Thursday, November 20, 2008

100 Films Pour Une Cinematheque Ideale

100 Films Pour Une Cinematheque Ideale Les 100 Plus Beaux Films De L'Histoire Du Cinema
Cahiers Du Cinema, the highly respected French film magazine, has published a book listing 100 films necessary for a perfect cinema programme. The book, by Claude-Jean Philippe, is titled 100 Films Pour Une Cinematheque Ideale. A Parisian cinema, the Reflet Medicis, will indeed be screening the 100 films, in a season called Les 100 Plus Beaux Films De L'Histoire Du Cinema, running from yesterday until 6th July 2009.

The 100 films were chosen by a panel of seventy-eight film critics. The list is ranked according to the proportion of votes each film received, as follows:

48/78 (61%)
  • Citizen Kane
47/78 (60%)
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • The Rules Of The Game
46/78 (59%)
  • Sunrise
43/78 (55%)
  • L'Atalante
40/78 (51%)
  • M
39/78 (50%)
  • Singin' In The Rain
35/78 (45%)
  • Vertigo
34/78 (44%)
  • Les Enfants Du Paradis
  • The Searchers
  • Greed
33/78 (42%)
  • Rio Bravo
  • To Be Or Not To Be
29/78 (37%)
  • Tokyo Story
28/78 (36%)
  • Le Mepris
27/78 (35%)
  • Ugetsu Monogatari
  • City Lights
  • The General
  • Nosferatu
  • The Music Room
26/78 (33%)
  • Freaks
  • Johnny Guitar
  • La Maman & La Putain
25/78 (32%)
  • The Great Dictator
  • The Leopard
  • Hiroshima Mon Amour
  • Pandora's Box
  • North By Northwest
  • Pickpocket
24/78 (31%)
  • Casque D'Or
  • The Barefoot Contessa
  • Mme De...
  • Le Plaisir
  • The Deer Hunter
23/78 (29%)
  • L'Avventura
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • Notorious
  • Ivan The Terrible I-II
  • The Godfather
  • Touch Of Evil
  • The Wind
22/78 (28%)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Fanny & Alexander
21/78 (27%)
  • The Crowd
  • 8-&-A-Half
  • La Jetee
  • Pierrot Le Fou
  • Confessions Of A Cheat
20/78 (26%)
  • Amarcord
  • La Belle & La Bete
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Some Came Running
  • Gertrud
  • King Kong
  • Laura
  • The Seven Samurai
19/78 (24%)
  • The 400 Blows
  • La Dolce Vita
  • The Dead
  • Trouble In Paradise
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • M. Verdoux
  • The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
18/78 (23%)
  • Breathless
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Barry Lyndon
  • Grand Illusion
  • Intolerance
  • Partie De Campagne
  • Playtime
  • Rome: Open City
  • Senso
  • Modern Times
  • VanGogh
17/78 (22%)
  • An Affair To Remember
  • Andrei Rublev
  • The Scarlet Empress
  • Sansho Dayu
  • Talk To Her
  • The Party
  • Tabu
  • The Bandwagon
  • A Star Is Born
  • M. Hulot's Holiday
16/78 (20%)
  • America America
  • El
  • Kiss Me Deadly
  • Once Upon A Time In America
  • Daybreak
  • Letter From An Unknown Woman
  • Lola
  • Manhattan
  • Mulholland Dr.
  • My Night At Maud's
  • Night & Fog
  • The Gold Rush
  • Scarface
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • Napoleon
It's a pleasant surprise to see two films by Kenji Mizoguchi - Ugetsu Monogatari and Sansho Dayu - as his work rarely appears on top-100 lists.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Legendary Movies

Legendary Movies
Legendary Movies, by Paolo D'Agostini, features 140 films arranged chronologically and selected for their artistic, cultural, and commercial significance. It was written for the Italian market, as I Grandi Film: Quando Il Cinema Diventa Leggenda, and consequently there is a distinctly Italian bias to the list.

There are plenty of genuinely legendary films in the book, though there are also quite a few popular yet insubstantial (and frankly awful) titles: A Summer Place, The Pink Panther, Mary Poppins, Love Story, Forrest Gump, and Life Is Beautiful. Also, very recent films (such as the Bourne and Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogies) could hardly be described as legendary.

D'Agostini's Legendary Movies are as follows:
  • Cabiria
  • The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
  • Nosferatu
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • Metropolis
  • The Blue Angel
  • Frankenstein
  • Grand Hotel
  • King Kong
  • It Happened One Night
  • Modern Times
  • Grand Illusion
  • The Wizard Of Oz
  • Ninotchka
  • Stagecoach
  • Gone With The Wind
  • Citizen Kane
  • Casablanca
  • Arsenic & Old Lace
  • Rome: Open City
  • Gilda
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Asphalt Jungle
  • Sunset Blvd
  • Singin' In The Rain
  • High Noon
  • Don Camillo
  • The Wild One
  • Roman Holiday
  • From Here To Eternity
  • A Star Is Born
  • On The Waterfront
  • Sabrina
  • The Seven Samurai
  • Rear Window
  • Rebel Without A Cause
  • & God Created Woman
  • The Ten Commandments
  • The Seventh Seal
  • The Bridge On The River Kwai
  • The Great War
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  • Some Like It Hot
  • A Summer Place
  • La Dolce Vita
  • Breathless
  • Two Women
  • Psycho
  • The Magnificent Seven
  • Breakfast At Tiffany's
  • West Side Story
  • Lolita
  • Jules & Jim
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • The Pink Panther
  • Eight-&-A-Half
  • The Leopard
  • A Fistful Of Dollars
  • Goldfinger
  • Mary Poppins
  • Dr Zhivago
  • A Man & A Woman
  • Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
  • The Dirty Dozen
  • Belle De Jour
  • The Graduate
  • In The Heat Of The Night
  • Romeo & Juliet
  • Planet Of The Apes
  • Bullitt
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Rosemary's Baby
  • Easy Rider
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • Love Story
  • M*A*S*H
  • Dirty Harry
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Cabaret
  • The Godfather
  • The Sting
  • American Graffiti
  • The Exorcist
  • Jaws
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Nashville
  • Taxi Driver
  • Rocky
  • In The Realm Of The Senses
  • Saturday Night Fever
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Grease
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Manhattan
  • Alien
  • The Blues Brothers
  • The Shining
  • American Gigolo
  • The Party
  • Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  • Escape From New York
  • First Blood
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • Blade Runner
  • Once Upon A Time In America
  • A Nightmare On Elm St.
  • Back To The Future
  • Top Gun
  • Nine-&-A-Half Weeks
  • Wings Of Desire
  • The Last Emperor
  • Rain Man
  • Nikita
  • Pretty Woman
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Raise The Red Lantern
  • The Silence Of The Lambs
  • Thelma & Louise
  • Basic Instinct
  • Batman Returns
  • Schindler's List
  • Forrest Gump
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Seven
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Life Is Beautiful
  • Titanic
  • The Matrix
  • Gladiator
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  • Amelia
  • Talk To Her
  • Kill Bill I-II
  • The Last Samurai
  • Million Dollar Baby
  • The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
  • Pirates Of The Caribbean I-III
Note that Ben-Hur, Frankenstein, and The Ten Commandments are all sound films and not the earlier silent versions. Also, Titanic is the 1997 James Cameron version (as opposed to the earlier 1943 and 1953 versions). There have been many filmed adaptations of Romeo & Juliet; this one is the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

essential films (personal lists)

A Trip To The Moon Intolerance The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari Battleship Potemkin Un Chien Andalou The Rules Of The Game
Citizen Kane Casablanca Double Indemnity Rome: Open City Rashomon
Singin' In The Rain Tokyo Story On The Waterfront The Seventh Seal The Searchers
Vertigo Some Like It Hot Breathless Psycho Eight-&-A-Half
Dr Strangelove 2001: A Space Odyssey The Godfather Pink Flamingos Jaws
Taxi Driver Annie Hall Apocalypse Now Pulp Fiction

Two downloadable film lists are available, and both are organised chronologically. The first is a video featuring scenes from thirty essential films. The second is a comprehensive list of 500 classic films from my cinema history website.

video text

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

100 All-Time Favorite Movies

100 All-Time Favorite Movies
Not my favourite films, 100 All-Time Favorite Movies is instead the title of a new book edited by Jurgen Muller. Published by Taschen in two volumes (1915-1959 and 1960-2000), it includes a chronological survey of 100 classic films. Being a Taschen book, its layout and photography are superb; the selection of films is impressive, too, with only two questionable entries (Fanfan The Tulip and Forrest Gump) and only one inexplicable omission (Singin' In The Rain).

