What was the best year for movies? (2023)

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You could point to 2000 and the release of "X-Men" as the official start of the superhero movie age, but the gold rush really began when Raimi's "Spider-Man" grossed $100 million in its opening weekend. While other factors played into the studio's decision to generally give up on mid-range, adult-skewing films, the webslinger's astonishing success certainly had an impact. But don't hold it against the movie—it's still great (like the other movie) It was a strong year overall: Spike Lee's "25^thHour," Noés "Irreversible", Jonzes "Adaptation", Ramsays "Morvern Callar", Lau/Maks "Infernal Affairs", de Vans "In My Skin", Haynes' "Far from Heaven", De Palmas "Femme Fatale," Jacksons "Ringenes Herre: The Two Towers", Meirelles "City of God", Lynes "Unfaithful", Zhang Yimous "Hero", Van Sants "Gerry", Solletts "Raising Victor Vargas", Soderberghs "Solaris"," Spielbergs twofer af "Minority Report" og "Catch Me If You Can."

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One of the weaker years of the decade, but the horror continued to ramp up as many of the era's heavy hitters failed or attempted to be killed in the Philippines. George A. Romero's facility for mixing social commentary with crowd-pleasing/repulsive gore peaked with "Dawn of the Dead" and "Martin," while John Carpenter's runaway indie hit "Halloween" turned the slasher film into a reliable profit generator for the next. decade (while nearly destroying the horror genre in the process). Speaking of profitability, John Landis single-handedly created the market for profane, snob-vs.-slob sex comedies with "National Lampoon's Animal House." Malick followed up "Badlands" with the unspeakably lovely "Gates of Heaven," while Scorsese revolutionized the concert film with "The Last Waltz." Also note: De Palma's "The Fury," Cimino's "The Deer Hunter," Ashby's "Coming Home," Altman's "A Wedding," Schrader's "Blue Collar," Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman," Noyce's "Newsfront," Walter Hills. "The Driver", Errol Morris's "Gates of Heaven", Dante's "Piranha", Liu Chia-liang's "The 36^thChamber of Shaolin" og Kaufmans "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

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It was a lean year all in all (thanks largely to a brutal summer that only took off in August), but it put Quentin Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs") and, basically, Peter Jackson ("Braindead" aka "Dead Alive" ) on the map, so it's definitely noteworthy. There were a number of masterpieces: Spike Lee's "Malcolm X," Eastwood's "Unforgiven," Woo's "Hard Boiled," Altman's "The Player," Carl Franklin's "One False Move," Lynch's "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me." Ivory's "Howard's End" and, in his sick way, "Basic Instinct." And there were just great films like Foley's "Glengarry Glen Ross", Tsui Hark's "Once Upon a Time in China II", Jordan's "The Crying Game", Rose's "Candyman", Davies' "The Long Day Closes", Miyazaki's "Porco Rosso", Duke's "Deep Cover", Ritchie's "Diggstown" and Musker/Clement's "Aladdin".

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Slasher films, teen sex comedies and an onslaught of sequels seemed to mean cinema was in a sort of decline, but many of our most vital filmmakers were still churning out classics. Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff", Rohmer's "Pauline at the Beach", Allen's "Zelig", Nichols' "Silkwood", Forsyth's "Local Hero", Bresson's "L'Argent", Fosse's "Star 80", Marker's "Sans Soleil ". ,” Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,” Tarkovsky’s “Nostalghia,” Jackie Can’s “Project A,” De Palma’s “Scarface” and the Cronenberg double feature of “Videodrome” and “The Dead Zone.” Paul Brickman made the boldest debut of the year with “Risky Business," though we didn't know at the time that he only had one more feature in him. Also great: Landis' "Trading Places," Verhoeven's "The Fourth Man," Littman's pulverizing "Testament," Tsui Hark's "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" and McBride's "Breathless".

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"Tremors!" Ron Underwood's miraculous "Tremors" came out this year. That just about covers it, right? Well, here are some other greats: Scorsese's "Goodfellas," Kiarostami's "Close-Up," Armitage's "Miami Blues," the Coens' "Miller's Crossing," Dante's "Gremlins 2: The New Batch," Raimi's "Darkman," McTiernan's " The Hunt for Red October," Leigh's "Life Is Sweet," Minghella's "Truly, Madly, Deeply," Woo's "Bullet in" the Head," Wong Kar-wai's "Days of Being Wild," Campion's "An Angel at My Table ", Linklater's "Slacker," Stillman's "Metropolitan," Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder," Shanley's "Joe Versus the Volcano," Hartley's "Trust," Bill Murray's "Quick Change," Lynch's "Wild at Heart," Verhoeven's "Total Recall" , Frears' "The Grifters," Levinson's "Avalon," Burnett's "To Sleep with Anger" and Craig R. Baxley's "I Come". in peace (and you break)."

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This was the year the religious right lost their minds over Martin Scorsese's fantastic "The Last Temptation of Christ," depicting their Lord and Savior mating with Mary Magdalene. Now that they have a new lord and savior, maybe they can finally give this wonderful film a watch. Or they can watch John Carpenter's "They Live" and revel in the antics of their alien, reality-warping relatives. Also note: Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers", Kaufman's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", McTiernan's "Die Hard", Crichton's "A Fish Called Wanda", Brest's "Midnight Run", ZAZ's "The Naked Gun", Shelton's "Bull Durham" . "," Demme's "Married to the Mob", Mike Leigh's "High Hopes", Sluizer's "The Vanishing", Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies", Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", Burton's "Beetlejuice", Almodovar's "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown," Davies' "Distant Voices, Still Lives," Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow," or Jackie Chan's "Police Story Part II."

