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Adam Gould

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

    Arthur C. Clarke & Kubrick: has there ever been a more brilliant collaboration?

  2. The Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

    It's all there – everything a filmmaker needs to know! Inspiring!

  3. The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924)

    Silent masterpiece. Emil Jannings' performance is unforgettable.

  4. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)

    An artist should not seek security in a tidy mastery over the simplifications of deliberate poverty; she should, instead, have creative courage to face the danger of being overwhelmed by fecundity in the effort to resolve it into simplicity and economy. – Maya Deren

  5. Le Sang des bêtes (Georges Franju, 1949)

    Reality will shock you, just open your eyes.

  6. F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1975)

    Just when you think he is out of tricks, the Master creates a new form.

  7. Tombstone for Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)

    Cartoons aren't just for Saturday mornings.

  8. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)

    John Wayne, Walter Brennan & Montgomery Clift, in the greatest American love story ever told.

  9. Crooklyn (Spike Lee, 1994)

    Genius is childhood recalled at will. – Charles Baudelaire

  10. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

    The American musical. "Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings"!


Making this list was difficult. Here are numbers 11-15: Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932); Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959); Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972); Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen, 1940); Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986).

Adam Gould recently earned his MFA in Film from The Savannah College of Art and Design. He is now pursuing a career as a freelance editor and experimental filmmaker.

tally after this list / October 20, 2005


Mark Dujsik

  1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  2. The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
  3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
  4. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
  5. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  6. Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988)
  7. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
  8. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
  10. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)

Mark is the webmaster of Mark Reviews Movies (www.markreviewsmovies.com) and has been a member of the Online Film Critics Society since 2002. His full top 20 can be found at YMDb.

tally after this list / October 19, 2005


Tad Richards

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943)
  2. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
  3. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
  4. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
  5. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
  6. A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)
  7. Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) -– the best Louis Armstrong showcase on film, and no ten best list of anything that has an opportunity to include Louis Armstrong should leave him out. I almost picked High Society for the same reason – I know most people don’t even think it’s the best version of this story, but it is, because of Satch, Bing and Frank.
  8. Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952) -- I am pleased to report that two movies on my list -- Scaramouche and Cabin in the Sky -- didn't even make the NY Times list of the 1000 best movies (three if you count my honorable mention for High Society). I take this as a tribute to my unerring good taste.
  9. War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1968) -- It would be easy to make a ten best list entirely from movies that did not make the NY Times 1000 Best List (Modern Times, Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II, Rio Bravo, just to name a few). I had put Lawrence of Arabia on my original list, and it's a great spectacle, but I had forgotten the greatest spectacle of all time (so did the NY Times, but I'm making amends for my error). Featuring the entire Russian army, and wonderful acting, and not a slack moment in nearly seven hours of running time.
  10. The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978)

Tad Richards has taught classes in screenwriting at Marist College. He co-wrote the screenplays for The Cheerleaders, Cherry Hill High, and The Happy Hooker Goes To Washington, and the English language screenplays for the dubbed versions of Z and State of Siege.

tally after this list / October 19, 2005


Jeffrey M. Anderson

  1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
  2. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
  3. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
  4. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  5. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
  6. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)
  7. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1983)
  8. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947)
  9. Close Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
  10. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Orson Welles
  2. Buster Keaton
  3. Howard Hawks
  4. Alfred Hitchcock
  5. Luis Buñuel
  6. F.W. Murnau
  7. Charles Chaplin
  8. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  9. Robert Bresson
  10. Yasujiro Ozu

See also Jeff's revised list: Oct. 28, 2006

Jeffrey Anderson's work as a film critic, interviewer and film historian has appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, the Oakland Tribune, the Silicon Valley Metro, the Las Vegas Weekly, on the web at www.combustiblecelluloid.com and www.bayinsider.com, as well as on National Public Radio. He is currently at work on his first book and will be a new father in 2006.

tally after this list / October 19, 2005


Tom Mes

These are my thirteen favourites that I cannot bear to cut down to ten. To annoy you even more I'm listing them in chronological order.

  • Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
  • North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
  • Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1967)
  • The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
  • A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
  • The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
  • Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
  • Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
  • Scarface (Brian DePalma, 1983)
  • Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
  • Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti, 1991)
  • Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
  • Dead or Alive 2 (Takashi Miike, 2000)

Top 10 Directors

Like the list above, I chose the following directors for the impact they've had on me, rather than for the impact they've had on film history. Maybe the first five of these would qualify as my all-time favourites, but I'd like to do all 21 of them justice.

  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Akira Kurosawa
  • Sam Peckinpah
  • Sergio Leone
  • Takashi Miike
  • Kiyoshi Kurosawa
  • Kinji Fukasaku
  • Seijun Suzuki
  • Jean-Pierre Melville
  • William Friedkin
  • David Cronenberg
  • Shinya Tsukamoto
  • Nanni Moretti
  • Paul Verhoeven
  • Martin Scorsese
  • Jean-Luc Godard
  • Sogo Ishii
  • George Romero
  • Kenji Misumi
  • Don Siegel
  • F.W. Murnau

Tom Mes is the author of several books on Japanese film: Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike, Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto and The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (co-written with Jasper Sharp). He is also the founder and co-editor of MidnightEye.com. Mr. Mes lives and works in Paris, France.

tally after this list / October 19, 2005


David Ehrenstein

  1. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (Patrice Chéreau, 1998)
  2. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
  3. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
  4. La Commune (de Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins, 2000)
  5. Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (Robert Bresson, 1956)
  6. Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, 1955)
  7. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949)
  8. Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976)
  9. La Cicatrice Interieure (Philippe Garrel, 1972)
  10. Che cosa sono le nuvole? (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)


See also David's updated list: Aug. 10, 2007

Commenced writing career in 1965 with interview with Andy Warhol (his first) at the old "Silver" Factory; published in Film Culture magazine #40, Spring 1966. He has written for such publications as December, The Village Voice, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, San Francisco Examiner, Rolling Stone, Cahiers du Cinema, Arts, The Los Angeles Reader, Positif, Enclitic and Wide Angle. He has also worked as a film critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. In 1982 collaborated with Bill Reed on the book, Rock On Film (Delilah/G.P. Putnam's). Mr. Ehrenstein also wrote the book, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998 (William Morrow, 1998) and has appeared on numerous editions of E! True Hollywood Story.

tally after this list / October 18, 2005


Fred Camper

This list first appeared in Senses of Cinema, and has been reprinted with permission of the author.

  1. The Loyal 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1942)
  2. India (Roberto Rossellini, 1958)
  3. Arabic Series (Stan Brakhage, 1981)
  4. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)
  5. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
  6. Tabu (F.W. Murnau, 1930)
  7. Schwechater (Peter Kubelka, 1958)
  8. Seven Women (John Ford, 1966)
  9. The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
  10. Bang! (Robert Breer, 1986)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Kenji Mizoguchi
  2. Roberto Rossellini
  3. Stan Brakhage
  4. Howard Hawks
  5. Robert Bresson
  6. F.W. Murnau
  7. Peter Kubelka
  8. John Ford
  9. Douglas Sirk
  10. Robert Breer

Fred Camper is a writer and lecturer on film, art, and photography who lives in Chicago. His writing appears regularly in the Chicago Reader. His website can be seen here.

tally after this list / October 17, 2005


David Sterritt

  1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  2. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
  3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
  4. Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)
  5. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
  6. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
  7. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962-1964)
  8. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
  9. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1951)
  10. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Jean-Luc Godard
  2. Orson Welles
  3. Alfred Hitchcock
  4. Yasujiro Ozu
  5. Robert Bresson
  6. Michael Snow
  7. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  8. Stan Brakhage
  9. Stanley Kubrick
  10. John Cassavetes