Taschen's 100 All-Time Favorite Movies are as follows:
  • The Birth Of A Nation
  • Nosferatu
  • The Ten Commandments
  • The Gold Rush
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • The General
  • Metropolis
  • The Blue Angel
  • Under The Roofs Of Paris
  • M
  • Duck Soup
  • King Kong
  • Modern Times
  • Grand Illusion
  • Gone With The Wind
  • Fantasia
  • Citizen Kane
  • To Be Or Not To Be
  • Casablanca
  • The Big Sleep
  • La Belle & La Bete
  • Notorious
  • The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Third Man
  • All About Eve
  • Rashomon
  • The Young & The Damned
  • Sunset Blvd
  • A Streetcar Named Desire
  • The African Queen
  • High Noon
  • Fanfan The Tulip
  • The Wages Of Fear
  • The Seven Samurai
  • La Strada
  • Rebel Without A Cause
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • Giant
  • The Searchers
  • Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud
  • Wild Strawberries
  • Vertigo
  • The 400 Blows
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  • La Dolce Vita
  • L'Avventura
  • Psycho
  • Breakfast At Tiffany's
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • To Kill A Mockingbird
  • Dr Strangelove
  • Goldfinger
  • Dr Zhivago
  • Pierrot Le Fou
  • Andrei Rublev
  • Bonnie & Clyde
  • The Graduate
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Once Upon A Time In The West
  • Easy Rider
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • The Wild Bunch
  • Death In Venice
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Deliverance
  • Cabaret
  • The Godfather
  • The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
  • A Woman Under The Influence
  • Chinatown
  • Jaws
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Taxi Driver
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • Annie Hall
  • The Deer Hunter
  • The Tin Drum
  • Mad Max
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Raging Bull
  • Fitzcarraldo
  • Fanny & Alexander
  • Scarface
  • Blade Runner
  • The Fourth Man
  • Blue Velvet
  • Dead Ringers
  • The Silence Of The Lambs
  • Forrest Gump
  • Chungking Express
  • Pulp Fiction
  • LA Confidential
  • Face/Off
  • The Celebration
  • All About My Mother
  • American Beauty
  • Magnolia
  • Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Note that Ben-Hur is the 1959 sound version rather than the 1925 silent version, and Scarface is the 1983 remake rather than the 1932 original.

The oddest mistake: Psycho ends with a smirking skull, not a "smirking toilet seat" (page 440)!

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

MovieMail's Top Fifty Films Of All Time!

MovieMail's Top Fifty Films Of All Time!
The November edition of the MovieMail Monthly Film Catalogue features a list of the Top Fifty Films Of All Time.

Also, the company's website (moviemail-online.co.uk/top50) has a nomination form for your own three favourite films, and the results of this public poll will be announced in January 2009. (My nominations are: Psycho, Dr Strangelove, and Annie Hall.)

The Top Fifty Films are as follows:

1. Three Colours: Blue/White/Red
2. Breathless
3. Singin' In The Rain
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. A Man Escaped
6. The Seventh Seal
7. The Third Man
8. The Leopard
9. Miller's Crossing
10. M. Hulot's Holiday
11. The Lives Of Others
12. Lawrence Of Arabia
13. Blade Runner
14. I Was A Fireman
15. Casablanca
16. Andrei Rublev
17. The Seven Samurai
18. Citizen Kane
19. Brief Encounter
20. Annie Hall
21. Some Like It Hot
22. It's A Wonderful Life
23. The 400 Blows
24. A Matter Of Life & Death
25. Bicycle Thieves
26. Tokyo Story
27. Jaws
28. Battleship Potemkin
29. The Rules Of The Game
30. Pather Panchali/Aparajito/Apur Sansar
31. Psycho
32. The Battle Of Algiers
33. Nashville
34. Belle De Jour
35. Dr Mabuse The Gambler
36. All About Eve
37. My Neighbour Totoro
38. The Godfather I-III
39. Vertigo
40. Sunset Blvd.
41. La Dolce Vita
42. Fitzcarraldo
43. All Quiet On The Western Front
44. There Will Be Blood
45. Satantango
46. L'Avventura
47. The Night Of The Hunter
48. Festen
49. The New World
50. Chinatown

There are actually fifty-six films on the list, as it includes three trilogies. Interestingly, Blade Runner at #13 is the 'final cut' version with digital tweaks approved by Ridley Scott last year.

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Monday, October 06, 2008

Have You Seen...?

Have You Seen...?
Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction To 1,000 Films is an alphabetical guide to "a thousand fiction films, going back to 1895 and ranging across the world - the landmarks are here, the problem films, a few guilty pleasures, a few forlorn sacred cows, some surprises, a thousand for you to see".

The most surprising thing about this book is that I don't hate it. Thomson's Biographical Dictionary Of Film is routinely described as the greatest film book ever written, but personally I can't stand it; and I often find Thomson's newspaper articles infuriating. Have You Seen...? is much more satisfying, though: the layout is clean and simple, with one page per film; the selection of titles is inclusive and diverse; and the reviews are fair, with Thomson acknowledging the merits of even the films he doesn't like.

text

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Empire magazine's current issue features The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time - and the magazine has 100 different covers, each featuring one of the films from the list.

Empire asked its readers for their nominations last month. International directors and critics were also polled, making this survey, according to Empire, "THE MOST AMBITIOUS MOVIE LIST EVER ATTEMPTED".

The 500 films are as follows:

