It's been a great journey through the '90s, but now it's time to really decide which film is the best of the decade.

In order to keep the results more of a surprise, I'm going to ask you to send your ballots by email to: stephan at neoptolemos dot com. I will send a reply to every list I receive within 48 hours, so if I do not reply please leave a message here or send me another email.

I've provided the top 100 in Excel form as well as text form for those who have no access to Excel. The Excel sheet should speak for itself, but if you are using the text file please just add a TAB at the end of the line and then your rank for that film. Optionally, if you want to add comments, add another TAB and then your comment.

The deadline is March 31st, giving you the entire month of March to watch as many of the films you haven't seen yet. Enjoy!

And here's the full list of nominees:

American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)
Barton Fink (Joel Coen , 1991)
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson , 1997)
Breaking The Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
C'est Arrivé près de chez Vous [Man Bites Dog] (Rémy Belvaux & André Bonzel, 1992)
Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)
Crna Macka, Beli Macor [Black Cat, White Cat] (Emir Kusturica, 1998)
Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)
Dazed And Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
Die Zweite Heimat (Edgar Reitz, 1992)
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton , 1990)
Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
Festen [The Celebration] (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999)
Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese , 1990)
Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Happiness (Todd Solonz, 1998)
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)
JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)
Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou , 1990)
Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Kauas pilvet karkaavat [Drifting Clouds] (Aki Kaurismäki, 1996)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997)
La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette , 1991)
La Double Vie de Véronique [The Double Life of Veronique] (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)
La Haine [Hate] (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
La Promesse (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1996)
La vita è bella [Life is Beautiful] (Roberto Benigni, 1997)
Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis, 1995)
Léon [Leon: The Professional] (Luc Besson, 1994)
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf [The Lovers on the Bridge] (Leos Carax , 1991)
Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996)
Los amantes del círculo polar [The Lovers of the Arctic Circle] (Julio Médem, 1998)
Lost Highway (David Lynch , 1997)
Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)
Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen , 1990)
Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)
Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou , 1991)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
Riget [The Kingdom] (Lars Von Trier, 1994)
Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
Sátántangó [Satantango] (Béla Tarr, 1994)
Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)
Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)
Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)
Short Cuts (Robert Altman, 1993)
Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton, 1996)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)
The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)
The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997)
The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola , 1990)
The Green Mile (Frank Darabont, 1999)
The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999)
The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 1999)
The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
The Player (Robert Altman, 1992)
The Rock (Michael Bay, 1996)
The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme , 1991)
The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan , 1997)
The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Todo sobre mi madre [All About My Mother] (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven , 1990)
Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)
Trois Couleurs: Bleu [Three Colours: Blue] (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
Trois Couleurs: Rouge [Three Colours: Red] (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
Trust (Hal Hartley , 1990)
Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, 1993)
Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)
Wild at Heart (David Lynch , 1990)
もののけ姫 [Princess Mononoke] (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
重慶森林 [Chungking Express] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
阿飛正傳 [Days of Being Wild] (Wong Kar-Wai, 1990)

4 films: Ethan and Joel Coen
3 films: Krzysztof Kieslowski, David Lynch, Stephen Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino
2 films: Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Frank Darabont, Jonathan Demme, David Fincher, Jim Jarmusch, Emir Kusturica, Mike Leigh, Richard Linklater, Michael Mann, Lars Von Trier, Wong Kar-Wai, Zhang Yimou

Also available for your perusal, the spreadsheet that includes all the votes.

Let's see, that's...

14 films I haven't seen, out of which there are 10 I want to see, out of which 9 are under ten hours.

Does anyone know a good reaosnably priced way to see Black Cat White Cat in the US?

17 films that I haven't seen. Hopefully I will be able to watch a couple before the deadline.

What a f.... good decade isn't it ?
Even if only 3 of my 6 favorites of the 90's are in the list (good bye "Cyrano", "On connaît la chanson" and "Funny Games" (very surprised by the lake of this last one)) i found the whole list incredible.

Better than the 2000's one I think. Maybe because with the time, the hype films disapears ?

Funny Games did make it Romain.

12 films to watch for me, one every two days or so excluding the days I'm going to be drunk during carnaval.. should be possible.

