July 29, 2012

Every 10 years Sight & Sound Magazine publishes the most reputable compilation of the greatest films of all time. The British Film Institute collects ballots from many of the most respected film scholars, critics and directors throughout the world, who are asked to create the impossible—a list of their top ten films of all time.

Most, who are asked, will try to create a list composed of ten films by ten different directors. I have chosen to do the same—focusing primarily on the directors who have had the greatest effect over my ideas on film and life.  

The previous list was published in 2002; On August 1st, BFI announced its launch dates for the list which will be released gradually between August 3rd and August 22nd.

Since I am not actually voting in the poll I have created a list of 25 films/directors—a “Top 10” and 15 “honorables”

Here are the films I selected:

L’eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Two or Three Things I Know About Her… (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Aguirre: the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)

with apologies to:

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
Three Colors: Blue (Krzystof Kieslowski, 1993)
La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
The Passion of Anna (Ingmar Bergman, 1969)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965)
Cul-de-sac (Roman Polanski, 1966)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Secret Honor (Robert Altman, 1984)
Baraka (Ron Fricke, 1992)