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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 37
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 BRITISH FILMS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) 49 12 8
#2 The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948) 20 6 2
#3 Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) 17 4 2
TIE A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) 17 5 1
#5 Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) 13 4 -
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

In yet another runaway finish here at the Top 5 Project, Carol Reed's The Third Man, which incidentally also was named the BFI's top Brit pic recently, took the top prize this week with a total of 49 points (8 out of 12 votes were first place votes). In the far distance came The Red Shoes, with 20 points, followed by a Kubrick tie for third, with Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange. Meanwhile, the film that many thought might win, or at least have a much stronger finish, the epic (and in my opinion, the highly overrated) Lawrence of Arabia came in fifth.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

  3. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

  4. Oh Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 1973)

  5. Isadora (Karel Reisz, 1968)



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

Chronological order -- coproductions excluded

  • Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929)

  • The Red Shoes (Powell and Pressburger, 1948)

  • Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)

  • The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)

  • Vertical Features Remake (Peter Greenaway, 1978)



Chris Fujiwara
Film Critic & Editor, Undercurrent
Author, Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall

  1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger, 1943)

  2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)

  3. The Brides of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1960)

  4. Carry On Abroad (Gerald Thomas, 1972)

  5. I’m All Right Jack (John Boulting, 1959)



Carrie Rickey
Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

  1. That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda, 1941)

  2. The Thief of Baghdad (Michael Powell, 1940)

  3. I Know Where I'm Going (Powell & Pressburger, 1945)

  4. Caravaggio (Derek Jarman, 1986)

  5. Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002)



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  2. Performance (Nicholas Roeg & Donald Cammell, 1970)

  3. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

  4. If. . . (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)

  5. The Last of England (Derek Jarman, 1988)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Freelance Film Critic, Combustable Celluloid
Las Vegas Weekly, Metro (Silicon Valley), etc.

It's a sticky wicket trying to figure out what exactly qualifies as a "British" film, so I guess I'll keep the list to films set in England, directed by British-born directors.

  1. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  2. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945) - This one's rather obvious, I know, but I saw it at exactly the right time in my life, and it affected me profoundly.

  3. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)

  4. The Snapper (Stephen Frears, 1993)

  5. Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) - I've seen it four times, and I'm ready for a fifth!

Runners up: Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949), Truly Madly Deeply (Anthony Minghella, 1991), Croupier (Mike Hodges, 1997), High Hopes (Mike Leigh, 1988), The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934), Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996), Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999), Following (Christopher Nolan, 1998), A Grand Day Out (Nick Park, 1992), Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963), The War Zone (Tim Roth, 1999)


Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

I focused on films with British directors, primarily British cast members, and films that had strong ties to Britain itself, especially in setting. (Apologies to The Third Man, Lawrence of Arabia, Don't Look Now, and most of Hitchcock's works... none of which take place in Britain.)

  1. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

  2. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

  3. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)

  4. If... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)

  5. A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton, 1988)



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger, 1943)

  2. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  3. Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1947)

  4. Performance (Nicolas Roeg & Doug Cammell, 1970)

  5. The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982)



David Oppedisano
Film Critic and Researcher

  1. Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1947)

  2. The Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith, 1952)

  3. That Hamilton Woman (Alexander Korda,1941)

  4. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

  5. Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)

    plus

  6. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

  7. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

  8. Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950)

  9. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, 1946)

  10. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)



Eric Enders
Film Critic, Out There in the Dark

  1. Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

  2. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

  3. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938)

  4. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

  5. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)



Film Prophet
Film Critic, FilmProphet.com

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)

  3. Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005)

  4. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

  5. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)



Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

  2. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

  3. Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, 2004)

  4. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)

  5. Scoop (Woody Allen, 2006)

Runners up: Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962), Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004) , Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005)


Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)

  3. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)

  4. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terrence Davies, 1988)

  5. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999)

Rounding out my Top 10: The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1966), Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1947), The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948), The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971), Kes (Ken Loach, 1969).


Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Kind Heart and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949) - Robert Hamer’s Ealing studio masterpiece is the quintessential black comedy, a witty, literate satire of British manners and murders, which features one of the screen’s most memorably diabolical characters, Louis Mazzini. Having been wronged by the aristocratic d’Ascoyne family for disinheriting his mother, and thus depriving him of his birthright as duke, Louis, who simply cannot endure the indignities of working in a haberdashery, sets out to seize the dukedom by murdering the eight unsuspecting relatives standing in his way. No other protagonist in cinema history is as heartlessly murderous as Louis, yet he carries out his foul deeds with such panache that one can’t help but root for him. And therein lies the dark beauty of Kind Heart and Coronets: by filtering all events through Louis’s point-of-view, and by making him the cleverest, wittiest, and most charismatic character, we find ourselves vicariously participating in his scheming and sharing in his triumphs as he dispatches each new victim.

    Hilariously, Alec Guinness plays all eight victims, each with a distinctive look and demeanor, including a pompous Duke, a gruff General, a sanctimonious priest and a portly suffragette! Some of these characters are thoroughly dislikable, and so we feel no loss at their passing; others, especially the friendly amateur photographer, do elicit our pity, but we laugh anyway when Louis laments: “He seemed like a very pleasant fellow and I regret that our acquaintanceship must be so short.” Sentimentality, you see, cannot stand in the way of destiny – or Louis’s well-turned witticisms.

    As wonderful as Guinness is, it is Price’s film all the way. As our amoral guide through this “study in the gentle art of murder,” he’s in every scene, provides the deliciously wicked narration, and has all the best lines, which he delivers with impeccable timing and evident relish. Cloaking his murderous agenda beneath a veneer of respectability, Louis is at once charming and monstrous, gentlemanly and devious, witty and malicious. Price would never again play as juicy a role, but at least this once he displayed a talent for portraying charismatic cads and a skill for serving up bons mots with the best of them.

    Joan Greenwood and Valerie Hobson provide excellent support as, respectively, Louis’s purring, seductive mistress, Sibella, and the elegant, upright noblewoman, Edith, whom Louis weds after murdering her husband! Cool and calculating, Sibella seems to be Louis’s ideal match, while the classy, refined Edith is the sort of person Louis aspires to become - once he’s finished with all this murder business, that is. Because the two women represent two sides of Louis, it’s understandable why he says, “While I never admired Edith as much as when I was with Sibella, I never longed for Sibella as much as when I was with Edith.” So it’s entirely fitting that Louis’s ultimate fate should hinge on his having to choose between the two women.

    Hamer, whose alcoholism eventually ruined his career, never again made a film nearly as good. But when a filmmaker creates just one film in his career as perfectly realized as Kind Hearts and Coronets, it is more than enough.

  3. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965) - Repulsion, one of the creepiest visions of madness ever put on film, draws us in slowly to the crumbling world of its protagonist, Carol. When we first see her, she just seems like a painfully shy young woman: she walks with her head down, averts the eyes of strangers, speaks softly, and chews her fingernails. However, her deep-seated revulsion toward men and sex soon begins to manifest itself in moments of very odd behavior, as when she recoils from her would-be boyfriend’s advances and then frantically wipes her mouth and brushes her teeth after he kisses her, or when she shows evident disgust over the toiletries of her sister’s boyfriend. To make matters worse, she sees the vulgar and/or morally reprehensible behavior of men everywhere she goes: women at the beauty salon where Carol works constantly complain about the infidelity of men; ogling construction workers on the streets making crude comments at her; a married man is having a fling with her sister; her would-be suitor persists in making unwanted sexual overtures etc. All these leering, groping males make her flesh crawl, causing her to twitch, claw at her face, and wipe her body, as if to rid herself of some horrible disease transmitted by men.

    As Carol steadily descends into madness, Polanski ratchets up the tension through a host of creepy images and unnerving sounds. Nobody but Polanski could make dripping water, ticking clocks, buzzing flies, clanging bells, ringing telephones and the distant playing of piano scales seem so disturbing, yet the persistent use of these nerve-racking aural effects, slightly magnified to reflect Carol’s distorted perception, create an atmosphere of unbearable edginess. Even creepier are the expressionistic visual effects - rotting food, cracks in the sidewalks and walls, wide-angle lens distortion effects - which further suggest Carol’s disintegrating mental state.

