(ranked)
1)
A Man Escaped
2) Dead Alive
3) Night of the Living Dead
4) The Passion of Joan of Arc
5) Blue Velvet
6) Vertigo
7) Videodrome
8) McCabe & Mrs. Miller
9) The Exterminating Angel
10) The Lady Eve
11) 2001: A Space Odyssey
12) Man with a Movie Camera
13) Vampyr
14) Sherlock, Jr.
15) Citizen Kane
16) Punch-Drunk Love
17) Barton Fink
18) A Woman Under the Influence
19) Double Indemnity
2) Dead Alive
3) Night of the Living Dead
4) The Passion of Joan of Arc
5) Blue Velvet
6) Vertigo
7) Videodrome
8) McCabe & Mrs. Miller
9) The Exterminating Angel
10) The Lady Eve
11) 2001: A Space Odyssey
12) Man with a Movie Camera
13) Vampyr
14) Sherlock, Jr.
15) Citizen Kane
16) Punch-Drunk Love
17) Barton Fink
18) A Woman Under the Influence
19) Double Indemnity
20)
Apocalypse Now
(ranked)
1.
Belle de Jour (Bunuel, 1967)
2.
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
3.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
4.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975)
5.
Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1969)
6.
L’Orphée (Cocteau, 1949)
7.
Play Time (Tati, 1967)
8.
The General (Keaton/Bruckman, 1927)
9.
Gates of Heaven (Morris, 1978)
10.
Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara, 1964)
11.
The Third Man (Reed, 1949)
12.
The New World (Malick, 2005)
13.
Nashville (Altman, 1975)
14.
L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934)
15.
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Rivette, 1974)
16.
Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946)
17.
Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989)
18.
The Lady Eve (Sturges, 1941)
19.
A Hard Day’s Night! (Lester, 1964)
20.
Blow Out (De Palma, 1981)
(alphabetical)
8 1/2
BARTON FINK
BEFORE SUNRISE
BRAZIL
DONNIE DARKO
ERASERHEAD
FEMINA RIDENS
MISTER FREEDOM
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
OVER THE EDGE
PLAYTIME
PULP FICTION
RED DESERT
THE RULES OF ATTRACTION
SAFE
TAXI DRIVER
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
WINGS OF DESIRE
BARTON FINK
BEFORE SUNRISE
BRAZIL
DONNIE DARKO
ERASERHEAD
FEMINA RIDENS
MISTER FREEDOM
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
OVER THE EDGE
PLAYTIME
PULP FICTION
RED DESERT
THE RULES OF ATTRACTION
SAFE
TAXI DRIVER
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES
WINGS OF DESIRE
(ranked)
1)
NASHVILLE (1975; Robert Altman)
2) ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969; Sergio Leone)
3) THE GODFATHER (1972; Francis Ford Coppola)
4) THE LADY EVE (1941; Preston Sturges)
5) RULES OF THE GAME (1939; Jean Renoir)
6) NOTORIOUS (1946; Alfred Hitchcock)
7) SANSHO DAYU (1954; Kenji Mizoguchi)
8) HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940; Howard Hawks)
9) ONE TWO THREE (1961; Billy Wilder)
10) DRESSED TO KILL (1980; Brian De Palma)
11) NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957; Federico Fellini)
12) 1941 (1979; Steven Spielberg)
13) THE DEVILS (1971; Ken Russell)
14) GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953; Howard Hawks)
15) AGUIRRE THE WRATH OF GOD (1972; Werner Herzog)
16) SPEED RACER (2008; Andy and Lana Wachowski)
17) CHARLEY VARRICK (1973; Don Siegel)
18) THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962; Luis Bunuel)
19) GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990; Joe Dante)
20) KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949; Robert Hamer)
How easily this list could have been a top 24, or a top 67, or top 200! Of course it's not my list of the Greatest Movies Ever Made. (How could I possibly know what 20 movies would go on such a list?) But I do believe that every movie on my list is a "great" movie, accounting for all the subtle shades of meaning in such an adjective. These are the movies that I think of when I hear the word "cinema," or "movies," or "film," the ones that compose the myriad reasons I've loved the movies for as long as I can remember, the ones that constantly remind me, as I'm luxuriating in each and every one of them, of all that I have yet to see.
Yet I never begrudge returning to any of them over something new, because in addition to the pleasures they've already provided and will continue to provide, I know that they'll also lead me to unexpected places, reveal something interesting, make a connection to another part of cinema history each time I see them, and that discovery will serve to propel me forward into the as-yet unknown.
