Posted on 08/02/2012 7:46:04 AM PDT by OneVike
Ever since 1962, Orson Welles's, "Citizen Kane" has been voted the greatest movie of all time by the British Film Institute's much-respected Greatest Films poll, which it has been taken once every decade since 1952. Vertigo's (trailer below this article) recognition as the best movie ever may have happened because those allowed to participate for the first time are part of bigger and more international list of voters than ever before.
Using the internet for the first time as the main form of communication, 846 critics and 358 film directors all voted for their top 50 films of all time. The list differs between the two groups, because directors like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Mike Leigh ranked "Vertigo" #7, while they voted for Yasujirō Ozu's movie,"Tokyo Story" the best of all time. The directors agreed however with the critics by putting "Citizen Kane" at #2. At the very end of the top 50 list I posted the top 10 directors choices.
You will be able to see the full list of the top 100 in the next issue of Sight & Sound when it hits the stands on Saturday. They will be celebrating their 80th birthday with a revamped look and a new digital edition archive available.
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THE TOP 50
1. Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 (191 votes) Hitchcock's supreme and most mysterious piece (as cinema and as an emblem of the art). Paranoia and obsession have never looked better--Marco Müller After half a century of monopolizing the top spot, Citizen Kane was beginning to look smugly inviolable. Call it Schadenfreude, but let's rejoice that this now conventional and ritualised symbol of 'the greatest' has finally been taken down a peg. The accession of Vertigo is hardly in the nature of a coup d'état. Tying for 11th place in 1972, Hitchcock's masterpiece steadily inched up the poll over the next three decades, and by 2002 was clearly the heir apparent. Still, even ardent Wellesians should feel gratified at the modest revolution - if only for the proof that film canons (and the versions of history they legitimate) are not completely fossilised. There may be no larger significance in the bare fact that a couple of films made in California 17 years apart have traded numerical rankings on a whimsically impressionistic list. Yet the human urge to interpret chance phenomena will not be denied, and Vertigo is a crafty, duplicitous machine for spinning meaning...--Peter Matthews' opening to his new essay on Vertigo in our September issue
2. Citizen Kane
Orson Welles, 1941 (157 votes) Kane and Vertigo don't top the chart by divine right. But those two films are just still the best at doing what great cinema ought to do: extending the everyday into the visionary--Nigel Andrews In the last decade I've watched this first feature many times, and each time, it reveals new treasures. Clearly, no single film is the greatest ever made. But if there were one, for me Kane would now be the strongest contender, bar none--Geoff Andrew All celluloid life is present in Citizen Kane; seeing it for the first or umpteenth time remains a revelation--Trevor Johnston
3. Tokyo Story
Ozu Yasujiro, 1953 (107 votes) Ozu used to liken himself to a "tofu-maker", in reference to the way his films - at least the post-war ones - were all variations on a small number of themes. So why is it Tokyo Story that is acclaimed by most as his masterpiece? DVD releases have made available such prewar films as I Was Born, But..., and yet the Ozu vote has not been split, and Tokyo Story has actually climbed two places since 2002. It may simply be that in Tokyo Story this most Japanese tofu-maker refined his art to the point of perfection, and crafted a truly universal film about family, time and loss--James Bell
Jean Renoir, 1939 (100 votes) Only Renoir has managed to express on film the most elevated notion of naturalism, examining this world from a perspective that is dark, cruel but objective, before going on to achieve the serenity of the work of his old age. With him, one has no qualms about using superlatives: La Règle du jeu is quite simply the greatest French film by the greatest of French directors--Olivier Père
FW Murnau, 1927 (93 votes) When F.W. Murnau left Germany for America in 1926, did cinema foresee what was coming? Did it sense that change was around the corner - that now was the time to fill up on fantasy, delirium and spectacle before talking actors wrenched the art form closer to reality? Many things make this film more than just a morality tale about temptation and lust, a fable about a young husband so crazy with desire for a city girl that he contemplates drowning his wife, an elemental but sweet story of a husband and wife rediscovering their love for each other. Sunrise was an example - perhaps never again repeated on the same scale - of unfettered imagination and the clout of the studio system working together rather than at cross purposes--Isabel Stevens
Stanley Kubrick, 1968 (90 votes) 2001: A Space Odyssey is a stand-along monument, a great visionary leap, unsurpassed in its vision of man and the universe. It was a statement that came at a time which now looks something like the peak of humanity's technological optimism--Roger Ebert
