(in no order)
Robert Bresson THE DEVIL PROBABLY (1977), LANCELOT DU LAC (1974)
Orson Welles THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942)
Hollis Frampton STRAITS OF MAGELLAN (1977—1980), ZORNS LEMMA (1970)
Alain Resnais PROVIDENCE (1977)
Roy Andersson SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (2000)
Alexander Kluge THE POWER OF EMOTION (1983), ARTIST UNDER THE BIG TOP: CLUELESS (1968)
Pedro Costa VITALINA VARELA (2019)
Sergei Parajanov THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1969)
James Benning 11×14 (1977), THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2022)
Abbas Kiarostami CLOSE UP (1990)
Alain Robbe-Grillet SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS TOWARDS PLEASURE (1974)
Terence Malick THE THIN RED LINE (1998), THE TREE OF LIFE (2011)
Leslie Thornton JENNIFER, WHERE ARE YOU? (1981)
Tony Conrad THE FLICKER (1965)
Jean-Luc Godard ADIEU AU LANGUAGE (3D) (2014), HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA (1988-1999)
Errol Morris FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL (1997)
Ryan Trecartin I-BE AREA (2007), TRILL-OGY COMP (2009)
Bruce Conner EVE-RAY FOREVER (1965)
Federico Fellini SATYRICON (1969)
Stan Brakhage DOG STAR MAN (1964), SCENES FROM UNDER CHILDHOOD (1968)
Maya Deren RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (1946)
Straub-Huillet CLASS RELATIONS (1984)
Kenneth Anger INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE ZONE (1954)
Wong Kar Wai FALLEN ANGELS (1995)
Jacques Tati PLAYTIME (1967)
Steina & Woody Vasulka IN THE LAND OF THE ELEVATOR GIRLS (1981)
Rainier Werner Fassbinder IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS (1978)
Bela Tarr WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (2000)
Morgan Fisher () (2003)
Walt Disney PINOCCHIO (1940)
Aldo Tambelini BLACK PLUS X (1966)
Guy Maddin THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (2015)
Eric Rohmer THE GREEN RAY (1986), PERCEVAL (1978)
Ingmar Bergman THE HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968)
Frederick Weissman MONROVIA, INDIANA (2018)
Chantal Akerman TOUTE UNE NUIT (1982), NO HOME MOVIE (2015)
Yasujiro Ozu LATE SPRING (1949), AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962)
Martin Arnold DEANIMATED (2002)
Jacques Rivette DUELLE (1976)
Wes Anderson MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012), THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (2004)
Michelangelo Antonioni RED DESERT (1964)
Tim Hunter RIVER’S EDGE, 1986
Andy Warhol CHELSEA GIRLS (1966), LONESOME COWBOYS (1968)
Bernardo Bertolucci LUNA (1979)
Werner Herzog STROSZEK (1977), THE GREAT ECSTACY OF THE WOODCARVER STEINER (1974)
Gaspar Noe ENTER THE VOID (2009)
Thom Anderson LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (2003)
Coen Brothers FARGO (1996)
Jack Smith NORMAL LOVE (1963)
Mel Brooks YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, 1974
Jeff Keen OMOZAP 2 (1990)
Robert Altman THREE WOMEN (1977), MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971)
Bruno Dumont HORS SATAN (2011)
Peter Tscherkassky OUTER SPACE (1999)
Phil Solomon REHEARSALS FOR RETIREMENT (2007)
Philippe Grandrieux UN LAC (2008)
John Waters SERIAL MOM (1994), FEMALE TROUBLE (1974)
Stanley Kubrick A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
Marie Menken LIGHTS (1966)
Luis Bunuel SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965)
Leos Carax POLA X (1999)
Jon Jost SURE FIRE (1990)
David Lynch INLAND EMPIRE (2006)
Paul Sharits T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (1968)
Luchino Visconti DEATH IN VENICE (1971)
Harmony Korine JULIEN DONKEY BOY (1999)
John Woo THE KILLER (1989)
Jean Daniel Cadinot AIME … COMME MINET (1982)
Paul McCarthy FAMILY TYRANNY: MODELING AND MOLDING (1987)
Lindsay Anderson IF … (1968)
Pierre Clementi FILM OU VISA DE CENSURE NUMERO X (1967)
Tobe Hooper TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
Rolf Hammerschmidt DAS FICKENDE KLASSENZIMMER (1995)
Stephen Prina VINYL II (2004)
Agnès Varda THE GLEANERS AND I (2000)
Woody Allen CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989)
Bas Jan Ader I’M TOO SAD TO TELL YOU (1971)
Pat O’Neill WATER AND POWER (1989)
*
