Akira Kurosawa’s List of His 100 Favorite Movies (2015) | Hacker News Reader

Akira Kurosawa’s List of His 100 Favorite Movies (2015)

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287 pointslermontov124 comments

Film has such a huge library of "great movies", I have over 700 films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty decent spread of years/countries and I would say I still know basically nothing about film. I can fire up Criterion Channel or MUBI and watch brilliant movies no one ever talks about. It is a real shame Criterion Channel isn't more popular...if you like movies you are doing a disservice to yourself not picking it up. If only Netflix embraced the library style dream instead of shilling their own over produced crap.

Great to see Fitzcaraldo on here, a film that usually gets talked a lot about, or you see a lot of "Watch the documentary, it is better", but rarely gets the praise it deserves as film itself. Knowing nothing about this film, and watching it for the fist time was an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Also great to see Last Year at Marienbad on here, for which Robbe-Grillet wrote the entire thing but rarely gets credited. If you like Last Year check out some of Robbe-Grillet's other films...not for everyone, but among my most favorite. His "The Erotic Dream Machine: Interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet" offers some of the greatest insights about film and film as art.

Just a few days ago I watched Sci-fi classic "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky and I had no expectations or knowledge about the movie or Director before watching it and it blew my mind. I then looked into other movies directed by Tarkovsky such as "Stalker" and "Andrei Rublev" which nobody in my age group knows or talk about but these are great movies. I am looking forward to finding such hidden gems and watching these films.

After I watched Solaris I decided to space out the other Tarkovsky films over a period of years. They each hit me so hard that I wanted to always know there was one waiting for me that I could look forward to seeing, ideally as a restored print at the local rep cinema. Now I only have The Sacrifice left.

I also very much recommend Chris Marker's documentary on Tarkovsky, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch [1][2]. Germane to this thread, he compares aspects of his films to Kurosawa in parts. Marker is also an incredible singular filmmaker, and the documentary is more of a love letter to Tarkovsky while he's on his deathbed. If you enjoy this, then oh do I envy you getting to go down the Marker rabbit hole and watching Sans Soleil and La Jetée for the first time.

[1] English with Turkish subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=35lETmPDypI

[2] French https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M56i90Q1-Y

Stalker is fantastic, as is "Roadside Picnic," the novel on which the film is based. Both inspired the acclaimed computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

Solaris is a beautiful book. It’s a short read, too. I highly recommend it.

This was a case where I thought the movie (Tarkovsky's Solaris) was much better than the book.

I would definitely put Andrei Tarkovsky in the same league of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. Watching movies such as Solaris, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blue Velvet etc. feel like watching a beautiful and masterpiece art.

Andrei Arsenevich Tarkovsky is definitely greater than Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch in my book. He's a genius and I highly recommend reading "Sculping in Time", a book he wrote to explain his approach to film making.

Agree. I think the ordering is Tarkovsky > Kubrick > Lynch. All great directors, though.

An interesting note here is that the edition most people have read was translated into English from a French edition. Lem wasn't happy with the translation, and there was a direct Polish to English translation done in 2011 which was blessed by Lem's estate, and which was released as an audible exclusive audiobook, and then on Kindle in 2014. It still isn't available in print.

There are substantial differences in the tone and even the character names.

I still like Tarkovsky's version best, even though Lem was not a fan.

That explains it. I had difficulties with the English translation. I thought maybe this is art or something. Then read it in some other language, and it was more palatable, but I do not remember the book anymore. I only remember an enormous baby rolling in the sea and lofty structures emerging from the sea as a by-product of Solaris brain ruminating.

Indeed. A bit like what happened with Blade Runner and 2001 (which has a different relationship to the movie as neither is based on the other).

I think 2001 is a movie making masterclass in itself.

I'd risk to suggest that "Andrei Rublev" is Tarkovsky's best film as it is both approachable, auteur, commercial, poetic, symbolic, naturalistic and everything you'd imagine one of the vertebras of the 20th century culture to be.

Yes, late Tarkovsky is great too, but it's not really quite cinema at that point. "Rublev" is The Movie in Tarkovsky's filmography.

It's also probably one of the best medieval films there is, regardless of the genre, "7th Seal" to "Kingdom of Heaven".

