)
7. Another Girl,
Another Planet (Michael Almereyda)
8. Reservoir Dogs
(Quentin Tarantino)
9. Céline (Jean-Claude Brisseau)
10. The Quince Tree
of the Sun (Victor Erice)
11. The Player (Robert Altman)
12. Glengarry Glen
Ross (James Foley)
13. Malcolm X (Spike
Lee)
1991:
1. Side/Walk/Shuttle
(Ernie Gehr)
2. Sobriety,
Obesity, and Growing Old (William Kentridge)
3. Les Amants du
Pont-Neuf (Leos Carax)
5. Ambition (Hal
Hartley)
8. Edward II (Derek
Jarman)
9. Once Upon a Time
In China (Tsui Hark)
10. The Making of
Monsters (John Greyson)
bubblin' under
11. A Little Stiff
(Caveh Zahedi and Greg Watkins)
13. Slacker (Richard
Linklater)
1990
1. See You Later /
Au Revoir (Michael Snow)
2. King of New York
(Abel Ferrara)
3. Nouvelle Vague
(Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Sink or Swim (Su
Friedrich)
5. Granny's Is (David Larcher)
6. Trust (Hal
Hartley)
7. Opening the
Nineteenth Century: 1896 (Ken Jacobs)
8. Goodfellas
(Martin Scorsese)
9. Edward
Scissorhands (Tim Burton)
10. The Match Factory
Girl (Aki Kaurismäki)
bubblin' under
11. Reversal of
Fortune (Barbet Schroeder)
1989
1. Do the Right
Thing (Spike Lee)
3. Crimes and
Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)
4. Friendly Witness
(Warren Sonbert)
5. Angel’s Gate
(Bill Viola)
6. Notes After Long Silence (Saul Levine)
7. Major League
(David S. Ward)
8. Speaking Parts
(Atom Egoyan)
9. Martina’s
Playhouse (Peggy Ahwesh)
10. Marriage of the
Blessed (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
bubblin’ under
11. sex, lies and
videotape (Steven Soderburgh)
12. Surname Viet
Given Name Nam (Trinh T. Minh-ha)
1988
1. High Hopes (Mike
Leigh)
2. Midweekend (Caroline Avery)
3. Drowning by Numbers
(Peter Greenaway)
4. Damnation (Béla
Tarr and )
5. Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)
6. Dawn of an Evil Millennium (Damon Packard)
7. L'Oeuvre au noir (André Delvaux)
8. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (Mark Lewis)
9. The Thin Blue Line
(Errol Morris)
10. Who Framed Roger
Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
1987
1. Superstar: The
Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes)
2. The Dante Quartet
(Stan Brakhage)
3. Damned If You
Don’t (Su Friedrich)
4. Hamlet Goes
Business (Aki Kaurismäki)
6. Yeelen (Solomani Sise)
7. Raising Arizona
(Joel Coen)
8. Family Viewing
(Atom Egoyan)
9. 17 Reasons Why (Nathaniel Dorsky)
10. The Emperor’s
Naked Army Marches On (Hara Kazuo)
11. The Princess
Bride (Rob Reiner)
12. Swimming to Cambodia
(Jonathan Demme)
13. Full Metal
Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)
14. Camp de Thiaroye
(Ousmane Sembene)
15. The Running Man
(Paul Michael Glazer)
16. Plain Talk &
Common Sense (Jon Jost)
17. Keep Up Your
Right (Jean-Luc Godard)
18. Mayhem (Abigail
Child)
1986:
1. Sherman's March (Ross McElwee)
2. Working Girls (Lizzie Borden)
3. Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax)
4. Under the Cherry Moon (Prince)
5. Soft and Hard (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville)
6. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
7. Mélo (Alain Resnais)
8. Landscape Suicide (James Benning)
9. The Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman)
10. Back to School (Alan Metter)
bubblin' under
11. The Beekeeper (Theo Angelopoulos)
12. She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee)
13. Matador (Pedro Almodóvar)
1985:
1. The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer)
2. Signal -- Germany on the Air (Ernie Gehr)
3. Vagabond (Agnes Varda)
4. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
5. A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
6. Money (Henry Hills)
7. Real Genius (Martha Coolidge)
8. Naked Spaces: Living is Round (Trinh T. Minh-ha)
