2010's other best movies

I'm shamelessly stealing this idea from Nick Davis (and bulking my list out to thirty titles). These are the best films I saw for the first time in repertory, on DVD, Blu-ray or TV last year. Whatever the merits of 2010's new vintage, I'm not sure I've ever seen as many masterpieces in a single year before, for which huge thanks are due to the British Film Institute, Eureka's Master of Cinema series, the programmers at Berlin, and whoever schedules the stuff on Freeview. The top ten movies here will be jostling to get into my forthcoming revised Top 100, as and when I dare confront that.

1. Sanshō the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) A+

2. The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein, 1928) A+

3. The Bill Douglas Trilogy (Bill Douglas, 1972, 1973, 1978) A

4. The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956) A

5. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) A

6. The Last Command (Josef von Sternberg, 1928) A

7. Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, 1929) A

8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Elia Kazan, 1945) A

9. The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933) A

10. A Day in the Life: Four Portraits of Post-War Britain (John Krish, 1953-1964) A

11. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) A–

12. Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) A–

13. Wild River (Elia Kazan, 1960) A–

14. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991) A–

15. The Misfits (John Huston, 1961) A–

16. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) A–

17. The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927) A–

18. The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928) A–

19. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953) A–

20. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) A–

21. The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterle, 1941) A–

22. Sons and Lovers (Jack Cardiff, 1960) A–

23. Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932) B+

24. Dillinger (Max Nosseck, 1945) B+

25. From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) B+

26. Battleground (William Wellmann, 1949) B+

27. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, 1957) B+

28. Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944) B+

29. On the Town (Stanley Donen, 1949) B+

30. Forbidden (Frank Capra, 1932) B+