I’ve made a list of my personal top 100 films for every five years for a while now. Actually, this is the third time, so that’s ten years. Why do I do this? Because I’m interested in how my tastes change and a bit of introspection is never bad for you.

I also like the process. I enjoy sitting back and thinking whether I actually enjoy La Strada or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World more. In a way its absurd to compare so disparate movies, but who cares. Its all for fun anyhow.

Why should you be interested? Well, that’s a bit more problematic.

There are plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t. After all, this is a very subjective list. Its going to be very reflective of one random nerd’s tastes.

On the other hand, this particular nerd watches a lot of movies, and watches them from all over the world. Sure, American films are going to be the most populous on this list (around half of the movies), but it does include movies from plenty of countries. Besides the traditional and current power houses of Italy, Japan, Germany, UK, France, India, China and South Korea, the list includes films from such places as Romania, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Belgium, Denmark, Canada and Hungary. That’s seventeen different countries. I’ll probably write more about my thoughts on the Hollywood vs. indie or American vs. the rest of the world in the “post-game”.

You won’t agree with all, or perhaps even most, of the choices (there won’t be Star Wars or Godfather on the list, or their sequels), but if you agree with some, perhaps you can use this list as a sort of watching guide, perhaps not. That depends wholly on how much you agree with me.

Of course, since this is my personal list, and I’m not trying to make an objective list of best or most influential movies. The list is going to be highly concentrated on movies from the 90s and 2000s, because those are the movies that I feel are closest to me. This doesn’t mean there aren’t older films on the list (actually, the oldest film is from 1920 and there are altogether six movies from the 20s), its just that they aren’t in as much focus as the newer films.

Partly this is because the pure technique of filmmaking has of course evolved (and devolved in some ways, but mostly evolved) over the years. On the other hand, modern filmmakers just aren’t allowed to do some of the things they did back in the day, and that gives a helping hand to many of the older movies.

I also like weirder films, which probably shows, although not many of them would show up on something like