p.s. Hey. ** Laura, Hi. Okay, I’ll look for the Michon, thank you. No, the reading is next week, I got my dates wrong. Footnotes are an interesting form, and challenging forms are the best. I think my birthday will be pretty lowkey, but pleasant, but we’ll see. There are hours to go. Thank you, aw. ** jay, Obviously heavily in agreement with you about that interest, often interestingly repressed and coiled and secretive. Without it, where would I be. “Oppositional defiant disorder”: haha, indeed. People don’t realise that when they identify something, they lose control over it. Assuming your friend is serious about their writing, and assuming they trust you since they showed their writing to you, I think it would be nothing but a gift to them if you sent them your notes, absolutely. That’s exciting. Thanks about my b’day. I fear my ‘gift’ isn’t so hot, but c’est la vie. Eat something sweet and non-nourishing for me. xoxo. ** kenley, Parking in LA is a challenge, but it remains less hellish than, say, parking in NYC or here in Paris. I had to get a residency visa for France, one year but renewable, and that was a massive headache, so I can’t even imagine. Your band! Tell me about your band. Can it be heard? And your bf’s band too. Yes, I’m so curious. That’s so cool. How was the Sunday gig? I think for my b’day I’m just going to see a friend or few and eat something and watch a movie or something. So it should be slightly more interesting than a usual day. ** _Black_Acrylic, Oh, I want to get that Nichols Ballet book too. He just did some event here in Paris, but I was under the weather and missed it. ** Dev, Thank you! A total honor. It turns out Zac watched ‘Playtime’ last week with his family for Xmas, so I have to find a different film to watch. Maybe ‘Mon Oncle’? Tunisian food, nice. I think we’re going to do something silly and eat at the Chipotle here. Chipotle in Paris is weirdly exotic, and you have to get your Mexican where you can get it. Happy birthday! ** Carsten, One can count the self-important prestige Literary-with-a-capital-L mags on half of one hand, and they seem like relics. Oh, sure, touring each other through LA. I’m way down. ** Mark Stephens, Hey, Mark! I was sorry not to see you too, but it was basically a trip to show the film there and not much else. Yes, Joel told me you guys watched ‘Topsy Turvy’! Thank you, dear buddy. Birthdays-schmirthdays, but I’ll do a little something or other. Love, me. ** darbz (⊙ _ ⊙ ), Those falafels look very nice. Mine are un-frozen, you can just pop them in your mouth, but they get hard as rocks if you don’t eat them in a couple of days. But they’re kind of even better rock hard. $4.99! Crazy! I really need to get some kind of player. Right now it’s mp3s or nothing, and it would be fun to want to go to record stores again. You have a fantastic weekend (too)! ** Steve, Good but, yeah, sad news. Every once in a while I drive by the house where I grew up, and looking at it without a house key is a very powerful feeling. ** jeestun, Hey there, jeestun! Thank you! How have you been holding up? What’s new? ** lucas, Just reading about that train trip you were on gives me the willies. I’m such a wuss when it comes to sleep. I would love to have the Phil Ochs post if you don’t sending it. Thanks, pal! I won’t discourage you re: your studies since, you know, that’s important, but the ambitious concept you mention has a sirenic power. Thanks for conceptually icing my conceptual birthday cake. ** Justin D, Thanks, Justin! I’m back to my usual degree of health, I think. xo. ** Steeqhen, Thanks. My birthday has only just begun so you were very timely. Dublin’s that bad? I know nothing about it. I don’t think I even know what it looks like. I guess I imagine lots of parks and pubs. ** A, Aw, thanks a lot! I was sick for a bit, but I’m fine now. Back on the … horse? Chris Hanley and shenanigans and you sound like a ripe combo. Give him a big howdy-doo from me. Love, and take care! ** Okay. I decided for whatever reason to indulge myself and revise my favorite films list and plunk that down in front of you thinking maybe you would be into hitting me back with your favorite films. That’s optional, obviously. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
Fab list! 🤩
PS. I think it’s VitalinA Varela from 2019 not 2018 😘
Hi!!
