useful movie lists

British Film Institute/Sight & Sound: 50 Greatest Films of All Time – Critics’ 50 Greatest Documentaries of All Time – Filmmakers’ 50 Greatest Documentaries of All TimeBFI TV 100, a 2000 list of the 100 greatest British TV programmes ever
wikipedia List of films considered the best
☆Jugu Abraham’s Movies that make you think blog: my best 100 moviesfavorite top 10 filmsindex of movies reviewed
Question on Quora: What are some of the best Indian movies ever made?
Arts & Faith – Top 100 (2011) – 2004 Top 100 on filmsite.org. – Top 25 Divine Comedies
denofgeek.com’s top 50 foreign language films of the last decade
The Documentary Blog’s top 50 docos of the decade
☆Zev Toledano’s THE WORLDWIDE CELLULOID MASSACRE – An encyclopedia of extreme, surreal and bizarre movies – Extreme Movies
Best Films of the 1990s | Wonders in the Dark
Experimental Film Society: 12 Favourite Filmmakers
Facets’ top 10 favorite film lists from great movie lovers | Listology
Directors Reveal Their Top 10 Movies of All Time – Film Junk

IMDB lists

Amazing Film Directors by Gomfa1583
Modern Directors from Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Iceland, Norway, Sweden & Finland by RAMPARTisGREAT
Lists by ajaan_mark
My Favourite Movies by ajaan_mark
IMDb Lists by Imdbidia
The Best Buddy Films by GeneralUrsus
Nail-Biting Film Noirs by GeneralUrsus
Best Movies Not on the Best Lists by operdoc
Alternative Reality Movies by red_moon1987
My Favorite Filmmakers by afi_soad
Philosophically and aesthetically inspiring by Herbert Geier
Best Non-English Movies Ever Made by monith234
“This is my reality” movies. by Crankitup_86
My favourite films by lfb_o
non hollywood by westeross
Little Gems by dimakorou
Dan Smith’s Top 300 of World Cinema by rocket24-638-84506
Tales of humaneness by herbie_mac
Bittersweet and darkly funny by herbie_mac
Best Foreign TV Series (Outside of the United States) by demon-62
100 Greatest Acting Performances by Renegade_Blaze
Highest Rated Danish-Language Feature Films
The 25 Greatest TV Shows of All Time by teleduffe1
Best Scandinavian Movies by jayszon
Películas favoritas by BarbaraMarcilese
The Top 30 Danish movies of all time according to the DAHF.dk community (2012)
Films for Philosophy Students by ksushaholmes
fountains of thoughts by kasunkt
empireonline.com’s 100 Best Films of World Cinema
Best documentaries
Documentaries by djdg-817-90281
Bollywood Top 100 (incomplete) by technmuvifreak 2011
Las 25 mejores películas latinoamericanas de la historia – Revista Arcadia
South American favourites – from Afterword blog
Best Movie Directors for the Deviant Intellectual
3 lists by akishaha: Directors to studyDocumentaryMust watch
Best Avant-Garde/Experimental films (IMO) – Catfisherman
3 lists by heronkendall-125-796451: 100 BEST FILMS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN KINDNESS35 BEST FILMS FOR HUMAN SOULS AS FREE SPIRITUAL BEINGS50 BEST FILMS AGAINST THE CORRUPT SYSTEM
Amazing films/TV-shows that need a bigger audience by gogoschka-1
My favorite Film Creators by Cassandra Sechler

more lists/sites (as yet unsorted)
great movies featuring great friendships
The Best Culture And Society Movies of All Time – Flickchart
IMDb: Modern Directors from Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Iceland, Norway, Sweden & Finland – a list by RAMPARTisGREAT
IMDb: My favorite directors – a list by drazenpav
IMDb: dokumentarci – a list by Matiaz Dolenek
The Top 50 Sociology Movies of All Time – Flickchart
YOVISTO – Academic Video Search
sociologythroughdocumentaryfilm / FrontPage
Films with sociological content
IMDb: Highest Rated “Art” Documentaries
IMDb: The best documentaries ever made – a list by JurijFedorov
IMDb: Top Directors – Friendship – a list by Caminho Largo
IMDb: Top Movies – Friendship – a list by Caminho Largo
IMDb: Highest Rated Spanish-Language Feature Films
Beyond Narrative: The Future of the Feature Film | Roger Ebert’s Journal | Roger Ebert
Herzog/Morris online discussion on reddit
IMDB lists:
best directors of all time
movies which make u cry
Bollywood Top 100
Top 10 art documentaries
IMDb: Art and History – a list by nastiaa
IMDb: Must Watch Bollywood Movies – a list by deepraj1990
The Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time | Reader’s Digest
lifeaffirmingmovies