John Ford, 1956 (78 votes) Do the fluctuations in popularity of John Ford's intimate revenge epic - no appearance in either critics' or directors' top tens in 2002, but fifth in the 1992 critics' poll - reflect the shifts in popularity of the western? It could be a case of this being a western for people who don't much care for them, but I suspect it's more to do with John Ford's stock having risen higher than ever this past decade and the citing of his influence in the unlikeliest of places in recent cinema--Kieron Corless
Dziga Vertov, 1939 (68 votes) Is Dziga Vertov's cine-city symphony a film whose time has finally come? Ranked only no. 27 in our last critics' poll, it now displaces Eisenstein's erstwhile perennial Battleship Potemkin as the Constructivist Soviet silent of choice. Like Eisenstein's warhorse, it's an agit-experiment that sees montage as the means to a revolutionary consciousness; but rather than proceeding through fable and illusion, it's explicitly engaged both with recording the modern urban everyday (which makes it the top documentary in our poll) and with its representation back to its participant-subjects (thus the top meta-movie)--Nick Bradshaw
Carl Dreyer, 1927 (65 votes) Joan was and remains an unassailable giant of early cinema, a transcendental film comprising tears, fire and madness that relies on extreme close-ups of the human face. Over the years it has often been a difficult film to see, but even during its lost years Joan has remained embedded in the critical consciousness, thanks to the strength of its early reception, the striking stills that appeared in film books, its presence in Godard's Vivre sa vie and recently a series of unforgettable live screenings. In 2010 it was designated the most influential film of all time in the Toronto International Film Festival's 'Essential 100' list, where Jonathan Rosenbaum described it as "the pinnacle of silent cinema - and perhaps of the cinema itself"--Jane Giles
10. 8½
 Federico Fellini, 1963 (64 votes) |
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This article has been presented in full, unless you wishto
see the movie trailer for "Vertigo", there is no need to
visit my blog. However, a complimentary hit and maybe
a comment if you so desire would not be looked down upon.
“846 critics and 358 film directors all voted”
That’s all I needed to read.
Neither of them is on my list of good movies.
Yentl should have made the top 5. /s
The Godfather.
And how is Apocalypse Now higher on the list? These people are on drugs.
Hey, that’s more than usually voted. So it would be more accurate than it was for the last 50 years when Citizen Kane won. Plus many of the new critics and directors are from America.
After all, we are talking about an institution that only cares what the movie critics think, not you. They just want your money, not your opinion.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure? Hello!
If all “Conservatives” were as loathsome as Jimmy Stewart was as a human being, this would be a sorry world indeed.
I never got the fuss about “Citizen Kane”. I found it good, but not great, certainly not the “greatest”. Thought I might be missing something, and gave it a second and a third chance. Doesn’t work for me.
War and Peace, 1973 (TV series), based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy; John Howard Davies, director; Anthony Hopkins as PierreI also recommend all of the novels on which these movies are based.Pride and Prejudice, 1995 (TV series), based on the novel by Jane Austen; Simon Langton, director; Jennifer Ehle; Colin Firth
Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai), 1954: Akira Kurosawa, director
I, Claudius, 1976 (TV series), based on the novel by Robert Graves; Herbert Wise, director; Derek Jacobi; Sian Phillips
Gone with the Wind, 1939, based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland
Tomorrow, 1972 (TV), based on the short story by William Faulkner; Joseph Anthony, II, director; Robert Duvall
Los Olvidados, 1950; Luis Bunuel, director
East of Eden, 1955, based on the novel by John Steinbeck; Elia Kazan, director; James Dean; Julie Harris
The Godfather, Part I, 1972, based on the novel by Mario Puzo: Francis Ford Coppola, director; Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
The Godfather, Part II, 1974: Francis Ford Coppola, director; Al Pacino, Robert Duvall
My favorites didn’t make the list. Casablanca and High Noon.
Alfred Hitchcock was embittered at the critical and commercial failure of the film in 1958. He blamed this on James Stewart for "looking too old" to attract audiences any more. Hitchcock never worked with Stewart, previously one of his favorite collaborators, again.
It's good to see poor Jimmy Stewart vindicated.
Ridiculous. Vertigo isn’t even Hitchcock’s best film.
I think it’s hard to get the full impact of Kane if you weren’t around to see it when it came out. A lot of filmmaking techniques that were pioneered in CK are commonplace nowadays, so most people see it and don’t understand what the big deal is about.
James Stewart is my favorite actor and I’m always pretty keen on Hitchcock, but “Vertigo” was never particularly a favorite of mine. Been many years since I last saw it, but I always thought it a bit uneven and far-fetched.
As for “Citizen Kane,” well, it’s nowhere near the top in terms of entertainment, but I could always understand why the critics put it on a pedestal. Especially if one puts it in its historical context of 1941, when it would have seemed wildly innovative, in so many different ways, from structure (flashbacks) to little things like showing off ceilings, etc. You could just see how its influence started to affect films immediately.
