Personal Lists featuring...

Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994

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1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Movies_You_Must_See_Before_You_Die

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This is a list of every movie that has made an appearance on the Top 250 list since the beginning of the site in 1996 through 2024. I will maintain a changelog below for when new movies are added to list.

List made using data from IMDB Top 250 History - https://250.took.nl/

Changelog - https://bit.ly/2E0i6w4

Odd Entries Explained - https://bit.ly/38dS0Ul

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Source: IMDB
Filter: Votes >= 10000
Order: Votes Descending
Date: 2014-08-23

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Movies nominated for the Oscars since 1960.

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https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/essential-comedy-movies/

UPDATED: 1/29/24

342

Over 1,000 films are listed in this visually arresting, full-color celebration of the silver screen. Film personalities, including actors, directors, cinematographers, and animators, write about their favorite films from a variety of angles. Martin Scorsese, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Hornby are among those who weigh in. Writers are matched to suitable (or sometimes surprising) themes and genres within the wider subject of how films can alter the course of a life. Movie stills and posters, trivia, and top-ten lists make this a book that can be dipped into or read from cover to cover. Great screen moments — endings, beginnings, kisses, death scenes — are given special spreads. The eclectic approach speaks to fans of big Hollywood blockbusters and factoid-reciting film geeks alike.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Time-1000-Films-Change-Guides/dp/1904978738

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Includes all the films of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Book, including films culled to make way for newer releases, up to the 2021 edition.

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Since the 2015 TSPDT has released a companion to their greatest 1000 films, consisting of the films ranked 1001-2000. This list contains the most recent version of this list, with all the previous lists in the history.

Source: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_films1001-2000.htm

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Best Movies of the Decade

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Attraction and schmaltz and shenanigans, oh my.

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https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-romantic-comedies-of-all-time/

UPDATED: 2/13/24

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Movies that were downloaded in 720p on Mandy-VAIO

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"In 1999 the British Film Institute surveyed 1,000 people from the world of British film and television to produce the BFI 100 list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. Voters were asked to choose up to 100 films that were 'culturally British'."

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Source:
Years 1931-2018 come from:
The New York Times: Book of Movies
the essential 1,000 films to see
2019 ed

Years after 2018 come from NYT website.

work in progress
There are discrepancies between the website and the book, particular for years after 2003. Please leave a comment for any errors you find.

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From a poster I found here https://www.lebroke.com/products/scratch-off-posters-100-date-ideas-100-movies?_pos=1&_sid=6d03b4096&_ss=r

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I well remember being taken to Blazing Saddles at the age of 10, when I was far too young to understand most of the jokes. At the same time, I could see how important Blazing Saddles was to my parents and their friends. They quoted from it for months—years—afterward.

As much as savoring a particular joke, I realize now, they were trying to reclaim that initial, joyful shock to the system. There’s not a film on the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays that doesn’t produce such an unexpected jolt, if not a sustained quake, and for the same reasons Blazing Saddles did—by transgressing accepted norms.

One question that this list asks, however: Should a great comedy simply be gauged by the laughter it elicits? “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” George S. Kaufman famously quipped. A number of the comedies on this list went under-appreciated at the box office and by critics; years, if not decades, had to pass before the work began to receive its due. This was as true for Buster Keaton’s The General as it was nearly half a century later for Harold and Maude, and 30 years after that for Office Space.

The oldest movie on the list is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), while the most recent is Bridesmaids, released in 2011. The latter also has the distinction of being written by two women—Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, working in slapstick, a genre historically dominated by men. Bridesmaids comes in at no. 16, immediately after When Harry Met Sally, written by the legendary Nora Ephron. Comedy screenwriting has long been a playground that women and writers of color have not had enough time in. The work of Richard Pryor on Blazing Saddles, Tina Fey on Mean Girls, Amy Heckerling on Clueless, and Hagar Wilde, co-writer of Bringing Up Baby, makes you wonder what a list would be if the playground had been more inclusive all along.

In the end, the variety of films on the list—as different as Being There is to Airplane! or Duck Soup is to Fargo—indicates how difficult it is to gauge a great comedy by any set of particular criteria. Better to say the best comedy writers and comedians are like astronauts, launching themselves beyond the ozone layer of the tasteful and the expected in order to find the forbidden or the outrageous or the merely uncomfortable. Whether that produces an outrageous comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire or a satire like Dr. Strangelove, the goal is still provocation. And truth.

Written by Paul Brownfield
2015-11-15

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