A Few Favorite Movies

I have been watching Criterion Closet episodes where filmmakers chose their favorite Criterion Collection movies, and sometimes ones they are curious about and want to watch.

Which ones would I pick? It could be an almost infinite combination of fascinating or enjoyable movies. Here are some possibilities, many but not in the Criterion Collection.

EARLY AND FORMATIVE FAVORITES

Akira Kurosawa – Rashomon, High and Low, Ikiru, Ran, Red Beard

Andrei Tarkovsky – The Sacrifice, Andrei Rublev, Mirror, Solaris

Kieslowski – Three Colors Trilogy, Double life of Véronique

Wim Wenders – Wings of Desire

Alfred Hitchcock: The Birds, Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest

Lawrence of Arabia, The Last Emperor, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange

Ugetsu, Farewell my Concubine

Baraka, The Deep Blue, Cinema Paradiso, City Lights, The Third Man

In my late teens/early twenties, I went to Cinemateket in Oslo once or more each week, where they showed classics and hidden gems from around the world. In the summer, I would often go early, read on a bench in the park in the courtyard of the building, and then watch a movie – often with a friend.

LATER & RECENT FAVORITES

Ozu – Ohayo (Good Morning), Tokyo Story, Early Summer, Late Spring

Studio Ghibli – My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away

Pedro Almodovar – Pain & Glory, The Room Next Door, Parallel Mothers, Strange Way of Life

Taste of Cherry, Pan’s Labyrinth, Himalaya, Persepolis, Off the Map

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Wolfwalkers, Past Lives, Certified Copy, The Life of Chuck, Train Dreams

A FEW MORE – HOLLYWOOD, FUN ETC.

80s movies – Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, Stand by Me, The Abyss, Alien, Aliens, Back to the Future, Cocoon, The Breakfast Club

Léon: The Professional, A River Runs Through It, Contact, The Dish

Star Wars – the initial trilogy

Wallace & Gromit – The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave

Monty Python – The Life of Brian, The Holy Grail, The Meaning of Life

Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Steven Spielberg – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler’s List, Munich

Paul Newman & Robert Redford – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting

Quentin Tarantino – Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Woody Allen – Bullets Over Broadway, Sweet and Lowdown

ACTUAL SELECTION

For a small selection, I would choose some that made an initial big and lasting impression on me.

The Sacrifice – a beautiful, poetic, and mysterious movie that made a deep impression when I first saw it.

Baraka – epic, beautiful, poetic, and a reflection on human life. I was lucky enough to see it (twice) in Colosseum, on the largest screen in Northern Europe.

Ugetsu – a gripping and fascinating ghost story.

Lunana: A yak in the classroom – heartfelt, simple, and most of the actors play themselves.

Good Morning – quiet, fun observation of human interactions.

The Double Life of Veronique – beautiful, poetic, mysterious.

WANT TO SEE

Children of Paradise, In the Mood for Love, Still Walking, The Salt of the Earth

Here is me on Letterboxd.

MORE INFO

I fed my Letterboxd ratings to ChatGPT and Gemini to see what they make of it, and what I am likely to enjoy that I haven’t yet seen. See below.

Films You Are Likely to Love and Rate Highly

A curated selection of films you have not seen, chosen to align with a contemplative, humanist, and spiritually grounded cinematic sensibility.

Contemplative Humanism

These films focus on ordinary lives, family, time passing, and moral texture. Meaning emerges through attention rather than narrative force.

• Still Walking
  Japan. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
  Often described as the most Ozu-like film of the modern era, Still Walking observes a family gathering years after a child’s death. Grief, resentment, and love surface quietly through meals, pauses, and everyday rituals. Nothing is resolved, yet everything is acknowledged.
• Our Little Sister
  Japan. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
  A gentle, seasonal film about three sisters who take in their teenage half-sister after their father’s death. Deeply humane and life-affirming, the film is less about drama than about how care is practiced over time.
• A Man Escaped
  France. Directed by Robert Bresson.
  Based on a true story of a French Resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazis. Through extreme restraint and repetition, Bresson turns a prison escape into a study of inner freedom, discipline, and spiritual resolve.
• The Straight Story
  United States. Directed by David Lynch.
  A radical outlier in Lynch’s filmography. An elderly man travels across several states on a lawnmower to reconcile with his brother. Simple, sincere, and quietly profound, the film treats humility and perseverance as moral virtues.
• Lucky
  United States. Directed by John Carroll Lynch.
  Harry Dean Stanton’s final role. A minimalist meditation on aging, death, and acceptance. The film is dry, spacious, and gently philosophical, allowing mortality to be faced without sentimentality or despair.
• Paterson
  United States. Directed by Jim Jarmusch.
  A quiet portrait of a bus driver who writes poetry. The film treats routine, attention, and small acts of creativity as a form of devotion. Meaning is found not in change, but in presence.

