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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 45
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 FINAL FILMS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) 61 18 5
#2 Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) 53 14 6
#3 The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) 37 11 -
#4 L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) 33 13 2
#5 An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962) 32 9 3
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

The big winner this week is (I believe) a somewhat surprising top vote getter. Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut captures the gold with an overall score of 61 points. Coming in with the silver medal (another surprise?) is Sergio Leone's swan song, Once Upon A Time in America with 53 points. No one else was even close.

The bronze (yes, I am obsessed with the Olympics!) goes to a film that was not only the filmmaker's final film but also his directorial debut as well. It is Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter with 37 points, although not a single first place vote (a strange occurrence to happen to a top 5 finalist). Coming in fourth (just out of medal contention) is Robert Bresson and (I believe) one of his best works) L'Argent with 33 points and fifth place goes to Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon with 32.

Just out of reach we have (my personal favourite) Vigo's L'Atalante, Buñuel's That Obscure Object of My Desire and Dreyer's pièce de résistance, Gertrud.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1972)

  2. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

  3. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  4. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  5. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

(in chronological order)

  • Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

  • Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  • L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  • Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  • Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 2003)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic, Cinematical.com, Las Vegas Weekly,
San Jose Metro, Combustible Celluloid.com

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  2. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  3. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)

  4. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  5. (tie) The Dead (John Huston, 1987) / Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976)



Erik Childress
Film Critic, efilmcritic.com

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  4. Funny Farm (George Roy Hill, 1988)

  5. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972)



Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  4. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006)

  5. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

Runners-up (in no particular order): Buddy Buddy (Billy Wilder, 1981), The Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968), Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976), Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa, 1993), Trafic (Jacques Tati, 1971).


Michael Parent
Film Student

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  3. Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 2003)

  4. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)

  5. Trois Couleurs: Trilogy (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993/94)

Runners-Up: Vivement Dimanche! (François Truffaut, 1983), Gertrud (Carl T. Dreyer, 1964), Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, 1976).


Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  2. The Dead (John Huston, 1987)

  3. Once upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  4. Vivement dimanche! (François Truffaut, 1983)

  5. Offret/The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast
& Photograph Department Supervisor, Margaret Herrick Library

  1. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  2. The Dead (John Huston, 1987)

  3. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

  4. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  5. Three Colors: Red (Krzystoff Kieslowski, 1994)



Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  2. Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  3. Yi Yi: A One and a Two… (Edward Yang, 2000)

  4. Street Of Shame (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1956)

  5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  3. Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)

  4. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  5. Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H. Lewis, 1958) - One of the oddest Westerns ever made, Lewis’ final theatrical release has rapacious land-grabber Sebastian Cabot, a portly, gluttonous capitalist who devours farmland as ravenously as he devours food (he’s constantly got his pudgy fingers into one kind of foodstuff or another) and his hired gun, Ned Young, a villainous quick-draw with a mechanical hand, running afoul of one of the Western genre’s strangest heroes: a Scandinavian whaler (Sterling Hayden, complete with a horrendous Swedish accent), which leads to a bizarre but unforgettable showdown between the gun-toting Young and the harpoon-hurling Hayden.

Honorable mentions: L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934), Street of Shame (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1956), An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962), Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972), That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel , 1977), The Wall (Yilmaz Güney, 1983), L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983), The Dead (John Huston, 1987), Waitress (Adrienne Shelly, 2007)


Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

  1. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  2. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  3. Lightning Over Water (Nicholas Ray, 1980)

  4. L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  5. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)



Jeff Vorndam
Film Enthusiast

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  4. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  5. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)



Vasili Mamulashvili
Geographer & Film Enthusiast from Tbilsi, Geaorgia

  1. Innocent (Luchino Visconti, 1976)

  2. Three Colours: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

  3. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)

  4. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  5. Offret (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)



Luke Stadel
Film Studies MA student at the University of Iowa

  1. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  2. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  3. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  4. Ivan the Terrible Parts I & II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944/58)

  5. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)



Domingo Peeters
Film Enthusiast

  1. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. Idi i Smotri (Elem Klimov, 1985)

  3. Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

  4. Offret (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)



Hans Lucas
Film Student

  1. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  2. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  3. L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  4. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  5. Ivan the Terrible, Part II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1946/1958)



Stan Czarnecki
Film Enthusiast & Critic

  1. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  2. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  3. F For Fake (Orson Welles, 1974)

  4. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)

  5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

Special Mention: Antonioni's Michelangelo Eye to Eye.


Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. The Dead (John Huston, 1987)

  2. Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)

  3. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  4. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  5. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)



Aaron W. Graham
Film Writer & Screenwriter

  1. Love Streams/Big Trouble (John Cassavetes, 1984/86)

  2. 7 Women (John Ford, 1966)

  3. The Cavern (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1964)

  4. Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)

  5. Shock (Mario Bava, 1977)



Pat Graham
Film Curmudgeon

  1. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  2. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  3. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1983)

  4. Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1959)

  5. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006)



Jerry Johnson
Film Enthusiast
& Former Programming Director of the Austin Film Society

  1. L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  2. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  3. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  4. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (F.W. Murnau, 1931)

  5. Le trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)



Ben Dalton
Lover of Film

  1. Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

  2. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  4. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)



Nathan Deen
Film Buff & Staff Writer, FilmSchoolRejects.com

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) - One of the most creative and original films of the 90's.

  2. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) - His one and only, so I think it should qualify. One of my favorite black and white thrillers.

  3. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934) - A promising career cut short.

  4. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983) - Probably the best film I've seen from Bresson so far. Hard to believe he was in his 80's when he made it.

  5. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984) - A beautiful, if overlong epic.

Note: Because Netflix was having trouble with their shipping this week, I did not get to view Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire.


Doug Riblet
Cinephile

  1. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  2. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  3. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  4. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

  5. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)



Tristan Anthony Johnson
Film Enthusiast

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

  2. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

  3. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  4. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  5. Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944-58)

Next in line: Montès L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983), L'Atlante (Jean Vigo, 1934), Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985), A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006).


Piet Suess
Director

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  2. Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa, 1993)

  3. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  4. Le Garcu (Maurice Pialat, 1995)

  5. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)



Mathieu Ricordi
Director

  1. Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)

  2. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  3. Le Garcu (Maurice Pialat, 1995)

  4. 7 Women (John Ford, 1966)

  5. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)



Josh Dean
Contributor to MuchoMovies.net

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  2. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1972)

  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

  4. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  5. One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961)



Matthew Griffiths
Film Enthusiast

  1. Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1981)

  2. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  3. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  4. The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah, 1983)

  5. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)



Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast

  1. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

  2. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

  3. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)

  4. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  5. A Prarie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006)



Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

  1. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

  2. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)

  3. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955)

  4. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

  5. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)

Special Mention: The Night of the Hunter - since it was Laughton's first AND last film, I have not included it on my list (though I probably should).

Runners-Up (in no particular order):
Ivan the Terrible I & II (Eisenstein), Parade (Tati), F For Fake (Welles), Once Upon A Time in America (Lean), Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick), Yi Yi (Yang) and Saraband (Bergman).

*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 Asian Horror

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #46,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, August 24, 2008.

HOME * REVIEWS * MIDTOWN * FESTIVALS * TOP 10 PROJECT * ESSAYS & ARTICLES * ODDS & ENDS * LINKS * CONTACT