THE HEDONIST JIVE CINEMATIC 75

Fat City (1972) - directed by John Huston

The very first web page I ever created was a pseudo-blog post around 1998 or 1999 listing the 50 Best Films I’d Ever Seen, which as you’d imagine contains a lot of overlap with THE HEDONIST JIVE CINEMATIC 75. I had just switched dial-up providers from “The MSN Network” to “Earthlink”, and as part of my package I got a hideous set of templates and tools with which to create a single page of content. I chose a film list, if only to settle the score in my head. It disappeared years ago, but I kept that list stored away in my cranium. Over the years I’ve had a raging battle playing out internally about the “greatest film of all time”, and in my rank-ordered, meticulously-cataloged brain, it’s not even a question to just leave it to the standard, “Ah, well, I have a lot of favorites” sort of list the way normal people do.

When I was a teenager, the greatest film I’d seen to that point was “MARATHON MAN”, the thrilling 1976 John Schlesinger adaptation of William Goldman’s novel about a man’s chance (or is it?) run-in with an ex-Nazi murderer, hiding in plain sight in New York City. I could still watch that one any time, any place. Then I saw “CHINATOWN”, and for many years that was my favorite. At various times that was replaced in the subsequent two-plus decades with “Apocalypse Now”, “A Woman Under The Influence” and, now, “3 WOMEN”. (Note a bit of a 1970s bias here? Guilty as charged).

I’ve seen Robert Altman’s 1977 “3 WOMEN” four times now and I never finish it short of amazed, invigorated and even a little baffled. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why it doesn’t get more play from both Altman lovers and film lovers in general, except for the fact that until recently, it was extremely hard to see (It’s now available in a fully-restored print by Criterion). It is a surreal combination of dreamy mood, avant-garde music, comedy, tragedy, setting (the California desert), story (an homage to “PERSONA”, my fourth-favorite film), feminist statement and two career-defining acting performances by Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall. A masterpiece in every sense of the word, and I guess I’ll call it the greatest film ever for now.

My list, which is only a mere 75 films, heavies up on certain directors – Altman, Bergman, Cassavetes, Scorsese, Coppola, Hitchcock. Polanski shows up twice, as does Paul Greengrass (!). Because I’m not a film critic, and because I’ve seen only a mere fraction of the films I want to see, this list obviously shortchanges many great directors and films that I simply haven’t seen yet. I’m embarrassed – embarrassed – at the almost complete lack of film from the 30s, 40s and 50s. As an argument-settler, well, this doesn’t quite cut it. You may have to supplement it with other lists. Yet I hope that you’ll find a place in your queue, or however it is you choose to watch film in 2012, for some of these that you haven’t seen. Every one of them blew me away the first time I saw it, and every one of them is on my list to watch again. 

    1. 3 WOMEN  (1977 – Robert Altman)

    2. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979 – Francis Ford Coppola)

    3. CASABLANCA  (1942 – Michael Curtiz)

    4. PERSONA (1966 – Ingmar Bergman)

    5. THE DECALOGUE (1989 - Krzysztof Kieslowski)

    6. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (1973 – Ingmar Bergman)

    7. A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974 – John Cassavetes)

    8. MEMENTO  (2000 – Christopher Nolan)

    9. NASHVILLE (1975 – Robert Altman)

  10. CHINATOWN  (1974 – Roman Polanski)

  11. THE CELEBRATION  (1998 – Thomas Vinterberg)

  12. TAXI DRIVER  (1976 – Martin Scorsese)

  13. MARATHON MAN  (1976 – John Schlesinger)

  14. RESERVOIR DOGS  (1992 – Quentin Tarantino)

  15. BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS  (1970 – Russ Meyer)

  16. THERE WILL BE BLOOD  (2007 – Paul Thomas Anderson)

  17. FAT CITY  (1972 – John Huston)

  18. BREAKING THE WAVES  (1996 – Lars Von Trier)

  19. McCABE & MRS. MILLER  (1971 – Robert Altman)

  20. FACES  (1968 – John Cassavetes)

  21. CITIZEN KANE (1941 – Orson Wells)

  22. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003 – Andrew Jarecki)

  23. DOG DAY AFTERNOON  (1975 – Sidney Lumet)

  24. DAS BOOT  (1981 – Wolfgang Peterson)
  25. UNITED 93  (2006 – Paul Greengrass)

  26. CONTEMPT  (1963 – Jean-Luc Godard)

  27. THE EXORCIST (1973 – William Friedkin)

  28. BREAKER MORANT (1980 – Bruce Beresford)

  29. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW  (1971 – Peter Bogdonovich)

  30. NAKED  (1993 – Mike Leigh)

  31. GIMME SHELTER  (1970 – Albert & David Maysles)

  32. BLOW-UP  (1966 – Michaelangelo Antonioni)

  33. BLOODY SUNDAY  (2002 – Paul Greengrass)
  34. PARIS, TEXAS  (1984 – Wim Wenders)

  35. THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK  (1971 – Jerry Schatzberg)

  36. CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972 – Ingmar Bergman)

  37. DUEL  (1971 – Steven Spielberg)

  38. VERTIGO  (1958 – Alfred Hitchcock)

  39. THE KING OF COMEDY  (1983 – Martin Scorsese)

  40. MEAN STREETS  (1973 – Martin Scorsese)

  41. CHILDREN OF MEN  (2006 – Alfonso Cuaron)

  42. THE BIRDS  (1963 – Alfred Hitchcock)

  43. KLUTE  (1971 – Alan J. Pakula)

  44. THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS  (1966 – Gillo Pontecorvo)

  45. BLACK SWAN  (2010 – Darren Aronovsky)

  46. THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION  (1981 – Penelope Spheeris)

  47. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE  (1971 – Mike Nichols)

  48. THE GREAT SANTINI  (1979 – Lewis John Carlino)

  49. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL  (1997 – Curtis Hanson)

  50. PAYDAY  (1973 – Daryl Duke)

  51. THE CONVERSATION  (1974 – Francis Ford Coppola)

  52. OPENING NIGHT  (1977 – John Cassavetes)

  53. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS  (2009 – Quentin Tarantino)

  54. THE SWEET HEREAFTER  (1997 – Atom Egoyan)

  55. MIDNIGHT COWBOY  (1969 – John Schlesinger)

  56. THE GODFATHER  (1972 – Francis Ford Coppola)

  57. NORTH BY NORTHWEST  (1959 – Alfred Hitchcock)

  58. THE SEVENTH SEAL  (1957 – Ingmar Bergman)

  59. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST  (1975 – Milos Forman)

  60. AFTER HOURS  (1985 – Martin Scorsese)

  61. LOVE STREAMS  (1984 – John Cassavetes)

  62. BONNIE AND CLYDE  (1967 – Arthur Penn)

  63. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN  (2007 – Joel & Ethan Coen)

  64. CITY OF HOPE  (1991 – John Sayles)

  65. GHOST WORLD  (2001 – Terry Zwigoff)

  66. ANNIE HALL  (1977 – Woody Allen)

  67. BADLANDS  (1973 – Terence Malick)

  68. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM  (2000 – Darren Aronofsky)

  69. NOBODY KNOWS  (2004 – Hirokazu Koreeda)

  70. REPULSION  (1965 – Roman Polanski)

  71. FARGO  (1996 – Joel & Ethan Coen)

  72. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN  (2001 – Alfonso Cuaron)

  73. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK  (1975 – Peter Weir)

  74. EATING RAOUL  (1982 – Paul Bartel)

  75. HUSBANDS (1970 – John Cassavetes)