Overall I think I like the 00's group slightly more, but that might be because more experimental films made it through. I'd never heard of Kim Ki-Duk until he qualified two masterpieces, which both finished in the top 25.

More precisely, I think Western Europe, Japan and China were stronger in the 90s, but the US, Eastern Europe and the rest of Asia were stronger in the 00s.

Boy I'm looking forward to the start of the 80's poll. Bergman, Kurosawa, Bunuel, Bresson, Fellini. This is when the New Wave greats start to show up, not to mention American greats like Woody Allen.

There's a lot here that I haven't seen. Netflix instant is coming up empty on most of them...

Oh well I probably would have only been able to catch 8-10 anyway which is what I was able to find on instant watch.

Home Alone was good when Pesci & Stern were on screen, & John Candy's cameo. Titanic was ghetto. Seeing Kate Winslet's boob when I was 10 was cool, and is still pretty cool now but there weren't any memorable characters. And this is coming from a huuuge Bill Paxton fan.

Titanic is good for it's special effects. Story-wise, it's cheesy melodrama.

Home Alone is a great film when you're a kid, but it hasn't got much for adults. What 8 year old didn't watch that film and imagine themselves setting up elaborate traps for burglars?

I still haven't seen Titanic or Avatar. I received Avatar for Christmas so I suppose I'll watch it one of these days.

Wow, Todo Sobre Mi Madre is easily the best film I've seen by Almodóvar.

All About My Mother is really good but I think I prefer Talk To Her, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and Flower of My Secret.

For films I just now watched for the first time:
La Haine is very good.
I'm having trouble figuring out whether I like Philadelphia. Because on one hand I agree with what the film says completely, but on the other hand I'm generally against social issue dramas that manipulate you to their side, even when it happens to be my own side. It's not as manipulative as, say, a Michael Moore film, but it does go out of it's way to make you hate the other side.

I'm just about ready with the list. I should have it in soon with 91 films ranked. Half the ones left are ones I think I'll probably enjoy, but not as much as I'll enjoy the 80's films I haven't even started to dig into or the films Mubi is recommending me. (Except for Heimat, which I'm pretty sure I'd love, but is too long to watch before the end of the month.)

Here's the ones left:
Dances With Wolves
Heimat
Forrest Gump
Funny Games
JFK
The Crying Game
The English Patient
The Green Mile
The Straight Story

If anyone thinks I'm really missing out by not watching one of those, please tell me.

Somehow, I'm a sucker for The Enlish Patient and Straight Story and Forrest Gump are nice. But you're not really missing out. Although I can't say anything about Funny Games and The Crying Game. Probably Heimat is worth seeing, but I haven't seen it yet either.

Am I missing out something, having not seen the following films?

Bad Lieutenant
Crumb
Heimat
Funny Games
Ju Dou
Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat
La Belle Noiseuse
La Promesse
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Sátántangó
Short Cuts
The Crying Game
The Sweet Hereafter
Toy Story
Trust
Wallace & Gromit
Days of Being Wild

I really want to see Sátántangó some day, but it's so long. Same goes for Heimat, of course.

While I really enjoyed Heimat, it wasn't as good as I had hoped. As a series it works better because it has some incredibly good moments, close to the best I've seen in cinema, but even then it's a little overlong at times. I personally love Forrest Gump and The Straight Story, but I don't know if you'd like them as well.

Still to watch for me:
La belle noiseuse
Bad Lieutenant
Crumb
The English Patient
Lost Highway
Los amantes del círculo polar [The Lovers of the Arctic Circle]
The Insider

However, two pretty highly anticipated video games are released this week, so I might not have time to watch them all.

Out of your 3 lists I've seen:

Bad Lieutenant
Dances With Wolves
Forrest Gump
JFK
The Insider
The Crying Game
The English Patient
The Green Mile
Toy Story

The ones I'd recommend are Bad Lieutenant and The Insider. Bad Lieutenant is a dark film, Harvey Keitel is a dirty drug addicted cop. You might find it hard to watch at some parts but it's only 91 minutes long. The Insider is about an hour or so longer but it examines an issue some say we're facing today, I don't want to give much away but it involves big businesses, news media, and executives. I thought Al Pacino was really fun to watch in this one.