1. The Godfather
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Jaws
6. GoodFellas
7. Apocalypse Now
8. Singin' In The Rain
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Fight Club
11. Raging Bull
12. The Apartment
13. Chinatown
14. Once Upon A Time In The West
15. The Dark Knight
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
17. Taxi Driver
18. Casablanca
19. The Godfather II
20. Blade Runner
21. The Third Man
22. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
23. Back To The Future
24. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
25. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
26. Dr Strangelove
27. Some Like It Hot
28. Citizen Kane
29. Die Hard
30. Aliens
31. Gone With The Wind
32. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
33. Alien
34. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
35. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
36. Andrei Rublev
37. A Clockwork Orange
38. Heat
39. The Matrix
40. Vertigo
41. The 400 Blows
42. Kind Hearts & Coronets
43. The Big Lebowski
44. Schindler's List
45. Psycho
46. On The Waterfront
47. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
48. This Is Spinal Tap
49. Evil Dead II
50. The Seven Samurai
51. Eight-&-A-Half
52. The Shining
53. Donnie Darko
54. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
55. La Dolce Vita
56. Casino Royale
57. Lawrence Of Arabia
58. His Girl Friday
59. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
60. Come & See
61. The Usual Suspects
62. The Graduate
63. Sunset Blvd
64. Oldboy
65. Harold & Maude
66. Edward Scissorhands
67. Tokyo Story
68. Annie Hall
69. Three Colours: Red
70. Stand By Me
71. The Night Of The Hunter
72. 12 Angry Men
73. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
74. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
75. A Matter Of Life & Death
76. Manhattan
77. Spartacus
78. Rosemary's Baby
79. The Thin Red Line
80. The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp
81. Batman Begins
82. The Great Escape
83. Brazil
84. LA Confidential
85. Blue Velvet
86. Carrie
87. The King Of Comedy
88. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
89. Magnolia
90. When Harry Met Sally
91. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
92. Once Upon A Time In America
93. Spirit Of The Beehive
94. The Wild Bunch
95. Yojimbo
96. American Beauty
97. Reservoir Dogs
98. North By Northwest
99. Toy Story
100. Network
101. Raising Arizona
102. The Hustler
103. Rear Window
104. The Rules Of The Game
105. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
106. A Man For All Seasons
107. An American Werewolf In London
108. The Tree Of Wooden Clogs
109. Touch Of Evil
110. Before Sunset
111. Fitzcarraldo
112. I Am Cuba
113. Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
114. The Conversation
115. Blazing Saddles
116. Rio Bravo
117. Miller’s Crossing
118. Withnail & I
119. The Wages Of Fear
120. The Battle Of Algiers
121. Los Olvidados
122. The Princess Bride
123. A Woman Under The Influence
124. The Silence Of The Lambs
125. Breathless
126. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
127. The Sting
128. Lost In Translation
129. Harvey
130. The Man Who Would Be King
131. The Last Of The Mohicans
132. Pan's Labyrinth
133. Double Indemnity
134. Seven
135. Duck Soup
136. Amadeus
137. Dances With Wolves
138. Cool Hand Luke
139. Blow Out
140. As Good As It Gets
141. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
142. Almost Famous
143. Cyrano DeBergerac
144. There Will Be Blood
145. Sophie's Choice
146. Shampoo
147. Notorious
148. Z
149. The Red Shoes
150. The French Connection
151. Gladiator
152. Boogie Nights
153. The Innocents
154. Betty Blue
155. Badlands
156. Saving Private Ryan
157. True Romance
158. Unforgiven
159. The Royal Tenenbaums
160. Being There
161. The Year Of Living Dangerously
162. A Nightmare On Elm St.
163. The Bridge On The River Kwai
164. The Searchers
165. Partie De Campagne
166. Goldfinger
167. Don’t Look Now
168. Tootsie
169. Viridiana
170. La Haine
171. Brief Encounter
172. The Wizard Of Oz
173. Memento
174. Superman
175. Rushmore
176. A Canterbury Tale
177. City Of God
178. Hellzapoppin'
179. Toy Story II
180. To Kill A Mockingbird
181. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
182. Performance
183. Le Samourai
184. Dirty Harry
185. Paths Of Glory
186. United 93
187. The Big Country
188. School Of Rock
189. Ghostbusters
190. Big
191. Brokeback Mountain
192. Eraserhead
193. Ed Wood
194. Bicycle Thieves
195. It's A Wonderful Life
196. Amelie
197. Point Break
198. Fargo
199. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
200. Before Sunrise
201. JFK
202. The Killer
203. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
204. Bride Of Frankenstein
205. The Addiction
206. The Exorcist
207. The Misfits
208. The Departed
209. Local Hero
210. Platoon
211. Moulin Rouge!
212. M
213. Songs From The Second Floor
214. Army Of Shadows
215. Jackie Brown
216. Sunday Bloody Sunday
217. The Magnificent Seven
218. M. Hulot's Holiday
219. The Outlaw Josey Wales
220. Far From Heaven
221. McCabe & Mrs Miller
222. Mother & Son
223. Safe
224. Distant Voices Still Lives
225. Get Carter
226. Romeo & Juliet
227. Leon
228. No Country For Old Men
229. Festen
230. Howl's Moving Castle
231. Shaun Of The Dead
232. Jurassic Park
233. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
234. The Bourne Ultimatum
235. Battle Royale
236. Black Narcissus
237. Delicatessen
238. Requiem For A Dream
239. Cinema Paradiso
240. Forrest Gump
241. Brighton Rock
242. King Kong
243. Heimat
244. Dazed & Confused
245. Downfall
246. The Philadelphia Story
247. All That Jazz
248. Pandora's Box
249. My Darling Clementine
250. Sunrise
251. Darling
252. The Leopard
253. First Blood
254. The Verdict
255. Ninotchka
256. Port Of Shadows
257. The Black Cat
258. The Blues Brothers
259. Groundhog Day
260. Field Of Dreams
261. Roman Holiday
262. The Virgin Suicides
263. Das Boot
264. American Graffiti
265. AI: Artificial Intelligence
266. Ghost World
267. Crimes & Misdemeanors
268. The Lady Vanishes
269. A Place In The Sun
270. The Death Of Mr Lazarescu
271. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
272. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
273. The Maltese Falcon
274. Sin City
275. My Neighbour Totoro
276. Layer Cake
277. On The Town
278. Carlito's Way
279. National Lampoon's Animal House
280. Mad Max II
281. Interview With The Vampire
282. The Godfather III
283. Ran
284. Scarface
285. Solaris
286. L'Avventura
287. Secrets & Lies
288. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
289. The Thing
290. Rashomon
291. Rocco & His Brothers
292. La Belle & La Bete
293. La Maman & La Putain
294. The Red Balloon
295. The Untouchables
296. All The President's Men
297. It Happened One Night
298. La Cercle Rouge
299. The Palm Beach Story
300. Sawdust & Tinsel
301. Love & Death
302. The Best Years Of Our Lives
303. Together
304. Radio Days
305. The Prestige
306. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
307. Midnight Cowboy
308. The Terminator
309. Transformers
310. Gremlins
311. American History X
312. Suspiria
313. Battleship Potemkin
314. Sweet Smell Of Success
315. Sense & Sensibility
316. Trainspotting
317. Midnight Run
318. Rebecca
319. The Lion King
320. Braveheart
321. Funny Face
322. Aladdin
323. The Last Seduction
324. Lone Star
325. Kill Bill I
326. Out Of Sight
327. The Nightmare Before Christmas
328. The Truman Show
329. The Lives Of Others
330. Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith
331. The Green Mile
332. The Sixth Sense
333. Grease
334. The Magnificent Ambersons
335. The Seventh Seal
336. Titanic
337. 300
338. Jules & Jim
339. Spirited Away
340. High & Low
341. The Passenger
342. The Gold Rush
343. Monsters Inc.
344. The Last Waltz
345. Fatal Attraction
346. Leave Her To Heaven
347. All About Eve
348. Au Hasard Balthasar
349. Arthur
350. Planet Of The Apes
351. Zulu
352. Unfaithfully Yours
353. Bugsy Malone
354. Un Chien Andalou
355. Sunshine
356. Napoleon
357. The Long Goodbye
358. Russian Ark
359. The Lady Eve
360. The Return
361. Clerks
362. The Elephant Man
363. Good Morning Vietnam
364. Natural Born Killers
365. The Bourne Identity
366. Pradator
367. Cabaret
368. Airplane!
369. The Breakfast Club
370. Rocky
371. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
372. Army Of Darkness
373. Wall-E
374. Hot Fuzz
375. Four Weddings & A Funeral
376. Zodiac
377. Mean Streats
378. The Goonies
379. Ratatouille
380. Children Of Men
381. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
382. Cache
383. Serenity
384. The Shop Around The Corner
385. Ace In The Hole
386. The Great Silence
387. Rain Man
388. The English Patient
389. Election
390. Two Days In Paris
391. Mulholland Dr.
392. Paris Texas
393. Garden State
394. Cloverfield
395. Casino
396. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
397. Night Of The Living Dead
398. Killer Of Sheep
399. Greed
400. The Incredibles
401. Batman Returns
402. Little Miss Sunshine
403. Do The Right Thing
404. RoboCop
405. Dirty Dancing
406. Iron Man
407. The Jungle Book
408. Zelig
409. Men In Black
410. A Hard Day's Night
411. Spider-Man II
412. Heathers
413. Finding Nemo
414. The Double Life Of Veronique
415. Dawn Of The Dead
416. Bad Taste
417. Lords Of Dogtown
418. V For Vendetta
419. Days Of Heaven
420. Jerry Maguirre
421. Lethal Weapon
422. A Man Escaped
423. Kill Bill II
424. To Have & Have Not
425. Wonder Boys
426. Enduring Love
427. Spring In A Small Town
428. The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser
429. Danger: Diabolik
430. Big Trouble In Little China
431. Electra Glida In Blue
432. X-Men II
433. Good Will Hunting
434. The Cat Concerto
435. American Psycho
436. Beauty & The Beast
437. Spider-Man
438. The Lost Boys
439. Grosse Pointe Blank
440. Akira
441. Being John Malkovich
442. Atonement
443. Dog Day Afternoon
444. Hairspray
445. Dumb & Dumber
446. High Fidelity
447. Ten
448. A History Of Violence
449. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
450. King Kong
451. Speed
452. Unbreakable
453. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
454. The Bourne Supremacy
455. Top Gun
456. 28 Days Later
457. Full Metal Jacket
458. Batman
459. Ikiru
460. Crash
461. Halloween
462. Dead Man's Shoes
463. Juno
464. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers
465. 12 Monkeys
466. Snatch
467. The Deer Hunter
468. The Crow
469. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
470. Glengarry Glen Ross
471. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban
472. Le Doulos
473. Into The Wild
474. Enter The Dragon
475. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
476. Santa Sangre
477. Rebel Without A Cause
478. Flesh
479. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
480. The Son's Room
481. Topsy-Turvy
482. Scream
483. The Big Red One
484. The Fountain
485. The Wicker Man
486. Breakfast At Tiffany's
487. Superbad
488. Princess Mononoke
489. Brick
490. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet St.
491. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
492. Amores Perros
493. In The Company Of Men
494. Sideways
495. Jailhouse Rock
496. Superman Returns
497. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
498. Back To The Future II
499. Saw
500. Ocean's 11

Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, Casino Royale is the Martin Campbell version, Scarface is the Brian DePalma version, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, Romeo & Juliet is the Baz Luhrmann version, Titanic is the James Cameron version, and Crash is the Paul Haggis version. Two versions of King Kong appear: the original is #242, and the Peter Jackson remake is #450.

