Top 10 Greatest Films According To 358 Directors

[MortSahlFan]

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)

[BlodwynPig]

Good for them

[chveik]

that's old news (the last poll was made in 2012)

[Funcrusher]

The critics' one is better:

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
10. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/the-10-greatest-films-of-all-time-according-to-846-film-critics.html

[chveik]

.

[Blumf]

A list of greatest films would tend to be pretty static over the years. Dull dull dull.

A list of interesting films would be more... interesting. Much more likely to change from year to year.

[popcorn]

These films are well old and boring. They should check out Avengers.

[Butchers Blind]

While some of those films listed in the top ten are masterful works of cinema, they're not ones I would sit down and watch for the sheer enjoyment.

[greenman]

I think the critics one is duller personally but the changes to the sight and sound list over the years are interesting IMHO...

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)
6.The Passion of Joan of Arc (15 mentions)
6.Pather Panchali (15 mentions)
6.Battleship Potemkin (15 mentions)
10.2001: A Space Odyssey (14 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Bicycle Thieves and Singin' in the Rain. (10 mentions apiece)

2002
1.Citizen Kane (46 mentions)
2.Vertigo (41 mentions)
3.The Rules of the Game (30 mentions)
4.The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (23 mentions)
5.Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
6.2001: A Space Odyssey (21 mentions)
7.Battleship Potemkin (19 mentions)
7.Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (19 mentions)
9.8½ (18 mentions)
10.Singin' in the Rain (17 mentions)

Seems like its gradually become more conservative down the years.

[sevendaughters]

Not sure it's conservative as such but canons do have a way of seeming so because it feels very stuffy and pre-ordained and threatens the politics of something like Potemkin or Joan of Arc. All of these are very well-wrought literary cinema and those choosing them are usually doyennes of said. Reification in action. That said, of the ones I've seen, there are very few that are less than good. And yet none would make a personal top 10 if forced to.

[Bazooka]

Not a single Ernest film, must be an admin error.

[greenman]

Not sure it's conservative as such but canons do have a way of seeming so because it feels very stuffy and pre-ordained and threatens the politics of something like Potemkin or Joan of Arc. All of these are very well-wrought literary cinema and those choosing them are usually doyennes of said. Reification in action. That said, of the ones I've seen, there are very few that are less than good. And yet none would make a personal top 10 if forced to.

I didn't really mean that in terms of "right wing", moreso that it seems to promoting a long standing view of cinema were as the lists from the 50's to the 70's were featuring a lot of very recent films.

The list from 2012 features 2 films released from the 60's onwards in the top 10, the list from 1972 features 3.

[sevendaughters]

Oh I didn't think you meant they were right wing. But I think there's something about seeing people constantly rate, idk, Passion of Joan of Arc, a radical film, in a way that reduces it to the cultural wallpaper of listicles.

[mothman]

Is Tokyo Story the one where when they all talk to each other they all talk direct to camera? Because I hated that. Never mind the plot and performances, the staging & cinematography felt so clumsy and contrived.

[Menu]

Is Tokyo Story the one where when they all talk to each other they all talk direct to camera? Because I hated that. Never mind the plot and performances, the staging & cinematography felt so clumsy and contrived.

That's basically every Ozu film. I'd agree with you if it was any other director, but there's something about Ozu's work that seems to bypass the cinematic form and spear your emotions directly. His stories are heartbreaking. Give him another chance.

[Menu]

2002
1.Citizen Kane (46 mentions)
2.Vertigo (41 mentions)
3.The Rules of the Game (30 mentions)
4.The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (23 mentions)
5.Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
6.2001: A Space Odyssey (21 mentions)
7.Battleship Potemkin (19 mentions)
7.Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (19 mentions)
9.8½ (18 mentions)
10.Singin' in the Rain (17 mentions)

Why, for the love of Christ, is 'The Godfather' and 'The Godfather Part II' counted as one single entry? Like the plucky little Godfather films need a leg up or something.

[greenman]

Its a product of the lists dating way back to the 50's when the idea of the sequel was far less common, you had films like the Apu and Human Condition trilogys that were intended to be viewed as a single work. I think you could make the same case for The Godfather films, there moving towards being separate stories but still very closely linked in theme.

The voting rules were actually changed for the 2012 poll which is why I suspect the Godfather films drop down the list a lot.

