The Ten Greatest Films and Directors

[Stavros]

Every ten years the British Film Institute asks professional film critics and directors to nominate the ten best films and directors of all time. The first survey (for films) was carried out in 1952, so the next one will be published in Sight & Sound, in either January or February 2012.

There is a list of all the surveys in this link:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/polls/topten/

The benefit of the directors list is that I don't have to put their films in the top ten -their status means only their films would make it, so it gives me a chance to recognise other films, but I found it difficult to compile. Also, I have tried to be fair, I don't like John Ford's films, but I acknowledge his status as the greatest American director of the 20th century.

It will be interesting to see other lists, and then compare them with the BFI one when it comes out.

Here's mine

Ten Best Films (in chronological order)
The Man With a Movie Camera (Russia 1929, Dziga Vertov)
Citizen Kane (USA 1941, Orson Welles)
Casablanca (USA, 1942, Michael Curtiz/Hal B. Wallis)
Rome, Open City (Italy, 1945, Roberto Rossellini)
Les Enfants du Paradis (France, Marcel Carne, 1945)
Seven Samurai (Japan, Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Barry Lyndon (UK/USA, Stanley Kubrick 1975)
The Travelling Players (Greece, Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1975)
Bunt by the Sun (Russia 1994, Nikita Mikhalkov)
Satantango (Hungary 2001, Bela Tarr)

Ten Best Directors (in alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman
Robert Bresson
John Ford
Terrence Malick
Chris Marker
Yasujiro Ozu
Jean Renoir
Andrei Tarkovsky
Kenji Mizoguchi
Satyajit Ray

[GroobySteven]

I think that list is a bit up it's own arse.
Sergio Leone? Martin Scorcese? Akira Kurosawa (over Ozu!)?

[Quiet Reflections]

I don't think I could even list my top 10. I like so many movies for so many reasons to nail down the best of the best would be to difficult for me

[Willie Escalade]

Where's Pluto Nash?

[Prospero]

This will inevitably bring forth responses from people here proclaiming their favourite films - or favourite types of films. A personal best in other words.

What the BFI are likely to get is a series of lists of films which those in the business feel are the most important films - those which shaped the history of cinemas art. So there will be certain inevitable names on the list - some of which Stavros has already identified (Citizen Kane for sure, Seven Samurai Les Enfants Du Paradis etc) Probably a Hitchcock or two, a Bunuel, something by Chaplin, Jacque Tati, Battleship Potemkin and perhaps a Tarkovsky (Andrei Rubliev? Mirror> Stalker?)

But best? That is such a subjective thing. By what measure? Artistic? commercial? Ground breaking? Best loved?

I'll bet - for instance - that no-one else here (nor at the BFI) would include that Bela Tarr film. I saw his most recent work (yes its very hard work indeed) The Turin Horse. Two hours of utter tedium. But I respect the arguments of others that this sort of minimalist film is great art. Can't see it myself.

Best crime? Best western/Best love film? Best horror? Best sci fi? etc etc.

[Stavros]

Robert McKee argues that film is, in essence, a form of storytelling, and that what makes a great/successful film is the craft that is used to make it work. Writing, acting, photography, camera angles, sets and costumes and make-up and lighting, and editing are all part of an integrated whole. But like great books, readers divide -I consider Dickens such a liar about the condition of England that, even though I have read most of his books, and enjoyed two, I cannot rate this bloated hypocrite above George Eliot, if we must stick with the 19th century.

Kurosawa is an over-rated director, a man who made 3 films -Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Throne of Blood that are worth seeing more than once; Ozu cannot be compared, the emotional depth of Ozu's films, the exquisite artistry with which he uses the camera, the peerless acting throw Kurosawa's work into shadow. I would rather ditch the whole of Kurosawa than lose Late Spring. Scorsese has also made but three films worth seeing more than once: Mean Streets, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas; the rest of his output is flimsy at best, at its worst, self-indulgent tosh (as is most of Kubrick's oeuvre). The body of work is what makes a director's reputation, and while I know Bresson is not commonly known or much liked, but to me his films could only be films, not stories or songs or paintings, and the consistent quality of his films places him on a different level from others.

Satantango works at the simple level of a story -that it takes more than 7 hours to unfold is undoubtedly a challenge, but such is the power of the story and the manner in which it is filmed, that at least two viewings confirm it as a work of genius. Tarr is an extremist of sorts, I admit, but then so am I. I love Jaws, it is almost perfect; the flaw is Spielberg's utter cowardice as a film-maker, the end of a film about nature beyond man's control fails, and fails so badly it cannot make the list. The opening half-hour of The Godfather is one of the greatest movements in film, but Coppola's film tells so many unforgiveable lies about Cosa Nostra that its moral vacuum and its complete disdain for women relegates it to an also-ran. Hitchcock's misogyny, particularly vile in trash like Psycho and Vertigo, makes it impossible for me to rank him, even though I enjoy a lot of his films and recognise his skill as a film-maker.