Happy, happy birthday, Dennis! Did the friends + Chipotle + movie plans come true?
I hope the sickness and back pain are long gone by now and that you can focus on stuff far more worthy of your attention! How’s the new film script coming along? (It’s so crazy and exciting to be asking this again!) Oh, and if we’re talking about films – thank you so much for the list above! So, so many excellent ones – and many others I haven’t seen yet!
My news is – sadly or luckily, but either way predictably – work, work, work. But I did have time to finish a series called “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” which I loved a lot, and I’ve just started “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski. Have you read it?
Love granting one of your wishes – what shall it be? Od.
HB! Agreed on Fargo and Chelsea Girls. Our tastes do seem to correspond on a few others too. I would also add Rachel Maclean – Over The Rainbow (2013).
Hey Dennis! Yay, Inland Empire! Glad to see Enter the Void here too, I think that movie is unbelievably good. Did you know it’s (loosely) based on a short story by Nabokov? I think most of my favourite films are on this list, but on the topic of Death in Venice, I’d say Tár might be one of my favourite films ever. Okay, thanks for the advice, RE: my friend’s book, I will do that. Happy birthday, again, enjoy your Tati this evening!
Happy birthday to you!
Super cool list and will watch some I don’t know about
Definitely maybe my favourite there is Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome I love it and the other day I was daydreaming I was writing a book about this film ha ha
The Inland Empire and TOUCHING gifs in succession was certainly an inspiring choice haha
Some of my all time favourites here are The Devil Probably, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Lancelot du Lac
Un Lac, In a Year of 13 Moons, Inland Empire and more
Very curious about the Kluge film The Power of Emotion especially after seeing this still
Will write some I have not seen ever in my notebook now
Hi from Chania
Rich list, Dennis. Lots to dig into. Thanks for sharing it.
happy birthday Dennis!
how’s the day going? are you more beautiful than yesterday? =D anyway, كل عام وأنت بخير, may you be well every year until you’re like 120. yr list is so fab! loads to check out, ty. ^_^ here’s a no-order top 100 sort of, i’ve not counted them but once i got going i was like wow i like so many films actually and i also don’t want to get back to my footnotes. hope there’s smth for you other than the obvious overlap!
Yasujiro Ozu – An Autumn Afternoon (still not used to calling it that), Late Spring
Pedro Almodóvar – uh almost everything, Women On The Verge, obvi, La Ley Del Deseo, Laberinto de Pasiones, i can’t stop lol hope he lives forever and never makes another overtly political film, his implied politics are way better imo)
Ken Wiederhorn – Return Of The Living Dead II (first horror-ish i ever watched, my parents gaffed and i spent the next bunch of months wanting to befriend zombies lol)
Luis Buñuel – The Exterminating Angel, Viridiana, Belle de Jour, more
Ernst Lubitsch – Design For Living, which also implies Splendor
Ingmar Bergman – The Virgin Spring, which maybe implies Last House On The Left too
Liliana Cavani – The Night Porter
Todd Haynes – Velvet Goldmine
Juanma Bajo Ulloa – Alas de Mariposa
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash (how he went on to make that fucked up Hollywood thing next is like idk maybe he had a stroke)
Sergei Parajanov – Sayat-Nova
Robert Bresson – so much lol, let’s say The Devil, Probably and Four Nights of a Dreamer but really some ppl should be immortal fr
Gregg Araki – most everything, i’m going with Kaboom but he can just end the world forever, i’ll let him, except for The Living End which should be living obvi.
Andrea Arnold – Fish Tank
Jean-Luc Godard – let’s say Alphaville, we’re sort of love-hate, that bloke and i
Elio Quiroga – Fotos, so hard to find, so worth finding.
