Comments

The films in my list are the ones I return to with most relish; they may not be exquisite masterpieces but they are magnificently entertaining. I’ve steered away from films I adore mainly as kitsch (so no Sirk), as I have the ones I admire only for their virtuosity (no Welles), and the ones that were influential without being much fun to watch any more (no Blade Runner). The list is perhaps a bit middlebrow as a result, and certainly it’s a very personal one. There are some egregious omissions (my shortlist was 24 films long) but the lack of recent films is deliberate.