Top 10 Greatest Films According To 358 Directors

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Topic: Top 10 Greatest Films According To 358 Directors
Posted: April 27 2019 at 16:17

http://www.openculture.com/2019/04/the-ten-greatest-films-of-all-time-according-to-358-filmmakers.html

1. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu (1953)
= 2. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968)
= 2. Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941)
4. 8 ½ - Federico Fellini (1963)
5. Taxi Driver – Martin Scorsese (1976)
6. Apocalypse Now – Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
= 7. The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola (1972)
= 7. Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
9. Mirror – Andrei Tarkovsky (1974)
10. Bicycle Thieves – Vittorio De Sica (1949)

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Posted: April 27 2019 at 20:23

my list would have included "Rashomon" by Akira Kurosawa (top position), "M" by Fritz Lang, "Nosferatu" by Friedrich Murnau and "Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes" by Werner Herzog. they would have replaced "Apocalypse Now" (in my opinion overrated and definitely much influenced by "Aguirre"), "Mirror", "Bicycle Thieves" (I was never much a fan of neo-realism) and "The Godfather".

I must admit I have not seen "Tokyo Story" yet.

here a direct link to the list:

http://www.openculture.com/2019/04/the-ten-greatest-films-of-all-time-according-to-358-filmmakers.html

Edited by BaldJean - April 27 2019 at 20:32

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Posted: April 27 2019 at 20:37

I think one judges film based more on who they are and where they are along life's journey more than the movie itself. That said, I'd cite Dark Passage, Zelig, JFK, American Graffiti, Forbidden Planet, Godfather II, Barfly, The Great Escape, and the Nolan Batman series.

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Posted: April 28 2019 at 12:09

I thought I recognised the title of the article. I first saw this back in 2012. I was a regular reader of the Sight & Sound magazine (I used to read every issue cover to cover -- excellent film magazine), and would check out their BFI site regularly. As I recall, there was some discussion on this before at this site (maybe just by me).

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/sight-sound-2012-directors-top-ten

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sight_%26_Sound_Top_50_Greatest_Films_of_All_Time

Here is the director's top 100: https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/directors

And another list from them for The 50 Greatest Films of All Time from 2012: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time

I'm not a big fan of "greatest" lists, but certainly one can make a list of critically acclaimed, influential films. That said from the director's top 100, it's nice for me to see Stalker at 30, Aguirre, Wrath of God and John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence at 59, and a modern one that I love (from 2000), Wong-Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love at 67. And A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, The Seventh Seal, and another from the noughties, Mulholland Drive, as well as The Wild Bunch and Kes at 75, not to mention There Will Be Blood, M, Salo (like all of those 75 ones).

I would like it more if there was more variety still from around the world and from different eras. I might have expected Raise the Red Lantern (no Zhang Yimou at all in the top 100, which I definitely would have expected) to get a mention, and no Zardoz? ;) Quite few great directors missing from the films list, no Lars von Trier for instance. Earlier classic films get more representation.

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Posted: April 28 2019 at 18:02

I was also very glad to see "A Woman Under The Influence"

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Posted: April 28 2019 at 18:15

According to 358 directors/film makers.........I'm fine with the list, seems like a formidable judge and jury that I would not question.

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Posted: April 29 2019 at 14:42

I would have found room for "Seven Samurai".

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Posted: April 29 2019 at 15:25

1952
1.Bicycle Thieves (25 mentions)
2.City Lights (19 mentions)
2.The Gold Rush (19 mentions)
4.Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
5.Intolerance (12 mentions)
5.Louisiana Story (12 mentions)
7.Greed (11 mentions)
7.Le Jour Se Lève (11 mentions)
7.The Passion of Joan of Arc (11 mentions)
10.Brief Encounter (10 mentions)
10.The Rules of the Game (10 mentions)
10.Le Million (10 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Citizen Kane, La Grande Illusion, and The Grapes of Wrath. (9 mentions apiece)

1962
1.Citizen Kane (22 mentions)
2.L'Avventura (20 mentions)
3.The Rules of the Game (19 mentions)
4.Greed (17 mentions)
4.Ugetsu (17 mentions)
6.Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
7.Bicycle Thieves (16 mentions)
7.Ivan the Terrible (16 mentions)
9.La Terra Trema (14 mentions)
10.L'Atalante (13 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Hiroshima mon amour, Pather Panchali and Zero for Conduct. (11 mentions apiece)