9. Witness (Peter Weir)
10. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
bubblin' under
11. O. C. and Stiggs (Robert Altman)
12. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
1984:
1. Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher)
2. L'Amour à mort (Alain Resnais)
3. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
4. A & B in Ontario (Hollis Frampton and Joyce Wieland)
5. Almanac of Fall (Béla Tarr)
6. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
7. Top Secret! (Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker)
8. Les Années Declic (Raymond Depardon)
9. Boy Meets Girl (Leos Carax)
10. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)
1983:
1. Zelig (Woody Allen)
2. A Woman's Touch (Warren Sonbert)
3. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
4. The Crimson Permanent Assurance (Terry Gilliam)
5. L'Argent (Robert Bresson)
6. La Vie est un roman (Alain Resnais)
7. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
8. Variety (Bette Gordon)
9. Vacation (Harold Ramis)
10. À nos amours. (Maurice Pialat)
bubblin' under
11. Crime and Punishment (Aki Kaurismäki)
1982:
1. Hotel Cartograph (Scott Stark)
2. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)
3. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. America is Waiting (Bruce Conner)
5. Him and Me (James Benning)
6. Secondary Currents (Peter Rose)
7. Ulysse (Agnès Varda)
8. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
9. Reassemblage (Trinh T. Minh-ha)
10. The State of Things (Wim Wenders)
bubblin' under
11. The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)
12. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)
13. Toute une nuit (Chantal Akerman)
14. So Is This (Michael Snow)
1981:
1. The Arabic Numeral Series (Stan Brakhage)
2. Too Early, Too Late (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)
3. Presents (Michael Snow)
4. Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer)
5. Gently Down the Stream (Su Friedrich)
6. Untitled, Part One (Ernie Gehr)
7. Prelude (Abigail Child)
8. S.O.B. (Blake Edwards)
9. History of the World, Part One (Mel Brooks)
10. Swiss Army Knife With Rats and Pigeons (Robert Breer)
11. New York Portrait Chapter Two (Peter Hutton)
bubblin' under [alphabetical]
Condorman (Charles Jarrott)
Fearful Symmetry (Michael Wallin)
The Gardener of Eden (James Broughton and Joel Singer)
The German Sisters (Margarethe von Trotta)
Hell Spit Flexion (Stan Brakhage)
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Joel Schumacher)
Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry)
Stripes (Ivan Reitman)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam)
Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris)
Zorro, the Gay Blade (Peter Medak)
1980:
1. Airplane! (Zucker / Abrahams / Zucker)
2. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
3. Mindfall, Parts I & VII (The Birth of Magellan) (Hollis Frampton)
4. Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (Nicolas Roeg)
5. Tree of Knowledge (Larry Gottheim)
6. Popeye (Robert Altman)
7. Journeys From Berlin / 1971 (Yvonne Rainer)
8. Loulou (Maurice Pialat)
9. Les Photos d'Alix (Jean Eustache)
10. Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) (Jean-Luc Godard)
bubblin' under
11. Caddyshack (Harold Ramis)
12. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
13. Germany, Pale Mother (Helma Sanders-Brahms)
14. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood)
15. Serial (Bill Persky)
16. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
17. Charleen (Ross McElwee)
18. Mon Oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais)
[ed. note: ...and now things really start getting good....]
