The FRFI 100 Movies To See Before You Die

Following a discussion in another thread, I have taken it upon myself to create the Fantaverse's own Movies To See Before You Die. Now these are not all my favourite movies, though obviously some of them are. No, these are what I consider to be some of the most important movies in the history of cinema which have taken film as an art form to another level. Remember, this is not our favourite movies, but movies we think have set a standard and changed the way movies are made. The intention is that, following my list, the rest of the Fantaverse will contribute further additions (and I may add a few others if I remember any), and then that list will be whittled down to find the Fantaverse Resurrected Film Institute's 100 Movies To See Before You Die. So, on with the list:

2001: A Space Odyssey
400 Blows
8 1/2
A Clockwork Orange
A Streetcar Named Desire
Aguirre - The Wrath Of God
Akira
Alien
All About My Mother
Amelie
American Beauty
American History X
Amores Perros
The Apartment
An American Werewolf In London
The Bicycle Thief
Back To The Future
Bad Education
Blade Runner
Blow Up
Blue Velvet
Breathless
Brief Encounter
Carrie
Cape Fear
Casablanca
Children Of Men
Chinatown
City Of God
Citizen Kane
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
The Conversation
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Dark Knight
Das Boot
Dawn Of The Dead
The Deer Hunter
Delicatessen
Dekalog
The Devil's Backbone
Les Diaboliques
Dial M For Murder
Die Hard
Doctor Stangelove
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
Downfall
Duck Soup
Ed Wood
Edward Scissorhands
The Elephant Man
Les Enfants Du Paradis
E.T - The Extra Terrestrial
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Grand Illusion
Great Expectations
Fargo
La Femme Nikita
Fantasia
Finding Nemo
Full Metal Jacket
Giant
The Goonies
La Haine
Heat
His Girl Friday
House Of Flying Daggers
In The Mood For Love
The Indiana Jones Trilogy
Jaws
Jurassic Park
King Kong
The Ladykillers
The Lady Eve
Late Spring
Leon
Life Is Beautiful
The Lion King
Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
M
Mad Max
The Maltese Falcon
Man Bites Dog
The Matrix
Memento
Metropolis
Miller's Crossing
Mulholland Drive
Night Of The Hunter
Night Of The Living Dead
North By Northwest
Nosferatu
Oldboy
Once Upon A Time In The West
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Open City
Pan's Labyrinth
Picnic At Hanging Rock
Pink Flamongos
Platoon
Princess Mononoke
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Raging Bull
Ran
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rebel Without A Cause
Repulsion
Requiem For A Dream
Rocky
Rope
Rosemary's Baby
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Seven
The Seven Samurai
The Seventh Seal
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining
The Silence Of The Lambs
Singing In The Rain
Some Like It Hot
Snow White And The Seven Dwarves
Spartacus
Spirited Away
Star Wars Original Trilogy
La Strada
Talk To Her
Taxi Driver
The Terminator (1&2)
The Thing
The Third Man
This Is Spinal Tap!
The Three Colours Trilogy
Tokyo Story
Touch Of Evil
Toy Story
Umberto D.
The Usual Suspects
Vertigo
Volver
Wings Of Desire
The Wild Bunch
Wild Strawberries
The Wizard Of Oz

So, please list some others and we can compile a definitive list to be narrowed down to the top 100.

i think i disagree with your criteria.. it almost sounds more like you're describing the "Most Important Films in the History of Cinema"..

considering the fact that not all people in the world are all aspiring filmmakers or historians of cinema (though i still can't figure out why the hell not), i'd say we should focus on movies that have the most impact while also possessing the broadest appeal..

most of the movies on your list work either way--so i might just be arguing semantics here--but we should be clear about who the list is written for: is it "100 Movies Every Fantasy Mogul Should Watch Before They Die" or is it "100 Movies EVERY Person Should Watch Before They Die." If it's the latter, I've heard Baraka cited as being one such movie.. i have access to watch it on bluray, i just haven't gotten around to it yet.. (i hope i don't die soon!)

Quite obviously this list is not going to work with your average fan of films. My family would avoid 80% of these movies (although I have tried - and they usually enjoy whatever I show them). Which way do we want to go with this? As for this list, I do feel they have had a huge impact on the face of cinema, and while maybe not being the most entertaining, they are hugely important, so maybe it should be what every mogul should aspire to watch.

