Australia's Favourite Film

Okay, so last year the ABC (a television network in Australia) ran a poll to find Australia's favourite book. The #1 book was The Lord of the Rings. So this year they did the poll to find Australia's favourite film.

They had a program on TV tonight hosted by the QUEEN of critics, Margaret Pomeranz. She hosts At The Movies alongside the KING of critics, David Stratton.



I heart them.

Anyway. She hosted a program tonight that counted down the Top 10. She was assisted by Sigrid Thorton (legend), Judith Lucy (funniest woman alive), Stuart Magill (cricketer, wtf is he doing there?), Richard Roxburgh (great actor! The Duke in Moulin Rouge!) and Chris Taylor (funny funny man from CNNNNN and Chaser). It was a great show. There were definitely some surprises in the Top 10 (for what was included as well as what wasn't). The #1 was extremely predictable, but what are you gonna do. #2 was about as predictable as City of God getting all those Oscar nomination a couple of years ago! But the entire list was pretty good, many a great movie.

I thought I'd go through them, rating them occasionally chiming in with comments. Starting at 100.

note: Apparently the largest segment of voters was women over 30. That may explain some of the choices (no. 85 is a shocker). However, it is also obvious that some movies won't remain people's favourites, but were voted for because they were very recent.

100. Dead Man, n/a
99. Being John Malkovich, B+
98. The Thin Red Line, n/a
97. High Fidelity, B-
96. Back to the Future, B
95. Mulholland Drive, A+
This is my #2 movie of all time. What can I say? I think it's brilliant. I just love every second.
94. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, n/a
93. Stand By Me, A-
92. Citizen Kane, B+
Yeah, I don't consider this the greatest at all. It is still really good, but I much prefer Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, personally.
91. All About Eve, A

90. Grease, A
89. Aliens, A-
88. Goodfellas, A
87. Look Both Ways, A-
Very odd choice. This was from this year and is an small Aussie drama about a man with testicular cancer and a woman who's very nearly clinically depressed. Perfect example of people voting for movies they just saw and really liked. I doubt many will consider it their favourite in 5 years even. it's still a great movie though!
86. Fargo, A-
85. Chocolat, C+
LOL@Nathaniel
84. This Is Spinal Tape, n/a
83. The English Patient, n/a
82. Chariots of Fire, n/a
81. Sin City, C+
Now, i CAN see this being people's favourites in years to come. it's one of those movies. I personally don't think that much of it.

80. Garden State, B+
79. Lantana, A
Clearly, an Australian classic, non? Do you disagree? Kerry Armstrong is forever in my heart for the scene with this line: "It's not hard to go out and find someone. What's hard is NOT to." aah, bliss.
78. Gallipoli, n/a
I wish BigPond would send me this DVD NOW!
77. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, B+
76. The Great Escape, n/a
I started to watch this but got sleepy and I had to return it the next day, so...
75. When Harry Met Sally, B+
74. Muriel's Wedding, A-
"You're terrible Muriel" goes down as one of the greatest Aussie film quotes of all time. Almost as good as #24's most famous quote(s)
73. Trainspotting, n/a
72. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, n/a
71. Kill Bill, vol. 1, A

70. Dirty Dancing, n/a
69. Romeo And Juliet
Now I don't know what version this is. Is it the Zeferelli version? If so, C+. If it's Luhrmann's, then A-
68. Rear Window, A+
In my Top 5 of all time
67. Napoleon Dynamite, C
66. It's A Wonderful Life, B+
65. Aliens
er, okay, we've already had Aliens. I don't know which one is meant to be the first and which the second? Alien is definitely A worthy though.
64. Spirited Away, A
63. The Fifth Element, B-
62. Babette's Feast, n/a
61. Raiders of the Lost Ark, B-

60. Wings of Desire, n/a
59. Strictly Ballroom, A-
58. Love Actually, C+
I actually know a few who's favourite movie is this. Odd.
57. The African Queen, n/a
56. The City of Lost Children, A
55. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I'm sure this is the original, which I give a B. If the remake? B-
54. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, C+
53. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, B+
52. The Piano, n/a
51. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, B

50. Forrest Gump, B
49. Cabaret, C+
48. The Usual Suspects, C+
47. Picnic At Hanging Rock, A
So glad this is on here. Another Aussie classic.
46. Out of Africa, n/a
45. The Wizard of Oz, A
44. The Big Lebowski, n/a
43. Harold & Maude, B-
42. Dead Poet's Society, n/a
41. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A-

40. A Room With A View, n/a
39. Breakfast At Tiffany's, C
38. Serenity, n/a
37. Brazil, C+
36. The Third Man, A+
I love this movie. Who doesn't?
35. Local Hero, n/a
LOL, I'd never heard of this before! Is that bad?
34. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, B+
33. Lost In Translation, A+
My top film of that year. I just completely and utterly clicked into it. I can watch it any time at all and still fall in love all over again.
32. Some Like it Hot, A-
31. Moulin Rouge!, A+
Well, this was my favourite film of all time for a few years. It has since slipped to #3, but is that such a horrible crime? Brilliant movie, as you all know!