TOP TEN OF THE 1970s
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
2. Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
3. untitled (1977) (Ernie Gehr, 1977)
4. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton, 1971)
5. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
6. Still (Ernie Gehr, 1971)
7. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)
8. On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (George Landow [Owen Land], 1979)
9. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)
10. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
1979:
1. On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? (Owen Land [George Landow])
2. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
3. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
4. North Beach 2 (Henry Hills)
5. The Patriotic Woman (Alexander Kluge)
6. The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
7. Being There (Hal Ashby)
8. "The Andy Kaufman Special" (Andy Kaufman / Mel Sherer / Bob Zmuda) [TV]
9. Demon Lover Diary (Joel DeMott)
10. Ticket of No Return / Portrait of a Woman Drinker (Ulrike Ottinger)
bubblin' under
11. The Jerk (Carl Reiner)
12. Strong Medicine (Richard Foreman)
13. The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Jerry Schatzberg)
14. Soft Fiction (Chick Strand)
15. Gloria! (Hollis Frampton)
16. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
1978:
1. Germany in Autumn [segment] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. In a Year of 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
3. North Beach (Henry Hills)
4. Hitler: A Film From Germany (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg)
5. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
6. Vertical Features Remake (Peter Greenaway)
7. Sürü (The Herd) (Zeki Ökten [for Yilmaz Güney])
8. Fingers (James Toback)
9. France / Tour / Détour / Deux / Enfants (Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mièville)
10. Mongoloid (Bruce Conner)
bubblin' under
11. LMNO (Robert Breer)
12. Les Rendezvous d'Anna (Chantal Akerman)
13. Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris)
14. Alexandria . . . Why? (Youssef Chahine)
1977:
1. untitled (1977) (Ernie Gehr)
2. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
3. Stroszek (Werner Herzog)
4. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)
5. The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson)
6. I, An Actress (George Kuchar)
7. Analogies (Peter Rose)
8. The American Friend (Wim Wenders)
9. Invisible Adversaries (Valie Export)
10. News from home (Chantal Akerman)
bubblin' under
11. Providence (Alain Resnais)
12. Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen)
13. 3 Women (Robert Altman)
14. Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene)
15. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
16. Pause! (Peter Kubelka)
1976:
1. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes)
2. Table (Ernie Gehr)
3. A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat)
4. Epileptic Seizure Comparison (Paul Sharits)
5. Take the 5:10 to Dreamland (Bruce Conner)
6. The Space Between the Teeth (Bill Viola)
7. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
8. Otherwise Unexplained Fires (Hollis Frampton)
9. Kings of the Road / In the Course of Time (Wim Wenders)
10. 11 x 14 (James Benning)
bubblin' under
11. Mouches Volantes (Larry Gottheim)
12. Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) (Michael Snow)
13. Satan's Brew (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
14. Ici et ailleurs (Jean-Luc Godard / Anne-Marie Mièville / Jean-Pierre Gorin)
15. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
16. Kristina Talking Pictures (Yvonne Rainer)
Need to re-see: Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Lost Lost Lost (Jonas Mekas); The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg)
1975:
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
2. Duvidha (Mani Kaul)
3. Wide Angle Saxon (Owen Land [George Landow])
4. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
5. Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
6. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni)
7. "No Sir, Orison!" (Owen Land [George Landow])
8. India Song (Marguerite Duras)
9. Rancho Deluxe (Frank Perry)
10. Numéro Deux (Jean-Luc Godard)
bubblin' under
11. 31/75: Asyl (Kurt Kren)
12. F For Fake (Orson Welles)
13. The Seasons (Arthur Peleshian)
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman)
15. Xala (Ousmane Sembene)
Need to re-see: Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
1974:
[ed. note: Ranking these films seems particularly silly and a tad arbitrary, but I did my best; damn, what a year]
1. Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
3. Fuji (Robert Breer)
4. Lancelot du lac (Robert Bresson)
5. Film About a Woman Who . . . (Yvonne Rainer)
6. Mes Petites Amoureuses (Jean Eustache)
7. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)
8. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
9. California Split (Robert Altman)
10. Boomerang (Richard Serra with Nancy Holt)
bubblin' under
11. Eureka (Ernie Gehr)
12. Rameau's Nephew (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (Michael Snow)
13. The Haunted Mouth (American Dental Association, dir. uncredited)
14. Reason, Debate, and a Tale (Ritwik Ghatak)
15. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)
16. The Text of Light (Stan Brakhage)
17. Splitting (Gordon Matta-Clark)
18. Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)
19. Shift (Ernie Gehr)
20. A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley California (Owen Land [George Landow])
Need to re-see: Straits of Magellan: Drafts & Fragments (Hollis Frampton); A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
1973:
No list yet; too many key films I haven't seen.