That's basically every Ozu film. I'd agree with you if it was any other director, but there's something about Ozu's work that seems to bypass the cinematic form and spear your emotions directly. His stories are heartbreaking. Give him another chance.

I think there's clearly a lot of artistry behind his choice of shots, some really beautiful compositions.

The characters talking directly into the camera is quite an individual style but I think its quite effecting both in relating the character to the viewer and in making them seem quite isolated, I suspect Kubrick took quite a lot of inspiration from him.

In terms of lists like this I think he does have the benefit of quite a universal critical appeal, hard to see people viewing his work as either pretenious(Mizoguchi) or at all pulpy(Kurosawa).

[Menu]

Its a product of the lists dating way back to the 50's when the idea of the sequel was far less common, you had films like the Apu and Human Condition trilogys that were intended to be viewed as a single work. I think you could make the same case for The Godfather films, there moving towards being separate stories but still very closely linked in theme.

The voting rules were actually changed for the 2012 poll which is why I suspect the Godfather films drop down the list a lot.

Fair enough then. Still a bit weird though. Thanks.

[Menu]

The characters talking directly into the camera is quite an individual style but I think its quite effecting both in relating the character to the viewer and in making them seem quite isolated, I suspect Kubrick took quite a lot of inspiration from him.

In terms of lists like this I think he does have the benefit of quite a universal critical appeal, hard to see people viewing his work as either pretenious(Mizoguchi) or at all pulpy(Kurosawa).

Oh i agree. I was just trying to encourage the previous poster to try his work again. I wouldn't want anyone to be put off Ozu just because they find his idiosyncratic style jarring. He's one of the poets of cinema.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Ozu is great, but Tokyo Story is possibly not the best place to start with his work? Idk Maybe one of the early ones like 'I was Born, But...' are an easier way in

[Sin Agog]

That one in colour with all the farting jokes about the kids who really want their parents to get them a TV would make a fun aperitif.  He makes microcosm movies, so look for the kind of tiny character details no one would ever have thought to put in a script, and the rest should hopefully unfold for you.

[chveik]

the first one I've watched was Last Spring. it worked for me.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

That's a great one

[rasta-spouse]

Wondering, are there top 10 lists where directors/critics are asked to go for off-canon picks?

[greenman]

Really any kind of list combing a lot of votes is going to have a blanding effect playing up the most well known films. Individual directors lists...

Tarkovsky top 10...

1.Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)
2.Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
3.Nazarin (Luis Buñuel, 1959)
4.Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
5.City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
6.Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
7.Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
8.Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
9.Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
10.Woman of the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)

Kubrick top 10(in 1963 anyway)...

1. I Vitelloni (Fellini, 1953)
2. Wild Strawberries (Bergman, 1957)
3. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
4. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Huston, 1948)
5. City Lights (Chaplin, 1931)
6. Henry V (Olivier, 1944)
7. La notte (Antonioni, 1961)
8. The Bank Dick (Fields, 1940)
9. Roxie Hart (Wellman, 1942)
10. Hell's Angels (Hughes, 1930)

Bergman...

•Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1971)
•The Circus (Charlie Chaplin, 1928)
•The Conductor (Andrzej Wajda, 1980)
•Marianne and Juliane (Margarethe von Trotta, 1981)
•The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
•The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921)
•Port of Shadows (Marcel Carné, 1938)
•Raven's End (Bo Wilderberg, 1963)
•Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
•La strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)

Marty...

•2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Stanley Kubrick
•8½ (1963) – Federico Fellini
•Ashes and Diamonds (1958) – Andrzej Wajda
•Citizen Kane (1941) – Orson Welles
•The Leopard (1963) – Luchino Visconti
•Paisan (1946) – Roberto Rossellini
•The Red Shoes (1948) – Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
•The River (1951) – Jean Renoir
•Salvatore Giuliano (1962) – Francesco Rosi
•The Searchers (1956) – John Ford
•Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) – Mizoguchi Kenji
•Vertigo (1958) – Alfred Hitchcock

[Dr Rock]

Pandoras Box
Build My Gallows High/Out Of The Past
Once Upon A Time in The West (or In America)
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Die Hard
Commando
A David Lynch One
A Coen Bros One
The Third Man
Head
Apocalypse Now
Evil Dead 2
Blade Runner

That's 12. I haven't seen all the foreign ones.