Top 10s

*IMDB World Premiere Dates*
Some of these lists are thin or incomplete.

2018

1. "Come Along With Me"- Adventure Time (Adam Muto) 
2. A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper)
3. Support the Girls (Andrew Haigh)
4. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)
5. Liz and the Blue Bird (Naoko Yamada)
6. Devilman Crybaby (Masaaki Yuasa)
7. Beychella (Beyonce')
8. The Mule (Clint Eastwood)
9. The Tale (Jennifer Fox)
10. Leave No Trace (Debra Granik)

2017

1. Twin Peaks (David Lynch)
2. Milla (Valerie Massadian)
3. Ladybird (Greta Gerwig) 
4. Strangely Ordinary, This Devotion (Dani Leventhal and Sheliah Wilson)
5. Good Time (Josh and Benny Safdie)
6. Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
7. In This Corner of the World (Sunao Katabuchi)
8. Your Name (Makato Shinkai)
9. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Paul W.S. Anderson)
10. Strong Island (Yance Ford)

2016

1. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
2. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
3. Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
4. Lemonade (Beyonce)
5.  Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
6. O.J. Made in America (Ezra Edelman)
7. Silence (Martin Scorsese)
8. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Femon Craig)
9. Sully (Clint Eastwood)
10. Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)

2015

1. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
4. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig)
5. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
6. Blackhat (Michael Mann)
7. 88:88 (Isiah Medina)
8. Creed (Ryan Coogler
9. By the Sea (Angelina Jolie) 
10. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)

2014

1. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata)
2. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
3. Pompeii (Paul W.S. Anderson)
4. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To)
6. Goodbye to Language 3D (Jean-Luc Godard)
7. Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry) 
8. Heaven Knows What (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie)
9. As the Gods Will (Takashi Miike)
10. Lucy (Luc Besson)

2013

1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
2. Top of the Lake (Jane Campion)
3. The Immigrant (James Gray)
4. Bastards (Claire Denis)
5. Blind Detective (Johnnie To)
6. Drug War (Johnnie To)
7. White Reindeer (Zach Clark)
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Bros.)
9. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)
10. The World's End (Edgar Wright)

2012

1. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig)
2. Romancing in Thin Air (Johnnie To)
3. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
4. Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosada)
5. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
6. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
7. Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson)
8. The Unspeakable Act (Dan Sallitt)
9. Ace Attorney (Takashi Miike)
10. The Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie)

2011

1.  Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
3. Girl Walk//All Day (Jacob Krupnick)
4. The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)
5. Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Johnnie To)
6. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
7. Weekend (Andrew Haigh)
8. The Deep Blue Sea (Terrence Davies)
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
10. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

2010

1. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
2. Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)
3. Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)
4. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
5. Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)
6. Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)
7. Lady Blue Shanghai (David Lynch)
8. Resident Evil: Afterlife (Paul W.S. Anderson)
9. Poetry (Lee Chang Dong)
10. Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Joe)

2009

1. Bright Star (Jane Campion)
2. Halloween II: Director's Cut (Rob Zombie)
3. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
4. Alle Anderen (Maren Ade)
5. Adventureland (Greg Mottola)
6. The House of the Devil (Ti West)
7. Whip It! (Drew Barrymoore)
8. Two Lovers (James Gray)
9. A Perfect Getaway (David Twohy)
10. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi)

2008

1. Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)
2. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
3. Sparrow (Johnnie To)
4. 35 Rhums (Claire Denis)
5. Martyrs (Pascal Laugier)
6. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
7. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
8. Speed Racer (Lily and Lana Wachowski)
9. My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-Wai)
10. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)

2007

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
2. Waitress (Adrienne Shelly)
3. Zodiac (David Fincher)
4. Inside (Julien Maury, Alexandre Bustillo)
5. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
6. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
7. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
8. Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright) 
9. The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat)
10. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly)

2006

1. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
2. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
3. The Lake House  (Alejandro Agresti)
4. Syndromes and a Century (Joe)
5. Triad Election (Johnnie To)
6. Deja Vu (Tony Scott)
7. Prince's Superbowl XLI Halftime Show (Prince)
8. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
9. Friends with Money (Nicole Holofcener)
10. Silent Hill (Christophe Gans)

2005

1.  Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
2. Domino (Tony Scott)
3. Election (Johnnie To)
4. The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie)
5. Three Times (Hsiao-Hsien Hou)
6. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
7. Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter)
8. Dave Chappelle's Block Party (Michel Gondry)
9. Fever Pitch (The Farrely Brothers)
10. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)

2004

1. Innocence (Lucille Hadzihalilovic)
2. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
3. Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)
4. Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)
5. Notre Musique (Jean-Luc Godard)
6. Collateral (Michael Mann)
7. Tomorrow We Move (Chantal Akerman)
8. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino)
9. Man on Fire (Tony Scott)
10. Birth (Jonathan Glazer)

2003

1. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
2. The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette)
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
4. Running on Karma (Johnnie To)
5. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
6. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-Ho)
7. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
8. In the Cut (Jane Campion)
9. Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Anderson)
10. PTU (Johnnie To)

2002

1. Vendredi Soir (Claire Denis)
2. Funny Haha (Andrew Bujalski)
3. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)
4. Rabbits (David Lynch)
5. Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (Takashi Miike)
6. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
7. Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysoon)
8. Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
9. May (Lucky McKee)
10. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

2001

1. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
2. Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat)
3. The Happiness of the Katakuris (Takashi Miike)
4. Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun)
5. Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon)
6. Millennium Mambo (Hsiao-hsien Hou)
7. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
8. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
9. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
10. Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

2000

1. In the Mood For Love (Kar-Wai Wong)
2. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
3. The Day I Became a Woman (Marzieh Meshkini)
4. DOA 2: Birds (Takashi Miike)
5. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
6. Love and Basketball (Gina Price-Bythewood)
7. La Captive (Chantal Akerman)
8. Needing You (Johnnie To)
9. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
10. Suzhou River (Le You)

