Yeah when I put my list together 73 and 69 were both in my top 5, can't go wrong with either one.

I still cant believe my no. 1 is still unpicked

we're doing it purposely to troll you for not participating.

Ah - got my computer back so I think I'll start slapping out a few picks if I'm still in.

So my round 1 pick is: 1895

The Execution of Mary Stuart is a short film produced in 1895. The film depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The 18-second-long film was produced by Thomas Edison and directed by Alfred Clark and may have been the first film in history to use trained actors, as well as one of the first to use editing for the purposes of special effects. The film shows a blindfolded Mary (played by Robert Thomae) being led to the execution block. The executioner raises his axe and an edit occurs during which the actress is replaced by a mannequin. The mannequin's head is chopped off and the executioner holds it in the air as the film ends

This could also be considered the first ‘Horror Film’.



First trained actors, editing/special effects, and horror all in one short. Tom knew what he was doing and the future was bright for film. The whole film industry and the attendant actors and film stars along with the nascent technology where in place. And the rest is history.

there ya go dom, your #1 pick finally off the board!

ROFL!

We've now had 1889 & 1989, as well as 1895 & 1995 taken.

Round 1




This is an incredibly stacked year, especially for American cinema. Going through the Wikipedia entry for movies in 1999 there's just a huge number of decent/good to great movies, even among the lesser-known and more lightweight movies, so this will be long, apologies in advance.

But I'm going to start with a few foreign language standouts, though, because the best movie of 1999 imo is a French one.

That movie is Claire Denis' masterpiece Beau Travail.



Claire Denis is a great director and this is her best of the ones I've seen. It's pretty much perfect in my opinion. Fantastic performance from Denis Lavant and the ending scene to this movie is probably the best ever.

My second favorite of the year would be The Thin Red Line, which imo should count as '99 even though imdb has it as '98.



Moving on with more foreign-language movies, Bruno Dumont's strange and great L'humanité is another favorite. This one too has a very memorable and bizarre ending.



The Dardenne brothers won the Palme d'Or for their harrowing Rosetta. Not my favorite that i've watched by them, but it's very good. And of course Almodovar won the Oscar for All About My Mother which i haven't watched since it came out, but remember as being good. The great Danish screenwriter and director Anders Thomas Jensen wrote the script for Dogme film Mifunes sidste sang (which also launched Iben Hjejle's career) and this classic:



And I almost forgot, Lukas Moodysson's debut Show Me Love was released internationally in 1999 (this one should count, only country it was available in in '98 was Sweden).



Other notables that i have not yet seen are movies by among others Abbas Kiarostami, Takashi Miike, Raoul Ruiz, Leos Carax, Chen Kaige, Takeshi Kitano and Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Also, Wong Kar-wai cinematographer Chris Doyle apparently made his directing debut in 1999 called Away With Words.

For American and English-language movies, month for month:

January

Paul Schrader's Affliction and the aforementioned The Thin Red Line. Also Tim Roth's directing debut with The War Zone, which is a good but very disturbing movie.



February

Fun Mel Gibson flick Payback, and another couple of favorites of the year in Wes anderson's Rushmore and Mike Judge's Office Space.



March

Guilty pleasure i guess but i remember liking Cruel Intentions. Same for Analyze This. Ritchie is not my favorite but Lock, stock and two smoking barrels was released. And of course, The Matrix.



Movies I've not seen that might be good: Ron Howard's EdTV and Eastwood's True Crime.

April

Doug Liman followed up Swingers with Go. And Stan romancing a young Jessica Alba in enjoyable horror-comedy Idle Hands.



May

Election, Ghost Dog, Phantom Menace, The Straight Story, Notting Hill.



June

Slower month. But Austin Powers and south park movie were good. Animated Tarzan came out as well, which i haven't seen.

July

Some big movies this month. Most notable of course is Eyes Wide Shut, but unfortunately i was probably too young in 1999 to appreciate this one. Need to rewatch soon. The Weitz' brothers had a hit with American Pie which I enjoyed greatly at the time. Mark Pellington's Arlington Road, with jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins, also made an impression. I recently rewatched it and it wasn't as good as I remembered, but worth a watch. Guilty pleasure again but I didn't mind Deep Blue Sea, have not watched it since it came out tho. There also was the found-footage hit The Blair Witch Project which wasn't that good but very influential and super-hyped at the time. Spike Lee's Summer of Sam. Garry Marshall, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere teamed up again for Runaway Bride, don't remember if it was good, probably not.