30. The Godfather, n/a
I KNOW. BigPond hasn't sent it to me yet!
29. Life is Beautiful, n/a
28. Withnail and I, n/a
27. The Blues Brothers, C+
26. A Clockwork Orange, A-
25. Singin' In The Rain, B-
24. The Castle, A-
The highest ranking Aussie film. Man, is this one of the most quotable movie ever? POSSIBLE! "Tell 'em they're dreamin!" being the obvious one. My personal favourite is when Michael Caton asks his wife at the dinner table "What's this?!" her reply? "Chicken!" said with such joyous glee. Or how about "Rissoles!" or "Sponge Cake!" heheh. so funny. "It's the vibe!" "Do you have any evidence to support this... vibe?" teehee
23. The Matrix, A
I make no lies and will tell anyone that I think the original Matrix is brilliant. I just love it. Can watch it anytime. The sequels? They're different beasts.
22. Doctor Zhivago, n/a
21. Cinema Paradiso, n/a

20. Apocolypse Now, n/a
19. Lawrence of Arabia, n/a
18. Monty Python's Life of Brian
And that ends five classics in a row that I have not seen. phew.
17. Doctor Strangelove or..., A-
16. American Beauty, A
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A-
14. Casablanca, n/a
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey, B
12. To Kill A Mockingbird, B+
11. The Sound of Music, n/a

10. Fight Club, C
I completely agree with what Sigrid Thorton said on the panel. She thought it was a pretentious dull movie that pretended to have something to say about contemporary culture but was really nothing of the sort.

9. Gone With The Wind, n/a

8. The Princess Bride, B-
Richard and Chris both didn't think it held up particularly well but still thought it was charming enough. I pretty much agree.

7. Pulp Fiction, A
Again, I agree with Sigrid. She thought that while Fight Club was bad for not actually being about anything, she thought this movie being about nothing was just fine because it didn't have any preconceptions. It was a fun, hyper violent ride. It doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not.

6. Star Wars, B-
HI SIGRID!!!! Can we just get married already? She spoke about how she didn't find it as mindblowing as all her friends when she saw it. I agree. The other panelists all thought it was brilliant. I don't. This one is fine and all, but really... MY sci-fi is soon to come

5. Donnie Darko, A
UH-HUH!!! How fucking brilliant is THIS? Man, I was so surprised as were all of the panelists. But it's a great great great movie. I've discussed before about movies that are in love with what movies can do. This is one of them. Sigrid agreed.

4. The Shawshank Redemption, A+
I know some aren't into this movie as much as others, but for some reason I just love it. It's in my Top 10. Something about it stirs me up inside like so few movies do. Everything about it is just so emotionally satisfying. I love this movie. That music! the acting. the ending! The everything. The time flies by while I watch this movie.

3. Blade Runner, A
HUZZAH! Now THIS is more like it. Brilliant choice. And ahead of Star Wars too! This is great science fiction. I love the sets, the cinematography, the score (Vangelis!), the acting, the set pieces. The ending! So mindbending and fantastic.

2. Amelie, A+
Another Top 10 of mine. SORRY! I know many can't stand the oh-so-twee nature of it all (much like I couldn't stand it in La Strada, but here I think it's different. The woman searching for love and what she does to get it. I think it's so well done and played out. It is so much fun to watch, and it is one of the very few movies that I can watch at any time no matter the mood. I make absolutely no apologies for liking this movie as much as I do. Why not? It's got everything I love in movies. The scene at the carousel is one of my all-time favourite scenes - and that's saying something. I was so surprised to see this at #2 though.

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A, A, A-
Yeah, i know. They're good movies though! I really need to rewatch the third one though because my first and only viewing was as the third movie in a movie marathon of the entire trilogy. Sitting in a cinema for 9 hours straight (well, with brief intermissions during the movies) can be a tad distracting. My favourite of the three is actually the second. But the first is very closely second. Great films though. Really.

The End. You can see the list without anything else over here.

It may seem like I have a lot of films rated A+ to A- but that list was just really good for most part. And obviously, a lot of those films are from different years and every year (for me) has at least a small bunch of movies in that range. It's not my fault some people are cynicle and mean-spirited and don't like anything that's released these days.