So I think there are criteria for marking out best films from the rest, and its not about films people like, some of my favourites -Bullitt, Bad Timing, Wizard of Oz, The Big Sleep, Nine Queens dont make the list, because they are not profound, they are well-made and enjoyable but lack an edge -so its not about genre either.

In the end, its just a list.

[Dino Velvet]

No Lucio Fulci???

http://www.houseofhorrors.com/gog.gif

[Stavros]

The 2012 results have been flagged in The Guardian; the full results will appear in Sight and Sound's September issue.

Ten Best Films -Critics List
1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 19 fifty eight
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
4. La Regle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 19sixty eigt
7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)



Ten Best Films -Directors List
1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
=2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 19sixty eight
=2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
5. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)
6. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
=7 The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
=7 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 19fifty eight
9. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)
10. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 19forty eight

I don't see how anyone can rate Vertigo as a best film, it isn't even Hitchcock's best film, while its over misogyny makes it a non-runner for me. Self-indulgent tosh like Eight and a Half are not even worth sitting through never mind voting for, and while Bicycle Thieves is a charming film, Rossellini's Rome Open City is far superior. Apocalypse Now is an incoherent mess and is also not worthy of such a list.

[GroobySteven]

The 2012 results have been flagged in The Guardian; the full results will appear in Sight and Sound's September issue.

Ten Best Films -Critics List
1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 19 fifty eight
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
4. La Regle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 19sixty eigt
7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)



Ten Best Films -Directors List
1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
=2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 19sixty eight
=2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
5. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)
6. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
=7 The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
=7 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 19fifty eight
9. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)
10. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 19forty eight

I don't see how anyone can rate Vertigo as a best film, it isn't even Hitchcock's best film, while its over misogyny makes it a non-runner for me. Self-indulgent tosh like Eight and a Half are not even worth sitting through never mind voting for, and while Bicycle Thieves is a charming film, Rossellini's Rome Open City is far superior. Apocalypse Now is an incoherent mess and is also not worthy of such a list.

Agree with Vertigo but "Eight and a Half" is superb and Apocalypse Now ... well the mess and chaos, even though they may have been unintentional to begin with help illustrate what that war was about and I think it should be ranked there.

I think it's a bit hard to try and come up with 10 films when you are putting seminal stuff in there from the 20's which while groundbreaking for the time and undoubtable moved cinema forward, can't be rated with the same criteria as later films.

[Dino Velvet]

I think that list is a bit up it's own arse.
Sergio Leone? Martin Scorcese? Akira Kurosawa (over Ozu!)?

You definitely need those. Hopefully Stavros puts up Sergio Corbucci soon.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WkKZJVG5wTk/TNeieY7nzII/AAAAAAACt0I/_phinzI5el4/s1600/poster.jpg

[Dino Velvet]

Kinji Fukasaku is no slouch either.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0297935/

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51661952XEL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EFCQZASVL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Cc2196CxL.jpg

[GroobySteven]

Just got The Grand Duel.
One of the few Westerns I haven't seen.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6FklCjnVIow/TL1ZfgyVAhI/AAAAAAAAAVw/C4RaRjUQ610/s1600/Grand+Duel+th.jpg

[Dino Velvet]

Just got The Grand Duel.
One of the few Westerns I haven't seen.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6FklCjnVIow/TL1ZfgyVAhI/AAAAAAAAAVw/C4RaRjUQ610/s1600/Grand+Duel+th.jpg

Van Cleef! You must love The Big Gundown. Van Cleef stole For A Few Dollars More too.

The Big Gundown - Intro - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91GEjoIHS0)

http://www.smokingpipes.com/images/blog/vancleef02.jpg

[broncofan]

I agree about 8 1/2 and Vertigo. Vertigo was an above average film but certainly nothing special. I am puzzled why it would be chosen. Regarding Hitchcock's misogyny, I thought it was never more at work than in the film Marnie. I may have misinterpreted the intended meaning of this latter film but I got the distinct sense that there was an unstated message that the primary reason some women are not interested in sex is because of abuse or repressed memories. The main character anticipates this reaction and ridicules it. Also, the Freudian psychology Connery attempts on Marnie is of the most self-serving and paternalistic variety. Perhaps the main character did not want to have sex with Connery because he was blackmailing her?

I have not watched enough of the other films to comment. Of the top ten list of films I've seen I would put the Seventh Seal. It is slow of course, but brilliant.

[danthepoetman]

As broncofan just alluded to, THE huge absente from these list is obviously Ingmar Bergman. I strongly agree with Prospero’s argument that such a list is inevitably arbitrary because largely subjective and thereof submitted to very personnal criterium of judgement, but still, you make such a list without Bergman, you’re completely off track. Neither list has him anywhere…

[morim]

The greatest of all times:
"The In Laws".
With Peter Falk and Alan Arkin.
Great great great!!!!!!!!!!!!

