#200

In September 2009, I began writing film criticism and commentary for The Screening Room, a blog that has, miraculously, continued to be a staple of my life since its inception. Dismissing breaks for exams and summer camp getaways, I have written at the rate of a review a week for the last 45 months, as well as Oscar predictions, yearly recaps and top 10 lists.

One week after beginning the blog – with a column criticizing the motion picture academy for expanding the Best Picture race from five to 10 nominees – I attended my first university lecture at Carleton University. I officially graduated from that university today, with highest honours in journalism and film studies. This blog was, simply, an extracurricular amalgamation of my two major programs.

I owe much to my professors in both subject areas, who taught me about arts reportage, as well as essential information about film history and theory. Many of my film professors introduced me to filmmakers, cinema movements and foreign cultural industries that I knew little about.

The Screening Room could also not keep going without several of my peers who visited the site frequently and let me know what they thought of the films or my writing. Their words were both kind and constructive, helping me to improve as a culture writer and reminding me that an audience valued what I wanted to say about arts and entertainment. Thank you.

Alas, as my time at university winds down, so does The Screening Room. This hobby and project has been a pivotal part of my four years as a student, and the work I did for the website has helped me land internships at Tribute Magazine and SamaritanMag.com, where I have contributed my writing.

This fall, I will work as a freelance writer for three local publications: ANDPOP, a music and entertainment blog, Arbitrage Magazine, a student-oriented business publication, and the aforementioned SamaritanMag.com. I may also be writing features and reviews for Toronto Film Scene, but this position is not yet confirmed.

While I am laying The Screening Room to rest, my culture commentary will not cease. This fall, I plan to return to the web with The Balcony.

The Balcony, named in memory and in honour of the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who shared their opinions on several television series on opposite sides of a balcony, is going to feature more content and a more diverse assortment of writing. After I return from camp in mid-August, I will do some research into web design and try to load the site with more polls, graphics and other fun stuff.

I have not yet finalized what features The Balcony will have. I can promise a weekly review, a weekly column tied to recent news from the entertainment world and a monthly retrospective on a heralded filmmaker or screenwriter. I will also post links to arts-related web pages or articles that I enjoy.

I look forward to sharing The Balcony with you all, and would like to thank you for being such a wonderful audience over the past four years. There will still be more reviews posted over the next two weeks (including my take on The Kings of Summer, Before Midnight and Man of Steel), but The Screening Room will be complete at the end of June. The Balcony is slated to open in late August or early September.

Moreover, to mark this 200th posting, I only felt it would be appropriate to do something special. Near the time of my 100th posting, I put up a list of my Top 10 Favourite Movies. Therefore, it only makes sense to list my, yes, Top 200 films for post #200.

It would be miraculous if I could order the films from my 200th favourite to my top pick (which, if you were interested, is Magnolia, from director Paul Thomas Anderson). It would also be a waste of precious time and effort to try to evaluate the merits of so many wonderful films against each other. So, the list is presented in chronological order, with the title followed by the year of release and director (or directors). 

Steven Spielberg has the most films on this Essential 200 list, with seven titles. Other directors with several appearances: Charlie Chaplin (4 films), Billy Wilder (4), Alfred Hitchcock (3), Akira Kurosawa (3), Stanley Kubrick (3), Sidney Lumet (3), Roman Polanski (3), Francis Ford Coppola (3), Martin Scorsese (5), Hayao Miyazaki (3), Steven Soderbergh (3), Quentin Tarantino (3), David Fincher (3), Wes Anderson (3) and Paul Thomas Anderson (3)

My Essential 200 Films:

The Kid (1921, Charlie Chaplin)

Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)

Faust: A German Folk Legend (1926, F.W. Murnau)

Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)

Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)

City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)

M (1931, Fritz Lang)

Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)

Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937, Leo McCarey)

The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)

Fantasia (1940, James Algar and company)

The Great Dictator (1940, Charlie Chaplin)

The Philadelphia Story (1940, George Cukor)

Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)

The Lost Weekend (1946, Billy Wilder)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio de Sica)

Rope (1948, Alfred Hitchcock)

The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)

Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Robert Wise)

Ikiru (1952, Akira Kurosawa)

The Wages of Fear (1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)

Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)

Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)

Rififi (1955, Jules Dassin)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, David Lean)

A Face in the Crowd (1957, Elia Kazan)

Nights of Cabiria (1957, Federico Fellini)

Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick)

12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)

The 400 Blows (1959, Francois Truffaut)

The Human Condition 1: No Greater Love (1959, Masaki Kobayashi)

North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)

The Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder)

Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais)

Days of Wine and Roses (1962, Blake Edwards)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962, John Frankenheimer)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)

8½  (1963, Federico Fellini)

High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Stanley Kubrick)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964, Richard Lester)

The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols)

Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)

Woodstock (1970, Michael Wadleigh)

Harold and Maude (1971, Hal Ashby)

The Last Picture Show (1971, Peter Bodanovich)

