Taschen's Movies of the 1930s

Added on by C. Maoxian.

A list of 85… I guess they couldn’t come up with round number 100 even after sneaking in movies from the 1940s.

  1. À nous la liberté 1931

  2. City Lights 1931

  3. Dracula 1931

  4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931

  5. Frankenstein 1931

  6. The Public Enemy 1931

  7. The Threepenny Opera 1931

  8. M 1931

  9. Blonde Venus 1932

  10. Freaks 1932

  11. Grand Hotel 1932

  12. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang 1932

  13. I Was Born, But... 1932

  14. Scarface 1932

  15. Shanghai Express 1932

  16. Tarzan the Ape Man 1932

  17. The Blue Light 1932

  18. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse 1932

  19. Trouble in Paradise 1932

  20. Vampyr 1932

  21. Duck Soup 1933

  22. Ecstasy 1933

  23. 42nd Street 1933

  24. I'm No Angel 1933

  25. King Kong 1933

  26. Playing at Love 1933

  27. Queen Christina 1933

  28. The Private Life of Henry VIII 1933

  29. Cleopatra 1934

  30. It Happened One Night 1934

  31. L'Atalante 1934

  32. The Prodigal Son 1934

  33. The Thin Man 1934

  34. Viva Villa! 1934

  35. Anna Karenina 1935

  36. Bride of Frankenstein 1935

  37. Captain Blood 1935

  38. David Copperfield 1935

  39. Gold Diggers of 1935 1935

  40. Mutiny on the Bounty 1935

  41. The Informer 1935

  42. The 39 Steps 1935

  43. Top Hat 1935

  44. A Day in the Country 1936

  45. Desire 1936

  46. Fury 1936

  47. Modern Times 1936

  48. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936

  49. San Francisco 1936

  50. Things to Come 1936

  51. Dead End 1937

  52. La grande illusion 1937

  53. Lost Horizon 1937

  54. Pépé le Moko 1937

  55. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937

  56. Think Fast, Mr. Moto 1937

  57. Alexander Nevsky 1938

  58. Block-Heads 1938

  59. Bringing Up Baby 1938

  60. Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations 1938

  61. Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty 1938

  62. Port of Shadows 1938

  63. The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938

  64. The Lady Vanishes 1938

  65. Gone with the Wind 1939

  66. Jesse James 1939

  67. Ninotchka 1939

  68. Stagecoach 1939

  69. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939

  70. The Roaring Twenties 1939

  71. The Rules of the Game 1939

  72. The Wizard of Oz 1939

  73. The Women 1939

  74. Wuthering Heights 1939

  75. Fantasia 1940

  76. His Girl Friday 1940

  77. Rebecca 1940

  78. The Bank Dick 1940

  79. The Grapes of Wrath 1940

  80. The Great Dictator 1940

  81. The Mark of Zorro 1940

  82. The Philadelphia Story 1940

  83. The Shop Around the Corner 1940

  84. The Thief of Bagdad 1940

  85. High Sierra 1941

Taschen's 100 All-Time Favorite Movies Of The 20th Century

Added on by C. Maoxian.

It’s a pretty good list! Sean Young made the cover.

  1. The Birth of a Nation (1915)

  2. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)

  3. The Ten Commandments (1923)

  4. The Gold Rush (1925)

  5. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

  6. The General (1926)

  7. Metropolis (1927)

  8. The Blue Angel (1930)

  9. Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)