[danthepoetman]

Kurosawa's Ikiru; Tarkowsky's Nostalghia.

[Dino Velvet]

Kurosawa's Ran was massive.

http://www.arts-wallpapers.com/movie_wallpapers/ran/img1.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8cDvsGnMMk/T6hsUZo2SzI/AAAAAAAAAC8/zc7gIMlhGLg/s1600/Ran-Kurosawa.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DnPwaEn8aGE/TQ5p_2hyVfI/AAAAAAAANJ8/coyM8oPzBVs/s1600/ran9.jpg

http://collider.com/wp-content/image-base/Movies/K/Kagemusha/kagemusha_akira_kurosawa_criterion_blu-ray_movie_image_02.jpg

[danthepoetman]

Ran was an overwhelming spectacle.
Here are more images from Tarkowsky’s Stalker, Offret, and Wenders’ Paris, Texas (metaphor of love incommunicado).

[flabbybody]

does fellini's 8 1/2 have something to do with trannies ?

[Dino Velvet]

Love these movie threads but they always cost me money. Need to order some Bergman and Fellini. Have Seventh Seal and Fellini Satyricon. I'm pretty good on certain types of film but I admit to being limited here.

Off to Amazon.com I go...

[fred41]

I don't think I could even list my top 10. I like so many movies for so many reasons to nail down the best of the best would be to difficult for me

Totally agree.

[danthepoetman]

Love these movie threads but they always cost me money. Need to order some Bergman and Fellini. Have Seventh Seal and Fellini Satyricon. I'm pretty good on certain types of film but I admit to being limited here.

Off to Amazon.com I go...

You can find at least a few on youtube in complete version.

[Dino Velvet]

You can find at least a few on youtube in complete version.

I'll pony up for Criterion on classics like that. Thanks for the tip, though. YouTube is surprisingly good on full movies. This one is OOP and a very fine film. Enjoy ladies and gentlemen...

The Ninth Configuration (1980) - IMDb@@AMEPARAM@@http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjEyODkxMzIzOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk1MDkxMQ@@._ V1._SX91_SY140_.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@BMjEyODkxMzIzOF5BMl 5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk1MDkxMQ@@@@AMEPARAM@@SX91@@AMEPAR AM@@SY140 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081237/)

The Ninth Configuration - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZCcjzOeXlM)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__ZC6F3SCITU/TJB_WTuWBXI/AAAAAAAADRQ/LHihlCZicDM/s1600/9th+castle.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b-VQFp7C5hs/Ta5PLkE9BgI/AAAAAAAABDQ/KB-Sp3JcTkY/s1600/the-ninth-configuration-original.jpg

[danthepoetman]

The Ninth Configuration is a very underrated movie. I loved it when I saw it, years ago. Surrealistic movie dealing with self identity, in a slow, strange pace with pastel color images. The man who helps other find themselves and doesn’t know who he is. The last Scorsese (what was it?) Shutter Island, with Leonardo de Caprio, is pale in comparison. I had completely forgotten about that one!
Good one, Dino!

"Why won't you go to the moon?"

[Dino Velvet]

The Ninth Configuration is a very underrated movie. I loved it when I saw it, years ago. Surrealistic movie dealing with self identity, in a slow, strange pace with pastel color images. The man who helps other find themselves and doesn’t know who he is. The last Scorsese (what was it?) Shutter Island, with Leonardo de Caprio, is pale in comparison. I had completely forgotten about that one!
Good one, Dino!

"Why won't you go to the moon?"

Thanks. My crazy pops also took me to see that. By that age I had recovered from the trauma of seeing The Exorcist in the theater and now it became my favorite film. I was still a young boy, saw Blatty's name on the poster, and sat in the theater hoping, waiting for The Devil to come. I left the theater scratching my head.

Years later I rented it on VHS after forgetting about it. Absolutely loved it and it too became an important film to me.

Love a nice Blu-ray if they'd put it out.

[Ben]

Alfred Hitchcock would rank high. As would Stanley Kubrick. (I'm wavering on Steven Spielberg. Well, I liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind and, too, Duel. Is he one of the greatest? Well, that's very debatable.)
And, too, to narrow it down to just 10 is fairly difficult.

Duel (1971) Theatrical Trailer - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtAMc4i8OA)

[trish]

2001: A space odyssey.
Blue Velvet
Blade Runner
Dr. Strangelove: How I learned to love the bomb.
Alien
Time Bandits
Evolution
Eight Legged Freaks
From Dusk till Dawn
Jackie Brown
The Birds

Okay, so they're not the ten greatest films of all time, but they're eleven films I can sit down and enjoy over and over again at any time.

