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

Wagner Moura's Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I’ve added the seven movies Wagner Moura picked in his Criterion Closet appearance.

  • Black God, White Devil

  • Il posto

  • Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 2

  • Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 3

  • Memories of Underdevelopment

  • Rosetta

  • The Kid with a Bike

Wagner Moura had one original pick: Black God, White Devil. This is why my Master List of Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet is so valuable.