Federico Fellini – Le Notti Di Cabiria, Satyricon
Satoshi Kon – Perfect Blue
Arantxa Echevarría – Carmen Y Lola
Louis Malle – Le Souffle Au Coeur
Orson Welles – The Magnificent Ambersons
Maya Deren – Meshes Of The Afternoon
Dana Nachustan – Dunya & Desie (what my Dutch stint should have been about lol)
Luis García Berlanga – La Escopeta Nacional
Vicente Aranda – Jealousy
Rama Burshtein – Fill The Void (high likelihood of zio horrors in the background but credit is due where credit is due)
Adam Wingard – You’re Next
Brian Yuzna – Society
Julien Brevos – The Emperor’s Wife
Nana Dhordhadze – 27 Missing Kisses (i can’t w this one, so gorgeous, gotta meet a Georgian one day and see if they rly are so… )
Jaime de Armiñán – Mi Querida Señorita
Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Abdellatif Kechiche – Le Grain Et Le Mulet (ah, our loserliness, our pathos)
Michelangelo Antonioni – Red Desert
Hirokazu Koreeda – Manbiki Kazoku, Umimachi Diary
Radu Mihaleanu – p much everything, La Source Des Femmes maybe, which alao contains a sort of accidental proto-sapphic moment which feels more real than most of the female gaze out there)
James Cameron – Terminator 2- Judgement Day
Chloe Okuno – Watcher
Bob Balaban – Parents
Andy Warhol – Chelsea Girls
Marguerite Duras – Détruire, dit-elle (not sure which version i like better)
Bigas Luna – Jamón, Jamón
Antonio Jiménez Rico – Retrato de Familia
Bernardo Bertolucci – Luna
Aleksei German – Hard To Be A God
William Eubank – The Signal (imagine owning a cinema room just to watch this right whenever)
Parisa Bakhtavar – Tambourine
Asghar Farhadi – eeeeverything, About Elly, Fireworks Wednesday, Le Passé, Todos Lo Saben, so unfair he makes more films in France than in Spain. he casts Spaniards way better than Spaniards cast Spaniards, too.
Luc Besson – Nikita
Julio Medem – Lucía Y El Sexo
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman
Mike P. Nelson – Wrong Turn
Andrey Zvyaginstev – Leviathan, Loveless
Lukas Moodysdon – Lilya Forever (my fav emotionally manipulative film lol, idk why i like it, i totally shouldn’t but i do, must be a vibes thing)
John Waters – Serial Mom
David Robert Mitchell – It Follows
Derrick Borte – London Town
Peter Greenaway – The Pillow Book (most affecting performance by someone not on screen, and then there’s everything else. idk why this film is not better loved)
Pedro Masó – La Familia Bien, Gracias
Luchino Visconti – Death In Venice (i really didn’t find the kid that hot in his heyday but imo he was *devastating* by the time he left us, like Odin pre-revelation, wtf), Il Gattopardo (i’m not even starting in on how they looked on this one lol, there’s also, like, other stuff happening presumably)
Harmony Korine – Julien Donkey Boy (hardest fucking watch!), Springbreakers
Andrei Tarkovsky – The Mirror
Robin Hardy – The Wicker Man
Yimou Zhang – To Live
George Ovashvili – Corn Island
Cooper Karl – Sightless
Lenny Abrahamson – Frank (that face reveal, ugh)
Eloy de la Iglesia – El Techo de Cristal, Colegas (insane that these are both by the same guy)
Mei Hu – Hong Lou Men (still not sure if this is a Red Chamber Dream thing fr)
Alfred Hitchcock – Rear Window (it just comes from the gut, the fun and the meanness and ‘the air of crime’ obvi)
Darin J. Sallam – Farha
Jaime Chávarri – El Desencanto (this forever haunts me, imagine Wuthering Heights but about an actual Spanish literary dynasty worth of psychos and untreated schizophreniacs, they lived in the depths of hell)
Frank Capra – Arsenic and Old Lace
José Luis Cuerda – Amanece, Que No Es Poco
Joseph L. Mankiewicz – Suddenly Last Summer
Steve McQueen – Hunger (really think i don’t like him, he’s so megapreachy but back when he worked with Fassbender he got v inspired and stuff happened)
Mira Nair – Monsoon Wedding
Claude Pinoteau – La Gifle
Alejandro Amenábar – Tesis
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – Ready Or Not
Thomas Vinterberg – Festen (that willfully blind conga is just life in the world fr)
John Huston – Reflections In A Golden Eye
Fernando Trueba – Belle Epoque
Wes Craven – Scream
Joss Whedon – Cabin In The Woods, Much Ado About Nothing (Amy Acker, ugh)
Luca Guadagnino – Call Me By Your Name (not even the amount of boring that nepo guy managed to get about his vore thing can make me not like this film lol)
Alberto Sciamma – La Lengua Asesina
Mike Figgis – The Loss of Sexual Innocence
Philippe Rousselot – The Serpent’s Kiss
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador – The House That Screamed, Who Could Kill A Child
Xavier Villaverde – El Sexo de los Ángeles (this is almost too sweet but also let them, there’s so much work to do)
Werner Herzog – Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
Agnieszka Smokzynska – The Lure
Terrence Malick – Badlands
George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road (‘Angharad, is that just the wind or is it a furious vexation?’)
