BrokenProjector.com

25 Great films I still haven’t watched but will before 2009 ends

I consider myself a cinephile and a good one at that. I’m not one of those people who call themselves cinephiles because they sat through the Three Colours Trilogy on cable. At 24 years old, I feel I grew up watching some of the best films that anyone can watch while growing up but somewhere along the way, I missed some obviously great films. I went through several drafts of this list and realized that there are still hundreds of films I have to watch before I can look at myself as a growing cinephile but decided to take out the most obvious ones first. Now, my friends from the blogosphere might experience a slight shock to see some of the titles listed here but I hope you understand the courage it takes to put this list out publicly, not knowing if I will be able to see it through before the year ends. But those who know me will already know that I will go ahead anyway.

So without further delay, here is:

The 25 to Cinephiliac Pride List

1. Paris, Texas – Wim Wenders (German/ English)
2. Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock (English)
   The Man who shot Liberty Valance – John Ford (English)
   Faces – John Cassavetes (English)
   Taxi Driver – Martin Scorsese (English)
   Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (English)
   The Third Man – Carol Reed (English)
   Night on Earth – Jim Jarmusch (English/ Finnish/ Italian)
   Gandhi – Richard Attenborough (English)
   Magnolia – Paul Thomas Anderson (English)
   Mutual Appreciation – Andrew Bujalski (English)
   Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (Japanese)
   Ali: Fear Eats the Soul – Rainer Werner Fassbender (German)
   The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (English)
   Au Revoir Les Enfants – Louis Malle (French)
   Where is the Friend’s Home? – Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian)
   Toy Story – John Lasseter (English)
   City of Sadness – Hou Hsiao-Hsen (Taiwanese)
   Branded to Kill – Seijun Suzuki (Japanese)
   Do you remember Dolly Bell? – Emir Kusturica (Serb0-Croatian)
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – John Ford (English) – watched 9th November, 11:00 pm on PC.
4. Faces - John Cassavetes (English)
5. Taxi Driver – Martin Scorsese (English) – watched 4th October, 12:15 am on DVD player. Film acquired from Anuj Malhotra.
6. Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (English) - watched 15th October, 12:00 am on DVD player.
7. The Third Man – Carol Reed (English)
8. Night on Earth – Jim Jarmusch (English/ Finnish/ Italian/ French) - watched 30th October, 9:40 pm open air screening at the Goethe Institute, K.G.Marg.
9. Gandhi – Richard Attenborough (English) – watched 2nd October, 9:00 pm show on Sony Pix on Gandhi’s 140th Birth Anniversary.
10. Magnolia – Paul Thomas Anderson (English)
11. Mutual Appreciation – Andrew Bujalski (English) - watched 2nd November, 12:00 am on DVD player. Film acquired from Nitesh Rohit.
12. Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (Japanese)
13. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul – Rainer Werner Fassbender (German)
14. The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (English)
15. Au Revoir Les Enfants – Louis Malle (French)
16. Where is the Friend’s Home? – Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian)
17. Toy Story – John Lasseter (English)
18. City of Sadness – Hou Hsiao-Hsen (Taiwanese)
19. Branded to Kill - Seijun Suzuki (Japanese)
20. Do you remember Dolly Bell? – Emir Kusturica (Serbo-Croatian)
21. Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa (Japanese) – watched 3rd October, 3:30 pm. A rare 16mm screening at the Kurosawa repertoire, Siri Fort Auditorium
22. The Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein (Silent/ Russian)
23. 8½ - Federico Fellini (Italian)
24. Chinatown - Roman Polanski (English)
25. Recommendation 5

The last five slots are for recommendations, I’d like if you could leave a few recommendations in the comments and depending on if I have already watched the film or not and how difficult it is to attain, I will add the title to to the list.

I will also be updating this page, as I finish watching each of these films and will give you a quick description on how and on what format I’ve watched them.

59 days to go, 20 films to watch!