Empire published a list of 201 films in 2006, in which The Godfather was voted #5. The film has also appeared on the magazine's previous lists: Empire Readers' 100 Favourite Films Of All Time, 1996 (#6); Your 100 Greatest Films Ever!, 1999 (#7); The 50 Best Films, 2001 (#4); 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, 2004 (#6).

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2008)

1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
The 2008 edition of 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has now been published, marking the book's 5th edition.

As with previous revisions, the only changes have been to films from the past ten years. This time around, City Of God and Kill Bill I have fortunately been reinstated, having been deleted from the 2006 edition. Talk To Her, removed from the 2007 version, has also thankfully been restored for the new edition. Quite sneakily, The Lord Of The Rings I-III have now been incorporated into a single entry.

text

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The Greatest Movies Ever

The Greatest Movies Ever
Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza's new book, The Greatest Movies Ever: The Ultimate Ranked List Of The 101 Best Films Of All Time!, is an updated of their previous Four-Star Movies.

Four-Star Movies was published in 2003, and listed 101 films in preferential order. (Actually, there were 102 films, because The Godfather and The Godfather II appear as a single entry at #1, and the two Godfather films also share the #1 position in this new edition.)

For the new list, seven titles have been removed: Raise The Red Lantern, Saturday Night Fever, Belle De Jour, Thelma & Louise, Airplane!, Terminator II, and The Bridge On The River Kwai. Many titles occupy exactly (or almost exactly) the same positions in the new version, though there are a few dramatic changes: The Manchurian Candidate drops from #23 all the way down to #94, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid drops from #62 to #90, The Graduate drops from #18 to #33, and Sunset Blvd climbs from #19 to #4.

The authors haven't included any silent films, noting that silent cinema is "too rich to sandwich in with a token choice or two". Of course, the same case could be made for Japanese or French cinema, each of which is indeed represented by less than a handful of titles. A list of 101 greatest films is, by its very nature, a reductivist exercise, so I'm not really convinced by the exclusion of silent movies.

The 101 films are as follows:

1. The Godfather I-II
2. Citizen Kane
3. Casablanca
4. Sunset Blvd
5. Lawrence Of Arabia
6. North By Northwest
7. The Wizard Of Oz
8. Annie Hall
9. Chinatown
10. Singin' In The Rain
11. Nashville
12. Some Like It Hot
13. All About Eve
14. Psycho
15. Taxi Driver
16. Apocalypse Now
17. On The Waterfront
18. Gone With The Wind
19. To Kill A Mockingbird
20. The Searchers
21. La Dolce Vita
22. Double Indemnity
23. Pan's Labyrinth
24. Vertigo
25. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
26. GoodFellas
27. Jules & Jim
28. Funny Face
29. A Streetcar Named Desire
30. Saving Private Ryan
31. Strangers On A Train
32. It Happened One Night
33. The Graduate
34. It's A Wonderful Life
35. Raging Bull
36. The Best Years Of Our Lives
37. The African Queen
38. Dr Strangelove
39. Blade Runner
40. The Conformist
41. Schindler's List
42. The Lives Of Others
43. Diner
44. City Lights
45. The Deer Hunter
46. Eight-&-A-Half
47. Top Hat
48. La Regle Du Jeu
49. 2001: A Space Odyssey
50. Bonnie & Clyde
51. King Kong
52. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
53. The 400 Blows
54. A Night At The Opera
55. My Fair Lady
56. The Night Of The Hunter
57. The Third Man
58. Dr Zhivago
59. ET: The Extra-TErrestrial
60. Invasion Of The Body-Snatchers
61. Pinocchio
62. Shadow Of A Doubt
63. Fargo
64. Blue Velvet
65. Jaws
66. The Grapes Of Wrath
67. Do The Right Thing
68. Wild Strawberries
69. Bicycle Thieves
70. Bringing Up Baby
71. Paths Of Glory
72. The Maltese Falcon
73. Pather Panchali
74. The Lady Eve
75. The Last Picture Show
76. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
77. Rosemary's Baby
78. Midnight Cowboy
79. M*A*S*H
80. American Graffiti
81. The Producers
82. Rashomon
83. Cabaret
84. The Bank Dick
85. A Place In The Sun
86. Red River
87. The Conversation
88. Grand Illusion
89. LA Confidential
90. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
91. Imitation Of Life
92. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
93. Spartacus
94. The Manchurian Candidate
95. The Seven Samurai
96. A Hard Day's Night
97. Atlantic City
98. American Beauty
99. Pulp Fiction
100. The Shawshank Redemption
101. Groundhog Day

Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, which is actually a remake of an earlier Roy Del Ruth film.

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

nominations for Empire's Top 500

Empire Top 500
Empire magazine has launched a survey to find the 500 greatest films of all time. Voting is open until 5th September, and you can either vote online at empireonline.com/500 or by using the form printed in the magazine.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The 100 Best Films Of The World

The 100 Best Films Of The World
The 100 Best Films Of The World: A Journey Through A Century Of Motion-Picture History, was edited by Manfred Leier. (Intriguingly, Leier is not named anywhere on the cover or spine, and the introduction is signed simply "The Editor", with Leier identified only on the copyright page.)

The book consists of 100 films, arranged "according to the film director's country of origin". Thus, for example, Psycho (made in Hollywood) is listed in the Europe section, because Alfred Hitchcock was born in England. Oddly, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest appears in the North America list despite Milos Forman being Czech by birth. There are two pages devoted to each of the 100 films, each film represented by plot synopses and glossy stills. The detailed synopses are too spoiler-ridden for those who have not yet seen the films and redundant for those who already have.

North America
  • Greed
  • The General
  • All Quiet On The Western Front
  • Gone With The Wind
  • The Grapes Of Wrath
  • Citizen Kane
  • Casablanca
  • Sunset Blvd
  • High Noon
  • From Here To Eternity
  • On The Waterfront
  • Rebel Without A Cause
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  • Breakfast At Tiffany's
  • Easy Rider
  • The Godfather
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • Annie Hall
  • Saturday Night Fever
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • Blade Runner
  • Out Of Africa
  • Pretty Woman
  • Pulp Fiction
  • The Matrix
  • Lost In Translation
  • Titanic
Europe
  • Belle De Jour
  • All About My Mother
  • The Rules Of The Game
  • Children Of Paradise
  • The Wages Of Fear
  • M. Hulot's Holiday
  • Black Orpheus
  • Breathless
  • Last Year At Marienbad
  • Au Revoir Les Enfants
  • Amelie
  • La Strada
  • La Dolce Vita
  • Blow-Up
  • Once Upon A Time In The West
  • Death In Venice
  • Last Tango In Paris
  • Life Is Beautiful
  • Zorba The Greek
  • Yol
  • All Night Long
  • The Assault
  • Character
  • Metropolis
  • The Blue Angel
  • M
  • Ninotchka
  • The Tin Drum
  • The Marriage Of Maria Braun
  • Fitzcarraldo
  • Wings Of Desire
  • The Lacemaker
  • Closely Observed Trains
  • Kolya
  • The Shop On Main Street
  • Mephisto
  • Time Of The Gypsies
  • Ashes & Diamonds
  • Dance Of The Vampires
  • The Pianist
  • Names In Marble
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • The Cranes Are Flying
  • Andrei Rublev
  • Lights In The Dust
  • Wild Strawberries
  • Autumn Sonata
  • As It Is In Heaven
  • Babette's Feast
  • Breaking The Waves
  • City Lights
  • The Great Dictator
  • The Third Man
  • The Bridge On The River Kwai
  • Psycho
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • Goldfinger
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • Dr Zhivago
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Gandhi
Asia
  • The Wind Will Carry Us
  • Mother India
  • Monsoon Wedding
  • Rashomon
  • The Seven Samurai
  • Raise The Red Lantern
  • Farewell My Concubine
Australasia
  • The Piano
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
The list includes no examples of Neo-Realism or Film Noir, and no films by DW Griffith, Martin Scorsese, Howard Hawks, or Yasujiro Ozu. Note that Ben-Hur is the William Wyler remake and that Titanic is the James Cameron version.