  10. M (1931)

  11. Duck Soup (1933)

  12. King Kong (1933)

  13. Modern Times (1936)

  14. La grande illusion (1937)

  15. Gone with the Wind (1939)

  16. Fantasia (1940)

  17. Citizen Kane (1941)

  18. To Be or Not to Be (1942)

  19. Casablanca (1942)

  20. The Big Sleep (1946)

  21. Beauty and the Beast (1946)

  22. Notorious (1946)

  23. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

  24. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

  25. The Third Man (1949)

  26. All About Eve (1950)

  27. Rashomon (1950)

  28. The Young and the Damned (1950)

  29. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

  30. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

  31. The African Queen (1951)

  32. High Noon (1952)

  33. Fanfan la Tulipe (1952)

  34. The Wages of Fear (1953)

  35. La Strada (1954)

  36. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

  37. The Night of the Hunter (1955)

  38. Giant (1956)

  39. The Searchers (1956)

  40. Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

  41. Wild Strawberries (1957)

  42. Vertigo (1958)

  43. The 400 Blows (1959)

  44. Some Like It Hot (1959)

  45. Ben-Hur (1959)

  46. La Dolce Vita (1960)

  47. L'Avventura (1960)

  48. Psycho (1960)

  49. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

  50. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

  51. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

  52. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

  53. Goldfinger (1964)

  54. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

  55. Pierrot le fou (1965)

  56. Andrei Rublev (1966)

  57. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

  58. The Graduate (1967)

  59. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

  60. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

  61. Easy Rider (1969)

  62. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

  63. The Wild Bunch (1969)

  64. Death in Venice (1971)

  65. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

  66. Deliverance (1972)

  67. Cabaret (1972)

  68. The Godfather (1972)

  69. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

  70. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

  71. Chinatown (1974)

  72. Jaws (1975)

  73. 73. Jaws

  74. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

  75. Taxi Driver (1976)

  76. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

  77. Annie Hall (1977)

  78. The Deer Hunter (1978)

  79. The Tin Drum (1979)

  80. Mad Max (1979)

  81. Apocalypse Now (1979)

  82. Raging Bull (1980)

  83. Fitzcarraldo (1982)

  84. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

  85. Scarface (1983)

  86. Blade Runner (1982)

  87. The 4th Man (1983)

  88. Blue Velvet (1986)

  89. Dead Ringers (1988)

  90. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

  91. Forrest Gump (1994)

  92. Chungking Express (1994)

  93. Pulp Fiction (1994)

  94. L.A. Confidential (1997)

  95. Face/Off (1997)

  96. The Celebration (1998)

  97. All About My Mother (1999)

  98. American Beauty (1999)

  99. Magnolia (1999)

  100. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Maoxian's Consumable Gift Ideas

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I only give consumable gifts at Christmas. Here are the consumable things that I recommend giving to people at Xmas time / Happy Chanuka:

Booze / Beer / Wine

This year I gave the Ommegang Advent Calendar, a Hermann Wiemer wine subscription, and a nice bottle of Japanese whisky.

Candles

Specifically, tapered candles from Kiri of Denmark.

Deodorant

Booda Butter is the best deodorant I’ve ever found.

Diffusers

I like diffusers better than scented candles … they are better value because they last several months instead of days or weeks.

Hand Cream

L’Occitane (pronounced LOX-EE-TAHN) makes great hand cream. 20% shea butter is plenty though they also make a 25%er.

Honey

Find your local honey guy and support him. Good honey costs $10 a pound or ~$20 for 2.5 pounds.

Marzipan

Only from Niederegger of course.

Pencils

Only from Blackwing of course.

Soap

Spending $25 on a bar of soap seems sort of insane, but it makes a nice gift and I love the smell of hinoki … also it’s very moisturizing without being oily.

Tea

I love Paromi’s cinnamon chai and drink it every day. Roobois means zero caffeine.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any other good ideas for consumable gifts.

Rachel Sennott's Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I’ve added the five movies that Rachel Sennott picked in her Criterion Closet appearance. I googled “Is Rachel Sennott a man” after watching her visit. I hated BookSmart, which she apparently wrote or directed or something.

  • Tiny Furniture

  • Happiness

  • Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

  • Punch-Drunk Love

  • To Die For

Rachel Sennott made no original picks (few kids do). This is why my Master List of Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet is so valuable.