Inner-Life Cinema

Films that take faith, doubt, conscience, and mystery seriously, without turning them into doctrine or ideology.

• Ordet
  Denmark. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
  A severe and luminous exploration of faith, doubt, and grace within a religious family. Dreyer treats belief with total seriousness, refusing irony or reassurance. A demanding film, but one of great spiritual depth.
• Diary of a Country Priest
  France. Directed by Robert Bresson.
  The interior life of a young priest, conveyed through voiceover, restraint, and physical exhaustion. Suffering, humility, and faith are presented without sentiment, allowing spiritual struggle to remain unresolved and real.
• Winter Light
  Sweden. Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
  One of Bergman’s starkest works. Faith is stripped of consolation, prayer of comfort. Silence becomes oppressive rather than peaceful. A film of cold clarity and moral seriousness.
• Silent Light
  Mexico. Directed by Carlos Reygadas.
  Set in a Mennonite community, the film uses long takes and natural light to explore love, betrayal, and grace. Spiritual weight is carried through form rather than explanation.
• First Reformed
  United States. Directed by Paul Schrader.
  A contemporary spiritual crisis film confronting ecological despair, moral responsibility, and the limits of faith. Severe, disciplined, and deeply aligned with questions of conscience and action.

Epic Humanism

Large-scale cinema where history presses heavily on individuals, and ethical struggle outweighs spectacle.

• The Human Condition
  Japan. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi.
  A monumental trilogy following a pacifist caught within the machinery of war and empire. One of the most morally serious epics ever made, uncompromising in its humanism.
• The Ascent
  Soviet Union. Directed by Larisa Shepitko.
  A stark wartime parable of betrayal and sacrifice. Shot in harsh winter landscapes, the film carries unmistakable spiritual gravity without religious comfort.
• Shoah
  France. Directed by Claude Lanzmann.
  A nine-hour documentary built entirely from testimony and present-day landscapes. Refuses dramatization, insisting on moral witnessing and the endurance of memory.
• A Man There Was
  Sweden. Directed by Victor Sjöström.
  Silent cinema as moral reckoning. A man’s life is judged as he faces death, with fate and responsibility woven into a supernatural frame.
• Ballad of a Soldier
  Soviet Union. Directed by Grigori Chukhrai.
  A tender anti-war film following a young soldier on leave. Emphasizes fleeting human connection over heroism or ideology.

Poetic Cinema

Films concerned with memory, identity, impermanence, and the flow of lived experience.

• The Long Day Closes
  United Kingdom. Directed by Terence Davies.
  A lyrical evocation of childhood memory. Music, light, and fragments of experience form a deeply tender meditation on time and becoming.
• Poetry
  South Korea. Directed by Lee Chang-dong.
  An elderly woman discovers poetry while confronting moral horror and personal decline. Language becomes a fragile form of grace.
• Werckmeister Harmonies
  Hungary. Directed by Béla Tarr.
  Long takes and cosmic stillness frame a meditation on chaos, order, and fragile hope. Demanding, but spiritually resonant.
• Columbus
  United States. Directed by Kogonada.
  Architecture becomes a mirror for grief and restraint. A calm, emotionally precise film about attention, care, and staying rather than escaping.
• The Gleaners and I
  France. Directed by Agnès Varda.
  A documentary shaped by curiosity and humility. Varda reflects on waste, dignity, and aging with warmth and philosophical openness.

Life-Affirming Cinema

Warmth and meaning without sentimentality or manipulation.

• Babette’s Feast
  Denmark. Directed by Gabriel Axel.
  A parable of grace, generosity, and artistic sacrifice. A meal becomes an act of communion.
• Local Hero
  United Kingdom. Directed by Bill Forsyth.
  A gentle comedy about land, community, and humility. Quietly radical in its kindness and restraint.
• Il Posto
  Italy. Directed by Ermanno Olmi.
  A young man enters the workforce and discovers quiet disappointment. Observational, compassionate, and unsentimental.
• The Lunchbox
  India. Directed by Ritesh Batra.
  Loneliness and connection unfold through routine and correspondence. Tender, restrained, and deeply human.