Richard Brooks – Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Lina Soualem – Bye Bye Tiberiade
Fernando Fernán Gómez – El Viaje A Ninguna Parte
Ana Lily Amirpour – The Bad Batch, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Dziga Vertov – Chelobek s kino-apparatom
Luis García Berlanga – Plácido
Michel Deville – Le Mouton Enragé (Jane…)
Babak Anvari – Under The Shadow
Meur Zarchi – I Spit On Your Grave (heard they got all the blokes on that film to go bollock-naked just so she wouldn’t feel objectified, super wholesome)
Gus Van Sant – My Own Private Idaho
Milcho Manchevski – Before The Rain
Antonio Jiménez Rico – Vestida de Azul
Woody Allen – tons, Crimes and Misdemeanors, September, Match Point, its comedy twin Scoop idk just so much.
Roxane Benjamin etc. – Southbound
Rainer Werner Fassbinder – The Bitter Tears of Petra bon Kant
Federico d’Alessandro – Tau
Atiq Rahimi – Syngué Sabour, pierre de patience (great book, great film obvi, exceptional blindfolded sex-scene involving v affectingly intimate strangers but also sheesh Golshifteh, hottest girl alive, just absurd sigh)
Larry Clark – Kids (similar wtf factor as Lilya here but i can blame this massive like on Harmony Korine and i totally intend to)
Happy birthday, Dennis! Your work was one of my favorite discoveries of 2025, and I wish you success, lots of laughs, and great joy in 2026.
I haven’t gotten into Robert Bresson’s films yet, but I promise to change that this year! Also, if you every find yourself in Fargo, let me know and I can show you where they keep the actual wood chipper that was used in that film ;). Cheers!
omg you know that? respect ^_^
alright lol. this was nuts. still feel like i’ve got to make a PD so i may fangirl about Gormenghast even tho it’s not a film, like, Rhys-Meyers, bloody hell that guy. fr i feel sort of honoured about how ready he was to embarrass himself for the sake of our huge enjoyment or smth. conversely gotta shout out Winterbottom’s 9 Songs bc while i feel it really, really fucking failed, the idea deserves to be rescued and must be rescued. you went there a bit with Like Cattle Towards Glow, didn’t you? i’ve got so many questions about that film!
at very, very long last i just gotta recommend Zack Fonzov – Hold Your Back which is a five minute short (recently on youtube)— bc it sort of does everything? Fonzov himself is great, the DP is limpid and Hudson Williams is so opaque in his sadness or whatever he just slays.
remember i said Heated Rivalry was a good soap opera lol? well, wrong. it’s not a soap, it’s just a super beautiful love story and the two leads are so good they’ve sort of ruined me for most actors lol. like, i come from an acting family and we like films but never have i seen such, uh, monomaniacal, reciprocal surrender? feels like those guys are doing a new thing or smth. i’ve got a hunch they’d work well with you! so idk, i’d maybe make a move lol. they’re suddenly so famous alas but fr, i’m lowkey grieving the fact you didn’t suddenly decide to live-action Try circa 2017 and none of us knew this Connor Corrie guy existed bc, man, Ziggy in the desired, mortified flesh right there.
anyway, back to my footnotes lol. hope everything is lowkey splendid on your end today! say there are presents or i’ll just ache to send you idk a box of Frenadol
<3
Happy birthday Dennis! This list is a treasure trove.
