1,000 Films To See Before You Die

I have spent many hours this year making my way through the Guardian's 1,000 Films To See Before You Die. The list itself, which came out in 2007, is the sort of naff thing I would normally strive to avoid. Nothing so erroneously populates our TV screens on a Saturday night as another "best 100 things ever" list. But in this case, at least the list is pretty good. It does have a lot of the obvious material in it that you would expect - no surprise omission for The Godfather - but there are hundreds (in my case, at least) of movies in the countdown that I have never seen, and many dozens that I have never heard of.
Of the 1,000 films on the list, I reckon I've seen close to 60 per cent. Now my aim is to chip away through the rest of the list over the next couple of years.
Some of the pictures I have watched recently I would never have looked at but for this list. In some cases, this is a bad thing - did I really need to watch Evil Dead? - but in others, it's been very healthy, as films such as Bagdad Cafe (above) have been a delightful, and wholly unexpected, treat.
This is what I have seen so far this year (one or two are not on the list). It's either a proud monument to cinematic erudition, or a shameful waste of human time.

Scarface (1983)
Rogue Trader (1999)
The King's Speech (2011)
Batman Begins (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
Sleeper (1973)
Casino Royale (2006)
The Big Heat (1953)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Silkwood (1983)
Never Let Me Go (2011)
Rushmore (1998)
Amelie (2001)
Kes (1969)
Last Days (2005)
In This World (2002)
Quadrophenia (1979)
Paul (2011)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Evil Dead (1981)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Memento (2000)
Brick (2005)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Edge of Love (2008)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
Giant (1956)
Bagdad Cafe (1987)
Gigi (1958)
Touching the Void (2003)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Hairspray (1988)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Wall Street (1987)
Laura (1944)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Victim (1961)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
La Regle Du Jeu (1939)
P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang (1982)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Carry on Cleo (1964)

Of these, the worst have been Evil Dead and Enter the Dragon. Hairspray was pretty weak as well - another of those films that makes you wonder what some critics are on about. The best, surprisingly, have been the British ones - Chariots of Fire, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Seeing them made me remember how good British cinema once was. Where did we go wrong?
And the 1939 Renoir film La Regle Du Jeu is outstanding. When I saw the year of release, I feared the worst, but the depth of the characterisation in the film would be remarkable today - and I can well see why it is so well-regarded.