For a bored, lockdown project, I made myself a list of my favourite 150 films at this moment in time. It's purely subjective, not suggesting that these films are better than 2001 or The Godfather , just a fixed list of what I like most at this point in time. A personal canon if you like. No documentaries or shorts included, only features. Top 150 Feature Length films. Was fun to make, as I couldn't go over 150 films, so took a bit of swapping towards the end, but no intention of ranking it any further than that.
Going Pierrot le Fou tonight. This will make my Godard list: This Breathless Band of Outsiders Weekend
One of the great movie endings ever. Just for shits my ranking: Contempt Vivre Sa Vie Breathless Pierrot Le Fou Alphaville Two or Three Things I Know About Her Week End
I think Band is my favorite, but I’ve only seen each once. Breathless was the first and blew me away, but I feel like I liked Band the most
Masculin Feminin is the only one I have left on that 1,001 Movies list, but I want to see Band of Outsiders just as much
Masculin Feminin was my favorite Godard film for a long time, but Week End has a lot of striking images that I think of quite a bit.
I think the Godard I’ve seen is Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Made in USA, & 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her? Dunno if I’m forgetting any. I own the latter two on Criterion.
I generally find myself leaning towards JLG's post 60s work the past few years but the strength of his inital '60-'67 run cannot be understated. I've seen some 50+ Godard films so I'm not going to list them all but this is my top 10 features at this particular moment. Vivre sa vie Contempt King Lear Tout va bien Notre musique Hail Mary The Married Woman Histoire(s) du cinema Breathless Wind from the East If I included shorts, I probably would have swapped Je vous salue, Sarajevo in there. This list would probably look different every time I make it. I'm also a massive fan of La chinoise, Goodbye to Language, and Ici et ailleurs.
In the stuff I've seen since I last edited my canon I think I'd include Ashes and Diamonds dir. Andrzej Wajda (1958) Black Panthers dir. Agnes Varda (1968) Wanda dir. Barbara Loden (1970) Mauvais Sang dir. Leos Carax (1986) Borderline: Test Pattern dir. Shatara Michelle Ford (2020) (gonna let it sit with me more, though I think it's fantastic) Tokyo Drifter dir. Seijun Suzuki (might go on a Seijun Suzuki run and get to know his style, which I think rules so far) Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris dir. Terence Dixon (1971) (the filmmakers are such drips I don't want to give them too much credit but it's such a powerful document of James Baldwin, who largely takes ownership of the platform from the filmmakers, that I might end up including it) Red Post on Escher Street dir. Sion Sono (wow!) Can't Hardly Wait dir. Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont (given that they made Josie and the Pussycats I shouldn't have been so surprised how warm and kind of smart this was) A couple I saw that I got a lot out of but am not really considering for inclusion, I just think they're neat: Minari, again letting it sit with me awhile, just saw it last night. Also Career Girls, understated Mike Leigh that doesn't stand with his masterpieces but his smallest, least talked about works are as strong as many current filmmaker's bests. I also rewatched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and it hits such a sweet spot for me that I might end up including it someday.
My friend wrote on the documentaries of Anand Patwardhan, progressive Indian filmmaker. A lot of his stuff is now available on OVIDtv, excited to delve in The Films of Anand Patwardhan
Younger audiences definitely notice that lack of significant non-white characters whenever you show them something from more than a few years ago.
Smithereens gave me huge Safdie vibes when I saw it, was surprised they’ve never mentioned it as an influence that I’ve seen