The Bob Glück London event went really well. He’s a gem. Huge crowd, which I thought might happen, but was still great to see. There was a lot of love in the room. And at least 3 people from this very comment section. 4 if we include you in spirit.
Hope your anniversaire has good things in store.
Xo moi
Hey Dennis,
Happy birthday! What a great list — a few of my favourites, many I’ve been meaning to watch, and a good few I’ve never even heard of. I did a presentation on Inland Empire in my narratology seminar about its unnatural narration. My lecturer, who hadn’t seen it since 2006 and didn’t enjoy it said that it was good enough of a presentation that it made him want to rewatch, which was a great compliment.
Dublin is both that pretentious, self-obsessed city that acts like the rest of the country doesn’t matter (though about half the population of Ireland lives there so I can begrudgingly understand that), yet is such a small and pathetic place compared to any other capital city. The public transport is better than Cork but is still atrocious, the rent and cost of living is the same as London (without the amenities and opportunities that London has), and is developing a very extreme racist presence; fire bombings, violent protests/riots, attacks against refugees and anyone that isn’t white. It’s a mess. I’m on a bus to Dublin city centre right now, and it took me about an hour and a bit to actually find a bus as they’re so infrequent unless you want to pay 15-20€ for a 20 minute journey. There’s no train either, because they just cannot be bothered to connect the passing line to it.
Really it’s not the worst place in the world, and I wouldn’t mind living here IF the rent was actually reasonable, but Ireland is just a bit of a depressing mess, where every single third space is closing down, no one can own homes, and our economy depends on foreign companies to set up here… I just want to leave to London, and hopefully if/when ever I move back here, the country might be in a better position. I doubt it though.
Happy birthday, dear Dennis!! I hope you have a fabulous one with nachos and some nice dessert.
Glad to hear you’ve recovered from the flu too.
I’m going to try to check out some of these films at Xcèntric, an experimental film archive I’ve recently discovered in one museum here in Barcelona.
Some favorite movies of mine:
Inland Empire
Serial Mom
Beau Travail
Crash
Donnie Darko
It Follows
Irma Vep
Happy birthday from Xet too! Lots of love,
happy happy birthday!! well, i hope you spend it eating/watching something highly interesting and with highly interesting people.
interesting re: french residency visa. may have to inquire if things go south for me here up north.
that’s very sweet of you to ask about my band! we’re called dogwhistle. we try to sound like mosh-ier helmet, everyone thinks we sound like sepultura. can’t be mad at that, tho lol. this is us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSpNQdLWZI , and if you want to listen to us with like, actual recording equipment, there’s an ep out on streaming services as well.
my boyfriend’s band is called searing…nothing officially out for them yet, but they’re off recording this weekend so hopefully that changes soon. if you wanna watch them and try to guess which of these dorks i’m in love with, their live set is on youtube too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsfPL-HgNho
and great list! bresson! trecartin! maddin!!! and loads more i’ve never seen before to add to my watchlist.
my most fave movie is weerasethakul’s tropical malady, and my second most fave movie is hou hsiao hsien’s millennium mambo 🙂
happy birthday dc!!! sorry i’ve been so totally awol — a full draft of the thesis is due for end of january and needs to be submitted by march, so i’ve been in burnout edit mode for ages and have let any kind of social life fall by the wayside. how are you?? i saw you got the flu over xmas, i hope you’re feeling better now. i know a load of people who got it over december, it sounds like it was a nightmare strain. do you have big birthday plans?