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Monday, May 05, 2008

Maxim Goes To The Movies

The 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die!
This month's Maxim magazine is a special Maxim Goes To The Movies issue, and includes a list titled The 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die!, divided into genres and other (occasionally odd) categories. (Musicals have been deliberately excluded.)

There are actually slightly more than 300 films included, because original films and their sequels are counted as single entries. The Lord Of The Rings I, The Warriors, Fight Club, A History Of Violence, Star Wars V, and Terminator II all appear twice, each in two different categories.

Comedy
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
  • Kingpin
  • Monty Python & The Holy Grail
  • This Is Spinal Tap
  • Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
  • Airplane!
  • Animal House
  • Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
  • American Pie
  • Bachelor Party
  • Bananas
  • Beverly Hills Cop
  • Blazing Saddles
  • Caddyshack
  • The Cannonball Run
  • Clerks
  • Dazed & Confused
  • Duck Soup
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • Election
  • The 40-Year-Old Virgin
  • Ghostbusters
  • Groundhog Day
  • Happy Gilmore
  • Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
  • It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
  • The Jerk
  • Modern Times
  • The Nutty Professor
  • Office Space
  • Old School
  • The Pink Panther Strikes Again
  • The Princess Bride
  • Raising Arizona
  • Sixteen Candles
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Trading Places
  • Vacation
  • Wedding Crashers
  • Wet Hot American Summer
  • Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
  • Young Frankenstein
The Master Class
  • Breathless
  • Citizen Kane
  • La Dolce Vita
  • The Seven Samurai
  • The 400 Blows
  • The Seventh Seal
  • Un Chien Andalou
War
  • The Deer Hunter
  • The Bridge On The River Kwai
  • Dr Strangelove
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Black Hawk Down
  • The Dirty Dozen
  • Gallipoli
  • The Great Escape
  • M*A*S*H
  • Platoon
  • Saving Private Ryan
So Bad They're Good
  • Glen Or Glenda?
  • Showgirls
  • Airport 1975
  • Barbarella
  • Battlefield Earth
  • Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
  • Death Race 2000
  • Phantom Of The Paradise
  • Reefer Madness
  • Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • The Toxic Avenger
Sequels That Are Better Than The Original
  • Bride Of Frankenstein
  • Evil Dead II
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
  • Superman II
  • Terminator II: Judgment Day
  • Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
Rebels
  • Cool Hand Luke
  • Taxi Driver
  • Sid & Nancy
  • Easy Rider
  • Billy Jack
  • Dirty Harry
  • Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • The Graduate
  • A History Of Violence
  • The Hustler
  • The King Of Comedy
  • Network
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Raging Bull
  • Risky Business
  • Smokey & The Bandit
  • Three Days Of The Condor
  • Trainspotting
Classics
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • Kind Hearts & Coronets
  • The Adventures Of Robin Hood
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  • Casablanca
  • Double Indemnity
  • Metropolis
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • On The Waterfront
  • The Third Man
  • Touch Of Evil
  • Vertigo
  • White Heat
  • The Wizard Of Oz
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
  • Starship Troopers
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
  • Alien I-II
  • Back To The Future
  • Blade Runner
  • Children Of Men
  • Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • King Kong
  • Planet Of The Apes
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • Terminator I-II
Horror
  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  • Night Of The Living Dead
  • Dawn Of The Dead
  • Carrie
  • The Exorcist
  • The Fly
  • Halloween
  • Jaws
  • A Nightmare On Elm St.
  • Psycho
  • Rosemary's Baby
  • The Shining
  • 28 Days Later
Non-Boring Documentaries
  • Brother's Keeper
  • Don't Look Back
  • Hoop Dreams
  • Pumping Iron
  • Richard Pryor: Live In Concert
  • When We Were Kings
Conspicuously Gay Straight Movies (Beyond Top Gun)
  • 300
  • Fight Club
  • Spartacus
  • The Bear
  • The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
  • The Warriors
  • X-Men
Westerns
  • The Good The Bad & The Ugly
  • The Searchers
  • Jeremiah Johnson
  • Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
  • High Noon
  • High Plains Drifter
  • Tombstone
  • True Grit
  • Unforgiven
  • The Wild Bunch
Buddy Movies
  • The Last Detail
  • Top Gun
  • Superbad
  • Deliverance
  • American Graffiti
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Breaking Away
  • Glengarry Glen Ross
  • The Goonies
  • Lethal Weapon
  • The Right Stuff
  • Saturday Night Fever
  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • Stand By Me
  • Stripes
  • Swingers
  • The Warriors
Conspicuously Gay [Patrick] Swayze Movies
  • Next Of Kin
  • Red Dawn
  • Road House
  • The Outsiders
  • Youngblood
Action
  • The Matrix
  • Rocky I-IV
  • The Road Warrior
  • Batman
  • Batman Begins
  • Battle Royale
  • The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
  • Braveheart
  • Clash Of The Titans
  • Die Hard
  • Enter The Dragon
  • Face/Off
  • First Blood
  • 48 Hours
  • Gladiator
  • The Incredibles
  • Kill Bill I-II
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  • Predator
  • Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  • Speed
  • Spider-Man
Non-Gratuitous Nudity!
  • Wild Things
  • Fast Times At Ridgemont High
  • Carnal Knowledge
  • Angel Heart
  • Body Heat
  • Boogie Nights
  • Coffy
  • Jackass: The Movie
  • McCabe & Mrs Miller
  • Mulholland Dr.
  • Poison Ivy: The New Seduction
  • Revenge Of The Nerds
  • Ten
Essential James Bond Movies
  • Casino Royale
  • Goldfinger
  • The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Live & Let Die
  • You Only Live Twice
Arthouse
  • City Of God
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Annie Hall
  • Withnail & I
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • Badlands
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Conversation
  • Do The Right Thing
  • The Elephant Man
  • The Last Picture Show
  • Repo Man
  • Rushmore
  • Short Cuts
  • There Will Be Blood
Mindbenders
  • Akira
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Beetlejuice
  • Blue Velvet
  • Brazil
  • Donnie Darko
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
  • Fight Club
  • Memento
  • Pink Floyd: The Wall
  • The Manchurian Candidate
Best Movies With Puppets
  • Being John Malkovich
  • Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
  • Team America: World Police
  • The Dark Crystal
  • The Muppet Movie
  • Weekend At Bernie's
Cops
  • To Live & Die In LA
  • Bullitt
  • Hard-Boiled
  • Bad Lieutenant
  • Chinatown
  • The Departed
  • Donnie Brasco
  • Fargo
  • The French Connection
  • RoboCop
  • Seven
  • Shaft
  • The Silence Of The Lambs
  • The Untouchables
Criminals
  • The Godfather I-II
  • No Country For Old Men
  • Bonnie & Clyde
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Atlantic City
  • Bad Boys
  • Bloody Mamma
  • The Boys From Brazil
  • Boyz 'N The Hood
  • Carlito's Way
  • Casino
  • Crimes & Misdemeanors
  • Dog Day Afternoon
  • The Getaway
  • Get Carter
  • GoodFellas
  • Heat
  • A History Of Violence
  • In Cold Blood
  • The Long Good Friday
  • Mean Streets
  • Midnight Express
  • Natural Born Killers
  • Pulp Fiction
  • River's Edge
  • Scarface
  • Sexy Beast
  • Sin City
  • Super Fly
  • True Romance
Movies You Need To See Once But Are
So Traumatic You Never Need To See Again
  • Leaving Las Vegas
  • Million Dollar Baby
  • Requiem For A Dream
  • Schindler's List
  • United 93
Casino Royale is [presumably] the recent version rather than the 1960s spoof, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler version, and Scarface is the Brian DePalma version instead of the Howard Hawks original, but otherwise the list is refreshingly free of remakes.

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

The Top 100 Films Of All Time

Top 100 Films Of All Time
On Saturday, The Times published a list of the Top 100 Films Of All Time, chosen by a selection of the newspaper's film critics led by James Christopher. The list is deliberately revisionist and provocative, hence its intentional omission of established classics like Citizen Kane. (Kane as the world's greatest film may be a cliche, but it's still an essential film by any standard.) There are actually 102 films on the list, as the entry for Pather Panchali also includes two subsequent films about the Apu character.