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As studio executives became obsessed with high-concept films, the overall quality of Hollywood's output began to decline. This was by no means a great year, but its highlights were pretty staggering: Kurosawa's "Ran," Klimov's "Come and See," Gilliam's "Brazil," Scorsese's "After Hours," Weir's "Witness," Gordon's "Re-Animator" . ," Konchalovsky's "Runaway Train," Carpenter's "Starman," Brooks' "Lost in America," Chan's "Police Story," Varda's "Vagabond," Romero's "Day of the Dead," Burton's "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," Ivory's "A Room with a View" and Juzo Itami's "Tampopo". There were also many quiet pleasures, such as Coolidge's "Real Genius," Edward Yang's "Taipei Story," Hallström's "My Life as a Dog," and Geoff Murphy's lovely end-of-the-world yarn, "The Quiet Earth." fooled, one hell of a drug side of things: Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A." and Hooper's "Lifeforce" were absolute brain scramblers.

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One of the weaker years of the '40s, but what's great is as good as it gets: Carol Reed's "The Third Man," Jacques Tati's "Jour de fête," George Cukor's "Adam's Rib," John Ford's "She Wore a Yellow". Ribbon," Ozu's "Late Spring," Raoul Walsh's "White Heat," and Kelly/Don's "On the Town." Also notable: Anthony Mann's low-budget noir "Border Incident," Jules Dassin's San Francisco crime thriller "Thieves' Highway," Wyler's "The Heiress," Hawks' "I Was a Male War Bride" and the dazzling Alec Guinness showcase "Kind" Hearts and Coronets."

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With the advent of streaming and the distraction of peak TV, which has influenced far too many filmmakers to shoot with an eye towards the small(er) screen, it has become increasingly difficult to figure out what constitutes a fantastic movie year. There is so much to see and so little time to digest. This was not a problem in 2017, when a number of world-class filmmakers hit on every cylinder: PTA's "Phantom Thread", Aronofsky's "Mother!", Nolan's "Dunkirk", Scott's "Alien: Covenant", Rian Johnson's "Star". Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi," Guadagnino's "Call Me by Your Name," Kiarostami's "24 Frames," Varda's "Faces Places," Peele's "Get Out," Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049," Soderbergh's "Logan Lucky," Haynes' "Wonderstruck", Boyle's "T2 Trainspotting", Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and the strangely underrated "American Made" from Doug Liman.

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With some of Hollywood's top directors from working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps (most notably John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler and Frank Capra) and other countries also caught up in the war effort to make films, the potential for transcendent cinema might have seemed diminished. And yet: Billy Wilder's noir masterpiece "Double Indemnity," Howard Hawks' Bogie and Bacall wartime romance "To Have and Have Not," Vincente Minnelli's Technicolor delight "Meet Me in St. Louis," a killer Preston Sturges two-way ( "The Miracle") of Morgan's Creek" and "Hail! The Conquering Hero"), Otto Preminger's melodramatic mystery "Laura," Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" and Olivier's uplifting "Henry V" more than filled the talent gap.

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The nascent Italian neorealism movement blossomed in 1945 with the release of Roberto Rossellini's "Rome, Open City", which was shot in and around the bombed-out ruins of the city with cobbled equipment and mostly non-actors (except for Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi) . The French film industry also rebounded with such treasures as Marcel Carné's "Children of Paradise," Jacques Becker's "Paris Frills" and Robert Bresson's "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" (although Jean Renoir and Réné Clair went abroad for "The Southerner" respectively " and "And Then There Were None"). The absolute best film of the year was David Lean's railroad romance, "Brief Encounter" (possibly the director's finest work), while film noir was the double rage (e.g., Preminger's "Scarlett Street," Edgar Ulmer's "Detour," and Joseph H. Lewis' " My Name Is Julia Ross"). Wilder's no-frills portrayal of alcoholism in "The Lost Weekend" won best picture, while Michael Curtiz did fine melodramatic work with "Mildred Pierce." Hitchcock showed the fascinating but flawed "Spellbound."

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The year America fell apart and never came back together didn't feel like a particularly important year for movies, but everything took on extra importance after 9/11. Eighteen years later, most of these films still resonate. Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", Lynch's "Mulholland Dr.", Spielberg's "A.I.", Cuarón's "Y tu mamá también", Zwigoff's "Ghost World", Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Pulse", Holofcener's "Lovely". & Amazing," Docter's "Monsters, Inc.," Coens' "The Man Who Wasn't There," Cantett's "Time Out," Tsai Ming-liang's "What Time Is It There?", Kosashvili's "Late Marriage," Scott's "Black Hawk Down," Fuqua's "Training Day," Haneke's "The Piano Teacher," Linklater's "Waking Life," and Wain's absurdly heartfelt "Wet Hot American Summer."

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The studios showed disturbing signs of creative lethargy in 1960. Although "Psycho" and "The Apartment" are bona fide Hollywood classics, the real action was in the country's growing number of art houses, where filmmakers such as Godard ("Breathless"), Antonioni ("L 'Avventura'), Visconti ("Rocco and his brothers"), Clouzot ("Le Vérité"), Clément ("Purple Noon"), Bergman ("The Virgin's Fountain"), Becker ("Le Trou"), Kurosawa ("The Bad Sleep Well”) and Ozu (“Late Autumn”) were all the rage. 30-year-old Stanley Kubrick made the leap into epic filmmaking with "Spartacus," which impressed upon him the need for complete/obsessive creative control in all areas of production. Genre-wise, there wasn't much to do in sci-fi, but horror offered chills both arty ("Eyes Without a Face" and "Black Sunday") and plain old creepy ("The Brides of Dracula" and "Village of the Damned) .This was also the year Michael Powell effectively ended his career by directing the brilliantly terrifying "Peeping Tom".