If I were to submit a list of 10 movies that EVERY person should watch in their lifetimes, I would try to find films with universal themes and tangible meaning. I think I'd actively try to avoid giving a history lesson--in fact, I don't think I'd waste any of my picks trying to convince someone of the artistic merit of film.. Instead, I'd just go with movies that any person could sit down, absorb, and really get something from viewing.. Off the top of my head, my tentative list would look something like this:

Barry Lyndon
Nashville
Be Here to Love Me
Children of Men
A Christmas Story
Cool Hand Luke
Stranger Than Paradise
Paths of Glory
13 Conversations About One Thing
The Fox and the Hound OR The Brave Little Toaster

ok, i cheated on that last one.. i'd have to think harder about which one is more deserving--but i definitely wouldn't include both

I'm still upset Clue has yet to appear on any "Before You Die" lists...

Seriously, 2001 is on the list? To be totally honest i'd rather just die.

BarcaRulz wrote:Seriously, 2001 is on the list? To be totally honest i'd rather just die.

hahaha

I just now getting to looking at the list. Before I made some nom's I'd first like to pose the question for denominations. I tried All About My Mother and I hated it. Can you tell me what is so great about that anyone would have to see it before they die?

I 2nd Wild Strawberries andPaths of Glory for now.

I think we should do it like this:

1. Establish a group that want to help compile the list. We need a specific "committee" for my plan to work. Hopefully of about 10 people.

2. Accept nominations from the committee, each member submitting up to 20 films that they want to include (the number is negotiable, and really depends on the number of participants).

3. The films do not need to be seconded. However, films will instead be vetoed. If (I'll say 3) people choose to veto a suggestion, it will not be included in the list.

4. Continue this process until it is shortened down to 100 films.

OH please include the original Planet of the Apes I beg and plead of any comittee member.

geezer9687 wrote:I think we should do it like this:

1. Establish a group that want to help compile the list. We need a specific "committee" for my plan to work. Hopefully of about 10 people.

2. Accept nominations from the committee, each member submitting up to 20 films that they want to include (the number is negotiable, and really depends on the number of participants).

3. The films do not need to be seconded. However, films will instead be vetoed. If (I'll say 3) people choose to veto a suggestion, it will not be included in the list.

4. Continue this process until it is shortened down to 100 films.

Great Idea, Not that I've been here as long as other but would love to be on the committee.

So, what we're doing is throwing a bunch of films out there and then striking them off with some process, right? We should take every film added no matter how lame you think it is. I think that's better for this list than the standard nomination/second/third deal. Here's some not on your list that should at least be considered...

Groundhog Day
Dirty Harry
The Godfather (shouldn't be any objections as it isn't a "favorite" list)
Reservoir Dogs
Superman
12 Angry Men
Goodfellas
Memento
It's A Wonderful Life
Apocalypse Now (God I hated that film, but it should be considered)
Ghandi
Lawrence of Arabia
Ray or The Doors or whatever film you think kicked off the music biopic genre)
Wall-E (not another Pixar, but in place of Nemo)
Forrest Gump
To Kill a Mockingbird
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Bridge over the River Kwai
The Sound of Music
West Side Story
The Great Dictator
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ben Hur
Roots (does this count?)
Charle and the Chocolate Factory
Ben-Hur
Judgement at Nuremburg
Halloween
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Graduate
Rain Man
Gone With the Wind
Harvey
Battle of Algiers
The Exorcist or Poltergeist
Bonnie and Clyde
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Frankenstein
Dracula
Patton
Philadelphia
Glory
In the Heat of the Night
Planet of the Apes
A Raisin in the Sun
A Christmas Story
Blues Brothers
Brazil
Manhattan
Metropolis
The Pride of the Yankees
Field of Dreams
Hoosiers
The Natural
Chariots of Fire
Caddyshack
Rudy
Miracle on 34th Street

This is cool i'm in.

I thought that maybe everyone could be involved equally. I think it should work this way:

1. A week to week and a half period where we just throw films out there.
2. People come up with a list of 50 to begin with that do not deserve to be on the final list. A film on 51% of those lists eliminates a film from contention.
3. Delete all the films that are eliminated.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 with less on the list if applicable, 10 being the lowest.
5. When we get close to 100, we'll have a list of 10. Films on 51% will be run off against each other.

I just think it'll work better this way rather than a nomination process or a "board of directors" strategy.

But the thing about my committee strategy is, literally anyone could be on it, all 103 people on the site if they wanted. It wasn't supposed to be some sort of exclusive club. It would just give some sort of structure to it, and would keep people actively participating in doing it. To be honest, I think your system is just a much more complicated version of mine. But I will leave it up to everyone how we should go forward with this.

And I would still object to the Godfather, because I just don't see why people think it is so great.

