Here are the 30 best films I watched for the first time in 2011 - listed in order of release year exclusively by screenshot - though the titles of all of the films can be found at the bottom of the post.
The Man With A Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929), Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932), Notorious (Alfed Hitchcock, 1946), Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947), The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948), All About Eve (Joseph L. Makiewicz, 1950), The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953), 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957), Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960), Bande A Part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964), The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971), All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976), Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978), Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979), Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979), Fitzarraldo Werner Herzog, 1982), The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986), The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988), The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991), The Player (Robert Altman, 1992), Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, 2000), Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar, 2002), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Christian Mungiu, 2007), Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008), Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010), A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011), The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011), Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2011)
Of the list, not counting The Tree of Life which is a new film. The first timers that I saw last year that I love are The Wages of Fear, Black Narcissus, and Man on Wire. That's the one good thing about being a film buff. Discovering something new.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I loved The Man With A Movie Camera! I've also been wanting to see All The Presidents Men for a while now too....
ReplyDeleteIgnoring last year's Best Picture nominees (which I saw primarily in February) and new releases, my best first-time viewings went to Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Brick, The Thing (original), Le Cercle Rouge, Pepe le Moko, and Primer.
ReplyDeleteNice list... quite a few I really need to see. I actually have the Double Life of Veronique. Just haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
ReplyDeleteThis year I saw all of PT Anderson's films so that was big. Things like Sex, Lies and Videotape, The Apartment, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Bicycle Thieves, Duck Soup etc.
Glad I turned you onto THE PLAYER (I'm just going to take credit for that :D)
ReplyDeleteLot of these are still on my need-to-see list. Got Manhatten to watch this weekend so at least that's one I can knock off! I too saw wages of Fear for the 1st time last yr!
ReplyDeleteSome of all time greats in the list - Notorious, 12 Angry Men, The Red Shoes, The Wages of Fear, Manhattan. And some for my Watchlist too - The Player, Veronique, Days of Heaven. Nice List.
ReplyDeleteWow. This is a hell of a good year. You have several films on here that I've been exposed to for the first time in the last two years, and there placement here is both fun to see and not surprising.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to think of one or two that I'm the most excited to see here, and I can't. I've seen half of these, and with one exception (Vampyr) they'd probably all make my top-100.
Awesome list! Thanks for sharing this.
@ Steven - I love discovering something new - and thanks to some fellow bloggers, who wrote about these films and convinced me to check them out - I discovered some great films in 2011. Also, the DOTM project also unveiled some great films. THE WAGES OF FEAR and BLACK NARCISSUS were two of my favourites - made my Top 100!
ReplyDelete@ Ruth - How amazing is MOVIE CAMERA - I couldn't believe it when I saw it.
@ Brian - The only one I have seen from the ones you mentioned are THE THING. Do you mean the Carpenter version (which I absolutely love) or the original original??
@ Nikhat - You have to check out VERONIQUE. Immediately became one of my favourite films. What did you think of P.T Anderson's stuff?
@ Sam - Yeah, you were the influence for that one. Went to a store and saw it on sale and thought: Sam liked that one.
@ Pete - Manhattan became my favourite Allen film. You will love it.
@ SGD - Thanks for reading. Any of these films are worth a look.
@ Steve - Though I saw some duds at the cinema, almost all of my home experiences - a lot of these films - were excellent. I made good choices, and as a result, discovered some masterpieces. Many of these are listed here, and there are many that aren't too.
Damn, you watched some great flicks last year. I loved guessing what the movie was by its screenshot. Great stuff man.
ReplyDeleteYeah, by revealing the films by screenshot, my intention was to make people guess what the film was. I thought that might make it a bit more interesting. Glad you enjoyed - and yes, I saw some fine films.
ReplyDeleteLot of my favorites on here, particularly, Days of Heaven, Notorious and All About Eve.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a few I need to check out as well (Thin Blue Line, Talk to Her, McCabe and Mrs. Miller). Hope to get to them this year.
You were actually the one who influenced me into watching Days of Heaven and Notorious - because of their inclusion in your Top 10. So for that, I thank you. There were others last year too - Sleepaway Camp is one example.
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