TOP TEN FILMS of all time

[Ed Gordon]

John Clancy's list of favorite films is the topic of his latest post on his Youtube channel, Movie Collector.

I've been asked what my ten favourite films are many times and each time I've replied with a list, it's been different. Hence, I set about having repeat screenings of many of my favourite films to try to comprehensively pin down the top ten and put them into some sort of order. It's proved to be impossible and so for this video I actually have three films in tenth place. That helped to give me a starting point but I am fairly confident that if I ever go through this process again, several of the films listed will be in a different position.
I also mention some other great films after going through the top ten. If I were to have seen some of these particular titles when I was younger then it's possible they would be in my top ten today.
Within this video you will see films presented on 35mm and Super 8 film gauges as well as 4K home video. LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and VHS also feature. I've had a lifetime of film and video collecting as well as a love of cinema which means that there should be something of interest for everyone in this one.

TOP TEN FILMS of all time by Movie Collector

As John said, if you ask him for his list of favorites today, it will be different than the list made yesterday.

I can't think of a just one movie I consider to be on my top ten list. The list to pick from it too large. John says that his favorites tend to be those he saw when he was younger. Can you list any of your top favorites; or does that list change too often?

[Steven J. Kirk]

ALIEN,
ALL THAT JAZZ,
APOCALYPSE NOW,
EXCALIBUR,
PSYCHO,
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH,
2001,
THE APARTMENT,
THE THING,
KING KONG,
in no particular order.

[Ken Finch]

An impossible task for me too as it changes as time goes by. Have seen so many on all gauges and video media from those made from the early silent days to date. 😊

[Oliver Feld]

Alien
Ben Hur
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Fantasia
Once Upon a Time in the West
Psycho
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Snow White (1937)
Star Wars
The Godfather

[Brian Fretwell]

I think my choice would be the dame as Terrance Dick's idea of continuity in Dr Who when he was script editor - "What I remember on the day!"

[Melvin England]

Getting me to respond to a topic like this is like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey!

Here's the donkey top 10. With the exception of Casablanca which is my all time #1, the rest are in no particular order.......


Casablanca

2001: A Space Odyssey (thumbs up to Steven J. Kirk)

Lawrence of Arabia

The Sound of Music

Close Encounters of The Third Kind. (In 1977 it was either this or Star Wars. IMHO a no brainer) (thumbs up to Oliver Feld)

Schindler's List

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Towering Inferno

A Hard Day's Night

Grease


Interesting to note that I have ALL these films in some version on super 8 ranging from trailers to full length (plus a couple of them full length on 16mm).

More top 10's please....... c'mon!

[Osi Osgood]

1. Original Star Wars Trilogy 2. Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. 3 Bladerunner 4. Alien 5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit 6. JAWS 7. Dragonslayer 8. Lord of the Rings Trilogy 9. Raiders of the Lost Ark 10. The Dark Crystal. OK, that's actually 14, but I'd choke up the top ten with too many taken up with Star Wars and Rings films. BTW, John Clancy is as he has always been, an incredible asset to the Super 8 and beyond community!

[Paul Adsett]

John Clancy is as he has always been, an incredible asset to the Super 8 and beyond community!

John's webpage is in a class of its own. Nothing else on the web, concerned with movie collecting, comes close. I really like the way that John keeps the Super8 flag flying, by showing his magnificent S8 film collection whenever the opportunity arises. One has the impression that, even though he has a superb 4K cinema, he really gets more fun and satisfaction projecting reel film, and that includes Super 8. Well, if that is the case, he's certainly not alone. His documentation of IMAX presentations at the BFI are inspiring, and there's just nothing else out there on the web that shows IMAX film projection at this level of detail. John has a new video just about every week, and that is something I really look forward to.

[Roger Faires]

OK, here goes:

Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Easy Rider
2001
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Point Break (original)
L'Aaventura
Wild Bunch
The Searchers
China Town
Mulholland Drive

and honorable mentions

The Banshees of Innersherin (***newish film alert!***)
Twin Peaks Special Event Series (Season 3 which I consider a complete stand alone film)
Paris Texas
Apocalypse Now
Badlands
Leviathan (Russian film)
Defending Your Life
Breaking The Waves
The Shining

[Douglas Meltzer]

Interesting titles, everyone. My list keeps changing, but my top 3 have stayed the same for years.

A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
Black Sunday (John Frankenheimer, 1977)

[Ed Gordon]

Interesting titles, everyone. My list keeps changing, but my top 3 have stayed the same for years.

A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
Black Sunday (John Frankenheimer, 1977)

I first saw Beauty and the Beast when I was a child. It was an old print shown on a local TV station with English subtitles. That was the only time I have seen it, and I have never watched any of the other versions that followed. Even Walt Disney had concerns about trying to achieve what Cocteau had done:

Walt Disney was interested in adapting the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" into an animated feature, but when this film released he felt discouraged and believed it wouldn't be as good as what Jean Cocteau did. Eventually, Walt Disney Pictures would adapt the fairy tale as Beauty and the Beast (1991), to great acclaim; however that feature is greatly influenced by this film.

Source: IMDB

I will have to find the Bluray of he restored version that was released in 2011!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Ed,

It is an amazing film and I consider Cocteau's journal Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film (okay, actually La belle et la bête: journal d'un film) to be one of the best books about movie making ever written. As for the Disney version, the animated film is definitely in my top 20 and one of my favorite Super 8mm prints.

[Kilian Henin]

This thread has given me lots of new movies to check out! Here's my top current top 10 (in chronological order)

Nosferatu (1922)
M (1931)
Wages of Fear (1953)
Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
Goin' Down the Road (1970)
Get Carter (1972)
Interstellar (2014)

[Phillip Campey]

Based on most watched:


Jaws

Alien

Goodfellas

101 Dalmations 1961

Interstellar

The dark knight

The empire strikes back

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of askaban

LOTR the two towers

The godfather