10 Great Films and Where I First Saw Them

Not an all-time top 10, just a random list

Woman of the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964) One winter morning on video in an old flat in Ranelagh, some time in the late 1990s. Since seen it twice on the big screen.

Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) In a video shop I used to work in in Ballymote at the age of 16. My then boss recommended it while also warning me not to go around saying that I loved it as nobody would believe me.

Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) At a preview screening on a Saturday morning in the Screen at d'Olier St. I've seen it five times since.

The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) At Christmas when I was about 16; I knew who Graham Greene was, not really who Orson Welles was.

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) In a damp basement flat on Rathgar Road on a Friday night in the mid-90s. I didn't get it, and never understood it until I saw the 70mm restoration a few years later in the IFC (or IFI, as they call it these days). I left the cinema in a cold sweat, which is ironic, as I later learned that its title in French is just that: Sueurs froides.

The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953) In the Grand Action cinema on rue des Écoles, Paris in September 2000.

Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) Surprisingly late, in 2002 or 2003 at the Action Christine cinema on rue Christine, Paris.

Sweet Degeneration (Cheng Sheng-Lin, 1997) At an afternoon screening at the Dublin Film Festival in 1999.

Vive l'Amour (Tsai Ming-Liang, 1994) At the Cinéma des Cinéastes, Studio d'Ursulines, beside the Luxembourg Gardens, July 2002.

L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1959) (Pictured above) On video in an apartment in Rathmines, sometime in the late 90s.