The way I classify films is simple: There was before Blue Velvet and After Blue Velvet. Personally, one of the biggest cinematic influences I know of.

This film here is a timeless classic as well as an original romantic comedy and a beautiful tear jerker. Along with the next two films I mention, they fit the definition of perfection. Great story, script, music and each film leaves me warm when it's over.

The patriarch of a New York family declares that he is dying. What happens next can only be described as some of the most rich and ribald humor I've seen in years. It's a family movie at heart and an ingenious comedy as well.

There's no denying that Quintin Tarantino's 1994 smash hit left an impact on cinema as well as the world. Everything from its dialogue, to the soundtrack and even the movie poster is iconic in its own way. There will be imitations, but there will always be one Pulp Fiction.

Always a pro at the ensemble film, Robert Altman weaves together a tapestry of stories and characters that in one way or another, correlate with each other. The end result is a terrific slice of American cinema that lingers in the viewer's mind.

If Pulp Fiction took the independent film scene by storm, then the same can be said for Breathless and French cinema. Because of Breathless, a new breed of films were made by famous French directors, all with a hard edged intensity almost unheard of in the past. Simply for starting the French New Wave and for being a damn good piece of art, Breathless succeeds on all fronts.

As gorgeous as it was when it first came out, this whimsical beauty about a girl in search of her heart's desires and on the run from a wicked witch cannot go wrong. It's simply breathtaking to say the least.

A bicyclist is kidnapped by evil henchmen, an old woman and her dog set out to find him, along the way they meet a trio of eccentric old women who were once famous in the roaring 20's-30's. Oh, and did I mention that they women eat frogs? Belleville is the kind of animated film you rarely see. It's stylish and expressive with hardly any words at all.

Cocteau is a visionary one of a kind. Beauty and the Beast proves to be one of the most lush and stunning tales known to man, and this adaptation does not tarnish it's reputation.

Scary, gripping, brutal and unflinching. Not so much an anti drug movie but a character drama that works like the most taut of horror movies. The lives of four people are altered severely by drugs and their dreams are suddenly crushed. It's heart wrenching cinema, and it's chilling to the bone.

The little Tramp falls in love with a blind flower girl and vows to fund her eye repair surgery by any means necessary. The film has been regarded as Chaplin's best, not only for its haunting score and lush visuals, but because it was Chaplin's final silent film. Oh, and did I mention the ending has been called the greatest ending to a movie in film history?

Say what you will about Keanu Reeves, but he is not half bad in My Own Private Idaho where he plays a gritty soul with a wealthy father. River Phoenix is haunting as a narcoleptic hustler looking for his mother. I won't say much else, but know that My Own Private Idaho is independent cinema at its best. It's strange and tragic, but isn't life?

A revolutionary movie in a league of its own. As simple as it may seem, this film in fact is a breakthrough in cinema, one that opened new windows and showed filmmakers that the impossible was possible. It's also very heartwarming and cute to boot, so there's that as well.