    When her sister goes on vacation, Carol’s madness reaches its final, psychotic, stage. Now alone and vulnerable, Carol fully withdraws from the world, locking herself in her apartment, away from the leering eyes and groping hands of men. But she can’t escape from men. They are always there even when they’re not. They’ve invaded every nook and cranny of her twisted mind, and haunt her in the form of ever-more threatening hallucinations: a lurking figure suddenly glimpsed in a mirror; groping hands shooting out of the walls; a faceless intruder breaking into her bedroom and raping her – in silent, slow motion, visually distorted horror. These frightening hallucinations ultimately reduce Carol to a state of quivering disorientation. No longer able to distinguish between fantasy and reality, it’s completely understandable why she turns psychotically violent when actual men start breaking down her doors and forcing themselves on her.

    Almost in riposte to the risible cod-Freudian explanation offered in the coda to Psycho, Polanski concludes his Psycho-logical chiller in far subtler, infinitely more effective fashion. The camera slowly zooms in to an old childhood photo of Carol, who’s gazing with a combination of fear and revulsion at a man, presumably her father. A picture is worth a thousand reels of psychobabble. The mute photo says nothing, but tells us everything. Indeed, thinking back to those imaginary rape scenes from earlier in the film, this photo chillingly suggests that they were as much a product of Carol’s memories as her fantasies.

  4. Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948) - Oliver Twist, one of the greatest cinematic adaptations of a literary classic, is by far Lean’s best film. The extraordinary opening sequence, a glorious example of pure cinema, sets the tone: under a dark sky full of menacing black clouds, a pregnant woman struggles though fierce wind and pounding rain to reach a distant shelter, illuminated only by intense flashes of lightning. Somewhere in the dark night, the branch of a brier tree violently twists in the wind, its prickly thorns jabbing and thrusting through the air in unison with the woman’s intense labor pangs. She finally makes it to the shelter, gives birth, and then dies, leaving the baby boy, soon to be named Oliver, wailing plaintively in the dark, stormy night. A birth occurring under such ominous circumstances can only portend a bleak future, and so it is with Oliver, whose life becomes one hardship after another. To Lean’s credit, he doesn’t shy away from depicting the abject cruelty to which the sympathetic young Oliver is subjected, which makes it tough to watch at times, but remains generally faithful to the tone of the original work. And what villains Oliver must contend with! Alec Guinness’s Fagin, who seems to have sprung directly out of Cruikshank’s original engravings, is particularly unforgettable. But what truly distinguishes this film is the visual style, which is every bit as impressive as that of Lean’s later epics. Featuring stunning low-key black and white photography, magnificent period flavor, and striking, meticulously designed sets, this is one of the most richly atmospheric films ever made. Even more remarkably, Lean’s economic, carefully modulated direction, in which the visuals are always placed in the service of the story, ensures that his remarkable eye is given full expression without ever sacrificing pace, clarity or characterization, which is more than can be said for the bloated epics that followed.

  5. The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)

Gems that failed to make the BFI’s Top 100 British films: The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1935), Pygmalion (Anthony Asquith, 1938), Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1942), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961), Devil Doll (Lindsay Shonteff, 1964), The Knack, and How to Get It (Richard Lester, 1965), The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961), It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow, 1966), Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 1967), Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967), Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971), How to Get Ahead in Advertising (Bruce Robinson, 1989)


Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)

  3. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999)

  4. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  5. The Horse's Mouth (Ronald Neame, 1958)



Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)

  3. The Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)

  4. Look Back In Anger (Tony Richardson, 1958)

  5. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)



Jay Antani
Film Critic

  1. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

  2. Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

  3. The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)

  4. The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933)

  5. Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948)



Bill Georgaris
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

  1. Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1946)

  2. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

  3. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  4. Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

  5. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988)

I decided to limit myself only to British directors (so no Kubrick or Losey), and also only one film per director/directing team.

Special mention to these somewhat less appreciated UK gems: The Sleeping Tiger (Joseph Losey, 1954), The Edge of the World (Michael Powell, 1937), The Rocking Horse Winner (Anthony Pelissier, 1949), Hell Drivers (Cy Endfield, 1958), Piccadilly (E.A. Dupont, 1929), Saraband for Dead Lovers (Basil Dearden, 1948), Blanche Fury (Marc Allegret, 1948), Madeleine (David Lean, 1949), Fiend Without a Face (Arthur Crabtree, 1958), The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965).


