The NSV Canon: 50 Perfect Films

As of the 26th June 2019, I have seen 2,220 films. Here are the 50 I would describe as perfect and why.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928, France, d. Carl Theodor Dreyer)

Renée Jeanne Falconetti is cinema's most devastating face in a film told largely in unbearable close-ups.

The Skeleton Dance (1929, US, d. Walt Disney)

The shot going through a skeleton's mouth all the way through its body is one of the first moments I can remember being awestruck by animation.

Love Me Tonight (1932, US, d. Rouben Mamoulian)

The six minute sequence which connects two people who've never met through a catchy tune is the finest example of cinema's ability to depict love.

Bride Of Frankenstein (1935, US, d. James Whale)

Everyone rightfully remembers Elsa Lanchester's bird-like movements as the Bride, but it's the Hermit scene that is the greater heartbreak.

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937, US, d. Leo McCarey)

McCarey was right when, upon winning the Academy Award for Best Director for The Awful Truth (released the same year), he said  "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture."

The Wizard Of Oz (1939, US, d. Victor Fleming)

Always look at Toto.

Dumbo (1941, US, d. Ben Sharpsteen)

'Baby Mine'. (Sob.)

Brief Encounter (1945, UK, d. David Lean)

The lovers' final goodbye interrupted by a busybody is almost unbearably cruel.

Un Chant D’Amour (1950, France, d. Jean Genet)

Genet transforms his grimy, horny, gay as hell writing into a grimy, horny, gay as hell film. #goals

Tokyo Story (1953, Japan, d. Yasujiro Ozu)

Ozu + casual family cruelty + kind angel Setsuko Hara = tears/perfection.

Rear Window (1954, US, d. Alfred Hitchcock)

Grace Kelly is the most incredible woman to ever live in Hitch's best film; sharp, funny and nerve bitingly tense.

All That Heaven Allows (1955, US, d. Douglas Sirk)

Visually magnificent, emotionally soul-destroying. Look at this slice of visual perfection.

The Night Of The Hunter (1955, US, d. Charles Laughton)

Lillian Gish's pure goodness drowns out Robert Mitchum's pure evil via song in this fairy tale for adults.

Ordet (1955, Denmark, d. Carl Theodor Dreyer)

As David Sterritt puts it in The Little Black Book Of Movies (2007), the final scene "demonstrates that cinema can evoke a metaphysical dimension through the straightforward depiction of physical reality." The only effective cinematic miracle.

Throne Of Blood (1957, Japan, d. Akira Kurosawa)

The best adaption of Shakespeare is by a Japanese director.

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, France, d. Alain Resnais)

A dark, depressing film that I would be happy to watch every day for the rest of my life, especially that opening sequence.

Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962, France, d. Agnes Varda)

It's testament to Varda's playfulness that this real-time film only goes for 90 minutes. Never before has the acceptance of mortality been so joyful and breezy.

The Exterminating Angel (1962, Mexico, d. Luis Bunuel)

Bunuel's vicious film argues life is a cosmic joke in which we're all the pawns in some game we have no control over.

The Miracle Worker (1962, US, d. Arthur Penn)

Never before has a film about disabilities been so violent or as hopeful.

The Naked Kiss (1964, US, d. Samuel Fuller)

Constance Towers' stuns in this well-ahead of its time pulp melodrama. Description of prositution: "You'll be sleeping on the skin of a nightmare for the rest of your life."

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1964, France, d. Jacques Demy)

A candy coloured musical confection hides a dark heart of tragedy.

Mary Poppins (1965, US, d. Robert Stevenson)

I watched this every day as a child. The opening tune makes my heart swell.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966, Italy, d. Sergio Leone)

The best Western ever made; elegiac, full-blooded, entertaining and brutal, as scored by a never better Morricone.

Persona (1966, Sweden, d. Ingmar Bergman)

Hugely influential, wickedly perverse.

Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (1966, US, d. Mike Nichols)

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton act out their life in this breathtakingly mean film. You'll never look at professors the same way again.

Flesh (1968, US, d. Paul Morrissey)

The gorgeous Joe Dallesandro being naked 90% of the time he's on screen acts as a discourse about male nudity in cinema.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971, US, d. Mel Stuart)

I want to live in this film. Knowing me I'd die like Veruca.