The other thing I love about making a list like this is that I already know, even as I am compiling it, that it cannot possibly be definitive, that minutes after I've finished it has already begun the process of changing, morphing, adding, subtracting, sparking thoughts of films that should have been included and remembrances of films that once would have been yet are, this time, more easily replaced.This is the glory of list-making for me personally; for others who might read it, maybe I can remind them of what may yet still be missing from their own experience, perhaps prompt them to step outside that circle into an unfamiliar world in the hopes of finding a new love.
2) ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969; Sergio Leone)
3) THE GODFATHER (1972; Francis Ford Coppola)
4) THE LADY EVE (1941; Preston Sturges)
5) RULES OF THE GAME (1939; Jean Renoir)
6) NOTORIOUS (1946; Alfred Hitchcock)
7) SANSHO DAYU (1954; Kenji Mizoguchi)
8) HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940; Howard Hawks)
9) ONE TWO THREE (1961; Billy Wilder)
10) DRESSED TO KILL (1980; Brian De Palma)
11) NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957; Federico Fellini)
12) 1941 (1979; Steven Spielberg)
13) THE DEVILS (1971; Ken Russell)
14) GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953; Howard Hawks)
15) AGUIRRE THE WRATH OF GOD (1972; Werner Herzog)
16) SPEED RACER (2008; Andy and Lana Wachowski)
17) CHARLEY VARRICK (1973; Don Siegel)
18) THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962; Luis Bunuel)
19) GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990; Joe Dante)
20) KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949; Robert Hamer)
How easily this list could have been a top 24, or a top 67, or top 200! Of course it's not my list of the Greatest Movies Ever Made. (How could I possibly know what 20 movies would go on such a list?) But I do believe that every movie on my list is a "great" movie, accounting for all the subtle shades of meaning in such an adjective. These are the movies that I think of when I hear the word "cinema," or "movies," or "film," the ones that compose the myriad reasons I've loved the movies for as long as I can remember, the ones that constantly remind me, as I'm luxuriating in each and every one of them, of all that I have yet to see.
Yet I never begrudge returning to any of them over something new, because in addition to the pleasures they've already provided and will continue to provide, I know that they'll also lead me to unexpected places, reveal something interesting, make a connection to another part of cinema history each time I see them, and that discovery will serve to propel me forward into the as-yet unknown.
The other thing I love about making a list like this is that I already know, even as I am compiling it, that it cannot possibly be definitive, that minutes after I've finished it has already begun the process of changing, morphing, adding, subtracting, sparking thoughts of films that should have been included and remembrances of films that once would have been yet are, this time, more easily replaced.This is the glory of list-making for me personally; for others who might read it, maybe I can remind them of what may yet still be missing from their own experience, perhaps prompt them to step outside that circle into an unfamiliar world in the hopes of finding a new love.
(alphabetical)
1.
Blood Simple
2. Brief Encounter
3. Daisy Kenyon
4. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
5. Double Indemnity
6. Exotica
7. The Lady Eve
8. Manhattan
9. Memento
10. The Night of the Hunter
11. North by Northwest
12. Only Angels Have Wings
13. Seven Chances
14. A Star Is Born
15. They Live by Night
16. Trouble in Paradise
17. 2001: A Space Odyssey
18. Unforgiven
19. Woman in the Dunes
20. Yojimbo
2. Brief Encounter
3. Daisy Kenyon
4. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
5. Double Indemnity
6. Exotica
7. The Lady Eve
8. Manhattan
9. Memento
10. The Night of the Hunter
11. North by Northwest
12. Only Angels Have Wings
13. Seven Chances
14. A Star Is Born
15. They Live by Night
16. Trouble in Paradise
17. 2001: A Space Odyssey
18. Unforgiven
19. Woman in the Dunes
20. Yojimbo
Ari
Dassa:
(ranked)
- Sweet Smell of Success
(1957) - Alexander Mackendrick
- High and Low (1963) -
Akira Kurosawa
- City Lights (1931) -
Charlie Chaplin
- Barry Lyndon (1975)- Stanley Kubrick
- Stalker (1979) - Andrei
Tarkovsky
- The Godfather Part II
(1974) - Francis Ford Coppola
- My Night at Maud's (1960)
- Eric Rohmer
- Metropolis (1927)- Fritz
Lang
- Mulholland Drive (2001) -
David Lynch
- La Dolce Vita (1960)-
Federico Fellini
- Touch of Evil (1958) -
Orson Welles
- Woman in the Dunes
(1964)- Hiroshi Teshigahara
- La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
- Jacques Rivette
- Raging Bull (1980) -
Martin Scorsese
- Leon Morin, Priest (1961)
- Jean Pierre Melville
- The Seventh Seal (1957) -
Ingmar Bergman
- Manhattan (1979) - Woody Allen
- Sansho The Bailiff (1954)
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Heat (1995) - Michael
Mann
- Faces (1968) - John
Cassavetes
(alphabetical)
Blade
Runner
Broadcast
News
Casablanca
Dr.