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Any discussion of 1993 must start with Steven Spielberg's remarkable, tonally different twos of "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List," which together alerted the movie world that he had come through the crucible in "Hook" with everyone. of his considerable skills intact. It's the best story in a film year that included Kurosawa's swan song ("Madadayo"), the beginning of Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colors" trilogy with "Blue" and the promise of a Freddy Krueger/Jason Voorhees showdown in the final scene of "Jason Goes to Hell". Despite all this, there's no doubt that Mike Leigh's nihilistic "Naked" was by far the best film of 1993. Closers: Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," De Palma's "Carlito's Way," Cory Yuen's "Fong Sai Yuk, " Ivory's "The Remains of the Day," Ramis' "Groundhog Day," Zaillian's "Searching for Bobby Fischer," Girard's "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould," Dante's "Matinee," Eastwood's "A Perfect World," Becker's " Malice" and Weir's "Fearless".

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From Norman Jewison's whimsical "Moonstruck" to Jörg Buttgereit's magnum opus, "Nekromantik," this was ... a year of many films. Some were excellent: De Palma's "The Untouchables," the Coens' "Raising Arizona," James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News", Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun", Wenders' "Wings of Desire", Verhoeven's "RoboCop", Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor", Mamet's "House of Games", Schepisi's "Roxanne", Reiner's "The Princess" Bride," Barker's "Hellraiser," Boorman's "Hope and Glory," Greenaway's "The Belly of an Architect," Hughes' "Planes, Trains & Automobiles," Schroeder's "Barfly," Bruce Robinson's "Withnail &," Almodovar's "Law of Desire," Zhang's "Red Sorghum," Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," Levinson's "Tin Men," Bigelow's "Near Dark," Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness," Raimi's outstanding "Evil Dead II" and Argento's last major film, "Opera ". ." But only one movie showed a couple sawing off a piece of pipe and slipping a condom over it so they could live out their stiff bliss.

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Hitchcock's "Vertigo," Welles' "Touch of Evil," and Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" (George Lucas' "Star Wars" plan) in the same year—it's hard to find a more cinematically significant year than this one. However, it is not that difficult to find a better overall range, which knocks down a couple of pegs this year. Don Siegel's "The Lineup" is a nose-buster of a B-movie, Terence Fisher's "Horror of Dracula" got Hammer's bloodsucker franchise off to a hell of a start (never a better Drac/Van Helsing duo than Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing) . Mann's "Man of the West" is one of his best oats, Nicholas Ray's "Party Girl" is a deliciously grim noir, Budd Boetticher's "Buchanan Rides Alone" is an above-average Randolph Scott collaboration, "The 7^thVoyage of Sinbad” is a Technicolor Ray Harryhausen showcase, and yeah, who doesn’t love “The Blob?” But Hitch and Welles do a lot of heavy lifting here.

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We got Bergman's best ("Smiles of a Summer Night"), Clouzot's second best ("Les Diaboliques"), Satyajit Ray's first ("Pather Panchali") and Charles Laughton's first-and-only ("The Night of the Hunter"). . This is a year so magnificent, it's hard to know where to start. Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows", Ray's "Rebel Without a Cause", Naruse's "Floating Clouds", Mackendrick's "The Ladykillers", Mizoguchi's "Princess Yang Kwei-Fei", Dassin's heist classic "Rififi", Karlson's "The Phenix City". Story," Mann's "The Mann from Laramie," John Sturges' "Bad Day at Black Rock," Val Guest's "The Quatermass Experiment," Welles' "Mr. Arkadin,” Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief,” Olivier’s “Richard III”…”Lady and the Tramp,” for crying out loud!

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Four masterpieces ("Lawrence of Arabia", "Jules and Jim", "L'Eclisse" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") and a lot of very good to great. As was the case throughout most of the 60s, the best films were made outside of Hollywood: Kurosawa's "Sanjuro", Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel", Pasolini's "Mamma Roma", Godard's "My Life to Live", Ozu's "An Autumn Afternoon," Rosi's "Salvatore Giuliano" and Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood." Kubrick went to England to shoot "Lοlita" and never returned. Back in America (albeit a long way from Hollywood), the ultra-atmospheric indie horror classic “Carnival of Souls” foreshadowed the rise of “Night of the DIY” Living Death.” Studio-wise, Aldrich was in fine form with “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Frankenheimer delivered the frighteningly prophetic “The Manchurian Candidate,” and Peckinpah launched his Western revisionism on “Ride the High Country.” Perhaps most significantly, the James Bond franchise was launched with “Dr. No.” Also important: The completely unclassifiable sci-fi/horror movie “The Manster” finally hit theaters.

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It's hard to find a theme in the last year of The Decade that Saved American Cinema. The New Hollywood phenoms were mostly in fine form - Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Ashby's "Being There," Allen's "Manhattan," Fosse's "All That Jazz" (and some lunatics would argue Spielberg's theatrical cut of "1941 ). - but the filmmakers who would dominate the 80s were definitely on the rise. Ridley Scott's "Alien", Walter Hill's "The Warriors", Ivan Reitman's "Meatballs" and George Miller's "Mad Max" were in one way or another supercharged entertainment; they were aimed directly at the pleasure center. Not terribly concerned with the pleasure center: Tarkovsky's "Stalker," Fassbinder's magnificent "The Marriage of Maria Braun," Joan Micklin Silver's "Chilly Scenes of Winter," Kieslowski's "Camera Buff," Schlöndorff's "The Tin Drum" and Benton's "Kramer vs. Kramer." Also notable: Cronenberg's "The Brood", Miyazaki's "The Castle of Cagliostro", Reiner's "The Jerk", Meyer's "Time After Time", "Monty Python's Life of Brian", Ballard's "The Black Stallion", Hiller's "The In- Laws" and "Richard Pryor – Live in Concert.”