1972
1.Citizen Kane (32 mentions)
2.The Rules of the Game (28 mentions)
3.Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
4.8½ (15 mentions)
5.L'Avventura (12 mentions)
5.Persona (12 mentions)
7.The Passion of Joan of Arc (11 mentions)
8.The General (10 mentions)
8.The Magnificent Ambersons (10 mentions)
10.Ugetsu (9 mentions)
10.Wild Strawberries (9 mentions)

Closest runners-up: The Gold Rush, Hiroshima mon amour, Ikiru, Ivan the Terrible, Pierrot le Fou, and Vertigo. (8 mentions apiece)

1982
1.Citizen Kane (45 mentions)
2.The Rules of the Game (31 mentions)
3.Seven Samurai (15 mentions)
3.Singin' in the Rain (15 mentions)
5.8½ (14 mentions)
6.Battleship Potemkin (13 mentions)
7.L'Avventura (12 mentions)
7.The Magnificent Ambersons (12 mentions)
7.Vertigo (12 mentions)
10.The General (11 mentions)
10.The Searchers (11 mentions)

Closest runners-up: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Andrei Rublev. (10 mentions apiece)

1992
1.Citizen Kane (43 mentions)
2.The Rules of the Game (32 mentions)
3.Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
4.Vertigo (18 mentions)
5.The Searchers (17 mentions)
6.L'Atalante (15 mentions)

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Posted: April 29 2019 at 18:04

I think The Process is the masterpiece by Orson Welles.

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Posted: April 30 2019 at 07:07

Hi,

I don't mind these lists, since they are about the films that inspired so many other directors to do their own work. And this was valuable in Europe as its history of films in so many countries is amazing and quite interesting and different.

All of the films are very good and very strong in their own way. None of them EVER was a blockbuster, although in the listing of great films (not most money!!!!!!!!!), several directors never quite made the grade ... Luis Bunuel is one of them, and his budget for the average film was something like $1.54 cents. I kept thinking that Catherine Deneuve did not get paid, but got to keep some of the dresses ... ripped apart of course, after her film!

A listing like this, today, is very tough, and going over a lot of the threads that Logan and others have created here about film, and TV (why ... no theater? dahhh shame!). A lot of the blockbuster films will rarely make the grand machinery that was simply going for the money, the shamery of which is visible today and the media (owned by the same corporations) makes it look like it is the greatest thing since sliced bread! And the public pays for it some more, and worse ... accepts the logic to make them richer! We just get the entertainment, right?

None of those films are ... "entertainment" ... as it were. They were all very serious and quite strong about the time and place, and sometimes very political ... which would have been scary in Russia, Italy and Spain (Bunuel went to Mexico because of it ... he was a Civil War target, as was Dali!) for example.

My honest evaluation of film, these days, regarding what is shown on TV and most streaming websites, is that the majority of film that had meaning and stood out as a form of learning about that other country and place in the world, today, it is totally gone, and now any excuse is good enough to make a film, and finding one that has more meaning is .... difficult.

A film like "Taxi Driver" could not be done today ... there would be 1500 articles about the abuse the girl took during the filming and anything else, and the fact that all the parents were not there at the time of the shooting to protect the innocent, in order to make a film ... not to mention that a producer telling a young girl and mom that this was what the film was about, would be any different than ... yeah ... try to get by that one today! You would have to go to Patagonia to film it to avoid all the eyes on you! Ohhh, and important for that time ... the slices of footage that made it to Playboy to help sell the film!

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Posted: April 30 2019 at 07:41

Hi,

My list might and might now include:

Citizen Kane

Bicycle Thieves

Wild Strawberries

Seven Samurai

2001, A Space Odyssey

Tokyo Story

I think there are a lot of films that some of the film "academia" would not care about ... for example, my dad, a well known critic in Portugal and Spain for film and theater, would not entertain a Nicolas Roeg or a Robert Altman, and if he had ever seen Almodovar, he probably would have called it a poor man's Bunuel with too much money to waste on a film!

From the listing above, some of these are actual film studies history, and not just because of the story or subject matter of the film.