David Sterritt is chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, adjunct professor of Language, Literature, and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and author/editor of several film-related books including, most recently, "Guiltless Pleasures: A David Sterritt Film Reader."

tally after this list / October 16, 2005


Tom Meek

  1. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
  2. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
  3. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
  4. The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
  5. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
  6. Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)
  7. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
  8. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)
  9. The Bridge Over the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
  10. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Sam Peckinpah
  2. Akira Kurasawa
  3. Francis Ford Coppola
  4. William Friedkin
  5. Stanley Kubrick
  6. David Lean
  7. Krzysztof Kieslowski
  8. Sergio Leone
  9. Zhang Yimou
  10. Martin Scorsese

Tom Meek is a contributing film critic for the Boston Phoenix and member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. His ramblings and rants have also appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Film Threat and E! Online. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, practices yoga religiously and rides his bike everywhere. Tom is currently working on a collection of short stories that take place in Boston and the surrounding cityscape.

tally after this list / October 16, 2005


Rod Armstrong

  1. Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
  2. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
  3. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
  4. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
  5. The Adjuster (Atom Egoyan, 1991)
  6. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)
  7. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1957)
  8. Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984)
  9. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley, 1997)
  10. Dreamchild (Gavin Millar, 1985)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Jean-Luc Godard
  2. Ingmar Bergman
  3. Orson Welles
  4. David Cronenberg
  5. Nicolas Roeg
  6. Alfred Hitchcock
  7. Werner Herzog
  8. Ken Russell
  9. Michelangelo Antonioni
  10. Robert Altman

Rod Armstrong worked for five years at Reel.com where he eventually became the Editor in Chief. He currently is a Programming Associate with the San Francisco Film Society. He likes books, too.

tally after this list / October 15, 2005


Jules Brenner

With an effort to pick films and directors representing different eras, nationalities and genres, here's my list which I consider as arguable as anyone else's. Memorability and influence are two keys to my choices. That, and gut feelings, which border on passionate for every one recalled.

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  2. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
  3. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  4. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
  5. La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
  6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
  7. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
  8. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953)
  9. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
  10. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
The also rans:
  • The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)
  • On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1955)
  • Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1970)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
  • Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
  • Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli, 1958)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1960)
  • Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
  • Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
  • Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
  • Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
  • Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
  • The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-03)
  • Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
  • The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950)
  • Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
  • Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
  • The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
  • 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
  • Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
  • The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
  • Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2001)
  • The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1972)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Orson Welles
  2. Alfred Hitchcock
  3. Akira Kurosawa
  4. Stanley Kubrick
  5. Federico Fellini
  6. Ingmar Bergman
  7. Steven Spielberg
  8. Sergei Eisenstein
  9. Roman Polanski
  10. John Huston

Jules Brenner has been writing reviews for his own web site (variagate.com/movrevue.htm?ctq) since late 1999, the year of "Girl, Interrupted" and "Cider House Rules." Later, joined the staff of filmcritic.com and has published reviews for several local papers in the Los Angeles area, currently for Entertainment Today. Is about to launch a column in a national magazine startup. Also: experience as Film Editor, accredited by MPAA, member AMPAS, lecturer on screenwriting. Quoted on Rotten Tomatoes, 100+ film reviews per year including major studio releases, independents large and minuscule, foreign, arthouse, documentaries and 1 short. "You can tell me what a lame list I selected by writing me at JbReviews@variagate.com".

tally after this list / October 13, 2005


Norm Schrager

  1. The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) -- Coppola and Puzo took an original story of ruthless, unforgiving power and elevated it to fascinating heights. It's an enormous chronicle of family, country and, like many great American epics, tragedy.

  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) -- The most quotable, memorable film of all time. And more than 60 years after its initial release, the timely Casablanca is still such great fun to watch. The film's snap-crackle storytelling and zippy editing still seem completely fresh.

  3. Citizen Kane (OrsonWelles, 1941) -- It sounds obvious to include this on any Top Ten list, but this film is that important. Welles' ability to turn film direction into a precise, technical art form is historic and still exciting.