Another great, often overlooked movie is his very first one - "Ivan's Childhood". You can see him still begin somewhat cautious there, but the movie is as poignant as they get. It was created by one of the best artists of the generation as he watched the dawn of the 60s era as a member of the society for which World War 2 and Red Terror are yet to become "yesterday".

I was a little underwhelmed by Tarkovsky's take on Solaris; the book was written with a lot more evocative prose, especially with respect to color, which made the film seem just so plain. But I really liked Stalker - then again I hadn't read Roadside Picnic. My understanding is that Tarkovsky's adaptations are usually quite different from the source material.

The production of Stalker caused the deaths of multiple people due to the toxic environment.

While different genre, still recommend watching 'Viy': https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062453

> Film has such a huge library of "great movies", I have over 700 films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty decent spread of years/countries and I would say I still know basically nothing about film.

Film is so full of great stuff that there exists a reasonably-curated meta best-of-list of 1,000 great ones... with an overflow list of the next 1,000 that's also almost all excellent, and those still aren't a comprehensive list of all the films worth watching.

https://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm

(Possibly NSFW because of screen-caps from movies)

Yea, I started with the "AFI Top 100 Films" and went through all of those (spoiler, you've likely already seen many of them if you are even slightly into movies). Definitely focuses on American films (surprise!).

After that I have begun the "1001 Films To See Before You Die." I suspect I'll be finishing that up in about 3 years (need to hang on that much longer!). Most if not all of the AFI Top 100 Films are in the 1001. Also, again, some of the 901 remaining films you may also have seen already. But the 1001 have a lot more French New Wave, Italian Neorealist, and generally a more cosmopolitan mix. To be sure though the list skews Western.

I'm happy to have another list of films. The set of Kurosawa's favorite films, of course, intersects with the above two lists but appears to add, unsurprisingly, a lot more Japanese films.

Somehow I had to smile just imagining Kurosawa watching "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest". Does that film even make sense for someone growing up within Japanese culture?

> Does that film even make sense for someone growing up within Japanese culture?

Oh yeah! F*ck yeah! This movie was remade into a 1986 Malayalam movie by a really good actor/director pair and I'll bet almost everyone who watched it came away shaken.

Institutionalizing someone who is not crazy is something every culture can identify with. You can also pretty easily draw parallels in any culture to even the supporting cast (Nurse Ratched). Probably because of the stigma associated with mental illness and how institutions across the world took advantage of it.

Even now when I think about the (original) movie ending.. tears. I grew up in India. I don't know what I don't know, but after having lived in the US for over 20 years, I don't think folks missed much in translation. There might be a subtext there with a Native American winning some semblance of a freedom that most other cultures miss.

In the book McMurphy is trying to get admitted into the mental ward to get out of prison — it wasn't really a case of the state institutionalizing him against his will.

I guess I was thinking more that he is the protagonist for challenging the establishment, breaking the rules, questioning authority. That seems like something someone in Japanese society would not enthusiastically cheer on.

> In the book McMurphy is trying to get admitted into the mental ward to get out of prison — it wasn't really a case of the state institutionalizing him against his will.

I know. But he can't get out when he wants to right?

Yeah that's a good point about questioning authority. I don't know.

As I recall the AFI list is a good "mid-brow" list which probably describes me pretty well. I like these films more than most of the blockbusters but I also tend to clock out a lot of the time when you get into real art house fare.

Yeah, I suppose if you sprinkle in 5% art-house fare then I am okay. There are occasional surprises in the new wave, avant garde, independent films.

"1001 Films" does pull in a bit of the high-brow flicks. The harder to watch stuff from the "AFI Top 100" are some of the very early silent films (or over the top propaganda films like "Yankee Doodle Dandy").

I've seen the vast bulk of the films. Intolerance you definitely need to watch as a period piece. It's a pretty good example although something like Safety Last or The General would be easier to watch examples.Don't really disagree on "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Isn't a lot on the list I seriously disagree with although there are period favorites I'd probably skip and different films I'd include.

Strongly agree here. Letterboxd is the best thing that has happened to me in recent past. It introduced me to almost endless list of absolutely fantastic movies I didn't knew existed especially non-english movies no one talks about. And I just logged my 700th movie yesterday.

How do you use it for film discovery? I had a look and that use case wasn’t clear. I really want to find a good film discovery service though, so I’d love to know how to use it for that.