Playful and Entertaining Cinema

These films are lighter, warmer, or more playful, but still grounded in character, intelligence, and human connection. They entertain without becoming shallow, and offer pleasure without cynicism.

• Tampopo
  Japan. Directed by J?z? Itami.
  A joyful, eccentric “ramen western” that celebrates food, community, and small obsessions. Playful on the surface, but surprisingly attentive to ritual, care, and everyday meaning.
• The Station Agent
  United States. Directed by Tom McCarthy.
  A gentle, character-driven film about unexpected friendship and solitude. Quietly funny, deeply humane, and emotionally grounded without sentimentality.
• After Life
  Japan. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
  A whimsical yet philosophical premise: the recently deceased must choose one memory to take with them into eternity. Light, touching, and reflective, with understated humor.
• Sideways
  United States. Directed by Alexander Payne.
  A road movie about friendship, disappointment, and midlife longing. Wryly funny, but anchored in vulnerability and compassion rather than irony.
• Midnight Run
  United States. Directed by Martin Brest.
  A rare example of a mainstream comedy-thriller with real warmth and character growth. Fast, funny, and surprisingly humane beneath the genre mechanics.

My To-Watch List

Below is my list of movies I want to watch, reorganized by ChatGPT.

Here’s your list, reorganized into “what to watch next” buckets (5–10 each). I kept it biased toward your taste: emotionally rich, artistically strong, often international, sometimes quietly profound.

Top movies for you (start here)

1. Yi Yi
2. Still Walking (Kore-eda)
3. In the Mood for Love
4. A Separation
5. The Spirit of the Beehive
6. Shoplifters
7. A Brighter Summer Day

Must-see classics you’ll probably appreciate

1. Dekalog
2. Children of Paradise
3. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
4. Rome, Open City
5. Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock)
6. Au Revoir les Enfants
7. Paris, Texas
8. Do the Right Thing

Highest-rated “movie connoisseur” picks

1. Harakiri
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Yi Yi
4. Fanny & Alexander
5. The Human Condition III
6. Dekalog
7. M (Lang, 1931)
8. Days of Heaven

Best international (beautiful + human)

1. The Vertical Ray of the Sun (Vietnam)
2. Pather Panchali
3. The Lunchbox
4. Sweet Bean
5. The Way Home (Korea, 2002)
6. Utama (Bolivia)
7. Central Station (Brazil)
8. The Great Beauty (Italy)

Heartfelt / tender / quietly life-affirming

1. Our Little Sister
2. The Straight Story
3. Sing Street
4. Brooklyn
5. Leave No Trace
6. Nowhere Special
7. Babette’s Feast
8. A Monster Calls (if you want a cathartic cry)

Entertaining (still “good cinema”)

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Easy A
3. Morning Glory
4. Tampopo
5. Ronin
6. La Femme Nikita
7. Wasabi
8. Shanghai Noon

Poetic / meditative / “vibe” films (for the right mood)

1. The Tree of Life
2. Memoria
3. The Red Turtle
4. The Color of Pomegranates
5. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
6. The Scent of Green Papaya
7. Evil Does Not Exist
8. A Night of Knowing Nothing

India / Kerala lane (since you’re currently there + love humanist cinema)

1. Kumbalangi Nights
2. C/o Kancharapalem
3. Masaan
4. Ship of Theseus
5. The Lunchbox
6. Monsoon Wedding
7. Salaam Bombay!

Documentary “film-nerd” essentials

1. The Great Buster (Keaton)
2. The Eyes of Orson Welles
3. Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer
4. Varda par Agnès
5. Monk in Pieces (Meredith Monk)
6. The Last Movie Stars
7. The Painter and the Thief
8. Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

My Letterboxd Top Ratings (4.5 Stars and 5 Stars)

Total films in this list: 301 (5 Stars: 115, 4.5 Stars: 186)

1920s (5)

• The Kid (1921)
• Safety Last! (1923)
• The Gold Rush (1925)
• The General (1926)
• Metropolis (1927)

1930s (2)

• City Lights (1931)
• Modern Times (1936)

1940s (4)

• The Great Dictator (1940)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Late Spring (1949)
• The Third Man (1949)

1950s (26)

