Posted on 08/01/2012 11:29:18 AM PDT by Borges
So, it’s finally here.
Every decade, the team of critics and filmmakers selected by Sight And Sound come up with their new list of the ten greatest films of all time, and today that list has been announced. Rumors leading up to the announcement had pegged Hitchcock’s Vertigo as the newly minted “greatest film of all time” over the long-standing champion Citizen Kane, and shockingly, that has come true.
Kane falls to number two, followed by Ozu’s masterpiece Tokyo Story, and followed by Renoir’s The Rules Of The Game and Murnau’s silent stunner Sunrise rounding out the top five of the critics list. Directors? Well, they went a different route, giving Tokyo Story the top spot, with both Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey (number six on the critics’ list) and Kane tying for the second slot.
Now, I’m not exactly sure what this all means with regards to the beloved nature of Kane as time spans (it has not only become a slightly less regarded film in general, but most people this writer has chatted to find films like The Magnificent Ambersons to be superior within Welles’ canon) but you can’t find a better film to steal the top spot from the masterful debut of Orson Welles than Hitchcock’s best film.
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The Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)
Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
The Directors’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
=2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
=2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)
=7 The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
=7 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)
Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)
2001 Space Odyssey is a snore-fest with a cool soundtrack.
“Manos: The Hands Of Fate”
Best film ever.
That is 10.
2001 had a huge influence on filmmaking. TD had a hallucinatory feel that was new to American film.
Communist and NAZI propaganda films from the USSR and Germany influenced filmmakers as well. Doesn’t make them among the greatest films ever.
No dialog for the first or last 45 minutes if I recall.
I’m very disappointed that my “Rockin’ the Wall” did not make the top ten. (www.rockinthewallstudios.com)
However, it will premiere on PBS on Nov. 9!
Vertigo is such an incredibly spectacular film! Definitely the best film by the best director of all time.
I never even heard of most of the others. Maybe I’ll have to broaden my horizons and check some of them out.
I’ve seen the Joan of Arc movie and I guess it has lost something over the years. Other silent movies have held up much better, such as Seven Chances by Buster Keaton.
The best movie ever made is “The Lives of Others”, I actually had a form of out of body experience watching it.
Some I would consider:
Hugo
Brest Fortress (Russian war movie, IMHO the best war movie I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something)
Europa, Europa
Goodbye, Lenin
One, Two, Three (Greatest single comedic performance in a movie, by James Cagney)
Doctor Zhivago
the greatest films I like best:
Doc Hollywood (with Michael Fox, great scenery, characters delightful)
Princess Mononoke,Kiki’s Delivery Service
Hal’s Moving Castle (or anything by Hayao Miyazaki)
Ben Hur (Miklos Rozsas’s score makes this)
Lawrence of Arabia( epic sweep, great music)
Doctor Zhivago (Both versions are worth watching)
Tombstone (Val Kilmer: “I got two guns, one for each of you”)
Ride With the Devil (Ang Lee directed this believe it or not)
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jim Carey in the ‘straight man’ role for once)
Fight Club (Brad Pitt is a great actor)
Burn After Reading (Brad Pitt is a great comedic actor)
Brother Were Art Though (the music alone is enough)
Last of the Mohicans (came out the same time as Unforgiven, epic scope and grand cinematography, but more cohesive)
A Little Princess ( Alfonso Cuarón Orozco director, 1995, something about the texture of this movie)
The Village (& anything else by M. Night Shyamalan, a very spooky story)
A John Wayne western in the critic’s top ten.
Those of us who are old enough remember when Wayne was always panned and mocked as an actor, but now that he is dead and not speaking out on politics, the truth is coming out.
They should have said Greatest Pop Films.
Otherwise, they need to define “greatness” by direction, cinematography, acting, screenplay, and music. Or all of the above.
Let’s run down the list.
Vertigo...a good movie that developed a cachet of forbidden fruit along with 3 other Hitchcock movies because it was unavailable to be seen for decades. That period is now over and it is readily viewable today.
Citizen Kane...another good movie but I like Touch of Evil by Welles better.
Tokyo Story...Have not seen it but have read about it. Its about aged parents from the country visiting their children in the city
La Regle du jeu. Maybe I was not the most receptive but I could barely keep awake watching it.
Sunrise Worth watching. Probably deserves a place maybe not in the top 10 but somewhere near it.
2001 Stunning visually but incomprehensible for someone viewing it cold without knowing the background or source story. That is a major flaw.
The Searchers. Another good movie but again Ford and Wayne have done better.
Man with a Movie camera.... also haven’t seen it or know anything about it.
Passion of Joan of Arc...another silent way up there in the pantheon....worth watching....top 10? Hard to say. Amazing performance by the lady who plays Joan.
8 1/2 Good Fellini movie that equates life as a carnival or movie set. Not my favourite Fellini....that would be Nights of Cabiria.
Actually, Soviet films like ‘Battleship Potempkin’ and ‘The Man with a Movie Camera’ are among the greatest films ever regardless of the ideology at play.
Ford’s films, The Searchers in particular, have frequently been cited as among the best ever going back to the 1960s.
Ford sure knew Wayne’s talent, I’m glad that Wayne’s Ford directed western made the critics top ten.
If you have not seen Sunrise, one of the great silent films, which is on the list, you should. As to Keaton, The General made this list in years past. I'm not as into 7 Chances as much as you (but I do really like it; I like all Keaton's silent features). I think I'd go with Sherlock, Jr. or The Navigator as Keaton's best films.
I'm glad to see Vertigo get some respect, but I'd not rate it # 1 film or even #1 Hitchcock; but it is a masterpiece. I think 2001 is vastly over-rated. I'd have put Barry Lyndon ahead of it as far as Kubrick films are concerned.
I agree with Liberty Valance. I’ve watced that movie a number of times, and it just gets better with every viewing.
I thought it was an incredibly good looking movie, though the content is sick.
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