All I remember about Vertigo as a kid in 1958 was the TV plug with the bulging staring eye that turned into the rotating vortex that got closer and closer and the creepy neenie noo nee music. Gave me nightmares (the worst ones ever since always involve one big eye).
Then I saw the movie as an adult. It was a letdown, I was expecting Vincent Price gooseflesh instead all I can recall is a series of anguished expressions and little action.
Oh, well.
“I think it’s hard to get the full impact of Kane if you weren’t around to see it when it came out. A lot of filmmaking techniques that were pioneered in CK are commonplace nowadays, so most people see it and don’t understand what the big deal is about.”
That part I get completely. But that was then; this is now. By that standard, “A Trip To The Moon” should be at the top, or very close to it.
If the Godfather isn't near the top, the list is bogus!
jimmy stewart, one of the truly great men of our time
read his biography on wiki
it will bring tears to your eyes
The bulging eye is creepy. But the second when she subtly purses her lips is just as creepy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qtDCZP4WrQ
Coincidentally, Turner Classic Movies is airing it this evening at 8:00pm Eastern. Watch it once, and marvel.
I agree. This is possibly the best movie ever made. Every scene is like a painting. The director followed the book as well as possible. I don't understand it when directors change the story when gold exists in the original story. I can't understand why the director changed the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the very satisfying ending that already existed in the book.
Holy cats! Never knew that was Kim Novak’ eye. The TV ad began with the eye already widening and quickly ended with a kettledrum flourish & the vortex.
“At Your Local Theater Now!”
This list is worthless.
America owns the movies. Sorry, Europe. Sorry, World. Your “films” are giant sucking soporific exercises in tedium and self-indulgence.
You’re still learning... slowly. You should stick to painting, piano, and pastry.
The only movies on this list that are any good are the American ones. Except, oddly enough, “Citizen Kane” and “Vertigo.” Which both drip with unfortunate European influences.
(P.S. Don’t say Hitchcock was a Brit. He came to America to make American movies. And he learned how.)
Vertigo isn’t even Hitchcock’s best...The Birds and Psycho are both better films.
Citizen Kane is AMAZING. I’ve seen it over thirty times and every time I watch it...I see something new for me.
Just another opinion...yours may be different...that’s baseball.
I thought Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” was better than “Vertigo”. Of course, I’m a Cary Grant and James Mason fan.
And the real best movie ever made, Casablanca, doesn’t make the top 50. Oh, well. Everyone has an opinion.
Interesting! Bump!
True, but I think “Trip to the Moon” is excluded just because these lists only cover “feature” films, so they have to be over an hour long.
“Best of” lists are always funny as hell but the voters of this poll are collectively the most pretentious bunch I have seen in a long,long time. I defy anyone to watch these top ten and not snooze through at least 4 of the films.
The best thing about Vertigo, is that it inspired High Anxiety.
Speaking of “A Trip To The Moon”, Hugo, I think will one day be on the list...it’s the first movie where 3D really did add value to it.
Never heard of most of them and can’t stand the ones I have heard of.
ping
Thanks for the ping!
Ask a bunch of hipsters - get some obscure answers.
Please explain the reasoning behind your comment. Perhaps you are confusing Jimmy Stewart with some other actor; I’ve always thought Jimmy Stewart was a saint on many levels, and I’ve never read or heard anything to suggest otherwise.
If all “Conservatives” were as loathsome as Jimmy Stewart was as a human being, this would be a sorry world indeed.
You really need to get educated on the truth about Stewart. He was NOT what the left tries to say he was. James Stewart was a patriotic American who left Hollywood to become a pilot over Europe. He was a Colonel who flew B-24 Liberator bomber
Stewart was a staunch conservative, a friend and supporter of Ronald Reagan (and a frequent White House guest during his presidency), who also actively backed Richard Nixon (if he can be called a conservative) and Barry Goldwater. Like Goldwater, he served, as a brigadier general, in the Air Force Reserve.
For his war service, among his many honors, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. One of his sons, Ronald, a Marine officer, was killed in action in Vietnam in 1969. Stewart was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Reagan in 1985.
During WWII, Jimmy became a colonel who flew bombing missions over Europe. He already a big star who had already done films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “The Philadelphia Story” when he joined the Army Air Corps.
Stewart was a conservative Republican long before being a Republican was cool. When other big stars were supporting the likes of socialist like Roosevelt, Truman and others, Stewart supported politicians who believed in America's greatness.
