More on the List (sorry)

I know this part is totally boring, but I feel the need to be up front and open about my system of choosing films (since I began this project by declaring a need for one), and as I'm still working it out it seems relevant to the blog. Feel free to skip to the next post.

What bothers me about simply consulting a list of the "greatest films ever" is that there is generally no logical progression to them. They're just a list of good uns, and you can't from such a list place each film into its influential role in film history, or say, hey, this one was part of this movement, etc. Yes, I realize that what I'm asking for is for someone else to do the hard work for me--but hell, it's been done, right? These films have been categorized in certain ways, and I'd like to be able to see them in those ways.

So I guess what I'm looking for are two things: 1) a chronological guide to film movements and 2) a comprehensive list of the generally-agreed-upon greatest/most influential movies evah. Armed with these, I can choose a well-rounded queue that covers the big bases, and understand where each movie fits in.

There are two libraries within a reasonable distance of my home, but a search for a general guide to film history has turned up instead about a thousand more specialized books: about 800 of them are on film noir alone for some reason (I've never noticed anything especially hard-boiled about this generally sunny little southern town--what's with the noir zeal?), another bunch on French New Wave, a plethora on adaptations and specific directors, etc. But hell, I'm not trying to get a degree here. I think maybe I'm looking for a coffee table book with big illustrated time lines and "Fun Fact" boxes. Like, oh, something you might find on the Internet. Anyone got an idea?

As far as places to find lists, I've discovered this website that you probably already all know about: It's called They Shoot Pictures Don't They? . From the site's main menu you can visit some really helpful and interesting things, such as director pages all the way from A-Z; an assembled list of the 1,000 Greatest Films, "[a]s voted by 2,041 critics, filmmakers, reviewers, scholars and other likely film types;" a page for the best films of the 21st century; and, get this!--a link to a page for exactly one featured film genre--film noir! The world is going crazy for the stuff!

I'm most interested in this site for it's Big List, but 1,000 is an intimidating number when you've only got one summer and a postal lag between you and your queue. But you can click on the top 200 directors from the list, or view just the top 400 films, and the big list even comes with a PDF companion for people with even lonelier lives than the author of this blog lives. In the PDF doc, the makers of the list boast "a reasonably complicated set of formulas" used to compile it, but as they don't divulge this magical equation, and since I wouldn't understand it if they did, I'm just gonna take their word for it (despite that they don't provide any real reason for declaring some lists too "dubious" to draw from--like Maxim's "100 Greatest Guy Movies Ever Made"--I guess it's the word "Guy" in there that discredits it, because what is a "guy" movie or a "chick flick" anyway, right? Don't label us, Maxim!).

All this to say, I think I've found a suitable list to draw from, but I'm still not clear on how to proceed. Do I tackle the top directors? Start at the top of the top 400 films? Skip every other film? Find my film movements guide and choose one from each? Choose at random?

Thoughts?

For now, I'm still picking rather willy nilly from The Film Club's recommendations, and I've already watched several that I owe--what do I call these things? reviews? overviews? primers?--Twerp's Guides! to. After lunch I may just tackle Murmur of the Heart (1971).