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Back then, it was possible for the best movies of the year to be released in the summer: John Carpenter's "The Thing," Spielberg's "E.T.", Levinson's "Diner," Scott's "Blade Runner," Meyer's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," Hooper's "Poltergeist", Reiner's brilliant "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and Stallone's "Rocky III". Of course, it wasn't all escapism. Fassbinder's "Veronika Voss", Greenaway's "The Draughtsman's Contract", Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi", Rohmer's " Le Beau Mariage" and Herzog's mighty "Fitzcarraldo" kept the art house scene going. Eddie Murphy made his big screen debut and became an overnight sensation in Walter Hill's "48 HRS". Bergman retired from film production for the first time with " Fanny and Alexander." Scorsese went darkly comedic with "The King of Comedy," and Francis Ford Coppola torpedoed his own movie studio with the deeply underrated/misunderstood "One from the Heart." Also notable: Lumet's "The Verdict," Akerman's "Toute une nuit", Pollack's "Tootsie", Heckerling's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", Argento's "Tenebrae", Benjamin's "My Favorite Year", Parker's "Pink Floyd – The Wall", Edwards' "Victor/Victoria" and Seidelman's "Smithereens ."

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It's hard to beat a year that finds the Coens ("No Country for Old Men"), Paul Thomas Anderson ("There Will Be Blood"), David Fincher ("Zodiac"), Quentin Tarantino ("Death Proof"), Mike Nichols ("Charlie Wilson's War"), George A. Romero ("Land of the Dead") and Ang Lee ("Lust, Caution"), working at the height of their artistic powers, but some less than inspired efforts from masters like Wes Anderson ("The Darjeeling Limited"), Zemeckis ("Beowulf"), De Palma ("Redacted"), Wong Kar-wai ("My Blueberry Nights") and Raimi ("Spider-Man 3") keep it from hitting the top 10. It's still a great year: Dominik's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Wright's "Hot Fuzz," Affleck's,,""Gone Baby Gone," Reygadas' "Silent Light," Birds “ Ratatouille,” Mottola’s “Superbad,” Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton,” Wright’s “Atonement,” Landis’ “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project," Vigalondo's "Timecrimes," Scott's "American Gangster," Jake Kasdan's "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," Maddin's "My Winnipeg," Penn's "Into the Wild" and Apatow's "Knocked Up."

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Capra and Ford delivered arguably the best films of their careers with "It's a Wonderful Life" and "My Darling Clementine"; Hitchcock brought the Nazi-blasting heat with "Notorious"; Wyler, deeply influenced by his time in the Signal Corps, made the definitive post-World War II film via "The Best Years of Our Lives"; Hawks and Bogie cooked Philip Marlowe to hard-boiled perfection in "The Big Sleep"; Powell and Pressburger reckoned with the just-ended war with the fantastic "A Matter of Life and Death"; Jean Cocteau enchanted viewers worldwide with his dreamy "Beauty and the Beast"; Rita Hayworth did it with her hair in Charles Vidor's "Gilda"; Lean delivered a nice and creepy adaptation of "Great Expectations"; and Lubitsch showed he still had a knack for sex farces with the slyly tacky "Cluny Brown."

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The studios dabbled in science fiction with historical impact this year with Robert Wise's anti-nuclear chiller "The Day the Earth Stood Still," Christian Nyby's horror-tinged "The Thing from Another World" and George Pal's Technicolor epic "When Worlds Collide." Many of today's top filmmakers were in tip-top shape this year: e.g. Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train", Minnelli's "An American in Paris", Renoir's "The River", Wilder's "Ace in the Hole", Stevens' "A Place in the Sun", Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest", Huston's "The African Queen" and Mikio Naruse's "Repast." Charles Crichton engineered possibly the greatest caper comedy of all time with "The Lavender Hill Mob," while Elia Kazan made Marlon Brando a national obsession in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

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The story of 1963 was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra," the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton historical epicthat created Century City. It's not actually a terrible movie all in all, but in terms of quality this was the year of Sturges' "The Great Escape," Godard's "Contempt," Visconti's "The Leopard," Fellini's "8 ½," Kurosawa's "High and Low," "Bavas “Black Sabbath” and Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” One area where the studios excelled this year was in the prohibitively expensive comedy department, primarily with Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther." This year also brought us the second-best James Bond film ("From Russia with Love") and the first non-softcore feature from Francis Ford Coppola ("Dementia 13").

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Do you enjoy perfect movies? There were three of them this year, each made from different molds. Vittorio de Sica's "Umberto D." is a heartbreaking Italian neorealist classic; Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" istheAmerican movie musical into the stratosphere; and Richard Fleischer's "The Narrow Margin" is as airtight a B noir as you'll ever see. There are also plenty of near-perfect films: Kurosawa's "Ikiru," Ford's "The Quiet Man," and Nicholas Ray's subversive noir "On Dangerous Ground." As for the big ones: two from Cukor ("The Marrying Kind" and "Pat and Mike"), a couple of low-budget Phil Karlson noirs ("Kansas City Confidential" and "Scandal Sheet"), René Clément's "Forbidden Games" " ," Frank Tashlin's "Son of Paleface," Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful," Mann's "Bend of the River" and Federico Fellini's debut, "The White Sheik."