  4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977) -- Star Wars had everyone dreaming about outer space. Close Encounters had them actually looking up there, wondering if something bigger -- bigger than broken families, a lying government, even loneliness -- could alter their lives.

  5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) -- Before all that work on A.I., Kubrick presented a whole other artificial intelligence, sending us into space (and primitive life) with painstaking detail, creating a hypnotic pace that's nearly indescribable.

  6. Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) -- The definition of sweeping epic. Completely entertaining from beginning to end, with just the right amount of passion and politics... and Julie Christie, of course. A romantic classic that can be admired over and over.

  7. Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996) -- John Sayles, a grand icon of American indie cinema, was at the top of his game with this enormously well-written chronicle of border town woes. A love story, a race story, a family story... all directed with efficiency and heartbreak.

  8. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) -- How could a horror movie feel so, well, real? Because William Friedkin, William Peter Blatty and the cast took this movie as seriously as any tragic drama. Jason Miller's performance is amazingly powerful and grossly underrated.

  9. Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson, 1997) -- In the greatest film of the 1990s, P.T. Anderson takes a cultural taboo and illustrates that everyone needs family (of some kind). Chaotic, scary and beautiful, with some of the most exciting moments I've ever experienced in a film.

  10. Avalon (Barry Levinson, 1990) -- Barry Levinson has tossed up many duds, but this chapter of his Baltimore Trilogy is a touching, sincere love letter to the immigrants that came to America, built solid families and grew old. Oral history never seemed so important.




Norm Schrager is a critic for 24 Frames per Second and filmcritic.com. His reviews can also be read at Rotten Tomatoes.

tally after this list / October 8, 2005


John Puccio

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  3. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  4. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
  5. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
  6. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
  7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
  8. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
  9. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1960)
  10. The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)



Teacher, English and Film Studies, retired. Classical Music Editor, $ensible Sound magazine. Review Editor, DVDTown.com. Bright, quiet, loyal, dependable. Easily trained. Will fetch. Make offer.

Mr. Puccio is also a member of the Online Film Critics Society, and can be read at Rotten Tomatoes.

tally after this list / October 7, 2005


Douglas Pratt

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1970)
  2. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1949)
  3. Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965)
  4. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
  5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
  6. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-03)
  7. Les Uns et Les Autres (Claude Lelouch, 1981)
  8. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
  9. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
  10. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Orson Welles
  2. Alfred Hitchcock
  3. Stanley Kubrick
  4. David Lean
  5. Charlie Chaplin
  6. Federico Fellini
  7. Fritz Lang
  8. Robert Altman
  9. Howard Hawks
  10. Bernardo Bertolucci

Douglas Pratt has been publishing his own home video periodical, The DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter, for the past 21 years and has written more than 15,000 reviews.

tally after this list / October 7, 2005


Kent Jones

(in chronological order)

  • The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1941)
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
  • Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
  • Fanny and Alexander (complete ver.) (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
  • Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
  • Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
and all of Renoir, Ford, Dreyer, Cassavetes, Hitchcock

Top 10 Directors (in alphabetical order)
  • John Cassavetes
  • Carl Dreyer
  • John Ford
  • D.W. Griffith
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Hou Hsiao-hsien
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • F.W. Murnau
  • Jean Renoir
  • Orson Welles

Kent Jones is Editor-at-Large for Film Comment.

tally after this list / October 7, 2005


Jake Euker

  1. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
  2. Un Chien andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1928)
  3. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
  4. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1969)
  5. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1968)
  6. I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatazov, 1964)
  7. Week-End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)
  8. The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)
  9. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
  10. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jaques Demy, 1964)

Jake Euker is a columnist and film critic for Wichita City Paper. His work occasionally appears online at filmcritic.com and elsewhere.

tally after this list / October 3, 2005


Peter Rist

It is, of course, ridiculous to try and produce a list of only ten “great” films or directors. I even find it difficult to produce a list of 100 films! But, here goes…

The films are listed in chronological order. There is no preference implied in this listing:

  • Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, 1927) -- Arguably the greatest studio film ever made. (Its US rivals would be CITIZEN KANE and VERTIGO.) Enormously influential stylistically for the remainder of the silent era, on Hollywood films, but also, perhaps even more so on late-silent Japanese and Chinese films (until 1935).

