Favorite movie for each year

http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Years/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_years_in_film
http://www.scaruffi.com/cinema/chrono.html


Year - Title - Director

2008 - In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
2007 - No Country for Old Men - Ethan Coen/Joel Coen
2006 - Children of Men - Alfonso Cuaron
2005 - Grizzly Man - Werner Herzog
2004 - The Sea Inside - Alejandro Amenabar
2003 - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring - Kim Ki-Duk
2002 - The Man Without a Past - Aki Kaurismaki
2001 - Mulholland Drive - David Lynch
2000 - Memento - Christopher Nolan
1999 - The Minus Man - Hampton Fancher
1998 - Savior - Predrag Antonijevic
1997 - Gattaca - Andrew Niccol
1996 - Lone Star - John Sayles
1995 - Underground - Emir Kusturica
1994 - The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont
1993 - Sonatine - Takeshi Kitano
1992 - Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood
1991 - Raise the Red Lantern - Zhang Yimou
1990 - These Foolish Things - Bertrand Tavernier
1989 - Black Rain - Shohei Imamura
1988 - Grave of the Fireflies - Isao Takahata
1987 - Full Metal Jacket - Stanley Kubrick
1986 - Jean de Florette - Claude Berri
1985 - Ran - Akira Kurosawa
1984 - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Michael Radford
1983 - Testament - Lynne Littman
1982 - Blade Runner - Ridley Scott
1981 - Das Boot - Wolfgang Petersen
1980 - Breaker Morant - Bruce Beresford
1979 - Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
1978 - Blue Collar - Paul Schrader
1977 - Annie Hall - Woody Allen
1976 - Network - Sidney Lumet
1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Forman
1974 - The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola
1973 - Badlands - Terrence Malick
1972 - Aguirre, The Wrath of God - Werner Herzog
1971 - A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick
1970 - Patton - Franklin J. Schaffner
1969 - Z - Costa-Gavras
1968 - Once Upon a Time in the West - Sergio Leone
1967 - In Cold Blood - Richard Brooks
1966 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Sergio Leone
1965 - The Spy Who Came In from the Cold - Martin Ritt
1964 - Seven Days in May - John Frankenheimer
1963 - Hud - Martin Ritt
1962 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - John Ford
1961 - Yojimbo - Akira Kurosawa
1960 - Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock
1959 - The 400 Blows - Francois Truffaut
1958 - The Big Country - William Wyler
1957 - The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman
1956 - The Searchers - John Ford
1955 - The Night of the Hunter - Charles Laughton
1954 - The Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa
1953 - Ugetsu Monogatari - Kenji Mizoguchi
1952 - Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa
1951 - Ace in the Hole - Billy Wilder
1950 - Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa
1949 - Late Spring - Yasujiro Ozu
1948 - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Huston
1947 - Out of the Past - Jacques Tourneur
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives - William Wyler
1945 - Mildred Pierce - Michael Curtiz
1944 - Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder
1943 - The Ox-Bow Incident - William Wellman
1942 - Casablanca - Michael Curtiz
1941 - How Green Was My Valley - John Ford
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath - John Ford
1939 - Ninotchka - Ernst Lubitsch
1938 - Angels With Dirty Faces - Michael Curtiz
1937 - The Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir
1936 - Modern Times - Charles Chaplin
1935 - Bride of Frankenstein - James Whale
1934 - It Happened One Night - Frank Capra
1933 - Duck Soup - Leo McCarey
1932 - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang - Mervyn LeRoy
1931 - City Lights - Charles Chaplin
1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front - Lewis Milestone
1929 - The Man with the Movie Camera - Dziga Vertov
1928 - The Passion of Joan of Arc - Carl Theodor Dreyer
1927 - Sunrise - F.W. Murnau
1926 - Faust - F.W. Murnau
1925 - The Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein
1924 - Sherlock Jr. - Buster Keaton
1923 - Our Hospitality - Buster Keaton
1922 - Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror - F.W. Murnau
1921 - The Kid - Charles Chaplin
1920 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene
1919 - Broken Blossoms - D.W. Griffith
1918 - A Dog's Life - Charles Chaplin
1917 - The Merry Jail - Ernst Lubitsch
1916 - Intolerance - D.W. Griffith
1915 - The Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith
1914 - Tillie's Punctured Romance - Mack Sennett
1913 - ???
1912 - The Invaders - Francis Ford/Thomas Ince

I'll just do it for years I've been alive.

