Favourite Movies

A personal Top 10

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Cinema - virtual world - two hours (more or less) on a dark seat away from real world - no commercials - to make a long story short: since school I like to go to cinema frequently. When I was student in University of Mainz I was regular guest in a so called "Programm-Kino", a cinema showing special films and not following the mainstream. So I could see some "passed" movies! (A short time after having moved to Bad Homburg the cinema was closed ...)
In my first business position (still without a family) I went to Frankfurt. Sometimes I watched two movies in a row. But now I do not have enough time to see all movies I'd like to see. On the other hand, the cinema in Ingelheim does not always show the movies I'm interested in ... And a so called "Programmkino" late Friday's evenings was discontinued because of missing guests (twice they showed a movie only for me ...).

It's hard for a 'Cineast' to define a Top10 ... but I'll try it here. The following links point in most of the cases to the Internet Movie Database , which documents in an excellent way everything around movies and TV and the actors there.
Filmography data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database

Here it is, my personal TOP10:

Position	Title	Comment
1	2001 - A Space Odyssey	This movie is directed by my favourite director  Stanley Kubrick and originated a whole genre. This movie is never topped in his composition. And only in a cinema having wide cinemascope screen you will experience the whole message of this movie.
2	Children of Paradise	A romance. Nothing more. But nothing less!
3	Dances with Wolves	The rebirth of the Western. Fair viewing of Red Indian Nations.
4	Apocalypse Now	Parabel for War and loss of identity.
5	The Deer Hunter	Not only because of Robert De Niro this epos belongs to my favourite movies. Two men survive war, one is coming home, the other stays as victim of Vietnam War there until his friend will find him. But did he really survive the Odysee between Peace, War, Home, and back to Vietnam ?
6	Full Metal Jacket	a brilliant first part shows that not only a war can destroy someone. A Kubrick-Movie.
7	Once Upon a Time in America	A film about friendship up to death.
8	Heaven's Gate	A not understandable flopped epos about justice and fairness. Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken act at their best. And Michael Cimino knows his profession very well and demonstrated how to combine action and dramatical story in an artistic staging.
9	The Silence of the Lambs	Thrill! And the break-through for Anthony Hopkins, who shows his brilliance not only as Hector Lector.
10	Fried Green Tomatoes	Women have power! That's the message of this movie, packed into a good story.

That are the Top10 of today (!). They may change from time to time, but to do so a movie must be very good!

Here a few other movies I do not want to ignore:

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Robert de Niro and Sean Connery in The Untouchables.
Robert de Niro and Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart.
Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver.
Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose and in Highlander.
Jack Nicholson in The Shining and (here really not insane) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
But insane is A Clockwerk Orange, but the question is who ...
Once Upon a Time in the West
Marlon Brando als The Godfather.
Jean Reno as Leon, as Victor the Cleaner in Nikita, and as Lorenzo Molinari in The Big Blue.
Sigourney Weaver in Alien and in the sequels Aliens, Alien 3, Alien - A Resurrection. A tough woman!
Quite different and also a brilliant actress is Jodie Foster.
George Lucas' Star Wars movies: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and brandnew Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
And I was under the first seeing this movie in Germany! Here the ticket I bought:

A Click to the ticket will show a BIGGER version!

Steven Spielberg is also a great director, and I like especially Schindler's List.
Oliver Stone has an U.S.A. Trauma; his movies mostly try to present the U.S. history in his personal perspective. E.g. in Platoon once again for his Vietnam trauma. Totally different is Natural Born Killers. An artificial movie, but near to the MTV generation ... unfortunately a most misinterpreted movie ...
And again another Stanley Kubrick epos: Spartacus.
The last Kubrick-movie is "Eyes Wide Shut", a deep-psychological dream thriller based on Schnitzlers "Traumnovelle". Did he know that this movie will become his testomony ? He left us a brilliant illustrated and top filled drama: Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in their probably most difficult and best film!

More about this director you will find here!

I also like The Original Enterprise (TOS, Cpt. Kirk), The Next Generation (TNG, Cpt. Picard), Voyager (VOY, Cpt. Janeway). And here the ultimate link: Startrek Continuum.
Here a synopsis of all productions and their German titles:

[Central View (Frames)]
[TOS]	[TNG]	[VOY]	[The Movies]

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