Personal Lists featuring...

The Palm Beach Story 1942

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1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Movies_You_Must_See_Before_You_Die

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Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Films listed in order of spine numbers. Releases with multiple films are listed as individual items where appropiate.

Last Update: Releases up to July 2024 (Spine #1228)

Source: https://www.criterion.com/shop/browse/list?sort=spine_number

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From https://letterboxd.com/reelstats/list/the-1001-greatest-movies-of-all-time-according/

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The top films in the 2012 Sight and Sound Poll from the combined votes of 846 critics and 359 directors. Contains films with 3 or more votes. In order by number of votes.

The following is a list of positions and the number of corresponding votes. 21-22 (66 votes), 27-28 (55 votes), 29-30 (54 votes), 36-37 (46 votes), 39-42 (44 votes), 43-46 (43 votes), 47-50 (41 votes), 51-52 (40 votes), 53-55 (39 votes), 56-57 (38 votes), 59-60 (35 votes), 62-74 (33 votes), 75-77 (32 votes), 78-79 (31 votes), 82-88 (28 votes), 89-90 (27 votes), 91-93 (26 votes), 94-99 (25 votes), 100-103 (24 votes), 104-106 (23 votes), 107-110 (22 votes), 111-118 (21 votes), 119-127 (20 votes), 128-139 (19 votes), 140-146 (18 votes), 147-153 (17 votes), 154-166 (16 votes), 167-182 (15 votes), 183-193 (14 votes), 194-206 (13 votes), 207-228 (12 votes), 229-243 (11 votes), 244-271 (10 votes), 272-302 (9 votes), 303-330 (8 votes), 331-375 (7 votes), 376-423 (6 votes), 424-497 (5 votes), 498-624 (4 votes), 625-817 (3 votes)

Source: http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012

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The 500 movies in this list have been selected by a combination of 10,000 Empire readers, 50 critics and 150 of Hollywood's finest.

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This list contains the favorite movies of movie critic Jonathan Rosenbaum who writes for the Chicago Reader. The movies span virtually every decade, and include many an obscure movie.

#1 - #1012: original list
#1013 - #1073: 2008 additions
#1074 - #1133: 2016 additions

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cinema-Necessity-Film-Canons/dp/0801889715

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Since 1984, the Criterion Collection, has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements for a wider and wider audience. The foundation of the collection is the work of such masters of cinema as Kurosawa, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, and Kubrick. Each film is presented uncut, in its original aspect ratio, as its maker intended it to be seen. To date, more than 150 filmmakers have made it into the collection.

Source: https://www.criterion.com/library/list_view?b=Criterion&m=dvd&s=spine

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The They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1,000 greatest films list is primarily compiled by using over 6000 individual critics' and filmmakers' best-films-of-all-time lists/ballots. The resulting list is very diverse and spans virtually all movie-producing decades and countries.

Source: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm

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This list is drawn from "The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See", published in 2019. It contains a selection of 1000 reviews that have been printed in The New York Times. The majority of movies in this book are among the "10 Best Films" chosen by New York Times critics at the end of each year.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Times-Book-Movies/dp/078933657X

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Over 1,000 films are listed in this visually arresting, full-color celebration of the silver screen. Film personalities, including actors, directors, cinematographers, and animators, write about their favorite films from a variety of angles. Martin Scorsese, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Hornby are among those who weigh in. Writers are matched to suitable (or sometimes surprising) themes and genres within the wider subject of how films can alter the course of a life. Movie stills and posters, trivia, and top-ten lists make this a book that can be dipped into or read from cover to cover. Great screen moments — endings, beginnings, kisses, death scenes — are given special spreads. The eclectic approach speaks to fans of big Hollywood blockbusters and factoid-reciting film geeks alike.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Time-1000-Films-Change-Guides/dp/1904978738

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This is a list of the 100 funniest American films of all time.
The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 13, 2000.

According to the AFI, the criteria for nomination are:

  • Feature-Length Fiction Film: The film must be in narrative format typically over 60 minutes in length;
  • American Film: The film must be in the English language with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States;
  • Funny: Regardless of genre, the total comedic impact of a film’s elements that creates an experience greater than the sum of the smiles;
  • Legacy: Laughs that echo across time, enriching America’s film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today.

https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-laughs/

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I well remember being taken to Blazing Saddles at the age of 10, when I was far too young to understand most of the jokes. At the same time, I could see how important Blazing Saddles was to my parents and their friends. They quoted from it for months—years—afterward.

As much as savoring a particular joke, I realize now, they were trying to reclaim that initial, joyful shock to the system. There’s not a film on the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays that doesn’t produce such an unexpected jolt, if not a sustained quake, and for the same reasons Blazing Saddles did—by transgressing accepted norms.

One question that this list asks, however: Should a great comedy simply be gauged by the laughter it elicits? “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” George S. Kaufman famously quipped. A number of the comedies on this list went under-appreciated at the box office and by critics; years, if not decades, had to pass before the work began to receive its due. This was as true for Buster Keaton’s The General as it was nearly half a century later for Harold and Maude, and 30 years after that for Office Space.

The oldest movie on the list is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), while the most recent is Bridesmaids, released in 2011. The latter also has the distinction of being written by two women—Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, working in slapstick, a genre historically dominated by men. Bridesmaids comes in at no. 16, immediately after When Harry Met Sally, written by the legendary Nora Ephron. Comedy screenwriting has long been a playground that women and writers of color have not had enough time in. The work of Richard Pryor on Blazing Saddles, Tina Fey on Mean Girls, Amy Heckerling on Clueless, and Hagar Wilde, co-writer of Bringing Up Baby, makes you wonder what a list would be if the playground had been more inclusive all along.

In the end, the variety of films on the list—as different as Being There is to Airplane! or Duck Soup is to Fargo—indicates how difficult it is to gauge a great comedy by any set of particular criteria. Better to say the best comedy writers and comedians are like astronauts, launching themselves beyond the ozone layer of the tasteful and the expected in order to find the forbidden or the outrageous or the merely uncomfortable. Whether that produces an outrageous comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire or a satire like Dr. Strangelove, the goal is still provocation. And truth.

Written by Paul Brownfield
2015-11-15

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