• Kon-Tiki (1950)
• Rashomon (1950)
• Early Summer (1951)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Ikiru (1952)
• Limelight (1952)
• Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)
• Tokyo Story (1953)
• Ugetsu (1953)
• Rear Window (1954)
• Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• Karius and Baktus (1955)
• To Catch a Thief (1955)
• Forbidden Planet (1956)
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• Throne of Blood (1957)
• Mon Oncle (1958)
• The Hidden Fortress (1958)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Floating Weeds (1959)
• Good Morning (1959)
• Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
• North by Northwest (1959)

1960s (18)

• Breathless (1960)
• The Ashlad and His Good Helpers (1961)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• Sanjuro (1962)
• The Fox’s Widow (1962)
• High and Low (1963)
• The Birds (1963)
• A Shot in the Dark (1964)
• For a Few Dollars More (1965)
• Red Beard (1965)
• Andrei Rublev (1966)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• The Seventh Master of the House (1966)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The Party (1968)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

1970s (22)

• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• Walkabout (1971)
• Solaris (1972)
• The Godfather (1972)
• Carpenter Andersen Meets Santa Claus (1973)
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)
• The Sting (1973)
• The Godfather Part II (1974)
• Dersu Uzala (1975)
• Mirror (1975)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
• The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
• The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)
• The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975)
• Journey to the Christmas Star (1976)
• Silent Movie (1976)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Mario Puzo’s The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television (1977)
• Star Wars (1977)
• The Stowaway (1978)
• Life of Brian (1979)
• Stalker (1979)

1980s (41)

• Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)
• Kagemusha (1980)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Gandhi (1982)
• Missing (1982)
• Sophie’s Choice (1982)
• M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen (1983)
• Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)
• Nostalgia (1983)
• Return of the Jedi (1983)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• Ghostbusters (1984)
• The Runner (1984)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Out of Africa (1985)
• Pale Rider (1985)
• Ran (1985)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
• The Sacrifice (1986)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• Babette’s Feast (1987)
• Cry Freedom (1987)
• The Last Emperor (1987)
• Pathfinder (1987)
• Wings of Desire (1987)
• Cinema Paradiso (1988)
• Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
• Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
• The Big Blue (1988)
• My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
• Red Sorghum (1988)
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
• A Grand Day Out (1989)
• Creature Comforts (1989)
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
• Dekalog (1989)
• For All Mankind (1989)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (1989)

1990s (51)

• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• Dreams (1990)
• Mindwalk (1990)
• The Sheltering Sky (1990)
• All the Mornings of the World (1991)
• The Double Life of Véronique (1991)
• The Lovers on the Bridge (1991)
• Rhapsody in August (1991)
• Until the End of the World (1991)
• A River Runs Through It (1992)
• Baraka (1992)
• Chaplin (1992)
• Howards End (1992)
• Strictly Ballroom (1992)
• Tintin in Tibet (1992)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Farewell My Concubine (1993)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Piano (1993)
• Schindler’s List (1993)
• Three Colours: Blue (1993)
• The Wrong Trousers (1993)
• Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
• Léon: The Professional (1994)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Three Colours: Red (1994)
• Three Colours: White (1994)
• To Live (1994)
• A Close Shave (1995)
• Antonia’s Line (1995)
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Before Sunrise (1995)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Whisper of the Heart (1995)
• Kolya (1996)
• Microcosmos (1996)
• Children of Heaven (1997)
• Contact (1997)
• Kundun (1997)
• Princess Mononoke (1997)
• Taste of Cherry (1997)
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• The Saltmen of Tibet (1997)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• Being John Malkovich (1999)
• Himalaya (1999)
• Not One Less (1999)
• Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
• The Cup (1999)
• The Matrix (1999)

2000s (48)

• The Dish (2000)
• Amélie (2001)
• Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
• Band of Brothers (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Monsoon Wedding (2001)
• Monsters, Inc. (2001)
• Rivers and Tides (2001)
• Spirited Away (2001)
• Adaptation (2002)
• Life on Air: David Attenborough’s 50 Years in Television (2002)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Sahara with Michael Palin (2002)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• Whale Rider (2002)
• A Mighty Wind (2003)
• Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)
• Off the Map (2003)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003)
• The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
• Travellers and Magicians (2003)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
• Hellboy (2004)
• Himalaya with Michael Palin (2004)
• The Chorus (2004)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• King Kong (2005)
• Munich (2005)
• The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
• Wordplay (2006)
• Hairspray (2007)
• In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
• The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
• Persepolis (2007)
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
• Man on Wire (2008)
• Max Manus: Man of War (2008)
• Milk (2008)
• Inglourious Basterds (2009)
• Invictus (2009)
• Julie & Julia (2009)
• The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)