Pink Flamingos (1972, US, d. John Waters)

Reporter: Could you give us some of your political beliefs?

Divine (as Babs): Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth are my politics, filth is my life!

John Waters is king.

Celine And Julie Go Boating (1974, France, d. Jacques Rivette)

Delightful three-hour look at storytelling and a feminist masterpiece. Top 5 film.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, US, d. Tobe Hooper)

The sound of a chainsaw scares me now.

Grey Gardens (1975, US, d. Albert & David Maysles)

May we all be staunch (S-T-A-U-N-C-H) characters like Big and Little Edie.

In The Realm Of The Senses (1976, Japan, d. Nagisa Oshima)

Or the endless sexual possibilities of kimonos. Voracious love at its most terrifying.

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975, Australia, d. Peter Weir)

Have y'all been to Hanging Rock? Cause I tell you, that place is spooooky. Cue pan flute.

Network (1976, US, d. Sidney Lumet)

Grows more and more relevant by the day. We're all just dancing to a bass remix of the Mad as Hell speech, as the powerful worship the "international system of currency."

(whispers) Suspiria (1977, Italy, d. Dario Argento)

Once got in trouble for watching the opening double murder in my IT class. The teacher didn't understand art. Brutal, colourful, violent art.

Stalker (1979, USSR, d. Andrei Tarkovsky)

Every Tarkovsky film should be on this list. I picked the one that entranced me the most but watch them all.

(chants) Koyaanisqatsi (1982, US, d. Godfrey Reggio)

Visually, aurally magnificent. This is what cinema should do: open our eyes and blow our goddamn minds.

Querelle (1982, West Germany, d. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

How did R.W. Fassbinder know what the inside of my brain looked like? Anyone know where I can get this poster big enough to wallpaper a wall in my room?

The Company Of Wolves (1984, UK, d. Neil Jordan)

The shot at 2:55 in this video is perfection. Underrated, but overwhelmingly beautiful. Made me love movies.

Clue (1985, US, d. Jonathan Lynn)

Want to know what it's like being gay? Somehow Madeline Kahn describing her rage in a lusty voice sums it up.

On The Silver Globe (1988, Poland, d. Andrzej Zulawski)

I needed to pause twice to catch my breath from sheer cinematic majesty. Terrifying, yet incredibly alive.

Paris Is Burning (1990, US, d. Jennie Livingston)

Dorian Corey talking about lost dreams and legacies is heartbreaking and hopeful. "If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you." If you love Drag Race, you need to see Paris Is Burning.

Orlando (1992, UK, d. Sally Potter)

One of the queerest films ever made, from Tilda Swinton changing gender throughout the ages or the famous dandy Quentin Crisp in the role he was born to play: the Queen of England. 

Fargo (1996, US, d. Joel & Ethan Coen)

Francis McDorman shines in this screamingly funny wintry noir. The first ever MA15+ film I watched.

In The Mood For Love (2000, Hong Kong, d. Wong Kar Wai)

Slow motion has never been so seductive or heartbreaking.

Spirited Away (2001, Japan, d. Hayao Miyazaki)

Late one night on SBS, I was introduced to anime via Hayao Miyazaki's best film. I am obsessed with it.

Latter Days (2004, US, d. C. Jay Cox)

The best gay film ever made, featuring a sweet couple in a movie that is far more about matters metaphysical and existential than it is about matters of the (sexy) bodies on display.

Paprika (2006, Japan, d. Satoshi Kon)

Watched in one of the darkest periods of my life this visually ravishing film is a true mind melter. Oh, how I love it. The ending song!

The Act Of Killing (2012, Denmark, d. Joshua Oppenheimer)

Massive documentary that forces a government sanctioned 'heroic' killer to re-enact his crimes and face his guilt. Hard to watch but essential.

The Duke Of Burgundy (2014, UK, d. Peter Strickland)

Strickland's tribute to trashy Euro sleaze manages to be the best film about what it means to be in a long-term relationship via a mature examination of BDSM and kink negotiation. Fifty Shades wishes it was this cool.