For much of its history, Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” has seemed secure with its designation as the Greatest of All Time. Perhaps the most telling indication of Kane’s heady GOAT status is the fact it had held the top slot in the British film magazine “Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time” ranking for fifty years. And then came Hitchcock: in 2012, “Vertigo” leapt past “Kane” and earned the top spot overall, after gaining on Orson and Charles Foster for the last thirty years.
Ten years later, it’s that time again. In a few months, “Sight & Sound” will be releasing the results from the latest vote, which every decade compiles top ten lists from thousands of members of the international film community. Lucky for us, those lists are posted online. It’s a favorite rabbithole, spending some time searching through the alphabet to find out which films meant the most to this unprecedented reach of critics, directors, programmers, etc.
At The Movie Buff, we can’t resist throwing our own top-ten celebration. In response to the forthcoming “Sight & Sound” list – which we will cover at length, once it is made public – we’ve conducted a poll of our own, asking our critics to submit their own top-ten lists. It’s an eclectic mix, containing some of those canonical titles (from Bergman, Godard, and Kubrick) featured on so many previous “Sight & Sound” lists, as well as modern classics (from Baumbach, Gerwig, and Zhao) which could sneak their way into this year’s rankings.
(*Lists are in order of the critics’ last names).
Kevin Clark
1. “Rocky” – A beautiful love story and the ultimate underdog tale. The chemistry between Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire is off the charts; you root for Rocky and Adrian every moment of the film, both of them finding strength from each other to overcome their biggest fears. The climactic boxing match is realistic and brutal, and if this film doesn’t inspire and move you, you’ve been knocked out by Apollo Creed.
2. “Dawn of the Dead” – “Night of the Living Dead” was a tasty appetizer, but “Dawn of the Dead” was an epic feast. Increasing the scale and amping up the horror from the first film, “Dawn of the Dead” mixes vicious horror, comedy (a pie fight with zombies???), character conflict and some surprisingly touching moments to forge the perfect zombie film. Long live indoor shopping malls!
3. “Roman Holiday” – A roller-coaster ride of a love story set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck have amazing chemistry, and they look like they’re genuinely having a blast throughout the film. Eddie Albert’s Irving is a beatnik photographer, much different from the roles he played throughout his career, but he makes Irving charming and he almost steals the film from Peck. The ending (oh that ending!) is an incredibly touching finale to a joyful film.
4. “The Way of the Dragon” – Bruce Lee wrote, produced, choreographed, directed and starred in this film. It was his last completed film (he died midway through filming his next film, “Game of Death”). It’s a masterpiece, with some of Bruce’s best fight scenes (including an epic final fight with Chuck Norris). What I love most about the film is Bruce’s self-deprecating humor here. The first few minutes of the film, where Bruce’s character Tang Lung arrives in Rome, shows him making one mistake and faux pas after another, and it’s hilarious (especially one scene in a restaurant where he struggles to figure out what to order off an Italian menu). Sure, Bruce still decimates everyone in the fight scenes, but there are moments in the film where he’s wonderfully clueless and bumbling too, and it’s so much fun to watch.
5. “City Lights” – Arguably Charlie Chaplin’s greatest film. It is a bittersweet comedy filled with one hilarious set piece after another (the climactic boxing match has to be seen to be believed). The film captures the desperation and hopelessness of The Great Depression, along with the agony and joy of love. Chaplin’s Tramp is iconic as ever here, shifting from ridiculous to noble to courageous throughout the film. Virginia Cherrill is gentle and lovely as the blind girl that the Tramp falls for. The ending is one of the greatest endings in film history, incredibly moving and beautiful.
6. “Playtime” – Jacque Tati’s fourth film (his third film playing the character Monsieur Hulot), that took 3 years to make, “Playtime” is set in Paris and has Hulot getting in one crazy situation after another. “Playtime” is mostly wordless, but there’s so much happening in the film that no words are needed. The film’s theme is how overwhelming the modern world and modern technology are, how humanity is constantly blitzed from all directions by it.
Tati (who also directed the film) shoots all the scenes in wide angle, and every corner is filled with some kind of motion or detail. Though Hulot is the focus, walking around most of the time baffled and curious, getting into mishaps, there are characters in the background who also hilariously fall prey to the speed of modern civilization. The Paris architecture is beautiful to behold, and the film ends with a beautiful carousel-like procession of multi-colored cars and trucks, the colors popping like a cotton candy traffic jam.
7. “Dazed and Confused” – A breezy film with no plot, but it’ll keep you transfixed from beginning to end as the characters (mostly high schoolers on their first day of Summer vacation in 1976) cruise around, smoke weed, talk about life, and just hang out at the local arcade. The film captures the fashions and feel of 1976, so much so you wish you could jump into the film to join them. The film has one great classic rock track after another and there’s not a boring character in the film. So many great actors are here, very early in their careers, like Matthew Mcconaughey, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, and Parker Posey.
8. “Sixteen Candles” – The first film by John Hughes and one of his best and funniest. Molly Ringwald is natural and perfectly cast as Samantha. You sympathize with her and the fact that none of her family remembered her birthday. Anthony Michael Hall’s Farmer Ted is hilariously non-politically correct, but I don’t find the non-PC scenes so bad, since most of these characters are high school kids, and when was a high school kid in the ’80s PC?
What I love most about the film is that there are no bad people in it. Even Jake Ryan’s girlfriend Caroline, who’s “the perfect girl” and in any other film would have been evil and vindictive, ultimately ends up being good-hearted and gentle. There are so many drop-dead funny scenes and film has a wonderfully sweet finale that brings back sweet memories of High School.
9. “A Woman is a Woman” – My favorite Jean-Luc Godard film (and I love all his films), “A Woman is a Woman” features the beautiful Anna Karina as Angela, an exotic dancer who desperately wants to have a child, but her boyfriend Emile is perpetually not ready for it. Emile’s friend Alfred (played by the great Jean-Paul Belmondo) is in love with Angela also, and is willing to have a baby with her.
I love Godard’s bizarre asides and transitions (including a fun scene where Angela and Alfred stop and go into a variety of poses in the street for no reason), which are mainstays of French New Wave films and the reason I love them so. They’re rarely told in a linear fashion. The film is funny in places, heart-breaking in others, but it’s a breezy fun watch. Even when the characters are at their lowest point, the film is still overflowing with hope. It’s a great love story that could have easily tanked, but triumphs instead.
10. “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” – A rare sequel film that exceeds the original film. The first “Star Wars” film was fun and triumphant, but “The Empire Strikes Back” is a more mature and darker film, where the heroes are fallible and aren’t always guaranteed a win. The film is filled with spectacular effects and breakneck action from beginning to end and some great new characters (including Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett) make their debuts, adding new layers to the saga that are still being continued to this day, 40 years later.
