My Top 50 Films of All Time: An Introduction

Grattan
Grattan
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

In less than two weeks, I am going to be starting film school (who would’ve guessed right?). Because I am going to be attending film school, I wanted to do something fun before I left, while also making people annoyed at me from the safe distance of being in Germany. The best way to do that? Alist of my favourite films of all time!

A few disclaimers:

  • The choice of saying “My Favourite Films” instead of saying “The Best Films” is important: there is no such thing as a “Best Films of All Time” list. Film taste tends to be a random collection of the success of the filmmaking, the importance and power of the story, but also the personal taste of the viewer. In order to make an objective “best of” list I would have to take away the question of personal taste and replace it with “historical importance”. But one of the main reasons I love film is the way it explores the unique and idiosyncratic perspectives from both the filmmakers and the film’s audience, and lists should embrace that fact. Besides, no one really wants me to write a list which is basically just me saying whether I prefer Citizen Kane or Vertigo. I prefer Citizen Kane, but I love 50 films more than both of those.
  • I love love love every film on this list, but I also love many films not on this list. There’s a lot of films I left off that were as good at what they set out to do as the films on this list, and in the end it became a question of what I happened to respond to the most. So if your favourite film is not on this list, don’t worry, I probably love that too.
  • Similarly, the rankings here tend to get a bit messy between the tiers. Most of the difficult decisions were on what should be on the list vs what should be off it, and what should be in my top 10 vs what shouldn’t, my top 20 vs what shouldn’t, etc. etc. My feelings about, say, my #36 vs. my #34 are miniscule.
  • I deliberately didn’t include any films made in 2016 onwards. There are a few films released the two years before that, but I always find it’s good to leave a slight buffer on new releases, just to allow my opinions of the films to fit into my broader sense of my favourite films of all time. Otherwise there would be a good chance Moonlight and Arrival would be here.
  • I reserve the right to change my opinions on each and every one these rankings the day after I post this list.

I’m going to be releasing my #50–41 tomorrow, than my #40–31 the week after, and so on and so forth until I get to my #1. Hope you all enjoy it/Don’t get too mad that the MCU is nowhere to be found!

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