List O’ The Week: Studio Ghibli films

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This list represents a ranking of the Studio Ghibli films that I have seen between 1984’s ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ and 2010’s ‘Arriety’. This list is to somewhat celebrate the arrival of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film ‘The Wind Rises‘ which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival. I’ve still yet to see ‘From Up On Poppy Hill’. See my updated 2021 list.

Studio Ghibli has made some of the greatest animated films of all time. Almost every film is beautifully textured and thoughtfully written. This list is ranked purely in terms of how much I enjoy these films; it’s not necessarily a reflection of how well made they are but rather how much I enjoy revisiting them, so there may be some controversial choices here.

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List O’ the Week: Favourite Swedish Bands

The Swedes are masters of several musical niches: Metal, spiky new wave garage rock, wistful and delicate indie pop and catchy synth-inflected dance pop. I don’t have ear for metal but the other 3 vague categories are well represented here. I purposely haven’t include ABBA because they almost transcend and typify Swedish music.

  • 30. Billie the Vision and the Dancers
  • 29. Fever Ray
  • 28. jj
  • 27.The Hives
  • 26. Love Is All

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List O’ the Week: Favourite Foreign Language Films

Not the most diverse list, I grant you, but fairly accurate of my not-very-diverse tastes.

20. Memories of Murder (2003)                South Korea       Dir. Joon-Ho Bong

19. Breathless (1960)                                France               Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

18. Cinema Paradiso (1988)                      Italy                    Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore

17. Hero (2002)                                         China                 Dir. Zhang Yimou

16. Underground (1995)                             FR Yugoslavia   Dir. Emir Kusturica

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