FILM – Times 100 best films of the decade

The 100 best films of the decade

Times of London, that is: in reverse order, of course. 

Film lists are often more interesting because of what others think shouldn’t have been left out ( 9 pages of comments below this list…) or the completely alternative lists they generate.

What about a different kind of list, where films considered of equal stature are ranked equal.

Here, those films with links have reviews.

A little point: once read, such lists may influence. For example, I have never heard of Michael Haneke, let alone seen one of several films, but now I am about to see (DVD winging its way) what the fuss is about.

We can’t all see all the films ever made, so how can we judge? Certainly our judging is based on what others recommended us to watch in the first place.

A list might tell us the sort of films one values/likes. This in itself instructive because one may ask what it is about a particular list that might have a common thread running through it, and so on, and then come to some conclusions of our own about what makes a good film.

Then: who in their right mind would ask someone like Sir Ben Kingsley if he has seen the films he lists? I certainly wouldn’t : I saw him in that film (Sexy Beast) where he is a very irritable psychopath/sociopath sent out to Spain persuade a very suntanned former associate Ray Winstone to do another job.