55 Films You No Longer Need To See Before You Die

First Edition : 2003
Reprint : 2004

Bookstore the other day, saw the new edition of Steven Jay Schneider's "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." Got to thinking, This is the fifth edition? Still only 1001 films I have to see before I snuff it? So which ones have been deemed less-than-obligatory since the first edition, five years ago?

Second Edition : 2005

Turns out there are 55 flicks that made it into one or more of the previous volumes, but which are no longer required viewing in advance of your funeral. (That's a load off my mind!) And because I feel obliged to inflict my opinions whenever possible, I'll boldface the titles that would have stayed in there had I been in charge...

THE CASUALTIES:

55 FILMS YOU NO LONGER NEED TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE

À ma soeur! (2001)

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

The Accidental Tourist (1988)

Adaptation (2002)

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets (2000)

Attack the Gas Station (1999)

The Aviator (2004)

Babel (2006)

The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Bus 174 (2002)

Caché (2005)

Candyman (1992)

The Captive (2000)

Chicago (2002)

Children of Men (2006)

Collateral (2004)

The Constant Gardener (2005)

Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Far from Heaven (2002)

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997)

Gangs of New York (2002)

Gohatto (1999)

Hero (2002)

The Idiots (1998)

Kundun (1997)

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Lost in Translation (2003)

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Mother and Son (1997)

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Nine Queens (2000)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

The Piano Teacher (2001)

The Pillow Book (1996)

The Prestige (2006)

Rosetta (1999)

Russian Ark (2002)

Signs and Wonders (2000)

Sombre (1998)

The Son's Room (2001)

Strange Days (1995)

Tetsuo (1998)

Time Regained (1999)

United 93 (2006)

A Very Long Engagement (2004)

Volver (2006)

What Time Is It There? (2001)

The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Third Edition : 2006

Curiously, there's also a handful of films that made it in at some point, then got cut, only to be reinstated. Lucky films! To those in bold I proffer my hearty shouts of assent.

RESURRECTIONS

Audition (1999)

City of God (2002) 

Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)

The Passion of the Christ (2004) 

Talk to Her (2002)

Fourth Edition : 2007

But now the time has come to get down to it. Our main theme. Our magnificent obsession. Our raisin d'eater, at this, our soulfoodmovies blog. So here they are - the slightly more than 100

SOUL FOOD MOVIES

(more or less - "more" being determined by me, indicated by boldface)

that Mr Schneider figures

YOU OUGHT TO SEE, THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY....

Intolerance (1916)

Metropolis (1927)

Sunrise (1927)

La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928)

The Awful Truth (1937)

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Sergeant York (1941)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Cat People (1942)

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Roma, città aperta (1945)

Paisà (1946)

Black Narcissus (1946)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Ikiru (1952)

Voyage in Italy (1953)

Shane (1953)

On the Waterfront (1954)

La Strada (1954)

Pather Panchali (1955)

Ordet (1955)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Wrong Man (1956)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

The Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Aparajito (1957)

Ben-Hur (1959)

Pickpocket (1959)

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Winter Light (1963)

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

My Night at Maud's (1969)

Andrei Rublev (1969)

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)

The Sorrow and the Pity (1971)

Solaris (1972)

The Godfather (1972)

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Exorcist (1973)

Dersu Uzala (1974)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1977)

The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)

Days of Heaven (1978)

Stalker (1979)

All That Jazz (1979)

Life of Brian (1979)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Chariots of Fire (1981)

Blade Runner (1982)

Gandhi (1982)

The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)

Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

Amadeus (1984)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Wings of Desire (1987)

Babette's Feast (1987)

The Decalogue (1988)

Alice (1988)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

The Killer (1989)

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Close-Up (1990)

The Rapture (1991)

Unforgiven (1992)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993)

Schindler's List (1993)

Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)

Forrest Gump (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Sátántangó (1994)

Clueless (1995)

Smoke (1995)

Breaking the Waves (1996)

Festen (1998)

Lola Rennt (1998)

Magnolia (1999)

Beau Travail (1999)

Fight Club (1999)

The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)

American Beauty (1999)

The Matrix (1999)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Gleaners and I (2000)

Kippur (2000)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Yi Yi (2000)

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002 & 2003)

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Apocalypto (2006)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Into the Wild (2007)

Atonement (2007)

Fifth Edition : 2008

This post is dedicated to Dave Smith. 

Who, as it turns out, is actually a Norman.