1987: Full Metal Jacket
1988: Die Hard
1989: Field of Dreams
1990: Goodfellas
1991: T2: Judgment Day
1992: Reservoir Dogs
1993: Schindler's List
1994: Shawshank Redemption
1995: Braveheart
1996: Fargo
1997: Amistad
1998: American History X
1999: American Beauty
2000: Gladiator
2001: Blow
2002: Gangs of New York
2003: 21 Grams
2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005: Hard Candy
2006: Inside Man
2007: No Country for Old Men
2008: Gran Torino
2009: Inglourious Basterds

2008: Step Brothers/Tropic Thunder/ Burn After Reading
2007: Hot Rod/Super Bad/ Lars & The Real Girl
2006: Blood Diamond
2005: Revenge of the Sith
2004: Mean Girls? Bad year for movies.
2003: Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Best Comedic Film)
2002: Attack of the Clones
2001: Pootie Tang
2000: Beyond The Mat
1999: Fight Club/ DEATH BLOW "When someone tries to blow you up, not because of who you are but, for different reasons all together. DEATH BLOW"

1998: A night at the roxbury
1997: Men In Black
1996: MST3K The Movie
1995: Billy Madison
1994: Dumb & Dumber/ Sack Lunch
1993: Jurassic Park/ Cry, Cry Again
1992: Home Alone 2
1991: Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
1990: Home Alone (the booby trap scene mainly, I kind of just watch that part)
1989: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
1988: Beetle Juice
1987: Revenge of the Nerds II
1985: Peewee's Big Adventure
1984: Revenge of the Nerds
1983: Return of the Jedi/ D.C Cab (Both equally great dont ask me to choose or get banned)
1980: Empire Strikes Back
1977: Star Wars

Hot Rod was quite the unfunny piece of shit, in my opinion. What did you like about it? On the other hand, Super Bad was hilarious... I'd have it at #2 behind No Country.

I'll have to give this some thought, last few years off the top of my head:

2008: The Dark Knight
2007: No Country for Old Men
2006: Blood Diamond
2005: Wedding Crashers
2004: The Bourne Supremacy (yeah, weak year)
2003: Old School

Danny McBride, Will Arnet, a couple of wrestling shirts, and Chez "there's no tool in this pool" to name a few items

This is a list that is a work in progress that I did earlier in the year, and with the exception of a handful of picks, most of it is the same as the list I posted on another forum. Ray, what did you feel were the years that had the most films contending for your favorite pick?