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971, Mel Stuart)

The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)

The Sting (1973, George Roy Hill)

Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)

The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974, Joseph Sargent)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, Sidney Lumet)

Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, Milos Forman)

Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)

Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen)

Star Wars (1977, George Lucas)

The Deer Hunter (1978, Michael Cimino)

Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)

Airplane! (1980, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner)

Manhattan (1980, Woody Allen)

Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, Amy Heckerling)

The King of Comedy (1982, Martin Scorsese)

Tootsie (1982, Sydney Pollack)

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)

The Killing Fields (1984, Roland Joffe)

Paris, Texas (1984, Wim Wenders)

Brazil (1985, Terry Gilliam)

Blue Velvet (1986, David Lynch)

Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki)

Hoosiers (1986, David Anspaugh)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1987, Martin Scorsese)

Wings of Desire (1987, Wim Wenders)

Rain Man (1988, Barry Levinson)

The Thin Blue Line (1988, Errol Morris)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Robert Zemeckis)

Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)

Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989, Steven Soderbergh)

Barton Fink (1991, Joel Coen)

Beauty and the Beast (1991, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)

In the Name of the Father (1993, Jim Sheridan)

Schindler’s List (1993, Steven Spielberg)

Three Colors: Blue (1993, Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-Wai)

The Lion King (1994, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff)

Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)

Quiz Show (1994, Robert Redford)

Apollo 13 (1995, Ron Howard)

Before Sunrise (1995, Richard Linklater)

Se7en (1995, David Fincher)

Toy Story (1995, John Lasseter)

The Usual Suspects (1995, Bryan Singer)

Jerry Maguire (1996, Cameron Crowe)

L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)

Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)

A Bug’s Life (1998, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton)

Central Station (1998, Walter Salles)

Rushmore (1998, Wes Anderson)

Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg)

The Truman Show (1998, Peter Weir)

American Beauty (1999, Sam Mendes)

Election (1999, Alexander Payne)

Fight Club (1999, David Fincher)

The Insider (1999, Michael Mann)

Magnolia (1999, Paul Thomas Anderson)

The Matrix (1999, Andy and Lana Wachowski)

The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan)

Almost Famous (2000, Cameron Crowe)

Amores Perros (2000, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Billy Elliot (2000, Stephen Daldry)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee)

Traffic (2000, Steven Soderbergh)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001, Steven Spielberg)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Peter Jackson)

Memento (2001, Christopher Nolan)

Monsters, Inc. (2001, Pete Docter and David Silverman)

Moulin Rouge! (2001, Baz Luhrmann)

Ocean’s Eleven (2001, Steven Soderbergh)

Adaptation. (2002, Spike Jonze)

Bowling for Columbine (2002, Michael Moore)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, Peter Jackson)

Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg)

The Pianist (2002, Roman Polanski)

Spirited Away (2002, Hayao Miyazaki)

Talk to Her (2002, Pedro Almodovar)

Y tu mama tambien (2002, Alfonso Cuaron)

Capturing the Friedmans (2003, Andrew Jarecki)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003, Quentin Tarantino)

Lost in Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola)

Seabiscuit (2003, Gary Ross)

Shattered Glass (2003, Billy Ray)

Whale Rider (2003, Niki Caro)

Before Sunset (2004, Richard Linklater)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004, Quentin Tarantino)

Cache (2005, Michael Haneke)

A History of Violence (2005, David Cronenberg)

Munich (2005, Steven Spielberg)

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005, Martin Scorsese)

Casino Royale (2006, Martin Campbell)

Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuaron)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo Del Toro)

Thank You for Smoking (2006, Jason Reitman)

United 93 (2006, Paul Greengrass)

Atonement (2007, Joe Wright)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, Julian Schnabel)

Into the Wild (2007, Sean Penn)

Juno (2007, Jason Reitman)

Persepolis (2007, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)

Ratatouille (2007, Brad Bird)

There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)

The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan)

Frost/Nixon (2008, Ron Howard)

In Bruges (2008, Martin McDonagh)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle)

Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton)

Coraline (2009, Henry Selick)

The Cove (2009, Louie Psihoyos)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson)

500 Days of Summer (2009, Marc Webb)

Hunger (2009, Steve McQueen)

The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow)

The Messenger (2009, Oren Moverman)

A Serious Man (2009, Joel and Ethan Coen)

Up (2009, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)

Where the Wild Things Are (2009, Spike Jonze)

Another Year (2010, Mike Leigh)

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, Banksy)

A Film Unfinished (2010, Yael Hersonski)

Incendies (2010, Denis Villeneuve)

The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)

The Town (2010, Ben Affleck)

Toy Story 3 (2010, Lee Unkrich)

Trigger (2010, Bruce McDonald)

Hugo (2011, Martin Scorsese)

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011, Sean Durkin)

A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)

The Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)

Amour (2012, Michael Haneke)

The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Wes Anderson)

Stories We Tell (2012, Sarah Polley)