Antonioni was a non-conventional film maker in that he started using hand held equipment to make the shooting more "personal". Hollywood used to do this by the "cross-shot" process and then the two faces together kissing. From a literary point of view that means that there are 3 points of view looking at these two people and kissing! Very confusing from a literary perspective, but it makes sense in Hollywood films?

No wonder literature is not popular anymore in college, and people don't read anymore!

Godard should have been in that list, but he was a "critic and reviewer" and his tendencies in almost all of his films is to make sure he tears down the conventions of film in every aspect you can think of, and then some. As such, a lot of his films are very difficult to digest and not fun for a lot of viewers since his goofing around with the camera, the music and everything else, has a tendency to distract you, and make you wonder ... what's this all about, and the joke might be on you ... it's about nothing, and on top of it ... let's film "nothing" as Peter Sellers would say in a Vittorio de Sica film later! But it was a lot of this attitude that helped open film up a bit into the "nude" ... although anyone watching nudity in a Godard film, the first thing you would say about that nudity was ... gawd ... that was boring! AND that was exactly the point for Godard ... making fun of the peeping tom Hollywood film watcher!

Another oddity ... I see that BaldJean did not care for Coppola ... and funny thing, it got me wondering. I do not dislike him as a film maker ... he's very valuable because of his experimentation with different kinds of film in different conditions, and later in using film that was more responsive in lower lighting conditions ... something he had issues with in his Godfather series. Coppola, comes off as a man's man so to speak, and honestly, that is overbearing and boring for me, and I was not exactly a person that enjoyed his films. On video they were better ... you could pause and get up and go get a drink ... but in the theater in those days ... your butt wanted to move and the seat was not really that comfortable for his films! They were too slow. Apocalypse Now, for me, is about the ability to be as outrageous as you want to be, and show something to be totally ridiculous and insane, and on top of it drugged out silly. Even better, and more bizarre, was the film "The Deerhunter" which probably should be listed here instead of 2 Coppola films, however the brutality in that film, makes it difficult to watch at times ... and in my case having met someone who spent time in Vietnam in the trenches like that film, he once said ... that film is like kindergarten ... it's not even close, which means that the idea of more in the middle of that makes the film even tougher to watch, and of course, makes A.N. come out as just a joke ... and trying to make it serious in the end!

But, all of those "great films" were valuable in their evaluation of the attitudes of the time and place. It's hard to not get an image of Tokyo at the time, or Rome, or NY, or the 50's in SF .... the whole thing is loud and clear, and I think this may be missing ... it's hard to find these literary films that are worth the sitting to watch them. I can sit through some of them, but now I look at the Spaniard and the French guy as simply making films for the sake of their over active imaginations, and desire to show a society as totally screwed up, and at fault for their gross behavior and mistakes ... and the films get interesting ... but somewhere behind it ... looks like an exploitation film a lot more than a real film. Sort of stories are incidental to the whole thing!

It's good to see this stuff though ... compared to a lot of the stuff listed here and put together for us to vote ... it really shows how so many fans look at film so differently than actual film makers, the majority of which actually know and have a reasonable history of film in their education ... where as the same might not exactly be true to most of the fans here, although we certainly have one of the most amazing group of educated readers I have ever encountered on the Internet.

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Posted: April 30 2019 at 15:10

What, no Gojira?

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Posted: April 30 2019 at 15:13

^ the original is a pretty great film ~

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Posted: May 04 2019 at 15:19

Atavachron wrote:

^ the original is a pretty great film ~

I think we would have to count how many times Tokyo was destroyed, to find a new way to become interested in that again ... one funny thing, was Guy Guden of Space Pirate Radio fame used some of these films in the background, in Japanese, and right away you got a Sadistic Mika Band, or something like that, but all in all, for me, after you see one, you kinda have already seen them all!

Still fun to watch, but nowadays, I probably have to be ripped apart on sister morphine's dope and on the way out I think ... you're not gonna see me on a convention of these movies! Not even a Hitchcock convention!

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Posted: May 05 2019 at 08:01

It's a good list. I do like Apocalypse Now more than The Godfather. However, I prefer Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" to 2001. My personal top 10 would include "Persona" and at least one Kurosawa movie. Still, it's a good list.

Edited by omphaloskepsis - May 05 2019 at 08:08

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