(When I looked it mainly seemed to be about rating movies I’d seen and making notes on them)

There are people with different tastes, and great lists you can discover, also they are sending newsletter called "Letterboxd Rushes for you" a weekly Letterboxd digest which mostly evolves with your activities on the website, and includes such as "new reviews by your friends", "popular films with your friends" etc. I like making archives, offline dvds, brochures, posters, and logging movies feels like a digital part of it, and Letterboxd kind of fits perfectly, similar to here actually; people, conversations and content has quality.

Lists work really well for me. Some popular lists like this[1] is a great place to start. Also on each film's page at the bottom, you can find lists it is on. So if you like a movie particularly well, you can find similar one in those lists. Most of the lists are not generic genre/actor/director based so I find really good stuff there.

[1] https://letterboxd.com/dave/list/official-top-250-narrative-...

I do the same thing on IMDb.

I adore Last Year at Marienbad. Although I agree with Sofia Coppola that it's inevitably a movie where I doze off a little. That's alright since the entire film is like a weird dream. It's refreshing having a film that resists interpretation so intensely. It's utterly surreal, beautiful and tragic, yet without having a singular "correct" reading. Rashomon and Last Year at Marienbad would be an excellent double billing.

Hiroshima Mon Amour is another fantastic film. In both films Resnais is so brilliant in his editing, in its non-linearity, in its emotional effect. Frankly he might be one of my favorite directors of the Left Bank/New Wave generation.

> I have over 700 films logged on letterboxd, with a pretty decent spread of years/countries and I would say I still know basically nothing about film.

It depends on what it means to "know film". It's a deep rabbit hole, but if you're logging the films you appreciate in some way and now you're up to 700, I would say you "know" a lot more than most.

Here's a gem for you... "Spring Night Summer Night". It's available free streaming on byNWR.com. Completely forgotten film that was meticulously restored by Nicholas Winding Refn. (review https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/spring...).

I was approaching 3000 films on criticker back in college when I realized, that I would never be able to begin to approach watching all of the films that I wanted to. Sort of like, the more you know the more you know you don't know. I ended up deleting all of my tracking of films, books (well now I'm tracking my books again for insurance purposes) etc and no longer worry about seeing all the important films.

I didn't know about Criterion Channel. Shame it's US only. I'd love to have that.

Good news, it isn't US only (anymore)! Criterion used to be available through Hulu (US only), then it was available through another streaming service whose name escapes me, but they (Criterion) finally started running their own VOD Netflix-like service:

https://www.criterionchannel.com/

I have it setup on my Apple TV in Canada and it works great. Highly recommended!

EDIT: Just checked [0], it's actually USA + Canada only for now... Sorry about that.

[0] https://www.criterion.com/faq/channel

You can just use a VPN to sign up. Works perfectly (with no VPN) after that.

Or you can just stream the movies with less friction more options and a wider catalogue. People thought netflix would en being the spotify of movies. They were wrong, so now watch a robust pirate scene to re-flourish.

When Criterion licenses films from the copyright holders, they are only allowed to distribute those films in North America. Meanwhile, in Europe for example, some other company gets the right. That is why Criterion’s DVDs and Blu-rays have always been Region 1, and Criterion’s own store will (last time I checked) not ship abroad.

In the UK Curzon have a similar but smaller catelogue.

I've seen letterboxd mentioned a couple times in this thread. I use trakt.tv (which has nice Plex integration), are they both sort of the same thing?

When you look at the selection criteria, it's hard to accept this as Kurosawa's favorite movies.

Based on the handful of films I've seen on this list, though, this is probably a list of films you should go out of your way to see if you're into film for something more than just for entertainment. Some are just flat out entertaining for anyone though, with the drama of Witness, the comedy of The Thin Man or the wonder of My Neighbor Totoro. Some show off the technical prowess of the director, like Barry Lindon. Some have stood the test of time as a work of art like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Of course, I guess the point is that great movies hit many of these categories.

I also highly recommend The Thin Man, we've (me and my SO) just seen it last week and it was a breath of fresh air among all the gloomy news surrounding us.

Agreed! The books with the thin man(by Dashiell Hammett) are also very good.

Agree. From the older films listed, Stella Dallas is sweet, The Bicycle Thieves is engaging, La Strada will make you fall in love with Fellini's wife....