favourite movies: i always think i’m really not well-watched, so it was weird to discover i could collate a substantial list. not repeating any of yours, and missing out a few super obvious films, and probably missing out a bunch of others…
Robert Ashley, PERFECT LIVES (1983)
Richard Attenborough, OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR (1969)
Jacques Rivette, OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE (1971)
Marcel Varnel, OH, MR PORTER! (1937), ASK A POLICEMAN (1939)
Todd Solondz, WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995)
Hiyao Miyazaki, PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997), THE WIND RISES (2013)
Yoshifumi Kondo, WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995)
Buster Keaton, SHERLOCK JR. (1924)
Takao Okawara, GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (1992)
Richard Kelly, SOUTHLAND TALES [Cannes cut] (2006)
George A. Romero, DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
Angela Schanelec, PASSING SUMMER (2001)
Steve De Jarnatt, MIRACLE MILE (1988)
Alexander Sokurov, RUSSIAN ARK (2002)
Katsuhiro Otomo, AKIRA (1988)
Mamoru Oshii, GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995)
Daniel Crooks, PHANTOM RIDE (2016)
Mick Jackson, THREADS (1984)
Martin Rosen, THE PLAGUE DOGS (1982)
Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, THE WOLF HOUSE (2018)
John Cassavettes, OPENING NIGHT (1977)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, PULSE (2001), CHIME (2024)
Louis Malle, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981)
Masaki Kobayashi, KWAIDAN (1964)
Mike Leigh, NUTS IN MAY (1976)
Akira Kurosawa, RAN (1985)
Cornelia Parker, THATCHER’S FINGER (2018)
John Smith, THE BLACK TOWER (1987)
Nobuhiko Obayashi, HAUSU (1977)
Wang Bing, TIE XI QU: WEST OF THE TRACKS (2002)
Robert Wiene, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
Kyle Edward Ball, SKINAMARINK (2022)
David Cronenberg, VIDEODROME (1983)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, DRIVE MY CAR (2021)
Pere Portabella, VAMPIR CUADECUC (1970)
Alan Clarke, ELEPHANT (1989)
Josh and Benny Safdie, UNCUT GEMS (2019)
Todd Haynes, SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY (1987)
Lindsey C. Vickers, THE APPOINTMENT (1982)
Shinya Tsukamoto, TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1989)
H. C. Potter, HELLZAPOPPIN’ (1941)
Jonathan Glazer, THE ZONE OF INTEREST (2023)
Pascal Plante, RED ROOMS (2023)
Norman Jewison, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1971)
Wael Shawky, CABARET CRUSADES: THE HORROR SHOW FILES (2010)
Gary Zhexi Zhang, LACOSTE1 (2015)
John Carpenter, THE THING (1982), CIGARETTE BURNS (2005)
Kōji Morimoto, MAGNETIC ROSE (1995)
Jan Švankmajer, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1980)
Nagisa Oshima, DEATH BY HANGING (1968)
Iain Softley, HACKERS (1995)
Steve McQueen, WESTERN DEEP (2002)
nana825763, MY HOUSE WALK-THROUGH (2016) [i decided not to include youtube videos on this list cos it would be twice as long but i’m letting this one in]
John Sturges, THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)
Ed Atkins, HISSER (2015)
Peter Watkins, LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871) (2000)
Lesley Manning, GHOSTWATCH (1992)
Louise Weard, CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY I. TRAPS (2024) [mixed feelings about part 2 but that’s for another time]
Jean Eustache, LES PHOTOS D’ALIX (1981)
Hideaki Anno, END OF EVANGELION (1997)
Tod Browning, THE UNKNOWN (1927), DRACULA (1931)
George Sluizer, THE VANISHING (1988)
Kim Ki-duk, SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER… AND SPRING (2003)
Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)
Charles Laughton, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)
Hans Richter, DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1947)
Deborah Stratman, IN ORDER NOT TO BE HERE (2002)
just saw Laura’s list, can’t believe I missed out Society, The Wicker Man and Herzog’s Nosferatu, ugh
and also — blame my lousy wikipedia skills — for Godzilla vs. Mothra, which I have never seen, read
Ishirō Honda, MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA (1964)
I’d like to introduce myself to the family who now live in the house, although I think I should wait a year or two before approaching them. Since the house is 2 and 1/2 hours outside NYC, I can’t casually drop by or drive past it.
Enjoy your birthday! Are you planning to do anything else after eating at Chipotle?
MONROVIA, INDIANA leaps out as an unusual Wiseman choice. Do you think it’s his best film? (My fave is WELFARE, but he’s so prolific and consistent that it’s very hard to select just one. I’d have the same issue with Godard and Fassbinder.)