August

Brad Bird's debut with The Iron Giant (which I unfortunately haven't seen) and M. Night Shyamalan broke through with The Sixth Sense. Rene Russo was topless in The Thomas Crown Affair. LL Cool J was drunk on revenge in In Too Deep, while still gentleman enough to spit on the poolstick before insertion. And there was also Dick with Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams which I haven't seen but mean to.





September

Sam Mendes' feature film debut American Beauty which I don't think I've watched since it came out, not sure why because I loved it. I also enjoyed the Martin Lawrence movie Blue Streak



October

Another favorite of the year in David Fincher's Fight Club. And I recall really liking the Scorsese/Cage movie Bringing Out the Dead as well. Lynne Ramsay's first movie Ratcatcher. Haven't seen it (mean to rectify that soon) but it's supposed to be great. Three Kings was good. And Kimberly Peirce debuted, and Hilary Swank became a star, with Boys Don't Cry.



November

Michael Mann's great The Insider with terrific performances from Crowe and Pacino.The second installment of Toy Story. Kevin Smith's Dogma had a poop monster. Sleepy Hollow was worth a watch. Need to watch Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey.



December

What a month! The Cider House Rules, Sweet and Lowdown, The Green Mile, Ride With The Devil, Any Given Sunday, Man On The Moon, Galaxy Quest, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Angela's Ashes, The Hurricane and, of course:



Also, Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides was shown in Cannes and other festivals in 1999.

I gather it's my turn again, I pick

Round 2



Not gonna do much of a write-up here because I haven't watched many movies from this year, so apologies if anyone with more knowledge was thinking of picking it. But even from my limited exposure I've seen some all-time great movies from 1979:

Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker



Apocalypse now



Alien



Wise Blood



Being There



Manhattan



Life of Brian



Escape from Alcatraz



And The Jerk and Mad Max.

Btw really enjoying reading these writeups

Superb 1999 write-up. That is probably my favorite year.

With my second round pick I am going with a classic year that I think we are either overlooking or have forgotten: 1939!!

Gone With the Wind (1939), This year cannot be discussed without an initial nod to one of the few greatest films ever. The winner of nine Oscars. One of the greatest films ever made, a landmark epic film and Best Picture 0f the year. Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh, what more do you need.


Babes in Arms (1939) - Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, and the legendary Arthur Freed’s first movie as a producer for MGM.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939, UK), - The film debut of director Herbert Ross, Peter O'Toole, Greer Garson, and Best Actor-winning Robert Donat.

Dark Victory (1939), Bette Davis in a premier role as a Long IslandNew York socialite. A favorite from film class in college and I love Bette Davis.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), As a Notre Dame graduate I've always loved this film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel set in medieval Paris.

Gunga Din (1939), all timer Cary Grant in an adaption of Rudyard Kipling's work about comrades in colonial India. A classic.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), James Stewart in a seminal role about an ordinary guy trying to take on political elites. Holds up awesomely 80 years later in its message and tone.

Of Mice and Men (1939), Who doesn't love Steinbeck's classic tale? Where I discovered the incomparable Burgess Meredith.

Destry Rides Again (1939), A classic Western comedy with foxy Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart (quite the year for Mr. Stewart!)

Wuthering Heights; Maybe the best love story ever with Sir Laurence Olivier and Merle Obleron as Heathcliff and Cathy. This film does justice to Bronte's work. Screw the remake from several years ago.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Cary Grant and stunning Rita Hayworth in an alltimer adventure about cargo airline pilots. Another personal favorite.

Stagecoach (1939), My favorite classic Western and the breakout role for John Wayne!!

The Roaring Twenties (1939), James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in a classic about Prohibition and bootlegging gangsters.

And last but certainly not least.

The Wizard of Oz (1939), My most watched movie ever. Classic characters in Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Wicked Witch, OZ. The yellow brick road, "There's no place like home." The munchkins. Just a wonderful film.

Its hard to top this list and it would be my 3rd best ever and I'm shocked it hadn't been picked yet.

Did not realize how strong 1999 was.

Love Election and Iron Giant especially. Fight Club and American Beauty were ugh though.

Also never heard of Show me Love, will be looking into that.