Some of the sequels aren't bad either although the original is definitely the best. William Powell and Myrna Loy can lift up a lot of material even if it's just so-so.

Waiter, will you serve the nuts... I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?

Is one of my favorite lines :)

> Some have stood the test of time as a work of art like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

I tried watching The Cabinet once. Maybe I should try again, but, as far as I remember, the quality of the video was so bad that I don't think I had even a chance of appreciating the movie as a work art (at least not in the way I usually watch movies); and I think it was my impression at the time that no copy with better quality existed anymore?

Was it easily watchable for others here who watched it, or was it necessary to approach it studiously, e.g., rewinding every so often and slowing down the playback, to be able to appreciate it at all?

I saw a color version of it. The quality was as good as you could expect of something filmed in 1920. I think it's pretty straight forward - no need to slow it down or rewind it.

One thing to be on the look out for is to see if there are any showings of it with a live musician providing the score. Maybe by Halloween, it will be possible to see it, or even Nosferatu for that matter, like that.

Kurosawa-san may be too humble to add his own Ikiru (生きる, "To Live") to this list. But it well deserves its place in the pantheon. A film to restore your faith in the simple act of surviving ;)

There's a whole bunch of his films I'd put squarely in my all-time list. Ikiru, Ran, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, High and Low, Dersu Uzala, Rashomon. It's one masterpiece after another. Try watching Seven Samurai and Ikiru back to back to really appreciate the genius of Takeshi Shimura as an actor.

To quote Francis Ford Coppola, "Most directors have one masterpiece by which they are known. Kurosawa has at least eight or nine."

High and Low — as good as Hitchcock. Not what most people are expecting with Kurosawa.

I completely agree! Ikiru had a huge effect on me, and I've never been able to forget Takashi Shimura's facial expressions from it.

A bit OT, but this reminded me of the story behind the “catch copy” by Shigesato Itoi [1] for Mononoke Hime, 「生きろ」

https://ghibli.jpn.org/report/mononoke-9/

(Used prominently in their marketing material including posters)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigesato_Itoi

Anyone setting out to watch this should be warned that they will cry like a little baby. At least I did.

Interesting list. This author's incredulous introduction is most unwelcome. If you want to make a list go for it friend but this is someone else's list. If you want a perfectly ordered prestige fest there's AFI, IMDB and many other places you can find that.

Personally, I'd have no problem watching Barry Lindon over Clockwork any day of the week. And of course there's no Ozu on there. The two had a long standing beef. Kurosawa was proud as f**. Even if "Floating Weeds" is a work of pure melodramatic genius in which every shot is perfect, it's not making a list by Kurosawa.

Check the list again:

27. Banshun [Late Spring] (Ozu, 1949) Japan

No shit! I guess all Ozu was not too bland for Kurosawa's taste. Really beautifully shot movie too but I guess all Ozu is.

I actually find his colour films to be incredibly charming. Really Tokyo Story is the only green tea on rice film of his. still excellent but one could be in for bit of a surprise if they only watched that by Ozu.

Yes, my first Ozu was Floating Weeds and it has remained my favorite because of the heartfelt drama and the vibrant beauty of the color photography. Not bland at all of course.

A great pick BTW by Kurosawa.

Barry Lyndon may be slow-paced, but it's the Kubrick I'd pick too. Just don't come to it as a Hollywood movie.

It was an incredible technical accomplishment at the time. These days, with digital, low light basically isn't an issue. If forced, I'd probably still pick A Clockwork Orange among Kubrick's works although perhaps 2001 is more iconic.

He agrees with me that “Barry Lyndon” is Kubrick’s best. I guess I feel a little vindicated since I’ve never found anybody else that did agree with that. I love all of Kubrick’s films, but in some of the best, he just couldn’t tell the story it seems. Barry Lyndon tells the story in addition to being classic Kubrick.

"Barry Lyndon" always felt like a film that Kubrick just did in his spare time and took no creative- / deadline- / budget- / non-Barry-Lyndon-as-Kubrick-wants-it-to-be -related input from anyone. A pure Kubrick piece.

I do enjoy "Killing", however, so much that I am tempted to call it my Kubrick's favorite.

You must not be in the internet much, because this is always the contrarian pick. In fact, your same comment is repeated multiple times in this very thread.

