It’s that time of… decade again! And with a little surprise to shake things up. The British Film Institute’s magazine for cineastes, Sight and Sound, has revealed its list of the 50 greatest films of all time. Voted on by critics, directors, and other film gurus, the list sent some ripples in the film loving community when reigninig champion Orson Welles’ CITIZEN KANE was knocked from number one t number two. In its place was Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO. Sure, lists may be arbitrary to some, but their existence is, in some ways, a good thing: they get people talking about the films they love.
Voted on once eery decade, 846 film experts voted on more than 2000 films. A separate list of top 10 films was made by 358 directors. A little different than the ones that made the top ten critics’ list, but amazing all the same. Amongst the top 50 were old stanbys, such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Jean Renoir’s derisive comedy of manners THE RULES OF THE GAME, and the best film about film, Federico Fellini’s 8 ½.
Check out more information on the films at BFI’s official website.
Sight & Sound The Critics’ Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time
1. VERTIGO (Hitchcock, 1958)
2. CITIZEN KANE (Welles, 1941)
3. TOKYO STORY (Ozu, 1953)
4. LA RÈGLE DU JEU (Renoir, 1939)
5. SUNRISE: A SONG FOR TWO HUMANS (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A SPACE OFYSSEY (Kurbick, 1968)
7. THE SEARCHERS (Ford, 1956)
8. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
11. BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN (Eisenstein, 1925)
12. L’ATLANTE (Vigo, 1934)
13. BREATHLESS (Godard, 1960)
14. APOCALYPSE NOW (Coppola, 1979)
15. LATE SPRING (Ozu, 1949)
16. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (Bresson, 1966)
=17. SEVEN SAMURAI (Kurosawa, 1954)
=17. PERSONA (Bergman, 1966)
=19. MIRROR (Tarkovsky, 1974)
=19. SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (Donen/Kelly, 1951)
=21. L’AAVENTURA (Antonioni, 1960)
=21. LE MÉPRIS (Godard, 1963)
=21. THE GODFATHER (Coppola, 1972)
=24. ORDET (Dreyer, 1955)
=24. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Kar-Wai, 2000)
=26. RASHOMON (Kurosawa, 1950)
=26. ANDREI RUBLEV (Tarkovsky, 1966)
28. MULHOLLAND DR. (Lynch, 2001)
=29. STALKER (Tarkovsky, 1979)
=29. SHOAH (Lanzmann, 1985)
=31. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
=31. TAXI DRIVER, (Scorsese, 1976)
33. BICYCLE THIEVES (De Sica, 1948)
34. THE GENERAL (Keaton/Bruckman, 1926)
=35. METROPOLIS (Lang, 1927)
=35. PSYCHO (Hitchcock, 1960)
=35. JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE 1080 BRUXELLES (Akerman, 1975)
=35. SÁTÁNTANGÓ (Tarr, 1994)
=39. THE 400 BLOWS (Truffaut, 1959)
=39. LA DOLCE VITA (Fellini, 1960)
41. JOURNEY TO ITALY (Rossellini, 1954)
=42. PATHER PANCHALI (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
=42. SOME LIKE IT HOT (Wilder, 1959)
=42. GERTRUD (Dreyer, 1964)
=42. PIERROT LE FOU (Godard, 1965)
=42. PLAY TIME (Tati, 1967)
=42. CLOSE-UP (Kiarostami, 1990)
=48. THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Pontecorvo, 1966)
=48. HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA (Godard, 1998)
=50. CITY LIGHTS (Chaplin, 1931)
=50. UGETSU MONOGATARI (Kenji, 1953)
=50. LA JETÉE (Marker, 1962)
The Directors’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time
1. TOKYO STORY (Ozu, 1953)
=2. 2001: A SPACE OFYSSEY (Kubrick, 1968)
=2. CITIZEN KANE (Welles, 1941)
4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)
5. TAXI DRIVER, (Scorsese, 1976)
6. APOCALYPSE NOW (Coppola, 1979)
=7. THE GODFATHER (Coppola, 1972)
=7. VERTIGO (Hitchcock, 1958)
9. MIRROR (Tarkovsky, 1974)
10. BICYCLE THIEVES (De Sica, 1948)
“KURBICK”, huh?
[...] Sight & Sound Reveal Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time Voted on by critics, directors, and other film gurus, the list sent some ripples in the film loving community when reigninig champion Orson Welles' CITIZEN KANE was knocked from number one t number two. … IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Kar-Wai, 2000). =26 … veryaware.com [...]