1999

1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
3. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
4. Adolescence of Utena (Kunihiko Ikuhara)
5. Rosetta (The Dardennes)
6. Audition (Takashi Miike)
7. The Matrix (Lily and Lana Wachowski) 
8. The Mission (Johnnie To)
9. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch) 
10. I'll Take You There (Adrienne Shelly)

1998

1. Histoire(s) du Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard) 
2. Fucking Amal (Lukas Moodysson)
3. Bride of Chucky (Ronny Yu)
4. Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo)
5. The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen)
6. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
7. The Flowers of Shanghai (Hsiao-Hsien Hou)
8. Sombre (Phillipe Grandieux)
9. Small Soldiers  (Joe Dante)
10. Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore (Sarah Jacobson)

1997

1. The End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno)
2. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)
3. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) 
4. Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven) 
5. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
6. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (David Mirkin)
8. Rainy Dog (Takashi Miike)
9. The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
10. All Over Me (Alex Sichel)

1996

1. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
2. Bound (Lana and Lily Wachowski)
3. Crash (David Cronenberg)
4. Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen)
5. Fudoh: The New Generation (Takashi Miike)
6. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky)
7. Nenette et Boni (Claire Denis)
8. Sudden Manhattan (Adrienne Shelly)
9. Scream (Wes Craven) 
10. Small Deaths (Lynne Ramsay)

1995

1. The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood)
2. Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
3. Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette)
4. Heat (Michael Mann)
5. [SAFE] (Todd Haynes)
6. Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven)
7. Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Ishii) 
8. Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!!! The Heist (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
9. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)
10. The Blade (Hark Tsui)

1994

1. Jeanne la Pucelle (Jacques Rivette)
2. Little Women (Gillian Armstrong) 
3. Portrait of a Young Girl in Brussels at the End of the 60s (Chantal Akerman)
4. Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
5. Chungking Express (Kar-Wai Wong)
6. In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter)
7. Speed (Jan De Bont)
8. Legend of Drunken Master (Kar-Lau Leung)
9. I Can't Sleep (Claire Denis)
10. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

1993

1. Green Snake (Hark Tsui) 
2. The Piano (Jane Campion)
3. Blue (Derek Jarman)
4. D'est (Chantal Akerman)
5. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood)
6. Matinee (Joe Dante)
7. Je Vous Salue Sarajevo (Jean-Luc Godard)
8. "Blackout" (David Lynch)
9. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)
10. The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park)

1992

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch)
2. The Long Day Closes (Terrence Davies)
3. Nitrate Kisses (Barbara Hammer)
4. Malcolm X (Spike Lee)
5. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
6. Death Becomes Her (Robert Zemeckis)  
7. Deep Cover (Bill Duke)
8. Orlando (Sally Potter)
9. Hard Boiled (John Woo)
10. Full Contact (Ringo Lam)

1991

1. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
2. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
3. The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
4. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)
5. Barton Fink (Joel and Ethan Coen)
6. Flirting (John Duigan) 
7. Dogfight (Nancy Savoca)
8. My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
9. The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski)
10. Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata)

1990

1. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
2. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
3. Wild at Heart (David Lynch)
4. An Angel at my Table (Jane Campion)
5. Blue Steel (Kathryn Bigelow)  
6. Privilege (Yvonne Rainer) 
7. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
8. No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis)
9. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
10. To Sleep with Anger (Charles Burnett)

1989

1. Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
2. Gang of Four (Jacques Rivette)
3. Sweetie (Jane Campion)
4. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
5. The Killer (John Woo)
6. A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Hark Tsui) 
7. The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley)
8. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto)  
9. For All Mankind (Al Reinert)
10. Heathers (Michael Lehmann)

1988

1. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
2. School on Fire (Ringo Lam)
3. Die Hard (John McTiernan)
4. Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
5. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
6. Hairspray (John Waters)
7. Chocolat (Claire Denis)
8. The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese)
9. Akira (Katsuhio Otomo)
10. The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan)

1987

1. Broadcast News (James L. Brooks)
2. Sign O' The Times (Prince)
3. Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter)
4. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes)
5. RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven)
6. City on Fire (Ringo Lam)
7. Where Is My Friend's Home? (Abbas Kiarostami)
8. Two Friends (Jane Campion)
9. King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Stagefright: Aquarius (Michele Soavi) 

1986

1. Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter)
2. The Terrorizers (Edward Yang)
3. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
4. The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer)
5. Working Girls (Lizzie Borden)
6. The Fly (David Cronenberg)
7. Peking Opera Blues (Hark Tsui)
8. Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)
9. Manhunter (Michael Mann) 
10. "Mountains" (Prince)

1985

1. Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii)
2. Police Story (Jackie Chan)
3. Tampopo (Juzo Itami)
4. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
5. Taipei Story (Edward Yang) 
6. "Raspberry Beret" (Prince)
7. Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
8. Vagabond (Agnes Varda)
9. Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Siedelman) 

1984

1. Starman (John Carpenter) 
2. Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hung)
3. Purple Rain (Albert Magnoli)
4. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme) 
5. Blood Simple (Joel Coen) 
6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)
7. When the Tenth Month Comes (Dang Nhat Minh)
8. The Terminator (James Cameron)
9. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
10. A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)

1983

1. Silkwood (Mike Nichols)
2. One Day Pina Asked (Chantal Akerman)
3. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
4. Christine (John Carpenter)
5. Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)
6. Sheer Madness (Margarethe Von Trotta)
7. First Name: Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard)
8. Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz)
9. Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden)
10. Possibly in Michigan (Cecelia Condit)

