by Tom Kando
I have been a movie buff all my life. The thousands of movies I have seen include many of the world’s best. Lately I have been playing with some databases, looking at movie rankings, directors, nationalities, etc.
Perhaps the most popular movie database is IMBd - the Internet Movie Database. It is a trove of over three million titles. Unfortunately, its most popular feature is an unsatisfactory ranking of the top 250 movies, as voted by IMDb users. In other words, a popularity contest.
So I went to another website instead: TSPDT (They Shoot Pictures Don’t They). This is an excellent source, which ranks the 1,000 best movies ever made, as well as the 250 best directors, based on the votes of three and a half thousand critics, film makers and other experts. A caveat is the sample of voters: The vast majority are Americans, with a sprinkling of Frenchmen and other foreigners. Nevertheless, I want to share some of the things I discovered:
The 10 All-time Best Movies:
1. Citizen Kane, by Orson Welles, US
2. Vertigo, by Alfred Hitchcock, US/UK
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick, UK
4. Tokyo Story, by Yasujiro Ozu, Japan
5. The Rules of the Game, by Jean Renoir, France
6. 8 1/2, by Federico Fellini, Italy
7. The Godfather, by Francis Ford Coppola, US
8. Sunrise, by F. W. Murnau, US/Germany
9. The Searchers, by John Ford, US
10. Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa, Japan
The 10 All-time Best Directors:
1. Alfred Hitchcock, US/UK
2. Orson Welles, US
3. Stanley Kubrick, UK
4. Federico Fellini, Italy
5. Jean-Luc Godard, France
6. Akira Kurosawa, Japan
7. Jean Renoir, France
8. Francis Ford Coppola, US
9. John Ford, US
10. Ingmar Bergman, Sweden
Among the hundreds of geniuses who have directed brilliant movies all over the world, five giants stand out: Hitchcock (I believe that I have seen every one of his films), then Welles, Kubrick, Godard and Fellini, in that order.
The 10 Most Prolific Countries;
1. US: made 389 of the 900 best movies ever made (43%)
2. France: 137 “ (18%)
3 Italy: 56 “ (6%)
4. UK: 53 “ (6%)
5. Germany: 41 “ (5%)
6. Japan: 38 “ (4%)
7. Russia: 24 “ (3%)
8. Spain: 23 “ (3%)
9. China/Hong Kong: 19 “ (2%)
10. Sweden: 15 “ (2%)
Comments for the chauvinists among us, in other words for those who are concerned about national rankings: What about the overwhelming American dominance? First of all, I’ll repeat: this is a biased source. Most of the votes come from the US. That said, there is no doubt that the 20th century has been the American century and the Hollywood century. Nothing lasts forever, but for the past hundred years, it is what it is.
At any rate, even in this America-centric ranking, France’s contribution is proportionally larger than that of the US: based on that country’s size, it should only have produced about 8% or 70 of the world’s best pictures, in comparison with the US. And by the way, the first movie ever made is French: Voyage dans la Lune, by George Melies, 1902, ranked as the 277th best movie ever made.
My Personal Preferences:
I have seen 30% of the world’s 1000 best films, including 8 of the top 10. Among those, I have missed Ozu’s Tokyo Story and Murnau’s Sunrise.
It is difficult to identify a small number of favorites, but I’ll try, and I will skip the most predictable ones such as Coppola’s Godfather I and Kubrick’s Spartacus. Here are my 50 favorites on the TSPDT list, by countries. The rankings are those of the TSPDT website, not mine:
American:
Singing in the Rain, by Donen and Kelly #16
City Lights, by Charlie Chaplin #29
Touch of Evil, by Orson Welles #34
Modern Times, by Charlie Chaplin, #42
On the Waterfront, by Elia Kazan #57
Annie Hall, by Woody Allen #92
The Deer Hunter, by Michael Cimino #188
Red River, by Howard Hawk #201
The Quiet Man, by John Ford #233
Groundhog Day, by Harold Ramis #279
Schindler’s List, by Steven Spielberg #302
The West Side Story, by Robert Wise #349
Fantasia, by Ben Sharpsteen and Walt Disney #370
The Hustler, by Robert Rossen #406
High Noon, by Fred Zinnemann #416
Amadeus, by Milos Forman #441
Shane, by George Stevens #468
Pinocchio, by Ben Sharpsteen and Walt Disney #475
The Manchurian Candidate, by John Frankenheimer #538
12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet #551
Bambi, by David Hand and Walt Disney #574
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Blake Edwards #594
Titanic, by James Cameron #661
L.A. Confidential, by Curtis Hansen #744
Dumbo, by Ben Sharpsteen and Walt Disney #746
A Streetcar Named Desire, by Elia Kazan #777
Roman Holiday, by William Wyler #794
No Country for Old Men, by Coen brothers #815
French:
Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard #14
400 Blows, by Francois Truffaut #23
La Grande Illusion, by Jean Renoir #39
Les Enfants du Paradis, by Marcel Carne #54
Vivre sa Vie, by Jean-Luc Godard #120
The Wages of Fear, by Henri-Georges Clouzot #251
Forbidden Games, by Rene Clement #714
Italian:
The Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica #13
L’Avventura, by Michelangelo Antonioni #28
La Dolce Vita, by Federico Fellini #31
La Strada, by Federico Fellini #66
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, by Sergio Leone #149
British:
The Third Man, by Carol Reed #43
Strangers on a Train, by Alfred Hitchcock #395
German:
Three Penny Opera, by G. W. Pabst #230
Triumph of the Will, by Leni Riefenstalh #432
Japanese:
Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa #10
Swedish:
Wild Strawberries, by Ingmar Bergman #68
The Seventh Seal, by Ingmar Bergman #70
The Virgin Spring, by Ingmar Bergman #649
Spanish:
Viridiana, by Luis Bunuel #76
Los Olvidados, by Luis Bunuel #105
So these are my favorite 50 pictures on TSPDT’s list of the 1,000 best films ever made.
