besties ('67-'87)

         Pretty much the same deal as '88-'12, in terms of rules/intentions. A few fallow years, but '67, '68, '71, '74, '83, and possibly '84 are among the best years for cinema in the 20th century. '67-'74 is the single most fascinating period in cinema, for me, in that right as Godard peaks and recedes into Mao the impact of his innovations begins to be felt all over the world, with many exciting experiments in self-reflexive and political filmmaking coming out of the US, Britain, Japan, and elsewhere at an astonishingly rapid clip. We also have the flowering of the New Hollywood, which inherits some of the energy of the various New Waves and broadens the range of tones and subject matter available to mainstream movies. What follows this period in the US is, from one perspective, an increasingly precipitous descent into pervasive corporatized spectacle, which descent we seem to have reached a terminal phase of. But for someone like myself whose imagination was colonized as a child by said spectacles, '80s Hollywood at its best remains a richly evocative pop dreamscape.

1967

1. Week End (Jean-Luc Godard)

2. Playtime (Jacques Tati)

3. Wavelength (Michael Snow)

4. David Holzman’s Diary (Jim McBride)

5. La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard)

6. Mouchette (Robert Bresson)
7. Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman)

8. Belle de jour (Luis Bunuel)
9. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard)

10. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)

11. Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker)
12. La Revelateur (Philippe Garrel)

13. Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (Nagisa Oshima)

14. Point Blank (John Boorman)

15. La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer)

1968

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

2. Faces (John Cassavetes)

3. Death By Hanging (Nagisa Oshima)
4. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves)

5. High School (Frederick Wiseman)

6. L’Amour Fou (Jacques Rivette)

7. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)

8. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)

9. L’Enfance Nue (Maurice Pialat)

10. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)

11. Je T’aime, Je T’aime (Alain Resnais)

12. Hour of the Furnaces: Part I (Octavio Getino, Fernando Solanas)

13. Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicholas Roeg)

14. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Nagisa Oshima)
15. Joy of Learning (Jean-Luc Godard)

1969

1. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)

2. My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer)
3. Boy (Nagisa Oshima)
4. Eros Plus Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida)
5. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)

6. My Girlfriend’s Wedding (Jim McBride)

7. Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
8. Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman)

9. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
10. Dillinger is Dead (Marco Ferreri)

1970
1. Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski)

2. Hi, Mom! (Brian De Palma)
3. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer)

4. Gimme Shelter (Albert and David Maysles)
5. Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni)

6. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer)

7. Husbands (John Cassavetes)

8. The Man Who Left His Will on Film (Nagisa Oshima)
9. Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog)

10. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)

1971

1. Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (Jacques Rivette)

2. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)

3. Punishment Park (Peter Watkins)

4. W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)

5. Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

6. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton)

7. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)

8. The French Connection (William Friedkin)

9. The Ceremony (Nagisa Oshima)

10. Macbeth (Roman Polanski)

11. And Now for Something Completely Different (Ian MacNaughton, Terry Gilliam)

12. Whity (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

13. Walkabout (Nicholas Roeg)

14. The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper)

1972

1. Pink Flamingos (John Waters)

2. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel)

3. We Won’t Grow Old Together (Maurice Pialat)

4. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)
5. Love in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer)

6. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

7. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)

8. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)

9. Tout va Bien (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin)

10. Winter Soldier (Winterfilm Collective)

1973

1. The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache)

2. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman)

3. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese)

4. Badlands (Terrence Malick)

5. Don’t Look Now (Nicholas Roeg)

6. The Last Detail (Hal Ashby)

7. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)

8. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)

9. The Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky)

10. Amarcord (Federico Fellini)

1974

1.  A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)

2.  Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)

3.  Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

4.  Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)

5.  Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

6.  The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)

7.  F for Fake (Orson Welles)

8.  Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette)

9.  Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah)

10.  Lancelot Du Lac (Robert Bresson)

11. The Phantom of Liberty (Luis Bunuel)

12.  The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)

13.  The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)

14.  Female Trouble (John Waters)

15.  Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev)

1975

1. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)

2. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)

3. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)

4. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni)

5. Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles)