1919 - The Doll
1920 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1921 - Seven Years Bad Luck
1922 - Haxan
1923 - Warning Shadows
1924 - Greed
1925 - The Battleship Potemkin
1926 - Faust
1927 - Sunrise
1928 - The Passion of Joan of Arc
1929 - The Man With the Movie Camera or Pandora's Box
1930 - L’Age d’Or
1931 - Le Million
1932 - Boudu Saved From Drowning
1933 - Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse
1934 - A Story of Floating Weeds
1935 - A Night at the Opera
1936 - Mr. Thank You
1937 - The Grand Illusion
1938 - Port of Shadows
1939 - Le Jour se lève
1940 - Ahi Esta el Detalle
1941 - Strawberry Blonde
1942 - To Be or Not to Be
1943 - Day of Wrath
1944 - Meet Me in St. Louis
1945 - Children of Paradise
1946 - Notorious
1947 - La Perla
1948 - Bicycle Thieves
1949 - Thieves' Highway
1950 - Los Olvidados
1951 - The Tales of Hoffmann
1952 - Forbidden Games
1953 - Tokyo Story and the distant second place would be The Band Wagon
1954 - The Seven Samurai
1955 - Pather Panchali
1956 - Aparajito
1957 - The Seventh Seal
1958 - Ivan the Terrible Part II
1959 - Pickpocket
1960 - Jigoku
1961 - Il Posto or Last Year at Marienbad
1962 - El Angel exterminador
1963 - 8½
1964 - My Fair Lady
1965 - Loves of a Blonde
1966 - Daisies
1967 - Play Time
1968 - Once Upon A Time in the West or Innocence Unprotected
1969 - Andrei Rublev
1970 - El Topo
1971 - Walkabout
1972 - Aguirre, the Wrath of God
1973 - La Nuit américaine
1974 - Sweet Movie
1975 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
1976 - Taxi Driver
1977 - Stroszek
1978 - Days of Heaven
1979 - Amator
1980 - Raging Bull
1981 - Gregory’s Girl or Modern Romance
1982 - Burden of Dreams
1983 - Tender Mercies
1984 - Stranger Than Paradise
1985 - The Coca-Cola Kid
1986 - Hannah and Her Sisters
1987 - Epidemic
1988 - A Short Film About Killing
1989 - Do the Right Thing
1990 - Close-Up
1991 - Lessons of Darkness or And Life Goes On
1992 - Careful
1993 - Naked
1994 - Through the Olive Trees or Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana
1995 - Fallen Angels
1996 - Breaking the Waves
1997 - The Apostle
1998 - Rushmore
1999 - The Wind Will Carry Us
2000 - Together or The Heart of the World
2001 - Y Tu Mama Tambien
2002 - Punch-Drunk Love
2003 - Elephant
2004 - Mysterious Skin
2005 - The Wild Blue Yonder
2006 - Brand Upon the Brain
2007 - Stellet licht

I am a fan of your product and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

I'm too lazy to slap together a list right now, but I'll do one sometime, at least the lazier "since I was born" version.

And hey, all you guys who say 2004 didn't have jack shit, you're making Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind weep in forgotten desolation.

Whoa, good call. Don't know how I missed that when I was double checking the Wiki lists.

And this...

You're missing possibly the best part of the movie that some of my friends and I still use as in-joke material to this day... "Buzz's girlfriend? WOOF!"

Not surprised to see Noodles and I have similar lists. Mine below's weird in that the movie that's first and bolded is what I'd consider my favorite from the year, but I've also included some runners-up. Basically I justified tacking these on if I felt like they were considerably better than the best movie from a different, slower year. A year like '68 has about a dozen things that were better than anything I've seen from '85. Consider these your man Parties' best picture noms, in order of greatness.

As for what my favorite year is, from what I've listed here and the other peripheral stuff happening in movies/directors and writers at their peak, I'd pick '72 or '74. Amazing stuff from multiple countries, lots of major players coming into their own, weird stuff being made by studios and proto-indies alike. The top 5 on '79's tough to beat.

I've barely gone to the movies this year, and haven't liked much of what I've seen. Everyone's telling me to check out Man on Wire, girlfriend prefers lighter fare.