In addition, I also put together a list of 30 movies notably missing from the TSPDT list, and which I also like a great deal, by countries. Again, the rankings are not mine. They and the scores are the ones used by the IMDb website:
American:
Saving Private Ryan, by Steven Spielberg #33
The Gladiator, by Ridley Scott #47
Gone Girl, by David Fincher (2014) #83
Witness for the Prosecution, by Billy Wilder #86
Indiana Jones, by Steven Spielberg #102
The Wolf of Wall Street, by Martin Scorsese #127
Judgment at Nuremberg, by Stanley Kramer #158
Twelve Years as a Slave, by Steve McQueen (US/British) #166
Grand Budapest Hotel, by Wes Anderson (2014) #180
You Can’t take it With You, by Frank Capra 8.0
Planet of the Apes, by Franklin Schaffner 8.0
Fiddler on the Roof, by Norman Jewison 8.0
Dances with Wolves, by Kevin Costner 8.0
Avatar, by James Cameron 7.9
The Ten Commandments, by Cecil B. DeMille 7.9
From Here to Eternity, by Fred Zinnemann 7.8
Apocalypto, by Mel Gibsons 7.8
Midnight in Paris, by Woody Allen 7.7
Falling Down, by Joel Schumacher 7.6
The Little Mermaid, by Ron Clements 7.6
Broadway Danny Rose, by Woody Allen 7.5
Mutiny on the Bounty - 1962, by Lewis Milestone 7.2
Cleopatra 1963, by Joseph Mankiewicz 7.0
The Greatest Show on Earth, bu Cecil B. DeMille 6.7
French: Jean de Florette, by Claude Berri 8.1
Manon Des Sources, by Claude Berri 8.1
Italian: Life is Beautiful, by Roberto Benigni #28
British: Slumdog Millionaire, by D. Boyle and L. Tandan (British/Indian) #243
Zorba the Greek, by Michael Cacoyannis (British/Greek) 7.8
Notting Hill, by Roger Michell 7.0
As to the list of the 250 greatest directors, I want to add just a few names to it, alphabetically:
1. Ben Affleck, because he is so new and coming on so strong, right now (Argo)
2. Mel Gibson, because he has, despite screwing up so badly, still managed to come out with provocative and original movies, even recently (Apocalypto, The Passion of Christ)
3. Cecil B. DeMille, because he is such an immense historical figure who has made historical movies (The Greatest Show on Earth, The Ten Commandments)
4. Oliver Stone, because he is incapable of making boring movies (Platoon, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Wall Street, The Doors)
And one more thing: During the 1950s and 1960s, Doris Day and company made a whole bunch of very entertaining and funny films that have withstood the test of time: Films such as Pillow Talk, Send Me No Flowers, The Thrill of it All, Lover Come Back, That Touch of Mink, and Move Over Darling involve actors such as Rock Hudson, Cary Grant and James Garner, directors such as Norman Jewison and Delbert Mann, and the central star is always Doris Day, incredibly traditional and corny and always hilariously funny, at least if you can get past the insane ways in which the culture dealt with sex and gender back then.
No doubt there are great gaps in this article, which reflect gaps in my knowledge. For example, I am utterly unfamiliar with Japanese and other Asian movies. Also, I don’t do justice to the rich movie traditions of some other countries, for example Russia (Eisenstein). Even so, I hope that you can connect to some of my “lists,” as I am sure that you have seen at least some of these pictures. leave comment here
© Tom Kando 2014
10 comments:
As your film nut kid, I love this post and I agree with so much of what you've written. I will add though, that Affleck has really only directed one good film (Argo) and he did not direct "Gone Girl." That was done by another amazing younger American director, David Fincher, who is responsible for Kevin Spacey's skyrocketing to fame in the film "Seven." What I'd like to hear your thoughts on now, as we talked about a lot over the years, is how film scoring really makes films superior. I know we both agree that "The Third Man" has memorable music. What others do you think deserve credit in that regard?