1982

1. The Thing (John Carpenter)
2. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman)
3. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
4. Toute Une Nuit (Chantal Akerman)
5. The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones)
6. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)
7. Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong)
8. White Dog (Samuel Fuller)
9. Tenebrae (Dario Argento)
10. Next of Kin (Tony Williams) 

1981

1. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
2. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
3. They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich)
4. Escape From New York (John Carpenter)
5. The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
6. Le Pont Du Nord (Jacques Rivette)
7. Girl Pack (Lisa Baumgardner)
8. The Great Muppet Caper (Jim Henson)
9. Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette)
10. The Road Warrior (George Miller)

1980

1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
2. "Breathing" (Kate Bush)
3. Melvin & Howard (Jonathan Demme)
4. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
5. Inferno (Dario Argento)
6. Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato)
7. The Young Master (Jackie Chan)
8. The Fog (John Carpenter)
9. Nine to Five (Colin Higgins)
10. Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted)

 1979

1. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
2. Alien (Ridley Scott)
3. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong)
4. The Muppet Movie (Jim Henson)
5. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
6. The Castle of Cagliostro (Hayao Miyazaki)
7. Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
8. Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht (Werner Herzog)
9. The Brood (David Cronenberg)
10. Wise Blood (John Huston)

 1978

1. The Meetings of Anna (Chantal Akerman)
2. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau-Kar Leung)
3. Girlfriends (Claudia Weill)
4. Halloween (John Carpenter)
5. Alucarda (Juan Lopez Moctezuma)
6. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
7. Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima)
8. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman)
9. Renaldo & Clara (Bob Dylan)
10. An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky)

 1977

1. News From Home (Chantal Akerman)
2. Suspiria (Dario Argento)
3. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
4. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)
5. Eraserhead (David Lynch) 
6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
7. 3 Women (Robert Altman)
8. Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
9. Martin (George A. Romero)
10. Star Wars (George Lucas)

1976

1. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
2. Noroit (Jacques Rivette) 
3. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
4. A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat)
5. Harlan County, U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
6. Duelle (Jacques Rivette)
7. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter
8. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May)
9. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood)
10. Challenge of the Masters (Kar-Lau Leung)

 1975

1. Jeanne Dielman: 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
2. Nashville (Robert Altman)
3. Love and Death (Woody Allen)
4. Black Moon (Louis Malle)
5. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman)
7. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
8. The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes)
9. Katie Tippel (Paul Verhoeven)
10. Graveyard of Honor (Kinji Fukusaku)

1974

1. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)
2.  Je, Tu, Il, Elle (Chantal Akerman)
3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
4. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
5. Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer)
6. Female Trouble (John Waters)
7. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbender)
8. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)
9. The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula)
10. Film About a Woman Who... (Yvonne Rainer)

1973

1. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Shunya Ito)
2. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita)
3. F For Fake (Orson Welles)
4. The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice)
5. The Yakuza Papers, Vol 2.: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (Kinji Fukasaku)
6. Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (D.A. Pennebaker)
7. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
8. Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg)
9. Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich)
10. Coffy (Jack Hill)

1972

1. Hotel Monterey (Chantal Akerman)
2. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbender)
3. Pink Flamingos (John Waters)
4. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito)
5. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito)
6. Across 110th Street (Barry Shear)
7. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman)
8. La Chambre (Chantal Akerman)
9. The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May)
10. What's Up Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich

1971

1. Klute (Alan J. Pakula)
2. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich)
3. A Touch of Zen (King Hu)
4. Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff)
5. Dirty Harry (Don Siegel) 
6. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman)
7. Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
8. A New Leaf (Elaine May)
9. Two Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman)
10. The Devils (Ken Russell)

1970

1. Wanda (Barbara Loden)
2. Gimme Shelter (Charlotte Zwerin, Albert and David Maysles)
3. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer)
4. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires)
5.  The Fruit of the Paradise (Vera Chytilova)
6. Witches Hammer (Otakar Vavra)
7. Girly (Freddie Francis)
8. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento)
9. Brewster McCloud (Robert Altman)
10. And God Said to Cain (Antonio Margheriti)

1969

1. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Sydney Pollack)
2. Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto)
3. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Nagisa Oshima) 
4. L'amour Fou (Jacques Rivette)
5. Procile (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
6. Tenchu! (Hideo Gosha) 
7. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper) 
8. Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler)
9. Une Femme Douce (Robert Bresson)
10. Pit Stop (Jack Hill)

1968

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)
3. Death by Hanging (Nagisa Oshima)
4. High School (Frederick Wiseman)
5. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci)
6. Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker) 
7. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)
8. The Immortal Story (Orson Welles)
9. Dracula has Risen from the Grave (Freddie Francis)
10. The Golden Swallow (Chang Cheh)

1967

1. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy)
3. Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi)
4. Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (Nagisa Oshima)
5. Two For the Road (Stanley Donen)
6. Playtime (Jacques Tati)
7. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
8. Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman)
9. A Countess from Hong Kong (Charlie Chaplin)
10. Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker)

1966

1. Daisies (Vera Chytilova)
2. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
3. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
4. Breakaway (Bruce Conner)
5. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene)
6. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki)
7. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
8. The Nun (Jacques Rivette)
9. Come Drink With Me (King Hu)
10. Django (Sergio Corbucci)

1965

1.  Le Bonheur (Agnes Varda)
2. Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
3.  Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles)
4. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer)
5. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez)
7. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
8. Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman)
9. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Pleasures of the Flesh (Nagisa Oshima)

1964

1. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy) 
3. Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
4. Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
5. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
6. Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava) 
7. The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman)
8. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
9. Nadja in Paris (Eric Rohmer)
10. Mothra vs. Godzilla (Ishiro Honda)