2009 - Big Fan (Robert Siegel) / Gomorra (Matteo Garrone) / Up (Pete Docter/Bob Petersen)
2008 – Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme) / The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky) / Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)
2007 – There Will Be Blood (P.T. Anderson) / The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel) / Superbad (Greg Mottola)
2006 – The Departed (Martin Scorsese) / When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee) / A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater) / Borat (Larry Charles) / Casino Royale (Martin Campbell)
2005 – Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog) / The New World (Terrence Malick) / Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney)
2004 – I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell) / 2046 (Wong Kar-wai) / The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou (Wes Anderson)
2003 – Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola) / Dogville (Lars von Trier) / Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch)
2002 – Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay) / City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund)
2001 – Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr)
2000 – In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai) / George Washington (David Gordon Green)
1999 – Rosetta (Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
1998 – The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen) / Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
1997 – Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson) / Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai) / The Eel (Shohei Imamura)
1996 – Sydney (P.T. Anderson) / Basquiat (Julian Schnabel) / Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)
1995 – Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater) / La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz)
1994 – Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai) / Hoop Dreams (Steve James) / Trois Colours: Blanc (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
1993 - Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater) / The Piano (Jane Campion) / Short Cuts (Robert Altman) / Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman)
1992 – Hard Boiled (John Woo)
1991 – Barton Fink (Joen Coen) / Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-Wai) / Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
1990 – Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese) / Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen)
1989 – Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee) / Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Aki Kaurismaki)
1988 – The Vanishing (George Sluizer) / The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese)
1987 – Walker (Alex Cox) / The Dead (John Huston)
1986 – Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch) / She’s Gotta Have It (Spike Lee) / Aliens (James Cameron)
1985 – 28 Up (Michael Apted)
1984 – Eureka (Nicolas Roeg) / Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) / Secret Honor (Robert Altman)
1983 – A nos amours (Maurice Pialat) / The Ballad of Narayama (Shohei Imamura) / My Brother’s Wedding (Charles Burnett)
1982 – Blade Runner (Ridley Scott) / Burden of Dreams (Les Blank) / Veronika Voss (Rainer Fassbinder)
1981 – Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
1980 – Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese) / Hopscotch (Ronald Neame) / Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg)
1979 – Manhattan (Woody Allen) / Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky) / Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog) / Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura) / Hardcore (Paul Schrader)
1978 – Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick) / The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Liu Chia-Liang)
1977 – That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel) / Star Wars: A New Hope (George Lucas) / Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
1976 – Network (Sidney Lumet) / In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima) / The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes) / Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmuller) / The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg)
1975 – The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni) / Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick) / Nashville (Robert Altman) / Grey Gardens (Albert & David Maysles)
1974 – Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette) / Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (R.W. Fassbinder) / A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes) / Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah) / The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)
1973 – The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman) / The Last Detail (Hal Ashby) / Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman) / Badlands (Terrence Malick) / Charley Varrick (Don Siegel)
1972 – Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky) / Love in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer) / The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (Luis Bunuel) / Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog) / Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville) / Fat City (John Huston) / Tout va Bien (Jean-Luc Godard)
1971 – Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah)/ Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg) / W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev)
1970 – Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville) / M*A*S*H (Robert Altman) / The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci) / The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah)
1969 – Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky) / Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville) / The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah) / My Night at Maud’s (Eric Rohmer)
1968 – Death by Hanging (Nagisa Oshima) / Performance (Nicolas Roeg & Donald Cammell) / I Am Curious (Blue) (Vilgot Sjoman) / Salesman (Albert & David Maysles) / Stolen Kisses (Francois Truffaut)
1967 – Playtime (Jacques Tati) / Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville) / I Am Curious (Yellow) (Vilgot Sjoman) / Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman) / Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard)
1966 – The Battle of Algiers (Gilles Pontocorvo) / The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura) / The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone) / Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
1965 – Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa) / Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard) / Help! (Richard Lester) / Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)
1964 – I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov) / Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard) / A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone) / A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester) / The Killers (Don Siegel)
1963 – The Leopard (Luchino Visconti) / Youth of the Beast (Seijun Suzuki) / 8 ½ (Federico Fellini) / Billy Liar (John Schlesinger)
1962 – The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer) / Ivan’s Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford) / L’Eclisse (Michaelangelo Antonioni) / Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda) / Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski)
1961 – Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman) / La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni) / Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi) / Viridiana (Luis Bunuel)
1960 – Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut) / L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni) / The Young One (Luis Bunuel) / The Misfits (John Huston)
1959 – Pickpocket (Robert Bresson) / Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus)
1958 – Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati) / The Lovers (Louis Malle) / Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock) / Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
1957 – Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman) / Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle) / Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick) / A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
1956 – The Silent World (Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Louis Malle) / Aparajito (Satyajit Ray)
1955 – Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville) / Rififi (Jules Dassin) / Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman) / Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray) / French Cancan (Jean Renoir)
1954 – Human Desire (Fritz Lang) / Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
1953 – The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot) / M. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati)
1952 – Umberto D. (Vittorio de Sica) / Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
1951 – Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
1950 – Les Enfants Terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville)
1949 – The Third Man (Carol Reed) / Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa)
1948 – Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica) / The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston) / The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles) / La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti)
1947 – Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
1946 – Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock) / Ivan the Terrible, Part II (Sergei Eisenstein)
1945 – Roma, Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
1944 – Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder) / Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Sergei Eisenstein)
1943 – The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
1942 – Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
1941 – Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) / The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
1940 – The Bank Dick (W.C. Fields)
1939 – The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
1938 – Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks) / Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein)
1937 – La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir)
1936 – Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock)
1935 – Toni (Jean Renoir)
1934 – L’Atalante (Jean Vigo)
1933 – Zero de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
1932 – Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir)
1931 – M (Fritz Lang) / Le Million (Rene Clair)
1930 – L’Age d’or (Luis Bunuel)
1929 – Hallejujah! (King Vidor) / An Andalusian Dog (Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali)
1928 – The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
1927 – The General (Buster Keaton)
1926 – Faust (F.W. Murnau)
1925 – Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux) / Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
1924 – Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
1923 – Safety Last! (Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor)
1922 – Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty) / Haxan (Benjamin Christiensen)
1921 –
1920 –
1919 – Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith)
1918 –
1917 –
1916 – Intolerance (D.W. Griffith)

