We'll be starting off our '90s round soon, so as per request here is the topic for recommendations. Feel free to repeat the recommendations you already made in the '00s finale topic or make some new ones.

Stephan, is The Kingdom eligable? I assume not, but if it is I need to see it.

Here's all my non-obvious recommendations:
Before Sunrise (Essential if you liked Before Sunset)
Red/White/Blue
The Double Life Of Veronique
Close-Up
Raise The Red Lantern
Total Recall
The Player
Chungking Express
All About My Mother
Being John Malkovich

This is my current Netflix queue of 90's films:
The Grifters
Husbands and Wives
Dead Man
Seven
Lost Highway
The Celebration
Princess Mononoke
Casino
Bringing out the Dead
The Story of Qiu Ju
The Straight Story
Taste of Cherry
Leon
Fallen Angels
Jackie Brown
Wild at Heart
Slacker
Days of Being Wild
Goodwill Hunting
Malcolm X
The Insider

If anyone has anything I should add...

Otherwise I'll just wait till I see people's actual ballots.

Thanks Stephan for this new thread.
I put my list of French films :

Cyrano De Bergerac 20/20
Van Gogh 14/20
Monsieur Hire 14/20
La gloire de mon père 17/20
Le chateau de ma mère 17/20
Le mari de la coiffeuse 15/20
Tous les matins du monde 17/20
La reine Margot 16/20
Les roseaux sauvages 18/20
Nikita 17/20
Tatie Danielle 14/20
Germinal 16/20
Ma saison préférée 15/20
Léon 15/20
Le péril Jeune 17/20
La Haine 19/20
La cité des enfants perdus 17/20
Délicatessen 17/20
Ridicule 16/20
Un air de famille 19/20
La cérémonie 18/20
Microcosmos 13/20
Les voleurs 17/20
On connaît la chanson 20/20
Le cinquième élément 14/20
Marius et Jeanette 17/20
Western 15/20
La vie rêvée des anges 18/20
Indochine 16/20
l 627 14/20
La belle noiseuse 13/20
Un coeur en hiver 17/20
Trois couleurs : Bleu 18/20
Trois couleurs : Blanc 17/20
Trois couleurs : Rouge 15/20
Les patriotes 13/20
Mina Tannenbaum 14/20
L'appât 12/20
Chacun cherche son chat 13/20
Le bonheur est dans le pré 15/20
Assassin(s) 13/20
Bernie 15/20
Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train 16/20
Le dîner de cons 15/20
Vénus Beauté (institut) 14/20
La bûche 17/20
LA parenthèse enchantée 12/20
MA petite entreprise 13/20

Some of my major recommendations:

- Tierra (Julio Medem)
- Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- Naked (Mike Leigh)
- The Insider (Michael Mann)

Because The Kingdom is available as a (5 hour) film, I would say it is eligible. I would also say Dekalog (for the '80s) is eligible, even though that wasn't released as a whole as far as I know.

My recommendations:

Pusher
La Vita È Bella
Le Comte de Monte Cristo
Crna Macka, Beli Macor
The Straight Story
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

here are some of my lists from rym:

Best Movies of the '90s

Best Directors of the '90s

Best Movies of 1990

if you're familiar with the site, you shouldn't have too much trouble navigating to my lists for the rest of the years, if you're interested

It surprises me that Dekalog is often included in movies lists. I think each episode could be considered as a movie, but why would the whole series be eligible and not, say, Seinfeld?

The former is definitely debatable, but I really don't think the latter is. There is a big difference between mini-series (like Dekalog (actually not), Riget, La Meglio Gioventu, Band of Brothers, Berlin Alexanderplatz, etc) and series in general (Seinfeld, Friends, The Simpsons, etc.). Mini-series are one story with a beginning and an end - much like a regular feature film, just over-stretched and spliced up - while series may have an introduction/pilot and possibly even some kind of ending, but all the episodes could be watched without much knowledge of the others.

Come to think of it, Dekalog is quite different from mini-series, because all the episoded are more or less independent. I guess you've got a point when it comes to Dekalog.

By the way, Riget (The Kingdom) is fantastic, so I think it would be nice to include that one.

Band of Brothers wasn't included in the 00s poll. But, if you include stuff like Band of Brothers, why not include The Sopranos, or Lost as one big 80 hour movie?

I suppose the argument for including Decalogue and not those TV series is intention. The individual films aren't directly connected, but they are thematically and conceptually connected. Decalogue has every bit of claim to be one movie as Kwaidan does. It was created as one full product, whereas something like Lost was intended to be rolled out on a weekly schedule.

All fair points, and since I don't think Band of Brothers should be included, I suppose we should also exclude Dekalog.

How about a rule that allows only those miniseries that have been released as a feature film? That way The Kingdom and Berlin Alexanderplatz are still eligible, but most mini-series are not.

I'm gonna add Slacker to my recommendation list. It's not for everyone. It's very arty and conversational and doesn't have any one main narrative. It's sort of an essay on apathy.

Is Rohmer's season cycle worth seeing?

My recomandations:

Lars Von Trier at his best:
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Idioterne [The Idiots] (1998)

I love Wallace & Gromit:
Wallace & Gromit in the Wrong Trousers (1993)
A Close Shave (1995)

Tarantino at his best:
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)

My favorite US movies:
Trust (1990)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
Fargo (1996)
American Beauty (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)

French:
L.627 (1992) - my favorite Tavernier
Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) [My Sex Life ... or How I Got Into an Argument] (1996) - my favorite Arnaud Depleschin
Les apprentis (1992) - a great comedy, I particularly love this scene
On connaît la chanson [Same Old Song] (1997)

And;
The Piano (1993)
Trainspotting (1996)

And, above all, Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma.

I guess that would be a reasonable solution.

But then still... does Riget count for one or two films? I'd go for Riget I and Riget II as seperate ones.

And are the indivual Dekalog episodes eligible?

Riget I and II are seperate, but I'd say you can't vote for individual Dekalog episodes; you couldn't vote for individual Band of Brothers episodes either.

I think Decalogue might be a specific exception, just because of it's tendency to appear on films lists, and the fact it's by a director more famous for movies.

...Then again, the latter argument also applies to Twin Peaks.

Anyway, it's 1988, so we have half a year to decide.

Jean Luc Godard is another French New Wave director who's 1990's stuff is woefully unavailable in the US.

Ok, I have a question about The Kingdom.

At the end of each episode during the credits, Lars Von Trier appears and talks about the episode. His tone is upbeat and chirpy, totally off the tone of the series. In it, he apologizes for being too weird or the style too mundane.

Is this a Danish TV thing, or did they decide to do this just for The Kingdom because it's more experimental than what they usually air? In other Danish TV shows, does the creator randomly appear at the end and talk about it?

Good question. I don't know, but I guess it's a typical weird Von Trier thing. It's quite cheesy and like you said, totally off the tone. The first time I thought it was a joke, but he kept on reappearing

Well I'm watching another Danish TV series at the moment, called "The Killing" ("Forbrydelsen" (The Crime)), which is very good by the way, and no, the director doesn't appear at the end of each episode, so it's a "Lars Von Trier - thing"

I hope you're all viewing Kiarostami films for this. I liked Close-Up, but Life And Nothing More... blew me away. I'm definitely looking forward to viewing Taste of Cherry for 1997.

Seriously, Kiarostami films should be aired in American social studies classes. It'd inoculate the kids to political fear campaigns.