People often ask me, "What's your all-time favourite film?" An innocent question for most, a minor panic attack for nereis! I love so many films I'm unable to single out one movie as having changed my life more than the others. Having failed question one, I often struggle to pass question two as well: "What's your top 5 films then?" Given fifteen minutes or so, I can bumble out a reply, but I never seem to give the same answer, mostly because I've never sat down and worked out a definitive list on paper. It's been seriously bugging me. I feel somehow inadequate as a cinephile and wannabe filmmaker. How can you call yourself a lover of film if you can't even name your great loves?

Well as a starting point, here are 5 names, off the top of my head, in the order they occur to me.

1. Thank God He Met Lizzie dir. Cherie Nowlan
2. Vivre Sa Vie dir. Jean-Luc Godard
3. Chungking Express dir. Wong Kar Wai
4. Rebels of the Neon God dir. Tsai Ming Liang
5. Rashomon dir. Akira Kurosawa

Damn that was difficult. In many cases I love the director's work on the whole, rather than any particular film. In fact, I think most of these directors have gone on to make better films, but I've stuck with the films I saw first. Argh, I can't believe I left out films by John Cassavetes, Luc Besson, Jim Jarmusch and Woody Allen! I love those guys! And what about Kenji Mizoguchi, Jean Vigo, Emir Kusturica, Paul Thomas Andersen, Mike Takashi, Takeshi Kitano, the Coen Brothers and Hal Hartley? Then there's individual works, like Laila Pakalnina's The Shoe, Jean Renoir's La Regle du Jeu, Olivier Assaya's Irma Vep, Cedric Klapisch's When The Cat's Away, Sylvia Chan's Tempted Heart, Peter Chan's Tian Mi Mi (aka Comrades, Almost A Love Story), Yuji Nakae's Nabbie No Koi, Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer, and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. But it's interesting that 3 out of my "top of the head top 5" are Asian films. I'm also glad that an Australian film topped the list. But I must admit, I just watched it, so I'm probably incredibly biased by post-movie exuberance and the fact that it's set in Sydney. Thank God He Met Lizzie is just one of those simple, honest films I wish I could have made. Rough around the edges, but filled with intimate moments of great beauty and tenderness. There are two lines that for me, sum up the entire spirit of the film...

1. You bit my bum!
2. The trouble with happiness is you don't know when you have it. You remember it.