An annual tradition here at The End, this is a look at my favorite film discoveries of the year, any movie more than a few years old that I saw for the first time in 2015. Previous years include: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. I watched 368 or so movies in 2015, roughly third of which qualify for this list. That’s a sizable decline from last year, where half the films I watched were discoveries, a result of spending more of my movie-time this year on new releases for Seattle Screen Scene and on rewatches for They Shot Pictures. Here are 75 that I liked.
1. Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2005)
2. It Felt Like a Kiss (Adam Curtis, 2009)
3. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977)
4. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
5. Le bonheur (Agnès Varda, 1965)
6. The Civil War (Ken Burns, 1990)
7. Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty, 1934)
8. Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965)
9. Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940)
10. The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953)
11. The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)
12. Gimme Shelter (Albert & David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin)
13. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi, 1997)
14. Pride & Prejudice (Simon Langton, 1995)
15. Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)
16. Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raúl Ruiz, 1983)
17. Alexander: The Ultimate Cut (Oliver Stone, 2004)
18. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)
19. A Girl in Every Port (Howard Hawks, 1928)
20. Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009)
21. Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002)
22. The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (Adam Curtis, 2007)
23. The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003)
24. A Borrowed Life (Wu Nien-jen, 1994)
25. Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965)
26. The Spring River Flows East (Cai Chusheng & Zheng Junli, 1947)
27. Christine (John Carpenter, 1983)
28. Trouble In Mind (Alan Rudolph, 1985)
29. Ali (Michael Mann, 2001)
30. Himalaya Singh (Wai Ka-fai, 2005)
31. Into the Woods (James Lapine, 1991)
32. The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (Patrick Lung Kong, 1967)
33. Poor Little Rich Girl (Andy Warhol, 1965)
34. The Power of Nightmares (Adam Curtis, 2004)
35. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2009)
36. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)
37. Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944)
38. Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985)
39. Not Reconciled (Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, 1965)
40. The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis, 2002)
41. The True Story of Wong Fei-hung: Whiplash Snuffs the Candle Flame (Wu Peng, 1949)
42. Red Line 7000 (Howard Hawks, 1965)
43. Tattooed Life (Seijun Suzuki, 1965)
44. The East is Red (Ching Siu-tung & Raymond Lee, 1993)
45. Balloon Land (Ub Iwerks, 1935)
46. The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin, 2006)
47. Que Viva Mexico (Sergei Eisenstein & Grigori Aleksandrov, 1979)
48. Moana (Robert & Monica Flaherty, 1980)
49. The Soong Sisters (Mabel Cheung, 1997)
50. Princess Chang Ping (John Woo, 1976)
51. Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974)
52. Cute Girl (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1980)
53. Samurai Assassin (Kihachi Okamoto, 1965)
54. Twin Dragons (Tsui Hark & Ringo Lam, 1992)
55. Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)
56. The Witches of Eastwick (George Miller, 1987)
57. Where Danger Lives (John Farrow, 1950)
58. J. Edgar (Clint Eastwood, 2011)
59. Kiri-Kis (Segundo de Chomón, 1907)
60. Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)
61. The Transporter (Corey Yuen, 2002)
62. Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975)
63. Le papillon fantastique (Georges Méliès, 1909)
64. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, 2006)
65. Help! (Richard Lester, 1965)
66. Skeleton Frolics (Ub Iwerks, 1937)
67. Masked Avengers (Chang Cheh, 1981)
68. Sunday in the Park with George (Terry Hughes, 1986)
69. A Pistol for Ringo (Duccio Tesseri, 1965)
70. Middlemarch (Anthony Page, 1994)
71. Planet of the Vampires (Mario Bava, 1965)
72. Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, 2000)
73. Neo Tokyo (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, Yoshiaki Kawajiri & Rintaro, 1987)
74. X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 1963)
75. Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2009)
7 thoughts on “The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2015”