My top 25 movies

I was mentioning recently that I should attempt to make a top 25 of my favourite movies. Now, before anything else, I should say that this is a very dynamic top and hence, it is my top 25 movies at this very moment: for instance, a year ago it looked a bit different and there are still dozens of movies (both old and very recent) on my "must see" list (I really did not see that many...), which could jump anywhere in this top (by the way, your suggestions are very welcome!). Next to that, this ranking below is not very rigid: if you see a movie for the second, third...nth time, you might get to quite different conclusions about it. And last, but not least important, each of the movies in this top are certainly my number 1 on certain specific criteria, otherwise they wouldn't have made it on the list to start with! Thus, the relative ranking of the movies below is flexible and, in fact, I divided my top 25 in five sections of five movies each, so that I do not have to rank the movies in each of the five-movie categories (and even so, jumps between categories, according to which characteristics receive more weight, are very possible). And a (obvious) note: the ranking of the movies does not in any way imply a ranking of the actors in the leading roles, for instance, or a ranking of my favourite movie directors, in general (for those we need a different analysis...).

For each of the movies, I'll place links next to the corresponding entries, on both IMDb (a) and RottenTomatoes (b), so that everybody can immediately follow them and eventually read more.

• places 1-5: Amadeus (a, b); The Godfather I (a, b); Dangerous Liaisons (a, b); Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (a, b); Waking Life (a, b)
• places 6-10: The Shawshank Redemption (a, b); Pulp Fiction (a, b); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (a, b); Underground (a, b); Hable con Ella (a, b)
• places 11-15: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (a, b); Léon (a, b); A Clockwork Orange (a, b); Crna macka, beli macor (a, b); Se7en (a, b);
• places 16-20: Memento (a, b); Donnie Darko (a, b); American Beauty (a, b); The Pianist (a, b); Apocalypse Now (a, b);
• places 21-25: Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (a, b); Trainspotting (a, b); Snatch (a, b); Good Night, and Good Luck (a, b); La Vita è Bella (a, b);

In a future post I will continue with the next 25 places (which- of course- could eventually replace movies from the list above; the (cumulated) differences among the first 50 positions are after all very small).

Update, 21st of March: As I stated also in the comments section below, as answer to some of the excellent suggestions (in this particular case, of Dan, who followed my example- I am contagious :-) - and published his own top of favourite movies), I discovered that I really left out one of my all time favourite movies and that was Leaving Las Vegas (IMDb entry, RottenTomatoes entry). So the changes are the following: Leaving Las Vegas enters on places 6-10; as a consequence, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind goes down to places 11-15, Crna macka, beli macor goes down to places 16-20, Donnie Darko goes down to places 20-25 and Good Night, and Good Luck is pushed on the immediate next level, thus I will enter it again when I will continue my top from position 26 onwards. It is very unlikely that I've omitted something else, in top 10 at least, among the movies that I have seen. Of course the most important list will be the one of "must see movies- greatest potential", which I will also publish in the near future and where the comments of my readers have been already very helpful.