The first thing to mention is that my Top 10 list has 12 movies. It is not that I have difficulty counting to 10, although I sometimes feel that John Mortimer was actually referring to me when he wrote that Rumpole’s abilities, when it came to mathematics, were very like those of tribal Australian aborigines who would count to 3, everything after that being simply “lots”.
The reason that I have 12 films in my Top 10 is that I couldn’t work out which two to cut from the list.
The next thing to mention is that these movies are not in order of favouritism. It was difficult enough culling favourites without also having to work out the order of priority for those that remained.
The final thing is that my criteria in selecting the movies was simple: what movies do I like most and are good for repeated viewing? This simple criteria means that some movies classed as great by critics don’t get a look in. Those same critics would doubtless look with pained expressions at some of my selections. Citizen Kane has been voted the No 1 film by critics and directors for the American Film Institute and British Film Institute lists of greatest films of all time. But who here has bought a copy or has actually seen it?
Feel free to disagree. Add a comment in the comment box at the end of the post as to your Top 10 or Top 12.
