1. Casablanca, 1942 I remember the first time I saw it. It was on very late at night, in the early hours of the morning, and I watched it mesmerised through bloodshot eyes and a fresh hangover. The unquestionable highlight for me is the scene where Rick tells the band to play La Marseilles, surely one of the most moving sequences ever portrayed on screen. Julius Epstein (script-writer) recalls that he and his brother Philip wept as they wrote it. The Epstein’s screenplay absolutely sparkles and won a well deserved Oscar as did Director Michael Curtiz and the film itself. The romantic chemistry between Bogie and Bergman really makes the much told “star crossed lovers” story come alive. The presence of two of the greatest character actors there were in Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre together with the unforgettable voice of Dooley Wilson are further ingredients in the film’s enduring success. All of that is capped off by the fabulous wit of Claude Rains who plays his role as the corrupt Louie to perfection. 2. Citizen Kane, 1941 Another great film I saw in the early hours of the morning on repeat. The story is simple enough but it grips you and won’t let you go. Orson Welles was never to come close to this level of brilliance again but once is enough for a lifetime. Kane is routinely voted by the critics to be the best movie ever made for its groundbreaking cinematography and production techniques. Probably partly due to the famous stoush that eventuated with publishing baron William Randolph Hearst who was clearly the template on which Welle’s Citizen Kane was based, neither the picture itself nor Welles won an Academy Award.   3. Pulp Fiction, 1995.  The penultimate achievement in postmodernist film making. Quentin Tarantino weaves four interlocking stories together and manages to put the finish at the start. Along the way he also plays a supporting role as Jimmy and by film’s end has resurrected and reinvented the all but dead screen career of John Travolta in his masterful casting as a gun toting hitman alongside Samuel L. Jackson. A very violent film that must just about hold the record of the most “F words” in a full length feature. The most fascinating aspect for me is of course the divine intervention scene that results in Jules’ “conversion.”  4. North by Northwest, 1959. A Hitchcock thriller in the context of a romantic comedy, a rare triumph in the genre that only Hitch could pull off. A year later he completely shocked his audience, and the world, with Psycho. I prefer this one ahead of it for pure viewing enjoyment. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen but I enjoy it every time. Among the many highlights to watch for are (i) Hitch’s cameo at the very start, he’s the fat man missing the bus; (ii) the classic crop duster scene; (iii) the blunder in the café scene where the young boy covers his ears seconds before the gun shot is heard; (iv) the famous finale on top of Mount Rushmore; and (v) the obvious metaphor for coitus at the end that was apparently way too subtle for the Hayes office.         5. From Russia With Love, 1964. I just love the real Bond films – the ones that were based on Ian Fleming’s novels and which featured the magnificent Sean Connery, the one and only agent 007 for me! From Russia is favoured here but only for the scene where Bond uncovers the Spectre agent masquerading as a British spy because he orders red wine with fish! As one who has committed such culinary outrages several times it appeals. A whisker ahead of You Only Live Twice for that luscious Japanese girl in the white bikini and the hollowed out volcano. 6. Dead Poets Society, 1989 I love Dead Poets for the way it brought literature, predominately that of Byron and Whitman, to the big screen and a mainstream audience. Robin Williams has played a lot of very stupid roles since (and including) Mork from Ork ! and made a lot of money no doubt, but in this film he gives a fantastic performance as the engaging and inspiring professor of literature in an exclusive New England boarding college during the 1950’s. I’m always uplifted, and saddened, by this great movie that is (I believe) partly autobiographical of writer Tom Schulman.    7. Chariot’s of Fire, 1981 This British film is a favourite for its compelling storyline set during the 1924 Paris Olympics. The true story revolves around two sprinters, Harold Abrahams a British Jew and the Presbyterian missionary and lay preacher Eric Liddell who was to be martyred in China during World War Two. Apart from the superb drama, majestically acted by Ben Cross and Ian Charleston and beautifully filmed, there is also the music of Vangelis to savour.    8. Seven, 1995. Seven is a very dark and foreboding film, from the opening rain drenched sequence, to the gory end. The motif of the seven deadly scenes provides the framework for haunting serial killer John Doe (played by Kevin Spacey). The much overdone “buddy cops” motif works because Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are so different and because Freeman’s character is so surprisingly deep. The message of the film is a fundamentally biblical one – sin is real and its power such that human beings cannot overcome it by or in themselves. It reminds me of the quote by Roman Catholic lay theologian Anthony Burgess, writer of the book on which another great film not on this list is based – A Clockwork Orange – who allegedly answered complaints about the violent nature of the film by saying “I’m not responsible for original sin, all I’ve done is portray it.”    9. 2001 A Space Odyssey, 1968. A triumph for Stanley Kubrick in itself was getting such a great movie out of the rather boring novel by Arthur C. Clarke. The visual effects were “really trippy” for the late 1960’s although the model shots look a bit dated today. The paucity of dialogue was a major risk for the ailing MGM conglomerate who, in the end, were to stand or fall on Kubrick’s unquestioned genius and eccentricity. Someone has rightly called 2001 a “Secular movie about God” in that the black obelisk is a clear metaphor for the transcendent. In many ways it is the first postmodernist film – instead of human beings conquering and subduing the last frontier of our knowledge, space, through science, technology, and learning, the film portrays humans to be the unwitting pawns of a greater power beyond their rational capacities.   10. Grand Hotel, 1932. Although it is not a really great film technically this movie, which did win the best picture Oscar of 1932, makes my list because it was made by the “boy wonder” of the early film industry, Irving Thalberg, at a time when the movies and MGM were just entering their fabulous golden age. Thalberg defied conventional wisdom of the time by casting a number of the studio’s stars together in the first “all star blockbuster.” Among them are John and Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery, Greta Garbo ,and Joan Crawford, all of whom work together well in captivating the viewer in the lives of five guests at an exclusive and busy Berlin Hotel.