There are great films in the Criterion Collection but there are also quite a lot of average films. I live in France and we have access (not at the moment because of covid) to unlimited movie pass (the best is UGC illimité if you live in Paris) for as little as 22€/month. I usually try to go and watch a lot of films but when I'm busy and have to select films, checking rottentomatoes and going to see films that have >90% score is a fast way to filter out the bad films. Recently, I have started buying great films so that I can share them with my parents who don't live in a big city. Most films I have bought are from the Criterion Collection but it's quite expensive to. get (need to order from Amazon.com as criterion.com won't ship to Europe) and it's a real pain to deal with region restrictions (most films are region A but some such as Tampopo are region B so you need either two blu-ray players or a region-free one such as the Freebox Revolution with the Konami code) Also, some choices made by Criterion are really questionable: some films (for example Like Someone in Love) have subtitles hardcoded. (maybe it's the case for all non English films. I haven't checked with films in Spanish but there are hardcoded subtitles in films in Japanese, Chinese and Korean) I get it that it's probably cheaper to get the rights of a film with hardcoded subtitles but I think people who are willing to pay $45 for a film wouldn't mind paying $5 more and have the ability to remove subtitles.

It is interesting seeing how many German films made the list prior to 1939. Then Germany didn’t make the list again until the 80’s. I didn’t realize how good their film scene was pre-war.

We recently saw the restored Metropolis for the first time, was intriguing.

I added it to the queue. Thanks for the rec!

Also, this was the 2010 version?

I think so. It said it had new footage found in Argentina. Just a few years old, I believe.

Yes, that is the one!

Perhaps because most of the German film Industry had migrated to Hollywood by then

Maybe, but you would think Germany wouldn’t make the list again afterwards after losing talent/knowledge. So, it could also be showing the affect of a war torn country split East and West and how long it took to regain the population to support film.

I see a Mabuse movie on position three, and for the purposes of fun and entertainment, I would like to recommend to watch "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" instead. Due to the later time of its release, it wasn't as influential, but it's a really good movie and it works better for watchers (such as myself) used to modern stylistic conventions in movies.

I've imported the list to Letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/js2/list/akira-kurosawas-100-favorite...

One curiosity: Aoi sanmyaku (青い山脈) is apparently "The Blue Mountains", but OC translated it as "The Green Mountains."

(Also, it's two parts, so I added both to the Letterboxd list, similar to Ivan the Terrible, which is why there's 102 entries.)

Fun fact: 青い (ah-oi) means both green and blue in Japanese. There is a more specific word for green 緑 (midori) but 青い is still commonly used to mean green. For instance, "green light" (as in a stop light) is 青信号 (ah-oh shingou) where 信号 means signal.

This (lack of) B-G distinction also occurs in many languages other than Japanese.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distincti...

"Green" is a reasonable translation - the same word is used for the "green" of plants or traffic lights. When referring to a mountain it is very likely to be referring to its greenery.

The boundaries between named colors have historically varied wildly between languages.

When paired with mountain, I'd say blue is more accurate. 青山 is a fixed term (not quite "idiom" but you get the idea) originated from Chinese.

A fixed term which refers to the lushness and vegetation on a mountain. These are the precise denotations where the word is equivalent to English with "green".

And after a quick search, jisho.org translates that precise set phrase as "lush mountain; green mountain", though with an interesting alternate "burial place" meaning. https://jisho.org/word/%E9%9D%92%E5%B1%B1

And a couple of minutes later another quick search gives me a Wiktionary translation of the Chinese phrase as "green mountains; mountains with lush forests" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E5%B1%B1

You are absolutely right, I meant to say "green" and reply to your parent. I'm embarrassed..

I am also struck by the list’s most glaring, and curious, omission. There’s no Orson Welles

Why is it that the deeper someone gets into a field/hobby the less accepting they are of other people having different tastes? You're not beholden to anyone for your preferences. You're allowed to like or dislike anything for any reason, even something as silly as the way someone pronounces a word or maybe the director's face reminds you of your high school bully.

> glaring, and curious

both of these things can be true without being condescending. it is kind of interesting that welles didn't make the list given his status as a filmmaker, and i don't think the author is completely doubting the taste of one of the greats here lol

Also, The Third Man is in the list...

that’s directed by Carol Reed, not Orson.

I am aware of that... but OW is in it...