1939 was the year I was assuming Dom was referring to.

ninotchka is a great 1939 film, probably my favorite...an ernst lubitsch comedy

le jour se leve is another good one...french movie with jean gabin

very good year but i think a bit overrated

1939 is a great pick and it is usually heralded as the "greatest year" for movies. There are a few years I like better though.

About time! This was my No. 1. And there's at least 20 more films you could list that are classics.

List them.

lol 20 more classics

come on

I accept that challenge!

The Rules of the Game ( Renoir's masterpiece)
Alexander Nevsky (Eisentstein)
Love Affair (Irene Dunn and Charles Boyer)
Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch directs Garbo)
Jesse James (Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power)
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (Edward G. Robinson)
Dodge City (Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland)
The Women (Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Joan Fontaine)
Drums Along the Mohawk (Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda)
Another Thin Man (William Powell and Myrna Loy)
Gulliver's Travels (classic animation)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce)
Beau Geste (directed by William Wellman, starring Gary Cooper and Ray Milland)
The Four Feathers (John Clements and Ralph Richardson)
Hollywood Cavalcade (Don Ameche)
The Hounds of the Baskervilles (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce)
Intermezzo (Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard)
Jamaica Inn (directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara)
The Roaring Twenties (James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart)
Juarez (Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Claude Rains, John Garfield, Brian Aherne)
The Oklahoma Kid (James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart,)
Union Pacific (directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea)
Young Mr. Lincoln (directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda)
The Spy in Black (in America: U-Boat 29 - Powell and Pressburger's first collaboration)
Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) Marcel Carne directing Jean Gabin
Daybreak (another Carne/Gabin masterpiece - it was included in the first Sight and Sound top ten greatest films list.)
Midnight (Billy Wilder wrote it, staring Claudette Colbert and John Barrymore)
The Man in the Iron Mask (directed by James Whale)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (directed by Michael Curtiz)
Golden Boy (William Holden and Barbara Stanwyk)


Plus serials that were released that year include:

• Buck Rogers, starrng Buster Crabbe
• Dick Tracy's G-Men, starring Ralph Byrd
• Daredevils of the Red Circle, starring Herman Brix and Charles B. Middleton
• Flying G-Men
• The Lone Ranger Rides Again
• Mandrake the Magician, starring Warren Hull
• The Oregon Trail
• Overland with Kit Carson
• The Phantom Creeps, starring Bela Lugosi

Comedy film series that released features or shorts in 1939:

• Buster Keaton
• Laurel and Hardy
• Our Gang
• The Marx Brothers
• The Three Stooges

Animated shorts released that year include:

Krazy Kat
Mickey Mouse
Looney Tunes
Terrytoons
Merrie Melodies
Scrappy
Betty Boop
Popeye

***************

I'll take 1939, thanks. I don't think it's even close.

One of the reasons I didn't play was because I would've shot my wad with 1939 and wouldn't have had a clue what to pick next.

for the record, my favorites of 1939 are:

Daybreak
Gunga Din
The Four Feathers
Ninotchka
Only Angels Have Wings

besides ninotchka, rules of the game, daybreak and alexander nevsky, barely any of those are classics man...jamaica inn? lol come on be serious. confessions of a nazi spy? no way you've seen those movies and consider them classics.

I would have taken '39 on my next pick. I'm glad it's picked though. It's the classic year, but nothing there I really love (a lot that I haven't seen of course).

I've seen every movie besides Port of Shadows - I've never been able to find a decent print.

And what is your definition of "classic?" It doesn't have to be a masterpiece - it only has to be a noteworthy film of that year. I mean, I could've added Charlie Chan and some others that are certainly classic - but have not aged well. I only include the one I like.

And while Jamaica Inn is not top-tier Hitchcock, it is still entertaining. And Confessions of a Nazi Spy is awesome.

I wasn't being sarcastic in my use of classic or anything. Dunno if some of the lesser known films you mentioned count as classic or not. They are old. I'm sure I'd enjoy lots of them. May check your lists against netflix streaming. I think I've only seen like 5 of all the films mentioned and I guess The Hunchback of Notre Dame would be my favorite of them all. I haven't even seen Gone With the Wind.

i dunno what a definition of a classic movie is, but the bar has to be higher than fun or noteworthy

think you're just exaggerating a bit with the 1939 lovefest is all