Watched Apocalypse Now! last night for perhaps the twentieth time and it started me thinking about my favourite films of all time. This is the list of the ones that my fragile memory could dredge up in a couple of hours of thinking. There were another ten that gradually got squeezed out as time went on, so the final ten are films that made an impact on my life for various reasons. They were not just chosen for artistic merit, some just happened to me at a time that made them memorable, however, that alone wasn’t enough to get them in. Blatant cheese like Notting Hill, which I watched with a person of great significance at a very significant time in my life, didn’t make the list because it is shite. You get the idea…..

These then, are the ten that made it. All great films which can be watched multiple times with increasing understanding and enjoyment, and that feature some excellent, genre-defining stuff.

1/ Apocalypse Now! ( The Redux version preferably or Directors cut )

2/ Paris, Texas

3/ Three Colours Trilogy ( I can’t choose which, so all three )

4/ Singing in the Rain

5/ 2001: A Space Odyssey

6/ Taxi Driver

7/ Jacob’s Ladder

8/ The Big Blue

9/ Angel Heart

10/ Some Like it Hot