What are your favourite movies?

[TheSkronkDonkey]

Star Wars I-VI
Lost in Translation
Saturday Night Fever
A Bronx Tale
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Kikujirô no natsu
Children of Men
Blade Runner
Scent of a Woman
The Terminator / Terminator 2
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Alien
Taxi Driver
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2001: A Space Odyssey
Apocalypse Now
Lawrence of Arabia
Bridge on the River Kwai

Lots of obvious ones there. Quite a few Sci Fi ones.

Seasame: Star Wars is incredibly deep -- arguably the deepest story ever told. Most don't get this, not even its own fans. Darth Vader is a walking paradox and deep expression of the human condition. The Force is an awesome metaphor for storytelling and its effects on a viewer. Dialogue is simple yet symphonic. Compositions are elegant and deep. Everything is interconnected on a profound level (even the colour of the "movie text" -- i.e. blue and yellow -- mirrors Anakin and Padme and the droids). Just a brilliant work of cinema.

But my favourite movie is "Lost in Translation". My list is roughly in the order of appeal, though I had to bend the rules here and there, such as putting Star Wars first to make a point. Even LiT's title is an expression of the film's inability to be distilled into anything tangible, which is the highest compliment you can pay a work of art. The film also has my admiration for tackling very specific emotional states. Few could even conceive of ennui and uncertainty in the way Sofia Coppola shows them, let alone dare to explore them through rich, jaded, potentially unsympathetic Americans. People who complain that "nothing happens" or that the film is somehow "condescending or racist" don't get it. The language of the film is another thing "lost in translation". It layers in multiple existential ironies and tells its story through mood and atmosphere. It's a pure expression of cinema, richly absorbing, subtly moving. I think it will remain my all-time favourite.