I think we definitely need to streamline the topic we are going for. Otherwise this will be a mess. Are we making a list of great movie or movies that changed cinema? Movies that started a new genre or movies that defined the genre?

That is why I said let anyone throw in whatever criteria they want, but keep it limited to a certain number of films. It really is just a list of everything that we believe everyone should view at least once. Which will be vastly different to everyone. So we can't really streamline it down like that Donte.

My List of movies I couldn't die until I saw:

12 Angry Men
A Streetcar Named Desire
American Beauty
Annie Hall
Back to the Future
Ben-Hur
Big
Brick
Bringing Up Baby
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Casino Royale
Chicago
City Lights
Cool Hand Luke
Dirty Harry
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind
Fargo
Forrest Gump
Gladiator
Glory
Goldfinger
Gone with the Wind
Good Will Hunting
Goodfellas
Grease
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Halloween
Harvey
Home Alone
In the Heat of the NIght
It Happened One Night
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
Jurassic Park
Kramer vs. Kramer
La vita è bella
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
North By Northwest
On the Waterfront
Platoon
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Rain Man
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Requiem For A Dream
Rocky
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Seven
Sleepless in Seattle
Sweeny Todd
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Dirty Dozen
The Exorcist
The Fugitive
The Godfather 1, II
The Gold Rush
The Graduate
The Great Escape
The Gunfighter
The Hustler
Last of the Mohicans
Little Mermaid
LOTR's all 3
Matrix
Shawshank
Shining
Silence of the Lambs
Sixth Sense
Ten Commandents
Wizard of Oz
There Will Be Blood
Titanic
To Kill A Mockingbird
Unforgiven
West Side Story
When We Were Kings
Young Frankenstein

I think we should do it on great movies, 100 movies that you should want to own and watch over and over again. We all know the important films and some of those we say big deal. So it should be like the IMDB list where it's actually great movies.

packpaljs wrote:I think we should do it on great movies, 100 movies that you should want to own and watch over and over again. We all know the important films and some of those we say big deal. So it should be like the IMDB list where it's actually great movies.

To the first part, that doesn't make it a great movie, but a FAVORITE movie, and most of us have done those lists in the past, tho it's been awhile. To the second part, the IMDB list is not always a good barometer to judge a movie's greatness by.

Yeah, this is not a favourites list, this is movies we think we should all see at least once before we die. Movies which will hopefully leave an impact upon, either in their story, acting, cinematography, direction, whatever.

And regarding Geez' suggestion of a 20 film limit per person, I don't see why the limit. If we are restricted, we may find movies which for some reason slipped our memory while making our lists - I've already noticed a couple of movies I missed on others' lists. If we just list as many as we feel appropriate, we will eventually whittle it down to only 100. We don't have a time limit to achieve this by after all. Beyond that I like Geez' strategy, it seems the least complicated while maintaining what we want to achieve with the thread.

And to respond to my reasons for including All About My Mother, I felt Almodovar really created a very moving drama, which studies the female universe in a way not many directors do, emphasising their strengths and weaknesses with such realism. The characters are so well developed (which is generally unusual in most film nowadays), and the dialogue is so witty. There are not many directors out there like Almodovar which is a shame, but I could pretty much include every one of his movies on this list as every one of them are so well made.

I've not even heard of All About My Mother, but I'll put it on netflix now to check out.

Just checked and netflix doesn't carry it. Is it new or something?

No, it was released in 1999 and won the best foreign language Oscar. It's an Almodovar film, named Todo sobre mi madre in Spanish.

silversurfer19 wrote:Yeah, this is not a favourites list, this is movies we think we should all see at least once before we die. Movies which will hopefully leave an impact upon, either in their story, acting, cinematography, direction, whatever.

And regarding Geez' suggestion of a 20 film limit per person, I don't see why the limit. If we are restricted, we may find movies which for some reason slipped our memory while making our lists - I've already noticed a couple of movies I missed on others' lists. If we just list as many as we feel appropriate, we will eventually whittle it down to only 100. We don't have a time limit to achieve this by after all. Beyond that I like Geez' strategy, it seems the least complicated while maintaining what we want to achieve with the thread.

And to respond to my reasons for including All About My Mother, I felt Almodovar really created a very moving drama, which studies the female universe in a way not many directors do, emphasising their strengths and weaknesses with such realism. The characters are so well developed (which is generally unusual in most film nowadays), and the dialogue is so witty. There are not many directors out there like Almodovar which is a shame, but I could pretty much include every one of his movies on this list as every one of them are so well made.

Okay, well then sratch my list, that list requires more thought.

I'll have to find another way to see it then...