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My top 40 films from 1990 (an arbitrary beginning, just to keep things manageable) through this year, again without commentary ... though yes, I'm aware of the discrepancy between this list and the last one: why put Wild at Heart ahead of Pulp Fiction if the Tarantino's in your all-time top ten and Lynch's film isn't? One of the mysteries of context, I guess, since a priori I wouldn't put Pulp at the absolute head of any list of faves, much as I do value it, and there are plenty of personal/formal reasons for my treating Wild as a cause celebre (a millennial appreciation I wrote for Cinema Scope magazine being first among them). Anyway, my feel-good accomplices for the better part of a generation: if the invocation of names, connotative syllables, decontextualized phrasing, etc, is ever an apt substitute for run-of-the-mill critical yammer, then ... well, enjoy!
1. WILD AT HEART, David Lynch, USA, 1990
2. PULP FICTION, Quentin Tarantino, USA, 1994
3. JOAN THE MAID, Jacques Rivette, France, 1994
4. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2002
5. FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, 1998
6. INLAND EMPIRE, David Lynch, USA, 2006
7. THREE TIMES, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, 2005
8. IN PRAISE OF LOVE, Jean-Luc Godard, France, 2001
9. STILL LIFE, Jia Zhang-ke, China, 2006
10. THE SON, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium, 2002
11. WAKING LIFE (pictured), Richard Linklater, USA, 2001
12. MONDAY MORNING, Otar Iosseliani, France, 2002
13. ARCHANGEL, Guy Maddin, Canada, 1991
14. ED WOOD, Tim Burton, USA, 1994
15. VALLEY OF ABRAHAM, Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, 1993
16. THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, Guy Maddin, Canada, 2003
17. CHASING BUTTERFLIES, Otar Iosseliani, France, 1992
18. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, Edward Yang, Taiwan, 1992
19. OF TIME AND THE CITY, Terence Davies, UK, 2008
20. UNDERGROUND, Emir Kusturica, Serbia, 1995
21. MOTHER AND SON, Alexander Sokurov, Russia, 1996
22. DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY, Guy Maddin, Canada, 2001
23. DREAM OF LIGHT, Victor Erice, Spain, 1992
24. GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, 1996
25. FAREWELL, HOME SWEET HOME, Otar Iosseliani, France, 1999
26. THE CONVENT, Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, 1995
27. TOPSY-TURVY, Mike Leigh, UK, 1999
28. THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, J.-P. Jeunet and Marc Caro, France, 1995
29. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Martin Scorsese, USA, 1993
30. VAN GOGH, Maurice Pialat, France, 1992
31. CYCLO, Tran Anh Hung, France/Vietnam, 1995
32. OLDBOY, Chan-wook Park, South Korea, 2004
33. SILENT LIGHT, Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/Netherlands, 2007
34. ACTRESS, Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong, 1992
35. GARDEN OF SCORPIONS, Oleg Kovalov, Russia, 1991
36. THE SUSPENDED STRIDE OF THE STORK, Theo Angelopoulos, Greece, 1992
37. TROPICAL MALADY, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2004
38. BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, George Miller, Australia, 1998
39. ONCE UPON A TIME, CINEMA, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran, 1991
40. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Henry Selick, USA, 1993
SPIRITED AWAY, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2002
THE INTRUDER, Claire Denis, France, 2004
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