This Is Cinema Through My Eyes

Obviously, a list open to reevaluation, but anyway, here comes my top 50 of all time:

1. Once upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone,1968)
Time Out put this best in three words: 'This is cinema'.
Virtually every line in its 2 ½ hours is quotable, the cinematography and sound are groundbreaking and Henry Fonda is truly evil. I've watched the first ten minutes 15 times and I'm still not tired of it.
'Well, looks like we're shy of one horse.'
'No. You brought two too many.'
2. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
It's got Rutger Hauer in it, for Christ's sake! The film that set the precedent for all subsequent depictions of the future.
'I've seen things...you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams...glitter in the void at Tannhauser's Gate. All those moments will be lost...like...tears...in rain. Time to die.'
3. Der Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Utterly beautiful if deeply flawed. One of films that really makes you appreciate the little things in life.
4. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)
Thank God they made this. Otherwise our film industry would only be seen as men in white flannel suits swanning around Florence. Explains so succinctly why people love and hate hard drugs. Moves seamlessly from hilarious to tragic and is probably the finest achievement in the history of post-war British cinema.
5. The Hudsucker Proxy (the Coen brothers, 1994)
As warm as a bag of chestnuts on a chill December night. Slagged off by film purists and highbrow Coen fans alike, none of whom could recognise sheer joy if it bit their nether regions off.
'You know...for kids!'
6. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969)
The soundtrack, the casting, the way it's so determinedly of its time that it's dated relentlessly...hate this and you're not human.
7. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
The template that a thousand crap buddy movies have never got near.
8. La Cité des Enfants Perdus (Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995)
If Hans Christian Andersen made films, they should look like this.
9. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
The hottest day of the year in Bedford-Stuy and all Mookie has to do is make it through...
10. Scener ur ett äktenskap (Ingmar Bergman, 1973)
170 minutes of sheer torture. Don't watch unless your relationship is extremely secure.
11. Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998)
Such a good one to bait reactionaries with; it's like a litmus test for Tunbridge Wells-folk.
12. 37°2 le matin (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986)
Manages to saturate the screen with the joy of living.
13. Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
Brian: 'You're all individuals!'
Man in rabble: 'I'm not.'
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
This is how special effects should be used in sci-fi...Lucas.
'I really don't think you want to do that, Dave.'
15. This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
So funny you not only wet your pants but those of the person next to you. And the tunes ROCK!
16. Ôdishon (Takashi Miike, 2000)
Probably the only film I've ever wanted to run out of the room from; hiding behind the sofa isn't enough.
17. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J.Schaffner, 1968)
Funny what a humanistic icon Charlton Heston was in films...the best ending in a film, ever.
18. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
The countryside was never safe again after this. I certainly haven't been there again.
19. Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967)
A Gandhi/Christ take on redneck prisons.
'What we have here is a failure to communicate...there are some men you just can't reach.'
20. Musíme si pomáhat (Jan Hrebejk, 2000)
A Jewish escapee hides out in a Czech couple's flat through the war. Of course, must be a comedy.
21. Sleuth (Joseph L.Mankiewicz, 1972)
Verbiose, camp and totally benefiting from being so stagebound.
22. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Dubya should be strapped in a chair and forced to watch this over and over. Mind you, he'd just end up yelling 'yeeharr!'.
23. The Matrix (the Wachowski brothers, 1999)
Cool as nails in its telekineticism and just about makes you forgive them for The Matrix Revolutions.
24. Shichinin no samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Look Hollywood, a real battle is lots of scared people running around aimlessly, floundering in mud. I fell asleep through The Magnificent Seven.
25. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
'A royale with cheese'. What a cheeky geeky trouper Tarantino is.
26. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)
White trash vampires. No garlic, coffins or crucifixes.
27. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
You didn't expect me to include only one Leone, didya?
'There are two kinds of spurs in this world, my friend. Those that come in through the door...and those that come in through the window.'
28. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
Life is a veil of tears, and then you die. A salutary lesson for us all.
29. Le Goût des Autres (Agnes Jaoui, 2000)
Just heartwarming.
30. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)
Ah, the superciliousness of teenage angst.
31. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Invented the entire hybrid genre of sci-fi horror, without which our lives would be much the poorer, and chills mostly just by suggestion.
32. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
Phenomenal casting in the two leads. I really cared about these characters; a rare feat since Hollywood's Golden Age of 1965-1975 or so.
33. Mishima (Paul Schrader, 1985)
The Japanese gay nationalist writer's life through his stories, driven by a meandering Philip Glass soundtrack. Delicate like a knife.
34. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Shite! Tom Cruise can actually act! Beautifully constructed character piece.
35. Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)
'We demand the finest wines known to humanity!' I confess to having lived exactly like this for a while. Only none of it was nearly as funny.
36. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.' Indeed. Now hotels are scary, too.
37. Spoorloos (George Sluizer, 1988)
No, not the bloody Kiefer Sutherland one! Historians writing about the Nazis would call this 'a study into the banality of evil'.
38. Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)
Once again, Johnny Depp's brill. We should import him for good and send them, say, Ruby Wax in return.
39. Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch, 1986)
'Ees a sad and beautiful world.' It's a downbeat and funny little film. With Tom Waits.
40. The Believer (Henry Bean, 2001)
Films about racial hatred are rarely as complex. Fiercely intelligent shot of a Jewish Neo-Nazi's contorted life.
41. The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950)
Gregory Peck is a wearied gunfighter trying to spend two hours in one town, but his past won't let him...
42. Ostre sledované vlaky (Jiri Menzel, 1966)
A poignant and funny piece made just before the ill-fated Prague uprising. Sex, trains and growing up under the Nazi yoke.
43. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)
See, loony bins are fun! Until you get lobotomised.
44. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard, 1990)
No mean feat to be hilariously funny about Hamlet and existentialism.
45. Oldboy (Chan-wook Park, 2003)
Hits on the insight that there are worse things you can do to a man than torture him, and never lets go. Relentless.
46. Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
A Daliesque dream crossing back and forth from the French resistance to Hades. If you know what I mean.
47. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (the Coen brothers, 2000)
Achieved the unimaginable as I walked out of the cinema looking like a Cheshire cat, after two hours of BLUEGRASS music.
48. Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
As stylised and sterile as the world it portrays, which is a compliment. They'll never film 'Brave New World' this well.
49. Cidade de Deus (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)
Fizzing with life and death, a hypercharged adolescence of music and coke and guns. Utterly captivating.
50. Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
You might not suppose a trawl through 50 years of Yugoslav history would be such rollicking fun...

....and there you have it. The list is of course open to revision at any time, except for Once upon a Time in the West, which should be on the National Curriculum.