David Fincher’s Favorite Movies of All Time

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Animal House

this reads like an imdb top 50 list

this is a very GENERIC LIST. YOU CAN FIND THESE FILMS IN ANY TOP 50 LIST COMPILES BY ANYONE. NOTHING SPECIAL HERE, I LIKE THE INCLUSION OF JAWS, BEING THERE, (ESPECIALLY), AND ROAD WARRIOR. BUT OVERALL, VERY WEAK, UN-CREATIVE AND REALLY GENERIC.

NEXT!

I would say "awesome list" but I'm pretty sure that any fan of movies would have the exact same list. I know I would. I know I'm not the only one who loves each of those movies, however, It's nice to know that one of my many favorite directors likes all the same movies I do. weird.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/29/david-finchers-favorite-movies-of-all-time/

mad generic

however, i will dig out a top ten list once submitted by kubrick that was p much as 'bad'/unsurprising

When the American magazine Cinema asked him in 1963 to name his favorite films, Kubrick listed the following titles: 1. I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini, 1953), 2. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1958), 3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), 4. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948), 5. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931), 6. Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1945), 7. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961), 8. The Bank Dick (W.C. Fields, 1940), 9. Roxie Hart (William Wellman, 1942), 10. Hell's Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930).

I think it's "interesting" that the list is so Anglo/Hollywoodcentric but yeah you'd have to be a churl to dispute most of these.

Churls to thread in 5, 4, 3...

well, it seems to represent films he saw during adolescence rly. he was born (checks wiki) in 1962, and almost without exception they belong to the first 18-20 years of his life. so im not surprised it doesn't have that much carl theodor dreyer nahmsayin.

Year of Living Dangerously is a weird pick to me also Being There is kinda... okay why?

All That Jazz is my pick, I think.

I'd rather watch Animal House than Carl Theodor Dreyer too so good on Fincher for that.

Being There is definitely a film you can get into at 18. Also I can see kinda stylistic similarities.

just seems like the dude down the hall from me in college w/ all the movie posters from TOWER records is making movies now, s'all

yeah but while yr watching VREDENS DAG he's getting mad bank for remaking animal house w/ eisenberg and sorkin

either the exorcist or cabaret

Days of Heaven

Cabaret

that the dude picked two fosse movies surprised me until I remembered he directed "Vogue"

how is that kubrick list "bad"? it's from 1963!! smug ilx contrarianism hadnt even been INVENTED yet, give him some credit

haha

On a "Dr Strangelove" kick recently...

And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7aShcmEksw

xxxp

haha forgot about that!

the last two or three of kubrick's -- The Bank Dick (W.C. Fields, 1940), 9. Roxie Hart (William Wellman, 1942), 10. Hell's Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930) -- wd have been relatively unexpected, but the rest of the kube's picks are/were kinda impersonal.

whether there was much airing of proto-ilx-type "healthy scepticism" is a question.

dunno enough about early '60s and earlier film culture to know how "impersonal" that canon was

like was La Notte obv?

was everybody and their mother big-upping I Vitelloni?

pretty much, yeah

how is wild strawberries an "impersonal" movie??

what was your list like back then, history mayne?

those movies are all awesome iirc!

do we have access to more esoteric lists from the bosley crowther era?

its not an impersonal movie, just 'the kind of thing you'd pick' in 1963

i put 'bad' in quote-marks, meaning that, like fincher, kubrick made a basically uncontentious list

we don't learn much about fincher from his selection, because it reads like an AFI movies of the 70s list

doesn't make 'em bad movies, just a kind of meh list

i have a list made by michael powell round here which is 'more interesting' coz less canonical

these dudes are filmmakers, not canon-smashing critics

like they probably listed the movies they actually dig and influenced them, not tried to blow anyone's minds with their counter-intuitive choices

good, successful filmmaker inspired by good, successful movies, film at eleven

raindrops keep falling on his head

That's not the point. You might expect a list of movies that somebody actually dug to be more idiosyncratic. I don't think we're expecting our minds to be blown, but pondering why a list like this wd be couched in a certain kind of neutral good taste. Don't think hm of all peeps is savaging Fincher for not being "contrary" enough.