I wanted to start watching more classic movies recently as I realised that beside Chaplin's, I've seen very few movies made prior to the 1960s. I've found the main streaming platforms to have very little choice when it comes to these. Where would you recommend watching these old classic movies listed here?

Criterion is the best place to get "important classic and contemporary films" if it is available in your region. I am also hearing a lot of good things about Mubi these days though I have not tried it personally.

I don't have Criterion available in my region nor can I find DVD/blurays anywhere so sailing the high seas is the only option for me.

If you're in the US, might be worth checking out Kanopy[0]. It requires a library card, and a participating library. I haven't been able to use it as Brooklyn and NYC don't seem to be participating, so it might in fact be terrible.

[0]https://www.kanopy.com/

It's really good, actually. I don't think they stream 4K but for most people that barely matters (screen either too small or too far away for it to make a huge difference).

They have a rotating selection of Criterion films. Heavy on documentaries (of the plays-the-festival-circuit variety, not the narrated-by-David-Attenborough variety) too, if you like that sort of thing. Usually several fairly-recent good movies as well. It's where I watched Ex Machina, for example. Kids' features really lacking, mostly low-quality stuff that would have been (maybe was?) bargain-bin straight-to-VHS material back in the day. No substitute for PBS or Disney+ for that purpose. Material for adults is much stronger.

Views are limited per-month but unless you consistently watch more than a movie a week on that service specifically you'll never have a problem with it.

I've got an address that qualifies for two library systems, and the one I'd normally use didn't have it, so I had to get a card for the one I'd practically never use otherwise to gain access to Kanopy.

I think Kanopy is pretty good, but it's the only streaming service I use regularly...other than YouTube.

Last I checked, Monterey Public Library has Kanopy and anyone who lives in California can get a card there.

I'm a big fan of Kanopy. It has roughly 1/3 of the Criterion Collection, and a good mix of classic + modern (mostly indie) movies

If in the US, HBO Max and the Criterion Channel will get you most of the way there.

HBO Max has a portion of Criterion's canon plus a lot of Turner Classic Movies (American movies 1930s-50s).

I'm the reverse of you - 90% of the time I watch films made before the 1960s, and these two services have a bunch of what I watch. Still gotta torrent or rent from iTunes every now and then though.

IMO, for whatever reason, the great comedies of the silent era are a lot more approachable to a modern viewer than the great dramas. Even the lesser comedies are usually quite watchable. Of the dramas I'd recommend The Passion of Joan of Arc over anything else I've seen, for someone who hasn't watched much from that time period. It's both excellent, and easier to watch (in one sense, I mean, obviously the subject is pretty rough) than most other non-comedy silent films.

Mubi.com frequently shows films from prior to the 1960s.

https://mubi.com/showing

Definitely check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is on YouTube and linked to in the article. Once you go back far enough, a lot of great films are in the public domain and you can find them on YouTube, Daily Motion, etc. Streaming services probably don't find much value in them for that reason.

Streaming services probably don't find much value in them for that reason.

I wonder why not. Imagine a Netflix marketing campaign claiming "we have all the great movies of the early 20th century on our streaming platform!" Maybe target senior citizens. They could just rip the movies from YouTube since they're in the public domain.

I don't know of it's okay to make this suggestion but many of these movies are available for download in common places. I personally have no qualms downloading movies from the 30s and 40s. It gets grayer for me in as the age gets younger.

To give a HN safe-ish link, here's entry #11, The Thin Man (1934) on the archive

https://archive.org/details/the-thin-man-william-powell-myrn...

If that's not a good encoding you can easily find other sources.

If that's against your policies, many of these are available on Amazon

When you say "streaming platforms" do you mean subscription platforms? While you have a lot of weird exceptions, in general a lot of older movies are available for a la carte rental streaming. (You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD rental service although the back catalog has degraded in recent years.)

Movies that are old enough to fall out of copyright are sometimes on Youtube. Certainly plenty of Buster Keaton.

If you have a local library, often they either have or can borrow these kinds of films.

I mentioned it in another comment, but LaCinetek is extremely good if it's available for you.

The catalog is based on the recommendations of famous directors, and you end up with a lot of very high quality movies.

you really should check out Kurosawa’s own films if you haven’t. He is easily a top five all time director. his films run laps around basically everything else.