  • Chelovek s kinoapparatom (The Man with the Movie Camera) (Dziga Vertov, 1929) -- The finest reflexive film ever made, and, perhaps the greatest documentary film, it also stands as an incredibly dynamic example of the gloriously innovative and creative period of Soviet montage. (Alternative titles here would be Eisenstein's OCTOBER, Dovzhenko's ZVENIGORA, and Pudovkin's STORM OVER ASIA.)

  • Umarete wa mita keredo (I was Born, But...) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932) -- As one of the greatest comic films ever made-its rivals would be Chaplin's THE IMMIGRANT, Keaton's OUR HOSPITALITY, Lubitsch's TROUBLE IN PARADISE and Tati's PLAYTIME-and as a film directed by someone whose work was consistently great throughout his career, Ozu-alternative titles would be AN INN IN TOKYO (1935), EARLY SUMMER (1951), and his last film, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962). It also stands as an example of the great Japanese studio of the late-1920s and 1930s, Shochiku Kamata.

  • La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) (Jean Renoir, 1939) -- Ignored at the time when it was made, Renoir's greatest film is now recognized as being the most influential film on the French nouvelle vague (new wave) and the exemplary work of cinematic realism (as championed by André Bazin). There are no alternatives, here.

  • Sanshô dayû (Sansho the Bailiff) (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) -- There has to be a film on the list directed by Mizoguchi, whose extant films stand alongside Ozu's as the most outstanding body of work over a long career. This film is both distinctly Japanese and universal in its humanist appeal, and can also be cited as a remarkable example of a historical film. The best alternate title here would be UGETSU MONOGATARI (1953), which ideally represents the "fantastic' in film.

  • The "APU" Trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar) (Satyajit Ray, 1955-59) -- As the great humanist trilogy (rivalled only by Kiarostami's "Koker" trilogy and Hou Hsiao-hsien's trilogy of Taiwanese history) Ray's life of a character stands as a testament to Bengali art and culture. A strong Bengali alternative would be a film directed by Ritwik Ghatak, and a great tribute to Hindi cinema ("Bollywood") would be provided by Guru Dutt's KAAGAZ KE PHOOL (Paper Flowers, 1959) made in cinemascope.

  • Deux ou Trois choses que je sais d'elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) -- A representative work of European modernist filmmaking (and post modernity?), and of the nouvelle vague survivor, Jean-Luc Godard in his most extraordinarily creative period. Godard is also, arguably, the greatest filmmaker of the last 50 years, for having broken all the rules, and for having continued to challenge any notions we might have of "cinema" until the present day. (Stan Brakhage might be his only serious rival.)

  • Hora de los hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces) (Fernando E. Solanas/Octavio Getino, 1968) -- The greatest work of the cinematic left, the "3rd cinema" of the 1960s, and a representative Latin American film [The alternatives are Nelson Pereira dos Santos' VIDAS SECAS (BRAZIL, 1963), Glauber Rocha's TERRE EM TRANSE (Brazil, 1964), Luis Buñuel's LOS OLVIDADOS (Mexico, 1950), Fernandez/Figueroa's VICTIMS OF THE SLUMS (Mexico, 1950), numerous documentaries by Santiago Alvarez (Cuba) and LUCIA, Humberto Solas (Cuba, 1968)]. It also stands as the shining example of clandestine, underground filmmaking and group authorship in film-it was made by the collective Grupo Cine Liberación. It is also singular as a work deliberately made to be never finished, and open to changes by the audience; a true "work in progress."