Strangelove
Duck
Soup
The
Exorcist
Fitzcarraldo
The
Godfather
The
Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Goodfellas
The
Great Escape
Jaws
Metropolis
Network
Seven
Samurai
Sherlock
Jr.
Singin’
in the Rain
Sunset
Boulevard
Wages
of Fear
Zodiac
(alphabetical)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Children of Paradise
(1945)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Fires on the Plain (1959)
The Godfather (1972)
La Grande Illusion (1947)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
Los Olvidados (1950)
Olympiad (1938)
Orpheus (1950)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Umberto D, (1952)
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Vampyr (1932)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
(ranked)
BARRY LYNDON
THE CONFORMIST
THE LEOPARD
CONTEMPT
THE TREE OF LIFE
OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE
DAYS OF HEAVEN
SUNRISE (Murnau)
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS
UNDERGROUND (Kusturica)
ALEXANDER NEVSKY
1900
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
TWO ENGLISH GIRLS
EL CID
NASHVILLE
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
THE SEARCHERS
TITANIC
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
THE CONFORMIST
THE LEOPARD
CONTEMPT
THE TREE OF LIFE
OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE
DAYS OF HEAVEN
SUNRISE (Murnau)
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS
UNDERGROUND (Kusturica)
ALEXANDER NEVSKY
1900
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
TWO ENGLISH GIRLS
EL CID
NASHVILLE
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
THE SEARCHERS
TITANIC
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
As always, my
"greatest" means my favorites. I deplore tokenism in all forms -- in
race, creed, color, art -- so, while my love for some of these movies no doubt
includes some degree of awe for their importance, influence, innovation, or
such like, mostly I just feel a desire to acknowledge that I find my existence
unthinkable without these movies as constant presences in my life. OK, maybe
there's one bit of well-deserved affirmative action at work here, which is an
emphasis on comedy, poorly represented on the Sight & Sound list. But, in
all honesty, most of my favorite movies are comedies anyway, or at least view
the comedic and the dramatic as warp and woof of a mature worldview, which is
the essence of their profundity. Joy and despair, optimism and skepticism, may
be antithetical, but are most often inseparable, in life as in cinema.
I'm deliberately going to avoid some of the top titles in the Sight & Sound poll in favor of ones I either like more or just as much, that I think are equally great but haven't received the recognition they deserve. (They will be noted.) And, in several cases, this list is also different from my S&S ballot. Also, it appears to confirm that my favorite decades for movies are the 1930s, 1950s (four titles each) and 1970s (five titles). So, in chronological order (limiting myself to only one film per director, otherwise it would be all Keaton, Hawks, Welles and Coens):
- Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
- Sunrise (F.W. Murnau,1927) - also in S&S top ten
- Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
- The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
- Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
- Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) - instead of Citizen Kane
- Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, 1948)
- Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949) - instead of Tokyo Story
- Sansho Dayu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
- The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
- North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) - instead of Vertigo
- Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
- Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
- Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
- Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) - instead of 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit) (Wim Wenders, 1976)
- Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
- No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007)
I'm deliberately going to avoid some of the top titles in the Sight & Sound poll in favor of ones I either like more or just as much, that I think are equally great but haven't received the recognition they deserve. (They will be noted.) And, in several cases, this list is also different from my S&S ballot. Also, it appears to confirm that my favorite decades for movies are the 1930s, 1950s (four titles each) and 1970s (five titles). So, in chronological order (limiting myself to only one film per director, otherwise it would be all Keaton, Hawks, Welles and Coens):
- Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
- Sunrise (F.W. Murnau,1927) - also in S&S top ten
- Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
- The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
- Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
- Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942) - instead of Citizen Kane
- Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, 1948)
- Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949) - instead of Tokyo Story
- Sansho Dayu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
- The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
- North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) - instead of Vertigo
- Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
- Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
- Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
- Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) - instead of 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Kings of the Road (Im Lauf der Zeit) (Wim Wenders, 1976)
- Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
- No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007)
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