What's your favourite movie?

Spoiler Alert: There’s no answer. These are thoughts about ranking.

It is not uncommon that we ask, or we are asked, what is someone’s favourite movie, or book, or food.

There’s a clarification to be made: One’s favourite movie should not be the movie one thinks is the best cinema. Clear examples of this are Star Wars Movies, one can enjoy them, and like them, but not necessarily think that they are the definition of good cinema.

So, when we clearly establish that the question «What’s your favourite movie?» is a matter of preferences and not quality, we open the door to changing personal taste, and various genres.

It’s pretty clear that our favourite movies as a kid, are not the same as a teenager, and probably not the same set of liked movies as an adult. We have to add to this change the movies that have not aged well; racist and sexist jokes, inappropriate sexual behaviour, etc. So after clarifying that this not a question about quality we can add the condition: your favourite movie as an adult, when your taste is less likely to change.

And with this context, I can get to the main point of this dissertation, for example, three of my most liked movies: A Clockwork Orange (1971), In the Mood for Love (2000), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

An easier question to answer is, for example, «What’s your favourite Horror movie?». To that one, it’s very clear that the answer is The Shining (1980). But it’s a lot harder to answer the more open question.

On your phone, zoom in or on a computer click on the image to see it full size, to be able to read the titles.

In the diagram above, I charted 50+ movies with these criteria:

The closest to the centre, the least I like the movie, so my favourite movies (plural) are close to the outside edge.
The angular position (and colour) of each movie is related to the genre and/or mood of the movie.

With this, the question can become «What is your favourite red movie?» and «What is your favourite blue movie?», and with this approach, those questions are easier to answer.

This applies to food and some more other things.

For the record, the movies in the diagram are not on my top list, nor the bottom, I randomly chose movies from all colours/moods/genres.