[LeatherTGirlLover]

Yep narrowing it down to 10 is way too hard and leaves out so many ground breaking films/directors, where is Buster Keaton (The General, Sherlock Jr), Nic Roeg (Bad Timing, Performance, Walkabout), Ken Loach (Cathy Come Home, Kes), Eric Rohmer (The Green Ray), Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, The Hill, Network), Robert Altman (Nashville, McCabe And Miss Miller), Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Persona) or perhaps even less mainstream directors like Jodorosky, Argento, Passolini, Noe, Heneke, Cassavetes.

I think most of the films on the list are worthy of the acclaim but there's also so many great, inspirational films missing too.

Re Vertigo, having spent time at film school i can tell you Vertigo is a much admired work from a technical perspective, it, along with stuff like Truffaut's Day For Night and Welles' Citizen Kane are considered perfect examples of how camera movement and placement, lighting, set design and score can add depth and character to a film merely by virtue of it's technicalities.

[Dino Velvet]

Any Lars von Trier fans? Really like AntiChrist and am gonna pick up The Element Of Crime.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001885/

[Dino Velvet]

Yep narrowing it down to 10 is way too hard and leaves out so many ground breaking films/directors, where is Buster Keaton (The General, Sherlock Jr), Nic Roeg (Bad Timing, Performance, Walkabout), Ken Loach (Cathy Come Home, Kes), Eric Rohmer (The Green Ray), Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, The Hill, Network), Robert Altman (Nashville, McCabe And Miss Miller), Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Persona) or perhaps even less mainstream directors like Jodorosky, Argento, Passolini, Noe, Heneke, Cassavetes.

I think most of the films on the list are worthy of the acclaim but there's also so many great, inspirational films missing too.

Re Vertigo, having spent time at film school i can tell you Vertigo is a much admired work from a technical perspective, it, along with stuff like Truffaut's Day For Night and Welles' Citizen Kane are considered perfect examples of how camera movement and placement, lighting, set design and score can add depth and character to a film merely by virtue of it's technicalities.

Yes on Jodorowsky and Argento.

Most directors make films with their eyes. I make films with my balls. Alejandro Jodorowsky

[Dino Velvet]

This will blow your mind. Jodorowsky:crazy:crazy:crazy:crazy

Movie is also OOP.

Get El Topo and The Holy Mountain.

Santa Sangre - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJA_joAOe1I&feature=related)

[Stavros]

Yep narrowing it down to 10 is way too hard and leaves out so many ground breaking films/directors, where is Buster Keaton (The General, Sherlock Jr), Nic Roeg (Bad Timing, Performance, Walkabout), Ken Loach (Cathy Come Home, Kes), Eric Rohmer (The Green Ray), Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, The Hill, Network), Robert Altman (Nashville, McCabe And Miss Miller), Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Persona) or perhaps even less mainstream directors like Jodorosky, Argento, Passolini, Noe, Heneke, Cassavetes.

I think most of the films on the list are worthy of the acclaim but there's also so many great, inspirational films missing too.

Re Vertigo, having spent time at film school i can tell you Vertigo is a much admired work from a technical perspective, it, along with stuff like Truffaut's Day For Night and Welles' Citizen Kane are considered perfect examples of how camera movement and placement, lighting, set design and score can add depth and character to a film merely by virtue of it's technicalities.

I think this reaches the core of the issue: a list compiled by people who spend most of their profession life, every day seeing and making films, whereas most of us watch films in the evening, or on a weekend afternoon. It would be the same problem if it was the 10 Best Painters of all time, which list if compiled by artists and critics/historians would include Titian and Poussin, two artists whose work is seen by millions in the world's great galleries, but whose works are not popular. I simply cannot understand the reputation Fellini acquired and retains, to me his films are self-indulgent and often badly made; but I can see why eight and a half appeals to film-makers and critics, for the same reason as the Vertov classic, which is the most light-hearted film in the list. Again, Mulholland Drive makes it to the Director's list because it is a film about a small-town girl who wants to make her name in Hollywood and in spite of her talent is eaten up and spit out of the system ending up a drug addict -the kind of Republican moralising about good and evil you would expect from a flashy hack like David Lynch.

The problem with some of the films Hitchcock made -Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie and The Birds, is that to me the central theme is that a man's desire for a woman will drive him and the world mad -these films are so saturated with misogyny I am dismayed they appear on any kind of positive list -even if, as Leather points out they have technical skills that film-makers admire. Close Encounters has technical skills after all.

Lists by country would allow more recognition for the best of Nic Roeg in the UK, give L'Atalante its due in the pantheon of great French films; while a list by genre would give recognition, for example in westerns, to Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci as well as the more obvious American classics.

The BFI website seems to be inaccessible at the moment as it will have a more detailed breakdown of the results as well as the list of directors.