other film review sites
Wonders in the Dark | Largely Cinema, but also theater, music, opera, books
Urban Cinefile
New Wave Film.com – complete guide to the French New Wave and new wave cinema from around the world
The Seventh Art movie site
film-grab.com – stills from Movie Directors A-Z
David Bordwell’s website on cinemaObservations on film art blog
Directors | Doc Alliance Films: Your online documentary cinema

movie-related sites/articles
Nordic Noir | News
Observations on film art : My Danish December
Transformation in Art: The Films of Paul Schrader | Creative Screenwriting Magazine
flickchart.com – I find the quickest way to find the best movies by a certain director or actor (fairly reliably) is to google “best movies flickchart their_name“. This is impossible on IMDb.

film sites with awesome names
Best Movies By Farr by John Farr
El Antepenultimo Mohicano cinema magazine (español)
Lessons of Darkness
Battleship Pretension (now defunct)


Movie reviews I liked for some reason

Film Cauldron’s IMDb user review of Tideland (2005)

The Age Of Unreason, Or…Why Terry Gilliam Can’t Catch A Break

Author: Film Cauldron from United States
18 November 2005

Poor Terry Gilliam. The visionary director just can’t catch a break. Blessed with one of the most fertile imaginations in modern cinema, equally renowned as an animator, filmmaker, and iconoclast, he has made a handful of highly original, single-minded films, most of which are now considered classics (although it tends to take a few years before critical revisionism regards his work as such; I bet few recall The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen was first considered a costly bomb on par with Heaven’s Gate). But of late he has had to suffer a critical beating for his mainstream-designed The Brothers Grimm, not to mention the well-documented collapse of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (why does the word schadenfreude come to mind?), and more often than not he is regarded as somewhat of a brilliant madman with integrity to burn, willing to battle Hollywood at any cost to keep his visions intact.

Now comes his adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s Tideland, a category defying film that is at turns poetic, disgusting, absurd, and darkly funny (think the languid pacing of Spirit of the Beehive, the fever dream of Alice in Wonderland, the wry insanity Psycho, and a large dose of Terence Malik gone insane). In many ways, this is the purest Gilliam film since Brazil (a film that also borrowed liberally from other sources while maintaining its own originality), and hearkens back to the days when auteurs were not only allowed to follow their wildest muse but were expected to do so. And that, too, presents what will no doubt be Tideland’s greatest failing, as well as its highest achievement. Cinema has become so cynical in the last twenty years – so narrow in scope and so entertainment driven – that anything which requires viewers to experience a motion picture on its own terms is usually greeted with scorn. These would be very tough times, indeed, for the likes of a young Fellini, Kubrick, and Lynch. That’s not to say Tideland is a perfectly misunderstood creation, although it should be pointed out that those who are screaming foul about this film being pointless, self indulgent, and too weird are likely the very same people who ridiculed Grimm for being unoriginal, mainstream, and plain. Yes, there were walkouts at its screenings, gasps of shock, even angry grumbling. There were also laughs, applause, and continued debates concerning what the film was really about (how often does that occur these days after a screening?).

In the end, Tideland will likely please a select group who prefer to experience cinema rather than opposing it with their own expectations (there were those who were still talking about it two days following its premiere, even when they hated it). But for those who are anxiously wanting Time Bandits 2 or desire some degree of Pythonesque humor, Tideland will disturb, bore, and profoundly bother to the point of contempt. Nevertheless, it is a very unique and, at times, incredible film, infused with at least two amazing performances, beautiful photography, and one of the most enigmatic endings I’ve seen in ages.

Hate it or love it, few will be able to deny the lingering, ineffable vibrations left by this film, or that it stands as further proof that its director has stayed true to himself. Of course, prepare for the yin/yang laments to come in spades: Grimm would have been a better film had Gilliam been left to his own devices; Tideland would have been a better film had Gilliam not been left to his own devices. Poor Terry Gilliam; apparently he can do no right even when he does.