2010s (56)

• Certified Copy (2010)
• The Illusionist (2010)
• The King’s Speech (2010)
• Love at First Sight (2010)
• The Pacific (2010)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• Chinese Take-Away (2011)
• From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
• The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
• Samsara (2011)
• Tintin’s Adventure with Frank Gardner (2011)
• Django Unchained (2012)
• Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
• 20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
• Before Midnight (2013)
• Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)
• The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013)
• Awake: The Life of Yogananda (2014)
• Beatles (2014)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• Interstellar (2014)
• Song of the Sea (2014)
• Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez (2015)
• Inside Out (2015)
• Kung Fury (2015)
• Sweet Bean (2015)
• The Saboteurs (2015)
• Truman (2015)
• What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
• My Life as a Zucchini (2016)
• Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2016)
• Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
• Logan (2017)
• The Post (2017)
• The Shape of Water (2017)
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
• Black Panther (2018)
• El Pepe: A Supreme Life (2018)
• The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
• Witness of Another World (2018)
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
• Apollo 11 (2019)
• Beyond The Visible – Hilma af Klint (2019)
• Jojo Rabbit (2019)
• Little Women (2019)
• Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)
• Pain and Glory (2019)

2020s (28)

• The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
• Tove (2020)
• Wolfwalkers (2020)
• Drive My Car (2021)
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
• The Codebreaker (2021)
• The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
• Parallel Mothers (2021)
• WandaVision (2021)
• Butterfly in the Sky (2022)
• Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (2022)
• Asteroid City (2023)
• Gondola (2023)
• In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon (2023)
• The Monk and the Gun (2023)
• One Life (2023)
• Past Lives (2023)
• Perfect Days (2023)
• Strange Way of Life (2023)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
• All We Imagine as Light (2024)
• Gaucho Gaucho (2024)
• Jim Henson Idea Man (2024)
• The Life of Chuck (2024)
• The Room Next Door (2024)
• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024)
• Train Dreams (2025)

Movies You Rate Highly

You rate a surprisingly wide range of films highly, but the reasons you rate them highly are consistent. Your top-tier list (4.5–5?) is less “a favorite genre” and more a set of recurring values: attention, moral weight, wonder, and films that respect the viewer.

You consistently reward patient, contemplative cinema that treats ordinary life as meaningful. The Ozu cluster (Late Spring, Early Summer, Tokyo Story, Good Morning) is the clearest signal: family, generational change, restraint, and the ache of time passing. You also like later films that carry that same “quiet observation” energy even when the setting changes — for example Perfect Days (daily ritual and presence), Drive My Car (grief, language, endurance), and Pain and Glory (memory, illness, creative life, reconciliation). In these, emotion is not pushed at you; it’s allowed to surface through rhythm, repetition, and small shifts.

A second major thread is spiritual or metaphysical seriousness without preaching. Your highest-rated Tarkovsky set (Solaris, Mirror, Stalker) points to love of cinema that treats consciousness, memory, and mystery as real. These films don’t “explain”; they induce a state. You pair that with other works that approach inner life through different languages: Kieslowski (The Double Life of Véronique, Three Colours: Blue/White/Red) with its moral-intuitive atmosphere; Wenders (Wings of Desire) with its compassionate metaphysics; and even sensory documentaries like Baraka and Samsara, where meaning is built through image-rhythm rather than argument.

You also rate highly films with moral weight and historical gravity, where the point is conscience, not spectacle. Kurosawa’s humanist epics (Ikiru, Seven Samurai, High and Low, Red Beard, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, Kagemusha, Ran) show you like big stories when they’re ethically serious and psychologically true. This appears again in films like Schindler’s List, The Pianist, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Letters from Iwo Jima, and even Gandhi— works that, whatever their style, are preoccupied with dignity under pressure, responsibility, and the costs of violence and power.

Alongside all that seriousness, you clearly love wonder and well-made entertainment — but with craft, heart, and a sense of myth. Your top ratings include the “visionary popular canon”: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Close Encounters, Blade Runner (and 2049), The Matrix, Contact, and The Lord of the Rings films. The shared element isn’t action; it’s awe: cosmic perspective, moral clarity, beautiful world-building, and stories that take meaning seriously rather than undercutting it. Even your comedies at the top — Life of Brian, The Sting — are extremely well-crafted and carry a strong sense of intelligence and rhythm.