1963

1. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Haunting (Robert Wise)
3. The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad)
4. Charade (Stanley Donen)
5. Mothlight (Stan Brakhage)
6. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini) 
7. Black Sabbath (Mario Bava)
8. Suzanne's Career (Eric Rohmer)
9. I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi)
10. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)

1962

1. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
2. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda)
3. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
4. The Tale of Zatoichi (Kenji Misumi)
5. Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
6. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
8. The Exterminating Angel (Louis Bunuel)
9. The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Karel Zamen)
10. La Jatee (Chris Marker)

1961

1. Something Wild (Jack Garfein)
2. Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
3. Cash on Demand (Quentin Lawrence)
4. Paris Belongs to Us (Jacques Rivette)
5. The Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman)
6. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa)
7. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais) 
8. A Woman is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
9. The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
10.  The Children's Hour (William Wyler)

1960

1. Eyes without a Face (Georges Franju)
2. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. L'aaventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
4. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
5. The Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau)
6. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
7. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
8. Black Sunday (Mario Bava)
9. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. The Brides of Dracula (Terrence Fisher)
    

1959

1.  Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage)
   
2. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
3. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
4. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
5. North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Nobuo Nakagawa)
7. Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu)
8. Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi)
9. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terrence Fisher)
10. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais) 

1958

1. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Bell, Book and Candle (Richard Quine)
4. Murder By Contract (Irving Lerner)
5. The Magician (Ingmar Bergman)
6. Horror of Dracula (Terrence Fisher)
7. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)
8. The Diary of a Pregnant Woman (Agnes Varda)
9. Underworld Beauty (Seijun Suzuki) 
10. The Revenge of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher

1957

1. The Cranes are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov)
   
2. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin)
4. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander MacKendrick)
5. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller)
6. A King in New York (Charlie Chaplin)
7. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
8. The Curse of Frankenstein (Terrence Fisher)
9. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
10. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur)

1956

1. Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
2. The Searchers (John Ford)
3. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse)
5. The Girl Can't Help It! (Frank Tashlin)
6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegal) 
7. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray) 
8. Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur)
9. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
10. Deduce, you Say (Chuck Jones)

1955

1. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
2. All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
3. Lola Montes (Max Ophuls) 
4. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
5. Rififi (Jules Dassin)
6. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clozout)
7. It's Always Fair Weather (Stanley Donen)
8. Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin) 
9. To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles)

 1954

1. Gojira (Ishiro Honda)
2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Voyage to Italy (Roberto Rossellini) 
4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
5. Sansho the Baliff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
6. A Star is Born (George Cukor)
7. Dial M For Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
9. Sabrina (Billy Wilder)
10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold)

1953

1. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
2. The Earrings of Madame De... (Max Ophuls)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
5. White Mane (Albert Lamorisse)
6. The Tell-Tale Heart (Ted Parlamee) 
7. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
8. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
9. The Bigamist (Ida Lupino)
10. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino)

1952

1. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly)
2. Limelight (Charlie Chaplin)
3. Le Plaisir (Max Ophuls)
4. Othello (Orson Welles)
5. Trick or Treat (Jack Hannah)
6. Feed the Kitty (Chuck Jones)
7. Way of Gaucho (Jacques Tourneur)
8. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann)
9. Rabbit Seasoning (Chuck Jones)
10. N/A

1951

1. Hard, Fast & Beautiful (Ida Lupino)
2. The Tales of Hoffmann (Powell and Pressburger)
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
4. Anne of the Indies (Jacques Tourneur)
5. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks)
7. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
8. Alice in Wonderland (Various)
9. Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati)
10. A Streetcat Named Desire (Elia Kazan)

1950

1. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
2. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau)
3. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
4. Stars in my Crown (Jacques Tourneur)
5. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder)
6. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis)
7. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann)
8. The Flame and the Arrow (Jacques Tourneur) 
9. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
10. Outrage (Ida Lupino)

1949

1. Caught (Max Ophuls) 
2. The Third Man (Carol Reed)
3. Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger)
4. Not Wanted (Ida Lupino)
5. I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks)
6. On the Town (Stanley Donen) 
7. Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati)
8. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford)
9. Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis)

1948

1. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
2. Red River (Howard Hawks)
3. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls)
4. Woman (Keisuke Kinoshita)
5. Women of the Night (Kenji Mizoguchi)
6. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa)
7. Macbeth (Orson Welles)
8. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
9. Meditation on Violence (Maya Deren)
10. The Storm Within (Jean Cocteau)

1947

1. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
2. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
3. Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin)
4. Desire Me (Unconfirmed) 
5. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles)
6. Dark Passage (Delmer Davies)
7. Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding)
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1946

1. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
2.  The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks) 
3. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur)
4. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau)
5. The Cat Concerto (William Hannah and Joseph Barbera)
6. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
7. So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis)
8. The Stranger (Orson Welles)
9. Bedlam (Mark Robson)
   
10. N/A

1945

1. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
2. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise) 
3. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer)
4. Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl)
5. My Name is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis)
6. Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson)
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1944

1. At Land (Maya Deren)
2. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincent Minnelli)
3. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
4. A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
5. Laura (Otto Preminger)
6. Gaslight (George Cukor) 
7. The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise)
8. Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock)
9. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
10. Witch's Cradle (Maya Deren)

1943

1. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren) 
2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
3. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
4. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
6. Porky Pig's Feat. (Frank Tashlin)
7. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer)
8. Sanshiro Sugata (Akira Kurosawa)
9. The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur)
10. The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson)

1942

1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
4. I Married a Witch (Rene Clair)
5. This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle)
6. Bambi (Various)
7. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturgess)
8. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock)
9. N/A
10. N/A

1941

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
2. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
3. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. The Wolf-Man (George Waggner)
5. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturgess)
6. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1940

1. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
3. Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner)
4. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
5. The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
6. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)
7. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
8. Fantasia (Various)
9. N/A
10. N/A