* shrug *

days of heaven

i have a list made by michael powell round here which is 'more interesting' coz less canonical

Yeah well Powell >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Fincher and Kubrick

A better poll: Paula Abdul and Madonna's favorite movies.

* shrug * is fine - this isn't A Big Deal - but you can see why on a thread about a list of David Fincher's favourite movies of all time somebody might want to discuss the list a bit rather than just posting YAY TWO THUMBS UP

mickey p:

a woman of paris (chaplin, 1923)
the birth of a nation (griffith, 1915)
scaramouche (rex ingram, 1923)
the death of siegfried (fritz lang, 1923)
tartuffe (murnau, 1926)
the chess player (raymond bernand, 1927)
lady and the tramp (disney, 1955)
the seventh seal
kean (alexander volkoff, 1923)
rashomon

xpost

i <3 the heck out of fincher, just feel like his picks aren't that illuminating! as he likes it.

Raymond Bernard!

micky p's list insnt that different tbh

half of that list was totally OBV in 1930, I'd reckon

And surprising Murnau choice. I would have guessed Sunrise would be closer to his aesthetic.

maybe they didn't have Netflix back then.

they only had VHS back then iirc

since the silent era mickey p dug kurosawa, bergman and disney. Bold!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FT3u-lhg4

powell's list is less bold than i remembered, but they're culled from an interesting article, where he talks about where he saw them. like, the lang was on in a theatre in provincial england, and he travelled a way to see it; 'kean' was on at france's first art-house cinema. and those films basically would not come round again. maybe he never saw 'sunrise'.

n e ways, all im saying is the fincher one has not got me looking on uk-equivalent-of-netflix. there isn't a single wild card there (except maybe 'year of living dangerously').

rather watch that than Fight Club

xp

Which Vaccuous Pop Movie Director's "Influences" list is this?

That's not the point. You might expect a list of movies that somebody actually dug to be more idiosyncratic. I don't think we're expecting our minds to be blown, but pondering why a list like this wd be couched in a certain kind of neutral good taste. Don't think hm of all peeps is savaging Fincher for not being "contrary" enough.

― Mo Tucker Mo Problems (Noodle Vague)

the kubrick list might look like that but i don't think fincher is tryingfor 'neutral good taste'.....the current quiv of citing 'la notte' would probably be yi yi or code unknown or something.

anyway, any director's list will presumably be less contrived than a critic's cuz they're probably not going to feel obliged to do that challop thing of mixing eustache and sirk w/ kren, wayans, loach etc

I just did a very quick scan of all the English-language directors' lists from the Sight & Sound 2002 poll. There are probably 30 or 40 of them. I may have missed something, but they almost uniformly stuck to really well known canonical films, or at least films by really well known canonical directors. Whether it was Sidney Lumet or Taylor Hackford, or Jim Jarmusch or Paul Morrissey, there's a lot of consistency in that direction. The one exception that jumped out--big surprise--was John Waters: All That Heaven Allows, Baby Doll, Boom!, Brink of Life, The Chelsea Girls, 8-1/2, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, La Maman et la Putain, The Tingler, The Wizard of Oz. And even there, two or three standards and all the directors are very well known. The non-English-language lists were--big surprise--more inclined to list foreign films I didn't know. So I basically agree with "good, successful filmmaker inspired by good, successful movies, film at eleven." Fincher's list seems par for the course: three or four things that surprise me, the rest the usual suspects.

Here's Tarkovsky's list:

1. Le Journal d'un curé de campagne (The Diary of A Country Priest) - Bresson
2. Winter Light - Bergman
3. Nazarin - Bunuel
4. Wild Strawberries - Bergman
5. City Lights - Chaplin
6. Ugetsu Monogatari - Mizoguchi
7. Seven Samurai - Kurasawa
8. Persona - Bergman
9. Mouchette - Bresson
10. Woman of the Dunes - Teshigahara

* yawns, rolls eyes *

teshigahara? more like tehshithahaha

That's a great list though.