Finally, you have a strong affection for films that combine tenderness with artistry, especially animation and humane crowd-pleasers. Studio Ghibli appears in your top tier (My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, From Up on Poppy Hill, Whisper of the Heart) — all films with gentleness, ecological feeling, and emotional sincerity. You also rate highly films that are warm but not shallow: Cinema Paradiso, Babette’s Feast, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and My Life as a Zucchini — stories where kindness and moral growth are treated as real strengths.

If I had to summarize the “shape” of your high ratings in one line: you love films that are either contemplative and humane, or visionary and mythic — but almost always sincere, morally aware, and made with deep craft.

Movie Taste – Gemini

An analysis of your 987 movie ratings reveals a clear preference for mid-century classics and regional storytelling, contrasted with a high critical bar for modern big-budget cinema. Your overall average rating stands at 3.80/5.0, with 115 films (roughly 11.6%) reaching a perfect 5.0.

Era and Quality Distribution

Your ratings indicate that you view the 1950s as the peak of cinematic quality. Your average rating for that decade is 4.50, the highest of any era in your list. The 1970s also rank highly with a 4.11 average. In contrast, your appreciation for current cinema is more guarded; your average for the 2020s is 3.53, nearly a full point lower than your favorite decade.

International and Cultural Scope

A significant portion of your top-tier ratings is dedicated to international cinema and your own heritage.

• Japanese and Global Classics: You have a deep appreciation for the “masters.” You’ve awarded 5.0 stars to foundational works by Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Ikiru) and Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring), as well as Hitchcock (Vertigo, Rear Window).
• Norwegian Heritage: Your data shows a strong “loyalty” to Norwegian cultural history. You have given 5.0 ratings to films that are cornerstones of Norwegian identity, such as Karius and Baktus (1955), Kon-Tiki (1950), and The Ashlad and His Good Helpers (1961).

Genre and Auteur Preferences

You tend to favor films with a distinct directorial voice rather than mass-marketed products.

• The Auteur Favoritism: In the modern era, Wes Anderson is your standout director. You’ve given 5.0 stars to both The Grand Budapest Hotel and Asteroid City.
• The “Spectacle” Threshold: Your data shows a sharp rejection of the modern “blockbuster” formula. While you gave the original Star Wars a 5.0, you’ve rated several modern franchise films at the minimum 0.5, including Aquaman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
• Sci-Fi Skepticism: You are notably critical of modern “prestige” sci-fi. Films like Gravity (1.0) and Ad Astra (1.5) sit at the bottom of your list, suggesting you find little value in the clinical or lonely style often used in the genre today.

Summary of Your Taste

Your movie taste is defined by a respect for the foundations of film history and a high degree of selectivity. With a most frequent rating of 4.0 (assigned to 256 movies), you are a generally positive but discerning viewer. You prioritize visual composition and cultural resonance over modern technical spectacle, consistently finding the highest value in the mid-20th century and in stories that reflect your roots.

My comments: It’s to be expected that older movies are more highly rated. I mostly watch them because time tends to filter out higher quality movies.

Movie Taste – ChatGPT 5.2

Your movie taste is deeply humanist, contemplative, and spiritually oriented. You’re drawn to films that slow time, honor silence, and treat inner life as something real and worthy of attention. Rather than plot-driven storytelling, you respond most strongly to cinema that observes ordinary lives, moral subtleties, and the quiet weight of existence. Films that feel patient, humble, and attentive — where meaning emerges through presence rather than explanation — tend to stay with you the longest.

You are especially aligned with filmmakers who trust ambiguity without sliding into nihilism, and who approach mystery with sincerity rather than irony. Spiritual or metaphysical dimensions matter to you, but only when they are embodied and lived, not theorized or preached. Whether the setting is a family home, a historical epic, or a mythic landscape, you value emotional truth, ethical depth, and a sense that humans are embedded in time, culture, and nature.

Ultimately, you experience cinema as nourishment rather than entertainment. You appreciate scale and beauty, but only when they serve wisdom, compassion, or moral weight. You tend to be generous yet discerning, preferring films that feel quietly profound over those that are clever, flashy, or concept-driven. The movies you love most are not trying to impress — they are trying to see, and to let you see with them.