Thank you for your comments, DKK, and for correcting me about Ben Affleck. I have corrected the post. To me, the music in "The Third Man" is fantastic, and it is one of things that makes that movie one of my all-time favorites. (You and I know that not everyone agrees with that, ha ha). Another movie like that is "Forbidden Games." I have a weak spot for French movies in this regard, because there have been some great French movie music scorers - Michel LeGrand, Maurice Jarre, etc. One film I forgot to mention on my lists is l’Amerique Insolite, a fabuloous documentary about America by Francois Reichenbach (1060) and music by Michel Legrand. But of course, there are many other fine film composers, Henri Mancini (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) Miklos Rosza, Khatchaturian (Spartacus), etc
What? No, "Debbie Does Dallas"? I'm terribly disappointed!
Bruce:
I’m afraid I only included the movie about the other “Bambi” - the one by Walt Disney.
Forget the French. They thought Jerry Lewis was a good actor
I always enjoy these kinds of lists. I do find, however, that a few of the movies and directors I would add to my own list don't do it for me now when I see them again after a few decades. For example, I recently embarked on a Netflix Fellini festival, and found many of the films I thought I loved rather boring, repetitious, and irritating. I still loved La Dolce Vita, and the cinematography in most -but maybe too many in a row are too many in a row. Still -- I bless Ted Turner for TCM and and Netflix for making most of these movies so accessible so I can enjoy them again and again.
Interesting post. One thing that strikes me is that some films we saw long ago now seem dated. For example, I still like Fellini’s Dolce Vita, but some of his other work seems dated...
Scott is funny. Actually, the website TSPDT lists Jerry Lewis among the 250 best directors of all times: he is ranked #230, for his movies like The Ladies Man (766th best movie of all times) and The Nutty professor (967th best movie).
Cassandra: You are so right. To me, Easy Rider is an example of a dated movie, and another one is Billy Jack, which I liked at the time, and which I now find embarrassing to watch.
Tom- The problem with best of lists of movies is that the criteria are often poorly defined. When I was studying German I saw Triumph des Willens and thought it a period piece that does not stand the test of time. If you look at it again (and can understand Hitler's speech) it looks even worse today. In each of your lists I would take off a bunch of the movies and add a couple more. The list seems a bit devoid of comedies - I still think Dinner at Eight (for example) is a fine piece of work.
One of my favorite movies is Pan's Labyrinth. I also thought No Country for Old Men will not stand the test of time. (It was a horrible adaptation of a novel).
Ditto for directors - you do not have any of the Ealing Comedies (for example Kind Hearts and Coronets) which were for their time some of the most creative movie experiences I have ever experienced. Where are the Hungarians (most of whom moved to the US and did fabulous work)?
For me 2001 - which I saw recently again - looks dated and a bit gimmicky. I also saw Slumdog Millionaire and thought it did not stand up seeing it in this time. I notice that Strangelove is not on the list and still believe it is one of the most durable films I have ever seen. Ditto for Being There.
I think Kane is one of the most over-rated movies of all time. Welles certainly had some interesting cinematic techniques (many of which were copied from other directors) but the story simply does not hang as well as it should. I also think Kazan was a one trick pony - try watching On the Waterfront and a Streetcar Named desire and you will see they run together.
The bottom line here is that movies involve two elements - personal taste (which is hard to evaluate among different people) and technical skill. Fellini did some interesting technical innovations - so did Ford but some of their movies are less than perfect.
To Jon:
If you go to the websites I mention, particularly TSPDT, you’ll see many of the pictures and directors that you mention listed among the top 1,000 films and the top 250 directors; films such as Dr. Strangelove and Kind Hearts and Coronets, about whose excellence I agree with you. Also prominently included on those lists are the Hungarians (and Germans and others) who worked both in their countries of origin and in Hollywood.
You need to understand that my post is a “sub-selection” out of those larger lists.
Don’t nit-pick. You might place a movie or a director among the top 100 whereas I might put them in the second 100, or vice-versa.
You feel that lists like these are problematic, there are problems with the criteria, etc. Above all, you bring up the old cliché: De Gustibus non Disputandum. Another (ruder) commentator called such lists “meaningless,” and then proceeded to e-mail me a 1,000-word (!) long comment which was too long to post.
If there is no value to an effort such as this post, then how come it elicits thousands of words of comments from readers?
De Gustibus non Disputandum? Both true and false: Of course some people like oysters and others prefer snails, as Crassus/Laurence Olivier said famously in Spartacus. Of course everyone’s list is going to differ.
But the cliché is also often a crock: There are great movies and there are terrible movies. There is great music and there is mediocre music. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Beethoven’s Eroica and Charlie Parker’s Ornithology are better than Taylor Swift’s singing. This is fact, not opinion.
I put over 75 hours of work and research into this effort.
I don’t need a grade from readers, or approval, or agreement with my choices, or whether making lists is meaningful or not.
My purpose was to entertain myself and others, to do something INTERESTING. It appears that I have succeeded doing that. If you feel that you can do a better job, go for it. Those who CAN, do, and those cannot, criticize.
Hey Tom, this was entertaining! Maybe I'll have to see some of these movies
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