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There were many significant developments in the world of cinema this year: Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci popularized the Spaghetti Western with "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Minnesota Clay" respectively; Beatlemania hit the big screen in Richard Lester's fab "A Hard Day's Night"; and Stanley Kubrick made moviegoers howl about their impending nuclear doom via "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." The Bond franchise had another winner in "Goldfinger," Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand swooned the world with "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and Hitchcock delved deeper than ever into his obsessions in "Marnie." Other highlights: Bertolucci's "Before the Revolution," Teshigahara's "Woman in the Dunes," Fuller's "The Naked Kiss," Kobayashi's "Kwaidan," Shindo's "Onibaba," Siegel's "The Killers," Godard's "Band of Outsiders," and the completion of Brakhage's experimental opus, "Dog Star Man."

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This is the year "Star Wars" grossed a gazillion dollars and supposedly murdered New Hollywood. Here's the thing: "Jaws" had already done this, and at least these mainstream-friendly filmmakerslovedmovie. This was an important year for horror: Lynch's "Eraserhead," Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes," Cronenberg's "Rabid," Argento's "Suspiria," Fulci's "The Psychic" and Obayashi's "Hausu" pushed the genre in fascinating new directions. It was also a defining year for humanity because Needham's "Smokey and the Bandit" was published. Also wonderful: Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Friedkin's "Sorcerer", Verhoeven's "Soldier of Orange", Badham's "Saturday Night Fever", Allen's "Annie Hall", Wenders' "The American Friend", Buñuel's "That Obscure" . Object of Desire," Altman's "3 Women," Marker's "A Grin Without a Cat," Burnett's "Killer of Sheep" and, especially if you're a Gemini, ZAZ/Landis' "Kentucky Fried Movie."

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The New Hollywood aesthetic ran headlong into Old Hollywood glamour, and the resulting collision ended up being one of the greatest films ever made. But enough about Larry Hagman's "Watch Out! The Blob." Seriously, "The Godfather" was the rare film that delivered artistically and commercially (a feat that would ironically lead Francis Ford Coppola to financial ruin). It had a lot of high-quality company in '72: Huston's "Fat City," Fosse's "Cabaret," Rohmer's "Love in the Afternoon," Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?", a Ritchie double of "The Candidate," and "Prime Cut", Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris", Buñuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", May's "The Heartbreak Kid", Tarkovsky's "Solaris", Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury", Francis' "Tales from the Crypt," Trumbull's "Silent Running," Hitchcock's "Frenzy" and Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling."

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“The year that gave us not only Ruggero Deodato's “Cannibal Holocaust” butalsoAntonio Margheritis "Cannibal-apocalypse".And"Raging Bull." Just an insane year before you factor in the rest of it. But we do! Fassbinder's 15-and-a-half-hour "Berlin Alexanderplatz," Kurosawa's comeback "Kagemusha," Kershner's "Star Wars: Episode "V – The Empire Strikes Back," De Palma's "Dressed to Kill," Malle's "Atlantic City," Kubrick's "The Shining,” Mackenzie’s “The Long Good Friday,” Rush’s “The Stunt Man,” and Resnais’ “Mon oncle d’ Amérique.” Two of the decade’s most influential comedies hit that summer (“Caddyshack” and “Airplane!”), and it so did Robert Zemeckis' cult favorite "Used Cars." This was also the year of Cimino's "Heaven's Gate," which has seen its critical reputation do a 180 over the past few decades. Fuller's "The Big Red One," Demme's "Melvin and Howard." Cause for celebration or consternation: the massive success of "Friday the 13th^th"signaled that the slasher craze was here to stay.

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The French New Wave officially started with Alain Resnais's beautifully bleak "Hiroshima mon amour" and François Truffaut's semi-autobiographical "The 400 Blows", while Ed Wood delivered his gritty piece de resistance in "Plan 9 from Outer Space" - ie. this was a wildly diverse year for cinema. On the more accomplished side of indie cinema, John Cassavetes unveiled his interracial drama "Shadows," which radically changed the perception of what movies could be and do. As for the studios, you still can't make more satisfying mainstream entertainment than Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and the Hawks' "Rio Bravo"; all you can do is like them. Wilder returned in a big way after a spotty couple of years with "Some Like It Hot." Bresson's "Pickpocket" is a masterpiece. Satyajit Ray's "The World of Apu" closed the filmmaker's brilliant Apu trilogy. Boetticher continued his Ranown Western series with the terrific "Ride Lonesome." Ozu was nearing the end of his brilliant run, but "Floating Weeds" and "Good Morning" are exceptional works by any standard.

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The year of "Pulp Fiction" vs. "Forrest Gump." The winner: "Speed." 1994 was something of a turning point for independent film, primarily because it was the year Miramax began stockpiling acquisitions that were sometimes actually released in theaters. The pesky distributor had a great year thanks to the aforementioned Tarantino, Egoyan's "Exotica," Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures," Boaz Yakin's "Fresh," Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" and Kieślowski's "White" and "Red." The best film of the year, Olivier Assayas' mesmerizing coming-of-age masterpiece, "Cold Water," incredibly got no distribution in the United States. It fares a little better: Steve James' magnificent "Hoop Dreams," Reichardt's "River of Grass," Burton's "Ed Wood," Malle's "Vanya on 42^ndStreet," Kerrigans "Clean, Shaven", Hartleys "Amatør", Darabonts "The Shawshank Redemption", Zwigoffs "Crumb", Redfords "Quiz Show", "Drunken Master II", Wong Kar-wais "Chungking Express", Coens. "The Hudsucker Proxy" og Bentons "Nobody's Fool."

