Every ten years, Sight and Sound magazine publishes what is probably the most esteemed "Best Movies of All Time Poll" in the world. http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/index.html Here are the 2002 results: CRITICS POLL 1. Citizen Kane (Welles) 2. Vertigo (Hitchcock) 3. La Règle du jeu (Renoir) 4. The Godfather and The Godfather part II (Coppola) 5. Tokyo Story (Ozu) 6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) 7. (tie) Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein) Sunrise (Murnau) 9. 8 1/2 (Fellini) 10. Singin' In the Rain (Kelly, Donen) DIRECTORS POLL 1. Citizen Kane (Welles) 2. The Godfather and The Godfather part II (Coppola) 3. 8 1/2 (Fellini) 4. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) 5. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) 6. (tie) Bicycle Thieves (De Sica) Raging Bull (Scorsese) Vertigo (Hitchcock) 9. (tie) Rashomon (Kurosawa) La Règle du jeu (Renoir) Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) CRITICS TOP DIRECTORS 1. (tie) Orson Welles Alfred Hitchcock 3. Jean-Luc Godard 4. Jean Renoir 5. Stanley Kubrick 6. Akira Kurosawa 7. Federico Fellini 8. John Ford 9. Sergei Eisenstein 10.(tie) Francis Ford Coppola Yasujiro Ozu DIRECTORS TOP DIRECTORS 1. Orson Welles 2. Federico Fellini 3. Akira Kurosawa 4. Francis Ford Coppola 5. Alfred Hitchcock 6. Stanley Kubrick 7. Billy Wilder 8. Ingmar Bergman 9. (tie) Martin Scorsese David Lean Jean Renoir
Interesting to compare the polls from year to year. The majority of the films were silents in 1952 and now only two silents remain. These polls generally have had an anti-Hollywood bias ("Kane" was the only film on the 1962 list that was made in America by an American), but now the majority are Hollywood-made or American-directed.
Notables who did not make any of the four lists: Chaplin Keaton Griffith Hawks Bunuel Antonioni Satayayit Ray Tarkovski Truffaut Bresson Dreyer Fassbinder Oshima Pasolini Fritz Lang Also, there's some serious overrating of Coppola and David Lean going on.
The absence of Satayajit Ray and Tarkovsky seem pretty amazing to me. Andrei Rublev has got to be one of the best movies ever made and many of Ray's films are excellent as well. I like a lot of Eisenstein's stuff, but don't think it compares to either of the above listed folks.
Q: What do the following movies have in common: American Graffiti The Bellboy Car Wash Dawn of the Dead Day of the Dead Deep Throat Dune A: All received at least one vote in the poll I didn't read beyond "D." There surely are many other gems.
Warning: Half-Sarcasm Alert No Casablanca? Also, Kevin Costner's directing in Dances With Wolves was evidently overlooked. This calls the whole poll into question.
Fellini is better than Lynch. but wasn't Desicca's film called "Bicycle Thief" and not "thieves"????????
The original Italian title is plural, as in "thieves." The title was made singular for the American release, probably because they thought Americans would only see the father and not the son as a thirf.
I see. Thanks for the info. It's a classic movie and I am glad I now have the proper name. Where is Dario Argento in the best Director category? Damn thing must be rigged.
Peter Bradshaw knows his movies. I've never heard of the guy, but he's got great taste. He's the critic for The Guardian out of the UK. Ballsy critic, to say the least.
And as for the director with the coolest choices, I'd say that belongs to George Armitage. Very learned film guy, he is.
Thanks for the link Gringotex, that was a revelation. All very interesting. I wonder did they come up with a vote tally for all of the films?