The Top 100 Films are as follows:

1. Casablanca
2. There Will Be Blood
3. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
4. Chinatown
5. The Shining
6. Vertigo
7. Kes
8. Sunset Blvd
9. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
10. The Godfather
11. The Sound Of Music
12. Alien
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey
14. The Jungle Book
15. Apocalypse Now
16. Metropolis
17. Annie Hall
18. Don't Look Now
19. The Exorcist
20. The Wizard Of Oz
21. The Towering Inferno
22. The Breakfast Club
23. Some Like It Hot
24. The Philadelphia Story
25. Picnic At Hanging Rock
26. GoodFellas
27. A Clockwork Orange
28. Gone With The Wind
29. Duck Soup
30. Rebel Without A Cause
31. His Girl Friday
32. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
33. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
34. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
35. Withnail & I
36. Jaws
37. Beau Travail
38. Rear Window
39. The Graduate
40. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
41. A Star Is Born
42. Blue Velvet
43. Terminator II: Judgment Day
44. A Streetcar Named Desire
45. The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp
46. All About Eve
47. Fargo
48. Shoah
49. High Society
50. Blade Runner
51. Cabaret
52. La Dolce Vita
53. Mildred Pierce
54. Roman Holiday
55. The Matrix
56. Whisky Galore
57. Raging Bull
58. Dr Zhivago
59. Pulp Fiction
60. The Crying Game
61. Rashomon
62. Taxi Driver
63. On The Waterfront
64. Do The Right Thing
65. The Thin Blue Line
66. Toy Story
67. The Piano
68. The Maltese Falcon
69. Cache
70. The Conversation
71. This Is Spinal Tap
72. Days Of Heaven
73. Great Expectations
74. Rosemary's Baby
75. The Good The Bad & The Ugly
76. From Here To Eternity
77. Pather Panchali/Aparajito/Apur Sansar
78. The Lady Eve
79. Deliverance
80. Tokyo Story
81. North By Northwest
82. Chungking Express
83. Spartacus
84. Festen
85. Dog Day Afternoon
86. Nosferatu
87. The Silence Of The Lambs
88. Wild Strawberries
89. Touch Of Evil
90. Trainspotting
91. Short Cuts
92. Breathless
93. Cool Hand Luke
94. La Haine
95. Grand Hotel
96. Lost In Translation
97. Point Break
98. My Fair Lady
99. La Belle & La Bete
100. Jurassic Park

Every film on this list is important in some way, but there should be more silents (there are only two) and more foreign-language films (there's nothing from Italy pre-La Dolce Vita, and nothing by Jean Renoir or Sergei Eisenstein). There Will Be Blood may be a modern classic, but is it really the second-greatest film ever made? (Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, which is actually a remake of an earlier Roy Del Ruth film.)

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Sunday, February 17, 2008

100 Best Films

The Sunday Telegraph
Today, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, in its magazine supplement Seven, has published a 100 Best Films list. The list was compiled by Catherine Shoard, Jenny McCartney, Alan Stanbrook, and Mike McCahill. It is divided into ten categories: drama, thriller/action, comedy, animation, horror, romance, kids, musicals, documentary, and world cinema. Each category has ten films, arranged preferentially.

Drama

1. The Conversation
2. Strangers On A Train
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Winter Light
5. Dogville
6. Raging Bull
7. The Godfather I-II
8. Double Indemnity
9. Apocalypse Now
10. Chinatown

Thriller/Action

1. North By Northwest
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Manhattan Murder Mystery
4. Heat
5. The 39 Steps
6. Terminator II: Judgment Day
7. Once Upon A Time In The West
8. The Ladykillers
9. The Silence Of The Lambs
10. Die Hard

Comedy

1. Some Like It Hot
2. Annie Hall
3. Meet The Parents
4. Withnail & I
5. His Girl Friday
6. The Odd Couple
7. Zoolander
8. Stir Crazy
9. Gregory's Girl
10. Tootsie

Animation

1. Dimensions Of Dialogue
2. The Jungle Book
3. Spirited Away
4. Toy Story
5. Composition In Blue
6. Grave Of The Fireflies
7. The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb
8. Finding Nemo
9. Perfect Blue
10. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

Horror

1. Psycho
2. Frankenstein
3. The Exorcist
4. Night Of The Living Dead
5. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
6. Dead Of Night
7. The Wicker Man
8. The Blair Witch Project
9. Vampyr
10. The Kingdom I-II

Romance

1. Before Sunset
2. Head-On
3. I Know Where I'm Going!
4. Brief Encounter
5. The Lady Vanishes
6. The Quiet American
7. Hannah & Her Sisters
8. Bringing Up Baby
9. Days Of Heaven
10. Casablanca

Kids

1. Back To The Future
2. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
3. Babe: Pig In The City
4. Freaky Friday
5. Addams Family Values
6. Mean Girls
7. Anne Of Green Gables
8. Clueless
9. Enchanted
10. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

Musicals

1. West Side Story
2. The Sound Of Music
3. Cabaret
4. Top Hat
5. Chicago
6. Mary Poppins
7. Singin' In The Rain
8. Nashville
9. Woodstock
10. My Fair Lady

Documentary

1. American Splendor
2. The Sorrow & The Pity
3. American Movie
4. Touching The Void
5. Capturing The Friedmans
6. Spellbound
7. To Be & To Have
8. Hearts & Minds
9. My Kid Could Paint That
10. Neil Young: Heart Of Gold

World Cinema

1. Battleship Potemkin
2. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
3. The Rules Of The Game
4. Tokyo Story
5. The Seven Samurai
6. Pather Panchali
7. Smiles Of A Sumer Night
8. A Man Escaped
9. Andrei Rublev
10. The Colour Of Pomegranates

The animation section is surprisingly diverse and even avant-garde, but that's the exception rather than the rule because, in general, this list is terrible.

Dividing the 100 titles into ten rigid categories is asking for trouble. Manhattan Murder Mystery, for example, is listed as a thriller/action film (the third greatest thriller/action film, no less), but it's actually a comedy. Why it's listed at all is a mystery, because it's a pale imitation of Annie Hall. Bringing Up Baby appears in the romance list, even though it's one of the most famous comedies ever made.

The inclusion of so many very recent films is bizarre. Is Enchanted (released last year) really one of the greatest children's films ever made? Is There Will Be Blood (released this year) really one of the best dramas of all time? Is it really necessary for seven of the ten documentaries to be films made after 2001? Emphatically no, in all cases.

Why is world cinema relegated to only ten films, as if it were a genre? Are 90% of the 100 'best films' really English-language? No. The world cinema category whitewashes whole chapters of film history: no German Expressionism, no French New Wave, and no Italian Neo-Realism.

Oh, and the compilers seem to have forgotten about science-fiction and westerns altogether. D'oh! So there's no place for Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey (no Kubrick films at all, in fact), Metropolis, Stagecoach, The Searchers, or High Noon.

Finally, what about Citizen Kane? I'd like to think that the compilers were making a revisionist statement by omitting it, but I'm more inclined to believe that they simply forgot about it because it doesn't fit into one of their ten categories.

Finally, note that Frankenstein is the James Whale sound version, not the Thomas Edison silent film.

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Friday, December 07, 2007

1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2007)

1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Stephen Jay Schneider's 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die has been tweaked again, in a new 2007 edition. As in 2006 and 2005, the changes are few and are limited to the most recent films. The Departed has been added, for example, but Nine Queens and Y Tu Mama Tambien have been unfairly excised. Cache, added in 2006, has now been cut.

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Friday, November 02, 2007

Film Factfinder

Film Factfinder
Film Factfinder, like Ronald Bergan's Film, features a concise guide to film genres, directors, countries, and 100 key films. Unlike Bergan's book, it does include a film glossary and a biographical dictionary of actors yet does not include any photographs. Each entry is rather brief: the biographies are less than ten sentences each, and each genre and country is given only one or two paragraphs. (The book is edited by Camilla Rockwood; the lists of directors and actors first appeared in the Chambers Book Of Facts.)

