Films are, for me, the highest art form. Movies make us feel alive. They enrich the human experience. To rephrase Hitchcock, movies present life in all it’s glory and despair, minus the dull, boring bits. In the last seven years, I’ve watched a lot many movies. I’ve had the fortune to watch both the hidden gems & the usual suspects of world cinema, and have relished the time I spent glued to my screen. I have a simple way to judge whether the movie I watched is great or not:
- I must not fall asleep while watching it, howsoever tired I feel,
- It must entertain, uplift, & be life-affirming, &
- Each re-watch must reveal something new I hadn’t seen the first time.
Some of my favourite movies, genre-wise, but not rank-wise are:
Comedies:
Some Like It Hot
Monty Python and Holy Grail
The Princess Bride
Back to the Future 1
To Be Or Not To Be
A Fish Called Wanda
Sideways
Bringing Up Baby
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
Andaaz Apna Apna
Golmaal (Hrishikesh Mukherjee)
Chupke Chupke
Lage Raho Munnabhai
Tootsie
Borat
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Big Lebowski
Shaun of the Dead (zombie comedy)
Silent Films of Chaplin and Buster Keaton
The Lady Eve
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Ninotchka
My Cousin Vinny
Odd Couple
Sabrina
Thriller/Action:
Die Hard 1
Silence of The Lambs
Mad Max 1, 2
The Seven Samurai
The Legend of Drunken Master, 1994
Horror:
The Shining
Let The Right One In
Noir:
Body Heat
L A Confidential
Night Of The Hunter
In A Lonely Place
The Big Sleep
Adventure:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Apocalypse Now
Mystery:
Chinatown (1974)
Memories of Murder
The Secret in their Eyes
Blue Velvet
Witness For the Prosecution
The Manchurian candidate 1962
Most of Hitchcock’s works(e.g. Psycho, North By Northwest, Strangers on A Train, Rear Window, Notorious etc.)
Gangster Drama:
Pulp Fiction
Taxi Driver
The Departed
Goodfellas
The Godfather 1,2
Fargo
Drama:
Shawshank Redemption
Sweet Smell of Success
The Conformist
Cool Hand Luke
Thelma and Louise
Children of Heaven
A Streetcar named Desire
On The Waterfront
Schindler’s List
Jules et Jim
Breathless
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Hustler
Les 400 coups
Raging Bull
Three Colours Trilogy
12 Angry Men
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Paris, Texas
Romance:
Singing in the Rain
Casablanca
Jab We Met
The English Patient
Say Anything
Life is Beautiful
It Happened One Night
Animation:
Wallace and Gromit (all 3 of them)
How to Train Your Dragon 1,2
Toy story 1,2,3
Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Big Hero 6
Wall E
Films by Studio Ghibli
Western:
Good, Bad and Ugly
The Searchers
Red River
Unforgiven
Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid
Yojimbo
Art house cinema:
Persona
The Rules of the Game
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Pyaasa
Satyajit Ray’s Appu Trilogy
Tokyo Story
Rashomon
Tarkovsky’s entire filmography
After Hours
Mulholland Drive
Fantasy:
Pan’s labyrinth
It’s A Wonderful Life
Science Fiction:
Brazil
Blade Runner
ET
Alien
Aliens
Super hero:
Dark Knight
Documentary:
Hoop Dreams
Anthology:
Wild Tales
TV series:
Breaking Bad
Friends
Black Mirror
The Sopranos
The Wire
Dekalog 1 to 10
The above list of movies is a work in progress. I’ll add the names of movies I discover to the list. I’ll write about my thoughts and feelings too – the reasons that made me like them.
Happy watching.