Top 25 Most Picked Movies in the Criterion Closet

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I created a Master List of every movie ever picked by guests in the Criterion Closet. Using my advanced data analysis skills (meaning I went through and counted all the titles by hand), I have determined that these are the top 25 most picked movies (NOT including box sets, see below) in the Criterion Closet (to date):

  1. Do the Right Thing

  2. Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom

  3. 8 1/2

  4. All That Jazz

  5. La strada

  6. Wanda

  7. Dekalog

  8. Naked

  9. Yi Yi

  10. Mirror

  11. Being There

  12. The Night of the Hunter

  13. The Red Shoes

  14. Amores Perros

  15. Down By Law

  16. Loves of a Blonde

  17. Pickpocket

  18. Punch-Drunk Love

  19. Shampoo

  20. Barry Lyndon

  21. Bicycle Thieves

  22. Blue Velvet

  23. 3 Women

  24. Eraserhead

  25. His Girl Friday

The top 5 most picked box sets in the Criterion Closet are:

  1. John Cassavetes: Five Films

  2. The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

  3. The Complete Jacques Tati

  4. Essential Fellini

  5. 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman

Worst Adverse Excursions in November 2025

Added on by C. Maoxian.

There were significantly fewer terrible adverse excursions in November 2025 (5) compared with October 2025 (23). As long as you didn’t monkey with the system, November was an extremely profitable month for shorting dings given the tiny number of max losses offset by hundreds of winning trades.

November 5: MTC (China)

November 11: LFS (Japan)

November 12: LPTX (ticker symbol later changed to CYPH) (USA)

November 18: OLMA (USA)

November 19: WSHP (UK)

Kathryn Bigelow's Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I’ve added the nine movies Kathryn Bigleow picked in her Criterion Closet appearance. She dressed up as Diane Keaton for her visit. Also I really don’t like any of the movies she’s made, but that’s just my personal opinion.

  • Army of Shadows

  • Detour

  • Hiroshima Mon Amour

  • Notorious

  • Straw Dogs

  • The Battle of Algiers

  • The Confession

  • The Lodger

  • Z

Kathryn Bigelow made three original picks: Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Confession, and The Lodger. This is why my Master List of Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet is so valuable.

Movies Watched -- Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1977)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In French. 109 minute running time. This movie inexplicably won the Oscar in 1978 for best foreign film. It’s true that Carole Laure’s tits deserve an Oscar, but I’m not sure about the movie.

I like Bertrand Blier’s work, and really enjoyed his 1974 movie, Going Places. He makes weird movies for sure, but fun, lots of silly business. Gerard Depardieu’s nose was still fairly normal in 1977, and Patrick Dewaere’s chest hair is marvelous … I don’t know what I can say for Solange’s 13-year-old lover.

This was a John Farr reco and gets a yellow rating from me.

Not a kidnapping

Movies Watched -- Autumn Sonata (1978)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Swedish. 92 minute running time. Ingmar Bergman again, another stage play put on film, two people talking once again, this time a mother (Ingrid Bergman) and a daughter (Liv Ullman).

Now that I’m in my fifties I can watch and enjoy Bergman movies… I don’t think I would have liked this when I was in my twenties. Two people talking for 90 minutes, painful memories and words, some real viciousness (just like in Scenes from a Marriage). Bergman may be like: you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all, but I do enjoy them.

Jane Schoenbrun, a transvestite(??), is the only visitor to the Criterion closet who picked out this movie.

Mommie Dearest x 1000

Movies Watched -- Drylongso (1998)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

81 minute running time. This was like a homemade movie, and there’s no real story here, it’s sort of a hodgepodge of ideas, but I did watch all of it and was glad I did because I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a black culture movie, sort of… it stars a beautiful dark-skinned black girl, who has a lot of spunk, and also a light-skinned black girl, who likes to dress up as a boy.

I’ve been working my way through the list of Criterion Closet Picks that have only been chosen once. Zeinabu Irene Davis was the sole person to recommend this movie, and I’m glad she did. It gets a yellow (consider it) rating from me (not green-go, not red-stop).

S’up little sistah