Robert Bresson's Favorite Films (circa 1952):

The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
City Lights (Chaplin)
Potemkin (Eisentein)
Brief Encounter (Lean)
The Bicycle Thief (De Sica)
Man of Aran (Flaherty)
Louisiana Story (Flaherty)

do you think fincher doesn't like nazarin and mouchette or just hasn't seen them?

he fucken hates them

Just thought it was interesting to see how "canonical" directors' lists are.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that the list I'd most love to see would be Godard's. Not that he'd ever participate in anything so commonplace as list-making. (Not anymore, anyway--I guess he did in the Cahiers days.)

One reason I think directors lists are so canonical/predictable/whatever-word-you-want-to-use is that they've made films themselves and are well past the point where they're insecure about impressing anyone with their taste or knowledge. I also think some have a tendency to go with the films that made the deepest and earliest impressions on them. I'm thinking in particular of Fellini picking Bride of Frankenstein in the '92 poll, but I came across similar picks on other lists.

One thing I wonder is how much of what they list is guided by the movie fan, and how much by the filmmaker--or if the two are inseparable. By which I mean, how often do they pick certain films specifically because they're amazed by the way directors solved technical problems, etc. (From Fincher's list, Zelig might be a candidate for what I'm talking about.) Maybe no such distinction exists.

ya zelig seems to make so much sense for tha finchmeister

also it is a dope movie

ANother vote for All That Jazz

or All THE Jazz or whatever

All of Jazz

christ I'm gonna have to watch some Tarkovsky

christ

Christ will have died, descended to hell, gone to heaven, and relaxed with a glass of sweet tea before you finish one movie.

here is my idiosyncratic v personal top 5

1. chatroulette
2. three amigos
3. andy warhol's "blowjob"
4. three amigos
5. chatroulette

You should watch Simon Of The Desert, one of christ's later funnier movies

I went on a sin binge once, and Christ punished me by whispering in my ear that I should see Stalker. I have been sinless ever since.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

nrq, I wd die happy if 50% of ILXors ever saw The Bank Dick

hey Fincher -- ONE non-English-lang?

it's almost like he made a list without thinking about what online film critics would say on message boards

probably because he was busy directing successful films and making lots of money and living the good lyfe

I thought he made films so that David Denby could praise them.

/\
soto post par excellence

taxi driver

I would say "awesome list" but I'm pretty sure that any fan of movies would have the exact same list. I know I would. I know I'm not the only one who loves each of those movies, however, It's nice to know that one of my many favorite directors likes all the same movies I do. weird.

― Chinedu "Edu" Obasi Ogbuke (nakhchivan), Sunday, September 19, 2010 6:40 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

it's not an "any fan of movies" list, it's the sort of list you'd expect from a male mainstream/american film buff of fincher's age or younger. and it makes perfect sense coming from fincher. lotta movies i love on there, too. tarkovsky list is no more or less predictable, given his body of work.

nor sure what to vote for here. alien, butch/sundance, taxi driver, all that jazz, zelig, paper moon, kane, and the road warrior are all favorites.

So glad Fincher's list isn't some try-hard bullshit.

Correct answer is Alien btw.

pretty banal list, byt Dr. Strangelove is my answer

contenderizer you do realize i quoted that comment from another site for notional lol value, you weren't supposed to analyze it

h8 this list cuz i'd rather not vote for citizen kane but it ~is~ my favourite of these movies

voted days of heaven, a film which seems to be near-canoized itself as one of the great 70s films

/canonized

oh christ

if you're still there, christ, I am yet to see any Malick

voted Rear Window obv

Cradle of Love is even better than Zodiac.

in the s&s directors' poll, i like the ballots that seem most immediately connected to the director's work. like catherine breillat making in the realm of the senses her #1. i guess that's a little neat and tidy and an artist's favorite art doesn't necessarily have to be like their own art at all, but it's still more interesting than if she'd picked citizen kane.