1972:
1. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. The Wold Shadow (Stan Brakhage)
3. Play It As It Lays (Frank Perry)
4. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
5. Tout va Bien (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin)
6. What's Wrong With This Picture? Parts 1 and 2 (George Landow [Owen Land])
7. Letter to Jane (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin)
8. Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci)
9. The Riddle of Lumen (Stan Brakhage)
10. Near the Big Chakra (Anne Severson)
bubblin' under
11. Gulls and Buoys (Robert Breer)
12. History Lessons (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)
13. Dyn Amo (Stephen Dwoskin)
14. The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Need to re-see: Cabaret (Bob Fosse); The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel); Hotel Monterey (Chantal Akerman); Sexual Meditation: Hotel (Stan Brakhage)
1971:
[ed. note: Could this be the single greatest year in avant-garde film history? Just a thought . . .]
1. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton)
2. Still (Ernie Gehr)
3. La Région Centrale (Michael Snow)
4. (nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton)
5. Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman)
6. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)
7. S:TREAM:S:S:ECTION:S:ECTION:S:S:ECTIONED (Paul Sharits)
8. The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage)
9. Barn Rushes (Larry Gottheim)
10. Holding (Coni Beeson)
bubblin' under
11. Punishment Park (Peter Watkins)
12. Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Need to re-see: July '71 in San Francisco . . . (Peter Hutton); Turning Torso Drawdown (Robert Huot); WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)
1970:
1. Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr)
2. Zorns Lemma (Hollis Frampton)
3. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer)
4. Bleu Shut (Robert Nelson)
5. Remedial Reading Comprehension (George Landow [Owen Land])
6. British Sounds (Groupe Dziga-Vertov)
7. THX-1138 (George Lucas)
8. The Story of a Man Who Left His Will on Film (Nagisa Oshima)
9. Multiple Sidosis (Sid Laverents)
10. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)
bubblin' under
11. Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
12. Brewster McCloud (Robert Altman) [note: I despised this film until about the fifth viewing]
13. Straight and Narrow (Tony and Beverly Conrad)
14. Circus Girls (Walter Gutman)
Need to re-see: Le Cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville); Goin' Down the Road (Donald Shebib); The Hart of London (Jack Chambers); Hope (Umut) (Yilmaz Güney); Trash (Paul Morrissey)
TOP TEN OF THE 1960s
1. Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
2. Gertrud (Carl-Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
4. Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka, 1966)
5. Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
6. Not Reconciled, or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 1965)
7. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963)
8. Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)
9. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
10. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)
1969:
1. Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. Our Lady of the Sphere (Larry Jordan)
3. Tom, Tom the Piper's Son (Ken Jacobs)
4. <--> (Michael Snow)
5. Medium Cool (Haskel Wexler)
6. My Name Is Oona (Gunvor Nelson)
7. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
8. Une femme douce (Robert Bresson)
9. Reason Over Passion (Joyce Wieland)
10. We (Arthur Peleshian)
bubblin' under
11. Palindrome (Hollis Frampton)
12. Permian Strata (Bruce Conner)
13. Blues (Larry Gottheim)
Need to re-see: Love Is Colder Than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Sayat Nova (Sergei Paradjanov)
1968:
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
2. T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Paul Sharits)
3. Death By Hanging (Nagisa Oshima)
4. Je t'aime, Je t'aime (Alain Resnais)
5. Maxwell's Demon (Hollis Frampton)
6. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves)
7. Valentin de las Sierras (Bruce Baillie)
8. New Left Note (Saul Levine)
9. Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)
10. Flesh (Paul Morrissey)
bubblin' under
11. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
12. The Swimmer (Frank Perry)
13. Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland)
Need to re-see: Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter (George Landow [Owen Land]); Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero); 69 (Robert Breer); Third Eye Butterfly (Storm De Hirsch); Winter Wind (Miklos Jansco)
1967:
[ed. note: This is my favorite movie year ever. EVER. The first five are among my twenty favorite films of all time.]
