The 5 favorite movies: a duel between Kubrick and Lynch

Kubrick and Lynch dominate the film buff ranking of a forum thread

The exercise seemed simple: list the five best films of all time. The proposal turned into an inventory of obsessions, generational score-settling and an uncomfortable conclusion: no consensus is possible. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Mulholland Drive are the most repeated titles among those who dare to order the canon. But the real finding is not the podium, but what it reveals: each list works as a declaration of identity.

Which films are repeated most in the lists

Kubrick is the most cited author. 2001, Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket appear in different combinations, sometimes all together in a single list. David Lynch trinc, with Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet as spearheads. Ridley Scott places Blade Runner on the personal podium of several participants, and classic cinema holds its own with Vertigo, The Godfather Part II and Cinema Paradiso.

The variety is enormous: from Apocalypse Now to Tokyo Story, from Dersu Uzala to The General. The most repeated list does not exist. What exists is a pattern: those who cite Kubrick usually despise the contemporary blockbuster; those who defend Nolan or Villeneuve are usually a minority in this type of exercise.

The generational rift: classic cinema versus current cinema

Part of the analysis holds that the seventies were the last golden era of adult cinema. Antiheroes, the demystification of genres and counterculture would have died with the release of Star Wars and the consolidation of popcorn cinema. The other current defends that cinema always had an agenda and that the difference is not ideological, but of quality: before, the film stood on its own; today, the message replaces the script.

Some go further and state that 99% of current cinema is propaganda. It is not a verifiable thesis, but it is a widespread current of opinion. On the other side, the defense of contemporary cinema relies on specific cases: The Big Short, Molly's Game or Charlie Wilson's War appear as examples that you can still tell something with rhythm and without a sermon.

The canon that no one disputes and the one no one sees

Tarkovsky is the most striking case. The Sacrifice, Solaris and Andrei Rublev appear in several lists, but always with the warning that his cinema is contemplative, cryptic and minority. The quote that summarizes the phenomenon is Truffaut's: there are films that flatter the spectator and films that place him before the mystery of the world. Tarkovsky belongs to the latter.

Spanish cinema is almost absent from the podium. The Spirit of the Beehive does not appear. Alatriste is mentioned to compare it unfavorably with Master and Commander. The implicit conclusion: Spanish cinema does not know how to adapt stories with the solvency of the Anglo-Saxon. It is an opinion, not a fact, but it is repeated.

The nostalgia factor and the algorithm trap

Many lists include titles that have not been seen again in decades. The Deer Hunter appears described as a film that leaves you KO, but also as a film that was boring when it was released. Revision changes the verdict. Other times it confirms it: The Great Beauty was labeled a bore by a participant who, instead, defended Youth by the same director.

The exercise has something of a performance. Citing Vidocq or Fast & Furious 1 2 3 4 5 is a way of sabotaging the canon. Citing Dersu Uzala is a way of vindicating a sensibility. In both cases, the list says more about the author than about the films.

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In the end, the question is not what the five best films of all time are. The question is who dares to say it in public without being portrayed.