1939

1. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks)
2. The Wizard of Oz (Various)
3. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford)
4. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming)
5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
6. Stagecoach (John Ford)
7. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
8. The Women (George Cukor)
9. N/A
10. N/A

1938

1. Mickey's Trailer (Ben Sharpsteen)
2. Wholly Smoke (Frank Tashlin)
3. Vivacious Lady (George Stevens)
4. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. Daffy-duck & Egghead (Tex Avery)
6. Brave Little Tailor (William Roberts) 
7. Boat Builders (Ben Sharpsteen)
8. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)
9. N/A
10. N/A

1937

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand)
2. Porky's Duck Hunt (Tex Avery)
3. Porky's Romance (Frank Tashlin)
4. The Case of the Stuttering Pig (Frank Tashlin)
5. Paneless Window Washer (Dave Fleischer) 
6. Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali-Baba's Forty Thieves (Dave Fleischer)
7. A Star is Born (William A. Wellman)
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1936

1. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir)
2. Somewhere in Dreamland (Dave Fleischer)
3. Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
4. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (Dave Fleischer)
5. The Blow Out (Tex Avery)
6. The Only Son (Yasujiro Ozu)
7. I Love to Singa (Tex Avery) 
8. Dracula's Daughter (Lambert Hillyer)
9. Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi)
10. Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi)

1935

1. The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)
2. The Band Concert (Wilfred Jackson) 
3. King of the Mardi Gras (Dave Fleischer)
4. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. Top Hat (Mark Sandrich)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

 1934

1. The Scarlett Empress (Josef Von Sternberg)
2. The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer)
3. It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
4. The Goddess (Yonggang Wu)
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1933

1. The Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn Leroy)
2. 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon)
3. Snow White (Dave Fleischer)
4. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
5. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper)
6. Betty Boop's May Party (Dave Fleischer)
7. Is My Palm Read? (Dave Fleischer)
8. The Invisible Man (James Whale)
9. Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions (Dave Fleischer)
10. The Old Man of the Mountain (Dave Fleischer)

1932

1. Shanghai Express (Josef Von Sternberg)
2. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch) 
3. Minnie the Moocher (Dave Fleischer)
4. Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer)
5. What Price Hollywood? (George Cukor)
6. Betty Boop M.D. (Dave Fleischer)
7. A Hunting We Will Go (Dave Fleischer)
8. That Old Dark House (James Whale)
9. Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton)
10. Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding)

1931

1. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)
2. Dishonored (Josef Von Sternberg) 
3. Madchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan and Carl Froelich)
4. M. (Fritz Lang)
5. Frankenstein (James Whale)
6. Bimbo's Initiation (Dave Fleischer & Grim Natwick) 
7. Dizzy Red Riding Hood (Dave Fleischer)
8. Dracula (Tod Browning)
9. Tokyo Chorus (Yasujiro Ozu)
10. N/A

1930

1. Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau)
2. Morocco (Josef Von Sternberg)
3. The Blue Angel (Josef Von Sternberg) 
4. Swing You Sinners! (Dave Fleischer)
5. Monte Carlo (Ernst Lubitsch)
6. L'age Dor (Luis Bunuel)
7. Dizzy Dishes (Dave Fleischer) 
8. Barnacle Bill (Dave Fleischer)
9. The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard)
10. Hellbound Train (James & Eloyce Gist)

1929

1. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)
2. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dahli)
3. Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Rain (Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken)
5. Days of Youth (Yasujiro Ozu)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1928

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer)
2. Koko's Earth Control (Dave Fleischer)
3. Steamboat Bill Jr. (Buster Keaton)
4. The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein)
5. Steamboat Willie (Ub Iwerks)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1927

1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau)
2. L'invitation au Voyage (Germaine Dulac)
3. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
4. The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1926

1. Faust (F.W. Murnau)
2. The General (Buster Keaton)
3. A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugaza)
4. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lottie Reineger, Karl Coch)
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1925

1. Battleship Potempkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
2. Strike! (Sergei Eisenstein)
3. The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)
4. Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1924

1. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
2. Ballet Mecanique (Fernand Ledger, Dudley Murphey)
3. N/A
4. N/A
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1923

1. Safety Last! (Fred C. Newmayer, Sam Taylor)
2. A Woman of Paris (Charlie Chaplin)
3. N/A
4. N/A
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1922

1. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)
2. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Benjamin Christensen)
3. Bubbles (Dave Fleischer)
4. Jumping Beans (Dave Fleischer)
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1921

1. The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjolstrom)
2. The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
3. Invisible Ink (Dave Fleischer)
4. Modeling (Dave Fleischer)
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A

1920

1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)
2. Leaves out of the Book of Satan (Carl Th. Dreyer)
3. N/A
4. N/A
5. N/A
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A 

*There are other films I have seen before 1920, but compiling a list of those seems unreasonable at the moment. They may be added later. Feel free to recommend movies (especially for weaker lists!)

Defining My Girlhood

[TW: Abuse]

 My childhood was destroyed and turned into something that damaged me by a patriarchal societal upbringing that intersected with transphobic views that smothered my reality and my possibility to find myself in a haze of physical, psychological and emotional abuse from parents and others. I never had a childhood for these reasons, much less a girlhood, but I'm relearning that it's not too late to reconfigure and claim my own girlhood and define my childhood on my own terms.


My own sense of self had been muted for so long that my only outlet for expressing how I felt was through the vicarious nature of art, and specifically television, movies and music. Little tremors of power coursed through me in the images of Sailor Scouts because they stood up for themselves, which wasn't something I had the voice or know how to do against a father who routinely made sure I evaded all things feminine or face his wrath in the form of a beating. My father thought he was beating femininity out of me and masculinity into me, but what he was doing was completely eliminating my sense of self and setting me up for later bouts of depression, submissiveness and PTSD.

