Just like my brother, I fail miserably in making a top 10 movie list, since there are, in my opinion, some films that simply cannot be left outside such a list.

What is it that I cherish and appreciate in a film? Well, it is the aesthetics of a film, visual experience, the story and, of course, not to forget the acting. When all these things play a perfect symphony for my ears, eyes and mind, they make it to my special club of movies that I consider the best.

The list is far from being complete, thus we can call it version 1, because I need to watch some of the old films that I forgot or simply never watched. Some of them is Visconti’s The Leopard, Hitchcocks’ North by Northwest, Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon etc.

Here’s the list in a chronological order:

• Godfather (Francis F. Coppola, 1972)
• Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
• A Room With A View (James Ivory, 1985)
• The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)
• What Dreams May Come (Vincent Ward, 1998)
• Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)
• American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
• Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
• Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
• Le Fabuleux destin d’Amelié Poulain (Jean Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
• Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)
• The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen, 2001)
• Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)
• House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman, 2003)
• Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005)

I am not quite sure for Secretary, but there is something subtle and advanced in that film, so I had to put it on the list. As I already wrote, the list is absolutely not complete (will it ever be?), since there are no films from 40s, 50s and 60s. Not that there has to be any. A closer look at my list will discover that I apparently like films from the year of 1999.

[Update Sept. 19, 2007]: North by Northwest really sucked when I watched it a couple of months ago.