Top 50 New to Me Viewings of 2015

The biggest change in my viewing habits from 2014 to 2015 was the centering of specific auteurs, which is much closer to the way my boyfriend watches movies than I choose to experience cinema. I usually take a sampler platter approach to the way I engage with cinema, but by living with someone who is far more organized than I my viewing habits were altered to some degree. His changed as well and my attitude of picking films on a whim became present in his life. We even kept a hat around this year with specific movies on slips of paper we’d draw that we’d eventually end up watching (an idea of mine). However, we scrapped that hat when we started an Alfred Hitchcock project, which you’ll see visible in this list. Cinema always remains interesting. The movies I watched this year had their strengths and weaknesses, and there are certain goals I did not keep (50-50 gender split, which ended up being close to 35/65), but cinema is always the highlight of my year. This top 50 represents the best and brightest of those viewings I had in the previous year. At the top of the list is Robert Altman’s “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” which has been on my mind more than any other film in the past twelve months. It even has Cher. The other 49 movies do not carry that distinction so that made the choice for #1 ultimately easy to land upon. Here’s to hoping 2016 is as fruitful, and I’ll finally hit that 50/50 gender gap in viewing. (As always new releases and rewatches are excluded from the list)

1. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman, 1982)

2. Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hung, 1984)

3. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1995)

4. Police Story (Jackie Chan, 1985

5. The Day I Became a Woman (Marzieh Meshkini, 2000)

6. Hookers on Davie (Janis Cole & Holly Dale, 1984)

7. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977)

8. The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette, 2003)

9. Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

10. Green Snake (Hark Tsui, 1993)

11. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

12. All About Eve (Joseph L. Makiewicz, 1950)

13. Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)

14. Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, 1974)

15. Barton Fink (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1991)

16. Dance, Girl Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)

17. Peking Opera Blues (Hark Tsui, 1986)

18. Waitress (Adrienne Shelly, 2007)

19. Birds (Takashi Miike, 2000)

20. Limelight (Charlie Chaplin, 1952)

21. Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)

22. The Blade (Hark Tsui, 1995)

23. Challenge of the Masters (Lau Kar-leung, 1975)

24. A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Hark Tsui, 1989)

25. A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

26. Needing You (Johnnie To, 2000)

27. Le Pont Du Nord (Jacques Rivette, 1981)

28. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

29. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-Leung, 1984)

30. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)

31. No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis, 1994)

32. Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin, 1947)

33. Katie Tippel (Paul Verhoeven, 1975)

34. Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

35. L’invitation Au Voyage (Germaine Dulac, 1927)

36. Sheer Madness (Margarethe Von Trotta, 1983)

37. Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (Takashi Miike, 2009)

38. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

39. I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949)

40. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)

41. Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati, 1949)

42. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

43. Stagefright: Aquarius (Michele Soavi, 1987)

44. I’ll Take You There (Adrienne Shelly, 1999)

45. Friends with Money (Nicole Holofcener, 2006)

46. Once Upon a Time in China I-III (Hark Tsui, 1991-1993)

47. Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette, 1981)

48. About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009)

49. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

50. Romance (Catherine Breillat, 1999)