I recently viewed childhood favourite Labyrinth in a cinema, and while I was always struck by how much I saw myself in the lead character Sarah one scene had slipped out of my mind, but came flooding back in torrents during this viewing. I was already crying a good deal throughout, because fellow gender weirdo David Bowie had passed away recently (he'd mean something to me much later in life), but one line of dialogue made a memory come back to me that I had forgotten. The memory was that of a young version of myself re-enacting Labyrinth in my backyard saying "You have no power over me" over and over again. Those words are a deliberate statement of reclamation. I wish I had the strength to say those words to my father when I was that young, but I never began to put those words into sentences until almost twenty years later. "You have no power over me".

Fast-forward about ten years from that childhood memory and I'm listening to Bikini Kill, and finding a saviour in the words of Kathleen Hanna. I'm scribbling the words "Feels Blind" in bathroom stalls in the high-school I dreaded going to every day and on my bedroom wall as a kind of motto of my own sense of self. The bridge of the song features Kathleen singing her fucking lungs out, screaming the words "Women are well acquainted with thirst, How does it feel? It feels blind". The muted nature of my life in my teenage years was an endpoint that I thought at the time would end in suicide, but getting into Bikini Kill was like a curtain being pulled down, and I finally had a voice of my own to speak and scream that I wasn't satisfied. Kathleen's voice was like a flurry, a kick, a shot of confidence. Bikini Kill pulled me down a rabbit-hole that got me into feminism and queercore bands like Team Dresch along with other all girl rock bands like Sleater-Kinney.. The all-girl part was really important to me, because I didn't need a masculine voice to comfort me.. I needed reconciliation and support in knowing that I wouldn't be alone in feeling the way I did from another woman, and Kathleen was that person for the longest time. Today, I have "Feels Blind" tattooed on my wrist, because I wouldn't be alive without Bikini Kill.

When I finally moved away from my parents in the Summer of 2014 I told them I was going to Philadelphia to make movies. They knew I had contacts in Philadelphia who were making films of their own so I told them a lie to free myself. I went to Target after a 14 hour drive up the country (soundtracked by various Riot Grrrl acts) and bought some tops and jeans I could be comfortable in. I shed the oversized, masculine clothing on my body, and stepped into my own skin for the first time in my life. That was truly the first step in redefining my own girlhood, but I still lacked the language or the know how to get by on my own as a woman. I wasn't socialized to know these things. I was an on-looker with all my best girlfriends while growing up, but now it was my time to learn what I wanted to, and what kind of person I would be. I'd be carving out my own journey and figuring out my own sense of self.

I've been struggling for a very long time trying to reconcile why my childhood turned out the way that it did, but the short answer to the question is that it's the default considering how violent our society is towards transgender people. Today, I'm making a statement to free myself again from the burden of a broken childhood and the absence of my own girlhood while growing up. I am a girl, and I'm finding things out about myself every day. I'm turning into myself. I had a neglected girlhood, but I know it was present, because I could feel it, and I had a reckoning when I lived vicariously through other girls I looked up to in art. That my own girlhood was attempted to be stamped out by my own father's ideas of patriarchal upbringing doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to take the moments I can remember and cherish them, even if they were just in movies, and I'm going to hold onto them. They were the moments that eventually sculpted me into the woman I am today. My girlhood was observation. Looking into a window of a house I always wanted to enter. I'm finally here, and everything I ever wanted is now in practice. Everything I do makes me the woman that I am. That is my girlhood. That is my truth.

Do You Have Any Regrets?: 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016)

My Dad was not a good man. He ruled our house with a dedication to control that veered into threats that were both verbal and physical. I still have the emotional bruises that came with growing up with a man who came from a line of men who were taught to be respected was to be loved, and to be respected one had to be taught to obey through violence. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) talks about regrets. She saw a little girl being drug along a store by the arm much too hard by a father, and how she couldn't do anything to stop it. The girl fell. Michelle said she knew girls like that because she was one. I was one too.

Female Filmmaker Project: Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)

In the book of Genesis Adam and Eve live in the garden of Eden among many temptations that God has laid before them to test their faith. One such temptation is the "Tree of Knowledge" or the tree of life. The tree of knowledge is a metaphor for free will, and if anyone eats from the tree of knowledge they become "like god". Eve eats an apple from the tree after great temptation from Satan in the form of a snake and she is made into a scepter of fallen grace, because she dared question her rulers who "knew better" and convinced Adam to do the same. Eve is every woman who ever sought liberation, and like Eve the women who suffer and languish under strict patriarchal rule in Mustang also take of that apple.

Mustang begins as a breezy summer picture. The girls have ruffled sleeves on their blouses and smiles on their face as they cheer out "Let's walk, the weather's nice". The end of school begats horseplay in an inviting ocean as summer arrives and nothing could appear to be dangerous about this situation, but they made the mistake of having fun with boys. When word got out to their grandmother and uncle that they had been engaging in this activity it meant handcuffs, cages and control, because a woman who plays with boys eventually has sex, and in this small patriarchal community nothing could be more abominable.