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As the bloodshed increased in Vietnam and tensions reached a fever pitch at home, the world's greatest filmmakers held up a mirror to our declining nature to let us know we were far, far from OK. Where to start? Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs?" Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange?" Siegel's "Dirty Harry?" Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show?" Russell's "The Devils?" It was a year filled with downers, none more essential than Altman's anti-Western "McCabe and Mrs. Miller." The cliché of the boring late 70s was probably cemented by "The French Connection," which tickled moviegoers by letting the bad guy get away. But there was still fun to be found: Forman's "Taking Off," Allen's "Bananas," Ashby's "Harold and Maude," Nichols' "Carnal Knowledge," Hodges' "Get Carter," Siegel's "The Beguiled ... OK, that was a rough year. Other superlative works: Roeg's "Walkabout," Malle's "Murmur of the Heart," Lucas' "THX-1138," Spielberg's "Duel," Pakula's "Klute," Sarafian's "Vanishing Point," Hellman's "Two-Lane Blacktop," Rivette's "Out 1" and Leone's final spaghetti western, "Duck, You Sucker." Also important: Melvin van Peebles and Gordon Parks started the blacksploitation genre with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and "Shaft," respectively.

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A sensational year for movies that blessed us with eight stone-cold masterpieces: Kiarostami's "Certified Copy", Farhadi's "A Separation", Lonergan's "Margaret", Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives", Miike's "13 Assassins", Reichardt's "Meek's Cutoff," Malick's "The Tree of Life," and David Robert Mitchell's "The Myth of the American Sleepover." And then you have it simply excellent: Alfredson's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," Cornish's "Attack the Block" ," Herzog's "Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death," Scorsese's "Hugo," Durkins “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene,” Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” Refn’s “Drive,” Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and Spielberg’s underrated duo of “War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin.” Easily the best year for movies this decade.

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The sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres wereroaringin the early '80s, with instant classics hitting theaters seemingly every week: Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Landis' "An American Werewolf in London," Dante's "The Howling," Gilliam's "Time Bandits," Raimi's "The Evil". Dead" (technically an 81 film, although it only caught on in 82), Carpenter's "Escape from New York", Cronenberg's "Scanners", Hooper's "The Funhouse", Zito's "The Prowler" (for Savini f. /x alone ), Furie’s “The Entity,” and if you’re lucky enough to live in Australia, Miller’s “Mad Max 2” aka “The Road Warrior.” And then there were genre-adjacent ones like De Palma’s “Blow Out” ”, Ferrara’s “Ms. 45” and Romero’s “Knightriders.” All thisand"My dinner with Andre"! Also excellent: Weir's "Gallipoli," Brooks' "Modern Romance," Beatty's "Reds," Petersen's "Das Boot," Babenco's "Pixote," Kasdan's "Body Heat," Rohmer's "The Aviator's Wife," <" Waters' "Polyester , " Passer's "Cutter's Way," Tavernier's "Coup de torchon," and Michael Mann's "Thief."

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New Hollywood was busy putting its stamp on everything from westerns (Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid") to film noir (Altman's "The Long Goodbye") to gangster films (Scorsese's "Mean Streets"), and it all worked. This was another great year from cinema's greatest decade: Malick's "Badlands," Truffaut's "Day for Night," Friedkin's "The Exorcist," Lucas' "American Graffiti," Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon," Ashby's "The Last Detail," Lumet's "Serpico". ", Yates' "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", Mazursky's "Blume in Love", Allen's "Sleeper", Fassbinder's "World on a Wire", Roeg's "Don't Look Now", Welles' "F for Fake", De Palma's "Sisters", Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" and George Roy Hill's "The Sting", Katz & Huyck's "Messiah of Evil", Hardy's "The Wicker Man", Romero's "The Crazies"; an utterly ridiculous array of movie. .

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A banner year for film noir: Wilder's "Sunset Blvd." Ray's "In a Lonely Place", Dassin's "Night and the City", Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle", Kazan's "Panic in the Streets", Joseph H. Lewis's "Gun Crazy", Anthony Mann's "Side Street", Fleischer's " Armored car robbery" and Maté's ticking triumph "D.O.A." Initially. Like Westerns? Can't do much better than Mann's "Winchester '77" (while Ford's "Wagon Master", Henry King's "The Gunfighter" and Mann'sthirdmovie of the year, "The Furies"). And that's just the genre stuff. Then there are scattered all-time greats such as Mankiewicz's "All About Eve", Kurosawa's "Rashomon", Cocteau's "Orpheus", Ophuls' "La Ronde", Rossellini's "Stromboli" and Disney's "Cinderella".

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Every year including Huston's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", de Sica's "Bicycle Thieves", Sturges's "Unfaithfully Yours", Powell & Pressburger's "The Red Shoes", Hawks's "Red River", Visconti's "La Terra trema", Mann's " Raw Deal," Reed's "The Fallen Idol," Olivier's "Hamlet," and Ray's "They Live by Night" are going to rank terribly high. But it just falls back to the stratosphere due to lesser/lesser works from Hitchcock ("Rope" ), Ozu ("A Hen in the Wind"), Wilder ("A Foreign Affair"), Welles ("Macbeth") and Rossellini ("Germany in the Year Zero").