That's an awesome list Parties, and it just reminded me of how incredible 1972 was. I could see myself putting 3 of those films in a Top 20 favorite films of all time list.

I do believe I will rip off Hijo's format, but I'm only doing it for the years I've been alive. Man it would take forever to do the whole thing.

2008 - Wall-E (Andrew Stanton) / The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan) / Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
2007 - Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton) / Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy) / Once (John Carney)
2006 - Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) / Brick (Rian Johnson)
2005 - The Descent (Neil Marshall) / The Aristocrats (Paul Provenza) / Sin City (Robert Rodriguez)
2004 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry) / Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright) /
2003 - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir) / X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer)
2002 - Gangs of New York (Martin Scorcese) / Adaptation (Spike Jonze) / The Ring (Gore Verbenski)
2001 - Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) / Mulholland Dr (David Lynch) / Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann) / Audition (Takashi Miike)
2000 - O Brother Where Art Thou (Coen brothers) / Memento (Christopher Nolan) / Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
1999 - Office Space (Mike Judge) / The Matrix (Wachowski brothers) / The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez) / Magnolia (PT Anderson)
1998 - Pi (Darren Aronofsky) Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg) / Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)
1997 - Lost Highway (David Lynch) / The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
1996 - Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (Jim Mallon)
1995 - Heat (Michael Mann) / Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins) / The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer)
1994 - Clerks (Kevin Smith) / Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
1993 - Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg) Menace II Society (Hughes brothers) / Dead-Alive (Peter Jackson) / Remains of the Day (James Ivory) / The Fugitive (Andrew Davis)
1992 - Hard-Boiled (John Woo) / Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood) / Noises Off (Peter Bogdanavich)
1991 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron)
1990 - Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder)
1989 - The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements, John Musker)
[B]1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis) Die Hard (John McTiernan)
1987 - Evil Dead 2 (Sam Raimi) / The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
1986 - Aliens (James Cameron) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes)
1985 - Ran (Akira Kurasawa)
1984 - Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman) Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
1983 - Zelig (Woody Allen)
1982 - Blade Runner (Ridley Scott) / Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (Joe Layton)
1981 - Das Boot (Wolfgang Peterson)
1980 - Airplane! (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) / Raging Bull (Martin Scorcese)
1979 - Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) / Alien (Ridley Scott) / Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky) / Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Werner Herzog)

It's interesting how shoeboxing the movies into arbitrary temporal categories completely mixes up the quality level. Some years I had a hard time thinking of anything to put down (looking at you, 1983!) while in others there were films I didn't even list which could've won against weaker competition.