  • La Région centrale (Michael Snow, 1971) -- The greatest experimental film ever made? Certainly this epic work explores frame movement like no other, and, if we are willing to go with it, will make us feel like we are travelling through alien space. (On this last point, an alternative choice would be Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Alternative "experimental" titles would be Leger's BALLET MÉCANIQUE, Maya Deren's MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, and Brakhage's ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT.)

  • Hsia nu (A Touch of Zen) (King Hu, 1969) -- My choice for a single film to represent both the art and entertainment of the medium. No film director in history was better able to combine these two tendencies, especially here in his masterpiece of wu xia pian, the swordplay film.

Here are ten filmmakers who have produced great work, consistently throughout their careers. There is one rule that I have adhered to: only filmmakers who are no longer working can be considered.

1st two are equal:

  • Yasujiro Ozu
  • Kenji Mizoguchi
the other eight are in no particular order:
  • Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Sergei Eisenstein
  • Jean Renoir
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Robert Bresson
  • Michelangelo Antonioni
  • Ritwik Ghatak
  • Andrei Tarkovsky

see also: Peter Rist's Top 100 List

Peter Rist is Professor of Film Studies in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He has edited books on Canadian and South American cinema, and, most recently has read papers and had articles published on silent Japanese and Chinese films. He contributes regularly to the online publication www.offscreen.com and the Chinese Cinema Digest.

tally after this list / September 29, 2005


John Nesbit

  1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
  2. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
  3. 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
  4. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  5. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  6. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
  7. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1954)
  8. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
  9. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
  10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Alfred Hitchcock
  2. Federico Fellini
  3. Francois Truffaut
  4. Martin Scorsese
  5. Luis Buñuel
  6. Akira Kurosawa
  7. Yasujiro Ozu
  8. Charlie Chaplin
  9. Stanley Kubrick
  10. Wong Kar-wai

After teaching high school English for over twenty years on the Navajo Reservation, John Nesbit now writes curriculum materials professionally for a computer company in the Phoenix area but reviews movies for enjoyment. Editor in chief of ToxicUniverse.com, he is a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

tally after this list / September 28, 2005


Peter Sobczynski

Anyone can supply a list of the ten most important and significant films in the history of the art form and I suspect many already have-films such as Battleship Potemkin, Citizen Kane and the like. Instead, I would prefer to send a list of my ten personal favorites--they may not be the most important works but most have influenced the way that I look at film and all have provided me with immense satisfaction every time I have taken a look at them.

  1. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension (W.D. Richter, 1984) -- Imagine every film genre placed into a blender and turned into one jaw-dropping cinematic smoothie. A shamelessly goofy and head-spinning work of pop-art that defies description and is all the better for it.

  2. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) -- Until the last few minutes, in which everything works out well for James Stewart (in one of his greatest performances) in the end, Frank Capra's masterwork is one of the darkest visions of American life ever portrayed on the screen. Of course, most viewers over the years have tended to repress the darkness but it remains as powerful today as the day it premiered.

  3. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933) -- Simply the funniest film ever made and one where the jokes, sadly, will never go out of style.

  4. Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, 1941) -- The first movie I ever saw--the first conscious memory of anything that I can recall--and the one that began my lifelong fascination with the medium. Plus, I defy anyone not to break up in tears when Dumbo visits his imprisoned mother.

  5. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) -- Utilizing every trick in his arsenal, Martin Scorsese's masterpiece kicks off with one of the more attention-grabbing teasers in film history and keeps going like a bat out of hell for 150 minutes. Not just the best gangster film, this is one of the most compelling depiction in any form of the cheap allure of crime and the toll that it eventually exacts from those who pursue it.

  6. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) -- No matter how many times you have seen it, Steven Spielberg's masterpiece remains the most stylish and effective Hollywood blockbuster ever produced and still works as efficently today as it did when it first premiered.

  7. Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) -- Even though he revolutionized the world of cinema with his radical approach to the medium, Jean-Luc Godard's masterwork demonstrated that he could still tell a direct and emotional story as well as anyone else and the performance that he coaxed out of then-wife Anna Karina may be, with the possible exception of Falconetti in "The Passion of Joan of Arc," the most devastating and heartbreaking work by an actress to ever be captured on film.