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The new Hollywood revolution caught fire with Nichols' "The Graduate," Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde," Rosenberg's "Cool Hand Luke" (lens flare, kids!), Boorman's "Point Blank," Jim McBride's mockumentary "David Holzman's Diary" Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" and Theodore J. Flicker's far-fetched satire "The President's Analyst." The political turmoil, global and at home, appeared in Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night", Godard's "Week End" (and "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her"), Lester's "How I Won the War", Sollima's "The Big Gundown" and Forman's "The Firemen's Ball". Other highlights: Melville's "Le Samouraï", Bresson's "Muchette", Roy Ward Baker's "Quatermass and the Pit", Demy's "The Young Girls of Rochefort", Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers", Rohmer's "La Collectionneuse", Aldrich's "The Dirty Dozen," Sjöman's "I Am Curious (Yellow)," King Hu's "Dragon Inn," Wiseman's "Titicut Follies," Suzuki's "Branded to Kill," Tati's "Play Time," and the feature film debut of Martin Scorsese, "Who's That Are you knocking on my door?”

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Coppola owned this year with the just-not-fair duo "The Godfather: Part II" and "The Conversation." These aren't just two of the best movies of the yearorthe decade. They are both all-timers. And yet, culturally, if you had to pick one movie to represent the era's war- and corruption-weary sentiment, you'd probably go with Tobe Hooper's bland "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Or maybe one of these classics: Pakula's "The Parallax View", Polanski's "Chinatown", Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia", Altman's "California Split", Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence", Malle's " Lacombe, Lucien", De Palma's "The Phantom of the Paradise", Boorman's "Zardoz"... those were strange, unnerving days. Lighten the moodenormouslywas Mel Brooks, who did the comedy version of Coppola's feat by releasing "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" in the same year.

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The home entertainment market had fully exploded by this time, meaning that low-budget films that would never have seen the light of a small-town projector were now available to rent at the local video store - ergo, there was an abundance of substandard product. There was also an indie film boom going on, which brought us the Coens ("Blood Simple"), Jim Jarmusch ("Stranger Than Paradise") and a gem from John Sayles ("The Brother from Another Planet"). The cinematic schizophrenia of the 80s is probably best represented by this series of films: Dante's "Gremlins", Cox's "Repo Man", Forman's "Amadeus", Reitman's "Ghostbusters", Wenders' "Paris, Texas", ZAZ's "Top Secret" . !" De Palma's "Body Double", Carax's "Boy Meets Girl", Cameron's "The Terminator", Demme's "Stop Making Sense", LVT's "The Element of Crime", Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street", Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap" "," Tavernier's "A Sunday in the Country," Richter's "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^thDimension," Leones "Once Upon a Time in America", Brests "Beverly Hills Cop" og Spielbergs "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".

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The year that delivered the most popular film in the history of the medium ("Gone with the Wind"), the most beloved family film of all time ("The Wizard of Oz"), the western that set the template for the genre going forward ("Stagecoach") and a host of masterpieces from legendary filmmakers such as Jean Renoir ("Rules of the Game"), Frank Capra ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"), George Stevens ("Gunga Din"), Ernst Lubitsch ("Ninotchka"), Howard Hawks ("Only Angels Have Wings") and William Wyler ("Wuthering Heights"). So why isn't it #1? Hitchcock called in "Jamaica Inn!"

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Krzysztof Kieślowski's 572-minute long "The Dekalog" is just one of the most astonishing achievements in film history, so this year would rankmuchhigh, although the only other film released was Peter Bonerz's "Police Academy 6: City Under Siege." But 1989 ranks near the top because this was also the year that gave us Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies and Videotape," Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," Jarmusch's "Mystery Train," Gus Van Sant's " Drugstore Cowboy", John Woo's "The Killer", Lehmann's "Heathers", De Palma's "Casualties of War", Kloves' "The Fabulous". Baker Boys," Branagh's "Henry V," Jane Campion's "Sweetie," Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service," Crowe's "Say Anything...", Reinert's "For All Mankind," Cameron's "The Abyss," Herek's "Bill & Teds excellent adventure". ," Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," DeVito's "The War of the Roses," Zemeckis' "Back to the Future Part II," Almodovar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!," Greenaways " The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" and Hal Hartley's perfect little debut, "The Unbelievable Truth." And screw it, "Lethal Weapon 2."

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A defining year for Japanese cinema thanks to Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", Kinoshita's "Twenty-Four Eyes", two from Naruse ("Late Chrysanthemums" and "Sound of the Mountain"), a couple from Mizoguchi ("Sansho the Bailiff" and "The Crucified Lovers"), Inagaki's "Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto" and the city-stompin' debut of "Godzilla." Hitchcock broke again with "Rear Window" and the visually playful 3-D exercise "Dial M for Murder," while Rossellini peaked with the sensational "Journey to Italy." Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" ranks as one of the greatest and most subversive westerns of all time; Cukor's "A Star Is Born" remains the definitive version of the oft-told tale Kazan's "On the Waterfront" gave Brando his most iconic pre-Corleone role; and Visconti's lush melodrama "Senso" is the best he has ever done except for "The Leopard." This was a spectacular year on every level, including monster movies (eg Jack Arnold's "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" and the giant ants from Gordon Douglas' excellent "Them").

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Masterpieces: Ozu's "Tokyo Story", Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu", Fellini's "I Vitelloni", Stevens' "Shane", Fuller's "Pickup on South Street", Mann's "The Naked Spur", Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear", Ophuls " The Earrings of Madame de..." and Hawks' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." Near-masterpieces: Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity," Minnelli's "The Band Wagon," Rowland's Seussian "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T," and Tati's "M. Hulot's Vacation." Simply amazing: Wilder's "Stalag 17", Pal's "The War of the Worlds", William Cameron Menzies' "Invaders from Mars" and André de Toth's "House of Wax". Swedish master Ingmar Bergman made his mark this year with "Swimming with Monica" and "Sawdust and Tinsel," while Cinemascope debuted Henry Koster's "The Robe," Robert D. Webb's "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" and Jean Negulesco's lovely "How to marry a millionaire."