Oh, and I found an easy way to decide whether a movie deserved to be there or not. Early on, after much pondering, I decided that I wouldn't put Scarface on the list. After that, every time I had a problem making a choice, I just asked myself "Did I definitively like this film more than Scarface?" After that, the decision was always clear.

Maybe the funniest film I've seen. Also holds up on repeated viewings.

80s were a surprisingly mediocre decade for a list like this: awesome writers/directors' first features released, very few of them their best work. Lots of people + mags pick Raging Bull as the best movie of the 80s, and while released November of '80 I'm not saying anything new in thinking it feels more like the last gasp of 70s New Hollywood. Had Fassbinder and Tarkovsky lived, Scorsese/Godard/Bergman not given up on movies, and more "auteurs" (blargh) not shot themselves in the foot things might have been different. Even as I'm typing this I feel misinformed, oozing half baked history, had I not been five years old on New Years Day 1990 I'd have more nostalgia for the Don Simpson approach. 80s are also probably the best years for sci-fi, the genre where art and commerce got along best, and really amazing movies were made by nerds and eccentrics alike (Ridley Scott, Cameron, Verhoeven, Cronenberg).

Going off my IMDB vote history, and only listing ties when I absolutely can't knock one off...

Inglourious Basterds (2009)
WALL·E (2008)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Fountain (2006) & Rocky Balboa (2006)
Block Party (2005)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Big Fish (2003)
Lilo & Stitch (2002) & The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Snatch. (2000)
Man on the Moon (1999)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Fargo (1996)
Murder in the First (1995)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Falling Down (1993)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Barton Fink (1991)
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Major League (1989)
They Live (1988)
Orphans (1987)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Clue (1985)
Ghost Busters (1984)
Scarface (1983)
Rocky III (1982)
History of the World: Part I (1981)
Times Square (1980)
The Warriors (1979)
Animal House (1978)
Star Wars (1977)
Rocky (1976)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Blazing Saddles (1974) & The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Serpico (1973)
The Godfather (1972)
Straw Dogs (1971)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Easy Rider (1969)
The Producers (1968)
The Graduate (1967)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

edit: updated with 2009 & 1970
edit2: updated with 1966 & 1967, changed my pick for 1997 from Chasing Amy after rewatching Boogie Nights for the first time since high school

I think you have something there. It's become scripture that the unprecedented success of Star Wars led to the all style, no substance approach that Hollywood took in the 80s, but that's not enough to explain it all. In addition to the guys you listed, Kurasawa had a hard time raising money and was going blind, Welles had an impossible time raising money and was dying, Fellini was apparently asleep the whole decade, Eastwood was snoring in the next bed, Spielberg seemed like he lost his competence at doing anything but kiddie fantasy stuff, Coppola completely lost every single drop of talent he'd ever had, Friedkin saw his bet and raised it, Allen was trying his experimental Bergmanesque stuff but it didn't work most of the time, and Herzog's only notable work (Fitzcarraldo) was a self-ripoff of a similar story he'd done a decade earlier and done better with the same actor.

Meanwhile, the new youngsters had a hard time defining their style; the Coen brothers, Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, and Tim Burton were entertaining from day one, but it would be a while before they could sharpen their work into something really brilliant. Things were awfully tough on the independent scene, probably worse than any other modern decade; you had Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee, and that was about it. Even the low-budget horror flicks felt the sting; when George Romero's best work of the decade was Day of the Dead and Tobe Hooper's best contribution was the studio-produced Poltergeist, that ain't so good. (Fuckin' Friday the 13th, destroying the entire genre for years.)

