Important Movies

Oh shut up.

"I love the early Alain Resnais films. Those had a huge impact on me when I saw them. Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year At Marienbad are both still astonishing to me to this day. There are more ideas in the first 15 minutes of Hiroshima, Mon Amour than in the last 10 movies you've seen. And he was, like, the first guy to do this stuff. You look at what he was doing and it's just jaw-dropping. I haven't done anything nearly that adventurous yet. But that's what I had in mind when we were making [The Limey]. I kept saying, "Look, if we do this right, it's Alain Resnais makes Get Carter." - Steven Soderbergh

After about ten minutes of googling I was also able to citations from Martin Scorsese, Joachim Trier, Michael Haneke, David Lynch, Woody Allen, and Nicholas Roeg.  Unfortunately, not all filmmakers are nerds like us who put up helpful lists of their favorite films so I don't exactly know with 100% certainly that, say, Christopher Nolan loves Resnais' work.  However, it doesn't really matter, because even if certain modern directors hadn't seen it (and I think they have seen it) they still would have seen the movies it inspired.  Movies like this generally don't just stop being important, they're building blocks and foundations
.

"Stolen" implies that Nolan was one day reading a Darkwing Duck comic, set it down, looked up and went "...yes!"

"I can't believe I made a whole trilogy about the comic Batman!"

I think I'm okay with that. Not entirely sold on Anatomy.

I'll leave this year up until I get home from work today to see if there are any more heated opinions.

No objections.

To the list. Not to watching the thread burn. Though it is cold in here...

BURN

Alright, so if we're done talking about my face, lets take these 5 choices.

Next year: 2005

I honestly don't see a lot of worthy choices this year. However, these would be three that I'd choose:

Batman Begins
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Caché

1. Batman Begins: Redefined the caped crusader, launched one of the most beloved trilogies of all time, elevated the genre, and is a continuing influence on the genre.

2. Brokeback Mountain: The controversy this arose alone would warrant consideration, but the way Brokeback Mountain transcended this and just became a great movie is a testament to the film's power and it's placement on the list. It's also the most mainstream and nuanced depiction of homosexuality in media that I can think of.

3. The 40 Year Old Virgin: Ushered in the era of Apatow comedy and made Steve Carell a star.

4. Munich: Tapped into extremely relevant themes of vengeance and the circular nature of violence. It may have alienated audiences, but that's only because it was the most bold statement to come out of American cinema in 2005.

5. Hustle and Flow: Alright, this is one of my more "out there" picks and I'm sure it will be ignored, but this is the first (and to my knowledge, only) great movie about hip-hop, and given how that was the dominant musical form of the decade, I think it should be considered.

Honourable Mentions:

Sin City: This was a big deal in 2005 and I unapologetically love it, but the recent failure of A Dame to Kill For proves how this didn't stand the test of time.

A History of Violence: It's a great film and a turning for David Cronenberg, but it seems more important for him as a filmmaker than for the larger filmmaking landscape.

Kingdom of Heaven: It says a lot about religious conflict, but as far as historical epics go, this pales in comparison to Gladiator (at least by the standards of the general consensus) and I think Munich is a better statement on similar contemporary issues.

The Constant Gardener: Another film I love, and while it does deserve credit for helping kickstart the John le Carre adaptations as well as for its nuanced depiction of Africa, but this film's legacy seems to be significantly lesser than Meirelles' City of God.

Stupid? I was going to agree with your list but now I'm reconsidering.

Yeah, Serenity kicks ass. As a matter of fact, I happened to re-watch it today.