Director Deniz Gamze Erguven does a good job of introducing visual confinement over her motion picture. The grandparents are from an older way of thinking where a girls chastity was tied into her value as a wife, and in their panic to preserve their granddaughters they slowly begin to build walls around them as they sell their five adopted children off to eligible bachelors. In the beginning of Mustang the camera has an elegance in frame that mirrored the young girls personalities, and when the walls go up the camera remains intuitive to their perspective but instead of the curiosity of the world inviting exploration the eye is dominated by mundane household activities and an introduction of rhythm and repetition in the girls lives, as every woman in their community has taught them this is their definitive role. There is no safe space in the home of this sisterhood either, and all five girls eventually start striving for their own spots in the house-jail to relax. The older siblings sunbathed through a crack in the exterior. The youngest girl literally plans an escape just to go to a soccer game, which coincidentally was attended by only women after rioting caused by male attendees ruined the national team's previous game. This notion of a safe space is in the visual language and finding a fracture inside of their of their home built upon an architectural chastity belt becomes paramount. As the walls become more densely layered with steel and spikes the house begins to resemble something between a castle and a prison- a blunt metaphor if there ever was one, but appropriate in its usage here- and the only truly safe space becomes the arms of the sisterhood. In many frames the camera lingers on their symbiotic relationship. The girls are a tangle of limbs, a web of skin providing support where there otherwise was none and it becomes a recurring visual motif as the web is untangled and their sisterhood altered as each girl one after the other, getting younger and younger is married off to a suitor.

"You'll learn to love your husband" but what if they never wanted one in the first place? The compulsory decision making of their uncle, and to a lesser extent their grandmother a representative of a larger cultural problem all around the world where views on women are archaic is driving force of the conflict. In a previous film I watched for the Female Filmmaker Project, The Day I Became a Woman, there is a long section of the film devoted to one woman who escapes her husband by disobeying him and competing in a bicycle race. In that movie the feminist text of the film is refashioned into an action picture through long tracking shots, overhead camera work and an attention to detail that makes the escape invigorating, terrifying and personal. Mustang goes for something similar in the latter half of the movie when the feminist text becomes genre by adapting the prison break trope. It's a relatively standard idea considering the already in place prison metaphor, but it works because of a smart decision to align the escape with the wedding of the second youngest child. There are legitimate stakes in what the two girls are trying to elude at this point as we've already seen the previous sisters suffer under sexual violence in their marriage or plan their own much more dire escape through attempted suicide. This is their last chance to make it to Istanbul. To find their own liberation. Erguven's choices as a director in these final moments are solid. The foliage and cages become peepholes and escaping the maze of steel is like a lesser version of the climax in The Shining. There is never a clear view of the Uncle as he trudges through the steel walls behind them, and the camera stays almost exclusively in the girls point of view which only makes the final moments more tense and worthy of its genre rhythm.

Mustang is a film whose text is woven into feminist theory as well as personal women's narratives, but it also functions as a folk tale. "The girl(s) who have been locked away in the tower" has been around literature and cinema for a very long time. In the older Disney animated pictures there would need to be a prince to whisk the innocent maiden off to safety, but those narratives were always reliant on good men earning a prize. It was a male hero's journey instead of a self actualized story about women. The metaphorical dragon in Mustang is an ingrained culture of men making decisions for women and having abject control over their respective bodies. But in Mustang there is no prince. The sisters have to be their own saviours, and while that seems to blur into the strong female character archetype that oftentimes reduces women in action pictures here it is an inborn strength through desperation, and not one achieved through violence. Mustang comes from a Turkish mindset first and foremost, but there are other similar narratives throughout cinema that prove dominance over women is bound to Earth in various forms of severity. Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and Isao Takahata's The Tale of Princess Kaguya are two others on the same family tree as Mustang, and the list goes on and on all the way back through the history of cinema whether the director was Kenji Mizoguchi or Ida Lupino. Cinema is a mirror into reality, and one doesn't need to look far to see that often in movies women are struggling under the control of some force whether it be societal or personal just because we ate of an apple.

Analysis of a Scene: Jeanne La Pucelle (Jacques Rivette, 1994)

*Analysis of a scene is a feature on Curtsies and Hand Grenades where I take a look at specific scenes in movies and discuss them*


Jacques Rivette smartly evades the weight of Carl Th. Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc by never trying to emulate or tap into the same filmmaking techniques that bluntly created one of the most devastating portraits of personhood in all of Cinema. Dreyer focused on the weary, crumbling presence of Maria Falconetti's face in close-up, but Rivette's picture avoids those comparisons by never actually focusing on the trial or lingering on the tragedy. Instead, Rivette opts for a portrait of Joan as a person who was persecuted not only because she was considered an idolatress, but because she dared call into question the place of women in society by subverting her gender role and dabbling in masculine presentation.

Joan giddily darts a pair of scissors across her unkempt straw-like hair in order to please god and herself. She chooses a mirror of armour, a masculinizing of vanity. Her reflection reveals an evolving self. In order for Joan to go into battle she must adopt the roles of men. If she is going to be with the men she must be a man. Her first task is to remove the long hair that paints her as feminine. She mutters to another woman who works nearby that she must look like a boy, and in an attempt to make her haircut more appropriate the woman offers to even up her look. This early scene paints a portrait that continues throughout the rest of the film, and it is one of women helping Joan achieve her goals. Whether those women know that Joan is only merely doing these things because she sees messengers of god or they envision a woman breaking barriers of gendered norms is irrelevant. They help her regardless. The same woman who cuts her hair finds her a suit of armour made from hand-me-downs of smaller boys.

Jacques Rivette shoots his adaptation of Joan of Arc with documentary style realism. There are insertions of talking head shots to deliver the exposition of the narrative. These scenes are coupled with recreations of the events certain characters discussed moments previously, and the majority of the first act is Joan's acceptance of her task and the battles she wins for her country and for God. Along the way many men question the legitimacy of Joan's combat and military skill, often chalking any setbacks to her gender, and whenever she succeeds men say "I've never seen a woman do that before" or "You're pretty good for a woman", to paraphrase. These exchanges of soldiers finding their notions of gender challenged further establish a theme on Joan's breaking of binary ideas on what a woman can or cannot accomplish. Even a woman can die for her country, and her beliefs.