Meanwhile, who's the one 70s indy maverick who managed to stay profitable and relevant? John Carpenter, of all people. I'd argue that Carpenter was never the best director or especially writer in any genre he was currently working in, but the man did have a talent with keeping up with the times and releasing things which fit well into the contemporary zeitgeist. He went from horror to scifi to action to fantasy to comedy and back to horror, and did it all pretty well. Until he hit the mid-90s and apparently caught Alzheimers or something, since I don't know how else to explain such a massive dropoff in the quality of his work, but that's another story.

1983 had Nausicaa, Ballad of Narayama, Le Mur, Nostalghia and Pauline at the Beach. Indie stuff like Repo Man and Paris, Texas.

I actually find 80s cinema fascinating. 70s cinema is wildly overrated.

Paris, Texas and Nausica were 1984, didn't like Repo Man, and I haven't seen any of the others you mentioned.

I'm not gonna say it's wrong to like 80s movies more than 70s in terms of serious cinema, since I firmly believe in the subjective principle of art. (For example, somewhere out there is someone who legitimately likes Manos, The Hands Of Fate more than The Godfather. I would not wish to have to talk to this person, but I don't see how you can prove he's objectively wrong.) I will however say that I find your viewpoint to be mighty puzzling. Expand, please. For what reasons do you prefer 80s > 70s?

Ah, blame scaruffi for the mistakes. I wonder what other years he's fucked up on his list.

80s cinema requires a lot of digging for the good stuff. It's like digging the crates at the record store; a rewarding hobby.

I'm pushed for time right now, but instead of hating on 70s cinema, I'll deconstruct the two later tonight.

Alright, 70s cinema is overrated on the basis of New Hollywood/American New Wave, whatever you want to call it.

I'm not a big fan of American cinema from the 70s. By and large I think directors made revisionist pics that lack the creativity of the original genre pictures and have no where near the iconography of the directors who worked within the Hayes code. They also lack the sophistication of pre-code films, and while they may have reinvigorated Hollywood for a time, they came nowhere near matching the overall output of the studio system at its height.

For every Godfather or Chinatown, I'd rather watch an actual 1930s gangster flick or a 50s noir.

Not only that, but people blame Jaws or Star Wars for the end of this period when in reality those New Wave guys effed the whole thing up themselves.

Foreign cinema was on the decline too, due to the collapse of the studio systems. Overall, the quality of foreign cinema was nowhere near the post-war years of the late 40s-60s. They were already independent productions and the only difference between the 70s and 80s is that auteur theory held the Tarkovskys and Herzogs in high regard, whereas in the 80s no-one praised Hou Hsiao-Hsien or Tian Zhuangzhuang to the same degree.

I don't necessarily believe that the 80s were better than the 70s for cinema, just that the 80s aren't some poor cousin as people make out. One is underrated and the other overrated. There's a lot of great cinema from the 80s that people simply haven't watched. I've never understood why people think it's this dark decade for cinema that was saved by the arrival of the 90s. Almost everything that was good about 90s cinema had its roots in the 80s.

Agreed. New Hollywood “Easy Riders Raging Bulls” stuff is often overrated. It’s not the stuff I’d hold up from the 70s if arguing it film’s best decade. It’s overrated because the people associated with that crew were egomaniacs who never achieved such acclaim, publicity, or funding, and have since wasted a lot of time patting themselves on the back for being iconoclasts of icons that didn't really need, merit, or sustain breakdowns. Save Woody Allen and Malick, who rang older than they were, the best American movies of those years came from children of the ‘20s and earlier who’d had a lot of studio experience.

Still, what would you say was “revisionist” about them? The politics, their supposed invention of certain techniques, that which they did or did not pass judgment on?

From what I’ve seen I’d disagree, but I’d guess you’ve seen more post-war foreign stuff. What is it about those studios/pre-Code that by and large works better for you? Best balance between auteur autonomy, capable collaborators, and producers who kept their feet on the ground and the trains running on time?