1. Wavelength (Michael Snow)
2. Report (Bruce Conner)
3. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Playtime (Jacques Tati)
5. Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman)
6. Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage)
7. Fuses (Carolee Schneemann)
8. Mouchette (Robert Bresson)
9. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke)
bubblin' under
11. The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)
12. La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard)
13. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)
14. Sunset (Andy Warhol)
Need to re-see: Color Me Shameless (George Kuchar); Morning (Ernie Gehr); Wait (Ernie Gehr)
1966:
1. Unsere Afrikareise (Peter Kubelka)
2. Au hasard, Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
3. Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
4. All My Life (Bruce Baillie)
5. Daisies (Vera Chytilova)
6. Castro Street (Bruce Baillie)
7. Screen Test: Bob Dylan (Andy Warhol)
8. Hold Me While I'm Naked (George Kuchar)
9. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone)
10. The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura)
bubblin' under
11. The Chelsea Girls (Andy Warhol)
12. 7 Women (John Ford)
13. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
14. The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
15. Breakway (Bruce Conner)
16. The Velvet Underground and Nico (Andy Warhol)
17. Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc. (George Landow [Owen Land])
18. Outer and Inner Space (Andy Warhol)
1965:
1. Not Reconciled, or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet)
2. Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol)
3. The War Game (Peter Watkins)
4. Inside Daisy Clover (Robert Mulligan)
5. Oh Dem Watermelons (Robert Nelson)
6. Time Piece (Jim Henson)
7. Vinyl (Andy Warhol)
8. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
9. The Flicker (Tony Conrad)
10. Quixote (Bruce Baillie)
bubblin' under
11. Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
Need to re-see: Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard); Corruption of the Damned (George Kuchar); Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
1964:
1. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
2. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger)
3. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage)
4. Window (Ken Jacobs)
5. Dry Summer (Metin Erksan)
6. Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
7. Couch (Andy Warhol)
8. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
9. Twice a Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos)
10. Brookfield Recreation Center (Bruce Baillie)
bubblin' under
11. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
12. Fist Fight (Robert Breer)
13. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
Need to re-see: I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov); Mass for the Dakota Sioux (Bruce Baillie); Strait-Jacket (William Castle)
1963:
1. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)
2. Abraham Zapruder's 8mm amateur film of the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy
3. Little Stabs at Happiness (Ken Jacobs)
4. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
5. Muriel (Alain Resnais)
6. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad)
8. The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
9. A Town Called Tempest (George Kuchar)
10. Christmas On Earth (Barbara Rubin)
bubblin' under
11. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
Need to re-see: An Actor's Revenge (Kon Ichikawa); Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard); Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)
1962:
1. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)
2. My Life To Live (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. The World's Greatest Sinner (Timothy Carey)
4. La Jetée (Chris Marker)
5. The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson)
6. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer(
7. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich)
8. Freud (John Huston)
9. The Trial (Orson Welles)
10. Here I Am (Bruce Baillie)
Need to re-see: Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
1961:
1. Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett)
2. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)
3. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni)
4. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (Marie Menken)
5. Cosmic Ray (Bruce Conner)
6. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
7. E Flat (Ritwik Ghatak)
8. Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi)
9. Lola (Jacques Demy)
10. --
1960:
1. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak)
2. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
3. 3/60: Trees in Autumn (Kurt Kren)
4. Cimarron (Anthony Mann)
5. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut)
6. The Lady Pickpocket aka The Woman Who Touched the Legs (Yazuso Masumura)
7. Odd Obsession (Kon Ichikawa)
8. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
9. Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch and Edgar Moran)
10. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)