6. That Most Important Thing: Love (Andrzej Zulawski)

7. Numero Deux (Jean-Luc Godard)

8. Love and Death (Woody Allen)

9. The Devil’s Cleavage (George Kuchar)

10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones)

1976

1. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)

2. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes)

3. All the President’s Men  (Alan J. Pakula)
4. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May)

4. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicholas Roeg)

5. Anatomy of a Relationship (Luc Moullet)
6. Noroit (Jacques Rivette)

7. The Tenant (Roman Polanski)

8. A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat)

9. Carrie (Brian De Palma)

10. Ici et Ailleurs (Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Mieville, Jean-Pierre Gorin)

11. In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima)

12. Duelle (Jacques Rivette)

13. The Omen (Richard Donner)

14. Up! (Russ Meyer)

1977

1. Eraserhead (David Lynch)

2. The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson)

3. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel)

4. Martin (George A. Romero)

5. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)

6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)

7. Suspiria (Dario Argento)

8. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)

9. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)

10. A Grin Without a Cat (Chris Marker)

1978

1. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)

2. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)

3. In a Year With 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

4. Halloween (John Carpenter)

5. Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima)

6. Fingers (James Toback)

7. The Fury (Brian De Palma)
8. The Game of Death (Robert Clouse, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Bruce Lee)

9. National Lampoon’s Animal House (John Landis)

10. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)

1979

1. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)

2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)

3. Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raul Ruiz)

4. Manhattan (Woody Allen)

5. The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

6. Alien (Ridley Scott)

7. The Brood (David Cronenberg)

8. Being There (Hal Ashby)

9. Life of Brian (Terry Jones)

10. Escape from Alcatraz (Don Siegel)

1980

1. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

2. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

3. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)

4. Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard)

5. Bad Timing (Nicholas Roeg)

6. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)

7. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner)
8. Loulou (Maurice Pialat)

9. Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma)

10. Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, David Zucker)

1981

1. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
2. The Aviator's Wife (Eric Rohmer)

3. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)

4. Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette)
5. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks)

6. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
7. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)

8. Escape From New York (John Carpenter)
8. The Howling (Joe Dante)

10. The Entity (Sidney J. Furie)

1982

1. L’Enfant Secret (Philippe Garrel)

2. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)

3. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard)

4. Burden of Dreams (Les Blank)

5. Expectation (Edward Yang)

6. The Thing (John Carpenter)
7. A Good Marriage (Eric Rohmer)

8. On Top of the Whale (Raul Ruiz)

9. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)

10. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)

1983

1. L’Argent (Robert Bresson)

2. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)

3. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)

4. A Nos Amours (Maurice Pialat)

5. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)

6. First Name: Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard)

7. Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raul Ruiz)

8. The Family Game (Yoshimitsu Morita)

9. City of Pirates (Raul Ruiz)

10. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)

11. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima)

12. Zelig (Woody Allen)

13. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)

14. Cracking Up (Jerry Lewis)

15. Breathless (Jim McBride)

1984

1. Love Streams (John Cassavetes)

2. Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone)

3. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)

4. Repo Man (Alex Cox)

5. Barres (Luc Moullet)

6. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)

7. The Terminator (James Cameron)

8. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)

9. Gremlins (Joe Dante)
10. Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer)

11. Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen)

12. 1984 (Michael Radford)

13. Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)

14. Amadeus (Milos Forman)

15. Body Double (Brian De Palma)

1985

1.  Brazil (Terry Gilliam)

2.  After Hours (Martin Scorsese)

3. Come and See (Elem Klimov)

4.  Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)

5.  Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
6. Lost in America (Albert Brooks)

7.  Trouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph)

8.  My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears)

9.  Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)

10.   Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)

1986

1.  Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
2. The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)

3.  The Terrorizers (Edward Yang)

4.   Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax)

5.   The Singing Detective (Jon Amiel)

6.  Aliens (James Cameron)

7.   Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)

8.   Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch)

9.  Manhunter (Michael Mann)

10.  The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky)

1987

1.  Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick)

2.  King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard)

3.  Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes)

4.  Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow)

5.  Robocop (Paul Verhoeven)
6. My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Eric Rohmer)

7.  On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Zulawski)

8. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (Sam Raimi)

9.  The Untouchables (Brian De Palma)

10.  Predator (John McTiernan)