Funny Games. There is no other film like it. Before acting Haneke told the guys that it was a comedy and the family that it was a tragedy and the result is truly horrifying. And it is worth seeing only for the "silent scene".

La Belle Noiseuse: I think it's excellent, but it's one of those films that's really not for everyone. It's four hours long, it's about a painter who enlists a reluctant friend's wife as a nude model for his belated masterpiece, and the slow process of finding the perfect pose.

Ju Dou: Excellent film, if you liked Raise The Red Lantern you will like this too.

Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat: I don't know if you've seen any other Kaurismaki. It's a film about a couple who both lose their jobs at the same time and fight to escape poverty.

Satantango: One of my favorites of all time, but a very slow paced, visual film. I'd recommend it to a Tarkovsky fan.

Short Cuts: I'm not a fan of it, but some people love it. A good litmus test is if you liked Nashville.

Days of Being Wild: Another very visual film with Wong Kar Wai's trademark emotional focus. More like Fallen Angels than Chungking Express or In The Mood For Love.

Toy Story: If you like other Pixar films, you will probably like it, though it's not as good as 3.

La Promesse: One of those class-oriented films that you will like if you're into those sort of politics.

You make Funny Games seem really interesting, though I have been ambivalent on the other Haneke films I've seen (White Ribbon, Cache, Piano Teacher).

Here's the ones left:
Dances With Wolves
Heimat
Forrest Gump
Funny Games
JFK
The Crying Game
The English Patient
The Green Mile
The Straight Story

BillAdama, you must have to look Funny Games, it's a trully incredible movie. Hard and funny in same time, very intrigating.
Dances with wolves, Forrest Gump and The Green Mile are three huge mainstream movies but three good movies before anything. If you have to look only one of us, try Forrest Gump.

I'm gonna have to agree on Funny Games. I'm not even ambivalent on Haneke, I actually dislike most of his work, but Funny Games is very good.

Wow. Funny Games is quite a film. I have conflicting feelings about this film. On one hand, the artistic value is quite high. On the other hand, it's physically painful to watch. So much so I have the urge to turn it off (At the 80 minute mark) and read the ending on Wikipedia, rather than watch these people get tortured any more when the ending is already pretty obvious.

Anyway, I'm placing it almost exactly in the middle, so my viewing it neither helped nor hurt it.

Perhaps I've been desensitized by too many years of internet, but I had no such problems watching Funny Games.

We have 3 voters so far and a very surprising leader. Two weeks remain until the deadline.

I have trouble in general with violence against the defenseless in films, especially women. I can't play Grand Theft Auto games either.

I have no trouble with gory violence in general, so long as all parties are armed.

I just sent my list.

Thanks for the explanations and recommendations guys. I'm really curious about Funny Games now.

And I am fan of Tarkovsky and I really liked Raise the Red lanterns, so Satantango and Ju Dou have actually been on my to-watch list for a while now.

Glad I watched The Insider; my kind of film. 3 to go: Bad Lieutenant, English Patient and Lost Highway. From what I know about these films and their directors, it's very likely not going to be good for their score if I watch them.

I quite enjoyed Mulholland Drive and I love Blue Velvet, but his early stream-of-consciousness films, as you call them, are not my cup of tea.

There is a chance I'll like Bad Lieutenant, true, but I didn't enjoy the remake that much and I'm not a big fan of Ferrara.

8 lists so far, and I just realized I won't be able to post the results until the 4th so you've basically got until the 3rd to send me your lists.

Did you get mine Stephan? I forgot to post that I sent it in here and didn't get an email back that I recall.

My bad, I didn't send you an email but I did receive your list.

Did you get mine Stephan?

list sent

This is the right direction?

neoptolemos@dot.com

stephan at neoptolemos dot com

at = @
dot = .

If I type out the full address I'll get spam.

Ok, now I understand.

Thanks

With the addition of Miguel, Otisredding and Dan M we now have 12 ballots and a rather interesting list.

Anyone still planning to send me a list?

i just sent mine

I just sent mine.

Green mile



Garmin GPS Watches

I don't think any more lists are incoming, so I'll go ahead and close the poll officially now.

Yes, I did. Sorry about not replying to your email yet but my internet here is really bad and gmail doesn't seem to load.