  8. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) -- Stanley Kubrick's largely misunderstood masterpiece is essentially a 146-minute horror film about the terrors of writer's block--a concept that I, for one, can relate to with far greater ease than any machete-swinging maniacs or Eurotrash vampires.

  9. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) -- Hollywood entertainment in its purest form--funny, exciting and filled with great performances, endlessly quotable bits of dialogue and even a song or two. Oh, and it also features Angie Dickinson at her foxiest. If you don't adore this film, you simply don't love movies.

  10. Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981) -- Brian De Palma's largely misunderstood thriller fused together black comedy, nail-biting suspense, nods to any number of cinematic icons and a summation of one of the most tumultuous periods of American history and then topped things off with one of the most stunning gut-punches ever put on film.


Top 10 Directors
  1. Stanley Kubrick
  2. Martin Scorsese
  3. Alfred Hitchcock
  4. Jean-Luc Godard
  5. Brian De Palma
  6. Orson Welles
  7. Dario Argento
  8. Roman Polanski
  9. Akira Kurosawa
  10. Robert Altman

Peter Sobczynski is a film critic based in Chicago for the Liberty Suburban Chicago Newspapers chain and can also be heard discussing film on the syndicated "Mancow's Morning Madhouse" radio show. His reviews can be seen every week at the Hollywoodbitchslap.com website. Comments, complaints, proposals, snide remarks, death threats and Milla Jovovich's phone number can be sent to him at petersob@hollywoodbitchslap.com.

tally after this list / September 25, 2005


Robin Buss

  1. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
  2. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
  3. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
  4. La Grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
  5. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)
  6. Les 400 Coups (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
  7. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  8. La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954)
  9. The Godfather (Francis Coppola, 1972)
  10. The Red Circle (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)

Top 10 Directors
  1. Ingmar Bergman
  2. Sergei Eisenstein
  3. Marcel Carne
  4. Yasujiro Ozu
  5. Jean Renoir
  6. Eric Rohmer
  7. Jean Vigo
  8. Pier Paolo Pasolini
  9. Federico Fellini
  10. Akira Kurosawa

Robin Buss is a British critic, writer and translator. He is the author of two books on French cinema and one on Italian cinema, a journalist who writes mainly on cinema and literature, and a leading translator of 19th-century and 20th-century French literature, including works by Camus, Sartre, Dumas, Balzac and Zola.

tally after this list / September 24, 2005


Carter Liotta

  1. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) -- THIS is how to tell a story with a camera.

  2. The Godfather, Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) -- "We're not murderers, in spite of what this undertaker may think..."

  3. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) -- Perhaps the most perfect script ever put to film.

  4. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) -- Mesmerizing.

  5. Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984) -- Epic and incredible. Tom Hulce, where have you gone?

  6. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) -- Classic Hitchcock, witty script, and perfectly paced.

  7. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) -- a re-definition of movies and moviemaking in my generation.

  8. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981) -- one of the coolest movies ever, though the obvious Citizen Kane ripoff at the end was a bit of a downer.

  9. Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992) -- Perfect soundtrack from two composers. Beautiful cinematography from Dante Spinnoti. Wonderful story. Highly underrated.

  10. A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935) -- Good musical numbers, funny plot, and pure entertainment. Quentissential Marx Brothers.



tally after this list / September 23, 2005


Jack Veasey

Here's my top 10 list (in somewhat random order):

  • The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) -- Probably my favorite film of all time, mostly because it's so surprising. Edward Woodward plays a pompous, pious detective who's appalled by the pagan customs and lifestyles of Summerisle, an island off the coast of Scotland where he's sent to investigate a child's disappearance. He walks around fuming while the islanders have sly laughs at his expense, until the cultural differences take a darker turn. Paul Giovanni's amazing folk music alone makes the film worth seeing.