If I made an honest list of my favorite films, it’d run to several hundred titles. But right now, my top 3 would be CURE, DAISIES and SUSPIRIA. I’d also single out directors who’ve entered my pantheon since 2020: Juraj Herz, Nobuhiko Obayashi, John Akomfrah, Jean Rollin, Kira Muratova, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Paul Vecchiali.
I’ve enjoyed HEATED RIVALRY as well; it’s refreshing in part because it’s not “prestige TV.” I’ll probably watch the final episode today.
Since so little new music has been released this year, my first 2026 episode of “Radio Not Radio” does something different. Looking back towards the past, especially the ’70s and ’80s, it consists of sets of New Zealand rock (Alastair Galbraith, Skeptics, Suburban Reptiles, Dragon, Human Instinct, Olla, Verlaines, Marie and the Atom, Dial), soul and funk (Ann Peebles, Ronn Feaster, Isaac Hayes, Temptations, Gap Band, Fantastic Four), reggae (Jimmy Cliff, Marcia Griffiths, Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus, Scientist, Augustus Pablo, Brown Sugar, Zig-Zag Band) and art-rock (Sparks, Wire, Magazine, Henry Badowski.) You can listen here: https://www.mixcloud.com/callinamagician/1102026-radio-not-radio/
Jumping in to say Happy Birthday and as always my gift is being three months older than you.
Best American Poetry 2025 readings in DC tonight and Baltimore tomorrow and I’m in as rush; hope I get to think more about your list and how to respond, although of course lots of overlap. Definitely I’ve got Wild Strawberries and The 5000 Fingers of Dr T on mine and I guess it’s not a coincidence they’re both dream films . . .
Happy Birthday, Dennis!
You share a birthday with my sister, funnily enough. I just got back from London after the Gluck event, and I am completely washed out (I have a cold still), but I feel slightly invigorated and am back to working on my own projects. Bob was a very nice guy, and he smiled when I told him it was you who got me into “Jack the Modernist”. – I just wanna say, for a late birthday message, that you have been a completely wonderful person and that I really hope you have more time to continue being you because I really like you being you or whatever the fuck oh I sound like a fuggin sap man.
anyway, off the top of my head I’m gonna name all the films that have been important to me:
Eraserhead
Mishima: a life in 4 chapters
Three women
Aftersun
Sam Raimis Spiderman trilogy
The texas chainsaw massacre
Female trouble
Hundreds of Beavers
Chunking Express
Gummo
The Dante Quartet
Magnolia
Inland Empire
Ducks a million by Al Vigil
Stand by Me
A family finds entertainment
Dazed and Confused
Phantom of the Paradise
The Exorcist
Shortbus
Le Diable probablement
Beau is Afraid
I probably don’t still stand by some of these, but I remember all these things having an effect on me a little bit.
Happy birthday my friend! Hope it’s a good one.
Hmm, maybe it’s Submittable, but on there I keep tripping over prestige Literary-with-a-capital-L mags. Or at least that’s the vibe many of them are putting out. Anyway, I do hope they’re a dying breed.
Hell of a list, brother. Very interesting choices. Where did you see Bruce Conner’s “Eve-Ray-Forever”?
Sure, I’ll join the fun. Here’s mine. “Yeelen” is my favorite film, the rest are in no order:
Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé)
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles)
Looking for Mushrooms, Breakaway, Report, Cosmic Ray (Bruce Conner)
Scorpio Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
Beau Travail, No Fear No Die, White Material (Claire Denis)
Dead Man, The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
The Horse Thief (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez)
Point Blank (John Boorman)
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)
Exterminate All the Brutes (Raoul Peck)
Star Spangled to Death (Ken Jacobs)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah)
Che (Steven Soderbergh)
Elephant (Alan Clarke)
Lucky (John Carroll Lynch)
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty)
Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan)
Happy birthday, Dennis! Hope you’ve had the day you wanted. I don’t have a list of favourite films, but Room Temperature was my favourite of last year by a country mile. Hope things are good with you. I’m going to try and pop in here more often.
Lots and lots of love to you,
Jamie