Film Factfinder's alphabetical list of 100 "Notable Films" is as follows:
  • Amores Perros
  • Andrei Rublev
  • Apocalypse Now
  • L'Atalante
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • Belle De Jour
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • The Big Sleep
  • The Birth Of A Nation
  • Blade Runner
  • Blow-Up
  • Blue Velvet
  • Bonnie & Clyde
  • Breathless
  • Brief Encounter
  • Brighton Rock
  • The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
  • Casablanca
  • Chinatown
  • Citizen Kane
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Close-Up
  • Days Of Heaven
  • Deep Throat
  • La Dolce Vita
  • Don't Look Back
  • Do The Right Thing
  • Easy Rider
  • Eight-&-A-Half
  • Eraserhead
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • The Exorcist
  • Farenheit 9/11
  • Fear Eats The Soul
  • The 400 Blows
  • Frankenstein
  • The General
  • The Godfather I-III
  • The Gold Rush
  • Gone With The Wind
  • The Gospel According To St Matthew
  • Greed
  • High Noon
  • His Girl Friday
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • The Jazz Singer
  • Jules & Jim
  • King Kong
  • Last Tango In Paris
  • Last Year At Marienbad
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • The Leopard
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  • Manhattan
  • Man With A Movie Camera
  • Metropolis
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • Night Of The Living Dead
  • The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
  • Pather Panchali
  • Pickpocket
  • Psycho
  • Raging Bull
  • Raise The Red Lantern
  • Rashomon
  • Rebel Without A Cause
  • The Red Shoes
  • The Rules Of The Game
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Russian Ark
  • Sans Soleil
  • Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
  • Schindler's List
  • The Searchers
  • Seven
  • The Seventh Seal
  • Shadows
  • Singin' In The Rain
  • Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
  • Some Like It Hot
  • The Sound Of Music
  • Star Wars IV-VI
  • A Streetcar Named Desire
  • Sunrise
  • Sunset Blvd
  • Taxi Driver
  • Three Colours: Blue/White/Red
  • Titanic
  • Tokyo Story
  • Touch Of Evil
  • Toy Story
  • Trainspotting
  • Triumph Of The Will
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Vertigo
  • Whisky Galore
  • White Heat
  • The Wild Bunch
  • Wings Of Desire
  • The Wizard Of Oz
The list actually includes 108 films, taking the various trilogies into consideration. It was compiled by Hannah McGill. Note that Titanic is the James Cameron version and Frankenstein is the James Whale version.

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Film Classics

Film Classics
Film Classics is a film studies primer published by SparkNotes (like CliffsNotes, but not as good). The book discusses twenty classic films, and begins by explaining the criteria for inclusion: technical achievement, influence, universal appeal, zeitgeist, and genre. There is also a "Shortlist of Great Directors", which lists ten significant film-makers (or eleven, because Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut are listed together). Ingmar Bergman and Sergei Eisenstein, to name but two, are conspicuous by their absence.

Each film is given around thirty pages of analysis, though the list of films is far too limited: there are only two foreign-language films, and only one silent film. Because Star Wars, The Matrix, The Godfather, and The Lord Of The Rings are all included as trilogies, there are twenty-eight films in the list, rather than twenty. (There are four films by Francis Coppola, yet none by Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks, Jean Renoir, or Kenji Mizoguchi - a slight imbalance?)

The classic films are as follows, in chronological order:
  • The Birth Of A Nation
  • Gone With The Wind
  • Citizen Kane
  • Casablanca
  • On The Waterfront
  • Vertigo
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Eight-&-A-Half
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Godfather I-III
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Taxi Driver
  • Annie Hall
  • Star Wars IV-VI
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Schindler's List
  • The Matrix I-III
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  • Spirited Away
It's difficult to know who would benefit from this book. It's aimed at film students, but it's totally unacademic. There is no bibliography, the analyses of each film are all uncited and anonymous, and there are no references to film theory of any kind. General readers, though, would surely find it too dry, with its character analyses and interpretations of themes, motifs, and symbols.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Eyewitness Companions: Film

Eyewitness Companions: Film
Film, by Ronald Bergan, is a single-volume introduction to cinema history, as part of Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Companions series. Within its 500 pages, it includes a decade-by-decade history of the cinema, an explanation of the film production process, chapters on each film genre, film production in each major country, profiles of 200 key directors, and reviews of 100 significant films.

Each of its five sections (history, production, genres, countries, directors, and films) really deserves its own book, and indeed such books exist. Strangely, however, Bergan provides no bibliography or further reading guide at all, which is disappointing because, although his book is a perfect introduction to film for young people, as their interest develops they will be inspired and grounded by Bergan yet will naturally want to seek out more specialist material.

Reductivism is inevitable in any book with this ratio of size to scope, but each section does adequately summarise the key points, providing a broad overview for novice film fans. The section on film production is useful as it provides a more practical approach than most introductory film guides. The section on genre surprisingly finds space for categories which are often overlooked in other genre summaries. The world cinema section is less all-encompassing, with some countries (including Thailand) reduced to brief paragraphs in a general introduction instead of receiving their own individual chapters.

There is almost no cross-referencing, which is a pity, and the photo captions are often overly literal or redundant. There is a detailed index, though it has some omissions. There are also a few mistakes: at one point, for instance, Bergan refers to "Pierre and Auguste Lumiere" (Auguste's brother was called Louis). I would also quibble with some of Bergan's opinions: he describes Salvador Dali's contributions to Luis Bunuel's early films as "invaluable", which seems to massively over-rate Dali's cinematic work, and he claims that the remake of The Mummy "benefits from" (rather than suffers from) the use of CGI. Three times, Bergan describes Kubrick as "anti-militarist", which ignores Kubrick's fascination with war. In an appendix, Bergan oddly (and incorrectly) lists Our Daily Bread as joint 10th in a reprint of Sight & Sound's 2002 critics' poll, even though it received only a single vote.

I've never been quite certain who DK's books are aimed at. They state that they publish educational, illustrated reference books for both adults and children, but to me all of their books seem more suited to younger people. Their educational tone, large fonts, glossy paper, and copious photographs (as distinct from figures or plates) give the impression of children's textbooks. For instance, DK's The Look Of The Century, by Michael Tambini, was one of the very first books on visual culture that I ever bought, and I still have it today; but, although I bought it when I was a teenager, I couldn't imagine buying it now, at twenty-nine.

The book that Film most resembles is The Virgin Encyclopedia Of The Movies, by Derek Winnert, which was published at the height of cinema's centenary celebrations but which is now out of print. That book was an excellent introduction to cinema for any young person who is starting to develop a serious interest in film, and Bergan's book serves a similar purpose.

Bergan concludes with a chronological list of Top 100 Movies, limited to one film per director. (Although there are technically 104 films because Three Colours and The Lord Of The Rings are both trilogies, and this also violates the one-film-per-director rule.) Who exactly selected the 100 films is unclear: Bergan is the book's credited author, though he introduces the Top 100 Movies as "the films we have chosen".

The Top 100 Movies are as follows:
  • The Birth Of A Nation
  • The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
  • Nosferatu
  • Nanook Of The North
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • Metropolis
  • Napoleon
  • Un Chien Andalou
  • The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
  • All Quiet On The Western Front
  • The Blue Angel
  • City Lights
  • 42nd Street
  • Duck Soup
  • King Kong
  • L'Atalante
  • Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
  • Olympia
  • The Rules Of The Game
  • Gone With The Wind
  • The Philadelphia Story
  • His Girl Friday
  • The Grapes Of Wrath
  • Citizen Kane
  • The Maltese Falcon
  • The Little Foxes
  • To Be Or Not To Be
  • In Which We Serve
  • Casablanca
  • Ossessione
  • Children Of Paradise
  • A Matter Of Life & Death
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • Letter From An Unknown Woman
  • Passport To Pimlico
  • The Third Man
  • Orphee
  • Rashomon
  • Singin' In The Rain
  • Tokyo Story
  • On The Waterfront
  • All That Heaven Allows
  • Rebel Without A Cause
  • Pather Panchali
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • The Seventh Seal
  • Vertigo
  • Ashes & Diamonds
  • The 400 Blows
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Breathless
  • La Dolce Vita
  • Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
  • L'Avventura
  • Last Year At Marienbad
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • Dr Strangelove
  • The Battle Of Algiers
  • The Sound Of Music
  • Andrei Rublev
  • The Chelsea Girls
  • Bonnie & Clyde
  • The Wild Bunch
  • Easy Rider
  • The Conformist
  • The Godfather
  • Aguirre: The Wrath Of God
  • Nashville
  • In The Realm Of The Senses
  • Taxi Driver
  • Annie Hall
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • The Marriage Of Maria Braun
  • The Deer Hunter
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • Blade Runner
  • Paris Texas
  • Heimat
  • Come & See
  • Blue Velvet
  • Shoah
  • A Room With A View
  • Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown
  • Cinema Paradiso
  • Do The Right Thing
  • Raise The Red Lantern
  • Unforgiven
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Three Colours I-III
  • Through The Olive Trees
  • Four Weddings & A Funeral
  • Toy Story
  • Fargo
  • Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
  • In The Mood For Love
  • Traffic
  • The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  • City Of God
  • Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Note that The Maltese Falcon is the John Huston version, which is actually a remake of an earlier (and inferior) Roy Del Ruth film.