I know BFI does a streaming service, can't vouch for the historical distribution but it's certainly this sort of stuff.

I've been surprised how many (copywrited) old movies I can find on YouTube. Individuals upload whole movies in lower resolutions and YouTube Movies itself has full length films in 720p and 1080p, many free with (easily blocked) ads.

You can also find full length public domain movies on archive.org.

Torrents are an option, without guilt when the creators have passed on.

I have only seen 12 of the movies on the list. I have 88 new movies to watch.

Kurosawa did the best Macbeth. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_Blood

Favorite movie lists are somewhat BS. At least for me, my favorite movies evolve constantly. It depends on what I've seen recently, what's been on the forefront of my mind, my mood, etc. Not to mention there's movies that I find fascinating that I may not love. Or movies that had a profound effect on me that I'm not jumping to rewatch. Someone like Kurosawa has likely seen thousands of movies. This is likely a small snapshot into a larger universe of his personal cinema.

Instead of lists, I love the Criterion setup of interviewing the person and having them talk about each film and how it impacted their lives. It's far more interesting to hear why Barry Jenkins loved La Cienaga than to see it on his list at #10.

Godfather II over Godfather?!?

Still, it looks like a worthwhile list to plunder.

I plundered a lot of the movie names dropped by Jerry Harvey in "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession." Imagine having such an eye for movies that you could watch "Heaven's Gate"-- considered the flop of flops at the time-- and surmise that it's probably a great movie that got cut poorly.

Even more impressive-- imagine having such credibility that you could convince an audience who yawned through 2.5 hours of "the most boring movie ever" to wade through 3 hours and 40 minutes of a longer cut of the same movie. He basically invented the "director's cut."

Godfather 2 > Godfather seems to be a pretty popular opinion although it's been so long since I watched either that I don't have a real opinion at this point.

I had a film class in college, and the instructor used Godfather 2 as a film better than the original.

At the time, I agreed, but not anymore.

Both are terrific.

I wonder if I will ever see another great film again though, and it’s not because I’m aging.

Well, here’s something to hope for, at least:

“In April 2019, Coppola announced that he plans to direct Megalopolis, which he had been developing for many years prior. Speaking to Deadline he said ‘[...] I plan this year to begin my longstanding ambition to make a major work utilizing all I have learned during my long career, beginning at age 16 doing theater, and that will be an epic on a grand scale, which I've titled Megalopolis’.”

I think the parallel story lines in Godfather 2 almost make it incomparable to 1. 2 is also a bit slower but I feel the screenplay warranted it.

They were supposed to be in chronological order. Still doesn't explain how II could be before I however.

An interesting website based on this concept is https://www.lacinetek.com/ : it's a website gathering recommendations from famous directors (including Kurosawa), and offering to rent the movies for streaming.

It includes mainly classic and high quality movies, and while it's a bit pricey compared to Netflix, I've yet to be disappointed by a selection. Picking a movie from there is the equivalent of eating in a nice restaurant : probably not something you'd do everyday, but definitely worth it once in a while.

Here's a list for clearer viewing, cover art etc.:

https://letterboxd.com/luxpir/list/kurosawas-top-100/

What a terrible list. It doesn't even have Seven Samurai on it!

Three movies for freedom lovers:

* Logan's Run ... It really is safe outside

* Demolition Man ... "You see, according to Cocteau's plan I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read."

* Gattaca ... "I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science."

Seems like this is ordered by year, so the first isn't necessarily his most favorite.

I've got 37, wonder how many films did anybody else get, who cared to count?

Correct me if I am wrong ... but I am under the impression that Kurosawa does not make "movies". He makes "films". The kind that makes people mad when you fall asleep a quarter of the way in.

You're wrong.

For me, Ikiru and Dersu Uzala are the best, but the usual ones mentioned are great too. Some I didn't see mentioned on this page yet that I also really like: One Wonderful Sunday (1947), Red Beard (1965), Dodesukaden (Clickety-Clack, 1970). First one I saw was The Hidden Fortress (1958), remade in the west as Star Wars – and Yoda, it seems to me, is Dersu Uzala.

I think his movies seem so good because everything about them is good. Screenplay, camera angles, editing, actors, music..etc.

> I think his movies seem so good because everything about them is good.

Seems to me you just made my point. :-)

I must have missed the greatness while sleeping.

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