This particular version of Joan's story is split into two parts and while the first film is relatively triumphant the second part brings about the inevitable tragedy that is nestled inside of this story. The tranquil pace of the first picture begins to evolve in the final hours, as that same pacing mutates from peaceful to brutally anxious. Every viewer goes into the film knowing that Joan is a martyr, but Rivette alters this narrative slightly, and presents a wrinkle on Joan's doom that is far more powerful in day to day life than the religious persecution that colours Dreyer's masterpiece. In Rivette's film her martyrdom would be one of the illusion of choice for a woman who lives in an uncaring patriarchal environment.

Once Joan is captured by the English they begin a trial based around her idolatry, which Rivette only briefly engages, but the reasoning behind the trial is clearly the deep-seated misogyny behind the men who would be furious that a woman defeat them in a battle. If battle is not man's sport anymore then what does he have left to conquer? But it's more than that as well. There is a hatred in how easily Joan was able to try on a masculine identity, and worse how natural a fit it became on her body. The bible states in Deuteronomy that any man or woman who would wear the clothing that wasn't associated with their gender would be considered an abomination, a disgusting thing, a wicked creature. Joan came through God, but was challenging the very notions of his perceived word. There would be no evolving of ideas on a gender binary. There would only be fire to put out an idea.

That idea would spread in subtle ways. In one digression a mother is frustrated her daughter's hair is tangled. The girl doesn't want to straighten or comb her hair, and after spending a short amount of time with Joan she seems to have grasped towards that freedom Joan was exhibiting in her presentation, even if that just meant letting her hair become slightly messy. This one scene is the fissure in society caused by Joan's gendered rebellion, and in a cinematic context it is all the evidence one would need to know Joan was causing change in the ideas of the women around her. Maybe I didn't have to spend so much time on my appearance?

Joan took the dress under the condition that she would be sent back to a prison in her home country and if she would be given female prison guards to attend to her needs. That final detail is important, because Joan knew that women, in this telling of the story, would have her back. Throughout this film women have been helping her along the way, whether that be the woman who helped her find the armour or the girl she befriended before trial. They were Joan's true angels. When the prison guards rip her of her masculinity and force her back into the more traditional femininity that she was seen wearing in the first scenes of the film it spells her doom. As a prisoner she was left to the will of the men around her, because there would be no female prison guards. Only men who saw a vulnerable woman who they could have their way with on repeated occasions. They wrap her in chains. Her dress exposed. A metaphor for the place women held in society during Joan's period of life. The only way to push back the rapist prison guards was to dress like a man again after they loosened her shackles. It was the only protection she had against rape. And as soon as they saw she was dressing this way again the priests decided she had rebuked god, but they weren't acting in the law of god. They were acting in the law of man. The law of man that would say a woman should stay in her place and lest she get out of line she be put back where she belonged. For Joan that meant ash.

Top 50 New to Me Viewings of 2015

The biggest change in my viewing habits from 2014 to 2015 was the centering of specific auteurs, which is much closer to the way my boyfriend watches movies than I choose to experience cinema. I usually take a sampler platter approach to the way I engage with cinema, but by living with someone who is far more organized than I my viewing habits were altered to some degree. His changed as well and my attitude of picking films on a whim became present in his life. We even kept a hat around this year with specific movies on slips of paper we'd draw that we'd eventually end up watching (an idea of mine). However, we scrapped that hat when we started an Alfred Hitchcock project, which you'll see visible in this list. Cinema always remains interesting. The movies I watched this year had their strengths and weaknesses, and there are certain goals I did not keep (50-50 gender split, which ended up being close to 35/65), but cinema is always the highlight of my year. This top 50 represents the best and brightest of those viewings I had in the previous year. At the top of the list is Robert Altman's "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" which has been on my mind more than any other film in the past twelve months. It even has Cher. The other 49 movies do not carry that distinction so that made the choice for #1 ultimately easy to land upon. Here's to hoping 2016 is as fruitful, and I'll finally hit that 50/50 gender gap in viewing. (As always new releases and rewatches are excluded from the list)

1. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman, 1982)

2. Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hung, 1984)

3. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1995)

4. Police Story (Jackie Chan, 1985

5. The Day I Became a Woman (Marzieh Meshkini, 2000)

6. Hookers on Davie (Janis Cole & Holly Dale, 1984)

7. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977)

8. The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette, 2003)

9. Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

10. Green Snake (Hark Tsui, 1993)

11. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)

12. All About Eve (Joseph L. Makiewicz, 1950)

13. Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)

14. Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, 1974)

15. Barton Fink (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1991)

16. Dance, Girl Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)

17. Peking Opera Blues (Hark Tsui, 1986)

18. Waitress (Adrienne Shelly, 2007)

19. Birds (Takashi Miike, 2000)

20. Limelight (Charlie Chaplin, 1952)

21. Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)

22. The Blade (Hark Tsui, 1995)

23. Challenge of the Masters (Lau Kar-leung, 1975)

24. A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Hark Tsui, 1989)

25. A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

26. Needing You (Johnnie To, 2000)

27. Le Pont Du Nord (Jacques Rivette, 1981)

28. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)

29. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-Leung, 1984)

30. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)

31. No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis, 1994)

32. Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin, 1947)

33. Katie Tippel (Paul Verhoeven, 1975)

34. Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)

35. L'invitation Au Voyage (Germaine Dulac, 1927)

36. Sheer Madness (Margarethe Von Trotta, 1983)

37. Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (Takashi Miike, 2009)

38. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)

39. I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949)

40. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)

41. Jour de Fete (Jacques Tati, 1949)

42. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)

43. Stagefright: Aquarius (Michele Soavi, 1987)

44. I'll Take You There (Adrienne Shelly, 1999)

45. Friends with Money (Nicole Holofcener, 2006)

46. Once Upon a Time in China I-III (Hark Tsui, 1991-1993)

47. Merry-Go-Round (Jacques Rivette, 1981)

48. About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009)

49. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)

50. Romance (Catherine Breillat, 1999)