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[thesludgeofbabylon]

Top 100 Films

Just wanted to put this somewhere for the sake of documentation, might do this once a year to see how much the overall list changes.

Not ranked, but the list is done by release date, earliest to most recent. Includes short and feature length films (plus one TV series, and two serials, if you want to be specific):

• The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), dir. D.W. Griffith

• Fantômas (1913), dir. Louis Feuillade

• Les Vampires (1915), dir. Louis Feuillade

• The Doll (1919), dir. Ernst Lubitsch

• Foolish Wives (1922), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• Sherlock, Jr. (1924), dir. Buster Keaton

• Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924), dir. Fritz Lang

• Greed (1924), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• The Last Laugh (1924), dir. F. W. Murnau

• The Gold Rush (1925), dir. Charlie Chaplin

• The General (1926), dir. Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman

• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), dir. F. W. Murnau

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• The Docks of New York (1928), dir. Josef von Sternberg

• The Wedding March (1928), dir. Erich von Stroheim

• Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Dziga Vertov

• M (1931), dir. Fritz Lang

• Vampyr (1932), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), dir. Mervyn LeRoy

• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), dir. Mervyn LeRoy, Bubsy Berkeley

• L’Atalante (1934), dir. Jean Vigo

• The Scarlet Empress (1934), dir. Josef von Sternberg

• The Thin Man (1934), dir. W.S. Van Dyke

• The Only Son (1936), dir. Yasujirō Ozu 

• Citizen Kane (1941), dir. Orson Welles

• Now, Voyager (1942), dir. Irving Rapper

• Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), dir. Maya Deren

• Day of Wrath (1943), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• At Land (1944), dir. Maya Deren

• Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), dir. Sergei Eisenstein

• Notorious (1946), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

• Sunset Boulevard (1950), dir. Billy Wilder

• Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), dir. Jacques Tati

• The Wages of Fear (1953), dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot

• The Big Heat (1953), dir. Fritz Lang

• The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), dir. Kenneth Anger

• Rear Window (1954), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

• Ordet (1955), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• A Man Escaped (1956), dir. Robert Bresson

• Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars’ Plot (1958), dir. Sergei Eisenstein

• La Dolce Vita (1960), dir. Federico Fellini

• L’Avventura (1960), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• La Notte (1961), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• L’Eclisse (1962), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• The Exterminating Angel (1962), dir. Luis Buñuel

• Mothlight (1963), dir. Stan Brakhage

• Red Desert (1964), dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

• Gertrud (1964), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

• The War Game (1966), dir. Peter Watkins

• Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), dir. Robert Bresson

• Daisies (1966), dir. Věra Chytilová

• Lemon (1969), dir. Hollis Frampton

• The Conformist (1970), dir. Bernardo Bertolucci 

• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), dir. Luis Buñuel

• F for Fake (1973), dir. Orson Welles

• Lancelot of the Lake (1974), dir. Robert Bresson

• A Woman Under the Influence (1974), dir. John Cassavetes

• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). dir. Tobe Hooper

• House (1977), dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 

• Stalker (1979), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

• Nostalgia (1983), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

• L’Argent (1983), dir. Robert Bresson 

• Blue Velvet (1986), dir. David Lynch

• Heathers (1989), dir. Michael Lehmann

• Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), dir. Hayao Miyazaki

• Baraka (1992), dir. Ron Fricke

• Satantango (1994), dir. Béla Tarr

• A Confucian Confusion (1994), dir. Edward Yang

• Chungking Express (1994), dir. Wong Kar-Wai

• Ed Wood (1994), dir. Tim Burton

• Whisper of the Heart (1995), dir. Yoshifumi Kondo

• Showgirls (1995), dir. Paul Verhoeven 

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997), dir. Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki

• Gummo (1997), dir. Harmony Korine

• The Big Lebowski (1998), dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen 

• Outer Space (1999), dir. Peter Tscherkassky

• Beau Travail (1999), dir. Claire Denis

• Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), dir. Harmony Korine

• Yi Yi (2000), dir. Edward Yang

• Dancer in the Dark (2000), dir. Lars von Trier

• The Piano Teacher (2001), dir. Michael Haneke

• Mulholland Drive (2001), dir. David Lynch

• What Time Is It There? (2001), dir. Tsai Ming-liang

• Memories of Murder (2003), dir. Bong Joon-ho

• The Matrix Reloaded (2003), dir. Lily Wachowski, Lana Wachowski  

• The Village (2004), dir. M. Night Shyamalan

• Caché (2005), dir. Michael Haneke

• Southland Tales (2006), dir. Richard Kelly

• Inland Empire (2006), dir. David Lynch

• Zodiac (2007), dir. David Fincher

• The White Ribbon (2009), dir. Michael Haneke

• The Turin Horse (2011), dir. Béla Tarr

• Five Broken Cameras (2012), dir. Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi

• The Master (2012), dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

• Spring Breakers (2012), dir. Harmony Korine

• Song to Song (2017), dir. Terrence Malick

• Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), dir. David Lynch

• The Favourite (2018), dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma

• We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), dir. Jane Schoenbrun

(10/4/23)

[thesludgeofbabylon]

Favourite film I watched last month: GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 

What happens when Mervyn LeRoy’s sharp Pre-Code directing chops collide with Bubsy Berkley’s dazzling choreography and surreal musical numbers? Well… it seems the answer would be total cinematic magic. 

Can quite confidently say this is one is a masterpiece and one of the best films I’ve seen from the 1930s, just so appealing in numerous ways like all the greatest films should be.

[thesludgeofbabylon]

An Introduction

A few weeks ago I decided to revive this account after it laying dormant for six years under a different name and intended purpose.

Since then, my main fixation has shifted from music to cinema, an industry I am hoping to work in. I already have a Letterboxd account where I write essay-lite reviews on most of what I watch, so this will serve some other purpose. Maybe to write about aesthetics or cinema-adjacent posts that aren’t tethered to whatever film I’ve just watched. Might do write-ups on directors who I want to explore in a cohesive way or maybe I’ll just post pretty pictures from old movies. Who knows, maybe I’ll just post random thoughts that come to mind instead of having to use something like Twitter for such an outlet.

Whatever it is, I look forward to spending time here. I like to think I can create an interesting space on this platform, but maybe I am being too hopeful. Guess we will have to wait and see how this all turns out…