  • The Wizard Of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) -- It really needs no explanation, does it?

  • Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

  • The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) -- These are two films over which I'm powerless. If I notice they're on television, I'll drop everything, anytime, to watch either of them. I love them both equally, and still get totally swept up in them, though I've seen them countless times. The sixties were my formative decade, and Hitch started them off with a bang.

  • Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962) -- Another sixties masterpiece. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford can chew scenery like no one else, and the subliminal energy from their famous off-screen grudge nearly sets the celluloid on fire. Davis particularly manages to be both horrific and sympathetic -- and her piano lesson with eye-rolling Victor Buono is priceless. It's also the film that introduced a whole generation of gay men to the indispensable line, "But you are, Blanche."

  • The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy, 1956) -- Patty McCormick looks cute in those pigtails but takes no prisoners as the ultimate spoiled brat. A now campy but still wonderfully entertaining adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play. Eileen Heckart shines in a supporting role as the alcoholic mother of one of Patty's deceased, mmm ... playmates.

  • Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932) -- An affecting film featuring a substantial number of real-life sideshow freaks, who suffer cruelty at the hands some of the more "normal" members of the circus-- up to a point. You can't help but identify with the freaks. An obvious parable, but an undeniably effective one.

  • Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) -- A ham-handed German silent "statement" film, with symbolism that all but bangs you over the head -- but visually mesmerizing. Full of unforgettable images, such as sweating workers trying frantically to control the hands of unforgiving giant clocks lest the machines controlling their environment explode. The film also gave us cinema's first robot femme fatale.

  • Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976) -- Okay, this one is therapy. I had a crazy, abusive mother whose take on Christianity eschewed charity and embraced revenge. Piper Laurie does an amazing job as Carrie's whacked door-to-door evangelist mom, Sissy Spacek is her harrassed yet blossoming telekinetic daughter, the electricity between them is arresting, and they both deserved the Oscars for which they were nominated. I've seen this film so many times I can recite the dialogue as if I were a cultist at The Rocky Horror Show. It's nearly tied in my affections, though, with another De Palma film, "Phantom Of The Paradise," which features powerful and highly original Paul Williams rock songs performed by the beguiling Jessica Harper, another underrated actress. But there are only ten spaces on this list. And the last space goes to...

  • Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) -- A plethora of wonderfully eccentric characters woven together through a rambling plot into an at first horrifying, then uplifting final scene. The movie has a large, star-studded cast -- but the one who makes the most indelible impression is then-newcomer Ronee Blakley, another Oscar nominee who got robbed. Her heartbreaking vocal performance of her own lyrical country waltz, "Dues," and her subsequent ad-libbed onstage breakdown, remain a riveting highlight.


Jack Veasey is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being "The Moon In The Nest" (Crosstown Books). In his hometown of Philadelphia he spent the seventies and eighties working as a journalist for a number of publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, and his interview subjects included filmmakers David Lynch and John Waters. He is co-host of the Van Gogh's Ear poetry reading series at Open Stage, and sings first tenor with The Unisingers and The Harrsiburg Men's Chorus.

tally after this list / September 23, 2005


Rusty Baker

  1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  2. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
  3. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
  4. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
  5. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
  6. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
  7. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
  8. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-03)
  9. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
  10. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
    Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
    Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953)


Rusty Baker is the Executive Director of the Susquehanna Art Musuem.

tally after this list / September 23, 2005


Kevin Laforest

  1. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
  2. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994)
  3. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
  4. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
  5. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
  6. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donan/Gene Kelly, 1952)
  7. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
  8. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
  9. Magnolia (P.T. Anderson, 1999)
  10. Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)


See also Kevin's updated list: Aug. 10, 2007

Kevin Laforest is a film critic for alt weekly Voir and www.montrealfilmjournal.com, plays in a band on and off (mostly off) and has recently published his first (and probably last) novel. He insists he invented the question mark.

tally after this list / September 23, 2005

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