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Monday, July 02, 2007

1,000 Films To See Before You Die

From Monday to Friday last week, The Guardian printed an alphabetical list of 1,000 essential films chosen by a "panel of experts". Being 1,000 titles, there aren't a great number of important omissions, though as with many such lists some very recent films (such as Borat and Pan's Labyrinth) are included already, before they've had time to mature. Also, there are a few frankly bizarre choices, like Pumping Iron. But, of course, watching most of these 1,000 films would be time well spent.

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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Ketel One

Ketel One
An advert by Ketel One, the vodka company, features an alphabetical list of "the 50 best films of all time", as follows:
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • American Graffiti
  • Annie Hall
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Battleship Potemkin
  • Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
  • The Bridge On The River Kwai
  • Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
  • Casablanca
  • Chinatown
  • Citizen Kane
  • Dances With Wolves
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Dr Zhivago
  • Dr Strangelove
  • ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  • Easy Rider
  • The French Connection
  • Giant
  • The Godfather II
  • Gone With The Wind
  • GoodFellas
  • The Graduate
  • High Noon
  • It's A Wonderful Life
  • Jaws
  • Lawrence Of Arabia
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • My Fair Lady
  • On The Waterfront
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • Platoon
  • Psycho
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Raging Bull
  • Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  • Rocky
  • Schindler's List
  • The Searchers
  • The Silence Of The Lambs
  • Singin' In The Rain
  • Some Like It Hot
  • Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  • The Sound Of Music
  • Taxi Driver
  • To Kill A Mockingbird
  • Vertigo
  • West Side Story
  • The Wizard Of Oz
It's populist and weighted towards Hollywood classics, so a few more foreign-language films would be nice (The Seventh Seal and The Seven Samurai, at least), but otherwise this is quite a decent list. Note that Ben-Hur is the William Wyler remake rather than the Fred Niblo version.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

1,000 Films To Change Your Life

1,000 Films To Change Your Life
1,000 Films To Change Your Life, edited by Simon Cropper, is a book of film recommendations categorised not chronologically but (a la Tate Modern) by emotional impact. There are chapters on joy, anger, food for thought (i.e. contemplation), desire, fear, sadness, exhilaration, regret, contempt, and wonder. As a guide to films you might enjoy depending on your mood, it won't really teach you anything new, but it does give useful viewing suggestions.

An appendix titled 100 To Watch lists "100 reviews of key titles mentioned in this book", arranged alphabetically:
  • After Life
  • L'Age D'Or
  • Aguirre: The Wrath Of God
  • Alphaville
  • L'Atalante
  • An Autumn Afternoon
  • L'Avventura
  • Beau Travail
  • Berlin Alexanderplatz
  • La Bete Humaine
  • Bicycle Thieves
  • Branded To Kill
  • Cat People
  • Le Cercle Rouge
  • Chinatown
  • Citizen Kane
  • Come & See
  • The Conversation
  • Crimes & Misdemeanors
  • Daybreak
  • Days Of Being Wild
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Dr Strangelove
  • Dog Day Afternoon
  • Double Indemnity
  • Dracula
  • The Elephant Man
  • Eraserhead
  • Far From Heaven
  • The Five Obstructions
  • Frankenstein
  • The General
  • Gloria
  • The Godfather
  • Godzilla
  • Grand Illusion
  • The Green Ray
  • La Haine
  • Hana-Bi
  • Heat
  • Imitation Of Life
  • In A Lonely Place
  • In Praise Of Love
  • Insignificance
  • In The Company Of Men
  • In The Mood For Love
  • Irma Vep
  • The Killers
  • Kind Hearts & Coronets
  • King Kong
  • Kiss Me Deadly
  • Knife In The Water
  • Land & Freedom
  • Letter From An Unknown Woman
  • The Limey
  • The Magnificent Seven
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  • The Man Without A Past
  • A Matter Of Life & Death
  • Metropolis
  • Mon Oncle D'Amerique
  • My Neighbour Totoro
  • Night & Fog
  • The Night Of The Hunter
  • Ninotchka
  • North By Northwest
  • Once Upon A Time In America
  • A One & A Two
  • Ordet
  • Pickpocket
  • The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes
  • Rashomon
  • Ratcatcher
  • Read My Lips
  • Sans Soleil
  • The Scent Of Green Papaya
  • The Searchers
  • The Seven Samurai
  • Sherlock Jnr
  • Short Cuts
  • Singin' In The Rain
  • Some Like It Hot
  • The Son
  • Sonatine
  • The Story Of The Late Chrysanthemums
  • Sullivan's Travels
  • Taboo
  • Taxi Driver
  • Things To Come
  • Time Out
  • Touch Of Evil
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • 2046
  • The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg
  • Vertigo
  • The Wild Bunch
  • The Wind Will Carry Us
  • Witchfinder General
  • Woman Of The Dunes
  • Z
The book also has many short essays, including Emilie Bickerton on films that "chastise the viewer for daring to enter the auditorium", Christopher Frayling on "how films can scare us", and Jonathan Rosenbaum on films that generate "open-mouthed awe". In the second of his essays, Geoff Andrews suggests that the best film directors have surnames starting with 'K', and I heartily agree. Speaking of which, there's also a brief analysis of Kubrick's oeuvre by Ben Walters.

Note that Frankenstein is the 1931 James Whale version, not the silent Thomas Edison film.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

100 Greatest Movies Of All Time

Empire
The current issue of Empire magazine's Australian edition has published the results of their reader survey of the 100 greatest films ever made:

1. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Aliens
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. Donnie Darko
7. The Lord Of The Rings III: The Return Of The King
8. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
9. Amelie
10. GoodFellas
11. The Matrix
12. American Beauty
13. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
14. The Lord Of The Rings I: The Fellowship Of The Ring
15. The Godfather
16. Grease
17. Braveheart
18. A Nightmare On Elm St.
19. Fight Club
20. Back To The Future
21. Alien
22. Apocalypse Now
23. Gone With The Wind
24. Titanic
25. Forrest Gump
26. Raiders of the Lost Ark
27. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
28. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
29. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
30. Schindler's List
31. Kill Bill I
32. Scarface
33. The Princess Bride
34. Top Gun
35. Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
36. Rocky
37. Casino Royale
38. An American Werewolf In London
39. The Wizard Of Oz
40. Casablanca
41. Zoolander
42. Gallipoli
43. The Lord Of The Rings II: The Two Towers
44. 2001: A Space Odyssey
45. Heat
46. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
47. Gladiator
48. Terminator II: Judgment Day
49. The Sound Of Music
50. Seven
51. Die Hard
52. Star Wars VI: Return Of The Jedi
53. Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
54. The Usual Suspects
55. Jaws
56. Memento
57. The Godfather II
58. The Big Lebowski
59. Taxi Driver
60. The Shining
61. Stand By Me
62. Clerks
63. The Silence Of The Lambs
64. Spider-Man
65. The Lion King
66. Chopper
67. Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ
68. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
69. Superman
70. Picnic At Hanging Rock
71. Batman
72. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
73. Platoon
74. To Kill A Mockingbird
75. Blade Runner
76. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
77. Mad Max
78. Brokeback Mountain
79. Chicago
80. Psycho
81. Moulin Rouge!
82. The Breakfast Club
83. Citizen Kane
84. Reservoir Dogs
85. The Crow
86. Mad Max II
87. Babel
88. Annie Hall
89. All About Eve
90. Animal House
91. Rear Window
92. Crocodile Dundee
93. The Seven Samurai
94. The Blues Brothers
95. Romeo & Juliet
96. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
97. Flying High
98. X-Men
99. The Terminator
100. It's A Wonderful Life

Empire Australia's previous poll was in 2002, and was