doubt directors really care too much about making interesting lists for nerds to approve of tbh

i think this is an interesting list for a mnstrm-imdb kinda movie nerd, altho not so much for the teshigahara crew

If you want an interesting list of off-the-niche weirdo bullshit, don't ask for "favorite of all time."

what're your favorite foods of all time? Pizza and Hamburgers?! U boring..

those are pretty boring favorite foods of all time

One of these three:

All The Jazz
Rear Window
All the Presidents Men

doubt directors really care too much about making interesting lists for nerds to approve of tbh

but i wonder how much they worry about what other directors think. like, you're going to have your list up there against scorsese's or whoever's, i dunno, i bet they're at least aware of that kind of thing. or some of them. they're pretty much just film nerds themselves.

rear window

i think they dictate it in 5 seconds to their terrified assistant, light a cigar with a hundred dollar bill, tip their shades and then drive off in their ferraris. while getting bjs

xp to nakhchivan is your problem with fincher's list that he's done that or that he hasn't done that?

sorry, to tipsy not nakhchivan

i don't have a problem with fincher either way. i assume those are actually his favorite films.

contenderizer you do realize i quoted that comment from another site for notional lol value, you weren't supposed to analyze it

no, i do not realize. or rather i do but did not. adrift on a sea of notional lols...

So glad Fincher's list isn't some try-hard bullshit.

yeah, looking past the HOLLYWOOD sign can hurt your eyes.

I don't expect Fincher to mention Naruse or Assayas films.

maybe ppl rightly second-guess the tendency of 'professional tastemakers' to contrive nice-looking lists at the expense of honesty/veracity, but that has nothing to do with this list

the likelihood that it ~is~ basically correct and nonpretentious is all the more reason to say it's a fairly limited list of films

I worked w/him once and as I recall he was enthusiastic about 'Touch of Evil' at the time.

The Bank Dick = Hilarious

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

kind of surprised cabaret got five

more surprised that Days of Heaven placed so high - it's not THAT great

too lazy to find the 'rong' thread, but

too lazy to find the "shitty voiceover thread"

oh hell no

kind of surprised this is such a long fuckin thread

I don't think the voiceover's that bad, but it's clearly there to paper over a lot of the narrative weaknesses of the movie

it's not only not bad, it's the greatest effin thing ever

also you're wrong about the other thing

I think Days of Heaven is real purty. Not much to recommend it beyond that tho imho

a movie about airheads starring airheads

no, that's Airheads

I think if you h8 malick voiceover then you are basically just knee-jerk anti-voiceover

and in all probability a terrible, terrible person

otm

Nah. My problem is how boring Gere and Brooke Adams are, and how the combination of their colorlessness and the portentous voice-over gussies over a bleh narrative. The only Malick film I like a lot is Badlands.

i just watched days of heaven last night, v good movie that i want to see again in a theater

that 'colourlessness' is basically a malick signature, po' white folks who apprehend the world and their own corruption w/ naivete and confusion

tho unlike sissy spacek's character in badlands, neither of the leads in days of heaven are played for cheap laughs

linda manz is great in that film

Nothing in Spacek's performance suggests cheap laughs though.

'little did i know'

spacek is great tho

Brooke Adams gives the best performance in DoH, except maybe for Snaggletooth Shepard.

Best feature voiceover wd be a good poll, but I hafta do it or the choices will suck.

You'd vote for Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, eh.

maybe Welles for Magnificent Ambersons

(as opposed to History of the World)

or Ed Norton in Fight Club!

john hurt in dogville.

(^not just to goad morbs. i love the narration. but also, to goad morbs.)

The only Malick film I like a lot is Badlands.

me too, like i've probably said on every malick thread ever. i think dude is a bit of an airhead, tbh.

Welles' delighting in the word "cotillions" in Ambersons = chills worthy.

and of course Michael Hordern in Barry Lyndon

Peter Falk in The Princess Bride