His close and personal friend of Henry Fonda, but they agreed to disagree in politics and never discussed them because they disagreed so vehemently when Jimmy tried to convince Henry about who the Democrats really were. I am convinced that if Fonda were alive today he would become a Republican while apologizing to his good friend Jimmy for being so blind about who the Democrats were.
The charities he supported with his money have been responsible for helping many things we take for granted today. Like most great honorable men, he never tooted his own horn. He did what was right and went on without bragging like all the leftists Hollywood stars who were doing things for show. Jimmy Stewart was a great American, and I would have been proud to have known him.
You need to get educated and as i said, quit listening to the communists who despise him and his American values. 
Well, I’ll have to admit that my evidence is no more compelling that Wikipedia, which another poster suggested I read concerning Stewart. There are multiple sites on the interweb that relate a story pertaining to the fact that while filming “Destry Rides Again”, Stewart, during an extramarital affair, impregnated, and then coerced, Marlene Dietrich to have a clinical abortion for their careers sake.
2001 Space Odyssey: Please. Not unless you took a whole lot of acid and watched in the theaters in the 60s. Sure it captured the wonders of space travel and future potential of computers but the silly monolith creation story and the 15+ minute acid trip light show and floating baby makes watching the whole movie painful.
Apocalypse Now: More pretentious crap. Excluding the Napalm in the morning scene everything about this movie was beyond ridiculous. An Army Colonel that forms a cult that does nothing but dance around all day and kill people and then just gives up and lets himself be killed is just a beyond stupid premise. It is also the first movie to portray American soldiers as nothing but sexed crazed psychopathic killers.
With that said, Army of Darkness should be in the top ten
Stewart wasn’t even married yet in 1939, when “Destry” was filmed. That sounds like crap. Heaven knows there’s a lot of well-known scandals/secrets about Hollywood and its folk, but there does seem to a huge wave of “made-up” garbage, especially since the internet era started.
Fine, you think he’s great. As far as I’m concerned Hollywood, except for the commerce it has generated, is a Hell hole, always has been, always will be. IMO the whole place isn’t worth the sweat from between my thighs. If Stewart was a great man, it wasn’t anything he did in the motion pictures that caused it.
For a real shouldabeen abortion, see (no don't see!) the 1940s version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and (I think) Lawrence Olivier. It's awful. Lady Catherine is a sweet old lady who only wants what's best for her dear nephew. From there it deteriorates.
If you haven't seen the Anthony Hopkins version of War and Peace, run--do not walk--to the nearest movierentplace and get it. Get lots of popcorn. No. Get several excellent bottles of excellent wine and/or some good Russian vodka and caviar, have your wife sit next to you on the sofa, and get ready for one of the most wonderful movie experiences of your life. When you have finished watching all 12 or 15 or so episodes (you might want some beef stroganoff for dinner between some of the episodes), read (or re-read) the book. Then email me and let me know how it went.
~S
For a real shouldabeen abortion, see (no don't see!) the 1940s version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and (I think) Lawrence Olivier. It's awful. Lady Catherine is a sweet old lady who only wants what's best for her dear nephew. From there it deteriorates.
If you haven't seen the Anthony Hopkins version of War and Peace, run--do not walk--to the nearest movierentplace and get it. Get lots of popcorn. No. Get several excellent bottles of excellent wine and/or some good Russian vodka and caviar, have your wife sit next to you on the sofa, and get ready for one of the most wonderful movie experiences of your life. When you have finished watching all 12 or 15 or so episodes (you might want some beef stroganoff for dinner between some of the episodes), read (or re-read) the book. Then email me and let me know how it went.
~S
Apply some context. Hollywood was indeed ALWAYS tilted towards moral degeneracy compared to the rest of the country. But compared to the current deviant cultural state-of-affairs across all fifty states here in 2012, Hollywood in the 1930s/40s/50s would actually be pretty tame! I spent some time out there a few decades ago, and got to meet and know some of those old-timers, and frankly, they were a heck of a lot more conservative and more guided by morality than most would expect.
But my main point is that a whole lot of ludicrous garbage has been popping up on the internet in regards to now-dead celebrities. And a lot of this stuff gets made up and promulgated by liberal freaks and queers who seem to have a mania for projecting their sleazy minds onto historical figures, like some kind of weird psychological need to bring a moral-relativist attitude onto past eras, by dragging down others.
Any patriot who can get through that incredible film without crying (at least twice) is a better man than I. And Teresa Wright is mesmerizing.
Strangers on a Train, The 39 Steps, North by Northwest and Psycho are all better. The last third of Vertigo is sleep-inducing and obvious. Any fool knew where it was headed.
All I can say is I WANT TWO HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK, wasted on this piece of European dreck!
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