Making the list.

It occurred to me recently that there are a marvelous number of films I've never seen. It all began because of an impetuous trip to rent a movie one night with a friend who was staying with me in San Francisco. The classics section is often the least populated and probably the least visited part of a video rental store, and since most people don't even rent movies from stores anymore, I doubt most people even see these films while they're browsing. Instead we add movies to a queue that seems endlessly filled with films we may never even get through to the end. Of course there's nothing wrong with this method, it's just less likely that we'll spot films that we may not think of renting simply because we have no idea they exist.

So what happened to me in the classics section that night? I picked up a film called The Apartment. I'd heard the name before, maybe even watched a clip of it in a film history class in college, but I didn't really know anything about it. I read the back and was immediately intrigued, something about a man whose apartment near Central Park is used by his work superiors to entertain their mistresses in exchange for undeserved promotions at the office. For 1960 this sounded pretty risque, but then again, I was just hanging onto a stereotype of what I thought films were before 1970.

My friend wasn't interested in the black-and-white, best picture winner from fifty years ago, but there was no way I could put it back on the shelf. After my friend's stay was over, I had the film to myself and I was so glad that I did; The Apartment sparked a fire inside my heart, the place where all the films I love are tucked away into and I wanted to find out what else I had been missing.

And all this leads us here to this blog. I'm starting this as a record and a forum for the AFI list of the top 100 Films (The Apartment, #80), revised in 2008 for the 100 year anniversary of narrative filmmaking. I'm going to watch each film on the list, starting with Ben Hur at number 100 and work all the way down to Citizen Kane, sitting pretty in slot 001.

My goal is to post every day about a new film. Today is not yet the first day, but the introduction; the prologue. So you can always see what lies ahead, or if you feel inclined to go along with me on this ridiculous venture, here I post the list of these 100 films, from beginning, to end:

100 Ben-Hur 1959
99 Toy Story 1995
98 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942
97 Blade Runner 1982
96 Do the Right Thing 1989
95 The Last Picture Show 1971
94 Pulp Fiction 1994
93 The French Connection 1971
92 Goodfellas 1990
91 Sophie's Choice 1982
90 Swing Time 1936
89 The Sixth Sense 1999
88 Bringing Up Baby 1938
87 12 Angry Men 1957
86 Platoon 1986
85 A Night at the Opera 1935
84 Easy Rider 1969
83 Titanic 1997
82 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927
81 Spartacus 1960
80 The Apartment 1960
79 The Wild Bunch 1969
78 Modern Times 1936
77 All the President's Men 1976
76 Forrest Gump 1994
75 In the Heat of the Night 1967
74 The Silence of the Lambs 1991
73 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969
72 The Shawshank Redemption 1994
71 Saving Private Ryan 1998
70 A Clockwork Orange 1971
69 Tootsie 1982
68 Unforgiven 1992
67 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966
66 Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
65 The African Queen 1951
64 Network 1976
63 Cabaret 1972
62 American Graffiti 1973
61 Sullivan's Travels 1941
60 Duck Soup 1933
59 Nashville 1975
58 The Gold Rush 1925
57 Rocky 1976
56 Jaws 1975
55 North by Northwest 1959
54 MASH 1970
53 The Deer Hunter 1978
52 Taxi Driver 1976
51 West Side Story 1961
50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001
49 Intolerance 1916
48 Rear Window 1954
47 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
46 It Happened One Night 1934
45 Shane 1953
44 The Philadelphia Story 1940
43 Midnight Cowboy 1969
42 Bonnie and Clyde 1967
41 King Kong 1933
40 The Sound of Music 1965
39 Dr. Strangelove 1964
38 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948
37 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946
36 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957
35 Annie Hall 1977
34 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937
33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1975
32 The Godfather Part II 1974
31 The Maltese Falcon 1941
30 Apocalypse Now 1979
29 Double Indemnity 1944
28 All About Eve 1950
27 High Noon 1952
26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939
25 To Kill a Mockingbird 1962
24 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982
23 The Grapes of Wrath 1940
22 Some Like It Hot 1959
21 Chinatown 1974
20 It's a Wonderful Life 1946
19 On the Waterfront 1954
18 The General 1927
17 The Graduate 1967
16 Sunset Boulevard 1950
15 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
14 Psycho 1960
13 Star Wars 1977
12 The Searchers 1956
11 City Lights 1931
10 The Wizard of Oz 1939
9 Vertigo 1958
8 Schindler's List 1993
7 Lawrence of Arabia 1962
6 Gone with the Wind 1939
5 Singin' in the Rain 1952
4 Raging Bull 1980
3 Casablanca 1942
2 The Godfather 1972
1 Citizen Kane 1941