Brian Leonard
Film Enthusiast

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

  3. Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 1983)

  4. A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)

  5. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947)

Close runner-ups: The 39 Steps, Shakespeare in Love, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Fahrenheit 451, Gosford Park, The Ruling Class, Howards End, The Madness of King George

I left this one out because I think it's overrated, but I bet it'll come out on top: Lawrence of Arabia


Hans Lucas
Film Student

  1. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

  2. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)

  3. Performance (Nicolas Roeg & Donald Cammell, 1970)

  4. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)

  5. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

Runners-Up: The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935), Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings, 1943), The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948), The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962), Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963), A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964), Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973), Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988), and many more.


Ben Dalton
Film Student & Enthusiast

  1. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)

  2. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

  3. Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996)

  4. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  5. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)



Wirkman Virkkala
Editorial Consultant

  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) - American-born Kubrick directs a screenplay co-written with Englishman Arthur C. Clarke, in part based on several stories by Clarke, and filmed in England.

  2. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) - Russell directs his own screenplay based on John Whiting's play of Aldous Huxley's novel, The Devils of London.

  3. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) - Kubrick directs his own screenplay of a now rarely read William Makepeace Thackeray novel.

  4. Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) - Gilliam directs a screenplay co-written with Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown.

  5. Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993) - Ivory directs Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel.

These five films strike me as greater, if not necessarily more enjoyable, than Alfred Hitchcock's British films, so they make up my list and The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, and Frenzy do not appear.

One could argue at length whether to consider the Kubrick work British films rather than American, but I push on nevertheless. 2001 and Barry Lyndon are two of my favorite movies, and deserve placement not simply because they were filmed where they were, but because the source materials for the films are also, in some relevant sense, British.

The Devils is a too-often under-rated film by a very uneven director. Filmed in England but set in France, it is filled with British actors and "graced" by an avant-garde score by a British composer juxtaposed with period music by David Munrow's musicians. This film is a brilliant, lurid attack upon the senses of the squeamish as well as a powerful cinematic argument against theocracy.

Brazil can be mentioned in the same breath as The Devils. It, too, is visually and sonically extravagant. It, too, touches upon the horrors of the abuse of power. And here, too, torture by the state brings down a good (if in this case feckless) man.

Barry Lyndon and The Remains of the Day are both steeped in British history. Both touch, if in widely different ways, on war. Both tell exquisitely human tales, all-too-human tales of insufficiency and failure. Barry Lyndon is the more visually beautiful of the two, but is somewhat emotionally detached, with irony and magnificent narration. The Ivory-Merchant picture, on the other hand, is a sad personal tragedy filled with emotion, and the only film on my list that strikes me as in any way belonging to the camp of "normal" film. It tells its story simply and beautifully and availing itself of a fairly standard cinematic technique.


Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

This is one of those cinematic areas in which I have little knowledge in or about. Being not that versed on the films of the UK, having only seen two Michael Powell films and not a single Lindsay Anderson, my list may be a bit lacking in what others may assume are rather canonical films in the genre of English Cinema. Along with the aforementioned lack of CineBrit exposure, I have also decided to omit several films that have rather trepidatious UK credentials, such as Brazil, Gosford Park and my personal favourite film of all-time, 2001, all of which were directed by American directors. Then again, I could very easily turn around and call Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange a ligitimate UK film - which I do (see below). So perhaps I am just blowing smoke here in order to put off having to make this list. Who knows. I do know that a "fan favourite", a certain David Lean, will certainly not make my list, considering him the UK equivalent to Steven Spielberg (a talented filmmaker with absolutely no soul), but then again I have never seen Brief Encounter, so who knows. Ah well, I suppose it's time to stop procrastinating and put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. With that said/babbled, here are my top 5 British films.

  1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)

  2. The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger, 1948)

  3. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

  4. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

  5. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terrence Davies, 1988)

The Sixth Man Award goes to Peter Brook's coyly named The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5
Shakespeare Adaptations

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #38,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, September 2, 2007.

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