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Widely considered to be modern cinema's answer to 1939, it's definitely in the conversation due to its surprising number of risk-taking studio releases. Fincher's "Fight Club," O. Russell's "Three Kings," Minghella's "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the Wachowskis' "The Matrix," Ang Lee's "Ride With the Devil," Liman's "Go," PTA's "Magnolia," Payne's "Election" and Lynch's Disney-distributed "The Straight Story." Meanwhile, the mini-majors shook up the multiplexes with Myrick/Sanchez's "The Blair Witch Project," Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry" and Jonze's "Being John Malkovich." While it felt like there was a change-of-the-author On Guard, relative old-timers like Scorsese ("Bringing Out the Dead"), Mann ("The Insider"), Leigh ("Topsy-Turvy") and Almodovar ( "All About My Mother"), that they could still hang Space does not allow a list of this year's many great films, but it would feel wrong to exclude "Toy Story 2", the Dardennes' "Rosetta", Miike's "Audition", Birds " The Iron Giant", Lee Myung-se's. "Nowhere to Hide," Mamet's "The Winslow Boy" and of course Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."

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Probably the biggest screwballs and romantic comedies ("His Girl Friday" and "The Shop Around the Corner") were released in 1940, which would make up for a lot of chaff. But this was another bumper crop: two Disney all-timers ("Pinocchio" and "Fantasia"), top-tier Hitchcock ("Rebecca" and Foreign Correspondent"), a couple of Preston Sturges delights ("Christmas in July" and "Jul in July" The Great McGinty"), John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath", Frank Borzage's "The Mortal Storm" and, not for nothing, George Cukor's sublime "The Philadelphia Story".

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Ask a filmmaker to list the 10 films that have most influenced their work, and you'll find quite a few, including Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West " and Romero's "Night". of the Living Dead" - all three of which hit theaters this year. New Hollywood continued to churn out sensations like Schaffner's "Planet of the Apes," Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby," Perry's "The Swimmer," De Palma's "Greetings" and Rafelson's trippy Monkees musical, “Head.” Truffaut returned to Antoine Doinel and made the finest film of his career in “Stolen Kisses” (while trying to get Hitchcock to make less than stellar returns with “The Bride Wore Black.”) Mel Brooks made his film career in time with the raucous “The Producers.” Also notable: Lindsay Anderson's "if...", Corbucci's "The Great Silence," Fischer's "The Devil Rides Out," Wiseman's "High School," Lester's "Petulia." "," Pennebaker's "Monterey Pop," Meyer's "Vixen!," Cassavete's "Faces," Chabrol's "Les Biches," Yates' "Bullitt," Vadim's "Barbarella," and Peter Bogdanovich's debut feature, "Targets."

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Orson Welles exploded the potential of the medium with his ground-breaking in several respects "Citizen Kane," which has long been the standard answer to "what is the greatest movie of all time." The rest of 1941 was pretty extraordinary, too: Howard Hawks' exuberant "Snow White" riff, "Ball of Fire"; the devastatingly hilarious one-two Preston Sturges punch of "Sullivan's Travels" and "The Lady Eve"; Raoul Walsh's crime classic "High Sierra"; Kenji Mizoguchi's "The 47 Ronin, Part I"; Michael Powell's "49^thParallel"; Lubitsch's "The Uncertain Feeling"; and Humphrey Bogart cements his hard-boiled, world-weary legend in John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon." Disney flew through with the absolutely perfect "Dumbo." Hitch had a bit of a bad year behind "Suspicion" and "Mr. and mrs. Smith," but that hardly mattered with this lineup.

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So close. Scorsese was already a great filmmaker, but "Taxi Driver" vaulted him into the league of maestros. It was an undeniable masterpiece — perhaps too undeniable, which is why it lost Best Picture to Avildsen's "Rocky." It had good competition in second place: Pakula's "All the President's Men," Lumet's "Network" and Ashby's "Bound." for Honor” was also denied. Not that it mattered. Michael Ritchie's "The Bad News Bears" was the best film of the year. Also great: Wertmüller's "Seven Beauties," De Palma's "Carrie" (and "Obsession"), Cassavetes' "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," May's "Mikey and Nicky," Larry Cohen's "God Told Me To," Carpenter's " Assault on Precinct 13," Satyajit Ray's "The Middleman," Roeg's "The Man Who Fell to Earth," Parker's "Bugsy Malone," Kopple's "Harlan County U.S.A." and Fassbinder's "Chinese Roulette".

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This is the year New Hollywood ecstatically/tragically found its equilibrium. Altman and Ashby found the ideal subjects for their trashy, satirical aesthetic, creating a pair of masterpieces in "Nashville" and "Shampoo," respectively. Meanwhile, young upstart Steven Spielberg picked up on their shaggy penchant for overlapping dialogue and used it to make "Jaws," then the most successful film of all time (it also single-handedly launched the idea of ​​a "summer movie season"). If only it could have been like this forever. Kubrick turned Thackeray's picaresque "Barry Lyndon" into the tragedy of a twit, and it fittingly stands as the crowning achievement. Chantal Akerman also turned in a career-best work, whose "Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" is an acute observation of a sex worker's gradual unraveling. Also note: Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon", Pollack's "Three Days of the Condor", Walter Hill's "Hard Times", Argento's "Deep Red", Allen's "Love and Death", Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Cooper's "Overlord", Sembene's "Xala", Bartels' "Death Race 2000", Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and of course "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."