Another Project...

[drasecretcampus]

Watching Chinatown for the first time reminds me of the gaps in my film knowledge, and I ought to do something about it. If anything as a reason to choose what to watch next (aside from two versions of Blade Runner). There are various film lists, but the AFI and BFI ones are American and British only respectively (I've world cinema gaps). Time Out's 1995 poll offers a top 88 of a hundred films which looks beyond the Anglophone. 1995 is probably also a good point for considering myself cineliterate as I was about to teach film; in what follows I've bolded those I've seen but underscored those which I probably have seen but was too - young? ignorant? - to appreciate. I may rewatch some I've seen anyway. And I've seen less than half of them...


1: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
2: The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
3: La Règle du jeu (Rules of the Game) (Jean Renoir, 1939)
4: Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
5: The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
6: Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
7: Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
8: Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
9: Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
10: L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
11: The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
12: The Conformist (Il Conformista) (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1971)
13: Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du paradis) (Marcel Carné, 1944)
13: A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
15: 8-1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
15: The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
17: North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
17: Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
19: Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
20: La Dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1959)
20: The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
22: The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
23: Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
23: Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
23: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
26: Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
26: Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
28: It’s A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
28: Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
28: The Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
31: The General (Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman, 1927)
32: Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
32: Breathless (À bout de souffle) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
32: Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
36 : Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
37: My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
37: All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
37: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
40: The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
40: Pierrot le fou (Pierrot Goes Wild) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
42: The Last Year at Marienbad (L’Année dernière à Marienbad) (Alain Resnais, 1961)
42: The Four Hundred Blows (Les Quatre cents coups) (François Truffaut, 1959)
42: Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
42: Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
42: The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
42: Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
48: La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965)
49: The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
49: The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1924)
49: The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
49: A Day in the Country (Une Partie de campagne) (Jean Renoir, 1936)
49: Grand Illusion (La Grande illusion) (Jean Renoir, 1937)
49: Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
49: The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
49: Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
57: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
57: The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)
57: Singin’ In The Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952)
60: Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
60: Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
60: Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
60: Le Samourai (The Samurai) (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
60: Sans soleil (Sunless) (Chris Marker, 1983)
60: The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
66: Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)
66: Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
66: The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc) (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
66: Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
66: Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
66: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
72: All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
72: Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
72: Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
72: Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
72: Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946. )
72: Out of the Past (Build My Gallows High) (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
72: The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
72: Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
80: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
80: City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
80: Ran (Chaos) (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
80: The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) (Víctor Erice, 1973)
80: Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
85: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
85: Ordet (The Word) (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1954)
85: Red (Three Colors: Red) (Trois Couleurs: Rouge) (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
88: Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)
88: Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
88: L’Avventura (The Adventure) (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
88: Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
88: Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
88: The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
88: The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) (Sergei Paradzhanov, Sergei Yutkevich, 1969.
88: Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
88: Earth (Zemlya) (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1930)
88: Fanny och Alexander (Fanny and Alexander) (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
88: The Jetty (La Jetée) (The Pier) (Chris Marker, 1962)
88: Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949)
88: The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
88: Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
88: The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
88: Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho dayu) (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
88: The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) (Ingmar Bergman, 1956)
88: Ugetsu monogatari (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953)
88: West Side Story (Robert Wise, Joerome Robbins, 1961)

So, the list is (25 April 2008):

1. L’Avventura (The Adventure) (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
   
2. Fanny och Alexander (Fanny and Alexander) (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
   
3. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
   
4. The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) (Ingmar Bergman, 1956)
   
5. The Conformist (Il Conformista) (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1971)
   
6. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
   
7. Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
   
8. Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du paradis) (Marcel Carné, 1944)
   
9. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)
   
10. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
    
11. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
    
12. Earth (Zemlya) (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1930)
    
13. Ordet (The Word) (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1954)
    
14. The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc) (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
    
15. The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) (Víctor Erice, 1973)
    
16. 8-1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)
    
17. Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973)
    
18. La Dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1959)
    
19. Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
    
20. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
    
21. The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
    
22. Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
    
23. Pierrot le fou (Pierrot Goes Wild) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
    
24. Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
    
25. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
    
26. Singin’ In The Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952)
    
27. Red (Three Colors: Red) (Trois Couleurs: Rouge) (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
    
28. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
    
29. Ran (Chaos) (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
    
30. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
    
31. The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
    
32. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
    
33. The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
    
34. Sans soleil (Sunless) (Chris Marker, 1983)
    
35. Le Samourai (The Samurai) (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
    
36. Sansho the Bailiff (Sansho dayu) (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1954)
    
37. Ugetsu monogatari (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953)
    
38. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
    
39. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
    
40. Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
    
41. Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929)
    
42. The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) (Sergei Paradzhanov, Sergei Yutkevich, 1969.
    
43. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
    
44. La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965)
    
45. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
    
46. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
    
47. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
    
48. Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
    
49. A Day in the Country (Une Partie de campagne) (Jean Renoir, 1936)
    
50. Grand Illusion (La Grande illusion) (Jean Renoir, 1937)
    
51. La Règle du jeu (Rules of the Game) (Jean Renoir, 1939)
    
52. Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
    
53. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
    
54. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
    
55. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
    
56. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
    
57. Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
    
58. West Side Story (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, 1961)
    

I have copies of some of these, and some of this is embarrassing. Time to start putting that right.