Horse Thief aside I’m unfamiliar with both dudes. It’s a good movie that doesn’t thrill me the way high point Herzog and Tarkovsky do, but it’s fair to say that Asian cinema wasn’t getting a fair shake at that time, and that lots of directors who could have thrived in the eighties didn't when studios got burned by flashes in the pan and reemphasized cost effective guns-for-hire.

Who says this? 90s had some great stuff, but the positives and negatives are both exaggerated due to those being the movies of the IMDB generation's youth. It’s like that SC WWE poll wherein people loved and overrated lame 90s stuff because it happened during their adolescences.

Best stuff I’ve seen from the eighties, at the risk of using too broad a brush, feels like afterglow, not just from whatever intensity, focus, or value was being put onto cinema by the art world in seventies. They're often about longing, nostalgia vs. anticipation, a feeling of going too far and being lost in your present surroundings. That’s similarly the nature of sci-fi, and also speaks to the signs of the times, a sense of loss or time running out, inklings of fin de siecle sentiment.

Like what? Could be a decent project for this section.

They used genre pictures to deconstruct the American mythos and criticise society and its values, but Truffaut's original auteur theory was a criticism of screenwriters who took classic French literature and "simplified and compromised" it to reflect the political topic of the day.

If you look at those original genre pictures, most of the directors were pigeonholded into working in that particular genre. They were praised for either being distinctive in style or consistent in theme. The mavericks of the 70s crossed genres freely, and nothing they did was wholly original. They were like film school students on the loose.

And, really, their biggest contribution to cinema was to make everything more violent.

The studio system was better because it was a training ground for filmmakers. Guys worked their way up from the lowliest of crew jobs to directing on an apprenticeship system. And once they became a director, they had the opportunity to make dozens and dozens of films. It was a production line, but filmmaking is a type of craftsmanship and should be learnt like a trade. Since the collapse of the studio system, it's become increasingly difficult to sustain a career in film, not only because of the funding problems, but because of the lack of structure to the film industry. Filmmaking has become a speculative business, whereas before it was a salary job.

In terms of the actual content, pre-code films were more sophisticated because of the influx of European filmmakers who'd worked on silent pictures and the advent of sound, which brought in the stage writers. During the code era, filmmakers had to be smart. I think what Nick Ray was doing in the 50s, for example, is infinitely smarter than what Scorcese did in the 70s. In that sense, the studio system reeled guys in.

A lot of 80s stuff is either cinematic swan songs from the great post-war directors or an afterglow from the 70s, like you said, but there was also a lot of new cinema in the 80s that's not properly appreciated. I'll start a new thread about the 80s.

1932 has got to be the best year in the history of cinema.

Trouble in Paradise
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang
Freaks
Scarface
Vampyr
I Was Born But
Boudu Saved From Drowning
A Nous La Liberte
Horse Feathers
Das Testament des Dr Mabuse

Saw Rachel Getting Married yesterday and it's my favorite of the year. A cast containing six or seven performances that would be the really cool standout in any other movie to drop recently, without coming off as showy or pandering for awards. Bill Irwin is unbelievable. Script could have really gone off the ledge into pity party melodrama but remains the right mix of humane mercilessness. And it's Demme so the music's great.

Gomorra was real good. Pretty sure it's the only '09 American release I've seen this year. None of that "me me" yappin', totally unsentimental view of gangsters, guns, and a city gone to shit amidst still beautiful 'big country'. Critics' comparisons to The Wire aren't unfounded but this is a long way from Baltimore.

Go see Big Fan when it drops in your area. Friend hooked up a screening tonight at BAM Rose where Robert Siegel and the cast took questions afterwards. Solid stuff with a handful of remarkable shots/laughs/weird moments. Anything that brings us more Kevin Corrigan is doing baby Jesus' work. Moreover, it's required viewing for anyone who's gotten into an argument with a stranger over some petty shit on the internet, which I would assume is basically all of us. If a troll's ever gotten to you, or you to them, this thing is King Shit of Fuck Mountain.